Baby Pickle

I made ham/cream cheese/pickle wraps yesterday and William was helping by getting the pickles out of the jar. I announced that we had gotten all the pickles out and he said, "No, one more". I looked, and sure enough, there was something still in the jar. I thought at first it was just a stem, but it was a tiny pickle! I was using baby dills, but this was a baby baby dill!

























It was about 1" long!

Next to one of the other pickles (which was one of the smaller normal sized pickles!)

Sarah Lost a Tooth!

Sarah lost her first tooth on the bus ride home yesterday!

Will wanted to pose for a picture, too!

School Spirit

Sarah's school is having a special dress up day for every Friday this month. Today is "School Spirit Day" so she wore Purple and Gold for the Yellow Jackets.

The hat was knit by Grandma.

Her outer wear was also purple and yellow!

Sarah thought Andrew should wear the hat Grandma had made for William and participate in her school spirit day.

Emily hugging Andrew.

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I figured this was a good place to show the cauliflower that we got last week.

It was Purple and Yellow!!

(They called it Orange!)

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Uncooked

Cooked

(It tasted just like regular cauliflower)

This was what the water looked like when it was done cooking! (I poured it into a glass to show it better!)

On Being a Perfectionist

When ever I do something "crafty", I have to do it the "best" way. When I'm laying out pattern pieces for a sewing project, I have to figure out the way that will leave the most fabric left over (even if I don't have plans for using said left overs!) Or if I don't like the way something looks, I have to make my own pattern (like with my knit snake, or my nativity) Or if there is a way that would make the finished project better, I have to take the long way to do it instead of the simple one! For example, I have a fabric panel project for a stuffed scarecrow. This panel provided the scarecrow with a head, torso and arms, but no legs as his clothes are supposed to be sewn on and the pants become his legs. Well, I have to figure out a way to make legs for him and make his clothes removable, so that he is "better"! (and so, he isn't made yet!). In a way, this affects other areas of my life, also, as I don't like reading abridged versions of stories. If I'm going to read the story, I want to read the "real" story! (So there are books/stories I'd like to read but haven't yet!!)

Well, I have undertaken a new venture in my life: custom knit Star Wars hats. I made my own pattern and chart for the layout because the ones that were available weren't accurate enough. My first order is for 3 custom R2 hats. I started the first one with 96 stitches based on my test swatch. After knitting about 20 rows, I realized it was too big as my gauge was knitting up different than it had when I swatched! So I ripped out the hat and started over with 86 stitches. I finished it and went on to hat #2. I didn't like how the very top of hat #1 had turned out, so I changed it a little bit for #2. I still didn't like it and upon further analysis, realized it was because I didn't have enough points of decreasing for the top. I had used 6 point decreases for #1 & #2, but used an 8 point decrease for #3. It was much better. So I ripped out the top of #1 and re-knit it with an 8 point decrease! (Thus making it so I've almost knit #1 two complete times!). I am currently working on re-knitting #2. Then I have to add the duplicate stitch for the "windows" and "eyes".




































Hat #1


















Hat #2

Hat #3

Gulliver's Travels

The kids like to set up their Little People "gates" on our bed and Emily napped in the middle of "Little People Land". It made me think of Gulliver in the land of Lilliput!

And the Little One Said, "Roll Over!"

The kids like to climb into Andrew's crib to visit with him. And he likes to have visitors (usually!)

"Make Me One, Mommy!"

I often hear that request when I make something new, whether tatted, knit, or something else! So after I finished my baby snake which I was planning on trying to sell, I decided that I would knit each of the kids a baby snake. I got out what I had in baby or sock yarn and let them pick which color they wanted. It took me 3 weeks and 1 day to get the 4 snakes done.

Sarah's

Emily's

William's

Andrew's

All of them together.

The bottom 3 are all made with the same brand, style, and size of yarn, but I had to leave out 15 rows from Andrew's snake to make it the same size!!

This shows the variety you get knitting with self-striping sock yarn! These are both from the same skein of yarn!