Halloween 2012

When we moved here to MI, I vowed to get my Pinterest on and actually make some of the projects I'd been pinning.  My Halloween board overfloweth, so that's a good one to start with.

Thankfully, one of my boys asked to wear a costume from a couple of years ago, so the parrot trick-or-tweeted again :0)

The other one, though!  We vowed after last year's mega construction project, we wouldn't make any more elaborate costumes.  He was inspired by a souvenir wooden sword he bought from the Jorvik Viking Center in York when we were there in the summer, and asked to be a knight.  Pinterest turned up a couple of inspiration images and we were off - cardboard, duct tape, spray paint and printed fleur-de-lys and it was all completed in a (k)night.  Hallelujah!

Have you seen the Pin showing how to make a wreath circle with insulation foam from the plumbing aisle?  Well, I tried that.  Cut the length I wanted to make a circle and duct taped the ends together.  All well and good, til it started sagging.  Ours was wrapped in black fun fur and decorated with white styrofoam balls with googly eyes glued on.  It drooped right into the shape of the glass in our front door, so I guess that wasn't too bad. I'll be investing in ready made wreath circles in future.

Someone from school was obviously also getting their Pinterest on.  Here's a little ghostly guy who arrived home from a class party yesterday.  I kind of like him :0)

How did y'all's Halloween projects go?

Summer

A quick post from me with some highlights of our summer so far (it's not over yet, right?!).  

I knit Carrie's beautiful and very simple baby girl cardi pattern, Lilliana.  The yarn is Miss Babs Yowza What a Skein in Spruce.  You'll be seeing more of that yarn - I bought 3 skeins and that was enough to knit a cardi for me, one for a baby and a whole Honeycomb Cowl too!

In fact, I knit Lilianna twice.  Here she is in some scrummy Madelintosh dk, colourway Cream.  I modded a little bit, giving this one slightly longer sleeves - the baby lives in Boston, so I'm sure she's getting cold already.

Not exactly a highlight, but excitement nonetheless.  We spent some time in the Emergency Room this summer.  A Boxer's break to one brother's hand when they crashed their bikes head on into each other.  Then three weeks later, an unexpected allergic reaction requiring shots and breathing treatments.  Poor love!

Someone had an Olympic Birthday this year.  We had fun with these decorations and games.

Can you guess where we had our summer holidays?  Here's a clue :0)

Yes, this building does say 1352.  And that's not its street address!  Loved the bunting everywhere this summer.  National pride :0)

Pensive Gorilla.....

Roald Dahl's writing shed, installed in his very own museum.  LOVED this place.  Beautiful village, too.

The Angel of the North.  See the crowd of people by its feet?  Loved this giant piece of art.

SO many good times, places visited, memories old and new this summer.  Brilliant!

And now we have a new adventure to look forward to.  A year in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Bring it!

Oh no, not another one!

People, you know I have the blanket love?  Well, have you seen this beauty on Rav - POP Blanket ?

Mama Mia, I'm in love.  So colourful.  So portable.  So Noro!  Can I resist?

On Wreaths and Things....

A few weeks ago, I made this awesome wreath in art class.  When DH heard what the class was, he said, just make it colourful.  So I went with the rainbow.

The fabrics are all from A Verb for Keeping Warm's fabric club, collected over the past year, and the buttons were raided from the teacher's vintage button box.  I was spoilt for choice.

My favourite is the little wooden button in the middle of the red mushroom fabric.  It's set inside a lovely textured blue button.

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Update on the BeeKeeper's Quilt.  I've made 49 flowers, that's 343 hexes.  Phew!  And this is how it's covering my bed so far.  Quite a way to go before I even hit the halfway mark.  The summer is coming up though, so plenty of time for knitting small things :0)

I'm still playing with the layout and here's the latest variation taking into account all the suggestions I've had.  Diagonal strips of alternating yellow and grey.  The Grey and yellow strips in the centre are arranged with 3 different alternating yarns (can you tell?).

Each full skein of yarn is making 5 'flowers'.  I'm toying with ordering more of some of these yarns, so that I can do full strips with only one colour.  Each of these longest strips takes 15 flowers, possibly 16 once they're sewn together.  I'll need about 5 of the longest strips.  What do you think of colour blocking the flowers like that?

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Lastly, I wanted to show you my favourite piece of art from the Grand Rapids Art Museum.  Each of the squares is a white tile with a grid penciled on it.  Inside each of the grid squares is a dot of paint.  Some of the tiles have large dots, some small.

I love the simplicity of this piece and yet, when you take the time to look closer, it is actually very complex.

Happy weekend y'all.

Disco xoxo

Exciting happenings :0)

1. I got my hair dyed! I am beyond giddy about it.2. Matt is now officially a British citizen. Although he says he's mostly American. I rejoice anyway.
3. Less than 5 weeks til our trip home.

4. Last night I finished procrastinating on my Wood Hollow Vest, ripped back 8 rows and carried on knitting.

5. A whole 5 lbs lost to the tonsil recovery.

Just SO many things to be excited about :0)

Happy Tuesday peeps.

Disco xo

Michigan Knitting

My DH has been working a lot in Grand Rapids, Michigan the past 6 months or so. Travelling and spending almost every weekday there. So, we decided that's where we'd take our Spring Break. Why not, right?! We've had enough Florida sunshine to last us a lifetime!

He and I drove his car up there a couple weeks before, so I had an idea of what the weather could be like - somewhere between cold and hot. I think maybe this year is not a typical Michigan spring. So, the boys and I packed for every eventuality - shorts and long-sleeved pants (as they call them), t-shirts and winter coats.

Just a week or so before that, Marcy sent me her new pattern, Waterville Hat. I had just taken a class on stranded knitting with Candace Eisner Strick, so was super keen to practice. I used the yarn leftover from last year's Monkey Bones Hat and got straight to work. I was able to finish in time to wear the hat when we arrived in MI, where it was pretty cold and a bit rainy too. Here she is.....

And a close-up of my stitches. A bit uneven, but they've since smoothed out with blocking.
The top of the hat decreases rapidly and cinches to close. This gives a pretty good fit for my big ole head.

I am absolutely in love with this hat. It fits me so well and is warm as toast. Thanks Marcy for another great design. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this, especially with the neutral colours I chose.

This wasn't the only knitting I got to wear in MI. I finished a Honey Cowl for myself. I swear this is the best pattern ever and will likely get the most wear next season. It is just the right size for wrapping twice and the yarn is comfy like nothing else - Madelintosh Tosh DK in Thunderstorm, which is a grey/blue combo.

While in MI, I ran out of the yarn I'd brought to make "hexi-puffs", so sought out a LYS. The boys and I spent a very pleasant time in A Grand Skein, petting yarn and their English Angora bunny. Matthew was particularly smitten and picked the poor thing up til his heart was racing (I saved him, don't worry).

They had some of the precious Madelinetosh, so I snagged two more skeins in this very rich red called "Tart". It'll become another Christmas Honey Cowl and I will love every minute of knitting it :0)
Happy weekend, peeps.

disco xo

Tonsil Socks

These poor things shall forever be known as "the tonsil socks". Or maybe "the lack of tonsils socks" would be more appropriate. I've been laid up the past week after having my tonsils removed. Every bit as painful and challenging as everyone says it is. Thank goodness we live in an age of pain meds, right?!

So before the surgery, I decided I wanted something super easy to knit. What better than a pair of toe up, plain socks, knit til you run out of yarn. I've never made a plain pair, can you believe that?

Can you guess the yarn?
It was the lack in consistency of each colour that gave it away wasn't it? Should've known better. I knit the first sock (on my right foot, left side of photo) til I reached what I thought would be the halfway mark, you know, where the colour I started with appeared again. All was acceptable (a bit more of a green toe is within my tolerance) until there was a knot in the yarn. It looked like they chopped out a big section of the grey.

Oh well, a pair of Noro socks wouldn't be Noro without the mis-match, right? I can deal, no-one will ever see.....

So here's the neat bit about these socks. I used Candace Eisner-Strick's technique, detailed in her book Strickly Socks, for constructing the toes and heels. It is so easy as to be memorable after doing it once (just what I needed!). Can you believe these toes.......

are constructed in exactly the same way as these heels?

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with these. They're warm and cosy and will be good under jeans in my Birks next fall/winter. Or even this summer in England ;0)

Now excuse me while I go take some more Tylenol!

Happy Monday

Disco xoxo