Stockinette=boring?

Whenever I hear a knitter say stockinette or garter stitch is "boring" or working on a cable pattern or a lace shawl is "mindless knitting" I know right away they must not have small children (or they have a lot more live-in help than me!) My favorite knitting is easy simple stockinette (usually in the round) or garter stitch.

For me, I enjoy not having to look at my knitting to often, to be able to talk (usually about what Thomas the Tank is up to today) and not get frustrating that I counted round or have to rip back constantly. Not that I don't enjoy cables, color-work and the like- but I'm just not at a stage in my life right now where I can do much of it (Ocassionally at night after all other creatures are in bed I may get in a few rounds).

I have high aspirations for the furture when I have older children and perhaps a minute for myse;f no and then I'd love to learn to spin (can you imagine what would happen if a two year old got into roving? I shudder at the thought!) and make gorgeous complicated lace shawls. But for now give me rows and rows of stockinette and I'm a happy as a clam (well if a clam could knit that is...)

1st picture- Shaefer yarns anne (can't remember colrway)

2nd picture-Socks that Rock lightweight calico

3rd picture-Cascade fixation effects

Pinwheels and finger paints

Otherwise known as life with a 2 1/2 year old! We made a pinwheel arrangement for our table this weekend, they don't spin well, but they turned out cute and my older son had a great time cutting glueing and poking holes in paper. =)

We also had our first foray into fingerpainting, as most everything else in his life right now "m" turned his fingers into "cars" and the paint into roads.

the picture looks very pretty and defined at first and then became one blue-green blob in the middle of the paper. But hey the point was having fun and he certainly had a lot of that!!

I got a knitting project finished as well some longies that use the pattern from buttknits. They were a quick easy knit, and turned out super cute if I do say so myself. My son is wearing them as we speak.

Nothing like having a ham for a model! These pics were taking at about 11 am what a crappy day!

Mmm cute little boy feet, almost as sweet as baby feet don't you think? I like how the buggies turned out on this I did them as duplicate stitches after the longies were done, and I'm totally liking that method of adding embellishments!

Crochet

I learned to crochet when I was about 7 or 8 years old. My grandmother taught me how to make a chain and I would see how long I could make the chain by laying it on the floor and seeing how many rooms I could chain through. Then my grandmother would cut out circles of cardboard and I'd glue spirals of chain onto them and make "dollhouse rugs". This is as far as my skills went until college when my grandmother taught me the single crochet and I had one ambitious year where I made everyone single crochet blankets and purses and scarves. I still would say I'm not an expert when it comes to crochet but I do have better skills than that little girl I use to be!

This is one of my latest creations that I made for my older son (a huge Thomas the Tank fan) and a good example of why I like to crochet. Thomas is mostly just made up of simple shapes and I find crochet is much easier way to make simple shapes than I can with knitting. This Thomas is made with all single crochet and most of the pieces were workied seperately and then sewn together after it was finished. The face is just a product of a piece of felt and a sharpie marker that was sewn on at the very end. He isn't perfect by any means but both my sons love him and that's enough for me!!

First image the property of silly_a1804 on flickr

Does this count as crafty?

I made it myself! So I guess it counts ;) We've been having some mouse issues in our kitchen lately (100 year old farmhouse, fieldstone foundation) We are pretty use to mice, just not in my silverware drawer! Perhaps I've been over-feeding the cats I need to convince them that they are suppose to earn their keep by being proficient mousers. Maybe I've just been overly stict with the "no cats on the counter" rule and this is payback. Whatever the reason I'm getting pretty sick of re-washing all the silverware every morning and we are not a poison or mousetrap kind of family (although talk to me in several weeks if this doesn't continue to work and I may be singing a different tune!) Anyway I've been being DILLIGENT on keeping the counters and sinks absolutely food-free and night and I had read that mice hate mint, so I decided to make a deodorant spray:
Spray
1/2 cup rubbing alcohol
1 1/2 cups water
100 drops Peppermint EO
I'll warn you this spray is on the strong side so you may want to add less EO if you just want it for deodorizing. But it really has been working well for the mice and on top of that I've been spraying it in the trash can, in the air, in the bathroom, I have a very minty fresh house!
Maybe not super crafty- but hopefully useful!!

A new life

I've decided to change this blog to just be for my various crafting activities. There was just to much going on and I need to simplify if I am ever going to keep up with it (which as of yet, I have not managed to do very well!) I love crafting I love to sew, knit, crochet, scrapbook and anything else that comes my way I will at least give a go. So I thought I would just keep this blog to those subjects and see if I can keep up with it !

Scrapbooking

I've been trying to catch up on scrapbooks for my boys, so far I've gotten to my oldest as a newborn (he's 2 1/2). Well, it's a start!!

There so many new fun things to use in your scrapbook than when I did my wedding album in 2000. I particularly fond of all the little brads of various shapes, sizes and colors!

Blog Hopping

Wow, I'm a bad blogger! I've been blog hopping today and realized how shamefully I neglected my own poor blog! So lets see news to tell, well we are pregnant with number 2 now! DS#1 is very excited, kissing momma's belly and asking about the baby. So cute! (I know, I'm biased!)

I've been on a total knitting kick looking at cute baby things to knit. I started working on a sock, hat and cardigan set but true to form, the pattern drove me nuts so I half followed the pattern and made up part of it myself. The socks and hat are finished

The "ribbing" part on this was supposed to have a move cable look but some how I couldn't make it work right so for the cardigan I just did K1P1 rib. Here's how far I am

I've also been giving a lot of though to this lace shawl I started LAST SUMMER for my grandmother! The Fern and Feather pattern is supposedly "very easy" but with a little one running around while your trying to count you loose track often and I've missed a row several times now. So after being frustrated about it for this long I think I'm going to rip it out and make it into a lace scarf in fern and feather, hoping that if I have less stitches I'll be able to keep my attention on it for a whole row!

Here's how far I've gotten, sorry bad pic, I can't figure out how to do a close up shot on this new camera

Here's the best I can do to show where I messed up, I don't know if you can tell but the purls are now on the knit side *sigh*

Okay off to go hop a few more blogs, keep me inspired to come back and write more soon!!

Protein anyone?

My voluntarily vegetarian son is very difficult to feed protein to. Well I found a great protein rich recipe that I modified slightly that he loves and I'll even eat =)

Peanut Butter "Tahini"

2/3c cooked beans (navy, cannelini, something bland)
3 to 4 TBS peanut butter (you could do almond butter, sesame seed butter, etc.)
1/3 c apple juice concentrate


Puree in a food processor. We eat it on whole grain bread with raisin on top. Enjoy!!!