Valentine's Day!

Hey hi!

So today was Valentine's Day.
But did Dash and I do anything romantic for just the two of us?
Nope!
It really was more of a family affair on account of Sundays always being his big deadline day and this week, in particular, he had twice as much work as usual. I'm thinking we'll do something special this coming Friday instead ;)

Sooooo, today it was mostly a day for me 'n' the kids :)
I helped teach Sunday School, and then we ended up hanging at the church library (new favorite pasttime following the service) until 1:30pm!!
During that entire time (about two hours) the children entertained themselves with the books and puzzles there, while I knitted.

I finished that scarf I'd mentioned starting just yesterday evening :)

Short 'n' Sweet

Not as long as I'd have liked it, but the dark blue ran out and that dictated the final length.
Oh, well. As long as I can tie it in a little knot around my neck, I'm aaaaall good.

When we got home, we then got right into some Valentine's Day love-spreading.
First, we baked a batch of brownies for our neighbors and delivered them along with a bouquet of daffodils out of the yard. Only the one neighbor was there to receive it, but I think he will share it with his housemate (whom I have yet to meet!).

Then, Ella and I took a nice long walk and then bike ride to deliver Valentine's Day cards to our neighborhood friends. While she was whipping those up, I was reading BAKUMAN. yet again.

I swear, I am quite hooked on that series!

It brings up how this coming week there will be no school and I have sooooo many things I want to accomplish! Both recreational and work-wise. They are as follows:

- listen to the rest of We're Alive podcast (only 4 more chapters until the finale!!)
- knit Dash a pair of handwarmers
- listen to the Sherlock podfic
- read the rest of BAKUMAN. books in my possession (4 volumes)
- listen to "Everything's Illuminated" through audible.com
- sew curtains for my friends Rachel and Rachael :D
- finish reading David Sedaris' "Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls"
- translate Space Dandy volume 2

So yeah, as you can see there's a lot of literature I want to get through (both auditory and visual!) as well as some crafting and finally, at the end of the list, actual work. HA!
Thankfully I can multitask with the audio books, so for example after I publish this post I am going to listen to We're Alive while knitting those handwarmers. And I can sew the curtains while listening to things playing off my computer through bluetooth headphones. Thank the lord!

Yyyyep!
This is gonna be a big, great week.
I also have three tutoring sessions during it and am going to make sure plenty of playdates are lined up.

I'll keep you updated throughout the week.
So until next time, take care and Happy Valentine's Day!!

Breakfast with the Beatles

'Allo, loves!

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my all-time favorite band is The Beatles.
Hands down, I could only listen to their work for the rest of my musical life and I would be happy.
I listened them most back in 2006-2008 when I was working for Go! Comi and would bike 4 hours a day, to and from work. That was a lot of time to listen to mp3s of their songs off my iPod.

And to this day, I still have a special time to listen to them.
Saturday mornings starting at 8am, I enjoy the radio show "Dennis Mitchell's Breakfast with the Beatles on KLOO 106.3.
It features not only songs by The Beatles but also some interviews!!
Today's interview featured John and Paul sharing their opinions on the songwriting process. I am especially interested in creative processes of all kinds these days on account of writing a little fanfic with Kathy-neechan. It's always fascinating to hear how others not only come up with ideas but actually implement them.

On that note, I started reading the manga "Bakuman" at the suggestion of one of my tuttees.
It's basically a manga about creating manga, and although I'm only two volumes in, I'm already very hooked and love getting this inside look on the creative process behind something so demanding as weekly-release manga. :D

By the same artist who did Hikaru no Go and Death Note

One last thing about creating, I have started creating a scarf for myself!

WIP

The scarf that I've been absolutely dependent on ever since the cold weather started has mysteriously gone missing!!! It's a scarf that Kathy-neechan actually knitted herself and gave to me.
It was bulky and thick and I just adored it.
In order to capture that same thick quality, I'm actually doing something I've never done before which is knitting with two strands of yarn simultaneously. It's not at all hard to do, and is making for a very fun pattern so far. Will share photos when I'm done ;)


And with that, I will leave you this Saturday night.
Quite a fine Saturday it's been.
At the risk of jinxing myself, I must iterate how utterly good life is to me these days. And that's something I say to myself many times a day too. I truly am thankful we are all as healthy as we are, have as much food as we do, and have love coming from every direction :)

I hope you are feeling good in your own lives too.
And do check out Breakfast with the Beatles Saturday mornings if you can wing it too! It's a great way to start the weekend ^^

Until next time, take care and Happy Breakfast with the Beatles!!

Whole Lot Of Crafting Going on

Hey hey!

So in anticipation of the kids' classroom Valentine's Day celebrations, and budding spring-like weather, there has been quite a lot of crafting going on this week.

First, a few words on the Valentine's we made for the kids.
For William's preschool buddies, I pretty much did what I did last year (but failed to blog about) which was heart-shaped bean bags.

Made thirteen of them, all of which were in these nice contrasting colors

I've talked about making bean bags on this blog before, and we did make heart-shaped little cloth Valentines before.
But this hybrid is really, in my opinion, such a perfect gift for the holiday because it's part-valentine, part-toy, and part-learning tool (gross motor skills, anyone? :D).

Going to be honest, William didn't do much by way of creating these Valentines himself...besides "testing" them out by playing with them all week. Ha! But oh well, as long as the kiddos get to enjoy them, and William sees yet another example of how homemade rawks.

As for Ella's Valentines, she and I delved into the beads box we have and made a bunch of bracelets for her class of sixteen:

All delivered in a little origami box that I made yeeeeears ago~

Did I ever tell you how we scored this huge collection of beads while walking by a dumpster during the great Student Exodus a couple of years back? Well, that collection just keeps on giving, and we were able to make a lovely selection of Valentines tokens to express Ella's appreciation for each and every classmate. Good stuff~

Besides working on these Valentine's Day presents with the kids, I've also been doing a lot of good knitting on my own time.
Specifically...

Fun with scraps!

That's right! Another pair of handwarmers made from that giant stash of wool yarn I scored from a friend off the CFGE page. My goal is to use up all that yarn in these sorts of projects before I dare acquire any more yarn. That's my resolution!

I honestly have lost count as to how many pairs of handwarmers I've knit by this point. But I am getting faster and faster! It now takes me only a couple of hours to knock out one handwarmer. :)

This pair is for a friend of mine that I made handwarmers for maaaaany years ago (which I alluded to here!). When Kathy-neechan showed her the new wooly ones I'd made her for Christmas, this friend expressed some envy for the softness that wool offers that acrylic just can't. So! I made her this new pair...and since I don't want to leave my other good friend (her roommate!) out in the lurch, I am making her a pair of handwarmers too. Heh!

Then...then I'll finally get around to knitting that other sock for Dash. I'm sure of it!!

I've been listening to We're Alive double-time this past week ever since I learned that my pupil is hooked and I can't very well let him get ahead in series~! So I am about eight chapters away from completing the entire show. When I'm done with it, I'm totally treating myself to a podfic ;)

Last but not least, one more bit of creative crafting that's gone on this past week, came from Ella unbeknownst to me until this very morning:

Nice archway!

In case you can't tell, that's a Fairy House :D
Apparently Ella has a couple at school too and has even had them visited by fairies! She says she knows because the fairies leave the beds unmade. I wish I had that kind of magic going on when I was that age!

Not the most structurally sound Fairy House, but that dragon tears pathway makes up for it!

Aaaaand that's just about it for crafting this week.
Next week the kids don't have school and I have one book due, so I look to get some major sewing in there. Namely for this lady who gave me a stash of fabric to work on for her (back in October! Gulp!!) and the last set of curtains for little Henry's room. <3 p="">

Until next time, I hope you all have a great weekend, take care, and Happy Whole Lot of Crafting Going On!!

Spaniards Visit!

Howdy ho~!

Man, I missed quite a lineup of days there.
But that's just because there has been so much going on!

This won't be the most photo-filled post I've done, but I want to record it here to reflect on later down the line and remember the good times :)

Last I'd written on Saturday, we were prepping the house for visiting family.
Well, that family was my Tia Chita, and primas Lea and Andrea!!! ♥︎♥︎♥︎

On the pretty campus of OSU
(L>R: Ella, me, Andrea, Lea, Chita, Dash, William)

You may recall that we stayed with my lovely aunt and cousin all summer in Barcelona, so when I heard that they'd be visiting us I was on Cloud 9!! Been looking forward to this visit for a long, long time to say the least ;)

Lea, my prima who is my age, has been living in the states for close to a year now, finding work as an architect in hip San Francisco. But as for Andrea and Chita, they'd never been to the west coast so, boy, were we excited to show them the wonders of the PNW :D

Plus, they are huuuuge fans of certain pieces of literature and cinema set in the PNW, so they made sure to take extra big advantage of their trip by traveling up to Seattle the day after they'd arrived.

So it was a whirlwind visit of walking to OSU campus, then downtown, by the river, back home, boozing and snacking at home (yum) and then hitting up El Sol de Mexico (double yum).

They'd been awake since 4:30am and were pretty zonked so it was an early night for all of us (7:30?? HA!) but it's cool because guess what...they're coming back down from Seattle tomorrow (Wed) for more visiting!!

I think it was all the drinking/dosing that landed me on the sofa for pretty much all of Monday, which was fine by me because I had some more knitting to do, storymaking to focus on, and I also did a ton of reading with the kids. We blasted through "The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords" and two Rainbow Fairy books. Plus, I'd been listening to David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day" the whole time I'd been knitting.
So yeah...reading!!! (visually or otherwise ;) )

Yaaaay wool yarn scraps! :D

Today I was feeling much better (I'm sure the sunny weather helped), taking a nice long walk to OSU, biking to pick up the kiddos, having some good creative time in the library during Ella's pottery class, and then wrapping up the day with a TRB meal at home. Thanks, Dash~!!!

Aaaaand there you have it.
I think this week is going to be pretty varied with creative processes going on, relaxed evenings, and making some headway in community-building efforts.

I'll touch base again soon, so in the meanwhile, take care and Happy Spaniards Visit!!

Legwarmers for Mama :)

Hello hello!

Have you noticed I have this tendency to post only every other day?
Not sure what that's all about, but it feels right at this moment in time.

Today, Ella stayed home with a fever while William had a playdate (for once!) with a classmate from school. :)
It was also Kathy-neechan's last day in D.C. and we finally got to have a chat-walk for the first time in what felt like forever.
That story I may have mentioned I'm working on with her? Well, we got another (far more experienced) writer acquaintance to look over the first couple of chapters before publishing it online and his feedback has been so thorough and insightful...that it's really shaken my confidence as a writer! Not that I've ever even considered myself or prided myself in being a writer (far from it!) but it's just nuts how we'd spent hours and hours fine-tuning and caressing our story into what we were sure was a perfect product...only for us to be shown that we have a lot of room to improve.
It's a good thing, don't get me wrong. Just really taking up a lot of my mind right now. @_@

But I guess not so much that I couldn't get some knitting in today!
Finally whipped out a pair of legwarmers for myself, in super chunky yarn on size 13 needles.
NOICE.

It took all of one episode of The Great British Baking Show to make the second legwarmer :)

My, how far I've come compared to the pair I made six years back that took me foreeeever.
And they are key for me because I often wear skirts or cropped pants and insulating the lower half of my leg can make all the difference between feeling cold and feeling comfy.

While knitting, we also watched Dash transform our TV experience upstairs by mounting the TV he'd scored off of CL some months back directly onto the wall!

A little dark, but I'm sure you can see the rainbow theme throughout our master bedroom ;)

Needless to say, I love it :)
This weekend, I foresee a wrap-up of more deadlines; improved health among the kiddos; culminating in a wonderful visit of family from abroad!!! More on that later ;)

Aight, til then, take care everyone and Happy Legwarmers for Mama!!

Knitting in the New Year!

Hello, hello!

Yes, 'tis I, back from the blog-dead~!
I know I've said this before, but I am really going to try to be consistent about blogging this year!
It worked out pretty well in 2013, so maybe it will again in 2016 ;)

To start off my 2016 blog adventure, I thought I'd share some of the knitting I've been up to this past month.
Nothing like the holiday season to really catch that crafting bug, amirite?

This year was definitely the year of the handwarmer as I made a total of six handwarmers for my family.
I don't have shots of them all, but here is a shot of the pair I made for Kathy-neechan as a starter:

"Don't Think About It" quoth the Rick Sanchez ;)

The reason for all the handwarmers is thanks to this incredible influx of wool yarn I received through a friend on the Gift Economy that came in the form of one monstrous knot but that I diligently untangled and sorted by color.

I honestly should've taken a Before shot, but I assure you the beast was as large as our dog, Tak'e.
Here is the after shot of the yarn all color sorted (in rainbow order...hnnngggh):

The box on the left was more of the grays, browns, and a random skein of green I had from a million years ago

Another thing I made a ton of was legwarmers, for little baby Joya, my new niece up in Alaska! :)
I sent off one pair to her in time for Christmas, but the rest I knitted up while absolutely chillaxing in AZ this past week:

Darn, that is one crappy photo. But you get the idea. Random colors, and oh! My mom's handwarmers up above! :D

If I wasn't knitting, I was listening to a podcast about a zombie apocalypse called "We're Alive" or listening to Allie Goetz's Rick & Morty concept album.
I will have to share with you all soon how absolutely obsessed with this cartoon show I am. But that will have to be at another time. ;)

I also made a bunch of cotton washcloth sets for the kiddos' teachers, because I had this awesome endless spool of white cotton yarn to work with. Fancy and functional, just how I like it :)

Next on my list to knit is a pair of handwarmers for myself~!
I had a pair I'd knitted (intended to be a gift but felt too embarrassed by their crap quality to actually give), but I lost them when we went to Los Toros in Los Angeles! :(
Oh well, I'm sure they're keeping someone warm now~!

All right, well, until next time (presumably tomorrow!), take care ya'll and Happy Knitting in the New Year!!

Creative Weekend!!

Happy Monday to all!

So today is our last Monday in Spain @_@
Just as yesterday was our last Sunday.
And every day from now on will be our last "___day" until Saturday evening. ;_;
I can't help but count down~!

And going hand-in-hand with that is a desperate effort to fit in all the things we wanted to do but procrastinated on all summer.

Firstly, on Saturday, Andrea took the kids off my hands for most of the day so that I could finish off my latest script while they...baked cupcakes!!

Andrea really has the whole kit-n-caboodle you need to make the fanciest, daintiest, most delicious cupcakes. She let the kids have a hand in the mixing and the decorating and, of course, the sampling ;)

Here are some shots from their awesome efforts:

Pink for Ella, orange for William

Ella's always dreamed of having one of these tiered displays

I'm proud to say I didn't gourge too much on them, though it was tempting! A good cupcake is one that you are satisfied having all on its own, since it is just so rich. Mm-mm!
 
Saturday evening, Andrea and I went into the city for our Shadow of the Wind Book Tour!!
It was a lovely, educational, comfortable walk through parts of Barcelona I haven't been through, or at least not since I was a teenager. It was also bilingual, which I totally dug, and reading excerpts through the books before particular landmarks was a nice trip down memory lane for me from early summer. Andrea and I were surprised to see that we were a group of about ten people, some from right here in Barca! I was the only American ☆

I didn't take any photos (sorry!) but I must say it was a super blend of both book location sleuthing work, and general Barcelona history and culture. A must for any fan of the book!!

After the tour, Andrea brought me to a falafel joint for supper and then this super awesome restaurant/bar called El Bosc de Les Fades for drinks (I had Cacaolat).
This place reminded me a lot of my friend Joyelle, and most any friend from Waldorf :D
As its named suggests, it's themed after a magical fairy forest. The attention to detail is awesome and it is really feels like you're in a forest, when in fact you are right by La Rambla.
No photos from here either, because my phone does not function that well in low-light areas, so I just recommend you google the term "el bosc de les fades" in google images. You won't be disappointed!!

On Sunday, after tackling the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time (have I told you we've been playing that with the kids this summer??) I took the kids into the city to pretty much relive the awesome time I had on Saturday.

We lunched at El Bosc, retraced most of our tour, and finally got to patronize the living statues on La Rambla!
Have I told you about these statues?
Pretty much, these elaborately dressed and stock-still people stand set themselves up as statues at the very end of La Rambla, where the Museu de Cera is.
They stay perfectly still, until you drop some coins into their jar, and then they'll reconfigure themselves to take a photo with you.

This was Ella's favorite:

Even let Ella hold her abanico!

 When we got back home, we decided to have a really chill in-house rest of the day, watching movies and all hanging out together in the living room.
Best part of all...I finally got to teach my cousin how to knit!
This was in exchange for her teaching me how to juggle ;)

But within minutes, Ella wanted to join right in, so I taught her how to knit too!!!!!!

Knitting...it's a beautiful thing

The style I taught them is the English style (yarn in the right hand) because that's what I was taught.
And to help Ella Rose understand, I taught her using this little rhyme:

In through the front door

Dance around the back

Peek through the window

And off jumps jack.

It is the four steps of the knit stitch, and creates pleasant imagery in her mind that helps her remember the process.

Anyway, as you can imagine I am proud as pudding over this latest development, as I've tried teaching her in the past, but to no avail. 

First thing she told me this morning upon waking up, was that she wanted to get knitting!!!

So I am off to the yarn store to pick out some better yarn for her -- I taught her using cotton yarn, even though it's super unforgiving in its lack of elasticity. 

And with that, it was a big, beautiful weekend full of culture, creation, and creature comforts. Heh. :)

Until next time, take care and Happy Creative Weekend!!

Back from the holidays!

Hello, everyone!

Pardon the long absence, but we are finally back from the adventure-and-a-half that was Christmas 2013. :)
Last I wrote, we are still in Corvallis, busily crafting for all our friends and families. Well, just short of a week later, we were hightailing it down to AZ in the Dolphin!

Did I ever tell you how back in September, Dash left for a week to follow Furthur on one of their tours...and accidentally damaged the camper! ;_; Below are the initial before and after shots:

He miscalculated the distance from a tree's branches...

Gooooo duct tape! :)

As you can see, it was (thankfully) just a topical injury, but still pretty important if we want to keep the Dolphin from dry in the wet, wet weather of Oregon.

Anyway, that was what ate up most of his time before our departure in mid-December, and I want to take the final "after" photo...but Dash insists that he wants to wait until he has painted on the stripes that the Dolphin so dutifully earned on this massive trip. So watch out for upcoming photos of that ;)

Anyway, back to our trip:

The trip down took a "leisurely" three days, during which we read/crafted a lot in the back of the camper, visited my sis, caught up with friends at a Mexican restaurant in L.A. and then joined for delicious buttermilk pancakes in the morning. Yum! We arrived in Tucson in the wee hours of Saturday, and thankfully got to spend the rest of the trip in a relatively constant state of rest and relaxaction. Buya!!

I still had some last minute gifts to complete, which I enjoyed doing late in the evening, as well as a little throughout the day. I was so happy not to find myself "having to run to the store for last-minute gifts" or such nonsense.
So below are some of the gifts I made and gave:

New mittens for William, complete with double-stitching :)

New dresses for Ella's dolls -- a combo of sewing, knitting, and sock-upcycling. Ha!

This was the main gift to most of the family. Homemade soap and knitted washcloths as a set

My proudest creation yet. Ella's hands embroidered on a handy tote for - you guessed it - Nana! :)

I unfortunately don't have any shots of this cat bed I made for my sis-in-law's cat, but all I can say is that it was upcycled from an unused sweater of Dash's. Simple instructions can be found here.

Oh! I also made a hat for my little niece which was the first hat I've ever knitted!!
But as you can see in the photo, it has a nifty little twist to it ;)

I couldn't get a shot of my niece in it, so here's William :D

That's right, her parents are Star Wars fans, so they appreciated the little tribute. :D
My friend B.S. was the one who inspired me and even supplied the pattern + yarn. What a sweetie!! :)

You remember me talking about a $100 Christmas challenge?
Well, I'm happy to say that we stuck to it through all this DIY fun, and with shipping costs included, the grand total for 2013 came out to $91.70! Phew!!
I gotta say that the generosity of my community held a lot with this. The gifted yarn, stuffing for the cat bed, and that rigorous day of soapmaking with M.M. to say the least.

I definitely think that homemade soap will become something of a staple gift from hereon out, seeing as how I am next aiming to make our own lye from our wood ashes, further saving money on the process. Buya.

Anyway, it was a great visit, like I said, with much bonding between children and extended family, great food, beautiful warm weather, and even time for me to go out jogging every other day or so. That felt great.

Now to finish up this pair of mittens for Ella that has duplicate stitching of the Triforce. Hee. :)

On the way back, we stopped by Kathy's again, and by now William was showing signs of having...oh, dear... Hand-Foot-Mouth-Disease! Courtesy of my little niece. But besides having unsightly blisters and scabs on him, he's just like he usually is -- only less social on account of quarantining ourselves for others' behalf.

We "celebrated" New Years with Kathy and Martin, which really just consisted of eating Indian food and drinking cheap champagne (my favorite!) because I hit the hay pretty soon after that. Then, came a very exciting event, as we drove Kathy, Martin, and Ella to the airport so that they could enjoy the second half of their holiday vacation - in Disney World!!

That's right, as I speak, Ella is down there with her Aba, too, just living it up in D-World. My mom is a doll and keeps sending updates of photos via phone, so I can "enjoy" the experience right alongside her. Heh.

Well, I am glad we had a safe and awesome trip -- and just as happy to be back home too.
As I've said before, I love the holidays but I also love when they are over.
Even the act of stripping down all the holiday decorations feels great.
Like I am just so ready for a new year to happen!

As is customary, I'll be writing again soon with my New Years Resolutions report, and hopefully will be better about updating regularly as I did (more or less) in 2013.

Well, until then, take care and I hope you all had a wonderful end of 2013, but are Happy To Be Back From Holidays!!

Knits of 2011

I love knitting just as much (if not more!) as when I started.
And I'm happy to say that in 2011 I accomplished two "major" achievements in knitting.
Firstly, knitting in the round on double pointed needles. Yesssss!!
And secondly, was the duplicate stitch, which I've posted about already. ;)

Now to show you the rundown of everything I knit, both those shown on this blog before and those not. Here goes (blog entries first, followed by never-before-seen photos)!!

- potscrubber
- my armwarmers
- wool soaker
- USC convertible mits
- Clara mittens
- rainbow bra

Now for photos!!

Purple mittens for Ella!

Ariel mittens for Ella...out of commission now due to small size

Rainbow mittens for Ella...did not last long ;_;

A purple tail for Barbie whipped up over the holidays

And now for the ones I have yet to get photos of...
- Shannon's armwarmers
- three phallic chapstick cozies
- rainbow legwarmers for Katie
- Emma's handwarmers
- Moses' mittens
- Elizabeth's convertible mits

Yay!! I kept up the knitting pretty well, all things considered.
And oh so many mittens!!!!!! :D

I just can't wait to keep knitting on into 2012!
First project on my to-do list = socks for Dash!!
He's been asking for socks for months now, and I finally have the confidence to start them (I think!!)
Then I'm supposed to knit some Rapunzel hair for Ella. @_@ That is gonna be interesting~~!


Well, thanks for following along and until I see you again...
Happy Knitting~!!!

Alexis' mits

Hi, all!
So I've been meaning to post about this for a while now, but I'd like to introduce you to one of my new favorite forms of mittens: the convertible mitten!

I made it for my good friend Alexis for his birthday back in September (oops, very late!) and I am happy with how they came out. As is he, phew!
The top flap folds up and over the back to provide more dexterity with the exposed fingers, and yes that is more duplicate stitching there -- Alexis is a loyal alumnus and fan of USC!
Happy Birthday once again Alexis and I hope these mits give you the warmth and nimbleness you need to maneuver your bike on your cold San Francisco morning bicycle commute!

More duplicate stitching coming up next too...
Until then, happy knitting!!

Duplicate Stitching

Hi, everyone!

I'd like to take this time to let you in on this new technique I've learned:

duplicate stitching!!

It has enabled me to now knit little images on any stockinette-knitted items I've created.

So far, I have made these little mittens for Ella's very good friend, Clara Fae:

For her 2nd birthday this past Monday :)

To learn how to do duplicate stitching, I highly recommend this particular video from You Tube.
I hope all you knitters out there give duplicate stitching a go, because it really gives satisfying results at very little effort.
You can bet you'll be seeing a lot of duplicate stitched goods for the upcoming holiday season! ;)

Until then, stay warm and happy duplicate stitching!!!

Soakers Return

Hello again, everyone!
I've been absent for three weeks and this post may clue you in as to why ;)

Some of you may remember the wool soaker for Ella Rose back in this post.
It wasn't my proudest knitting moment, but it did inspire me to improve me skill and pursue more such homemade wool soakers for child number two.
And so I present to you:

0-8 month size

That's right!
This is the first what will hopefully be a collection prepared for the newest addition to our family, due April 2012. I know, another April baby!! ♡♡♡
A little later than Ella Rose (April 1st), and I'm hoping for either April 20th (4/20, heh) or April 22nd (Earth Day)!

I had originally acquired this wool yarn from my friend, Beth, with the intention of knitting wool soakers for my neighbor, who is pregnant -- what a surprise when I learned I was a mere 10 weeks behind her!! So instead of knitting them for her, I am knitting them with her! It'll be fun to go on this knitting-pregnancy journey together with her.

Well, I will be posting about progress of the pregnancy, the birth plan, and all that good stuff in due time ;)

Until then, Happy Knitting all!!

Fingerless Handwarmers

Hi, everybody!

As promised, I am finally posting the other knitting project I whipped up during my stay at Kathy-neechan's:

Fingerless Handwarmers

This is actually the second pair of these that I've made.
The first went to my dear sweet friend Shannon to keep her wrists cushioned and hands generally warm while she types at her keyboard. I have to remind her to send a photo to see them in action! ;)

I got the pattern from the lovely Lynn L. from the Corvallis Newcomers Handwork Lovers after I saw her make a pair in a beautiful wine color (same color that I used for Shannon's pair).
And I'd like to share the pattern I used with you too!
Please read below:

Sizes: Women's small, medium and large
Yarn: 2-ply acrylic yarn
Needles: Double-pointed #3 or #4

Cast on 36/40/44 stitches loosely.
Join and knit 6 rounds in rib pattern (k1, p1)
Knit 45 rounds or however many as will get you the desired length to beginning of thumb gusset.

Thumb Gusset:
Knit 1, place marker, increase 1 stitch (work increase as follows: with left-hand needle, pick up yarn between stitches, then knit through back of loop over needle), knit 1 stitch, increase 1 stitch, place second marker, knit to end of row.
Knit 2 rounds.
Repeat these 3 rounds (increasing in round 1 after first and before second marker, then knitting 2 rounds) until you have 13/15/15 stitches between markers.
Next round: knit 1 stitch, place the next 13/15/15 stitches on small stitch holder (paper clip works well), then knit to end of row (pull yarn tight after first stitch to avoid gap).
Next round: knit 1 stitch, increase 1 stitch by picking up yarn (with left-hand needle) between stitches and knitting through back of loop over needle.
Knit an additional 10 rounds and finish with 6 rounds in rib pattern (k1, p1).
Bind off loosely.

Thumb:
Put stitches from stitch holder on 3 needles and pick up 1 stitch between first and last stitch.
Knit 8 rounds and finish thumb with 6 rounds in rib pattern.
Bind off loosely.

Repeat for second handwarmer.


And there you have it!
You may have noticed that my two gloves have a variety of different colors in them, yes?
That is because I would run out of one yarn and just move onto the next.
Oh well! They are more for function than for fashion for me.
And I can't wait to give them a good work out come chilly Autumnal weather!!
I take that back. I can wait.
Please, Summer!! Don't gooooooo!

Bye-bye, everyone, and Happy Knitting!!

Knits for Sis

Hola, again!

So some of you may remember me mentioning (wow, that's a lotta m's!) some knits I made for my sis, Kathy-neechan.

The first was from way back in this past Xmas '10, made to match the scarf I made her from this post.

Matching...legwarmers!!

I know, I know.
I always do legwarmers...
But they're just so darn easy! And adorable. And fashionable. And functional!!
Usually, it's for the babies, but here we have one that fit her long, slender adult legs.
It gets chilly in that San Jose area, so they come in handy! Or should I say...leggy -- ;)

Okay, onto knit number 2:
A knit pot-scrubber/tawashi!

This little baby is nice 'n' knotty and a great way to use up old acrylic that is hardening sorta, 'cuz it's good for scratching clean plates!
The pattern I used for it can be found here.

In other knitting-related news, a good friend of mine is going to have a baby so she wanted to learn how to knit so she can knit some wool soakers!! I'm gonna help her best I can and hopefully they will come out better than the one I made for Ella Rose! XD

Well, that's all for now.
Have a great weekend and happy knitting!

Rainbow "Belly Dancing" Bra

Greetings, friends!
Pardon the long absence -- but life has been busy in the best kinds of ways, and I am happy to come back to my blog with a special little something to show off ;)

This little "beauty" took two (rainy) days to make and did not even require a pattern! It's just your ol' trusty dusty garter stitch (knitting every row in two straight needles) with decreasing where necessary, with my first ever i-cord to do the borders and straps!

The shells were picked up on the beach back in April when we visited Dash's father in Florida. He drilled a little hole at the top, painted the rainbow pattern on them, and then I affixed them to the bra with thread.

I suppose the rainy, dreary weather was really getting to us -- especially considering that it's mid-July for crying out loud -- hence this summery colorful piece.
But the root of its inspiration was at the Farmer's Market and Oregon Country Fair last weekend.

At the Farmer's Market, there was a demonstration put on by the Corvallis Belly Dancing Performance Guild that Ella (and Douzen!) were simply mesmerized by. That planted the seed...


And the abundance of belly dancing bras for sale at the fair only catapulted  Ella's interest to obsession. While we were drooling over some of the more creative bras, I could sense that Ella was thinking along the lines of "waaaaant", but just when I was about to say "Oh, Ella I don't think we need one of these..." Ella turned to me and proposed: "Maybe we can make one."


@_@


And so you have...well...the prototype for a belly dancing bra. At least it looks like a "bra", right?

Now to knit a pair of panties for it...if only would only agree to put something like that on! Let's just say she's taking after her Mama's nudist tendencies...

Well!
That's all for now, and happy knitting/belly dancing to you all!!

Baby Legwarmers Take...7!

You've all seen them before.
At least a couple times on this blog before.
Baby Legwarmers.

This time, with the addition of little pom-poms at the top (or bottom, depending on how the recipient chooses to wear them ;)


I'd like to take this time to go over all the baby legwarmers I've made over the past year...

1) Ella's first multicolor set
2) White-and-purple striped set for Ella
3) White-and-purple striped set for Maia!
4) Turquoise/purple meld set for Ella
5) Brown-and-red striped set for Douzen (photos coming soon??)
6) Art-deco rainbow set for Ella (I gotta take photos of them, they are fun)
7) Christmas Pom-Pom set for _____

I am only leaving the name blank here, just in case the Mama of the baby for whom these legwarmers are meant happens to read this post before I gift them tomorrow ;)
Hopefully she'll take some photos of the happy girl in them so we can see how they look with some chubby baby legs in them.

Well! Happy Knitting to all and to all a good night! ♡

Rainbow Stool Cover

Phew!
What a month it's been here in Oregon~
My brother, who just graduated from college, has been with us all this time, enjoying the wonders that this fabulous state has to offer.

Here are just a few examples of what we've been up to:

- made Oregon Grape Jelly from this nifty tutorial

- went to the Oregon Country Fair and got to see Hot Buttered Rum!!

- attended Da Vinci Days

- went to a couple BBQs (thanks Celeste, you guys are the best!! :) )

- started house hunting...and maybe even found something!! (details coming soon~)

- saw what our local skaters could do at the Annual Sk8r Bash

- watched a lot of evening baseball games of the local Richey's Market team

- and one Corvallis Knights game!

- went blueberry picking

- cooked lots of meals at home and listened to lots of Thomas the Tank Engine music


And now I'm sitting in my sister's apartment down in Santa Clara, where we've come to visit for the weekend. :)

Through it all, I've still been able to get some crafting in and was able to finish this just in time to keep up my one-a-month knitting project goal.

Behold, my rainbow stool cover!!


Using the pattern from One Skein and drawing from plenty of inspiration from fellow Ravelry users' interpretations, I made this pretty little number.
(Details on my Ravelry projects page)


I somehow didn't use up all my yarn scraps, I am hoping to make a second one to fit the other stool we have! How darling it will be to have two matching rainbow-ified stools!!!


'Til then, happy knitting~!!!

Washcloths~

Wow!
Long time no write, everybody!
That's not to say there wasn't a whole bunch of stuff going on in May and June -- but it feels like for most of it we were either on the East Coast doing all sorts of visiting, or having long-term company (namely, my mom) over! So I'm finally back home and settled in again~

And don't worry! I've been keeping up with my one-knit-a-month project, and I'd like to present to you my June creations!


They are gifts for my favorite people of the 外薗 family in celebration of their new home!
They're supposed to be washcloths. Or drying rags. Or dishrags. Whatever they want them to be!

The pattern is a free one from JoAnns and it goes a little something like this:

Needle Size: 10 US
Yarn: various Lily 'n' Cream Cotton Yarn balls

(1) CO 4 stitches
(2) K all of 1st row
(3) K1, inc1, K rest of row
(4) repeat Step 3 until you reach 49 stitches
(5) K2, K2tog, K rest of row
(6) repeat Step 5 until you are down to 4 stitches
(7) bind off

The end!!
I have yet to present them, but I hope they are well-loved and well-used in their new adorable home!♡

Matching Legwarmers!?

I finally did it!
Matching legwarmers for Ella and I to perfectly suit the coming Spring weather -- they'll keep us warm, without that bundled up winter feeling. :)

The baby leggings were made using that pattern I used last time.
And the adult-sized one were one I just sorta concocted from logic and experience.
Using size 7 needles and COing on 60 stitches, it starts with 2 inches of 2k2p ribbing, and then goes the rest of the shin in basic stockinette, ending in another inch of 2k2p ribbing.
The end.
I also wove some green ribbon through the top ribbing because it wasn't as grabby as I'd wanted, and this helps them stay up. While adding yet more touch of color ;)
Now to work on some presents for other folks finally!
Enjoy the beautiful spring weather, all ya'll and happy knitting too!

Birthday & Yarn Tree

Today is Daddy's birthday!! Happy 38th, my love~!!!
Such a difference this past year has been, and I'm more in love with you than ever. :)
It makes me excited to see what this year holds for you and me alike! We'll see one year from now ;)

And on an unrelated note, even though it was the birthday boy's week and he should have been pampered and allowed to indulge in anything he wanted (which I tried my best to do!), he took it upon himself to indulge Mama and build her the yarn organizer she's been coveting for months!!

Behold, a creation from Daddy's own brilliant mind...the Yarn Tree!


Sure, it may look modest and small, but this fantastic combination of thrifted dowels and wooden planks has come together to inhabit a modest corner in our guestroom and bear fruit to a multitude of beautifully colored yarn!


Again, H4H supplied us with the dirt cheap materials for under $3 and were completely salvaged from old homes. Hurray!
By simply piercing my skeins of yarn through the center, I can work right off their branches as they slowly rotate around and around~ It's really quite fun!
And since about 90% of these skeins are also thrifted (thank you, Arc!), I have a ton of little scrap yarn balls too! I organized them in rainbow-order in a basket:
Pretty, no?


Looking at all these colors is much more effective to stirring my creative juices!!
Oh what to make next...in rainbow colors!!!!

I'll keep you posted as to that~
For now, off to wrapping up our lovely birthday celebration weekend :)
And to think Ella Rose's will be next weekend! What a time of the year!! ♡