Keep Calm . . . Craft On

Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams

Oh, it has been a long time since I have visited this space. But that does not mean I have not been crafting. Just not writing about it. My knitting is such a source of relaxation for me. And it invigorates me. If I start knitting late at night, I will often get a second wind as the peace of creating begins to wash over me. Last week I finished two things but only have a picture of one. I finished the Greyson sweater for my most knit-worthy recipient: Mr. Manny-Man. It is his birthday and Easter sweater and he proudly wore it for both. That boy really knows how to melt my heart and he is just 4.  I also finally finished his birthday crown . . . three years late, but it's done. But the darn fairies got the credit. I won't lie, part of the satisfaction I get from creating is the acknowledgement that I made it! More on the fairies later, because they surely deserve their own post, but suffice it to say, the night before Gian's birthday party, Coco dictated a note asking the fairies to leave a birthday present for her brother.  That request surely could not go unanswered. So, even though I had already been up all night trying to get the house together for the party, at 5 am I found myself finishing Gian's crown. And, thankfully, he wore it.

This is a perfect match of yarn and pattern. Yarn is Madelinetosh vintage in Candlewick. Although I must admit I was sick over the obvious aberrant skein. Which, of course, is the one I started with. . . and no, I did not buy them on line, but in person. Note to self, OPEN the skeins before buying. It is not enough to just look them over. It all worked out as well as it could, though, because I think the skein with the black flecks would be more obvious on the arms.

Now, I am working on Ginny Sheller's Sunday Sweater for Coco.

While I really wanted to have this done for her to wear for Easter, I have come to accept the fact that getting two knits done for an occasion is not likely going to happen for me. This will be her spring sweater. And it's just as well because, remember that recognition I mentioned for having created something? I don't get much of that from Miss Thing, so, no point in staying up all night to get something done when she will be just as under-enthused at a later date.  I was a little bummed, though, because, as  you can see from the photo above, this yarn that I already had in my stash (Dream in Color Classy in Go Go Grassy) is a perfect match for the Easter dress my mother bought for her.

But, alas, there are far more important things in life than getting a knit done by a certain time.

What are you working on?

Keep Calm . . . Craft On

Joining Nicole over at Frontier Dreams today

I am so happy with how this came out!  This is the wall hanging I created with the children in my daughter's kindergarten class for the school's annual auction.  The auction was a little over a week ago and I am happy to report that the item sold.  One parent was parked at the hanging all evening because her son had asked her to "Bring home the rainbow".  How sweet is that?

My daughter's class assistant added all of the flowers, butterflies and the two children to the bottom.  I am so grateful to her for having done so.  On Friday morning (the day before the auction), the class teacher asked if I would mind if they added children to the bottom.  Of course not!  It was originally my idea to have children walking down the rainbow bridge, but, since the rainbow itself required so much re-working, I ended up running out of time.

This is how it looked when I finished it:

Makes me want to create another one for my own children.

In other crafting news, I finished these for a swap partner . . . Now, if I would only get the darn package in the mail!  The post office and I seem to have a love-hate relationship.  I love receiving packages from it; I hate having to go and mail anything.

Sunday, one of my daughter's classmates celebrated her 6th birthday.  She will be moving and not going on to Waldorf first grade.  I wanted to give her a special gift to remember her time and friends from our school.  I made this for her from more of my plant-dyed stash from Mama Jude's Plant Dyed Stuff:

And modeled by my son . . . well, at least I got a picture, right?  Always on the move, hence the blur . . . that boy!  The pattern is Rosa's Carponcho.  It's a free Ravelry download.  I wish I had made it in something with some alpaca or silk, rather than this bulky wool (which is very nice, just not ideal for this project, in my opinion).  But, I made the decision to knit it the week of the party, so, I had to go with what was quick.  I was afraid it was not going to be giftable.

Lastly, I'm working on a little Floppy Cat using a book I have had for years and some Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton I had left over from a project I made when Coco was 2!  Very proud to report that all of the projects in this post used my crafting stash.  Yes, even the felted piece.  I did not have to buy a single item.  My crafting hoarding finally paid off!

What are you working on?

Keep Calm . . . Craft On

Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams today.


There is always a good bit of crafting going on around here.  Mostly knitting, though.  Recently, however, I was asked to coordinate the children's creation for our Waldorf preschool school auction.  (Our preschool is just that, a preschool and kindergarten.  This school does not offer a grades program.)  A painting.  Huh?  Me?  I don't paint.  And I had no idea how to help the children accomplish this even though I would have the resources of our teachers.  Then I came across this post from Passengers on a Little Spaceship and an idea was born . . .  perhaps stolen is more accurate of a description!


But then, what scene to create?  I decided on a rainbow bridge as an illustration of the birthday story told in Waldorf kindergartens the world round.  So, I came up with this little prototype:



And added an angel in the upper left hand side.  Of course, she is leading a child to the rainbow bridge!


So, how to turn that idea into something our 19 kindergarteners could create?  (Because I had decided I wasn't up for creating 3 projects with 60 or so children ages 2.5-6.  Plus, I thought the finished piece would have more appeal as a keepsake if created by the members of the kindergarten class.)


Last Wednesday morning, I carted my supplies to school.  My years of crafty hoarding were finally paying off.  I didn't buy a single thing for this project!  I'd had this Peace Fleece roving in my stash since Coco was 2 or 3!  This is how it went . . . .

And this is how the craptastic thing ended up . . .

I tried rotating this before uploading, but, apparently it didn't take. . . much like the felting!

Yes, indeed, folks, I learned something with this project.  The roving needs to be laid much more sparingly if it is to felt properly.  But, no worries!  Also among my stash of crafting goodies are felting needles.  I've already broken one finishing this up.  Next week I'll share a picture of the item post op.  I am happy to report that the prognosis is good!


On a happier note, here is the Rainbow Sweater I created for the auction.  Our auction is called the Rainbow Bridge Auction.  Can you see, now, from whence my inspiration came?

This is my own pattern.  I also made one last year.  But it came out slightly different.  Still trying to perfect the fit.  The yarn comes form a former Waldorf handwork teacher and can be found in her Etsy shop, Mama Jude's Plant Dyed Stuff.  And, of course, this project had it roots in my enormous stash.  I'd had visions of some rainbowy project several years ago and bought these lovelies from Judy. Two years later, I finally made something out of it.  Here is the first one: 

What are  you working on?

Keep Calm; Craft On!

Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams again.

Keep calm, indeed.  I'm starting to feel a little bit of panic around Gian's birthday preparations.  But I have made some progress!  That little bit on the right was already done, I must confess.  Simply pinning the scales to the dragon might not seem like much, but it is more than I had previously done and it is movement in the right direction!  Plus, I did manage to actually sew it on last night.  Next step is to sew the other side of the body.  I may actually get this done by Sunday.  I have a board meeting Thursday night, so, no sewing will get done then and I'm hoping to take the kids to Legoland on Saturday, so, that day will be a bust.  Putting this fiddly thing together made me think about how appropriate the charges are for handmade softies like this!

Last week I forgot to mention that I also really want to make a doll for Gian.  I'll get let that thought lie here and marinate in the universe for a bit!

With respect to my Lenten knitting (trying to take a departure from all of the selfish knitting I do), may I present to you this little guy:

There is definitely room for improvement.  And I hope I can do justice to his face.  This bear is for the Mother Bear Project.  Initially, I saw it as a small way to use up my copious (and by that I do mean a most ridiculous amount) amounts of yarn, and hadn't really given a lot of thought to how the bear would look.  Then I looked at some of the FO's on ravelry and some of the pictures on the website of children with their bear.  Imparting a sense of beauty to children is important.  And immediately saw that I wasn't doing that. So, I tried to jazz this guy up a bit with some stripes.  I can see where I apparently had ladders in the knitting because we can see his stuffing.  Hopefully, those will come out with a lot of hugs.  He's knit with Patons and Wool of the Andes (which appears to be a slight bit thinner than Patons) and stuffed with wool.  I came home from work to discover Gian had tried his hand at helping out.  The eye was pulled waaayyyyy too snug and my darning needle was missing.  Fortunately, I could fix the eye and I found the needle!

And, last but not least, my progress on Bloom:

I tried this on Coco Friday night, and as a result, had to put the project on time-out for the weekend.  I had just finished the eyelet row and knit two more.  It was just too short.  I was going to need to tink back those three rows and add 10 more.  Even before that, I had a not so pleasant realization Friday afternoon.  What they say about reading a pattern all the way through is really true.  I had bought 3 skeins of yarn to knit this, based on the yardage requirements stated at the beginning of the pattern.  Then, I get to the part after the bodice which instructs that extra yardage is needed to knit a fuller skirt.  Then I took a look at pictures of the larges done on ravelry and they look kinda short to me.  Clearly, I was going to need another skein of yarn.

Did I mention I'm knitting this with Madelinetosh Vintage?  And the dye lots are not dye lots and not easy to match?  And it's way too expensive here in Chicago and I'd bought it with a 20% discount?  And I'd just been back to the freakin' store on Leap Day at 7 am to get 29% off and hadn't read this bit of information before then?  Yeah, not happy with that discovery.  My friends at work who went to the sale after I did told me there was no more pink.  I called anyway, and fortunately there was!  And some that had come in the shipment that was from what I'd previously purchased!  And I was able to get 10% off because of my affiliation with our Waldorf elementary school! Thank goodness for the small things!

Can't wait to see what the rest of you are working on . . . happy crafting!

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again this week from Small Things

Knitter's crack.  I've touched it.  And yes, I totally get it now.  If you've had it, you probably know what I'm talking about without my having to name it.  Gorgeous colors.  But the hand - springy, squooshy, unbelievable stitch definition.  It makes my ribbing look store bought.  You know what it is.  Madelinetosh.  In this case, it's Tosh Vintage.  Oh.my.goodness!

I allowed myself to buy some of this last month because of the intention that this will be made into an Easter (baptism maybe . . . why my 6 year old is still not baptized is a discussion for another post) dress for Coco.  My LYS has a promotion where, if you bring in an FO and either the ball band from the yarn you used or your receipt showing that they yarn you used came from this store, you'll receive 20% off of your next purchase.  So, I used that promo to snag some of this yarn.  And since I have cast on well outside of two weeks before Easter, I'd say I'm doing quite well on my intention!  I am very happy with my purchase.  I don't think I'll go overboard . . . Although I will report later whether I made it to the Leap Year sale at my LYS this morning between 7-9 to grab the steepest discount they are offering today in order to apply that 29% off to more Tosh Vintage.  This is really very, very lovely yarn.  I might check out Quince & Co's Chickadee next, though, because it looks like it is spun similarly to Vintage and the colors are beautiful.  I'd like to knit Paper Dolls for Coco for the fall and I want to explore whether using this yarn is a good idea.

And I finished last week's knitting.  A Mini Cobblestone for my Mr. Manny Man.  I am really happy with how it came out.  I was really unhappy when I realized that I only had one skein of that yellow . . . and really happy again when I discovered I had a mini skein, which I needed when I saw I was here and not yet done with the sleeves and not quite ready for the contrasting cuffs:

And without further ado . . . may I present you the handsome model!

Please disregard the door with no trim and Mr. Man's artistic expressions on the wall behind him.  I still have to block this number.  All in all, though, I am very happy with it.

Still reading A Mother's Heart.  I am really enjoying this book, and do feel like what I am taking in from it is beginning to show in my mothering.  And that's a good thing.