Yarn Along

{Wednesday Yarn Along with Ginny. Won't you join in?}

The sewing craziness around here is almost done. A few more little things to share in this space and to finish at the machine and then I'm done sewing for the season.


I started Ellie's little Stripey Cardigan back in June, and as I've had to make design decisions about it I kept putting it down in favor of things where I could just. keep. knitting. I found this fabric while hunting down other material and immediately thought of the little cardigan and how perfectly it matched! I grabbed both fabrics and plan a little dress out of each, and maybe a skirt too if I have enough left over.

I started back to work on the cardigan after finding that fabric. I just did a bit of decreasing at the bottom of that sleeve so it won't be quite so wide and then I'm going to put a few stripes at the bottom before finishing it up and moving on to the other sleeve. I did decide that I'm probably going to go back to the bottom of the body and try seed stitch instead of the 1x1 ribbing and see if I like that better for the finished edge. If not, I'll do the 1x1 ribbing again, but not so much of it. It's not looking delicate enough to me as it stands now.


I started reading Wuthering Heights on the kindle and I'm about 1/3 of the way through. I've never read it before, and it always takes my brain about a paragraph to reset to the writing style and more complex sentence structure. The boys and I are still listening to Farmer Boy together.

What are you reading and making this week?

A Little Dress

How was your weekend?


I spent much of the Saturday sewing and finished a lot of things to share with you. Sunday saw us at church and then off to Ender's last baseball game of the regular season (still waiting to see about tournament play), home for a bit of a rest then off to the park with friends. It was at the park that things turned crazy. Ellie started to fall off a step and I grabbed her arm really hard to keep her from falling- and ended up pulling her elbow out of place- nursemaid's elbow. Fortunately Brian's hospital was nearby. We had to go to the ER to have it re-set which was a fun experience for all of us. As Ezra put it, "I was about to cry too and I wasn't even hurt!"


She's totally fine now, but I still feel really guilty. The doctor assured me that it's a common injury in toddlers, and often because of something like this very incident.


Back to the making...


I finished a lot of projects this weekend. Far more than I thought I would, in fact, and I think I also worked out some of my psychological issues with cutting fabric. The grand total for the weekend is:


Ender
1 pajama set
1 pair of pajama pants

Ezra
1 pajama set
1 pair of pajama pants

Ellie
2 dresses
2 "wearable muslin" skirts
1 skirt
2 diaper covers


Now, the pajama sets for each of the boys were already mostly done- I just hems, cuffs and waistbands to put in. Also, Ellie's two dresses were at least half way also. The first just needed a hem and the second was up to doing the side seams (so about half way).


I'm still trying to get photos of the kids in everything that was finished over the weekend, but it's a work in progress. Ellie is currently in that "one big blur" stage whenever the camera comes out. She either acts totally silly and crazy because she's aware of the camera's presence, or she comes racing to come and look at the picture on the camera screen. So for today, here are one of the little dresses:

The fit is a little on the big side- I purposely made them a little big so that they will fit until spring- we'll just roll sleeves for a little while. One little roll up will do it. Right now they are dress length, and eventually they will be tunic top length. In the spring as long as the body is still fitting okay I'll turn the sleeves into short sleeves to extend the life of the top.

After this latest stretch of sewing I'm reminded why I identify as a knitter and not a sewist: sewing is not a terribly relaxing activity for me. I just don't enjoy the process of sewing the way I do with knitting. Cutting material is always so nerve racking for me, and I get frustrated more frequently if things don't go exactly as planned- partly, I think, because I'm not experienced enough to know what to do to fix things if they aren't working quite right. Thankfully I have my mom (expert sewist) close by to help when my machine won't behave and I can't figure out why. I know many creative folks who are just the opposite- and feel like knitting is repetitive and boring and that fabric is where their joy lies. I love that there are so many venues to pursue what we each really enjoy.

Yarn Along

{Yarning Along with Ginny}

I've made some sock progress, but really I haven't been knitting for the last several days. My creative time has mostly been going toward sewing lately, as I'm trying to finish up our little girl's fall/winter wardrobe. A few more long sleeve dresses and pairs of leggings will do it, then it's on to the knits she'll need this winter.


I'm almost finished with the striped cardigan I started over the summer (1 1/2 sleeves and a button band to go) and she already has 3 other cardigans for the fall/winter. I might add one more, but only if she seems to be outgrowing what she has. I purposely knit a little large so that they will go all winter. I'm happy to roll up sleeves for a little while!


I'm planning to knit her some leg warmers for under the dresses she loves so much. We have wood floors in much of the house so socks are really not a great option for her (I'm envisioning head wounds and knocked out teeth) and I think leg warmers might be just the thing for this period of time when socks are a no go- and they'll help me use up my odds and ends of worsted and DK weight from the last several finished projects.


I also need to knit her a few hats for this season and her first little pair of thumb-less mittens. Ezra has requested that he and Ellie have some matching mittens this year, so probably not pink mittens, but I have some cute rainbow-y yarn that is muted enough to work for a boy and a girl. I think I'm most excited about the mitten knitting for my littles.

Any suggestions for other winter knits for toddlers?

I'm in a  book slump right now, so nothing interesting to report here. I started up Ender's Game again, but since I'm re-reading it for about the 10th time it just doesn't have that urgency to get it finished. It's more like a slow "savor and enjoy" read. The boys and I finished listening to Trumpet of the Swan and started listening to Farmer Boy yesterday. We've already had a lot of interesting conversations- "what does tardy mean? What's Oxen? Why didn't they just get in their car?"

Tackle

Mondays can be strange around here. We get going on our morning around the house and get going on school right after breakfast so that our afternoons are free for whatever needs attention.


Yesterday it was truly free time. The laundry was caught up and so were the dishes, there were no pressing school things begging for attention, and there were no studio things to do. I declared the afternoon to be creative time, and as soon as the baby went down for her nap the boys and I headed downstairs to make things.

They did some art and lots of lego time.

I went to the sewing machine and

:: Finished a white diaper cover from a knit fabric- my first time working with a knit. {LOVE this tutorial.}

:: Cut out and almost finished a little tunic dress.

:: Cut the pieces for another pair of leggings and another diaper cover. 

{There is an awesome leggings tutorial| too if you need one.}

I'm hoping to finish up the tunic dress today and try it on Ellie. As long as it fits her correctly I'll cut out 3 more dresses in the same way and sew 3 more. She's really wanting to wear dresses a lot of the time now, and the thing I like about these the most is that they will start out as dresses but then become a top as she grows. At some point I'll cut the sleeves to be short sleeves so they aren't an odd length and that will make it work until the arm scythe isn't big enough anymore.

Still on the sewing list:

1. Three more dresses for Ellie.

2. Two more pairs of leggings.

3. At least two more diaper covers.

4. Pajamas for Ender and Ezra (1 pair each).

And then back to our regularly scheduled knitting and spinning for awhile.

Schooling So Far

:: If you came to school at our house, you would have to contend with the often sighted Table Top Toddler. This is the only table she can climb on (our dining table is bar stool height) but we spend so much of our time in the family room/school room that she is on that table often, no matter how vigilant we are about pushing chairs in and making sure markers/scissors/staplers/glue sticks/temptations are put up.


:: It reminds me of another Table Top Toddler we had around these parts not too long ago. How is he in FIRST GRADE this year???


:: Have I mentioned yet that this school year is rocking so far? I'm really happy with our materials, our schedule, and how we're working through things. I felt like we really hit a good place of learning in fun ways but also covering basics in the second semester of last year, and have continued at a happy rate this year. We're reading a lot, making lots of art, and getting out for field trips while still covering math and other basics.


:: Our schedule changed a lot this year, and all for the better. I'm teaching in the studio less so that we have more time to learn together. We cover math and language arts first thing in the morning and then we read and make and play until I head into the studio to teach. We're reading from Story of the World and a giant stack of science books, and whatever books come home with us from the library.


:: Read Alouds are a hard thing to find time for around here with Ellie always on the go, but they are REALLY important to me- important enough that I'm admitting that I'm not doing a great job of fitting it in and conceding that audio books are the way to go for now. So far this year we've enjoyed Tales from the Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne and we're almost to the end of Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. Next up is Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We especially enjoyed the voice work on Tales from the Odyssey- nothing like a British accent from a Shakespearean actor to really bring a story to life!