Shalom for a Little Girl.

So!  I knit my girl a Shalom Sweater:

But... wait.  I have to start at the beginning.  See for the March installment of Kate and Jeanne's Road Trip Yarn Club we wanted a bulky yarn with pops of colors.  The inspiration was Wildflowers on the Great Plains.  I love how the finished colorway/pattern turned out.

 There's a couple of extra kits for this pattern up on the Destination Yarn Etsy Shop along with some other colorways on the new bulky base.

But!  It was a new base for me.  And a completely new dye technique that I had never tried before called stipple dying.  It was SO FUN to experiment with.  But it took some serious getting used to.  And after I screwed up one skein... and then another... and then another I threw my mistakes in the dyepot with a bunch of leftover dye and was all FINE.  YOU WILL JUST BE PURPLE.  STUPID YARN.

However my fit of rage lead to some really gorgeous yarn.

I figured it would end up as a cowl or something.  But my daughter claimed it.  And I had just enough to make her this:

It's the Shalom Cardigan pattern that everyone, myself included, knit a few years ago.

It knit up crazy quickly.  Then on one of the MANY snow days we had she asked me to make a skirt to match.  So we dug out some fabric and cranked out a Lazy Days Skirt.  Easy.

Literally that morning by 9:30 we had made a skirt and the boys had watched a movie and IT WAS ONLY 9:30 WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DOOOOOO.  There were a belligerent amount of snow days in a row this year.

The finished outfit is just darling.  A photoshoot after her art class at the CMA was necessary.

I love LOVE the yellow buttons.  She picked them out herself from the button box I inherited from my great-grandmother.  I'd guess the buttons are older than I am. 

90cents for buttons?!

The yellow against the purple is just so kicky and perfect.

As far as modifications go it was pretty easy to take this down to a kid's size.  I started with 51 stitches on a size 10.5 needle.  I only did 3 knit stitches on either end because the 5 the pattern called for was a bit much on a little kid.  Other than that I knit as written until the divide for the arms.  After the 2nd increase I had 101 stitches and after the third I had 129.  When dividing for the arms I K23, BO21, K43, BO 21, K23.  Then cast on 9 under each arm.  I omitted all of the waist shaping and just knit straight down from there.

I actually had to do the divide for the arms twice.  The first time she didn't like how tight it was across her back.  So I ripped it out and adjusted my stitch counts.  That's one of the best things about knitting.  Make a mistake?  Don't like how it fits/looks?  Rip it out and use the yarn again.  No problem.

Overall I'm just thrilled with this.  The whole thing started as a mistake and turned into something really beautiful.  She's worn it to school often since it was finished.  I think that's about the best compliment I can ever receive.

Also she turned 6 this week.  Which.  DUDE.  It goes so fast.  I'm actually writing this because I'm procrastinating getting the house ready for her Frozen Birthday party tomorrow.  It's amazing how much festivity you can create with a few streamers and some balloons.  Anyways in honor of her birthday here's a side by side of Shaloms from when I was hideously pregnant with her:

Yay for Shalom Sweaters!

Halloween 2014!

So are you sick of adorable pictures of children in costumes yet?  Because NEVER.

The boys were Jake and Cubby from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I made their costumes this week.  Quick and easy.  Much glue gun involved:

The vests are the Dana Made It Pirate vests that I altered a bit.  For Jake's I added a collar.  For Cubby I made the whole thing a bit smaller:

This is my new fav photo ever.

The shirts are a package of toddler undershirts with some felt glued to them.  Bonus that they could both wear the same size!  Jake's I cut up a bit, Cubby's I left alone:

I bought the bandanas at JoAnne's b/c easy.  The pants they already owned - although Jake's were about 3 sizes to small.  Meh.  Cubby's were just a pair of grey sweatpants - I threw them in a dyepot with some red and BAM.  Cubby pants.

Of course if you're familiar with Jake and the Neverland Pirates you realize that someone is missing.  They are a pirate crew of 3.  Just like my kids!

 Except our girl wanted NOTHING to do with this nonsense.  So someone else had to step up:

Noone can ever say I'm not a good sport.

We rocked our costumes at the preschool party:

two jakes, a cubby, and a bee.  Btw of the 18 kids in his class at least 5 were Elsa.

Where Tiny continued to think that he's a big kid:

What.  I totally belong here.

Before we headed down to costume parade at the girl's school.

Her school requires that the kids dress up like characters from books.  I LOVE IT!  Obviously her choice was easy:

FANCY NANCY!!!!

Her skirt was one that I made for-ev-er ago when she was a toddler who loved tulle.  But she then rejected it b/c it was too scratchy.  I saved it and it found new life here.  The rest of it is thrown together out of clothes she already owned and a tiara we embellished with some pipe cleaners.  I think the red hair is the perfect detail!

But she didn't want to be Fancy Nancy for "real" Halloween.  She wanted to be "ponies turn into people" aka the My Little Pony Equestria Girls ridiculous.  I said ok, though since she was so determined and the costume was easy to put together. 

My friend made here the awesome mask which has been a dress up box staple for awhile.  I made the skirt out of fabric she picked out.  I threw together the "boots" aka leg warmer things the night before.  Her shirt is a school shirt.  She wore the ears and leggings from last year's costume.

Our pirate crew had a ball trick-or-treating.  And pillaging their pirate booty:

 Afterwards we headed out to our own Halloween party - the same one we go to every year:


I did not change costumes.  Which means all night I had to explain.. yeah it's from a kid's show.  It was still funtimes.

My brother had no problem with people not recognizing him.

A demon and a grinch.... evil theme?

Halloween around here was INTENSE.  3 parties and trick or treat all in one day!  I... yeah.  We spent all day Saturday in a sugar coma of lazy.  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Oh yeah and we carved pumpkins, too.

Thanks to my dad and my sister in law for the pictures!

Girls' Weekend Tote.

So.  We're 8 days out from Halloween.  And I should be making costumes.  My sewing table is covered with blue and yellow felt and I have a whole task list of things to make and I just.... MEH.  BLAH.  BLERG.  I don't know.  Maybe I burned out last year after making Twilight Sparkle?  Or maybe I still have trauma from the Maleficent Debacle?  Maybe it's just crafting ADD?  Whatever the reason I just can't get into it this year.  Instead I made this:

Because given the choice between making something my kids will wear for a day or making myself a kicky new tote bag for an upcoming girls weekend, well...

YUP.

I mean, really.  I haven't been on a girls weekend in.... ever?  And we're leaving for Put-In-Bay tomorrow and obviously I needed something fun to bring my knitting in:

The bag is made out of some grey denim that I snagged from my grandma's fabric stash.  The pink polka dot fabric is leftover from my mom's SuperTote.

The "pattern" is inspired by Dana Made It's Boxed-Out Tote Tutorial.  I actually had the denim part made already as it was supposed to be the Dude's school bag.  But then I decided I liked it too much to give to a 3.5 year old.  I made him a cars one instead:

Cars on the outside?  Green on the inside?  BEST MOMMY EVER.

The pockets are lined, interfaced, and piped, because details like that make a bag oh so much better:

PIPING!

I thought about adding a magnetic closure but didn't.  Because without it the entire thing is reversable:

The gray pocket was repourposed from the Tote for Teacher.  I made the pocket and decided I didn't like it on the chevron fabric.  It found new life here:

The pink pocket was supposed to go into my mom's SuperTote.  But I decided not to use it - the rectangle is a bit bjiggity and gifts need to be perfect.  For a tote for me, though?  Totally good enough:
 

Yay for reusing something I already had finished!  And super yay for girls' weekends!

Target Napkin Gingham Totes.

So!  Arugh.  A lot of time just flew by there.  We are still very much adjusting to the new school schedules and activities and ALL OF THE THINGS.  Between that and a busy last couple of weekends I feel like I'm just trying to keep this crazy ship afloat.  So rather than try to catch up all at once how about a quickie post to shake the cobwebs out?

Look!  Tote bags!

Yup.  I made them.  I saw these adorable gingham napkins on end-of-summer clearance at Target way back in July.  Summer clearance in July?  Yeah I wasn't going to question the insanity of it I just rolled with the discount.

I sewed up 3 sides, added some cotton twill tape handles, and BOOM.  Adorable new bag:

Pictured:  a high degree of difficulty sewing project.

I added a red pocket to the front.  It's just two pieces of red fabric sewn together, turned right side out, and sewn onto one of the napkins.  I added a line of stitching down the middle based on the size of my phone.  Easy solution to the problem of forever trying to locate my phone in the bag of kid nonsense I have to lug around.

I used it CONSTANTLY at the end of summer.  This bag took us to the pool, to Wade Oval Wed, to Edgewater Live, the zoo, the park, etc, etc.  There's something just so refreshingly summer about  red gingham:

For the orange bag I layered one of the green napkins on top of one side to make pockets.

I pinned it all in place, sewed 2 lines down the front to make 3 pockets, and then sewed the whole thing together.  Super quick and now I have lots of places to put my junk:

All the right junk in all the right places...

It also means that there are a few, small, interior pockets as well:

And the extra napkin layer adds a nice weight to the bag:

I haven't had a chance to use the orange bag yet since Fall is upon us.  But it's kindof pumpkin-y, right?

Target - true to form - sucked me in again a few weeks later when they marked down another set of colors:

I couldn't resist. Yay Gingham!

And for a bonus picture here's my dog. 

Remember me?

As a dog in a 3 kid household she has to resort to drastic measures to get notices. Like crashing my photo shoot:

 Poor pooch.