A DK Weight Shawl - The Age of Brass and Steam.

So!  Just a quicky post to go up while I'm enjoying the beach.  This is a simple DK Weight Shawl that my mom knit for me as a sample of Destination Yarn Souvenir in a variegated colorway.  The pattern is the Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief by O.F. Patterns and tutorials.

 The pattern was a free Ravelry Download.  Love a free pattern!

The yarn is the super squishy DK weight Souvenir in the colorway Portland, Maine.  I love the navy blues and grays of the Atlantic Ocean (and the fact that I'm probably swimming in the Atlantic right now):

Us in Portland, Maine.  I was about 20 weeks pregnant with my daughter.  Who is now modeling the shawl.

Oh how time flies!

On  my kid this is a full sized shawl but on a person it's definitely shawlette sized.  Perfect to throw on now that there's starting to be a bit of a chill in the air.

According to my mom this pattern knit up in just a few evenings, took a bit less than one skein, and was super, super easy.  Sounds like the perfect project!  Anyways I'll be back to blogging actual live things soon.  Until then I hope you enjoyed the eye candy!

Oh and if you want this yarn unfortunately my Etsy site is down while I"m on vacation.  But!  I will be at Soft 'n Sassy for a Trunk Show with this and lots of other pretties on September 22.  Hope to see you there!

6 months.

So today is the little dude's six month birthday.

And once again I'm having trouble finding the words.  Watching him go from being so tiny and sleepy to this:

Well. It's been pretty amazing. He’s turned into this fun little person with his own personality.

He's super curious and wants to interact with and grab at anything and everything.


He's a chatty boy who vocalizes all the time. His main sound is squawking like a little bird but other sounds are starting to come, too. He tells whole stories and has long conversations with anyone who will talk back to him:

He has quite the temper. Gets immediately red-faced angry when he drops a toy or when something happens that he didn't expect. He gets done with things just as quickly as he's interested in them. And once he's done with a toy he is DONE.

He has a clear sense of humor - certain things just crack him up. Peek-a-boo? Slays him every time. Even if it's played by his sister running into and out of his view. And if you tickle his tummy or blow on his face you will be rewarded with lots of giggles.



He likes to play rough - already being thrown around for rough house with daddy.


And sometimes his doggie:

And when his sister pushes him around in the walker or bounces his bouncer he shriek giggles. So does she.

His likes and dislikes are also abundantly clear. Likes: grabbing at things, water, bathtime, bouncing, standing, bananas, rocking, wind, and his robots blanket. Dislikes: any food other than bananas and sometimes peaches, being frustrated, tummy time, and having to stay up past bedtime.

His favorite thing in the whole world, though, is water. He LOVES the water. Bathtime, being hosed off after a meal, the beach:


LOVE.

Yes. We put his bumbo seat in the waves. He was the happiest kid in the entire world that day.


And did I mention he hates tummy time? Well now that he's figured out this rolling thing he just refuses it. You put him on his belly and this happens:





Which makes him very pleased with himself.



And not to compare to his sister too much but he is such a different kid. Especially where bedtime is concerned. Most nights he goes down with out any fuss of problems. Unlike someone else who we were already deep into cry it out and all of that by now. However the problem comes when he has to stay up late. Dude DOES NOT LIKE being up late. He freaks out and the only solution is laying him down - preferably in his crib:


He likes his crib.

So yeah. Life has been pretty overwhelming these last 6 months. But pretty amazing, too.

Matching LEEOW SHOES and SKIRT.

So. I mentioned before that my daughter is now potty trained. And while I'm not going to talk about details (NO. Seriously. NO.) I will say that the most important thing about the whole process is finding something that motivates your kid. Mine? Was motivated by a combination of Bubbles, being a Big Girl, Yo Gabba Gabba Underpants, Elmo, Coloring, Shoes, and - I'm so not even kidding about this - me hula hooping.

Yeah.

Anyways somewhere during the middle of it all I took her to Target, turned her loose in the shoe aisle and said "You can pick whatever you want but you can't wear them until you potty all the time." (and now you have that Eddy Murphy song going through your head.  You're welcome.)

Shoes are a mighty motivator for this kid.

After examining every pair in the store she decided on the ones that I knew she would pick as soon as I laid eyes on them:

LEEOW SHOES. Leeow as in Meow with a L. I don't know why but she's always said it this way.

Kid loves her potty shoes. And wears them proudly. All the time. And since I believe that positive reinforcement is as important as negative (aka if you listen to mommy awesome things happen) I whipped up this little skirt to match:

I made it during a naptime after she was particularly good on a trip to the park. Listened to me, followed directions, left without a fight. All those things that make you feel like maybe something is getting through:

More gets through than you think, mommy.

The pattern is the MADE simple skirt. I didn't measure the fabric, just used selvedge to selvedge. Which meant this is less than an hour worth of sewing.

Less time sewing more time RUNNING.

I love how the tutorial calls for an extra line of stitching at the bottom and along the top of the elastic casing:

Details like that really take a project to the next level.

The fabric was, of course, picked out by my daughter. Jo Anne's is quite possibly her favorite place on the planet. Despite the um... trashy... tranny... shiny... insane... nature of the cheetah print with gold sparkles she loved it so much I had to get it.

I don't know what you're talking about.  Shiny and kitty cat?  How can that be anything but AWESOME.

Besides. Who cares if she looks like she's about to board a bus to Vegas with the over 65 crowd (or work there in one of the shows) when you get a reaction like this:

Her exact words? "OH. MY. GOODNESS. MOMMY MAKE IT UP A SKIRT. LOOK. HOW. SHINY."

Indeed.

Destination Yarn Shop Update Monday – Trunk Show!

So there’s no shop update today because all of my inventory is at River Colors. It looks a little something like this:

So. Much. Yarn!

The show on Saturday was great. I had a super fun time, met some wonderful people, and ate a delicious chocolate chip and sea salt cookie from Blackbird Baking Company.


Thanks to everyone who came! It was so nice to meet all of you – even the stalkers out there (HI! Waves!). I wish I had thought to take pictures of actual people but I was too busy giving my schilling yarn:


It’s fun at a show like this because every one of my colorways has a story behind it.  So there’s lots to talk about.


The Cleveland Craft Coalition’s show was pretty awesome, too. So much creativity in the area! It’s inspiring.


Shannon Okey was also there Sat signing copies of her new book.   Really a great day all around.



But – the Destination Yarn Trunk Show isn’t quite over yet! The display will be at River Colors through Saturday July 24. Here’s 3 reasons to check it out...

Day At the Spa – a new kettle dye from the Travel Experiences Series:


Surfing Lesson – another new kettle dye from the Travel Experiences Series


Annie Oakley – I dyed this specifically for a store. They no longer carry knitting supplies so I’m free to sell the colorway wherever. It’s available for the first time outside of that store now at River Colors!

All three of those will eventually make it up on the Etsy site so if you aren’t local don’t dispair!

The etsy shop will be down until next Monday when there will be a giant huge mega update. Until then I’m enjoying some serious knitting time!

Excuse me?  Knitting time? Aren't you forgetting someone here?

Or... toddler / puppy time. They are quite the pair.  My child’s latest word is OUT. So she goes to the back door, stamps her feet, and screams OUT OUT OUT OUT.  Because there’s nothing more fun than playing outside with your doggie.

You're not supposed to drink the water!  You're supposed to splash it.  Like this.


Yeah I didn't really want to get in there either.


What should we do now?

Blue Monday Sale!

So tomorrow is the most depressing day of the year. No, really. They quantified it:
Most Depressing Day of The Year

So I was thinking… you know what makes me cheery on a dreary, depressing, January, Monday?

Well Yarn, of course.

But even better than that?

Yarn on sale.

So I’m having a Blue Monday sale of 10% off all of Destination Yarn's Tropical Colorways:

1.) Tampa Bay  2.) Sea  3.) Shining Sea  4.) Antigua

Just enter the code BLUEMONDAY in the message to seller portion of your transition and I’ll give you 10% off of any of those 4 colors! It’s a crazy one-day only event!

I figure if you can’t go somewhere warm you may as well knit with tropical yarn.

I have to say I love my Florida Sunshine socks:

Every time I wear them I think of the sun. And on a cold gray day like today I need to be reminded of what that’s like.


Happy Blue Monday!

PS – Both Harvest Moon and Copenhagen were on Anne Hanson’s Blog again. I’m currently out of both but tomorrow is a dye day so I should have more up on Etsy by Tuesday!

Shiny times ahead!

So my new reclaim the blog plan is to commit to posting a Shiny once a week. Even if it’s just one image. I just need to get my creative juices flowing again and hopefully things will take off from there.


Shiny: Something that makes you go “squee” or “oooh” or “fuzzy” or “eeeh!”

For example...

Baby going to town on a club cracker =  Shiny!

I love mommy because she's going get all of the sweet taters out of my hairs!


Pretty pretty yarn = Shiny!

Custom order I dyed - the three solids match the three colors in New Orleans.

Bean in Chicago = literally shiny!

Vacation we took in July that sadly went unblogged.

Really, really shiny.


We stopped in Chicago pretty much just to see the bean.  Totally worth it.

Family picture in the bean = TOO SHINY!



I’m guessing that this will include lots of pictures of my kid, my dog, my yarn, or my knitting. At the very least I’ll dig back and post a pretty travel photograph. But expect something visually interesting at least once a week.

Shiny times ahead!