In March

Well, March flew past without any notes taken and documented, but we have been busy, and happy, watching winter turn into spring.

K started soccer class once a week which she loves – she’ll grab her soccer ball from her Bapa from Christmas and announce that she needs to practice and kick it (and throw it) all around the house. She’s also been doing a toddler gymnastics class at a local gym which has been very exciting. It’s a full gymnastics gym, not just for small kids although the littles do get designated classes and play times, so they have some more adventurous options including a few different kinds of trampolines (built into the floor and with great padding around them since they are meant for practicing flips) and a big pit full of foam blocks for landing in that she loves to jump into and “swim” around in.

We’ve also been doing the typical outings – children’s museum, zoo, park, play dates, throwing epic tantrums at the grocery store, etc. I never wind up with pictures from out as my phone is still broken – it had been fading for ages and then I royally smashed it up last summer and have been limping along with a non-functional camera and rather iffy sound quality during calls, but I have gotten my money’s worth out of it and it’s really time to upgrade now.

K is VERY excited for Easter tomorrow and informed me we would be leaving carrots out for the Easter bunny tonight “just like for the reindeer” and has been having a ton of fun with Easter preparations. It is so sweet to see how excited she gets for holidays, I have been trying to step up my game with fun traditions, crafts and foods we can do for each holiday because she loves them so much. For St Patrick’s day, she loved cookie decorating, green balloons all over, and rainbow fruit skewers as well as the family dinner we had. For Easter, cookie decorating was a huge hit, and egg dying was very exciting but it was pretty stressful for me (we made it through without turning either the house or the toddler rainbow colors but I should have known better than to do little cups of liquid dye). She is super excited for tomorrow morning, and then in the late afternoon we have dinner with G’s family.

A few more things from Christmas

Yes, I know February is almost over and it is therefore not time to talk about Christmas, but I never really did a post on the finished objects (and the unfinished ones), so here we go anyway!

My favorite first… the doll bed! I ordered the Jenny Lind doll bed in the Land of Nod black Friday sale, and it was a great deal but yes it was a special treat item and I could have gotten a perfectly nice doll bed from Ikea for $19. But, I fell in love. I had to buy it, and make tiny sheets for it, and tiny pillow cases, and duvets and best of all tiny quilts – and I plan to make some tiny knitted throw blankets for it too. I love miniatures, and making accessories for this little thing has been so much fun. Best of all though, K loves it! She ran right for it on Christmas morning and loves to tuck her little monkeys into bed and read them bedtime stories and whispers “go to sleep now monkey, mommy said it’s sleep time right now, sleep well, love you” and give them good night kisses.

 It also is a pretty close match for the bed K is getting (when I finish it, ahem), but if you get the Jenny Lind bed from Land of Nod your little can actually have their bed and the doll med match exactly too and that’s pretty sweet.

 

The little rosebud sheets match one of K’s sheet sets too (made them out of an extra flat sheet), and the little colorful quilt is a mini of on my mom made for her. The duvet will be a mini of her duvet when I find the right eyelet lace to add in strips.

I also made these little boots for the softies, and I loved them, so I made a second pair and stitched them together with some velvet ribbon as an ornament.

 I’ve been working on this ornament kit for years now, and this year I finished the snowflake and made progress on the little bed but it still isn’t done yet (mostly because I made some modifications – one side is as written in the pattern and the other side is a surprise!).

I did finish the little Christmas quilt (because it is little, and was machine quilted) but I did not finish hand quilting the bigger one and I think I’m actually just going to pack it away for a while because I’m ready to knit and think of spring things. It’s been fun, but it is very Christmas-y so I’ll pick it up again later.

I actually did not do any Christmas knitting at all this year, unintentionally. I feel like there should some knitting in here somewhere. Next year.

Rivendell

I started a bigger version of K’s Fisherman Sweater in January and with some tweaking of the sizing I think it’s going to last her a year or two like the last one (I hope!). I didn’t make it as wide as I probably should have – this is actually the 12 month size from the pattern but with 4 stitches added to the front and back in the seed stitch (8 total added) and I’m working it in the round instead of pieced to that adds a stitch or so on each side and some stretch.

Normally a cabled sweater like this needs to be pieced since the seams help provide structure for the heavier garment, but since it’s so small I decided to save myself the trouble. I am using bigger needles than called for too (6s for the ribbing, 7s for the body of it) so that sizes it up as well. I’m doing all the sizing for it custom based on the original gray one she’s been wearing for two years, and by comparing to her clothes that fit best.

The main differences between this and the gray one are the length (much longer this time – I’ll have to measure to compare), and I changed up the cable pattern a bit to give it more of a Celtic knot look. I’m also turning the side cables every 6 rows instead of every 3 rows as written in the pattern (I did this on the gray one too). I love the original as written, but it’s fun to have a change this time.

I started re-reading A Wrinkle in Time in January too, in advance of the movie coming later this year, and the fact that I’m still reading it is a testament to how little reading time there has been the last few months. I used to get to read a bit while K was napping but she is a MAJOR nap rebel now and naps have become the exception rather than the rule. It’s frustrating, since I do think she still needs a nap at this age, but I can’t actually make her sleep, so that’s that. On the upside, she is sleeping much better at night.

Some more pictures of the gray version here (I can't believe these are only from September, she has grown so much!).

Knitting and reading with G Sheller