How cute is this?!

This is a lovely wrist warmer I made today.  Isn't it cute?  I was on a trip to Spring City this weekend with all the girls on Steve's side of the family.  I let my niece decide which pattern I should knit out of my "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" book and then which yarn I should use.  She chose the wrist warmers and since I had already done the ladies, I decided to do a little combo pattern of a 1x1 rib, stockinette, and 1x1 rib again.  I think it turned out very nicely.  It fits like a...glove!  I haven't made the other one yet.  I have only so much time.  

This is a house is Spring City, a town in central Utah.  The city was settled by Scandinavian (that's me!) and English (that's me, too!) pioneers and they still have many original structures that you can tour once a year.  It was completely fascinating.  This house is owned by a couple from Dresden, Germany and is the cleanest thing I've ever seen (not to say the cutest!).  Whilst in central Utah we saw a lot of sheep, cows, turkeys and llamas.  I love farm animals, especially the kind you can knit from, and when we saw this guy herding his sheep in his Jeep I thought it was genuinely bizarre.  Is that okay?  Can you chase sheep in a Jeep?  Can you count them in your sleep? (couldn't resist a bit of Seuss).  

Here is the crazy shepherd in his Jeep.  I'm serious, is that okay?  I don't know.  The poor sheep were scampering about like crazy!  

Finally,(and then I swear I'll stop) before Spring City I took the kids to the Alpaca Fair at a nearby Expo Center.  It was so fun!  The kids loved it and I love alpacas even more than ever.  I love to knit with alpaca but now I'm the world's biggest alpaca fan.  Have you ever seen one up close?  They are so cute!  They have about 5 inches of fur on them and are so soft I couldn't believe it.  They would crane their necks over their pens to get a closer look at the kids.  These animals are soooo pricey, however.  The least expensive one I saw was $25,000.00.  That's right, the price of a nice car!  How do you justify that, I ask you?  You don't.

So, how cute are all these things?  The wrist warmer, the cute little Danish house, the crazy jeep driving shepherd (well, not that one) and the kids at the Alpaca Fair.  A weekend of cute!

I think I can, I think I can...

This pattern is driving me nuts.  It's by Blue Sky Alpacas and I think I must be mental since it's "beginner" and I'm having a really hard time with it.  The problem?  It assumes too much.  There are a lot of blanks where there should be instructions.  For instance, the next step is to "pick up stitches along the shoulder and neckline ending in an odd number.  What!?  Does this mean to pick up along the back and front of the neckline?  Anyway, I'm loving the way the Blue Sky cotton is knitting up and I love the color!  The pattern is quite frustrating, however.  I have taken a short break from this project and will return to it after some breathing exercises.  I should be able to finish it nicely after the lovely finishing class I took last month-I'm very excited to try.  

In other news...I have decided to knit some hats for Kristy who is leaving for Ukraine in the Fall.  She will be visiting an orphanage and needs 300 hats so I said "hey, I can do hats!".  I have two completed and have started a third and just bought some LOVELY Cascade 220 in the most amazing colors.  Just have a look...

I cannot believe the price of this yarn.  It's $6.75 for 220 yards of wool for crying out loud!  Love it!  Aren't those the most delightful colors you've ever seen?  They're so nice and summery-much like our 75 degree weather here!  Spring has finally come!  The End.

 

Little Kid Things...

We've been doing some fun things with the kids recently.  I think it's because we all feel so happy to have Mr. Sun back!  He seems to bring with him a bit of extra energy.  There is a Dinosaur Museum close to our house which I had never been to until last week.  Also, there is a Children's Museum about 30 minutes away which I had never visited until this week (I've got to get out more!)  Plus, the weather has been so nice that we've been able to be outside for extended periods of time without worrying about our children's limbs falling off!

This first picture is of Will, his cousin Logan and Will's "fiance" Ellie and her twin brother Luke.  They are taking a ride on some kind of dinosaur whose name I can't pronounce.
This picture is one of my favorite.  There is this section in the museum where there is a giant dinosaur whose parts you can take on and off and thereby build different kinds of dinosaurs.  Will and his friend Dominic decided it would be fun to smack each other with these parts.  Cole, Dominic's younger brother, did not think this was a very fun game and so became a moving target.  Will and Dominic smacked him down with dino parts and instead of fighting back, he just laid there like a slug... it was his only defense. (Notice Will feeling guilty and pulling the parts off).

Here is a pic of the kids at a park.  They had a blast.  
And here's the Lizzard being a monster.  She had such a good time climbing in and out of my sister's double stroller and bossing the bigger kids around.
This last one is of Will "pumping gas" at the Children's museum.  I have no idea where he got the wellies or why he decided to wear them for pumping gas.  The kid loves dressing up.  Just after this picture we headed upstairs and just as we were getting in the elevator, my friend goes "where's Will?".  Well, he was nowhere to be seen even though he had been right behind me 5 seconds before.  My sister, Haley, and I went back to where we were and Haley found him in a "construction" section working a crane and already dressed up in a police hat (don't ask).  Seriously, this took him about 20 seconds to do.  He is one of the funniest kids on earth.

Well, there's a peak into my life as a mom.  It cracks me up sometimes that my entire life revolves around these two little people.  Even though they control nearly every aspect of my life, I love them so much.  Having friends and family in the same stage of life as us helps out a lot.  Things get pretty crazy sometimes but at least I know a bunch of other moms are dealing with the same stuff!  Yay kids!

Pink Bags and Baseball Helmets

Hello again.  Nothing very exciting happening around here but I'd like to show a few things I've been working on.  But first, can anyone explain to me how NOT to have a weird seam in hats when you do color work?  I always have a horrible seam in the back of the hat where I start all my new colors.  Even when I just do stripes.    

This is a little bag I made from a book called "Fun and Funky Knitting".  I gave it to my sister in law for her birthday tonight and she love love loved it.  It was very simple to do and I've had it sitting in a bag in pieces for months because I didn't want to sew it together!  I finally did and I love the way it looks.  

Here's the soft drawstring pouch from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" of which I've become a sort of addict.  I have done half the patterns in that book!  Not quite, but it really does have some great stuff.  I'm giving this to my friend who just had surgery and who I'm sure will appreciate it.  I will only give my knits to a rare few people-I'm sure we all feel that way:)

Finally, here is one of my Lyra Hats (the one I made for myself).  The other day, Will and I were playing baseball in my room and he thought he needed a "baseball helmet" so the ball (which weighed all of 1 oz) didn't hit him in the head.  This hat was the closest thing I could find to a baseball helmet so he wore it and it did a great job protecting him from the dangerous ball!  Doesn't he look dashing?  I also made one of these for a lady in my neighborhood who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.  We had this great party for her where everyone brought a hat or a scarf so she has lots of options for things to wear when her hair falls out.  She loved the hat and wants to make some for her daughters.  
Some day I'm going to figure out how to do links on this thing so I can show people where to find things.  Until then, sorry-I'm a computer idiot!  

Weekend of Firsts

This weekend was a crazy one.  I had a knitting retreat on Friday and Saturday and Will had his first ever soccer game as well.  Knitting was great.  Friday was a finishing class which was five hours (yes, 5) of intense knitting.  I learned a lot and hope to be able to remember half!  Saturday was fair isle and I was so nervous I would be crap and ended up loving it.  I had to leave the class an hour early to go to Will's game but I still learned quite a bit.  

Here is the hat that I started yesterday and finished today. Will says it "bugs" him-I think it's just itchy.  It's done in Mission Falls 1824 Wool and I think it feels great, but I'm not a little kid with super sensitive skin.   

Another shot...
This is Will in his "I won't move an inch" pose.  Apparently you must purse your lips and look melancholy in order to hold still.  Here's a pic of the top of the hat...
And here's a close up of my mad hot fair isle skills...
Can you tell I'm quite proud?  Here are the details... Pattern: Halton Crown Hat from "Kids 

Knitted Hats"

      Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 Wool

      Date: 4/26/08-4/27/08

      Changes: Added green color to the crown

and shortened the rib from 2"

to about 1".

Okay, enough of the hat.  Now to soccer.  It was hilarious because all the kids on Will's team are 3.  They had NO idea what they were doing.  At the end of the game, Will had finally had enough and came crying off the field saying that the other team wouldn't share the ball with him.  Most of the time he just ran.  No direction, just ran.  Lizzy had a blast hanging out with my Dad, sister Brooke and niece Morgan.  In this first picture, Will his comparing his muscles with his buddy during a time out. 

In this one, Lizzy is attempting to walk (she actually took about 7 steps together tonight!)
All in all, a pretty great weekend.  I hope everyone else had a good one as well.  

YESSSS!

I did it!  Thank you Marit and Hege!  The needle tips on my 16 inch #7's were a bit long (the curve on the 12" tips would have made it so I didn't have to stretch the yarn so much) but it worked and I didn't have to spend the extra $15 for another set of 12" #7's.  I finished the one for my left hand. Hooray!  The only problem with these is that I did the bind off wrong-I forgot to bind off in pattern so they're a bit tight along the fingers.  Also, the color is not good against my skin.  I love pink but alas, it does not look good on me:( .  These will be a gift for some lucky soul.  I think when I try again I will make them longer and remember to do the bind off right. Thanks again for the help!  

Chicken!

I'm knitting the fingerless gloves from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and it seems to be an easy pattern but I'm freaking out about the thumb opening.  It says I need two 8" US size 6 needles and I'm using 12" because I don't actually think 8" exist in a size 6.  Anyway, all is well but I'm wondering if I can use my 16" size 6 as the second pair?  Does that make sense?  Does the second pair have to be the same cord size as the first?  I guess I don't really get how it works.  It's just a hole, it doesn't cover the thumb at all.  HELP!  I could just go into a yarn store and get some help but I don't want to look like an idiot-so I'll post it on a blog where really good knitters can read about my stupidity!

Also, here's a quick pic of a bowl I made.  I just used the same pattern as the "John Merrick" but stretched it over a bowl instead of my head.  It didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to but I guess that's what happens when you make a hat into a bowl.  It will hold my precious baby alpaca until I use it for the blanket I'm making.  Do you like my complete inability to take a photo?  It's so wonky.  

 

Finally, for those of you who don't care about knitting (is that possible?), here's one of the family after the BYU volleyball game.  It was fantastic-they beat UC Irvine. I'm really hoping to go the championships in California (actually held at Irvine) this month.  I especially love how my ring is shining like kryptonite!