My kid is on a roll and has been falling asleep every night with yarn attached to her fingers! See my earlier post here for a link to finger weaving (or finger knitting) instructions. This is a great activity for fidgety 8-year-olds.
For the love of pink
My six-year-old loves hot pink. Wears it everyday. I don’t really understand children’s obsession with color favorites. When an adult visits a classroom, the teacher may ask the kids “Do you have any questions for our guest today?” and whether the guest is a visiting parent or Barack Obama, one child in the class will inevitably ask “What’s your favorite color?” This will be followed by oohs and ahhs if the color matches their own favorite, making a kindred color connection. And I’ve tried to stomp out the gender distinctions between colors around here, but it seems pretty well ingrained in our society. I think it’s best not to over-analyze it, so I just make my daughter pink stuff all the time. I’ll miss these days when she becomes a goth kid in high school.
Anyway, I made this dress from Burda 9702, but of course made some modifications. It’s a super simple pattern and a good dress for a beginner to make. And I made this scarf from this awesome yarn that my daughter picked out from Purl Soho when we were in NY. The yarn actually has sparkly trims and crocheted flowers in it. Yarn like this is good for me, since I can’t really do any fancy knitting.
These Days
Lately I’ve been getting tangled up in balls of yarn strewn about the house. This is due to my 8-year-old’s new obsession with finger weaving. She is making scarves, bracelets, necklaces, belts, doll clothes and all kinds of things with her finger weavings. If you’re not familiar with the process, you can learn it here.
Seems like life has been pretty busy for us lately. I’ll be working on some new projects over the next couple of weeks so I won’t have as much time to dedicate to the blog. More fabric and another book, perhaps? We’ll see where it all goes.
And if you turn to the back of the new family issue of Real Simple, you can see my name! I contributed a tidbit about making a homemade kazoo for their wacky holiday calendar. It’s a great issue full of party, holiday, and organizing ideas, so be sure to pick it up!
Studio Amano
My friend Trisha has an Etsy shop! I like to persuade (annoy, pester, badger) my talented friends to sell their wares on Etsy. So here’s Trisha’s shop, Studio Amano. Trisha taught our daughter in preschool six years ago and she’s been babysitting and helping us out ever since.
And Trisha likes to knit. I mean she loves to knit. She is a yarn hoarder-deluxe (and she could totally surround herself in yarn like this woman). So help her get rid of that yarn and buy one of her lovely fuzzy bowls. It takes her about three hours to knit each one from wool yarn; then she felts them in warm water. If you’re not familiar with the process, it’s pretty much what happens when you accidentally wash a wool sweater.
I still have these on my table. And if you want to learn more about what crazy things Trisha is doing with fiber lately, you can follow her new blog here.
I made something.
It’s been a while, I know. I’ve mostly been making things that you won’t see yet, but I did actually knit a scarf over the weekend. I went to the mountains and needed something to do with my hands. As you might guess, I have trouble relaxing. So here’s this drop stitch scarf made from an ultra-soft cotton yarn bought from my local knit store. As you can see, I have some trouble keeping up with which row I’m supposed to be on, so I’m never good at doing any knitting that requires counting. I know I should be able to see which row should be next, but I can’t.
Anyone ever knitted curtains? I thought of that as I was taking this picture. That would be so pretty.