Anyone for some tea?

There are two toy closets in my house: the one the kids know about right in the middle of our family room, and the one the boys have never seen.


That's where I keep all the wonderfully crafted wooden toys and such that I've been finding here and there for years. I snatch them when I find a deal and since they are not always age-appropriate...up in the upstairs closet they go just waiting for the rainy day when either of my little guys needs a little cheer me up or better yet a day that calls for a special reward.


When Julian was sick with his first "big boy" cold last winter (you know, the first one they are too old to just sleep through?), I climbed up on a chair in that special closet and found just the thing, a tiny little porcelain tea set. We wore our jammies and robes, stuffed tissues in our runny noses (oh so chic!), plugged in the humidifier and had a delightful tea party right there in his room and all the stuffies we could find were invited. It was the sweetest thing ever.


It's been almost a year already, but my heart can't help but swell just remembering that special moment. He was so happy to handle the tiny tea set and though he didn't say anything about it, I could tell by how careful he was that he knew it was a privilege to get to play with such a grown up toy that would otherwise have been reserved for when he was older.


It was so adorable to watch him pour tea and offer sugar and cream to all his delighted guests. He played tea party in the morning. He played tea party in the afternoon. And he just couldn't wait to take it all out again and play with daddy too when he got home from work.


It is one of my fondest memories of his toddlerhood and I hope I never forget it. When his cold was gone a few days later, we packed up the tea party and put it away again...for another time. And he was okay with that too. And I was so proud.


That's what I thought of this week as I knit all these wonderful tea sandwiches and hors d'oeuvres for my boys. So as the autumn chill draws near, we all get to look forward to special tea parties to help us chase away those colds...and this time, there'll be food for everyone!


Oh, and by the looks of this, I think Lolo might be looking forward to cold season too ;0)

Cheerio!

Ps - Should you feel the urge to knit some of the tea party treats for a little someone too, you can get the free pattern directy from Jean Greenhowe's site. It looks complicated, but every piece is but a strip of garter - no shaping whatsoever! It was a true pleasure to put this little spread together using US 8 needles and scraps of leftover Bernat Satin. I see Jean's knitted deserts in my future too someday, there's a free pattern for those too from that same site ;0)

Sick chickies

Thursday night and I am just beginning to see the light at the end of the long whiney, fevery, runny nosey, lethargic tunnel...

Exhibit A: Double ear infection.



Exhibit B: Double ear infection + 6 teeth coming in! Poor chickie.



And of course the growing post-modern art installation taking over every sink, tub and other water tight basin in my house...


Now, I'm not a germ fearing lady. I'm one of those people who believe some germs are good. You know, they help build up a strong immune system! But after being sick myself with a bad cold for 10 days now and after caring for two little sickees all week, I feel the need to air out and super mega de-germify my house!


Three sets of bed linens washed in high-temp: check! Play-mats and all plastic toys soaked in vinegar water: check! All floors vacuumed/washed with vinegar water: check! All light switches, door knobs and solid surface in my house lysol-wiped: check! Knitting: lying in a heap by the couch since last week :0(


But the mailman came this week with a little box of joy which is sitting on my kitchen table and beckoning...


Like I said, there's a light at the end of the tunnel ;0)

Can I knit 12 pairs of baby and toddler socks by yesterday?

I mean...realistically speaking? Because I just came across this via Whip up and I must make 24 socks by yesterday!

Martha's version...be still my heart ;0)

It's just 24 socks. Okay, I know I can't make them by yesterday but I think I can knit one a day between now and Christmas and thus counting up to it (besides, Julian is too little to understand the advent calendar thing and if there was a treat in each one I think even he would be unable to resist the urge to pillage through them right away ;0). Come Christmas eve, Stephen and I can fill them for the boys to discover on Christmas morning. It'll be like their mini-stockings!

Plus if I knit them in Jujube and Lolo's sizes they'll each have 6 pairs of festive socks by Christmas. Doesn't that sound really nice? Plus I have the perfect place to hang them ;0)

That's it! I'm going stash diving for all the red, green and cream yarn I can find...

Thumpety thump thump, thumpety thump thump...look at mommy go...

{2 hrs later, edited to add...}

Turns out my stash is bursting at the seams with just the right stuff for this project. Yay, stash!


And since it was still technically December 1st when I started it...here's the first almost sock in the series! It might be the late hour, or it might be the Timbits, but I am giggling like a schoolgirl at this sight next to me in bed...


Is it not the funniest in-progress sock pic ever! Poor Lolo. If he was a wake, we'd all be in serious trouble. Teehee!

Alright, time to make some zzz's as Julian would say and rest up for another sock tomorrow ;0)

A yarn about a yarn...

Several weeks back, I came across some delightful Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Chunky in the Pecan colourway and it was love at first sight ;0) I had no idea what I would make with it but it was a deal and even though I dug deep and found the discipline to navigate away from it's page more than once, I kept coming back to admire it. Then one sleepless night, I couldn't resist it anymore and had to have it!


It was as gorgeous in person as I had hoped and I was really eager to knit it up, but what does one knit with 10 balls of chunky tweed anyway? I had it sitting on the top shelf of the yarn closet and my heart fluttered every time I went in there, but I just didn't know what to knit from it. A few weeks went by and I received an order of knitting design books and as I perused them for inspiration for a future annypurls original, I came across the most delightful Norwegian seamless yoked sweater in Ann Budd's The Knitters Handy Book of Sweaters.


Well I just had to knit the copycat version for Julian and couldn't believe my luck when I got to the requirements section and found that it required Rowan Yorkshire Chunky Tweed in the Pecan colourway! That's my yarn!!! That's my yarn ;0)

I needed a few more colours for the fair isle pattern though and really felt some kind of cosmic knitting intervention when I found "flaming" available as a single ball from Jannette's and both "olive oil" and "stout" available from Urban Yarns. And all happened to be on sale - 50% off! Can you say meant to be?

Julian eating corn pops off the sweater.
He poured them there while I was tending to Lolo.
Definately naughty. No eating off the handknits!

I cast on for it at once and was delighted by how quickly it was working up. The gauge was a whopping 3 stitches to the inch! I had the front and back done to the armpits in an evening! The next day it had a sleeve. And before I knew it...


It was all done! Now as soon as I can unknit the neckband, get rid of some decreases and reknit it large enough to fit over my toddlers huge noggin I'll give you a closer look.

Yay knitting karma!!!

PS - Since this whole sweater sized for a 2 year old only used up 3 balls in the main colour and not much of the fair isle colours, I have enough leftover to divvy up as one or two 'kits' if anyone out there is interested in getting the yarn for this sweater... e-mail me at annypurls {at} hotmail {dot} com if you are interested - ALL GONE!

PPS - About my Noro striped scarf from the last post. Debbie and Leslie asked about the yarn I used. It is Noro Kureyon in colours 172, 195 and 213 (2 balls). Jared used Silk Garden in his but I couldn't find any manly-man colours I liked in the Silk Garden (my hubby wouldn't wear anything with purple in it and they all seem to have some purple in them!) so went for the Kureyon instead. In retrospect, I should have looked harder for Silk Garden colours because the Kureyon is a little scratchy.

So...that's a kilometre of yarn?

So I have this bad habit of buying yarn from across the pond in the wee hours of the morning. It's usually a one night stand though because I often don't remember it in the morning, and wonder what I was thinking once the mailman delivers the package a few weeks later.Want an example? Check out this monster skein of Danish yarn (Kauni) whose yardage, or rather metreage, exceeds a kilometre! Here it is posing with our growing Lolo (who is already 3 months old!) for scale:

It's the largest skein I've ever seen! The ball winder couldn't handle that much yarn so I had to break it down into 4 balls. Surprisingly, I wound it mostly by myself with practically no tangles! It was a very proud moment since I'm notorious at spaghettification ;0)



I have no idea what to knit with it though. The colour transitions from yellow to gold to dark green to chartreuse and back again but the stripes seem really wide. There's enough in there for a sweater for myself, but I'll probably end up making something for the kidlets instead... I don't have the time or the patience for a grown-up garment right now. I'm all about instant gratification these days. Like this grass stuffie, for instance (a free pattern from mochimochi)!

I came across the pattern the other night and cast on for it right away. I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted in the 'grass' colourway and must say that while it's nice to work with, this yarn is not great. I kept pulling fluff out of it as I knit and after being handled by my curious boys for about an hour this afternoon, it's already mega pilly! Good thing I snapped a few pics before introducing it to the little hands;0)


And now for something completely different, here's a video of my boys building elephant towers on Saturday morning. So sweet! How I delight in these little moments. Swoon!

Happy knitting!

PS - My husband and I want to thank you for your kind support and words of encouragement this week. Reading your stories made us feel a lot better about the situation and though we don't want to jinx it, we're following a really good lead... ;0)

Stash flashing!

Well today is the 3rd annual 'Flash your stash' day and in it's honour, I let out some of the stash to play. I celebrated the occasion with my favourite sock yarn especially dyed by me by the delightful jcasa. I had always wanted Kool Aid yarn but didn't have the guts to try it...so Jen gathered some berry flavours and dyed this merino sock yarn for me. I have yet to find a deserving pattern so it is still unknit. Thought I keep it in a ziploc to maintain the integrity of it's Kool-Aidy aroma and enjoy a berry whiff every chance I get ;0) And yes, I totally lit candles atop my very favourite yarn. What? Yarn is self-extinguishing! Plus I supervised very closely!



Up next, eight balls of Elann's baby cashmere batter and six balls of berry pink Baby Silk (also from Elann...I heart that place!) frosting whipping up in the kitchen. Getting hungry yet?



And then, because I am watching my yarn figure, a little mixed green salad. Two shades of green from Hanne Falkenberg's Diva 8 kit (which I would like to destash -the kit including pattern - for $100 including shipping...let me know if you are interested! -- PENDING), some Peruvian Highland Wool in 'peridot' and a few balls of Elann Baby Silk also in 'peridot.'



Up next is all my beatnik yarn. All purchased in the last few months. All grey. All uninspiring! That's actually a colour photo, folks! Blah, eh? What can I say? All this Rowan ASC, Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere and Elann Devon was on sale ;0)



For those days when socks are just what the knitting doctor ordered...a medicine cabinet full of sock yarn. Mostly Sock it to Me from Elann and various lovelies from Knit Picks.



Some Rowan Wool in 'heath' (my favouritest yarn ever!) jamming up a baritone. Yup, we have a baritone! Bet you didn't know that about me, did you? I, of course, don't play the baritone. Neither does anyone I know. But I have one. One of the many many many weird things I discovered when my husband I moved in together. He's got lots of strange things but considering the amount of yarn I've got hiding under the bed...well I guess a baritone isn't that weird. I mean he does play the french horn. Though we don't have one of those. Just a baritone. Julian gets quite a kick out of it though. We take it out to toot at least once a week. Who knows, maybe Jujube will be some baritone maestro (is there such a thing?) someday. Right now though, he can't quite reach the mouthpiece ;0)



A sinkful of blue leftover from last year's flash your stash day. I did use up some of it for the menorah pillow this holiday season, but other than that. I'm still stashing all this blue ;0)



And this sirdar cotton too ;0) One of these days it'll become something cute. Perhaps trellis for Lolo?



Did you flash your stash today?