The Chickens, They Are Mocking Me

Since my semi-recent post about knitting chickens, I swear that I am seeing them everywhere!

They're in the Hallmark store with the Christmas ornaments (and doesn't that mama chicken look H-A-P-P-Y):


They're clucking it up over at Amazon (and are so happy they aren't being released yet - pre-orders only):



Alright, they are knitt-ed, not knitt-ING chickens, but oh my word, they are CUTE.

There's even the Eglu from Omlet (check out the pink one!) At over $700, this may be a bit out of my budget range, but you can even order their chickens by mail. Now, I'd like to see THAT envelope!

I just realized that this is my 100th post! Wow - how'd that happen so quickly?! And instead of some monumental post or festive recognition, I concluded my first century talking about chickens! Here's hoping another hundred pass with just as much fun!!

Pink Lemonade

They're done! I am so excited to be able to say that about a pair of socks. I cast on the second one Friday evening and flew through it to finish Tuesday night. True, they are children's socks, but that's like greased lightening for me!! If I stick to anklets and kids' socks, I'll be Nancy Bush in no time!

These were knit on #1 dpns (ugh!) in Knit Picks Sock "Garden Star Gazer Lily". But we call it "Pink Lemonade" because, well, that's what it made me think of when the yarn arrived. Only one skein made the pair for my 5.5 year old. I really like the way they feel - hope they wear well, too. There was minimal pooling on the first sock, but the second one would have been completely different on each side if I hadn't broken the yarn and spread out the yellow love. I don't really love how I rejoined the yarn, so I need to look into how to do a better job of that.

Here is the parade of f.o. photos:



A pair of lovelies on my littlest lovely. LOVE the fit!



Heels done in variegated yarns just crack me up. They're like little horsie noses. Just want to pat 'em.



I like how the second pair wound up with a yellow edge at the the top (on one side).

And now to tackle big, scary man-socks (the socks, not the man!) for my better half. Don't expect progress updates any time soon!

A Title Bestowed

Time to get back to some knitting! I tried on a sock-in-progress on my daughter's foot to check if I'm toe-ready yet.



Yes!



She was so tickled by it. How fun to knit for someone who likes what you make (even if it is a captive audience)!

"You're the Knitting Mommy of the World" she exclaimed.

"Yeah" my son piped in, "like the Holy Roman Emperor"!

Well alrighty then. When you put it like that, I'll take it!

Jamestowne

Upon returning home from a field trip to Jamestown, my husband suggested that we do a diorama to record our visit. "What's a diorama?" the kids asked and I realized that they had not yet been exposed this most academic of crafts. Once I gave them a run down, they were all in! Work proceeded on and off throughout most of Monday, and was finished on Tuesday morning. Do you remember doing these in school? What a blast!



My son came up with the idea of planting a corn field, so we searched for good "stalks" and came up with toothpicks. Luckily we had Halloween Play-Doh (black!) for soil and in went the crops. I surpised the kids with the little settlers in the fort. I printed a picture of the kids trying on armor at Jamestown and glued it to cardstock. They looked right at home with the aluminum foil canon and the berry canon balls atop the stockade walls.



My daughter really liked the animal pelt scraping at Jamestown, so I recreated a little pelt stretcher for her out of twigs, felt, and embroidery floss. The kids helped cut out little felt pelts and came up with cracked safflower seeds for the shell scraper.



They kids added little Indians (complete with a story) and even a felt baby Indian.

We also like the making of canoes at Jamestown, so we recreated the scene in our diorama. The kids found a piece of branch and "carved" out the center with a rock. After coloring in the center with a black Sharpie and adding a construction paper flame and a dab of mud to control the burning, we had a canoe making operation underway. They added another cracked seed for a scraper.



You can see the Susan Constant and the tip of the Godspeed in the background. The waves were added to show the tough trip they went through to get to Virginia.

OK, enough of all this construction paper and glue - time to get back to the knitting!

Introducing...The B Blog

Venturing into a whole new world...



... my son has been steadily working on his very own blog.

His perspective on life as an 8 year old is priceless (like a lollipop!).

Enjoy - and leave comments!