{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

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Pattern: Knitting Pure & Simple’s Children’s Poncho by Diane Soucy

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Kettle Dyed, color 115

Size: 6-8 years (really)

The pattern was great; simple, straightforward.  I love the yarn.  The color is gorgeous.  It’s thick and soft and lovely all around.  It felt very, very strange to be making my three year old a size 6-8!  But I read that it runs small and I wanted her to get a lot of wear out of it.  So, I bit my lip and took the chance and I’m quite glad I did, because as you can see it worked out just fine and it fits Galen nicely too, so she will surely get a couple of years out of it.

Even with going up a size, I still added a whole lot of length to it.  I wanted it to be long enough to cover her hands.

She loves it too, which is novel and exciting for me because she’s very fickle and finicky with clothes lately and it’s impossible to know what will please her!  The dress that she insists on wearing one day elicits screaming later in the week.  I was concerned that after splurging on the expensive yarn and all the time I put into knitting it, she would decide she didn’t like it and outright refuse to wear it.  As it turns out, she wears it pretty much daily.  Whenever she gets chilly, she goes and puts it on herself.  And the most darling of Little Red Riding Hoods is she.

Pattern: Hooded Cape for Doll or Teddy Bear by Linda Flack

Yarn: all different scraps of red yarn, oh the number of ends I had to work in!

Notes: I used thicker yarn and larger needles and added some length because the pattern is for a 12″ doll and Rose is a full 16″.

I couldn’t leave Rose entirely out in the cold.  Sure, she doesn’t have regular clothes yet (the pajama set is on loan), but I’ve got the hand-knit outerwear covered.

Lunch one day last week.  With beans in lieu of eggs for those with allergies.

I like for the majority of the salads that I make to stand on their own, without dressing.  Also for them to be protein rich, a little fatty and filling.  And no I don’t worry about all of that fat in the least, to be perfectly honest.  Out of curiosity a couple of months ago I joined an online program where you could record your food intake in great detail and get the nutritional breakdown.  It gave you a set calorie goal.  You could set it for weight loss, gain or maintenance.  And even with it set so that I should supposedly be loosing 2 lbs a week, I could never even come close to the goal.  Without changing my eating habits at all and while being scrupulously accurate about what I was consuming, most days were around half the calories I was supposed to be consuming.  It’s eating low in sugars and carbs that makes the difference.  I don’t believe fat to be the demon that others think it is.  So, if I feel like, say, cooking my veggies in bacon grease to give them a rich flavor, I don’t think twice about it.  And I’m perfectly comfortable with that.

But back to the salad…I was actually really craving fat that day.  Something about the dark and damp and cold of winter, it seemed like just what I needed.  And eggs.  We don’t have them often, but from time to time, I really like some.  I remembered when I was little, my mother would sometimes make a different sort of egg-salad, mashing the hard boiled eggs with butter instead of the typical mayo concoction.  hmmm….

First I filled bowls with baby spinach.  I’m loving baby spinach right now.  Next I chopped up a whole bunch of leeks and sauteed them (yes, in a bit of bacon grease, it’s true!).  And generously layered that atop the spinach (all the kids deemed this their favorite part).  Then we topped the whole thing with hard-boiled eggs, mashed with salt, pepper and a bit of ghee.  While we don’t do well with dairy, everyone in the house seems to tolerate my home-made clarified butter fairly well.

The meal ended with everyone begging me to make it again soon.  The flavor combination was just right.  So nice when you can call a salad a treat!

Sweet Màiri Rose’s third birthday gift.  I hemmed and hawed about making her, but in the end I’m so glad that I did.  Along with a book, her birthday sweater and one little thing I’ll share later, these were her gifts from us this year.  When I set up her birthday table, I purposely kept Rose aside in a different room.  I don’t like the idea of wrapping dolls.  When I was a little girl my dolls were very real to me and it was upsetting to see them under packaging.  Though in our house it’s a bit different since all the gifts were wrapped in play silks.

After she had finished opening everything else; the little gifts from her brothers, a pretty pair of shoes purchased with the money Grandma sent, and so forth, we told her there was still one more special present.  It was then that I went into the other room, as I was walking back, I heard her exclaim in tiptoe bouncing anticipation, “Oh, I hope it’s a baby!”  And the fact that I actually got to place a baby in her arms, all wrapped up in a blanket that was hers as a newborn, made all of the late night sewing worthwhile.

I used the 16″ Starbright Baby pattern from Sarah’s Dolls.  My machine was still in the shop at the time, so little Rosie was sew entirely by hand.  I triple sewed all of the seams and I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that she holds up well!

So, Rosebud got her new baby, but no clothes for said baby, as I wasn’t about to undertake that by hand as well.  Until I can get around to it, her brothers were kind enough to loan her some old doll clothes of their own.

This was my first button jointed dolly and the first I’ve made with a belly button and sculpted bottom as well.  The novelty was very well received in this house full of simple, mama-made dolls.

They are very happy together.

I think this is the first year since I’ve had children that I didn’t gift a single hand-made item.  Not a one.  And I’m completely at peace with that, though I don’t expect it to turn into any kind of tradition.  And thankfully, with my amazing kids around, there was certainly no lack of hand-crafted gifts under the tree.  Iain and Elijah really out did themselves this year!

On the one night a week when Iain is at dance class, Elijah helps me to put the little ones to bed, then we get a pot of tea brewing and work on some little project together.  Well, sometimes we curl up together in a sleeping bag and read to each other!  But when the holidays/birthdays are coming up this is the best time for us to get some top-secret crafting done.  With the making of his Halloween costume, Elijah discovered a new love in machine sewing.  That’s how this shirt for Iain came about.  Elijah shopped through my stash for fabrics to make it.  And we lengthened my favorite boys top pattern (Kwik Sew 3366, which now appears to be out of print), because *gasp* the largest size is now to small for him!

I love these photos of him in the shirt he made his big brother.  These were taken right before he wrapped it.  He was so excited!

Other then their gifts for each other, they decided to team up for all of their gift making this year.  So everything else from the rest of the post, they worked on together.

For many months now they have been working on perfecting their bow and arrow designs.  There has been a lot of trial and error here.  Their current designs are pretty outstanding.  Taking many variables into consideration, they hand select, harvest, whittle, sand and notch each bow stick.  They were having trouble finding the right material for bowstring.  Nothing seemed to be up to their standards.  Finally, I managed to track down actual bow string material (here) that they now use to braid their own bow strings.  Their arrows are also hand-carved and adorned with feathers…sometimes authentic and sometimes boy-made.  They tape the tips for safety’s sake.  They made a set each for 6 of us this year; Steve, my father (pictured with his above), both of my sisters, my mother and myself.  You can see photos of our archery competition on Christmas day here.  Those arrows can travel an amazing distance!

Also pictured on the Christmas post is the scarf that they both worked on together for me.  I meant to get better pictures of it, but never got around to it.  You can see it in the second picture from the bottom.

Oh, and there was chocolate too.  Did I mention that they make chocolate every year and fill Steve and my stockings with it?  Yup, that too.

But perhaps the biggest investment of time and energy went into their gift for the little ones.  A whole selection of fruits and veggies for their kitchen set…

strawberries,

zucchini,

leeks,

yellow, green and purple beans,

cucumbers,

carrots and parsnips.

The general idea of how to make them came from here.  But after seeing the pictures, they mostly went their own way with them, rather then strictly following the directions.  All of the wood was gathered in the form of sticks from the forest around our home, with the exception of the strawberries, which they made from a bit of scrap wood.  They were accented with wool felt (where applicable), painted with watercolor paints and finished with beeswax polish.

I think they may have gone a bit overboard.  But they did such an outstanding job!  The little kids bypassed playing house and went straight for opening up a pretend restaurant.  Personally, I think they should set up a farm stand or maybe a CSA.

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

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~’King Winter in his palace’ by Galen~

Fact:  My father still buys me pajamas for Christmas.  And not just me.  There are matching ones for my sisters and my mother as well.  Now my sisters are still young enough to be terribly embarrassed by this.  And I’m probably not scoring a whole lot of points here by broadcasting this all over the world wide web.  (oops)

It sometimes puts me in mind of a Sarah Ban Breathnach’s essay where she talks about moving to London in her 20′s and her mother sending her off with a pair of footed pajamas, which she of course immediately disdained and tossed, preferring to freeze in slinky little nighties.  A decision she came to regret in her middle years when she started thinking those cozy jammies might not be so bad after all.

But personally, I’m all for it, because let’s face it, when do I ever buy myself pajamas? (answer: almost never)  At least this way my backside is literally covered.  Plus, as a grown woman, with 4 children, the oldest of which is nearly a teen?  If there is someone out there that thinks I’m still adorable enough for matching pajamas, I’m surely not going to argue.  Besides, this year’s have tiny red birds on them and I like birds.  Then again, so far none of them have had feet.  That may be pushing things a mite too far.

This by the way, is how you are most likely to find me these days…in my pajamas.  I’ve kind of been recouping.  I’m still doing stuff.  I’m just doing it while in my pajamas.  For the last several days, since the last of our house guests have left, I’ve only grudgingly gotten dressed when life requires me to leave the house.*  I don’t think the outside world is ready for me and my flannel pants.  But it’s back to the usual this week, so the p.j.’s will have to wait for bedtime.  Preferably an early bedtime.  I refuse to forsake my new wooly slippers though.  Even if they cause me to bear a striking resemblance to an elf (of the strange looking Santa variety, not the potentially alluring forest kind).

I’m out of the habit of posting.  This happens to me every year around this time.  Too much has happened in too short a time and I don’t even know where to start.  And so you are getting a ramble, starting with my pajamas and winding it’s way down to???  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

Random tidbit: my aunt sent the kids 12 boxes of origami animal kits, with 8 animals per box.  If you can do the math then you probably have a pretty accurate picture of my house completely covered in little paper animals.

Màiri Rose went in for blood work, just after Christmas.  One of the things that has been worrying our minds is the partially engorged deer tick that I took off of her just before Thanksgiving.  It was November, for goodness sake, and I’ll admit that tick searches were far from my mind.  I found it tucked up under her arm, hidden by her wooly undershirt.  Had it been anywhere else on her body I would have spotted it almost right away, but I’d been leaving her undershirt on to keep her warm as I changed her in our chilly house and so it went unnoticed for who knows how long.  We sent it in for testing and it came back positive as a carrier for Lyme disease.  After all we had been through last summer with my illness, and considering how tiny she still is, Steve and I were very concerned.  The test for Lyme disease in humans if notoriously inaccurate.  But the statistics become better if you wait to test 6 weeks after the bite.  Of course that also gives it six weeks to build up in your body.  So we spent those 6 weeks, searching her body everyday for any signs of a rash and worrying.  Not just about the illness itself, but last year, she developed this phobia about doctors where she would start to panic if they tried to touch her and completely freak out if they so much as tried to say, look in her ear.  So, sitting still for a blood draw, at the hospital where she’s never even been before?  Not an encouraging scenario.  We worked it out so that it would be just the three of us, and I talked to her all about what would happen up front.  While Steve went through the laborious task of registering, we went to the gift shop.  She had little to no interest in the toys, but was smitten with the miniature Christmas village they had set up.  After the shop, she skipped down the hallway to the lab, where she sat on my lap, and never so much as twitched the entire time they were working on her.  At one point, long after the needle had been in her arm, while they were digging it around, still trying to locate a vein, she turned around and kissed me.  When it was done and they got through telling her that she was the best patient that they had ever had, of any age, they told her she could pick out a gift.  She hoped down off my lap and skipped on over and my Waldorf born and raised little daughter picked out her China-made bag of little plastic ‘Cowboys and Indians’, and skipped out to the hall, while Steve and I stared at each other slack-jawed for a moment at our fortune before it dawned on us that we probably ought to go follow her!  And as I slipped on her sweater she said to me, “Mama, is it ok if I share my new toys with Galen?”  I’m pretty sure that I managed to just say, “of course you can, sweetie.” while in my head I blubbered something more along the lines of, “of course you can do or have anything you want you amazing, perfect, incredible little thing”.  The closest thing we had to tears the entire time was me misting up as she skipped back down the hospital corridor and out the door.  A couple of days ago she told me that the next time a tick gets on her she thinks she’s going to pick out a football.

~With my mom on her visit~

The results came back, three days sooner then expected, and negative, much to our relief.

As a Christmas gift to us, my sister watched the kids so that Steve and I could go out for our anniversary for, uhm, the first time ever.  We went to my favorite yarn store (for supplies for Rosebud’s birthday gift), then to a movie, which was so-so, back to the yarn store (because I spotted something, but didn’t have time to investigate for fear of making us late to the movie!), followed by Indian food, which was also only so-so, but it was very nice to be out together!

The double birthday was good.  Somewhat quiet and yet full, with flurries swirling around snow globe style.

She wanted a tea party with “lemonade cookies”.  We used her new tea set (from here).  And I baked these.  There have been a lot of tea parties around here lately.  I think she likes the washing up after almost as much as the party itself.

This photo isn’t from her birthday, but from a random tea-party clean up.  Clearly this day was a pajama day for her too.

He wanted ice-cream sundaes and a movie. We did those the day after because there is only so much celebrating one can fit in a day.  We ate Coconut Bliss with various toppings and watched the 1960 version of Swiss Family Robinson, which was one of my favorites as a child.  We recently finished reading the book aloud, so…  But of course the movie really has nothing to do with the book!  It seriously irritated me that they took the two female characters, who are pretty tough gals in the book and turned them into these weepy-whiny things that shriek every time they spot a lizard.  bleh.  But Iain and Elijah loved it (the two others were in bed) and saw in it a magical land, with lots of laughs, where people ride on ostriches.  Which is just what I saw in it when I was little.

On their actual birthday, as I was baking with the Wee Girl, Elijah was off finishing up her gift and Galen was making more pictures (he’s opening a shop you know, with the ones he deems ‘good’ going for a full $.02, and the disappointing ones listed for a penny) I heard the door close behind me.  I looked out the window to find this:

Oh, sweet, silly, winter boy of mine!

*it should probably be noted that I’ve been writing this post for five or six days now, so time references may no longer be accurate.  In retrospect I probably should have published three or four posts instead of one really, really long one…

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. ~Amanda Soule

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Christmas is now past, but we have many, many knit-worthy occasions coming up.  New babies in our lives, plural (before you all ask or imply, none in this house!).  A pattern release forthcoming that could use just a few more photos of a particular view.  And many, many birthdays.  Not just my own three little ones, but many friends as well.  And so I knit.  And knit.  And at the end of the day, I knit some more.  I have top secret, after-everyone-is-in-bed knits.  I have working-in-the-car-after-dark knits.  I have slip-in-a-few-stitches-here-and-there when it’s not my turn during card games knits.  There is lots of knitting going on here.  It kind of feels like making up for lost time.

Pattern: Lovely Leaf Lace Scarf by the purl bee

Yarn: Wool of the Andes Worsted Yarn by Knitpicks

Color: Jalapeno

This one was for a dear friend who’s 40th surprise party happened to be December 26th.  She was completely surprised.  It was a great party and such a testament to what an amazing woman she is and how well loved.

She loves green and I spent a long time looking around for just the right shade.  I was positively tickled when she opened it and exclaimed, “It’s even in my color!”  And Steve who heard all about my difficulties in procuring just the right hue, and I exchanged a look and he kind of nodded towards me and threw up his hands and we laughed.

It was actually really pleasant working with this yarn.  Most of what I’ve been knitting lately is all neutrals, which, don’t get me wrong, I love!  But this color was just so vivid and festive.

My clenched fists and the somewhat vacant, mildly pained expression on my face can be interrupted as, “It’s cold, it’s cold, it’s cold!  Oh, it’s cold out here.  Take the picture quick, quick, quick, quick, quick!!!!”

I set this out to block Christmas night and it wasn’t quite dry in the morning.  So these pictures were taken as the kids got into boots and coats, then I ran back inside to quickly wrap it up and head out the door.

I followed the pattern almost exactly.  I shortened it just a tiny bit and went down a needle size because it was a little two open and loose on the size 9′s.

My sister arrives tonight, followed by my other sister and a set of parents, early next week.  I suspect there will be some late night movies and lots of knitting.  I finished knitting Iain’s sweater.  I just have the finish work left and there should be plenty of time for that.  Skipping on the Christmas pajamas left me with more time for knitting, so really that worked out alright.

We had a wonderful, wonderful couple of days here.  I hope your family is enjoying the same!