Sleeping with the cows

We've been busy preparing this week for a trip to the continent.  We'll be gone just a week, but the kids are ecstatic about it because while our primary reason for going is work-related, we've promised to make a full trip of it and take them to visit the friends, horses, and cows they left behind in Switzerland.

Part of my preparation for this trip is in the form of knitting.  There are two little ones that I've missed dearly, and I wanted to bring them a little something special.  So I've been busily knitting away some foods for their play kitchen.  I had so much fun knitting tiny treats, that I went a bit overboard.  But can you not stand the cuteness?

The carrot and strawberry patterns are my own, but the others are mostly free patterns that I found online.  And while the doughnuts are not the healthiest little treats, and the Swiss children probably won't even know what they are, I think they are adorable.  Once I saw the pattern I couldn't help myself.  It was so clever!

And the garlic and mushrooms make me very happy.  I actually knit more mushrooms than I had intended because Kitty Bill kept claiming them for himself.  He loves them.

And lest he be forgotten, my other knitting preparation was actually for Kitty Bill himself.  Since we're planning to camp in a Swiss cow field for a few days, and it's near freezing, we need to dress warmly at night.  While we were getting our winter gear out, he reminded me that I still haven't made him a hat.

I've made Kitty Bill countless hats over the years, but I knew what he meant.  A couple years ago I made Moonshine a special hat with elephants on it.  And then Sunburst saw it and put in her order for one with horses on it.  And Kitty Bill?  He has since been begging me for a hat with robots on it.

A kid who loves to build electrical things needs a robot hat, don't you think?  But he didn't want any old robots, they had to be just the right kind of robots.  Cute and friendly ones.

He has been a fan of robots for years.  Oddly enough, it all started when we moved to Switzerland.  The moms in our area would get together and have a kind of yard sale (boot sale, for my UK readers) at the local park, and they would sell off their kids' outgrown clothes and toys.  At one of these sales there was a giant, plastic monstrosity of a robot, and Kitty Bill went berserk for it.  It was red with moving parts and sounds, and no doubt with enough batteries lasers would shoot out of its eyes and scorch something.

He was two or three years old at the time.  There was no way I was bringing it into our house, and no amount of distraction would budge his tiny heart.  As I recall, there was a lot of screaming and kicking, but we made it home without the robot.  I promised that I would make him one, and I did.  I knit him this crazy transforming robot.  I was good to my word, and he was so happy that the plastic robot monster from the park was long forgotten.

But then robots became a thing, just like horses are with Sunburst; they are the magic key.  So if I wanted Kitty Bill to wear a sun hat, I had to embroider a robot on it.  A winter hat?  Robot. Eventually he grew out of that phase, they all do, but for a time I was thoroughly convinced that any woman that wanted to marry him would have to agree to having robots on top of the cake.

But now he's seven, and he still wants a robot hat with cute robots on it.  How can I deny him that?

I'm happy to announce that it passes the cute and friendly test.  Kitty Bill absolutely loves it.  Now he can't wait to sleep with the cows!

So now I have another pattern to share... but it needs a name.  Any suggestions?

Heirloom Strawberries

I just can't stop thinking about strawberries lately.  Maybe it has something to do with all the wooden ones we carved this spring, or maybe it's my desperate attempt to hang on to summer for just a little bit longer.

Whatever the case, I found myself knitting up some little lovely berries the other night.  Unlike the wooden ones, these ARE big enough to share with the littlest ones in our lives.  And I'm truly happy to be able to share this pattern with you.


Heirloom Strawberry

Materials

• US #4 (3.5mm) DPNs

• small amounts of worsted weight yarn in red and green

• small amount worsted weight yarn in contrasting color for seeds (optional)

• stuffing material

Strawberry

CO 9 stitches and divide evenly on 3 dpns.  Place marker and join to knit in the round.
Round 1: Knit
Round 2: *Kfb* repeat to end (18 sts)
Round 3: Knit
Round 4: *K3, kfb* repeat to end (24 sts)
Rounds 5 - 8: Knit
Round 9: *K4, k2tog* repeat to end (20 sts)
Round 10: Knit
Round 11: *K3, k2tog* repeat to end (16 sts)
Rounds 12 - 14: Knit
Round 15: *K2, k2tog* repeat to end (12 sts)
Round 16: Knit
Round 17: *K1, k2tog* repeat to end (8 sts)
Round 18: Knit
Round 19: *K2tog* repeat to end (4 sts)

Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches to close.  Stuff strawberry body through the top and close hole.  Embroider seeds if desired, and weave in ends.


Leafy Top

With green yarn CO 6 stitches and join to knit in the round.
Round 1: Knit
Round 2: *Kfb* repeat to end (12 sts)
Round 3: Knit
Round 4: *Kfb* repeat to end (24 sts)
Round 5: Knit

The following round creates the leaf-tip shaping through decreasing and binding off certain stitches while leaving others live on the needles.

Round 6: BO the first stitch (k2, pass first stitch over), *k2tog, k1, BO 1 (pass the decreased stitch over)* repeat to one stitch from end of round, k1. (9 sts)

Cut your working yarn leaving a 12” tail. Keeping your live stitches on the dpns, place your top on the strawberry.

Using a yarn needle, sew into your last stitch and remove it from the dpn and secure it to the upper side of the strawberry.  Bring your needle up through the top of the strawberry to secure it, then bring your needle down into the side of the strawberry where you want your second stitch to attach.

Slip your needle into the next live stitch and attach it as you did the first live stitch.  Repeat until you have secured all live stitches to the strawberry.

Bring your needle up to the center of the strawberry top and use the remaining yarn to cinch together the first row from your CO edge to form the stem.  Weave in all ends.

Enjoy!


If you prefer, this pattern is also available as a PDF download both HERE and on Ravelry.  As always, if you knit one of my patterns, I would love to see!

Updates and some knitting

We've been hiding from the rain and the chill the last few days, so I've actually gotten some work done this week.  It feels so good to get things accomplished!  We're preparing for a little journey in a couple of weeks, and my plate has been so full that things have been slopping off of it.  I'm ticking things off the list one by one.  It's all I can do.

I've been getting a bit of knitting done at night when it's just too cold to sit at the computer.  I wanted to share this particular piece with you because I had a bit of fun with the buttons.  This little sweater is going to a working mom who is so very dear to me.  She has no time for hand-washing knits, so no wooden buttons!  These are in fact hand-drawn onto shrinkles paper.  I found the very simple and wonderful tutorial at Scissors Paper Wok.

Here are the buttons before going into the oven.

 
And here they are afterwards.  So cute!

The sweater pattern is the 7-hour Toddler Girl's Sweater, and I love how it knitted up.  I hope the recipient loves it, too.


Now for the updates!

First up, I've finally managed to update my resource list for Grades 1-3.  Wow, what a lot of work that was!  But I hope it's much more helpful now.  You'll find a lot of new resources there-- books that have come out in the last few years that I absolutely love, as well as a few amazing websites I've had bookmarked.  I plan to update the lists for Grades 4-8 soon...

Second, I've mucked around with the sidebar a bit.  There is now a picture of me for those of you who have been wondering for ages how many heads, eyes, or antennae I have, now you will know.  I have resisted putting up a picture of myself for ages because I really dislike being photographed.  I tend to make really goofy faces no matter how hard I try to look normal.  And I've been told that my smile is so big it could swallow nations.  I'm not sure if that was intended as a compliment or not, but I can't argue with the truth.

Other things you'll see on the sidebar-- more labels!  I don't know why only a few labels were showing before, but now they are all visible, even some weird ones.  I've even gone back and added labels to almost my entire first year of posts... you know, the ones I wrote way back before labels existed.  Have I really been blogging for almost seven years?!  And because sometimes labels just don't cut it, I've added a search bar as well.

The last new sidebar addition is a list of our patterns and tutorials.  It's not a complete list, but it's a start.  The list includes patterns both shared on the blog and in other publications, including two lovely farm pieces that were featured in Living Crafts magazine a few years ago.  I have a new knitting pattern to share on the blog (tomorrow!), an upcoming woodworking tutorial, and another knitting pattern coming soon from Sunburst, so please watch this space.

Now if I could only figure out how to set up a virtual cafe in my sidebar, we could all sit and chat together in real time... ah, to dream!
 

Heirloom Carrots - a bumper crop!

I recently received a picture of the baby in Hamburg decked out in his new duds.  He's so beautiful, and the parents were very happy to receive our handknit goodness.  So happy, in fact, that they called us.  Twice.

The weather has been a bit gloomy and wet, no surprise there, so I've been spending time indoors knitting for the newest babies.  With Moonshine's help, I've been cranking out some little gifts for babies in hot climates and the new babies of Einstein's co-workers.  If that sounds like a lot of babies, believe me.  It is.

This past year has been a bumper crop of babies.  They are sprouting up all over the place.  So I had to think fast and knit fast.  What to give a bumper crop of babies?  A bumper crop of carrots!

Despite the overwhelming number of carrot patterns out there, I couldn't find one that was just right.  They were either too large or too flawlessly perfect.  I wanted something that looked a little more organic, like an heirloom variety.  So I made my own pattern.  Each one is knit with superwash wool and has a little rattle nestled inside.  They are so sweet I could eat them up!

I hope you enjoy the pattern.  If you make one, I'd love to hear from you.  You can also find this pattern on Ravelry or download a pdf version of this pattern HERE.

Heirloom Carrot

Materials
• US #3 (3.25mm) DPNs
• crochet hook, size US #G (approx.)
• small amounts of worsted weight yarn in orange and green
• stuffing
• rattle (optional)

Carrot
CO 12 stitches and divide evenly on 3 dpns.
Place marker, join, and knit one round.
Round 2: *K2, Kfb* repeat to end (16 sts)
Round 3: K even
Round 4: *K1, kfb* repeat to end (24 sts)
Knit even until piece measures 1.5 inches from CO edge.

Decrease 3 stitches evenly (or randomly, like a real carrot) on next round. (21 sts)
Knit 3 rounds even. Decrease 3 sts. on next round. (18 sts)
Knit 5 rounds even. Decrease 3 sts on next round. (15 sts)
Knit 3 rounds even. Decrease 3 sts. on next round. (12 sts)
Knit 3 rounds even. Decrease 3 sts. on next round. (9 sts)
Knit 5 rounds even. K1, *K2tog* repeat to end. (5 sts)

Adjust stitches onto one dpn, and switching to i-cord, knit one row.
Next round: K1, *K2tog* to end. (3 sts)
Then K 2 rounds even in i-cord.
Cut yarn and thread through remaining stitches to close.

Finishing and Greens
Stuff carrot body through the top, inserting rattle if desired, and close hole.
With crochet hook and green yarn, pick up three stitches across middle of carrot top. Slip to close, ensuring that the greens are firmly attached and making sure to leave one stitch on your hook.

Ch 20-25 sts and turn, sc your way back down to the carrot body, randomly skipping multiple sts to make the greens curl. The greens should be rascally and wild, so just have fun with it.
Slip to close in the carrot top, and repeat above two or more times, as desired. Weave in ends.

A note about gauge: Just make sure your stitches are tight enough so the stuffing doesn't show through.

Snails

Moonshine and I have been working on some human and animal studies this month.  Right now we're having fun with snails... it took us quite a bit of poking around to find some that the birds hadn't already eaten in our garden.  Every morning there is a scattering of broken shells all over the place.  The birds must be having quite an early morning feast.  If I were a snail, I would be hiding, too!

One thing I could thank the birds for was that they made it quite easy to examine the inner spiral of the shells.  So perfect!  They reminded us of a spiral ceiling we saw in Barcelona this past summer.

After digging around a bit in the garden, we unearthed a couple of live snails to investigate.  Then we made good with some empty shells and modeling beeswax to make some snails for the nature table.  Moonshine was so pleased with how they came out -- a mama and a baby!  So precious together!

Moonshine was hungering for some lovely stories this week, so we read the snail stories included in Jacob Streit's Animal Stories.  I've been looking for a copy of this in English for years, and I finally found one a couple of months ago.  It would have been perfect for Grade 2, but we're happy to have it at all.  I think it's just as applicable to the Grade 4 study anyway.  Perhaps I chanced upon our copy at the right time after all.

Just by luck I came across an interesting BBC video about the sounds tiny insects make, including snails.  Fascinating stuff!

Moonshine and I have also been talking about crafting some animals for our study.  I found the cutest pattern for crocheted snails here.  At first glance it looks to be a bit complex for my mediocre crocheting skills, so we may just end up making it up.  I'm thinking it will be fun to try.

But not this week.  This week I have undertaken a HUGE project which is eating up all of my extra bits of time.  Not that I have many extra bits, but you know what I mean.  Hopefully, I'll be able to show you that huge undertaking tomorrow.

Our newest knitter

Introducing our newest knitter... Kitty Bill.

He announced around Christmastime that he was ready to knit.

As he watched his sisters and me busily planning and crafting presents for each other, he realized that he needed to come up with some presents, too.  And those presents, he decided, were going to be knit.  By him.  For us.

He's six.  And in all honesty, he's been around knitting his whole life.  Over the last three years, he's even made a few stitches with help here and there when he felt like trying it.  His interest never lasted for more than a few stitches on whatever project I was working on.  And I wouldn't say he really understood what he was doing, he was just testing the waters.

In September I gave him a huge, beautiful hank of handspun wool for his birthday and a very cool knitting tool, kind of like a knitting Nancy, but very simplistic.  I bought it from a cute little shop in Arlesheim, Switzerland called Ahornblume.

Well, the huge hank of wool lasted maybe two days.  After his initial bewilderment, he absolutely loved it! He quickly turned the entire hank into one unimaginably long knit "snake."

Fast forward to December.

He had a few ideas about what he wanted to make-- ideas that are completely out of reach for a new knitter.  I tried to gently steer him into the realm of things that can be made from a simple square or rectangle, but he wouldn't have it.  Instead, he pulled out our pattern books and started pouring through them.  He came back to me wanting to make Moonshine the elephant pattern from A First Book of Knitting for Children.  I took one look at the pattern and saw the determination in his eyes and said, "Are you sure?  It's going to require a lot of work and attention.  You'll have to knit every single day."  He didn't even blink.

So I pulled out some yarn and let him choose a color, and we sat down and worked on casting on and simple knit stitches.  He has a very mechanical mind-- he's always drawing complex factories for some reason, so he had no trouble figuring out the engineering of the stitches.  In fact, he paid quite little attention to what he was actually doing once he figured out the stitch.  He'd carelessly knit a few rows and put it down again, pick it back up hours later, and almost with his eyes closed, begin again.

It's no big deal.  It's just string.

This was a very different experience for me.  --Three different kids, three very different kinds of knitters.

His whole attitude about it made Sunburst completely crazy.  She couldn't watch him without cringing or trying to help him in some way.  "Your needles are backwards!"  "I think you slipped a stitch." "But you dropped a stitch, let me help you!"  Frankly, he didn't want her help.  He didn't want anyone's help.

He could care less about how many stitches he dropped or if he accidentally slipped a few stitches.  People in this house knit stuff all the time, and it doesn't look so hard.  What's the big deal?!  The more he knit in his careless way, the more panicked Sunburst became, and I finally had to separate the two of them.  The rule quickly became, "If your brother is knitting, you're not allowed to watch.  Period."

And that got us through December.  He knit every day.  I helped him with the shaping-- there was a lot of binding off and casting on involved to make the legs and trunk.  But in the end, it looked mostly like it was supposed to.  There were holes a'plenty, but together we closed them all up so the stuffing wouldn't fall out.  And then we sewed it up together, and it looked like an elephant!  It really did!

 

He was excited about it for a few minutes, but then it was no big deal. Really.  I mean, who doesn't knit in this house?!!

The excitement came back on Christmas morning when he presented his wrapped present to Moonshine.  He was bursting for her to open it.  And she loved it, of course.  There was no question about it.  She had already shed a few tears when she found out that his first piece of knitting ever was a present for her!

In January he starting knitting a dollhouse-sized doll for Sunburst's birthday using a pattern from the same book.  This required a doll's head made by mom, and more closing of holes and help with the shaping, but again he had the determination to see it through to the end.

He's a knitter now.  He has already started his third project-- a robot for himself.  Who knows what's next!

A little knitting

I had other things I wanted to post today, but my brain isn't functioning enough to bring them to fruition.  This cold has caught me in its sticky web, and like a small bug, at first I felt just a glimmer of hope that I could wrangle myself free.  But today I have to acquiesce.  I'm caught.  I'm sick.  I need more kleenex and a cup of hot tea and a good lie down on the couch.

What I really need is some mindless knitting to go along with that... the kind I can put down in between blowing my nose, sipping my tea, and petting the cat.

I've just finished mailing off a host of new baby presents, and I have nothing simple on the needles.  I've been knitting baby presents nonstop for over a year now.  I don't know what water source all our friends seem to be tapped into, but I almost feel as if I've forgotten how to knit anything but baby gifts.

Here are the latest two, just shipped off this week:

A Baby Kina for a baby in Switzerland.

A little top-down raglan sweater for a baby in Germany.

An old friend in Hamburg has been wanting to be a dad for awhile, so sending something for his newborn son was a pretty big deal.  The girls wanted to knit something as well, so Moonshine knit her first pair of socks: Baby Socks from More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  And Sunburst, a bit forlorn that she couldn't knit the socks, knit this sweet hat: Basic Baby Hat.

The sock pattern was one of the simplest yet, and Moonshine was pretty pleased with herself.  As she should be-- I think they look fantastic!  It's amazing to watch these children transition from their first wobbly stitches all the way to their first pair of socks.  And what's even better is that they know it.  You can see it in their eyes.  Moonshine just stared at them in disbelief when she was finished.  "Wow!  I actually made these!"

And now for that lie down.

If my brain is up and running tomorrow, I'll tell you all about the newest knitter in the house.

More handmade toys

As promised, here are the last bits of my handmade Christmas, including Miss Jemima Mouse!

Kitty Bill loved Jeremy Mouse so much that before the day was out he was begging me to make a Jemima Mouse companion.  Luckily, these mice are quite simple to put together.  He insisted she have wedding clothes, as well, and then he created a fort church and conducted a wedding ceremony.  Now of course he's asking for a Tiptoes... You knew that was coming, right?  When things settle down a bit I'll have to oblige him.

Jemima is made from the same Holiday Mice pattern.  Her wedding attire begins with the hat that comes with the mouse pattern.  Then I attached yarn at the back of the hat and knit down to create a cape/veil effect.  If you missed the details on Jeremy, you can find them here.

Here's the wedding photo:

 

If you haven't seen Reg Down's website for the Tiptoes book series, you must take a look!  There are so many wonderful pictures there.  And the books are pure magic.  All three of my children adore his stories immensely.

What else?

Here's the outcome of that knit horse from Jan Messent's book, Knit a Fantasy Story.  It was a small torture to make it come together, but in the end, the beautiful smile on Sunburst's face was completely worth it.  She adores this horse.  She has since named it Bucephalus-- can you tell she enjoyed studying Ancient Greece?-- and she's been busy designing and knitting a realistic horse blanket for it.  Apparently the pattern in the book is just too different than the horse blankets she has seen around here.

 

The little doll on top just seemed like it needed to be there.  She's from the Sally Mavor book, Felt Wee Folk.  I just love her little dolls.


For Moonshine, I crafted two dolls: Little Red Riding Hood and the Pink Baby.  Sounds like it could be a curious story all on its own, doesn't it?  Little Red is technically a table puppet with a felt base, but the other dolls welcomed her into the dollhouse anyway.

 

Moonshine had been ogling the Little Red from the table-theater page in Sunnhild Reincken's book Making Dolls.  This one is not exact, but it's close enough.  The Pink Baby (perhaps it has a name by now) is copied from one the neighbors gave Sunburst last year.  Sunburst traced a pattern, and she kindly helped me sew things up.  There is also a tiny knit blanket, but it obscured the baby too much for the picture.

She loves them!  She really, really does!

Handmade goodness

Shhh!  Don't tell.  But I've been hard at work making Christmas presents.  The snow and ice have kept us indoors for days, and I've already got this wee mouse finished and wrapped up under the tree.  There is going to be one happy little boy Christmas morning when he unwraps his very own Jeremy Mouse!

Kitty Bill has been smitten with the image of Jeremy Mouse fighting the dragon in Reg Down's book The Festival of Stones.  It's only a line drawing, but something about it really touched him deeply.  In the picture Jeremy is brandishing a straw sword and adorned with an oak leaf shield and an acorn cap helmet.  He's preparing to fight the dragon in a celebration of Michaelmas, where we slay our own inner dragons.

This was a very simple toy to make up, combining three easy and free patterns.  For Jeremy I used the Holiday Mouse pattern.  His shield is made from Natural Suburbia's wonderful Autumn Oak Leaf pattern, only I used fingering weight yarn and size US # 2 needles.  Then I embellished it with a bit of embroidery to give it some added color.  The acorn helmet is made from the pattern Wee Twee Tiny Acorn Tutorial, only I made it a little bit bigger than the pattern calls for, then I attached it with a bit of elastic beading string.  The sword is made from straw and string.

Now, those of you who have the newer edition of the Tiptoes series might be asking yourself, "Why on earth did she make Jeremy Mouse gray?  Everyone knows he's brown; he's right there on the cover!"  We don't have the newer books, and if you ask my children, 2 out of 3 would say he's gray.  After seeing the newer covers online, I took a poll.  Kitty Bill was adamant that Jeremy is a gray mouse just like the ones we've been catching in our garage this winter. (Don't worry, we have a catch and release program.)

Sunburst's present is a bit more complicated.  I saw her eying a knit horse in Jan Messent's Knit a Fantasy Story, so I thought I would give it a shot.  I mean, how hard could a horse be?

Really hard, apparently.  The knitting isn't so complex, but the fitting of the pattern just right onto the frame of the horse leaves a bit to be desired.  I've been working at it steadily every night this past week, and in the end I think she'll really like it.  I mean, it's a horse after all.  Sunburst lives and breathes them.

I still haven't figured out what I'm making for Moonshine yet.  I have too many ideas, and at the top of that list sits teeny tiny dolls and a hand-painted matryoshka. We'll see which one I can pull off in time.

Every year I find myself crafting down to the wee hours of Christmas morning.  I don't expect this year will be any different, and why should it be?  I truly enjoy it.  When we lived in the states Einstein and I made nearly every present for them, but once we moved to Europe and found ourselves surrounded by so many lovely natural toys, it became less necessary.  It's incredibly hard to resist an entire store packed full of Ostheimer figures, Käthe Kruse dolls, and Holzkram goodies.  But I'm very careful to remember that the toys they often love best are the ones I make for them.  It's almost as if they can feel the love that went into every stitch, every knit and purl, every hand-painted detail.

Yesterday we spent some time recalling the different ways we celebrated last Christmas, and they got around to remembering their presents.  Easily they remembered the handmade gifts, and then they went very quiet as they tried to remember what else they had unwrapped from under the Christmas tree.  It wasn't a bonanza of store-bought gifts, but surprisingly, it took them a very long time to remember.

The kids just headed out for an hour of sledding fun, so it's time for me to get back to finishing up all this handmade goodness before my time runs out.

Baby knitting

We have finally finished knitting for the new baby across the street. The week he was born the sky filled with storks-- over 100 of them. We counted!!

 

I'm not pleased with how the sweater turned out. It's like one of those magic washcloths that grow exponentially when wet.  Seriously.  It started out life much, much smaller... it was only when I blocked it that things went terribly wrong.  Next time I won't be blocking anything on my birthday.  I'm sure that had something to do with it.  It was another good exercise in showing the children how to accept defeat.  On your birthday, no less.

But it's still cute.  I gifted it anyway, and despite its faults, the mom adored it.  Whew!  It's so hard when gifting goes awry.  The pattern is the very cute Duck Soup by Anny Purls.  I will be making it again, larger, with different yarn.  The kids are all insisting that they need one in their sizes, too.  Funny kids.  I think that top knot has them enchanted.

 

I also made the baby a blue berry hat, just because, with a leaf embellishment.  Though I have since been told it was a cultural faux pas to give a baby hat without straps.  I wonder is this really true?  In America it's pretty standard to have hats that don't tie.

Sunburst knit the baby a pair of socks.  She did a nice job with them, and she was very excited to see him wearing them yesterday!

The pattern is called Leftovers Baby Socks (or as the pdf link reads: Baby Socks - Turned Heel).  This was Sunburst's second time making baby socks-- though it has been a long time.  She found this pattern easy to follow on her own, and she has since made another pair for another baby.  I have to say that they are great newborn size, but for bigger babies they would run a bit small.

And Moonshine helped me knit the doll for the baby's big sister.  This little girl has been feeling a bit displaced by her baby brother, and she was very pleased to be receiving a gift, too.  It's just a tiny doll, but she pushes it around in her doll stroller just the same.  And she chews on the hat.  She's only two.  I find it fascinating that the texture of wool is something she finds comforting enough to mouth.

The girls are so pleased to see their gifts being used and loved... it's good incentive for them, since there are still two more babies to knit for.  I think it must have something to do with all those storks!

Mother's Day surprises

It was a fantastic Mother's Day. The kids surprised me with the sweetest handmade gifts, and I was so tickled by them that I had to share.

Sunburst secretly knit a sea otter from the pattern in this book. She improvised a knit sweater for it and sewed a tiny card onto the front paws. So cute!




Moonshine carved a blue chaffinch with her very first pocket knife. And she only cut herself once doing it. Whew. It's so sweet!





And Kitty Bill, not to be left out, gave me a small cut-out doll of myself-- a mini-me! Sunburst helped him make clothes and glue the hair on, but the rest is all his hard work. The picture on the shirt is him, of course, where I keep him right next to my heart...

It was a lovely day-- the sun came out long enough for Einstein and I to build a small house for our tomato starts, and then it poured rain the rest of the long, lazy afternoon.

A little birthday knitting

Moonshine has a birthday coming up. I found a pattern to knit her favorite thing in the world-- matryoshka dolls. It's all hush hush until the big day, but I'm so excited about it I had to share.









Matryoshka pattern from Susan B. Anderson's Itty-Bitty Toys.

Happy little eggs

Easter was always my favorite holiday as a little girl. My mom would boil up dozens of eggs and as a family we'd all gather around the table together, endlessly dipping into the rainbow of colors.

Together. Looking back I think that was the biggest part of it. Easter was more about being together, doing together, laughing and enjoying and goofing around, than any of the other holidays. My dad would sit at the table and dip eggs with us, we'd hide them in the craziest places, and then have contests to see who could make their chocolate bunny last the longest. I never won. (I still have no willpower when it comes to chocolate.)

It's been a long time since we all sat down for Easter together, but I'm trying to keep that spirit of togetherness alive in my children, especially at Easter. Since we don't eat eggs, and we've given up the plastic ones (conveniently they don't sell them here in Switzerland), I whipped up an easy little pattern-- another one of my patterns of desperation. My girls, ages 7 and 10, helped knit them up. I hope you'll enjoy making them as much as we did.

To download the pdf of this pattern, please click HERE.  You can also find it on Ravelry.

Felted Knit Eggs

Materials:
wool yarn scraps-- worsted or bulky wt
US #8 or #9 dpns
Wool stuffing

Instructions:
CO 12 st, and divide evenly onto 3 needles.
Place marker, and join into the round. K 1 row.

Row 1: *K1fb, k3* repeat to end of row (15 st)
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11: knit every stitch
Row 3: *K1fb, k4* repeat to end of row (18 st)
Row 5: *K1fb, k5* repeat to end of row (21 st)
Row 7: *K1fb, k6* repeat to end of row (24 st)
Row 9: *K1fb, k7* repeat to end of row (27 st)
(begin decreasing)
Row 12: *k2tog, k7* repeat to end of row (24 st)
Rows 13, 15 and 17: knit every stitch
Row 14: *k2tog, k6* repeat to end of row (21 st)
Row 16: *k2tog, k5* repeat to end of row (18 st)
Row 18: *k2tog, k4* repeat to end of row (15 st)
Row 19: *k2tog, k3* repeat to end of row (12 st)
Row 20: *k2tog, k2* repeat to end of row (9 st)
Row 21: *k2tog, k1* repeat to end of row (6 st)

Cut yarn and thread through remaining loops to close top of egg, and weave in the end. Fill your egg with stuffing (moderately full--don't overstuff), and then thread your yarn end through the CO edge, pull it closed, and weave in the ends. Voila.

If you use wool stuffing, both the egg and the stuffing will felt together and create a nice weighted egg that bounces. You can also use fiberfil, but the egg itself won't felt as well as the wool-stuffed egg. Use fiberfil if you want to create a hollow egg, as shown above, for hiding little trinkets in. Once it's felted, just make an incision and remove the fiberfill.

To felt: Throw your eggs in a pillowcase or garment bag and wash in HOT water in the washing machine with some jeans or towels. I only ran mine through once because I ran out of laundry to wash, but feel free to do what you need to do. Don't forget to allow time to dry before the big hunt begins. :-)

A blessed end of the year

Our first Christmas season in Europe looked a little like this:



Or rather a LOT like that. We couldn't turn a corner without running into some kind of festival of lights. That's downtown Basel, Switzerland-- home to what has been called the best Christmas market in Switzerland. That's actually NOT the market, just one of the shopping streets.



Christmas market in Colmar, France --after the ice skating excursion. Very pretty and Very cold. And the lights reflecting off Colmar's "Little Venice" canal.








At home we did our usual Advent celebration-- lighting the candles, reading a story every night from The Light in the Lantern, and singing.





Several years ago we made a string of tiny felt stockings for Advent. Rather than put trinkets in them, each one holds a different holiday song printed on a tiny scroll of gold parchment paper. So each night of Advent we sing a new song together-- which if truth be told, is one of my favorite parts of the holiday. The kids love it almost as much as I do.



And the lovely Advent calendar I picked up at the Goetheanum.


And making....
In all our haste we forgot to bring our Christmas ornaments, so we had to start from scratch. the girls and I made some pinecone gnomes and cornhusk wreaths:






We also managed to forget our stockings... and funny, they don't seem to sell stockings here like they do in the States, presumably because all their "Santa" business happens on Dec. 6th for Samichlaus/St. Nikolaus Day where he leaves the goodies in children's shoes.

So we all got busy making stockings out of my linen stash that I brought from the states, a white Ikea pillowcase (seriously), some red wool yarn, and embroidery floss. the stockings are each lined with a different cotton print fabric-- though of course you can't tell in the picture. The elf pattern came from Wee wonderfuls, the girl is from a Japanese embroidery book, and the odd one is from a Klee painting. Everyone helped in different ways, including Kitty Bill who kept insisting on a robot stocking which led me to the lovely pattern.






And the holiday baking....
Bohemian Braided bread, an old family tradition, as well as strange cut-out cookies (including a robot), and the star tree cookie. I always wanted to buy the star tree cookie cutters from one of those magazines, but never got around to it. I picked up these at the grocery store here... where they sell all kinds of amazing cookie cutters.




And our nature table...
Which of course had a make-over for the holiday. From the barren first light of stones, which left the kids in a state of great expectation:




to the culmination of Advent:




On Christmas Eve all the church bells around the city started ringing at 11pm. They went off for 5-10 minutes and then sounded again at midnight. With all the noise, the girls didn't fall asleep until 1am, and Einstein and I were up until 2:30 wrapping the very last gifts and embroidering the very last stocking.

Then the strangest, loveliest thing happened. We were awakened an hour before dawn by the sound of voices rising up in song. So like the story goes, I ran to the window and threw up the sash, and there in the street below me were carolers. In the cold, dark of Christmas morning. Holding candles. And singing. It was magical and beautiful and surreal.