First I want to thank you all for the nice comments, emails, and tweets about my new website. I’m still adding some pictures to it and tweaking it a little but I’m really excited about it.
I have several finished items that I’ve neglected to share on the blog. I keep wearing them and forgetting to take a picture and when I do think of taking a picture, they’re in the laundry or some other unphotographable state. But no more! What’s more, even though I knitted them a while ago, they’re lace so I’m thoroughly enjoying them this grey, sunny, hailing, heat wave, cloudy, normal Portland spring. Winter and Summer fight over who should dominate Spring, but eventually Summer always wins out.
In the meantime, I will wear these lovely green socks. The pattern is Polly Jean (though I had Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean stuck in my head the entire time I spent knitting them) and it’s a free pattern! I changed it up a little. I subtracted a couple stitches from the cast-on since I like my socks pretty snug. I also opted to not to the twisted stitches, though they do look pretty, just because I don’t like to knit twisted stitches.
Thirdly, I did a basic 2×2 ribbing for the cuff instead of the 1×1 ribbing called for in the pattern. I like how snug the cuffs are but I did lose the way 1×1 ribbing would have flowed right into the main pattern. To that I say oh well. I love these socks! I also love that the yarn was free. It’s Louet Gems that I won in a contest. How awesome is that.
Another free lace pattern with free yarn. These super soft fingerless mitts are Cafe Au Lait Mitts (free Rav download).
The yarn is Bouton d’Or Ksar and I got it from a secret pal a while back. It’s 50% camel and 50% wool and is so amazingly soft! I had 2 balls of it and I have maybe 1/2 a ball left. I wish I had a thousand balls of this yarn. I changed not a thing on this pattern and I love love love my mitts.
In other news, I have doing a ton of gardening! I really want to put a picture of my garden on here but, like my knitting, every time I think of it, the conditions aren’t quite right for picture taking. Things are starting to grow and I’m excited for the summer when everything will be leafy and full of vegetables. I’m looking forward to a summer full of yummy salads like this one from Eco Metro!
Tags: FOs 2009, knitting, mittens, socks
Posted in Create, knitting, Mittens, socks | 3 Comments »
Happy Mama’s Day is too much for Sesame to say so she shortens it to “Happy, Mama!”‘ Mike and she even wrote Happy Mama down our front steps and sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. So cute.
I wanted to make something nice for my mom and actually found the time to do it. I thought I had it done and in the mail in time but I was wrong. Sadly she didn’t get it in time to open it on Mother’s Day but now that she has it, I can post it here.
I saw little mini scrapbooks at Michaels and had a “hey, I could make that!” moment. I cut the pages out of an old cereal box then covered them with small pieces of scrapbook paper that I found at work. The whole book is smaller than an index card. I cut the pages to be different widths and cut pretty designs into the edges. I love this picture on the front. It’s my mom and little baby me.
would have liked to put a picture of my grandma with my mom when she was younger, so that it could be chronological, but this is one of the only pictures I have of them together. This picture was the last one taken of my grandma. I miss her. The picture on the right is my mom with my 2 day old brother. I was a month shy of 2, almost exactly the age Sesame is now.
I’m lacking in photos from my childhood (lots exist but none are in my possession) so I jumped ahead to some big milestones- my brother’s high school graduation, my wedding and newborn Sesame.
Then comes a picture of my mom with little Sesame and an accordion-folded mother’s day message.
Mike helped me pick out this picture. It’s my mom with her 2 kids and granddaughter. I think it’s a cute picture for the back page.
It’s pretty, it cost nothing, I got to use stuff from the recycle bin and I made it in one evening. Perfect!
Tags: crafts
Posted in Celebrate, Create, Family, Paper Crafts, Seasons, Spring | 2 Comments »
I have a brand new website! I decided that I need a more official web presence so I bought my own domain name – ThinkingMamaDesigns.com- a while back. I’ve finally finished building my website (with lots of help from Mike) and it’s actually up on the web! My blog will stay here for now but eventually we’ll get it integrated with the website as well. Please go check it out and let me know what you think! So far only a handful of people have seen it so I’d love some honest feedback. Here’s a screen shot of the home page.
Adding to my feeling of being an official business, Etsy picked one of my baby hats made from a green recycled sweater to grace its front page on Earth Day. I’m in a screen shot mood so here’s a picture of that.
Tags: etsy, ThinkingMama
Posted in Create, Felted Sweaters | 3 Comments »
Oh spring, I do love thee. There’s nothing like a walk in the woods, or just in the neighborhood, to find some gorgeous crafty inspiration.
Why not start in my own backyard?’ I do wage war on dandelions each spring but when it comes down to it, it’s hard for the scientist in me to not admire these tough little plants. with their long roots and hardy seeds that disperse far across the yard with the slightest breeze, they seem perfectly evolved to take over the neighborhood.
Then there are the flowers- bright yellow sunbursts. They deserve a little admiration.
Crabapple trees are blooming down the street.
And a neighbor has these cute, tiny blue flowers filling their yard.
I love seeing the beautiful trilliums appear in the forest. I love that their color varies from white
to pale pink
to deep purple.
All of the images are of coin purses/pouches made from recycled wool and cashmere sweaters. Some are available in my etsy shop now and the rest will be added soon.
I’m inspired to go create some more. Where do you find inspiration?
Tags: ThinkingMama
Posted in Celebrate, Create, Felted Sweaters, Nature, Seasons, Spring, The Outdoors | 4 Comments »
Okay, so maybe hate is too strong of a word for a city that I have only passed through on road trips but let me tell you a few things about it.
-It’s hot, really hot. Most of my drives through Redding happen during the summer and I am not a lover of hot weather.
-Redding was the site of our “Worst Pizza Ever” dining experience.
-It’s confusing. The lovely (okay, mostly boring), straight, easy to follow I5 crosses another highway in Redding, making it difficult to get back to I5 if you get off at the wrong place.
-Then there’s this Redding story:’ 7 years ago Mike and I moved from California to Washington. Mike and his brother, Mark,’ (and a cat) drove the moving van and I followed in our car (also with a cat- the one who never shut up.)’ This was before everyone had a cell phone and I didn’t have one. What we did have were cb radios so we could talk to each other. When they worked. Now, you never really notice how many U-Haul trucks are on the road until you are trying to follow one. The one we rented had Arizona plates and a particular scene painted in the side so it was fairly easy to keep track of. Then came Redding. Mike exited I5 onto the other highway, which I thought was strange. Maybe they were looking for a bathroom break?’ But we had recently stopped at a rest area. Hmmm. I tried to use the CB radio to ask them what they were doing but they didn’t answer. I pulled in to the other lane and sped up to get along side of them so I could wave and give them the “where are we going?” shrug. That’s when I saw that the driver of the U-Haul wasn’t Mike. I had been following the WRONG U-Haul on the WRONG highway! I was totally lost and had to stop and call Mike from a pay phone, which, come to think of it, may have been the last time I used one of those relics. I eventually met up with them at a rest stop 30 miles or so north and I kept a closer watch for the rest of the trip.
After so many years, I have finally found something good in Redding! The Turtle Bay Exploration Park (sweetened by the fact that we got in free thanks to our OMSI membership) made an awesome rest stop on our road trip with the toddler! It’s close to the highway and there was no getting lost. We saw lots of cool animals and walked across the gorgeous Sundial Bridge. On the other side of the bridge is a large botanical garden but we didn’t venture that far due to the chilly wind
.
There was also a nice outdoor play area for kiddos and a nice spot to have our picnic lunch before getting back in the car for 7 more hours.
My favorite part? The gecko exhibit and this cool one with the equally cool name. I must admit that were I on the naming committee (if such a thing existed) for this guy and I heard the suggestion of Satanic Leaf-Tailed gecko, I probably would have argued against putting such an evil-sounding name on a cool little creature. What’s done is done so I may as well enjoy it now. I don’t know about the satanic part, but his tail sure does look like a leaf!
Tags: travel
Posted in Places, travel | 4 Comments »
