glimpses of growing and learning.

Our tubing evening didn't happen, partially due to bad head colds but mostly due to the hill closing a week before Jeff thought it was going to close.  We're not sure why it's taken us this long to utilize the little ski/snowboard/tubing hill near us, but when Kaatje started asking for snowboarding lessons around Christmas time, we knew where to look.  Lessons one and two went great... lesson three's backside turn practice led to a painful wrist sprain.  Ah well, she's already asking for lessons next year, and we've already marked it on the calendar.

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A huge horray for homeschooling in our lives:  we made the trek to our local homeschooling store (how many people can say that?!  we're very blessed.) and Kaatje and I chatted with the invaluably helpful owners about the "math issues" we were having.  Now we're happily using new curriculum where I'm remembering statistics and proof theory from college, and Kaatje's learning mice can't read.  (Partially kidding, she's learning more than that, too.)  My math major heart loves that she's happily learning set unions, and her math-is-stupid (not hard, just stupid) heart loves that she's not doing repetitive long division problems.  If you're a homeschooler with a voracious reader who finds typical math hair-tearing-out-boring, check out Life of Fred.  The pure greatness of homeschooling is that this might not even be the end-all... I might come back later saying how Fred's not working anymore and we've made another change, but where I was at the end of my rope before (and so was Kaatje), we're once again contentedly remembering why we do this.  Must always keep in mind that the best way to move forward sometimes is to talk to those wonderful homeschool pioneers around us, from the friends at church with highschoolers to the now-grandparents of another generation of to-be-homeschooled kids.  Our girls' learning won't look anything like anyone else's, and the ones who know that best and can help us grow are the ones who've already been there!

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Lots on the needles lately;  since our LYS closed (*sniff*) I picked out some yarn on their closing day to make the girls whatever they wanted.  Greta picked a short-sleeve cardigan in bright pink wool (Ravelry here), Kaatje a hat in greens and browns (same pattern as this one).  In a fit of cold late winter knitting, both are finished except for the fox ears Kaatje wants on her hat... need to research those a bit.  I'm forever working on a shawl out of some gorgeous soft and so very splitty rowan cotton/silk, from the market in Ireland.  Splitty means despite an easy pattern, I have to watch what I'm doing:  sad for movie watching, fine for piano lessons and car rides. 

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Despite snow in the forecast, the paper flakes have been peeled from the windows.  I don't seem to be able to come out of the little chain speciality grocery store without another plant, somehow a shamrock has been added in the window.  (I'm a sucker for anything that says "full sun;"  until the leaves appear, our huge south widows will kill lesser plants.)  Snow covers most of the ground still, grimy and gritty, but I've been watching the garden plants slowly be revealed.  No garden plans yet, just some spindly tall basil whose seeds Gret and I threw in a pot a while ago, pampered in our funny little greenhouse.  Nothing like the smell of basil as the first day of spring approaches.

here be fairies. (and sewing.)

Greta received a wonderful book for Christmas this year:  Forest Fairy Crafts.

Right away, over the Christmas week, she made an owl pocket animal, but we had to gather a few more supplies at home before we could try some of the other crafts.  We enjoy this book so much because of the quality of the finished projects;  these are dolls like we used to buy from the expensive Waldorf-style stores or catalogues, and the girls make them just like they want them.  Plus, there's such an array of neat projects:  from stuffed animals to many kinds and sizes of fairies.  The girls piece hats from one kind of fairy to wings from another, since it's so easily customizable.  I'm not being bothered by requests to purchase little fairies like I'd buy them years ago!

Even for my especially crafty girls (gifted, not taught!) I do need to help Greta with these projects... sometimes she can't get string tight enough, or needs a third hand to help glue hair, or the like.  Kaatje can complete the crafts on her own, but I find I can still help with gently guiding her away from frustration if she starts to flounder (anger not being conducive to fine motor skills, among many other things).

I'm kind of getting into my head that a fairy-making-party would be a lovely long-winter's-end event, but we'll see where that goes.  (Shhhh!! to my friends reading with little girls....later if not sooner, but don't tell them!)

(Notes:  The small animals are from Kaatje's loved Christmas presents: The Cute Book and the Cuter Book.  The bead fairies are kits from our local bead store: The Garden of Beads, where they know Kaatje on sight.  Now that the bookstore and the yarn store are gone, there's worse places here to be known on sight... the tattoo parlor maybe?  ahem.)

A parliament of paper tubes.

(Inspired by perusing pinterest!  ...How's that for alliteration?)

My favorite part about using castoffs for crafts:  no guilt about them going right back into the recycling bin when I've taken a picture and they've gathered the inevitable dust.  Making castles from paper tubes was quite fun, and the girls have run us dry of tubes with all their owls.

(By the way, Kaatje did color her island's water blue, but I didn't take another picture.  You'll have to take my word that a blue lake complete with dock and tethered boat is quite cute.)  The "operable" drawbridge was entirely Gret's idea.

A nice way to while away an afternoon, with a cup of tea and some knitting for those of us not playing with cardboard. 

Have a lovely rest of your weekend!

around here, late summer edition.

Around here, here and there, this and that:

~ mornings are quiet and cool
~ there's still time for impulsiveness
~ making sure no one accidentally steps on the bunnies (or decides he would like to pick one up in his mouth) was too much stress for a week and a half.  I'm glad they've left the nest.  Four of them!
~ regarding that:  Jeff needs to mow more often.  (I keep trying to convince him:  dormant grass doesn't need to be mown!)
~ art camp isn't long enough, I could use another week of free mornings
~ the homeschool schedule has been made, and I'm fully aware it will be thrown out the window within a month (or week.)  (or day.)  But the mental prep makes me sane.
~ more sewing!  less internet!
~ skype works all the way around the Earth.  (sometimes.  And the not working was at my end, not in New Zealand!)  What an amazing world!

this week: sewing and knitting

Our supposed "week off" was, well, a week we're glad is over.  A week ago Saturday found Jeff and I standing in the rain with a (corded) drill, determined to finish the fence... which we did, even without electrocuting anyone.  That evening, probably due to standing on a concrete floor all week then slipping off a step, I had a huge flare-up of Achilles tendinitis, which brought mornings of hobbling and days of gentle walking (never taking off my Birkenstocks) for the week.  What a good way to get some sewing and knitting accomplished!

Gret, the sweet skinny girl she is, has so much trouble with pants and shorts not fitting.  We made an outing to the S.J. Harris Warehouse of Fabric, always an adventure, and picked out fabric for some shorts, play skirts, and pj shorts.  With Gret's help, we were able to get shorts and a skirt finished before running out of elastic.

Gret wanted to "do a project" too, so I started on something I'd had in my head a bit, and we made templates and cut flags for a pennant banner.  It was so quick and easy, and we had fun.  Also ran out of bias tape, so the pile of extra pennants we made will have to wait.

A cousin and his lovely wife are expecting their first, a little girl, in the fall, and though I can't make the trip to the middle of Illinois for the shower, I'm sending away a hat and sweater.  This is G. Sheller's Simple Newborn Hat with a Touch of Lace.  The sweater is one I've made many times, Pickle's Plain Vest.  Both are made with Blue Sky Alpaca's Organic Cotton, a wonderful soft yarn.  I made both as specified in the patterns, but on sz. 7 double-pointeds for the hat and sz. 8 circulars for the vest.  (Hmm.  Don't tell Nancy!)

Finally, to cap the week, Gret had a run-in with a patch of concrete, whilst connected to a running dog by a leash.  Much (not-exaggerated) sadness ensued, rearing its ugly head again this morning when sister got to start swimming lessons without her, as she's still limping and quite sore, though the oozing has stopped.  She's rapidly recovering, so we're hoping all will be going swimmingly (ha!) by this weekend.  My feet are slowly recovering, but I've been down the plantar fascias road before and know how long healing takes.  Patience is hard for runners, but I get to practice what I'm preaching to Greta!

(note: the banner photo is *before* Greta's accident, sigh.)

around 1 pm.

(Just a peek;  this is the dining table of a homeschool family, in the midst.)

this week in knitting.

I enjoy the "I'm knitting this" or "I'm reading this" posts on other gal's websites (very rarely do the websites I follow by men talk about their knitting, but sometimes their reading.  I guess most geek men don't knit.  Or at least don't admit they do.  hmmm.  Um, I digress.), though my knitting (and sometimes reading) moves along so slowly perhaps this wouldn't be a good regular post, but I thought I'd throw my hat, or sweater, as it were, in the ring and show you what my hands do in their off time.

This lovely cotton yarn is by Cascade Yarns, called Sierra.  It's nice to knit with and easy on the fingers.  (and frogs easily, which was helpful!)  I has started with another cardigan pattern, a yoke neck, but didn't like how the random staggered increases were looking with this yarn's stitch definition, so I frogged it and found a shrug in One Skein Wonders (called the Eyelet Lace Shruglet) that I started.  Note:  this pattern does have, um, "issues" as written in the book, but the designer is a wonderful lady who directed me to her website here for help.

The pattern is for only one size, a Sm/Med, and although I'm pretty "Sm" I have broad shoulders, so sized it up a bit by continuing with the raglan increases a little longer than indicated.  I'm also hoping to make this "shruglet" into a full-fledged summer cardi, with, perhaps 3/4 sleeves, depending on when yarn runs shy.  I don't particularly claim to know what I'm doing with such things regarding pattern changes, but I did cross-reference the great Mrs. Zimmermann to see if my thoughts might work.  (They might!)  Time will tell.  Fortunately, I have a 11-year old waiting in the wings to see if the sweater is entirely too small for me, and then she will be the fortuitous one! 
(and if all else fails, a 7-year old.  Oh, my.  I hope I'm not *that* bad at pattern modification.)

(fish-eye and miniature are favorite settings)

(Second, third, fourth photos by Kaatje)

Around here:

~ homemade fairy furniture is much more fun (and less expensive) than the garden center's
~ stretchy fur fabric was *not* fun to help Kaatje make into a dog, but did eventually work, much to her happiness
~ the snow is certainly pretty the next day
~ little rocks are being gathered, with painted eyes applied, for purposes known only to them
~ many silly photos are taken (this is a digital world, isn't it?)

the day that gave everyone lots of (bad?) ideas.

The Textile Center annual garage sale:

then, the Twin Cities Maker Minne-Faire:

Saturday included:

~ browsing bags of yarn, bundles of fabric, and w-a-y too many Very Old Patterns
~ scoring on knitting and craft books
~ two great parking spaces on busy downtown streets
~ automatic can smashers
~ honey extracting bicycles
~ laser cutters
~ cupcake food trucks (and $2 from mom if they bought one all by themselves)
~ trebuchets (oh, *yeah*)
~ additive and subtractive CNC machines
~ a (suspiciously knowing) grin
~ bottlecap art
~ electronics vending machines
~ coming home chilled and hungry and tired, but full of inspiration

(It was a good day.)