Crafting kit

Last week I ordered this great bunny kit from Posie (sadly sold out, but please check out her wonderful blog here).  Alek took one look and thought it was the best thing ever.  He took it for himself, but I didn't want it to get destroyed, so I took it back.  Which led to much sobbing.  So I put him down for a nap and made him a kit of his own. 

 

It was a hit!  Here he is exploring his new present.

 

Big boy, new yarn

I made a trip to the local yarn store yesterday.  The bright green and blue on the left are good-quality acrylic for some extra community knitting kids' hats.  The gray wool is super soft and it's for sleeping pants for the little man.  This pattern but I'm going to make the waist ribbing longer, and I may add a drawstring as well.  The dark green yarn is some organic cotton for a facecloth.  Dark so makeup won't stain it.  

The dishcloths pictured I made on Superbowl Sunday.  I actually finished the big one Monday, I think.  My well-used dishcloth collection is aging, and some of the older ones are finally disintegrating, so I figured I'd make some new ones as I feel inspired. 

And enjoy pictures of my little guy.  He is getting so big!  In these pictures, he is protesting his morning nap despite being very tired.  That is happening a lot lately. 

Another catch-up

Let's just pretend I didn't go about a month without posting.  Also, let's pretend I didn't decide on a new format just to realize that I hated it and didn't want to follow it at all.  I sort of have an excuse - I spent the last week away at Steamboat Sprints, where I miraculously remembered how to snowboard and also got some much-needed time off work and time with the hubby while my parents watched the kiddo.  I had no to do list on vacation aside from making tasty food.  I have a new banana bread cookie recipe that has no grains and very little added sugar (with the option of no added sugar).  I'll post that soon.  And my new favorite go-to dinner is now pan-fried burgers with caramelized onions.  The onions are so rich, they elevate the whole meal and make you feel fancy.

I have been reading and knitting a lot.  I finished Fat Chance by Robert Lustig - interesting read and very informative on the biochemistry of obesity.  Now I'm reading Custom Nation by Anthony Flynn.  And I started a John Irving book on vacation but haven't made it very far through it yet.

We had our January meeting of community knitting, and the pattern was a simple stripey mistake-rib hat to use up leftovers.  I made the one on the right for CK, then I made the one on the left for myself: 

Unfortunately mine is kind of itchy.  I don't know how many wool hats I have to make for myself before I concede that wool makes my face itchy.  It's a very hard thing for a knitter to admit, but I might just be happier with decent-quality acrylic.  But I'd love to make lots of these hats.  They're so stretchy and cute. 

On the car ride home from Steamboat I made a small toddler sock:  

These things go fast!  It has all the interest of a regular sock without the long boring parts.  I might be using up all my leftover sock yarn for tiny socks.  But first I'll try this pair on the kiddo and see if he tolerates them.

If I have the time/patience, I'll write out the pattern, but sock patterns are kind of a pain to write.  It's really just a standard top-down, flap-heel adult sock (see a good step-by-step example in Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl McPhee) but with the numbers changed:

• Cast on 40 stitches
• Divide into 20/20 for flap heel
• 18 rows of heel flap
• To start turning the heel: Sl1, K11, SSK, K1, turn; then Sl1, K5, K2togAfter turning the heel, pick up 9 stitches on each side and do the instep decreases back down to 40 stitches total
• Toe decreases the normal way, decrease every row when you have 6-12-6 stitches
• Graft when you have 4-8-4 stitches.

Training is going well.  I'm within a few pounds of my pre-baby maxes on just about everything and I seem to be recovering reasonably well on metcons.  Today I did a 1 rep max front squat and got 125#.  I was only at 115# back in October.  I love my Saturday lifting.  This week I worked on power snatch and rack jerk, and two Saturdays ago I worked on snatch balances and pulls from the floor. There's so much more to Oly lifting than just the two Oly lifts.  I'm also trying to do a little bit of kettlebell work before class.  I used to rock at kettlebells, but I'm out of practice.  There's a great kettlebell workshop coming up in February and Mike's planning to attend - wish so much that I could go too!  Just in case it somehow works out, I want to be prepared.  But I won't count on it.  Either way, it will be good to get the movements back and the weights up. 

New year, new format

 It's a new year, and it's become clear to me that I've lost my blogging spirit lately.  I think it's time for a fresh start, and a fresh approach.  Lately I've been watching a lot of documentaries about successful creative people, and one thing that they all say is that they work best within constraints.  So the new format of the blog with be constrained to a few categories, a few words, a few pictures.

Reading
Just finished Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer (fascinating, disturbing)
Started Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease by Robert Lustig (great so far)

Training
Lots of rest days lately
Yesterday: 15 minute metcon (DUs, KB swings, TTB, stones) and some static holds (OH, plank, hang)
Tomorrow: Oly practice


Cooking
Turkey legs in the slow cooker
Sweet potato mashed with butter
Spinach and romaine salad with pecans



 

Knitting
Laceweight garter stitch multidirectional scarf (pattern here)



Life
Looking forward to an upcoming trip to Steamboat Springs
The little guy has been cooking and reading too!

A bunch of links

There's been a lot of good stuff on the internets since I last posted links, so here are some goodies:

Informative:

• Great post on motivations and health  from Everyday Paleo
• What to do with your kids' art from Unclutterer
• Are Independents More Immune to Bias Than Liberals or Conservatives? from Freakonomics

Funny:

• Cats and Christmas trees from Crazy Aunt Purl

Pretty:

• Kid-friendly sewing ornaments from Wee Wonderfuls
• A couple of cool photos on Things Organized Neatly
• Liberty and Wool Lap Duvets from the Purl Bee (so beautiful and simple):

Finished hats

Lots of hats

I've been knitting lots of hats.  At the last community knitting meeting, we got a simple cable pattern.  After figuring out how to cable without a cable needle, I was able to knit the red one really fast, and then I decided to make a second (the blue one).  Then I figured, what the heck, it's a good chance to use up some of my stash of acrylic, so I just kept making them, and I ended up with five!  They will go to kids in need at a local sliding-scale day care.  Hope the kiddos like them!

Every year at the office we sponsor 2 or 3 families from the area and people donate/shop to help them have a nice holiday.  So I got an idea.  I like knitting hats so much, why not make some for our families?  As a side benefit it helps me with my goal of knitting down the stash.  This year we have 3 families, with a total of 10 kids and 4 adults.  Even if I focus on just the kids, that's a lot of hats.  So I needed a pattern that was quick, warm, and simple.  So I made one up!  Here it is.  Enjoy, knit one for yourself or a loved one, and then knit another for someone in need.

Fast Hat

Size: child (adult)

Materials:
worsted weight yarn, use doubled
size 10 circular needle, 16"
set of size 9 or 10 double point needles

Holding two strands of yarn, cast on 56 (64) stitches.  Join to knit in the round, placing marker at beginning of round.  Use two strands of yarn throughout.

K2 P2 ribbing for 2 (3) inches.

Knit around for 4 inches.

Set-up row: *Knit 14 (16) stitches, put marker, repeat from * to end of round.  There will be four sections, divided by markers.

Decreases (switch to double points when needed):
*K2tog, knit to 2 before marker, SSK, Repeat from * to end of round. 
Repeat this round until you have 16 stitches on the needle.
*K2tog, SSK, Repeat from * to end of round.
Now there are 8 stitches on the needles.

Cut yarn and draw through remaining stitches.  Sew in ends.

You can get a more square, less gathered top by adding in a plain round of knitting in between the decrease rows, until you have 32 stitches on the needles.  You could also scale this pattern up or down to get a bigger adult hat or a baby hat.  Just add/subtract multiples of 8 on the cast on and multiples of 2 on the set-up row.