ohmygoodknits! // a knitting & crochet blog » 365

Fotos Friday: black & white

Lisa — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:22:53 +0000

After my month of color, I decided to dedicate this past week of my project 365 to black and white.

Monday- the straight lines. I observed the beauty of these lines on the highway. It was Independence Day and we were searching the outskirts of the city for fireworks. Alas, a ban was in place on account of the drought. Boo.
Tuesday- the kid in the pool. Evening– it’s the only time the sun isn’t plotting to kill us.
Wednesday- the life of a kiddo. Andrew completely gave up the opportunity to nap and instead jumped on my bed trying to do somersaults. He failed.
Thursday- the zinnia bouquet.While the boys tried to trap ants in circles of chalk, I picked these zinnias. most of them were on their last breath and the stems had already put out more stems, so I should see a few more blooms soon.
Friday- the remote photographer. Andrew likes snapping photos of himself. I have to chase him in the viewfinder, as he often leaves the frame.

Project 365: January & shop talk

Lisa — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:35:39 +0000

I’m proud to say I’ve completed my first month of Project 365: 2011! These are a few of my favorites. You can see more/read more at my Project 365 blog: Vivacity.

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I did a re-shoot of one of my favorite products in my shop, at the moment. All that yellow & gold! Big sigh! It’s currently on sale, so snag it while you can. I don’t know when/if I will make more of these.

365.355: young foot

Lisa — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:24:19 +0000

THREE days left til Christmas Eve! I have THREE gifts that are not complete. One hasn’t even been started! Fortunately, the other 2 are at least 75% complete. I hope I can finish both up by the end of the night, so that I have at least 2 days to work on the last, then I can do all the baking I need to do before we leave on the 24th (we’ll be staying at Grandma’s house that night). Forgive me if I don’t post anything but my Project 365 photos for the next couple of days!

365.354: sleepy-face

Lisa — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:36:32 +0000

My baby turned 19 months old, today.

A different type of Rudolph

Lisa — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:54:13 +0000

I went to pick up Nathan at school and came home with a Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer-boy! I kind of love Pre-K.

He’s a jack of all faces. See 2 more on my flickr page, [[here]].

Since this seems to be the week of Rudolph, here is our favorite rendition of the classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” song, Jack Johnson’s version:

the Rudolphs

Lisa — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:46:03 +0000

On Saturday evening, Nathan I put together two dozen candy-cane Rudolphs. I remember my mom making these when I was little, so I thought it’d be a cute little party favor for his class.

His teacher bought stockings and asked for stocking stuffers, so I bought some stickers, pencils, erasers, and we put these together. I think I might buy some individually-wrapped fruit leather, as well. Other parents will be contributing as well, so these kids are going to get a stocking stuffed with goodies a whole week before Christmas!

I’m so excited about his first school party! Being in the AM class at his school means this is going to be a breakfast party. He goes in at 7:50 and I’ll be joining him a little after. Party ends at 9:25 (early dismissal)!

It will also be the last day of his first semester of school. I’m so proud of him! He got a report card a few weeks ago and he had met all of the goals that the district (school? teacher? someone?) set for pre-kindergarteners. He knows his ABC’s (what they look like, and the sounds they make), many different shapes & colors, can count, and is “very nice and extremely helpful” amongst other awesome things. So, while he is the one person in the world who knows how to push the exact buttons to make me spontaneously combust in sheer rage, he also makes me laugh the hardest and my heart beat the fastest. School has been a wonderful step in his life. He’s made friends and is starting to become more and more independent. I can’t believe he turns FIVE in 6 short months! That’s half a decade, man! I should start planning a big birthday party. It’s not too early, is it?

Anywho, these candy cane reindeer are supremely easy to make. I didn’t take any photos during the process, but here are some pithy directions, including a materials list.

Materials:
candy canes
pipe cleaners
jiggly eyes
pom poms
little bells
glue

Directions:
1. Thread bells onto pipe cleaner and shift to center. Twist pipe cleaner once, to secure bell in center.
2. Attach to candy cane at the top of the arch and twist a few times to secure.
3. Wrap antlers around a pencil or knitting needle to make a coil. Remove pencil and shape antlers.
4. Attach pom pom noses and eyes and let dry.
5. there is no 5. you are DONE.

super easy, no? Nathan helped by attaching all the bells and pulling them to the centers (I had already bent all the pipe cleaners in half). He also would pull out the knitting needle after I coiled the antlers.

2 gifts added, 2 completed

Lisa — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:41:24 +0000

I added two gifts to my list and completed them! They’re for my son’s teachers. Neckwarmer, crocheted from chunky yarn. They were super easy.

You can find the quick pattern by clicking [[HERE]].

More shaped bokeh & a kid craft

Lisa — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:29:07 +0000

[in black & white]

He’s playing with the straw from my Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee Jason brought me, this morning. It’s the only way I could get him to sit still. That and obnoxiously singing the ABC’s and Row, Row, Row Your Boat. They came out alright, but I still need practice with this. I used the cookie press discs to take them. I am thinking I should lock it between my lens and UV filter, so that it won’t move when I move. The photos are slightly blurred. Or maybe my manual focusing really sucks that much. I’ll practice with Nathan, later!

Speaking of my eldest, when he spent the weekend at Grandma Linda’s (after Thanksgiving), he came home with a lovely pine cone covered in silver glitter ready to hang on our tree. He also had two “naked” pine cones for us to cover ourselves. It’s been nearly two weeks and we’re just getting around to it. We chose purple glitter! One of our ornaments broke, so I super glued the top of it to the pine cone for it to hang. It’s so pretty! Thanks, Grandma Linda!

a tale of shaped bokeh

Lisa — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:40:14 +0000

I bought a vintage cookie press from a thirft store some time last year. I thought it was cool, but I never used it and forgot about it completely until I saw THIS when browsing shaped bokeh photos. I immediately tried thinking of where I put the box that housed MY cookie press. In the closet? In a box with my craft stuff? Surely not in my itty bitty kitchen? I put the baby to bed* and then went downstairs, found a flashlight, and looked under the TV stand. There it was, right where I hid it from a just-crawling-baby-who-wants-everything!

Initially, I tried shaped bokeh with some black cardstock. I wanted the lights on my Christmas tree to be hearts in a photo of my kids (collective “Awwwwwwww!”). My Xacto knife was M.I.A. so I used a box cutter and ended up with a pretty crappy heart, but it still worked, as you can see! It got me super pumped and I had dreams of painstakingly cutting out tiny shapes onto cardstock for various filters. Fast forward to the evening when I see someone used their cookie press discs as shaped-bokeh filters and I go on my little hunt.

results:

the little dome has a tiny star shaped tip:

*This is some feat! The past few nights, he has been fighting bedtime with insane sobbing and thrashing for about 4-5 minutes before completely conking out.

Sleepyheads are monsters in disguise

Lisa — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:10:12 +0000

It has been really tough to get Andrew down for a nap, lately. I suspect he’s entering that age where kids decide naps are totally uncool. It’s just too bad they’re pretty much NECESSARY for an 18-month old to be happy. Some days, he goes down after nursing and will sleep for a solid hour or two. Others, he fights it. Like today. I ran away from the situation after attempting to nurse him to sleep no less than THREE separate times. He would look like he’s falling asleep then WHAMBAM he wanted down. Wash, rinse, repeat, and so I just left. He was crying for a bit, but then…there was silence. I uploaded some photos from our Saturday trip to the park, then received an email from Jason that simply said, “come down.” So, I went downstairs and this was the scene:

Oh, how I love the weekends. When this happens during the week, I just have to keep on washing, rinsing, and repeating.

Christmas knitting detour

Lisa — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:00:23 +0000

I started gift #9 on Tuesday, but put it down on Wednesday (yesterday) to start a woolly hat for my four year old. His woollies have been passed down to his brother, so his ears are quite cold when we’re out. And that is just not acceptable.

I chose one of my all-time favorite hat patterns, Ganomy by Elizabeth Zimmermann. It’s found in the best $7 knitting book out there, Knitter’s Almanac. I’ve read it cover to cover, but I’ve only made a few items (mainly the babies’ things and hats). It’s a good read, with a bunch of classic patterns.

I used Paton’s Classic Wool in the “that’s blue” colorway. It matches Nate’s school colors and compliments his [brand new] jacket that’s a few shades of gray. I modified the pattern a bit, to compensate for the thinner yarn. I changed the cast-on to 98 stitches, stopping front increases at 4″, back increases at 6″, and then adjusting the decreases as necessary . Size US 8 needles. Less than two days. Success!

He didn’t really want to pose for me, this afternoon. He said he would “sleep through it.” It being my snapping pictures of him. He gave up and started playing with cars soon after.

Let sleeping gnomes lie.

Handmade gift pile

Lisa — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:55:30 +0000

On Sunday, I added two gifts to my pile. They were easy peasy, as most comments on my pattern can attest to.

Since then, I’ve added two more. As of today, I have 7 gifts complete. I started #8 this morning. I lowered my list by 1, but I think I’m going to re-knit #3, so I’m back to the 14 total. 7 of 14 complete means I’m halfway there!

Here’s a sneak peek at gift #6. It took me about 2 days to complete, which isn’t bad at all. I was able to finish it so quickly because my boys were sick, so we stayed in all weekend. Movie are great for knitting. Gift #7 is just a plain crochet beanie, so he won’t get any time in the spotlight of my camera.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I’m hoping the nagging cough both my boys have is kaput by Thursday morning. I’m going to have a hard time feeling comfortable anywhere but home with two little ones sounding like they’re hacking up a lung. They had fevers all weekend, but those are gone, so I’ve set their status to “on the mend.” Let’s hope it stays that way. Andy’s suspicious coughing episode this afternoon had me worried for a bit.

Beret for Etsy

Lisa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:49:06 +0000

100% wool, ready to toast your head. The absolutely electric color (“lemongrass”) is sure to add spunk to any dreary fall day.

daddy and baby TtV

Lisa — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:59:35 +0000

love it.

Andy TtV for you.

Lisa — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:04:54 +0000

I made a contraption for my nikon/duaflex, today. The purpose of the contraption is to be able to take photos through the viewfinder without any glare on the glass. I got a few light leaks, so I need to tweak it a bit. I’ve heard good things about lining it with felt, so I may give that a go.

My current knitting project is a beret for my sister, but I also still need to finish that second orange kid sock. I just finished a scarf for Warm Women and I encourage all you other knitters, crocheters, and seamstresses to contribute, as well! It’s a goodknits call to arms, needles, hooks, and thread! Be good with your knits.