More Sewing with Grammy!

Grammy had so much fun sewing with the girls last time that she actually came back for more (brave woman that she is)!  The girls had an early release day last week and Grammy picked them up from school with project supplies in hand.  She picked a project from the book Let's make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo! Fun Dolls.  If you are looking for a beginning project for a young sewer this is a great one.  She chose the snake pattern and a simple canvas fabric on which they used stamps and fabric markers for decorations.

This project is a simple shape that little hands can easily trace pattern pieces for, cut out, and they love personalizing the fabric to make it their own.  Sewing in the mouth and tongue was a little tricky, Grammy had to help there, but almost all of the machine sewing, stuffing and hand sewing was done by the girls.  It is really cute how much they LOVE their handmade snakes!

Sunday Sewing Bliss

This past Sunday we went to spend the day at Grammy's house to sew.  The youngest child received a Hello Kitty sewing machine, just like her big sister's, for Christmas and wanted to get started on her first quilt.  The older child has a book report due at the end of the month for which the students can choose any medium they want to do the report in.  She chose a quilt.  Do I even have to tell you how happy both of these young children yearning to sew make me?  And when I say yearning, they have both been BEGGING to sew on these projects for weeks now.  Luckily Grammy wanted to help, I don't think I could have handled both of them working at the same time.  Sewing with small children takes a lot of patience and constant vigilance since they are using irons and pins and machines, but it is so worth it when you see how proud they are of their finished projects.  Sam finished her quilt, proudly displayed below, but Courtney still has some embellishments to put on her book report quilt before it is ready to show off.

Man Scarf

Last fall, when we were out in Idaho, our second stop after getting off the plane was Isabel's yarn shop.  This yarn store always has something set up to catch your eye and this time was no exception.  As soon as we walked in the front door there was a table with the new Rowan Colourscape folk yarns and patterns.  These yarns, especially the darker color-ways, just shout man yarn.  Lots of women won't take their husbands shopping with them (especially on fiber procurement excursions) because they get told that they don't need any more yarn or fabric or whatnot, but with Jay I seem to have the opposite problem.  He has a great eye for color and design and I think I end up spending twice as much when he is with me.  I got enough to make him a matching hat too, hopefully I can whip that up before there aren't any cold days left to wear it this winter.  Luckily this is a nice spongy wool that knits up quickly.  The yarn is spun in such a way that it is fascinating to watch the colors blend into themselves and keeps you entertained while doing even a basic rib pattern.  The man scarf is flattened and pinned to the rug upstairs at the moment for blocking, but here are some pics of it straight off the needles and still curly.  I haven't ever blocked anything before so I'm very interested to see if it really does stay flat after it dries.

Pattern:  Aiden Hat from Rowan Colourscape folk
Yarn:  Rowan Colourscape chunky by Kaffe Fassett
Ravelry link here

Gifted Felt Bags

Hand knit socks were not the only knitted item under the tree this year.  My mom made these super cute little felted bags for the girls.  The initials on them and the little ruffles just kill me.  Little girls can never have too many bags... the youngest uses hers to carry around her new DS along with a small stitching project and the oldest stashes her random bits of daily life:  acorns, rocks, plastic baubles and balls.  It is always fun to peek in there and see what things they treasure on any given day.

Pattern:  Felt Ruffle Bag from knittingonthenet.com
Yarn:  Noro wool

Two Things

1)  Since yesterday 1,218 people have visited my blog because of this post.  Wow, hi everyone!

2)  Jay and I have both embarked on Project 365, you can find my set here and his set here.  We are now taking bets on who will last the longest.  Eventually I will figure out how to put a link in the sidebar or something equally fancy.

That is all.