Cosplay

Today is World Book Day and, as an avid reader, I heartily approve of anything that encourages kids to read and be excited by books. However, in my household, there is very little encouragement needed, as my eldest child would read every single waking minute if she could, and the younger one was up late enough last night reading Tintin comics that I had to collect her early from school because she was so tired.

Last week, Devil got invited to go to a special Book Day event on the Southbank, and she got to choose the character she wanted to portray. Coincidentally enough, she is in the midst of a full on Rick Riordan love fest, that has recently seen her conning her grandfather into buying her a 550 page "early birthday present" by said author which she then finished in less then 24 hours. So naturally, Annabeth Chase was her costume of choice.

Cue clueless Mum: "What does Annabeth wear?"
(insert long suffering eye roll of doom): "Mum...she wears skinny jeans, trainers and a Camp Half Blood t shirt."

long pause

"She also carries a dagger."

I decided (wisely) to leave the dagger part of the costume to those in the family with greater facility with wood and metal (i.e. Dad), and bent my efforts to a Camp Half Blood t shirt.

Step 1: find orange t shirt. No problem - thank you H&M boys section.

Step 2: get Camp Half Blood logo onto shirt.

Now, here's where things get a bit tricky. My drawing skills are pretty minimal, as a number of magazine editors who have reviewed my design proposals will testify. And the logo required is pretty specific. So off to the Great Google I went. Thankfully, with out too much trouble, I was able to discover a lovely Youtube video (complete with link to a print out for the logo) that showed how to make your own Camp Half Blood t shirt in a few easy steps.



Fairly straightforward, right? Get freezer paper, make stencil from print out, iron on to shirt, color in with Sharpie, peel off freezer paper and off you go. Except there's one little problem...Reynolds Freezer Paper is not widely available in the UK. At least not in the time frame we were talking about. So...

I found a couple of websites that insisted you could use plastic carrier bags to replace the waxy layer on the paper, but had no luck whatsoever with that tactic. Things were starting to degenerate into panic (on my part) until I remembered the rolls of contact paper that I'd gotten at the beginning of the school year for covering books. Bingo!

print out, contact paper and greaseproof paper

I covered the logo with the contact paper, and stuck it to the greaseproof paper to keep it all together. Out came the X-acto knife.

Many minutes later, there was a stencil and a t shirt ready to go.

Then I peeled the contact paper/stencil off of the greaseproof paper and stuck it to the shirt. The greaseproof bit went inside the shirt to keep the ink from soaking through.

let the coloring commence!

Devil wanted to help, but eventually lost interest.

We could have cut out the inserts for all the letters, but it was easier to just leave the centers un-inked.

And finally, we were done!

Behold, the fearless and super-tough Annabeth Chase:

She was totally thrilled, I was totally thrilled at how it came out, and she wore it for three days straight (including to the event on Monday). This might be my most popular costume yet. And all it took was a marker...

Tour de Flee...pause, rewind: a Letter to my Daughter

So right about now is when, historically, I would be posting scads of pictures with piles (small or large!) of handspun yarn that I've been cranking out over the last twelve days. However, this post is going to be about, and to, my oldest child:

Dear Devil,

Yesterday was your last day of school for the year. That is an exciting thing, but this year I think it's particularly important to stop and take stock of what you've experienced this year, and acknowledge that it has been Very Hard.

In September, you bravely set off to start Year 3 at a new school. Hard enough, right? But further complicated by the fact that you were moving from a school with one class in your year group (of three year groups) to a school with five classes in your year group, and six (!) years worth of students. In other words, from a school of about 55 kids (not including the Nursery because really, they're too young) to a school of more then 300.

The first time you cried in the car on the way home because your best friend said she wasn't going to be friends with you anymore was in late November, and it absolutely broke my heart. We had endless discussions about how sometimes people say things, without realising they may really hurt someone's feelings, and that it was important to remember that friendships fluctuate, and people change. It's helped that the time course of relationship changes in your peer group is on the order of hours or days rather then longer, and who your best friend is can change over the course of lunch.

Over the course of the last two terms your attitudes and responses to the vagaries of 8 year old girl social dynamics have changed so much that I feel a bit like I've gotten whiplash as you've rushed by. Now, you can tell me about who your new BFF is, and who is friends with whom, and who's not, and all the intricate ins and outs of the social hierarchy with relative equanimity. I can not begin to express how big this is for you, and how much time and work you've put in to getting there.

But here's the thing: for an extremely bright, self-confident little girl you have a remarkably thin skin. I don't think I realised how sensitive you are until this year, when my approach of "Oh well, never mind, she'll be friends with you tomorrow..." was met with floods of tears and general hysteria as if the world was ending. Because for you, the world was ending, in a way: it is critical to your happiness that you have a best friend, someone you can count on to have lunch and play with on the playground and sit with in class. Maybe it's the age, maybe it's the change in the size of your peer group, maybe it's the combination of Very Strong Personalities amongst the girls in your class in particular, but the whole mix has been something of a perfect storm of pre-teen drama.

The most important change I think I've seen in you this year is this: your sensitivity, while still there, has been tempered with a bit of distance, and the experience that even if J says you're not her friend anymore today, by the end of the week the two of you will be thick as thieves again. You are a lovely, loving little girl who has managed to come through a serious social challenge with her confidence intact and strengthened. And I am so proud.

Love you kiddo,
Mummy

Crochet-ing along

Life is pretty busy at the moment, and I'm trying to squeeze in a little bit of yarn play here and there among the other, far-less appealing commitments that need to be tended to. I've found that the crocheted squares I'm doing for a blanket for Dev are the perfect little amuse-bouche at the end of a long day.

I find myself whizzing through a bunch of centers, and then doing the alpaca edgings on three or four at a time - it feels very productive to all of a sudden have four new finished squares at the end of an evening!

Once those two are done, I'll have 26 finished squares. I figured out last week, however, that in order to make a more-or-less twin sized blanket, I need (gulp) 120 squares. Ouch! I'm either going to have to start buying All The Mini-Skeins, or accept that it is not likely that it will be done by Christmas.

I had some other crocheted items appear in my life this past week - my new Potholders!

The patterns (from top left and going clockwise) are: Fudge by Jan Eaton, DROPS Extra 0-843, and the Wool Eater Blanket by Sarah London. I love them, and plan to hang them in a place of honor in my office instead of using them - they're way too pretty! This swap was lots of fun, and I'm looking forward to taking part again next spring. 

7 years, 7 months and (just over) 7 days

Dear Devil,

Well, well, well...here we are. Your seventh birthday was in March, and here it is November and no birthday letter? Mother-blogger fail in a major way. Let's see if I can fill everyone in on what's been happening with you.

And boy, has a lot been happening with you. In your seventh year you weathered a number of challenges with ever increasing aplomb. You dealt with a serious increase in academic demands while your Year 2 teacher tried to get your class ready to move on to primary school. You overcame your fear of the unknown in stellar fashion, and discovered that sometimes taking a scary step into the unknown can work out really well.

You built on that new confidence by happily jaunting off to a very strange foreign country, and tried all sorts of bizarre and strange things - riding on an elephant, eating some very different food, and spending a lot of time in a car not going anywhere very quickly - and were enthusiastic about most of it.

Then came September, and a brand new school. I was sure that on the first day, I was going to take you to the bus stop to go off on your own, and that I would have to do some serious damage control to get you onto the bus by yourself to go off to the unknown. Boy did you surprise me! The bus pulled up, you gave me a kiss goodbye, and happily hopped on and sat down. Off you went. Your transition to a school approximately five times the size of the one you left has been amazingly smooth. You've made friends, you've settled in to your new class and your new schedule, you've even taken up new pursuits (stay tuned for many maternal complaints on violin practice in the Twitter feed).

To be fair, we still have our struggles - you have a pretty short fuse when you're tired. Or hungry. Or upset about something. This usually manifests as yelling either at me or your sister. I think I'm finally figuring out strategies for minimizing the tantrums that inevitably erupt. Surprisingly, the toughest times are when something has happened at school to upset you, and if I give you a chance to tell me about it and get it off your chest, that seems to make things much better. I just need to remember to give you the chance, and I'm working on it baby.

I am daily filled with awe and inspiration at the person you are and the person you are becoming. I love you baby.

Mummy (although sometimes it's Mum, and there is some serious adolescence-foreshadowing going on these days....oy)

Quelle disaster!

Over the Easter holidays, we took a lovely long weekend trip over to Paris, via the ever-fabulous Eurostar. On our previous trip to Gay Paree, the girls were three years younger, and it was the end of July (which means the end of Le Tour!), so the city was hot and mobbed. It's a much nicer and calmer place to visit in late April (with a 5 and 7 year old vs. a 2 and 4 year old), and spring was everywhere.

Devil had so much energy that she managed to get caught on some ironwork outside of Notre Dame, and tore a hole in her Sprout Tappan Zee that her Mummy so lovingly knit for her last summer. Argh!


She managed to not only put a hole in it, but also to snag and snap the bind off in several different places...


We came home and the sweater sat on the shelf in my wardrobe for about five weeks - I just couldn't face it. Then, last week, on the eve of a trip to chilly, rainy Somerset for part of the half-term holiday, I decided to get on with it already and fix the damn thing.

First step: remove wee hedgehog button and insert a circular needle through a row of stitches above the hole (note appropriate beverage companion).

Second step: unravel the bottom edge, picking out the little scraps of unusable yarn, and spit-splicing (with appropriate beverage) the rest.


Third step: pause and admire your handiwork (conveniently not documenting how off you were in the row of stitches you picked up).

Fourth step: reknit the bottom two inches of cardigan. Don't forget button hole. Reblock, and then pack still damp sweater in the back of the car to finish drying on the way southwest.

Wiktory! I had a big ball of yarn left over that I had ready to draft into the bind off if needed, but I think I ended up knitting a couple of rows less this time around, so I had plenty for the bind off.

Dev still seems enamored of the sweater, and Boo is looking longingly for another cardigan, made of softer yarn. Must sort through handspun stash and see what would work for her.

Question: does this count as an FO post? Methinks so...

The trick is to start them young

Tuesday night, the principal at the girls' school called to say that Devil's teacher wanted to talk to me the next day. After some gulping and panic, I went in to Dev's classroom Wednesday morning to discover that her teacher wanted me to brainwash indoctrinate demonstrate weaving to the class. They are learning about materials, this week textiles, and Dev had mentioned that I had a loom. I said I would be happy to show off my new toy, and she said "Do you knit too?"

Hahahahahahahaha! Yes, I knit. And spin as well. Over-the-moon teacher + captive audience of 6 year olds = a porpoise with a golden opportunity.

I must admit, I may have gotten a bit over-excited: Himself came home last night to a table piled high with fiber and spindles and yarn...I ended up bringing the following: unwashed and washed fiber samples, of various sorts, two spindles, a bright orange skein of handspun, a just barely started hat so I could demonstrate knitting, and the loom with Boo's christmas scarf on it. Everyone got a little chunk of fiber so they could try twisting it into yarn. I talked about washing fleece, and carding before spinning. A bunch of them had Grannies who knit (why is it always grandmothers?) they smelled unwashed fleece with suitable expressions. And finally, everyone got to take a try at the loom.

Which is why Boo's scarf has a nice tight spot in it now. Easy enough to fix, but boy did they have a good time. As did I. A good morning all around!

Ooops!

Meant to blog about this yesterday.

A handspun sweater for Devil, finally photographed
Pattern: Tappan Zee by Amy King, from Knitty
Yarn: handspun Targhee from Hello Yarn, coloway Sprout, about sport weight
Needles: US 4/3.75 mm
Gauge: 6.5 sts/inch
Start/finish: 10 October - 28 November 2011
Modifications: the pattern calls for a heavier weight yarn so I had to do some finagling with the numbers. I knit a swatch (gasp!), got my stitch and row gauge, and plugged some numbers into a spreadsheet to figure out which size to follow from the pattern to get something that would fit her. From that point on it was pretty straightforward knitting from the pattern.

I did work buttonholes all the way down, as requested, and omitted the diamond detail at the bottom. I've got some yarn leftover, so I'm hoping to be able to lengthen it as necessary as she grows.

For the sleeves, I knit straight for about three inches, then decreased two stitches every inch down to about 7 inches at the cuffs, which are finished with a garter stitch band to match the neck and hem. Buttons are yellow hedgehogs found in a shop in York as we were wandering about in the fog.

This is the third time I've knit this pattern, and it's still fun to do. Now I just need to work up one for Boo, and we'll have a matching set in the house. So far the sweater seems to be a huge success. At least it's getting worn a lot! Most gratifying when that happens.

The importance of rinsing

Yesterday I took a break from all the knitting that is ongoing, and did a wee bit of spinning instead. I tried another new-to-me wool, some mixed English wool that Boo dyed a few months back - same color scheme as her Cheviot socks, but slightly darker colors. However...I discovered that the fiber didn't get rinsed out quite enough, because my fingers turned blue. Oops!

 

That's after an hour of plying this morning - last night after a couple hours of spinning the singles, my fingertips were bright blue!  I gave the finished yarn a good soak, so hopefully all the other excess dye is now gone. I guess I'll know for sure when I start knitting with it.

 

This wool reminded me of the Cheviot in that it was not terrifically soft, but had a nice grippy feel when spinning the singles. The finished yarn reminds me a bit of the Bartlett yarn I'm using for my MIL's sweater, although not as lofty. It's a very rustic yarn. I'm thinking lined mittens for Boo, to match her socks.

In other spinning/handspun news, I've almost finished off Dev's Sprout sweater.

We went to York last weekend, and my yarn-dar did not let me down. While wandering around the city streets, we happened upon a yarn store. Dev and I went in while Himself and Boo continued on. The yarns were lovely, but nothing I needed to snatch up and take home with me. They also had a nice selection of buttons, so after much hemming and hawing, we brought home these.

Perfect buttons for my little English schoolgirl. Hopefully she'll be wearing it by next weekend.

A week in sweaters, part III

Subtitle: The Unfinished.

One of my goals for the past week while Himself has been away was to finish the body of the River Run Pullover. I'm happy to say that I reached that fantastic point last night:

There it is, complete with front and back neck steeks. I started the three needle bind off at the shoulders, but it was 10:30, my silly movie was done, and I needed to go to bed early. I'll finish the bind offs tonight, then put it away while we go back to H-town. The plan is to do the neck ribbing next (just in case so when I have to spin and dye more, it will be in the sleeves), then get going on the sleeves. I'm hoping for a 23 December finish for this (so it has time to be blocked and dried).

I also had a bit of startitis this week and did this:

Started a Tappan Zee for Devil out of the handspun I did earlier this summer. The yarn is quite a bit lighter then that called for in the pattern, but I managed to pull together a nifty little spread sheet that converted the numbers in the original pattern to actual measurements using my new gauge - turns out that instead of re-jiggering the whole thing with new numbers, I can knit the second size and have it fit her perfectly.

I am beyond obsessed with how this is turning out. I can't manage to get a good picture of the really bright greens in this yarn - it's electric! - but I am enjoying the knitting immensely.

So, we're off for half-term tomorrow. I am busily planning my travel knitting list which includes this sweater, some long neglected mittens I should have finished and published last winter, and a new design idea involving orange worsted weight yarn and short-row shaped scarves. Hmmm...

FF: Lincoln Socks

I am feeling a bit like the unblogged projects are piling up and I don't really know where to start. There's so much going on at the moment that blogging is taking a bit of a back seat, so I'm going to try and get some things posted just to keep them straight in my own head.

This is a terrifically craptastic nighttime picture of Dev's new handspun socks, made out of Lincoln that I dyed. Since Lincoln is a longwool, and I didn't want the yarn to feel like twine, I spun the singles at 7.25:1 and then chain plied at 6.5:1 - I'm hoping the length and strength of the fiber will keep these from wearing out too soon.

Pattern is a simple toe-up, short-row heel, worked in k3, p1 rib. I changed to k2, p2 ribbing at the cuff. And I managed to get them on to her feet for an even worse modeled shot.

Given that it has been extraordinarily warm here recently (they're calling for 28 degrees over the weekend - bliss!) (Also: WTF end of September? This is July weather. Of course, in July we had October weather, so maybe it's all evening out), these babies are destined for the back of the sock drawer for quite a while. Thankfully they're a bit loose, so she shouldn't grow out of them before December.

I hope...

Spinning new wools

Right, it's Friday, which must mean it's time for some fiber, right? We've successfully arrived back in the UK, and have had a lovely week getting over jet lag and getting back to the Real Life (TM) schedule. I now have not one, but two English schoolgirls, who are pretty thrilled to be back in academia.

 

I've spun two yarns in the 6 days we've been back (hooray for the wheel!), both of which are destined to be turned in to socks for the school girls. I ordered a bunch of different wools that I've never spun before we left, and have been happily working my way through dyeing and spinning them. First up is for Devil - some Lincoln Longwool dyed in blues.

This was dyed to give a specific stripe pattern, so I split it in half and spun each half separately, then chain plied. Since Lincoln is a longwool, and I tend to overspin, I spun and plied at much lower ratios then I usually do, hoping to avoid ending up with wire (spun at 6:1, plied at 7.5:1). The fiber was fairly slippery, surprisingly so, and it took a bit for me to figure out the right amount of twist to keep the single together without overspinning. I ended up with 114 yds of bulky chain ply, which I'll knit up into some quick, cosy socks for her. It's not terribly tightly plied, but I'm hoping a small needle size and the durability of the fiber itself means they won't wear out by Christmas.

The second yarn is for Boo Boo, dyed by herself:

Cheviot fiber, spun/plied at 12:1, 2-ply.

I spun this one as a quick wheel fix right after we got home. I think I did the entire 100 gr in a day and a half. I've never spun Cheviot before, but I now consider myself a huge fan. It's not a soft as some fibers, but it has such a great toothy feel while spinning - it would be great for sturdy mittens or outerwear sweaters. Plied up, it's a lot softer then I was expecting from feeling it in top form. I'm not terribly sensitive to wool prickle, but I'm not sure I could wear a Cheviot sweater without a layer underneath, but that may just be this batch. I plied fairly tightly for durability, and I think these socks will be a huge hit.

There they are, all balled up and ready to go. Time to bust out the bigger needles and get started!