Back in the saddle...

North Fresno Church quilting started back up for the year and I got to go today! Yay!!

relyt

Tyler came home from school one day with his craft project labeled by him. This is what happens when kids get clever:

Stashy Sunday-The Ecstatic and delayed

I spun (and plied!!) my own yarn! I used a drop spindle and some lovely merino wool to make a wee tiny bit of yarn.

I am positively ecstatic at how it turned out. It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still awesome. Now, to decide what to make with it! The main reason this turned out so little was because my fiber had a run in with the dog on Saturday. My mom was teasing me at dinner last night that since I had gotten the fiber at a spinning class, I could call my spinning teacher (the lovely Micheline at The Knit Addiction) and say that the dog ate my homework. I'm still going to try using the rest of the molested fiber, but I wanted to have it separate from the unmolested fiber yarn.

I also finished one of my other Stashy Projects. If you haven't seen the show "Phineas and Ferb" this will mean nothing to you. If you have: "Where's Perry?!?" Mancub loves the show, and especially Perry the Platypus who has a double life as Agent P. Since he also loves hotwater bottles to sleep with over the winter, I made him this:

He is, quite possibly, the cutest little hot water bottle cover EVER! I love how his little feet splay out all over and I used fuzzy black buttons for his eyes. What 6 year old boy wouldn't want to cuddle up to Perry?

I also made some progress on my Harry Potter Cowl...I'm over half way done!

ETA Ravelry link to Perry the Platypus Hot Water Bottle Pattern that I used. If you are a knitter, crocheter, spinner or weaver and don't have Ravelry, sign up for the free account right away and you'll never look back. So, here's the pattern link.

Piratey Things

Tyler received an Usborne Pirate themed Kid Kit from Uncle Gary and Aunt Carole as a gift and it's taken us a bit of time to get to do it, but this week he decided that It.Was.Time. On Wednesday night I told him that as long as he could get his homework done during Afterschool Care, we would be able to do the Pirate kit Thursday after we got home. Anyone who knows kids will realize that he darn sure didn't come home with homework last night! He was so excited to get started:And even more excited when he made the "first treasure" sighting!

This kit was soooo cool! It came with a lump filled with treasure to excavate, a brush (like an archeologist uses at a dig site), a small hammer and chisel set and an amazingly written book filled with facts about Pirates. Tyler had read the book the previous night so the whole time we were "excavating", he was regaling me with the information he learned in the book. Inside the lump, he found the pieces to a treasure chest, a ring, some pirate coins (which came from a Spanish ship, apparently), and a pistol and cutlass.

He was very excited by each piece he found and had a great time talking like a pirate. He coached me on how to say "Aye Aye Cap'n" with appropriate pronunciation and had a great time telling me the ways in which Pirates and Ninjas are similar and different.

As a parent, it is so fun for me to see him excited about things like this. Activities that make learning fun and that create memories of shared activities.

So...if you have a kid, or know someone who has a kid...RUSH out right now to buy them a Kid Kit. I'm thinking a Dino Dig, an Egyptian study or a magnet adventure might be in my future!

I love living in the Central Valley!

Because we have fabulous produce! I'm about to sit down to a snack of delicious sliced fresh pluots (what happens when plums and apricots fall in love). Yum!!!

Stashy Sunday--delayed

Technically my Stashy Challenge has been successful this week since I haven't purchased any new yarn; however, I've also not gotten a lot done on my Stashy Projects. I did a wee bit of knitting on my sweater, no knitting at all on my Tilting TARDIS Cowl, a little bit of knitting on my Where's Perry Project. I have finished seaming three of the four adorable platypus feet:

So now all I need to do is finish the fourth foot, seam the who thing together. I also count it as a semi-Stashy thing because I helped Jessica reduce the size of her stash by using this perfect orange yarn from her bin.

The other Stashy (yarn) project I worked on was a cowl using two yarns I've had in my stash for almost a year. The pattern was written by Jessica and is really fun. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, I am not a Gryffindor (as everyone wants to be) but rather a Ravenclaw, since blue and grey are much more my style than maroon and gold (shhh...don't tell my high school alma mater). Do you see the cool "Sammy" and "Dean" stitch markers? Supernatural is going to be back on TV soon!

Finally, the thing that has been eating up most of my crafty time is a quilt. I have been inspired (goaded?) into entering a quilt into the BIG Fresno Fair and the deadline for completion is September 16th...Yeah...the September the 16th that is 10 short days away. So I have been stitching like a madwoman to get the binding put on in time. No pictures, I don't want to jinx it!