Meet Buddy!!

We received a package from the North Pole today.
It contained a scout Elf, and book about who he is and what he does. After a lengthy and heated discussion the boys named him Buddy. Vetoed were names that included Smiley, Riley, William, Robert, Cherry Bomb, Metallica, Sabbath, and Noel.

Ben and I were pulling for Smiley, but Buddy it is.

I went to the bathroom and came back to find an empty box. So I searched around and found the sneaky little Elf...he must have seen how naughty the boys were at dinner and wanted a closer viewing point for tomorrow.





If you are thinking Buddy is (albiet a bit creepy) cute and are interested in having your very own Scout Elf you can adopt one from your local Target or www.elfontheshelf.com

Knitting Update 11-27-11

I think it's been a month or more since I've posted a knitting update.
I have so many projects going on it's hard to keep track of them.

I'm modifying/embellishing a couple pair of longies for a local customer/friend. I'll post photos of those when they're done.

I finished the first knitted gift of Christmas last week so I'm working on the second now, a Whippoorwill shawl.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/whippoorwill




Double Chocolate Lollipop Longies. They'll be Declan's if I have enough yarn for his inseam, if not I'll stock them on Etsy. :)


I've pulled these fingerless gloves out of hibernation (they were cast on last winter...)
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/seeta-fingerless-gloves


AND I have several random things on the needles for stocking at Bitty Fluff.
A couple pair of booties and a couple soakers.

Thanksgiving 2011

This was our first Thanksgiving in our new home and our first time hosting. Really the first big holiday dinner we have hosted and cooked for. Which comes with quite a bit of challenge. I had never in my life prepared squash, sweet potatoes, turnip, real stuffing, and well...you get the point. Nor do we own pretty much any serving dishes besides the ones we've been lent/gifted from my parents. The one part that would have freaked me out my parents offered to do...and I totally took them up on the offer...they cooked the turkey and made gravy.

There was only one real blunder for the day. We have my parents dining room set on loan and the table cloth I bought for it was too small. Making it more of an eye sore, it had deep folds in it. I decided we should throw it in the dryer on low for 5-10mins to get the wrinkles out. Oh yeah...it melted. Thank God it melted to itself and not to the dryer or the cloth table runner. So not only was it too small, it then had white blotches from where it melted and stuck to itself. AND it was even more wrinkly after being melted and ripped apart. Lesson learned. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Owl Chart

I based this chart on a pair of longies I knit & embellished for my son. I had lots of comments on the owl and figured it would be helpful to provide a chart for anyone who wishes to add an owl to their knit projects.

I changed the owl up a bit from my original. The original owl I threw together as I stitched but the look is still the same I think. :)

You will need three colors of yarn, either the same weight the garment was knit in, or one weight smaller.
One for the body of the owl, one for the eyes, one for the beak and feet. I am boring and have done two brown/white/orange owls so far.

A few tips:

• I outline most of my double stitched designs with a chain stitch embroidery to clean up the look of them.
• The point on the beak is achieved with chain stitch embroidery.
• I just straight stitched on the feet and did not duplicate stitch them...so they were more "feet" like.
• Don't know how to duplicate stitch?? It's easy! Here's a tutorial: CLICK HERE
• Don't know how to do a chain stitch outline?? It's also easy! Here's a tutorial for that:  CLICK HERE

I'm in the process of adding an owl to a customer's longies and will update this post with a picture of it as soon as I get the beak and feet on her.

Here's the original free handed owl that I put on Declan's "Barn Owl" Longies.


My original project on Ravelry can be found here:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/melissalaurel/barn-owl-longies

Declan's Mosaic Moon "Golden Compass" Euclid Cardi

I finally got the ends woven in and buttons on Declan's cardi today. I had to take 100 pics of him in it as it fits perfectly. Which I hate. I always try to go up at least one size for growing room.

Pics are of an unwashed/blocked sweater...I have 0 patience.

Yarn: "Golden Compass" on MMW from Mosaic Moon
Pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/euclid-cardi
Buttons: Tessa Ann from Etsy/HC

We are brothers!

We walked down to the bus stop so I could take pics of the little boys in their sweaters. On the way back they all lined up on the steps and Ben surrounded his brothers with his arms and said "We are brothers!!"