Nearly halfway though Lent? We need to discuss Easter basket ideas :)

With the more seasonal air around here (our driveway is showing PAVEMENT, this is *epic*) and the 4th Sunday of Lent approaching, my thoughts have turned to Easter baskets for the kids. I absolutely adore Easter crafts. I do this every year. I start buying all sorts of pastel-hued yarn and ribbon, and crocheting eggs, and all sorts of kooky stuff. And I truly love assembling Easter baskets. The colors and the season just speak to me.

Of course, I buy Easter chocolate. That is a non-negotiable. :) Henry sells it from a local chocolate company as a fundraiser for his school, so we always buy a bunch from there and I use it for their baskets. I also like to craft things, like I mentioned. I've crocheted animals for both kids in the past at Easter, like this chick I made for Anne two years ago:

Pattern is "Cute Chick" by Teri Crews, and is available for free!

This year, she has asked for a penguin. Not exactly a seasonal animal in this part of the world, but hey. Penguins are cute. And she asked for one, so that's what I'm making. She picked out this pattern of a baby Emperor penguin:

Cute, yes? His name is Waddles. :0 This pattern is from a really cute amigurumi collection called Crocheted Softies: 18 Adorable Animals From Around the World:

Doesn't that moose just slay you?! His name is Maple, and I simply *must* make him for myself. But at any rate, one penguin coming up. Also on Anne's list is a pair of shoes from the Payless Frozen collection, she caught a glimpse of an ad they sent yesterday. She's got her eye on the blue slip ons:

Planning an order for later today, since I need summer sandals anyway (hope springs eternal...).

For both kids, I'll get them a book or two, and for Henry a movie, since he's a huge fan of those. He loved Paddington this year, but I don't believe that will be out on DVD prior to Easter, so I'll have to come up with another idea. Henry also loves board games, so one of those is on his list. Some fun Amazon shopping coming my way.

For the crafty ones out there, I have a few other pattern ideas. I knit this lamb for a friend a few years ago:

His name is "Mittens" and this is also a free pattern by Barbara Prime. One of my very favorite knitting pattern books for this time of year is Easter Knits by Arne & Carlos:

Knit Picks has this book packaged as a kit right now with some sport weight yarn in Easter colors, so if you're tempted by such things (welcome to the club! ;-)) go check that out. 

For crocheters, Teri Crews is my very favorite designer of toys, and she has an adorable "Huggable Bunny" pattern for sale. Although I have purchased the pattern, I haven't had a chance to make the bunny yet, but this is the sample:

She also has this available in lovey/blankie form for an infant, so adorable!

So what are your ideas?

A busy bee with seasonal crafting, as it appears that I adore themes...

As I sit at the reference desk on a cold and rainy morning here in WNY, with a cup of tepid coffee by my side, I'm thinking longingly of my knitting projects nestled in their basket next to my spot on the couch. By the way, I wanted the coffee to be hotter and flavored with peppermint, but *that* didn't happen for a myriad of reasons. #ugh

At any rate, fall and winter are my very favorite times of the year to knit. And in particular, to knit (and/or crochet) warm sweaters, blankets, shawls and winter accessories like scarves, hats and mittens. So cozy! And this year is no exception. For you knitters out there, ready for some pattern ideas? I've been working on a few things lately that I really love.

This fall I knit a shawl in a pattern called "Leftie," designed to help you use up your fingering weight yarn leftovers from socks. In my usual seasonal obsessive style, I chose to knit it in a fall colorway with brown, orange, green yellow and red. It turned out very Thanksgiving-esque and indeed I finished it right before the holiday. :)

It ended up being very cute. It's all garter stitch, so fabulous travel or tv knitting. Very warm and squishy and I love the colors.

And speaking of garter stitch, my new obsession is a shawl pattern called "Color Affection." You start with an increasing panel of garter stitch in one color, then switch to striping it with a second color. Subsequently, you work short rows to create a bit of a swirling situation and stripe colors one and two with a third color, finishing with a solid border of color three. The color combinations are endless and I am absolutely in love.

*swoons*

My chosen colorway reflects our current winter season, because the seasons seem to always provide inspiration for me. I watched "Frozen" with Anne the other day, and all of a sudden the colors from that movie are just speaking to me. I'm ordering "Frozen" books left and right and telling myself that they're for Anne, but they're kinda for me. :0 I just can't get the winter imagery of that movie out of my mind. And so I dug through my stash to find color colors to knit the Color Affection shawl:

Yes? I love them. SO MUCH. The silver and the cream are a fingering weight cashmere/merino wool blend that is absolutely to die for. The blue is a merino wool/nylon sock yarn left over from being edging on a gift shawl I knit last year for my Secret Santa recipient. It's a little darker than I want, but the lighter blue colorway of that yarn (called "Frozen" I WANT IT SO BAD) is out of stock until the end of February so I can't order it. *sob!* So, I'll either use this or another heathered light blue color that I ordered during the Knit Picks sale in a different yarn base. When it arrives I'll make the decision, but so far I haven't had to add the blue in yet, so I have time. Here is the what I have done so far:

I still have seven more cream stripes to go. I love patterns like this, that have you doing something different in each segment, changing colors as you move along. I never get bored with patterns such as these, and I can't wait to knit the next row to see how it's going to look. I have been very much enjoying working on this in the evenings.

*happy*

Never one to work on only one project at a time (I'm a knitting philanderer *scandalous!*) I swatched last night for a new sweater that I've been wanting to make for myself for quite some time, called the "Abbey Pullover." The cloister lace used in the yoke, and the obviously church-y connotations just could not be resisted. :) I really wanted to make it in a lovely purple shade close to what is pictured in the pattern sample, so I chose this shade of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca:

Very Advent-like, yes? :) And yep, that is my vodka/tonic there in the background. Anne gave us a hard time going down for bed, I really needed it, no judging. :0 I was indeed drinking and knitting, living dangerously, that I was. I'm very excited to get started on this.

I felt I deserved to cast on for two fresh new projects given that I have been slaving away at brown socks for Mike and dishcloths for Christmas gifts for the past month. The socks are finished:

...and have already adorned my cute hubby's feet over Thanksgiving weekend. (Pattern is from Anne's Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks, one of the best knitting books I have ever purchased). And the dishcloths will be finished by tomorrow. I just realized that I will have an extra aunt attending our Christmas Eve get-together now, which theoretically means that I should crochet two more dishcloths, but... during the Fusion Beads Cyber Monday sale, I ordered supplies to make her a snowflake Christmas tree ornament instead. :0 Because if I have to crochet yet another dishcloth right now I.will.die. I now know that I'd better behave myself or else I risk an afterlife of crocheting dishcloths in plain white cotton for ALL ETERNITY.

All right everyone, I hope that you are feeling seasonally craftily inspired now, as I am. :) Is anyone else crafting something for the holidays? Do detail in the comments. :)

The Easter baskets are ready...

...and this little guy is ready to hop in. I crocheted him for Anne's basket, and his pattern is available for free.

At the last minute, I also ordered Magnificat's new stations of the cross book for children, The Way of the Cross. Henry had just asked me to get him a stations of the cross book, so it was fortuitous timing when it showed up on my Facebook feed. I don't know that it will come before Easter, but I'm excited to get it when it does come.

In other news, I'm slowly draining (gosh that sounds gross, sorry about that). My nasal congestion is MUCH better today, although the coughing situation is about the same. My sore abdominal muscle is still quite bad, so I'm hoping that heals soon. I don't have dance this week since we're off while our teacher decorates the new studio and gets it ready, and that timing works out well. I don't want to pull anything that is already in tenuous shape. And certainly, belly dancers use their bellies. :)

Just trying to hang in there, as each day I should be getting better and better...

Distracting myself while we await the conclave...

It was an emotional weekend for me, as I'm sure it was for all of you. I listened to a bunch of podcasts as I went about errands from The Catholic Insider, aka Fr. Roderick (I just adore him). I subscribe to The Break, one of his other shows, and have for some time, but I just discovered The Catholic Insider. And I loved listening to him reporting in right from St. Peter's Square on Thursday, it made me feel like I was there and a part of everything as well. I'm anxiously awaiting more installments as this historic story unfolds.

I'm poring over the newspaper each morning and constantly sticking my nose in my Facebook news feed eagerly awaiting more information, but in the meantime I've been distracting myself with marathon crafting sessions. Easter is approaching, and in case you didn't already know this (snort!), this is my most inspired crafting time of the year. Did you know that March is National Crochet Month? Well. Now you know. :)

Henry and I were at JoAnn's yesterday for their Coupon Commotion to gather some supplies and away I went. I've got a whole horde of secret birthday gifts tucked into my at-home knitting bag that I'm very excited about, photos to be revealed at a later date. I'm also working on stuff for the kids' Easter baskets.

Henry has been asking me to make him a stuffed crab since Christmas, so I'm working on that now for him. Anne is getting a little crocheted chick. I also want to make Anne an Easter sweater, we'll see if that happens or not, time dependent. I also just ordered Anne a set of saint peg dolls from Cam's shop, because she loves hers that I got her for Christmas. She will be getting the Our Lady of Fatima collection complete with all 3 children. I have an Amazon order planned for my next pay period with books for both kids and a movie for Henry.

I have found that I love crocheting toys. I don't mind knitting them as well, but crochet is my absolute favorite for this. The projects are cute, quick and easy. In case we need inspiration, this is the chick that I'm going to be making:

I just love Easter.

BTW, I love this designer's work. This chick is a free pattern on Ravelry and on her blog. She also offers a Thanksgiving turkey, a bluebird, and a puppy for free. I bought her wolf pattern and am eyeing up a teddy bear and a bunny. Her patterns are well written, detailed (with lots of instructions on assembly, something that can be woefully lacking in other amigurumi patterns) and adorable. I've been having a great time with them. When I'm not obsessing about the papacy. You know how that goes.

Too tired to come up with witty title

I mean, I could have called this post "Elbows in my sternum" or "Knees in my diaphragm" but it's too depressing to focus on the endless stretch to which I was awake last night with my daughter (nearly 4 hours, not that I'm counting). It was one of those nights in which I just hit rock bottom. There were tears (mine), there were angry denials of juice, there was much body contorting and tantruming, and overall there was much sleep deprivation.

BUT, we had a nice morning, and I'm trying to focus on the positive. I can't help but amuse myself by thinking what the world would be like if we all never matured and consequently handled being upset or in distress the way toddlers do. For instance, I'm not feeling good at work today. I thus:

(1) Throw my coffee cup at somebody during a meeting;

(2) Refuse to sit down and bow my body over the chair, screaming;

(3) Deliberately refuse to make eye contact with someone who is talking to me;

(4) Interrupt anybody at anytime to demand a snack and some milk; refuse to take no for answer;

(5) Go out into the lobby and cry continually from my perch in a heap on the floor.

It would be interesting.

At any rate, we're focusing on the positive, no? To the extent that I can stay awake to do so, that is. I have belly dance tonight, and I just hope that I can make it through class without collapsing. That is my prayer.

In other news, Mike and I have started re-watching Downton Abbey from Season 1, as we await our pre-ordered Season 3 DVD's from Amazon. They are released in late January every year, and we have found that we prefer to patiently await them rather than watching the episodes as they air.

So each night after our volatile little Anne is safely tucked into her crib for the night, we play a board game with Henry, and await the real fun that is to come. Henry goes to bed. We turn on Downton Abbey.

I just love this show, and the Jimmy Beans Wool Mystery Knit-along is based on my absolute favorite character, Lady Violet. We received our first clue last weekend, and uncovered that we are going to be knitting Lady Violet's Dinner Gauntlets. As we started the first 2 episodes of Downton, I worked on my gauntlets. They feature a lovely "rosebud lace" panel and are going to have a ruched feature with either a ribbon or laces of some kind. We shall see. After I finished clue #1, I moved on to my Lady Edith shawl, which was designed by KnitPurlGurl Karrie, who I mentioned passed away around Thanksgiving. It's just a gorgeous pattern, this is what the finished product will look like:

The yarn that I chose is also a solid spring green. I wanted to knit this in memory of Karrie, and I wanted to use the same color that she did. This works out perfectly with my annual January - May addiction to any and all spring colors. I absolutely love the pattern, well done Karrie! I've never enjoyed knitting a shawl this much. The edging is this beautiful leaf lace, I can't wait to wear it!

And somehow, I'm now knitting *2* Downton Abbey related projects while watching the show.

NERD.

But it makes me happy. And I need something to lift my spirits given the nights that we've been having. Here's hoping for a good weekend.

"What is a week-end?"

I just love her!

Busy weekend, and preparing for fall

You know I'm busy if I don't post on a weekday. Friday was like that. Things are definitely gearing up both at work and at home for the start of a new school year.

We were out getting Henry some new school clothes this weekend. Can I just say how much I love Catholic school uniforms? We don't have to intervene in Henry's morning dressing routine at all. He must wear:

Navy blue pants
A belt
Navy socks
Black loafers

He can choose only the following:

Shirt: white or light blue
Long sleeves or short sleeves

Ahhhh, no more morning matching battles. Attempted pairing of bright red Angry Birds tee shirt with camouflage pants, no longer! It's a thing of beauty. When Anne starts there, I can only imagine how adorable she will look in the girls uniform. Although I have to admit, I do worry about... I don't know exactly how to put this. But about men finding the Catholic girls uniform appealing, let's just say. Mike worries as well and says that he blames Britney Spears. Ha!

I also had a hair appointment this weekend, and in the spirit of fall, my hair is now super dark. I mean, my hair is brown. There's only so much you can do with that. And yes, I dye my hair, because I do get some gray. :) Not that I've complained about that before, or anything. I like getting my hair colored, but I don't put too much stock in any one hue. I like to change it up often, to the extent that is possible with dark brown hair. Lately I'd noticed that my hair was looking quite reddish. I don't really know why, aside from the fact that the summer sun could have been a factor. And I only get my hair colored every 3 months, so it's a long time in-between, and thus the sun fading can really make an impact by around month #2. It looked fine, but it wasn't really what I had chosen, plus you can see my roots more when they grow in.

So, this time I asked my wonderful hair stylist to dye my hair darker. She's excited about changes too, and bustled off to mix my dye. I didn't look at any color cards or anything, I just trusted her.

And my trust is well placed, because I love my hair color now. It's a really dark chocolate brown. Much closer to my original color than the last batch. It's so dark Mike was surprised when he first saw me, lol. It does feel more fall/winterish. Love it.

I brought Henry with me (lured by a new Lego sticker book and the promise of a 7 Eleven slurpee if he was good), to give Mike a break, which resulted in questions such as:

"Mommy, see that sign over there? What is wa...waxing?"

Oh sigh.

"Well Honey, it's to remove hair that you don't want."

*scrunched eyebrows*

"Does that hurt?"

Kids just intuitively always know the important questions, do they not?

Another sign of fall's approach is that I'm really noticing that everyone knows most of the new Mass translation changes now. The "And with your spirit" is a slam dunk every time, along with "It is right and just" and "Lord, I am not worthy for you to enter under my roof." The Nicene Creed still requires a missal, but hey, you can't expect miracles, right?

Henry is still doing lots of whining about attending Mass, but the Magnifikid! is a life saver every week. This was very worth the $34.95 subscription price, let me tell you. He works on the activity for a time, but really spends the rest of Mass just following along with the readings and prayers. He's very much like me, always with my nose buried in a missal. He even follows along in the hymnal. It's precious.

My last fall update is about yarn. Because I'm just so excited about it that I'm busting at the seams. I've been finishing up lots of cooler weather projects. New hats for both kids, photos to follow shortly. A scarf for myself. I finally photographed a few sweaters and wraps that I knitted over last winter and early spring that I'll finally be able to break out of the closet.

A snowflake sweater:

I really like that one. It's very warm, knit out of wool.

A cardigan from the well regarded February Lady pattern:

 (please ignore how chunky I look in this picture; My skirt was all bunched up in the waist from my quick changes for knitting photos, and I look downright dumpy. But the sweater looks cute, so I wanted it featured to its utmost potential. :))

And the most infamous of all knitted wrap patterns ever created, the Clapotis:

Very toasty garments, all. And then there's the socks, which I'm the most excited about. I'm currently knitting a pair of falling leaves socks, and I have several self-striping pairs in the wings that I can hardly wait to cast on for. AND, most importantly, after much discreet stalking of my new favorite etsy yarn shop, I am on the waiting list for a skein of self-striping watermelon sock yarn, as well as a self-patterning ghost kit for Halloween. And when the owner mentioned in her message to me that she had just put up more snowman and other Christmas sock kits, I nearly tripped over myself speeding to her site to pre-order one. 

Seriously. In just 2 hours, the Christmas confetti yarn was GONE. Only 2 lonely snowmen kits remained! I scooped one of them up so fast he didn't know what hit him. The kits (which include not just the patterning yarn, but also some coordinating skeins of solid colors for the heels and toes) are, well, a bit more expensive than what I usually pay for sock yarn, lol. However, these are a true work of art and are just beautiful. I think I'm going to knit the snowmen for my mom for Christmas, and with the leftover yarn the shop owner includes a pattern for some ornaments which will make nice gifts.

I'M SO EXCITED.

I can just picture the conversations with Mike this will spawn:

"Have you been buying some gifts Sweetie, I see lots of etsy charges on the bank statement."

"Yes. Um, yarn."

"$50 worth?"

"IT HAS GHOSTS ON IT!!!"

*angelic beam*

Heat, nativity sets, and knitting abound

Bet you missed me. ;-) And so I return from my long weekend home. And doing so makes me appreciate my wonderful husband all the more. Our children are a handful, and he has them all day every day. Add to that the fact that we're finally experiencing some summer weather, and being home during the day can be a bit of a challenge.

It doesn't matter how hot Anne is, she does NOT slow down. She has *so* much hair, and she gets totally sweaty because she does nothing but run around and get into things. She also climbs on things. opens drawers and cupboards, and throws her baby dolls around when she's mad. Those long suffering baby dolls. But we're hanging in there.

Despite the heat, I've been knitting like an old lady with a lot of time on her hands. My sister is having twins, and this has sent my knitting into overdrive. It's hard to keep up with this demand! :) But I finally finished the baby knitting (well, almost) and so I moved onto some gift dishcloths. Dishcloths are wonderful summer knits. The cotton doesn't get all sticky when your hands sweat (I know, lovely) and it doesn't stick to my wood needles. I whipped out two this weekend, and am moving on to some new ones for our kitchen. Some of our old dishcloths have seen better days:

"Sweetie, I think there's something terribly wrong with that dishcloth you made."

"What do you mean?"

"Well. Just go into the kitchen."

"Oh, oh my."

Granted, it's the summer, so even the more heroic of dishcloths will start to stink after a time. But this is that the dishcloth is pressed into service for a mere 12 hours and the kitchen smells like someone died in there. Good Lord. I've switched yarn, and the yarn that I use now is much superior in this regard: Knit Picks Dishie. I'm currently knitting this lovely set of reversible dishcloths, and the designer has a free pattern available from this collection. They turn out very pretty and scrubby.

Anyway, I did take Henry to the Christian gift store last week, and we ogled the nativity sets. Naturally, his favorite was the lighted stable with 5" nativity figurines. At the store it was $175, but I see on the Fontanini site that it's $135 (and it includes 2 sheep!). At any rate, expensive. :) I did have a fun time shopping with him in there. He picked out a few of those little St. Joseph booklets and a St. Michael prayer card and we left the $175 nativity set in the store. I would like to explore getting him a set for Christmas. We'll see...

Oh, lol. Poking around on the Fontanini site is very cute and fun. "5" Three Kings Accessories Set: Camels not included."

*snort*

Pattern of the week...

I haven't blogged about knitting or crocheting in awhile, so I thought I'd update. I'm very much busy at home with my needle crafts. Lately, I'm quite into cotton (as is seasonally appropriate) and have been making some dish cloths and other gifts, including a dress for Anne. Oh, I can post a picture, can't I?

It's made with Lion Brand Cotton Ease. And speaking of Lion Brand, the pattern I'm about to embark on is a free one, and it's for Cottontail Kitchen Towels for Mother's Day. I need their recycled cotton yarn for that, and although I have some in my stash that I can use, I need to stop at JoAnn's on my way home to procure the yellow and the coordinating colors. That's an adorable pattern, you should make some too. :) I'm going to modify it to create some matching dish cloths, as well. I'm a fiend for kitchen knitting. Why? I have no notion. But I love handknit dish cloths and towels.

Easter is in the air...

Easter is in the air, and I'm very excited. Mike, Henry and I are leaving Saturday to drive to my older sister Rhonda's home in New Jersey. We're optimistic that Henry is old enough now that our car ride won't be an absolute debacle, but there's still a bit of prayer involved on that one. At my instigation, we bought a portable DVD player to make the 6 hour ride more bearable for Henry. I had to use my feminine charms on my husband in order to convince him to see my point of view on this one, but I think he's going to be glad that I was successful. Because, when we hit hour 4, and instead of whining and/or sobbing, Henry will be happily watching Scooby Doo, and I think that we're all going to wing up a prayer of thanksgiving for the wonders of technology.

I'm also busily knitting and crocheting away, making Easter gifts for everyone. I have a new favorite place to obtain patterns - e-Patterns Central. These are not free patterns, you purchase them, but there are patterns for sale there for as little as $1.99. My newest obsession is kitchen and dining items - dish cloths, towels, and placemats. There are free patterns out there for all of those things, definitely, but I found some stupendous ones at e-Patterns Central. I just paid less than $11, and I was able to buy 14 patterns for gorgeous crocheted dishcloths and pot holders. One of my finds was 2-Hour Dishcloths - ooohhhh, aaaahhhh. They'll make excellent gifts. I'm super excited. All the patterns are available as immediate downloads, so you can set right to work :)

All things crochet...

I've been really into my crocheting lately. It provides me a wonderfully soothing respite after Hank goes to bed in the late evenings. I recently learned to knit, and I enjoy that very much as well, but crochet remains my first craft love.

As a little girl, I remember my mom crocheting. She taught me how, and my sisters too. I don't remember exactly when, but I know that she did, and I remember making a few afghans as a teenager. The comical thing is that my mom only makes one specific kind of afghan - there is no variation permitted :) She likes to make ripple afghans, in Christmas colors, using only single crochet stitches. Yes, it takes her a *long* time to finish one of these babies :) She taught me how to make one of those, and I branched off from there. Recently, for her job as a family support worker for her local public school district, she taught a crochet class. She called me in a panic:

"How do I make a double crochet?!"

At any rate, I'm extremely grateful that she passed crochet on to me, which initiated a lifelong appreciation of crafts and needlework. My own craft projects lay dormant for many years while I was in my 20's, and then when I became pregnant with Henry, I decided that I wanted to crochet a baby blanket. I worked on it throughout my pregnancy, but didn't finish, and quickly forgot about the project in my busyness with a newborn. Last year, I was cleaning out our storage when I happened upon my crate of UFO's (Unfinished Objects - a vexing problem for all crafters). I decided to finish up what was in there, and my interest underwent a dramatic reawakening.

Since then, I've made blankets, scarves, hats, shawls and slipper socks. I've also learned to knit. I do really enjoy the process of knitting; there's something about moving those 2 sticks around that I find infinitely soothing. And knitted fabric is more stretchy and forgiving than crochet, making it ideal for things like socks, sweaters and hats. That being said, I prefer crochet. For those that don't know, crochet uses a single hook, rather than multiple needles like knitting. I just *love* the way it looks.

For instance, this is a knitted swatch:

And this is crochet:

It creates a very feminine, lacy look. As well, crochet is great for making three dimensional objects, such as stuffed animals or flowers to sew onto a hat.

I simply *have* to share a wonderful portal for free patterns, Lion Brand Yarn online. I did a search for "Easter" and this is what I found. *squeals* The bunny?! The LAMBIE?! Couldn't you just die? I'm a little uncertain about sewing faces onto bodies, but I'm willing to give it a whirl. To access the free patterns, you do have to register, but there is no cost. I've used their patterns in the past, and find them quite good. Make sure to read any reviews to discover possible corrections or modifications that make the pattern better. I tried one of their patterns for a cascade scarf at Christmas time and the end result earned rave reviews. I had requests for cascade scarves coming out my ears. I'd like to crochet an Easter tablerunner, and I'm in the market for a pattern, so was doing some searching this morning.

Another good spot is Crochet Pattern Central. I'm currently executing Easter searches there too :) I just have a thing for seasonal crafts, I can't help myself.

Right now, I'm working on a baby blanket for some friends of ours. I'll need to make another blanket for another expectant couple, and some hats and booties. I also have a few shawls in my queue, and 2 afghans for our house, a spring and an autumn one. I'm all excited.