Spud and Chloe and Little Lamb

I finally finished knitting a few companions for Chloe.  I bought the book Spud and Chloe At the Farm before my daughter was born.  I knitted her the Chloe doll and she has loved playing with it.  I've been meaning to make some of the animals from it for a while and I finally finished them.

Here they are!! Spud and Little Lamb. 

Except .. . . Spud is made to the size of Little Lamb in the book and I made Little lamb even smaller by omitting a few rounds.  Why?   I wanted the animals to be even smaller than Chloe. My daughter loves them.  She's re-named them as the Mommy sheep and baby sheep but that's okay because I love to see her imagination at work.

Project Details

Yarn: various worsted weight yarns I already had

Needles: size called for in patterns, gauge isn't really necessary just tight enough to hold in the stuffing.

Difficulty: not extremely difficult, but quite fiddly to knit.  The body, head and legs are all knit separately, then attached together so there are a lot of ends to sew in.

Would I make more?  Yes, the sheep are very cute with the twisted loop stitch


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DIY Lego/Train Table: Re-purposing an Old Dresser

My daughter is just about to turn 3 and she already has one of the largest Lego collections I have ever seen.  How is that possible?  My husband kept all his Lego from when he was a child and shipped it all over here from England when he moved here.  My daughter doesn't really build with the Lego yet but she loves all the people and houses and buildings.  It was taking up way to much space on the floor of our family room (also my craft room!) so I decided we needed a Lego table.

We had an old dresser we were going to get rid of . . . so instead of getting rid of it I cut it down to make 2 drawer units to support a lego table. Was it easy?  Not really . . .  but since I already had the dresser it didn't cost me anything more.

The table top I made out of a sheet of 1/2" plywood.  I got it cut to size at Home Depot.  I made it specifically to slide under my children's craft table. The table top is 33" by 35 " and fits 9 Lego base pieces with a bit of extra room. I used 4" x 3/4" pine boards to make an edging around the table.  I think even a 2" edge would be sufficient.

Table top in Progress

Lego City

Side View

Front View

I absolutely love it! Also makes it more enjoyable for me to play too!

Want to make your own? For easier than I did?  How about 2 IKEA night stands  with some storage baskets and then a table top.

How do store Lego in your house?

2 Week Sweater . . . almost

It's done!!!  I'm so happy with the way it turned out!

Pattern: Iced Cardigan by Carol Feller

Yarn: Bare Swish Bulky Yarn
Yarn dyed using kool-aid.

Pattern modifications:  Extended the sleeves to measure 19" and the body to measure 15"

Took me a little bit longer to knit .. . . 15 days instead of 14 but I'm still excited to have it finished to wear on these cold winter days.

Updated Photos:

Next Project:  Spoked Cardigan: from Interweave knits

Yarn:  Amazing by Lion Brand

My husband gave me 4 balls of this yarn for Christmas several years ago and I have been struggling to figure out what to do with it.  I was checking out the project pages on Ravelry and saw someone else had used this yarn to make the Spoked Cardigan.  Perfect.

Two Week Sweater

It is cold.  Minus -18 C cold . .  with a windchill. Normally this would not phase me but with 2 small children (one only 5 months old)  I don't really want to take them outside very long. . . . and when I'm inside I am craving cozy warm sweaters!  I'm trying to make myself a new, chunky knit sweater in less than 2 weeks!  Can I do it?  Let's see.

Here is the yarn: Swish Bare Bulky from Knit Picks.  I dyed it using Kool -Aid - Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade

Here is what it looks like after I dyed it!  I was going for a kettle dyed look! I love the colour.

Here is my progress after 7 days. Yoke finished, armholes on waste yarn and ready to start the waist shaping.  7 more days to finish the body and knit 2 arms. 

What's the shortest amount of time you have ever knit a sweater in?

Back Online

I'm now on maternity leave again!!! My baby boy is now almost 5 months old.  I have been reading so many other blogs I've decided that maybe I should try posting on mine again.

Right now my textile habit involves yarn!  I've discovered that I knit and nurse at the same time so I am actually getting quite a bit of knitting done.  I've been able to able to get quite a bit of knitting done . . . with the occasional crocheting project as well.

First habit: finishing UFO's

Bubble Vest - done

En Pointe Sweater - done

UFO - so long unfinished I can't find the pattern!

Crochet owl hat for my daughter

 Second habit:  use up yarn stash given to me by my husband
My husband likes to buy yarn for me!!  Can you believe it?  He usually gives me yarn at Christmas until I had to tell him to stop because I couldn't come up with projects to use up the yarn. It was really nice yarn he bought me  . .  but only 1 or 2 skeins . . . so I'm making a push to use it all up

Third habit: try to post something on my blog once a week.

Super Hero Bubble Party

For my daughter's first birthday we had a Super Hero Bubble party.  She has several older cousins so I wanted something that the older kids would enjoy!

The cupcakes . . . . lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd . . . .yum!

Simple flower display.

Bubbles or dots   . . . on the napkins

The party girl's dress.  I made this dress based off the tutorial by Made by Rae.  Isn't she cute!!

Super hero capes.  I personalized each cape with first letter of each kid.

The superhero birthday girl!

Captain B and Captain E! Captain E has the fanciest cape. I made it after reading this tutorial Reversible Superhero Cape. After making 1 I decided I couldn't make 6 of them in time.  So for the other ones I just cut out the same shape and used a pinking blade on my rotary cutter to do the edges.  I also used jersey and fleece since they don't fray.  They turned out just as well and the double sided one and it only took me 45 minutes to make 5 of them.

Bubbles!!  The kids all loved their capes and had so much fun playing outside with the bubbles and running around with their capes.  A very special day for our special little girl.  Happy Birthday!

Doll clothes for baby Stella

For my daughter's first birthday we decided to buy her a doll.  We ordered a baby Stella doll from Manhattan toys.  It is a completely soft doll with embroidered facial features.  My daughter has dark hair so I wanted the one with dark hair.  When the doll came it was dressed like this.

Cute  . . but I wanted something with a bit more character (and less pink and purple) so I made a cute sweater and leggings for baby Stella.

 So now my daughter has a store bought but unique doll.

I made the sweater from a pair of socks  and the leggings from an old tank top.  Hopefully later I'll put up a tutorial showing how to make them.