Itty Bitty Update!

It's a rainy day and we are all hanging out in the living room O is drawing on his dry erase board and M is taking his morning nap. We have just been taking it easy today. Just laying around and enjoying each others time.

O has been toilet training and it´s been interesting. We went from him peeing in the potty to him throwing a fit if we even mentioned it to now having to bribe him to sit on it and he doesn´t use it he just sits gets his candy and then gets off. So now he will only get bribed every other time and then after a few days of that he will only get candy if he does something in the potty. I´ve had to clean a lot of pee off the floor since he is wearing big boy undies.

So an update on my progress knitting through the itty bitty toy book. My basket is getting a little crowded and my play date group really loves them.

I finished the sheep which I made from organic knit picks left overs from the pig and the bunny and Knit Picks Crayon White. I knitted the body purl instead of knit because I thought it looked more like wool than the knit. But that was my only modification.

Then I knit the Koala. I have only finished the mama not the baby. The baby is on the needles right now. I can´t wait till I´m done with those. They are a bit darker than I would have wanted but I didn´t buy enough of the light gray yarn so I decided to use this since I had it. No modifications used. Again Knit Picks Simply Cotton Worsted in a dark heather gray. and left overs from making the Sheep the Crayon White to line the ears and the belly and left overs from making the Penguin with Wool of the Andes Black to make the nose and the face.

The KAL at my local yarn store is going well. I´m well on my way knitting the Firefly Scarf but I only knit it at the store on Wednesday nights for an hour and a half. I´ve gone 3 times now and the first was picking out a yarn and figuring out the horribly written pattern. It´s a pretty scarf (shawl).

I made a project bag for this project. I love making these.

Grosgrain: The State Fair Frock Grosgrain Giveaway

Grosgrain: The State Fair Frock Grosgrain Giveaway
I'm entering to win this giveaway. It is the cutest frock. I don't usually wear dresses because I'm so picky about how they look and the dresses that I want are WAY too expensive but this is totally me. Thank you Grosgrain for hosting this giveaway.

Busy Weekend.

We have had an eventful weekend. We have gotten things done in the garden, are in the process of rearranging our living room, gone to the farmers market, and even went to a coffee shop. I even finished the lamb from itty bitty toys. Leaving me pooped at the moment.
We started with going to the farmers market but not buying anything. We were there to meet our friends there. I was going to buy some thyme to grow in my garden because the seeds that I had did not take. But I didn't have my planters ready. I did some actual work on that today.
We went from the farmers market to a coffee shop with our friends and this place actually had a kids corner. It was nice being able to take the kids along and not worry about bothering anyone. 
We are rearranging the living room so that I can use my treadmill again. My weight loss has come to a stop and I have quite a bit left to make it to my pre pregnancy weight so on I go to my treadmill which is what worked for me last time I dropped a lot of weight and I love the way I feel when I'm done.
The Lamb is done and I really like the way it turned out. I knit the body all in purl because I liked the way it looked better than just knit. I'm now working on the larger koala. I've finished the body, head and ears. The gray I am using for them is a bit dark but I guess the kids won't complain. I'll make it with a lighter gray if I make it for someone else.
I hope everyone else had a good weekend. Anybody do anything fun?

Asparagus harvest despite my lack of gardening.

It´s raining this weekend so we have not gotten out to do our gardening that we need to get done. My veggie beds are still empty and my plants are still in the window. Carrots are not planted neither are any of the things that can´t be started indoors.

My asparagus is sprouting though because it was planted 3 years ago and I´ve made my first pot of asparagus soup. It was very, very good. I start with chopping the asparagus into small peaces up to the last 2 inches that I leave to ad at the end. I also cut 2 tablespoons of onion and I fry both the asparagus and the onion in olive oil until the onion is caramelized.

Then I add water and let it simmer for 30 min. I add some more water and some half and half and some better than bullion and the tops of the asparagus and simmer for 10 min. Serve!

It was delish!

Cought in the rain, the local yarn store and my finished projects.

I took my sons out for a walk and a stop at the local park where O had a great time playing with a girl that was playing there when we got there. Well, we finish being at the park and I go on with my park. I knew that it was going to rain soon so I hurry up and just go the short rout. We had been at the park too long anyway, it was time for O´s nap. Well my house is on top of this big hill and when we are at the very bottom of it the rain starts and it starts pouring. M is pretty well covered in my gorgeous Phil and Ted´s stroller (every woman with 2 young kids should have one of these) but O was only wearing shorts and the rain was cold. So what does mamma do? Yep you guessed it, mamma starts running like the lives of her sons depends on her getting them home out of the rain. My neighbor was sitting on her porch and saw me coming and all she could do was laugh at me. I was soaking wet and so out of shape that I couldn´t run the last part. By the time I got every body in the house I had to dry us off and change clothes and I was worried that I would just pass out somewhere and my sons would have to fend for themselves until I came to again. Lucky for me M was hungry and I had an excuse to sit down and nurse him so I turned on cartoons for O while I nursed M and I got to catch my breath.

Anyway, on the note of knitting, I have joined my local yarn store KAL and I´m knitting the Firefly Fringed Scarf with Firefly by classic elite yarns. By finishing this and sending in a pic I could win a basket full of yarn goodies from classic elite yarns. I´m excited.

Before going to my local yarn store I have had yarn waiting to be knit from a Cedar Leaf Sawlette and I could not resist it and I cast on and before long I had finished 2 inches of it. I started feeling like I was cheating on my toys so I put it aside and went back to my toy knitting.

Yesterday I hosted a play date here at my home and introduced the kids to my knitted toys and they were a complete hit. The Squishies were flying and the bunnies and the pig were being hugged and played with. I just wish I had been smart enough to grab the camera and take some pics of this. This attention from these kids got my knitting juices going and I finished the Penguin except for his eyes last night. I also have the 2 nesting boxes here that I have finished so far. I think I will be working on those for a while.

Anyway. I´m really tired after a long day. I´m going to head off to bed and maybe blog some more tomorrow.

Update from my knitting and gardening.

Ok I was a good girl and I went to the store and got some plastic mesh for the nesting boxes and I started working on this last night. Oh my this is not fun. I have to say that this project is the worst of them all but that is because I don´t like sewing by hand and this is a LOT of sewing by hand. I´m sure I will be very proud of myself when I am done but right now I´m really not feeling this project but if I don´t finish this soon I will end up not finishing this project.

I have finished the Squishies (I plan to make more those were fun) I made one in each size.  I have also started on the penguin. I have finished the natural piece which I knit out of Icelandic Lett Lopi and I´m working on the black piece made from Knit Picks wool of the Andes. I´m sorry but I think this is the ugliest project in this book.  I really enjoyed making the rabbit and the pig because of all the knitting and shaping but this is not any shaping. Just garter stitch .
I am looking forward to knitting the Koala and the Lamb, but most of all looking forward to knitting the Giraffe.

I was looking at RoseKnits shop on Etsy and she inspired me to make my own project bags but I needed to figure out how to make those cubes so I went searching on  Google and found this blog by Jane and I got a step by step tutorial on how to make one. So today I went in to my craft room to find a zipper to try to make one and I found one. It was a bit short to make one for my knitting but it was great for this and that that I needed to keep in my knitting basket. It was great practice and I can't wait to go buy a longer zipper and make a larger bag for my knitting on the go. I love the fabric that I used though.

When I went to buy the mesh for the nesting boxes I found a basket to put all of the itty bitty knitting stuff in to keep everything in one place.
I´m thinking about dyeing my own yarn. I can´t wait to try it myself. I think I will try sock yarn first and then see how it goes. If I like it and if I can sell it then I might start dyeing more. 

My plants are coming along in the window and I can´t wait to get them in the ground but I am waiting for my brother to bring all the soil that I need for my planter boxes. My husband was amazing enough to make my veggie boxes today. He is so amazing.  The rest I can do and I can´t wait to do it. The sooner I get them out the sooner they will start producing fruit. I have to get my carrots down before it gets too hot here for them to do their thing. Also beets and Spinach.
I´ve been a good girl and I´ve been mowing my yard with a motorless lawnmower. Since the grass is not growing very fast right now and I´m just basically mowing the weeds in my lawn it´s been easy and that way we are not wasting gas on it and I can work on my tan wile doing yard work.

My 2 year old surprises me everyday now. He is learning so fast and just is such a great kid. I love just watching him play and watch how he learns something new all on his own. Then my husband or I, show him something new and he will sit there and practice what we just showed him for a long time. Today I wrote out the first 8 letters of the alphabet and told him what each letter was on a peace of paper and let him color on the same peace of paper while I was writing on it and he tried to trace the letters and repeated what I had said. I don´t know if I have told you this before but I am teaching my sons Icelandic and that is all I speak to them. My husband speaks English to them. So they are learning both languages at once.

Birthday parties, chocolate eggs, and knitted pigs.

It was O´s 2nd birthday yesterday but we had the party on Saturday so that everybody could make it. It was very interesting to realize that it had been 2 years since I went through giving birth to him and absolutely falling in love with my perfect boy. He was worth every labor pain and every sleepless night. The stretchmarks on my stomach remind me every day that I went through the most amazing thing in the world: Giving birth to one of the most amazing persons I know. That me and my husband created a life by loving each other and that I carried and nursed him till he was able to eat and walk on his own. Now my job is to teach him to be a good person and a productive member of society. I´d like him to be able to love freely and be creative. To be afraid to love is like being in a prison made by yourself. Yes you might get hurt but you don´t miss out on all the great things that come with it.

He didn´t want his cake but he did like the whipped cream that came with it.

I even tried to tempt him with adding M&Ms to it and it didn't work. 

We had an Easter Egg hunt for his birthday party. All the kids had soooo much fun. I of course had too many eggs. I expected more kids but they could not make it. SO my nephews were really happy with their huge bags of eggs that they ended up taking home with them.

He got this lawnmower from Anton and his family and he loves it He runs all over the place with it. Why they haven´t made a kid friendly lawn mower that actually cuts grass I do not know. Who ever figures that out will make millions.

This is him waking up to pancakes with blueberries and whipped cream on his birthday. As you can see he likes his whipped cream. He also liked the pancakes but was not too thrilled about the blueberries.

He got an Icelandic Easter egg on his birthday, Easter Sunday. I ended up eating most of his and mine so I´m so I get to do a lot of walking this week to make up for it.

Here´s Magni just chilling on his brother´s birthday. He is just too cute and becoming such a munchkin. You can tell that he is getting plenty to drink from his mommy.

The pig is finished and I love how it turned out. It was a fun knit. I have started on project #2 in the book now. They are called sqishies and are knitted balls that are squishy. Using already owned yarn for this project. probably some peaches and cream and some of my natural colors. I did make a purchase from Knit Picks though because I needed yarn for the giraffe and the lamb. I will knit the Penguin and the koala mama and baby next but after that the lamb and the Giraffe. I love all the shaping done in the animals that I have been making. I still haven´t made it to the store to get the plastic mesh. You guys will just have to wait on seeing that project finished since I have a toddler and a 2 month old and really don´t feel like going with both of them alone and weekends have been crazy with company lately.