12 Days - Day 2

Here are the adorable little hats I made on day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas Charity!

I plan on adding some ribbon...as soon as I get some

Do you think this would work for a boy?

This one still needs its leaves

12 days - Day 1

I decided to join a short challenge for the Christmas season. "But you can't even post a picture a day for one month," you say? Well...taking a decent picture is harder for me than what I'm doing, now.

I've joined Sunset Crochet's 12 Days of Christmas Charity! I've committed to making 12 preemie hats in 12 days. Bonnie at Sunset Crochet got together a few other designers and created several adorable patterns for everyone use.

I'm having a blast!

Here's what I completed the first day:

This isn't one of her patterns, but I was anxious to get started.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I hope to make at least 12 of the little Santa hats in different sizes. I've always read that pretty much any size preemie hat will be accepted since the babies are all different sizes. I think I'd like a seasonal hat if my little one had to spend the holiday in the hospital.

It's amazing how grateful these little hats have made me. Trip spent a few days in the Level II nursery (lowest level of the NICU) due to some O2 levels. He went home with me and Jack, though. I can't imagine what the parents of babies in the NICU go through.

OK, now I'm rambling. I'm lucky enough to have been interrupted by the boys constant chattering and questions about 1,000 times during the few minutes I took to write this post.

Swiftly

Wow...I haven't blogged in six months. Shame on me! In my defense, three is a really really rough age. The big boys have been a handful to say the least. Aedan, as usual, has been a joy. He IS coming into his own with his temper and attitude, though. I think dealing with only one of him makes it easier, though.

But I'm not here to talk about the boys today. I've been getting crafty! Well...craftier, I suppose. I've really enjoyed getting more into knitting. I've crocheted since I was in my early teens (maybe even 11 or 12, I can't quite remember) and finally took the dive and learned how to knit. My wonderful knitty-friends on Twitter have been such a huge help!

And with my love of knitting, my love of nicer yarn has grown. For those of you not into needle crafts, typically nicer (pricier) yarn comes in a hank, which is basically a big loop of yarn. When you buy it, it's usually twisted into a pretzel type shape. It's really not a lot of fun to roll it into a ball by hand, so I got a ball winder for Christmas last year. Yippee!!!! I've had so much fun with it!!!

Unfortunately I was still having a difficult time due to the hanks of yarn getting tangled. For the record, Tim does not make a good helper when trying to keep a hank from getting knotted. I realized I really needed a swift. I looked all over the net and decided I really just didn't want to fork out the money for one. I found a few tutorials, but didn't really love most of them.

Then I found a tutorial I could deal with! I wasn't 100% in love with it, but with Tim's help, we changed a few things.

And here it is:

 

Here's the tutorial I found. And here are the changes I made:

 

For "A" I used two 1x36" poplar dowel squares

For "B" I used one 2x2x36" poplar square

 

My neighbor was kind enough to use his radial saw to make the dado joints for me, negating my need for a rasp or chisel. My other neighbor was kind enough to let me use her drill press, negating my need for a cordless drill.

 

I used a 5/16 3" hex bolt and 5/16 nut, three 13/32-in x 1-in Nylon Standard (SAE) Flat Washer, and two Nylon Spacers 1/2 x .328 x 1 (each cut in half with a hack saw). I also used a 1/2" spade bit, a 5/8" spade bit (to counter sink the bolt), and a 3/8" spade bit.

 

I did not use a block of wood or cd or wing nut as a spacer. This is where two of the washers come into play.

 

Procedure-wise I used the 5/8" spade bit to drill my center holes then took the Xs apart and used a soft hammer to insert the spacers into the holes. Then I put it all together in this order: bolt - B X - two washers - A X - one washer - nut.

 

I am sooooo happy with my new baby!!! It spins so nicely! I can't wait to need to wind my first ball of yarn...which should be either tonight or tomorrow morning. :-)

Hey there!

So I haven't posted in a long time...again. I've had so many posts rambling through my head, but just haven't had time or energy to put thought to blog.

I can't believe Aedan is 4 months old already!! And Trip & Jack will be three in just a few short months. Where has the time gone??? Aedan is longer than the boys were at his age, but he's thin like they were. He has the cutest chunky looks, but he's only around the 5th percentile for weight. He's working on a few teeth, but isn't as fussy as the boys were and they weren't as fussy as most teething babies get. I'm very blessed.

The big boys are getting bigger and more toddler-ish. Almost 3 is not my favorite age, so far. The boys are super smart, but maybe too smart for their own good. Some days they're like two monkeys sans cage. We're potty training right now, which is going fairly decent. We haven't really worked on keeping up with it when we leave the house, though. They also adore their littlest brother, but the jealousy is finally starting to show up. Trip has started to get beyond clingy. Every day is definitely busy in my house...especially since I have a power napping infant and two non-napping toddlers. Someone pass the coffee!



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So I'm getting back into crocheting. I've also taught myself to knit. :) I had a knitting lesson to learn how to do cables & how to fix stitches a few rows back. It was so much fun! I'm also going to try and re-open my etsy shop. I'm excited, but not extremely confident, yet. Do I really have the time for this? I'd like to make the time. Crafting helps relax me (when I'm not interrupted a million times in one minute) and the income would be nice. Extra pocket money is always nice!

I'm also going to do a CAL (crochet-a-long)! If you'd like to play along, head on over to The Oxford Family and check it out!!! It's an adult sized granny square blanket!! Yay!!! I'm going to try to step out of my safe zone and get bold with the colors. I'd like to say I'm making this for my mom or something, but I'm going to keep this for myself. it would be nice to have something handmade on the couch a la Attic24.

So what's new with you!

Um

I really don't know what to blog about right now. I could talk about W.W., but I don't feel like it. I am down a little bit more in weight (you can track me here).

The boys are growing like little boys will and learning new things every day. They figure out new ways to melt my heart and drive me up a wall all the time.

We're trying to get pregnancy, but I don't really want to focus on it too much. This is the first month we've tried to hit possible days and I've got sticks for my fertility monitor starting next cycle.

I've been crocheting a lot lately. Tim seems to have calmed down about it some (he felt it took up too much of my time for a while).  I guess since I really have nothing to say, I'll leave you with a picture of something I finished yesterday.