Some crafts

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down with a cup of tea and some knitting and asked Lucy what she'd like to do.  First choice: play dough.  She flattened it out and poked holes, looked for doodle bugs, chased them around the house, and finally put them back in the play dough.  Then, she put the play dough away and got out the pipe cleaners we had picked up on a whim.  I was just knitting, and Lucy sat next to me with the pipe cleaners.  We talked, sang a whole bunch of songs, and I told "baby Lucy stories" (her favorite, besides baby Daddy, baby Zoey, and baby Mommy stories).  A little while later she announced, "Mommy, I made you a spider!"

Then she made a second spider, for herself.

Next to them is my knitting, which looks fairly controlled and joy-less, especially when compared to those technicolor spiders.  But, that will turn into a nice scarf of lace-weight merino wool done in a slip-stitch to show off the color changes, which are unfortunately hard to see in the photo - greens, browns, and turquoise.

As we were working on our things, she announced that some day she would knit, too, but today she wanted to just make stuff.  Oh, to be two again.

An orange hat

Still working on the quilt layout, which is happening on an old bed sheet that I can roll up to store.  In the meantime, Lucy needed a new hat, since hers is getting too small.  (sigh)

I took her to the yarn shop and led her to the easy-care yarns, and she picked some orange yarn with tweedy flecks.  Pattern was this bonnet.  It turned out well, but just in time for more spring-like weather.

Bonus: with my small head, I can wear it too.  

Messed around with quilt squares today before a sick little girl woke up, came up with this.

Hm.  I'll keep thinking.

Carnations, Paints, and Fabrics

Last week, I picked up white carnations on a whim.  We put food coloring in the water and seven days later, they're looking colorful.

Lucy wanted to splatter paint on some paper, like we do with watercolors, but wanted to use tempura paint.  That only works on big surfaces, so I put down oilcloth, got out a big canvas (yeah, I keep canvases on hand just in case), gave her some plastic cutlery and paints, and watched the magic begin.

I am slowly but surely cutting out fabric.  It is January and bleak out there, and a friend of my mom's (you know who you are) made the most beautiful BRIGHT quilt recently.  I was inspired!  So this is the beginning of my first quilt as an adult in bright batiks.  It'll be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants thing.

Lucy and I were looking for something to do this afternoon.  It is cold, snowy, and dark, so neither of us felt like going for a walk.  Instead, we pulled out some scraps and old buttons and made this:

She seems to like it.

Something got finished

Whew, I finally got something finished.  Sort of ground to a halt on the last top I was making her, due to weather and other malaise, but I did get a pair of brown knit pants cut out and sewn.  They were in the works for a week, just waiting for the hour it took to get them stitched up.  Today I finally got them finished, and the little girl is thrilled.  I'm glad to get that done with!

So excited, she could hardly hold still.  

Too Hot

I meant to have another small garment finished by today, but it's just been too hot to do anything lately.  Hopefully it'll cool off and I'll recoup over the weekend, because Lucy needs the pair of pants I have cut out and yet to finish.  I'm also hoarding some red silk-linen and debating making a dress.  But who needs a red every-day dress, really?  (My husband thinks it would be great.)  I'm thinking I'll make a normal dress in brown or green broadcloth and use that to fine-tune a red version, which I'd wear for all the RSCDS (Scottish dancing) balls and parties I'm scheduled to play for in the winter and spring.  Festive!  Now I just need to procure some brown or green broadcloth, no polyester please, at a good price.