Who doesn’t want to see some little chubby legs sticking out of the top of these boots?

I’m not sure why I continue to try and make felted slippers/boots or anything felted that goes on the feet, it is usually a big disaster, yet still I do it again and again. I saw these little felted snugs and the kit was on sale, so I bought it without thinking. They are wool on the outside, yet lined with alpaca wool on the inside (super soft!), and the picture just looked so darn cute. Then I started knitting them, and I started having doubts, because felting slippers or boots for me has never worked out, they never shrink like I think they will and usually end up huge. I even had a pair try and kill my dad by throwing him down the stairs. Poor dad, he’ll put on anything I knit him, no matter what, gigantic felted slippers, slippers that look more like feet condoms, anything I try and experiment with, he’ll be my guinea pig (sorry dad, these won’t fit you). So, I knit these in the smallest size (0-8 months) figuring that even if they end up too big, maybe Jayden could wear them. I knit them up easily while watching the Olympics the last couple nights and my gauge was right on, I mean if Michael Phelps can win gold all the time and break world records, why couldn’t I have one pair of felted slippers work out? So I felt confident when I put them in the washing machine to felt today. Well, one felted up pretty darn good, the other one struggled a bit (the one that struggled must of been the one I knit while watching the US women gymnastics fall off the balance beam and jump out of bounds). I left it in the washer to see if I could felt it a little more, but alas, it had had enough and wasn’t going to cooperate (silver medal for that sucker, I give it a 4.0 for execution, 9.0 for presentation, I mean it is cute). So, I have one boot that’s a little looser than the other, but at least they shrunk down, not as much as I wanted them too, they are basically one size bigger than they should be, but that’s not bad, this new baby should grow into them sometime, hopefully not in the summer… Anyway, I decided to spruce them up a bit and add some polka dots, so after they spent the afternoon drying in the 90 degree sun outside, this evening I needle felted on some color. I only poked and made my fingers bleed 3 times with the little barbed needle used for needle felting. Guess I’m not ready to watch the Olympics and needle felt at the same time…or maybe I should of tried to make my fingers bleed like 8 times, since that’s supposedly the lucky number for the Olympics this year. Hmmmm, I don’t think so, my bloody finger tips hurt.

I’ve decided that despite the heat, I’m preparing for winter, as I am told winter here is just as extreme as summer. (yipee…) Now, I just need to make it to the yarn store and get some blue yarn so I can make Jayden a matching set. Yes, even with a boy and (perhaps) a girl, I am totally making them matching stuff. (If this child pops out a boy, I’ll just have to add all this purple and pink stuff to my already big pile of girl things I have knit up and wait for the first girl to show up. :) )

So, I have about 5 days left to pack up the rest of the house before the moving truck gets here. I’m not actually flying out to Wichita until the 18th, but sadly most everything needs to be in boxes by Saturday. Big, strong men, a.k.a Royal and friends, will be here Sunday to load up most everything. Fireball (Royal’s dad) will be here to help, and as his nickname is Fireball, I will spend the majority of the time trying to reign him in and stop him from throwing boxes all over the place and putting all my breakable stuff on the bottom of an 8 foot pile and then putting a couch on top of that. Because his life moto is to get it done as quickly as possible, there usually isn’t a whole lot of planning that goes into things.
So, while I should of been packing, I’ve been knitting instead. I figure if my hands are busy, then I don’t feel quite so bad about not packing. And it’s worked! Sadly though, I have just finished my last knitting project that I will ever do in our little house here, and I can’t start another because I’ve already packed up all my yarn. Guess that means more boxes and packing tape for me.

My last project is this new, cute little diaper bag. I’m hoping I can convince someone I know with a sewing machine to line it for me. :)

Here it is pre-felted, all loose, ginormous, and floppy.

Then I stuck it in the washing machine, and like magic about 20 mins later, I got this! Well, it wasn’t exactly magic. My handles were constantly tying themselves in knots, which have to be undone, or you get just big felted knots which will never come apart. Then, one of my handles got stuck under the middle part of the machine and ripped part of it off. Luckily it was just a small part of it, so I didn’t have to make another handle, which would of been bad because I used up all my green yarn. Now, all I have to dois wait for it to dry and I guess I can add it to my pile of things to put in boxes.

Royal turned 30 yesterday! I know I seem to be a day late on all these birthday posts, but I blame it all on pregnancy brain. And Royal seems to like to celebrate his birthday for an entire week, so really, by Royal’s time frame, I’m still right on!

Royal, Jayden, and I drove down to Kelso Saturday morning to attend a couple birthday parties.  We decided we would spend the night down there so Royal could get some much needed fishing time in.  It also allowed me to spend some much needed time at the yarn store.  I happened to have an entire skein of yarn left over from the ruby river sweater I made, so I took it back to La Favorites to exchange it for something else.  And what other kind of yarn have I been obsessed with?  That’s right, I exchanged it for some more baby cashmirino.  I have a few more hats to make out of my new favorite baby hat book, and it just so happened that Jayden’s girlfriend, Mikalah, had a cold head.  So, lucky for her, she got to keep my first little party hat.  Sadly, Mikalah had to leave before I had the hat completely done, so I didn’t get to take a picture of her in it, but here is what the finished hat looks like!

And miracle of all miracles, Royal’s fishing trip was a success!!!  He actually caught a fish!  Yipee!!  A Spring Chinook that I am so eating tomorrow!

Jayden was pretty pumped about it too!  We’ll see how he feels when it’s sitting on his plate for dinner…

I’ve been helping a friend lately with one of her math classes.  If you didn’t know, I LOVE math, so on Tuesday’s when she comes over, and I get to spend a couple hours solving rational equations, finding LCDs (Least Common Denominators), factoring, etc… I am in Heaven!  I’m hoping my friend keeps on taking math classes and keeps on needing my help, because I am about to bust open my Calculus book or maybe my Number Theory book and start solving.   Jayden somehow seems to know that she’s over and he must know I’m doing something I really like, because he takes the shortest naps ever and then I have to try and solve for x while fighting Jayden for my pencil and paper because he won’t stand to be anywhere else but my lap.

All this math made me think of one of my professors from college who always loved to say, ‘It isn’t good math, if there are numbers on the board’.  He wasn’t my favorite prof because I happen to like numbers, and writing proofs for theories was not my favorite thing to do.  Except for this proof.  This was always one of my favorites.  The mathematical proof that girls really are evil.

 

Welcome to the world of, ‘Yes I CAN knit anything’.  One of Joanna’s friends has been having to wear an eye patch, and why would anybody want to wear one of those boring black ones.  Especially when you can have a designer one!  This one was made out of some left over Ruby River, I might make another, just so I have a matching eye patch to wear with my new sweater.  The only other eye patch I’ve made was for Joanna, because right before she gets a migraine, one of her eyes gets all dialated and it’s freaky to look at, so I knit her up an eye patch so the rest of the world didn’t have to look at an entirely black eye (you’re welcome).  I told Joanna it was so she could have something to apply a little pressure to her sore dialated eye, but really it was because it’s easier to look at a cute yarn eye patch than a freakishly large pupil.

Jayden and I have both had a nasty little cold this week.  This is what Jayden was doing while I knit up the eye patch.  Looks comfy, huh?

The Ruby River experiment is now over.  I have finished my sweater, which at first I was hesitant to start since spring and sunshine were right around the corner.  But, with it snowing like it has the past couple days, it’s obvious that there is still plenty of sweater wearing time left!

 

Maybe one day I’ll be able to post a picture of me wearing it, but right now, it’s just me and Jayden at home, and the pictures he takes tend to be of his toys and turn out with half a finger over the lens.

 

Coming up next…an eye patch…don’t believe me?  Just wait and see…

This is how everyone should cut out sugar cookies and dye Easter eggs.  In your socks, diaper (or underwear…whatever you prefer to wear), and a fire truck apron!  Notice that where we are standing you can see the game on tv, because you can’t cut out bunny cookies during March Madness without knowing whats going on.  Which by the way, if anybody cares for an update, my bracket has been getting crushed by Royal’s in all but the east region.  I guess schools with cool names just aren’t good at basketball this year.

Yesterday, we decided that it was time to convert Jayden’s crib into a daybed.  He’s been real close to bailing out over the side of his crib for awhile and instead of waiting to hear the dreaded ‘thud’, or maybe a cracking sound as his head hits the chair on the way down, Jayden and I spent part of the morning rebuilding his bed.  Jayden pulled the door stopper off the wall and was using that to screw in the screws with.  He was a real help! 

Here is the finished product.  Jayden was real excited about his new bed!

This is what he promised me he would do in it.

We’ll see, I’m expecting more of this…

I ran out of time yesterday, so I wasn’t able to go out and get the bedrail I was planning on using.  So, I figured that we’d see how he would do in the bed without one side.  He made it through his nap without falling out, so I thought I’d press my luck at night.  I’m not afraid to admit it, it was a bad-parent-kind-of-a-risky move.  And low and behold, he managed to fall out of the bed, not once, but twice last night.  Ooops!  So, this morning we went out and got the bedrail and now he should be safe from rolling out onto the floor while sleeping!

Oh!  And I made this hat!