Knitting Update: Quick Scarf & Dying Yarn

 Even when it's hot,  I love knitting.  I am in the midst of some longer projects, and needed some quick gratification.  Enter two skeins of Noro Silk Garden and a "recipe" for a pattern called the Potato Chip Scarf.

 Simple short rows on a small amount of stitches yield a fun and addictive knit--I finished this one in two days, and I look forward to cooler weather to wear it in!

 I also stumbled into some natural colored 100% wool yarn, and decided to try my hand at dying.  With my intrepid helper, we have attempted both solar dying and immersion dying--using simple food coloring.

It is fun, and has yielded some pretty cool yarn.  It's a bit more pastel than I would like, so I'm feeling tempted toward using dyes made more for wool.  I have one skein left, and Lincoln is leaning toward blue.  We may try handpainting it!

Cutie Pie Thursday/Stay-at-Home-Mom Files: Sticker Book!

The wee boy and I had a spontaneous play/craft/memory session the other day. He has quite a few stickers, from various free/me sources, and he likes to stick them all over the place. I was talking to Mr. Cool about something I remembered having as a kid--a sticker book.

So Lincoln picked out a cheap, yellow (lellow!) comp. notebook, and I added an envelope pocket inside.

We promptly began filling it with stickers. (Give me a smile still has the same cheesy response. Sigh.)

He really liked placing the stickers, and we began to have a big of dialogue about story between them. I think this might be good for travel and waiting as well.

More smiling--hey, at least he tries.

Stay-at-Home Mom Files: Knitted Swiffer Pad

Yes. Believe your eyes, because it's true. I knitted a swiffer cover. Why, you may ask? Why would I use my precious baby-hat/monkey finger puppet knitting time on a swiffer cover?

Because I am cheap. To cheap to pay for the real things. And, it only took me two evenings, the fabulous Mason-Dixon Knitting Swifty pattern, and multiple scraps of Lily Sugar 'n Cream. (Nephews and nieces could spot their Christmas washcloths.) The verdict: it works great--just as well as a regular swiffer cloth, and you just toss it into the wash and re-use it. Bonus: great for the environment! Now I just need to make one for Lincoln's swiffer--after I knit a baby hat and another monkey finger puppet--I have deadlines for those!

Stay-At-Home Mom Files: Velcro Stage

Thanks to my new Toddler's Busy Book, I continue to find ways to pass our non-park wintertime. This idea involved gluing velcro to a piece of wood, and then the opposite velcro to some small figures.

Mr. Cool kindly supplied the wooden base, McD's and Arby's supplied the circa 1980s figures, and a glue test led to superglue forming the bond of choice. He has been happily ripping and sticking his bear/elephant friends onto the stage all morning!

Stay-At-Home Mom Files: Flannelgraph Mat Man

Don't be scared, dear reader: this is a flannelgraph of one of Lincoln's favorite storytime activities, Mat Man. We sing a song about Mat Man's various body parts, and I thought this was something I could make fairly simply. So, $3 of felt from Hobby Lobby later, Lincoln was bopping along to his home version.

Here he is checking it out.

Without any prompting from me, he realized that the mouth/smile fell off.

Again, without any prompting, he put it back on the face.

Ta-da! Genius! I'm planning to make more smiles/faces/beards/hats, etc.

Stay-at-Home Mom Files: Crayons

I have taken to making my own nice round crayons for Lincoln to begin experimenting with. I simply peel the paper from broken crayons (sometimes the most difficult aspect of the task), place like colors in a lined muffin tin, and put them in the oven at about 170-200 for about 10-15 minutes, and voila! New crayons!

I like to take a toothpick and swirl it around in the melted wax, which can give a bit of a marbled effect to the crayons.

I use a plastic knife to scrape off any "poky" bits, and the result is a nice, smooth (aside from the ridged edges), perfectly stackable crayon.

He's not entirely sure what to do with them, but he likes the discs of color. All artists have to start somewhere!

Stay-At-Home Mom Files: Reading & Watching

So, I took a week off from the computer. Not because I was on it too much, but I was choosing it over reading and knitting during my free time. I missed it. Mostly, I missed Ravelry and looking up patterns for my sock yarn. I did get a chance to do some summer re-reading, and reading of new books, and if you love Lego, I can recommend Lego: A Love Story by Jonathan Bender. I enjoyed a trip into the world of Lego, and it helped me contemplate whether or not I'll let the wee lad play with my Star Wars and Indiana Jones sets when he gets older. If you don't feel like reading, I can recommend Helvetica, a documentary on the font, Helvetica. As a self-proclaimed font nerd, I can definitely recommend this, and if you're anything like me, you will find yourself studying every sign for a hint that it might be in Helvetica. Hint: check the capital A, G, and R, and the lowercase a, c, and h.

What have you been up to?

Stay-at-Home Mom Files: Podcasts

I need background noise. Maybe it's years of teaching, but sitting in the silence, even with Lincoln and I talking and making noise, grates on me. We love music--Lincoln is a great dancer--but sometimes, I want to hear adults talking. I used to watch TV, but now Lincoln is intrigued by it, so mostly it's off. So what do I turn to? Podcasts. Free and fun, I load up my pod with tons of podcasts, and we alternate them with music all day.

Here are my favorites:

1. Cast-On with Brenda Dayne: Knitting and music--great voice, great tunes. Probably my favorite.
2. Travel with Rick Steves: So much fun--travel the world with Rick. These are new all the time as well, unlike his shows on PBS I've seen a bazillion times.
3. This American Life: NPR classic--great stories.
4. How Stuff Works, Stuff You Should Know: Fun, entertaining--two friends chat about stuff.
5. Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase: Flight attendant tells tales on travel and airplanes--very fun, and interspersed with music, which Lincoln likes a lot.

I am trying out a bunch of new ones, so I'll probably have some to add to the list. Do you listen to any podcasts?

I will also add, that I love iTunes free single of the week and discovery download. I hit those up pretty much every week, and they are almost always gold.

Stay-at-Home Mom Files: Birthday Treats

For Lincoln's birthday party, I created gift bags using old jeans pockets, cotton fabric, cookie cutters, and the magical wonder under.

I cut out the pockets, traced the boot and one on wonder under-ed fabric, ironed it on, and voila! I stuffed them with bandannas, sheriff badges, and cowboy rubber duckies.

Lincoln tried to distract me from my work, but I finished early. I'm already thinking about next year--a dinosaur party?

Stay-at-Home Mom Files: Hooded Towel

The wee bud was starting to outgrow his baby hooded towel, and I just knew there had to be a simple way to make one. So, I googled "hooded towel patterns" and ended up selecting this website's set of directions. I used my humble sewing skills, $6 worth of towels from Target, and ended up with two big and comfy hooded towels. Mr. Cool is now working on how to make an adult male sized version.

The wee lad models his new towel

Stay-At-Home Mom Files: Thank Goodness It's Tuesday, or a Reversal

It takes a lot of hard work to look this cute.

When I worked a normal M-F job, I lived for and loved the weekends. Free time, time off, off work--Saturday and Sunday were the best--and, if the school board had smiled upon us, we had the joy of a Monday off to give the holy grail of the traditional employee--the three-day weekend.

Now, though, I am on call 24/7, and I have discovered a new love--the work week. Yes, I find the weekends a bit of a drag, and now live for the weekdays. Once Monday hits, I can enjoy my daytime TV, sadly absent on the weekends. I can take my little guy to stores and libraries without finding them crammed with other people. Target on a Saturday: nightmare. Target on a Tuesday: dream.

Yes, it's odd, but there is just something about a Tuesday. I wonder if I will ever truly love the weekends again.

Stay-At-Home Mom Files: Daytime TV Observations

The other thing I watch during the day!

Lest you think I am just swanning about the house in my bathrobe, eating bon-bons and watching TV, I will quickly justify myself here: the wee lad still spends a chunk of the day nursing away, which gives me the freedom to watch some daytime TV. Now, anyone who has spent some time about the house on a weekday knows that daytime TV can usually be placed in three categories: talk shows, game shows, and soap operas. Here are my top picks for each category:

Talk Show: Rachael Ray--now it might just be my Food Network withdrawal, but I like watching Rachael's show. It's fun, has good tips, she cooks a couple of times, and it's not weird or gross in any way. My one complaint is that sometimes 9:45 is a bit early in the morning to think about dinner, so I've usually forgotten her idea by the evening. Runner-Up: Ellen, who is also fun and puts celebrities in a dunk tank, and thanks to her I've learned that Harry Connick, Jr. has absolutely no aim with a baseball.

Game Show: Price is Right--my #1 daytime show, the one I'll watch even if the lad isn't having 2nd breakfast. I think Drew Carey is perfect as the "new" host, and I just love watching people lose it. I'm already working on my ideas for a t-shirt if Mr. Cool ever takes me to Hollywood and the Bob Barker Studio. Runner-Up: Let's Make a Deal, as Wayne Brady is pretty funny (although I, for one, always think of his Chapelle Show sketch whenever I see him) and Zonks are a good time.

Soap Opera: Days of Our Lives--now, I've been watching Days on and off for about twelve years, and as I watching it the other day, I realized that the fine folks of Salem are in the midst of their second baby-switch drama in that time span. Now, I had a C-section, and after the wee one was born, Mr. Cool stayed with me while they stitched me up. That's right--someone had ten minutes in which to switch my baby! This whole non-morning person stuff is making sense! Runner-Up: None. I also watched Passions, but they took that off the air. Thankfully, the best-looking guy on Passions is now on Days. Serendipity!

Stay-At-Home Mom Files: Microwave Popcorn

I had a great teaching idea the other day, and realized I probably won't be using it for a while. I must turn my mind to more domestic matters. So, I present a problem and solution for your enjoyment, enlightenment, or my need to write and communicate with someone.

Problem: Mr. Cool and I like popcorn. Microwave popcorn is expensive and often unhealthy. My old and reliable air popper can be a bit unreliable, spray popcorn about the room, and take too much effort for Mr. Cool. (Sorry, honey, but you said it.)

Solution: Homemade Microwave Popcorn. Take a brown paper lunch sack, fill it with 1/4 cup popcorn kernals, 1 tsp. oil (optional), and salt (also optional). Shake. Put in the microwave for about 1 min. 40 s. Keep an ear on the popcorn, and stop it when it when more than 2 seconds pass between pops. Shake bag, and pour into a bowl. Add any seasonings you would like.

Thoughts: This made me very excited yesterday. I'd seen recipes on the 'net for this--search homemade microwave popcorn and you'll find many, many posts/recipes/ideas--but I hadn't tried it yet. It tastes great, makes you feel fun and subversive, and for about $13, you can have enough popcorn and bags for 100 batches. Try it out!