Experimenting with wool interlock

I got the fabric on the mail and threw it in the washer for felting. It did felt quite a bit. The description in the website said it wouldn't felt that much. Well I lost 3" from the wide, and 8" from the length! That is a lot! Especially if you are paying about 80 cents per inch! This was my second experiment. These shorties that I got from Ebay are good but the waist was very bulky and thick and the cord never seemed to be tight enough to hold the pants in place. So I stitched a line right below the ribbing and then... cut it! This was the first time that I cut knitted fabric. Unlike most people would think the knitted stitches do not get undone as long as you stitch them first. I then added the elastic interlock waist and voila! My new favorite shorties!!

The next two pictures (brownish color pants) are from my first attempt to make longies. The ones at the left came out too big. The directions didn't say to trim the edges so I used all the fabric on the arms and it ended up bunching up like this. The problem was that I was working with an XL size sweater, so the sleeves were too wide. So I went ahead and cut the little guy open again, trimmed the sides about 2 inches in each side trying to leave more space in the back for the buddy. The result was the picture on the right. Much better ha? However these are still a bit big on Baby, but that is OK. It was my intention to make the longies a size bigger because I do expect them to be wearable next winter.

Longies on the making

I have so much to blog about I don't even know were to start. So I will start with the fun part. I was able to find several wonderful wool sweaters in a different Good Will store. I was so exited! One of them was even felted already! I think it is so funny that what is a ruined sweater for someone becomes a perfect finding for someone else. I spend only $24 on these sweaters, some of which are 100% cashmere, the others are 100% wool. I know it is so silly but the day I found them, I was so exited I almost had a car accident... LOL that would have made these longies a bit more expensive... I have ordered a yard of wool/lycra interlock for the waists. A while ago I purchased a pair of shorties from Woollybottoms. They came with a very stretchy waist. I love them! they are my favorites! Baby wears them all the time, so I started researching and researching what this stretchy fabric was, until I found out it was wool with lycra. I am just crossing my fingers I can do as good of a job as the Woolybottoms lady. She does an amazing job!! Here is a sample:

See the yummy stretchy waist?

I do warn you that the wool/lycra material is very expensive. I paid more than $30 for just one yard including shipping. I just hope I don't ruin it... I am still not so confident on my sewing skills. I bought it here.

I am also knitting a pair of longies using a pattern called Itchy Fingers Longies download available from ravelry. This pattern calculates everything based on your swatch. I got a gauge of 24 sts on my swatch so I calculated everything accordingly. The longies started to look huge to me... So I revised my gauge. Turns out apparently I started to loosen up my gauge as I kept going and I ended up with 20 sts per 4" which means now I am 4 sts off. That is why my longies look so big... I was just about to frog them when I decided to try them on Baby just in case. They actually don't look bad and I was thinking maybe I can felt them a little or save them for later when he gets bigger. I am going to continue and knit an extra 2 inches on all the vertical measurements to allow for felting. We will see what happens. I hope it works!

Wood workshop

One of our home schooling friends put together a wood work shop. We have already made a jewelry box, a bird house and this time, we made a bird feeder. Although big sister has different plans for it, it came out so nice. I wish I had made my own so I can actually use it as a bird feeder.

As we get to meet more home schooling families, I realize that maybe I was not as weird as I thought, I just hadn't find "my kind". My husband used to tell me that I was the only woman who did this and that. Because I believe in breast-feeding on demand and as long as the child want to. Etc... But talking to other home school families, specially Christian families, I realize that there are many other moms like me who sleep with their babies and breast-feed for long periods of time. Many also avoid vaccination, etc. It is so nice to find other people with similar beliefs.

Baby

Baby is getting so much fun! He is really starting to want to talk, he says things like "dog" "cat" "shoe" "teeth", etc... Funny because these are all words from his "Your baby can read" videos... Also I recently discovered that he can actually read some of those words. One day I had him on my lap and the word "wave" came up on the screen. Before they actually said the word he started to wave. I was very exited! but my husband didn't believe me so I questioned myself. Last week again I was watching the video with him in my lap, the word "dog" came up on the screen, before they said the word he said "gog". I couldn't believe it! The videos actually work!

Besides that he is doing so many other cute stuff. He loves cleaning, he loves wiping and sweeping the floor. I seriously need to get him his own toy broom so I can use mine... Today I was putting away my husband's clothes and he was very busy and quiet doing something. When I went to see he was grabbing his dad's socks from the drawer and one by one, he was putting them inside the toilet. The toilet was stuffed with folded socks! It was so funny I couldn't get mad.

But the best thing of all for me as a mom is, that he is finally eating food. At 15 months he finally shows interest for food and eats quite a bit, especially if I sit him on my lap. He loves cereal and chips, beans and meat, etc. This is very important because before now, he wanted to be nursing 24/7. Hanging from momma all the time...Of course! he was hungry all the time...

I feel can get more done now that he is eating as he can play on his own longer. I heard that many breast-fed babies are very slow to eat solids and even when they do, breast-milk remains their main food. This is the case with my baby.

The sleeping situation has gotten a lot better too. He only wakes up a couple of times now and he sleeps good 10 to 12 hours.

More fleece pants and safety

I made another pair of fleece pants for Ian. This time I tried a wider waist strip. That worked out much better. Also added an "Elmo" applique on the back. Mainly because if I don't, daddy will keep putting the pants backwards... LOL! So now I can just say "remember Elmo goes on the back..." I used the option on the pattern to have a lower rise on the front. I don't expect daddy to notice the difference, so that will be Elmo's job. I am happy with the results and the fleece I got at Walmart for only $4 a yard is nice and thick. It didn't say it was "anti-pill" but I sure hope so.

On another topic, our friend Scott came to help us install the safety gate upstairs... I can not express how thankful I am, hubby and I were having a hard time trying to figure out all the pieces... Scott is so talented... he came, glanced at the instructions for a few seconds, and then installed the gate like it was nothing... Wow! Thank you so much Scott!! It is so nice to finally be able to let baby walk around upstairs without having a panic attack every time he is near the stairs... What a piece of mind...

Life philosophy

Lately I had to make some though decisions regarding my life. Mainly I have been thinking a lot about the purpose of life, or more concretely the purpose of my life. I think that God is calling me to leave a more separate life. In a spiritual way that is. I have been reading a book called REVOLUTION in missions by KP. And at the same time I felt I needed to quit a long life friendship that was not positive for my spiritual life. It was a very hard decision, one that I had been considered for a few years, but did not have the courage to make until now. It is like God is talking to my life through these two events, making me think about my life and my purpose and the futile things we spend most of our time in.

I have gotten to a place where I am tired of pretending to be "normal". I don't think I am. I don't think any real Christian fits the worldly definition of normal. According to the world, I am weird. Because if I put God first and live my life as if only JESUS matters, that will definitely be weird. But I am convince that nothing matters, only Jesus, and falling in love with him all over again, going back to my first love, is all I want right now.

Longies

I started looking around for wool sweaters I can use to make longies for the winter. Longies are long pants made out of wool that work both as pants and

diaper cover during the winter. I was unable to find any wool sweaters at our local Good Will so, I decided to try to make them out of fleece. Fleece works just as well but you have to wash them more often. Not only I want to learn how to make them to save money but also because DS's measurements are so wide, it is really hard to find anything already made that fits well. His hips are really wide and his tights are very chunky. I found directions on how to make your own pattern in this website.

Of course, like I expected, I messed up the first one on different ways... plus I will need to adjust the initial measurements, but it is wearable as it is... I am sure I will get better as I practice.

Of course my cute model helps my pants look better... I left the length longer so he can grow into them.

I also started a knitted pair from a pattern called Itchy fingers. I have the ribbing done and just started knitting the body of the pants. Pictures coming soon.

Oh yeah and I finished the Berroco CISCO Hat on August 6... Here are some pictures:

This was supposed to be a gift but I think we will keep it... he he. It was somewhat of a confusing pattern, it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be, if I do it again I will probably use a self striping yarn to avoid waiving in all the ends...

Diapering

That's it! The stains win, I loose! I give up! It is going to get too cold during the winter to try to sun them out anyways...

Ravelry Forums

I was bored one night and then... behold I discovered the forums on RAVELRY.COM and now I am hooked! I have been a ravelry member for a long time but never really care to look into the forums until just recently I decided to post two comments, one asking for help on yarn substitution for an Alice Starmore sweater I can't find the yarn for... and the other one related to my outrage that Patons decided to change the content of their Classic Wool, which used to be 100% soft merino, and now and without previous warning is 100% pure new wool, not guaranteed to be Merino... I mean the kind of stuff only nerdy knitters like myself would care about... Well it was so nice to read all the replies... I think I am having an "I found my people" moment... Love it! By the way my ravelry name is crpuravida if you care to find me there!

My holy time

My friend crunchymom inspired me to continue writing my blog... even if it is once in a while.

No matter how tired I am, I just need to have some quiet time to myself. Most of the time, this can only be done at night when everybody is sleeping... Yes, this takes time away from my sleeping but I just have to have it or I start feeling I am going crazy. It is a sanity issue. I call it my "Holy time". Usually during this time I read, or knit or watch one of my favorite movies, other times I just surf the internet for knitting patterns or stuff I need to buy.

I know I am not the only one. My oldest sister used to do it. When I visited years ago I was amazed how late she would stay up even though she had to wake up really early. Donna Dewberry from one stroke painting started to paint at night when her five children were little and she needed to do something at night to mentally-relax.

The only problem is that sometimes I enjoy myself so much that I loose track of time and stay up until dawn... This is NOT good, because the next day I am exhausted...

Posting

I feel bad I haven't been  posting anything here in a long time... If you are wondering why? it's because I discovered FACEBOOK. Most of my posts here are small... more like thoughts, so Facebook works great for that and it goes directly to my family and friends, so it is more practical to do it there than here in my blog. I will continue posting here especially about my knitting stuff but not as often, as I am putting most of my family pictures and personal thoughts on my Facebook wall. I just wanted to let you all know... Have blessed day. :-)

I need serious help...

I am a very challenged cook. I just hate cooking. Now, for many reasons this is a huge problem, but besides the obvious reasons... when you have a gluten free eater at home, that on the top of that could use to loose some weight... or at least stop gaining weight... the problem becomes even more difficult. Oh and did I mention this same member of the family is super picky! Yeah, to make things even harder.

I have gotten to the conclusion that I need to take on this issue as a job, since it is not about fun for me. I have to tackle the pickiness, the allergies and the weight management. It would take more than a good chef to tackle all of these issues, it would take serious organization, planning and lots of help.

After browsing through tons of cooking books, these two were my selection:

These two books are a perfect combination, the Stella book actually has tons of gluten free recipes because he avoids using wheat flour, and his cooking is low calorie and low fat, and the Sneaky Chef has several pre-made purees that you can freeze until needed which is another great idea for me since I am always in need for quick meals. I am still reading The Sneaky Chef. It is more than a cooking book. It has a few chapter on the philosophy of the book. It is actually very interesting. I am yet to order the Stella book. But I will next week. I am also using several good websites. Then I need to sit down, and start figuring out some menus and then the shopping list. Huff! I wish I liked cooking... at least a little bit.

Fleece soaker

I got more fleece at Walmart. It was only $2.50 for half a yard. Here is the second soaker I made. I love it! I made an application of a whale on the back. I can't wait to make more... I think I am finally getting the hank of this sewing thing... LOL!

I used the same patern from Katrina's blog. 

Wanting to knit a Baby Surprise Jacket

I am really itching to make a  Baby Surprise Jacket for my baby... I have always been curious about the popularity to this pattern. Now Schoolhouse Press offers it in all sizes and gauges which is very convenient plus directions to add a hood, pockets, etc.

The only Elizabeth Zimmerman book that I have is Knitting Around, and there is another cute baby jacket in it called the Bog Jacket. I think the finished product is cuter than the Surprise Jacket but for some reason people just love to make the BSJ. Maybe is because of the cool construction of it? I had been looking at both FOs from other knitter's at Ravelry but still can't make up my mind...

There are some good videos in Youtube on how to make the BSJ, even though it is probably not needed if I buy the new pattern with detailed row by row directions. The directions for the Bog jacket in Knitting Around are a bit general to me and it does not say what ages will the FO fit so I would have to do some calculation if I try that one...  

Babies get it everyday...

Yesterday I went to the grocery store with my husband and the baby. Normally I don't buy dairy products but we had a craving for ice cream and I had a craving for liquid yogurt. I opened the yogurt bottle on the parking lot and started to drink it, the baby started to whine asking for some, I let him have a tiny bit, barely a taste of it... To my surprised my husband seemed very upset with the idea of giving milk to our baby... He said: "Are you going to give him milk!????" At 13 months old this was the first time my baby tasted any milk products... I don't plan on feeding him dairy until he is much older but I just wanted him to have a taste of it. So I replied: "Babies get this stuff everyday..." My husband pause for a few seconds to think... and then said: "You are right... Wow! Our kids are so luck you breast feed them!

It was very interesting to me to see my husbands reaction, the way what's normal for our family is completely different from what is normal on other families, but specially it was interesting to me how he has completely learned from me the different ways to raise my children and why do I do it, from breast feeding to cloth diapering and homeschooling, a formerly normal mainstreamed guy has become a total believer of natural alternatives and homeschooling. And after many discussions to explain to him why I wanted to do things differently, it was so nice to get this kind of reaction from him because it tells me that he finally got it! And most of all, he appreciates it!!!!

It felt so good...