On the Making of Things

Oh, joyous making. Now that we are mended here and normal shenanigans have been reinstated, I find the making of things to be flowing. So many good moments of inspiration that I actually have the energy to execute. I am now appreciative of the energy I have when we are well and will accordingly cherish it until the next bump in the road.

:: Tweet : I finally found the impetus I needed to create these sweet birds when I saw the blog post at Sew Liberated.

I bookmarked them long ago, but something about her image caught my eye and had me gathering fabric and scissors and going for it. I made these in a few hours using machine sewing and bamboo stuffing. These will go in the boys' room on a to-be-found manzanita branch. I think I will make a second to hang over our bed, but ours will be all black birds with multi-hued tummies.

The free pattern can be found here, the machine sewing I did works out okay but they are not so pretty up close. I miss hand sewing but I wanted these done.

:: Sip : The plethora of mint coming up reminded me that every plant has a use.

And I actually located our tea ball upon opening the drawer (this is a very rare occurance round here). A few snips and chops later, huge glass of mint tisane.

Very welcome in helping move the last of the cough out of my lungs. And pretty too.

:: Block : Ah, well, I have done it again. I blocked out my yoked sweater yesterday and in the blocking of, realized a sad fact. I knit the body out of organic cotton, the yoke out of 100% wool. And the body of cotton grew and grew as it soaked up the water. And as I laid it out...well, I think I can say this one might not fit the way it should.

Which I knew when I started but ignored, as I always do. I have yet to try it on, hoping a really through drying in the sun might magically shrink and tighten the body. And I cannot toss it in the dryer as the yoke would likely felt up immediately. So, we shall see. I love the color of this yoke so much that if it is not wearable in the current incarnation, I would actually consider ripping from bottom to armpits and re-knitting down using post blocking gauge.

I think you knitters out there guessed that I swatched the cotton but did not wash it. Arg (shooting self in foot). At least I know I have enough yarn.

:: Cut : After a lovely morning of solo errands (during which my parent took the boys to Ash Wednesday mass and I reveled in my leisurely activities of oil change, Goodwill donating and tea drinking) I came home with the desire to clean up the backyard and make space for our proposed garden.

I hacked back a huge rosemary and made room for growing things to come. I smell like a chicken dinner, had a great time sawing away and loved watching the boys 'help' me by dragging rosemary branches willy nilly all over the yard.

Spring comes early to these parts and it makes me long for the fresh food to come.

:: Train : Not that we are making any real efforts at potty training, but O loves the potty and toilet paper and they are both showing an interest. So we let him sit when he wants.

Someday he will kill me for posting this picture, but come on, how cute is he?

Now, I should go and make an effort to clean my room, finish the laundry and start dinner. But instead I am going to ignore all that and make some time to read. What are you making up? I would love to see it.