Last Two Scarves of Winter

At the end of March I finished two more scarves. One for myself and one for my cousin. I hadn't planned on making another scarf for myself, but about a year ago I fell in love with this beautiful yarn (Manos Wool Clasica in Bramble) at Cast Away, but of course I was too cheap to buy it. But when I went in there a couple months ago I realized that they were down to just two skeins of that beautiful yarn that I had been admiring for so long - so I bought it. I found this great pattern, My So Called Scarf, that I knew would be perfect for showing off all the great colors in the yarn. So here it is, my lovely, but kinda itchy, scarf:



I also have been wanting to knit a scarf for my cousin Jennifer who lives in New York. I tried making her something around Christmas time, but it didn't turn out right, so I kept it for myself. I bought the same color yarn but in a different weight, and tried a different pattern as well. I used Mini Mochi Plus in Feldspar. The pattern was written for a chunkier yarn and is named The Super-Fast, Bookmark-This-Page-You'll-Need-it-Later, Scarf . Here are the pictures. I am really happy with the way the lace pattern turned out with this yarn. Hope my cousin likes it.



I am looking forward to knitting some lighter spring-like items soon. Maybe a dress for Mady and I am going to redesign a hemp back and knit it for my aunt. I have some ideas, but haven't got to the designing part yet - just the thinking about it part. I think I would be more inspired if it wasn't pouring down rain and cold outside! I am ready for Spring!

Piggy Tail Hat Pattern - Toddler Size

I am so excited - I think I figured out how to host a file for download, so here is my "Piggy Tail Hat" Pattern

To download the pattern just click on this link: Piggy Tail Hat

Thanks to Tania for the great pictures of the hat and her adorable little girl Lulu.

Well, that is all for now! Such a small thing to have accomplished finally, but now maybe I will find time type up the rest of my designs. Let me know if you find any typos:)

The Seal Ate All Our Fish

February has been a really busy month for our family and I haven't had much time to blog lately. Since I am on an airport shuttle with WiFi right now I thought I would take this time to work on a blog post. Heading through the tunnel right now towards the beautiful golden gate - then on to SFO and to Chicago for a work trip - yuck.

Anyway, we did find some time to head out on another short fishing trip this month. Super Bowl Sunday we decided to check out the fishing at Dillon Beach. It was a really nice day out there and the pier at Lawsons Landing was a really good spot to fish from. Of course Josh thought he lost the crab net under the pier withing about 10 minutes of arriving and we didn't actually catch any fish. A seal showed up, so of course Noah was bummed and said "The seal ate all our fish." The kids did have fun playing on the mellow beach there, digging and running around in the sand. Here are a few pictures:






Josh also got the go-cart going a couple weeks ago with a new motor from harbor freight. He saw it advertised in their add in the Sunday paper and just had to get it. The kid had a blast driving it around the court with dad riding along for "safety." At least dad sustained the only injury of the afternoon.



We really have been trying to take advantage of any sunny days that we have since this has been a really rainy winter. The girls in the court decided to fly their kites behind their bikes and scooters and it turned into a really fun kite parade. All the kids had a blast. Here is a little video:

I have been doing a little knitting since Christmas. I decided to make this fantastic scarf for Grandma Dixie. It is out of Crystal Palace Taos Wool and I used Cabled Scarf Pattern - it is really her colors and was really time consuming because of all the cable rows. Well, I got about 80% done with it and I remembered that Grandma Dixie cannot wear wool because she is allergic... Not very good planning - but it turned out really pretty.

So after checking with Grandma Dixie I set out to the yarn store to find some special soft non-wool yarn. I found this really interesting cotton at the Knitterly in Petaluma. I just knitted a plain garter stitch scarf, but you can't tell because of the texture of the yarn. It is extremely soft and warm. I sent both scarves to Dixie and she gave the wool one to Hannah and kept the soft one for herself.

I also wanted to make a mobeus scarf for myself. I used the Dove Mobeus Hat and Scarf Pattern and some really pretty purple wool that I bought for the project. Neither picture does it justice and I am not sure that I did it right - it seems like it has 2 twists instead of 1, but whatever - I like it and it is very warm and handy since it double wraps comfortably.

Someone from my work was looking for a hat pattern that would have holes on the top for high pig tails. Since we couldn't find a good one online I said I could figure it out and write it for her. Lulu was my inspiration since she always wears high piggy tails. So I knitted and wrote at the same time. Eventually I would like to figure out how to post the pattern in PDF but right now I only have it in word and don't know how to host it. Maybe soon I will figure it out...Here is Lulu modeling the hat:



Noah had a Winter Gala at his preschool in January. The kids all sang songs and had fun showing off their classroom to their parents. We made a night of it and all went to dinner afterward - Noah's special night.


I took some video of Noah during the recital. It would have been nice if he had sang, but it was cute anyway.

Josh also stripped the ugly wallpaper out of our bathroom. It was really a big project and Mady helped out.

But it was such a big project that our bathroom basically still looks like this:

2 more quick things:

Noah learned to spell his name this month:)



And we got a Wii for Christmas from Grandma Dixie. The kids love it!



So that basically catches us up on all the big and little events. Have a few more pictures to download so will do that soon and most on more recent events.

Happy New Year!!!

On New Years Eve day the kids had a fun playdate with one of Mady's school friends and her little sister (who also goes to Noah's preschool). Mady's friend brought over her DS player so Mady finally got to play doubles with someone, which she really enjoyed. They raced in the Mario Kart game. Of course they also ran around and played with their younger siblings, ate snacks, and played up in Mady's room. All in all it was really fun for all the kids.

We had a quiet New Year's Eve and got the kids to bed on a normal schedule. We had plans to have my mom and Mel over for New Year's Day dinner, so the kids were really excited about that. We cooked a small turkey, had yams, and my mom even cooked a pumpkin pie. She makes the best pumpkin pie:


Here is our lovely dinner in the oven, roasted yams, bread, and Turkey!
We had a really nice dinner and I think we need to make a tradition out of it. So fun!

On Sunday we decided to do something fun on our last day of vacation. We decided (after quite a bit of discussion) to go out to Point Arena and go fishing off the Pier. I did some quick research and found out there is a light house a couple miles north of the Pier as well, that we could go to the top of. So we got organized, packed up the fishing gear, packed up some snacks and drinks, and headed out to the coast. It was a beautiful day - we could see miles of Ocean all the way there! It took us just over two hours to get there, but the kids did pretty well on the drive. Noah stayed awake the whole way and Mady only crashed out the last half hour or so.

Once we got to Point Arena it was lunch time so we stopped in at the Chowder House and had a fantastic lunch. Then, it was off to the Pier for fishing!

I am not sure what this pose was about, but at least they are looking at the camera

Again, they are looking at the camera and smiling this time!

Josh was so happy to be fishing!

It is a beautiful spot (my camera doesn't do it justice)

We caught a little crab in the crab net, that quickly went back to the ocean

We had fun, but didn't catch any fish! Noah was really sad and almost crying. When people asked how we did - he would just get a sad face and say "We didn't catch any fish" and "The crabs ate all our fish." Later in the day he changed his story to "The seals ate all our fish." At least as he retold the story (over and over), he got less emotional about it.

We had to hurry to get out to the light house in time, since it closed at 3:30. As we were heading out there it got really foggy, so that was the only bummer. The people there were really nice though and made sure to direct us right to the lighthouse so we would have plenty of time to get to the top. There were 149 stairs to the top and I am pretty sure Josh carried Noah the entire way up! Mady held her own though!

At the top!

The last 10 steps were like a ladder right over the drop that would go all the way down! I freaked out and of course freaked Mady out in the process, but we talked ourselves into going up that last steep bit and it was totally worth it! The guide stood in the drop off so we could relax a little. We had just enough time up there for a few quick pictures - too bad it was so foggy!

Josh took this one

The guide at the top took this picture of all of us. I was so nervous that one of the kids would run off an fall down the light house, I am sure I was gripping them super tight. I can't believe the picture turned out so great.
The kids had time to check out the whale bones and the museum too.

Mady in front of the lens

This is the best picture I could get of the lighthouse with my little camera!

We had a pretty good drive home, and of course Noah crashed right out. We got to Jenner just about in time for the sunset so we stopped and got a couple of pictures.


We also stopped for dinner at a Japanese restaraunt close to home. The kids both used chop sticks with the little helper things on them. Both Mady and Noah ate their entire dinner with their chop sticks and both even had great success with the rice!