Sheepie Knits

Love…are you all feeling the love today?  I hope so but i hope you feel it everyday!  I am feeling the love not just from my family but also from my friends! 

Stacey  sent me a Valentine with some very sweet words on the inside!!!  Thank you so much.  It was such a wonderful surprise to find that in my mailbox and put a big smile on my face.

I had to stay up until 1:30 in the morning but i finished my Valentine’s gift for Little Man on time!  

Creature of the mystery paw is revealed…

It’s a cat!  We have two cats and Little Man just loves them and likes to pretend he is a cat so i thought i would knit him one.  I bought this pattern over a year ago for myself but when i pulled it back out I thought he would love it.  I had planned to have this hanging out of his Christmas stocking but with my whole eye drama i never got to do it.  Then i was just going to make it just to surprise him but i realized he would make a really cute V-day gift.  Nothing says Love like a knitted item

Pattern: Muswell by Jennie Eveleigh Lamond

Dates: Jan 23-Feb 14, 2009

Made for: Little Man

Yarn: Vanna’s Choice

Needles: Size 2.75 mm double points

Notes: I followed the pattern as written besides 5 teeny things.  Row 14 on the hands, the last row of the muzzle and the last row of the ears she has you doing K 3 tog and it was hard enough at times trying to do k2tog at time that i didn’t even try to stuggle. I just did S 1 K2tog PSSO.  Much easier on my already aching hands

You are using small needles with thick yarn and the tighter tension is rough on my hands so i works on this in parts and even took an evening break now and then. 

I did have some problems with the muzzle-i just did the muzzle last night and i couldn’t find any patterns errors online quickly so i winged it and just did it my way. It turned out fine but i do want to look into it more for future reference and if i find anything i will post it. It could also be that i just kept messing up over and over

The little fingers are a pain to do. You start out with 3 sts and have to join thme in the round but once you do a couple of them you get the hang of it and they aren’t hard anymore.

The pattern also has directions for a dress which i am not making at this point. I did make the cat a collar with a heart tag and if we ever decide on a name i am going to embroider the name or the first letter of the name onto the tag.

I am so happy with how he came out and Little Man loved him too.  He had the best face when i first brought him out holding the chocolate part of his gift. i couldn’t have asked for a better reaction-Makes a knitter happy.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Elmo was very cute I am glad we went.  All the friends were doing little skits about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Little Man had a good time but was bummed that Elmo never came to say Hi to him.  Every time some of the characters came off the stage to say Hi to the people in the first few rows you could see him looking over there longingly.  Made me want to go down and drag Elmo over to us

Here are some pictures-please excuse the occasional head and sound equipment.

Saturday we had some fun around the house and i made my favorite salad:

Taboulleh/Tabouli

Recipe from back of Arrowhead Mills box of bulgar wheat

1 cup bulgur wheat

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 1/2 tsp salt,optional

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup Olive Oil

Dash of garlic powder

2 tomatoes, diced, i like to use Roma- not as juicy

3 cups chopped parsley

4 green onions chopped

Pour boiling water over bulgar and salt. Cover bulgar for about 30 mins and let sit until water is absorbed. Stir next 3 ingredients into bulgar and chill for 2-3 hours. Add tomatoes, parsley and green onions and gently toss before serving on a bed of lettuce.

My salad is roughly based on this recipe.  I use the same amount of bulgar and water. I don’t add my salt until the end so i can do it to taste.  On Saturday when i made this Little Man and i were deep in play so i didn’t check on the bulgar until probably after 45 mins or maybe more. So by the time i checked it, it was cool enough for me so i didn’t do the step where you add the lemon juice, oil and salt and chill it for several hours-i have never done that. Not even with other recipes.  So i dumped my bulgar in a bowl and threw in the tomatoes, onions and parsley. For the parsley i just bought one bunch and used all the leaves, everybody likes different amounts of parsley so add what suits you.   I added the juice of about 1 1/2 lemons, a dash of olive oil for the taste and then maybe a tablespoon and a half of veggie oil, i just don’t like all that oil in my salad. Then i sprinkled salt and added much more then a dash of the garlic powder because i love garlic   It was sooo yummy-but next time i think i would add juice of  2 lemons again, just for the extra zip   i have also added yellow onion  or red onion before.  Colored peppers are good as well. You really can throw in whatever you like but i like the basic version.

Saturday night i started to get a bad sore throat and we all know what that means-Sickness.  I slept most of Sunday and Monday when i took Little Man to school i was feeling pretty good.  Come the evening i was wiped out and just wanted to sleep and it was like that as well yesterday.  Today it hit me even earlier and i ended up sleeping away the whole afternoon. I feel alright now but the way this cold has been treating me who knows how i will be later or tomorrow.

Little Man’s batman slippers have worn down on the bottom and a couple weeks ago i came across this tutorial online and knew i wanted my boy to have some. 

I made them last Thursday. They have a quilter’s flannel on the outside and leftover scraps of fleece on the inside.  I didn’t have enough of one color of fleece so the inside of one is orange and the other bright green.  He was ver excited by them and said “Oh, they are elf slippers” and then we had to play Santa and his helper elf.

I made very little progress on what goes with the mystery paw but i am close.  It has to be done by Saturday so i should have a post on that day.

Yesterday we had weather in the high 50’s it was wonderful and even though i was sick i still took my boy out for a walk and let him go to the playground for about 45 mins.  I think the fresh air did both of us some good and it was so nice to be outside.

Back to resting for me. Oh and thanks for the compliments on Hubby’s sushi he liked them very much

Ahem…someone in this house  has joined the knitting community and has knit a

Thorpe!

Little Man asked me to make him a hat with stripes and ear flaps and after hearing so much and seeing so many Thorpes i decided it would be perfect for Little Man.

He loves it!  And i love how it looks on him.  If you tie the strings up it pulls the ear flaps in very nicely and keep him super cozy and warm.  I will be making more, one for me and maybe next year for hubby.

Pattern: Thorpe

Made for: Little Man

Size: 20 inch/medium  it is a little big on Little Man but this way he will be able to use it next year as well

Dates: Jan 31-Feb 1, 2009, very quick knit

Yarns: Universal Yarn Classic Chunky in Flannel & Navy

Needles: 9

Notes: The first couple rows are a bit finicky, i actually found it easier to work on 3 Dps for 4 rows or so until i had enough sts to move to having 4 dps to work off of.

Pattern is well written and moves along quickly.  It is quite addicting-i already chose the yarn from my stash for mine but i haven’t started knitting it yet-i have some other things to finish first.

For the foodies out there here is a picture of Hubby’s first sushi that he made this weekend:

Well i am off to play with my guy and Tomorrow we are going to Elmo Grows Up Hope you all have a great weekend-Hopefully after this weekend i will be able to reveal who the black and white paw belongs to.