FO Pembroke vest & Turkey hat

Just in time for Thanksgiving!  Known affectionately as Turkey Day around this house, I saw this hat pattern and had to make it for Destructo-boy to celebrate this holiday devoted to eating.  I even finished the Pembroke vest I had started for him to wear on Thanksgiving that I was knitting along with some other members of the Knitting For Boys group on Ravelry.

I lucked out with the color, it's called honey but it looks just like perfectly roasted turkey skin.  The hat was kind of a pain to knit, especially the decreases, I really had to pay attention to keep the goosebump pattern looking right.  But the effect is perfect, it really does look like turkey skin.  It took awhile for me to get to the legs, after fighting with the decreases I wasn't in a real big hurry to do so again on the legs.  It took three tries to get it right.  I started by making the turkey leg seperately with the intent of sewing it onto the hat.  For this I followed the patterns stitch counts and wow did it turn out small!  It was kind of like seeing quail legs on a duck, much too little.  I started again, this time increasing the stitch count by following this modification and tried the technique of picking up the stitches on the hat.  Unfortunately this time I started much too high on the hat, sigh, rip, rip, rip...  I started on last time a little lower and it worked perfectly, so happy with the results!  The boy seems pretty happy with it too.

Turkey hat specs:
Chicken Viking hat by Sarah Mundy, available online from Aloha Media

needle:  US 5
yarn:  Lion Brand Vanna's Choice

The vest was actually a really quick knit, I was surprised when I was suddenly done.  I talked about knitting up the back here, for the front I followed the same modifications as for the back.  Once I had the two pieces sewn together it was time for the finishing of the ribbing along the neckline and the armholes.  Prompted by some questions and comments amongst the people participating in the KAL I decided to look into doing some shaping on my ribbing.  For the armholes I did the following:  on round three I K1, P1, K2tog, P2tog, then knit in pattern until only 6 stitches were left, then I K2tog, P2tog, K1, P1.  This resulted in the ribbing snugging in against the body a little better instead of flaring out.  For the neckline I was inspired by the neckline shaping of the Keene vest, so on rounds 2 & 4 of the neckline ribbing I did a S2KP over the center stitch and the stitches just before and after it. This resulting a much neater looking ribbing methinks.  I certainly like it and the boy seems to be happy with it especially since he grabbed it and ran off to cuddle it once it was done.  Did I mention my kids like it when I knit for them?!

Pembroke Specs:
Pembroke vest by Kristen Kapur pattern available online in Petite Purls, Summer 2009

needle:  US 7 & US 5
yarn: Encore worsted tweed by Plymouth yarn

First of Many ER Visits...

Destructo-boy fell today, prompting my very first 911 call, and my first trip to the emergency room.  We always knew he would be the one of our kids to go there first being the Dangermouse that he is, I just wasn't expecting it this soon, and while Mister Vonkysmeed was away for the weekend too (although I should have known to be on high alert because things always happen that way don't they!).  What started as a nice little photo shoot with the kids to update my Ravelry projects page turned into a screaming bloody mess. 

See, all I wanted were some pictures of my handknits actually being worn, so I got the kids dressed up all nice, grabbed my camera and started shooting.  Destructo-boy started getting all giggly, spinning in circles to make himself dizzy and ended up falling against the back of the couch.  Now mind you, this is an upholstered couch with the frame well hidden under fabric, who knew the back of a couch was dangerous?  He immediately started crying and I scooped him up as the hit was quite audible, then when the screaming became frantic I got my first good look...I swear it looked like he was crying blood (has someone been reading trashy vampire novels?).  I guess faces bleed heavily as his previous bad injury was tearing the upper labial frenulum (the piece of skin holding the upper lip to the gum) when Lil' Miss knocked him down last year, and boy did that bleed!  No need for an er visit that day, a quick call to the pediatrician reassured me there was nothing they could do for that one. 

But this one. well as I couldn't tell how bad the damage was, and my brain was screaming 'BLOOD!  Blood, blood, blood!' combined with a fear that his eye might be involved I grabbed a towel to hold pressure on the wound and then the phone.  Do you have any clue how hard it is to hear a 911 operator whilst holding a shrieking child?  Yeah, it's hard.  She kept yelling at me and I couldn't hear much of it, until I managed to locate a pacifier, then sudden quiet.  I suddenly realized it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared if he calmed down with just the binky.  But I needed someone to look at it before I was willing to transport him, I'd rather be safe than sorry with my kids! 

Lil' Miss was very excited when the firetruck pulled up in front of the house, I was just glad to have someone to look at it.  By then the bleeding had mostly stopped and they advised me to get him to the hospital for some stitches, but put on some steri-strips to hold it together until we got there.  And once there, well, we waited for awhile, and then we waited some more.  Did I mention I hate waiting?  Of course when they were ready to see him he had just fallen asleep in my arms, figures. 

For the examination and the eventual glueing procedure they swaddled him, mind you this kid didn't really like to be swaddled as an infant so he really wasn't having any of it now (especially not while being held on his back on top of me, who was also holding his legs in between mine, boy can that kid struggle!).  I thought he was loud before but this volume was pretty hairy!  So, they superglued it shut, as it turns out the cut was too shallow for stitches but too deep to be left as is, so glue to the rescue!  Along with some more steri-strips to hold it all together.  I just hope it doesn't scar too badly, I think hoping for no scar is a bit much, let's just keep it small okay powers that be?  And no more ER visits for awhile too, I don't think my heart can take another one too soon!

Costumes for Halloween

 Why oh why did I decide to make them myself rather than just buying them?!  Hmm, maybe because I am an idiot?  Or maybe because I'd feel guilty being a stay at home mom if I didn't?  Regardless of why, I decided to do it and boy am I sorry!  It has probably ended up costing about the same to sew the costumes for the kids as it would to simply purchase them already done.  Then besides the money spent is the vast amount of time involved, it takes quite a bit of time to cut out the fabric, sew it, press it, finish it...  Although, the kids get something really personalized out of the deal.

Lil' Miss has decided she wants to be Super Girl for Halloween, now before you get all excited this is not the Super Girl of Superman fame, she came up with this idea independently.  Here's the best part, when I asked her what her superpower was (because most heroes have special powers dont'cha know!) she informed me that Super Girl brings rainbows to people.  Yes, rainbows.  And what is special about that exactly, well it keeps changing.  At first she brought rainbows to teach people their colors, but now it has morphed into being a kind of replicator (where the food comes from in Star Trek for you non-geeks) that pops out fruits and veggies with special rainbow dots on them.  Does my kid have an imagination or what?!

Since every hero needs a nemesis (now imagine that word being used correctly by a 5 year old playing with her My Little Ponies and you have some insight into my world!) Super Girl is faced with the catastrophic powers of Destructo-boy!  Yes, we the parental units are really imaginative, aren't we.  Seriously, with a nickname like that how could he be called anything else?  With the window rapidly closing on how many years we get to dress them in coordinating outfits I like to take advantage of it as I can.

Sadly, we the adults don't really get to play along this year as we have in years past.  Lil' Miss has always had an entourage with her, Mister Vonkysmeed and I, Grumpy, Chatty-Cathy, and Kako Grikor all tag along with her on the special day, and after the first year we have all dressed up right along with her.  I think her Alice in Wonderland year was a favorite of the neighborhood, I was the Cheshire Cat, The guys were all cards, and Chatty-Cathy dressed up as the Red Queen.  I guess we'll all just be mild-mannered citizens according to Mister Vonkysmeed, at least the kids are happy, isn't that what really matters?

WIP: Pembroke vest

This was a planned project, actually queued it quite some time ago that has ended up being a KAL (knit-a-long) in the Knitting For Boys group on Ravelry.  A KAL that I somehow seem to be nominally in charge of, how did that happen exactly?  Not sure, but I think it may have something to do with all of us interested in doing a project together but no one knowing quite how to begin.  I made a few suggestions and ended up setting up the discussion thread that resulted in my personal choice winning.  No, I did not cheat, I simply waited and hoped!  Once we had picked out the pattern I happily set  a discussion for us to all to support one another as we worked on our creations for our little guys.  It is fun to see what others are doing, especially any solutions they may have found for any problems with the pattern or suggestions to improve it.  Destructo-boy will be the lucky little guy to eventually wear this vest, hopefully by turkey day as that was my original plan. 

For my Pembroke I decided to mirror the cables, I think it is just so much nicer looking that way.  This involved some white out to redraw some symbols on the chart, but it is coming out beautifully.  Unfortunately I didn't really pay attention to one of the most common comments/notations on the pattern, that it runs small.  Meaning even if you attain gauge as noted, the finished garment will be smaller than that indicated in the pattern.  I realized it was coming out a little short after I did the cast off stitches for the armholes.  Since for ths pattern you need to start on a particular row for the cables to line up properly with the v-neck, I couldn't just add more rows.  To make the body longer I would have to tear it all out and begin over.  Yeah, not happening.  Instead I added on 1/4" to the length of the armhole and consigned myself to the fact that it may be a one year garment.  Oh well, at least I already have a worthy little one that hand me downs can go to!

Then I had a little problem at the armhole cast off for the shoulders, they came out totally uneven, in the way of six stitches uneven.  So I adjusted the cast off for the shoulders so they would be even, on the neckline shaping row, I cast off 4 stitches as in the pattern and then knit 12 stitches (13 live stitches now) put these 13 stitches on a stitch holder, cast off to 16 stitches from the end with 1 stitch on the right needle, total 17 stitches live. Pretty much followed the pattern from there and the two shoulders are now even.

Next to cast on the front and hope it goes as well!

Growing Pains

They are more than just physical aches.  My lovely neighbor, The Child Whisperer, clued me into the simple fact that when a child is going through a growth spurt they start acting out at the same time.  I just realized after seeing how Lil' Miss has almost outgrown her leggings purchased for her at the start of summer that the major attitude problems we were experiencing over the past two weeks must have been due to a little growth spurt. 

In spite of realizing the why, the simple existence of the 'tude is beyond aggravating.  Ever have a cute little blonde blue eyed 5 year old talk back at you?  Doesn't matter how cute that child may be, you still want to grab them by the scruff of the neck and pitch them out the nearest window.  The fun is multiplied when you realize that elements of the 'tude are your own annoying habits being reflected back at you (yes, I really regret some of the choice phrases I have popped out with now that it's too late!).  Thankfully it only last a few weeks and then she gets back to her normal self, but nw we get the fun new tricks she is learning from her friends at school to deal with!

Not to be left out Destucto-boy has entered the terrible twos.  Lil' Miss didn't get there until she turned three, but the boy is already there.  It is completely normal for the age, but sometimes it is just so incredibly tiresome, especially when you are trying to get somewhere and he insists on doing everything himself.  Then when he doesn't get his way he starts screaming at such a volume as to put a Howler monkey to shame.  Some days I wonder why it ever occurred to me that having children was a good idea, then one of them gives me a hug or kiss and I remember.

Mister Vonkysmeed and I are not looking forward to the teen years, I don't know how we will survive!