Tuesday, July 21, 2009

stay-cation and W.I.P Wednesday

The kids and I are taking a mini stay-cation this week. I have more vacation time built up at work than Paul does so I generally end up doing something like this a couple of times per year. This week, the kids are going to Vacation Bible School at a local church where our next door neighbor (and beloved babysitter) is working. The VBS, which has always been pretty spectacular as VBS's go, is castle-themed this year which has been a huge hit with the kids as you can see below.


All of the sudden, we have knights in the driveway.


We have been spending every afternoon doing low-key, local activities, like visiting the library, bowling, and doing activities around the house that we enjoy but never have enough time to do as often as we'd like. Elizabeth picked a second crop of 5 blueberries off of our tiny blueberry bush.


Paulie's been reading outside quite a bit. The weather here has been unseasonably cool for the last week, hovering in the upper 70s-low 80s. We are thoroughly enjoying that aspect of the stay-cation!


This afternoon we did some felting in cookie cutters.



And we made cinnamon twists for tonight's dessert.





As for W.I.P Wednesday, I've been busy with a couple of projects over the last week. The vest below is my first non-hat, non-scarf type project, and I'm thrilled with how it turned out. Made with super-soft merino wool from Linda's lovely selection, the vest will probably fit Finn perfectly next winter which is exactly what I was hoping for. I have yet to receive the adorable buttons I ordered from etsy to finish up the left shoulder, but I'm excited nonetheless.


I also played around with the half-skein of Rowan Colourscape Chunky that I had left from Elizabeth's other hat and legwarmers. I knit up this hat loosely on size 11 needles, then washed the hat in the washing machine through one hot wash cycle, just barely felting it but shrinking it the perfect amount.


Elizabeth thought the felted hat was so cool that she wore the new hat and legwarmers with her sundress all morning.



11 comments:

  1. Love the needlefelting with cookie cutters! Your felted hat is absolutely adorable. You are selling these, right? Too cute. What a nice summer. :)

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  2. How fun!

    And yes, I loved the ball of fluff that escaped cleanup. lol

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  3. Great job on both the hat and the sweater! I remember that you started knitting around the same time I did, but I'm not yet beyond the scarf stage yet. :) Enjoy the rest of your stay-cation!

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  4. Sounds like you are all having a great week, I love how the vest for Finn turned out and the hat and legwarmers are beautiful, I think I must knit that hat...

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  5. That vest turned out great and so did that hat. I'm loving the colorway of the yarn for the vest!

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  6. look at all that fun! looks great! that vest is so cute! i can't wait to see it with the buttons and on him <3

    i wanted ot let you know i'm not ignoring your tag! i'm hoping to post this week ;)

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  7. Isn't this weather awesome? I'm hoping we can get out in in soon-- sleep here is a bit, um, off from our trip, and nobody seems to be awake at the same time anymore.

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  8. Beautiful felted hat. Enjoy the rest of your stay-cation.

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  9. Your staycation sounds just wonderful. I just got home last evening and I'm really enjoying being home after so much traveling. Maybe I'll try out some needlefelting with the kids. Thanks for the idea!

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  10. Ha! You made me laugh about the ball of fluff : )
    What an amazing job you did on Elizabeth's felted hat and legwarmers, love it!! Ahh so you are supposed to *needle* felt in the cookie cutters! I tried wet felting ahem it came out just o.k. : )

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  11. I love the hat and sundress! Too cute.

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