One Stitch At A Time

That's how you knit a mile. Or in this case a bunny. Remember this from a few posts ago:

It's the bottom of a bunny head. But I bet you got that figured out on your own.

It eventually had a little bunny body and some limbs. I got tons of practice on DPNs (double pointed needles) and picking up stitches on this project.

It looks like some sort of medieval torture technique at one time. Here's the start of the second ear.

From another angle. I admit, I was a bit intimidated at the description of how to start the ears. You pick up stitches to place on four needles, which are very close and oddly placed, then use a fifth needle to knit. It was actually a lot easier than I had built it up to be in my mind (as with most things knitting I've come to discover) and went along quite nicely.

And VOILA! A bunny. I think it took me 8 days. It would have gone much faster if I was able to get in more knitting time, as it was we were preparing for a visit from Rob's dad and step-mom and I kept having to put off my knitting.

Not the best lighting but a pretty cute face.

Now in the arms of his boy. I hope these two will be friends for a long, long time.

Currently on the needles:

• An elephant for Zion (same designer that wrote the pattern for Elias' bunny, Ysolda Teague)
• A washcloth for Gabe with Yoshi on it (Yoshi is a character form the Mario games)
• A shawlette/scarf for me
• A gift that I can't name until it's been given
• A lace shawl that has been hibernating for a while but deserves mention anyway
  

Happy Birthday Party Day!

That's what we say in our house when we celebrate a birthday not on the birthday. Today was Zion's birthday party day. I am just so impressed by what a young lady she is turning out to be (when she's not burping or trouncing her brothers). She's FOUR (well, almost)!

Behind that cute smile is a super funny, sweet girl with a ton of energy and a huge creative streak.

And today we sang "Happy Birthday" and she blew out her candles (funny story, I only put 3 candles on her cake until our little friend Isaac said "Isn't she turning 4?" I'm such a dork.)

Gideon got to enjoy his cake with soy ice cream. We've had success in introducing soy into his diet with no noticeable effects - yay!

First Zion wanted a unicorn party. Then she asked for a kitten party. Finally, while we were at the party supply store she settled on a Hello Kitty party.

Our little friend Sarah enjoying the wand that came with the Tinkerbell jammies (which you don't know about because you haven't seen yet).

Those jammies.

We and her Grandma Marlene were able to treat Zion to some new clothes and winter coats. She loves the jammies. We'll see if she'll wear the coats. This girl seems impervious to cold.

Zion got another addition to her collection of Disney Princess dolls. (Funny story. Her first doll came early by accident when she was visiting Tantie Jamie who had purchased Belle for Zion's birthday and forgot to hide the doll when Zion visited in August. I guess dorkdom runs in the family. Just kidding, Jamie!)

Since there was no doll waiting for Zion's birthday Jamie and family gave Zion The Aristocats movie and a stuffed Marie kitty. I think she likes them. :)

Gideon flipped over the kitty, too. uh oh I sense some tension in the future.

"It's so fluffy!"

Ah ha ha ha! I got the kitty!

Watching The Aristocats after the presents were all opened.

Joey, our littlest guest (Jamae's puppy), finally got Towzer's attention through the glass door.

Aw, someone's all tuckered out.

A close up of cute little Joey.

Zion went to bed in her Tinkerbell jammies, with her new unicorn Pillow Pet, the Ariel doll, and the stuffed Marie kitty (wresting it from Gideon's grip with my help) and she said she loved her birthday party and she was so sincere when she said it. I just love that girl. My princess.

Before He's Four Months

I should post some photos of my little-big three-month old. I have no idea his stats since he hasn't had a doctor appointment since his two-month check so there's nothing to report there. Just infinite cuteness.

Grins and giggles.
He's got a wicked awesome laugh. I did get it on video. Now I just need to get the video off the camera. Small details.

Stare down.
A little fuzzy but still cute. Taken in our hotel room a couple weekends ago when we went to my cousin's wedding.

Ain't The The Truth.
Not to much more to be said about this picture.

Zzzzz...
Nap time with daddy. Our foot rest makes a handy little hammock for babies. Elias, Gideon and Zion have all napped here. We didn't have the couch when Gabe was little.

...zzzzzzzzz.
Aw, he looks like such a boy here and not a baby. And he looks a lot like Gideon I think. We have started to call those two twins separated at conception, there are so many things alike between them.

Merry Last Christmas And More

This blog post isn't nearly as overdue as some of these projects were.

These slippers were my gift to my sister for LAST Christmas. I hope they were worth the wait.

Close up of the cute button (which I can take no credit for, she picked it out).

My attempt at drawing coffee cups on the bottoms. A cute detail (I hope anyway) but also the puffy paint makes them non-skid.

Another belated Christmas gift, a jewelry frame for Jamae. It is black lace over white satin to match her room colors. I even used her actual wall paint to repaint the frame.

Last year two of us gals in MOPS knitted bibs for moms who had babies (well, for the babies but you know what I mean). We ran out of girl bibs though and one mom had twin girls at the end of the year. She also moved to an area that has more extreme temperatures than here so I offered to knit hats instead.

Two summers ago we went to a local art festival where a couple of women were demonstrating spinning and selling some of their yarn. I picked up this soft, chunky yarn which has been sitting in a basket waiting for me to be inspired by a pattern. Found one! Now it's a cowl to keep my neck warm during this winter which is predicted to be very, very cold.

Speaking of warm necks, I knit this one for my cousin, Noah who got married last weekend. He and his bride, Crystal, have a little farm with a bunch of critters so they'll need to keep warm this winter, too. This one is his.

This one is hers.

I picked natural wooden buttons to go with the vine pattern.

And this is what I'm working on now. It doesn't look like much now but it will be a bunny for Elias. I'm getting a lot of practice at picking up stitches which is where you create live stitches off of an existing piece of knitting. The whole project is knit my picking up stitches and knitting the bunny parts one at a time and stuffing it as you go. I can't wait to finish this one!

So Yeah...

... once I was on this roll and posted three posts in one day! Wow! That was cool. Too bad I flaked right after that and then didn't post again for nearly a month. Sheesh, that's almost a third of Elias' life.

Of course, my lack of posting lately could have something to do with Elias. Rob traveled for work twice. Naturally this means Elias' sleeping habits had to go down the drain. They, and we, still haven't recovered. I've also been on an outing or two with the kids, MOPS has started up again, I started a Zumba class which has a Bible study after (Me, Myself and Lies. I'm only two chapters in but I already highly recommend it) as well as AWANA and our Life Group (just another name for Bible study, Rob and I attend this together while Gabe and Zion are in AWANA) and last weekend we all took a little road trip to attend my cousin, Noah's, wedding (congrat, Noah and Crystal), not to mention that I finished FOUR knitting projects. Can we say busy with a capital "B"?

So we haven't dropped off the face of the Earth but I'm also really tired today. On top of not getting enough sleep right now Zion has a nasty cold and Gabe is complaining of a sore stomach.

I need a vacation.

More later.