Celebrating Fall

Summer was a whirlwind of insanity. A never ending parade of chaos and whining and sweaty kids demanding hugs and difficult bed times because the sun was still awake.

And then Fall crept in like a beautiful tiger of red and gold and brown. Darkness comes just in time for bed time, the days are finally cooling off, knitting is even more of a joy because now holding warm yarn is nice and comfy.

So we decided to celebrate Fall.

 We colored in two sheets of cardstock with all the crayons of Autumn colors. Reds and oranges and greens and yellow and brown.

Then, while the kids put the crayons away I used a paper punch to make a bunch of hearts. I wanted leaves, but I didn't have a leaf punch and wasn't about to interrupt a lazy Saturday to go buy one.

 While they looked at the hearts I quickly cut out two trees from scrap book paper I had in the closet. I could have drawn trees, but this seemed like fun. I glued it down and set them to work putting their leaves on the trees. We tried glue sticks, but a dot of white glue worked out better for us.

 

I think it went pretty well!

 

 And I sure love the end result!


I've been knitting like crazy too. So much I have been wanting to make! I finished a shawl this summer that I need to get some pictures of, and a blanket for my cousin that I need to ship and a HUGE white blanket for a friend along with many other small projects in between.

 Also I will have to post an update soon when I get my sweater for Liam finished. It is my first time knitting clothing other than hats or scarves or that cape for Evie.

All in all, YAY for Fall! We are so happy to have it here!

The Last Trip of The Summer - California

Last summer we went to California to visit my family there. My mom and my grandma and my aunt all live there in the Bay Area, along with a few friends who mean the world to me. I decided to repeat that this trip this summer and will probably do it again next summer as well.

We left on a Wednesday and made it down to Grants Pass and stayed the night with my dad and step mom, then finished up the next day.  I am glad we went because it turns out my mom had been in a minor car accident that left her with some vertigo and she needed my help.

In between helping out my mom, we did get in a few activities. Beach trips and park trips and visiting my grandma and swimming and so much else. I love seeing my family.

 In Grants Pass, after I let them out of the car, the kids ran wild around the house. Who can blame them after 5 hours in a car?

 Shasta Lake was really low. The drought in CA is very real and a bit on the scary side.

 One of the first things we did upon reaching California was take my mom to the chiropractor and then stop for some cupcakes while she was getting fixed.

 Mama's neighbor has chickens, we went over to get a few eggs and show the kiddos what chickens are like. They were very interested in them and very gentle with them.

 You can't be in Santa Cruz without seeing the little local aquarium, it is small but fun. The Marine Discovery Center was just the right size for these two.

 We spent a morning at my favorite beach in all the world, Bean Hollow's Pebble Beach. The kids and I had fun with the rocks and the waves and the little caves.

 Liam enjoyed climbing the tree in Great Grandma's backyard. Visiting her was hard. I wanted to take a picture of her, but I don't want to remember her stuck in a bed unable to walk. I chose not to photograph her that way. I don't think I will regret it.

 We spent a morning with my Michelle. This girl is one of the most loyal people in all the world and has been my friend for a long time. She loves my two little ones and has a lot of fun with them. She showed them the tide pools and one of her favorite beaches. I miss her.

 On my last day there I stopped by the reservoir at the bottom  of Hwy 17, the water level is the lowest I have ever seen it. It felt more than a little heartbreaking, but also made me glad to be heading home to my beloved rivers in Portland.

Our last stop was seeing some friends in Dublin, CA. We met them by chance in the park and it turned out that the girl went to the same school Liam was going to be starting at, but then they had to move. A few hours with them was a great morning and a good way to end the summer trip.

And of course I had to stop at a yarn store in Santa Cruz and pick up a little something for me.....

Yummy! I have plans for these!

Starting the Garden

Finally the worst of the storms have come to an end here in the great Pacific Northwest. Spring is in full swing here and heading into summer.

I decided to try to make a new seed starting tray this year. I saw something online about using old toilet paper tubes cut in half, so I saved all of ours through the winter. Ended up only using a few because I am not going to make a big garden this year.

We had a little downpour expose the seeds, I need to put more dirt over them.

I am lacking the funds to put in raised beds, so we are just doing containers this year. I bought 8 tubs from a store and while 7 of them ended up in the yard, one of them ended up in my living room filled with yarn. Hmmmm.... I wonder if I can grow yarn!

I am keeping it small and going to try sharing space. This coming weekend I am buying tomatoes from the tomato guy at our local farmers market. He has all kinds of fun types. I started green beans, cucumber and yellow squash. I put my carrot seeds in a container and once the tomatoes are in I am going to put in lettuce to share the space with them.

I am super excited for the growing season. My apple trees are already making little tiny furry green apples, my cherry trees might actually give me a few cherries this year and my pear tree is once again infected with rust. Which  makes me sad and I am thinking I may need to tear it out and put something else in. I do not want to spray it with all the toxic chemicals needed to kill off that fungus, but the rust gets so bad it eats all the baby pears.

Blueberry blossoms

Cherries

 There is a robin nesting right outside my bedroom window, my friend wants to turn my rhubarb into jam, the kids have been enjoying the sunshine and I am glad to be getting outside. Finally.

We got out the dehydrator and did bananas and apples for snacks, but they didn't last long. The kids ate them all up in 2 days!!!!! I will have to make more.

 
And we emptied out our rock tumbler and then loaded it up with some new stones. I am just tumbling the ones that came with the rock tumbler. I think the kiddos will enjoy having them to look at.

My grandma is doing well, her physical therapy is progressing and she is working hard to get back to being able to walk. I am working on a gift for her that I finished the main part of but still have the details to work on. Glad to know that she is on the mend though.

Got to meet with Liam's teacher at his school and talk to her about his progress and what we need to work on over the summer. I am excited to hear how well he is doing in school and how far he has come since September. I will be glad though to have a few months off where I do not have to get him dressed and out the door every morning!

Yay for SUMMER!

DYE! DYE!

I have always been fascinated with dying fabric and yarn with natural dyes. Those made from plants or tree bark or nut hulls. Sadly, it is the middle of winter and nothing useful is available for the colors I want to dye with.

When a project came up that I could not find the right color for, I started looking at dyes. My green dye was a failure because the color on the bottle was about 25 shades OFF from the color it actually was. Poopy. Big Poopy.

I did some reading and tried to dye with food dyes, I used some Wilton frosting color. Again, no good (and now I am very low on Leaf Green dye).

I read some more and found that I was missing something. Soda Ash and Urea are apparently needed to dye cotton. A trip to the craft store will remedy that, but it is not something I am going to do today. Today is a stay at home in pajamas kind of day.

Well, I stared in disappointment as the beautiful green washed out of my yarn during rinsing and felt defeated. Then I remembered that I had bought a wool blend to dye.

I got out my skein and laid it out and, tied it up so that it would not get tangled. I set it to soak in a water and vinegar bath for an hour like recommended. Next I prepared my dye.

Now, I was not sure if I was going to write about this event, so I didn't take any pictures of the yarn prep, but I will next time I dye. I DID use the concept presented here on Instructables though I knew I wanted it to shift colors, so I put my dye in one jar so I was only dipping part of it. You could do the same with a bowl though if you had more yarn.

I laid out sheets of plastic wrap on an old cookie sheet, drained the vinegar from my yarn and gently pressed the water out it so it was damp but not soaking. Next, I dipped all but 4 inches of the skein into the jar of dye. I pulled it out slowly and tipped up the plastic wrap, the bottom of the skein stayed in the dye for about 10 minutes. Once it looked about right I pulled it out of the jar, wrapping it up in the plastic wrap as I went, gently curling the plastic wrapped yarn into a sort of dog poo looking pile with the darkest part on the bottom of the pile.



 I set that in a glass bowl, dark part down and nuked it in the microwave for 3 minutes to heat it. It is now dangling in my sink, the plastic wrap tied to my faucet to keep the colors from bleeding UP. I have to let it cool all the way without touching it or I run the risk of felting the yarn a bit. I don't want that to happen!

Next I rinsed it out and WITHOUT wringing it, set it somewhere to dry. I used my bath tub, hanging it off the shower head.

It wound up being too light in the end, so I repeated the process in a new batch of dye and it came out perfect.

This time though, my daughter got to it once it was dry and I couldn't get a picture of the skein looking pretty.

And then I wrapped it all up into a ball.

I have a project in mind for this, I just need to learn a bit more about fair isle knitting! 
I wish I could fully describe how soft this yarn is. how perfectly the dye came out, how amazing the colors look. I would totally recommend dying yarn to anyone who wanted to try it. You get a one of a kind color that no one else in the world will ever have, because you made it yourself.