Month / January 2021

by TechnicolorMom

Hug Time

Good evening, friends!

This was the last week with just one of us working while both kids are at home. It’s been crazy, to say the least, while I got as much work done as possible. Next week, we embark on a whole new adventure: both of us will be back to full time work from home, and now we have two children to care for and teach something!

Our tentative plan is to divide and conquer. Since our youngest’s crib is still in our room (he will be 5 months this week), we have semi-converted his room into an office. Since baby boy is learning how to roll from front to back and how to reach for toys, he will be well occupied in his room with a parent supervising.

Daughter’s flower garden.

For my daughter, I am currently planning for lots of Circle Time with Ms Monica and activities making beaded necklaces and flower gardens. She received the necklace and flower kits from her aunt and uncle for Christmas, and they have been a big hit.

I have gotten almost no knitting done this week. I don’t think I even picked up my needles until Friday afternoon. I am currently working on a The Snuggle Is Real cowl. The pattern is my Maxim Cyr, and I’m using a mishmash of yarns: Western Sky Knits Simply DK in New York for the main color and Madelinetosh Vintage in Tybee Island Inn for the contrast color. For the lining, I am planning to use Shibui Knits Cima in Tar held double.

Yarn for my The Snuggle is Real cowl. From left: Madelinetosh Vintage in Tybee Island Inn, Shibui Knits Cima in Tar, Western Sky Knits Simply DK in New York.

The New York and Tybee Island Inn colorways were exclusives for my local yarn shop, Eat.Sleep.Knit., a couple of years ago, and I am knitting this project as part of their Q1 Mosaic Colorwork Craft-Along. It’s going to be so squishy and soft!

Progress on The Snuggle is Real cowl.

For this project, I swapped the main color and contrast color in the mosaic part of the cowl so that the gray would be more prominent, and I’m also staggering the contrast color purl bumps instead of having them lined up. I used a crochet provisional cast on at the start.

My daughter’s new favorite movie is Trolls. Every morning she is up before dawn asking me to play “Get Back Up Again” on the hallway speaker so she can dance.

Today, she asked me to make her a “Hug Time” bracelet like the one Princess Poppy wears. I’m afraid I’m not clever enough to make it close and open when it’s time for Hug Time, but I was able to make a cute little bangle bracelet with a flower closure. It took less than half an hour to knit and crochet this little project, and it is so adorable. The whole family is getting Hug Time bracelets at her request.

Hug Time Bracelet. Pattern by me, yarn by LolaBean Yarn Co.

I used some leftover yarns for this little Cold Sheep project: LolaBean Yarn Co Bean Sprout in Cast Off Castle (pink) and Felted Forest (red). I held the fingering weights yarn double to get a DK gauge and used just under 3 g total of yarn. I’m very pleased with how well it turned out! What do you think? Shall I write up the pattern for this?

by TechnicolorMom

Hello, 2021!

Hello, fiber friends and readers! It’s been a bit, hasn’t it?

A lot of things have changed in the past two years, but not much has changed at all. We have a new baby boy! He is four and a half months old now, and he is just precious! He is starting to grab at things and hold toys now, and he loves rolling over onto his tummy, but he isn’t quite able to roll back to his back yet. He loves sitting in his Baby Bjorn Bouncer (totally unsolicited and unpaid: this is my favorite baby gear that I didn’t have with my daughter).

Me and my baby boy. He is wearing a Beloved bonnet. Pattern by TinCanKnits, Yarn by LolaBean Yarn Co.

My sister and my BFF also had new babies this year. My niece was born in April, and my “nephew” was born just two days before my son (how cool is that??) in August. I knitted a Beloved bonnet for each of them (and one for my daughter). I can confidently say that this is my favorite hat pattern ever, and it’s only a matter of time before I knit one for myself. The pattern is Beloved by TinCanKnits. For all of the ones I knit this year, I used LolaBean Yarn Co. Soy Bean (shown in ESK exclusive colorway “The Magic Yarnstalk.”) He is wearing the “baby” size, but this hat pattern ranges from newborn to adult.

My daughter is four years old, and she is growing and showing us how clever she is day by day. She knows all of her letters, lots of shapes, and quite a few numbers. She’s been following instructions to build Lego sets and showing us her creativity in building with her Lego bricks, artwork, dramatic play, and making up songs, stories, and characters. She will be starting Pre-K in the Fall, and I am sure she is looking forward to going back to school and being around other children.

I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with TechnicoolDad and our children over the last year, and we have been very privileged and able to work from home and keep the little ones at home with us. The last year certainly had trying moments for us, but nothing on the scale of what I know so many others are experiencing. Like so many others, we’ve avoided social gatherings, missed out on family weddings, and had birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas celebrations with just the four of us. We are eagerly awaiting the COVID-19 vaccine trial results for children, and we are waiting for when the vaccine will be rolled out to us. We are ok with it being a little while since there are so many other people who need to be a higher priority than us right now.

You can expect more frequent posts from me for the foreseeable future. I know you’ve heard that before, so I’ll have to prove it to you this time. I won’t keep you for long today, but I did want to share a couple of my favorite finished objects from 2020.

These are a Boxy sweater for me and a Little Boxy for my daughter. This is her second Little Boxy and my first Boxy, and I definitely plan on making more for both of us! Both patterns are by the super talented Joji Locatelli. I used Hedgehog Fibres Sock Yarn in the bright red “Sin” colorway. I love how these turned out. I wear mine all the time, and my daughter pulls hers out of her drawer whenever it is clean. Yes, we have run hers through the washing machine and dryer, though I know we shouldn’t. I knit the size 36/38″ for myself and the 4 yo size for her. The adult pattern goes from 28″ bust to 54″, and the child version goes from 6 months to 12 years.

Me and my daughter wearing our matching Boxy/Little Boxy sweaters. Patterns by Joji Locatelli, yarn by Hedgehog Fibres.

I started these in September 2020 as part of the Joji Fall KAL 2020 and for the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry, where I play as a Ravenclaw. My yarn was purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit, which is local to me but has the best online presence of any LYS that I’ve experienced. I finished both of these in November 2020 in time for the KALs after staying up until 3:00 in the morning on each of them…I tell myself I’m not doing that again!

Note: Links are provided in case you want to see more about any of them. They are all unaffiliated, and I don’t currently make any monies off of you reading or clicking. It’s just for funsies, but I love that you’re here with me!