Grandkids – Page 4 – No Idle hands here

Puzzle ball

Chanukkah is around the corner. I have gifts for the older grandkids, but what should I do for the two month old. He already has a quilt, sweaters and other handmade items. He also has plenty of clothes. Being a grandma, I had to make him something.

On other blogs I found a ball that I had made years ago when my boys were little, I called it the orange segment ball, I’ve found it called the Amish puzzle ball.Here I’ve cut out my segments.Sewn them together and …started the assembly process.And like magic, this row of orange segments…becomes a ball.In another month or two Wesley will discover his hands. This is perfect to hold, cuddle and of course put into his mouth.A wonderful quick project to make as a baby gift. I got the instructions here. I know I’ll be making more as gifts, so many of my friends are having babies and grand babies. Bring them on!!!

Leah

Baking

I don’t bake anymore, I used to bake years ago, breads, cakes. pies from scratch. Now I have a great daughter in law and a close friend who are always happy to show up with baked goods.

But of course I break that rule when Aytan comes to spend the night. Very important to taste as you go. No, we didn’t bake from scratch, thank you Betty Crocker.Saba has to get in on the fun.We called these the Elk-Mandy cupcakes. Elk (uncle) doesn’t have a mustache but he likes the theme and Mandys’ (aunt) business is all about the lashes. Actually, these should be called the Westley cupcakes, since it’s a combination of what both of his parents like.Add some sprinkles and it was take them home to mom and dad. I did eat one, the making was much more fun than the eating.

Leah

Spiderman!

These days when a cartoon movie comes out, along side all the usual paraphernalia, fabric companies will buy the rights and print fabric to match. The best place to buy such fabric is JoAnn’s, the independent stores can’t be bothered to carry the fads.

Yes my grandson is still enamored with Spiderman, so I grabbed two prints.And started my little sweatshop.Practice makes almost perfect, the collars went in easily as did the sleeves.I had recently taken the craftsy class, 40 techniques every sewer should know. Btw, can I just state that I am perfectly fine with the term, sewer? I really dislike sewist – it seems so contrived and elitist, a younger generation has discovered what women have been doing since the dawn of time and they feel the need to give it a new name? Anyway, one of the best tips was to use a water soluble stabilizer when sewing button holes.I have always struggled with the buttonhole, yes my machine has about 8 types and it’s own dedicated foot, but for some reason after the first buttonhole (always done on scrap fabric), they get wonky and unruly. Using the stabilizer really really helped! Yes, I still had a wonky buttonhole (I’ve learned to reset the stitch before every buttonhole – that helps some).Finished shirt!

I went over to deliver them and Aytan announced (as he had when I showed him the fabric) that the red is his and the blue is for his dad.He even went and put the blue shirt in Dad’s closet. No, he wouldn’t put the shirt on at the time, so no photos of him modeling it, but we did take a bike ride down the street to the yogurt shop.

Leah

The Bris

Eight days after he was born it was time for Westley’s Bris – circumcision. Traditionally it’s done as a large celebration, since it’s all about welcoming a new member to the community – so the community needs to be present.
House filling up with guests.The Mohel (man who does the circumcision) discussing issues withe the parents.Grandma Pat bringing him in.Uncle Yochanan is the Sandak, I guess that translates to Godfather.Aytan and Westley, it was just five years ago the Dr. Andy performed the same ceremony for Aytan.Those looking down are looking at Shira, to be honest, no one wants to see the actual cut. A few blessings.And it’s done. Yochanan had to watch, it all happened within seconds on the board on his lap. Yishai was called the bartender, he is holding wine infused gauze, yup, start them off right away with the wine – it makes it all better. Aytan was close by, not seeing the actual procedure, but his reaction was: oww! That hurts. Back with his parents, quiet and happy, he slept the rest of the evening. A Dr. friend, a urologist, told me that the home setting is so much easier on the baby vs. the hospital. He is surrounded by love, by joy and happiness and of course a little wine.

And then we ate, because that is what every Jewish event includes, food! I was too busy to take any pictures, no one left hungry!

Leah

Flower sweater done

It’s finished! This is the truer color, not sure why I’m getting different colors in my pictures. These are ‘craft buttons’ from Joanns. They are wood and are dyed. I was concerned that maybe the color would run, so I soaked them in boiling water, there was a little bit of crocking (when the color bleeds out). But I think now they are ok.I steam blocked this with my iron. As you can see I blocked the ribbing on the body of the sweater but left the cuffs alone. One ribbing is blocked it can be unblocked and I want the sleeve ribbing to hug the arm.At first I couldn’t get her to try it on – TOO HOT! Well she’s right about that, then once she put it on she declined to take it off – that means she loves it.How’s that for a modeling pose! I was thrilled with the knitting and the end result and am very happy that this can be knit in many sizes, I will be making more – either for Shira as she grows or for other girls.

Leah

Final gifts before grandson is born

Of course once he’s here there will be a slew of new handmade items. Right now, it’s get the nursing cover in before he’s born.This time I chose quiet colors, the idea when nursing in public is not to draw attention to yourself.Inserting some boning ensures that Mommy can peak down at the baby.There are many instructions online, this one included a pocket! Pockets are always great.D-rings to fit the strap.Mom modeling the cover-up, right now it’s covering a very big belly! Soon, he’s gonna show up soon!Hey, I chose the right colors, matches her dress perfectly.

Leah

Flower Cardigan

I love knitting friends – we really enable each other’s habit. In this case it’s a friend I haven’t met yet in real life – but one of these days I intend to!

Vivian was working on Flower Cardigan and I had to run to Ravelry and buy the pattern. This is what I cast on as soon as I finished the baby sweater.Starting from the 6 petal flower.

The designer, Ewelina Murach, has created a whole line of patterns based on this flower. As someone who is addicted to Hexagons right now, I can attest that the six sided shape (hexagon) is a wonderful design as a jumping off point.

The sections held by waste yarn will be the sleeves and neckline. The rest is the body of the sweater. This is much more impressive than it looks, I knit this on my 15 flight home from Israel. Luckily, with the help of Ambien I did sleep 7 of those hours, but for most of the rest of the time, I was knitting. The plane was dark for the whole trip, We left at 1 am Israel time and basically chased the night all the way to LA. as we were coming in for landing the sun was rising behind us in the east. Yes, seeing a sunrise in an airplane is pretty spectacular, I was in the middle seat – so to try and get a picture just wasn’t going to work well.

All this to say, I knit this section with a tiny clip on light and I’m proud to say – no mistakes. The flower itself was complete before I boarded the plane, but still working the increases correctly is quite an accomplishment.Home and working on the left front. I can’t stretch the work out because my needle is only so long. This gives an idea of the front. I am knitting this out of Cascade Elysian, a super wash wool and acrylic yarn. I LOVE this yarn. It is wonderful to knit with and the stitch definition is amazing. Oh, this is a sweater for my granddaughter, so of course it has to be machine washable. Love it when I find the perfect yarn for the perfect project. I would be happy to knit myself a sweater out of this yarn – it is that good.

Leah

Travel knitting

I’ve heard people refer to knitting on planes – sky knitting. Well with a 13 hour flight to Israel and a 15 hour flight back (trade winds!) I got a lot of knitting done.This little sweater for baby Westley – done! I blame knitting on an airplane on the fact that this little boy sweater closes like the girls sweater. Yes, I should have reversed the fold for a boy. Once the mistake was made I just left it. I’m sure Westley won’t know or care how his sweater is wrapped.Back viewThis is an easy cute knit. Although, even for babies I find knitting a sweater in sock weight yarn a little tedious. For my grandson, of course it was worth the effort.I wasted no time in casting on a sweater for Shira, the color is off here, it is actually more purple. More information on this sweater in another post.

Leah

Knitting for babies

It is so much fun knitting for babies, the projects are small, the babies don’t move much, so the item doesn’t get destroyed quickly.I bought this pattern on the LA Yarn Crawl, the multi-colored yarn was from my stash, I ordered a coordinating blue.The pattern is easy and well written. Half the sweater is already done.Here I’ve started the left front. I do like the color combination. The pattern actually called for two contrasting, patterned yarns. I’ll be making myself a cowl with that technique, for a baby sweater, I’m preferring the subtlety of a solid.Just to give a little idea of the sweater construction.The only reason for this photo is because I am finally ‘getting’ the use of the camera to create the fade out affect. I found a wonderful You Tube tutorial on my specific camera – so now it’s just practice – practice – practice!

Leah

Westley’s quilt is finished!

Quilted, washed, bound and photographed. All it’s needs is a label with my name and his birthdate. Won’t know that till October.I glue bind my quilts these days. Notice how sharp the corner is.

For a while I using the sewing machine for the whole binding process. I discovered that there were always section that didn’t get caught in the stitching so I had to go back and fix them manually. I’m back to simply hand sewing the binding on the reverse side of the quilt.

Clean and square corner.

This ended up being larger than a crib quilt but smaller than a twin. I’m hoping this really gets used, put on the floor, whatever – as long as it’s not put away as an heirloom.This was not a quilt to do fancy quilting on. Both sides have very busy fabric and you really can’t see the quilting pattern.Looks very nice on the backdrop of the newly stained fence. Yes, I took time out from fiber-crafts to stain the fence. Since I did it myself and saved money on paying someone else to do it, I feel I can reward myself with more fabric.

Next quilt is going to be for me!

Leah