Monthly Archive: July 2014

My Sky Blanket

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In 2012 I stumbled across a super cool knitting project, and instantly fell in love with the concept.  Simply put, you knit a row a day of a scarf using the colors of the sky that day.  Yarn is held double stranded, so you pick the two colors most prevalent (like light blue and white for a blue, cloudy sky or two strands of dark blue for a clear, dark blue sky) and knit back and forth, carrying the extra yarn up one side.  At the end of the year, you have a beautiful scarf that illustrates what the sky looked like for the whole year.  You can see the whole project, with instructions here:  Sky Scarf

I really, really wanted to make a sky scarf, but I never really found a pattern that I wanted to knit, so it eventually slipped from my mind.  At the end of last year I was browsing some knitting blogs and found where someone had a stroke of genius and used the Sky Scarf idea, but instead made it as a blanket.  I loved this idea even more, because who doesn’t love a gorgeous granny square blanket?!?!  I ran to the store and found my yarn, bought a little notebook to keep track of the sky colors every day.  (I am realistic people!  I knew I wouldn’t knit a square and sew it to the blanket every single day for a year).  We won’t talk about how far behind I am, but at least we are keeping up with the journal.

You can find the complete instructions here if you would like to make your own:  How to Knit a Sky Blanket

I am just doing the knitted garter stitch squares like she has in her instructions, but if you check out the Sky Blanket Group on Ravelry, there are people crocheting it and using other patterns for their squares, which look beautiful as well.  (For you knitters, I’m left-handed.  My needles aren’t placed there wrong.  🙂 )

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My handy dandy notebook.  😉  The kids are helping me keep up with this.  They love coloring in the little squares every day.  During the school year we kept it in the car and they took turns filling them in for me on the way to school.  Summer has proved a little more challenging, but we are doing a pretty good job remembering.  My Super Awesome Husband keeps insisting that no one will point out a wrong square if I forget and have to make one up.  *eye roll*  What does he know….

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The project chart came from a generous knitter on Ravelry.  I am using the notebook to record the daily sky, and the chart to keep track of the squares I have sewn to the blanket.  Do me a favor and don’t look too closely at my progress, would ya?  I’ve gotten another whole row sewn to the blanket since I took these photos.  I’m catching up!!  🙂

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My little squares.  They really take no time at all to knit.  I am just TERRIBLE at sewing, so that is where I am falling behind.  I probably should have figured out how to do it without having to sew.  Hindsight.  Sigh.

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I love the colors!  It’s going to be sooooo pretty!!

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To make things easier on myself, since some days the sky changes and goes through all of the colors, I have been trying to just do our first glance at the morning sky.  This can still cause disagreements on the way to school when the kids see more than two colors.  I know you’ll never believe that three kids can argue over something so simple.  (Hear my sarcasm)?  🙂  I just give myself the deciding vote and stick to the two most dominant colors, or what I think it will look like for most of the day.  My five year old still doesn’t get why I just can’t make a square with all of the colors.  🙂

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I’ll try to post updates from time to time so you can see how it’s going.  Just don’t expect a finished project on New Year’s Eve!  🙂

How I got my husband to look at me like I’m nuts…today

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My Super Awesome Husband looks at me like I’m nuts several times a week.  Okay, okay.  If I’m being completely honest, it’s probably more like several times a day with a few good eye rolls behind my back thrown in for good measure.  What raises him to Super Awesomeness is that he is totally supportive (despite the eye rolls) and such a good sport through my crazy ideas, even if most of them often lead to crazy amounts of physical labor on his part.

I’ll admit, there are times I think of something to mention or do, just to make him shake his head and roll his eyes.  It’s fun.  Ha Ha!  Today I made him look at me like I’m nuts by making felted wool dryer balls.  “You’re making what?” asks Super Awesome Husband.  “Dryer balls”  I tell him.  “And what are dryer balls?”  he asks with that look on his face that I love.  😀  Ah, life is good!

So today’s project is part of my mission this year to remove chemical filled products from my home.  Luckily for the Super Awesome Husband it requires 0 labor on his part.  🙂  Dryer sheets are full of chemicals and cost money.  Dryer balls are super simple to make, help your clothes dry faster, reduce static and make your clothes less wrinkly and smell nice without all of the chemicals.  All you need to make them is some 100% wool yarn that states hand wash and lay flat to dry on the label.  If you use machine washable yarn it won’t felt, and you need it to felt.  You also need one leg of pantyhose and a blunt needle to sew in your end.

Take your yarn and wrap it into a ball the size of a tennis ball.  Take your blunt ended needle and sew in the end really, really well.  If it’s not done well enough, your ball will unwind and you’ll end up with a felted mess.  If you are really creative or good at forgetting what you can and can not do well,  you can stitch a pretty design on your ball.  I mentioned this to my daughter and she, of course, thought it would be a great idea to have a flower on the one she made.  Let’s just say, every time I sew I remember why I don’t sew.  Next time something might involve sewing, my mom will be called.  Don’t go making fun of my flower!  I mean it!

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Are you done laughing yet?  I totally should have let my daughter do it herself.  🙂

Load all of your balls in to one leg of a pair of pantyhose that you cut off, and tie a knot in between each one.  Try to keep your male children away from them.  It’s an irresistible, fierce, ninja weapon at this point.

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Throw your balls into the washer and wash on hot with as much agitation as your washer offers.  Dry them on high as well.  If you don’t use super dark colors for your dryer balls and have super light colored towels or sheets you can save water and electricity by washing and drying them with your sheets and/or towels.  You will need to do this 2-3 times to get the balls nicely felted.

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Now to use them you just toss 4-6 balls (depending upon how big of a load you washed) into your dryer with your wet laundry and dry.  The wool will absorb some of the water and help you laundry dry faster.  It will also keep the humidity high while releasing it, which will help with wrinkles.  Dryer balls keep the static down and, it you add a drop of your favorite essential oil to each ball, will freshen your laundry and make it smell fantastic!

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I have fallen in love with Young Living Essential Oils, so if you’ve been wanting to try some as well, shoot me an email and I’d be happy to send you information and a sample!  You can use the contact page of the blog or email directly to [email protected]

I want to send a virtual high five to anyone who has made it through this post without giggling at all of the sentences with “your balls” in them.  You are a much better, more mature person than I, and I commend you!!  To those who have been giggling like a middle schooler, you get a high five too, because, well, we all have our issues.  😉

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Chasing Away the Crickets

Sorry for the crickets this past week. Summer vacation started for the kidlets, so we’ve been busy living it up with trips to the beach and park and hitting up their favorite playgrounds. And yes, there has been ice cream involved. We take summer vacation very seriously in this house. 🙂

The kids totally freaked out this week when these guys made their return:

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I had no clue until very recently that our friends on the west coast do not have fireflies.  It’s one of those things I take for granted seeing every summer and I just assumed that everyone had them.  I can’t imagine summer without the kids running around catching these magical little guys.

I have a bunch of really cool posts in the works, but instead of making you wait while I finished them up, I thought we’d see how things were going in the garden.

Remember the sad state of affairs my marigold window box was in? Well, I spread out the few marigolds that sprouted and added some nasturtium seeds to fill it in and it’s not looking half bad now. Way less sad.

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The kids and I were so excited to find a few Sweet Pea Currant tomatoes and Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes ripe this week. Sooooo tasty!! It just doesn’t get better than homegrown tomatoes!  If I HAD to choose just one thing to grow in my garden, it would probably be tomatoes.  Now ask me what kind of tomato and I would have a problem.  You need one for every color of the rainbow, right?!?!  🙂

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Purple Beauty Pepper. It’s teeny tiny, but we don’t judge. 🙂  I can’t figure out who is chomping on her leaves.  I suspect a Hornworm, but haven’t found one yet and they are usually very easy to spot.  It’s a mystery.

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Rosita has finally gotten over her transplant shock and her unfortunate run in with a slug. She really liked the compost tea I gave her, but what lady doesn’t like her tea? 🙂

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I am loving the ground cherries. They form little lanterns like tomatillos.  If you are new I’ll tell you now, I love the out of ordinary when it comes to my garden. I pick a lot of my seeds based on unusual colors and I love stumbling across something I’ve never seen in the grocery store before.

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My Sweet Pea’s lavender. She loves it like I do.

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Garlic scapes I think. I planted all soft neck garlic though, so I’m not completely sure. Hmmmm…..

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I may have a new garden obsession. Borage. It is so, so, so pretty!! I killed it all last year before I saw any blooms. (It’s a learning experience people)! 🙂 The plants in front of my strawberries are all way ahead of the ones by the tomatoes and are now blooming. Take a look and I bet you’ll be planting some seeds yourself.

IMG_9346 IMG_9352 IMG_9344 I’m so in love with this shot.  The fuzzy leaves and stems make it look like a watercolor painting.  I may have to print this one for the wall. IMG_9340 cropped IMG_9338  IMG_9316 IMG_9311  IMG_9321  IMG_9347 IMG_9355

See, I told you I was obsessed!!!  I get so excited when something I’ve planted from seed grows and flourishes.  If you have always purchased plants to plant in your garden, you HAVE to try growing at least one thing from seed this year.  It’s nothing short of a miracle to put this little, tiny seed in the ground, and a few weeks later get this. ^^^

This week will be packed with fun posts.  I promise not to stay away this long again.  Happy Summer everyone!!