Student Council

The newest representative on the Student Council* set off for his meeting this morning.



The Council meets at 7:45 and astonishingly Adam leapt our of bed with enthusiasm at 7am. Those of you who are familiar with Adam's usual morning routine will share our surprise.

*Student Council representative is an elected position. Each 3rd - 5th grade class provides 2 representatives to discuss the student perspective on the school and its activities.

Yosemite in the snow

Over the school winter break we went to Yosemite National Park for a few days. Our visit coincided with heavy snow.



Adam was thrilled that his friend Casey and family were also there and the boys had some good snowball fights.



We did make it to the Badger Pass ski area one day which was fun - but very very cold. I was delighted that my new handspun and handknit earflap hat was admired by the lift attendant.

Both boys are on boards these days. The snow was deep and fluffy which is just perfect for boarding (so I'm told!). Badger is so small and contained that we were able to let Adam and Casey go off together - Adam was just thrilled by the freedom!


Great view here of Fin mid-turn - he was probably trying to spray me with snow.

Stitches West 2011

To round out a lovely week off in Yosemite I got to go to Stitches West on Saturday with Kerstin.



We had a very successful and enjoyable day surrounded by 'our people'. Kerstin wore a new shawl she had knitted and was stopped multiple times by people asking her about it, and in one case taking a photo.


Here is my haul. Clockwise from the top:

Red baby camel/silk batt from Redfish dyeworks. Small secret bundle. Pattern and yarn for Silken Scabbard, yarn is Kollage Riveting which is made from recycled jeans. Next: green and purple sock yarn from Drops, and turquoise Drops sock yarn for a baby sweater from Nordic Mart. Then the rest of the fibre: Blue merino/yak/silk from A Verb for Keeping Warm (intended for a hat for Nigel), undyed camel/silk, and undyed yak/merino from Tactile.

I have already cast on the sweater, but I think the fibre will keep me busy for a little while, until Stitches West 2012 anyway.

Off the needles: Jess

There has been a dearth of knitting on the blog recently - partly because I knitted a secret project and forgot to take any photos of it - but partly because I knitted the back of a sweater and then had to frog it.

I cast on for Jess last year but the warm weather got the better of me and I put it aside until it was cool enough to knit a lapful of alpaca. I have been knitting the back and the yarn is just lovely, soft and warm. However, I am also terribly allergic to it - so I'm officially abandoning the project.



Christina did offer to knit it for me, but I suspect that the allergies would prevent me from wearing the cardi as well as knitting on it. So, she can take possession of a bag of red alpaca!

Fin's fablious food

Along with the crafting Fin has a new-found interest in cooking. He received a very nice children's cookery book for Christmas and is working his way through it. Last week he cooked chinese beef.







It was delicious. He now thinks he might be a chef and open a restaurant called "Fin's Fablious Food".

Needle felting (not mine)

Fin received a Woolpets needle felting kit for Christmas and last weekend while I was sewing, he got it out. I showed him the basics of needle felting (you jab at bits of wool fibre with a long sharp needle, making sure that you don't prick your finger, and preferably on some sort of padded surface. We used some foam left over from some packaging or other.)



This little fellow took him about an hour - and after the initial basic instruction was completed entirely without help. Fin was justifiably very pleased with his handiwork.

Pinewood 2011

It's that time of year again: time for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby.

The boys built their cars mostly over the Christmas vacation - they spent a lot of time refining the designs and cutting and sanding the blocks. They are both old enough now to wield the power tools (with some supervision) and did pretty well.


Adam wanted to go for speed and chose a real car to copy. This is his Porche 911.

Fin stuck to the more novelty category and made his car into a TechDeck. (for those without small boys techdecs are miniature skateboard toys).


Despite very careful engineering, and much weighing and adjusting neither car was very fast on the actual race day. Adam was rather disappointed as he had high hopes for his Porche - but we did have so much fun building and decorating them that it was hard for me to share this disappointment. He has one more year of cub scouts to try for a faster car!

Legs of Nigel*

I have been turning out socks rather consistently without any documentation. Here is my recent output for Nigel:

From the top:



Cream socks from some heavy german sock yarn I got in a swap. Shown is the second sock - having successfully completed one sock from one ball of wool, the second ball ran out during the toe decreases. I used the spare wool to finish the sock. Short ribbed fold-down sock specially requested to wear with his desert boots.

Nigel chose this hand-dyed yarn from Chameleon Colorworks while we were at Lambtown, I added the black toe and heel to tone down what I though was a rather lurid sock.

Another short ribbed boot sock knitted from Cascade Heritage yarn. I was so impressed with this yarn - it's really cheap and seems to wash and wear really well too. Quite a lot of colours and reasonably soft. I got this from Purlescence Yarns.

*For American readers not familiar with the triskellion symbol of the Isle of man details are here: Legs of Man