crunchy parenting

There’s a heatwave rolling across Southern California and it has me and Spice running for cover indoors lately. This means less sandbox and garden time and more fingerpainting and library trips.

For me, this also means more time to crash on the couch and knit. Or crochet. Or even needle felt, my latest hobby. Then, there’s also the precut fabric strips I picked up at Joann’s last week – just perfect for a toddler blanket for Spice. And the undyed playsilks sitting on the dining table, waiting to be dyed and sewn into a homemade playsilk canopy…

No, there’s never a shortage of projects to work on. And to think it all started with some simple yarn stash-busting ideas. Here’s what I have on the needles:

Crocheted socks. I started these on the plane to Oakland over the weekend. While the idea of crocheting socks is neat, I often find these a little more rough hewn and bumpy after a while, so they’re more “messy house socks” than “handcrafted gift socks”. I had the yarn sitting around and I’m no longer in love with the colors or the fiber (curses on non-machine-washable sock yarn that ISN’T made of some fancy fiber!), so it made a perfect portable project for the plane ride. The technique is to make them from the toes up and with an “afterthought” heel – leave a hole for the heel and come back and finish it last.

Spice's Navy Cardi

Spice’s Navy Cardi. I originally bought ten skeins of this soft blue cotton yarn for a sweater for myself, but after knitting a chunk of the back, I really, really didn’t like the super-thin drape of the finished fabric. After frogging the thing and flipping through some of my pattern books, I found I could hold the thin yarn doubled and knit a cozy cardigan for Spice. I’m done with the back and on to the front now and I think it’s going to be wonderful.

p. I’m also eagerly awaiting my order of sock knitting needles from Knit Picks. When I was in Denmark in June, I finally got around to trying out the knitting in the round technique on two circular needles and it was amazing. I whipped up a dog sweater for my mother’s chihuahua in no time, that was not only all knit stitch, but seamless to boot. AWESOME! Since then, I’ve been salivating just thinking about all the gorgeous sock yarn I have stashed away. It’s always been too demoralizing to think of juggling double pointed needles while running behind a toddler every five minutes, but if I can use two circulars… wow! Plus, there’s always the trick of knitting TWO socks on two circulars at the same time…