Knitting and a Temari ball

A couple of weeks ago I finished this mitten:



I had to do quite a bit of fussing to get the mitten to fit me, but I really liked the knitting pattern.

The mittens turned out to be fraternal twins, and the color jump at the thumbs was not too drastic, so that was fine. DD2 is making me a pair of fingerless mitts to go under them; the combination is so wonderful in the wintertime! My fingers were the warmest and toastiest they have ever been with my red and white mittens this past year!



These mittens are made from the same yarn I used for my window pane scarf and the tam.

I also followed the tutorial by Joan Z on the Temari Challenge group, and made this temari:



I am very pleased with how it turned out! In the first two steps you add more and more detail, and then in the 3rd step you cover over a bunch of the stitching and leave only what you want to show. I have admired this temari in one of the Japanese books (Kii Temari) for a long time, and couldn't even imagine how it was stitched. With Joan's explanations I think this one was successful. The variegated thread I used make it even more confusing to figure out, because it looks like I used a green and a coral/purple.

I am always taken aback when I use this color pink for a temari. I always feel like the thread is a brighter pink, but when I go to match it, it turns out to be a more mauve pink.

I am going to try this one again with more contrast. Do you like the negative space flowers?

I was doing quite well, with only a couple of started projects, but... I fell in love with a shawl pattern, I found the yarn for a reasonable amount (wool and silk laceweight!) and couldn't resist casting it on. It is mostly stockinette stitch, but with enough complications to keep it interesting to look at, and interesting to knit. I will get a picture for you soon.

Another day at the Zoo

The nice thing about a zoo membership is that you can go whenever you want to, and it doesn't have to be a killer day, because you can always go back to see what you missed. We went on Monday, the first full day without school. Of course, we were not the only ones with that idea, so the zoo was a little crowded.

The kids were a little excited:



We got free tickets to the dinosaur exhibit with our membership. The exhibit was a lot of fun. Here are DD2, P & C making the dinosaur roar, breath, and move his head and tail.



These things were so scary looking, I was really glad they were only fake.



Here's our primates playing with another primate:



Near the wading birds pool they were showing off a Red-tail hawk. I was interested to see jesses; I have read about them in many books, but it was interesting to see how they actually worked. They are small leather anklets around the bird's feet with leather straps hanging down which the keeper holds on to. This bird is a little upset because it kept getting dive-bombed by the resident grackles, who of course were not happy with this predator in their neighborhood.



We had lunch in a different restaurant, one we had never been to before. In the dining room they had several weavings hanging up that were absolutely gorgeous. This one is birds and bugs; there was another that was birds and fish. I just love the color progression on this one, from darker gray around the outside, through gradual color changes to light at the center. The butterflies in the corner are really beautiful.



We had a wonderful day, and got home without even feeling complete exhaustion. We still have our tickets for the Dolphin show too, so we will have reasons to visit again soon.

Every-day life

There has been a  lot going on that I haven't blogged about.

Talent night with DH rocking it with the Halestones at church.



P having the honor of carrying the flag at the burger-burn.



A concert:




End of season party. If you didn't guess, the theme was hats!



P competed in the Pine Car derby; he did not win one of the trophies.



I finished a surprise baby sweater to go with the baby blanket. The mom-to-be loved it!



I am feeling the urge to work on a temari... and I am hoping the urge will not go away. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share on that front soon.

GITS Lunar New Year "Year of the Snake"

Michelle and I finally completed our GITS exchange for the Lunar New Year. It is the year of the snake, so I wanted to try embroidering my own snakes. Michelle loved it, and I was even quite pleased.



On the poles you can see the head of one snake and the tail of the other. On the sides the design looks more geometric.



I used Vineyard Silk for the stitching; it was a little coarser than I was expecting.

I have more news, but I decided to write several shorter posts in a row, and hopefully I will get more in the habit of posting again.

Reading

I have been reading as much as knitting the last several weeks. Here is a partial list: 

Anthologies:

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination

Hexed

Must Love Hellhounds

Dark and Stormy Knights

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (read out loud to P & C) 

Fantasy and/or Urban Fantasy:

The Serpent and the Rose, Kathleen Bryan (I will be reading the rest of this series!) 

Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews

Magic Slays, Ilona Andrews

Magic Bleeds, Ilona Andrews

Magic Burns, Ilona Andrews

Magic Strikes, Ilona Andrews (I am looking for more books by this writing team, but haven't found any yet)

Ill Met by Moonlight, Mercedes Lackey & Roberta Gellis

Music to my Sorrow, Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

Trio of Sorcery, Mercedes Lackey (One of my favorite authors, but I haven't read too much of her urban fantasy... but I am enjoying it now)

Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer (I already bought another Nook book by these guys, and will be looking for more. 

Mysteries:

The Marriage Casket, Deborah Morgan

The Majolica Murders, Deborah Morgan

Wanted: Dude or Alive, Kate Morgan

I was looking for more D. Morgan books at the library, and found the Kate Morgan book instead. I am still looking for more Deborah Morgan. They are mysteries that combine parts of The Antique Road Show and American Pickers, with a psychological twist from the antique picker's agoraphobic wife!

Reading:

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini. I really like Jennifer's books, but this one is slow going. It more a historical novel than a novel about quilts. 

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (out loud with P & C; we are almost done) (we do have 3 more to go in the series) 

They Did it with Love, Kate Morgenroth (mystery, I can't tell yet if I like it or not)

A month's worth of projects

I am sorry I have not posted in so long! There is just stuff going on, (life in general). I am participating in a GITS exchange, and I received this one for the Chinese New Year; This is the year of the snake; I love the texture on these.



My temari is stitched, but has not been sent yet. I better get that in the mail tomorrow, and then I will be able to show it to you.

I have finished one mitten, from the same yarn I used to make my paintbox scarf and my tam. It fits really well; and it should... I modified the pattern an awful lot to get it to fit. I just hope I remember what my notes mean so I can make the second one to match. It will be a fraternal twin, not an identical twin, because I am going to start the variegation in a different place.



Here is a finished baby blanket for a shower coming up. I have just about finished the surprise baby sweater in the same colors, and I think it is turning out very nice. I will be able to post pictures of that in a couple of days.



The knitting is done on this scarf, I just have to finish sewing in the ends. I really love these colors. This is the left-over yarn from the wrap I made DD1 last Christmas. Between us we came up with the pattern. It is so nice and soft!



I am really happy with how this turned out too, and I found a pattern to use up the rest of the scraps, win--win.

Day at the zoo

Last week we went to the zoo, and had a wonderful time. We saw meerkats, tigers, lions, bears, wolves, penguins, snakes, frogs, an armadillo, naked mole rats, and some that were not so naked, a polar bear, seals, giraffes, African wild dogs, dolphins, rhinos, and a condor. There was a graphic outside the condor cage to compare your size to the size of the bird. Here is P's comparison,



and here is C's. You can see the condor in the background. (C's arms are little compared to those wings!)



I have a picture of C sitting on this statue several years ago. I wish I could find it! How time flies!



It was a very breezy day, but not cold. There was an exhibit of animatronic dinosaurs but we got too tired to look at that, and we forgot to look at our membership tickets to see if we had tickets, so we saved that for the next time we go.



P enjoyed playing with all the percussion instruments in the gift shop. They had drums, maracas, rain sticks, a metal tambourine type of instrument (that he is holding) and several other things to check out. He is taking percussion in school, and you can tell he does like it.



The day started slowly, but was a definite success by the end of our time at the zoo. We signed up for a year's membership too, so we will be going back, and we saved plenty of things to look at.