Reusable sandwich bags...

So, the kiddo had a friend over a couple of weeks ago and the friend brought lunch.  All of the goodies in the lunch were wrapped in reusable sandwich and snack bags.  I thought, "What a great idea! I bet I can make those!"  We go through way too many plastic sandwich bags around here and these seemed like a perfect solution.

I started out using other people's directions from various websites and blogs but realized that I wanted something a little different than what was out there.  Here is what I came up with...

To make this, you need decorative fabric (I used quilt cotton), waterproof lining fabric (I used ProCare fabric which you can get here), and some sew on Velcro.

Cut one piece of the decorative fabric that is 18" x 7".

Cut one piece of the lining fabric that is 14" x 7".

You will also need a 5" piece of Velcro.

Once you have all of the pieces cut, put the decorative fabric and the lining together with right sides facing and sew one of the 7" edges with a 1/4" seam allowance.  You will have a very long piece with decorative fabric on one end and lining on the other end when you open it up.

Now you do the same thing with the other 7" edge to make a tube.  Just line up the edges and don't worry about the fact that the pieces don't really line up.  The excess decorative fabric becomes the flap of the sandwich bag.

When you are done, it should look like this:

Now, squash everything out flat.  You can't iron it because of the waterproof fabric that will melt.  Get it nice and flat and sew along the long edges just like you did with the short edges.  On one side, leave an opening about 2" long so you can turn it right side out to finish it.



Clip the corners close to the seams and then turn the entire thing right side out.  You will end up with a bag with no side seams.







Now it is time to put on the Velcro.  Lay out the hook side of the Velcro on the flap part of the bag and pin it in place.  Sew around it to attach.

Do the same thing with the fuzzy side on the other end of the bag.  I fold the bag into shape to figure out where the Velcro should go.  Sew the Velcro down (make sure that you open the piece back up so you aren't sewing your bag shut though!)





Now you are ready to do the side seams.  Carefully make sure that the area that you left open so you could flip the bag right side out is lined up and that the seam allowances are tucked in. Then, fold the bag so that the top edge sits just below the beginning of the flap. I pin the part that has the opening along the seam allowance just to be sure.  Then starting at one of the bottom corners, sew very close to the edges (about 1/8") to form the sides of the bag.  About 1/2" from the top edge, I switched to a very tight zigzag stitch to form a bar tack at the corner of the bag.  Then continue around the edge of the flap and down the other side, creating a matching bar tack.






Now your bag is ready to use!

It is easy to clean, just rinse it out and let it air dry.  If it gets really dirty, you can through the whole thing in the washing machine!

Exhaustion.

Today is a full moon and it was in full effect at school today.  The kids were crazy!  Even the ones that are usually calm.  One of the kids in question in a kindergartner with Down's Syndrome.  She is usually pretty good, but today she was in a serious funk.  About the only thing that she would say all day was "NO!"  The kids were all clingy today as well.  I got more hugs today than I normally do in a week!  Oh well...  

I managed to get the baby sweater that I made for the kiddo's teacher to her today.  She is due near the end of next month, but she looks like she is about to pop.  I hope the sweater fits at some point.  It looks a little big for new born, but the baby is due in the spring.  Maybe it will fit this fall.  

Time to get the kiddo off to bed and then my hot water bottle and I are going to spend some quality time with the TV.

Winter in March

Well, it finally happened.  We got real snow here in Virginia.  The kind you can sled in.  The kind that makes decent snowballs and is beautiful in the trees.  It started Sunday night and there was no school on Monday or Tuesday.  We spent most of the day on Monday shoveling, sledding, and playing.  A great time was had by all.  

On the knitting side of things, the recent cold snap made Ben ask for slipper socks.  Those are on the needles right now.  I am making them out of Cleckheaton Country 8-ply in tan and some hand dyed stuff that I got at Springwater Fiber Workshop the first or second time they went out of business.  They are nice and thick.  Should keep the toes nice and toasty!  

This weekend we decided that since it was snowing out, why not make some bread to go with our dinner.  The kiddo and I made some lovely herb focaccia bread shaped like a leaf.  As soon as it came out of the oven, he was ready to eat it!  It was pretty tasty!

Knitting at Cub Scout meetings...

It has been an exciting week here at home.  We had 2, count em, 2 cub scout meetings this week.  We also had a long anticipated play date with the kiddo's good friend Dora for a Wii tennis tournament.  We also had a violin lesson with grandpa in tow.  I am really glad that we have no real commitments this weekend.  We even get to have dinner, all together, at one time, eating the same food!  I could get used to that!  

In knitting news, I just sent off my first pattern submission to knitty.com.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be accepted.  It is a lovely fair isle stocking.  We will have to see if the folks at knitty.com like it as much as I do!  Now it is back to the design drawing board to do something for the next issue of Cast On magazine.  

I made mittens a couple of weeks ago.  They are stunningly lovely mittens.  I got them finished a couple of days before my oldest friend in the world's birthday.  They whispered in my ear that they really belonged to her.  They are made out of Lumpy Bumpy yarn in greens, yellows and browns.  They look like a Monet painting from up way too close.  Of course, I listened to that little whisper and mailed them off to my lovely friend, Jen.  She is an intrepid mitten wearer in a world that seems to love gloves.  Now I am making a matching pair for myself since I bought way too much Lumpy Bumpy a few years back!

Long time gone...

I actually can't remember the last time that I posted here.  I am such a bad blogger! 

Oh well.  Life seems to intervene in strange and time consuming ways.  The helmet liner project is still rolling along.  On President's Day, I hosted 4 lovely ladies who usually knit with us at the museum.  We spent a couple of hours opening packages and checking and tagging helmet liners. We also spent a good amount of time noshing on yummy food.  Kay brought the best Caramel Popcorn I have ever eaten!  We managed to get 457 liners tagged and bagged!!!  

After the tagging and bagging, we all sat down at the dining room table and I taught a workshop on Entrelac knitting.  There had been many requests for a class on this since it has gotten to be so popular lately.  It seems like every knitting magazine has featured an entrelac pattern in the past couple of months!  We had a ball and I think everyone learned something new.

I started knitting a giant aran sweater for myself right after Christmas.  This is a sweater that has been waiting a long time to get made.  The yarn for it was a gift from my dear friend Cindy when we left Oregon.  It is her homespun from her own sheep in a lovely natural brown color. The pattern, as I wimped out on designing something of my own, is Alice Starmore's Na Craga from Aran Knitting.  So far, the front is done and the back is started.  I might get it done in time for spring.  Maybe!  

I have also been working on finally writing the pattern for Henry's stocking.  It is almost ready to submit, but I haven't gotten done proofing it or taking pictures.  The final sample is still on the needles, in need of  a toe.  As soon as it is finished and blocked, it will have a photo shoot and then off it goes!  

Otherwise, life around here goes on.  The kiddo is doing great in school and continues to play the violin (almost 4 years now!)  He even practices almost every day without too many complaints.  I am so amazed by his focus and the effort that he will put into violin.  I know that it is hard work and I am constantly surprised by his willingness to keep on working.  He is a good soul!

This weekend we are off to the Army-Navy Basketball game at the Naval Academy with the in-laws.  It should be a treat.  I haven't been to a basketball game in probably 25 years!  I think the last one I went to was one I played in in high school!  Go Navy!

Yummy new yarn...

I spent my christmas money on something yummy. It came in the mail the other day all the way from the Netherlands! Check out this luscious Kauni yarn. I can't wait to make something totally cool and fair isle with it!




I have already started, and ripped out, and started again with the brown, yellow and green stuff. This yarn is really nifty since the color changes over such a long distance. I am knitting a fair isle sweater with two balls of the same colorway. I started one with the light green and the other with the brown and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I will definitely be ready for fall with that one. I am planning on posting my progress here as we go.

This is it so far...

I have started the two color ribbing for the bottom of a cardigan sweater. I haven't made a sweater with steeks in a really long time, but I don't think it will be too hard to remember how!

So far, I have a 12 stitch steek set for the center of the cardigan. I will use steeks for the armholes and the neck too when I get there. The biggest challenge is going to be figuring out if I want the sleeves to match or not!

I am not sure what I will do with the two other colors. The original idea was to use the blues and tans together for another fair isle sweater but now I am not sure. I was thinking maybe I would do Eunny Jang's Venezia from Interweave Knits (Winter 2006) but I am just not sure... I might be totally burnt out on color work after I finish the first one!

Yesterday was a momentous day for the kiddo. He won the "Character Counts" award at school. This is a really big deal. They give it once a month to the kids who best exemplify that month's character trait. This month it was RESPONSIBILITY and the kiddo got to go to a special ceremony and got a certificate, a silicone bracelet, and a photo with all the other winners that will be in the school lobby for the next month!

Happy 2008!

Well, the holidays have come and gone... Santa was good to the kiddo (as were grandparents, parents, aunts & uncles!) The slot cars have been a blast. We have spent countless hours racing around the basement! We got a new digital camera, which I love, and an iPod that I have been loading with all of our CDs so we can listen to music more easily. (The CDs currently live in the storage part of the basement and are bit difficult to get to!)

The down side of the holiday season has been dreaded disease! We have all been stricken, myself seemingly worse than anyone else, with a horrible upper respiriatory virus. It hit the kiddo for a couple of days before the holiday and then he was fine. My husband and sister both got it just in time for the Christmas festivities, then I got it 2 days after Christmas. Mostly it consists of a very painful sore throat and lots of sinus goop. I just hope it clears up soon! I am supposed to go to St. Louis for my other sister's wedding on Friday so I have a lot of getting better to do in just a couple of days!

The kiddo went back to school today and was a bit sad that break is over. He did not really want to leave my side this morning at school, but he took a deep breath and walked right in. It was a bit sad for me too. It was really nice having everyone home for a week!

Christmas time is here...

Well, all the holiday knitting is done, save one mitten thumb. Ah, the joy of accomplishment. Of course I still have to wrap everything. At least the big thing is done. I made a large shawl for my MIL and it is done! It is not dry, but it is DONE! It is the Muir from the fall issue of Knitty.com. I love it! It will be dry soon!

The letter to Santa went out in the mail today. The kiddo asked for slot cars, a stuffed indian and a storm trooper. I miss the days when all he wanted was a new violin and some gummy worms, but I think that DADDY will love the slot cars almost as much as the kiddo! My sister is coming to visit for the holiday and that will be great. I don't get to see nearly enough of her and it is nice that she gets to stay for almost a week!

Thanksgiving...

Well, the holiday season is in full swing. We spent Thanksgiving at my MIL's house. Dinner was great, the family time was even better. We got to meet the newest cousin, Henry, who flew in from Atlanta with his parents. He was the cutest person at dinner, but also the wiggliest! For the first time in several years, all of my husband's family was in one place. All four brothers and their families and mom was smiling so much her head almost split in half!

We also got a chance to see some more distant cousins on Saturday who have kids around the same age as our kiddo. Everyone convened at our house for a visit, snacks and a lot of playing. It was a blast.

Today we have no obligations at all and it feels so good! We went for a hike in the woods this morning and it felt like fall. Cool air, lots of leaves, great weather for a sweater!

The amazing SOAP-MAN!!!

Well, it has been a while since the last post. Our house has been consumed with costumes for Halloween, and just for fun, but mostly we have been enjoying the continuing adventures of Soap-Man! Soap-Man is a superhero straight from the kiddo's imagination. He wears a white suit with a hood, shoots out soap and bubbles at his enemies, and is generally a great guy to have around. Since the sewing machine was out for costume projects, we figured why not make a "real" Soap-Man...

The kiddo designed him, I sewed him and we both worked on the decoration (that is sharpie marker on white muslin!) Soap-Man is very snuggly, but not particularly soapy in fact. He has been sleeping with the kiddo every night this week...

Speaking of knights... For Halloween, we had an appearance of St. George, the dragon slayer! The costume was fun to make and the kiddo loved showing off his dragon. Thank heaven Ikea had such cool dragons! He had a blast trick-or-treating in this one!

At school the assignment for Halloween was to recite a nursery rhyme and the kiddo was assigned:

Dickory, dickory dare,
The pig flew up in the air,
The man in brown,
Soon brought him down,
Dickory, dickory dare.

The kids had to have costumes to accompany their rhyme, so we have the pig!

All in all, Halloween was a raging sucess at our house. The kiddo had fun, we have enough candy to last us until next year (almost 3 1/2 pounds!), and we have some great dress up costumes to play with too!

As Soap-Man says when confronted with evil: Lather! Rinse! Repeat!

And Now We Are Six...

Last week brought the kiddo's birthday. He is totally into knights and all things medieval at the moment so he had a chocolate Castle Cake!

Instead of a traditional birthday party with all of his friends and relations, he opted for a trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival with just one friend in tow. We had a great time. The kids got to watch a few shows, ride ponies, eat ice cream, try out bows and arrows, watch jousting, get their faces painted and ride an elephant! The kiddo's face looked great with his knight on it!

Also in the news this week, I started working on Christmas gifts. The first in the pile is a bunch of dishcloths (some are the Ball Band Cloth from Mason-Dixon Knitting) and one is the beginner dishcloth pattern that we used at Boersma's. I think these will end up being gifts for teachers and such...

I also started a sweater that will be for one of the kiddos... I just have to see what size it turns out first! (I love not checking gauge too well!) It is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in a really nice navy blue. Should look great on one of the small boys I know! Of course, my kiddo decided he didn't like this color... He wants green!

First day of First Grade!

Today is the first day of school. The kiddo was excited and nervous about it, but he was very glad to see all of his old friends at the school crossing this morning and when in to school with lots of hugs and kisses. Daddy got to walk up to school with us this morning and go in to work late. This year is a big deal because last year, the kiddo only went half a day. He was home for lunch and this year he eats lunch at school and won't get home until about 3:45. I hope he is having a good day!

The scholar on the first day of school.

I am looking forward to having more time to tackle some big projects around the house. I have a long list that includes organizing the office, cleaning the basement, painting the window trim around our NEW WINDOWS! (I love the new windows. They are SOOOO easy to open!) I have about 50 things on the list so I will have plenty to do for a while!

Happy fall everyone!

Back to school...T-minus one week!

Today we went and bought all the supplies that the kiddo needed for school. We had a great time exploring a not-so-local art supply store for things on the list and other treasures too. It was fun!


Last week we were in Rhode Island to visit my family. My uncle and his family have a great house in Little Compton, RI, right on the Massachusetts border. It was a great place to all get together! My sister and my other aunt came too and the kiddo had a great time playing with his teenage cousins. He also discovered Bocce. The kid can through a heavy ball remarkably far!

It was also his first experience with both ocean swimming (the Pacific is way too cold for swimming in Oregon) and with fishing (without a hook for obvious reasons...)

We got to explore the area around Little Compton quite a bit as well and I discovered a yarn shop that rivals Boersma's Knitting Basket! If you are ever in Rhode Island, there is a shop in Tiverton called Sakonnet Purls that is to die for! I found all sorts of goodies, and they have a little shed outside where every skein is $4. I, of course, could not resist that and got some lovely Cleckheaton and some funky Noro that is made of Ganpi (a sort of tree bark we think...) I am making a string bag out of the Noro and so far, so good!

We also ate way too much local corn. It was so good! As were the locally caught clams, mussels and lobsters. Yummy!

Knights reign

The middle ages have taken over the house. Sir Kiddo is totally into knights and castles at the moment. He made a helmet for himself out of cardboard (with a bit of help!)

I think he looks groovy! If only there were a fair maiden that needed to be saved!

A new old hat...

Well folks here is the story... My father in law has this very old hat that he bought in college that is white with a bright orangish red stripe and a pom-pom on top. He wears it when he goes running. It is pretty ratty looking, so I decided that the perfect christmas present for him would be a reproduction of the hat. I started it a few days ago... White and bright red Encore worsted weight yarn in a brioche rib. It looks really great so far. (Pictures to follow if I can find the camera!) I just hope that he likes it! Of course, I will have to wait until Christmas to find out since no one wants a hat to run in in July in Virginia. It is just too hot! Today it is about 85 degrees and so humid that I was afraid to take my book outside for fear that the pages would start curling!

Today was the first day of the kiddo's soccer camp week. He seemed to have a lot of fun, although it was marred a bit by a bout of separation anxiety. I am not sure how to reassure him that I will in fact ALWAYS come back to pick him up at the right time. I guess we will just have to be patient with each other.

The kiddo cooks!

We went to see Ratatouille over the weekend and ever since, the kiddo has wanted to cook things. He has a great kids cookbook "Pretend Soup" by Molly Katzen and today he was reading it before breakfast and found this recipe:

Bagel Faces!

The actual recipe calls for things like bell peppers and olives and cherry tomatoes, but this fruit version was a big breakfast hit! Strawberries for eyes and nose, peach slices for mouth and eyebrows! He even ate the whole thing! Of course, my thought about it was what would my vegetarian friend who will only eat food without a face think of this...

The Jockey sweater is still rolling along. One sleeve is done, and the 8 is stitched on in duplicate stitch. The other sleeve is about half way there. I finished the hand dyed socks that were made with the really cool blue, purple and teal handdyed yarn on the Oregon trip so, of course, I had to buy more sock yarn. I got 3 pairs worth of Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock at the shop where I used to work and stared the first pair on the trip. They are brown and tan and look like peanut butter cups! So far I like them a lot. I will post pictures tomorrow! I want to get a pic of the kiddo with the mostly done sweater on.

Fencing with the kiddo.

This week was fencing camp for the kiddo. Never has there been a more hilarious thing to watch. Imagine, if you will, 5 fairly average five and six year olds, playing duck-duck-goose with weapons and full fencing costume. The camp was very basic fencing skills taught with Nerf sabres (thank god for foam!). The kids spent most of their time playing games like Simon Says and Red Light-Green Light with fencing moves, but my favorite part was duck-duck-goose. The kids whacked the other kids on the head with the sword as they went around the circle, then the kid who was IT had to fence the Goose around the circle without getting hit with the sabre. It was a hoot to watch. Everyday, near the end of the class, the activity brokedown into all the kids viciously attacking the instructor. Apparently, the kiddo is hooked. He got out Daddy's old foil from college fencing and was lunging all around the back yard this evening for "Practice"!

The jockey sweater has a front...

The front is done... Disregard the weird whiteish stripe going up the left side. That is just a piece of waste yarn marking off 5 row increments so I could count easier!

The back is started and the kiddo has decided that he wants to have the number 8 on the sleeves. There was actually a jockey wearing a shirt with a pattern remarkably like this in the Belmont Stakes this weekend! His was red and white, but same idea...

A new nephew!

My brother-in-law and his wife had a baby over the weekend. He is a cutie!

It is always nice to have small people to knit for... Unfortunately, this kiddo lives in Georgia where the need for woolies is limited!

Hopefully his mom and dad are getting some sleep once in a while. The kiddo around here is very excited to have a new cousin. This is #2 for him and he really can't wait to meet him!

Progress... And a new name

Before the rip out, the kiddo decided that he wanted quadrants of the two greens and numbers on the sleeve so it would look like a jockey shirt. I think it sounds good, so no more green monster... hello Jockey in Green! The rework is going well. I have a couple of inches finished and will have it back to 14 inches in no time!

School is winding down for the kiddo. Only 7 days left! Our neighborhood has a big last day of school party for all the kids and we all pitch in to rent a moon bounce and order pizzas and stuff. It should be fun! My mom will be here to join in the revelry too.