Blackboard

Syracuse, NY use to be an industry town. All around town there are lovely old brick factory buildings, which now are mostly empty and just waiting for someone to come along and see their potential again. Now Syracuse mostly revolves around the University economy. There are a few in town but the most notable and largest is Syracuse University. We happen to live in the University neighborhood which aside from being close to our public library branch and co-op also allows for excellent sidewalk scores. Growing up in Alaska this type of thrifting was not something that I grew up doing. In Alaska there's no such thing as curbside recycling or trash pick up. You haul everything to a transfer station to be taken away. In the few short years we've lived in Syracuse we've managed to score some pretty awesome sidewalk loot. N's changing table/dresser, her train/play table, a foot rest, and most recently a chalk board.

C gets all the credit for this one, as he picked it up on his way home from work one day. Sidewalk shopping takes a certain DIY eye as most of the things need a little love, and the chalkboard was no exception. The wood frame was overall solid but needed a few new screws/nails and the slate needed some new chalkboard paint. Luckily chalkboard paint is all the fad right now and is easy to come by at your local Joanns. I ended up putting four coats of paint on this and still have probably half of this little bottle left. Then we popped it back into the frame and C tightened it up with some new hardware.
Now it's good as new and is already getting some toddler loving.

Blondie

N is blond. Quite blond. Both C and I have dark brown hair so it was a surprise that she was born with blond hair and that it has stayed as light as it has. I didn't realize until I finished her Christmas sweater last week and put it on her that the light yellow sweater was a pretty good match for her locks.

The pattern is the same that I used to make my nephews Christmas present and is avaliable here. I used old yarn from a sweater that made a couple years ago and ultimately didn't like. It's perfect for a baby/toddler/kid since it's soft and squishy and I'm pretty sure that it's machine washable. As with my nephews I love how it turned out. It's easy to get on and off, keeps her warm and fits while still has plenty of room for N to grow. All my notes are here on raverly.

As much fun as it is to knit for babies and toddlers the knitting is almost faster than trying to get a good picture of said knitting being worn. I did manage the two pictures above but most of them look like the three below, and there's at least 10 more of these that were not even worth posting.

Valentines is just around the corner, are you making any thing special?

Ringing in the new year in relaxation

While wasting time on Pinterest one day I came across this tutorial on making kids floor pillows and fell in love. I knew that N would love to climb and topple and carry it around. Once I finally focused enough to sit down and follow the instructions it came together very quickly (only two naps!). As the tutorial instructs the contrasting thread is really helpful for sewing with the pipping.
This was my first project with pipping and not only is it super easy to work with but also helps give it a really nice finished look. I did do a couple of things different. I sewed the side strip into a tube first rather than pinning and then trying to sew it up (it would make sense if you read the directions). Also when you pin the top and bottom to the side I started with pinning four in the top, bottom, side, side so that it would be even.

  N seems to be pretty happy with it and luckily she hasn't taken any headers off of it, yet.