Even toys get cold in the winter. So I knit these tiny pompom hats to keep these toy elephants warm. A sweet little present for my husband, who collects and make toys.
Knitted with Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK. Pattern from Knit Simple Magazine Winter 2009
My daughter was born on November 1, and now at kindergarten age she has become very interested in the festival held on her birthday.
El Dia de los Muertos is a 3-day Mexican fiesta to honor the dead. To celebrate, one must prepare an altar, or ofrenda, an offering to one’s dead loved ones. An altar may have flowers, specifically marigold, which is the flowers of the dead, photos of our dead loved ones, food and sugar skulls.
The fiesta begins on October 31, All Hallow’s Eve, also known as Halloween in the United States. All Hallow’s Eve is supposed to be when spirits of dead children roam the earth. At this time toys and candies may be added to the altar.
The dead children’s visit extends overnight into November 1, called All Saints Day, in honor of dead children, innocents who perished before their time. By 3 pm the dead children are supposed to return to the land of the dead, and the adult dead are supposed to take their turn roaming the land of the living.
November 2 is called All Souls Day. This is the day to honor all adult dead loved ones. In the afternoon families visit the cemetery to usher the dead back to the afterlife, to clean graves, offer fresh flowers and reminisce about the loved ones who have died.
El Dia de los Muertos not only pokes fun at mortality, but also sets aside time to remember our dead loved ones.
Sugar Skulls
We prepare the sugar skulls a week before El Dia de los Muertos. I got the skull mold from Casa Bonampak. I chose Large so that we had more surface to work with for little fingers like my 6-year-old’s, but they have other sizes available. I also bought a small jar of meringue powder, an indispensable ingredient in making the sugar skulls. Here is a list containing everything you would need (except the sugar).
Here is a detailed recipe for Sugar Skulls, with tables for measurement conversions and yield.
After the skulls are dry, we hollow them out and reuse the discarded sugar to make more skulls. It is incredibly still moldable.
Then we put the two sides of the skull together using Royal Icing (recipe here). One can make colored icing by adding food-based coloring to the Royal Icing in separate cups. I have a lot of store-bought icing in my pantry so we used it to decorate our skulls.
Here are some finished sugar skulls.
I put sequins in the middle of the eye sockets so that the eyes catch the light.
Amigurumi Girl gets a little sister!
Sunday morning my daughter and I were going through my leftover yarn collection. I have a bag of one-skein yarns that I reserve for very small projects, such as amigurumi toys. We found a skein of the Classic Elite Flash in marled pink that reminds me of peppermint candy. I bought it for my daughter years ago but never got around to doing anything with it. That morning, I asked her what she imagined that yearn could be made into.
“Can you make a sister for Clariana?” she asked. Clariana is what she named the Amigurumi Girl I made last summer.
So I set to work. Then halfway through the head, I broke my bamboo crochet needle. The only US size B I have. This must be why metal crochet needles are popular.
I had to use a smaller size. 1.75 mm metal hook.
My stitches were tighter with the smaller hook, which made this sister a little sister. Other than the difference in hair and dress color, I used the exact same kind of yarns, Classic Elite Bam Boo for the dress and skin, and Classic Elite Flash for the hair.
I had finished the head and the body, and was working on the limbs when my precocious 5 year old made a discovery. Put together differently, the head and the body looked like a mushroom. Since she’s the boss of this project, I had to turn the parts into a mushroom and start all over with the little sister. I spent the whole day crocheting, supervised by my 5 year old boss.
It was a lovely way to spend a rainy Sunday together.
The Girl Pattern is in page 84 of Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi by Tomoko Takamori.
My 5-year-old daughter has a pen pal. Iris and Malaya met one summer in Maine when they were both three. They hit it off instantly! We had play dates all summer and rainy days spent indoors. When we headed home to California, the girls hugged each other and promised to stay friends.
It began with us, Moms, writing what our daughters wanted to say to each other. The girls decorated the notes with stickers and drawings. After a few exchanges, the girls started signing their own names at the bottom of the letters. Now, my preschooler writes full letters to her friend, asking for my help to spell out the words she wants to say.
There is so much excitement when we get a letter in the mail. I let her open her own letter, and together we sit as I read it to her. Sometimes she immediately wants to write her friend back. Other times she just sets it aside and goes off playing with something else. Some mornings when she thinks of something she wants to say to her friend, she recruits me to help her write a letter.
Having a pen pal has given my daughter so much enthusiasm and inspiration to read, write and express herself on paper. She loves the whole process: writing a letter, decorating it with stickers and drawings, folding it into the envelope and putting the sticker-stamp on the top right corner. I even let her write her name on the top left corner, and her friend’s name on the center of the envelope. As a favor to the postal worker, I write the addresses. A trip to the post office where my daughter puts her letter into the mail box completes the process.
Iris and Malaya only see each other in the summer when we visit Maine. But the two share such a special friendship as pen pals. I imagine their letters becoming more and more interesting as they learn about the world they are living in. Someday I know I won’t be in the loop anymore, as my daughter learns to read and write letters on her own. Until then I am happily helping her keep in touch.
She may have button eyes, but she’s a doll! She instantly became my daughter’s favorite. I made her in Maine on a rainy day last summer. She tagged along our cross country trip from Maine to California, and now lives happily with the Alien in my daughter’s bedroom.
I made the Girl with Classic Elite Bam Boo, spun from 100% bamboo, which is hypo-allergenic. Her hair is Classic Elite Flash, 100% mercerized cotton. Don’t you just love the yellow highlights in her hair?
The Alien is Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk, a 80% alpaca wool and 20% silk. His eyes are Classic Elite Star.
The Girl Pattern is in page 84 and the Alien is actually a Butterfly without wings in page 62 of Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts Amigurumi by Tomoko Takamori.
I knitted this pink shrug from the pattern “Molly” in the book, “Junior Knits” by Debbie Bliss. I used Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran. It’s still a wee bit big on my daughter, but she’ll grow into it soon.
It’s been over 20 years since I crocheted anything. I learned how to make doilies and toilet paper cozies back in high school, but I hadn’t picked up a crochet needle since.
Then I saw these adorable Amigurumi creatures. I wanted to make some too. Here are my first two tries. They look a bit ramshackled, but not bad for a newbie. The next one will be cuter.
It’s cold and windy outside. I’m bundled up in blankets and have no intention of getting up to get any exercise. But I finished this top in less than a month, taken from the free Frock Camisole pattern from Knitting Daily. Just little shock of clementine to remind me that all winters come to an end eventually and someday, someday it will be warm outside again.
I met this lady at my local Stitch ‘n Bitch and she was knitting a pair of socks at once on a circular needle. My curiosity was peaked though it seemed a bit intimidating. The next time I was at a yarn store, I came upon this book, 2-at-a-Time Socks: Revealed Inside. . . The Secret of Knitting Two at Once on One Circular Needle Works for any Sock Pattern!
It seemed a bit complicated at first, and I had to frog my first few attempts, but after a few tries, I finally did it!
I finished it just in time for Christmas. We call it the Cindy Lou Who socks (from the original cartoon animation of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”) because of the pointed toe.
I finally finished Cosmo’s Wool Sweater!!!
It took me about a month from when I cast on to when I bound off. I would have been done sooner had I not taken a few days off from the project.
Now here’s the fun part. Pictures!!!
