My crazy Project

So, I saw this pattern for a knit Skaters Coat in a book I was flipping through at Joann. That's the kind of coat with the hood and little skirt that you see all the girls in the "olden times" pictures wearing as they're ice skating around the pond. Anyway I always wanted one when I was a kid, but they don't sell ice skating things in the middle of the desert...go fig!
Anyway I became obsessed with the coat, wanting to make one for Kit; because I knew she would be too cute in it. So, I got the book and the yarn and needles and stuff for my birthday and jumped right in.

Then fell on my face. Silly me I didn't look to see that the coat had the instructions for an adult size. Eh, I'll just tweak it so it'll fit, no problem. Silly me, I didn't look to see that the knitting level on the coat was EXPERT!!!! um, let me remind you that I started knitting the end of June. This was the end of September, a mere three months from when I found out how to hold the dang things, let alone create something with a consistent look. hehehe

I had to restart three or four times adjusting and readjusting my size tweaking. A month later, I am a LOT better at knitting, and this is what I ended up with:

It's got puffy sleeves (yes, it's supposed to have them).



The skirt is a little short. I forgot to take into account her Uber-torso, so the waist is higher than it should be making the skirt shorter.



But the hood is cute, and she actually wears it!
 Which is what counts.

It looks pretty cute on Tristan too!

 So, it turned out to be about a 3T-4T size, but I'm glad of how it turned out.

Halloween

Yup, here's a little halloween festivities to brighten up your Christmas. Kit wanted to be a dragon again this year; since she loved being one last year so much. Well, lucky for me I made her costume a size too big last year so it still fit this year. WOO HOO! I asked her what Tristan wanted to be, and he had to be a dragon too. So I let her help pick out the fabric, and she got the job of keeping the cats off the pieces while I got the job of everything else. Not that I minded. I have found that I really like sewing. Just don't remind me while I am grumbling at the machine for fritzing again and throwing knots in the worst, most obvious places. My machine is a 1930's relic my parents bought second-hand for me for my eighth birthday. It's solid steel and heavier than my children. But it works, so that's what matters. Anyway back to the pictures!

The tails were the favorite. Especially for bopping each other on the head.



These two pictures are so cute, but I feel bad
because Tristan was freaking out about having the costume on.

See. I was afraid he wouldn't wear it for Halloween, but it was just because it was nap time and mom HAD to get her pictures before she forgot.

What a sweet girl... um, Dragon.

Brent's enchanting castle



Here's Brent's first woodworking project. It was a Doozy. It took him from The beginning of September to the end of November; so, three full months. It might have been less time if he didn't have to wait for his wife to finish painting all the deails she wanted.

Step one: Start with big piece of wood





Step two: Make it look like a castle



Step Three: repeat step two

Step four: see step three



The two pieces can be combined to one big castle

 


 


Step next: make it Beautiful.
The climbing ivy was my idea, everything else was Brent's,
including making it blue. I was really hesitant at first, but now
I really like it. Especially with the scenerry on the outside.

The silver thing is the crank for the drawbridge. But Kit likes it better
where you can just pull the string to raise it, so we'll see if it stays.

The princesses are stickers, but they look great on there.
Plus they are the size of her little pirncess toys, so it's perfect.



There's the whole thing. I like the Rapunzel's tower (pink) the hearts turned out really well.
Which Brent did by sight with a jig saw!

Kit is SOOOOO excited! She kept sneaking over and playing with it while we were painting our trial boards, and once the drawbridge was on, there was no stopping her. So, I had to stop working on it while she was awake, and trek it from its hiding place in my closet down to the Kitchen at night to paint it, and then after it dried scrape the stairwell walls all the way back to the closet. No, really, I didn't transport the thing once where I didn't almost take a chunk out of our wall. I think the walls would go before the castle, it's sturdy. The kids were both sitting on it at one point, and it didn't even wobble.

The castle was built for the polly pocket sized princesses, but Kit had found out that it works for My Little Ponies too. I asked her why she played with her ponies and not her princesses, (worried that the ones we got her to go with the castle will be left to the side) she replied that she simply couldn't find them in her room. heh. That's my girl.