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before this little sweater is my favorite yet i love how sweetly it turned out to be truthful i wasn t sure it would turn out at all since this was my first attempt at designing my own pattern and my first attempt at cutting a steek who d have thought such an adrenaline rush was possible with knitting but it worked i m feeling pretty darn proud of myself right now the stitch pattern in the yoke looks complicated but it s just made by slipping stitches from the previous colored row i borrowed it from nikol lohr s sally cardigan it s actually a fairly simple stitch and i love how it almost looks like polka dots and steeking is flat out awesome a cardigan worked up with the ease of knitting in the round yes please details pattern from my own noggin size 9 12 months ish yarn green fingering weight merino wool harvested from a thrift store sweater white fingering weight wool angora blend harvested from a thrift store sweater satisfaction level completely thrilled posted by steph at 3 29 pm 1 comment sunday april 22 2012 fruit punch sweater done my first fair isle sweater fair isle is a knitting technique used to create colorful patterns and since it involves knitting with two yarns at at the same time i found it seriously intimidating so much so that i held off on this adorable pattern for almost a year turns out it s really not so bad the key is to keep the yarn floats really loose here is a great video tutorial if you re curious how to do it the pattern is purl soho s baby girl cardigan and while i usually knit free patterns because i m so cheap this one was worth every penny it s knit from the bottom up which i hated at the beginning that turned out to be motivating though since i was so anxious to try out the color work at the yoke which was almost the last part that s a pretty good thing for a girl that occasionally has trouble finishing projects there are so many little details that make this sweater special i love the hidden rib that keeps the front edges of the cardigan from rolling which stockinette on it s own is notorious for also the crocheted button loops and the tiny yellow vintage buttons add a happy little touch it s a shame i couldn t manage a picture of the front but alas my little model thinks it s hilarious to run away whenever mama pulls out the camera details pattern baby girl cardigan size 2t as written the pattern only goes up to 12 months it took a little math to calculate the larger size yarn wool angora blend fingering weight all the yarn was recycled from the same white sweater i used my microwave some tap water and a few packets of kool aid hence the title of this post to dye small hanks of yarn for the patterned section red black cherry orange black cherry pina pineapple equal amounts yellow pina pineapple light yellow pina pineapple in a much lower concentration satisfaction level 100 i m thrilled with the way it turned out and stella insists on wearing it even on warm days posted by steph at 8 19 pm 2 comments tuesday april 17 2012 cloth diapers revisited every now and then i ll get an email from a friend asking me for advice on cloth diapering since i m lazy i figure i ll just post it all here so i can send those friends the link instead of writing a 35 page essay on the subject every time i m asked and my advice differs a little a lot from most of the information i ve seen out there on cloth diaper washing i m a bit of a cloth diapered veteran all 4 of my babies have been cloth diapered at some point or another and even though i m reluctant to pretend to be an expert there are some things i figured out the hard way hopefully my sharing this will help some other mamas out ammonia is a beast but it doesn t have to be keep reading for some reason it doesn t seem to be much of an issue with new little babies but once my kids were well on their way with solid foods around 9 months old or so the ammonia smell in our diapers became the knock your socks off make your eyes water and peel the paint off the walls variety and the rashes that went along with it were awful they were so bad with baby 2 that it got to the point that it looked like he had a chemical burn on his bum that we had to go back to disposables when he was about 18 months old everything i read about cloth diapers and washing them pointed the finger of blame to hard water and or detergent build up in the diapers so i tried anything and everything i could think of to deal with those two issues switching detergents numerous times water softening laundry additives copious amounts of vinegar and or baking soda ridiculously elaborate washing routines strange chemical reactions even aquarium ammonia remover the results were unimpressive mediocre at best and that pesky ammonia problem was still dogging us i m kind of embarrassed to admit that the real reason for ammonia stink came as such a surprise to me maybe you ve already figured it out the real culprit at least in my own experience in ammonia build up is bacteria if you think for just a fraction of a second about what those diapers are holding on a regular basis it seems pretty darn obvious clue 2 the presence of bacteria will quickly speed up the breakdown of urea into ammonia please don t be totally disgusted with me and assume i m a filthy slob well i might just be a filthy slob sometimes but that wasn t the case here i was meticulously following the washing instructions that came with my diapers and assumed that would be enough to keep them clean and sanitized it wasn t i ve tried a few different brands of cloth diapers and without fail they are all adamant in their washing instructions that bleach should not be used at all on their diapers or if you must no more than 1 4 c once a month and that my friends just won t cut it once i started sanitizing the cloth diapers regularly our ammonia problem disappeared there are three ways to do this 1 enzymes thank goodness for helpful little enzyme cultures that gobble up bacteria and organic waste biokleen bac out is my favorite enzyme cleaner it also happens to be the best product hands down for getting vomit smell out of your couch and carpet and for cleaning up potty training accidents etc it s very gentle on diapers and baby skin i use it every time i wash diapers the only downside is that it requires a long soak to do its magic overnight in the washer does the trick for us bleach knocks out bacteria and germs like nobody s business the trouble is it s also murder on elastic and waterproofing nothing will shorten the life of your covers like bleach will i like to use this every six weeks or so on just my prefolds to make sure that they re deep down clean the diaper covers get an extra dose of bac out but no bleach 3 boiling this is a lot of stinky work unless you happen to have a sanitize cycle on your washing machine but if you have qualms about using bleach a diaper boiling marathon every 4 6 weeks in addition to regular use of an enzyme cleaner will do the trick here s what our diaper wash routine looks like now at night after the littles are in bed cold prewash with no detergent or additives cold soak overnight with 4 generous squirts of biokleen bac out in the morning drain and spin hot wash with one scoop of charlie s soap 2 cold rinses most diapers go in the dryer on high and the covers are hung to dry once every month or so skip the overnight soak hot wash with one scoop of charlie s soap 1 cold rinse pull out the covers and start a short wash cycle for just the diapers add 1 2 c bleach no detergent 2 cold rinses if you notice lots of bubbles during your rinse cycles that means that you ve got detergent build up just rinse and rinse and rinse until you don t see bubbles anymore that s it no need for any other additives and or laundry boosters and i have very hard water this routine has finally conquered our ammonia problem for the last 6 months a word on detergent we use charlie s soap and are happy with it but have also had success with country save and tide free posted by steph at 8 46 pm no comments monday april 2 2012 bird is the word long billed curlew photo via flickr okay so mr snickerdoodle and i may have jumped on the birding bandwagon after reading and loving the big year is there a birding bandwagon i dunno whatever the case everyone in this family even the 3 year old and 1 year old has gotten really excited about birding or bird watching lately we ve now got a very amateur family life list and have started spending most of our family fun time looking for birds we ve long been aware of the pigeons robins and quail in our neighborhood but had no idea until recently that we had a downy woodpecker living in our yard that house finches and northern flickers have been regular visitors to our bird feeder that the flock of pretty little birds in the trees outside mr snickerdoodle s office are cedar waxwings and that a few of the birds we thought were pigeons are actually eurasian collared doves it s been amazing to see the variety of birds that surround us on a regular basis they ve always been there but we re just now starting to appreciate them it kind of makes me wonder what else we re missing out on because we re not paying attention we spent a little time yesterday at a migratory bird refuge on our way home from nana s house where we got an up close look at a long billed curlew pictured above and a blue heron along with about 10 other birds we hadn t seen yet very exciting and yes without a doubt very nerdy but in a world where where it seems to get harder and harder for kids to develop any sort of real relationship with nature i ll take nerdy any day if it means my kids are excited about being outside and looking around as far a bird guides go we ve really loved stan tekiela s bird field guides our copy is birds of utah but he s published one for every state birds of alaska birds of alabama etc we love them because they are so user and even kid friendly the birds are organized by color and then size so you don t have to know a bird s name to look it up the field guides also include only birds you re likely to find in your state so you don t have to shuffle through pages and pages of unrelated birds they ve been perfect for beginners like us posted by steph at 1 29 pm no comments monday march 26 2012 microwave caramel popcorn hungry caramel popcorn is good old fashioned comfort food in my family i have very fond childhood memories involving huge clean garbage bags full of caramel popcorn and intense games of chicken foot also chocolate cake with caramel icing catching fireflies wild little girl cyndi lauper dance parties who else was crazy about girls just wanna have fun long small town bike rides and secret forts but i digress what i really want to talk about today is caramel popcorn made traditionally it is delicious but time consuming made with the microwave that miracle of modern technology it is delicious and almost instantaneous almost i whipped up a batch last night to see just how fast it was start to finish and that means in my tummy it took just less than 10 minutes almost instant caramel popcorn 1 cup unpopped popcorn 1 2 cup 1 stick butter 1 cup brown sugar 1 4 cup light corn syrup 1 2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract 1 2 teaspoon baking soda in a medium sized glass bowl melt butter add brown sugar corn syrup and salt and microwave on high for 3 minutes remove from the microwave and stir cook for 1 1 2 more minutes again on high it can wait in the microwave until the popcorn is ready while the caramel is cooking pop your popcorn my air popper pops 1 2 cup at a time so i do it in two batches pour the popcorn into a large paper grocery bag stir vanilla and baking soda into the caramel it should get foamy when well blended pour over the popcorn fold the top of the bag down and give it a good shake sometimes it s helpful to stir with a long handled spoon place the bag in the microwave and cook for 30 seconds then take it out and shake stir it do this two more times pour popcorn out onto wax paper lined counter tops and let it cool as long as you can stand to wait just try not to burn your mouth i d feel really bad also if you like a higher caramel to popcorn ratio just halve the amount of popcorn you use posted by steph at 1 28 pm no comments labels dessert wednesday march 21 2012 3 2 1 blast off my littlest man turned three today he s had high expectations for his birthday ever since his big brothers had their birthdays in january what he really wanted most was to launch some model rockets he s been asking for that for weeks i wasn t too keen on shelling out cash for a one use rocket and launch system at least not for a three year old so it was a good thing we remembered the water rocket we built last summer and stored away in the garage we used the plans from one of our all time favorite project books howtoons you can find more information on building your own at the howtoons website in the meantime check out how high our rocket flew posted by steph at 8 13 pm no comments friday march 9 2012 garlic stink be gone you ll never believe this crazy trick to banish that lingering garlic smell from your hands after you ve been cooking something delicious translation loaded with garlic it ll blow your mind are you ready find yourself a stainless steel spoon and rub it on your hands under running water pretend it s a bar of soap now sniff those hands and be amazed there s probably a simple scientific explanation for this but i m going to chalk it up to magic posted by steph at 11 31 am 2 comments older posts home subscribe to posts atom hi there steph i m a thrifty bookworm knit a holic wanna be seamstress i spend most of my days wrangling homeschooling my four crazy kids 3 boys one girl but sometimes i swing by my little corner of the web to blog i m so glad you stopped by view my complete profile virtual knitting lessons virtual knitting lesson 1 cast on knit stitch bind off and a pep talk virtual 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