Knitting up a storm

Winter is coming, no doubt about that. Yesterday I woke up to a thin white blanket covering the streets infront of my house. Not long until I will be shoveling snow again.

In preparation for winter, the girls need a layer of warm clothes to wear with their overalls. I concluded I would use the Drops “Starshine” pattern and make my own pattern on the yolk. For the pants I started with the pattern for “Power leggings” but didn’t like the shape of the finished pants. So after recommendations from a good colleague, I ended up using “Winter wolf” for all three sets .  I bought Drops Karisma yarn when they had a sale earlier this year. I even made a set for my niece, hope she likes it.

For the waist I followed a youtube video on how to knit an icord.

For my niece I used the colors “dark purple” (uni color 76) for the pattern and “rose” (uni color 80) for the rest. She got two pair of pants as I made that one first with elastics in the waistline. I used 5 skeins of the main color for the sweater and 5 skeins for the pants. for the accents I used 2 skeins.

for my niece….

For SweetieL I used the colors “light denim blue” (uni color 30) for the pattern and “navy blue” (uni color 17) for the rest. When I was almost done , SweetieL requested the waist cord to be in a different color. So she got to choose from some yarns I had in my stash. She was still not happy with the end result until we added the pom poms. On this set I also used 5 skeins of the main color and 1 skein for the accents for a total of 12 skeins of Karisma.

for SweetieL….

And the last set, for SweetieS, I used the colors  “light grey green” (uni color 69) for the pattern and “sea green” (mix 50) for the rest. SweetieS got her set in a bigger size. So for her set I used 6 skeins for the sweater and 5 on the pants in addition to the 2 skeins for the accents.

the picture doesn’t do the color justice…

These would make great Christmas gifts, but the girls need these garments now. Not in a few weeks….so will just have to go shopping for other gifts for Christmas.

Before I forget., Drops is having a sale on all alpaca yarn. 14 different alpaca yarns to choose from and beautiful colors. With 30% discount you can save some $$$. The sale lasts thruout the year, so stock up while you can.

- what are you knitting these days?

- any knitted Christmas presents?

PJ masks birthday party

FYI: picture heavy post…

This years big happening was the girls birthday party with their kindergarten friends. This year we opted to have their birthday party together as they have many common friends. With over 20 invites handed out (and we only invited the girls) I was a bit nervous as to how many would be coming. Luckily “only” 16 girls came.

The invites was made using a template I found online, thanx to Pintrest. Here to be exact.. The Oh my fiesta webpage is a great resource for birthday printables, and ideas. So do check them out for some great ideas. I did some reasearch on comic book fonts and guidelines. I wound up using the font “Comic book” that can be downloaded from dafont.com for free,.

and here are the invites…

With the invites sent out, I started preparing all the other stuff I wanted for the birthday. First thing of…a picture to make a large target wall for the girls to throw sticky splats at. I did some surfing and found the “bad guys” from PJ masks and using the poster print function in my pdf software Adobe Acrobat Pro, I was able to blow it up 400% (!). Now came the hard work, assemble the 16 A3 format sheets of paper. It took about two evenings (after the girls had gone to bed) to get it together, reenforce the back so that it doesn’t easily break.

puzzled together, now for the holes…

The biggest challenge was how to make a temporary stand to hold it up. the finished poster measured about 1,7meters wide and 1,2 meters high and was too big for one adult to just hold it ut. With stuff we had around the house we were able to make a stand that I could staple the poster to.

pretty happy with the result…

For sticky splats (“klistreklæsj” in the Norwegian version) I had filled latex gloves wiith water, some with just plain water and some with colored water. Just fill, tie and cut of the exccess part of the glove.

I wanted all the kids coming to be able to dress for the PJ masks theme, without adding pressure to the parents to buy themed costumes/clothes for the party. So in advance I had put in orders for PJ mask sets which consisted of masks, bracelets and a cape. Since I knew I was going for the PJ masks theme, I had put in orders already in February. You never know how long packages from China will take. I bought mine from these two sellers on AliExpress: Shop3271008 and COS Store.. In my attempt to gift the sets to the kids, I had wrapped them in for each kid to open its own set. For the “seals” I printed some PJ mask pictures meant for cupcake toppers on some sticker paper and punched them out using a hole punch.

gifts for all….

To make sure that the kids would sit at the table and not run aimlessly around, I had put together an activity pamphlet for each kid. Just a little google search for some coloring pages, connect-the.-dots and some mind-activities, all PJ masked themed of course. Together with a table filled with coloring penciles, the kids sat longer at the table and not just for the food. On our latest UK trip I had bought Kellogg’s Froot Loops.. Paired with elastic string, the kids could make their own edible necklace/bracelet.

activity folder when sitting at the table

The last thing I prepped before going to bed…decorating the cakes. I had baked the cake earlier (thank you Gunhild for the supertasty cakes, recipes in Norwegian can be found in Gunhilds blog. Chocolate here and carrot cake here) and they had been cooling down for the most of the day. Just needed to wip up some frosting. Well one cake didn’t take much work as it was a carrot cake with frosting, we just called it sticky splat cake since the frosting looked like something sticky. As for the the other cake I had to put in some more work as the request was a gecko cake. I had printed out a gecko silhouette and cut it out using my trusty Gyro-cut tool. Great when cutting out shapes.. I used the negative as a template when adding the green Wilton sugar sprinkles.

yummy yummy, both tasted great

After two hours of 16 kids running around the house, I was ready for a break. But no rest for the weary….We had to get the house ready for the family coming to celebrate the girls. By evening all members of CasaR were popped and ready for bed.

Thanks to all family and friends who made the day great!

It’s that time of the year again

May is a hectic month for CasaR. There is alot to do at work and on the home front.

May is the birth month of both SweetieS and SweetieL. So hectic planning and organizing to get ready for celebrating the girls.

This year we opted to celebrate with all their kindergarten friends. This will problably be the first and last time they have their birthday party together. It’s the last year of kindergarten for SweetieS and the first year for SweetieL with the “big kids”. And since their two kindegarten groups play so well together, I thought we would give it a go. I did however restrict to only invite the girls. We ended up inviting 22 girls (versus 36 boys and girls). Where am I gonna fit 24 girls if they all come???

The theme is PJ masks and pictures from the day will come. Hopefully I will have time to snap some pictures. Invites have been sent out, now to get all the little things in order. I haven’t involved the girls in the preparations for the party because I want it to be a surprise for them and their guests. Hopefully I haven’t bitten of more than I can chew.

The family asked for their wishlist, so here it is…based on their recurring “can-I-have-that?-requests” while watching TV. Yes, they still watch TV in these tablet/streaming days.

Practical wishes from us, the parents;

Both girls love wearing dresses, so casual Summer dresses for everyday use would be nice.

SweetieS needs some thights to go with those dresses (so she doesn’t flash her undies to everyone)

As for wishes from the girls;

SweetieS:

Hatchimals (is that how it is spelled?)

Drawing and writing supplies

“sydvest” (after loosing her purple one in kindergarten, she’s been longing for a new one)

Lego classics

Jumping rope

SweetieL:(wants everything her big sister has..):

Hatchimals

Drawing and writing supplies

DVD: Trolls

Activity books, preferably with lots of stickers

Lego classics, like this (these storage boxes are great!)

Here’s hoping we get thru the party weekend in a few weeks.

Welcome to the world baby Emily

This past Easter baby Emily came into this world like a comet. Well her birth was long awaited and when the time came for her birth it was over almost before it began. And now my sisters family has added another girl to the family roster. Welcome Emily, wishing you a wonderful life blessed with love and fun!

I had to knit something for little Emily, so this time I opted for a blanket. From my experience with the girls, I made a baby blanket larger than the usual baby size. I went for more junior size,  the blanket ended up being around 80x100cm in size. I like the idea that the blanket can be used beyond the baby days/years.

I used a cloth pattern by Bitta Mikkelborg called Tusenfryd as a starting point. Did some calculations and ended up with this blanket. Did you know that tusenfryd is Norwegian for daisy?

a field of daisies

I have already started on another blanket, this time for another baby coming very soon. Pictures will be posted when it is given to the recipient..

-how did you spend your Easter?

A short getaway

When DaddyO told me he had a bunch of frequent flyer miles that were expiring very soon, he booked us a weekend trip to London! How sweet. In my 30+ years I have still to experience the city of London. The most I had seen of London was in the nighttime from a bus…

So on Friday we dropped the kids of at kindergarten and headed for the airport. The girls were stoked to be sleeping over at their grandparents while we were away. It was a smooth flight to Gatwick and before I knew it, we were checking in to our hotel located in the Kensington district.

So a few days with shopping and enjoying each others company, we are back a little more rested. I admit I might have gone a little overboard when shopping at Primark….clothes for the kids are really cheap when you don’t have to pay VAT. And if you shop other stuff for more than 30£ and flash your passport, you get a tax refund slip you can show at the airport when going home. Just remember to do that before you check in the baggage.. There’s a 100% chance they will want to see the goods you are taking home.

no pictures of my very full suitcase,

Oh and a last minute tip if you ever visit London…check out Oyster card (there is one for tourists) if you plan on using public transportation in London. Way cheaper options than buying the tourist cards. Eventhough it is a pay-as-you-go card, it is capped at £6.60 per day.

With time to spare

Sorry I’ve been MIA the last few months….time has just flown by.

The girls Marius dresses have been finished a few weeks now. They just need a round with an iron to flatten out here and there.

As mentioned in this post, it is a Marius pattern vest that I modified into a dress. I made it longer than the orginal vest and added a border to the bottom. Initially I made them so the girls would have matching dresses for their kindergarten pictures, which is in the Spring. I have yet to receive information about a photo scheduel. so how long can I hold off these dresses until the girls want to use them? With my luck, if I let them use them they’ll eat blueberries or something that make stains that are impossible to get out.

For these dresses I used Drops Baby Merino yarn. This yarn is so nice to knit with. Recommend this yarn if you are knitting patterns with different colors.

SweetieS choose the color “lilla orkide” (mix 39) as her main color, while SweetieL choose “turkis” (Uni color 32). For the Marius pattern I used “hvit” (Uni color 01). For the collar I used “rosa” (uni color 07). In both dresses I used 4 skeins of the mail color and 1 of each the white and pink..

An ice cold front has hit Norway the last week, so it’s been good knitting on a baby blanket I’m gifting my sister when her new baby comes…

-what are you knitting on these days?