Weekend Crafting Adventure!

This past weekend has been an absolute whirlwind of activity. That always seems to be the case on the weekends when DH is around! It's like having another kid in the house--the energy level increases exponentially when Daddy's home, which makes for fun times for the boys, but absolute exhaustion for Mommy. And the boys have figured out, after sleeping in toddler beds for about a month now, that they can actually get out of those beds when they wake up in the morning. So my little guys have been running to our room, cackling with glee! It's pretty damn cute. ;-) Except for when Charlie wakes up at 5:30am and runs screaming in our bedroom. That's not a good way to wake up.

This morning was pretty nice though--we just got the boys a new rug for their room from Ikea. We don't allow them to have toys in their bedroom--just the two stuffed animals they sleep with and ONE car/train/book for each little boy. Since the bedroom is where they go for time out, we need to make sure that it remains a place that's no fun. Anyway, last night, all they wanted to take was a car--of course--but they didn't stay up playing, thankfully. When they got up this morning, they came to our room to make sure we were there (!), but went back to their room to play with their cars on the new rug. It was wonderful to get a just a smidge more sleep--especially since DH and I were  both up late. He was watching "Breaking Bad," and I was working on his PSP cozy, which, by the way, is kicking my ass...

DH decided that he would like the greek letter omega, which is a symbol for the God of War game series,  rather than a pirate. I am, as a ninja, of course happy about this change of events. ;-) But this meant that I needed to make a new knitting chart for the omega pattern since I couldn't find one that already existed that worked with the number of stitches on the front panel of the cozy. Making this chart took all of Saturday evening. Well, that's not entirely true because I worked on some other craftiness Saturday night--to be discussed later... But it took a really long time--much longer than I had anticipated. If you're interested in charting your own intarsia patterns, this website is indispensable. There are other sites that help you map out images onto a knitting chart, but this helped me visualize the pattern according to the number of stitches I had and the specific gauge of my work.

Also, because I'm working the intarsia pattern in the round, I needed to teach myself a new technique. I'm all for learning new stuff, especially when it comes to knitting or crocheting, but I think next time, I'm going to leave learning to already established patterns--not when I'm trying to write a new pattern myself!

So after ripping out rows, going back, untangling myself from the web of bobbins and yarn, I think I've got things under control. now, I just need it to be naptime so I can get back to the knitting! ;-)

In other crafting news, I produced yet another CraftFail. I saw a beautiful framed monogram made of buttons, and when I was at Michael's there were some wooden letters on clearance. There happened to be both a C and an L, so I thought I would change things up and glue the buttons onto the letter to give it a 3-D effect. Well, this is what came out of that experiment. Note: I got really annoyed with how it looked and tore off a few buttons so it looks even crappier than it did. But not by much! Seriously...

So I needed to think of something else since I bought all these supplies... And it's a sin to waste... I can use the buttons for something else, but really--what am I going to do with these wooden letters? It's not like I have enough to do the boys' entire names. Plus, I have frames to use. Using some scrapbooking paper that I had leftover from when I made the boys' thank you cards about two and a half years ago, this is what I came up with.  Because the length of the frame is greater than the 12"x12" scrapbook paper, I had to overlap two sheets, but it's not very noticeable at all, and I think that once it's hanging on the wall, no one will be able to tell.

I have to do Lincoln's, but because the "L" has stupid buttons glued all over it, I need to find some time to heat it up and take the buttons off. Maybe this afternoon while the boys are napping... But should I work on Lincoln's frame or should I work on my ever-increasing in difficulty PSP cozy? Decision, decisions...