A long overdue blanket update...

Ok - I admit it.

I am waaaaay behind on my temperature blanket.

All was going well, and at one point in April, I was completely caught up. Then I got behind again and decided to take the blanket and yarn with me to the US when the boys and I went to visit my family in June/July. I was on track to getting caught up when I ran out of orange yarn. The mild winter in Sydney and cooler summer in Iowa resulted in an insane number of totally orange squares (days where the temperatures in Sydney and Decorah were within the same 5-degree range: 21-25 degrees Celsius). I had underestimated the amount of orange yarn I would need.

Right.

After we came back to Sydney in early July, I started working on the blanket again, trying to get caught up. But I then made the decision to start on Christmas presents so I would not be in a rush to get things made right before the holidays. So I've been working on a variety of smaller projects that will be gifts for family members and teachers. (Lots of cute things that I can't post pictures of here - don't want to ruin any surprises!!) And I've been working on the blanket here and there.

The end of July marked the half-way mark for the rows on the blanket. And I finally knit up those squares about two weeks. It is amazing to see the blanket half finished. There is a lot more red, orange and yellow than I had expected - the temperatures in Sydney this winter have been nearly constant and there has been little variations in the daily high temps in Decorah. Even though I reached this milestone several days ago, I kept forgetting to take some photos of the blanket. Of course, it doesn't help that it has been raining and raining and raining and raining - not good photo-taking weather.

At any rate, here is the blanket at the halfway mark. I'm pretty pleased with how it is turning out. (The light yellow looks like white in the photos).

And I am kind of excited to see that the Farmer's Almanac is predicting a harsh winter for the Upper Midwest (sorry Iowa folks!!) That means lots of blue (there are three shades in my colour scheme) and grey and hopefully some purple (for the REALLY cold days). I'm crossing my fingers that Sydney has a few hot days in December and January so I get the opportunity to work some pink into the blanket as well.

The last day for the blanket will be 30 January 2015. That seems like a long time from now, but it's not. Hopefully, I will be able to get caught up on the blanket now that I am almost finished with Christmas presents.

Lego Storage

Until about a month ago, my boys had a casual interest in Lego, but it was nothing really more than that. When my family came to visit last year, my mom brought along the Legos that my sister and I had played with when we were kids. My boys would occasionally take them out and play with them, building fighter jets and houses and stuff, but nothing very organised or serious.

Then, for his fifth birthday at the start of April, Vincent got four different sets of Lego. And just like that, Lego obsession hit our house.

We now had lots of different sets of Lego and nowhere to put them. We had one tub that served as the storage for the Legos from when I was a kid, but it was difficult to see all of the pieces and find the one exact piece that was needed for a project. The Legos were being left out on the dinner table with projects in various stages of completion. Pieces were getting lost, stepped on (ouch!) and Vincent was frustrated because he was struggling to find the pieces he was looking for.

The original Lego storage system.

I knew we had to find a new storage solution. I decided I wanted one that was compact (our house is not very big), easily transportable (so Vincent could take his Legos on playdates or to his grandparents' or cousins' houses) and organised in such a way that was efficient and straight forward. We don't have heaps and heaps of Lego - but we have enough that it was starting to get out of hand.

I searched online for some ideas and came across one that sounded perfect (of course, now I can't find the link...) This mother used a tool box with removeable compartments for her son to store his Lego bricks and accessories. That sounded perfect to me.

So off I went to Bunnings (that is the Australian equivelant to Home Depot or Lowes). And I found the perfect tool box for about $30. There are several small compartments that are the perfect size for storing the Lego bricks. And they are removable, which is great for when you need to dump them out to find a specific piece. There is also a big storage compartment in the bottom part of the tool box - perfect for storing the instruction books, smaller finished projects and half-finished creations.

 

In that same blog post I mentioned earlier, the writer mentioned that she used paint chips to color code the storage compartments. I thought this was a great idea - so I picked up several while I was at Bunnings.

It has taken some organising and re-organising of the colors in each bin but I think we have now managed to get things settled in the new Lego-sorter-storage-tool-box. Vincent absolutely loves it. Although it is a bit big for him, he is able to carry it, which he thinks is great.

 

This was definitely a parenting win!

Update on my Sydney-Decorah Temperature Blanket

 

31 March marked the end of two months and four rows on my temperature blanket. I am pretty excited by how the blanket is progressing. I am about a week behind, but have been collecting the temperature data for Sydney and Decorah for each day.

The weather in Sydney has been pretty consistent - that's why there is lots of orange and red on the blanket. But - fortunately for me! - the weather in Decorah has been all over the place in the past two months. That is what is providing the color variation in the blanket.

Just to remind you - each square is a day and the colors in that square are determined by the high temperatures in Sydney, Australia (where I currently live) and Decorah, Iowa (where I grew up). And I am going to be recording this temperature data for an entire year. I began on my birthday, 31 January. The end result will be twenty-four rows of fifteen squares (360 days) with the temperatures of the remaining five days represented in a border around the blanket. [And yes - I will type of the pattern one of these days...]

I have come up with fifteen temperature ranges and have assigned a color to each. The outer most color in each square represents the Sydney temperature and the other color is representative of Decorah's temperature for that same calenar day.

Here are the temperature ranges (in degrees Celcius) and the corresponding colors:
below -25 = dark purple (none of that yet!)
-24 - -20 = light purple (none of that yet either)
-19 - -15 = grey (a few days were that cold in Decorah since 31 January)
-14 - -10 = dark blue
-9 - -5 = royal blue
-4 - 0 = light blue
1 - 5 = dark green
6 - 10 = light green
11 - 15 = light yellow (finally some warmer days in Decorah near the end of row 4!)
16 - 20 = dark yellow (this is the only color that has been used for both Decorah and Sydney, but on separate days)
21 - 25 = orange (lots and lots of this for Sydney)
26 - 30 = red (lots of this color too)
31 - 35 = dark red (only one day has been this warm in Sydney since 31 January)
36 - 40 = dark pink (hopefully next summer!)
above 41 = light pink (hopefully not too many of these days next summer...)

And here are some photos of how the blanket is progressing...



It is finally starting to warm up in Decorah!! [represented by the progression of dark green and light green to light yellow and dark yellow]

 

The Sydney-Decorah Daily Temperature Blanket

My recent knitting and crocheting projects have mostly involved toys, accessories (scarves, fingerless gloves, etc), little hearts, little stars, bunting, apple cozies and baby clothes (NOT for me...I am going to be an auntie!!). I have been looking to do something for myself and have been wanting to make a blanket.

I have been inspired by all of the beautiful colorwork by Lucy at Attic24 (check out this, this and this). I like granny squares, but the thought of sewing all of those squares together makes my blood run cold. I tried making one of her ripple afghans, but it just didn't sit well with me. (By the way, I LOVE her pattern for Granny Bunting Triangles and can't wait to try her recipe for crusty no-knead bread.)

Then I came across this idea for a temperature scarf. What a great idea - assign a different color to a different temperature range. Then record the maximum temperature for each day of the year and knit a row for each day. Fantastic! Except that one of the joys of living in Sydney is that there is not much variation in the daily maximum temperature - sure there are days of extreme heat and relative cold, but not much in the way of variation.

That is when I came up with the idea to do a dual temperature scarf - for each day I would record the maximum temperature for Sydney and Decorah, Iowa (my hometown). Then I would get lots of color variation (a la Lucy from Attic24) and end up with something for me. Great.

I decided that the first day would be my birthday (31 January) and that I would record the data for an entire year. So this scarf would be a record of the maximum temperatures of Sydney and Decorah for the 36th year of my life.

So I worked out my color chart, bought my yarn, worked out a gage, made a plan and started recording the temperatures for Sydney and Decorah.

I chose DK (8-ply) yarn for my blanket. The dark purple corresponds with the coldest temps (-25C). The further right you go, the warmer the temperatures. The light pink on the right is for the hottest temperatures (41+C).

Here is my color-temperature chart, in degrees Celsius.

The one thing I didn't take into account was all of the ends I would have to weave in. At the end of every. single. row. YIKES!!

Not to mention that it was going to be a very long scarf... two stripes for each day for an entire year... do the math... that's 730 rows.

Right. Time to come up with a new plan.

I started trawling ravelry.com for ideas. I decided that blanket would be best. But I wanted something that would make use of my two-colors-a-day color scheme. Granny squares wouldn't really work - plus, I would have to sew them all together. Stripes might work, but it would be a bit mind numbing and I would have the same problem of having to sew the ends in at the end of every. single. row.

Then I came across this idea for a blanket made up of mitered squares. I realised that I could make one square for each day and each square would be made up of alternating stripes of the colors that corresponded with the maximum temperature for that day in Sydney and Decorah.

And, when you do a blanket made up of mitered squares, you have to join the squares as you go. It's part of the pattern.

A close-up picture of what the squares look like.

And, if the starting color of the next square is the same as the starting color of the previous square, you just carry the color along - one less end to weave in.

So I had Paul do some math for me and he worked out that if I made 3-inch squares, then I could make a blanket that was 15 squares by 24 squares. That is 360 squares. Then the last 5 days of the year would be represented in a border around the blanket - 10 stripes in total. And the resulting blanket would be a decent size blanket.

And it would be colorful.

Yippee!!

I've just finished the 16th square (the end of the first row + the first square in the second row). Because of the false start with the scarf and a crazy bout of sickness, I am a bit behind. But I am really enjoying the pattern and the colorwork. It is also fun to see how the temperatures are changing (or not) for Sydney and Decorah.

This is sort of what the blanket looks like so far - I've finished the first row of 15 squares and have started the second row. Up to this point, it has been all orange and red for the Sydney colors. For Decorah, it's been 3 shades of blue and some grey.

Here is my temperature data for Sydney and Decorah.

At some point, I will write up a rough description of the pattern and how I am putting this all together.

So, I've been a bit busy...

Yes, I know it has been ages since I have written anything for this blog - almost 3 months! I thought it was high time to check back in and catch you up on what I have been up to (and maybe this will be the start of more regular blog posts! Although that is what I thought last time...)

The main reason I haven't posted anything here in a while is because I am working 3 (yes, THREE) jobs outside the home. Since January, I have been working three days a week as a secretary in a music department in a school here in Sydney. Then, in July, I was asked to teach a class in music and philosophy at one of the universities - for the term that started at the end of July! I am a "casual academic" (the Australian term for adjunct), and I have one lecture and lead three tutorials (the Australian version of recitation/labs/discussion sections) - and this all happens in one day (yes, it is a long day). But I LOVE it - I have 75 students and things have been going really well. A couple weeks after I started teaching, I was hired to be a research assistant (official title: "Research Officer" - it sounds like a carry a badge!) for one of the professors at this same university. So I have been doing that as well. And of course this is on top of being a mama and doing things "normal" mama things.

So, yes, I guess you could say that I've been busy.

But since knitting/crocheting is my "outlet," I have managed to find time to continue doing that as well. And it helps that I have a long commute (1 hour and 15 min one way) to my teaching gig. So, here are some of my more recent projects...

I have made two versions of this snake for birthday presents for two of Vincent's preschool friends. This is the BEST snake pattern and is adapted from this pattern from The Purl Bee (there are so many amazing patterns on this website - all for free! Check out this octopus, these hedgehogs, and this adorable sheep pillow)

I made this cute owl lovey for a co-worker who is having a baby in a few weeks. It is from this pattern from Stitch 11 (I really like her patterns, too. You may remember the crown I made for Vincent. I have also made her flower pattern as gifts for Mother's Day.)

This year, daycare is putting together a team for our local Relay for Life. Last year, I made these koalas for the fund raising raffle. This year, I asked Vincent to help me pick out something to make. He picked this monster and also picked out the colors. Meet "Cecil, the Computer Monster" from Rebecca Danger's Big Book of Knitted Monsters. I have made three or four monsters from this book - pretty mindless knitting, but the end result is so cute!

And I made this snake for Desmond's second birthday. It is from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys. This is my main "go-to" toy pattern book - I have made several of the toys in this book (koala, wrap-me up puppies, lion/elephant, doll, plus a couple other ones I don't have links for). This snake was easy and used up some leftover sock yarn I had lying around. Desmond seems to really like it as well!

I'm not sure what to work on next. I have started working on my Christmas presents list. But I was also thinking of maybe making something for myself (gasp!) But for course, as soon as I get started on something for myself, I'm sure Vincent will come to me and say, "Mama, can you please make me a [fill in the blank]." It will likely be something like this or this or this.

Two Cute Toys

I know I haven't posted anything for a while. I have been meaning to post some photos of our "new" house, but I haven't had an opportunity to sit and write. Things have been busy with work - and goodness knows that the boys always keep me busy! But I have been knitting - on the train, during my lunch break and in the evenings. Since it is winter here, I have been busy knitting fingerless gloves for Paul, the boys, and my nieces (as birthday gifts). I have also been "commissioned" to make a few gifts for my sister to give to her friends who are having children. I made two pairs of booties, a hat, and two cute toys. And those two toys turned out so adorable, I just had to share them

First up, Susan B. Anderson's "Ribbit." Not only is this frog simply adorable, it is also very fun - because inside his body is a bouncy rubber ball. So he hops like a frog!

Second, using the same yarn as the frog, I made the caterpillar from Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I followed this pattern but made my own adjustments to more closely match Eric Carle's caterpillar: I made the antennae purple and added feet (because, as Vincent pointed out, the caterpillar in the book has 6 feet). I also crocheted the eyes and nose rather than cutting them out of felt. I think the result is a very close resemblance to Carle's famous caterpillar. (And if you are a fan of the book, there are several adorable patters for toys and baby clothes based on this book - have a look here and here and here.)

I am now finishing up the fingerless gloves for my youngest niece, who will be turning 9 in July. I also am going to make something for the raffle for the Relay for Life at our daycare. And maybe it is because of the cool and rainy winter weather we have been having here, I am really yearning to make a colorful afghan. I have been so inspired by Lucy at Attic 24 and am thinking that I might try to make an afghan similar to this one or maybe this one next. I also have been working on a pile of granny squares for a blanket - and granny squares make a great project to work on during my commute and over my lunch break at work. So I think I might take a break from short projects like toys and fingerless gloves and work on some longer-term projects for a while...at least until Vincent and Desmond ask me to make another toy animal for them to add to their collection (like this crocodile or this snake or this lobster or even Captain Barnacles from the Octonauts!)

The Manta Rays

Vincent is very interested in ocean stuff. I'm not really sure how it started - when we lived in Minnesota, we had annual passes to the Minnesota Zoo. He used to love the aquarium wing and the coral reef section of the tropics. He loves to watch documentaries about underwater creatures. He gets very excited about visits to the Sydney Aquarium and Manly Sealife Sanctuary - in fact, since we got our annual pass about a month ago that gives us unlimited entry to these two attractions and 9 other places, we have already been to the aquarium twice and the sanctuary once (and are planning a second visit on Monday!)

Vincent LOVES going to the Sydney Aquarium!

Wales, sharks, and rays are his favourite - he knows all of the different types of these animals and is always asking questions to learn more. We hunt out the shark and whale books at the library to bring home. I also printed out some fact sheets and photos of sharks and whales and had them laminated.

And he likes to do this pretend-play activity that he made up call "playing oceans." He assigns each of us an animal (all of the fun is in the planning - we never actually play anything....) It goes something like this:

Vincent: "Let's play oceans. Daddy, you can be the tiger shark. Mama, what do you want to be? You can be a dugong. And Desmond can be the baby tiger shark. And I'll be the big brother tiger shark."

Less than five minutes later, we are all different animals...minke whales, lemon sharks, sting rays, manta rays, blue whales, northern right whales...the list goes on and on and on.

For his birthday in April, I made him a shark pencil case from this great pattern from mooglyblog.com (by the way - I LOVE this site for free crochet patters. Plus, she lives in Iowa!) He loves it. So I decided that I needed to make him another underwater animal, and I came across this very cute pattern for a manta ray. And, I have learned that if I make something for Vincent, I need to make one for Desmond as well. So I made two manta rays.

Desmond's manta ray is purple and Vincent's is black.

The pattern is pretty quick to crochet. Plus the safety eyes add a extra-cuteness to the animal. And it has this really great feature of using pipe cleaners in the tail and across the fins so that you can bend the ray in different ways. Of course, the pipe cleaners in my boys' rays snapped after a few twists of the tail. But they are still cute! Both boys loves their manta rays!

(That green sweater that Vincent is wearing was made by my grandma for me to wear when I was his age!)

I am now moving on to some other projects - baby gifts and birthday gifts and a granny square project that will be donated to the fund-raising raffle for the Relay for Life at the boys' daycare. But I am hoping that I might have some time in the next few months to attempt this amazing humpback whale for Vincent.