Swirl

A cute swirly topper for your favorite little one...

SWIRL

Materials Needed:

Size 4 16" circular or DPN needles
1 skein Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi (195.0 yds/178.3 m) Colorway 103
Tapestry needle
Scissors

Abbreviations:
CO: cast on
SKP: Slip 1 as if to knit, Knit 1, Pass slipped stitch over
sts: stitches
PM: place marker

Gauge: 24 sts across 4"

Size: 0-3 mos.
(For toddler size, try a worsted weight yarn with size 6 needles.)

Using long-tail method (or other loose cast-on) CO 88 sts.
Join to work in round. PM to denote beginning of round.

Brim:
*Knit 2 rounds. Purl 3 rounds.*
Repeat 4 more times (or once for each color change, depending on your preference).

Knit in round until hat measures 4" from beginning (or desired depth).

Begin Crown:
Purl 4 rounds.

Divide hat into 4 equal parts by placing marker after every 22 sts.

Begin Swirl Top:
SKP after every marker until 4 sts remain.

Work i-cord for 3 inches. BO and tie in knot at top. Weave in any loose ends.

For an alternate "swirlier" top:
Try dividing top into 8 equal parts, and doing the SKP after each marker. This would result in a rounder swirled hat (more like a soft serve ice cream cone as opposed to the square design currently pictured).

2009 Summer Bucket List

Summer is finally almost here! The kids have decided we need to have a "Little Bucket List" (i.e., spontaneous fun) and a "Big Bucket List" (i.e., things that need to be planned in advance). Without further ado, here they are:

Big Bucket List

Father's Day Camping

Summer Skiing (Dad's Birthday)

Sun River

Windsurfing in Hood River

Reno waterparks

Visit Boston, MA and Boston, England

Winthrop, WA and Ross Lake

Re-design/Paint Alli and Chardy's Room

Summer camps

Cannon Beach

Hiking in the Gorge

Wild Waves Amusement Park

Little Bucket List

Swimming

Have a Picnic

Midnight Bowling

Library

Go Junking (i.e., Garage Sales)

Ice Skating

Rock Climbing

French Park

Enchanted Forest

Play Bump (a basketball game)

Racquetball

Have a Lemonade Stand

Barnes & Nobles

Baskin Robbins / Coldstone

Farmer's Market

Yarn shopping (gotta have something in here just for the blog author!)

Painting

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince

Geo-caching

OMSI

Our Champion!

Over 1700 kids compete in CYO track & field. And, only 64 of the girls even qualified to compete in the long jump at the Meet of Champions this weekend. Alli was thrilled to be among that 64 (she was ranked 27th coming into the meet with a qualifying jump of 11' 2"). So, it was even more of a thrill when she set her personal best jump ever (improving by more than a foot from her previous best!). And, it was absolutely amazing when that personal best landed her on the podium today in 8th place. We were hugging and jumping up and down for joy when they unexpectedly called her to the award's stand. Check out her amazing jump (12' 6 3/4"):



And, her award ceremony:

The Best Cards Ever...

...from the best kids ever. An assortment of their cards for my birthday and Mother's Day.

From Aaron:


I love the multiple attempts he made to spell "Your family loves you..." "a" "Are" U" and then finally he went oh what the heck: "we all love you a lot"!

From Chardy:
Who knows I'd rather have a cold drink than be "queen for a day"





And, from Alli, my amazing artist:

What's a Shark Say?

So, we all went to see the movie Earth tonight. (Awesome family movie, by the way.) Anyway, in one of the scenes, there's this huge great white shark.



As it's leaping out of the water with a seal caught in its jaws, Ginny keeps asking "What's a shark say? What's a shark say?" And, Aaron pipes up, "The shark should say 'sorry' to the seal."

Good Advice

My mom was changing Ginny's diaper the other day - one of those really big nasty smelly ones. She kept telling Ginny that it was "icko". When she was all done, Ginny looked mom straight in the eye and said "Don't eat it."

Ginny Knows Best

So, Chardy is quite the little cook in our house, always experimenting with new dishes and ingredients. She even has her own blog: http://www.freeforallcooking.blogspot.com. Apparently, Ginny has cottoned on to this fact, because this morning as she was waking up, she said in a sleepy voice: "Mom, I'm starving. Wake up Chardy!" I guess she knows who to go to for the good food options!