Chess for Kids

Fair warning...I even surprised myself with this one.

I taught my sweet 7 year old how to play chess the other day.  He's a natural and we've played many rounds in the last couple of weeks.  Being a fan of the first Harry Potter movie he calls it Wizard's Chess and basically pounces on the pieces he's capturing.  That's what makes Wizard's Chess so fun!  Well, that also brought about casualties on our breakable chess set.

:(

I started trying to think of a way to save our pieces but still allow him his wizardy fun.  I also needed something more travel friendly.  (We're moving to another country in three days.  I know!)

Enter the peg person.  Now, these guys are no strangers around here.  We use them for all sorts of fun.  Game pieces, calendars, our gnome tree house, etc.  You can pretty much find one in any direction you look at our house. 

I have quite the stash of peg people so I dug around and actually had enough on hand to create one side of the chess set.  (I just got the other side finished last night)  I also had wool felt and all the necessary stuff to sew up little chess themed hats.  Since this is a kids set we chose their favorite colors and set to work.

It's so cute I can't stand it.

The purple side King and Queen have
purple stitching around their crowns.

 

 

Green side = green stitching

Now to tell you about our board.  I was inspired here by this book from my childhood.  (My mom let us borrow it on our last visit.)

yes it IS from the early 80's.

It has some really fun ideas in it but I especially remembered this one.

We have a HUGE supply of bandanas on hand.  I just grabbed one we had that went with our colors and used a paint pen and some acrylic paint to make the squares.  Now full disclosure here, if I had it to do over I would use a fat tipped sharpie (or the paint pen) and NOT the thinned acrylic paint.  It's a little too stiff but it works.  (and I may redo it one day)

When you are finished playing you just tie the whole thing up and toss it in your suitcase.  (or just put it on your shelf)

Cute. as. pie.  These would make a great Christmas gift for the young chess player in your life.

Kristin


p.s.  as I mentioned earlier we're moving soon so my posting here will be more sporadic as we get settled in.  See you on the flip side!

For the babies...

Two, count them TWO, dear people in my life have recently had beautiful baby girls.  I was so excited to knit and sew for a baby girl again that I got all giddy and light headed and, for just a second, considered having another baby.  That didn't last long though.  I realized other people will always be having babies I can sew and knit for.  Phew...(right babe?)

Anyway, I broke out some trusted patterns, Made by Rae's Big Butt Baby Pants and Joelle Hoverson's Pointy Elf Hat from More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  Seriously I LOVE these patterns!  They are both fairly quick and easy.  The hardest part is picking out the right yarn and fabric for the job.

Are you ready to see the cutest pants in the history of forever? 

Front view

 

Back view.

Don't even try to tell me these aren't the cutest...cause you'd be lying.

And now for the super sweet pixie hat.



I think I need to knit myself a pixie hat...

Together?

Shut the front door!

I especially love that the hat is as long as the pants.  Although you can roll the hat brim to make it a little shorter.

Tiny clothes make my ovaries hurt.

Knitting Needle Roll

I thought I'd show you all my needle storage roll.  I was going crazy with needles everywhere and trying to keep little people from breaking them or loosing them.  I decided to make up a needle roll. 

Never mind the wrinkles...it's well loved.

It turned out really great.  I think the only thing I would do next time is make it slightly shorter or sew the flap farther down.  I end up folding past the sewn flap line.  No big deal but it's what I'd do differently.

Right now it holds all my needles with plenty of space for new ones I make.  It holds circulars, double points, and regular ol' straight ones.  I will add that my homemade needles are a good bit longer than the ones I had purchased at the store so I had to make it taller to work with those.

Sewing this up really didn't take that long.  Just a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon.  All the materials were from my stash so that made it free too.  I'm thinking of making a tutorial... what do you think?

Anyone else craving cinnamon rolls?

A Hat for the Hubs

My sweet husband requested a hat.  I happily agreed to knit him one if he chose the pattern.  He settled on the Jacques Cousteau hat and I hit my new favorite yarn store for the perfect yarn.  It's taking for. ev. er.  I think it's the tiny needles.  Apparently I have "knitter's block" with this one.  I'm just going to have to get it done though. 

Also, last weekend I spent two days on youtube trying to decide if I think I'm a "magic loop" kind of gal. (exciting weekend huh?)  I've figured out the double pointed needles pretty well but it does get a little crazy with all those points.  So....any input about magic loop v/s dpn's? 

I'm yarning along with Ginny at Small Things.  My husband has been encouraging me (or driving me crazy about) reading Game of Thrones so that's the book I'm getting ready to start.  We'll see if it's as good as he says it is.  I figure if he can ready Harry Potter for me, I can read Game of Thrones for him.

In case you missed it, you should check out Part 2 of my knitting needle tutorial.  (here's Part 1)  They turned out great if I do say so myself.  Oh and come back Friday to check out the knitting needle roll I made to keep them all in.  Three posts in one week...whaaaaat?

Kristin

Knitting Needles Part 2: The Finishing

Remember waaaaaaay back when I showed you my homemade knitting needles?  Well, it's time to finally finish them. 

We made it to Step Four where you pretty much sand them within an inch of their lives.  I used 150, 220, and 320 grit sandpaper.

To finish you need:

-old rags (a cut up t-shirt will do nicely)
-0000 steel wool
-an extra piece of the 320 grit sandpaper
-boiled linseed oil (or your finish of choice)

Step Five:

Take a clean rag and apply the boiled linseed oil to the raw needles.  (Take care not to spill it or just do this part outside.)  Let it sit for 10-20 minutes then with another clean rag wipe off any extra that didn't soak in. 

Let the needles dry for 24 hours.  Now, here's where the magic happens.  Take your 0000 steel wool and buff the needle.  This is what gives it a glassy smooth finish.  At this point I usually feel/look very closely for any little spot I missed when sanding that could catch my yarn then I take my 320 grit sandpaper and sand it smooth. 

Repeat this 4 or 5 times.  You'll know when it needs it again.  You will be able to feel how "not smooth" it is.  I've even used them for a while then gone back and put on a few more layers of finish. 

All in all, I've made about 10 needle sets (dpn's included) and I still have plenty of raw material to make more. 

They really are quite fun to make.


Next up!  I'm showing you my knitting needle storage/travel solution.

A hat or twelve.

We've had some "technical difficulties" here at Sewtastically Made.  My computer sounds like it's grinding coffee.  Yes, that's bad.  Apparently it's a little thing called a hard drive.  And it's crashing.  So that means I've got to figure out a way to quickly get ALL my important information (i.e. pictures, homeschool files, itunes...yes, I know I need a "cloud".)  on to an external hard drive.  I'm scared.  I'm a giant, technologically un-gifted, scaredy cat.  (I'm just going have to put on my BGP's - big girl panties - and do it though.)  Thankfully, my wonderful daddy took the time to fix my "old computer" for me to have as a back up. 

Now for the crafty talk...

I've been knitting like a crazy person.  Or maybe just knitting like a knitter.  I swear I even dream knitting.  In the shower the other day, rinsing my hair, I saw knitted stitches on the backs of my eyelids.  Am I going insane?  Don't answer that.

I've been working on lots of small projects.  Hats mostly.  One for me.



I apologize for all the ipod photos.  It was raining to boot!

One for my oldest.

Lord he's cute.

Even one for a tiny peg person.

I love the unintentional braided look.

I started another one for a sweet, soon to be born, daughter of a dear friend.  (I can't wait to see it on her tiny head!)

Apparently it's the week of the hat.  In the wings I have lined up one for my cousin's brand new baby and even one for my husband.  Hats all around!  (And don't worry about my daughter, she received one of the first ones I made.)  

Oh, and I finally found a sweet little yarn shop with super friendly (and very helpful) staff and "yarn snob" yarn.  I'm excited to try upgraded (but NOT insanely expensive) yarn. 

I also discovered the joys of a knitting, homeschooling mom.  I think that's how I accomplished so much with knitting this week!  It's the perfect thing to sit quietly and work on while my son works on a particular problem.  Along those lines, I've currently been reading homeschool math lessons and not much else. 

Yarning along with Ginny and the gang at Small Things today.

 

 

 

 

 

A String and Two Sticks

So I'm a knitter.  I am.  I crocheted for years but I haven't once since I picked up the needles.  I started back in January and the progress felt pretty slow for a while.  I seem to be getting faster and (maybe) even better now.  I had done some basic dishrag patterns but nothing super complicated.  Well, enter Wee Folk Art and their beautiful Spicer's Scarf.  It's by far the most complicated pattern I've ever done.  Lots of K2, YO, K1, YO, K5 SL1K, K2T, PSSO, etc.  And I CAN READ THAT!  Crazytown.

We went camping this past weekend and I had quite a bit of time for this...

 

and this....

and this...

It was so relaxing.  Maybe I'm still in the "honeymoon phase" with knitting but I'm always amazed at what can come from a string and two sticks.

This will look even better once I block it!

I'm yarning along with Ginny at Small Things today.  I'm reading Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett and I've also started Pompeii by Robert Harris.  Both on my nook.