Helping With Chores

My husband is very talented at getting our three year old to help with chores. He makes his cars or doll pick things up and put them away. Or, if Sam wants to play something special (like indoor golf with tinker toys in the living room) with Dad he has to clean up his other toys first. My favorite though is when Sam helps with laundry. He goes down to the basement with Dad to get the clothes out of the dryer and then gets in the basket too! Here's a few photos:

After this, the laundry explodes all over the room helped by our three year old whirlwind. Then Dad gets Sam down to the business of sorting clothes into piles, while he folds. And finally they both put the clothes away. It's a very long process, but at least it gets done. Thank you Dan for all that you do!

New Wands

So, to have a small respite from knitting I've been working on some wand designs. This is the latest - a star wand. I was inspired by MamaJudes beautiful plant dyed rainbow bulky wool yarn and matching felt. The wooden dowel is wrapped in yarn creating a beautiful rainbow. I used my favorite blanket stitch on the star edges and smaller star applique. Again, the only unnatural element is the ribbons in blue, green, and yellow. The wand is for sale now in my etsy shop. I'm hoping to make a few more designs to sell in the shop as well as at the big May Fair event at my son's Waldorf school.

Give a Kitty for Valentines Day

I just finished some great new knitted kitty cats just in time for Valentine's Day. I usually stick to natural color combinations for my cats, but I had some left over pink mohair yarn - just enough for a cat. You'll notice from my etsy shop I've been adding mohair to the gnomes too. There's something about fuzziness that makes me think of love and Valentine's Day. So, here's my new trio of Valentine's Day Cats: Miss Bubblegum, Valentine Red and Cat in the Cream.

New - Valentine Heart Magic Wands

I just made a new item for my etsy shop - Valentine Heart Magic Wands! They are made from some wonderful plant dyed felt I purchased from a fellow etsian MamaJudes. It's a lovely wool rayon felt which is thick and soft. I wanted a new item for Valentine's Day and my son gave me the idea as he was running around with his dragon wand from Sarah's Silks. The heart is simply blanket stitched and stuffed with wool roving to give it some depth. The only thing not natural is the ribbons which are sadly polyester. All that's needed is an imaginative child and the magic begins.