Owls!
Here goes…I’m just about to start making matching owl sweaters for my girls. I bought the pattern on Ravelry here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owls-2 and I also bought the child version. Although the adult version seems a bit more complex with the shaping, I think I will make Violet an adult version since she’s just about too big for the kiddo size.
Violet is growing up. She was always stick thin, underweight as a toddler and child even though she was a whopping 10 1/2 pounds at birth. During the last year or so, she started putting on weight as is normal for a girl getting ready to start puberty. Although she definitely has some unhealthy food preferences (what kid doesn’t like the white food group?) we eat 99% organic, and she’s gluten and dairy free so it’s not like she’s eating a bunch of junk. We went shopping yesterday to spend her holiday gift cards and I saw a very familiar look on her face as she tried on clothing in front of the three sided mirror. As a child I was always a bit round and it caused me serious grief, especially as my parents didn’t really know how to deal with it. I started officially dieting in the 2nd grade, and shopping trips for school clothes were always stressful-often resulting in a bunch of outfits purchased a size below what I actually wore. This was to “encourage” me to lose weight before school started. Ugh. Anyway, our household is very body positive and my kids have access to all manner of healthy food. Thankfully, because all we really have to do is to remind her to make good food choices and encourage physical activity instead of making some kind of massive change in household food or worse, singling her out and making her eat something different than everyone else (been there). We have been talking to her a lot about growing, puberty…how the round tummy will morph into round breast and booty, how she doesn’t need to lose weight but rather just pay attention to how she’s eating so that she maintains her weight as she’s still growing. Sufficed to say, I do not want to knit a sweater and wind up with something ill-fitting or tight. I am determined to raise my girls to have the resources to eat in a healthful manner and to love their bodies throughout all of the phases, changes, and conditions we find ourselves in.
So..matching sweaters. Owl sweaters! I want one! I actually ordered yarn for these projects and bought a pattern, so this had better be good. I didn’t want to use handspun (I may have already mentioned that Violet LOST her last handspun sweater) and I found a good deal so it wasn’t going to save that much to order ecru yarn wholesale and dye it myself. If all goes well, I’ll post photos along the way.
I am doing more spinning but the weather has been so dreadful that I can’t even take photos! I had to miss my knitting machine lesson and first club meeting because the snow was still keeping us in the driveway. Now all we have is rain, slush, mini-icebergs, and mud. Lots of that.
I want to find some local (Seattle-B’ham) knitters who want to host a yarn party. I love doing yarn parties (think Tupperware but with yarn!) and I think they’re my very favorite way to peddle my wares. Any takers? Host(ess) gets 10% of party sales in shopping credit! I bring games and prizes!
