Stash to Treasure: Completing the Set

Scoot likes to be organized.  Kind of.  Not enough to, say, keep his room clean.  That is, he claims that all his things are put away, and blames the mess on the Caterpillar.  It's mostly true.  Anyway, Scoot definitely likes to know where his sports equipment is.  Thus, when we received a promotional drawstring backpack from a pro soccer team, he immediately laid claim to it.  He packed it with shin guards and gloves, and used it well.  That bag inspired me to sew similar bags for Rollo and the Caterpillar.

But there's only so much use a cheap nylon bag can take, and it reached its limit last fall.  So I sewed a new bag for Scoot, out of the usual old denim, purple fabric left over from some long-gone maternity trousers, and the cord from his original bag.

I forgot to take a picture of it, probably because I had promised to sew one for D2, also, and intended to display them together.  D2 was at the very beginning of his sports career, and needed to hang onto his shin guards.  But suddenly it was the end of the soccer season, and I hadn't gotten around to his bag.  And he didn't seem to need one very much, until Dandelionslayer signed him up for tee-ball this spring. 

Tee-ball.  Where kids learn to swing at the ball and hit the tee, dance in the outfield, fight their teammates for possession of said ball, and throw it in the general direction of the first baseman, who is looking somewhere else.  The sport's only redeeming value is the cuteness of the children . . .

which is undeniable.

Guillemot Cove

We didn't go very far afield during the boys' spring break this week, but we did take a little hike one day. We visited Guillemot Cove, which I was afraid to pronounce when I told them where we were going. It just looks so French.

 According to an online dictionary, the pronunciation is not that bad: gill-uh-mot, almost like it looks.  It is named after a kind of bird.  The Pigeon Guillemot is supposed to live up and down the Pacific coast, but we didn't see any.  We did see a Great Blue Heron fly up and perch in a tree--kind of a weird sight.  And we saw robins, and a hummingbird, but they wouldn't stop to pose.

We hiked this trail once before, when D2 was a babe in arms and the Caterpillar and Scoot looked like this.

They're still on top of things, but a they were a little taller this week.

The Cove was so marshy we couldn't get to the beach.

So we ate a picnic and looked for signs of spring,

 like currant blossoms,

and, um, this.

This tree is probably more interesting without any leaves, so I'm glad we caught its curly branches in early spring.

It was a nice little excursion.  Where have you found spring?

Dragon Tongue Tee

Rollo recently attended a friend's belated birthday party.  Since this friend likes to play dragon games with Rollo, and it was a knight-themed party, it seemed appropriate to give him a dragon shirt.

I found a Dragon Head Silhouette by Kuba at the Open Clip Art Library.  What a fun resource!

Then I used scraps of red flannel, yellow satin, and something white to make the different parts.  I was quite pleased with the print I found for the eye.  I appliquéd the dragon to the tee shirt with a zigzag stitch, and sent it off to the fray.

Easter in the Garden

It has been a beautiful Easter day.  Here are the guys in front of the weeping cherry tree.  Aren't they handsome?  Or making weird faces, as the case may be?

The bunny over Scoot's head was a member of this family.  We all tried our hands at folding napkin bunnies, with varying success.  It was fun, though.

It was warm enough to hunt eggs outside.  The boys found them all over.

I actually took the precaution of making notes of the eggs' locations this time. 

It turned out to be unnecessary, but I felt safer with the list in my pocket.

I think we like blue and green, and we kept hoping the purple dye would turn out better.

We had some fun this morning.  More importantly, we were touched by words and music at church this afternoon.  We are so grateful for the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, and the glorious resurrection he promises to share with us. 

Happy Easter!

Musical Monday

Scoot has been studying Russia at school.  One of his recent assignments was to paraphrase the lyrics of Sting's song, "Russians."  You know, to see if he got it.  The paraphrase was supposed to reflect the ideas more than rhyme or meter, but Scoot wanted to write something singable.  So we got to hear the song quite a few times as he tried out his words.  Good thing we like it.

Here's Sting in all his eerie Cold War glory.

Catan Afghan

 Last fall we started playing The Settlers of Catan.  It's a fun game, in which you get to assemble the board each time from little hexagonal pieces representing different terrains.  We soon expanded with the Seafarers set.  For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa G sent us the Extension sets so all six of us could play together.  Good times.

And those little hexagons inspired me to crochet a Catan map.  Cthulu Crochet showed me it could be done.  But I wanted an extended seafaring map, with more texture.  So I drew my own.

I decided about what size I wanted my afghan to be (it ended up at 42" x 55"), and figured out that I'd need hexagons that were 6 inches across.  (Learn more about hexagon calculations here.)  I printed some hexagonal graph paper from Incompetech, and made a map based on Scenario 8 from the Catan Seafarers 5-6 Player rule book.  I changed it to fit the proportions I desired, eliminated those useless desert pieces, and moved islands around until I liked it.  I bought some yarn, pulled some out of my stash, and started crocheting hexagons.  With the bulkier yarns, I used the single crochet hexagon pattern from Cthulu Crochet.  With the rest I used the double crochet hexagon pattern by Marie Segares.  Either way, I often needed to make adjustments to reach the 6" measurement.  Sometimes a dc hexagon needed a round of sc to reach the right size.  My Brick hexes needed a round of slip stitch in the back loops.  I did what I needed to meet the measurements.  Some hexagons came out more regular than others.  But they were all pretty quick and fun.

Here is how I made the different types, according to the way I think of the products of each terrain:

Brick

I used Lion Brand Hometown USA-Tampa Spice yarn and my N hook to make sc hexagons.

Stone

I used Red Heart Light&Lofty-Zebra Stripe and my N hook to make sc hexagons.

Wheat

I used Lion Brand Homespun-Golden and my J hook to make dc hexagons.

Sheep

 I'm not sure about the light green yarn--it might be TLC Essentials.  I made the sheep with Red Heart Baby Clouds, by inserting a two-dc popcorn stitch as I made the dc hexagon, I think with the J hook again.

Wood

I ran out of one unknown dark green worsted, and used another as well.  I inserted Homespun popcorn trees, as with the sheep.

Gold

For the gold ore, I used Red Heart Celebration-Gold/Silver.  It is a narrow yellow yarn, twisted with silver.  I added some light worsted brown yarn, and crocheted them together with the J hook.

Water

 I used Red Heart with Love-Iced Aqua for the water hexes.  It felt nice as I made so many of them.  

Cheese

Apparently D2 thought a valuable resource was missing from the original game, so he created Cheddar Cheese cards.  If one collects 4 cheese cards, one may build a Cheese Fort.  None of us has managed to accomplish this yet, so I'm not sure what advantage it would impart.  It was fun to make the hex, though, with Red Heart SuperSaver and more Iced Aqua.

When I had crocheted all the land hexes and the nearby water, I spread them out according to my diagram.  I slip-stitched hexes into columns where the flat sides met, then stitched the columns together, lengthwise.  Then I crocheted a border with the Iced Aqua.  I followed the contours of the hexagons, taking the corners according to a Ripple Afghan pattern.  It probably wasn't quite right for the angles I had, and came out a bit wavy after 5 rounds.  But, since it's the ocean, I think waves are appropriate.  This was a fun project, and I'm pleased with the result.

The boys want to create playing pieces to go with it, but for now they're content to be the snugglers of Catan.

Valentine Time

 The younger boys had a good time making their Valentine cards this year.  The themes aren't surprising.  D2 found the perfect penguin and wave pictures online, and arranged them nicely.

 

The right dragon picture was harder to find.  I encouraged Rollo to draw his own.  He'd lost some confidence in his dragon-drawing skills, but I got him going again.  And I think it turned out well.

Without well-regulated classroom parties to worry about, the older boys didn't bother making any cards.  But D2 supplied Scoot with some extra penguins, just in case.

Have a happy Valentine's Day!