Happy Birthday

I can't believe Meital is seventeen! Just amazing. All of the gifts I gave her this year were handmade. Instead of my usual slapdash wrapping, I was inspired by the Older and Wisor blog to attempt something better. I put each gift into a box (cookies, ice cream bars and dishwasher tablets) and wrapped them with scrapbooking paper. My bow didn't come out exactly right, but not bad for a first time. The little tag has a Suzy's Zoo sticker on it. For the card, I used papers from a 6 x 6" pad by My Minds' Eye that I bought last year.

Since I had just finished this pair of socks, I stuck them in a box as gift #1. Yeah, it's kinda cheating, since she saw me working on them, but who doesn't love to unwrap gifts, even if you know what's inside?

I saw this Happy Chemistry embroidery pattern on Shiny Happy World (LOVE that website!!) and knew I had to get it for my budding chemist. But what to embroider on? In the end I made this very wonky Kindle cover (no pattern, I just made it up as I went along. Hence the wonkiness). 

The Kindle fits inside, but getting the cover snapped closed is a challenge. I am trying desperately not to let the off-center stitching and crooked pocket bother me....

Gift #3 was a little stuffed cat. Meital had asked for a cat like the one I made for Hopeful Threads (and later, for Liat) but our original plan was for her to make it. We hadn't gotten around to it, so I went ahead and made it for her.

So strange to realize that next year, her birthday will fall a few short months before she starts her IDF service!

For My Girls

I forgot to post when I finished Hugs + Squoze, a cute pattern by Anna Hrachovec of Mochi Mochi Land. For some reason I had a tough time attaching the feet, so I left them off. I made this as a surprise for Meital, wanting to give her something to lift her spirits and encourage her before the last big push in this incredibly challenging academic year. I finished him (them?) last month, and she loves him (them). Sorry for the lousy photo.

Even though Liat got to keep the first (pale blue) teddy bear I sewed, when she saw the gray cat shown in my last post, she asked for a cat to keep her teddy, now named Imp, company. How could I refuse? This fella is quite a bit larger than the gray cat, in fact similar in size to the teddy bear, again just created out of my imagination. He will be waiting to surprise her when she comes home from college for the weekend on Thursday.

I have started working on my idea for finger puppets to go with greeting cards for hospitalized kids. I want to create a sample of both the puppet and the card with the pocket, to show the folks at Cards for Hospitalized Kids and get their okay before I proceed on a "mass" production scale.

Meanwhile, if you live in a state that is not on my list in the column on the right, and have a favorite local charity/community service organization that would accept handmade donations, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Knitting Update

It has been awhile since I brought you up to date on all of the knitting I've been doing, so here we go. Above is a little set I made for a young man born on February 22. I suspect these items will be too big for him for a while yet.

This is another pair of size 18 men's socks for our dear friend. As you might imagine, it can be tricky finding socks that fit comfortably when you wear this size. I am planning to make several more pairs in the coming months. This is what was left of the grey yarn I used for the last pair I made for him. to avoid confusion between the two pairs, I added a single round of blue at the toe here.

Now that Liat has finished the army (after two years and 102 days), she is ready to have some fun! She and Avi will be going to Barcelona next week to see a Champions' League soccer game. Avi asked if I would make a hat for him, in case it is cold outside during the game.

I am currently working on another baby sweater and also trying to finish up the pair of socks I started for Meital months ago (in the hopes of giving them to her for Chanukah). I am nearly done with the second sock, and will be very glad to finally be able to give them to her.

Of course, I have plenty of other projects waiting in the wings! Including knitting up another scrap swatch to use as texture for my mono printing. What are you working on?

Sidney Seligson 1895 - 1976

Today is the start of the Family History Writing Challenge. I decided to write about my paternal grandfather, Sidney Seligson 24 June 1895 - 24 March 1976.

Sidney was born to Kalman and Sutcha Seligson in or near Montreal, Canada on 24 June 1895. He was their third child and the first son. His older sisters were named Hannah and Marion. His family had emigrated to Canada sometime after 1890, but they didn't stay there long. By 1900  the family had moved to New York City. A second son, Philip, was born in New York. The third son and last child, Harold, was born in 1901.

The 1900 US Census shows Sidney, age 4, living with his parents, sisters and brother at 1326 5th Avenue near W. 111th Street. Kalman's occupation is listed as foreman in a factory. The census indicates that Kalman and Sutcha had been married for ten years, which matches with other findings. Also noted on the census is that the family arrived in the United States in 1896. I don't have positive confirmation of that yet.

I know all of this is very dry; unfortunately I don't have a lot of details for this far back in time. I am hoping that this project will motivate me to learn more, dig deeper, and fill in these gaps. The thing about genealogy, for me anyway, has been that I tend to think, "Oh, yeah I knew my grandparents, let's see how much farther back in time I can go." Now I realize that I need to take the time and learn as much as I can about the people who lived closer in time to me, especially since I am lucky enough to still be able to ask my father, and his brother, questions.

Care Package

 This week I sent off a package to a cousin in the U.S. It should have gone out weeks ago, but...well, I wasn't as efficient with my knitting as I should have been. This is more of a lap blanket; it is only about 42" long, but it should do the job. Yarn is Plymouth Encore Bulky, and the pattern is just a simple Harris Tweed stitch (for those who are interested, there are more details on my Ravelry project page).

And this is the card that went with the blanket. My cousin is a big UCLA fan, so I tried to use the school colors. The yellow plaid paper is from Keeping Memories Alive (circa 1999?) and the stamp is a long-retired Close to My Heart stamp.

Right now I am busy working on socks and more socks, plus some fun baby items. I've got two sets of young friends expecting their first baby, so there will be lots of cute little projects on my needles for the next while. I am itching to make some cards, so I will need to carve out some time for that, too. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Finishing

 One of the more exciting moments around our house in recent days was the removal of Meital's braces! I am beyond thrilled with the way her teeth look, and it's so lovely to actually see them again. I'm probably more excited about it than she is, but it just amazes me how more more grown up she looks now that that symbol of childhood is gone.

The other thing that we are finished with around here is another pair of men's size 18 socks. I had it on good authority that the first pair were way too big, so I decreased the number of stitches I cast on and am hoping for the best. The recipient would never tell me if these don't fit right, so I am going to employ a spy to find out the truth. Knit in Opal yarn.

OWH Birthday Bash!

Whoo hoo! We had our Operation Write Home Birthday Bash card making party today and it was a blast! Both girls are at home today because it is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. We all agreed that we'd definitely be starting the new year off right by making cards for American heroes serving overseas. Above you can see (click the photo to make it larger) the makings for kits for three different cards, two of which use sketches from OWH's vast collection.

 Meital (age 15, on the left) and Liat (age 20 and a sergeant in the IDF) enjoyed making the cards, as did I. They both expressed interest in writing Any Hero cards, too, so we'll have to get those done and ready to go in the package I hope to be mailing out before the end of the month.

Unfortunately, it soon got very hot in my stamping room (no air conditioning in there...yet) so after a while we needed to stop (I was afraid the sweat dripping off my nose would land on the cards!). We did get 17 cards done, and there are only four more card kits to finish up. When I actually get the box in the mail I will let you know how many cards we've sent altogether, including Any Hero mail.

It was fun to spend the time crafting with my girls, and a great way to start off the new year.

Let's Catch Up

Well, technically summer is over here in Israel (would someone please tell the weather that?) and Meital is back in school (tenth grade, gadzooks!) We had a fantastic trip to the U.S. to see family and friends; the only bad thing (and it was a biggie) was that at the last minute - and I mean just a few hours before we needed to leave for the airport - the IDF informed Liat that she would not be allowed to leave the country. We were really bummed and spent most of the trip thinking of her, taking photos of things so she could pick what she wanted us to buy for her, and feeling cheated. Still, now that she's twenty I suppose we need to get used to the fact that she won't necessarily be coming along with us on trips any  more.

When we got back from our month away, we were swamped with work (good timing because I really would rather not have to work on my vacation!) and then there was the whole Olympics insanity, back-to-school nuttiness and just general craziness.  So that's my excuse for not blogging in August, and I'm sticking to it.

I've been busy knitting and stamping, too, and I will - I hope, if time and my &^%$%#$# printer permit - be posting more often again....starting very shortly.  I hope all of you had a wonderful summer.

Bonus

One bonus of my crafts room reorganization is the reorganization of our family's collection of compact discs.  The girls each have their own personal collections in their rooms, and I have no clue how - or whether - they are organized at all (not my business, thank goodness).  But the discs you see above are for all of us, and up until a couple of days ago they were scattered all over the house, with most of them gathering dust in my crafts room, which does not boast a CD player!  In fact, there are still about a dozen discs in Avi's car (and his CD player there is broken).  Need to get those into the drawer.

Naturally, I had to separate by category (but not too much) and alphabetize.  I can't help myself.  There is a divider running down the middle, from the back of the drawer to the front - if you look closely you'll spot it.  On the left of the divider is general, popular music.  Those discs are alphabetized by artist's first name (some don't use a last name, after all - like Beyonce and P!nk) or by name of movie if it is a songtrack (like Lion King or Hairspray).  We've got lots of variety in there, from Aretha all the way to Zydeco.  Over the years on our family vacations we have purchased a lot of the music Avi and I enjoyed when we were young, for our own pleasure and to introduce the girls to great music from the past: the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Billy Joel, Louis Armstrong, Phil Collins, the Temptations, Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Celine Dion...  This summer I think I want to pick up some Tower of Power and possibly Earth, Wind & Fire...

We also like to explore unfamiliar music, and on one trip we happened upon some kind of fair or festival.  More than anything else we saw or did there, the music really grabbed us, and we ended up buying CDs by two new-to-us groups: Sajama and Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers.  As I said,  Avi and I share our favorites from the past with the girls, and they keep us up to date on the music world of today, but discovering music together was a great experience.

Anyway, on the right hand side of the divider, in the front we have classical music (from Bach to Vivaldi) and in the back, Israeli music.  The latter runs the gamut from collections for kids to such artists as Ofra Haza, Shalom Hanoch, music from Avi's youth (by such groups as Kaveret), Danny Sanderson and Kobi Oz.

Of course you know the next step is for me to make a list of what we have, so that we don't buy any duplicates this summer!

Outstanding Soldier

Earlier this week Liat was given an Outstanding Soldier award by the Major General who commands her unit. We are so proud of her, but more than that we are delighted to know that she is appreciated. She deserves it!

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Welcome back! Today I've got a few different things to show you. First up are two more pages of my altered book. I'm still really enjoying working in the book; it's amazing how freeing it is to just go with whatever feels right at the time instead of agonizing over every choice and idea.


I wanted to throw in a recent photo of Meital - I can't believe my baby is 14 and inching closer to 15 all the time. She has been doing brilliantly in school this year, and recently made her selections for the two subjects she wants to focus on in grades 10 - 12. Are you ready? Physics and chemistry! She is amazing.


This cute little bunny (from a free pattern on Ravelry called Bunny Nuggets) went to the lovely folks at Elephants Remember Joplin. Yes, I couldn't resist when the call went out for bunnies, even though I've already sent things to them. I will probably make even more things for them, but I don't have anything specific planned right now.

I did finally get that brown striped hat sent to Amos House in Rhode Island (see previous post) so Rhode Island has been added to the map on the right. Hard to see the difference, isn't it? Ha! Such a tiny state, gotta love it.

I am working on some socks and a shawl right now, knitting-wise. A few other projects are on hold temporarily, because both of those items are time-sensitive. I did take a very brief break to make something small and cute for a friend, but I can't show it to you yet...

Other stuff has been going on, like basketball games (our team qualified for the Euroleague quarterfinals, yay!) and a wee bit of genealogy, and I have fallen victim to the wiles of Pinterest. Warning! If you're not already on Pinterest and you click on that link, be prepared to be sucked in to the vast expanse of Internet time-wasting! It's addictive. And a lot of fun. And makes a good way to save links to interesting recipes, projects, etc without clogging up your Favorites. If you are on Pinterest, or do end up joining (it's free) then let me know and I will follow your pin boards!

Cuteness Alert

Here is the hat I told you about in my last post. Isn't the pattern adorable?! I can't wait to start on another hat, and I already know it will be another pattern by Susan B. Anderson...the hard part will be deciding which pattern! The toddler-sized hats will be on their way to the Bristol Meyers Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (say that three times fast!).

Meital just got back from mailing off those two gray hats to the Humble Stitch Project. She really is such a big help to me with all the mailing of packages. I like how she and I feel like partners in this project.

You may remember that a while back I sent off five pairs of baby and toddler socks to Hannah's Socks in Ohio. Today I got the most wonderful, personal note from Hannah's father, Vic Turner (follow the link to read about Hannah, her family, and her wonderful efforts on behalf of others). It made my day to know the socks had reached them and that they like them!

Mad Hatter

Yep, finished up two more hats this month and started another, an adorable toddler-sized Camp Hoodie Swatch Hat (that's a Ravelry link; if you're not on Ravelry, go directly to designer Susan B. Anderson's Spud & Chloe blog) that I might just finish before the end of the month, too! I made both of the hats shown above from one 100 gram skein of yarn, and even had a little left over (but not much). They will soon be on their way to the Humble Stitch Project, which, as it says on their website, is "a community effort to show kindness to our homeless neighbors" in South Florida.

After those two dark gray hats, it's a lot of fun to work up the little Camp Hoodie Swatch Hat in pastel colors. I hope to make at least one additional baby/toddler/child's hat before the end of the month, and send those off to a children's hospital in New Jersey. Ravelry has been such a great place for learning of organizations and communities that need and want knitted items!

Other news includes the fact that after more than a week off, both girls have returned to their regular routines of army and junior high, and that of course means I am back to waking up at about 6, knitting for a bit and chatting with Liat before she leaves, waking up Meital and getting her lunch ready, then taking a walk around the neighborhood with Avi after Meital has set off for school. We all really enjoyed our time off, with plenty of baking, shopping, basketball, reading, and just hanging out. I hope you're having a good month, too.

One Cap, Hold the Bill

Yesterday I told you about the Cabled Chapeau I was making for Meital. As I mentioned, the hat works up very quickly, and I finished it yesterday evening. But Meital decided she'd rather have a regular watch cap, and didn't want the bill added to the hat after all. It's a cute, easy pattern knit in the round (those cables are a lot easier than they look). Now, of course, Liat wants the same hat but definitely with the bill. Not a problem, but I think I'll get a few other things done first.

Really, hats are the perfect project: fast, useful, they can be knit in the round with no sewing up, so many options and variations are possible, and you only need to make one!

In other news, we spent much of the day working. Lots of little projects on our desk right now; I really appreciate the variety. We have civil engineering, finances, a soccer stadium, and history - isn't that great? I would hate to do the same thing all the time. And, of course, every couple of days at least there will be - my favorite - basketball! Good stuff.

Other good stuff: Meital is learning some new jazz songs for the piano, and it's such a pleasure to listen to her practice. And Liat is baking some heavenly chocolate and halvah cookies that have the whole house smelling divine.

That's Corporal Bunnydoodles to You!

Isn't that always the way? When I wasn't looking, Liat went from this, to:


Yes, my sweet little firstborn is now a corporal in the I.D.F. She got her stripes last week in a small ceremony at her unit (yet another army ceremony we weren't allowed to attend, sigh). If you stay in the army long enough and don't mess up, you'll become a corporal eventually. Liat tells me she'll be getting new stripes in just under a year, right before she finishes her service.

I hope by then I will have recovered from the trauma of sewing on those blasted stripes on four sets of sleeves!

We Love Weddings, Too

One of the things we did this summer was attend a wedding. Well, not just any wedding - my firstborn niece's wedding! She and her Joe got married at a beautiful waterfront hotel in Seattle, and we had a blast spending time with family. As you might have guessed from the photo above, Liat (left) and Meital (middle) were bridesmaids. Their cousin Hannah (right) was the flower girl. During the reception after the wedding, the girls got a little chilled and each asked one of the guests for his suit jacket! It was too cute not to take a photo. I also got a picture of the girls with the guys who lent their jackets. Fun stuff.

The wedding was the cherry on top of the cake that was our summer vacation in the U.S. The day after we were on the plane home. How was your summer?

A Hug from Home

I made this little guy (a modification of a Jean Greenhowe pattern) to tuck into Liat's suitcase before she left for Poland. I sewed a little bag for him, and attached a tag that said "A hug from home." I hid it with her pajamas, knowing she would find it on the first night, and she did.

She sent me a text message that she really loved it, and mentioned it again when we spoke last night. The idea was that whenever she felt she needed a hug, she could squeeze this little guy (he fits right in the palm of the hand) and know that I was sending her a hug.

What can I say? I'm corny like that.

Ain't No Sunshine

Liat left for Poland on Tuesday night, and it is very strange around here without her. Everyone keeps telling me, "Wait until she starts the army" and "Wait until she gets married."

Hello? Not helpful, people.

Luckily, we have a big translation project to work on, so my mind is occupied for minutes at a time. Just kidding; once we start working, that is what I focus on. The hard part is once we take a break or are done for the day.

I think it's even harder because school is still out on break. Once Meital goes back to school on Monday, it won't seem so odd that Liat isn't here all the time.

How many hours until Wednesday morning?