for the love of Malabrigo

 You know how it goes. You get a couple of insanely cool hand-dyed super soft hanks of Malabrigo that look something like this.

 Wind them into a ball like this.

And then you have to pick out and knit the most perfect cowl pattern, like this. 

Which is the Honey Cowl by Ann Maria for Madelinetosh. Which you probably already have figured out by now, as it's quite popular. I used two skeins of Malabrigo worsted merino in Mariposa. I hung onto this colorway for a million years because I loved it so much.

I made the longer version (using two skeins) that can be worn long or doubled up and wrapped around your neck twice. I kind of love it.

And then, I had to make something out of the other skein I had been holding onto for far too long; this cowl was made out of Malabrigo chunky in this crazy Brillante colorway that I just drooled over when I first saw it. I am a huge sucker for the weird colors!

So I knitted up this quick and easy Delores Park cowl by Parikha Mehta while we watched 'Inception' last night and wow, I just might keep going. Spring is almost here and I need to bust out a few more projects before, you know, it's July and I'll be hanging poolside or something. (Oooh, that sounds nice!) So, what's on your needles right now?

Valentimes

We've been hard at work making 'Valentimes' this past week for this kid's preschool pals. I was surprised at how particular she was about the colors she picked for girls vs. boys in her class. I tried to tell her that it didn't really matter, but she had some pretty strong opinions about her color choices. Especially when it came to a special boy (or three) in her class. Which brought back all sorts of fun memories from simpler times (okay, the 80s) when I was in elementary school.

You know, when handfuls of unwrapped candy conversation hearts could be thrown in a Valentine envelope with wild abandon. Although you'd make sure to read them first if you were giving them to a boy because it would be embarrassing if they got one that said something like 'my cutie' or 'luv you.' (Ewww, boys.) So you'd pick out the more neutral ones to give them so they wouldn't think you liked them. Even if you really did. The 80s equivalent of today's 'LOL' or 'email me.' Ahhhh, young love. (Apparently it can start in preschool.) Happy hearts day.  <3

ORK des moines

Today, you can get your very own Des Moines neighborhood Ork poster as Raygun brings Ork to D.M. on a Legendary Tour of Iowa. (You know that Bo and I are both graphic designers. And maps + typography = heaven, right? So you know we're all over this.)

 (Ummm, this is awesome.)

So, Lo and I stopped by today to snag a Des Moines print (and a t-shirt, too. Because why not.) Our adorable pal Lucy was at Raygun today, which made our shopping experience even more lovely. Lucy is the best.

And I even got to hang out for a bit with Jenny from Ork, who was super cool to talk with. I had no idea she was an Iowa native. (She grew up in Bettendorf!)

Raygun is printing Des Moines shirts while you wait today, so stop in and pick your color, like I did. They also have lots of other city neighborhood posters to pick from, along with Ork's awesome heart print. (Perfect for V-day.)

Ork will be at Raygun until 7:00 p.m. tonight so make sure you don't miss this! Word is that some of the prints available there will be for sale online after the event, if you can't make it. (But if you can stop by, you most definitely should!)

Happy Friday.  :)

holy crap, what is this ... paper?

The Effers are back today. New Dare is up. Dare 174. Find it here. And yes, it's been awhile. But the Dare girls have been busy. And our beloved Tina had a baby! But yeah, I haven't done any real paper/photo/glue business in quite awhile. I knew it was getting bad when Jamaica told me on Twitter that I needed to put down my knitting needles and do something with my pics from NYC already. I was shocked at how good it felt to bust out my page last night. Like, whew! I missed that. I kind of needed that. So here's my Dare. Dare 174. I'm back at it. It feels good.

hello sweetness

As I was looking around online for Hello Kitty party ideas last month, I came across Bakerella's Hello Kitty cake pops. Seriously cute. And I knew I had to try to make some. I am definitely not an expert dipper or candy maker, but we had lots of fun making these.

I used lemon cake inside and Wilton white candy melts on the outside, along with the Wilton pink heart sprinkles for the bows and small yellow circle sprinkles for the noses. I wasn't exactly sure how I'd display them (because they're pretty top-heavy!) So I used a H.K. box container from Target's Dollar Spot, put a styrofoam block inside and then covered that with tulle. A whole box of kitties!

The birthday girl was seriously into these sweet treats.

They were so extremely delicious. I wish we had more left over from the party. (We'll just have to make them again.)  ;)

And then, I fell in love with Bakerella's ice cream cone cake pops. They're just too amazingly cute and tiny. So I had to make these, too.

I used cherry sours on top and the cake inside was chocolate. The tiny 'kid cones' are from Target.

These were a hit with the kids, especially when they'd try to figure out if they were going to be eating ice cream or cake. It was so much fun to watch them take their first bite. Tricky, tricky!

So, yes – that was my first adventure with cake pops. I did practice before the party to hone my candy dipping skills, and that was probably smart. I also prepped the actual cake balls a week ahead and froze them in plastic containers, so all I had to do the night before the party was dip and decorate them. A couple of things I learned: Cake balls turn out better if you trim off the darker edges off the sides and top of the 9x13 cake before you crumble it into a bowl. And, the Wilton Food Writers I used for H.K's eyes kind of sucked for this project. The candy coating was too slick for them to write on. (Next time I'd definitely try these instead.) But, cake pops (Bakerella style) were definitely super fun and if you haven't made them before, you really really should. Yum.

hello four

Over the weekend, we celebrated this smiley little girl's birthday. We had two parties (which is just a little bit more manageable for us ... one for the kiddos, one for family.) Looking at these photos makes me realize how much older she's starting to look. It's totally surreal. She's four!

Everything in our house was pink. Lots and lots of pink. Because, like Lola says, pink is perfect for parties.

There was also lots of Hello Kitty. And you've gotta admit ... Hello Kitty is all kinds of fun.

My apologies to the moms of the kids I fed all of this sugar to. I somehow wound up making a cake, cupcakes, and Bakerella-style cake pops. I couldn't stop myself. It was so bad and so decadent that I almost forgot to put out the bowl of fruit ... the one and only healthy thing I had to offer. 

This girl is pure sweetness.

And I'm sort of a sucker for her charming ways. (The hugs are totally worth all of the time I spent on those sweet treats.)

But yeah, like I said, we had two parties this weekend. So we're kind of tired out. (More about those cake pops tomorrow!)

hello party

So, obviously a little girl's birthday party calls for cute invites. My creative mother-in-law suggested this ribbon idea after Lotus settled on Hello Kitty this year, and these were super fun to make. I hand-cut the faces out (okay, the whiskers were not the easiest to navigate around) but I think they look pretty sweet.

I didn't actually tie the ribbon into bows, but glued it down (kind of in a loop) and then wrapped another shorter piece around the middle and glued it down to make the 'knot.'

And the rest of the weekend party prep is in full swing around here. Pink decorations, more pink decorations, and pink decorations with pink decorations on top, per Lo's request. I'm giving Bakerella's cake pops a try (omg, check out the Hello Kitty ones.) We'll see how it all turns out!

the tide is high and I'm moving on ...

Today, I bring you ... dum dum dum-dumm ... my Tidepool Sweater. From Weekend Knits by Wenlan Chia.

Like I mentioned a couple of days ago, this sweater started out as six hanks of Twinkle Soft Chunky, in icy blue and kelly green. I spent two and a half days knitting it and here's how it turned out.

(Ummm ... brrrr.)

Taa-daa! Blue and green super chunky horizontal stripes may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I truly do love this sweater. And finishing it in a weekend motivated me to knit more sweaters. Especially in this gauge ... they go pretty fast.

birthday girl

My little sidekick is four years old today and we're making cupcakes to celebrate, since we're a little bit snowed-in. (We might even be eating cupcakes for breakfast.)

It's pretty hard to believe that four years ago today, I was holding this tiny newborn on an icy cold Groundhog Day. It really does seems like yesterday and I can remember every detail of the day this little lady entered our family. She's turned into a pretty amazing kid. A quiet, sometimes shy girl who can also be quite bold and definitely knows how to stand on her own. She's smart and hilarious and creative and I thoroughly enjoy spending my days with her.

Happy birthday to my little girl. 

sticks and string

Over the weekend, I attended my first weekend knitting retreat with four of my close girlfriends. We sort of dominated. (And we may or may not have offended a table of ladies nearby while making jokes, laughing too loudly and watching viral videos on Sarah's iPad.)

I belong to a group called Des Moines Metro Knitters. And five of the group's members organized a weekend event, called Sticks and String. We had a majorly good time spending all of those uninterrupted hours stitching away on our various unfinished objects. My friends and I are all mommas to kiddos of various ages, so this abundance of girl time was mucho appreciated.

Meet my friends! Above is Amy and Sarah. They are the ones who actually taught me how to knit! Both of them! True story. They are not only awesome friends and moms who I look up to, but they really know their stuff.

The girl on the far right in this pic is Melissa. She's amazing. She makes me laugh until my stomach hurts. She brought the most radical vintage knitting suitcase thing that I've ever seen and has a stash of really fun old knitting needles. Like these blue ones. That I want.
And this would be me and my friend Nichole. We like to call her NicDowell. She is hilarious, adorable, and was in the army. So don't mess with her. We are all sitting at Perkins in these pics, because that is actually where we used to meet up and knit late at night. Cheap coffee, awesome breakfast potatoes, and they never close. Or kick us out for being unruly. (We missed you, Bower!)

My labor of love for the weekend was a super bulky sweater by Twinkle's Wenlan Chia (from the book Weekend Knits.)

 
I have had my eye on this project for almost two years, and I knew I had to make it now. The kelly green colorway of this yarn was discontinued, but I tracked it down and snagged three skeins before it was gone forever. Whew!

Late, late, late into Saturday night, I was kind of suffering through my sweater knitting and pattern deciphering, but I stuck with it. The next morning, we started off the day with a little yarn + yoga (which was amazing!) And then my spirit was renewed and I was able to finish everything off before it was time to go home. Ahhh. So yeah, I knitted an entire sweater during a weekend retreat. Wanna see? I'll post photos soon.