Yarn Pirate Shop →

H has been asking for a Superman cape for a while now. The poor kid has been wearing my apron as a cape, running around the house saying “I’m a SUPERMAN! I’m flying!” I still don’t know where he learned about Superman. Maybe all boys are born knowing about him.

I had some extra energy last week (but not much), and I had to hem some curtains anyway so I looked up some cape tutorials/patterns online. I went with the tutorial from The Long Thread because it was free, looked simple enough, and I liked the way the fold over collar looked.

The pattern calls for a yard each of two coordinating fabrics. I thought for sure I’d have some one yard cuts of manly solids in my fabric stash but no. All I had was pink. I didn’t want to waddle around the fabric store in my current state, 39-ish weeks pregnant, and besides, I have plenty of perfectly good fabric taking up precious room in my house.

I picked out some prints that kind of matched. Then I cut everything out according to the measurements and got to sewing. This cape went together so fast. I think it took about an hour for everything, including the cutting and the applique. It was so quick and easy I decided to whip up another one for H’s friend.

H’s friend loves kitties, so he got the kitty fabric I’ve been hoarding for the last 10 years. I didn’t do such a great job with the “B”. Some letters are easier to freehand than others!

H loves his cape.

You should make one too!

I made some matching longies for the baby.

These are a size small- I think they should fit from about 10-15 pounds. There was some crazy pooling going on with the legs of these longies. I ripped and reknit them 3 times before I was content with them. I wanted them to match H’s longies as closely as possible.

Look how tiny they are next to the ginormous toddler longies! It’s hard to believe I ever had a baby that tiny.

Ok. Seriously. I need to focus and finish the things I actually need now. No more tiny longies, no matter how tempting they are.

Here’s my updated Freezer Stash. I’ve been busy.

1 meatloaf
at least a gallon of chicken & rice soup
1 macaroni & cheese
2 shepherd’s pies
2 lasagnas
12 loaves of honey whole wheat bread
2 loaves of apple-oatmeal bread
2 pans of beef & cheese enchiladas
a huge batch of coconut beef curry
2 tuna noodle casseroles (from scratch. not the canned mushroom soup kind)
1 pan of pulled pork
a huge batch of chili
3 loaves of banana bread
2 loaves of sunflower whole wheat bread

I think I’ll stop there, except for the bread baking. I bake two loaves every week so it’s easy to pop one into the freezer. I also have lots of generous friends and family close by who will bring food in trade for baby snuggles.

Are you wondering what’s up with all of the beef? We get a local, pasture raised, grass fed cow (and pig) every year. It’s a lot of money to put out up front and it takes two extra freezers to store all of the meat, but it’s unbelievably inexpensive when you break it down by pound. The beef is about $1.79 a pound, the pork is even cheaper. It’s nice to know where our meat comes from, and I like that we’re eating meat from the same animal all year. We use as much of the cow as possible too, saving the bones and organ meat for our dogs. I think we’re going to try to get a few pasture raised chickens next year too.

And now I have a baby hat to knit…

I think longies are my favorite thing to knit. They’re easy, practical, and super cute. And I’ve been knitting a lot of them lately.

My friend had a baby girl in December and I decided I had to knit something girly and frilly for her. There are only so many boring, boyish things I can knit before I start to crave lace and frills. I raided my own yarn left over from my Thanksgiving update and pulled out some aran weight Culture Club with matching trim.

I’ve knit so many longies in the last two years I don’t even bother looking at a pattern anymore. I might pull out a pattern to double check the amount of stitches to cast on for a particular size, but that’s about it. So the pattern I’m using is more or less my own. But if you want a recommendation for a good pattern I heartily recommend the Picky Pants pattern. It’s extremely well written, organized, and has tons of extra stuff. Well worth the money. I’m sure it even includes directions for ruffles, but I used the tutorial here.

While I was raiding my stash I also pulled out a skein of rainbow dyed yarn. I love rainbow dyeing but I always sell it all so I never get to knit with any. I made another pair of teeny baby longies, even though I don’t really need more teeny longies. I can’t resist though. They’re so cute and snuggly!

And finally, I finished this pair for H, which took FOREVER. He’s wearing a 4T and has a 14 inch inseam. I don’t know how many more pairs of longies I’ll be able to knit for him. Hopefully he will be done with diapers soon, but longies still make awesome PJ pants. I showed him the finished product and he proclaimed them to be “so cute” and said “maybe make more for the baby!”. I do have enough left over yarn. And how cute would my kids be in matching longies? I might have to cast on for one more pair…