Art.

I won't give one of those "Hey I've been really busy" excuses (ahem, I apparently just did) but for the past few months I've been wondering if the Make/Do-er in me was ever going to come out from under a pile of academic journals and Library related nonsense and Baby Stuff. Every craft I worked on was like a deadline for a paper, pressing and not so fun. But lately I've been thinking longingly of my paints. And paper. And yarn. And I got handed a stash of 16mm film stock yesterday for free that I am making plans for. I think I'm back. Or, more accurately, it comes in waves.

This morning I wept a little happy tear when I watched this video so I wanted to share it. I'm not usually in favour of songs with "on the nose" lyrics but the combination of the questions I've always pondered with the awesome stop-motion hand-drawn animation...made me want to ditch work and go Play! Which I just might.

(The music is by Tanya Davis and the animation, I'm excited to find out, is by Andrea Dorfman, who did a really sweet film called Parsley Days that I loved.)

(PPS - this post is dedicated to Ara Jane, because she asked.)

Pumpkiny

Delighted child in skeleton onesie

Blatantly ripping off "Yes, We Carve", we made one normal pumpkin and one Pumpkin for Hope. Even freehand, I rather liked how it turned out. This year's pumpkins were easy carving and the seeds have been duly roasted and salted and devoured. Unfortunately, we only got one trick-or-treater this year - one!- so the candy is next in line to be devoured.



I made this pumpkin hat for Simone because I knew she would shuck her chile pepper costume in about 2 seconds, and I wanted some vestige of Halloween for her. I use this hat pattern over and over for all the babies who have come into my life because 1) I hate circular needles and this doesn't need circular needles and 2) it's so damn easy and 3) it's cute.
Here's how easy it is:

Cast 72 stitches on to size 5 needles.
Knit in ss (knit one row, purl the next) until your piece measures 4-5"from the bottom.
Start the decreases: k4, k 2 together - repeat to end of row
knit the next 3 rows even
k 3, k 2 together - repeat to end of row
knit the next 3 rows even
knit 2, k 2 together - repeat to end of row
knit 2 together all across the next two rows
Cut 18" tail and sew through

For a pumpkin, use orange, obv, and do the final 8 rows in green. Then I knit a thick, green i-cord and sewed it in too. Voila! Next I'm trying red and green for an apple.