Valentine's Day KnitOwl toys

I'm adding more Valentine's Day items to the shop.

We had a tornado come through the area a couple of nights ago. It hit Paris to the north of us. I was ready to grab Esme and head for the basement as the sound of the wind was enormously loud and scary and then there was a big THUNK against the side of the house. The top of a tree in the yard came off and hit the side of the house but luckily it didn't do any permanent damage.

It snowed some last night and there was ice everywhere this morning. They expect more ice storms today. We've been looking into finding another job for one or both of us. We've been told we will soon have to arrange to rent the house we are currently living in.

This morning I drove an hour to have a planned interview only to find the boss out on an all-day service call. That was really frustrating. We tried to reach him several times that morning because of the ice storm coming. Finally we left Esme with her grandparents so as not to take her out on the road in the bad weather and high-tailed it there (and got there on time!) only to find him gone.

And then there was one...

Squeaker has won the puppy version of 'Highlander'
'There can be only one'

We gave away three of the four remaining puppies this week. Silver and Skinny went together with a Spanish-speaking couple. Double-Spot went this morning to a man with two small children. Squeaker has won the puppy version of 'Highlander.' The prize? He gets to be a house dog as much as all the other dogs here now. He can come in and go out whenever he asks. He's pretty happy with that idea. Out of all the dogs Pixie is actually the one missing the puppies the most. Even Dee-Dee (the mother) isn't quite as unhappy as Pixie. Pixie took on being their bear rug blanket from the time they went outside right up until last night. For all her problems (her jaw still does not open much more than an inch, and the vet can't fix it) she is still hanging on and enjoying every bit of life that is given to her.

Strange Toys off the Cuff

Esme's new strange toys
I was watching the way Esme was using her fingers around one of her fuzzy blocks yesterday and got this idea. She needed something with lots of corners to grab and turn around in her hands. Something soft and colorful, that she could bounce around in her seat, grab and smack etc...

My first thought was to make some big felt shapes - cone, ball etc... but when I sat down at the sewing machine I just went 'off the cuff' with my felt scraps bag and ended up with these.


Baby Bird Ball and Ziggurat
These are some of the strangest and alien looking baby toys I've ever made ;)

However, what they lack in sophistication they definitely make up for in baby approval. Esme loves them already. She squeals at them just because they're colorful, and bounces them around with her legs and squeals some more because she can make them move. I'm going to try to perfect the ideas and make them a bit more regular, better constructed etc...

Esme's Shots

Esme did very well for her immunization shots today. She has been both giggly and cranky tonight back and forth.

Giraffe Pattern Needs More Work

I don't often show off the prototypes that fail - but this one is halfway to good. I need to change the legs again and the head but they are hopefully minor angle changes that will make everything work out much better.



I need to move the ears up to where the horns are (or maybe behind the horns?) and narrow the forehead some. See that little seam behind the horns? That one little seam is quite a challenge in this pattern, hence the crookedness of the entire head. My horse pattern would be 'beginner' but this is definitely 'intermediate.'

Next time you see a giraffe here I hope it is the final prototype, and a little better sewn than this one ;)

Growing So Big!

Esme is 10 weeks old

She is already in 6 months clothes (mostly) because she is so long the others usually won't snap anymore! She is also sitting up with some support. She falls over after a few seconds but it is still good practice for her muscles. She is grabbing blankets, toys and nearly anything else that can get in reach. Daddy's braid fell victim for the first time this weekend and she gave it a good tug ;)

We've also gone to a new internet connection here at our house - one that includes a cellular modem. I'm learning how to get all of our pictures transferred slightly different and how to get around on Ubuntu, which is a different flavor of Linux than I'm used to. It's actually pretty cool. It does a lot of things automatically such as printers, USB storage devices etc... I hadn't expected that to be so easy on a Linux install. The cellular dial-up is quite a bit slower than the old system. That is the toughest thing of all to get used to. Putting up Ebay listings or printing package labels seems to take forever. But we can do this from anywhere that has a cell signal, so WOW - considering that it is pretty awesome.

Have a great day!