december twenty-six :: 104 weeks old

Sean is 104 weeks old today.
Sunday he turns 2.
Am I ready?
No.

I read Wondertime Magazine, a mom magazine, and in it, I discovered this website, Toto Knits. I love the pattern for the Lion Sweater in the Safari collection, if it were available, I'd totally knit one for the boys.

In the magazine I saw Warm & Fuzzy Felted Soaps, which is a great DIY project. I hope to make some, what a neat idea. I did see these before, the girl who did my mom's felted Bosco, also sells them in her Etsy shop. She sells them 3 for 20$ US. Need a great gift idea for someone's birthday or for Christmas next year? It's on page 58 of the December 2008/January 2009 issue.

Ok, so apparently Wondertime has the Felted Soap "recipe" on their site, so I suppose I can share it here:

MATERIALS:

- 2 or 3 colors of merino wool roving in 10- to 12-inch lengths ($3 for a 12-inch package, acmoore.com)

- Bar of soap–glycerin or olive oil works well (Kiss My Face soap, $4, drugstore.com); for smaller hands (or multiple gifts), use small bars
- Adult nylon or thin cotton sock
- Big bowl of warm water
- Towel

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Peel a 1/2-inch strip from the roving lengthwise and thin it by pulling gently on the edges so it spreads out, like a spider web. Wrap the strip around the soap.

2. Continue thinning and wrapping strips around the soap, changing direction (lengthwise, diagonally) to randomize the fibers (they bind together better that way). Wrap until soap is fully covered with no bare spots—a few layers should do it. Depending on the size of your soap, this should take 6 to 12 strips of wool.

3. Put your hand in the sock, grab the soap, and pull the sock up over the soap. (Then take out your hand—you can play sock puppet later.)

4. Dunk the sock-wrapped soap in warm water. Plunge and squeeze until wool is completely wet. Gently rub all around soap for 5 to 10 minutes.

5. When you start to see wool fibers migrate through the sock, remove the soap from the sock (or it will start to stick). Keep rubbing the soap until the wool has shrunk and molded around the soap, about another 5 to 10 minutes.

6. Rinse soap under hot tap water, then roll in a towel to wick away excess suds and water. Let dry.

What a great idea! I definitely want to try to make some.

Today I didn't leave the house. I made HUGE progress on the Moss Block Cardigan. I have the front & back done and I've cast on the first sleeve. Making progress!! I'm so sure I can have it done before 2008 is over!

Tonight Jamie & I ordered in Chinese Food and had a Big Bang Theory Marathon. We're almost up to date. Great show! I also did some blog reading catch up. I haven't left the house since Wednesday when I got home from picking up Sean from daycare, and I think I'll have to go out for a bit tomorrow, or I may get stir crazy! I usually don't like being cooped up.

Tonight Sean is sleeping at my parents house - they picked him up some point late afternoon after his nap. He was totally excited to go, and I hope he has fun with Bubbie & Papa (what he calls my parents, Bubbie is Yiddish for grandmother, and Papa, is father in French. I guess it's easier to say than Zayda -which is Yiddish for grandfather and maybe he learned Grandpapa in daycare? We are really not sure where he picked that up from).

The laundry never ends in this house. Over the last 2 days, I've been doing a lot of it, which includes:

1 Mack Bib Load
1 Sean Plastic Bib Load
3 Robyn & Jamie cClothing loads
1 Towel Load
1 Face Cloth (both mine and the baby wash cloth) Load
2 Kid Clothing Loads.

9 Loads of laundry. When does it end?

For those of you who are interested - there is a HUGE boxing day sale going on in my shop. (Actually more like boxing week sale!) EVERYTHING* is on sale. ENJOY!

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*Excludes Sock Club kits.