Calm Down Bottles

I'm sure by now just about every mother has heard of Calm Down Bottles. Two or so years ago, my SIL made them for her class but I didn't bite. But recently, I wondered whether my kids could benefit from such a tool, so I followed the easy-to-follow directions to make my own. I even let the kids pick their colors: red and green. I hadn't realized you could mess them up so badly. My two concerns were that a) instead of using extra fine glitter, the store I was at only had a jumbo pack of that so I settled for a smaller pack of fine, but holographic glitter, and b) while I was able to track down Alene's Tacky Glue, I apparently neglected to remember the "clear gel" part of that description. But I used smaller bottles, so I hoped that I wouldn't need to add the glue. These were my results:

 From left to right (the first two being Hint bottles, approx. 16 oz., and the last two being Gatorade bottles, approx. 20 oz.): red glitter glue with red holographic glitter (which didn't work); green glitter with no holographic glitter (also didn't work); red glitter glue with red holographic glitter and much more water (which was closer, but the glitter suspended for much too long and more water made it too thin); and just green glitter glue (which didn't work but for different reasons than the previous approaches). I read the revisions and used extremely hot water to melt the glue, but I think the issue might have been that I used holographic glitter. It looked very fine but it must have been heavier, because after shaking, the glitter would stay suspended for way too long. And if I lowered the ratio of glitter to water, there wasn't enough glitter in the bottle for the effect. But it's okay, the sun will set and another day will begin.

Summer Hiatus is Over

So I'm catching up, and posting a few FOs as well as a frogged Ganomy Hat.

 This was the picture I took of it before frogging it. It's kind of a funny-looking hat, and not in a quirky-cool way, just in that "Oh, is that hand-knit? It looks like your mom made it"-type of way. I ended up knitting Brooklyn Tweed's Turn-a-Square hat with the Misti Alpaca Chunky instead:

I think it's a vast improvement. And since it's gift knitting, I think the intended recipient will be happier with it as well. I loved Turn-a-Square, it's been in my queue for awhile (but with Cascade Eco Wool and and orphan ball of Berocco Geode); I can totally see myself using this pattern to use up scraps, especially now that I live in a place where I can justify wearing a hat in the winter.

This is going to be a holiday gift for my little girl:

 It's yet another cupcake hat (I seem to stick to patterns I like, don't I?) but sized up for a five-year-old and with chunky yarn. This was more of the Misti Alpaca Chunky which I must remember to hand wash. The "sprinkles" were glass bugle beads I'd inherited from an aunt when she moved away.

These are ribbed, toe-up socks with short-row heels by Ann Budd that I also seem to knit often. I didn't really want to knit them this high, but the little girl in question has been going through a trend where she wears dresses and boots, and I wanted the socks to be high enough to be visible over the boots.

So my gift knitting is almost done. . . except for a pair of socks for my brother (which are completely plain, but I'm on the second sock so I'm happy); a pair of socks for Bub; and by special request, a dress for a doll.

The clothes I've knit for Dolly (sometimes my children are very literal in their naming) have been a lot nicer than the things we've bought for her in the store, although that seemed to be the only way to get the doll things like jeans, since I don't sew. So I should be motivated! And Bub has been making comments about how I still haven't finished his doll (which was due more than six months ago now), so I should really finish that. Maybe by the end of the year.