A Gym for Maddy

I dislike flashing, singing toys with a passion. It's not that I mind the noise. When Maddy is old enough, I'll happily provide her with some pots and the wooden spoons to bang on them. I just don't like it when the noise keeps going after the child is done with the toy. Or even worse, the toy yells after the child like a salesman trying to regain someone's attention. Thus, my dilemma when I headed out to the store to buy Maddy a gym to hang toys from. Any gym that looked any good contained flashing lights and sounds. Sure, I could take the batteries out, but why would I pay extra for something I actively dislike. So I decided to save money build my own gym. And like any good crafter I went to the internet for inspiration.

This is the only thing I could find: How to make a baby gym. I wanted something a little fancier, but that was inspiration enough. I went to the store and bought the following (everything is for 1/2" PVC):

1 cross connector
8 forty-five degree connectors
4 ninety degree connectors
2 eight foot pipes

I cut the pipe into the following pieces:

8 one-inch pieces
4 eighteen-inch pieces
2 twenty-five and three-eighths inch pieces

I used the one inch pieces to connect my connectors to each other. Each ninety degree connector got paired with a forty-five degree connector. The four remaining forty-five degree connectors were attached to the cross connector.


And then I assembled the gym into a pyramid shape. This ended up being a bit smaller than I wanted, but I haven't settled on a final size yet, so I'll write more when the project is complete.

The best part was making the cloth to cover the PVC. I raided my ribbon stash to create loops every two inches or so. I also found all sorts of nice fabrics and buttons to sew into the bottom of the legs so that Maddy has lots of different textures and shapes to keep herself entertained.

I still need to cover the bottom and create a fantastic playmat for it to sit on, but as you can see from the picture up top, the new gym is a hit with the kiddo.

Cables, Grandmothers and a Lesson in Communication

Last fall, I successfully completed my first knitting project with cables. Not one to follow patterns, I created this cute red hat in the round by making it up as I went along. That's what made what happened later so much fun!

My husband and I went to Amsterdam to celebrate the new year later that winter. Not wanting to be completely ignorant American tourists, we prepared for the trip by listening to some dutch language CDs and borrowing a dictionary from the library. For the most part, they were completely unnecessary, as almost everything is written in Dutch and English.

Then came the train ride home from our visit to Den Hague and the cute little grandmother sitting across from us. Shortly into our ride she accosted me and started asking me about my hat. In Dutch. She thought it was the cutest thing and wanted to make one for her granddaughter. From there followed the most amusing (and complex) discussion of knitting I have ever had. She poked at it, I held up fingers and tried to remember my dutch numbers. She asked questions and I pointed some more. Luckily, my dictionary contained the translation for 'knit.' Finally, I succeeded in writing out directions involving knitting, opposite knitting (alas, the dictionary could not hope to contain purl), and braiding (I didn't want to rely on cable translating correctly). So hopefully, there is some Dutch girl somewhere wearing my hat.

Birds on a Wire

Maddy's room needed some fun curtains to go with the new paint job. I prefer to let a lot of light in the house, even when there is a need for privacy. Thus, I'm really fond of top-down bottom-up curtains. They are even easy to make, once you understand the concepts. I didn't manage to take pictures of the process on the these curtains, but when I finally get around to making the curtains for our bedroom, I'll be sure to write up some detailed instructions.

I picked out a fabulous shade of bright yellow and set my husband to work on the design. He decided that birds on a wire would be the best and we both wanted the curtains to look a bit different from each other. Once he had the template created and drawn onto the curtains, I got out my embroidery hoop and went to work. I think the final project looks rather stellar.