Elves at the Ready!

The weather here is wet and grey.  I put out washing yesterday and today it is wetter than when it came out of the machine.  It even feels wintery so we have spent the day inside crafting, lego building, reading (kids) and knitting elf hats (me)!

The elf hat on the left is the first of my Christmas ideas (I know, I realised I completed it exactly 6 months before the big day itself!), the middle is rose and cream and the one on the right is the cocoa and cream one. Don't forget if you would like a chance of winning a cocoa and cream one scroll down to my giveaway post!

Open Farm Sunday

Beautiful sunny afternoon spent at Red Bank Farm.

Giveaway!

Who fancies a giveaway?  I have decided to run my first giveaway and was umming and ahhing about which hat to offer.  I can't decide so I am going to offer the lucky winner a choice of two, both in newborn size.

I have never done a giveaway so I am hoping I'm doing it right, all you have to do is comment on this blog post saying which hat out of the raspberry berry hat or the chocolate and cream long elf hat you would like.  I will pick the winner out of the hat at the beginning of July and am happy to post anywhere worldwide.

If you would like more chances to win you can follow this blog, share my giveaway and blog on your own blog, share and like The Yarn Owls Nest Facebook Page, or any other promotion I have forgotten??!!  If you do anything extra please tell me in your comments so I can add more entries for you.  (Any seasoned giveaway-ers notice anything I have forgotten please nudge me and let me know, thanks!)

Here are the hats that I am offering, remember to mention which one you would like.  Whichever hat isn't given away this time will be available in another giveaway in the autumn when my shop will be a year old!

Pond Dipping

A lovely day for pond dipping with friends.  Mr T and Miss E found lots of ramshorn snails, Miss E found a giant pond snail and Mr T found a pond skater.  Their friend Bella found a male newt, I've never seen one close up, he even had a little stone stuck to his foot!  One of the Mum's bought a fab Usborne book with her so we were able to identify everything the kids found.

Drawings made when we got home.

Ancient Rome

We have been having fun learning about Ancient Rome.  I bought these fab hand puppet kits from Yellow Moon.  Both children managed to sew around them and stick together all the details even though the diagram to work from was really tiny.  Our friend Emerald joined us and made one as well.

Mr T is completing a lapbook from here.  He really loves lapbooks, lots of learning and a great end product with not too much writing!

The Elf Hat Debut!

What can I say, the photos are amazing aren't they!!  I am in the middle of knitting another one ready to put in the shop and am thinking of lots of other colour combos to try.

Pom Poms

After knitting up the stripy elf hat I decided I "needed" a new gadget, a pom pom maker.  I get really annoyed when making pom poms that you have to cut the yarn from the ball to pass it through the hole and all the cutting of card circles etc gets on my nerves.  I tried making one around a square of card but wasn't that keen on the pom pom as it seemed a bit... sparse.  Anyways I ordered the Clover Pom Pom maker set which includes a large and medium sized pom pom gadget.  Have had a few goes now and they are great, work really well (and are very popular with the small people!)

 
Those are the steps, really easy and no fiddly card circles!

And here is the finished pom pom hat.

And close up of the pom pom

This hat is available for sale on Etsy here in newborn size but other sizes and colours will be available soon or by request if you can't wait.  

Taddies

I remember fondly being at Primary school as a child and the excitement of watching tadpoles grow into frogs.  This year I decided we would look after some here so the children could watch them grow and change.  We went out to try and find frogspawn a few weeks ago and came back empty handed but while we were away friends said their local canal was filled with tadpoles so as soon as we got back we drove over to collect a few.

I don't have any pictures of us catching the tadpoles as the canal was quite low so we left the fishing out to a grown up!  Here are the children drawing them on the day we picked them up.

They are now living in a tank in the garden with a huge rock in as apparently when their legs start to grow they need to be able to climb out of the water or they will drown.

An Elf Hat

I know I have been quiet but life is busy and to be honest not really blog-able.  The busy-ness is not really crafty, or baking, or fun with the smalls.  All of those things have been going on of course, they always do in this Home Ed family but other things have been keeping me busy at the moment.

Amongst all the hustle and bustle though I have knitted up a new hat, an elf hat specially requested for a photo shoot.  I enjoyed knitting it although I wasn't keen on so much row counting ;)

I haven't listed it for sale as it was made to order but I hope to knit up some more to sell soon, and maybe one for Miss E!