kitty mc-nuggets, a knitting pattern.

itty bitty knitty kitties.

i've been on a bit of a knitting kick lately and seem to have made a small army. luckily, it's probably the least intimidating army ever.

i started off just knowing that i wanted to knit a lot of little somethings for miss margot (a well formed thought, i know). when i came across this beans the cat pattern, it seemed to perfectly combine my desire for a quick and easy knit and margot's intense love of kitties.

the pattern as written was much larger than i wanted, but with some scaling and some rework i ended up with these perfect tiny kitties, not much larger than a ping pong ball (which is another one of margot's favorite things). i call them 'kitty mc-nuggets'.

for a full kitty making tutorial, i defer you to the natural suburbia blog. if you want to make mc-nugget sized versions, see my mods below.

kitty mc-nuggets
using us size 4 (3.5mm) dpns, cast on 5 stitches, divide over 3 needles, and join in the round

round 1: knit
round 2: kfb all stitches (10 stitches)
round 3: (k1, kfb) around (15 stitches)
round 4: (k1, kfb) around, k1 (22 stitches)
rounds 5-12: knit
round 13: (k1, k2tog) around, k1 (15 stitches)
round 14-19: knit
cast off
stuff
sew top edge shut, add 'dimple' to create ears, and enjoy! margot sure does!

since her favorite activity of the moment is taking things out of things and putting them back in, these kitty mc-nuggets, along with a wooden salad bowl, are the perfect fit. and with each one taking less than a half hour to make, making a bowlful was quick work.

so, go ahead, make your own adorable army! for your little one, your cat, or for yourself to keep you company at your desk at work. you know you want to.

beet lemonade.

make it. i know it sounds weird. beets. and lemonade. who do i think you are, dwight schrute? but just look at it, isn't it lovely?

 i was a bit skeptical of beet lemonade at first, but with that rich magenta color, how could i not make it? (also, i was looking for a high contrast drink to show off my snazzy new thrift store glasses.)

 

my taste buds may be being trumped by my eyeballs, but despite it not sounding very appealing, i found it to be quite refreshing. sweet, tart, and just a little earthy. the perfect beverage to sip while hoping that the slow days of summer would last just a little bit longer.

so make it. or just stop by for a glass. it's also the perfect beverage to share with a glittered t-rex.

ten months.

well, bi-monthly may be the new rhythm for my margot posts, as i can't seem to get my act together. the months just seem to be flying by. this less-little lady is ten months old now. sheesh.

at her nine month appointment, she weighed fifteen pounds four ounces and was twenty seven inches long. now, i assume she's bigger. her pajamas definitely think so, as recently her big toe has worn a hole through them in order to make more room (no worries, i bought new, bigger ones yesterday).

at ten months old, margot is ridiculously mobile. at around eight and a half months she figured out rolling over (that one took her forever. that kid had zero interest in intentionally putting herself onto her tummy) and within the week she was crawling. now she's using everything to pull herself up (including jon's leg hair) and is cruising. soon, we'll have a toddler on our hands, and then the kitties will certainly be doomed.

as you can tell, this new found mobility meant we had to invent a new photo shooting technique. i just took the crib mattress out and doubled it over on the floor, using it like a chair. this sort of worked, with a lot of help from jon and bribing with food to get her to sit still. we took one hundred and fifteen pictures and got maybe a dozen acceptable ones. makes one grateful for digital photography.

 

this month i think has the most drastic comparison to the last time. being mobile is such a huge change and makes her seem so much more like a tiny person. she's a total ham, too. she loves smiling at strangers. everywhere. it's ridiculous. she also likes pointing. we're trying to teach that she should wave instead of point. so now when we say 'wave', she waves her hand and her whole body goes along with it. 

to add to the slew of margot changes, she's also getting her top two teeth. like the bottom ones, they're both coming in at the same time. please slow down with all of this growing up miss margot, mom's not ready for it.