We are gearing up for winter over here in a big way. Buried in snow, there is no denying that it is almost January and we have chosen to live in Wisconsin.
That winter-gear-up means - yes - more crafting. (Of course!) Lupine inherited a second-hand coat this year that we love. But alas, the zipper pull was MIA. Lupine wanted the independence of being able to unzip her own gear, so for the past three months she's been sporting an attractive paperclip looped through the broken pull. A paperclip zipper pull is functional but also awkward and ugly, so it was time to upgrade.
The kids and I spent the afternoon paining wooden peg people. I painted this peg girl (bought here) with acrylic and finished her with a dusting of fine glitter over tacky glue. When fully dry I sprayed her with clear coat (so that she'll hold up to the abuses of the sledding hill) and drilled a tiny hole in her head. Ouch. I inserted a screw eye and secured it with super glue. I twisted the screw eye onto a small split ring key chain from the hardware store and Lupine had a functional coat once more.
To add to the winter-cuteness-overload, Lupine also has a sweet new hat as of this weekend. Sadly, this fall Lupine's beloved bluebird hat was lost on a hike. She's been getting by with one of Sage's thrift store hats but it isn't very warm and she's not so into winter anyway. The cold head? Not helping her relationship with the cold and snow.
I picked up some roving recently to work on my spinning skills and chose colors to match the coat above. Still a newbie spinner, the results are wonky at best but it was great practice. The result was extremely/unpredictably bulky but I thought it would work great for a hat. Lupine chose this pattern that we found on Ravelry and with that chunky yarn it knitted up in a day.
yarn before
yarn after
The faces above pretty much speak for themselves. She loves her "Spy Cat Hat" (which can be worn rolled up in the front for a non-spy look as well). She loves it, I tell you. And it's pink, but so not girlie. (I suspect we may be leaving the queen and fairy phase and entering a new era of Lupine all together. It looks to be loads of fun.)
Off we go to the sledding hill!
