Rainbows and Pi Day: March Projects In Progress

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Living in Houston has given me new love for March.  In Pennsylvania, I am just too cold to think about anything.  But now that I am warm enough, I find that this month holds plenty of inspiration.

Rainbows and pots of gold.

Pie fights and pie charts for Pi Day.

Lions and lambs.

Flying kites.

Playing Holi with all the colors of spring.

We are gearing up for Nandini's Birthday Party over here.  Her birthday is on March 14, so she is our Pi Day Baby.

I made this 100 numbers of Pi hanging garland for her last year. Ryan's idea that she would absorb all the numbers after we hang it up hasn't really panned out, but I still like it.

And, the year before that I made her this Rainbow Entrelac Blanket.  One of my favorite and most fun knitting projects by far.  The pattern is available here.

This year I am working on pie chart birthday invitations for her.  I used old fashioned eyelets and brads so it really spins! My friend Shery helped me design the insides with all the details.  I ended up switching the picture at the last minute because I found a Cutie Pie shirt at Old Navy, perfect!  I made the Spin Me banners with my Silhouette and put them on with pop dots. 

Now, I am also working on a chalkboard banner for the party.  Do you have any fun March projects coming up?

I have a lot of fun crafts save on my pinterest boards and want to try so many of the projects on there. So much inspiration! 

Up all night.

I was laughing at Up all night yesterday in spite of myself. I loved Will Arnett in Arrested Development and Running Wilde, but as the straight man stay-at-home Dad? Not so much. I will often crack up to myself just thinking about his 2600 dollar suit on AD, but his new show doesn't even make me smile. It finally had a little moment of truth amidst all the saccharine mainstream dialogue when he thought his 8-month old daughter was calling him a jerk. That I can relate to. Oh how I can relate.

Oh yeah, I also made gnocchi tonight because he made it on the show and it was damn good. I usually make it in brown butter, but I was inspired by the marinara he made. Is that weird? Wait, don't tell me.

Dinner may have been the high point of the day. Because it felt like Nandini was calling me a jerk. All. Day. Long. Sigh...

Don't believe me? Ask her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

10 reasons why I'm mad at Mommy.

1. She put me on the floor in the morning and made me chase cheerios all over the place.

2. She tried to get me to eat her oatmeal, which no one else in the whole world (!) likes. It was yuck. Almost as bad as beets, almost.

3. She strapped me into my car seat and didn't let me get out the entire time on the way to pick Avi up from school AND on the way home. Is baby torture still legal?

4. She said she was going to get me sweet potatoes (finally!) and then she made while she was heating it and stirring it. She even had the gall to put me down and not hold me while she did this. Heartless.

5. Bought me a rockabye lion, but forces all these photos on it.

6. Made me sit on the floor while she was in the bathroom, instead of holding me. What, is she too good for a diaper like the rest of us?

7. Tried to put me down for a nap when I started rubbing my eyes, sucking my thumb and laying my head down. I don't need to nap! I just stood up in my crib and laid my head on the side of that, ha! You can't trick me.

8. Taunted me with all the fimo Agricola animals, but would not let me put all of them in my mouth. How else am I supposed to learn stuff?

9. She knitted me a entrelac berry hat and tried to make me wear it!  Doesn't she know strawberries can be highly allergenic for little babies?

10. Did not let me help her with the scrapbook or drool all over the pages while we were looking at the album with Avi.  Isn't it MY album?

DOUBLE RAINBOW!! (entrelac rainbow baby blanket pattern)

I am so psyched to have two sets of rainbows done on the new baby blanket.  This pattern has been so much fun to knit. 
It's amazing, I can literally feel the stress melt away when I pick up my knitting after even a short hiatus.

This pattern is available for purchase in PDF format at my Etsy Shop here. 

{update: new photos. pattern is available for purchase here.}

I love this entrelac (interlace) knitting pattern too.  I knew that I wanted to make a rainbow blanket (I think it's unisex, but Ryan disagrees...), but I wanted to make sure the rows looked distinct and not too sloppy.  I suppose I could have alternated stockinette and seed stitch or something, but I don't like that look much anyway.


I tried going to the fancy knitting shop, but the lady basically scoffed at me for wanting to do anything other than basic stockinette stitching.  Gee, thanks.  I know that knitting is a skill, but let's face it...it's not rocket surgery.  I'm pretty sure with a decent pattern that there are a lot of different things I could do.  So, I just ended up buying a book at the craft store that caught my eye.  The book turned out to be not that helpful overall, other than looking at pictures.  Once I got the idea though, I pretty easily put a simple pattern together for myself.  I used merino/acrylic caron yarns in


DEEP TAUPE

CLARET

CORAL LIPSTICK

SOFT SUNSHINE




GREEN SHEEN

OCEAN SPRAY/ROBIN'S EGG

PEACOCK/OCEAN

BERRY FRAPPE/LAVENDER

  
DEEP PURPLE/ORCHID.

It was hard finding orange and yellow yarn.  I ended up replacing orange with coral anyway.  I really love the taupe. It adds a nice neutral base. I would do a yellow/gray blanket or scarf if I could find a strong enough yellow for it. 



This project took me about a month, I would do one row (one color) a day, working mostly at night while watching TV and a little during the day while Avi runs around the playground.  The diamond pattern was easy to memorize and you don't really need to count stitches, because the other color lets you know where your edges are.  The only thing I wrote down on a small piece of paper for repeated reference was the pattern for the triangles.  Easy! 


I am technically not totally done with this project, but I get tons of compliments on it every time I knit out in public. 

And, look! even at the double rainbow stage it fits Avinash already!

{update: new photos. pattern is available for purchase here.}

My rainbow entrelac baby blanket

{UPDATE: PLEASE CHECK OUT THE PATTERN HERE.}

Just thought I would share my latest work in progress.  It is a baby blanket done in using a basic interlace pattern.  I will post the pattern later in case anyone is curious.  I decided to make it rainbow colored and the interlace pattern seemed like a perfect fit for that since it really highlights color changes well.  I added a gray border as well to help it look more polished.  I bought the yarn on Monday and am almost finished with purple, but I need to do at least two or three rainbows before it is done.  Ryan and I were joking about how i'll have to knit through labor if new baby comes early!