About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

Thrift store Thursday finds: Step stool and wool yarn

By Tricia on September 22, 2011 in thrifting

I love thrift stores! I do. You never know what you might find. Here is what I found this week.

It is definitely a diamond in the rough but I loved it when I saw it. It could have been that I am pretty sure we had this contact paper on something when I was little. We really need a step stool in the kitchen. My little ones are always pulling a stool in there and I am always afraid they will fall off. This will also give them a better seat in the kitchen to watch momma cook than sitting on the counter.

I got it for 30% off of the sticker price

someone loved this step stool enough to recover it when it started looking bad.

yeah, it has seen lots of action in someone elses kitchen

you can lift up the seat and then it is just a step stool

or put it down and have a seat. Stay tuned to see it refinished.

This was not at the thrift store but at $3.99 I could not resist. The softness of this wool does not show in the picture but when I touched it I had to have it. There were only 4 so I bought them all.

This wool is chunky but not too chunky. These will be used for Christmas presents.

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Longies for Livie

By Tricia on September 21, 2011 in crochet

Two days from now will be the first day of fall and I am working on winter. Livie’s longies from last year definetely will not fit her this year so I digged into my stash and found a few hanks of a discontinued super soft wool in a light baby blue I had found at Joanns three years ago. I had a little of my favorite ivory colored wool which was just enough to make the waist band (I love it when I can find a use for those little bits of yarn).

Oh, um you might not know what a longie is. Longies are knitted or crocheted wool pants which after being coated with lanolin will act as a very good diaper cover. Wool is great for using as a cloth diaper cover because it wicks the moisture away from the baby while keeping beds and laps feeling dry. Lots of air equals happy tushies. There is so much more I could say right now about wool diaper covers but we will save that for another time.

this is the back side so far, you can tell by the seam at the top waist band.

Anyhoo… I made this pattern while I was pregnant with Livie and she is now 2 and a half (and no interest in using the potty). I meantion this to show how long this pattern has been waiting to be tested and offered to crochet lovers. I have been tweaking it on and off for almost 3 years. You can see where I posted about it over at my abandoned crochet blog here. For anyonewho actually follows the link you will see that I “finalized” the pattern October 29 of 2009!! Sheesh, I really need to stop this procrastination.

I did have it tested by someone who did not finish and so neither did I. She did mention to me back then that it was working up a little big so I got back to work. I now have it to where I need testers again. If you have a baby up to a toddler two years old or under and have time to test this pattern and get back to me quickly, please email me. You can find my email address at the upper right hand corner of this blog.

this was the first pair I made for Livie during my pregnancy. These are shorties not longies but from my same pattern. Boy, my pictures back then were not all that great huh?