Summertime is great for play dates. You have much more time on your hands, plenty of good weather, and endless opportunities for fun. Here are ten ideas you might want to use during your next play date.

10. Sand and Water

Who says you have to go to the beach to have some sand and water fun? My husband just built us a really simple, really awesome sensory table for this purpose, but all you really need are two shallow pans or buckets to hold sand and water. Add some beach toys, sunscreen, bathing suits and towels, and you can have your own sandcastle date!

9. Song Fest

Grab a play guitar—or a real one if you have it—and lead the kids in an old fashioned outdoor sing-along. Bonus if you can each make up a new song—the sillier the better!

8. Camp Out

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Now that the nice weather is here, and kids are out of school, I know a lot of parents are looking for great ways to keep everyone busy for an afternoon!  If you have young knitters or crocheters, hand-dyeing yarn is a great way to get them involved in some DIY activities.  

This is a great idea for a weekend afternoon get-together with fellow adult knitters, as well!  My first experience with yarn dyeing was at a "dye party" at a fellow knitter's house.  She assigned each of us to bring something for lunch and some of the supplies, as well as the yarn we wanted to dye.  


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In researching Chinese name stamps recently, I ended up veering off into a tangent.  It seems that a lot of people carve their own name stamps in China, where you can buy cheap little kits at stationery stores.  I even found some places online to buy stamp blanks, small columns of soapstone which you can carve yourself for about $10.  Of course, you don't have to use stone to carve your own stamp, and you're not limited to Chinese characters!


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Last night I was over at the house of a friend who was getting ready for a gallery show.  She asked me to give her a hand with stamping her chop on some of her prints.  I had no idea what she was talking about, but when she brought out a wee little box with a hand-carved stamp, and lifted the lid of a dish filled with a thick, bright red paste, I was smitten!


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Vickie Howell is one of the true superstars of the knitting world, although it's interesting to gauge reactions to her within the knitting community.  "Unfortunately" Howell has chosen a mass-market route to fame, from a cable television show about knitting to a line of affordable yarns with Caron that are sold through what the knitterati sniffily call "big box craft stores."

But I'll tell you what, "Knitty Gritty" was a great show, and Howell was a great host, and I'm sad that it was canceled.  (It was always ridiculously hard to find on my cable system anyway.  The DIY Network shared channel space with HGTV, so "Knitty Gritty" aired at weird times like 6AM Sunday mornings.)  Howell is a knitting cheerleader in the best possible sense, bringing instruction and help to knitters with her trademark warmth and cheer.


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If you’re looking for an easy, free craft to do with children this summer, look no further than the rocks in your own environment. Whether you have ornamental rocks, gravel, or river rocks from your last vacation, they will come in handy all summer for easy outdoor fun. Here are some cool things to do with rocks this summer.

Paint. Painting rocks is the quickest way to get a new pet! You can paint all kinds of things on rocks—affirmation words, faces, animals, patterns, anything. Paint the names of the herbs in your garden and use the rocks as markers. Paint the names of your family and put the rocks around your plants in circles of love.

Make photo holders. Straighten a paperclip, wrap a third of it around a flat rock as the base, and curve the opposite tip to hold a photo.

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When I tell people about knitting dishcloths, their first question is usually some variation on "Why?"  There are a lot of reasons to knit dishcloths!  From a knitter's perspective, dishcloths are a great filler project.  They're small and portable like socks, but much less complicated.  These two patterns will take only 2-4 hours to complete.  


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People often ask "why bother knitting?"  The more time someone puts into a craft, the more likely it is that someone somewhere will ask "how much time did you waste doing that?"  The most common snark I hear is "you must have a lot of free time."  Like everyone else is soooooo busy, they couldn't possibly take up a hobby.


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My Tuesday Night Cowl, before seaming the short ends together

Cowls are pretty great, and I think they are poised to make a comeback.  At least numerically, considering all the cowls I have knit so far this year!  I caught Cowl Fever from a friend; I have to confess, it's very communicable.

What is a cowl?  
Imagine knitting a short scarf, and grafting together the first and last row to make a continuous loop.  I have also heard cowls described as "detached turtlenecks" or "mock dickies."  


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As I pondered about what to make for Mother’s Day gifts this year, we ran across several ideas about making photo holders, necklaces, and other crafts. Ultimately we decided to combine these ideas together to make several cool crafts both of my daugher’s grandmothers would enjoy.

We started with a very basic photo holder idea. We took a block of wood and cut a few cubes out of it. My husband drilled a hole into each cube. We combined two large paperclips and straightened them; after inserting the single piece through the hole, my husband soldered the bottom of the paperclip to the base of the block. We then formed some curly shapes with the top of the paperclip and voila—an instant photo holder.

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