Happy Birthday, Milo!
Milo turned three years old this month! We celebrated by inviting his closest friends over for homemade pizza and brownies.
Even though it was just a handful of kids, it felt very crazy as they emptied every toy on the floor and played all day long in the heat.We did several rounds of putting away toys, served popcorn and homemade pizza (pineapple, mushroom, and chorizo), and made Betty Crocker brownies for dessert. We had a great time.
Have an Emergency? Milo to the Rescue!
This year, Milo got toys from my family hand-picked just for him, which was such a treat after three years of well-loved hand-me downs from our friends and neighbors.Fire trucks, police cars, excavators, and dump trucks figured prominently in the much-wished-for toy category, and we stretched the gift-giving out over more than a week so he could enjoy everything.
Homemade Popsicles in Fun Animal Shapes
After a year of buying popsicles every day at the store, we decided it was time to make them at home!We got a popsicle mold for his birthday and have been making homemade tropical fruit popsicles in flavors like mango and, our new favorite, guanabana.
Guanabana, or soursop in English, is a spiky green fruit that is found on trees around the town. Unlike mango, the fruit grows at ground level and is easy to pick. With a mushy, pulpy center, it tastes much better than it looks, inside and out!Wikipedia describes the flavor as, “With an aroma similar to pineapple, the flavor of the fruit has been described as a combination of strawberries and apple with sour citrus flavor notes, contrasting with an underlying thick creamy texture reminiscent of banana,” and I’d have to agree!
Everything is Awesome
Speaking of delicious flavors, it’s been wonderful to notice that Milo seems to have departed from his “Blech, gross!” (“Guacala!” in Spanish) to every food phase, and now describes everything as “riquísimo!” (delicious!) It’s a lot more fun to cook for him now.In case you are wondering, right now Milo speaks 90% Spanish with a variety of English words mixed in. I speak to him in English or French exclusively, never Spanish, just to try to balance the mix of what he hears all around. It’s common to hear him say adorable and mixed-together sentences like, “Yo quiero el pink one,” “Yo comí el whole thing,” and “Es un sunny day!”
KnitFreedom News
We’ve been falling into a lovely rhythm here at KnitFreedom of recording new classes, supporting our students with tips and videos, and reviving and re-publishing old classes with new material.Toe-Up Socks Knitalong Still Going Strong
People are still joining our August 2022 Toe-Up Socks Knitalong, which is so exciting! It’s never too late to join in and get one-on-one help knitting your first pair of toe-up socks.Students are knitting two different styles of toe-up socks with worsted, aran, and fingering-weight yarn, getting discounted kits from Imagiknit, learning Judy’s Magic Cast-On, and practicing Magic Loop and two-at-a-time knitting. We’re having a blast!
Personalized Videos for KnitFreedom Members
One of the perks of KnitFreedom membership is that if you can’t figure out how to do something, I’ll make a video on that topic just for you.I’ve had fun with member requests this month, filming videos for double yarnovers, reversible cables without a cable needle, keeping the first and last stitches of the round perfect on Magic Loop, and more.
I will be publishing the reversible cables videos (there are actually two) very soon, to accompany the re-launch of our classic Cables 101 video class that will go on sale the last week of this month.
Lace-Knitting Video Extravaganza
I recently finished filming a video class on the 2007 Knitty classic Foliage Hat. I filmed so many videos on how to fix mistakes on lace that I wondered if I should make them into a separate class! But they’ll all be included in the upcoming Foliage Hat class because it is going to be amazing.I’m especially excited about one 30-minute video I call “Extreme Mess-Ups.”
In this video, I take the project, pull out the needles, and then rip the stitches out as if a dog had found the project in your purse and torn it apart completely, then I teach you how to find your place and put the whole progject back together again as if nothing had ever happened.Extreme knitting indeed!
Leave a Comment
How has your summer been going? Have any of your knitting wishes for this summer come true? Leave a comment and let me know! I look forward to hearing from you.
10 thoughts on “Milo’s Birthday, Popsicles, and More”
I always love updates from you, Liat. I would love to meet your sweet little family in person. My grandkids would love playing with Milo! He is adorable.
Still to this day my KnitFreedom is my go to help for anything knitting and yarn, and now crochet! I love it and I love you. You are the best knitting teacher hands down!
I hope you are feeling good with this new pregnancy. I am sure Milo will be a super big brother!
Love, Bobbi
Hi Liat. Loved hearing about Milo’s birthday. He is so fortunate to have the opportunity to learn so many languages. And what a great way to introduce new toys. So often kids are swamped with far too many gifts for their age so really can’t appreciate what they have received. You have so many special talents to share with your knitting community. Thank you and God bless.
Hi Liat,
It looks like Milo had a very joyous birthday this year. I love that he is learning both english and spanish and I hope you keep up the two languages through the years as he grows up. My nephew married a woman from Japan while he was working in Japan and they have 2 beautiful boys (5yrs&3yrs). My nephew only speaks english with them and their mother only speaks japanese (she is also fluent in english because she was educated here in USA). If the kids speak the wrong language to the parent, the parents simply look at them, shake their heads, and shrug they don’t understand. They presently live in Geneva, Switzerland where they speak french in school so they are learning 3 languages. Very young kids are little sponges and can easily learn different languages and if reinforced while growing up, will serve them very well as global adults.
Happy belated birthday and wishes to Milo! I enjoyed being a part of his party too!
Thank you for your technique videos and your video classes. They have helped me to learn new techniques and accomplish new projects at the same time. I have become a more confident knitter.
CONGRATULATIONS for your new arrival, What does Milo think about a new brother or sister?
Thank You & Take Care,
Cat
Hi Liat – love the Milo BD update! Such fun and fab pics; thanks for taking the time to describe the highlights. Those guanabana pops look scrumptious ;-)) I’m still in search of jackfruit. Just got a bag of dried jackfruit; it’s delicious but I’m ever hopeful I’ll find a fresh one. Please rest and stay well!
Love, Marla
Fabulous blog! Thanks for sharing Milo’s party and what’s been going on in your lives . Milo has a super star mother!
Get my cast off next week so can start knitting again yahoooo!
My summer knitting was interrupted by having my left hand in a cast for five weeks. (Someone ran a stop sign and hit my car. I braced on the steering wheel and cracked three bones in my hand.) So my projects have been on hold, and I have been very bored. The cast came off four days ago, and I finally got to finish this pillow. My best friend gave me two balls of Noro for my birthday in June, and I added some gray wool. I was ten rows from finishing when the accident happened! This week I completed it, blocked, and stuffed it.
Now to catch up on all the postponed projects!
Oh Wyn, how heartbreaking! I’m SO glad your cast is off now, congratulations! Every time I feel like my own challenges are just too much, it just takes a little note from someone else to remind me that EVERYONE has something rough going on at some point. I adore the pillow you made. Beautiful job, lovely tension, great colors. I hope you enjoy looking at it and sitting against it!
Cheers,
Liat
Growing up we had a tree next to our house but it was tall but I could pick the fruit buy climbing on the rails. We always called soursap.
I finally bit the bullet and joined with the lifetime membership. Your videos were one of the first ones I found on YouTube that explained slowly enough for me to learn to knit but over the years got harder to find with lesser videos. So glad to know I can always go here to find every video easily.
Hi Elise,
It’s great to hear from you! So cool you had that tree next to your house growing up. It’s quite a special treat.
Thank you for joining our lifetime membership! I really appreciate you sticking with me over the years. It took me a while to create a site where people could find all my videos easily but I think now I’ve done it, and I plan to continue to add many more videos, which I couldn’t do without your support. Thank you and welcome aboard!
Hugs,
Liat