It’s no secret that I love me some Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes. Love, love, LOVE it. (Don’t have some? Get some!)

It just so happens to be the perfect yarn for one of our latest summer projects

Giant bubbles need a Giant Bubble Wand!  These are so quick and easy to make that you just may find yourself making a few extra for the neighbor kids.  It could happen.  Especially if you have neighbor kids…

I learned how to make these giant bubble wands way back when I was a kid.  Okay, it wasn’t really that long ago, I mean, not like the black and white days when my parents were kids (I wasn’t the only kid who actually thought the world was black and white in “the olden days”, am I?), but, yeah, it was a few years ago…

I can actually remember watching Good Company (a local, Twin Cities “variety show” from 1982-94) and saying to myself “I can do that!”, and jumping up and doing just that; and now, if you’re good at, or at least reasonably capable of, following directions, you’ll be able to do it too!

Supplies

• 3/8″ dowel
• plastic ring or key ring, approx 1″ diameter
• 4 – 4 1/2 feet of heavy cotton or wool string or yarn
• a small washer, exact size not important
• wooden bead or wooden dowel end with 3/8″ hole
• glue (optional, depending on how snug your bead fits)

Step 1: After measuring and cutting your yarn, measure down approx 12-14″ and make a simple loop.  Put loop through ring, bend back over ring and pull both ends of yarn through loop, then pull snug.

Step 2: Slide ring onto dowel.

Step 3: Slide washer onto long end of yarn.

Step 4: Bring both ends of yarn together and line up with end of dowel.  Pinch everything together and push bead onto end, using glue if it doesn’t fit snug enough to stay put, or if you think your kids will pull it apart faster than you can say “hey, don’t pull on the bead!”… 

The bead keeps the ring from sliding off the end when you dip the wand into your bubble solution.  If you can’t find any big wooden beads around, it is possible to make the wands without it.  With our first wands this summer, I didn’t have any beads and I just wrapped a rubber band around a bunch of times to secure our yarn.  It still works, but you have to be careful during the dipping.

To use: Dip the wand, with all of its yarn, at an angle into some bubble solution.  We’ve used everything from a bucket, to a big Tupperware bowl, to pie pans… Lift the wand up, and as you lean it back the ring will slide towards you creating a V-shaped “loop” of yarn.  If it’s windy, just stand there and let the wind blow a bubble, if not, slowly move your arm and the air pressure will blow a bubble. Leaning the wand back down so the ring slides back and the yarn is brought back together “closes” the bubble to make giant round bubbles, or you can keep the wand moving and make super giant worm-like bubble shapes to fascinate young and old alike.  Try some of each!

Just in case you were wondering what would happen if you left the extra supplies out on the table in a room full of children with imaginations and a little time on their hands… 

In case you missed it…

We have a heartbeat!

Just one.

We, and by we I mean I, also have what the radiologist called “debris” and what he said could have been a twin… We’ve heard “possible vanishing twin” before.  It seems that more often than not my body has released 2 eggs.  Twice I’ve cramped and bled and feared the worst, another miscarriage, only to go in and see one baby with a heartbeat and one empty sac, and now 3 times finding “debris” or an empty sac.  The crazy thing is that we wouldn’t even know this if it wasn’t for such early ultrasounds, and we probably wouldn’t routinely be getting such early ultrasounds if it wasn’t for my multiple miscarriages…

Thanking the Lord for one strong heartbeat and praying for a healthy baby!

I suppose I should knit something

I do hope you’re enjoying your summer!

Happy knitting-
ali