For the Family

My cousin asked me to make him a hat for work, which turned out fine. When I gave it to him at Christmas, he told me his son wanted a viking hat with his school colors to wear to games and spirit days, so this is what came of that. I included a beard just because. What 12 year old boy doesn't want a beard?

If I had it to do over again, I would have made a black hat with orange horns, but I think he'll definitely get noticed in this. He got it in the mail today and loves it!

Specs for New Listings

Infant Sneakers: followed printed pattern, used Lion Brand Vanna's Choice yarn

Boucle Cape: pattern from Lionbrand.com, used size 15 needles and boucle yarn, instead of 124 stitches I used 160

Leprechaun Hat: used pattern from here, size K hook and I Love This Yarn; 60 stitches in hdc around to make it large enough to fit 4 month old

Minion hats: used pattern found here; I Love This Yarn instead of cotton; followed pattern but made 6-12 mo size to make up for gauge difference in yarns

Cape

 

Here are some options for how to wear the Cape, available on my Etsy site here: Boucle Cape

Hood

 

Side view of hood

 

Other side of hood

Off-center

Off-center short side

This is by far my favorite look with it, wrapped under the arms and tied in back

Back view of tied under arms

 

Side view of tied under arms

Feeling like a supermodel with the wind machine blowing my hair

My Ongoing Project

Since I started knitting and crocheting again right after Christmas over a year ago, I had been saving every tiny little scrap of yarn. There was not even an inch of yarn that went in the trash during that time.

Eventually, the bag I was keeping them in got full, so I decided to go through it and pick out all the pieces that were long enough to tie together. This was right after I had learned to make granny squares (an essential for any crocheter), so I wound up a ball of mismatched yarn and started working. There were several different colors and weights of yarn, but I just chose a large hook that could work all weights of yarn and started going in circles...er, squares.

I'll admit, the first 8 inches of it were pretty horrible. Since there were so many color changes, I decided to not even weave in the ends, so they stuck out all over. I affectionately called it my ugly square, and would proudly show it off to whomever came over, after showing them my latest projects in all their cuteness and beauty.

The inner square: the first 8 inches

 I was finally able to show my grandma, who taught me to knit and crochet so many years ago, and she said, "Yep, it's ugly. I've got some yarn you can add to that."

So she has started saving all of her little ends of balls and long strings for me. She had a huge project for Christmas this past year where she made socks for every single person in the family (about 26 pair!), so she has lots of ends for me she dropped off the other day. I'm so excited about adding them to my ugly square, I've put all other projects on hold until I run out of yarns (to be fair, I don't have any deadlines right now).

Here is just a sampling of the yarns she brought over, and a photo of my ugly square to date.

Some of the colors that make up the Ugly Square

While it's not my most challenging, pretty, or marketable project, I love looking at it and remembering working on the projects the yarns came from. My first scarf, the slippers I made my husband's family, my first knit bib where I learned to make short rows. This is a piece I hope my sons will snuggle under as they grow up and will fondly remember from their childhood, as I have so many memories of afghans from my grandma in our home, being made into blanket forts, warming up under on snow days, and covering me when I was sick. This is a creation that will be around for years to come.

The Ugly Square as of 2/27/2014

A Few New Items

I spent the afternoon getting a few new items posted on my Etsy site today. I love the sunshine and wish I didn't have to wait for the walk to be completely dry to take decent photos, but our apartment doesn't let in a lot of natural light. I think these will be nice additions to my offerings.

A better photo of the knit hats from the other day

A versatile knit cape I finished a couple of weeks ago

Super-cute baby sneakers with working laces and tongues

Minion hats

Leprechaun hat just in time for St. Pat's

Diaper Cover

This is the diaper cover I started from my new pattern today. I really like the basket weave, although my stitches aren't as tight as I would like them to be. I think it's going to turn out really cute though! All I need is the edging, which will gather in the legs and give it a finished look...and buttons.
After all the OB appointments I had with my sons, I told my hubby this looks like all the uterus charts I saw every time. He just laughed.
Shown in Lily 'n Cream cotton in cornflower, size J hook. I'll also be making one in white as soon as I'm finished with this.

Check me out on Etsy!

This blog is to let my Etsy shoppers see their pieces in progress and also to help me remember changes I've made to different patterns. Here is a link to my Etsy site:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/KnitPickerLNP

My next project will be a pattern I purchased from http://www.crochetbyjennifer.com/: a pair of diaper covers in Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton in blue and white for my 4 month old sons.

I have just finished up these hats for an Etsy order, which I modified from a Joann's free pattern for a men's knit hat with a purl edging. My customer asked for a smaller size hat with no edging that sticks out, so I ribbed 2 x 2 for 1 inch around the bottom instead of the 3 purl rows. I also used size 8 dpns. For the black hat, I used the suggested 64 stitches. For the gray, since it was a thinner weight yarn, I started with 72 stitches. I think they turned out pretty snazzy! I hope she likes them.