A week's worth of projects

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get any work done on Sam's sweaters as I hoped, but I did have a productive week.

I have a friend whose husband works for the local railroad, KC Southern, and they have a little boy that the twins have enjoyed playing with on occasion. We unexpectedly received an invitation to his 2nd birthday party yesterday, so I was trying to figure out what to get him earlier this week, when I realized I still have some extra Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn leftover from the boys' 2nd birthday train hats. So I spent a couple of days this week making a hat for him, although I misplaced my G hook, and instead used the H. I left out the last increase round, but the hat still turned out larger than I expected, and is huge on the little boy, but hopefully he'll grow into it soon.

Train conductor hat in Sugar n' Cream in Denim with H hook; per pattern, except last increase round, and adjustment to brim to compensate

Storm says, "All aboard!"

The other project that consumed my week was an announcement from our church. In honor of our new music minister, who wears bow ties for Sunday morning worship, the church leadership asked that everyone wear bow ties to make him feel welcome. We don't own any bow ties, but I wanted to participate, so I thought, why not make some with all the extra yarn I've got? I went through all the yarns (Red Heart, very old skeins I got from my grandma) that I didn't purchase but had picked out from my grandma's stash a while ago, but this gold was the only one that wasn't a special blend (some wools and alpacas I wanted to save for special projects), so I used it.

I made little knit bow ties for my hubby, the twins, the baby, and myself. They are all different, although not too creative with the stitches, but I think they turned out cute. I crocheted bands for all the men, and if I'd had more time (I finished these last evening) would have added buttons to attach them. Mine I attached to a hair tie, so I could wear it with a messy bun.

Here we all are, wearing them.

It was a fun little project, and we got lots of cute comments from the church members this morning. I tried to find a semi-fancy bow tie pattern (for free), but everything I found was basically a tutorial for a rectangle (knit or crochet) gathered with yarn in the middle. I doubled my husband's and mine, so they actually look like bows, but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

That was my week in pictures. I will try to get more done on the sweaters this week, so I can hopefully post the finished photos next week. I also need to tell you about the new needles and how I am faring with them. Until then, happy crafting!

Etsy update!!

I wanted to make this a separate post, so it didn't get lost in a longer one. My Etsy shop is open again!!

My best sellers and most profitable items are the Viking Hat and Removable Beard, and the standalone Viking, Dwarf Beard, so, at my hubby's suggestion, those are the only items I've listed. I also have the Viking Hat with Removable Braids, the Knight Helmet, and the single Viking Hat with Horns, but that's going to be it for a while. I will take orders for other helmets, and as I find time, will hopefully design other projects in the LARP realm, but for now, this is enough.

I would love to post the rest of my awesome creations, but there are so many sellers on Etsy, my hats and scarves get lost in the mix. I don't do a lot of advertising, I don't have a whole portfolio of these kind of items, and I'm a bit of a novice at sweaters and other larger items, so I don't feel comfortable charging what my time is worth at this point. If someone sees something on my blog they love and want it, I will definitely make a custom order for them, but I won't list those items routinely to sell.

I am excited for what this new revelation will do for my business. I hope that by posting only those items, I can become a bit of a niche shop, just catering to the novelty role-playing crowd. It will keep my costs down to not list every single item I have ever made, and give me more time to devote to making quality items for my customers.

If you have an idea for a helmet that I've not listed, please contact me and I'll do everything in my power to make it a reality. I am open to new colors, designs, and I want to list my "deluxe beard" in the near future, after I've made some adjustments to make it truly special.

Thank you for your patronage! I really appreciate your business, and you reading about my yarn adventures. Keep checking back for updates on my latest projects.

A "snow day" update...

It's not a school day, in fact, it's even a long weekend, but we are having an ice storm here in KC right now, so everything's closed. So I thought it would be a good time to update with some more of my current projects.

I just put the finishing touches on another feminine beanie, for my mother-in-law, in some new colors. I thankfully had the navy in my stash, but the brown I had to purchase. I have been so immersed in knitting, it was nice to crochet something again.

Caron Simply Soft in chocolate and navy, per pattern; adult L/XL size

I really like the flower for this piece, although each one I make looks slightly different. She loves it, and almost wore it to bed last night. Another satisfied customer!

I went through my stash again this week, and am working vigorously to find projects to use my yarn on. I have a ton of baby yarn that was given to me after the twins were born that I've just been hanging on to. I am dying to make a sweater, after watching so many tutorials on YouTube that make it look so simple, so I decided to try making one with all the baby yarns. So far, it's been a breeze, and I think the colors look great together. It's coming together so quickly, I think I might even make 2 more, for the older boys as well. I will have to buy more yarn, since they are growing like weeds (3 years old wearing 5T already!), but at least I have a purpose for it. Here's my progress so far:

Yarn Bee in various colors; size 7 needles

I think it will be perfect on little Sam, although I have no idea how old he'll be when he gets to wear it. I'm making size 18 months, so hopefully he can wear it next fall for some nice photos with the older boys. He's growing so much faster than they did. I attribute it to him being almost 10 lbs. at birth, but he'll probably always be a big baby. He's so cute though...

I made an investment in my knitting this week, although I may be returning them shortly. I got a few gift cards for Christmas and was looking into getting an interchangeable knitting needle set, and found this one on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O99S9UQ/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's over $50, so it's a bit of an investment, but I love that I will always have the needles I need on hand. I went to my local JoAnn's the other day, though, and found this set: http://www.joann.com/boye-needlemaster-kit-200/7984818.html#q=boye%2Bknitting%2Bneedles&simplesearch=Go&start=4

The Boye needles were $70, but I had a 50% off coupon, so I went ahead and got them. They have tons of tips! I like them well enough, except I'm using the longest cord and it's difficult to make a full circle, because the tips are so long. I went ahead and ordered the Knitter's Pride set, and will try them both for a couple of weeks before I decide which kit to keep. I'm really excited about having one of these sets, though! 

The other project I've finished is one of the infamous messy bun hats that are all over Pinterest. I can't find the pattern that I used for this one, but I could easily have just used a knit beanie pattern and bound off early, which is exactly what I did. My cousin (actual 1st cousin--one of the few girls!) is finishing her Bachelor's at UCM in Warrensburg, and she's a cheerleader, so she wears lots of ponytails. I was pleased she asked me to do it, but I wanted to use up some of my "girl" colors in my stash. Pink, confetti, dark purple, and light purple it was, and I attempted to do the jogless stripes technique again (although slightly different this time), and it still turned out a little wonky. You can definitely see the seam where the stitch was pulled from the previous row and bunched up. I don't know if this is worse or better than having jogs. I will have to figure this out before I make striped sweaters for my boys.

All Vanna's Choice yarn leftovers; jogless stripe technique

Front view

I've got several other items in the works, like a stuffed elephant for Sam, socks (I'm waiting on special reinforcing thread to arrive), sweaters for the older boys, the stuffed animals, and a knit shawl I've got lots of yarn for. I also need to make a large tree skirt for Christmas next year. My parents have a 6' tree that we are taking, so my little tree skirt won't do anymore. I also have some fun ideas for Christmas next year, that involve a lot of knitting, wool, and ongoing projects, that I'll post about as I am able to work on them.

Stay warm this cold day, and hopefully I'll have a couple of baby sweaters to post about in the next week.

New Year, Same Goals

Happy New Year and a belated merry Christmas! I hope the holidays found you well. Ours were very subdued and lacking in merriment, but we managed to get through without Dad for the first year, which will probably be the hardest one.

I did very little crafting for gifts this year, on account of the events of the last month and having the newborn, who is now 4 months old (today!). My sister-in-law asked over Thanksgiving if I could make her a new set of towels and pot holders for their new house, so I came home and bought that yarn immediately. Other than that, I've not really worked on anything except a sweater vest for little Samuel, which I'll post about in another post.

Lily's Sugar 'n Cream cotton

I've been almost obsessed with watching a YouTube channel about knitting. It is AMAZING!! This woman has posted about everything I've ever seen in knitting, and so many things I've never even heard of. Her name is Staci Perry and her channel is VeryPink Knits. I had seen a couple of her tutorials a long time ago, because she is very good at explaining and demonstrating clearly stitches and techniques.

Staci only knits with wool and wool blends, which I've only ever done twice (a pair of wool flip-flop socks, one of my very first projects, and the sweater for my cousin), and I was inspired to try it. I bought some of the beautiful Cleckheaton wool from JoAnn's, which is, by far, the most expensive yarn I've ever bought. They had a free pattern attached for a baby vest, which I picked up, because I thought if I was going to mess up, it would be for a baby.

I didn't even think at the time about how expensive this baby sweater would be. Nearly $40, plus all my time!! I've never paid more than a few dollars for something my children are going to wear, so this is definitely a splurge. If I hadn't already finished half of it, I should have instead made a scarf or something elegant for myself. Oh well, live and learn.

I'll post a couple of photos of the sweater when it's finished, blocked, washed, and all the "real" knitting techniques are done. I'm excited to see how the wool behaves.

I wasn't planning to buy any new yarn this year, to use up my stash, but I forgot about that when I was in the store. I also had to buy the cotton yarn for my sister-in-law's gift, because I didn't have cotton in her colors. I also had to buy the wool for my cousin's sweater. Other than that, I believe I went the whole year without buying any new yarn (correction--I had to buy yarn for the car blanket this spring...). I still have so much yarn left, and tons of projects queued up (like a stuffed elephant for Sam, baby cardigans for Sam and my cousin's new baby girl, a shark hat for my best friend, more stuffed friends, and my first pair of toe-up socks!), so I shouldn't need to buy any more yarn for a very long time still. I've also asked my grandmother to help me work on and finish up the boys' quiet books (finally!), and possibly even make one for Samuel.

Between all these projects, taking care of 3 little boys and a new house, spending quality time with my mom, and cooking, laundry, and keeping house, I'll have another busy year. I plan to open my Etsy store again in the next couple of weeks, so I can hopefully have some income to fund all my new ideas. God bless you this New Year and good luck reaching your goals!