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.

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We always spend the holiday at my parents' house, which is a little different this year, since Dad is sick, but still festive.

It's been a busy time, but somehow between a wedding, traveling, traveling some more, spending time with my dad, cooking for my mom, refereeing volleyball districts, planning a birthday party for 2 3-year-olds, and fully nursing a newborn, I've been able to find time to make some amazing hats for my little people. 

I found all of these patterns on Ravelry or Pinterest, and knew they would be fun for my boys to dress up in. I didn't know how much they would love wearing them all the time! I'm so pleased with how they all turned out.

The twins had a jungle-themed birthday party, so they got to wear them all day Saturday for their grandparents and aunts and uncles too. We're getting a lot of mileage out of them this week! The best part is, I didn't spend a dime to buy any more yarn or supplies for these! They were all made of yarn I already had in my stash.

The giraffe is pretty much exactly like the pattern, except I made crochet eyes instead of using buttons (I did this on all the hats because I had plenty of yarn), and I used colors I had and wanted to use. I made it the largest size that wasn't listed as "adult" and it still fits snugly on Teeny's head. My children either have huge heads or my gauge was off.

The elephant was based on this pattern, but I'm not totally in love with how the trunk came out. I followed the pattern for it first, but I thought it was too short, so I doubled the length. I also wish the ears were a little bigger, but the pattern was written for a newborn, which would not have fit my infant, who also has an oversized head. I used the giraffe pattern and made it to fit a child/toddler. It's a little big for him but he'll be able to wear it when he's older and can play with his brothers.

The monkey was the first hat I completed, and I wasn't planning to do ear flaps for the others at the time, or I would have put them on this as well so it would match. It went to my nephew, who has a relatively small head (smaller than average), but I still made it the same size as the twins' so he can wear it for a while. I should have put the ears down lower because I think it looks more like a bear than a monkey with them up high, but it still turned out cute. I didn't plan to make the half-smile, but I ran out of yarn on my needle at that point, and thought it looked super-cute, so I left it.

The lion is my favorite out of all the hats. I pretty much made the pattern from a composite of several different designs. I couldn't find one that was a beanie style with ear flaps, so I wasn't sure how to do the mane and left it off for a week or so while I debated how to do it. It looked like young Simba from The Lion King, which made my son happy, but I also thought it looked like a lioness, so I wanted to finish it. I finally decided to just try the knotted technique that I eventually used, and after finishing it, I think it looks fantastic! I might make one for myself, I like it so much...

The last hat I made was for my best friend, who is having a baby this spring after trying for over 10 years! I am so happy for her, and thought I would make something very personal. She has a horse that is almost as old as she is, and has put so much love, time, money, sweat, and tears into keeping him that I immediately knew I had to make a hat that looks like him. I used some photos of him to design it, and since she is not finding out what she's expecting, I left off any embellishments, like bows or trim. I think it turned out beautifully, and used the zebra pattern and the muzzle from the giraffe to complete it. I can't wait to see her face when she opens it.

Photo by Sarah Dickerson

Catching up--part deux

Getting out some of my projects of late from the boxes they've been packed in, I realized I needed to take some photos of my latest projects. I think this should complete the archiving post I started a few weeks ago, so from here on out, I should only be posting current creations.

Here's the first one:

I Love This Yarn, size 9 needles

This is a project I made over a year ago, but due to my lack of enthusiasm for finishing projects, I had it sitting around waiting for the buttons to finish it up for months. I finally finished it over the winter, but I put it in a place I rarely visit and forgot about it, until I unpacked it last week. It was a fun experiment in knitting short rows, and the variegated yarn really makes the pattern stand out well. It is a loose cowl, and I think it'll look nice this winter. I've got 2 more skeins of this yarn, so I will probably end up knitting a hat and some mittens to match at some point.

Red Heart yarn, size 9 needles

This is a hat I knitted recently for Isaac, whose fair isle hat with the same colors is going to be too small this winter. This one is super-stretchy, so it should fit him for a couple of winters (I hope!).

Purl Bee yarn in Shale, size 9 needles

This is an adorable hat I made for Blessing using this pattern. I had to adjust for gauge since my yarn wasn't as thick as the yarn she uses, but it is also very stretchy and will hopefully fit him for the first couple of winters.

This is the previous hat with a keyhole scarf made of the same Shale Purl Bee yarn. I still have quite a bit of both of these yarns left, so I made the following hat as well, to hopefully use up some of the navy, but there's almost a whole skein of it left. 

I love the way this hat turned out, and I tried to use the jogless stripes technique, but I'm still not convinced that makes a difference. The pom makes this hat!

This slouchy hat is the reason I had so much of the shale leftover. I got about two-thirds of the way finished with it, when I ran out. I had to start a new skein and hardly used any of it to finish. I actually didn't plan to make it quite so slouchy, but by the time I finally finished it, I wasn't going to take it out and redo it. Maybe someday I'll have a ton of hair to pile up inside it like a hairnet...

As I mentioned at the top, anything else I post from here on out should be all-new. I've got a cute little stuffed elephant in the works for Blessing that needs a lot of sewing, and hopefully after some trial and error, will turn out to be adorable. I've also got some hats and sweaters I'd like to use up some yarn for, and some household projects to figure out. I don't know how long it will take to get some of these things going, so it might be a while before I have anything worth posting. I'll probably have some adorable pics of my new little dude in his cute little hats, so keep your eyes peeled for those soon :-)

I'm due 2 weeks from today, if I am able to make it that long, so if I don't post before then, I'm probably quite busy getting use to our new life as a family of 5. Take care and see you on the flip side!

Catching up...

I've finally been able to make some good progress on my blankets that I started before Colorado, so I thought now would be a good time to post some photos.

The first blanket is a granny square like the lime and blue one from a couple months ago. The boys have been begging me for blankets since I started on it, so I am thrilled to have finished it. If you remember, this was from the batch of 6 skeins of JoAnn's Big Twist yarn I mentioned. The teal and purple go great with our new decor, and the navy fits in well. 

Big Twist yarn in navy, purple, teal with I hook

The other blanket is a ripple blanket using the same color scheme, but somehow I ran out of the navy before I wanted to be finished. It's a little shorter than I would like, but it should fit the baby for a few years.

Big Twist yarn in navy, teal, purple with H hook; I couldn't get him off it!

I had more purple leftover from both projects than I thought, so I made the cute little appliqué elephant (using this pattern), per my husband's suggestion. I still have lots of purple leftover, so I guess that will be added to my ugly square in the future.

The other project I've been working on lately is the hat for my nephew's dinosaur-themed birthday party this past weekend. 

Red Heart in green and orange with H hook

I found the pattern here, but it didn't make any sense when I started working on it, so I just made the beanie from a basic HDC pattern and made the spikes using her pattern.

I had no idea the tails were going to be party favors, and he just happened to pick the tail that matched *perfectly!* I think the whole ensemble turned out great :-) The best part is, I made all of these projects with yarn I already had on hand!

So that is what has been keeping me busy lately. Well, that, and twin 2-year-olds, sleeping whenever I can, and packing for our big move in July, because we just bought a house! More on that later. I hope your projects are coming along well. I've got a couple more small things in the works for the baby, then I'll have to focus on getting things packed, and unpacked, in time for him to arrive. Toodles for now!

A Week's Worth of Hats

And I'm not kidding! After I finished my sweater, I had some miscellaneous hats I had found on Pinterest I wanted to make. So I spent all last week working on several different types of hats with yarn I (mostly) had lying around.

Knit Men's Beanie: Remake of the jogless stripes hat I previously made; it was a little small for the customer

Stash buster Rainbow Stripe Hat; per Pinterest pic, I did 8 increase rounds, starting with 10 dc; each color is 3 rounds, except pink, which is 2 in fpdc/bpdc ribbing; H hook and Red Heart yarns

Baby Cable Hat: This really looks much better on than it does here! It fits snugly. Per Purl bee pattern here; Bernat Satin yarn in sage and size 4 dpns

Slouch Hat: Also looks better on. Per pattern with shoe rug yarn and Red Heart in Aran

Hershey's Kiss Hats: for the boys! Still need to add ribbon. From pattern, I hook and 48 stitches on final increase instead of 44; I Love This Yarn in graymist

Stripe Pom Hat: An original creation! H hook and I Love This Yarn in navy, Red Heart with Love in iced aqua, Deborah Norville for the pom and edging, and Vanna's Choice in radiant lime; 8 stitches for 5 sets of 2 rows, then increase as normal until 54 stitches

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