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!

Photo Shoot

These were some photos I took to update some of my Etsy listings. I may caption them someday, but today is not that day...

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

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.