Christmas Crochet!

Well, I am right in the middle of my mad rush to get Christmas gifts crocheted! I started much earlier last year and the year before, so we will see how it goes! :) I think I'm almost halfway done! I have 9 hats completed and 10 more to go! Of course that's just the nieces and nephews. I think I am going to try to make some quick and easy hats for a couple of other people on our list too. Last year I really got into it and made a different hat for pretty much every niece, while I made all the nephews earflap hats. This year I discovered Moda Dea Tweedle Dee yarn. Love the stuff! And I came up with a really quick and easy pattern for it! I can get two nifty hats out of each skein! Or two baby/toddler hats and one teen/adult hat! And I found a pattern for a nice boy beanie that I will be making all the nephews this year.

Unfortunately I can't do any showing off of my goods this year. 2 reasons: 1) why would I want to spoil anyone's gift? ;) and 2) I cannot for the life of me get photos uploaded to my blogs! Its been very frustrating as I rely so heavily on pictures for all my blogs :( Someday I will figure it out, until then, no pictures... :(

UFO's

Of course the mega large pirate vest is headed to the UFO (UnFinished Object) box... I will probably eventually finish up the edging... that or I was considering turning it into a shawl? But will have to figure out how to handle the sleeves...


This one was an ear flap hat that I made last year around Christmas. I just thought if I used a smaller hook for the pattern it would end up baby sized, but it didn't quite work out that way. But it looks like it will fit Beatrice this year! I think the ear flap hat is a good one for her because I can tie it up and she'll have a hard time trying to get it off! Just need to weave in the ends and make the ties :)



This was another one that I made last year at Christmas time that turned out quite smaller than it was supposed to be, but it was still too big for Beatrice last year. Again, this one will fit this year ~ but it will be amazing if she leaves it on her head :)

Amazingly, most of the stuff in my UFO box just need to have the ends weaved in! I think there are only a few things in there that are less than halfway done... someday I will go finish them all up. Maybe after Christmas ;)

The Pirate Vest

OK, well... one of the biggest lessons I still haven't learned about crocheting? Gauge swatch! I don't know why I never do this. Most projects have turned out good though... and I guess I'm always so excited to start a new project that I don't want to "waste" my time or yarn on silly little gauge swatches...

The other lesson that I still need to learn? Every 4-ply yarn just isn't the same size. You would think that if a project calls for a specific 4-ply yarn that you could replace it with any old (cheaper) 4-ply yarn. And that's just not the case... and I still struggle with that lesson. Maybe they need to come up with a different system for stating the size of the yarn? Because really, that Lily's Sugar 'N Cream cotton yarn is much bigger than the Red Heart Super Saver, and they are both 4-ply. I'm guessing that the yarn this pattern was written with was a lighter weight 4-ply than Red Heart....

So the pirate vest that I worked on for 2 or 3 weeks? Ginormous. Way too big. The funny thing was that I was worried it was going to be too small... I should have guessed it was going to be too big when I finished the back of it... but I thought that by the time I sewed it together... grrr.Oh well. Now on to trying to sew a pirate vest before tomorrow... Sewing is much quicker, so if I manage to mess this one up I will at least know right away :)

Baby Things!

I finally got off my behind and got back to some crochet projects!

I just love making baby hats and booties! So I made these for our niece's new baby girl born Monday! And I really love this pink cammo yarn, it's just darn cute and trendy!

I had made some shorts this summer for my baby girl, but as the weather is turning, I made some pants using my shorts pattern :) Of course I forgot to wait until after I'd finished the belt to take the picture... Oh well - the belt I made in a solid pink.

I started yesterday on a black vest for my daughter's Halloween costume, so I will have to get some pictures of it in progress and then finished.

The other exciting news is that I visited a somewhat real yarn store (OK, it's a fiber arts and bookstore...) and got some exciting new yarns! I will have to take some pics and post about that too :)

Modeling Shorts :) & another small project finished!

I finally finished that Ipod cozy :) for such a small thing it took me forever to finalize it... I hate the finishing part of projects... especially those that involve sewing...




















And after finishing those cute shorts for Beatrice, I could hardly wait to have her model them! :) Of course try getting a mobile 10-month old to model! :) Can you just feel the attitude? ;)

More little things :)

Well I made another dishcloth, which I love. So simple, so quick and so useful. I just haven't decided yet whether to give it away, try to sell it, or use it myself...

This week I made up my own pattern for some baby shorts :) and they actually turned out just right! They are so darn cute I think I may try making more and selling them and selling the pattern on Etsy! I love 'em!! I decided to make them because I have tons of shirts for baby Beatrice and no bottoms for summer!

It's amazing how much cuter they look with a belt! :)
I might actually think about adding some contrasting color trim on the shorts... or do you think just the additional color on the belt is good?

It's the little things ;)

I've just been undertaking those small crochet projects lately.

I started an ipod cozy, the "Tunes Tote" from the April Crochet World magazine. Of course it's in the "make it in a day" section - and this particular pattern says "make it in an hour." Well, I think it's taken me at least a week ;) But of course I stopped in the middle of it to crochet a dishcloth though :) But really, with two little ones, I managed about a round at a sitting ;)

The pattern called for size 10 crochet nylon... but obviously that's not the size I had. It was a leftover spool of unidentified nylon from a project of my husband's (not a girly project - without making a long story, he used it to get his ham radio antenna hooked into the tree). I had been looking up patterns that called for nylon, but none had really caught my fancy. Then I finally got around to reading the April issue of Crochet world, and decided to make the ipod cozy. It was suppose to be 2 1/2" by 4" and I knew it was off right away when it only measured 2" across. Then by the 14th round it was only about 2" high :) So I checked my daughter's ipod shuffle and it fit... so there you go. I'll post a finished pic once I do the tedious finishing parts :)

The dishcloth came about by a sale on lily's sugar and cream yarn. That and my husband had a dishcloth that his mother must've made for him a long time ago. With moving it resurfaced. I don't think he'd ever used it, and I really didn't intend to. I've made a few dishcloths, but then usually just use them as hotpads - I didn't think they'd really be good for washing dishes. But out of desperation for a clean dishcloth I used the one my husband's mother had made. I immediately wanted to make more just like it! It took me a while to figure out what kind of stitch she had used, and after making one up, I think she did a front loop only, back loop only sc. The one I made was just a simple sc, with a few rows of back loop only... it wasn't until I did the few rows of back loop only in the center that I recognized the stitch she'd done.

I'm going to have to make more dishcloths :) I absolutely love using them for dishes :)

New Baby Gift

So my crochet hobby has definately taken a backseat for now... we have so much else going on and still at least two rooms of boxes to unpack... But I couldn't resist crocheting a itty bitty hat for my new neice. It was a little small for Baby B to model - and unfortunately she has taken to really hating hats! Doesn't she know I love to crochet cute little baby hats??

Something new!

Amazing! I actually got something crocheted! It's been so long since I've done anything - with the move and all that's gone on since. We are still pretty far from settled and unpacked, so it's hard to find the time to sit and crochet something. So I did something quick and easy for my daughter. I made her a little pouch for her Heely Wheelies ;)
I must say that I'm pretty anxious to crochet something cute for my new neice ;)

New patterns & shawl update

I'm still plugging away on the shawl. Got a few more rows done. Of course not working too much on it since we've been busy with moving issues... thank god I packed up all my crochet stuff right away (except for the shawl) - because I found the cutest bootie patterns on Etsy! The photos are from the listings on Etsy, just to be sure - they are not my photos... here are the links to the Etsy listings: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9768831 and http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9755462 I so want to make them immediately!! I've had an Etsy storefront since probably last winter... and I keep meaning to start listing stuff there to sell, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet - but I've bought some really great patterns there! I just love Etsy!

As soon as we move and get unpacked and settled these booties will be top of my to make list!!! I just can't wait to try them :)

got back on it

I have been plugging away on the shawl that I'm making for my daughter. It's been slow going since we've had so much going on lately. We're moving back to Iowa. It's going to be a big move, so I really need to just pack all my yarn first so I spend most of my free time packing ;) I'll just leave out the shawl that I'm working on.

It's turning out really nice ;) pretty :) I think Maria's going to like it. It's about 1/3 of the way done. Hopefully I can get it finished before the big move.

Anyway, I will probably be on a blogging hiatus until the second week of March...

Oops ;) this is a PS: I put in the tags before I wrote anything, that's so dangerous ;) I forgot to mention that I got my ravelry invite!! It was very exciting. It is so completely addictive. It's a wonderful site. If you don't know about it - it's at www.ravelry.com a site for knitters and crocheters ;) and it's awesome. Can I say how cool it is with any other adjectives??

Back to work?

I can't believe I haven't crocheted anything since I finished the coffee cozy/coaster set! It's been probably a little over 2 weeks since I've worked on anything. I think it's the longest I've gone w/out since I started!! Of course once I start really blogging on it... ;) I've just been spending so much time on the computer reading and writing blogs...

I almost got to go to a real yarn store today! I usually have to settle for getting all my yarn at Wal-Mart. There's one small craft store in town, and they have a nice selection of yarn, but they're kind of snooty. And the aisles are too small for a stroller... In searching for something else online I ran across the address for a fiber store in a town about an hour away. Well, we decided to go to the Wal-Mart in that town today and I planned on dropping in at the fiber store... it turned out that they were closed :( I will have to call and find out their hours... I've almost driven to that town just to go to the fiber store - glad I didn't if they don't hold regular business hours.

Anyway - I'll just have to post a picture of my daughter in my favorite hat that I crocheted her :) It's so adorable! I spent the few months before I had her making hats and booties :) did I mention obsessively??

Coaster/Cozy Set

Here is a picture of the coaster/coffee cozy X-Mas gifts that I made for some of the adults on my list... they turned out pretty cute. I got the pattern from a Crochet magazine. It called to satin stitch a candy cane on the coaster and cozy, but I omitted that so it didn't have to be just for Christmas :)

Anyway, the crocheting has been going pretty slow lately... I worked my butt off up until x-mas to crank everything out on time... now I'm just working on a hat and then will get back to projects I started before the x-mas rush :)

X-Mas Crocheting

I spent the months of Oct-Dec madly crocheting items for neices/nephews and other family members for Christmas gifts.

I made hats for all of my husband's neices and nephews, of which there's quite a few. I made a hat for my nephew and then made some American Girl doll clothes for my two older neices (hats, scarves, pants, a jumper and a dress), and then hats for my youngest neices. Then I made this coaster/cozy set from a crochet magazine for my husband's mom and step-dad, my mom, my step-daughter's mom, and my sister's mother-in-law. I had intended on making all of them a set of two, but I was under the wire and just barely got done with one of each for everyone (except my husband's parents-since there was two of them). I had wanted to make my two youngest neices (both toddlers) these cute piggyback animals that I purchased patterns for online (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7636820) but unfortunately ran myself out of time! And due to running myself out of time, I did not get pics of the cute little cloche hats I ended up making my little nieces, and didn't get any pics of the coaster/cozy sets... but I am in the process of making one for myself, so I'll post a pic of that when I get it done here in the next couple of days.
So now I'm back to all the projects I started or wanted to start (or finish) before Christmas! :) I started a shawl for my 10 year old daugter - I was thinking of making shawls for all the nieces but after starting the one for my daughter realized that it would take way too long! Maybe I'll start now for next year ;) And I have one baby blanket for my baby daughter that is almost finished - I have one strip left to sew on... I didn't really like the way it turned out anyway... so it's been on the backburner for quite a while now. I should have made the new year's resolution of finishing all the projects I've started ;)

New Blogspot

Hi! I had started a crochet blog a while ago on blogdrive http://kscrochet.blogdrive.com/, but it was really cumbersome to add pictures - which of course with a crochet blog you want to be able to add and handle pictures easily! I've been using blogger for my "family" blog for a while and am pretty happy with the way posting and pictures work, so welcome to my new crochet blog! I will hopefully be posting much more often here!