What I've Been Up To

Not much really! It's hard to find the time to crochet and knit with the chaos ;) but I do find minutes of sanity here and there to get some little things done. I've been doing mostly crochet projects as knitting seems to be a little dangerous to do with a baby in my lap ;)

The most recent things I've crocheted are birthday hats for my neices

Just before Halloween I crocheted a pumpkin hat and booties for my little baby boy ;)

I've made him several hats:

And being the evil crafter that I am, made him try on one that I sent to a friend that had a girl ;) He didn't like it so much.

 I'm currently working on a Lightning McQueen (from Cars) hat, and a knit hat for my older daughter!

This year, with so little time, I am not doing the madly crocheting a gift for everyone thing this year... :( I'll have to resume that one next year.

And now she knits too!!

I had thought about attempting to teach myself to knit many times over the past couple of years, but never quite got around to it. My mom came and spent a couple of weeks with us while my husband was out of town for work. While she was visiting, I drug her to my favorite yarn store, and while we were there I mentioned something about the desire to learn to knit - forgetting that my mother knew how to knit... and the rest is history ;)

Here is the first project I started: it's the "Magic Scarf" from Crazy Aunt Purl's book "Drunk, Divorced and full of cat hair..."

And here is the first project I actually finished! (Yes, I'm still plugging away at the scarf). It was supposed to be knitted in the round, but I tried over and over to get it, and will have to have someone show me how to knit in the round sometime... I just translated the pattern for straight needles and sewed up the seam...

I also made a little hooded blanket for Baby Sister's Dora doll, which came out a little too small... But I'm really digging this knitting thing ;) and looking forward to learning more.

What I've Made Lately...

I've been so busy it's been hard to squeeze in time for crochet. But I have managed to do a few small projects.

I finally made scarves for my two little ones! Actually, about the second or third thing I ever crocheted was a scarf for my little boy. But it was pretty small, and barely fit around his neck this year.

And you might be wondering what stitch I used... as it was my 2nd or 3rd project, and apparently still didn't quite know how to crochet correctly, I managed to do it all in slip stitch!! It was very difficult, and took a very long time! Boy am I glad I finally learned how to do the sc correctly! ;)

The new scarf I made him was hdc, with Vanna's Choice, Dusty Green. I am in love with that color!! Though it just doesn't come out right with the flash and all... picture doesn't do the color justice.

And then I made this scarf for baby sister in DC to match her coat ;) I made it with Caron Simply Soft. It was the first time I used that yarn, and it is pretty nice and soft ;)

I was checking out the free patterns on the Lion Brand Yarn website, and came across these easy booties. Somehow, even though I am using the yarn suggested (Vanna's Choice) they come out bigger than they should... the sole was the right measurement, but when you finish the sides and top it comes out too big. So, after I made the small child size and it was too big for baby sister, I made the infant size and it came out just right.

I made the bigger size for Duncan, (which was still the child's small). The odd thing is that the bigger sized booties come out a little squared in the toe...

When my husband saw the booties I was making for the boy, he said if I made the cuff a little longer it would make a great frog puppet ;) So I tested it out, and sure enough, he was right ;)I also found this super cute wiener dog pattern on the Lion Brand Yarn site, and just had to make it. My two little ones have been fighting over the little Mr. Weenie that came with Open Season 2, mostly because the little dog looks like our Sally. So I switched the coloring of the pattern a little bit to better match our Sally ;) Came out looking a little like a rat ;) I think the next one will turn out a little better. I think maybe making the snout a little shorter might help. That and I stuffed the ears a little too much and they stick out like wings ;) so less stuffing (or no stuffing) in the ears next time. Yes, and it's missing some eyes... I had to wait to get some white embroidery floss. It called for those plastic eyes, and I'm sure the kids would have them chewed off in no time...

And I had to break down and make myself a new hat. I'd made myself one around x-mas with the Moda Dea Tweedle Dee, which I loved, but turns out I'm allergic to wool. It only had 10% wool, but that was enough to make my eyes water and itch! So I found some bulky yarn that was 100% acrylic.
Seems like a lot of stuff, but really it's just about everything I've made in the past couple of months ;)

Some things...

I have been meaning to post pictures of the hats I made for Christmas forever... and unfortunately, I am missing the middle pictures, I have the first few and the last couple of hats I made. My laptop bit the dust in a way, still intact, but there is something wrong with the cord or the connector in the inside, I can't get it to charge... will have to take it in at some point and I think that all the other pics I took of xmas gifts are only on my laptop...


This one was made of the Lily's Sugar and Cream cotton yarn, it turned out pretty :)

This hat was a pattern that I made especially for this wonderful Tweedle Dee yarn from Moda Dea. Love it! This was the fireside color.

And then I made three in the color Blackberry... the first one is adult sizeAnd these two are baby size ;) One for a 9 month old and one for a 2 month old.

And here are two of the boy hats that I did.

While I was making some of the boy hats, my husband requested a hat with lettering on it :) I altered the above pattern quite a bit - it's all dc except for the stripes are sc... but quickly figured out that with the lettering it would have to be sc in the middle section... but did not account for the fact that sc is tighter and has less stretch to it... so its a thinner hat in the lettering band area, will have to try to find a way to remedy that :) Too small for the husband, but Beatrice seems to like it :)