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 :)

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?