Tassel Hat

I love the design of this hat, so creative. The shaping of the ear flaps is really nice and the way it hugs the head is great. This was a quick and fun hat to make, I want to make it in a bulkier yarn the next time, make it a bit more hood like. I also want to add an applique, like the sample hat on the pattern.
If you’d like to make a hat like this the pattern can be found here.

Insanity

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.                    -Albert Einstein
I think that a lot of times we get stuck repeating the same actions over and over again because it’s comfortable and easy. When you realize this it can be a bit upsetting and disappointing. I will be doing different things this year!
In that spirit this is what I’m currently working on…baby hats! Samples of my knitting and crocheting skills. I have a plan for these hats and I’ll share that next week. I am also taking a class at the community college, it’s a self improvement class. I’m excited to learn something new (and different).
What new things will you be doing this year?

Knitting Weather

I am so predictable, the minute it gets cold I have to have a new knitting project to work on. I am a big fan of The Jane Victoria patterns her unique style really makes her patterns appealing to me. Yesterday I cast on for The Silmarwen Súrion Hooded Cropped Mozzetta Pattern and have furiously knitted my way through the first 12 rows of 2x2 ribbing.My favorite thing about these patterns is the symmetrical shaping, I have knitted a lot of different patterns and hers are the only ones with this sort of perfect shaping. Usually I have to learn a new stitch, but it is completely worth it.
I do need to mention that I have had problems with her patterns: The Alassë Míriel Hooded Cowl Pattern turned out way too small (completely my fault for not checking gauge) and there were some sleeve sizing issues with The Enelya Linwëlin Sleeved Mantelet Pattern (once again, my fault for not checking the finished measurements) I am not alone in my challenges with these pattern, but the designer has listened and edited both of those patterns to make things clearer and help with sizing. I have learned to pay attention to measurements and gauge. The designer has also been quick to answer questions.
I have frogged the Mantelet, I will restart again someday. For now the yarn will be reused for this project. I love knitting in the round, it seems to go so fast and I don’t have to concentrate so hard.
Does anyone have a special knitting project started for the winter?

EXFOLIATE!

We have had a busy week, it was the first full week of school (wow, 2nd. graders have a lot of homework!), we’ve had several random but necessary appointments, and we’ve had a houseguest all week.  Whew, I’m tired!
As a remembrance of his trip I knitted our guest this washcloth. Yes, he is a Dr. Who fan.  Head over to Ravelry to get a copy of the free Dalek pattern.
Have a super crafty weekend!

WIP (Work in Progress) Wednesday

There is so much going on around here, Summer is officially here and we have been super busy.  I have so many ideas I can’t write them down fast enough and having the whole crew home makes producing crafts slow, but this is our quality family time (they are already whining about how bored they are and that we never do anything).
I have managed to get a little more knitting done on the mantelet, I am almost back to the point where I had to frog it last time (fingers crossed that it will fit better).
I’ve finished another Pieced Tunic, seriously this is my new Mom uniform.  I’m going to need some more leggings, STAT!
My giant calendar is almost finished and later today I’m going to tear down the white board and the cork boards.  I’m am soooooo excited, I can’t wait to share the tutorial with you.  I had to do MATH, but don’t worry, I took notes so you’ll just have to follow my directions.
So while I feel like nothing is getting done, really I’m making progress on various projects.  What are you working on this summer? and how do you find time to craft independently with kids around?  I’d love some suggestions.

Back In the Knitting Saddle

Because it’s like that old expression, “if you get bucked off, get right back on that horse”, when you have a knitting fail and have to frog you need to get right back to knitting?  I don’t know where I’m trying to go with this, but anyway I had a rough week and knitting is helping me get through it.  I restarted The Enelya Linwëlin Sleeved Mantelet pattern.  This time I cast on 6 extra stitches and added a full repeat of eyelets.  As you can see, the sleeve is quite a bit bigger.  The fit is better, close fitting, but not stretched.  Sleeve one is finished, sleeve two is started.  I expect to get a lot knitted on this this weekend.  What crafty stuff will you be working on?

Knitting Wardrobe Malfunction

I am beginning to think that knitting, in general, may be my Craftfail.  This is the project I started working on after the scarf mishap.  I was so excited about this pattern I swatched, I never swatch!  My gauge was perfect, I started knitting and was obsessed, knitting in every free moment, trying not to lose momentum on this project.  Finally the day came when I could try it on to get an idea of how AWESOME it was going to be……well, it’s pretty tight.  It’s not supposed to be tight, it’s uncomfortably tight (notice how the stitches are stretched)…not even if it stretches out a bit will this work.  Sigh, digging out the measuring tape.  Well, there’s the problem,  the pattern says that an extra large fits a 13” to 13 1/2” bicep and my bicep is 14 1/2”!  Yep, that explains it.
I will have to frog the whole thing, sigh, almost 2 weeks worth of knitting because, while I measured my chest, I did not measure my bicep, who knew that would be what wouldn’t fit?  The chest could stand to be a bit bigger too, I don’t want some sort of upside down muffin top going on under that cape.
The shaping on the pattern is beautiful.  I am always amazed at how knitting can be shaped around curves just from increasing and decreasing.  I still love the pattern, but I may need to take a break from it and pout about my mistake.  I will also need to sit down and do some math to get this pattern to fit, ugh, math.

Scarf Fail

How exactly does one fail at making a scarf?  It’s just a long, skinny rectangle!  Well I can tell you it takes hours and hours of weaving and by the time I knew it had gone horribly wrong I was too stubborn to quit.
The knitted strip I shared on Friday became this:I dropped two stitches and made the “runs” in the knitting.  Next I decided to weave yarn into the “runs”, a rainbow of yarn! Weaving the yarn took FOREVER.  About half way through the weaving I began to have doubts that the scarf would turn out like I planned, but I kept going I had already invested way too much time in this one and I was going to make it work!
Um yeah, when I finished the last piece of yarn I had a wavy mess, so I thought I’ll just need to adjust/tighten the strings.  I started pulling, one at a time, I only broke a few……so I only tightened one half and then braided the ends together?  I don’t know where I was going with this, but I couldn’t stop, I had to finish this.  Once it was finished I promptly announced (to my husband) that it was the ugliest thing I had ever made and we started trying to figure out what to do with it.  There was a lot of snickering and weirdness and we came up with this: It’s a headdress like Queen Amidala (cough, Star Wars, cough) would wear.  I think I might keep this handy by the front door, you never know when you’re going to need a crazy hat to pop on when uninvited company drops by.  Do let me know if you’d still like the pattern :)

Spring Time Delays

The weather yesterday was beautiful here, I took the baby for a long walk in the stroller, walked to pick the kids up from school and spent the evening working in the yard.  I was a wonderful day, really, except I didn’t finish the project I was working on for today.Ahem, as you can see, it’s a scarf.  I know that you are just dying for the pattern, but you will just have to wait.  I have been working on it this morning, but the kids are out of school for Arbor Day (only in Nebraska) and it is another lovely day…a little windy, but perfect for kite flying.  I’m sure I’ll have time to finish this up this weekend.

Have a super crafty weekend!

A Productive Weekend

I had a really productive weekend, but I don’t have any finished projects to share today.  I am on row 91 of my new knitting pattern.  There are 139 rows total, so I’m making good progress.  I love the detailed border, so simple and elegant (and difficult to photograph).  I can’t wait to see this one finished. Here is what is left of one of my super thick toilet boxes (the bottom of the pile).  I know it looks silly stacked up like this, but I needed a lot of weigh.  Hoping to start on the fun painting part later today.

While it may not look that impressive, that was what I did this weekend.  Stay tuned for what’s going on with the toilet box, really, it’s going to be awesome!

Knitted Flat Bottom Pouch

It seems like I don’t craft a lot for my husband and earlier this week I noticed that his collection of dice, that he uses for playing Magic the Gathering, was being stored in a large, ripped, Ziploc bag.  I picked up the nearest ball of yarn (caron simply soft in black) and started knitting him a flat bottomed dice pouch.

I started by casting on 20 stitches using US size 5 needles and then I continued in stockinette stitch (knit the right side, and purl the wrong side) for 22 rows.  I didn’t cast off at this point and started picking up stitches along the sides.  Using double pointed needles, I picked up 20 stitches on each of the three remaining sides, which gave me a total of 80 stitches on my needles.  I began knitting in the round, after about 10 rounds I was able to get the stitches onto a 12” circular needle, which is easier for me to knit with.  Continue knitting in the round until the bag measures 4” from the bottom edge, where we picked up the stitches.  The next row, *knit 6, knit 2 together, and yarn over* repeat from * 9 more times to the end of the row.  Knit 4 more rows and bind off.  I made a twisted cord for my lace and laced it through the holes made by the knit 2 together, yarn over row.The reason I chose to make a flat bottomed pouch is so that he could leave it open while he was playing and easily get the dice he needs.

This project was a success, he really likes it and I’m sure he’ll get a lot of use out of it.  Let me know if I need to clarify the pattern instructions, it’s hard for me to write out what I did in my head.

Designing Knitted Hats

I never really thought I would be able to design hats, I still feel like such a beginning knitter. I think that’s because I don’t knit sweaters or blankets or other super huge projects. I do knit a lot of hats though and I realized that I was always changing them up a bit to make them the way I wanted to make them, hmmm I guess that is sort of designing.

This all started because I love cupcakes and I wanted to knit little baby cupcake hats. There are plenty of cupcake hat patterns out there, but nothing like I wanted, the frosting just wasn’t quite right. I made a couple with cherries on top and they turned out cute, but the cherry was too nipple like for my satisfaction and it was just one more thing to sew on. I thought about a pompom, but nah and how many cupcakes have I really eaten with a cherry on top anyway! So I’ve been working on this:

It looks nice modeled on this jar and I’m getting close, but when I put it on a head: The frosting needs to be taller/rounder and this yarn wasn’t the best choice, the colors are great though. I also need to make that top tail a bit longer and tack it down in a curl shape. I might even want to add another layer to the icing frill.

I also saw a boy wearing a fleece raccoon hat and thought it would be a lot cuter knitted. It’s close too, just a little more tweaking and some eyes: I’m trying to decide if the ear-flaps are really what I want or if a striped and ribbed band around the bottom of a regular hat would be better and exactly what sort of eyes I’m going to make.

I like to share some of the process of what goes into a design, I would love to hear what you guys think of these two hats. I’m also trying to decide what to do with my pile of imperfect samples: throw them out, unravel them, give them away, sell them as one offs…what are your thoughts?

Year End Wrap Up

I wanted everyone to know that I did knit the toadstool baby rattle from the Purl Bee. It wasn’t finished for Christmas, luckily the baby can’t read a calendar. I still might(probably not) put some appliquéd felt spots on. I really love it, the detailing with the increasing and decreasing on the stem and the ribbing on the gills is wonderful. I do wish it was a bit smaller, but Little Man is still able to get a good grip on it and give it a good shake, but I think he likes his CrinkleBot better.

I also made a set of hanging towels for my Mother. When she saw my red and turquoise ones she asked for a set in red with yellow instead of turquoise. I had the striping down better the second time around. I am still drinking juice too, 2 down with 4 to go so I can have my very own set of custom ornaments.

I have a few new projects in the works… Part of my New Years Goals (not exactly resolutions) and the start of a brand new idea that just hit me as I was thinking about the New Year and getting a new calendar. I have been working on my goals for weeks and am sure that 2011 will be very exciting for my family, I can hardly wait.

Have a wonderful New Year (and a super crafty weekend)!

He is REALLY Annoyed

Here’s the action shot from yesterdays finished hat. 

Yeah, he is really annoyed.

  You should have seen the arm flapping and heard the whining, but after a few minutes he forgets it’s on and he’s fine.  It is sooooo cute and he’ll be toasty warm even if he is annoyed.

How to Annoy a Baby

Babies in hats are soooooo cute, but once your baby gets coordinated enough to grab things it is really difficult to keep a hat on that baby. I live in Nebraska and it gets cold here, the baby must wear a hat (and hopefully look cute too).

I’ve had the b 14-28 hat pattern in my favorites on ravelry for a while and decided that this weekend was the perfect time to get it done. I made the 6-9 month size using Red Heart in Fall (I absolutely love the colors in this, I have now made two hats with one skein) and Coffee. The pattern was a little confusing for the shaping of the hood part, but after re-reading it a few times I got it. It seemed like the first 8-12 rows took forever, but after the decreases it went a lot quicker. I ended up redoing the ribbing around the face hole, I had followed the pattern and done 2 X 2 ribbing and folded and stitched, but I didn’t like it. Instead I purled a row, knitted a row, purled a row and did a crochet bind off. I also divided the stitches at the top of the hat in half and did a crochet bind off there too.

I worked on this hat all day Sunday and, sadly, I finished way to late to get an action shot of the baby, but hopefully I’ll have one to post soon. I did try it on him before finishing the face hole and adding the pompoms and it was super cute. You should have seen the look on his face when he tried to pull it off and it didn’t budge, sooo funny. How do you like to annoy babies you know?

Baby Cocoon and Hat Gift Set

I just finished up this adorable little cocoon and hat set for a family member.  I used several different Yarn Bee yarns and I really like how the stripes turned out.  I used the butterfly baby wrap pattern (ravelry link) again and it looks totally different than the one I made for Little Man.  The dark licorice colored yarn was held double and the turquoise yarn was one strand.  I think the little hat turned out cute, but manly and that was exactly what I was going for.  Knitting for babies is so quick and so cute!

Pomp-a-Doodle Yarn

I have been wanting to get my hands on the new Pomp-a-Doodle yarn from RedHeart for a while.  Hobby Lobby doesn’t carry it and I haven’t been to Joanns or Michaels for a while (the less I go the more money I save).  This yarn is interesting, basically it’s string with pompoms at regular intervals and you knit the string, skipping the pompoms. I made the one ball scarf pattern found on the wrapper.  I really like how the scarf turned out (wish that it was a little longer), the yarn is super soft and squishy, I would love to make some pillows out of it.  If you get the chance you should give this yarn a try, it one novelty yarn that is fun and easy to work with!  I think I will be making a few more of these, they will make great gifts.

Hootie Who Hat

Owls are so in right now and it seems like everywhere I go I see them.  I’ve been seeing some really cute hats and I thought I need to make my own version. I knitted a plain hat with picot edging on the bottom and then added hand embroidered felt eyes and a beak.  Little Miss loves it and my husband wants a masculine version.

Christmas Knitting

I know that it is only September, but if you’re knitting gifts for the holidays now is peak knitting time.  I have been working on a set of washcloths for my Father-in-law.  I am trying to use up a large cone of natural colored cotton yarn that I bought for a project that has been frogged.  I think I’m going to keep making washcloths until I run out, washcloths for everyone!!!  If I find a local crafter who makes soap and I’ll be set for teacher gifts too.I will be sending him a set of three, here are the first two.  I love how the ballband pattern looks in just one color (I’ve always knit it in two), so textural and classy and the Chinese waves pattern is so pretty and so easy.  Now I just need to decide on a third pattern. I also need to start a baby gift set for a boy.  I have a selection of yarn in turquoises and chocolaty browns.  I think maybe a cocoon, a couple of hats and maybe some booties.

What gifts will you be crafting for the upcoming holiday season?

Rita Raccoon and a Book Review

The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch book by Donna Wilson was a complete random/impulse purchase, a testament to store placement and appealing cover photos, I saw it and had to have it. I love the characters in the book. They are quite a quick knit and a good way to practice some more adventurous techniques like lots or increasing and decreasing, short rows, striping and intarsia without the commitment of a huge project. The photos really make this book and there is a short paragraph about each character that really brings them to life.

You should note that there are a few typos/mistakes in the book, but careful reading will easily help you catch these. Several of the characters are very similar in design, so it seemed more like 20 pattern with variation, but the styling of the book helped me over look this fact. My biggest complaint is that there is a lot of sewing, really a lot and I am awful at sewing things together! Now this is not the author’s fault, it is all me…anyway beware of the seaming.

To sum it up I like this book, the photos and characters are great! I wish there was less sewing and after reading through everything I realized that a lot of the patterns are just variations of each other. However, it makes me feel confident that I could vary/alter the patterns even more to come up with my own unique creations. And since I bought the book I needed to try out some of the patterns. I decided that I wanted to make the whole squirrel/fox/raccoon family, I do wish the the sets of animals were grouped together instead of spaced throughout the book, but since they are all pretty similar (as I mentioned) I guess that it makes the book seem to have more variety to space them out. This is Rita Raccoon the Mom of the family. I did make her tail slightly different from the pattern for personal design reasons (I’m making a matching family and I needed her to have a mostly dark tail). I used Peaches and Cream cotton yarn (no wool for us) and size US 5 needles. I had a really hard time embroidering her eyes (I’m still not happy with them), I think I need to use a heavier yarn and, as I mentioned I hated sewing her together. I have Rill Raccoon-Fox and Bad Ralf, the sons, knitted just waiting to be sewn together and embroidered. Oh I dread the sewing, I finished knitting them over a month ago and the pieces are just laying in the bottom of my knitting basket.

I would also like to make the cats from this book, but I’m going to have to get better at the sewing. Let me know if you have any tips or if you would like to volunteer to sew my knitting projects together for me, I'll take either :)