Look! I knit! I crocheted!

It's been soooo long since I've picked up needle or hook, with my craft closet being packed up most of the summer for the TV room renovation and just a general lack of interest in yarn crafting during the heat of the summer. But I whipped up a little baby gift for a friend who is delivering her FIFTH baby BOY tomorrow morning.  So excited for them!!

Too bad about my getting the booties' size off and there being NO way the hat and booties will fit at the same time, despite the fact that I intended them to match.  Hat will fit right out of the shoot.  Booties are more like 6-12mo size.  I was not about to re-work them, though, so it'll have to do.

Converse booties pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-baby-converse
Hat is just a "math hat".  Calculate gauge, determine how big you want hat to be, cast on appropriate number of stitches to achieve goal, decrease when needed to close hat.  You know, math hat. ;)

rainy day crochet

As many of you know, Houston is having a bit of rain these days. It's been nice to do some yarn work inside while it rains outside, though. I had so much fun yesterday making my very first baby booties! I googled for "crochet baby mary jane pattern worsted" and up popped this jewel of a pattern. I was so pleased.



I did not set out to make three pair of these beauties, but I ran into a little trouble. I whipped up the first two, and they didn't match! Arg. Then I made a third to match one of the first two--and got a third size. Double arg. After much close inspection, I figured out where I was going wrong and made a match for each of my three, resulting in three cutie patootie pairs of booties. I'm sending one pair to Katy for baby Sachi, along with her soaker, which is also finished but I'm not posting pictures of until she has it in hand. The other pairs will find homes eventually. I should send the teeeny-tiny pair to Erica Yee. She's probably the only human with feet small enough!

The other bit of yarn work I did during rainy days this week was this super girly soaker.



I made it with no particular purpose except that I wanted to practice my sizing a bit (I was frustrated that Sachi's soaker came out larger than I had planned and was determined to make a true "newborn" size). I also wanted to play a bit with ruffles. I think it came out cute! Now to find a sassy little girl to wear it...

TWIN babies!

My sweet friend Kara from the Pecos House is the proud new mommy of twins! She and her husband Peter have a nearly three year old, and have been planning to add to their family a sibling pair through fostering-to-adopt. Imagine our joy and delight to hear that God had chosen to give their family a sweet sibling pair of newborn twins--a boy and a girl. The evening before I found out that Kara and Peter would be welcoming twins, I had begun work on this mei tai for no apparant reason. It's reversible--with a boy side and a girl side, and the fabrics were purchased WEEKS before these babies were even born. So let's just say that the reason I was making it became apparant pretty quickly!

boy side



girl side



and a toy sized mei tai for big sister to carry her baby dolls in, too

the week in review...

I have not updated my blog in over a week, but does that mean I have not been crafting? Oh, no! Of course not! Here's a summary of this week's projects...

first, the "mini tai"...
I made a small mei tai this week. I saw a post on www.thebabywearer.com where a woman had made a small MT, with a narrow seat so that her young infant could sit down on her bottom and not have her legs "froggied." Since our Hancocks is going out of business and I stocked up on some cute MT fabric, I thought I'd give it a try for my (anticipated to be) small foster babies. Here's the result. I just love it!



I have loaned it to a 'pin friend with a one month old boy who does not like any of his current carrier options. I can't wait to see it in action!

second, speaking of the Hancock's going out of business sale...
I have chosen the fabric I want to use on a crib skirt and hopefully a curtain in the foster babies' room. I've bought as much of it as my two Hancocks have, and Lamar is checking the one in College Station to see if I can get my hands on any more. Here's a swatch...



Picture it with pale robin's egg blue walls. Cute, huh?

and finally, a bitty bootie baby gift....


close up...


for my friend Katie from church. I love bitty booties! Oh, and inside the package are some fun board books--a girl's got to be scholarly as well as stylish, you know!

cute cuddly baby blanket

I made this for Sydney McNeil. It's pink camo on one side--since I'm sure she'll be her daddy's girl! and pink minkee (oh, so softee!) on the other. It's so snuggly. I can't wait to get it on it's way to Lubbock for her pending arrival!

for the newest Mogri

David's friend from graduate school and current Shell officemate, Shilpa, had her baby this weekend. This hat is for baby Neel. Welcome to the world, little guy!


It is crocheted in Paton's SWS, in the natural denim color. Thanks to T-Bon for the yarn gift!

adding...
Since baby Mogri arrived early, and his hat certainly won't fit right now, I whipped up this pair of "bitty booties". It's a pattern I'd been wanting to try, and with my new fabric stash, I couldn't resist.

for Marin...

I am so excited for my sweet college roommate Jane and her husband who are expecting their first little one in just a few weeks. This hat's in the mail on the way to baby Marin.

Can't wait to meet you, sweetie!

an elfish little hat

We're taking dinner to a couple at church with a new baby next week, so I made a little hat to take with us. You'll recognize the yarn from my previous two projects, making this hat an excellent use of my leftover yarn stash.

It think it's really cute, although with the green and white, it is a bit elfish. Hope Courtlyn likes it!

cousins!

My dear friend Jessica and her sister Kristin are bringing new babies into their homes around the same time. Jessica is due with her 3rd child right after Christmas, and after much anticipation, Kristin and her husband get to go to Taiwan to bring home their adopted daughter Laney in early January. I asked Jessica if it would be dorky to make matching hats for the new cousins. She said no, so here they are...

The slightly larger one on the left is for Laney. I had some 'pin friends with 9-10 month old babies measure their heads so I'd know what size to make it for this sweet little girl. The one on the right is for Jessica's baby Rush (his/her in-utero nickname). It's a newborn+ size, since Jessica swears her kids have unusually large heads. I made these out of Paton's SWS in Natural Earth. They're not the most babyish colors, but I needed them to be gender-neutral since we don't know who Rush is. I used this yarn in a different color on David's cousin Lillian's hat. I still love it--soft, soft, soft.

And one more note for those of you who have excellent memories and may be wondering, "Didn't she already make something for Rush?" Yes, I made Rush a kitty lovey. To my great satisfaction, that kitty lovey has been adopted (stolen?) by Rush's 2 year old sister, Claire. I love that she loves it, and I'm happy to let it be hers and make something new for her baby brother or sister. ;)

I finally finished

the rest of baby Daniel's wipe stash! I gave the 1st dozen to my friend Lisa before Daniel was born, but I only got around to sewing the 2nd dozen today. They have the same flannels on one side, but red velour instead of orange flannel on the other. So soft! I know she uses and likes the flannel ones, so I can't wait to give her these!

lions and tigers and bears--oh my!

I finally get to share my super secret crochet project for baby Hochart! Since my dear friend Liz is always one of my most enthusiastic crochet admirers, I wanted to do something really special for her little bean-to-be. I chose this pattern from lion brand patterns, crocheted in cotton yarn. It really was a simple pattern. That's the beauty of it--looks deceivingly complicated! The entire thing is worked in single crochet--no exceptions. For the mane rows, I had to wrap my yarn once over a 1"wide strip of cardboard to create a loop before I worked the sc stitch. Those rows were so fun to see take shape. I had a blast with this pattern! The pictures are of it all finished and folded up, and of my niece trying it on over Thanksgiving (being held by her daddy/my brother). I can't wait to see it on Elizabeth's little guy (or gal)!

boy fabric is so cute!

My friend Lisa is expecting a baby boy any day now. Since she plans to cloth diaper, I made her a stash of cloth wipes. I had a blast picking out cute flannels for a little boy. From the left--baby blue with circus stuff, yellow with cars, and blue with planets and spaceships. She got 4 of each of these, all with orange flannel backs. I have another dozen cut out, but not yet serged. The 2nd dozen will have the same flannels, but will be backed with red velour. mmmm....velour!

starting to feel like the mad hatter!

This one's for David's cousin's new baby girl, Lillian, who was born last week. It's my favorite baby hat yet. This one is made from Patons SWS yarn. It's a 70/30 blend of wool and soy. It's soooo soft! I've been wanting to use this yarn for something for awhile now. The picture really doesn't do the color justice. It's the perfect baby pinks and greens striped. Fun!

babies, babies, and more babies

Everyone I know is having babies! So I keep crocheting tiny things...

This little hat is for a friend at church's baby boy who is expected soon. He is also expected to arrive a little early. It's a cute, soft, tiny little hat. I 'm sure he'll be just as cute and tiny.

bitty baby hat

I worked this up today for a friend at church who is expecting any minute now. It's out of the same lime green yarn as Lucy's bunny lovey (had leftover from that project). This one was fun and fast...

kitty love!

This project cracks me up. It's for my friend Jessica's baby, Rush (not his/her real name--but an in-the-womb nickname). I started with the intention of doing another bunny lovey like I made for my niece (see post below). The problems started when I got fancy and decided to try a pattern that worked from corner to corner instead of in straight rows for the "blanket" part. That turned out to be a disaster. The first half went great as I increased up to the middle--I had a lovely triangle that was making a perfect 90 degree angle and I was so excited. The 2nd half was the problem. I don't know if it was me or the pattern, but I could never get the decrease right and it quickly became evident that the 2nd half was never going to make a square. Since I'm going to be seeing Jessica this weekend, and wanted to give her the lovey, I didn't have time to start over and make it square. So the winging-it began! I quit crocheting before it turned into a long kite-shape, and decided to make something work with the pentagonal shape I had. An idea from some loveys I've seen in Target and Babies R Us seemed like it might work with my one sharp corner. They make some where the animal has arms and looks like it's holding the corner of the blanket. So I attached the head and created arms to hold the corner. It turned out surprisingly well. In fact, if I'd done the head and ams in a contrasting color (yellow or brown), I think it would be perfect. But a monotone lovey it is. Oh, and it turned into a kitty instead of a bunny because I couldn't picture a bunny having arms to hold a blanket with! And I thought that with the blanket corner coming up and bunny ears hanging down, the critter's face would be totally obstructed. Hope Rush likes some kitty love!

crocheting for others

my two most recent crochet projects have been baby gifts.

first, a ladybug hat for a 'pin friend's little one who was nicknamed "ladybug" in utero
and 2nd, a bunny lovey for my precious new niece Lucy