recent yarn work

Have you noticed that everyone is pregnant with baby boys? Or so it seems!  Almost all of my yarn orders this semester have been for boys.  Here are a few: 

monsters, now and later, for my cousin

The navy one should fit for newborn pictures, but then he'll never wear it again, since he's due mid-summer and it will be far too hot to wear yarny hats.  The larger one should fit for his first winter, and hopefully get a lot more use. 

Two newsboy and bootie sets, one in navy, the other in black.

This was a parting baby gift for Jono's occupational therapist before he graduated (yay!) and she left for maternity leave.  She actually did not know the gender of her baby, so I made my favorite gift for babies of unknown variety-- a neutral bear ear hat, with a flower that can be removed if it's a boy.  

And I made a butterfly beanie for the American Girls.  

These are my favorite types of projects--small, fast, instant gratification.  And it's a good thing I  like them, since let's face it--that's about all I have time for these days! 

birthday present crafting

We bought some clementines in a little wooden crate a few weeks ago.  I happen to think those are completely adorable and struggle to throw them away.  We have a little girl's birthday party coming up, so Hazel and I decided to make another Princess and the Pea playset with it.  I made one about 3 years ago, and it's been one of my all-time favorite craft projects.  This time, Hazel selected the fabrics from my fabric stash and helped me plan out the project.  

Seven 1/2" thick mattresses, stuffed with craft foam, pillow, knit pink blanket, crocheted green pea and a little patch pocket on the blanket to store it in, plus a story book to finish the set. Came out so cute!

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. ;)

some recent yarn work

I haven't posted much knit or crochet lately.  Here are a few things I've done in the not-too-distant past.

These two hats were an order for a newborn baby girl.  Mama let me surprise her with colors, so it was a fun one.  I am now officially obsessed with bonnets and want to work up a BUNCH more!

I make hats for the new mamas in MOPs.  We depleted the supply I started out the fall with, so I made a few more to get us through the spring baby boom. 

This was my first ever knit sweater! It knit it intended for our American Girl, but it came out a little big. It fits Scarlett the Build-a-Kitty perfectly, though!  

And this mermaid tail was a baby gift for a MOPs friend who is expecting her first girl in a few weeks and is mermaid CRAZY!  It was a really fun, satisfying pattern to work up.  The yarn cooperated beautifully, and it was MUCH easier than it appears.  Can't wait to see it in newborn pictures!

Besides that, I've been keeping my fingers busy with a few preemie hats here and there.  I decided I'd like to do more NICU hats this year, and not all in one lump right before Hazel's NICU day in June, so I've been working one up whenever the mood strikes and the fingers are itchy.  I've done one on average of once a week or so, so we should have a nice stash ready by time to deliver them!  

I've also been stashing some things that I wanted to work up for fun in the "I might maybe someday open an etsy store" pile.  I'm still mulling that over.   

Thanks for looking!

twin soakers!

The babies' first "twinny" gift was matching pairs of Texas Longhorn booties from Nana. All this time sitting around with activity restrictions from my pregnancy has given me time to finish a couple of soakers to match! I still can't decide if I'm going to try to embroider TEXAS or something on the heiny of them or not (like I did on Jenn's TCU longies). I'll post new pictures if I decide to.

to my dissappointed blog readers...

Yes, I know it has been TWO MONTHS since I updated my blog. The reason is very simple--baby man is in the house. Just a few days after my last post, we got our first foster placement--a darling 3.5 week old baby boy. We love him to pieces and are thoroughly enjoying him, but he seriously limits my craft time. I have managed to do a few things anyway, which follow...

another pouch sling (baby inside!)


It's reversible--red on one side and the same black and white print that I used on Courtney's MT on the other. I have long-term plans to add a pocket to the red side in the black and white fabric. Wouldn't that be cute? Oh, and I also have long-term plans to give it to my friend Iris when God gives them a sweet baby. She tried it on with baby man when she came over last week and it fits her far better than it fits me.

and two baby sweaters...

I love this pattern! I've had it on my to-do list for a while now, but got around to it over Labor Day weekend when David was home to help with baby man. I did the 6 month size at first, hoping it would fit baby man when it got cooler outside, but it was too small. I don't know if my gauge was off or it the pattern runs small, but I had try again! I had some trouble with the 2nd one, as you can tell if you look at the pattern pictures closely, but I improvised, and am pleased nonetheless. Oh, and the 12 month size is perfect for baby man (who is nearly 3 months old--ha!) to wear this winter.

first try...


made from some self-striping yarn I bought at my local yarn shop last winter with a hat in mind (that never got done). I did do buttons for this one in the same purple as the trim, but I took the pictures first.

second try...


worked in Paton's Shetland Chunky Tweeds, which is a mostly acrylic with a little bit of wool blend, with brown acrylic trim.

and from here on, be warned that my craft posts may be few and far between. Or I might decide to broaden the purpose of my blog and just share more about life in general.

We'll see...

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...

must. finish. before. vacation.

I had two baby gifts to deliver on vacation last week. I finished Courtney's mei tai the day before we left, and Jenny's longies and hat at the bed&breakfast about 15 minutes before we left to go to her house (cutting it close!).

Courtney's MT--she chose black and white, but I chose the exact fabric



a bonus pic of me and Courtney (we've been taking this same picture periodically for at least 15 years, and we're starting to look OLD!)



and the gender-neutral longies and (supposedly) matching hat for Jenny's little one due in October



and a bonus pic of me and Jenny

when your airplane is diverted to San Antonio due to weather in Houston, you...

a. whine
b. try to nap, but can't get comfortable
c. crochet

Anyone? Well, the answer turns out to be all three, but I did finish up this soaker I had been experimenting with. This is a made-up-as-I-went-along soaker, with a fun twist. I decided to try to crochet two layers of wool through the wet-zone (um, crotch) for more waterproofness (is that a word?). I am so pleased with the way it came out. This yarn is super soft, and the choice of stitch that I used for the top 2/3 of the soaker is surprisingly stretchy for crochet, which has a reputation of not giving as much as knits do. I'm hoping Katy will like it and I'll get to do this pattern again for little Monwai in the coming weeks.

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.

taking the plunge...

After many suggestions from friends and much waffling on my part, I've decided to take the plunge and put my craftiness to work for me. Mostly I'll be doing soakers, longies, and such for cloth diapering moms--very similar to the work I've done for my niece. I'll also do hats (my favorite!) and crochet hook/knitting needle cases. Who knows what options I may add over time, but that's what I'm starting with. If you're interested, here's my new site.

Elegant Lace Stole

I finished Grandma Wallace's shawl! David's Grandma is turning 95 years old this weekend. We all head to Kansas on Thursday for her birthday celebration. For her birthday, I crocheted her this shawl. I really enjoyed this pattern--super easy, but looks complicated. My favorite kind!

This is me, modeling. I hope to get a picture of it on Grandma this weekend!

















Here it is on sweet Grandma!

handspun yarn!

For the past 6 weeks, I've been taking a spinning class at the Fort Bend Museum. We started on drop spindle, then progressed to the great wheel, then to the treadle wheels. We could only spin on the wheels in class, but I got to bring a drop spindle home to practice. It was so much fun! I was so sad to give it back yesterday, and am looking into getting my own. They're fairly inexpensive, so I think I can swing it. Wheels, on the other hand, are not! Maybe some day...

I'm very much a beginner, but here's my first handspun yarn, spun on a drop spindle, dyed pink with Kool-Aid. Our class has a luncheon next Wednesday for our final gathering, and I'm going to try to crochet something with my yarn to take to show. I'm not sure what, yet, since I haven't counted to see how many yards I have. It will certainly be something small! And don't worry--I'll update this post with a completed picture.

Update: I had approximately 30 yards of yarn on my spindle when I unwound it. It was enough to crochet two flowers (plus a smidgen left over). I decided to felt one of them, which was only marginally successful--mostly the hot water just faded my Kool-Aid dye job! I have no clue what I'm going to do with these little flowers, but it's so satisfying to know that I spun the yarn myself and actually made something. Very satisfying indeed.

Vintage yarn, UGLY soaker!

a little background on this one...

Grandma Wallace gave me a (partial) skein of yarn that was found in Barnard while cleaning out closets before Christmas that has to be 30+ years old. It's Red Heart brand wool yarn in avocado green, orange and gold--soooo 70's! Well, of course I had to make *something* with it so I whipped up this soaker. All I can say is UGLY! But I love it anyway! Check out the wrapper that came off the skein, with the price tag from some store called "Duckwall's". It cost $1.27.

This soaker also confirms my decision that I really don't like variegated yarns crocheted. I hate that "built with Legos" look. Variegateds should be saved for knits, in my opinion. People should crochet in solid colors. Oh, and the trim is just green Wool-ease (something I had that didn't clash too badly).

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!

have hook, will travel!

I liked my crochet hook and accessories roll that I made last week so much I decided to make a travel sized one. This one is just big enough for a couple of hooks, scissors, tape measure and row counter, plus a ribbon for stitch markers. I always take projects with me on road trips to work on in the car. This will be the perfect travel companion!

busy bee!

My little niece Lucy is a busy bee! She's learning to sit up, scoot around the floor, and reach for her toys. I'm so proud of her accomplishments that I made her a "busy bee" hat.

It's a bit longer than it looks in the picture. I turned to bottom up to make it sit neatly over a cereal bowl for its picture. David says it'd be cuter if I ran wire through the antennae to make them stand up. I don' t have any wire, though, so I mentioned that idea to Stephanie. She's welcome to do that if she wants.

Have fun, busy baby!

that's SO girly!

That was David's comment about my new crochet hook and accessories roll. Of course it's girly--it's for ME! I'm so very excited about this project. Making a pretty case for my crochet hooks has been on "to do someday" project list since I first got my sewing machine. I love it! I hit the 60-70% off fabric sale at Joanns yesterday and came home with some girly, busy fabrics. I used this web tutorial and set to work. Here it is...

all folded up and buckled closed


back view unfolded


front view unfolded, flap down


front view unfolded, flap up, so you can see everything!


There are 16 skinny slots at the top for hooks. Most have room to share with 2-3 friends, so I'm not limited in purchasing new hooks. Whew! In the slanty pocket below are 8 slots for accessories that are twice as wide as the hook slots. I have things like my row counter, tape measures, scissors, and plastic tapestry needles in there. I also put a row of snap tape along the left hand side to hold things like stitch markers. Isn't it nice? Now everything's all tidy.

Cynthia--I have enough fabric for another. Want one for your knitting needles? :D

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!

it's mine, all MINE!

I never make anything for myself (as I'm sure some of you may have noticed) but Texas's recent cold snap inspired me to make a scarf. I saw this pattern in the December/January issue of Crochet Today magazine and was interested since I had never seen crocheted cables before. I enjoyed this project, although the pattern was tricky. I frogged more rows than I kept for the first 1/4 or so. I did finally get the pattern repeats down and it came out pretty well, I think.