Baby Hat Experiment

This is a terrible cell phone picture of a hat I whipped up from Bernat Baby Jacquards just to see what it would end up as when you crocheted with it instead of knitted.

For ages and ages all I saw for this year was knitting patterns for this yarn, and finally a free crocheted hat pattern showed up on the label.  The yarn was on clearance at the time too, so I grabbed a ball for about $3. I should still have enough for another small hat out of it too!

Emergency Stash Trashing

Yesterday I got placed in a very awkward position due to an unexpected and more-extravagant-than-necessary Christmas gift. I don't want to go into details, but basically everyone that I go to school with has been put in an uncomfortable gift situation by one person in our class and none of us really know what to do about it.

Fortunately though my yarn stash is hopefully saving me I think, or rather I hope.

I came home and dug around and found some nice Homespun yarn from a project I long ago abandoned that needed to be repurposed. After a quick search on Ravelry I found this pattern and was up and crocheting as soon as I got everything ripped out.

Mine was worked with 2 strands of yarn on a 10.0mm hook and I believe I did one extra row, but other than that I followed the pattern to the letter.

This holiday season I am thankful for my ever-providing stash, bulky yarn, and large hooks. What about you?

'Tis the Season....Already!

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Now that Halloween is over, it is time to turn my crocheting sights to the sometimes-despised, sometimes-beloved C holiday. Yes, we're barely into November and I'm talking Christmas already.

I've been busy helping Fat Shae work on her crochet projects for her new friend Bosco lately. She's very proud of her work:

All she has to do now is go out and pick up some cat treats, catnip, and mousies and she's got all her Christmas shopping done. Hopefully Bosco is surprised!

Some puppy friends are also getting a special surprise this Christmas. These will be packed up soon and sent off to Sarge and Roxie:

Has anyone else started getting prepared for the holidays yet?

Another One Bites the Dust

Another project completed! I have done this pattern before, but I definitely like how it came out this time a lot better. I made this baby blanket for one of my mom's coworkers, who is due in November. She doesn't know if she is having a boy or girl, so I went with a gender neutral theme. Turns out chocolate brown is a part of the nursery colours, so it worked out perfectly!

I found out a few days later that her husband absolutely loved it as well. She was apparently shocked at his reaction when she brought it home and showed it to him, so I have a feeling this blanket will definitely be cherished.

2012 Ravelympics: The Results

As you know, I started with this:

That massive pile (which it turns out wasn't all the cotton yarn I had by the way), has since turned into this:

Not quite my goal of abolishing every ball of cotton in the apartment, but very respectable considering what I started with and the minimal free time I had during the Olympics. At the end of the day I managed to use up almost 2 pounds worth of yarn I had sitting around, so I'm happy with the results. The rest of the yarn will hopefully be used up quickly as a nice commuting project when I start school next week.

And last but not least, for those that are interested, this is what nearly 2 pounds of dishcloths looks like:

Commission Piece #2 Complete!

All done! This blanket is made with Bernat Pipsqueak yarn, a 6.50mm hook, and lots of double crochets. It is actually considerably longer than it looks, coming in at about 60" long (it is of course doubled over for the photo).

Goodbye little blanket, happy travels!

Peachykeen

Here we have another lovely finished project, most likely going to my best friend from high school, who was the first of our group to get married and will very soon be the first to have a baby. She is having a baby girl and I have the distinct feeling she is going to receive a barrage of everything pink, so I am hoping she appreciates the break and enjoys some peach instead.

If you remember correctly from a couple weeks ago, there was actually two of these blankets and I was having a little problem while I was making them. Unfortunately I can't take pictures of both blankets because I ended up giving one away to a coworker that just had a baby girl on May 22nd.

I actually have two more of this blanket started, just with a different colour of yarn, so you will be seeing those around here soon. In the meantime though I had to set them aside for this piece so I can get that finished off and mailed as soon as I can. After that, I am hoping a can squeak out another project or two before I start the Ravelympics in July!

A WIP No More!

Does anyone remember this blanket from way back when? Do you also remember how I was worried I was going to run out of yarn for it? With less than 3 rows to go, I ran out of blue. To rub salt in the wound, no one seemed to carry the right colour of blue anymore. I scoured Joanns every trip I took down to the USA. Walmart and Zellers even started carrying this brand of yarn, but do you think they would carry the colour? Nope. No dice. I thought this blanket was just going to sit in my room until I gathered the courage to rip the entire thing out again and start from scratch. 

As luck would have it, and as you can tell from the following picture, I did manage to find another ball at a Joanns somewhere between home and New York City where we stopped for dinner on the way home while on a bus trip. This was extremely fortunate, as I sent my Grandma on the hunt for another ball in the same colour at the original Joanns where I first bought the yarn while she was down in Florida for the winter again, and even she couldn't find it for me.

I still have no idea who this will be for, so it will be going for a little vacation in the chest of completed objects for someone someday, but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out despite all the problems it caused me.

I was going to take pictures of another project I've had laying around that I have since completed (one of the two is even gone without pictures being taken!), but of course that is not what her royal majesty intended to happen as you can tell.

As you can tell, her majesty is rather protective of her throne too.

Have a good day everyone! Hopefully the cat will let me have the chair back soon for some more pictures!

Long Time, No See!

*Blows dust off blog*

I can't believe I have become such a blogging slacker that it has been nearly a YEAR since I have updated! Today I am home sick from work after a terrible dental emergency/SURPRISE you have a sore throat weekend, so blogging seems like the logical activity for the living room couch bound person.

You'd think I would have a long list of things that I've made, but sadly I don't. At least not in picture form. Lately it seems like I have been churning out baby gift after baby gift, with no time to spare for picture taking before it's wrapped up and out the door. This mainly includes a countless number of Hailey blankets, my go-to pattern for a quick and simple baby blanket. I'll tell you a little secret about my go-to blanket; every time I go down to the United States shopping, I always make sure I bring back however many Pound of Love balls of yarn I can buy (with a coupon of course!) You can buy them for around $5 depending on coupon, they make about one and a half "Haileys." This way even the most casual acquaintance of mine can receive something handmade, and my wallet isn't decimated in the process!

Of course, there are certain people I like to spoil too. I find a "Hailey" is a perfect addition to my other favourite craft, diaper cakes.

Draping the blanket around a diaper cake really gives it that something extra special I think.

Now off I go, back to finishing off the "Hailey" I am making for a cashier at work.

Yes, Another Baby Blanket

What can I say, I'm a sucker for all things baby. This is a pattern I've been itching to try for a long time and finally the opportunity came knocking when a friend asked if I'd make one for her to give as a gift for a baby boy on the way.

This was my first foray into granny squares and I'm actually surprised because it wasn't as completely tedious as I was expecting. I did block all the squares before I attached them together which took a long time, but in the end that extra time was well worth it I think and I'm very pleased with the results. Perhaps this is the motivator I need to dig out the Snowflake Throw I've had the yarn for sitting under my desk for um, 2 years now?

Busy, busy.

Well it's been a busy few months for me. My last WIP is finished and long gone, as are two exactly like it, just different colours. There was such a fast turnaround in making them and giving them away that I don't think I even took pictures of them when I finished. Strangely though, I have a lot more yarn leftover than I did the first time I made them, which I can't quite figure out. Of course that just means I need to get my thinking cap out and figure out something else interesting to do with that yarn instead.

Regardless of how much yarn was or was not left over, they ended up being a lovely and much appreciated surprise for the mommies and daddies to be that received them and I consider it a bonus that this project used up some yarn that I had no idea what to use it for.

Another little project I whipped up quickly was a crocheted saw that I also didn't bother to take pictures of, which is sad seeing as how I made up the entire pattern all by myself! It took a few tries, but I finally came up with a winning pattern that did its job beautifully. To understand why exactly I needed a crocheted saw beyond using it as a toy for A, you have to understand my feeling about gift cards. I understand that for most people, they're the easiest/best/most appreciated gift option and I fully agree. However, wrapping gift cards is just so BORING. It's like, here's a card with a hunk of plastic inside that has magic money on it, Happy Birthday!

Boring. Boring, boring, boring. If I can't come up with an idea on my own of an actual gift a person would like, I have to at least present it creatively. You see, it was M's brother's birthday. He just recently bought a house and word on the street was that he wanted some tools, specifically a bunch of fancy saws. The last thing I am going to do is to go out and purchase a man tools, personally I think that would be like sending a man to choose my makeup. Not going to happen.

With some consultation from M's parents, we decided that a Sears gift card would be the way to go because Craftsman is apparently *the* brand of tools to have I'm told. Given my feelings on gift cards and what the gift card was meant to go towards, I believe you now understand the saw. Basically I ended up making two little saws and stitching them together, creating the perfect little pocket to hide the Sears gift card inside. In fact, it hid it so well, the birthday boy didn't even realize there was a gift card inside it, and he knows my tricks.

I have also been bad and bought more yarn, but that's another post for another day! Cheers!

It's Been Awhile

Hello again readers!

I've been a bad, bad blogger for the past month. I somehow managed to come down with bronchitis back in April and it decided to stick around for nearly the entire month. Needless to say, not much of anything vaguely productive got done during April.

Despite being sick, I did manage to crochet a fair amount of stuff while laying on the couch all day, every day, so I have a lot of posting catch up to do. Are you ready?

3....

2....

1.... here we go!

3 out of 4 wabbits agree that these carrots are cute! These are a part of my new year-long WIP for A, though he'll get these before Christmas because he's still too little for his Godmama to shower him with chocolate for Easter and anyone that knows me knows that I can't just not give a gift.

If you want to make some carrots for a little one you know, the pattern can be found here for free.

Little Miss's 1st Birthday Present

You've already seen the turtle buddy that I made for Little Miss's birthday gift. When I was making that, I was pondering making a matching sweater just because I had the yarn to do it. I did end up deciding to go for it, despite my complete lack of experience making clothes. Generally speaking I like to stick with flat things, though I do amigurumi, but the idea of sleeves and collars and what not kind of scares me. Especially since the flat things don't always come out right.

In the end, I think my first ever crochet sweater came out pretty well:

You can't see very well in that picture, but it has the most darling little buttons, perfect for a little lady. You can't see them very well in this picture either, but at least I tried:

All wrapped up and ready to be opened now!

Linking to:

A Little Knick Knack

Craft-o-Manic

Completed Turtle Buddy

Not much has changed on this project since I posted it as a WIP, but here it is, officially complete now:

The blanket attached to the back doesn't seem to be much longer than when I originally posted this project but in reality it's a little longer than two feet, which makes it hard to fit in a photo. I had just enough pink yarn to finish the edge of the blanket, and the orange coloured yarn is now all used up between this project and a sweater I made for the Little Miss's birthday present, which makes me very happy. I think that I'm down about six balls of baby yarn now which I count as quite the accomplishment. Hopefully Little Miss and her mama love it!

Linking to:

A Little Knick Knack

Craft-o-Manic

What I Did This Weekend: Part III

Here's the last and least exciting project of the weekend:

Remember these? I had just enough yarn left over from the Swiffer Sock to do a dishcloth and I decided to make a couple extras and use up another ball of my stash. As you can see they're not perfectly square, but frankly I don't care that much because they'll still get the job done.

This coming weekend will unfortunately be the exact same as last weekend (aside from making more birthday cake). I've had a couple friends email me asking for some Swiffer Socks and one request for a Swiffer Duster. This means I broke the no more yarn rule again and went to Michaels to buy more yarn, BUT I managed to only buy what I needed for these projects and not fall victim to the irresistible $1 a ball price.

Have a great weekend everyone!

What I Did This Weekend: Part II

Any guesses about what these fluffy things are?

A cat toy? A piece of food that's sat in your fridge a bit too long? A lost sock escaped from the depths of under the bed? Nooooo.

It's a Swiffer Duster! Another item that means no more disgusting disposable sheets for me. I am so over opening the closet door where our cleaning supplies are and seeing these nasty disposables still being saved to use "just one more time" so we aren't just throwing out money.

These can be made with any little bits and pieces you have leftover too. There's an inner tube part that's made from a tiny bit of 100% cotton yarn, but the fluffy part of it is whatever you happen to have around that's bulky. This blue is leftover from one of my little spartan's hats.

And what makes them even better is that they trap more dust and icky things than the disposable ones do.

Mmmm look at all that delicious dust:

Did I mention it's "multi-purpose" too? Check out the Fat Shae petter 2.0:

If you want one of these for yourself, check out the pattern here.

Eco-Friendly Swiffer Sock

Check out what I made this weekend:

Any guesses what it is? I'll give you a hint.

Got it yet? If for some reason you haven't, it's a Swiffer Sock.

I hate the disposable refills. Someone around here always seems to want to keep these gross disgusting clothes covered in God only knows what because they think that they can get more use out of them, so clearly this was a necessary project. Though the pattern used worsted weight acrylic yarn, I used some 100% cotton yarn because I have lots of little balls of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Yarn (Lily Sugar'n Cream if you're American) and I'd rather use that up than steal from my stash of amigurumi yarn because that is one part of my stash I don't intend to "trash" at all.

As you can see, the completed project has a "duster" side that traps all the dusties in your house in its ruffles.

Isn't that awesomely handy? Much better than the disposables that last for approximately two swipes across the floor, then do little more than push dirt around the floor (in my opinion anyway). Bonus: if I end up in that situation, I just need to wash out the pad and I'm good to go again, though I plan to make a few extras for just this situation.

But do you know what makes it even better? It's reversible! Check it out:

After you finish up cleaning the floor all you need to do is soak the pad in some water with a bit of your floor cleaning product of choice, flip it around, and you're off to the races again. Once you're all done all you need to do is toss it in the laundry and wash. No more disposable cloths that don't even last for the entire kitchen floor for me, and a great project to use bits and pieces of whatever yarn you have leftover.

Valentines and Elmo

After much fighting, I FINALLY finished A's special Valentine's Day hat that I wrote about here.

Let me just say what a fight it was to actually make the silly thing. I've only had trouble with crocheting hats one time when I was making this Elmo hat:

The problem with this one is that I was making it for a near-3 year old that love love LOVES Elmo. Did I mention that this near-3 year old's head was unavailable to me for measuring, and that I was doing it as a surprise so I couldn't exactly ask Mom?

I believe I chose the child size for the hat for optimum long term use. Of course I didn't exactly follow the instructions for the hat, and used two strands of Vanna's Choice yarn rather than what was used by the person that made this pattern. This hat needed to stand up to Minnesota and North Dakota winters, so extra warmth was a must.

I'm so happy that the hat is working out and I'm actually keeping count of my rows and then I realize it: the hat will fit on my head. Ooops.

Long story short, I pulled out the entire thing, started from scratch with the toddler size, and it worked out. The hat fit, the near-3 year old loved it, everyone wins.

The Valentine's Day hat on the other hand, turned out to be a little monster in disguise. It looks all cute and adorable, but it really wasn't.

The first time I made it, it was too big and too open. The second time I made it, it was too small, but the openness of the hat was improved by working with two strands. The third time it was still too small. There was at least a fourth and a fifth time after that, but honestly I can't even keep track of all the problems I had.

After the sixth or seventh go at it, here's what I ended up with:

Cute right? The only problem is that it still ended up too big. I am quite confident this will be great for Valentine's Day 2012 or 2013, but for V-day 2011, not so much. But after starting over a half dozen times, I wasn't up for starting over just one more time.

I should also add that when I was making the heart I pulled everything out 2 or 3 times and that I spent more hours than I am willing to admit to myself untangling the two balls of yarn I was using. And I didn't just untangle once nooo, I had to untangle everything twice just because I love to make a mess and make work for myself (apparently).

At the end of the day though Mom will love it and think it's adorable and A. will wear it (someday) and be super cute.

A's First Holiday Hat

Well, I failed at yesterday's goal. I didn't even make it to the fabric store to see if there was something in the remnant bin suitable to use on the bottom of the slippers. Instead all that I accomplished yesterday was returning our leased vehicle to the dealership and picking up our new Honda Civic, and then promptly leaving again to go visit my #1 man, M. for the rest of the evening.

In fact, October isn't looking like a good month for accomplishing things as much as I want to. This month my weekends are already almost booked between Thanksgiving, Halloween, birthday parties, lunches, possible hockey games, and becoming Godmother to little A.

However, I have gotten some of my highly important October crocheting done. You see, little A. needed a completely ridiculous hat to celebrate Thanksgiving in, especially after I found this hat. The only problem? I don't loom knit. I didn't even know loom knitting was a thing actually, so I ended up doing my own thing and a lot of single crochets later, I was the proud owner of a turkey hat.

I ended up getting quite lucky, any smaller and I don't think the hat would have fit on his head! I really should bring my measuring tape some day when I go to visit A. and his mom so I have an accurate measurement to go by for future ridiculous holiday-related hats. All I can say is that it's a good thing that we celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada, I'm not sure it would have worked in November the way he grows!

Linking to:

A Little Knick Knack

Where It Began

An unconventional baby blanket for an unconventional mother. In this case, mom was not a girly-girl, but a little princess was already on her way. Clearly cutesy girly pink was not the preferred choice in this scenario. In fact, I know a green Bumbo chair was scanned onto the baby registry just because mom was so tired of scanning pink things.

Now I myself am certainly a pink girly-girl. If I ever have a daughter, my house will be filled with anything and everything pink before you can close your eyes. I managed to put aside my love for pink and find some yarn that incorporated pink and brown, the nursery colours, and green, which was mom's favourite colour.

The best part of this blanket? How much faster I could make it than the one I tried knitting previously. Bulkier yarn and the magic of the double crochet made for smooth sailing. When I made a mistake I could just pull the yarn rather than carefully backing up my stitches. Heck yes, you better believe crocheting is for me! Since this blanket I've kept on going and never looked back.

Sadly though this is the only picture I have of it due to an untimely laptop death and the fact that I generally don't bother to back up my hard drive. Maybe some day I'll learn.