So I’ve been making hats. “Lots-m-lots-m hats! Mommy!” I figure the longer I stay pregnant, the more hats this baby girl or baby boy will have. And the more of the other color ones I will get to send to new mommies. Here are the pink ones… I might not have a chance to post much pink on the blog if this baby is a boy, so I’ll take every opportunity I get. :-)
newborn sized. crocheted in 2 hours with fingering weight merino wool. loving it!
I had some kind of freak inspiration yesterday morning and decided to sew Kate a twirly skirt for her 4th birthday party (today) instead of heading to a toy store to pick up a packaged toy for her. I know this way, I used up some flag fabric I’ve had in my stash for y-e-a-r-s and she got a one-of-a-kind fun play skirt to twirl around in. I was thinking about another playgroup friend, Lauren, the whole time because I know Lauren has a serious love of all things twirly. Maybe another twirly skirt is in the works a few months from now. It’s seriously home-made with quite a bit of, erm, character, but it will twirl.
Please excuse the in-the-back-of-the-minivan picture.
I just finished the third sweater for a friend’s oldest boy. The twins’ sweaters were done lickety-split (size 6-12 month) but the one for the 5 year old… well, that took longer. I used a man-sized pattern and shrunk it using some examples I’d found online of other knitters’ mods. I really had no idea what the heck I was doing.
I also didn’t get any decent pictures of the thing between finishing it last night and giving it to my friend this morning at church. These were taken on my lap in the minivan on the way to church. No, I wasn’t driving.
I am about to start a man-sized version for David with a yarn that I’ve had in my stash for over a year. I’m skeptical, though, because I just researched the yarn on Ravelry and learned that it pills like mad and tends to lose its shape after washing. Please pray that this yarn makes a good big-man sized sweater. Please?
I usually don’t blog gifts before they’re given, but I’m sure this little sweetie pie isn’t going to know the difference. He’s only one, afterall.
And the boys w-a-n-t it. Oh, they want to grab it and hold it and throw it and James wants to take it apart and Lowell wants to hug it. Shannon, it’s a good think I put Gavin’s name on it or they’d probably hide it and hold it ransom.
Evite reminded me that I hadn’t RSVP’d to a birthday party this Saturday. So I checked with Dave. He’s busy. Cool, we can go! (Meaning, we don’t have to be with Dave anywhere at that given time.) So I washed the laundry today to make sure the boys had clean orange shirts set aside and got to thinkin’… we don’t have a gift. And we don’t have the $ to buy a gift for the birthday boy (Happy 1st Birthday, Gavin!).
Well then. I’ll just make one.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll do, I’ll make the gift!
What will I make…What will I make…What will I make???? I end up on ravelry and do a free pattern search for “ball.” One caught my eye. I started it, but it was going to take forever to crochet. I sit down to try to reverse engineer the crochet pattern from a picture of one that looks to be a tad quicker to make (the ovals are crocheted in the round, not back and forth). No luck. I end up with big holes. Ok, okay. There must be a way to sew one of these. Yes, there is! Purl Soho’s Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. But it’s $22 at B&N, nope… not paying $22 for a book to make a birthday present just because we can’t afford the birthday present in the first place.
Weeeeellll.. it’s obviously got an oval in it. Hrm… the bottom looks like a triangle… noo… maybe a … AHA! It’s a half-circle with an oval 1/4th of the circumference of the circle! I can do this. In a few hours I had all the little wedges sewn up. Now I’m handstitching all of the stuffing holes closed (I’m taking a break because my wedding ring finger joints are inflammed). BUT! I am making the Puzzle Ball with no pattern.
Yes, I feel smart.
I started knitting a purse, not for anyone in particular, just because I had the yarn and this pattern struck my fancy. I’d bought this stuff called Peace Fleece which has almost a cult-like following in the diapering world due to its toughness. I made a soaker for Lowell out of it and upon first wearing it, he immediately cried, “Oww, oww, oww, … off!” So little dudeman doesn’t like Peace Fleece, which is too bad because I had 5 skeins of it! I think I will go ahead and make little bitty ones for the new bambino with the left-over of that color but with the two skeins of dark blue, I thought, I need to make a bag! This yarn is so rough-n-tumble and practically bullet proof, why not a bag? In three days, I finished both halves of the Brea Bag and am a good deal into the gusset already. I don’t know why some knitters have such an issue with moss stitch, but brainless knitting to me equals good independent-kid-watching knitting (knitting without a pattern to keep out of little hands and easy, oh, so easy, to toss down, play with the kids, put a toddler’s underwear back on, get the stroller unstuck from the racetrack, rescue the cat, change a poopy diaper, read a kids’ book with two boys on my lap (one on either side of the belly), then pick back up and start where I left off without being totally dumbfounded knitting)…
Here’s where I was a few nights ago:
I’m so excited about having a new purse, and one that I made myself. I haven’t found the perfect fabric to line it with in my stash yet so maybe a trip to a fabric store for a yard of something fantastic is in order. I’ve also read that a great tip for the strap is to buy a purse from Goodwill or TJMaxx and recycle the purse strap because that is often cheaper than buying a strap at Hobby Lobby. I know I won’t have enough yarn left to knit a strap. I’m loving that this will hopefully not get peed on or pooped on, but I am about to have another baby, so knock on wood… there’s no telling what will happen to this bag in the coming months/years.