WIP Wednesday #30

No progress this week on Coop's quilt. So much for my "5 circles a day" plan. I rea;ized today that I've been working on this quilt since about February, so in the end it'll probably take me over a year to finish it up. I guess I'm okay with that as long as I'm done with it before Coop turns one. Here's hoping! :)

Unfortunately I had to pack up the sewing machine this week since all our parents & siblings were visiting for Coop's baptism. I'm still trying to work out a new permanent home for it other than the dining room table. Hubby hasn't complained about it yet, but I know he's not fond of having it there.

Instead I've been working on multiple knit & crochet projects.

First of all, remember these? Umm...yeah, me either until I found them again the other day! Unfortunately this is only the first of the two, but thankfully it's almost done so hopefully I can get it finished up & make the other by the time I actually need them.

knit hand warmers

I started this blanket the last few weeks when I was pregnant with Cooper & couldn't sleep more than a few hours at night. Sadly it's for a friend who got the yarn & asked me to make it over a year ago. This is what happens when you tell me "no hurry" & I don't have a deadline people! ;) Honestly, I had the hardest time picking a pattern, and I think this is the third or forth blanket I started, but I'm loving it.

This is the first of two hats I've started for Coop, but I'm probably going to end up pulling it out. I'm just not crazy about it so far & crochet hats seem to stretch less & not fit as well as knit. I do really like the colors though, so may end up doing a knit one with the same yarns.

Here's the second hat, knit instead of crochet. It's slow going - my first time with a circular needle (so much quicker than using four double-ended!), first time using bamboo needles (I realize I definitely prefer aluminum), and it uses some new stitches that took me a bit to wrap my head around. I'm enjoying working on it though & can't wait to share the finished hat (I'm keeping the pattern a secret for now). Hubby is really excited about this one, which is a good motivator to get it done.

I've also got a fun CraftFail to share with you, but that's a story for another day. I will leave you with this though, with the disclaimer that my sister & I get a little goofy when we're around each other. :)

I've also started kind of thinking about Christmas presents, but not enough. I have fabric but no pattern picked out for one gift, and a pattern but no fabric picked out for another. Beyond that I have kind of half a plan for some more gifts, but nothing solid.

Make sure you head over to Freshly Pieced to see what everybody else has been up to this week.

Until next time...

Happy, happy birthday...

...to me!

mmm...red velvet, my favorite...

When I showed this to Nick as I was sewing on the "frosting" I said I was making myself a birthday cupcake because I knew he wouldn't be making me any. He just laughed & said I probably wouldn't want him to. He's probably right. :) So this is as close as I'll be to getting cake for my birthday this year, but that's quite alright by me.

No big plans for my birthday this year, just dinner with hubby, which means no cooking & no dishes. Perfect! We did go to the pumpkin patch on Sunday with some friends, and thankfully it was a beautiful day & perfect for walking around checking out all the animals.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Until next time...

Crochet Cupcake Pincushion

I haven't sewn much lately (as quickly became apparent the other day), since my sewing machine has been buried behind a mountain of stuff in the living. So between that little barrier (okay, pretty big barrier, it's not like I could even climb over it or anything) and the fact that I had a few requests for some crochet stuff, I've been back to the hook for a week or so.

I'm still sorting out the hair clips that were requested (sorry, Bree!), but when I had a request on the Facebook page (which, by the way, is still two "likers" short of having a give-away! But don't get me started on that...) for a crochet cupcake pincushion, I decided it was definitely a project I could tackle right now.

I'm not including the pattern because I found about a gazillion (really, that's a real number. Only slightly more than a bazillion) patterns, all with only very, very slight variations if there were any at all. So I'll leave that little bit of hard work to you, because if you're like me, you'll also find lots of other fun stuff you'll want to make, and I wouldn't want to deprive you of that. :) But, if I were you, I'd start here. Or here. I'm just sayin.

(Please excuse the really, terrible, horrible photo. It's 11:00 here & I just finished this up a half hour ago. Natural light is hard to come by this time of day. Again, just sayin'. Don't be a hater.)

I'm pretty darn happy with how this turned out. It's stuffed with poly fill, but I put it in (BRAND new & clean, I promise, so please don't freak out) pieces of nylon knee-highs so the filling wouldn't peek or eventually make its way out from between the stitches since it's meant to be poked & prodded. Again, I promise you I used brand-spankin' new nylons, straight from the box. Not my stinky old used ones. I promise. That's gross. :)

Those "sprinkles" are the pins!

It's pretty much "real" sized, about 3 inches tall & 3 inches at the widest point.

Until next time...

Sharing this week over at:

Progress: Week 6

I didn't sew a stitch this week. Not a single stitch, and it feels weird.

I've been going pretty strong with the sewing since I borrowed the first machine earlier this spring & then bought my own. It was a little nice to take a break, but I missed it too. Although, it's not like I got to take it easy all week just because I didn't sew. It was actually due to the fact that we finally (FINALLY!) had a contractor come to work on the house, so my few free nights were spent helping & cleaning up after the guys. Even though I had a minor meltdown from the complete disaster left in the wake of the work, I couldn't be happier than we're finally making progress.

What kind of saved me this week was a three-hour car ride to visit family. I always like to bring my crochet bag with me when we travel since I can do it in the car or if we're all just sitting around chatting in the evenings. Unfortunately I didn't bring the best yarn for this project, and I drove home Sunday, so I didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped. I was able to whip out a handful of these little flowers (new pattern!) for a request from Bree over at B Sew Crafty. The first couple were bigger than she wanted, so I ended up giving them away to my cousins before taking pictures. I should know better!

This purple one is still probably a little too big (about 2 1/2 inches across, if I remember correctly), but it's still pretty cute. Also, they're only supposed to have five petals (and look much better that way!), but somehow I ended up with an extra one here. Still can't quite figure out how I did it.

I think the size on this pink one is better, and five petals look much better! It's harder to see the details with this multi-color yarn though, and don't mind the tail running off up there, it's not cut from the skein yet.

I still need to work on the hook size, yarn type, and number of rounds to get things sorted out the way Bree wants, but in the meantime I'm really enjoying working on these. Once I got them figured out, they come together pretty darn quick.

I haven't been able to do much work for the Etsy shop, but will probably list the green & yellow small satchel this week. I've been back & forth on keeping it for myself, but for now I think I need to just let it go. I have soooo many purses, the last thing I need is another right now. :)

Unfortunately, I'm guessing this week will be pretty similar to last week, but I hope to be able to do at least a little bit of sewing in between the house projects. I have a feeling the next few weeks will probably be about the same, and after everything is back together, I'll probably have to figure out where I'm actually going to put my sewing stuff. Right now I'm lucky that I can squeeze in behind the couch since it needs to be out away from the couch anyways, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that Nick won't want to keep it that way after it's no longer necessary. We shall see.

Don't forget to visit Jill over at Envirocraftiness this week for your last chances to win! I'll try to remember to throw up a reminder this week when the new What the Heck Wednesday item is listed too, but thought I'd mention it while I was thinking about it!

What did you make this week?

Until next time...

Progress: Week 3

That does it...I give up! I know the formatting is wonky at the beginning of this, but I can't figure out how to get it sorted out without completely retyping it all - something I'm not about to do! So, please forgive me & hopefully next time we'll be back to normal.

**********

Well, I'm about half-way through all this, and not doing too terrible! It's been kind of a mixed week for me. Week three was supposed to be my productive week. Week three, I was going to sew my little heart out & have all sorts of things to list on Etsy & share here and on the new Facebook page.

Oh, hey, I haven't mentioned that yet? ;) My Crafty Crap is now on Facebook! Come become a fan, or like it, or whatever it is that Facebook is calling it this week. Etsy & Facebook in one week?! I can hardly believe it! To be honest, that's what's saved me this week from feeling like a total slacker. I know I still don't have much up on Etsy yet, but that's going to change, and I got quite a bit put up on the FB page, so I'm feeling pretty good about things. And, to myabsolutesurprise, I already have almost 50 (yes, fifty!!!) fans/likes/whatever! I'm totally blown away! And, only a handful of those are my personal friends on Facebook, so people who don't even know me like it! I'm loving it! :)

So now, on to my summer goal progress check:

Five projects: Well... I am pretty much 99% finished with the final project. This afternoon I was sitting at four completed projects, and we decided to make a trip to the local Cabela's for a class for Nick, so I didn't get any sewing done. Boo... So tonight after dinner I decided it was time to go back to the hook. An hour later & I finished up my first diaper cover in a couple months. I've still got it! I was so happy to have finished up my fifth project for the week & met my goal, but then I went to grab the box wallet I finished this morning, and realized I still need to do the final top stitching. Ugh... But, like I said, pretty much 99% done, so I'm rounding up & giving myself a pass. :)

This week's projects:

Five projects: Well... I am pretty much 99% finished with the final project. This afternoon I was sitting with four completed projects, and we decided to make a trip to the local Cabela's for a call for Nick, so I didn't get any sewing done. Boo... So tonight after dinner I decided it was time to go back to the hook. An hour later & I finished up my first diaper cover in a couple of months. I've still got it! I was so happy to have finished up my fifth project for the week & met my goal, but then I went to grab the box wallet I finished this morning, and realized I still need to do the final top stitching. Ugh... But, like I said, pretty much 99% done, so I'm rounding up & giving myself a pass. :)

This week's projects:

Travel baby wipe cases, with room for a diaper or two. A woman I worked with at the old job is expecting a baby soon, and wanted something to put the travel size baby wipe box in. So I came up with this & added some extra space for a diaper or two (will depend on the size). She was really happy with it & very excited about the extra diaper space for when they travel.

This yellow one was my first trial run, and I didn't use the nice, stiff interfacing, so it's a little too floppy. Still happy with how it turned out though.

This one holds its shape much better since I used the decor bond & I'm really happy with how it turned out. They are quick & easy to whip up, so I think this will become a regular pattern to use & great for shower gifts for new moms.

Yet another LOP bag, very happy with how this one turned out. Each one gets a bit easier & a bit nicer. I have orders for a couple more, but can hopefully make something from another pattern first to offer a little variety.

Keyka Lou Pyramid Pouch. This is the one that isn't quite finished, but only needs some top stitching around the opening. I'd say quick & easy to finish up, but this is so small, it's kind of a pain. They turn out really cute though, so totally worth it. Not sure yet if I like the contrasting flap or not, but wanted to try something different. The lining matches the pink flap.

My "new" pattern this week is the one I created for the baby wipe case. It's based on the Keyka Lou box wallet, just much bigger and with a couple changes. Maybe cheating a bit, but I did have to create my own pattern using the basic instructions for the box wallet. I like to call it being resourceful. :)

Etsy shop is up! And running! And has a listing! HUZZAH!!! I have a couple more items to list (including they pyramid pouch, above), but it's a little more time-consuming than I expected. I hope to have them up by the end of this week (well, August 4, if I can!).

Christmas presents & the Origami Imposter bag are still just floating around in my head. At least they're on my mind, which is a start.

Overall, I'm very happy with this week!

Tomorrow is a new start for me - my first day at the new job! I'm really looking forward to it & to see how things will go. Wish me luck! :)

I hope you all had an equally productive week!

Until next time...

Baby Set

Here's the most recent baby set I did. She asked about a cowboy boot button, or at least something "western." I wasn't able to find a cowboy boot, but I thought this horse was just adorable, so hopefully it'll work.

Until next time...

Happy Cones

Since I’m in the middle of a couple projects (unfortunately nothing too new & exciting, sorry), I figure it’s a good time to catch up on some old projects I’ve been wanting to post. It’s just so hard to write about the old stuff though when I’m so excited about the new stuff! Now seems to be a perfect time.

I made these little guys (18 of them, if I remember correctly) as a Christmas/New Year gift for my coworkers a couple years ago. We work in a construction department, so safety/construction cones seemed like a perfect idea. I put a note with each one on their desk that said “Have a safe & happy New Year,” because they’re happy safety cones. :) Yes, it’s corny, but they are just so darn cute!

I haven’t the faintest idea now of where I got the pattern for them, but found it online somewhere. They were surprisingly easy to make, although it did struggle with the first few since it was my very first non-flat, non-blanket project. Working “in the round” was a totally new concept to me & took some getting used to, but after the first couple were finished, I had gotten the hand of it.

The flat bottom on this one is a little bigger than most of them were. I didn’t like the size of the square in the pattern (too small, if I remember correctly), so I just kind of winged them after a bit. The pattern called for using stuffing to fill the cone, but I found that it would poke out between the stitches when I sewed the bottom on, and just generally didn’t like the way it filled the cone. Instead, I used (new!) knee highs to stuff before sewing on the bottom. I made the cone much more firm & sturdy, and didn’t have the problem of poking out between the stitches. Plus, since they’re not white, they couldn’t be seen between the stitches like the white stuffing sometimes could. Win-win!

I found another pattern recently that uses the same shape as an ice cream cone, so I may try making those sometime too. What I really want to try is making a mini version (not that these aren’t already small) to use for a keychain.

I almost forgot to mention what happened to my little happy cone. :( I kept it in my car on my instrument panel. There was a perfect little spot where it didn’t block the view of any of my gauges, but was right where I could see it anytime. One day I came out to my car, which hadn’t been driven in about a week, to find Kleenex torn up & strewn across the floorboards in the back seat. We had apparently gotten mice in the garage & they had decided the best nesting material was in my car. Unfortunately, they also decided my little safety cone was also good nesting material, and ate/torn up most of the bottom. I still can’t figure out how they found it up on my dash, but hate the thought that they were crawling around up there. Needless to say, I haven’t put a new cone in my car, even though I know for a fact we got rid of those mice.

Side note – yes, I realize I need to find a better place to take photos. My kitchen counter, pantry door, and bedspread aren’t the best backgrounds, but for now I can’t find anyplace better. I’ve thought about doing them outside, but I don’t have a great place there either, & I don’t want to risk stuff getting dirty. I’ll come up with something.

Until next time…

Fun, Bright Happiness

Lo-o-ove the bright happy colors on these ones (excluding the brown, obviously)! Even the brown is such a nice, warm color. I'm really happy with how these turned out, so I hope McKenzie is just as happy. She's the photographer I mentioned before that ordered a few of the covers, so we'll see what she thinks when I get them shipped out this week. Still need to work on a pair of booties for her, but I'll be in the car for work most of the day tomorrow, so I should be able to get those done without much problem (famous last words, I know!).

And what about those toggles? I love them! Of course Nick's comment - "but, the baby will hurt himself on it." :)

Until next time...

Crochet Motifs

I just found this listing of a bunch of a different crochet motifs that I'm excited to try out when I'm back in the mood for doing blankets. I'm thinking about making a bunch of different ones to try them out when I do Raven's blanket. It'll be a good place to use up all my scraps & try out new stitches, etc. We'll see how it goes!

Until next time...

Yarn Overload

Here's a better shot of the yarn I got this week. There are a few colors pulled out since they were already spoken for, but it give me a nice choice to play with!

Until next time...

Etsy Shop

I’ve been asked by a few people now if I’m planning to open an Etsy shop, and to be honest I had been thinking about it. Today I read through a bunch of the FAQ stuff about being a seller, and it sounds like there’s more work to it than I had expected. My mom does have a shop, so she offered to help me get it set up. I’m sure once I get everything sorted out, it won’t be as hard as it sounds.

Unfortunately the “CowboysAndAngels” (has to be one word!) shop name has already been used. :( Bummer dude. They also don’t allow anything other than alpha-numeric symbols, so I can’t use &, but really, if someone else is using the other name, I wouldn’t want to risk being confused. So now I need to come up with a new name to use. I really had my heart set on using the Cowboys & Angels name for everything, so now I don’t know what I want to do. It might seem like a silly little thing to get worked up about, but it really is important. And if I’m going to try to make something lasting out of this, I don’t want to just settle on something & hate it in a year or two.

So, the short answer is yes, I am at least looking into doing an Etsy shop, but the timeframe is negotiable. For now I’ll just stick with custom orders through people I already know.

Until next time…

Mock Crocs!

I'm pretty darn happy with how these turned out, except I don't think I'll be using veriegated yarn for them again. Solid colors from here on out because I don't like how they don't quite match. I know it doesn't really matter, but the way I am, it just kind of bugs me. I guess the only place it's overly noticeable is on the strap, so if I could do the strap separately in a solid color, it might be okay. I'll play around with them some more & see what I can come up with.

Mock Croc pattern.

Until next time...

YARN!

What a wonderful sight to come home to! Now work, work, work.

Until next time...

New Stitches

Well, for me at least.

Remember last week when I mentioned the diaper cover uses hdc, which I didn’t know I knew before, but thought I had used? Turns out, I was still wrong. On all the covers I’ve made so far, I have not used hdc, but some random stitch I seem to have made up. This weekend for some reason I decided to pull out my “Crochet Pocket Guide,” (a GREAT resource to keep handy, definitely pick one up if you’re still a beginner) and noticed that I’m still doing the hdc wrong. Now that I’ve got it sorted out, for real this time, I think the next diaper cover will go together much quicker.

Yesterday I found a few bootie patterns I wanted to try out & settled on “Mock Crocs” to try first. I got the sole done & was working on the top on the way home from work, when I came across sc dec. I knew it was a single crochet decrease, but had no idea how to do it. I hadn’t ever done it before, and hadn’t even seen instructions for it, so I didn’t even bother trying to attempt anything. As soon as we got home I got on the computer (we were waiting for a contractor, so I didn’t really have anything better to do) & figured out how to do the stitch, as well as the dc dec. Annie’s Attic is a fantastic resource for stitches & hasn’t let me down. Unfortunately the decrease stitches aren’t included in my pocket guide (of course!), so I was a little disappointed about that (I would have been able to finish in the car!), but it’s got a lot of other good stuff, so I still recommend picking it up.

The first bootie turned out absolutely adorable & I couldn’t wait to get the second one done. Nick kept saying we should try them on Raven. He’s always scoffed whenever we see the dog booties, so he was just being obnoxious. My favorite comment though was when I was working on the second one & he looked at me in surprise, “You’re making two?!” Umm…duh honey, babies have two feet! And then he went on about how they won’t stay on the baby’s feet because the back is open, so I told him it’s not like they’ll be running a 5k in these things. And then it was “their toes will get cold.” Good grief, Charlie Brown! It’s summer (or at least supposed to be), and they can wear socks if it’s chilly. The man cracks me up.

Pictures to come when I figure out a good way to photograph them. I need a real baby to model stuff! ;)

Until next time…

Size Matters.

Or something like that.

These two covers were made using the same hook. The pink one is 100% acrylic, the purple 100% cotton. I'm surprised how much of a difference it makes.

I picked up a couple more skeins of cotton at Jo-Ann when I got the buttons yesterday, and my big order of cotton should be here sometime this week. I can't wait to work with it some more, but right now I have mixed feelings about it. It's not quite as soft & cuddly as the acrylic, but it's still a nice soft feeling yarn. Definitely not scratchy like some others I've used! There are some (Titan's & Nick's blankets) that made my fingers hurt after working with it too much. I'm guessing the more I work with the cotton the more I'll like it, it'll just take some getting used to.

I like the different color border and the fun button on this one, but am not crazy about the white ruffles. I think I'll stick with keeping the ruffles the same color as the rest of the cover.

Until next time...

Button, button, who's got the button?

I've got buttons! I ran to Jo-Ann Fabric quick this morning & picked up some buttons to use for the diaper covers. Love the little dinosaurs & airplanes especially, but they're all good. Now I just need my order of cotton yarn to get here (although, I've bought a couple to use while I wait...eek...) so I can use them!

Until next time...

Diaper Covers

Last week when I posted some of my hats to my Facebook page, a woman I went to high school with made the comment that if I made diaper covers we’d be in business. She’s a photographer as a side job & does some great pictures. She wanted them to use when she photographs babies, so I decided it sounded like a good challenge.

I looked around online to try to find a good pattern I thought I could handle (I still consider myself a beginner!), and wasn’t too excited about what I was finding. They were cute patterns, don’t get me wrong, but they all worked “in the round,” making a pull up diaper cover. I prefer to work on flat projects & am only just starting to get the hang of simple hats. Plus I didn’t want to have to mess around with elastic or ribbon for the waist. Then I found this pattern. I loved the button, and it looked MUCH simpler than the other patterns I saw. From the picture, I was able to figure out the basic shape of the pattern, but had no idea what size to make it, so I went ahead and bought the pattern. I’m so glad I did! She uses a different stitch I didn’t know before (but had inadvertently used, remember my first post about crochet when I thought I’d made up some random stitch? Turns out it was hdc. Who knew?!), which makes a nice tight pattern without being as small as a single crochet.

I got the pattern Tuesday & started working on it over my lunch break. I was amazed at how quick I was able to work it once I got the hdc stitch figured out. I got about half way through it over lunch & finished it up waiting for Nick to get out of work. I had to raid my sewing box at home to find a button for it, and it probably wouldn’t be my first choice, but it turned out pretty cute.



I’m not crazy about this yarn (90% acrylic, 10% nylon), it’s not quite as soft as I’d like, but it’s okay. I ordered a bunch of cotton yarn yesterday, so I’m excited for that to get in so I can get working with it.

For the second one, I switched yarn (100% acrylic) to do a pink one & decided I’d like to try to put ruffles on the back of it. I just got a hat pattern that had a ruffle around the rim, so I used that part of the pattern to add ruffles to the back of the diaper cover. The ruffles took just about as long to make as the rest of the cover, but I think it’s totally worth it – they’re so adorable! I had been thinking about using a different color for the ruffles, and I still can’t decide if it would look good or not. They would be easy to take off if it looks bad, but I don’t want to lose all the time it takes to make them! It’s probably worth it thought just to see how it looks, so I’ll try it out with some of the yarn I’ve got sitting around at home before I try it with the good cotton.




When I told Nick last night about selling the covers he couldn’t believe how much I was asking for them (not that much, I swear! Much less than I've seen them on Etsy) and said I should quit my job and “knit for a living.” I didn’t point out to him (for the 100th time, I swear) that I crochet, not knit, but did agree that I would love to be able to do that. For now, I’m happy being able to donate the majority of what I make to charity, and make a few bucks on the side to pay for my yarn obsession. :)

Hopefully McKenzie, the photographer, will share some of her pictures with me so I can post them here.

Until next time…

Ribbed Hat

I was all ready to post how this was a "non-hat" because it took forever for the sides to finally pull down. But once they did, I think it turned out really cute! I'm thinking about using the pattern up to the point just before they do pull down to make some sort of a blanket, but that will have to wait a while at this point.

I'm all about learning new stitches lately & am not passing up patterns just because they use anything more than the basic sc & dc I was sticking to before. This mindset has opened all kinds of doors for me! This hat uses a frontpost double crochet & I love the ribbed effect. I also realized this is probably the stitch my Grdma used to make one of my favorite blankets, so I'm anxious to see if I can figure out the rest of the pattern now because unfortunately she won't be able to tell me how she made it.

This hat will go along with the rest to Marine Corps Kids, and I think I've got my box just about full enough to ship out. I think I'm going to try to figure out how to size this hat up so I can make one for a friend's daughter, assuming of course I don't find another I like better in the meantime. :)

Until next time...

Addison's Blanket

I’m doing this one a little out of order, but since I just finished it up, it makes sense to go ahead & post it while it’s still fresh in my mind.

This is my second blanket using the 90° angle, the first was Emma’s Blanket, which I’m sure I’ll get around to posting one of these days. ;) They are both based off this Fiesta pattern from Red Heart.

For Addie’s blanket I played around with the color pattern to make sure the lines matched up when I rotated the squares. I love the way the lines flow through the blanket & am pretty happy with how the seams came out. They still show up a little more than I would like, but it’s not too bad. I made sure to leave decent tails on the rows as I was going, then just used those to sew the blanket together. For this blanket I didn’t do any edging, just a simple single crochet border to finish the edges. Partly because the blanket is sort of busy & I thought a nice simple edge went well, and partly just because I got sort of lazy. :)

I’ve got a lot more ideas now that I can do this 90° angle & am really excited to try out some new stuff. Unfortunately I’m kind of “blanketed out” right now, and don’t think I’m going to do the other one I wanted to do before June. I just don’t have the time like I do in the winter, and it’s just too darn warm most nights (Or at least it should be! This week has been an exception, and I’m not happy about it) to have a blanket on my lap while I’m sewing the squares together or edging. I suppose that’s probably another reason I chose not to do more of an edge on Addie’s blanket.

I’m still sorting out how to get each angle to be a perfect square. My stitches seem to be taller than they are wide (or the other way around, I can’t remember for sure right now), so it’s not quite perfectly square. When they are sewn together, it’s not too bad, but you can tell the corners are a little stretched looking, even though they really aren’t. I should have taken a picture of one of the individual squares to show what it’s doing, but of course I didn’t think of that until just now. The first blanket I did like this, I used a J hook & it was even more off square. For this one I switched to a K hook & it’s definitely better, so I think for the next one I’ll try to move up one more size. I don’t want to get too big, but I’d really like to get things better lined up. I don’t know if going smaller would help or not, I’m definitely no expert when it comes to all this! I did forget to measure Emma’s blanket before I gave it away, but Addie’s blanket is about 31x48 inches, so I’ll have to measure the next one & see if it’s much different with the bigger hook. The original pattern says the finished blanket will be approx. 39x58 inches. I never bother gauging, but I suppose I should.

I showed the blanket to a woman here at work & she said she’d like to have the pattern to make one of her own, so I guess I should get busy writing it out. Since it’s based on the Fiesta pattern it won’t be too hard, but I did change a few things so I’ll have to find the pattern I made for myself & see what I can come up with. I’m not expert at writing patterns by any means, but I’m willing to give it a go. I did write out the pattern for hat #3 yesterday, and it seems to be okay, so maybe it won’t be as bad as I think. Hopefully. :)

Until next time…

Hooked on Hats!

Here are hats 3 & 4. I tried to make these ones a little more “open” so they’ll be cooler for the summer babies.

The first one actually came out pretty nice considering I was just playing around & adjusting as I went. I’m pretty proud of it.


The second it a little different story. I tried to make this one completely “open” without any solid rounds. As you can see, I wasn’t able to, and the shape is kind of off. I guess it’ll just have to be for a conehead baby. ;)

I picked up a couple more skeins of baby weight yarn at Wal-Mart last night & made sure I got good patterns on each. I’m looking forward to trying out the little ruffled hat pattern that came on one of them. Hopefully I can finish up the hat I’m on & try that out next.

I was looking online for some other hat patterns & found just a ton, but it was almost so much that it was overwhelming. I need to get a few more of these simple pattern ones done & sent to Delia so I can have her tell me if I’m okay on my sizing. Then I’ll try out some different patterns. Delia posts pictures of most of the stuff she gets & mine are going to be so plain & boring compared to the others she’s getting! I’ve got to get my skill level up so I can make some more fun stuff.

Until next time…