My Little Man

Sorry, I still don't know how to arrange pictures and text to look like I want it to, but here he is! My little man who is already 4 weeks old! He is modeling for you the Kimono PJs from Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones. In 0-3 month size. This was the last project I finished the week before he was born. He seems to be practicing a karate move in the 2nd pic. He's really getting into the outfit. The knit hat in the first photo is the same as in last blog post. It was a little big at first, but this guy is growing oh so fast! Wish I could slow time down a little. But trying to enjoy every minute, every cuddle, and everything about this special time of life with a new baby.

In Anticipation

In anticipation of our baby boy, I have been doing some crafting for the past 10 months. Here are a few projects I have completed, most with links to the free patterns I used. I love free online patterns! First is a simple pair of newborn pants with a little appliqued onesie. My 5 year old selected the fabric for this. It is a soft flannel.

These are some burp cloths I made that claim to be the best burp cloths ever. This remains to be seen as they have not yet entered the battle field. One side of the cloths are various quilting cotton and flannel fabrics, the other side are jersey knit from upcycled t-shirts or terry cloth. The fabric showing on the top is my 5 year old's original design from a sunflower watercolor painting, fabric printed by Spoonflower. She entered a contest with it and although she didn't win they sent a free fat quarter of her fabric, which made two burp cloths! She also did some of the sewing on these.

Although not much to look at photo-wise, this next one will get a lot of use. It is a nursing cover much like the ones formerly known as hooter-hiders, with stiff opening around neck, but the cover is much larger for better coverage.

I knit two sweaters for baby boy, the first two sweaters I have ever knit. I got both patterns off of Ravelry the brown one is the Baby Sophisticate, knit in a cotton/modal blend that is so soft. I made the 6-12 month size, only adjusted the yarn to be worsted instead of aran weight and down one needle size hoping for more like 6 month size. I think it will work. The pattern is a seamless one, which was nice.

The blue is the Baby Kimono in size 0-3 months knit in Berroco Vintage yarn (wool/acrylic blend), worsted weight. It was my first knitting project that I had to seam together. And while the results of seaming were rather gratifying, I did not really enjoy the whole seaming process.

Lastly for now is a little knit baby hat, that takes me back to my knitting roots, blogged here, here, and here. A simple stockinette hat with rolled brim that has stripes because of frugality, using up whatever yarn was in my stash (same for sleeves of above sweater). The off-white yarn is baby alpaca, I think, while the blue is the same Vintage in sweater above.

Some finished projects

I haven't been so good about taking pictures of all my projects lately, but here are some from the past few months that I did.



Purse
First is a knit purse. I based it on a pattern called Twitterpated, but changed it using my retro knit dictionary and picked out a basket stitch to use instead of garter. The yarn I used was Berroco Jasper in the red and blue color that my friend was ogling when we were in a yarn store one time. So I got it at a later date to make something for her and decided on this purse. I lined it with some fabric that brought out the blue in the yarn and then beaded a strap using hemp twine, turquoise-like beads, and purse rings. I added a couple inside pockets- lipstick and cell phone sized. And gave it to my friend for her birthday.


Micro Quilt Lovey
I made a little soft lovey for my niece in a simple pinwheel block pattern and used some soft baby fabrics to make it cuddly - the purple minky fur that has swirled rose shape (until I prewashed it and the swirls came out), the green print is cotton and a silky purple and white polk a dot satin for the binding and back. I used a scrap of cotton batting in the middle and stiched in the ditch for the quilting along the pinwheel seams. This was a very quick and satisfying project. I may have coined the word micro quilt, I don't know.

Retro Quilt
This was a collaborative project. My mother in law started this quilt in 1973 and I finished it in March 0f 2010. She wanted to make a quilt, so her grandmother helped her lay out the design and she bought some stylish fabric (it is perma press) and hand cut out (with a little cardboard template) all the squares. She pieced the squares into 9 piece blocks and then lost a little momentum. But she saved the project all this time. So I pieced the blocks together added cotton batting, got a quilting cotton for the back (in goldenrod color) and binding (in navy blue). I quilted it with my new walking foot I got just for the occasion in a diagonal pattern with golden rod and red alternating every other line. Then stiched the binding on by hand. She was thrilled to see her project completed after all these years.



Earring Holder
Using a lace weight undyed wool/silk blend from knit picks I knit this from a pattern that I cannot find now. But I got it free online. I then mounted it on a garage sale find frame over the goldenrod quilting fabric from last project. The earrings were made from some stashed jewelry supplies and served the purpose of showing what the heck the thing was. :)




Reusable snack bags
Little cotton snack bags lined with nylon (so they clean up easy) that close with velcro. For packing snacks to go or in lunches instead of using ziplocks. I made them for my 2 year old's birthday party favors. And they are for sale in my Etsy shop at the right if you happen to want one...

Projects since Christmas

I'm catching up on posting all the projects that I completed and have pictures of to date. I may take a couple posts to do this. I'll start with knitting.

I knit this "Who?" owl hat for my mother in law who has great horned owls that come visit her trees at home. I used Berroco Vintage Wool and knit this hat in two days - on Thanksgiving day and the day after while I was very sick in bed. This was my fastest knitting project ever.


Followed by my slowest project to date. This scarf was knit for my brother in law and took way longer and way more yarn than I anticipated (I had to go back to the store twice). I pray for each person as I knit their gifts so he ended up getting the most prayers of all my Christmas giftees. I used Berroco Jasper and I loved the yarn. It is 100% Fine Merino Wool and feels very soft. I was very happy with how it came out although it did not photograph well. The pattern is "Extra Warm Men's Scarf".



Then for my husband's sanity I gave up crafting for the month of January. My first project in February was this pair of socks for my younger daughter. It was my first attempt at socks and it was really fun. I got the pattern from the book Vintage Baby Knits- the Frankie Striped sock pattern. Although I left out the stripes since my yarn did its own pattern. My daughter picked out the color she wanted- it's Heart and Sole sock yarn in Green Envy. I'm working on my second pair of socks now-adult anklet socks.

Will catch up on more later, aforementioned daughter is crying for my attention.

Fall projects thus far

When it rains it pours, I haven't posted in almost a month and now two posts in the same day.

Latest finished projects follow -Outfit I made for a friend's 2nd birthday. I fell in love with this sunflower batik print at the quilting shop in Chico and knew it was perfect for a little girl's fall outfit. I appliqued on purchased shirt the sunflowers, used ribbon for the stems, and scraps of another green batik I had for the leaves. I embroidered her initial on the shortest of the flowers (she's the youngest of three girls) though it's hard to see. The skirt is based on the one I seem to keep making because it's simple- here and here for example. I like using a second fabric for the bottom of the skirt. It's such an easy way to finish the seam since it's just a doubled over strip of fabric sewn on then top stitched, I added a little center pleat this time as well.

Hats number 3 and 4 in my hat knitting career are done, this time in adult sizes. The pattern is Ann Norling's Spiral Rib Hat which I like because it has directions for all different sizes, gauges, yarn weights, etc.... The grey yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light- which is really soft and the black is Berroco Vintage Wool which has a nice feel too. I keep experimenting with knit & crocheted flowers and haven't found one I love yet, but I'll keep trying. I'm not permanently affixing these flowers in case the receivers of the hats choose to go without them.

Works in progress include a log cabin quilt for my soon to be 4 year old's bday, along with a crocheted dress , and her ladybug halloween costume. Fun, fun, fun!

Catching Up

Wow, it's been way too long since I've posted anything on here. The pace of crafting has slowed with the pace of everything else picking up. I guess it's September, back to the real world. Now it's almost October, yikes! Christmas will be here before we know it and I've got a hefty list of presents to create. Latest finished projects following:

Knit baby hat, which is supposed to be a Christmas gift but it knit up smaller than I thought so I'm thinking I have to give it now so the baby can actually get some use out of it. This hat was the inspiration for learning to knit and that I blogged about here. I planned to put a tulip flower from the pattern on the top, but it didn't turn out right so I improvised the one shown.

I've sewn a few more of my GreenGift bags that I've posted on Etsy. My favorite one is pictured here. I haven't sold any yet, though. I haven't been able to make/post any new ones for a while, though. I've heard the key is posting new stuff frequently. Need more time to sew!


Speaking of sewing - My friend and I made a new cover for our friend's car seat. She's having a girl and we wanted to spruce up her blue car seat that her son used. So we took a fabric that she used to make a diaper bag as our inspiration. It's from Amy Butler's Midwest Modern Collection - Garden Maze in Olive. The quilting I did on it gave me the confidence to try making a real quilt with my little Singer sewing machine. She was very surprised and loved it.


Lastly, I've been baking lots of fresh bread lately - daunted not by the heat waves we've been having. The book I've been using is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. While I haven't yet followed any recipe to the T (I never can!) I have made some pretty yummy breads, and I love the concept that the book has taught me. Making large batches of dough that you store in the fridge and can easily make 3-4 loafs from with very little active working time. Pictured is the first loaf I made from the book. It was super yummy, especially dipped in olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

Lots and lots of projects in the queue. The one I'm most excited about is a quilt requested by my soon to be 4 year old for her birthday. It's going to be tough to keep it all a surprise though...lots of late night sewing in the next 6 weeks! I'm also knitting more hats, adult ones this time with (removable) flowers on them. And I want to crochet this adorable dress, I've ordered the yarn for it.

Roses, turkeys, tomatoes & yarn among other things

Vacation has been humming along merrily. We had a great bike ride and swimming in the Feather River on our 7th wedding anniversary. I also got some beautiful roses and my rings professionally cleaned. Our 3 year old took the photo of us at a burger place we stopped on our bike ride for lunch. We have also visited a farm for retired and rescued animals - the turkeys were a favorite with our littlest turkey. Our 3 year old is becoming quite the fish and has started floating, swimming on her own, diving, etc... all in the course of the last 4 weeks. Pictured below she's running through the fountains at the park. She also did her longest hike yet, three miles to see Boiling Hot Springs Lake in the Lassen National Forest. She even carried a little backpack the whole way.

We continue to make yummy food using produce from farmers' markets and our neighbor's fruit trees. Some of which are roasted vegetable torte, caprese salad, homemade apricot ginger gelato, strawberry sorbet, rocky road ice cream, homemade granola, sticky ribs.

During my creative interludes I've made a little clutch bag inspired by a project in Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol, a burp cloth, my first knitting finished project - a little infant hat, and matching dresses for the girls that coordinates with my green one from a couple posts ago.

The little one is either blowing a kiss, signing hot, eat or water...I think I'm going to go with blowing a kiss.

Uh-oh, I got suckered into a new hobby

As I've been dabbling in crochet, I saw this adorable butterfly hat. So I had to make one. It will not be pictured here for several reasons - I tried to adjust the size to fit my one year old and it ended up looking more like a yarmulke. I added a few rows and then realized that I had messed up the first stitch on each round and long story short, it's probably a piece of trash. But definitely a learning experience. I'm discovering that, like baking, I need to stick to the recipe. So I went to the Heartstrings Yarn Studio to get some yarn to try the hat again. I fell in love with a beautiful yarn. It's Sublime baby cashmere merino silk. It is sooo soft and matches the fabric I had just picked up at Honey Run Quilters for a baby gift clothing project. So I had to get it, but then realized it was a different size yarn than the pattern the butterfly hat called for so I went to browse through other patterns and found this one which has very cute crocheted flowers on them. You can knit or crochet the caps then add the crocheted flowers. The knit caps looked so much nicer than the crocheted ones....so one thing led to another and thanks to the very helpful lady at the shop I am sitting here with size 5 (waaay smaller than the only one other pair of knitting needles I've ever used- they look more like cuticle pushing sticks) circular knitting needles in my hand and watching You Tube video tutorials on how to knit. (I bought some cheaper yarn to practice on, first. And I did find some yarn to try again on the butterfly hat). I also have the following to thank for knitting becoming a label in my blog - my husband indulging my desire to visit these shops without the kids, the large iced coffee I had just consumed, and the high I was on from the beautiful fabrics I had just ogled over at the quilting shop. But it was probably bound to happen at one time or another.

Other fabrics for baby gift projects- clothing & applique, along with my needles & first attempt at casting on. The only other thing I've ever knit- a scarf 3 or 4 years ago - my mom cast on for me then showed me the knit stitch. Although I finished the scarf I didn't start anything else.



I'm also working on the smocked dresses for my girls from Weekend Sewing. The fabric is the same as the dress I made for myself in last post, only in pink.



Also brewing is a spiritual blog post, I just finished reading The Shack and loved it.