Woodland Woolies!

I embellished some of my 3 yr old's woolies with a woodland theme for my 7 month old. I wanted to knit a gnome on the other leg, but if I did, I wouldn't get holiday gifts done ;-) This was my first attempt at such a thing, I'm quite proud, though they're not perfect. Thankfully, they're big and should fit a while!!!
I was inspired by an alder tree in the fall (the tree I looked at had those exact colors in the same places). We have them all over town and I think they're just beautiful! I also took some design hints from a few people online. I find so much inspiration on MDC, Ravelry and my wool soaker group.
Technicalities: brown woolies, I crocheted a chain out of lt brown/tan wool, attached it as the trunk going up one leg and across the butt, chained some smaller branches and attached them around the hip and across the butt, then took some autumn colored wool and made two little loops for each leaf putting the darker colors on the outside and working my way in.

Wintery Goodies

I wanna know why only girls legs are supposed to be warm? I say this because everyone seems to sell leg warmers for baby girls but I can't find any for boys. Is that cause boys are supposed to be cold? I just think it's mean. I asked DH about it and he said that boys aren't supposed to wear leg warmers. I asked why, he, of course, couldn't answer. So I made some for my baby from alpaca that I bought on clearance. They are super soft and super warm. He can wear them under his wool sleep sack on those bitterly cold nights. I just did 10 rows of k1 p1 ribbing, knit in the round, then another 10 rows of ribbing. It was very easy and very quick. When I do more, I'll use a smaller needle size on the ribbing to make them a little tighter.




I also sewed a sleep sack out of soft, felted wool interlock. I did kind of a crappy job, but he's wearing it to bed and it was quick (under an hour with my mom's serger). It's super warm and I don't have to worry about him smothering himself in a blanket or leaking pee onto our bed. I purchased the fabric on sale so the entire project cost me under $10. I have the stuff to make another, just need to make the time now.

I was so impressed with the leg warmers, and so depressed that all of his woolies are shorties, that i decided to make leg warmers to attach to some of his shorties. I was originally going to just make them longies, but this will be quicker and he'll be able to wear them as shorties in the spring, providing they still fit, which they better ;-) I am turning one pair into longies, I was inspired, I'll post pics when they're done.

Knitting and Felting and Roving and...

I've been busy creating. The roof leaked at my job so we had an unexpected two week vacation. I got a lot of crafting done, I'll post pics when I can remember to bring my camera upstairs to the computer ;-) I'm working on a pacifier holder. It's an elephant made of organic cotton. I hate pacifiers but my newest one needs one, I'm just sad I waited so long to get him one! If you're thinking of using one, check out natursutten.



I managed a great purchase about a year ago. I found two very large containers of organic wool batting for $40! It was enough to make two mattress covers, three pillows, and have tons left over. DH has been complaining about it attracting mice, now he's almost as excited as I am! My 3yo and I have been making felted wool items from it. So far I've made several balls, and today we're gonna make some doll bodies (we cast some faces last night). We've also started making tree ornaments.

I'm also working on holiday gifts for people. So far I've finished a dishcloth with te breastfeeding logo for one of my midwifes and some felted balls, some with bells inside so they rattle (I have quite a few friends with babies these days). I'll post pics and instructions for things later...

Autumn has arrived!

I made my newest one a pumpkin hat for the season. It was a very simple pattern, except for the leaf, and it knitted up in one evening. My older boy loves it but it's too small for him and I think he looks a bit weird in something that looks so baby. I used this pattern:
http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/holpumpkinhat.htm
I highly recommend it, extremely easy pattern with great results!

I used a chunky orange yarn with brown wool for the stem and green dishcloth cotton for the leaf.

Join me in a KAL!

I joined a bi-monthly knit-a-long (is that lame?), you should join me too! It's for dishcloths so it's easy, a great way to practice new techniques, great for gifts, and won't take up too much time. Their blog is
http://monthlydishclothkal.blogspot.com/ and then you have to join the Yahoo Group in order to see the patterns. They give out a few lines a day and after a week, voila!

Knitting up a storm!

I finished my first sweater! It's the baby Yoda kimono sweater from Ravelry (you have to be a member to access it). I adjusted it a bit to make it slightly larger, and i didn't use a Yoda'esque color (not really into Star Wars, just liked the pattern). I decided to make matching slippers, mittens, and a hat. The slippers and hat are from Zoe Mellor's book, "Easy Knits." They are very simple patterns; however, if I were to make the hat again, I would cast on fewer stitches and use larger needles because it took FOREVER to knit the simple hat. The slippers were very easy and very quick to knit, maybe an hour for both. For the mittens, I just did a k2 p2 ribbing for an inch, then knitted the rest, ending with a kitchener graft, using dpn's in stockinette. They were very quick to knit up and since a baby doesn't need t use their opposable thumb, yu can skip the thumb part. DH was adorable and put the mittens on his feet, strange as it was, they actually fit! I'm working on some other items, but I'll keep those a secret for now ;-)

Ravelry!

I've been on Ravelry for a while now but I haven't had time to really play around with it. Today I put on one bin of yarn into my Stash. I still have tons more to put in, but at least some of it is organized. I also have tons of projects in my Queue. Currently I'm working on the Yoda sweater, in grey, with matching mittens (which are finished) for my littlest one. I have so many more projects though, I better get finished soon! I'm also working a pair of socks, those are much more complicated and tedious. I would post pics but my camera cord is attached to the computer upstairs and the kids are downstairs.

Dooby Dooby Doo!

My toddler loves Scooby Doo, so I thought I'd make him some Dooby Doo inspired woolies! Dyed with orange and lime Kool Aid, of course.

Crochet!

I have tried my hand at crochet in the past but found the patterns to be completely indecipherable.  After many questions over the Internet, and much frustration, I think I'm finally getting it. I made the Wooly Britches Soaker first. (You can find the pattern in the links section of the Yahoo Group, wool_soaker_group. You must be a member to access it.) It reminded me of a mushroom, so I freehand crocheted a mushroom applique. The second is the Tickle Turdle Wrap. That one had a very complicated edging, which I actually managed to survive! 

A Great Find!

I was unpacking boxes of "too big" clothes for my littlest one and low and behold, I found a soaker that I had forgotten about! It's the Fern and Faerie Free Soaker pattern (aka Mehndimama's Soaker) and I absolutely love it on! Unfortunately, it will be too small soon. 

My first hat!

My littlest son got his first sunburn after being out in the sun for only ten minutes. I'm not kidding. So, I decided I better make him a hat with a brim. I couldn't find any patterns I liked, so I made up my own. It came out pretty darn cute!

I finally dyed my cables with some lime Kool Aid! 

Another First!

The great thing about learning something new is that, well, you're always doing something new! I have been so inspired by all of these beautifully embellished woolies that I thought I'd give it a try myself. The first thing I did was make some longies. This time, I made the ribbing (k2 p1) at the top very long so that he can grow into them. I can fold them down in the meantime. I also made them into pants, which I can roll up as shorts, but when he gets bigger, they'll just be shorties. 

This was also my first kool aid dye attempt. I tried to tye dye, it's been a while, so it came out looking kinda strange. I was disappointed, I wanted really bright colors, but because they looked weird I just kept adding more and more color until eventually I like them, though they are very dark. I used blue raspberry, cherry, and black cherry. 

Because they were so dark, I thought I'd do a light colored embellishment. After much searching, I found a very simple cross stitch cat pattern. To make it work for knitting, I doubled every 4th row (next time I'd do every third). I used a light blue color, which contrasts very well. As it turns out, I didn't do the duplicate stitching correctly, but it's still cute and I'm proud as it's my first attempt. Plus, it is still just a diaper cover. The picture looks a little strange cause the flash on the camera made visible the diaper underneath. IRL, you can't see the white dipe underneath ;-)

Magic Looping

I finally just looked up what is Magic Looping and come to find out, I've been doing my own version of it for weeks! I can't afford to go purchase every size needle and every length available and in a moment of desperation I discovered a method that worked. It's definitely a great method if you like circs and if you're frugal.
Here's the "right" way to do it-http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques
Here's my way-- I just pull the cable through between stitches so I have a loop between some stitches, I work the stitches like normal until it starts to pull, then I pull the cable through again. It helps if you pull it through closest to the side where you are pulling your yarn from (for me that's the right side). Because the placement of the cable is constantly changing, it doesn't stretch the stitches or anything.

Cables!

I just finished my first cables! I did the "criss cross cable" on a sleeper sac/ diaper cver for my newborn. I just dyed it green but need to wait for it to dry to take pics. These are great diaper covers cause they keep baby warm, keep in leaks, and make it very easy to change the diaper when baby's sleeping. I do wish I'd made it bigger though! Here's the pattern I used- http://knittingonthenet.com/stitches/crisscrosscable.htm

Kool Aid Dye

I've dyed a few of my wool knitting projects with kool aid. It does dye really well, it's unbelievable (although I wouldn't recommend actually drinking it ;-) So far, the two things I've dyed haven't come out well. The first, I tye dye'd and it just came out looking kinda weird. The second, I dipped in the dye and it bled onto the other color. The two colors were purple and green, so it made kind of a brownish color where they meet. I decided this time to dye the yarn before I made something with it. There are many instructions online for dying with kool aid but the easiest way for me was to fill a pot with water, place my kool aid in, put in my yarn (which I tied up cause I was going for a patterned kind of look), boiled it for about 10 minutes, let cool, dried, and voila! Brilliant but safe colors. I first dyed with the darker colors then moved up to lighter. You'll know if it's done when the water is clear. If the color is not brilliant enough, just add more kool aid.

For this one I used black cherry, then cherry, then orange.

For the next one, I used grape and blue raspberry kool aid.

For this one, I used lime and lemonade kool aid.

My Little Chef!

Cooking is also an artform, especially when you have as many food allergies as we do in our house! My son loves to cook, I mean LOVES to cook. He says he wants to be a chef. All he plays with is his cars, train, and my pots and pans and his wooden food. I try to make it a point to cook something with him everyday. Today it was gluten/dairy free brownies but we added a few leftover marshmallows and some sunflower butter (in place of peanut butter). It is soooo yummy!

Not much time for sewing but...

For my newborn, I wanted to use only natural and organic materials. I purchased some organic undyed sherpa and hemp fleece from http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cloth_diaper_supplies/ for around $10 a yard, and made my own diapers and baby blankets. The blankets were very simple, I got out my handy dandy rotary mat and cut myself out several layers. I took two at a time, straight stitched them together wrong side out, left a small hole, turned it right side out and stitched up the hole, and in a half hour I had the safest (and softest ;) baby blankets you can have for around $5 each.

For the diapers, I used the shape I wanted (I traced around a previously made diaper but you can find tons of diaper patterns online), cut it out, used the remnants to add thickness to the heavy pee spots in the diaper (the front for my boy but you would center it for a girl), stitched it in place on the wrong side, then stitched the whole diaper inside out leaving a small hole on one end. Then I took elastic and sewed it down around the leg openings and on the back. Turned it rightside out, stitched up the opening, and voila! A very inexpensive og cloth diaper. The extra remnants I had I made diaper liners with. You don't want to make the diaper too thick itself cause it'll never dry. Oh, and most importantly, I use a Snappi to keep it together. If you cd and don't have a Snappi- Go buy one! They're unbelievably wonderful! I've tried snaps and velcro and neither one hold up. Snappis or good old fashioned diaper pins are the way to go!

Wool Shorties

My first pair of shorties. I didn't use a pattern, just knitted them in the round with a k2p1 ribbing at the top, then I just guessed (baby wasn't here yet) as to length and width (I used 80 stitches per round for a newborn, but it was chunky wool), I didn't even make a gusset (didn't knw how at the time), and did a k2p1 ribbing for the legs. I made these without short rows, I will for now and forever put short rows in all of my diaper covers/pants/shorts. They just fit so much better. I do have a hard time with them though. Sometimes they come out perfect and other times I have little holes I have to sew up and I swear that I do it the same each time! Can't figure it out, I guess it's just beginner's errors that someday I'll look back on and laugh about ;-) Anyway, with all the drawbacks (no gusset or short rows) they fit surprisingly well.

Here's the sock monkey cover on my new baby!

What better distraction while in pre-labor than having your beautiful toddler paint your tummy!

I was inspired by a woman on a woolies group I'm on and created my first pattern (yes, this was the 3rd thing I ever knitted). I love sock monkeys, have made a few, but this is just too cute! The one on the left is my first attempt, the one on the right is the second one and is done very differently, it has short rows in the back. I'm working on a third that will have ears on the sides ;-)

I just started knitting in December, when my mom came to visit and I BEGGED her to teach me. She spent about 5 minutes, then left me to knit a scarf. That was a joke, it was terrible! It had holes and twisted stitches but thanks to knittinghelp.com, I've figured it out. The first thing I made was a diaper cover for my toddler. I ran out of blue yarn so I had to improvise! This is it-

I can't draw to save my life but I am great at mixing colors and creating textures on canvas. My son is also learning how to do this with his WASHABLE paints. Wish they made those for big people ;-)

Life Distractions

I finally feel ready to join the thousands of women out there who inspire, teach, and create! At the moment my passion is knitting; however, I will post other arts and crafts projects as well including lots of toddler friendly crafts (I have a 3 year old son).