FO Friday: Lotus Hat (+family love)

My aunt was released to hospice care and had a couple good days. On Wednesday she was screaming at Kobe for missing a rebound. But by Thursday afternoon she was having trouble breathing and it looked like she was on her way out. I raced back to LA and spent two days with the family. Thankfully, I had the left over yarn from my Hottie Cozy in my purse and enough left for a neat hat. I had saved the pattern in my phone, so it was perfect.

My cousin was happy to model it for me. You can see my aunt's awesome friends and family in the kitchen. We were surrounded by so many amazing people. It turned out the hat looked way better on my cousin. So now it's hers. :)
My aunt passed away the next day with all her children, grandchildren, me & my sister (her great-nieces) and a couple old dear family friends all around her. It was beautiful and sad and amazing. I miss her dearly but I feel her presence every single day.

FO Friday: Hottie Cozy

So I was reading My Life In Stitches by Rachel Herron. I was toward the end, sitting in my bed and my toes were freezing. Lo! The final chapter was about such a problem, which was solved by a hot water bottle- known in the Herron household as a "hottie". There was even a Hottie Cozy pattern! And HEY! I have wool that I have no idea what to do with!! I bought a water bottle and I started knitting. It was a perfect project for long hours in the hospital waiting room while my aunt was in the ICU. Mostly mindless knitting in the round with just one little cable to keep you aware of what you're doing. Awesome.

Rav'd.

FO Friday: Waves of Love

This is an OOOOOOOLD WIP. I started it at a family craft rave Thanksgiving weekend 2010! I don't know why those sleeves were too much for me, but I got to them and just stopped. I finally decided to rip the sleeves and do them in solid black. It worked out well.

I gifted it to my so handsome cousin, Ameer, who turned one year old. These were the school colors of my alma mater.... since Ameer's daddy & I went to the same high school, this was perfect!

Rav'd

FO Friday: Pookie

My dear Ravelry friend Michelle sent me the Pookie pattern with one stipulation: she wanted one of her own. :) Her wish is my command.

How cute is that little hat? I love him. Michelle has named him Hank and he seems very happy in his new home.

FO Friday: Another Hippo

Last Wednesday I showed you a WIP. Unlike a few other ones, this one actually got finished!

Behold, The Creepy Hippo Hat of Love

The eyes look a little weird and bugged out, but I'm hoping it looks cute ON the baby. :) I finished it last week but still haven't managed to get to the post office and mail it off. Momma's studying for the BAR, so it's not likely I'll see her to give it in person anytime soon. But maybe the small surprise to warm her little one's head might give her a happy break from torts and... um... sidebars? Sorry... all my lawyering knowledge has been gleaned from How I Met Your Mother and the OJ Simpson murder trial.

It has, of course, been Rav'd.

FO Friday: Chadwick the Catholic Caterpillar

Last Thrusday Rebecca Danger (of Knitted Monster fame) posted that her newest pattern was available.

Now, I've had The Big Book of Knitted Monsters for a while and haven't made jack squat from it. So why, when I saw this little caterpillar, did I HAVE TO make him in one weekend? I don't know. Something about him called to me. So I grabbed whatever Knit Picks Shine Worsted I could find and I went to town on my dpns.

It hurt. I knit super tight on dpns for some reason (perhaps my intense fear of laddering at the joins) and this did NOT make for happy fingers come Sunday night. But you know what? I cast on sometime Friday and, despite having a very busy weekend, that little caterpillar was stuffed & finished before the Super Bowl.

And I love him.

He's really not so little. Minus his antenae he's over 15 inches tall and about 9 inches around. But he's cute, right? I posed him on a bookshelf, because Rebecca calls him "the Shakespearean Caterpillar" and so I thought he'd be literary. But as it turns out the books behind him are rather Catholic (ok... save a couple Latino Lit and Six Sigma for Managers). Thus, my Chadwick is Catholic. 

I made him with no intended recipient in mind... but one may have come into being. It's all confidential and may not happen... but there is much hope and much prayer.... and much knitting. Hopefully I'll have fun news to share next week.

January 2012 Finished Objects

Well.

Thanks to the OKC Stash Down I have been a busy little knitter this month. Check it:

ELEVEN finished projects in one month! I'm pretty excited about that. Granted, one of them was a UFO from last year and most are small, but they're done and I pretty much love all of them!

Here's the run down:
Top Row:
Winter House Cloth- One of many I plan to make for Christmas gifts this year.
"Pebbles" Hat- The pattern name is actually "Republic Hat" but this was made to go with a Pebbles vest. It matches really well with the band of garter at the bottom & the little buttons. Perfect.
Dizzy Hat- A very sweet girl from the OKC sent me this Debbie Bliss Rialto from her stash. She apparently doesn't know I'm stashing DOWN this year. I felt a huge compulsion to use the yarn as soon as it got to me so it didn't go into my stash! Luckily, the yarn is AWESOME. Very springy, so it's super easy to knit with. I made this little hat for myself. It's tiny but I like the way it looks sitting on the back of my head :)
Insomnia Baby- Also thanks to the Stash Down I have a compulsion to use up every bit of a skein. So this little gnome was meant to take up some left over Malabrigo. I still have some though...

Middle Row:


Grandma's Favorite- An experiment for the Christmas cloths. I'm still not sure how I feel about this pattern but I have a TON of Dishie to use up, so I forsee another go at this one later in the year.
Elise Shawl- This was originally going to be for a swap but I was really unsure of the color for my partner. I like it but I'm not sure it looks good on me. This is sitting in the gift stash until I figure out what exactly to do with it.
Radicowl- I LOVED crocheting this and love wearing it even more. I get tons of compliments on it, too. I can totally see making more of these in the future. It's just SUCH a yarn eater, being crochet and all.

Bottom Row:


Pebble Vest- I've made this vest more than once. It's a great, quick baby knit but it is definitely newborn sized. Made this for a friend-of-a-friend who is always super excited to see me knitting & crocheting.
Zinnia Rialto- This is a baby hat that used up every last inch of the Debbie Bliss Rialto I was gifted. I LOVE the way it turned out. This is staying in my gift stash for a very special baby.
Hat Fit For A Best Friend- I've already blogged this. It served its purpose, keeping Clay nice and warm on his trip. :) I washed it for him to avoid accidental felting & it held up pretty well.
Another Zinnia- I frogged not one but TWO baby knits for my high school BFF's newest arrival. I gave up on cute sweaters as time was getting short and just went with this little hat. I'm pretty pleased with it. I kind of love that it's both knit & crochet. This may become my go-to girl gift.

I'm really loving how productive the Stash Down is encouraging me to be! I should have a LOT more finished projects this year and hopefully have some gifts ready for birthdays and Christmas without having to rush.


What have you worked on this year? Any accomplishments you'd like to share?

FO Friday: Hat Fit For A Best Friend

Clay is one of my best friends. Not just like the title "Oh... he's my BFF". No, like when you talk about things a friend should be- Clay is one of the best.

He's also a little bit of a nerd. He likes rocks and movies about cavemen. He wants to learn to can his own fruits & veggies. His dream vacation for as long as I've known him was Iceland. Iceland. Who desperately wants to go to Iceland? Well- he got his wish last year when his partner booked a trip for them and I was so excited for him.

Another big dream of his was to go to a wilderness survival training. This year I decided that would be his birthday present. I researched several in the area and found one with good reviews that didn't seem to be a secret militia training ground or something. Basically, I printed the brochure and said "this is your birthday present" because there weren't gift certificates or anything and I wanted to be sure he'd want to do it and that he picked a date himself. He's going this weekend and is so excited it's ridiculous. 

But it's going to rain... possibly SNOW... yes... SNOW in Southern California this weekend. 

So, in order to give his (admittedly large) ears some protection, I made him a hat. It's nice, soft wool that will keep him warm even when wet. I made it a little longer than normal so it covers his whole ears instead of just the tops like the pattern calls for. 

Ha! Doesn't he look cute? It's an awesome pattern with some cool decreases. Every other knit ridge disappears about an inch from the center, then the others do until you have just a little star at the top. The variegated yarn makes it a little hard to see put here is Clay graciously letting me photograph the top of his head outside Chipotle.

For info on the yarn & link to the pattern as well as my notes- check out my Ravelry page.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

FO Friday: Hiphop-o-potomus

My friend brought her little 9 month old daughter to my birthday brunch. Baby G is so freaking cute. She was super well behaved & was quite amused with the dozen adults passing her around. Her momma mentioned that they like hippo things for her. I stayed up a few nights and through together a hat & booties for her.

The hat was just off the top of my head as I went along. The hippo applique was fun. I adjusted the sizing by skipping a few rows for the ones on the shoes. 

I followed GoodKnits' pattern for toddler shoes, but again skipped many rows because Baby G has teensy tiny feet that have barely grown since she was born.

For something I threw together in a couple hours, I'm pretty pleased. If I hadn't been making up the hat & trying to figure out how to reduce the hippo pattern on the fly I think it would have taken half the time. I wrote a little card to Baby G thanking her for coming to my party and sent it off in the mail. They were well received and I can't wait to see her in them!

Naturally, the deets have all been Rav'd.

Tah Dah: Very Hungry Caterpillar (Updated with Pattern Idea)

So I realize I've been super quiet. Our Red Roses winner is patiently waiting for her CD. It's taken a little longer than I would have hoped because she's really interested in getting it signed & I was out of town last weekend so I didn't see AJ at church. I'm working during his Mass this Sunday, so I'll be sending it with Dad to get autographed... assuming AJ is in town. I can't keep up with him. :)

I had to scroll through past entries to see if I had already shared this next project. I'm REALLY excited about it. My bestie is expecting a boy & her favorite book growing up was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I absolutely love Eric Carle's illustrations and decided to try to make a baby "cocoon" & hat that looked like the caterpillar in the book.

I started with some Araucania Pomaire Solid that I received as a gift & had left over from the Forest vest. I bought a couple different colors of Araucania Patagonia, which is more "bumpy" with it's thick/thin texture. I think the tonal dye on both of them coupled with the bumpiness mimics the look of the paintings pretty well. I actually kind of wish I could have replaced the Pomaire with a similarly colored Patagonia, but it's a hard yarn to find and the price on this little piece got out of control anyway.

I improvised it for the most part. I think the cocoon itself might be a little big, but I'm not too concerned. The hat was just a basic baby hat shape with a rolled brim. I made the face out of scraps of Knit Picks Shine.

Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out. Such a quick knit and a satisfying result. The momma already has the book, so I bought a little Very Hungry Caterpillar rattle to go with the set. The family baby shower is a book theme, so I plan to give it to her then. I'm hosting the friend shower and have a whole stack of gifts I'm giving at that one. :)

For those asking for a pattern... I just free handed this and have no idea what I did. HOWEVER... you could just knit a basic baby hat pattern (like this one) and then crochet the details from this pattern. I just knit a tube for the cocoon. Basically something like this with alternated colors. Have fun!

Now what to do with the left over weird yarn......

For the Easter Baby

My friend from church just gave birth to her first (much anticipated) baby. She and her husband are high school sweethearts and I'm so happy for them.

The mommy was also a member of Lambs of God Household at her Catholic college. (Households are kind of like sororities.) So.... Spring baby + Lambs.... I had to make something cute.

It started with the hat:

I used Vanna's choice in pink for the inside of the ears, which reminded me I still had a blanket I used that same yarn in...

So I thought if I just added a set of booties & some little mittens I'd have my favorite gift in the world... a whole baby set!

I'm SO looking forward to dropping it off tomorrow! I hope mommy & daddy love it.

Recent Projects

I've been a bad blogger but a pretty good crafter. Life has been pretty busy, with the NET team coming next week, several baby showers, work being a little crazy & my own stuff going on. I hope to have time to go over all the fun things I've been making in detail soon... but in the meantime, here's a quick run down of the knitted & crocheted items I've completed recently:

Forest Vest

Made for Baby Flores. This is actually the first knit item I've ever cast off! I was pretty pleased to have completed it. There's some MAJOR flaws, but I still really like it. I've been on the hunt for good semi-solid/tonal yarns ever since this project. If you know of any good ones PLEASE let me know!

Granny Love

Made for Baby G. I took some grannies I've had for a while and put them together into a quick blanket. I love the retro feel.

Cuddly Sweater

Also for Baby G. Man... I love me some KnitPicks Comfy. It's so soft and has great stitch definition. This project was SUCH a learning experience. I had to rip back about 6 rows at one point!

Frilly Scarf

I just wanted something to throw on that would add some classy interest to my everyday wear. I've been wearing it pretty often and I love the femininity.

Rainbow Clutch

Remember when I talked about Knit Picks Chroma making me break my "no stash buying" rule? Well... this is what some of the Prism colorway ended up as. It's a pattern test for a gal on Ravelry. I'll go into detail on the project & include a link to the pattern once she's done with it.

What have you been working on?

Ugly Christmas Scarf

As promised, here's a picture of the Ugly Christmas Scarf. This baby got a lot of use in the two weeks leading up Christmas through New Year's Eve.

I'm wearing it here on Christmas Day, playing with the Bucky Balls I gave my cousin for Christmas. Well, I insisted I wasn't "playing" with them (because that would make me a nerd like her) but I was obsessed with getting them back into the cube shape they were packed in. It's really hard, but now that I figured it out I always have to "clean them up" if I see anyone put them down.

Gifted

I'm totally failing at being a blogger lately.

First I lost my cable that allows me to upload photos from my camera. Now I've lost my camera! As a result I have no pictures of the completed projects I gifted this weekend. :( Sad.

The first is the Blessed Mother Prayer shawl (shown below about half way done)


This was my first attempt at filet crochet which is a relatively easy technique. Basically you create a grid using double crochet, chain 2, double crochet to get "open" squares and replace the chains with two double crochets to get "filled in" squares. The only thing that makes filet an "intermediate" technique is the need for an even gauge.

This shawl was also my first "prayer shawl". Basically the idea behind a prayer shawl is that you make it with a person in mind who's going through a hard time or is sick. You pray for them as you make it and then the shawl acts as a reminder that they are surrounded in prayer. I really love this idea.

The Blessed Mother shawl was gifted to one of my favorite women at church. Joan had a mastectomy last week. She's healing well. I knew she would. She's one of the strongest, most faith-filled people I know.

-----

The second gifted item was Maya's 2 year old dress (shown below prior to any of my hated finishing)


True to form, I waited until the party's official start time to bother with buttons & ribbons. I also had to sc around the top to give a cleaner finish.

From the book

I purchase a 7/8" single-sided satin ribbon in "french pink" for the waist but couldn't find anything thinner for the shoulder ties at any of my local sewing stores. I ended up buying some on ebay. Naturally, when I was rushed to finish the dress I couldn't find the little ribbon, so I ended up using the excess 7/8" at the shoulders. It looked much more "lush", so I was happy. Wouldn't it be nice if I could show you? Yes. Yes it would.

I promise to be better.... if not for your sake then for my own sense of accomplishment. :)

Stream of Consciousness Blanket

I've been sort of micro-blogging on ravelry. I started the very popular Tiramisu Blanket using Caron One Pound because it's cheap. I thought this was a good way to give you a glimpse inside my brain as I change my mind about a project...

4/29/10- I have no business starting a blanket with so many WIPs. I just can’t help it. This thing is supposed to be 32x32 inches but so far the inside section is only 22 inches wide. I tried using a larger hook but it was too open and if I’m going to make an entire blanket in single crochet you better believe it’s gonna be a solid. I have a tendency to make “baby blankets” that are huge, so maybe this is a good thing.

4/30/10- Man this yarn sucks. Couple that with the solid sc pattern and this could make for a really stiff fabric. It’s not totally unusable but it’s not lush and soft like I like things to be. Hopefully it’ll soften up once washed.

5/1/10- It’s coming along faster than I expected considering the sc. I’m still kicking myself for going with the J hook. I’m afraid I’m going to hate it when done. I do kind of like how neatly it folds up as a result of being a little stiff. That’s weird, right? Right. Of course it’s weird.

5/3/10- I put this down for a couple days to finish up the Hot Mama Smock. I’m about half-way through the center section and getting used to the fabric. After reading some other users’ comments on this yarn I’m pretty confident that it’ll soften up after I wash it. I can’t wait to get to the border.

5/10/10- I put it down AGAIN to give my poor thumb a rest. I really need to learn to hold the hook looser. I finished the main body & started on the border. I realized if I did the border as written the blanket would only be 26 inches by 26 inches. Too small! So I kept the dc/ribbon row but now I’m going to add a hdc row, a tulip row, another hdc, another ribbon & then I’m not entirely sure how I’ll finish it off. It will add a couple inches per side and hopefully I’ll like it more. :)

5/12/10- Alrighty... so after the tulip row I did a couple hdc rows and called it a day. I'm forgoing weaving in any ribbon because I think it'd be a bit much. I'm so pleased with it! YAY!

Since it started with the "Tiramisu" pattern but I added pink flowers to it I'm calling it The Italian Birthday Cake blanket. Get it? Cause I "frosted" tiramisu with pink flowers like a classic birthday cake! :)

Here's the finished blanket. I'm pretty pleased.


What do you think?