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.

Matryoshka Baby Shower Details

So now that I've had a few days to recover, I thought I'd share a little about the big baby shower!

Choosing a non-traditional theme was a challenge. While matryoshkas are popping up all over in jewelry, stationary and such it still wasn't like I could pop into a party supply store and pick up lots of matryoshka paper goods. We also wanted to keep things classy with a simple blue & white pallet. We used several shades of blue, which made things look less matchy-match.

The tables:

The flowers were simple tissue paper with pipe cleaner stems. Jen wrapped the inside of the vases with light blue tissue to conceal the pipe cleaner. We picked up some rubbery doilies at the 99 Cent Store. I have to admit, I was leery of them when we made the purchase, but Jen has a much better eye for those sorts of things. I think having them made a big difference in the look of the table. The confetti is also paper. We got a couple bags at $4 a pop from Party City- a big party supply store in town.

The favor boxes were these printables I purchased from Fantastic Toys on etsy. The pdf came quickly and was beautiful. They were kind of a pain to make, but that's not a design problem... I just don't think they're meant to make 30+ at a time. If I never see these things again it might be too soon. They were a hit though. We used the 3 biggest sizes (the pdf comes with 5 sizes) and filled them with butter mints bought at WinCo in the bulk section.


Other decor:

Jen bought these cardboard 3D letters (and exclamation point!) from Paper Source and covered them in tissue paper. I loved this little addition to to food table. People also grabbed these to use in the photo booth.

We had only a few traditional matryoshkas to scatter about, but they were nice little accents. We had planned to hang blue, aqua, white & a few green paper lanterns from the ceiling but it didn't work out. The white ones looked cute on the food table though.

I used the images from the invitations to spruce up some basic Avery name tags. We asked people to write their name & how they were related to one or both mommies. I chose the classic "friend of mommies". My sister decided to go with a more obscure reference coupled with a really old nickname. :)

Those same invitation dolls came up again as cupcake toppers. (Look, if you pretty much completely redesigned & totally recolored images using just MS Paint, you would reuse the heck out of them too!) The cupcakes were ordered sight-unseen from Bakalicious. I had NO time to make 3 dozen carrot cake cupcakes and no desire to try to figure out how to transport them anyway. I jumped on yelp, saw that this lady had fabulous reviews & that she delivered and just decided to try it. She was a joy! The cupcakes were light and moist, the frosting was just sweet enough but still fluffy and they looked beautiful. At $2 a cupcake she was by far the best buy in the North LA area. I highly, HIGHLY recommend ordering from her if you're in the area. I plan to use her again for an upcoming party.

The activities:
Along with two classic games (Baby Tray Memory- try to remember all the baby items shown to you- and Pregnancy Trivia- answer questions about the mommy-to-be's pregnancy) we tried two newer ideas.

Ice Ice Baby: This was, honestly, a little creepy looking... but everyone had fun. I purchased a matryoshka shaped ice cube tray and froze tiny plastic babies inside. We handed these ice babies out along with plastic bowls to catch the water. Without breaking the ice (it must be melted) and without leaving the room, the first person to get the baby out of the ice wins. My sister & Dr. Steven (an Ob/Gyn) ran to the sink and fought over the hot water while a coworker ran to the iron! Dr. Steven got the baby out first, which made everyone laugh. The whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds. I would suggest not letting people use anything but natural heat.

Onesie Decorating: This is an increasingly popular activity that takes a lot of prep work & a lot of time at the party, but I think it's worth it. We purchased a bunch of onesies in different sizes on sale. Then we collected fabric paint (flat, not puffy paint), some stencils, fabric markers, iron on letters & some decals. We brought a small table-top ironing board & iron and set up a little table. Throughout the shower people went up and made their onesies. I was really afraid the mommies would end up with 30 hideous things no one would want their baby to wear, but there were actually some cute products! The less-adventurous people used the iron-on decals while the more artistically inclined used the other supplies. We strung up some jute and let people hang their creations up with clothespins to dry/show off.

Handmade Gifts:
I am a firm believer that children need handmade presents. I can't tell you how disappointed I am that I'm almost always the only one bringing something made especially for the baby to most showers now. Come on grandmas! If you can't pull out your needles, hooks & sewing machines for your grandbaby, when will you?

Ok... end rant... here are the special handmade items made or purchased for Jack

I bought this adorable personalized hanger from Floating Owl Designs on etsy. It was really well made, came on time & she was a pleasure to work with. I can totally see buying the grown up versions for future brides. (The little suitcases were purchased from Land of Nod. They were packed with clothes, books, shoes and....)

"Ella Funt" made with KnitPicks Comfy Sport in Planetarium. Colorwork done in Comfy & Shine scraps from a blanket I'll be gifting at the family shower. (Details on Ravelry.) This was a really fun, remarkably fast knit- especially considering I'm a new knitter & this was my first fair isle project.

"Owlet" made with KnitPicks Comfy Bulky in Arbor (now discontinued). As I've said before- I LOVE this pattern. I plan to make a bunch of them for the babies in my family this Christmas. (details on Ravelry)

I totally missed getting a picture of the "car snuggy" that a friend I don't know made. It was a crochet square- maybe 24x24 inches. So a small blanket- meant for the baby to snuggle with in the car. Totally cute, quick present idea.

And finally.... I saved the pregnant mommy's brother's girlfriend's gift for last because it is INCREDIBLE:

This was a needle felted elephant, done entirely free hand. It was just over 12 inches tall! If you've never needled felted you might not understand the incredibleness of this. It's HUGE for this type of project and she didn't use any sort of form underneath. It's just polyfil covered in wool fiber & felted by hand with a needle tool. The girl who made this is an incredible artist. She's made beautiful sculptures for each of the family members but even knowing that, this still blew me away. I think she was glad someone knew what kind of work had to be put into it. :)

Overall, I think the baby shower was a huge success and totally worth all the work & stress that went into pulling it off. Of course, when my other best friend said it looks like he & his partner will be adopting before the end of the year & was I ready for another baby shower I almost socked him. :) But I am... or I will be... just let me take a nap for like a week.


What is YOUR favorite baby shower game/theme. Any suggestions that will make the next party totally awesome?

Teacher Appreciation Week

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I know it's super late but better late than never, right? :)

As a daughter of a teacher (and goddaughter and niece and cousin.... yeah, we have a lot of teachers in my family) I can tell you that while candy is easy & apple themed gifts are cute... teachers get TONS of those things! Here are some of my favorite teacher presents...

Purse organizer & essentials from All Things Thrifty. (Bonus: great Mother's Day gift!)

Cold drink cup & drink mix from Lisa Storms. (I just saw these cups at Joann's for $2 I think)

Office Essentials from Eighteen25.

To all you teachers out thee... thank you for all you do!

The Owl Saga

I'm making an Owlet. This is slightly insane because I've only made one other knit sweater (which had horrible mistakes) and I've never done any cabling. But I'm doing it.

I've had minor issues the whole time. The sweater looks huge and will probably have to wait to be worn for an entire year. I had to redo one sleeve when I got ahead of myself. But then this weekend I made the HUGE mistake.

I was watching a Scream marathon with the mommies of the giftee, so I didn't want to show the pattern. I would sneak glimpses of it to make sure I was doing things right. I finished the second sleeve during Scream 1. By Scream 2 I was connecting the sleeves to the body & feeling pretty good about myself. During (the horrendously awful) Scream 3 I started the short rows on the back. Then, as per the pattern, I switched to my smaller needles and.... wait... start the ribbing? That didn't make any sense. Where are the owls??

The instruction "Here come the owls! Follow the chart for 19 rows!" is in bold at the top of a page. But it's the only line above a huge photo, so when I snuck a peek at my pattern and stuffed it back in my bag before the mommies could see I totally looked past it to the decrease rows. When I got home I seriously considered frogging the entire sweater, but it's Comfy & it tends to shed.. so I frogged only back to the main body. Only...

(Click to enlarge)

I ripped back an extra row in the front of the sweater somehow, so I had this long loop of yarn connected to each armpit. Afraid to further screw things up I decided to try to work from here.

You can see here, on the right you have the yarn I'm supposed to be working the next row with, but on the left in the same stitch is the yarn for the row I shouldn't have ripped out! I have no idea if what I did is right, but here was my process:

Knit one with left side yarn

slip stitch back to left needle

knit one with right side yarn

repeat across until I got to the end of the accidentally ripped row

It was fairly easy. I'm not sure it saved me any time, but it felt safer than ripping back another half row when clearly I'd already screwed up.

I'm on to the cables now and it's not too bad. Hopefully I'll have a final product to show before the week is out!

I'm a Knitter Now

I'm definitely NOT saying I'm giving up crochet. Crochet is my first love and still what I turn to when I want to make something quickly and have full confidence that it will work out the first time. However, having finally gotten the hang of knitting, I've gone ahead and made a couple major purchases.

After getting a "try it set" of Knit Picks Interchangables a couple months back I confirmed my original hypothesis that I'd like the Harmony Wood tips the most. Am I sorry I shelled out the $20 for the try it set? No. I would have driven myself crazy thinking I'd made the wrong choice otherwise. Besides, I have a crazed need to switch back and forth between projects, so having more than one set of the most commonly used tips isn't a bad thing.

So... I purchased a full set of Harmony Interchangeable needles, as well as an extra, longer cable (I have visions of knit blankets dancing in my head) and a couple of the smaller sized fixed circulars since the interchangeables only go down to size 4. I also purchased a full set of 6 inch dpns (sized 0-3). Honestly, I think I should have gotten the 5 inch or even maybe the 4s... but oh well. It's done. Along with a few extra little things for my on-the-go knit kit and here's what you have:

And you didn't think I could order from Knit Picks and NOT get any yarn, right? Yes... I continue to fail at the yarn diet just as miserably as I do on any food diet. Behold my shame:

To my credit: none of this is "stash" yarn. It all has a very specific purpose.

4 skeins Comfy Bulky in Arbor: For an Owlet for A&O's bun in the oven. A is one of my oldest friends and she LOVES owls, dark green and anything handmade. This is one of approximately 5 gagillion projects I have in mind for this baby. I've already cast-on for this. :)

3 skeins Wool of the Andes in Winter's Night: For a pair of the ever-so-popular French Pressed Slippers for myself. This is really a test-knit for Christmas. I've never felted anything before. If these go well I hope to make several pair for presents this winter. 3 skeins of WotA makes a large pair. At $1.99 a skein for many colors, this is a super cute uber cheap present!

2 skeins Chroma Worsted in Midwinter and Mix Tape: For a Noro Striped Scarf. Honestly, I researched the way different colorways worked together forEVER and then at the last minute made a completely random choice and now I'm not so sure about it. We'll see how they work out. If it doesn't I love this yarn enough to get two more skeins that work better and make two scarves!

And finally, because you aren't sick of looking at the million ways I spend money yet... here's the whole list o' goodies I purchased:

Have you made any fun fiber purchases lately? Or do you have any recommendations on how I can stop buying every yarn that catches my eye? Seriously... I have a problem!

Favorite things

Danyelle of {dandee} did an awesome give-away in celebration of her 30th birthday. She made up a pretty package of her 30 favorite things. Today she asked her readers to share what their "favorite things" packages would include. Funny enough... some of mine match hers.

In no particular order, here are 30 of my favorite things (if I could afford such a package!):

1. Washi stickers

2. Mental_Floss Magazine

3. Le Petit Ecolier in Milk Chocolate

4. JooSweetie Keyring

5. Japanese Masking Tape

6. Best Cupcake Icing Tips

7. a "cupman"

8. my favorite eyeliner

9. just about anything by Jonathan Adler

10. HIMYM awesomeness

11. Paper straws

12. Set (only the best game in the world)

13. Some yum straight from California

14. Mexican paper flowers

15. fabric buttons from my favorite shop

16. Pirate's Booty

17. Chloe

18. Skin on dvd

19. single serving packets of Abuelita

20. an awesome project bag

21. Specher Root Beer

22. Modern Family

23. C. O. Bigelow Ultra Mentha Lip Shine

24. pilloncillo

25. African Rooibos

26. Photofinish Light

27. Suri Merino yarn

28. fresh homemade marshmallows

29. Stephanie Fizer notecards

30. Hate Mail

Of course, this year I'm turning 33... so I'd have to think of 3 more. :) Also, I'd have to win the lottery cause your homegirl has expensive tastes and you KNOW if I was buying all these things for a package, I'd have to get it all for myself too.

Go tell Danyelle what YOU'D put in your package!

Baby Excitement

The most recent posting by yarn harlot included this little aside:

(it looks like a rash of babies is breaking out around here, very thrilling for this knitter.)

Isn't that the case for every knitter/crocheter? I know I get very VERY excited when there are several buns in ovens I love. Even ovens I'm only sort-of close to... ovens I have never made nor purchased a single gift for suddenly move to the top of my gift-making list. Every bun I may see a picture of on Facebook is in desperate need of something made by these two hands.

It's all getting so much worse now that I've purchased Wee Wonderfuls. Lord, help us. My home is going to become Santa's workshop year-round.

The Current State of My Kitchen Counter

'Tis the season, my friends. The holiday baking/candy making has begun. Pray for me.

Gift Wrap Caddy

Since I'm on a gift wrapping kick, I thought I'd share this awesome idea for anyone who didn't catch it:

Jen at eighteen25 shared this awesome gift her friend gave her:

It's a gift wrapping caddy made from a drink carrier from a fastfood joint! How adorable is that? I think it makes a great gift for coworkers or neighbors. Definitely a good alternative to baked goods which, let's face it, NO ONE needs more of this time of year.

Hope on over to eighteen25 to see all the fun details!

What are you giving those "small gift" people in your life? Do you give presents to the whole office, or just a select few?

Gifts of Wine & Love

I have a huge stash of wine. It started on a trip to the Bay in February. The first weekend was my friend's birthday and 20 of his closest friends piled into a mini-bus & went to four wineries in Napa.

I stayed the rest of the week with my cousin & the following weekend my gay husband & his partner came up to celebrate their anniversary. They're a unique couple & like to share a lot of their lives with their friends. So when they invited me wine tasting in Sonoma, I was all over it. Since it was their special weekend, I hired a driver to take us around. With only 3 of us we ended up hitting NINE wineries.

Anyhow, two weekends of tastings made me really open up to new types of wine. My pallet had matured since my first experiences with wine and I really appreciated different varietals. I went crazy. I started buying from Wine Woot on almost a weekly basis.

The problem is, I don't DRINK wine that often. I live with a recovered alcoholic & a 22 year old who drinks anything but wine. So now I want to thin it out a bit. Luckily, there's lots of hostess gifts and Christmas presents in there! But of course, I can't just leave it at that. The bottles must be wrapped & have a little crochet love in there too.

I used Lucy's Snowflake Pattern, which is so easy & adorable. After the last round I chained 80, slipstitched into the 5th chain from the hook & did another snowflake so they're connected. It took maybe 15 minutes while watching The Joy Luck Club (so factor in time for sniffling and wiping away tears!). I'm using some Knit Pick's Comfy in fingering weight which I have an ungodly amount of. It would look so much prettier in something with a little sparkle, like maybe Bernat Baby Coordinates. Now that I say that, I think I might have some buried in my stash somewhere. I'll have to fish it out.

As you can tell, I'm getting really into the whole Christmas wrapping thing. Expect more gift wrapping posts... including photos of my friend's upcoming Christmas Wrapping Extravaganza on Friday!

How are your Christmas plans going?

Christmas Preview

I'm going to sound crazy right now. Ready? Prepare yourself....

I spent 2 hours today preparing for wrapping Christmas presents. That's right- I didn't wrap presents during those two hours... I just prepared for it.

Here's the story:

Every year my friend & her family have a small Gift Wrapping Party. Basically, 7 or 8 ladies get together, put on some holiday music, eat some food and wrap presents together. It's just a fun little get together. I'm almost never done with my shopping, but it's still fun to hang out and at least get SOMETHING done.

So I'm trying to be frugal this year. Wrapping paper is expensive! So I bought a roll of "Easy Mask"- which is this thin kraft paper that comes on a roll about 12 inches wide & 180 inches long- to use as my wrapping paper. I love the "brown paper packages tied up with string" kind of imagery.

For "bows" I'm using little projects I've made throughout the year as a result of my craft ADD. This includes small crocheted motifs, tiny amigurumi toys, some origami flowers... stuff like that. I'll be tying these on with left over ribbon or maybe some crocheted chains or other left over yarn.

Because I'm extra insane, I went ahead and wrapped one present, just so I could show you a picture. Happily, in the background you'll see my first Christmas card all addressed & ready to wing it's way across the country too!

I'm pretty excited and I'll be sure to share the big pile o' gifts all wrapped up when I'm done.

How are your holiday plans shaping up?

Bad Blogger

Sorry guys. I know I've been MIA for a while here. I've been mad busy, yo. I officially took over as the contact person for NET in my area. It's not a TON of work, except that I happened to take the reigns in the midst of the busy time. Tracking down very busy people, getting lots of paperwork together, trying to fill empty dates... it's fun but takes lots of time & thought.

I've also been trying to spend time with various friends who are scattered about Southern California. My BFF and I made some gift decisions. That's right- we don't just surprise each other with gifts, there are decisions to be made. For the second time in our 15 year friendship, we'll be giving each other Advent gifts. So starting 4 weeks prior to Christmas, we are giving each other a gift for EVERY day. Eek! We did this in High School & I think we kept costs down by saying half of them had to be handmade or something.

This year our rule is that each gift must fit in an envelope. Weird right? I'm not sure how that happened, but it's an interesting challenge. As you might expect, I am also making at least a few of the gifts. I'm working on the first now and have several thoughts brewing.

Here's some inspiration:



I'm thinking perhaps some bunting with her name for her office (she works with young people)



Some pretty little thing to hang from a doorknob or drawer pull



I could recreate this cozy in some fall (more BFF appropriate) colors

So there's 3... out of like 28 gifts. *sigh* Anyone out there have some cute small ideas? We can fudge the "envelope" size a bit-- as long as there's an envelope in existence that it would fit in, I think I can swing it. :)

Decisions

Once again I'm putting off making a blanket for myself and repurposing the yarn.

All that KnitPicks Shine Sport I bought will now become a baby blanket. Yes, there is another "niece" or "nephew" on the way! I'm so excited! But you know me, this isn't a
"real" nice or nephew. You ready for it? This one takes a LOT of relationships to be clear! This baby is...

....my mother's first cousin's ex-husband's sister's son's child.

Alternately....

....my second cousins' first cousin (on the other side of the family)'s child.

OR

....my godfather's nephew's child.

or

...not related to me, really.

But really, this child is family. And he or she will be the child of a couple I absolutely adore- both as a couple and individually. My "cousin" is the catch of all catches- handsome, smart, sensitive, funny, understanding. He's an incredibly passionate teacher at a time when teachers don't have a lot of time or energy left over to be passionate about teaching. He's fantastic. And his wife is so sweet and beautiful and kind and funny. I've enjoyed ever second I've been able to spend with her and they just seem so happy with each other. This baby is going to be surrounded and flooded with love.

So... now to find the perfect project. I'd like to start soon (mostly because it will keep me from buying yarn for MY blanket and I really want to get my stash down). Of course we don't know the gender yet... but since I have a rainbow of yarn, I think we'll just go multi-colored. I also only have one little skien of each color, so while I'd like to try a star blanket like the one below, I don't want to have to buy more of one color for the increases.



Maybe a granny squarish thing? I like this:



Or I could see this in lots of different colors:




Any ideas? Did I not mention something that you think would be perfect?

Christmas

Oh yes. Is it evil to talk about Christmas gifts when it's only August? I don't care. I need to think about it. Since I've always been broke and/or living at home with my parents, I've actually never been responsible for major holiday gift purchases until last year. I always just bought for my closest cousins, my sister, my parents & godparents. All the uncles, aunts & most cousins' gifts were purchased by mom with a little help from dad.

Well, last year was our first year without mom and I took over most of the responsibility. Dad took care of his nephews, a couple grandnephews & his sister. I took care of everyone else on both sides. Including the few friends I buy for, that left 30 presents in my to-buy list. This year I will (hopefully!) be in my own apartment by Christmas. Since I'm now in my 30s I really think it's time to let dad figure out the gifts from him & my sister and I'll give my own gifts to them. I'll actually probably end up spending less that way since a gift from just broke-ass me doesn't have to be as substantial as a gift "from the family".

So here are some thoughts on things to make:
washcloths w/ handmade soaps for the ladies
dia de los muertos potholders for the chicana power ladies
Divine Hats for young ladies (my cousins like to take their teens snow tubing)

I already have a few other things squirreled away- both crocheted and purchased. Washcloths and hats only take about 30 minutes each but the potholders require colorwork, so they take a bit longer. Plus then I have to embroider them. I actually plan on giving a couple friends sets of those as well.

Truth be told, I don't have the pattern for the potholders. It's in The Happy Hooker, which I refuse to buy because it's so basic. This one pattern is the only thing I want and it's really just the chart I'm after. I've tried figuring it out myself based on pictures, but it's just not coming out right. Still- I'm determined.

Have you started planning for Christmas yet? Will you be making or buying most gifts?

LIES!

Right after yesterday's cowl post I realized I HAVE made H something! Granted, it was only a couple little washclothes I crocheted when I woke up early for our spa appointment & couldn't go back to sleep... but I DID make them and give them to her! I even took a picture of them!



Right. So there.

These are really easy and fun and I love them. Use a 100% cotton yarn, chain a washcloth-width bit, half-double crochet (or, you know, whatever) until it's washcloth-lengthed and you done, homie. Love it. These are fantastic for your face and body, giving some gentle exfoliation action. They are also pretty good dish-washing clothes. I think they'd be an awesome way to add a personal touch to a little bath & body gift. Right? Of course right.