Momma and Baby Knit Monsters

I was just about to start writing this post, and as some reconnaissance, I casually asked my daughter if she had a name for her knit monster toys. She told me no, and that she "didn't necessary like them that much." Ahhh, the fickleness of four year olds. And here I was, all prepared to rave about how much she loved these monsters. 

Direct quote after asking her about her monsters, "I'm getting super mad at you for not letting me [eat] anything." I'm sure I seem like the most horrible mother ever, making her wait 10 minutes to eat until dinner is ready. So, her dislike might have been influenced by her rumbling tummy and my horrible mommy meanness.

I love these monsters. If she doesn't like them anymore, I will start sleeping with them at night. I went to five different fabric stores looking for real wool felt to make their mouths. I carefully selected the yarn. I agonized over what type of eyes to use. I even had to use double pointed needles! Heck, I may even change out the yellow in my gray and yellow bedroom to pink and green to match, I'm so darn fond of these little monsters.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Grace Lace Beret

I knit this Grace Lace Beret to escape the deep, dark abyss I feel into when I graduated from college in December. The name of this abyss is "what in the heck am I going to do with this degree and therefore the rest of my life besides being a wife and mother which is awesome and all but not the whole sum of my existence because I'd really like to do things in addition to being a good wife and mother because most days kids make me want to eat my fingernails and bend my brain into itself except when they are being totally adorable and drawing cute pictures of flamingos (see exhibit A)?" This question is much too large, even for my newly enlarged, degreed brain. So, I quite naturally fell to knitting to ease my mind of such weighty questions. I knit a lot in January. A lot.

 Exhibit A (Courtesy of Aubrey)

I knit it twice. Because I am a contradiction. I hate figuring out gauge. I would rather guess. I know enough about the way I knit and crochet to know that I have a very tight gauge. So, I guess. Educatedly.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Aqua and Pink Camera Strap Cover

I'm not sure why camera manufacturers make camera straps so uncomfortable. I'm guessing that it's so that the straps have a grippy quality that allows them to be less likely to slip and therefore less likely to fall off of your neck and (in a second therefore), therefore less likely for your camera to achieve contact with ground (this is bad, unless you gently set it there. I once dropped my most expensive lens. That was un-fun).

I have not yet developed callouses on my neck that would allow me to wear my camera strap without discomfort. Perhaps that's something that is discussed with pride among professional photographers? I wonder if they compare neck callouses? Although it would be pretty hard to see your own. You'd have to get an impartial judge, which seems like a lot of hassle for a simple callous comparison. Or you could get two mirrors. Or, I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier, you could just take pictures of each other's callouses. I'm spending way too many words thinking about something that probably does not exist. I'm unfamiliar with small talk among photographers (or their necks.) (I don't mean small talk among their necks, I just mean, I'm unfamiliar with their necks--I don't make a habit of examining people's necks; although I do enjoy vampire fiction, a preoccupation with necks has not yet resulted, apart from this blog entry). Whenever I meet professional photographers, I try to change the subject. I feel like a fraud and I don't want to get caught forgetting that my camera is a 60D or confusing ISO with aperture (it's totally happened, even though I can use ISO and aperture with dexterity if with mixed results).

I've resorted to some pretty interesting solutions while trying to relieve camera strap chaffing, including wearing the whole thing down around my shoulders or under one arm. Not exactly ideal. So, it's pretty sad that it took me this long to make a dang camera strap cover.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Knitted Cowl

My husband has a gift for gifts. I'm starting to get a bit worried he can read minds. I'm fairly sure he doesn't sparkle in sunlight or thirst for my blood, but the mind reading--I have my doubts.

I am the opposite. I wander around stores and have no clue what to get anyone. I prefer to give hand made gifts, but that is tricky. You generally have to know someone really well to know if they will appreciate a hand-made gift.

So, when I wanted to get a friend a gift this week for her birthday, I was hoping that she would like this knitted cowl.

Yeah, I wore it. But only for a second to sew the buttons on the right place and to take these pictures. I used this awesome pattern, and I want to make myself one for sure. I have a thing for cowls. It knitted up quickly, probably six or seven hours and it was easy to follow (if  you've never tried cables, this would be an easy first project). I adore the cables and the seed stitch in the middle.

I think it was a success as a gift. I adore my friend, so I hope she feels that every time she wears it.

(Update: the site where I got the pattern appears to have been taken down, and I can't find a link to the pattern anywhere. Bummer. Raverly.com has some similar patterns if you're on the hunt for one.)

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

My Late 60s Pattern Goldmine

Ok, so I got my act together (by avoiding homework; I'm 28 and still as much a procrastinator as ever, I've given up ever thinking I will grow out of it), and took pictures of my patterns using my point and shoot. It's not so bad for things like this. Pictures of the children, never happy with. Pictures of inanimate objects that don't move or change facial expressions or dart into low lighting conditions, not so bad.

If you missed the previous post where I mentioned these, I picked them up at a yard sale a few weeks back. They were a STEAL at five cents each. I think whoever bought them has great taste. I really want to try one (as soon as I get my sewing machine situation sorted), but I'm not sure how I'm ever going to decide which one to try first!

They might be a size smaller than I would pick if I was picking based on my measurements, but I think I can work around that fairly easily.

So, if you were picking, which one would you do first? I've numbered them for easy reference.

This one is darling, but it's girl-sized, so while I might make it for Aubrey, it's not in the running for me (obviously).

I LOVE that coat in 8, although I would probably skip the pockets on the top and do an applique or something else (maybe add a yoke?) there instead. I adore 11 and 3, but I've already got a similar dress in my wardrobe, so I might hold off on one of those until a 3rd or 4th project. . . Isn't it funny how suddenly we get the 70s style with the long dress and the pointed collar in 2? I looked up the year on most of them when I could find them and I think that pattern is from 1970. They are from 1966-1972. I was expecting 1 to be from the 50s, but it's a 60s pattern too.

So, what do you think?

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Bobble Crochet Dress

About 18 months ago, I started a crochet dress for Aubrey from this amazing pattern when we went up to Logan to visit some family. It took forever to finish. I think I took it out three times before being happy with it. Then, I ran out of yarn. It was just some cheapy cotton Peaches and Cream, but every store stopped carrying that color. I checked every last Joann's, Michael's, Walmart, etc, for it, and could not find the darn stuff.

Eventually, I decided to just finish it with white. Which turned out darling, I think.

The other morning, Maxton was helping Aubrey get dressed and he came up with two choices of leggings to go with this dress. Now that she's grown a bit, it's more like a tunic, so it needed the leggings. I absolutely loved it with the butterfly leggings and I'm not sure I would have ever put them together.

Isn't she getting so dang tall? She just turned three. What is she doing with those long limbs? At least, she still has the round baby tummy.

At some point, I'm going to have to make this again, but with nicer yarn.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Knit Shrug--Gaia Pattern

Share-A-Craft is just as much fun as a tilt-a-whirl, but with less stomach upset and possible vomiting. Every Monday, I post a project of any type that I've recently or not so recently done. If you want to share right back, I'd love to see what you've been making.

I think when I was looking for a pattern to knit a shrug, I looked through all of Ravelry's 1464 shrug patterns, looking for the perfect one to go over my dress for the formal dinner on the cruise (hey, I don't get to dress up much, so I went all out). I finally settled on this pattern, Gaia. I'm not really a fan of paying for patterns, but this one was only $3.00 and I really loved it. It's pretty ingenious and very easy to knit. All you need to know is knit and purl and how to knit in a straight line--there is also a little crochet to do the edge, but you can skip that and still get a very similar effect. The cool part is how it's put together.

I made mine out of llama/silk and mohair/silk blends. I actually went to a real yarn store and bought good yarn and I'm so glad I did. Not only does it look good, but it feels so soft. I spent $37 on the yarn, but I have some leftover. I probably have enough to do a hat, so cost-wise, it's not too bad. I think I spent four or five hours knitting it. It's a very loose knit, so it goes quickly, but you have to knit quite the length (40" or so depending on your measurements!).

I wish I had stretched the back a little more as I'd sewn the "sleeves" because I'd like a little more coverage in the arms, but I love the way the back looks. I also didn't do a lot of blocking, because it's a very loose knit I didn't want my skin to start showing through too much.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Cabled Purse

Share-A-Craft is just as much fun as a tilt-a-whirl, but with less stomach upset and possible vomiting. Every Monday, I post a project of any type that I've recently or not so recently done. If you want to share right back, I'd love to see what you've been making.

I was so super excited to try this purse. I found the pattern on ravelry.com, and just fell in love with it. It is beautiful. Beautiful. It's the type of project that I look at and can't believe I really made it. Here's a link to the pattern: Bag with Cables.I used four skeins of yarn, some cheap-o Caron stuff and I could have made another 1/2 purse with what I had left over. It calls for bulky yarn, but I used two strands held together.

You also do them on 5mm needles, which is insane. It is very tight and hurt my hands to do too much at once, but martyr to my craft, I just put up with the aching hands. It doesn't say the length of circular needles needed, so I started out on the 16" ones, which was fine until I got to those crazy increases. I switched over to longer needles after that and switched back to 16" to do the garter stitch at the top.The handles I purchased at Hancock. The lining for the inside is some quilting fabric. Total, I probably spent around $25 for the whole project, although I don't keep careful track and I don't count it if I have leftovers, since I can use them for other projects. I had buttons left over and a lot of yarn, which I used to make two more hats. As far as time goes, I probably spent about 8 hours (just a guess) knitting it, it was slow because of the difficulty of the thick yarn and small needles, and a few more sewing the lining.The pattern itself I didn't find too hard to follow, despite this being my first time doing cables. After a few rounds, I got very, very bored. There are 22 cable repeats. I was also confused for a bit, because the chart is called M1 in the pattern and that also means "make one" in knitting abbreviations, but once I figured that out, it was pretty easy. I also didn't do the button holes, instead opting for a magnetic purse closure with covered buttons hot glued to the outside.I maybe would make this again, but I'd have to be on a long car trip or something else when being bored wouldn't be too bad a liability, but I adore the purse with the devotion in my little craft-loving heart, so maybe someday. . .

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.