Tangerine Booties!

 

Look what I made yesterday! Babies are arriving here almost daily it seems, and so I made these sweet little cuffed booties for the newest arrival, baby Finneas! This isn't the best photo, I had to take a quick shot using my iPhone before we went out the door to meet the little guy, but I think you get the idea of how cute they are!

 

The pattern is from Annoo Crochet, and she shared the pattern on her blog yesterday. Almost as soon as she posted it via her Instagram account, I had the yarn and hook in hand and off I went! I used a 3.5mm hook and Red Heart Soft worsted weight yarn in Tangerine. Her samples include a cute little flower, but since these were for a baby boy, I left them off. I like the cuffs for the winter, especially since they add a little strength and will keep them from coming off excited little baby feet. The work up very fast, and would be a fun project for really anyone to try!

A few yarn projects

One of the "resolutions" I mentioned in my last post was to do something creative every day. It gives me a chance to learn new skills and techniques, as well as find a little relief and "me time" in the course of a busy day.

Lately, my focus has been on knitting & crochet. It's much easier to put a yarn project in a Ziploc bag and pop it into my work bag than to gather all of the paper crafting supplies I typically need to make a card. And once I start making a card, its much harder to stop midway. With knitting or crochet, I can just finish one line of a pattern and wrap it up. That's not to say that I won't be making cards but it's been nice to take a break.

So on to a few of my yarn projects:

I made a hat & tried cable knitting for the first time! A cable needle could be useful down the road, but I just used an extra dpn here.

I'm working on my first baby cardigan as a gift for a friend. I love this yarn, which is some of the beautiful yarn my grandmother passed on to me!

Abby turned my ghetto yarn bowl into an impromptu swimming pool for her Monster High dolls. :) I should get a proper yarn bowl some time...I truly hate when my yarn rolls off my lap! This little box is working for now, though I wonder how it will look in the middle of the summer with snowflakes all over it. Etsy has some beautiful bowls, like this one or this one.

Here's a closeup of the chevron pattern on the bottom half. Pretty, no?

A view of the back of the cardigan. A few more repeats of the chevron pattern, sleeves and some finish work and it will be done!

Decided to try out another cable pattern, this time a pair of mittens! Still no cable needle, and yes, it would have been even more helpful this time since I was knitting in a smaller round than my hat. But I managed!

These bad boys are long! No worries that a draft will give me goosebumps! :)

I love them - they are so thick and warm thanks to the bulky weight yarn I used. I didn't have enough of the same colorway in my stash so I had to go to the store and pick up new yarn for these. I finished these on Saturday, when it suddenly went up to 50 degrees! In Michigan, 50 degrees in January is not glove weather! But in true Michigan weather yo yo tradition, we have a high of 25 degrees today, so they were perfect for the drive to work this morning!

Another thing that I like about them? They prevent me from checking my phone at a red light on the drive. I don't text and drive - no way! But it's become super tempting to take a peek at Facebook or Instagram while I'm waiting at a light. Not a habit I want to get into!

I made these on Sunday. My last attempt at baby booties was a disaster so I was a little gun shy about trying again, but one of the things I love about crochet is that I can rip it out to the point I need and start again. Which I had to do a couple times with these, but in the end they turned out very cute! As you can see on the right bootie, they have button holes and the flap wraps around the ankle. They are destined for a baby girl, and mom isn't a huge fan of traditional pinks (I can sympathise, I felt the same way when Abby was born. She came home from the hospital in a lovely blue outfit. But pink is her favorite color now, so that didn't last long! lol). But I have to make these a little girlie, so I'm hoping to find some sparkly buttons for the cuff. I honestly think pink rhinestone would be really cute with this soft gray, but we'll see what I can find.

I'm thinking of making a pair of baby mitts to go with these booties and perhaps a little hat too. I have plenty of this gray yarn from my stash to work with so it wouldn't be a problem to add that to the gift. Maybe add a bit of pink ribbon to the mitt cuffs or a tiny pink bow on the hat? Just a touch so they all tie in together? I guess it all depends on what I find for the booties.

All of these pics came from my Instagram account, so if you're interested in following along with the progress of these and other random bits & pieces, feel free to follow me!

Bun In The Oven card!

I haven't played with my Lawn Fawn sets in a while, but this set was calling my name today. It's called "Plus One" and is so cute! And no, I'm not expecting! But there will be a new baby cousin for my kids to play with this summer! How exciting!

So here we are:

And here is the inside of the card:

Copics used:
BG10, BG11, R81, R83, C1, E13, E15
After I colored the oven with my Copics, I added a layer of Glossy Accents to the front to mimic the glass door of a real oven. Unfortunately it doesn't really show up in this picture, but the effect is very cute in person. First I ran my base card through my BigShot for a dotted background. I then used a bit of plaid scrap from the Olivia 6x6 paper collection and a scrap of baby themed paper that's ages old. I think it's from Hot Off the Press. A button from my collection and a bit of bakers twine and the card was finished. I'm thinking about trimming a bit of the plaid off the front of the card...it just seems a little bit out of proportion now that it's all put together. What do you think?
The card sketch is #354 from Splitcoast Stampers. Stop by and join the fun! :)

And here was my desk companion this morning...Jewel spent quite a while sitting under my desk lamp getting nice and toasty! :)

Diaper Cake!

One of the Kindergarten teachers at my son's school is having a baby (actually she was induced last night, so we're waiting for news right now!) and since Tuesday was her last day we wanted to give her a little gift on behalf of the PTO. Being the "crafty one" (lol), I was in charge of making a diaper cake. I've made a few of them and usually keep mine pretty simple. This one used one package of Pampers and was decorated with some very cute ribbons and a little stuffed lion. He of course needed a touch of color too, so I tied a bow around his neck with the same ribbon. :) Thankfully one of the PTO members snapped a picture of it, because I didn't have a chance before I had to rush it up to the school...elementary schools have lunch so early in the day! After he took it I realized that the top ribbons had shifted so I straightened it before the mom-to-be came into the room. Whew!

I've seen some massive cakes, and one day I may have to attempt it, but for now this 2-layer version works out quite nicely! In fact, it has become one of my go-to baby gifts!

If you've never made one before they are relatively simple. The diapers are usually arranged in one of two ways: individually rolled and formed into a "cake" shape, or by fanning a stack of diapers into a round shape. I prefer the second method...while it take a bit of patience to fan them evenly and shape the circle, individually rolling each diaper seems mind-numbing to me. Some people use a tube in the center to help form the circle of diapers, but I don't bother. I can usually coax a good circle with some patience. I always top mine with some sort of stuffed animal...in fact I usually let the stuffed animal decide how the rest of the cake will be decorated. I tried finding an animal to match the cake and it was nearly impossible, so I learned my lesson! This little lion was perfect. To add a bit of color I tied a matching ribbon around his neck (think a cute stuffed animal is even cuter with a giant bow!). I then added a little note card with a die cut lion on it with a little message from the PTO.

One of the other members (who is equally as crafty!) made a sweet little onesie. She used fabric paint to recreate our schools eagle logo on the front and put little eagle "foot" prints on the backside. We rolled it up, tied it with a ribbon and added it to the top of the cake.

Here is another I made last year:

Do you have any special gifts you like to make for babies/weddings/etc?

Little hats for little heads

I've been working on a gift for a work friend. They were expecting twins at the end of January, but for some reason, she went into labor early and delivered them in early October. Such tiny little babies, the baby girl only 1 lb 6 oz and the baby boy 1 lb 10 oz.! It was a scary time...being so little there were many obsticles in their way, but miraculously both have done well and continue to grow! As a gift I made a set of little hats for them after seeing that their hospital hats were too big on their tiny heads. Once I started I just couldn't stop and put together 10 hats so far. I dropped them off yesterday and as an added bonus was able to see their mom and the twins in person! It was so exciting...I hadn't expected it since I had only planned to drop off the gift and leave, and it was great to see how adorable they are in person. Their baby boy even smiled in his sleep as I was watching him...I couldn't help but get a bit teary-eyed. :)

I have a few more done already and once there are enough for another batch I will drop them off. I made them in a variety of sizes, all using Preemie patterns, but they all turned out in varying sizes depending on the yarn, tension, etc.

It's been a great learning experience for me too. While I know enough about crochet to feel comfortable making hats, knitting is still something I am a complete novice at so this gave me the opportunity to learn how to read patterns better and learn how to knit in the round.

I have to say thank you to all the wonderful people who have posted free patterns for preemie hats. It's really heartwarming to find so many people happily sharing their patterns for such a good thing as hats for these babies who were born too soon. I have quite a few on my Pinterest board, so if you are interested in them, please stop by and check them out.

I've also been in contact with the twin's NICU and have found out that they accept donations of hats too, so I have a project to keep me going even after the twins are finally able to go home. If you have a hospital near you with a NICU, ask if they accept donations too. They may have some requirements about the materials, so ask questions. At the very least use the softest yarn you can find, nothing too fuzzy or bumpy since their skin is very delicate and fuzzy yarn can shed which they may breath in. And for preemies I read that yellow might not be the best color, since so many develop jaundice, and the yellow yarn wont  look so nice with their skin at that time. And have fun with it...preemies are so little that most clothing doesn't fit them, so providing a special hat that will fit will be such a gift.

You can also check if they accept other hats too...perhaps some full term babies or children could use them, or adult patients. A soft warm hat can really make someones day...and easily will make yours too.

UPDATE 12/12/11: I was sent a photo of one of the twins wearing one of the hats by his dad. Doesn't he look cute???

UPDATE 1/26/11: Their little boy has been home from the hospital for a few days now and doing great! We're just waiting for his twin sister to join the family at home...hopefully soon!