I'm excited!

A few months ago, I found this blog - no big dill.   I don't think I can really express how utterly and completely inspiring this woman is.  She has FIVE girls.  I have people blown away that I can deal with three and she has FIVE.  And she's not in a straight jacket!  Her kids are gorgeous, she sews, she takes amazing pictures... I really am in awe of her. 

In March, she's having a whole month of children's book-themed projects and I am stoked. 

BTW... I'm thinking of just keeping up with one blog and it's not this one.  I'll still be getting all crafty and stuff, you just will have to wade through the personal junk too =) 

Silly project =)

This is my daughter's hat for their 100th day of school hat parade.  100 pompoms.  It was so much fun to make.

I have a hat that I made my father for his birthday that I'll have to show off later and I'm making another had for my brother-in-law's birthday.  Both are totally my own designs... I haven't seen anything just like them before.  So I'm kind of proud of them.  =)  My hubby's birthday is next week and I should make him something, but I'm totally clueless.  He won't wear a hat.  I'll figure something out I'm sure.

I also have a very, very busy week planned next week.  In April, I am participating in the American Heart Association's Start! Heart Walk.  My sister and I went to the team kick-off yesterday and they were giving us fundraising tips and I had a light bulb go off. I'm going to make some Valentine/heart themed stuff and sell it for donations.  All the proceeds will go towards the walk.  If I sell it for $10, $10 goes to the Heart Association.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I have a few ideas of what I'll make.  I'll have to be an obnoxious promoter if I'm going to sell it, but I feel much more comfortable being pushy when I'm begging for donations and people get something in return.  I mean... it's a win/win for the buyer - they help out a cause that EVERYONE should care about (you do have a heart, right?) and they get a handmade something or other out of it.  I found a hat pattern that I want to make to sell, but the designer specifically put on her site that she doesn't allow people to sell items made with the pattern.  I've emailed her to see if she'll make an exception in this case.  I think I'll make a couple fingerless gloves, some keychains... things I can whip up pretty quickly.  If it goes well, I'll continue it and possibly come up with some Easter themed stuff.  But needless to say, I need to get this stuff made in the next week so I have time to sell it. 

Stay tuned ;)

Well, I did it, but...

 

I figured out the top of my Doughboy/chef's hat.  I just need to finish up the brim.  The problem is that it's way too small for my Daddy's huge noggin.  He really does have a big ol' head.  ;)  

So, I think I'll finish it up as is and give it to my kids.  And make something else for my Daddy because I don't think he'd actually ever wear it anyway.  Maybe I'll stencil a shirt for him.  With a big "39" on it, since that's what he always says his age is.  And maybe a boring old earflap hat.  He'd wear that. 

Going cross-eyed

My Daddy's birthday is coming up.  He'll be the big 64.  Old man.  ;)  I've been thinking of different things I can make him.  My go-to item is a hat.  They're quick, they're pretty simple.  But what kind of hat?  The first thing that popped into my head was the Pillsbury Doughboy.  I wish I could give you a really good explanation for that, but I really can't.  I know he has at least one Doughboy shirt that we've given him, but why... I don't remember.  I couldn't find a pattern for a crocheted Doughboy hat or chef's hat, so I kept thinking.  I thought of just a basic earflap beanie, but that seems so boring.  Why does it have to be a novelty hat?  I don't know.  I guess that's my thing.  

I texted my sister and asked her for a suggestion.  Her suggestion?  Pillsbury Doughboy.

So... what to do?

Come up with my own pattern.  Heaven help me.

I doubt even a professional crocheter would have a clue what this means

 

I was confusing myself, so I made myself a little chart.  I really can't tell you if it will work yet or not.  Hopefully, finger's (and eyes) crossed, it will look vaguely like this little poppin' fresh dude's hat.  Key word:  vaguely.  If I can figure it out, maybe I can make a mini one and then figure out how to make an amigurumi Doughboy.  THAT would be awesome.  

Whatcha doin'?

I have been working diligently on my afghan.  I have the first 6 sections out of 10 finished.  Which would sound like I'm halfway finished, but the sections get bigger as you go.  It's kind of put together like a log cabin quilt square (not that you can tell when it's done... it looks totally random).  Here's what we have so far:

I just noticed how one side is so dark and one side is so light....

I have a goal this year to make one Christmas-y thing a month.  This past Christmas I had huge aspirations to make all sorts of things and there just wasn't time.  So I'm going to work on it all year this year.  This month I am making Zoe's Christmas stocking.  We've always had cheap store-bought stockings.  So generic.  So ugly.  I picked out a pretty ambitious pattern for Zoe's stocking.  It's ambitious for two reasons... I've never used circular knitting needles and I've never felted before.  I started it.  I ripped it out.  I started it, got farther, noticed it was twisted, had to rip it out.  I put it away.  Last night, I finally got it back out and.... I am about 6 rows in.  Yay!  

I even have a pretty bling-y stitch marker 

 

I think one of the reasons I picked it was that when I looked at other people's projects on ravelry, a couple of people had actually been able to fit their entire small child in the stocking before they felted it.  I just have to try that.  I know... my inspiration for things is really odd most of the time.  Who picks a pattern just to see if they can fit a 3 year old in a sock?

 

And finally, a freezer paper stenciled shirt:

 

"Gerontology" = the study of aging

 

My sister-in-law majored in gerontology in college.  She really does love helping out the elderly and mentioned, jokingly, that she needed this shirt.  I had everything but the shirt, and plain tshirts are just a few bucks, so I picked one up and made this for her last night.    I haven't said anything to her about it, so it will be a surprise.  

So that's what I've been up to.  I need to concentrate on the stocking so I can finish it this month.  I have some cute pink and brown fabric and I have a dress idea cooking in my head.  I'm never at a loss for things to do...  usually have way too much going on =)

What's in the bag?

I normally have two yarn projects going at a time, sometimes more.  It keeps me from getting bored if it's a big project and I have two fairly big ones going on right now. 

My first bag contains the body, head and arm of a jester.  He's for the girls.  I have to work on him when the girls are asleep or Olivia runs off with the appendage-less thing to play with him.  The pattern is by the same lady who made the Dotje doll that I just realized I never posted about.  Here she is:

She was a gift for my boss

I love this woman's patterns.  Just too cute.  

My other bag contains about 1/3 of an afghan that I'm working on.  

Babette Blanket in black and white - I have more done than this now

I am not a huge fan of granny squares.  But I like how this one uses different sizes.  The original pattern is in colors... LOTS of colors.  I loved how it looked, but I thought it would be less expensive (and yes, yarn gets expensive when you're buying 14 different colors, even the cheap stuff) I decided to just use black, white, and two shades of gray.  I used a random stripe generator to come up with what the squares would look like. I'm not as thrilled with it as I want to be.  But I intend to see it through to the end and I'll find another afghan to work on that I will love.  The girls love blankets so I'm sure if nothing else, one of them will claim it.   Well, not Zoe.  Linus is faithful to her purple fuzzy blanket.

Yesterday, I did knock out something different.  I had been meaning to make a birthday gift for a friend and coworker and kept forgetting until yesterday.  Her birthday is Friday and she's off, so I needed something quick to bring to work today.  I've been wanting to make some wrist warmers and figured if I knew anyone who would like them, she'd be the one.  The pattern was ridiculously easy and quick.  I would say if I could have sat down and worked continuously that I would have had them finished in an hour.  But I rarely have that luxury.  It still didn't take that long and it was easy enough to do it and help Olivia with her reading.

They're cuter on her ;)

I love wrist warmers and fingerless gloves, but they're really not me.  Mainly because I have the hottest hands you've ever felt.  If my palms are cold, you better check to make sure I even have a pulse.

So that's what is in the bag at the moment.  I'll probably be finished with the jester before too long.  The blanket will take much longer.  I can only make so many granny squares a day before my brain shuts down.

Pay It Forward

If you are on facebook, you've probably seen people post the "Pay It Forward" status where you promise to send something handmade to 5 people if they do the same.  I saw it quite a few times, thinking that I really didn't have the time to do something like that.  But then I decided that doing something for someone shouldn't be something I wait to have time to do.  It should be something I make time to do.  So I posted it.  My spots filled up pretty quickly...

My brother-in-law, Lee
My cousin, Amanda
My dear, dear friend Robbie
Brittany
Christy


I'm mostly listing these out because I will forget if it's not somewhere handy.  =)  And trust me, writing stuff down isn't handy for me.  Paper mysteriously disappears around here almost instantly.

I don't know Brittany and Christy extremely well, so this will take more thought than the others.  I don't want to just throw any ol' thing at them just because.  I would feel guilty.  Seriously, I would.


After thinking about it, I realized this was just up my alley.  I prefer to make things with people in mind.  When I was going to have a booth at the Flea Market, that was one of my biggest obstacles.  So this should be fun.  And who knows... maybe when I'm done with these 5, maybe I'll surprise a few people =)