3 in 1

How was your weekend? Ours was nice and relaxing but still got a few things done. 

First Up

Little Acorn from Roman Sock

Made for: Me

Dates: June 13-22,2009

Yarn: Vanna’s Choice Baby-held doubled for the lid

Hook: 3.5 mm

Notes: Mine isn’t really shaped like an acorn because i made the bottom with the yarn held single stranded and so it wasn’t quite as big as i would have liked it after the increases in the pattern so i did 3 more increase rows to make it a bit wider.  Then i worked straight for a few rows and decreased a couple rows.  I really don’t remember exactly how much i decreased. Why? Well, my top didn’t fit my bottom and i had already reworked the cap a couple times for various reasons. I decided i would adjust the bottom and i just pulled the yarn until i was at the spot i wanted to start re-crocheting from. Then i just went until my bottom fit nicely into the cap. 

I also made i-cord “buttons”  instead of buying some. I really like how those came out-i just winged it with those.

I think this is a super cute pattern and if i were to make it again i would do the bottom with the yarn held double so that way it doesn’t bruise and dent up so easy. It’s just not that strong.  Where the cap is like a shield is is so thick and strong. I would also make the top first to the size i liked and them make the bottom to fit.

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Yesterday was Father’s Day and i really like the idea of Little Man making his gifts for people-i think it so personal and sweet and something that a lot of people would treasure especially from when they are at this age.  And i also tend to have him make the things that i would love to get from him. Teehee

So I came across this (pdf) awhile ago online, an excerpt from Soule Mama’s next book, due out in August.  Then came across it again just last week and thought it would be perfect since hubby likes to read.  So I had Aidan draw the picture and then i did the embroidery.  Ta-Da!

An extra-large bookmark for Daddy.  Mommy wants one too-maybe next weekend

And i saved the best for last-the promised picture of Peyton.  She is so adorable-this picture doesn’t do her justice but it is the best i managed to get.

Too Cute!

Have a great day!

 

Mail Time!

 

I got my Swap Package!!!, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

On Tuesday i got my package from the Hotpads and Potholders swap I joined back in April!
I got some great stuff-only one had a name of who it was from the rest are all a mystery They are all cotton because that is what i sent. The patterns are really neat-gives me ideas
It was a fun swap and one i would do again

Things are pretty quiet around here. Still knitting and crocheting when i can. I am hoping to finish something up this weekend if not i will make up for it with pictures of Peyton who we will be seeing tomorrow. Babies are usually cuter than knitting anyway

 

Dolly and WWKIP

Okay, this is the last knit that i made for the baby.  She was born yesterday by the way, how appropriate since it was WWKIP day Peyton, 7 lbs 13 ozs and 20 inches long.  My friend and the baby are both doing well and resting. Peyton is super adorable!!  She even has some super soft hair covering her head. When we go visit again after they get home i will take a picture and post it.

Pattern: Dolly by Jess Hutchinson in Unusual Toys to Knit

Made for: Baby Peyton

Dates: May 31-June 7, 2009

Yarn: Various Bits of Bernat and Red Heart.  The body and hair are Bernat and the dress and edging is Red Heart.

Needles: size 8 douple points and i think 3.5 mm hook for the edging

Notes: Worked pattern as written. It was easy to follow.  She is supposed to have “undies” on under her dress but when i cast on for the body i didnt pay attention and went right to using the the skin color and it was until i was halfway done with the body and it tells you to switch to the skin color that i realized my mistake and didnt want to go back to fix it.  So i made her dress a few rows longer for extra coverage. Now you only know if you look

Yesterday was WWKIP day and i did go out and meet the local group of knitters and knit at the park with them.  I forgot my camera again!

But all was not lost. I did have my camera phone and was able to take some worthwhile pictures.

  When four of the six ladies that were still left toward the end left to go to the bathroom we had a visit from the resident of the park.

He made himself right at home and sat in an empty chair

Then decided to go over to the picnic table

Because he was hungry! Smart Squirrel Chips Ahoy are yummy!!

Cindy shook the cookie box to get him away and all he did was back up a little and look at her like “So that means no cookies”  Then he investigated around the picnic table some more.  But this squirrel could have cared less about the two of us. I was able to walk quite close to take the pictures of him with the camera phone.  Definitely one of the highlights.   But we all had a ton of fun laughing and knitting and eating goodies that people brought.  Glad i was able to go! Hope you had a good WWKIP day.

 

Slippers for Hubby

While watching me make some baby slippers hubby decided that he wanted some as well.  I started to make some from different patterns i came across online. One from a Japanese website and another i came across on CrochetPatternCentral.com. Both of them worked the sole in only a few rows and they came nowhere near the size of hubby’s foot that i had traced onto a piece of paper.  I started to get kind of frustrated and decided to work the sole on my own just by going by his foot.  Well that took me forever and i still wasn’t happy with it.  After a break for a couple days i decided this wouldn’t work and looked around on Ravelry for some other ideas. I sent hubby a few links and he picked the ones he liked best.

Pattern: Crochet Slippers by Doris Chan found in Interweave Holiday Knits 2006, Knitscene Fall/Winter 2005 and you can buy it online if you don’t have either of those issues.

Made for: Hubby’s Feet

Dates: June 3-June 6, 2009

Yarn: Vanna’s Choice

Hook: I/9

Notes: I followed the pattern as written.  It was very well written and i think the slippers came out great. They are also a quick project.  I could do a slipper a night if i had a couple hours that i didn’t get side tracked during i got the first one done in a night but the second one took 2 nights.  I think these would make a great Christmas gift. i am thinking about making my dad some in cotton for him to walk around the house in but i will have to think about that a bit more.

The only issue that i had was the blue flap on the foot is actually supposed to fold down on its own and mine doesn’t. It also seems a little smaller then it looks in the photos.  I probably could sew it down but hubby said they were fine the way they were. 

He was excited about them and said that he really liked them, so it was a success.

 

Baby, Baby, Baby

I had a plan, one FO a day for a couple days. I kept putting it off and now am just putting it all in one post.  Probably what i should have done from the beginning.

Pattern: Baby Cloths from KrisKnits

Needles: Size 3

Note: There are 8 motives in the pattern but i got tired of making them after 4. They did make a great travel project for Chicago though.

Pattern: Baby Bib o’ Love in the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book

Needles: Size 6

Notes: Added button by slipping it on a knit stitch with a crochet hook in the place i wanted it to be.

Pattern: Baby Mary Jane “Skimmers” by Sylvia Schuchardt

Hook: 3.5 mm

Notes: I still haven’t decided if i am giving these to them.  I crocheted the second one a little tighter and you can tell when you look closely.

Yarn: For all of the patterns I used Lily Sugar n’ Cream.

I am happy with all of the projects. Even though they are the simplest, the bibs are my favorite.  They feel soft and nubbly and if i was a baby i think i would want to squish my bib in my hands all the time.  I really hope they like the things i made and use them. I enjoy making the stuff.  I really wanted to do a blanket but i thought better of it.  I need some people who i know would cherish a handknit to have babies.  Then i could go wild with outfits and blankets and other cute things!!!

I have one more baby thing to finish that i started a couple days ago and then i will be all done. It should be done but hubby sidetracked me into making some slippers for him so i am going to finish those tomorrow.  So more FO’s coming. Sooner this time, i really want to try and do better with my blogging.

Happy Weekend!

 

Soft and Cute

A friend of mine is having a baby and so most of May has been spent getting things made for the baby.  Now i don’t think they are like huge fans of handmade things but not totally against it either so i decided to make a few things that are more useful.  But before that i had to make a hat.

Pattern: Soft Baby Hat by Gina Macris in The Elegant Knitter.  My mom has this book and i mentally bookmarked this pattern so i could make it and lucky for me the chance came quickly.

Dates: A week or so in May i was bad this month and really didn’t pay attention to dates when i was making the baby stuff. I was just cranking it out

Yarn: Naturally Caron Spa

Needles: size 5 double points

Notes: Super Cute Hat and the yarn i used makes it nice and soft.  I love how the ruffles came out.  BUT this hat was a pain at first.  I don’t have any size 5 24 inch circulars.  I did try my Denise interchangeable but they are kinda rubbery and my yarn was sticking to the needle and cord like crazy making it really hard to move my stitches along. then i tried my 29 inch circs at least until i got past the first couple rows and that went okay. I then transferred everything to some double points. Everything went pretty well but i highly recommend making this hat on circs or moving your stitches around so that way you don’t have a knit stitch at the end or beginning of a needle. Why? well if you look closely at the first picture you will see a knit strip that looks kind of blown out in comparison to the others-it was at the end of a needle and i think maybe i was knitting to tight to make sure i get no ladders and it ended up being too tight.  There are only 3 columns like that but still i would take the time to get the right size circs before making this hat again.  Also the yarn was kinda sticky even on my metal needles so i might use some yarn that moves smoother next time as well.

One small change i made was at the end of the ruffle you are supposed to do a k3tog.  There was no way i was going to be successful at that with my needles and yarn so i did Slip 1 k2tog psso.  I think it came out just as well.

I am very happy with how it came out and hopefully i will get a chance to see it on the little one when she arrives-My friend is counting down the days.  10 more but she is more then ready now.

More Baby stuff coming!

 

Fo and Marsh

I finished my potholders for the swap last week!! They are labeled, packaged and ready to go to the post office tomorrow.

Pattern: ha wish i could tell you the name of the book but it’s Japanese but the ISBN is 978-4-8347-2524-7 It is all crochet and very cute   this page has some pics of inside the book

Made for: Crocheted Potholder Swap

Dates: May 2009-i kept trying different patterns that when i finally figured out what i wanted to do i didn’t even make note of when i started i just wanted to make sure i got it done in time.

Yarn: Lily Sugar’n Cream in Hot Pink, Hot Orange, Wine, Jute, White, Bright Navy, Hot Blue, Summer Splash

Hook: H/8-5.00 mm

Notes: I didn’t follow the pattern completely.  The back and front pieces differ slightly.  I made mine both the same. Also it has a rose in the middle of the front and i decided not to do that. Was a nice pattern to work and easy to follow the chart.  Making these potholders has kinda grown on me and so has the crocheting.  i want to make more   I hope they are well received by the swappers that get one.

 

How was everyone’s Memorial Day? We went to the marsh and had a picnic. After we stuffed ourselves we walked around the marsh to burn off some of the treats we had

On our walk we saw some young-one of my favorite things about spring at the marsh.

Lots of them

So cute! I usually go right at the start of spring so you see them when they are really little but it was neat to see them when they are a bit older and bigger.

Some Swan babies as well

After trekking for quite some time on the horse trail we came across some people on horses and one of the gentlemen in the party let Little Man get on his horse! Even shared his cowboy hat.

How cool is that? My future cowboy did awesome on the horse and doesn’t he look so sure of himself on there. Haha, too bad we didn’t get a picture of his face when the horse actually moved a little. 

Finally just towards the end of our walk we came across a straggler on the path

The turtle was just as interested in us as we were in him. When we moved a little he moved as well. Probably  to keep on eye on us.  It was a really nice walk and the weather was perfect.  And even though it’s hard to tell with Little Man, i think he had a good time too.

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

 

The Art Institute of Chicago

On our last day in Chicago i wanted to go to the Art Institute.  I love art-probably because i am terrible at drawing or painting so i like to look longingly at what all the Masters have done.

These are my men outside the Institute while we waited for it to open. It was much bigger than i thought it was going to be.  There was so much to look at.  I wish i could have taken pictures of everything but here some highlights.

The rich colors and the details that go into these pictures are amazing.  Some of them look so real, like you could reach out and touch them and really be touching a flower or a person.  I could walk through to look at the art everyday.

These next two are called “The Music Lesson”.  It’s fun to pick out the differences and makes me think of when I took an Art History class. We would look at two sculptures or pieces or art with the same name and write about them.

The Highlight though was something else. 

When i was in elementry school i read a book called Linnea in Monet’s Garden and we did a project in art class where you melted crayons and then made dots on a piece of cardboard to make an Impressionist painting. Since then Monet has been one of my favorite artists.  So when i walked into 2 rooms with his paintings i was in awe.

They had a lot more paintings but a few didn’t photograph well and i didn’t want to overwhelm you all with the pictures i took.  Gotta leave some surprises if any of you ever get to go one day.

The last day was great weather so we took one more walk through the park and playground for Little Man.

All in all a really nice trip with the family. I think there is something for everyone to do and in 10years when they want my DNA for my passport i will be happy to go back.  Haha

 

Sorry

 

, originally uploaded by Craftydiddl.

Super Busy Day and it got too late for me to do my whole post. But here is a little teaser

 

 

Chicago Pt. 1

We got to Chicago a little after one, oh no wait a little after twelve with the time difference, so we had 3 hours to walk around until we could check into out hotel.

The first thing we came to was a big park one block from the hotel-it’s called Millennium Park.  It was really nice. There were some gardens and a huge fountain. They even had an area for shows.  After the long ride we found the perfect thing.

A playground for Little Man to use up some of his energy.  They even had a Rhino he could ride!

While Little Man played i saw a gray squirrel.  We have tan colored ones here at home.

After we checked into our hotel and had some dinner we went walking some more.

This is on Michigan Ave. right before you cross the little bridge over the Chicago River.  After walking across the bridge we made our way to the Lego Store.

Little Man loved it there but Hubby and  I were expecting a bit more.  All that matters is that Little Man liked it.

They had a Swatch Store in the same building so after going in 3 times i finally decided on one. They had a sheep one i loved. It reminded me of The Little Prince but the face was just too big. It looked funny on my little wrists

The next day we went to the whole reason for our trip-The Consulate to renew my passport. They are putting a chip in the passports with your fingerprints and so you had to renew in person.  After that was done we walked over to Navy Pier and played in the Children’s Museum and had a afternoon treat.

After all that walking we were totally beat, especially Little Man and went back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.  I walked around to some shops on my own which was kinda nice.

On Wednesday, we had tickets for the Museum of Science and Industry. It worked out good because Wednesday ended up being a really rainy day. Perfect for being inside the museum.  We went mainly for the Harry Potter exhibit that my mom told me about. It was really neat to see all the clothes, sets, wands and characters from the movies.  You couldn’t take any pictures though   The Museum itself is huge. You start to feel like it is never ending. On section connects to another sections and it keep going and going.  They had some fun hands-on stuff that Little Man liked but he wasn’t all that into the rest.  The other issue was a lot of school field trips were there and Wow the kids were out of control and they don’t care about some little boy that wants a turn or is in the middle of his turn they just jump right in or push you over and take their turn.  it was still nice and we did see some cool things like a chick that had just hatched minuted before we got there.

 A huge train setup

We got to be train engineers

And Little Man “drove” a tractor.

Another day ending with all of us super tired.

Thursday was the last and one of my favorite days.  

So I am saving that one for tomorrow