Sheepie Knits

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!

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.

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

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

We are back and we had a really nice time More on that tomorrow, i have an FO to show off that a few of you may have already seen on Ravelry

Steggie was finished just in time for our trip.  Perfect for keeping Little Man warm in the Windy City.

Pattern: Steggiefrom Knitty- Spring 09

Size: XL

Needles: size 7 & 8

Yarn: Vanna’s Choice in Fern, Colonial Blue & Scarlet.  I used 4 balls of Fern and probably a little less then half of the other two.

Notes: The pattern is well written and easy to follow.  It was a bit awkward at first working on the spikes. They start in different places and therefore are not on the same row at the same time. But i quickly got the hang of it and was able to work the sleeves without having to keep track with a row counter or anything.

I did one thing that wasn’t in the pattern. I slipped the first stitch of the row so that the seaming would be easier for me.

The zipper was also a pain for me. I tried to do it with my sewing machine to save time and it just kept messing up horribly so i ended up having to do it by hand.  Not quite as nice looking as I had hoped but it works and you can’t tell unless you look inside the cardigan

Steggie is a little big but that is what I wanted.  My guy grows so fast that i wanted it to last longer then just one season.  Little Man really likes it and wore it almost everyday on our trip.  He even got some comments and compliments on it.

I haven’t decided yet if i will break it into one or two posts but tomorrow I will be back with some pictures of our vacation.

Happy Mother’s Day to the mother’s out there

This weekend was extra special for me i turned 27 and celebrated Mother’s Day! My guys spoiled me with lots of hugs, kisses, songs and presents

Books, yarn and a purple kitty-what more could I ask for.  The sock book is from my Sister-in-Law and the rest are from Hubby and Little Man. 

We are going on a little vacation but when i get back i will have lots more stuff to show you, Couple of those are FO’s 

Have a great week!