More Crochet!

Here are my latest creations!

Super cute bear

 Rudolph the reindeer

 My super cute model with my creations!

 And Mr. Raccoon!

 My favorite part is his tail.

I'm so excited I made all these critters.  The kids and I love them!

Crocheting like crazy!

Here are my finished double crochet scarf, my granny square and this awesome blue bird!

Some blankets, bunting, a bag and crochet by Amy

It's been a while but I have been productive.

Here are 2 blankets I made for some twin girls I know named Elizabeth and Charolette. :)
















This is a woven baby blanket that i made for a friend.
















Here is some bunting I made for Audrey's room.
















This is a blanket I also made for Audrey.

















I'm very proud of this. This is a bag I made from a pattern and fabric I bought in East Aurora. I had never sewn with a zipper before. It's not perfect but I'm happy with my first attempt.
















That cute bag has become my crochet goodies holder. I've been teaching myself crochet through a website called craftsy.com. I bought an online class and it's been so easy to learn. This is the double crochet scarf that I'm working on. I've had this yarn forever and I'm so happy to make my first crochet scarf with it.
















These are my swatches I made during the class. I just wanted to show them off. So here is a chain, single crochet, double crochet and half double crochet.
















Last night I started on the last lesson which is a Granny Square. It was going well until I got the round 3 and now I'm lost. I'll keep working on it and post the final product.
So stay tuned....

Tap, tap, tap.....

...anyone here?

I made something. A sweater, to be exact. And I will readily admit that I'm rather proud of it. These are pretty crap-tastic pictures, so here is the link to the pattern pics, so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.

ALMOST 4 YEARS!

How do I know how long it took? I bought the yarn on one of my first trips to see brand new baby Oliver who is turning 4 in May. Granted I took a long break when I was knitting it. It's Lorna's lace and very much like knitting with a spider web.

I made stuff!

I'm home sick and am catching up on downloading pictures and stuff like that. I figured I'd be crazy and post something that I made for my friend's daughters for Christmas---some flower barrettes and pony tail bands. CJ, grow some hair so I can make some for you!

Pants!

I think it was on the Made blog that I saw a tutorial for making simple pull-on pants for boys. So obvious, really, but I never would have thought of it myself. You just trace a pair that you already have, cut out 4 pieces, and sew them together. Oh, wait. I forgot the step where you rip it out umpteen times because you can't figure out how the heck pants are assembled.

Anyway, this super-cute elephant fabric jumped out at me when I went to Spool in Philadelphia a few months ago. I had to get some since Z loves elephants. I was pretty happy with how the pants turned out, and Zack seemed to be OK with them, too.

Note the armful of trucks. This is a constant around our house.

And they worked for an impromptu dip in the pool, too.

I was so amused with these that I had to make him another pair. This is a craptastic picture, but I love this pair--gray cotton with a chartreuse waistband. He looks like a little yoga boy when he wears them with his Crocs.


After making these I had a sudden flash of brilliance--that this technique would probably work for simple drawstring pajama shorts for me, too! I wear pj shorts all year long, but the only ones that I can find that I like only come in flannel, cost an annoying amount for what they are, and, well, flannel in summer? Not so much. So I tried it--traced a pair of the ones that I like, used some cotton that I had, and sewed them up (after ripping them out about 3 times). I used grosgrain ribbon for the tie. And now they're in the laundry, so no pictures. But as far as I'm concerned, the experiment was a success that resulted in some lightweight pj bottoms that I'll wear a lot. Woo hoo!

Spring Stuff & a little bit of Christmas!

I started this small Christmas sampler about 2 years ago but lost interest in it because it was sort of insignificant looking. I got the idea to use a memory box to frame it and make it more interesting. Good thing I have so much Christmas stuff. I crawled through alot of boxs to find this stuff!

I realize this may not be to everyone's liking but I have a thing for old tombstones. It was a ton of stitching but was the first new project I had done in cross stitching in a long time. It was also fun to put together. Got me up at that sewing machine.

This is my bits and bobs necklace. Just old 'junk' I picked up here and there. Every time I have it on it gets noticed. Must be the disco ball;). I am thinking of doing more since I have LOTS of 'junk'.

Some of the stones for these necklaces came from our trip to Yellowstone. I didn't know what to do with them but then I saw the site (Tweak? Treet?) on PW's blog and thought I'd give it a try.

The pear is stitched on all 3 sides with different motifs and sat unfinished for 3 or more years. I was afraid of the finishing job. It's scary to cut into fabric that not only ravels like crazy but has a significant amount of stitching on it. It actually went well once I got brave.

So that's it! I should have broken these up into 5 separate blogs but I figured I would just lay it on you all at once.

It's Finished & It Fits!!

Wow! It's been so long since I posted I almost forgot how. I finished Oliver's sweater and amazingly it fits, well, like it was made for him. I didn't change a single thing from the pattern. I LOVED that there was not one single seam. It was a fun pattern to do. Now if I could just knit faster. I also made the mask and Oliver liked it. He's big into super heroes right now. Working on some other things so maybe it won't be forever until I post again.

The drought has ended.

So I've made some stuff. Actually, I've been making lots of stuff, I just don't quite get around to posting.

So in some strange way, this is my favorite corner of the house, though I don't seem to be able to photograph it very well. Something about the Zack-height hooks, with the little coats, and the little boots just gets me. And I've just added a little bag to the hooks, to wrangle his hats and mittens.

A closer look.

The owner of these little hats, coats and boots just turned 2. Somehow. I'm not entirely sure how. But he is quite quick to tell you how old he is when asked.

Less than a week before his birthday party I got the idea that he needed a Birthday Crown. And wouldn't it be cute if I were to give those away as favors to the other kids? Though at the time of this brilliant idea, only one other little girl was coming. In the end, 5 other kids came. So I made 6 crowns.

This is Zack's.


These are the rest.

Here's an action shot.

I must say that the crowns weren't a bit hit with the under-10 crowd. The kids were either in the don't-put-anything-on-my-head stage, or the I'm-too-cool/old-for-this stage. But I knew it was a bit of a crap shoot going in, and I had a lot of fun making them, so I didn't really mind.

A hat

I know that anything I make right now it completely trumped by what Kristen made.


And what Kristen made is remarkably adorable and I'm totally in love with her even if I've never met her and I'm horribly jealous of Patti right now. And if more pictures of this sweet little girl were to be sent to me, I wouldn't complain one bit.

Can I just take a moment to say how strange it is to see another baby in our carseat? I can't quite explain it, but it's STRANGE. Because Z was NEVER that small. Even if he was the exact same size as Caroline when he was born. Ahem.

But I'll post my meager little creation anyway. I made a hat for another baby that was born recently, Ella, who is the daughter of Rob's biological brother. Ella (and her parents) live in New Hampshire, so I thought she'd probably need something to keep her ears warm.

I tried to get a modeled shot, but, well, you can see that the model was being temperamental.


So here's a still.


It's Knitty.com's Toasty Topper, in Berocco's Ultra Alpaca. I've made this before and it's just a great hat. Zack's still fits him from last year, it stays on, it's not too itchy. And the best part? Only one end to weave in. Woo hoo!

I knit a sweater. And it fits.

This really is something of a miracle, as none of the baby sweaters I've knit have ever fit. Neither of the ones that I've made for Zack did. I made one for the daughter of a friend of mine and it was closer to fitting my friend than her daughter. I have gauge and choice-of-yarn issues.

So this year when we were on vacation and went to the lovely little yarn store in Mystic and Rob said "Hey, this yarn would make a great sweater for Zack", I think I cringed because we'd done the same song and dance the previous year and got one of the aforementioned poorly fitting sweaters. But I like to encourage Rob in his aiding and abetting of buying wool, so I sighed and resigned myself. He was right--it was beautiful yarn, a great color for Zack. So I asked one of the helpful ladies at the store what pattern would be good for the yarn, something simple, no bells and whistles. And she pulled out a pattern that I never would have given a second thought, but is, in fact, brilliant and perfect for me. It's knit all in one piece from the top down--so no seaming. I cast on Monday morning while I waiting at the hospital for Rob to have some tests done and finished it Friday night. And yes, it is a merino sweater for a 19 month old. But I had such fun knitting it I can't wait to knit another one!

Most importantly (and amazingly!), it fits. And may fit him next year (though I may have to extend the sleeves). While (dare I say) the choice of model helps with the presentation, I think it turned out pretty well.

The nursery

Here's some pictures of the little outlaw's room -- its finally coming together after a missed furniture delivery, a crib skirt sewing meltdown, and a serious tussle with some oversized curtains. What do you think? Note all the special treats that make the room gorgeous -- mom's "coming home from the hospital" outfits sitting on the changing pad -- ready to go!, auntie amy's quilt at the foot of the bed, and auntie erica's quilt over the back of E's grandmother's rocker. Not to mention the bookshelf made for me by Poppa almost 10 years ago and her Atlanta Braves mobile! Its very cozy, and it gets wonderful afternoon sunshine. What you can't see is raggedy ann, sitting in the crib and making me cry everytime I get a glimpse of her. Thanks mom! :)


At the bottom you'll see a picture of the new house -- mom's been asking what it looks like so I snapped a photo this morning. Note the grey skies, heavy with another 5 days of rain that's coming this afternoon!

Let me know what you think. The only things left to do are to hang the artwork, put her clothes in the drawers, and spend some quality time with the goo gone, getting the warning stickers off the wood crib. Who does that??!