Booties Galore!

I just finished another pair of custom booties for a friend. She wanted them for her little girl to wear with her pumpkin costume for Halloween so we picked orange for the booties and green laces. The pattern is Ruth’s Perfect Baby Booties and I used Just A Leaf for the leaves on the end of the laces. The finished product is really cute but the pattern had a few problems. If I had it to do all over again I would use Judy’s Magic Cast On and try to knit them in the round.

I think these will look adorable on the little pumpkin!

Oh Boy

I’ve been finding myself walking around lately with my shoulders hunched up by my ears. I’m waking up with a sore jaw and a headache from clenching my teeth all night. And you know what is causing all of this tension? My hobby. Ever since I got the notion to turn this pastime into a tiny business I have found it to be less-than relaxing, but that’s not something I would change. It is giving me something to work on besides the day to day keep-the-children-alive-and-make-sure-they-don’t-turn-into-axe-murderers. The biggest problem is that I have all these ideas floating through my head and not much time to work on them, nor the patience to allow it to happen slowly. My incredibly calm, patient and supportive husband sat down and worked out a plan for me and it’s starting to look less overwhelming. My shoulders can now be found at chin-level!

So much to do, so little time…

 

They Are Just That Cute

I just finished up my first commissioned project, another pair of Spring Breath Booties. I had a friend request a pair after seeing my post about The Cutest Booties Evar. She wanted a very stylish colour combo, chocolate brown with an ivory trim and pink buttons. I bought some Cobasi at The Loop, and though I really liked working with it, the booties were more like socks with such fine yarn. The Cobasi has now implanted itself in my mind and is destined to become a new design for toddler socks. I went to my other local yarn store, Make One Yarn Studios, where I found Diamond Luxury Collection DK Superwash in just the right  colours. Three days later, voila! We have another pair of adorable baby booties ready to be applied to adorable baby feet!

It’s Almost That Time Again…

Even though I love summer, and this one has been particularly awesome, I always enjoy a change in season. The cold mornings and crispness in the air these days is making me think of cold-weather things like stew, apple pie, jumping in the leaves, and knitting. Yes, it’s true, I’m pretty much always thinking about knitting, but this time of year is specialer (apparently spell-check is totally okay with that word… what is this world coming to?) I’ve got little mittens and hats and sweaters on my mind now, and I can’t wait to get started. I loved the stuff I made for the kids last year, it’s going to be hard to top them. Here are the mitts I made for A last year, rainbow colours and all! What are you going to knit to keep you warm this winter?

(sorry for the photo quality, I had to steal them from Ravelry since I couldn’t find them on the computer)

My little goofball
Nice long cuffs to keep them on

I did a lining with scrap sock yarn to make them extra warm

Not Your Average Pillowcase

The Mother Huddle’s Fat Quarter Pillowcase Dress is another pattern I’ve used a lot. I’ve made three already and have the fabric to make another one this weekend. I think I originally found this on someone’s Pinterest board and knew I needed to make it ASAP. The first one I made was so cute, but P absolutely would not wear it. The monumental fights we had over this dress made me alternately irate and sad. Eventually I felt so bad about it that I decided to start again from scratch for P. This next one turned out even better and she is willing to wear it on occasion so all was well in the end. The other two dresses, as well as the dress-to-be, are going to my friend’s three little girls. I hope I get a chance to see them all worn together!
The tutorial is really great. The pictures are clear and so are the explanations. I did have a bit of a problem in that my fat quarters were not quite wide enough to cut the bottom panel correctly for size 4. I ended up just trimming the sides up a little and making it a bit narrower than it called for, but it still fit fine. I’m sure that part of the problem was that my fabric wasn’t wide enough. I got the fabric for the first one from Fabricland but apparently they are discontinuing their fat quarter bundles. Fortunately, I discovered that Walmart carries tons of really cute bundles for $12. Unfortunately, there are so many that I can’t help buying more and making more dresses. If you are a friend of mine and you have a little girl, don’t be surprised if she receives one of these for her next birthday.