Twins!

It's time I start keeping better track of my projects again.

Babies were born a while ago, so now seems like the right time. =D

Baby Blanket Gift

Here's a baby blanket that I gave to a friend in...April. Yep, I'm slow.

It's worked from corner to corner (the last one that I did was an EPIC fail--this pattern worked much better!).

It was done holding two strands together. The green-ish/turquoise color is a solid strand of Red Heart and a strand of Bernat Baby with a silver strand running through it and a slight curl to the yarn. The white stripes were solid white Red Heart and a slightly flecked I Love This Yarn sport weight white.

Batch of Baby Hats

I've been on a baby-hat-making-frenzy. Here's the first batch.

It sure is helping to clear out random skeins of yarn!

Replacement Blankie

A friend recently contacted me with a desperate plea to crochet her son a replacement blanket. His had been so well-loved that it was literally tied in a knot just to hold it together so that he could continue to snuggle and smell his blanket.

We figured that if he could choose the colors, the transition from old to new would go more smoothly for him. I also hoped to find a pattern that would be similar to the first.

He chose his colors, and I chose some potential patterns. As it turned out, it was all very different from his original, but we still had high hopes that he would be pleased. We also knew that, as it had happened with an older sibling, the acceptance of a replacement would be a long process.

The final product with his choices of red, orange, and blue I Love This Yarn:

Yep, it's just as bright as it looks! What fun when kiddos choose something I never would have thought to put together!

The verdict:
"[His] blanket is awesome!!  Apparently he didn't need any time to get used to it either, he has been carrying it around and was excited to take it to bed with him.  He also wants me to watch it when he isn't able to because he doesn't want anything to happen to it or for [little brother] to drool on it.   "

Haha!!! Music to a crafter's ears.

Baby Cocoon

This is the other part of the crown gift.

Somehow, the pictures wouldn't capture the correct color AND the fuzzy texture, so you can use your imagination to combine the two. =)

The pattern came from this book.

Quick Queenly Crown

Here's my quick project for today. Hopefully another will be completed shortly.

This was a special order for a special delivery baby, and it was made based off of this pattern.

Baby Blanket in progress

Here's a blanket I've been working on.

Help me out of this quandary. My friend lives kind of far away and is expecting sometime this month. I figured Red, White, and Blue would work well since they don't know if it is a boy or girl. However, I had hoped to have it finished and in the mail so they would get it around the 4th of July before baby was born. I'm not finished, so it's not going to be in the mail anytime soon.

My question for you: should I wait until baby is born and just send a pink or blue blanket? Or should I send this one anyway even though baby could be born weeks after Independence Day?

Baby Hat

Some friends of ours just had a baby girl. How about a little purple hat for that precious tiny head?

I used this pattern as a guideline for the hat and my own made up pattern for the rosette. The hat was done with a lavender and a shiny white yarn held together, and the rosette was done with a dark purple with silver strand running through.

Hopefully I'll get to see her wearing it before she grows out of it!

A Beautiful Model

This is, by far, the best way to display a headband!

I love it when people send me pictures. =)

Blue and Brown Baby Blanket

This is a baby blanket that I finished in the spring for some friends of ours. Baby boy was born in June, so he probably hasn't needed it yet!

It's done in I Love This Yarn, sport weight, so it's quite light and flimsy.

It's hard to tell the pattern with the variegated yarn in there, but that's probably why it suggested a variegated and solid color choice. The panels alternate in 3dc shells for 5 rows and 3 V-stitch rows with solid dc rows in between.

Isn't it funny to see how the variegated yarn creates patterns when you look at the finished product in a picture?

Rummage Sale Baby Blankets

Last Saturday, a friend invited me to go along with her to a church hosting a children's items rummage sale. My boys had been out late for a baseball game the night before and were still resting, so it was a good time to pop out for a bit.

Just before we were done, we wandered over to a table that held a lot of bedding items. I noticed some handmade blankets, and it initially made me very sad that someone had taken the time to create these blankets only to have them end up in a rummage sale. I wanted to buy them just to appreciate the workmanship! Then I realized that if they weren't kept for one reason or another, I could at least frog them and reuse the yarn in my Ugly Blanket or something.

So I bought them.

I still feel a little guilty about how cheap they were and that my whole intention was not to use them but to take them apart!

Oh, what to do?!?!

This one is a crocheted blanket that got a little wonky in sizing. The yarn seems to be in pretty good shape with only a spot or two that seems fuzzy.

Also a crocheted blanket, this one is the smallest. It's made from a very bulky yarn, so it may not work into my Ugly Blanket very well. Maybe it will be used for something else. This was actually in a bag that held 2 handmade blankets and one store-bought blanket, so I figured it was still worth it.

This last one is a knit blanket. Clearly a lot of time and work went into this one. Especially since I don't knit and admire those that do, this one is the one that is screaming at me most for having the audacity to take it apart. But I really love the color! Once i got it home and took a closer look, I realized that it is two strands worked together. A warm and cozy blanket for sure!

Have you ever done this before? Have you found good quality yarn? What would you do?

Little Quackers Pattern

I recently tested this pattern for Lazy Daisy Crochet. It's Quackers the Baby Duck, and he's a smaller sized cuddle blanket.

Look how cute he is!

I keep thinking he needs some little smile lines around his beak to make him even cuter. But I hate to mess with a good thing!

Her pattern is for sale here. Go check out her blog --she has some amazing giveaways pretty regularly! She's currently celebrating her followers with a great giveaway package.

I have a niece!

My new baby niece was born last night!!! Yay!!

I would love to show you a picture of the blanket and headband that I made for her, but somehow hubby or I took the pictures and erased them before they made it to the computer. =(

We'll have to see if the new mama can take a quick pic with the beautiful baby sometime!

On that note, her blanket was made with the very special Great Great Grandma Ginny stitch. I'll be posting about that once I have some pictures.

Baby Girl Blanket and Headband

Is it because summer is winding down that all of us are so determined to finish off various projects? School is almost starting and craziness will begin again? Back to schedules and calendars and much less free time? Whatever the reason, it's good to accomplish projects that have been waiting around, and I'm determined to put away certain ones to make room for something new.

We were headed out for camping this weekend, and I knew there were certain items I didn't want to drag along with me (more on that later). On Thursday night, I wanted to finish a project I had started with that fantastic yarn deal from earlier this summer.

Here is the Ocean Tranquility Afghan from Anastacia Knits.

I decided on a color changing pattern rather than one solid color. I also made it slightly bigger than the suggested baby blanket size using a Size H hook and beginning with Ch 93 rather than Ch 63.

I really liked this pattern! It was fun, simple, and it came together so quickly even with adding the color change in there.

When I finished, I had just enough yarn leftover to make a matching baby headband.

Here it is not-yet-assembled. Now it's time to find a really great button to put in there to make it perfect for a little girl.

Once I finished that blanket, I had to rush around to figure out what project I did want to work on while camping... oops. Plan ahead! I figured it out though, no worries.

Baby Girl Blanket

Glancing through old pictures, I came across a baby blanket I made for a friend a few years ago. It was a fun project and sort of a mystery. There wasn't a picture, so I just blindly followed a pattern. Very unusual way for me to pick a project, but I loved the finished product!

Notice that little pile of yarn? Yep, that's the extent of my leftover yarn when I finished. Wow! Cutting it close!

I really loved the edging for it, too.

With a niece on the way soon (YEAH!!!), little girl projects are on the brain. Do you have any favorites?

Still no luck on that stitch yet... I'll keep you posted.

It's a Boy!

We've found a recipient for one of my finished baby blankets!

Our dear friends had baby boy #4 on Wednesday, and hubby picked this blanket for him (it's a lighter and more summery color than the other option). It's plenty hot this week for him to NOT need it, but hopefully it keeps him toasty come winter!

Pattern, Perfectionism, and Par for the Course

On Saturday, I delivered another set of Headbands to the local Boutique. She's having a big Open House this coming weekend, and I wanted to make sure that she had plenty in stock. Now that she has such a good supply, I can back off of making them like a crazy woman every free moment.

In my pursuit of a variety of headband yarn, some great baby blanket yarn leaped into my basket courtesy of my wonderful hubby.

I was anxious to do another version of a simple pattern I had created a few years ago. This is the Pattern Part of P for today.

Ch 112
Row 1: Dc in 4th ch from hook and each st across.
Row 2-3: Ch 3 (count as first dc) and dc in each st across.
Row 4: Ch 3; dc in next 6 st. Sk 1 dc, (dc, ch 1, dc) in next dc; V-st made. * Sk 2 dc; V-st * repeat until last 8 dc. Sk 1 dc, dc in last 7 st.
Row 5: Ch 3; dc in next 6 st. Sk next dc, V-st in each ch-1-sp across, dc in last 7 st.
Repeat row 5 until desired length.
Finish with 3 rows of dc (one in each ch-1-sp and dc across for first row).

Very simplified pattern, but hopefully it makes sense. It's such a fun and quick pattern. As it started coming together and I was counting stitches on Saturday night, I had to laugh at myself that this is the largest project I've worked on in several months. Pathetic!

Now on to the Perfectionism Part of P.

Any other perfectionists out there? Maybe you'll understand my weirdness here. As this is coming together, it seems more likely that I'm working the length of the blanket rather than the width. That would be OK in some cases, but the V-stitch makes it seem a little awkward, maybe?

So fellow perfectionists... do I rip it all out and recount my pattern to be more appropriate to the width or do I just keep going? How OCD should I be about this?

A blurry phone-picture of the last time I made this pattern:

Bad choice of yarn--you can barely see the border. But you can probably tell I had the same problem last time. Did I learn and mark adaptations to my pattern? Nope. Some perfectionist I am.

I await your advice. Start over or keep going?

And finally...Par for the Course. This is what we woke up to yesterday morning:

Spring in Wisconsin, my friends! Last Sunday: 80 degrees. Following Monday 8 days later: snow. At least it isn't sticking to the roads...

Baby Blankets

Baby Blankets are afghans in mini-size, right? So it must be worthy of a separate post. Also, Baby Blanket Begins with B, so we're moving right along in this A to Z Challenge!

A few pictures of my most recent baby blankets:

The next one is not crocheted, but I still made it... 

Fleece Find

Here's my exciting find of the day:

2 yds of fleece, $3!! It's too bad our house is currently mid-project with a lot of rearranging going on. I can't wait to make a couple little blankets!

Baby Girl Blanket

Another project is complete!

I started this little afghan a couple years ago, but it had a color change for every row. I quickly realized I couldn't finish it in time for the intended recipient, so I put it away. ...for a LONG time. Well, I finally pulled it out again and finished it!

This project was done with TLC Essentials yarn and Size G hook.

I've always loved Ripple Blankets.


A closer shot of the ripples:

Pretty picot edging.

More projects will be posted, soon.