sew sparkly and crinkly and a cutle little dog too

Teal sparkly wrap is done!



I can now carry TW in a wide number of ways, it's awesome and oh, so cuddly!

I've also finished hemming the new panels for the Mei Tai, but I haven't put the Velcro on yet, so no pictures. The pocket squares are trimmed, but still awaiting pressing and hemming.

My most recent projects have been some embroidery and crinkly things.

Cthulhu:



(right after this picture was taken we had a poo blowout :( )
DMC#s: 895 & 3346

And a cute little doggie!



modeled:




DMC#s: 433, 642, 776, 807, & 3346
And coloured in with crayons.
(you carefully colour in the parts you want making sure to get and even colour without applying too much wax, the put a piece of paper over the fabric and iron it. The wax and colour will melt into the fibers. Too much wax will make the fabric stiff, so you have to be careful.)

and some crinkly things.





The blue and brown are soft flannel; the ribbons were scavenged from the packaging of many of the gifts we got at the baby shower.

I got the owl idea from here

The inside crinkly stuff are just the cleaned off wrappers from some cliff bars. Nice and crinkly.

Tommy likes them :)

Wrap up

I finished the red sparkly wrap!



Its 30 inches wide by 3.5 yards long. And we love it! So far we've only used it for a couple of different hip caries, the photo above is a Semi Front Cross Carry but it was a bit fussy, so we switched to a Coolest Hip Cross Carry (vid) and like that one much better (the look similar because it's the same general wrapping technique, the only difference is how the baby sits in it)



We also tried a Short Front Cross Carry, but nether of us found it terribly comfortable (I think our wrap might have been bit too short), so I think we will be sticking to the hip carry for now, and TW really likes being able to look around more. Maybe in a little while I'll try the Kangaroo Carry(vid) and see how we like that.

When TW is a bit bigger this wrap will be long enough for us to try a handful of back carries too.

But I haven't finished he teal wrap yet, that one is longer so I'm kind of dreading the hemming process, specifically the ironing, but really that's all that's left to do, as it is all trimmed and ready. And it will be handy for a wider variety of carries.

I also finished a few more pocket squares for Bill:



The weather has been so nice lately that we've gone for several walks, it's been lovely! But it's been very bright too, after our first walk I grabbed some gingham out of my stash and whipped up this quick and dirty hat:





Seriously quick and dirty, I think it took me about 15 - 20 minutes total, because I wanted to be able to use it that afternoon. The edges of the brim aren't finished, and it's a bit uneven, but when we took our walk we got several compliments on TW's cuteness. So it can't be that bad.




After out first walk where the ha nearly got blown off by the wind I grabbed some bias tape I had already made up and put together another tether to pin to it so we wouldn't loose it in a sudden gust of wind. (sheer luck that the bias tape I had on had was a matching fabric!)



When we were in Jo-Ann's the other day to pick up some more suspender clips for paci/toy tethers we kinda both fell down in the fat quarter aisle:



The pile on the left are some I like for Mei Tai panels, and the pile on the right are some Bill grabbed for pocket squares. Its ok, they were on sale...
(I see a lot of ironing and sewing in my future!)

Sew what

Sew, um I mean, so, I haven't had as much time as I would like to knit, but I can eek out bits of time to sew, and sewing is so awesome, because even though I don't have a lot of time, I can still get a finished object relatively quickly.

For instance, I made TW's Mei Tai so that I could change out the patterned panels in front; making panels is quick and easy, and fun to pick out the fabrics to match my outfits.



and even more!



I like how I can fold them all up together in a neat little square when I'm not using them.

And one more modeled with cute baby, (I know I said to match my outfits, but sometimes, I can do nothing but clash, I think it’s a SAHM thing)


when I pick out fabrics for the panels, I usually just buy fat quarters, the Jo-Ann's I go to is usually very busy, and while it would be cheaper to buy from the bolt, I would be standing in line forever, I think it's a fair trade off.

So I don't waste any of it, I've made a few tethers...



TW doesn’t really use his paci that often (usually only in the car seat, and when being flown around by his daddy) but it's easier to model the tethers with them. Tethers can be used to attach almost anything to you or something so it can't get tossed or dropped on the floor. like pacis, or toys to keep baby entertained, or even their sun hat in summertime.

They are just strips of home made bias tape with snaps sew on each end to make loops. One loop can be snapped around the item to be tethered and the other used to fasten it in some way. I used a hair tie looped around the handle for his car seat:



or it can be looped into itself around a strap:



or it can be pinned with a safety pin, or you can buy suspender clips and use those to clip it onto items:



I've also been making a few pocket squares/hankies for Bill, he likes to dress up, and is really into the whole male fusion thing, but fancy silk pocket squares are a bit beyond our price range, so while I was picking out fat quarters for the Mei Tai, he picked out a few patterns for pocket squares, they are super easy to make, just trim everything so that it is square (seriously, some of the fat quarters were more like parallelograms hat rectangles, we think our Jo-Anns may have been hiring out the cutting duties to blind monkeys with Parkinson's.) and hem them up!



I have a few more waiting to be ironed, as well as another big project:



I'm going to sew a few wraps for TW and I, it's another way to baby wear, by securing the baby to you using a length of cloth.

I bought two lengths of linen/cotton fabric with sparkles on one side:



I've trimmed them; now all they need is ironing and hemming!

I think I may use the leftover bits I trimmed off to make more panels for the Mei Tai (they are so addictive!)
And I have a few other project in mind as well.

Some FOs and an almost FO

Wow a month just disappeared. If you haven't guessed by now, having a baby can be a bit time consuming.

I don't have nearly as much time to knit as I once did, but I do have a few FOs for you.

First, a super easy little hat for TW:



no real pattern, I just cast on a bunch of stitches, knit around, decreased and then made a little i-cord and knitted it.

Modeled:





also finished is a knit panel to cover us up when we go for walks:



pattern: seaweed (ravelry link)
yarn: knitpicks WOTA bulkly in coal
needles: US size 9 (5.5 mm)knitpicks interchangeables

I know it doesn't look like much in the picture above, so here's a kinda crappy picture of us in it after we got back from a walk the other day:



it's a bit short on top, the pattern says to stop after two inches, but I think I probably could have gone to 4 for better coverage. Ah well.

I also finally finished the purple bluebell socks!



and a better picture of the pattern:


my usual toe up two at once short row heel pattern, but with the bluebell rib pattern from sensation knitted socks plugged in.

yarn is knitpicks palette in eggplant and clematis heather.

I also have an almost FO:





the Baby Surprise Jacket using my own handspun, all it needs is for the shoulder/arm seams to be done up and for me to pick out buttons for it. But I made it in toddler size for next fall, so I'm in no rush to get it done.

Well hello there

I know it’s been a while, sorry about that :(
I don’t have much knitting time lately, Tommy wants to eat all the time, and I can’t knit one handed (yet...)

The handspun BSJ is almost finished though, and I've started another knitting project, but that will have to wait for another day, today it's all about sewing.

Tommy LOVES to be held, but my arms get tired too easily, so I began looking into babywearing, and found this wonderful site called The Babywearer with tons of resources.

I researched lots of different types of baby carriers, first I tried him in a stretchy wrap (like a Moby) that I made from jersey knit cotton. But he didn't like it all that much, so I kept looking. Then I discovered Mei Tais when a friend lent me hers to try. Tommy loved it! So I set out to find a pattern to make my own.

I found several tutorials online, some that I liked better than others, I ended up combining elements from this one with interchangeable panels and this one with wide unpadded shoulder straps

I grabbed some heavyweight denim from my stash, send Bill out for some pretty fat quarters and went from this:



To this:
(excuse the bad hair, pjs, and slightly dazed look on my face, I don't get much sleep anymore.)




(no in-between pictures, I meant to take a series to show how I did it, but I ended up only having short little bits of time to work, and I wanted to get it done! Anyways, the two links sites do a pretty good job.)

it has interchangeable panels, so I can switch out the printed fabric in front for lots of different looks and Tommy loves it, if he's cranky I can put him in and he'll calm down and eventually fall right to sleep! I may even be able to take him for some walks soon! (as soon as I finish my other knitting project...)

A few more pictures, because he's just so cute and I can't help myself

merry, merry

I hope everybody who celebrates it has a wonderful Christmas.

as for me, I got my gift a week early:





Thomas William was born after 30 hours of labor at 9:17 AM on December 18, 2009. He weighed 8 lbs 2.4 oz and was 21 inches tall.

A post to distract me

Because today is my due date, with no end in sight.

I've been in heavy 'nesting' phase for the last couple of weeks, it's all crafting all the time around here (when I'm not napping)

***

First this little guy:
This is out first dishwasher, and sometimes we don't empty it as promptly as we should, so there have been many days where either I or Bill has needed to ask the other "are these clean?" So I made a little sign to help us out.



It's kind of silly, but I'm way happier than I should be about it.
Stitched on 16 count Aida, three strands over two holes.
'dirty' is DMC 816
'clean' is DMC 3755

***

Of course I've also been knitting a lot too, sometimes I just lay on the couch and knit all day, (when I'm not dozing off) and of course socks make perfect waiting room knitting at the doctors during my weekly visits.



We had better light conditions today, and I tried putting one on a blocker to stretch it out, but it's still difficult to get a good detail shot of the pattern on the dark yarn.
Trust me, it looks really neat.

***

And lest you think I forgot about the baby (HA!) I finished spinning the yarn for his BSJ last night. Now it just needs to be washed and abused a little, and I can start knitting!



The two darker skeins came out to approximately 168 yards and the yellowier skein came out to about 180 yards. Right now it's roughly light fingering, but I tried to spin it rather softly, so it should bloom quite a bit it the wash, and be all sorts of snuggly and warm!


Next up on the wheel:



Some delightful fluffy Jacob top I got in a swap on ravelry. This is going to be a pair of work mittens for Bill. he wore out his last pair before we moved, and he's reluctant to wear his Squirrel and Oak mittens while cleaning the snow off the car, for fear of ruining them.

Happy socks, sad socks, and some embroidery

Sad socks :(

I blew a hole in a pair of socks the other day.



My first holey socks, I am sad.

It's especially sad, because I was just thinking that these were one of my favorite pairs, I love the colours, I loved the stitch pattern, and the yarn was so squishy and soft. Yeah, I guess that should have been the clue. Not only do I have this hole, but there are sever thin spots in both heels, and the other toe as well.

They are the leaf lace socks, I knit using Autumn House Farm Twist Strideaway.

I'm keeping these around for now because I haven't decided if I want to darn them or not. I feel so sad, because they were one of my favorite pairs.

And now I have another dilemma, because I have another skein of the same yarn in a different colorway. And I really like the colours, and the yarn is so soft and squishy, but I'm not sure if I trust it in socks again.

***

To makeup for the lost socks, (and to have something relatively simple on the needles) I have started another pair of socks!



It's kind of hard to see in the dark yarn (darn overcast conditions!) but this is the bluebell pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It looks really nice, and is super easy to memorize. I'm using leftover Knit picks Palette from my woven and fulled scarf. I only had on ball of the darker, and about half a ball of the lighter, so I'm using the lighter purple in the toes and heels, (and possibly the top ribbing if I have enough when I run out of the dark)

I'm zipping right along on these guys, I'm only about an inch away from the heels already. The pattern is so easy, and lately I haven't really had the energy for brain intensive knitting. (Due date is a week from today!!!)

***

and finally some embroidery:



This is the Colonial Christmas Sampler, a First Friday Freebie from the painted quilt

I used two strands of DMC 321 for the main motifs, and a strand of 321 plus a strand of gold filament for the grid lines, all on unbleached muslin. It's kind of hard to see in the small picture, but if you click though to see the big, you can see how much it sparkles. I really love it!

I'm going to frame this up and give it to my mother for Christmas.
I'm also thinking about taking some of the individual motifs from this piece and making little tree ornaments to go along with it, but I haven't decided yet.

Chilly weather = knitting

Yesterday we woke up to people scraping ice from their windshields. As Bill walked of to school wearing his woven scarf and knit hat and gloves, I decided it was time to unpack and put up the hat rack.

In our old apartment we didn't have a hall closet, so the rack held our coats, and the hats and other wintry accessories lived in a plastic bad on a table to the side. The new apartment has a nice big closet where we keep our coats, so the rack can finally be used to display our winter accessories.



Everything on the hat rack but Bill's driving cap was hand knit by me. I actually still have a few tams that didn't fit hanging in their old bag in the closet.

In other news, I have a few FOs!

First, TW's baby poonam



I knit this using LB fisherman's wool, and size 7 needles. I did it mostly in the round with steeks for the armholes. This was my first time steeking and boy was I nervous! But I looked up the crochet steek method from see Eunny knit and it was a breeze. It was actually quite fun once I got going!

I didn't really do too thorough of a blocking, just kinda patted it into shape, and after I uploaded the picture I noticed that it was a bit lopsided, I went back and fixed it a bit, but I'm not going to stress over it too much, because really, nobody is going to notice how well a job I did blocking it while my most awesome TW is wearing it ;)

And last but not least, socks!



Knit picks Felici in Aurora, size 1.5 (2.5 mm) needles, toe up, two at once, magic loop