Mary-Claire's new hat

Mary-Claire and I recently worked out an exchange where she helped me with a Christmas present and she got a hat. She wanted one with ear flaps, so I logged onto Ravelry to search for a pattern I am not too excited about how this hat looks, but I love how warm it is. I made the large, because it comes down far on the back of the neck. I learned a new crochet stitch for the border.

Halloween

This is the extent of my craftiness these days...

With lots of help from Mom we had

A Pink Fairy Princess and Dorothy...

The dog wasn't my work... She's a friend.

Hats for Ellie and Conor

Kathleen asked me to make some hats for Ellie & Conor. The only restriction was that they needed to be warm and cover their ears.

For Conor I went with a simple ribbed hat. A few years ago I made him a Bears hat, and Kathleen mentioned that he liked it. It may not look like it in the picture, but it is long enough to cover his ears.



For Ellie's hat I wanted something girlie. I went with a pattern that has a braid around the brim and seed stitch for the brim. It is a really pretty hat, but you can't really see the detail. Her hat covers her ears too (I tried it on to make sure), but she could not put in on all the way because she had curled hair for High School Musical Three.



I love the bracelet Kathleen made me for making the hats. I will happily make scarves for earrings. I am digging the talent for talent exchange. I think we should set up a system of craft trading.

Payback

When you have a sister that can knit like the wind, you sometimes take advantage of her. You order yarn and have it delivered directly to her house. Then you email her and say "my kids need hats". You never ask "Hey, are you busy?". Sometimes you feel guilty about that, because when it comes to utility, none of your talents can begin to compete. So you think "utility be damned, I'll make her something pretty." Thanks, Sarah.


I obviously need my other sister to take the photos, because the colors are much prettier in real life. They're very fall-y sparkly crystals. Also, please note that the model is a 6 year old. The circle frame beads are dime-sized, not quarter-sized.

Scrap Afghan

I always have a lot of scrap yarn around. I decided a fun thing to do with it would be to make an afghan. Mary-Claire received my first scrap afghan, but there are more scraps, so more afghans to come.

A special thank you goes out to Claire for posing with the afghan.

Hat for Todd

You have probably picked up on this, but I love making hats. For Todd's birthday I told him I would make him a hat. He picked a very basic tube hat. It was great to knit while watching football, as it required very little thought (the hat, not the game).

I used some extra acrylic that I had sitting around. I needed bulky yarn, so I just doubled up the worsted weight. I like being able to wash hats, as my head sweats a lot, even in the winter.

Celebration Flags

As this time of the year approaches, I feel like all our work to raise children aware of, and resistant to, consumer culture, falls apart. It starts with Tucker's birthday and goes downhill. So I've been on a kick to find ways to make celebrations fun and special without buying. Hence the celebration flags.

I saw these in a book. The person made them by cutting triangles with pinking shears and sewing them to binding tape. I don't have pinking shears, and I know my mom did, so I didn't want to buy any (I like to think of myself as anti-consumer and eco-friendly, but the reality may just be McCarty). So I sewed triangles together, with the added bonus of having them be two sided. It's a great project for all the small remnants of fabric I had (I *know* that's McCarty). They're really fun. We've had them up since we finished them, in preparation for Tucker's birthday, but they'll be great for any celebration. Tucker has big plans to pull them out for Groundhog Day.