Dad's Boob Hat

I made my mother a hat with owls. My father wanted a hat too, so I asked him what kind of hat he wanted. If you know my father, his answer won't surprise you.

It's a boob. Like the cute little beanies that nursing babies wear- only sized for an adult man. Yeah, that's not weird at all. With the resizing it is quite the boob, too. In fact it is frighteningly large.

New Hair Accessories

 I've been experimenting with a few new designs for stylish hair do-dads. In the picture above, you can see the snap clip variety. I love these because the leaf covers the silver snap clip.

I've also been working on some more barrettes- and I think these cables are just the right side. The single color keeps it simple, while the cable adds depth. I'm looking forward to working up some more in different colors and patterns.

Box for Bookmarks!

I decorated this cigar box for the bookmarks I made.

I think I might be equally excited about the box as about what is inside...

I ordered the photo corners from amazon, and I think they help pull the inside together.

Alan's Robot

My friend Alan loves robots. I promised him ages ago that I would make him a robot, and I finally came through. Here's Alan's robot. 

I used buttons for his eyes, the "gears" on his chest, and the sides of his head. I think the little guy looks a bit overstuffed, but he is a bit rounded and cute that way. 

Staunton Street Market

I have some pretty talented friends. My friends Alex and Merri reserved a table for the Staunton Street Market that happened today, in the shadow of the dedication ceremony for the Sears Hill Bridge, here in Staunton. You can see their good stuff on their Facebook page or their Etsy shop. They both knit and crochet, and make a variety of wonderful goodies. I helped them set up their book, and they kindly lent me some table real estate. 

I've been busy! Here you can see everything I've been up to recently- the bookmarks, the converted cigar boxes as well as the new hair clips I'll show you in more depth soon.

There are my business cards, and in the background, Alex and Merri's. Quite a yin/yang feeling going on there. Neither of us sold much, but it was great to see people milling around the area after so long without warm weather, and we we able to catch up as well. 

Mom's Owl Hat

 Last October (I know, I can be a terrible procrastinator), my mom impulse bought some Llama yarn from Swiss Kid Llamas (http://www.safarmersmarket.com/Vendors/watts.htm, http://www.etsy.com/shop/swisskiddesigns) at our Farmer's Market. The farmer's market is great, and I've really missed it this winter. I probably wouldn't be super enthusiastic about walking down there in the cold, but I sure do miss the fresh produce. 

Anyway, back to the yarn. My mom has these beautiful blue eyes and silver hair, so naturally everything I make for her is blue. She picked out some yarn, and wanted me to make her a hat with owls, like the sweater I'd made for myself.

Now, I love that sweater. No buts, I adore it. You can buy the pattern here: (http://katedaviesdesigns.com/designs/o-w-l-s/) and if you are into that sort of thing, there's a version for the kiddos. It's made from super heavy yarn and knitted up rather quickly. That big yarn though, is HUGE  in comparison to the "DK" weight of the llama yarn, that in many places is much smaller- so I hope my mother is expecting tiny adorable owls, as that's what she's getting.

Here are a few pictures of the first few chaotic rows. In the second picture here you can see the 2X2 ribbing starting to emerge.

Here you can see the bottoms of the owls forming

As an aside, I'd like to say that point protectors should more correctly be called sanity protectors (I know, not a nice ring), because had I not discovered these amazing knitpicks.com point protectors in my little bag of tricks, I would have ripped my hair out by now. As it is, I've lost and saved countless stitches off the ends of my new sock needles.

In these pictures, you can see the owls fully formed. I have a few more rows to finish the hat- but the owls are snug there around the rim. 

Here you can see the teeny tiny buttons I sewed on as eyes to three lucky owls in the front. I thought it would be too much to give all of the owls eyes, but the three that have them will bring attention to the others, too. 

Too much? Too little?

I was a bit worried that the hat would be too small- I even knitted a gauge swatch before hand, which I don't like doing. I think it worked out though- I wore it for a few minutes and it didn't make my head hurt- so anyone else on the planet should be able to wear it just fine. I know my mom likes long hats- but any longer and this one would get in the way of seeing clearly, so I think we're good there.

I really like the loose look to the top here. It isn't the only way obviously, and for more stylized hats neater is nicer, but this looks so comfortable.

Bow Barrette

I made an order recently to get some yarn for a hat for my father. To qualify my order for free shipping, I also chose this wonderful orange sale sock yarn. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make socks (I only had one skien, I should be working on projects for other people...) but I couldn't resist pulling it out. I bought a set of cheap barrettes, and the decorative bit broke off of one of them. So obviously, this meant I had to make myself a hair do-dad.

Here you see most of the parts before I assembled it. I knitted a small, slim rectangle and sewing it over the barrette, with an additional layer of felt between the metal and the knitting (there were some snaggy bits, and I didn't want it to ruin the knitting, or tear a hole). I put it all together, and stitched it liberally to the barrette, I hope it will stay in place for a long while. 

Here's the final product. I really like it. While it does have a profile, it doesn't look bad from the side at all. That's my biggest pet peeve with those huge rockabilly flower hair things- they only look good head on. This bow, while being sizable, still looks pretty good from all angles. 

Cards!

These beauties came in the mail a few days ago! I love how simple they are, with the orange (my favorite color), and the nicely contrasting gray. I plan to use them as tags when I start selling things. The back is blank so I can scrawl down sizing and cost info.

I don't have an etsy store yet- when/if I do that it will be linked here and added to the next batch of cards, as well. I'm still working out many of the details involved with selling handmade goods, and don't want to take on more than I can handle just yet. Really, ever, but especially not now. I've had a nice break from classes to get many things started, but that's ending now too.

Headbands

Around the holidays this past year I made a shawl for a friend of mine with a beautiful leaf edging. In love with the edging, but less with the time involved with making the shawl- I make this headband out of the leftover yarn and the leaf pattern. I really love it because with my almost constant headache, commercially available headbands are too tight. I made this one loose enough that I can wear it most days. 

Also, I acquired a Styrofoam head.

I had some leftover fingering weight yarn and new sock needles, so I started working on another headband a few days ago. I love knitting in the round. Not the first few rows, mind you- there it is nothing but spiky chaos, but after that it picks up a nice rhythm and stockinette doesn't require any purling.

I ran out well before the headband was long enough, and switched over the the closest color I had which was much larger, and larger needles. I decreased a few times, and churned out the remainder of the headband in record time- considering how long the it took with the smaller needles. I love the final product, but it takes some time.

 Here's this headband on my Styrofoam head. The color change is totally hidden in the back.

Corner Bookmarks, and MONSTERS!

Isn't he cute? I came across Tally's post about corner bookmarks through Pinterest a few days ago and decided to make some for myself. I've been a bit of a perfectionist about the whole process, and there are a few areas to finesse.

Bookmonster says Nabokov is his favorite. Mine too bookmonster.

Here it is in full page marking and nibbling glory.

And the back! I've altered Tally's technique slightly so that both the upper triangle and the back show the pattern, and the inside shows the card stock. I had fun with some less frighteningly cute varieties as well.

For these next photos, remember that all bookmarks are oriented the same way. The top two are the same, and the bottom shows the opposite. The patterned paper can be put on the top triangle, or on the inside. I personally like it better on the top triangle, but the other way has it's charms.

Here's another monster for prosperity!

Organized Crafting

I tell myself I want to do many things. I can't count the number of projects I have started and then stashed and forgotten about. The last few days however, I've been on a serious productivity roll. I think it has something to do with being so close to the end of this quarter- I just turned in two large final projects and all the sudden have mental and physical energy aplenty. 

Anyway, I used some upholstery fabric left over from a renaissance fair bodice to make cases for my knitting needles and crochet hooks. I've made attempts at this before (I don't recommend crochet- the small hooks slip right through), but neither worked out for various reasons. 

The new set is both functional and attractive- or I think so. Judge for yourself. 

This is all three pieces together. The small blob holds stitch markers, point protectors, a set of small scissors, etc. 

The construction is actually pretty simple. I measured the height of my tools and knew I wanted the width when closed to be about five inches- so the width when open is about four times that- 20 inches. Then I cut enough of the dark blue to make a small pocket, and enough of the red to make a slightly higher pocket. My iron was my best friend! It really helped when I closed off the edges- the bias tape I had wasn't wide enough, so I made my own out of more of the red fabric.

Here's the inside of the little guy. It was a lot of small area sewing. I'm really proud of both myself and my brother sewing machine. He worked like a champ. I pilfered the zipper from a bag of Basmati rice- and it didn't have guards on either end of the zipper. I lost the zipper pull a few times. The little guy is cute and is intended to fit in project bags. 

I'm hoping to be a more productive crafter and blogger- so here's to organized productivity!