The pattern is easy; increases being the most ‘difficult’ part I think. Five petals are made separately; and then joined (which is quite easy). The not so easy part: making sure the silly yarn ends get hidden.

The cotton yarn (Sublime Cotton) was purchased at Loop (on sale!). It, being cotton, was quite easy to work with (compared to the slippery Misti alpaca that i’ve been battling on my WIP “Calm”); but it was annoying because of the separate threads…every once in a while I’d miss one.

I got three different colors of this cotton; the one I used here is Mashed Banana and I used about 0.6 to 0.75 of a ball…so not that bad huh? What do you think of the finished product?

In this day and age, children seem to have it all: dolls that speak to them, bears that know their names, crazy cars that do back flips, robots that double as pets….amongst many other amazing toys that my generation didn’t have. You can understand why searching for a birthday gift could be a little frustrating!

Luckily for me, the adorable little lady that is about to turn 3, likes creativity just like her siblings…and her mom hinted at how much her older siblings had loved a gift that I made for them 2 years ago: Crayon rolls!

These rolls are a lot of fun: They’re not too difficult to make and are easy to personalize if you want to spend a little more time thinking of that little person.

First step:

Come on, personalize it!

You’re making something hand made! It doesn’t take that much longer to add a few finishing touches!

I chose to embroider birthday girl’s name onto it along with a teddy that would tie the front to the patterned fabric i’d use in the inside.

Notice I also used simple letters; nothing worse than confusing a 3 year old learning how to read with fancy handwriting! (Save the fancy stuff for the older kids).

Two:

You’ll need five pieces total.

2 large rectangular pieces of of the size you choose the roll to be.

2 small rectangular pieces for the holding of the crayons (these were about 1/2 the width of the large pieces).

1 large 1.5″ wide piece for the ribbon that will hold it together.

You sew the long side of the two small rectangles together and press (trust me, press, it takes a few extra minutes, but makes it so much easier for you!)

Then you put all pieces together: if you’re embroidering,  remember where you’re putting the tie!!

And here is the finished gift! Pair it with a few coloring books and it should be a good entertainment tool for  a three year old when they can’t go out because it’s cold/raining out!

Anyway, I had a great excuse to get a couple of yards of minky: K & N were having a baby!

In  a previous Joann’s trip I had found a cute Winnie the Pooh fat quarter bundle in various colors. As they decided to not find out the gender of the baby until it was born, this would be perfect for my fabric addiction and schemes…er I mean blanket!

Compared to the smaller knit blanket I made for Jess’ baby, I made this quilt top 35″x45″.

I lined the inside with the stripped minky fabric I had purchased and added a bias edge instead of the fancier quilt ribbon I had bought. It just didn’t feel right to use the ribbon.

While the knit blanket had me continuously asking Thad “Honey, does this look too small?” this blanket meant that he was instead bombarded with “I think this will be too big”.

Ok, so it might be too large for a newborn, but then, they’ll grow into it right?

Call me crazy, but since I had a couple of squares left for each color I went wild and made a little bag to go with the gifts. I’ve been going a little nuts making drawstring bags with French seams lately…

So this is Sophie’s quilt…She’s now a smiley almost-4 month old and growing fast. I hope she enjoys it!

Last year, in a trip to Joann’s fabric I was lucky enough to find a ~1 yard piece of acetate in the remnants rack. The background color was black; but it had beautiful bright happy print of hibiscus and orchids on it…I was sold.

The piece of fabric shouted to me “tropical drinks” and “afternoon sunset by the beach” while the theme of Hawaii Five-O played in my head. While I’ve never had a tropical drink while admiring the afternoon sunset by the beach, I’ll happily start go-go dancing when I listen to the theme of Hawaii Five-O.

A couple of weeks later, on a sewing kick one Saturday morning, I looked at the fabric. “What to make?” I thought to myself. Having just made a halter dress, I decided to make a halter top; a dress but shorter!

I cut three pieces, two for the back, one for the front and barely had enough fabric for the length I wanted. Since making a cord from that was not an option, I used some silk ribbon I found….and ended up with this halter (i kinda love halter tops, not sure why).

I might not love hot and humid weather, but I do love this top. Sadly for me, so do the mosquitos!

That I was tempted to make another one in the same table runner?

Well, I liked it so much I had to make yet another one…this time the butterfly is going to be in a napkin that will be wrapping bread/tortillas in my table! Aren’t butterflies pretty?

Here is the finished Butterfly bread napkin…

Jeannette, one of the wonderful knitting ladies in my Stitch & Bitch, was making a lot of these cute booties around the time I was making the blanket. She was pregnant and wanted to make these for her daughter, but instead kept on giving them to friends that were also due soon.

She shared the link to the pattern, Sullivan’s baby booties, with the knitting group, and I started making them right away. In no time I had two pairs of booties, which was perfect to go with the two blankets ready to be gift wrapped!

These baby booties are extremely easy; just follow the link and see for yourself. They didn’t really make a dent on the remaining Pound of Love ball, so I’m guessing i’m going to have to make another baby blanket!

Also, because I was asked on Flickr, I am translating the pattern into Spanish below:

Este patrón de botitas de bebe es super fácil; alguien, via Flickr, me pidió el traducir el patrón, asi que aquí esta:

Botitas de bebé de Sullivans Knitting Yarns:

Materiales:

• 1 bolita de 50g de Sullivans Baby soft knitting yarn
• 1 par de agujas de 3.25mm, y otro de 3.75mm (UK 10-11, 5)(US 3-4).

Tamaños:

• 0-6 meses: 9cm o 3.5 pulgadas — 1 bolita
• 6-12 months: 10cm o 4 pulgadas — 1 bolita

Con las agujas de 3.75mm  (UK 5, US 3) montar 33 (37) puntos.

(H1) 1p. al derecho, aumentar 1, 13(15)p. der., aumentar 1, 2p. der.
(H2) Al derecho.
(H3) 1p. der., aum 1, 15(17)p. der., aum 1, 2p. der.
(H4) Al derecho.
(H5) 1p. der, aum 1, 17(19)p. der. aum 1, 2p. der. (45-49 puntos)
Trabajar 8 (9) hileras al derecho (punto musgo)
La próxima hilera: 26(29)p. der., 2p. juntos der.,  voltear, dejando el resto de los puntos en la aguja.
(H1) deslizar 1p, 6(8)p. reves, 2p juntos rev., voltear.
(H2) deslizar 1p., 6(8)p. der, 2p juntos tog der., voltear.

Repitiendo las últimas dos hileras trabajar hasta que queden 33(37)p., deslizar 1p., tejer al derecho hasta el final de la hilera.

La hilera siguente, tejer al reves.

Cambiar a las agujas de 3.25mm (UK 10-11, US 3-4)
(1) 1p. der. *(laz, 2p. juntos der.) repetir de * hasta el final.

Tejer al reves la hilera siguiente.

Trabajar 6 hileras en punto resorte. Terminar.

Hacer I-cord para las agujetas.

I scoured the internets for a project; something pretty, something not too girlie (Jess didn’t know the gender yet) and something not too complicated as I wanted to complete the project before the baby was born.

I also wanted to start using a recently purchased a “stitchionary”, Lace & eyelets, that I had gotten with a gift certificate Boombadeus’ mom had given me for my birthday…but I was still intimidated by the eyelets…but the eyelets and lace look so pretty! Oh, what to do?

I started looking at baby blanket patterns on Ravelry, but most had hearts, bears, and simple squares. Don’t get me wrong, I like hearts, bears and simple squares…but Jess has lots of crochet/knitting relatives…I wanted to do something that was going to be different…then I found this blanket by maggiecrafts. I was saved! Not only did it look beautiful, she mentioned that she had whipped it up in no time. Well, I was new at the eyelet/lace thing…but heck, it looked so pretty, how about I give eyelets and lace a try?

I chose Tulip Lace from my stitchionary, and off I went. I can’t remember how many stitches I cast…probably whatever they recommended in the ball of yarn (Pound of love) and I started.

At the beginning I was knitting on two needles; a few inches after I started it was getting heavy. My wrists were starting to hurt from holding all the weight with only one hand…so off I went to Rosie’s and purchased 36″ circulars. Oh, what a difference that made!! I loved it!

Less than two months later it was done! Since I tend to mostly knit on Tuesdays, at the knitting group, the timing wasn’t so bad for a first timer at lace, right? If you’d like to download the pattern, click here.

I’ve been working on a few projects that I couldn’t upload right away; also known as baby shower gifts. There were also projects that I completely forgot to take pictures of…oh well!

Besides the crafts I’ve also been getting organized. While Ravelry helped me get my yarns organized this past winter, in the form of pictures and amounts of yarn, I still needed to do something desperately about my needles. They were just… everywhere!

I had seen pencil cases being used for paint brush and knitting needle storage; and I had already made some over a year ago; gifts for the cute flower girl and ring bearer in our wedding. So, why not make one for my needles?

Armed with a cute green cotton fabric found at Joann’s, some linen in my fabric stash and some adorable leftovers, a Japanese fabric purchased last year from Purl Soho, I went ahead and made one…

While I knew which size needles I had (once again, thanks to Ravelry), I couldn’t find them easily. Some were in half started projects I was going to unravel, the remainder in their original packaging somewhere in my “crafts box” in the living room.

I needed them to be more accessible,  ready in case I needed them at a moment’s notice. Why at a moment’s notice? Because of the Stitch & Bitch* (we meet weekly, see details below)!

I was working on baby projects which are tiny and often I finished them as soon as I got there. Since I needed to start new projects away from home, I really  needed to make sure I had my needles with me.

Here is the finished product! Since then, the collection has grown a little bit. I might have to make another one!

*Stitch & Bitch at St. Stephen’s Green*

Tuesdays, 7pm — 1701 Green Street (in the Art Museum/Spring Garden area), Philadelphia PA

I love to buy yarn as much as fabric. I love soft yarn, yarn that makes me feel warm, yarn in bright, solid colors and my favorite: hand painted or hand dyed yarn…

In one of our Boston area visits, Boombadeus mentioned there was a farm that had llamas close by… and that they sold yarn made from the llamas! We just had to stop by and pick up some to make him a scarf.

That was the first of our trips to Iron Horse Farm.

The first scarf I made from this yarn I used the Mistake Rib pattern; I had already made one for myself (that’s another blog post) and loved this pattern so I used it again. Sadly, that first llama scarf has been lost of a while; we are not sure if it was donated by mistake or if it is safely stashed away somewhere in the house.

Winter was coming and I had to make him a new scarf, but in case we found the first one, we decided I should use a different pattern. The day after Thanksgiving we stopped by Iron Horse Farm to acquire more of the same yarn and a new pattern was chosen: Elongated Chevron.

At first it looked complicated, but once you’ve got a few rows going, you pretty much have it. The pattern also consists of just knit and purl so that made this pattern even easier.

So another project was done…sadly this didn’t any damage to my yarn stash. I guess i’ll have to find another project to use some of that yarn on huh?

I started the DNA Scarf about 2 or 3 years ago, but has become an UFO (knitter speak for UnFinished Object). Every time I re-start, I knit a few rows, get distracted and stop. The project only gets re-started when I have a few moments away from busy daily life and the knitting bag is close by, which isn’t very often.

I first came upon the DNA double helix scarf in the Fall of 2003 Interweave Knits magazine, where the pattern was featured. According to the article, June Oshiro was in the middle of a lecture when the idea came to her. She turned on her voice recorder (obviously to not miss the rest of her class, in bio classes we tend to get tested in things that are mentioned for 2 mins in class) and she started to draw the now famous pattern. This pattern isn’t just famous around knitters, it has even appeared in Nature Genetics!

For this scarf I chose a beautiful yarn I found while perusing the yarn at Iron Horse Farm, a farm in Sherborn, MA. I had gone there to purchased some of their llama yarn (they grow llamas and make yarn!) which was to become a scarf for Boombadeus…but that’s a different blog post.

While looking for that yarn, I happened to touch this one. I liked that the reddish yarn had bits of color here and there; from white to yellow, pinks and even a beautiful blue. It claimed to be 50% “soy silk” (I had never heard yarn made from soy) which I thought was weird but interesting, so I thought “why not try?”.

So the yarn was purchased and the scarf started. And re-started…and re-started.

Yes, the other reason this scarf has taken so long is that I’ve I started this pattern at least three times. I’d be about 10 inches done, only to undo it because I didn’t like the border. After searching and searching, I finally found my answer in the same Interweaves Issue: Why not try a linen stitch border?

So that is where I am now…I’m about 2 thirds done; and since now I’m done with Boombadeus’ scarf, I can focus on this one and finally say it is done in my Ravelry projects

I guess I should get back to my knitting, I can’t wait to finish it and wear it to the lab every day!