Flowers and Bows

So a couple of weeks ago I hosted a bow-making day for the women in my ward. I cleaned the house, borrowed a table and chairs from my dad's and sent Brian and the kids out the door for 5 hours. And waited.... and waited.... and ate a snack... and waited... and finally realized that no one was coming.

But please don't think I am complaining, I had a clean house and 5 (count them! FIVE!) blessed hours of peace and quiet all to myself. And we are going to try doing it again on another day. But in the meantime, since I had everything out anyway, I've added to our rather large collection of hair candy...


I think the orange, pink, and green bows on the bottom left are my favorites... except for the fact that I really love the combo of black and white... and I have been wanting to make the daisy clips with the red and white gingham centers ever since I saw something similar at Gymboree last summer...

I'll admit I have a problem when I have to get a 2nd shoe organizer to contain them all.... maybe.

February and March's Socks

Even though it's taken me until the second to last day in March to post them, I really did finish a pair of socks in February for my personal crafting challenge. Two pairs of socks actually....


The green one are another 2 ft. pair for Brian. (I call them 2 ft. socks because they measure at 24" of knitting from cuff to toe... and that is a lot of stockinette.) The little watermelon ones are Lila's, and they are a simple 2x2 ribbing down to the toe.

These are Brian's 3rd pair of sock I have knitted for him and he has proven himself eminently knit-worthy. (To be knit worthy you have to value the time and effort I put into making the whatever it is, you have to actually wear/use it, you have to care for it appropriately, and you tell me that you can't wait until I knit you some more!) The "eminently" in Brian's knit-worthiness came when he said he would love another pair of socks and I told him I wasn't sure if I had another manly colorway to knit for him. His response was, "I don't care if they are girly or not, they are the most comfortable socks I've ever worn!" Talk about the way to a knitter's heart! About the only thing that could top that would be to drive them to a yarn store, hand them a credit card and say, "Go crazy!"


Evie has out grown the socks I knit for her and wants to know when she gets another pair. I've promised her the next socks on my needles will be for her. In the mean time she contented herself with trying on Brian's...


...which Lila found quite distressing for some reason. The whole time I was trying to snap a picture of Evie wearing her daddy's socks like thigh-highs, Lila was trying desperately to pull them off her. I thought maybe Lila wanted a turn wearing them, but once she succeeded in getting them off her sister's feet she toddled off to play with something else.


And here are March's socks. So far I have one sock and one inch, and yes I am aware that I have about 36 hours to be done. The pattern is the Mock Croc and the yarn is Berroco Sox, which is a 75% wool/25% nylon blend that I am liking the feel of. One of my knitting buddies, Natalie, moved last week back east. Before she left, she, I, and our other friend (and knitting guru) Jeanette decided we would make matching socks. Because that is how knitting geeks roll....

...something blue!

This is my favorite detail of Janessa's wedding dress, I love the blue lacing up the back!


I love how the dress is simple and elegant (and sparkley!) from the front...


...and then sassy and fun in the back with that punch of color!


Evie dreaming of the day it is her turn to dress like a princess all in white.

Wedding Projects Weekend

So I didn't get knitting gold during the Olympics. I would place myself in the running for a bronze, as I finished more that half of my goal. I made Brian's socks, Lila's socks and am 2 inches shy of finishing Jake's socks. Oh well, I gave it my all, and at the end of the day that is all you can do. (I'll be posting pictures of them as soon as I can get all those feet together...)

I had to radically shift gears last Friday and start working on these...


My cousin's wedding dress and her sister's flower girl dress. It was a long weekend, with lots of decisions to be made. But we got it done and she was happy with the end product, which it the most important part. I think she looks beautiful.


I also snuck in a little knitting project in the wee small hours after we were done with sewing for the day. I was teaching my cousin Tiffany this cute hat pattern, so I knit one along with her so I could show her the steps as she came to them. It turned out so perfect! I made one for a shower gift a little while ago, and knew that I would be making another on soon. This one was a bit of experiment as I added the row of eyelets so I could thread the ribbon through it and make it a little more girly.


I love my sweet little model! She actually wore this hat for quite awhile today before ripping it off her head and figuring out how to untie the bow and unthread the ribbon. I was hoping to make the ribbon interchangeable, but I might have to make a commitment to a ribbon and add a few stitches to the bow so she can't undo it... what do you think? Keep the more neutral color, or go for something with more contrast like a chocolate brown?

P.S. I am hoping that Tiff will post pictures soon of her cutie pie modeling her matching hat. *wink, wink... nudge, nudge*

Knitting Olympics

What are they you ask? A very cool idea that was started (if I have all my information correct) by the Yarn Harlot during which knitters sign up to start a project during the lighting of the flame during the opening ceremonies and... ready for this? Finish it before the flame goes out during the closing ceremonies. That is 17 days. 2 1/2 weeks. Am I crazy? Maybe. My project(s)? A pair of socks for each member of my little family. The really hard part. I will not spend any money to do it. I will only use what I already have in my stash. And while I do have a lot in my stash... well yarn has become something of a compulsion for me. (As might be evidence that for my birthday next week all I want is yarn, or yarn money.) Add into this craziness the general melee that is being mother to three small children who think they need to eat more than once a day, and that I will be also helping to sew a wedding gown and two flower girl dresses... Oh well, too late now, I am already signed up and committed. So cheer me on like we'll be cheering on our Olympic teams. I am really looking forward to watching the Olympics with Jacob, he is mesmerized by extreme athletic displays. Brian, well he really likes to watch the ice dancing...

Caite's Birthday present...

This is my cute little sister, Caitlin. And now you can see the mitts modeled by the hands they were made for.


I had just enough yarn left after knitting the mitts to crochet these three little flowers. At first I thought I would attach one to the wrist of each mitt, but when I eked out a third flower I decided they would be much cuter grouped on a hat. And I was right!


Her birthday isn't for another month, but I had toyed around with the idea of giving them to her early because it is winter now. In another month she might not really need them until next winter. I had her try them on for size and she begged me to give them to her early. That made the decision easy. So Happy Birthday Caite! (even though it isn't until next month...)

On and off my needles...

A sampling of current and recently finished projects...


A simple raglan sleeve sweater for Evie. It is the same pattern as the first sweater I made her last year. She was wearing the purple one the other day and it just looked so stinkin' cute on her I decided to make another one. I am really liking this yarn, it makes me think of cotton candy. Yum.


If you are thinking these mitts look a little big for Evie, it's because they are. I just needed a pair of hands to model them... but after seeing how cute they look on her... well, I might be making her a pair in the near future.


They are a birthday present for my sister. And I am not giving anything away because she picked out the yarn and requested mitts of some kind. So... Happy birthday Caite! (Maybe you'll get them a little early so you can use them through the end of winter.)


Oh my, what's this? Something not girly? Crazy.

Poor Jake, he definitely gets the short end of the stick when it comes to crafting around here. There has been an imbalance of hand knits in favor of the girls, so I got down to business and turned out a nice sweater vest for him to wear for church. I let him pick the yarn and at first I was a little worried about the color. It is a deep, dark aqua. But it really grew on me as it started to take shape on my needles. I was also having an awful time finding a pattern that I liked, too plain, too boring, too complicated, ect. So I combined two patterns, a basic vest with well written directions, and another to get the pattern of purled diamonds. I love texture when I am working with plain yarn.


I am not sure how I feel about this twirly skirt. I love it now that it is done. But I hated the amount of plain stockinette knitting it required, and I don't like knitting with cotton. And it was a lot of pink... although I did like watching the color changes. But it took me as long to knit the bottom tier as it did to knit the first three. I do love the finished skirt, but it wasn't one of those projects that I thought, "That was fun! I am going to knit that again."


So to end on a happy note, another skirt! I found this tutorial online and just had to try it.


One pair of old jeans, some scrap booking templates to get the flower and leaf shapes, and two hours later we have an adorable new skirt! And even better it was totally free! The jeans were given to me by my grandma and I already had every thing else. Gotta love a free project. I will definitely be making more of these, I am thinking hearts or stars would be really cute!