The Name's Bond. Baby Bond.

How do you solve the problem of a stylin' baby Bond who enjoys his formula shaken, not stirred, but can't hold his applesauce-tini?  Take him out in a bib that's as sophisticated as he is and has just the right amount of pomp for any circumstance.

I wrote in an earlier post about how hand-knit and crocheted items have a natural tendency to look girly, so when making anything for a boy, especially a baby boy, it's important to make the items as boyish as possible.  It's every mother's nightmare for someone to come up to their handsome baby boy and say "What a beautiful baby girl!".  I take no chances when making baby boy items, and these bibs are no exception.

The foundation is just the basic single crochet bib I made for Alicia, minus the ruffle, of course.  I searched high and low for just the right thing to applique onto this boy version, and hit the jackpot when I found this necktie applique pattern.  The bow-tie and buttons were a natural choice to create a super cute and very masculine set.  The bow-tie is just a glorified rectangle, and for the buttons I used the cherry from this cupcake applique pattern, sewn on just like, you guessed it, a button!

Not a Forever Pom-Pom? We'll Have to Wait and See

Sean's birthday is on Monday and he's turning the big 3-0, so we decided to have a family whoop-di-do for him Saturday night.  We ate our faces off and had a great time eating Chinese food, two kinds of cake, and of course, opening presents.

I've always thought that knit and crocheted items naturally look more girly, so when trying to think of something to make for my 6'5" brother, I really had to scour the internet for something he would actually wear.  I made him a cool tuque using this pattern for a Reversible Strands Hat that I found on Ravelry.  The hat is reversible with one side being ribbed and the other side being flat.


I changed the pattern slightly because I wanted to use Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick yarn, which is super-bulky.  I crocheted his hat using a 10mm hook, started with 8 double-crochet, and did two extra partial rounds of increases (if you'd like to know exactly what I did, feel free to message me).

The pom-pom was Dave's idea and done strictly as a joke.  I originally told Dave that while I thought it would be hilarious, I didn't want to do it because, knowing Sean, he would leave the pom-pom on.  So when Sean opened his present and saw the massive pom-pom, I made sure to tell him "This is NOT a forever pom-pom.  Just so you know, I didn't attach it to stay on forever.  Let's take a picture and then we can cut it off."  And Sean's answer, predictably, "No way!  That thing's never coming off."

He went to see our cousin play basketball later that night, so if you don't believe that he would wear the tuque out in public with the pom-pom, check out this picture Kelly sent me live from the game.  My poor Nanny sitting behind him actually couldn't see the game through the pom-pom!


Who knows how long a purposely poorly attached pom-pom will stay attached to a hat, but I have a feeling it will be longer than a well-attached pom-pom would.  Murphy's Law gets me every time!
Happy Birthday Sean!  xo