One Hat, Two Ways, In a Flash!

So, here I am again, needing to be distracted from life and it's many W.O.E.'s (there is an inside joke there that will be explained in a future post, I'm sure).

Thing was kind enough to model.  :)

I crocheted two hats recently, both from the same cloche pattern found on the Lion Brand website (side note: you will need to create an account to view this pattern, but if you are into needle crafts, this site has a TON of really great, frequently reviewed, FREE patterns).



The first hat I tweaked to make it slouchy.  I increased each round until the hat was wider than it needed to be and added length until it was longer than it needed to be.  I finished the pattern as written with the exception of decreasing on the first few rows of the band to make it snug.  I also used a different flower pattern...  (Keep reading for those details.)


The second hat was for my niece's birthday, and she is pictured here, cute as a button, showing off her new hat.  This one was made pretty true to the pattern, but also with a different flower.  Here is the flower pattern that I used (the first of five available, called The Pink Sunflower) for both hats, which is on a blog called The Sunroom.  The pattern includes fabulous instructions for creating five funky flowers that all start with the same basic center.  I just love these unique flowers, AND they were super easy to make!

 
The first hat took a bit longer and was completed over the course of several days, but my niece's hat was started and finished in a single afternoon!  I found both of these patterns on an awesome website called Ravelry, which I've mentioned in previous posts.  You create a free account, and then you can track your projects (complete with pictures!), store details of your yarn stash, and search for thousands of knit and crochet patterns, many of which are FREE!

Well, that's it for now.  I'm keeping busy, staying distracted, and creating a multitude of hand-made items in the process.  Oh, and trying to eat less.  ;)

By Special Request...

Bazinga!

A lovely woman, who shall remain nameless, was kind enough to request a photo of me in my new hat.  I sort of shun the whole "taking a picture of one's self and posting it on the internet", but as many fellow busy women will relate, sometimes finding someone to actually take a picture of you is darn near impossible!  Plus add into the equation the necessary time to put on makeup, do hair, and not be in pajamas, and it's that much more difficult.
But then comes a thoughtful, delightfully complementary request and my heart goes all mushy...  So here it is.  Me with enough makeup on to not look like I just rolled-out of bed, hair that is clean, if not exactly done, and "not" pajamas.  Oh, and the most important part, the hat!
This also seems like an opportune chance to thank those of you who have been reading...  This started as something for my family, and has broadened to include many new and existing friends.  Days are so busy and fly by, and I appreciate the time you take to share in these diversions.  :)

One Round-Trip Drive to Boston = 2 Hats + 3 Coffee Cozies

The house is quiet, and I'm trying not to eat.  There must be millions who relate to that simple compulsion.  And so I write...

I recently drove to and from Boston with some friends to see Hillsong United.  I have always loved road trips, but these days I don't "sit" very well.  Life has left me with too much to ponder, and pondering can take me to places I don't always want to go.  Reading in the car usually results in a sore tummy, but what else can be done while chit-chatting away on a long drive?  You guessed it...  CROCHET!  Yes, my new-found obsession is the perfect way to pass the time, keeping my hands and mind sufficiently occupied.

The "right" side of Dave's hat.

I chose two simple patterns so that I could still participate in lively conversation.  I had promised Dave (my dear hubby) a hat quite a while ago, and this was the perfect time to fulfill that promise.  He wasn't keen on the hat pattern I made for my brother Sean for his birthday, even without the pom-pom, so I chose a simple single-crochet pattern instead.  I decided to only crochet through the back-loops, which made the hat reversible with two really neat sides to choose from.  If Dave didn't like one side (which he didn't), he could wear the other!

The "wrong" side of Dave's hat, and also his favorite.

I wasn't sure how long it would take to make Dave's hat, but using Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn and a size N hook, his hat was done by the time we drove out of Bangor!  I was so glad I had brought that second pattern and additional yarn because....  I got to make MYSELF a hat.  My first ever "for me" item!  I can't tell you how excited I was.  I have a few purchased knit items, and since I have started knitting myself, I am often asked if I made them.  Now I'll be able to proudly say YES!

The pattern I used is the same one I made for Sean, but this time I chose to spiral the ribbing, the effect of which is just too cool for words and also added a distinctly feminine touch.  I finished off my hat with a few rows of single-crochet, and voila!  My new hat.  :)

My Hat!

At this point, we were on the drive home, but were by no means home yet.  And I had a bit of yarn left over.  Hmmmmmm.....  I hadn't brought any other patterns, and there really wasn't that much yarn.  What could be done?  Boston Road Trip Coffee Cozies!  Of course we had a coffee cup in the car, so I just fiddled around a bit until I had made the first prototype.  Follow that up with two more, and I'd say that was one very productive road trip.  And we still had driving time left!

Road trips provide an excellent opportunity for self-discovery, but let's face it.  There's only so much we really want to know about ourselves.  So the moral of this road trip story is to bring your hook, and LOTS of yarn!  You'll be glad you did.

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

Daddy's Little Peach, and the Apple of His Eye

Our kids have all been "spitter" babies, and thus we have gone through our fair share of bibs.  Trust me on this, bibs are not all created equal.  My sister-in-law Krista made two beautiful bibs for Naomi that we use even now for Miss Alicia.  I love the shape and size and they are super absorbent.  I wanted to recreate these bibs so we could have more of them, but they are sewn, and I am a horrible seamstress.  I scoured the internet for weeks trying to find a suitable knit or crochet pattern without any luck, so I came up with this very simple single-crochet bib with a girly double-crochet ruffle in the general size and shape of the ones that Krista had made.  Dave is always calling Alicia his "little peach" and he really wanted the bib to have a peach on it, but I couldn't find a pattern for that either, so I made one up (the stem and leaf were done from this pattern I found for an apple coaster, but using a 6mm hook).  It came out looking exactly like an apple, and of course I know it's red, but it was scrap yarn and for some reason I thought it might look like that deep blush a really ripe peach has.  Oops!  Anyway, who will even notice a bib when Alicia is wearing it?!  Such a cutie-pie, and she was gracious enough to pose for a photo.  :)