making room for a creative mess

i completely cleared off my desk to make room for sewing, knitting, and art... it was about time.

i bought the book below during summer and read it cover to cover in a week. i LOVED it, and was completely inspired... yet i tucked it away. finally, i pulled it back out and ordered the needed supplies and dug in. what fun! stamp making is so simple. it's practically instant gratification that you can use over and over... i am smitten. 

i forced myself to start knitting again. it had been so long that i forgot how to cast on... and it all feels quite awkward in my hands. i have been seeing so many wonderful things that i want to knit though, and it is such a simple thing to pick up and put down... so i decided it was time to begin again.

i'm pretty sure that i bought this pattern and fabric back in the spring of 2012... really!?! it's one of those projects that feels overwhelming but really isn't. one of those projects where you have to get through that one big hurdle and then it just flows. well, i decided it was time to start pushing through the hurdle. won't these be great? i fell in love with that pattern. i wanted to do it with bright beautiful fabrics like the picture... but i knew that with four kids using them they would not stay that way for long... so, dark corduroys it was. i do love the colors and textures together. i think it will be a beautiful and cozy addition to our living room. 

it feels so good to be creating again... and with our "nice" fall weather about over... it is the perfect timing for some inside projects.

for jude...

some things i am making for my nephew (due christmas eve), sweet jude.

 i love the simple fleece blankets which are basically a piece of fleece finished with satin blanket binding. perfect weight, super simple and fast, yet still made by his auntie, right? i'm kind of picky when it comes to fabrics. i don't like the typical fluffy baby stuff... teddy bears... disney characters.... pinks and blues..... no, i'm an abstract pattern kinda girl... which is exactly what i picked out. i'm having a really hard time deciding what size to make the blankets though. i've been leaning towards crib size but should i make one of them bigger?

the knitting is a little hat. since he's due in december he is going to need one to keep that sweet little head warm. the pattern i'm using is the umbilical cord hat from debbie stoller's knitting handbook "stitch n' bitch" (yes, that is really the title.... it is a great book for beginning knitters). then there is the matter of the color.... which has a little bit of a story behind it. now, you should know that i am also very picky when it comes to color (when i'm picking it out anyway). i thought of getting that particular color for jude's hat many times but just wasn't sure. then ended up buying a skein to make a scarf for myself when i couldn't decide. at home i took a closer look at the label and noticed that the color is called christmas.... i chuckled thinking it didn't remind me of holiday colors except the fact that it contained red and green among other colors. but then it hit me... jude is due at christmas.... it was a sign. well, i took it as a sign anyway because i really needed to get started. i do really love the way it all worked out though. and of course this is only the beginning of the auntie handmades.

i hope you like them sister....

a baby and a blanket

this blanket... finally finished...  finally... and it's about time, i started it when i was pregnant with eislee. now, it dosen't help that the majority of that time it was in hibernation. but with a little motivation, in the sense of really wanting to start a new project, i got back in gear. i am very happy with the results. the yarn is nice and soft, yet seems quite durable. the pattern is sweet and simple, i wrote a little tutorial here if your interested.

now, about the baby (since that's really what your here for, isn't it?)... she is growing ever so steadily. whenever i take the time to give her my full attention, she rewards me heavily with smiles and coos. she has the best smiles, and the way she coos... well... it's kind of like she's telling you a story or something. such a sweet, sweet baby. did you realize that she's almost three months now? crazy how fast that went huh? just wait... tomorrow she'll be sixteen... sigh.

the never ending project

well.... never ending for me anyway, i'm sure there are plenty of you out there that could whip this baby blanket out in a month (or maybe sooner?) but i've been working on this thing for about a year! last winter i started on three projects for the new baby: the quilt pictured, the hat she always wears, and this knitted baby blanket. the first half went pretty fast then i had the baby and well... it's been at a stand still ever since. and now the time has come for me to finish what i started (i've got other projects i want to start and if i don't finish it soon she will never get to use it!), anyways enough about that, i want to share the pattern with you... i designed it to be really easy (especially for putting down and coming back to a month or two later). i adapted it from a pattern in the book "stitch n' bitch." here goes...

the border around the outside of the blanket is seed sticth and the inside is made up of alternating boxes of knits and purls (making it identical on the other side).

materials: size 8 5.0 mm 29 in circular knitting needles, stitch markers, and a row counter (too make it easy) i used a recycled cotton yarn and i think the color is linen? sorry don't remember. i don't know anything about measuring a gauge either but i don't really think it's important for a baby blanket...

cast on 120 stitches, do not connect just turn and knit back the other way
knit 20 rows in seed stitch, k p k p (i use the row counter and if i'm on an odd row i know i need to start with a knit stitch and if i'm on an even row i need to start with a purl stitch

rows 21-50, 16 seed stitch, put marker, knit 22, pm, purl 22, pm, knit 22, pm, purt 22, pm, 16 seed stitch (the nice thing about the markers is it makes it easy you don't have to count your stitches, when you get to a marker you know to change your stitch, then with the row counter you know whether to start your seed stitch with a knit or a purl.

rows 51-80, 16 seed st, purt 22, knit 22, purl 22, knit 22, 16 seed st

rows 81-200, repeat what you did from row 21-80

rows 201-220, seed stitch

and that's it hope i didn't confuse you too much :) hopefully the pictures help, you can see in the one above the way the seed stitch wraps around and the way the boxes work in the middle (the picture has about half the blanket finished) and in the picture below you can see how i placed the markers in between the boxes. happy knitting to you!

umbilical cord hat

hat i made for baby girl. it's called the umbilical cord hat, here's the pattern:

materials:
-yarn
-us 7 (4.5mm) 16'' circular needle
-us 7 (4.5mm) double-pointed needles (set of 5)
-stitch markers

directions:
using circular needle, CO 64 sts. k 1 row. join ends, being careful not to twist the sts. k until hat meas 5'' from the CO row.

next row: *k8, pm; rep from * to end.

you should have 8 groups of sts between 7 markers.

*with a dpn, k 16 sts off the circular needle and onto the dpn, being careful to slip the st marker between the sts; rep from * 3 times more. when you reach the end of the row, you will have placed 16 sts and 1 marker on each of four dpns.

now, in each successive rnd, you will k tog the last 2 sts before the marker or the end of the needle as foll:

rnd 1: *k6, k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd-56 sts.

rnd 2: *k5, k2otg; rep from * to end of rnd-48 sts.

rnd 3: *k4, k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd-40 sts.

rnd 4: *k3, k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd-32 sts.

rnd 5: *k2, k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd-24 sts.

rnd 6: *k1, k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd-16 sts.

rnd 7: *k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd, remove markers-8 sts.

rnd 8: *k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd-4 sts.

slip rem 4 sts onto one dpn. knit 6'' of I-cord. break yarn, thread it onto a yarn needle, and pull the length through the remains 4 sts, drawing the I-cord to a close, then draw the loose end down inside the I-cord to finish. tie the I-cord into a knot and weave in any loose ends.

thanks to jennifer l. jones and the stitch' n bitch book :)