Knit Baby Hat

One of my dear friends had a baby about a month before Christmas.  I wasn't able to make it to her baby shower, but we were able to visit shortly after New Years.  I knit a little hat for the baby girl, but I didn't want to choose a yarn that screamed BABY or was all pink.  I found a soft rainbow acrylic that made large stripes when knit into such a small hat.  She just turned 3 months old, and the weather is finally cold enough to wear the hat.  My friend sent this picture to my phone this week and it made my day!  ADORABLE!  (And the hat is pretty nice too...)

Monday Project: Making Bracelets

Since the new year, my schedule has shifted so that I work on Saturdays but get to take Monday off.  Every Monday I settle into a nice comfy chair and pick a project to work on.  This week my Monday project was making bracelets.  Last week I ordered some strands of gemstone beads from Fire Mountain Gems.  They were having a $1 Sale and I like getting some variety in the materials I buy.  Today I had the chance to take the beads off the strands and put them away in my bead containers so they can be used.

I used to make a lot of bracelets in my free time to sell at a weekly summer craft show.  I haven't done that show for a couple years, but I would still pull the bracelets out occasionally to show to individuals.  Several months ago my mother started showing my bracelets to the ladies she works with, and slowly my stash of bracelets started disappearing.  So, I needed to start making bracelets again!  At this point my stash has gotten down to only about a dozen bracelets, not including the ones made today.

Today I made four bracelets.  The first one uses white ceramic beads with a blue floral design and vintage blue glass beads.  The second bracelet has long grey rectangular stone beads and small hematite chips.  The third bracelet alternates large pink gemstone chips and large green gemstone chips.  The fourth bracelet has small brown stone chips and round yellow gemstone beads.

Current Project: Wool Eater Blanket

My current project is crocheting a Wool Eater blanket.  The pattern makes a very close and textured fabric.  I discovered the project as part of a crochet-a-long.  I'm getting started on the crochet-a-long a little late, but I am making great progress on the blanket.

I am using this project as a way to use up some of the partial skeins of wool yarn I have hanging around.  I used the red yarn to knit my very first pair of socks.  The variegated pink and brown yarn was leftover from making my sister-in-law a pair of socks.  The brown yarn was remnants from making a hat for my dad...  And so on.  This project also gives me a chance to buy a few new skeins of yarn that I know will get used right away!

For the next colors I am thinking about using tan (the stuff I dyed with Black Walnut in the summer), gray, dark magenta, and red.  Any suggestions on what colors to use after that?

Valentines Goodie Bags

I made these goodie bags for the kids in the after school swing dance group I work with.  The kids are in 5th-7th grade and I wanted to do something special for them at our practice on Valentine's Day.

The bags have pretty pencils, cupcake shaped erasers, heart shaped suckers, candy hearts, and small handmade notebooks.  I made the books out of lined paper and colorful cardstock sewn together with a pamphlet stitch.

I put all the goodies in a paper lunch bag and decorated the bag with red construction paper punched with different sized hearts.  The heart punches became confetti for the inside of the bags.