Working on crafts this summer has pretty much been at the same speed since my daughter was born. S L O W. But that’s mostly my fault. When I get home from work, I hate to set her down for anything. Even knitting and crocheting! (by the way, please ignore the dust bunnies in the corners when you visit).
Back in April, I discovered a way that I could pump hands-free at work, so now I get almost 45 min per day (broken up) of crochet or knitting time! Whoo-hoo! It’s tough to work on larger projects because I have to keep my arms in the air – or at least free of the tubing. But I can still work on smaller projects such as those you’ll see here.
A short while ago I spotted a book for sale on Annie’s Attic with a very cute baby hat. Since we were having the hottest summer EVER, I thought it might be a good idea for Little Chick to have a lighter / airy-type hat made out of cotton. Being the cheapskate that I am, I didn’t want to pay $5.95 for the pattern, even if there were three in the set.
So I set out to make my own version and this is what I came up with:
It isn’t actually pointy on top – I must not have had it on her head fully when I took the picture. It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to do the increases on the top part and when to stop. She enjoyed the trial-and-error as Mom would plop her down on the couch and we’d both play with yarn. Lesson learned: it’s much harder to crochet with saliva-wet cotton yarn! That’s ok though, because we both had fun touching the yarn.
I didn’t plan to make the brim curled, but I was running out of yarn and I only had one ball of worsted cotton in that color. I did happen to have the green along for another project so I whipped out the flower in just a few minutes for a nice addition. I finished it on Friday while we were camping so she was able to wear it right away.
Everyone loved it! I even got a request from one of our fellow campers for one like it. (Actually, she said if it had been in a larger size, Little Chick would have lost her hat!)
In late May I finished this bunny. Yes, it’s a bunny. For some reason, my ears didn’t turn out big enough to make it obvious – and I even added a row around. I got a chance to use some wonderful chenille yarn I won in a contest back in January. It’s unfortunate that the company has since been bought out, so I’m not sure if you can even get that yarn anymore. As soft and fluffy as this bunny is, it will not be something for Little Chick to play with. Like most chenille I’ve dealt with, it SHEDS something terrible. A few hours of play and there’d probably be no fluff left!
I didn’t win the threadanimals challenge (the competition in that group is too stiff!), but I was happy that this bunny turned out as good as she did. And that I was able to finish her. Just a few days from the deadline of the contest, it looked as though I was going to run out of yarn, so I took a picture and figured I’d post my pieces to prove that I requested the pattern with good intentions. Turns out I had just enough yarn – There probably wasn’t 2 feet left!
I also finished a couple of “socks” for my Swiffer Wet Jet so I could stop buying pads. I got a picture of one of them. The other I haven’t weaved in the ends yet because I want to make sure it will fit. The patterns are for regular Swiffers, and the Wet Jets are slightly larger. And of course, I couldn’t use the same pattern twice. No siree! Gotta keep my interest level high by constantly trying new things!