Mama Loves Knitting

Birthday Hat with Pom Pom

Birthday Hat takes on two meanings for me today. I made this hat for a friend for her birthday because as I mentioned before – why mess with success, when you are good at something you might as well make that useful thing for everyone that needs it right? Plus they are fun to make, so I made yes another ribbed hat. The second meaning is that I finished this hat while I was fortunate enough to be a doula at a sweet birth…so it is extra special to me. This was while the Mama was laboring for a bit in another room, I snapped my progress on my lap in the rocking chair in the dark room, in the wee hours of the morn.

It doesn’t take me long to whip out a ribbed hat these days. One night and I can get one done from start to finish. This particular hat I cast on 68 stitches and k2 p2 the entire way to the decrease at the top. I used size 10.5 circular needles and I really just like the way these fit, they are snug and warm, so I’ll keep making them. In fact I’m thinking about starting to sell them on Etsy just because I like to make them so much. That’s when I ask myself, “Self, do I have time for an Etsy shop?” And the answer is as long as no one likes your hats you do!

I used Sheep Number Two yarn from the Sheep Shop Yarn Company. I love knitting with this yarn it is so soft and colorful! I used color number G026. I got it in hanks and just used my new tools (they’ll be featured in one of the next blog entries) to turn it into a big yarn cake. Both times I’ve made hats with this I didn’t even use a whole hank. The last hat was Lexie’s birthday hat. It is made in Uruguay and 100% pure wool!

Now for the Pom Pom! I haven’t ever made one before but I’m not sure why, it is incredibly easy!

So the first three steps pictured above: 1.Find a piece of flexible cardboard. 2. Wrap yarn around the cardboard (approx 50 times). 3. Remove the wound yarn from the cardboard. I just slid my finger in place of the cardboard – but you want to keep that wound yarn nice and neat for the next step.

Next step is just to tie a about a 12 inch piece of yarn twice around your bundle (through the middle).

Finally you just cut the bundle (opposite side of where you tied it together). Then you’ve got yourself a pom pom. I just attached it after I cut it.

TaDa!

What do you guys think? Etsy shop or no?

Dishcloth Increase/Decrease

So Loopy had a sale and I just bought all of this incredibly enticing Noro yarn because I never can resist it, and it was on sale! I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m going to knit a sweater for my sweet husband! In order to even begin something so huge though I needed to really work on my increasing and decreasing. Sure, I decrease all of the time when I knit my hats, but I haven’t had much of a reason to increase.

This yarn was my inspiration, well this combined with a very simple dishcloth pattern. This yarn is called Amaizing because it is made from 100% corn fiber. What a perfect time to make your own dishcloths! *Earth Friendly Dishcloths* during earth month – how fitting. I will never buy another dishcloth as long as I live. I usually get dishcloths by the handful whenever I visit my Great Aunt Jean – so she’s always been my “supplier” but she’ll no longer have to stock my dishcloth drawer. I’ll forewarn you – there isn’t the element of perfection I usually require, but it is a dishcloth and my first one using this pattern, so be gentle.

So this simple pattern uses size 7 needles.

Cast on 3 stitches.

Increase Section: Row 1 – Knit 3

Row 2 – K1 M1 (increase or Make one stitch), K1, M1, K1

*Row 3 – Knit all stitches

Row 4 – K1, M1, K all stitches until one stitch before the end, M1, K1*

Repeat Rows 3 & 4 (between *) until you are half way

Decrease Section: Row 1 – Knit all stitches

**Row 2 – K1, K2tog (knit two together), K all stitches until 3 stitches before the end, K2tog, K1**

Row 3 – Knit all stitches **

Repeat Rows 2 & 3 (between **) until you have 3 stitches left.

Bind off loosely.

So pretty simple, and really really quick! Since I didn’t really know how to Make One (m1) I used this book as a tool to teach me.

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I was increasing like a madwoman in no time! You can be too, if you aren’t already. If the book doesn’t do the trick I always watch You Tube knitting videos. You Tube is a really good teacher! You can make one of these dishcloths in one evening, so you could gift them or build up your supply at home. I have another washcloth that I made when I was just learning to knit (all garter stitch) and supposedly this yarn gets softer with each wash, but I don’t find it to be incredibly absorbent, so if you like your cloths to soak things up (in bulk) maybe this yarn won’t be your cup of tea. It is really soft though and I found a pattern for a handkerchief headband and it calls for corn yarn, so I’m planning to use this yarn to make that really soon as well.

It looks very pleasing to me close up.

So watch for my sweater progress, I plan to start soon. I have two other smaller projects that will happen within the next few weeks. A birthday ribbed hat – why mess around – when you are good at something might as well give that as a gift, right? The new endeavors are for people like Shane who will hopefully love it even if it isn’t perfect, since he’s married to me. Sucka!

Happy Knitting! Happy Earth Month!

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Don’t know if you know this is an option or not, but you can become a follower of this blog and receive notification each time there is a new post. I’ll post my projects, friend’s projects and lots of fun ideas for knitting and crafting on Mama Loves Crafting too! I hope you’ll consider subscribing you can always unsubscribe if I get too boring for you!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Earth Week! I knitted most of an earth-friendly dishcloth last night, pattern coming soon. I was trying to teach myself increasing and decreasing and I think I’ve got it down now – soon I’ll be able to move onto a sweater (that’s the plan). For Earth Day I also planted a new strawberry bed right by our front door…Mmmm. I dug up our grass, used some scrap wood from around our shed and mixed some compost and soil – TADA! A new home for our berry plants, now lots of TLC and only about three years until we get to enjoy those flavorful berries!

Happy Earth Week! Happy Crafting! Happy Knitting!

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Finished Blanket

Finally finished up the blanket…and it is en route to Madison to sweet little Clara. I started crocheting her one back in June before she was born, but once I learned how to knit, I decided that crocheting was for the birds – well not really – but knitting this up was a lot quicker for me. I still really like crocheting too and luckily there are many projects where these two abilities go hand in hand. I used size 11 needles and this yarn was pretty chunky and it all came together pretty quickly when I would actually sit down and work on it. I mostly knit the entire thing but did a few rows here and there where I would knit two, purl two (k2, p2) just to add a little bit of variation.

So my blanket ended when my variegated yarn ran out. It ended up being really soft and actually a pretty perfect size for just a lap blanket, but great for a cuddle blanket for a wee one. It was pretty much square when I was done.

And of course we had to test it out before sending it. Hopefully little Miss Clara will pose in a photo for us that I’ll post as soon as she gets her gift. Since I’m sure you’re all dying to see her sweet little face again, I know I am!

My little testers seemed to be fans of the cozy blankie – that’s always a good sign. So onto other projects, next my plan is a bag/satchel of some sort.

I have a fun new book that I just got called Head to Toe Knits by Zoe Mellor and there are several projects in there I plan to attempt.

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I’ll dive into my yarn cubby to find the perfect yarn and I’m kind of thinking I might do a felted variation of something, I’ve been dying to knit and felt something, so I think that’s my plan.

Still working on this…whenever I get a wild hair. And someday I’ll finish at least this one! Who knows if I’ll ever make two – no just teasin’ I will!

Happy Knitting! Pull up a hammock and knit in the sunshine, who says you can’t knit in the summer?

Yarn Cubby

So I’ve never been the girl with 25 pairs of shoes…but boy did I find a way to fill this puppy up. I’m going to do whatever I possibly can to just keep my yarn in ONE of these and not go and get myself a second one. I best get to knitting! It is a shoe rack I found at Lowe’s in an attempt to find some shelving for my store. I stared at it for a bit and realized it would be the most perfect new home for all of my tasty yarn. I love being able to look at it and not have it buried at the bottom of a basket that I must dig through for inspiration. When I placed each skein/hank in its new home yesterday I was thinking about what I might use each of them for…so I’ve got all kinds of new project ideas up my sleeve. I’m thinking some felting is right around the corner.

In the meantime however, I’m still plugging away, when I have idle time, on this colorful blanket. I think I’ve finally decided that indeed it will be a blanket and I don’t think it will be much longer before I’ve used up the entire ball of yarn. My pattern (or lack there of) is just to knit, knit, knit creating a simple garter stitch throughout. I like to throw in some flavor every now and then with a few rows of knit two, purl two (k2, p2) making a ribbed pattern. I don’t have much of a rhyme or reason to when I add these “special rows” but I try and fold the blanket over to see if it is time for another row or three of variation.

I asked a special someone to cozy up in the blanket this morning for a little photo shoot and this is what I got out of the deal. I was feeling a bit worried that the blanket wasn’t going to be wide enough but it seems to be just right for a 3 year old. Gussy asked me if it was for him on Sunday, “Mama is that for me? It is so cute!”

He told me the blanket matched his arm warmers this morning. “How did you do that Mama?”

Well Goo – I did it on size 11 single pointed needles with a giant ball of variegated yarn!

I’ll leave you with a pretty view of some of the skeins of sock yarn that were gifted to me by my parents this past week when they visited. My collection really skyrocketed when they came to see us. Look at how nicely they fit right in their little cubby. Thanks for my bag full of birthday yarn Dad and Jan! I’m still in the same place with my socks that I was a few weeks ago, I’m the kind of girl that likes to keep my options wide open and I like to have at least 3 knitting projects going at once – I also like to be reading a few books at once to appease whatever mood I might be in.

I hope the next time I share something I’ll be done with my blanket and started on a brand new project. I’m close…so I don’t doubt it. Happy Knitting!

Knitted Spring Hens

Happy Spring. I did end up getting the chickens done in time for the bunny to stuff a couple in Simon’s and Gussy’s baskets. I mentioned my intentions to do so on the 1st birthday of our five hens back in March. I knitted Fire then, and you can see she made it into some of these photos as well. She’s the only one that got eyes, lucky girl!

This was August’s Easter Basket. He ended up with the white hen (which we don’t even have – so while sorting through his basket he said, “A white one? Huh.”) and the Black Hen who we call Compsognathus.

I again used my ancient acrylic yarn and didn’t even put a dent in it. Oh well at least it has served some purpose. My kids love their hens. Simon ended up getting a couple of the other hens we have.

The black and white hen is Octopus Pie and the brown hen is probably Captain Dan we have two Auracanas so I suppose the brown hen could be either of them but it ended up looking more like Captain Dan than Boingy.

I used size 4 bamboo needles to knit the girls and cast on 16 for each of them. I knitted until I felt like it was nearly square and folded them into triangles and stitched up the sides until I had only a small opening and then stuffed them with just some poly fill. I sewed them closed and crocheted the combs with red acrylic yarn and just sewed beaks on with bright orange acrylic yarn. It was a fairly simple project that I finally finished on Easter Eve. I was cutting it close but still able to hang out and play cards with family that night…so nothing too stressful. And it felt really good to have such healthy goodies in the Easter Basket. I hate Plastic Easter Grass with a passion, I think it an awful product so I lined the baskets with some recycled shredded packaging I’d gotten in something a few days before Easter. I filled the baskets with the homemade hand-knit chickens, a flashlight, some modeling beeswax, a bird whistle, a zipper pull and a few chocolate eggs. Happy Healthy Environmentally Friendly Easter! I’m such a dork Mom.

Happy Knitting!

Side Project

This yarn, from Purl, arrived in hanks – as it usually does – but Mama doesn’t have a ball winder…or does she…

I used my husbands arms and my hands to wind my own ball. Problem solved!

So after I had a ball I started knitting a little gifty for my Sister-in-Law for her birthday. Of course I decided I ought to stick to what I’m good at so I knitted another ribbed hat. Since this yarn is pretty chunky I used size 10.5 circular needles made from bamboo. My collection of needles is growing by the project. I knitted two, purled two the whole way around. I started by casting on 68 stitches (I think). I should always write down exactly what I cast on right when I do it because it immediately exits my brain and since I already gifted the hat I can’t count how many I cast on.

Trying it on for size. It isn’t quite done yet but I love the colors of this variegated wool. It is called Sheep Number 2, made in Uruguay. It has to be dry cleaned or hand washed in cold water. It is 100% pure wool and it comes in 100g hanks. I got it from Purl when they had their moving sale and I’m happy that I got two hanks of it, even though this project didn’t even require one whole ball of yarn. I have a little ball left over and one whole hank for Shane to hold while I wind for another project. I’ve become a yarn hoarder, I need to do some serious knitting to start diminishing my stash.

Happy Knitting! Happy Birthday Lex!

Project Slowdown

So I’m not really working very hard on any one project right now, my socks are on hold, I’m still plugging away with that other mystery project, when I need something to do with my hands. Here is about how hard I’m working on it.

This was on St. Patty’s Day we like to enjoy a beverage with champagne and Guinness combined, I think it is called a Black Velvet but I’m not really sure. I’ve actually made quite a bit of progress on what I think is going to be a baby blanket, but I don’t know whom it is for, and I’m certainly not following a pattern. I’m using size 11 metal needles and I was just told by my Great Aunt Jean (the master knitter) that I should work on an afghan. I was so curious as to how exactly you go about making a big afghan, I mean I felt like I was cramming all I could possibly cram onto the big needles I’m using for this tiny blanket (or as my husband calls them “tiny curtains” – that was when we had NO idea what the project might morph into)? She took my needle and crammed it even further down the needle – welp – I guess you can actually fit quite a bit more on there. See I just need people to show me things like this! So my blanket will probably be long and skinny and for a mystery baby.

The weather has been nice, I’m just finishing a photography class that eats up a lot of my nights (aka knitting time) for about a month, and time is something that I can’t make more of. I think I’ll be newly inspired when Grandma Jan visits in about a week, although we might be working on some quilt squares instead of knitting…but my big bag of booty (around 40 skeins of yarn) should be arriving with them from WI one week(ish) from today. So exciting!

I’ll leave you with one last photo of my mystery project. I’m sure whatever it ends up being I’ll like since I love colorful soft variegated yarn – even though it is an acrylic blend!

Happy Knitting!

Knitting Chickens

Today is a special day at our house. Exactly one year ago today we went to the post office and picked up a box filled with 25 peeping chicks. We nurtured our baby chicks to 6 week old gawky weirdos in our bathroom in a refrigerator box and then moved them to their new coop outside in our backyard. We didn’t keep all 25 of them, just 5. Today we are celebrating Compsognathus, Octopus Pie, Fire, Boingy and Captain Dan’s first birthday. They are little egg laying machines and so much fun. In lieu of the celebration I thought I’d knit up a handful of chickens, so I got one done. I have all kinds of yucky old acrylic yarn laying around that I got for like 50 cents a skein a while back, so maybe in 10 years if I keep knitting little stuffed animals I’ll have it all used up. I just have to keep creating one creature a day. My intention was to knit a chicken that resembled each chicken we have but I only got Fire (our yellow chicken) done in time for the celebration.

So I used size 4 double pointed needles, simply because I don’t have just regular size 4 needles. The pattern I was sort of following was in my book Knitted Animals – which has a wide assortment of beautiful little knitted animals in it. Luckily there are three chickens to choose from. I started off with yarn that was too big though so I just went out on a limb. I worked in stockinette stitch, so knitting the entire time. I think I cast on 16 and then knitted until I thought it looked close to square. I folded the creation into a triangle and sewed the two sides together and stuffed the baby bird right from the bottom point and sewed closed.

I then used another piece of this acrylic yarn and sewed it around the body to create the dip in the chicken’s back. I also stitched a bit of beak on using some orange acrylic yarn (I have every color of this stuff you can imagine!).

starting to look chicken-like

Then I crocheted a bit of red acrylic yarn to create the comb. I didn’t really know what I was doing, just “winged” it. It ended up looking enough like a comb that I was happy with it. Oh and I used some black yarn (the really heavy stuff – good for buttons) to make the little eyes. It by no means is a perfect bird but it made my kids happy. Maybe by Easter I’ll have more to fill their little baskets. That’s my goal. It is all about setting little goals for myself, that’s how things get done with five chickens, two kids, a toy store and an oil business (just to mention a few things).

Ooh we even had time to make some corn cake for breakfast for the chickens (they shared with us too). Look at that happy little knitted chicken.

Who knew a knitted chicken could lay so many eggs! Happy Birthday and Happy Knitting!

Weekend of Inspiration

We spent our weekend in Coeur D’Alene, ID with my sweet Great Aunt and Uncle. Now here is a master knitter! She’s 86 years old so doesn’t really do much knitting anymore, it makes her fingers go numb, but she’s got a lot of experience under her belt so during our visit I asked questions and wished the entire time that she lived closer (not just for knitting assistance of course). Our visit was sweet, my little boys got to spend some time with who they called Grandpa and Grandma. “I want to go back to Grandpa and Grandma’s house.” I mean they are Grandma and Grandpa after all, just not ours…but we like to take as many as we can get our hands on.

So I’ve got a few different projects in my bag these days, Aunt Jean is holding one of them above. She was teaching me how to increase and yo (yarn over). I don’t know how to do either of them and I wish I’d had a video camera…maybe I’ll have to take a trip back soon for another “lesson.” The project above is something – not sure what yet – I’m thinking a baby blanket. That is just a side project though, nothing too challenging just something to keep my hands busy when I want to turn my brain off.

This is the real project right now. I am attempting some socks for the first time. So here is the start on size 2 dpns (double pointed needles – look at that lingo!) or as Grandma refers to them “toothpicks”. This sock yarn is so pretty though. Thanks Jan! It is Premier Yarns, Deborah Norville Collection, Serenity Sock Weight. 50% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Bamboo, and 25% Nylon and so soft. The color on the label is Indigo and I’m just following the pattern inside the sock yarn label. I’ll share when I’m done. It is just a tiny taste of my birthday present that I mentioned previously (40 ish skeins of yarn coming in about 3 weeks).

I wished I’d been to the heel so I could get some assistance, but this is about all the further I made it while we were visiting. According to Great Aunt Jean the hardest part is the heel, that reinforcement. Hopefully I actually finish this pair of socks, I know now why people buy their socks, and don’t knit them.

Oh and I knit inside out for some reason? I don’t know what the deal is? So the reverse of this sock looks much better, but I didn’t take a photo of it for some reason? I’ll flip it when I’m ready to do the heel. I’m hoping one day I’ll have something that somewhat resembles Great Aunt Jean’s socks.

These are some socks she knitted herself (just one pair of about a million) using variegated yarn. She’s made argyles and all different kinds, she had a few examples to show me, along with probably 20 sweaters that she made for her grandchildren years ago (all of them amazingly beautiful)! So we had a really sweet visit and I was definitely inspired.

Oh and we stopped at several thrift shops, and at one hit the jackpot, tons of old knitting pattern books, 25 cents a piece! I am making a sweater next. Aunt Jean told me I should have probably started with a sweater…she thinks that would’ve been easier than socks.

Hopefully I’ll have a photo like this, of a sock I’ve knitted myself, very soon! Wish me luck!

Happy Knitting!