time travel, oooooo!

While life continues to be crazy, I seem to have fallen off the creative-wagon.  However, never to be defeated, here I am today with not one but two cute little projects to show you.  How, might you ask, can this be?  Um, well, to be honest, these are things that I made quite a while ago but never got around to photographing.  Now that you know my secrets, may as well get along to the good stuff.

Firstly, I bring you a little piece I like to call my Peony Sweater Dress!

(in actuality, it's the sweater from the Sweetie-Pie Kit)

It was something I had my eye on ever since I first stumbled across it on Pickles website.  They do this fantastic thing where they offer one free version of their patterns, and it just so happened that this was available for a 6 month old, and I knew it was meant to be.

Ok, so while I was knitting it up and stumbling over the fisherman's rib, I was a little less certain, but eventually I opened my eyes and really read the pattern (for any interested parties, you have to alternate between knit one, knit one below and purl, knit one below when knitting it in a round, silly me) and BAM, there I had a lovely little sweater dress.

Man, that's one cute baby, eh?

Oh, and to take you even farther back in time, back to the days when I didn't even know if I was having a little baby girl or a little baby boy, behold, the Stripey Baby Lap Blanket!

Now, to anyone wanting to knit up a fast simple and well loved gift, I highly recommend one of these.  A lady at our church gave us one for Bugaboo when he was born, and it was the most useful thing.  The trick is, that it's the right size to cover a baby's lap when their in the car seat or stroller.  It may seem small, but you see, if it's any bigger and covers their hands, they pull it up over their face (or at least my little monsters do) or you have to fold it in half, which gets bulky.  Oh, or sometimes it dangles over the sides (this is again, if it's too big) and then gets caught in stroller wheels or car doors, or drags on the ground and gets dirty... really I think you can see my point here.

Project-wise it's a breeze.  I don't really remember the dimensions; I just kind of cast on enough stitches to make it look about right, and then garter stitched away until it was the size I wanted.  Couldn't be simpler.

Not bad eh?

Oh, and if you promise not to tell anyone on ravelry, the glow-bug is actually covering a tiny little hole where I dropped a stitch.  tsk tsk.

Alright then, now maybe I can get something new put together.   Maybe.

baby thoughts

I finished it! And with perfect timing on my part I might add. What you wonder? The BABY BLANKET! The one I started knitting for my brother-in-law's baby-to-be seven months ago. She is now almost two months old, so yeah, I'm a little late but, we are going to visit them (and the rest of our families; yay!) over the next two weeks, so yeah, squeaked it in just in time! Oh, also, having a fun summer sweater knit a long starting today might have been the extra motivation I needed. Either way, yay me!

Oh, and here it is:

It was an easy enough pattern, I just didn't realize how long it would take for me to get through it. Any experienced knitters could probably get it done in a few weeks, or a new knitter with more time for that matter. However, it's done, I'm finished yay!

Oh, and speaking of baby gifts, here's a thought: what are some fun, useful handmade gifts? Well, I've been to a friend's baby-shower a few weeks ago, and had a few of my own back when I was pregnant with Bugaboo, and feel that I am therefore qualified to offer you this list of some of my favourites (to make and receive)!

1. baby towel - a friend gave us one, all it was was a regular towel with a ribbon of hot-air ballons along the edges, and it's lovely. There are a lot of other ways to snazz up a towel too, adding a hood, and monogramming are other suggestions. Very useful either way.



2. top-knot hats



3. blankets or quilts



4. baby-bottle-cozy - you know, something to keep the bottle warm.



5. diaper clutch - think teeny-tiny diaper bag. Basically, any cute purse just big enough for a few diapers and wipes.



6. change pad



7. receiving blanket/burp cloths



8. soother clips



9. baby clothes/diaper cover



10. teddy or doll

If you're wondering, I made my friend's little one a dress. Sadly, I never took any pictures but I found the pattern here on Made by Rae and it was wonderful, although I might adjust the lining a little bit to cover some of the seams on the inside more if I make it again.

Oh, also, no matter the gift, the best way to wrap it is in a receiving blanket. Just one of the cheap gerber ones from Walmart that come in three-packs (or more apparently). You can just never have enough of those things (whereas we still have a box of once-used baby gift bags that we are slowly giving away).

Well, with that I'm signing off for a while. My little boy is growing up more everyday and I need to spend some serious summer-time fun with him! More crafts in a few weeks! (well, maybe a blip in the meantime).

Ta-daaa! (photo-heavy, which I kind of like)

So starting in reverse order of projects actually accomplished (silly, I know), my brother-in-law's baby is currently in the process of being born! Right now! Very exciting! Unfortunately, this is the baby for whom I've been knitting that blanket forever, and still haven't finished it, but I guess I have a little extra motivation to kick it in to knitting-gear and get it done.

Also, I have started a quilt. Actually, I've gotten a fair amount accomplished (not considering the actual quilting which will have to soon take place). I don't have any backing for it, so it's on hold.
My friend and I finally got together for some sewing, but only finished our aprons, and never got around to the hats. However, soon. Here's Bugaboo helping me with some cooking. We made Salted Caramels from this recipe here, and so I did most of the cooking (it being up on the stove) and he enjoyed a snack in his new apron.

We have finally broken dirt in the ol' garden, planting peas and some onions. I'm weathering my tomatoes so they can go in next week too. I'm getting excited, but I think I'll miss the lush forest growing on my windowsill. Perhaps a herb garden, something which greatly intimidates me, will have to be in order.

And lastly before I get to my fancy-schmancy BIG news, I made up some Mother's Day cards! We normally give our Moms and Grandmoms a call, but I was feeling we could do a little better than that, so here they are! They've all been sent out and I hope they get there (the other side of the country) on time. Well, we're normally late, so no one would mind, or be surprised, if they are a little bit belated. As you can see, some are more audacious and some are quite muted, but I figured that would suit my Mom, Mother in-laws and all our grammies respectively.

And of course we had to include a picture or two in each!

And now, are you ready? I finished my shirt! For the Spring Top Sewalong 2011! Done! Well, no, I need one more button, but if it comes down to the grind, I have one that's not quite the right shade of yellow. Maybe I can go hunting tonight...

Well, it's a glorious glamorous day, and my little Bugaboo needs to be woken up from his nap. I'll have the official super fancy posed-to-the-max shot of my shirt later, so I look forward to posting it too!

Tadaaa!

Special Delivery - April

I'm finding increasingly, as the sunny weather is really starting to kick in, that I am very much influenced by it. On bright sunny days, such as today, I'm tidying, gardening, knitting and blogging with a fervor that I lacked all gloomy weekend long. However, I've suspected I'm solar powered for some time now, so this is nothing new. Have you ever had a day where you're outside, soaking in the glorious warm rays and enjoying a cool drink of water feeling like you might have been a plant in a previous life? Ok, maybe that's just me, however...

Our lovely garden is progressing. I don't say growing because it is still in the stages of being filled with dirt and other yummy treats for my future crops, so all the growing is still taking place on our window sill. I might have underestimated the amount of stuff it takes to fill a 1'x4'x6' raised garden. Oh well, it will be lovely once it's ready.

(This is my husband and son dumping another load of dirt into the garden. I'm pregnant, and so my husband offers to do any heavy shoveling for me. The trailer is still unavailable, so we've been hauling dirt down in our recycle bins and garbage can.)

As far a actually completing tasks, I've taken a brief knitting hiatus from my baby-blanket, and whipped up this for my April Special Delivery.

It's a coin purse from a pattern I got here: http://www.bernat.com/pattern.php?PID=4728. There seemed to be a bit of in issue with the pattern though, because while they do a decent job of explaining the 'Ssk' stitch which I believe is used to make the button holes, it doesn't actually appear in the pattern. I just omitted them and sewed up the sides. Either way I doubt I'd use it as a coin purse (it would be too easy to loose things that way) but a little pouch is sure to come in handy. I'm also really fond of the button, which I added just for show. It was in an antique sewing kit my grandmother found me at an auction, and I've wanted to find a good use for them. I think it's pretty!

The whole project took a little more than 2 hours to whip up, and I'd recommend it for anyone who is just starting to knit and wanting to practice their knits and purls (it's in seed stitch, which is just switching back and forth between the two).

Now that I'm back into the knitting swing, I hope to finish up that blanket, but I find big projects so daunting (short attention span I guess). Wish me luck!

ka-blamo!

So here I am blog-world! Lets see what we can do. Luckily, I start this blog at the same time I'm starting so many other things, such as picking sewing back up again, a new knitting project and (ba-da-da-DA) a garden!

It's spring and unlike in eastern Canada, where I grew up, here out west, spring is actually a warmer sunnier time than winter, and I can actually get my garden growing. So far, we're working with a raised garden (in an attempt to dissuade the bunnies), that my marvelous husband has built for me.

I've started filling with layers of cardboard, newspaper, hay, compost, and then more hay. The dirt is a bit of a holdup, because we're borrowing the trailer to haul it in, and so we are at the kind whim of our trailer-owning-neighbor.

However, my tomatoes are planted and looking very trim, and my onions are germinating in my entertainment centre (it's just so nice and warm (and baby-proof) in there). Oh, there is also a sunflower that Bugaboo has planted and diligently waters every day. I don't really know it's future yet, but I'm excited that it is growing anyways (he stands in front of it every time he waters it and says "grow, grow, grow").

Hopefully I'll have another project or two lined up for later this week. I'm in the final stages of knitting a baby blanket for my brother-in-law's baby girl due at the end of the month (which I've been working on since November, gaaaa), and I have some mischievous plans for new cooking attire for my Bugaboo. Oh, also, I have a craft group that once a month we all draw names and make a little something to mail out to each other. I just got my name for April and the wheels are a-turning coming up with a fun gift.

Well, I best get to work then!