Hat Month

There comes a season of knitting when drastic decisions need to be made. It's go time. There are only -only- a few months left until Christmas, so it's time to crank out gifts and delightful woolies.

The powers that be (aka me and my dear friend Pyper Jean) decided that September would be hat month. All hats all the time. Only hat related projects were made, and it was glorious. Setting aside an entire month and dedicating it to making one type of thing and one thing only seemed a little crazy to me at first. But let me tell you, it is well worth it.

During hat month, I completed ten hats. Unfortunately, I cannot give you a very in depth look at the hats, because a lot of them (read: all of them except 3) are gifts. The hat above is a gift for my husband. I was so excited to be able to rock out the cables on that one. It's a free Knitty pattern. Knit up with some delicious Alpaca.

My husband is so lucky.

 Like my crock? It's my brown yarn/hat crock. I scored it for $2. Cannot complain. Cannot complain at all.

TARDIS hat, another freebie. This one is for me, so I can show it to you. I'm a bit grumpy about the fact that my colorwork floats are tight and wrinkly. But, it looks fine when I am wearing it. Practice makes perfect?

I can also show you this one: it's a hat for Ernest. Delightful yarn to work with. There's so much more of this yarn in my stash, I cannot wait to use it up. Silk and wool. YUM.

And here's a fun little bonus picture of Ernest and I wearing our hats. Look how cute he is!! Lil babu. I think I'll be making him a million more. I love making the tiny stuff.

So, that was hat month! Next up, socks, headbands, and scarves month. Aka October. Let's rock this beast!! Let me know what you are working on!

A Sweet Little Distraction...

We've been a bit distracted here, with a sweet little bundle of joy! But after four weeks, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of this motherhood thing. I joke, I joke, this is only the beginning. But little Mr. E is just about the best baby ever. I know I may be a bit biased on that topic, but really, he sleeps from 10pm-3am every night. I cannot complain at all. We've been doing some bonding and lots of cuddling and netflixing.

I have to admit, I have the best life. Truly blessed, am I.

Though we (Mr. E and I, that is) are enjoying hanging out at home doing just about nothing, I feel like it is time to reboot the good-old blog machine and share some of our lovely adventures with you all out there in internet land. Be looking forward

Something a Bit Different: 5KCBWDAY5

Here's something quite different from my normal posting style for you: a video!! I thought it would be just loads of fun to take a video of myself knitting all afternoon and make you poor darlings watch it. But don't worry, I sped the footage up just a wee (1600%) bit. And I added some music. And sound effects. Because they are fun!! And I figured you didn't want to hear the Dr. Who episodes I was watching on Netflix in the background.

Just something different. I must say, getting my camera to cooperate and take the videos was certainly difficult. It's be going all fine, then my camera would be all, "Boop! Imma go to sleep mkay? Bye." No low battery, no lack of memory space...just bored of watching me knit, I guess. Oh well.

These are the"Easiest & Fastest Baby Booties Ever" by A La Sascha on ravelry. It's a free pattern! And as you can see, it is indeed easy and fast. I made a pair in under a minute! ;)

It's a Girl!! or How to Tell What Secrets I am Keeping via Ravelry

I have mentioned this before and I'll say it again: I am not very good at keeping secrets. I can't make up a "likely reason" to keep someone off the trail of a surprise I have for them. I have my moments of brilliance where I blame the internet or Google for "knowing what you search for a lot, that's why that shirt keeps popping up. Not because I bought it for you."But those moments are few and far between.

Plus, I'm impatient.

If I'm excited about something, I want EVERYONE to know. Which is why there was absolutely no way I was going to even attempt to keep it a secret when we found out what gender Baby Z is. Well, there are a lot of reasons why we didn't want to keep it a secret, but the primary one is I'm a loud mouth and see no point in struggling to be silent for 4.5 more months. Plus, my sister would have tortured it out of me. You don't mess with that girl when it comes to babies.

But, for a moment, let's pretend I were going to keep the baby's gender a secret. Okay, fine. But since I know what the baby is, I'd want to make stuff. And If I want to make stuff, I probably want to document it. And if I want to document it, I can't do it in a place that my friends and family will be looking. Because, come on, one look at what's on the top of my Ravelry queue currently and you know what's up:

"Uhhh....no, I was just. Those are for...some...other....baby...I know."

No. It wouldn't work.

Me and secrets about babies do not mix. Especially when the secret is something like, "WE'RE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!" and is going to require a ton of crafting in the next 4 months. Short term secrets are a bit better, but when it comes to my baby, I'm going to be doing a lot of shouting with joy.

Blooms and Bumps

Dat baby bump!!

Betchya can't guess which one is me! Oh right, you've seen pictures of me before. And I'm the pregnant one. Right.

My sweet sister takes some pretty amazing photos, and yesterday since it was finally warm out and flowers were blooming and whatnot, she decided we should have a sisterhood/baby bump photoshoot at sunset. This was her fave shot of us, sitting in the scilla in the front lawn. So pretty, and such a nice end to a festive Easter Day.

Hope you had a beautiful day on Sunday and could celebrate the Resurrection with your loved ones!

Shout out to Tara Lea Photography! If you want to see some spiff-tastic pics of people doing things, check out her page. She's great. Love that girl.

Baby Sophisticate; or Not Everything I do Turns Out Okay

 Remember when I bought all that cotton with visions of baby stuff dancing in my head? Well, I started working on the baby cardigan before we moved, and got pretty far on it! I was feeling pretty proud of myself, but I had to put it on hold until we got somewhat situated.

When I pulled it out again, I was disgusted to find that what I had previously seen as a perfect beginning of a darling garment...was a mess.

I kept telling myself it was okay...it wasn't.

Wonky. Distorted. Stretchy. Lumpy. I was so distressed, I took a quick photo to show some of my other crafty friends. I was hoping that they would calm all my fears.

"It'll block out!"
"Oh it looks fiiinneee. You are just being harsh on yourself."
"Cotton always looks like that before it's washed."

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if anyone said any of those things to me, I'd think they were lying. Because they would have been. My baby cardigan was weirdy shaped, and there was no denying it. When I showed my internet crafty group the pictures, my go-to knitting guru and favorite Norwegian citizen Liz (of Lizzy Knits Day By Day) confirmed what I had already accepted as truth: there needed to be some major changes if I wanted this cardi to look normal.

So, unfortunately, I'll be frogging this baby. If you hear screeching or uncontrollable sobbing coming vaguely from the direction of the midwest, it's me, ripping the sweater apart. Good thing it isn't an adult sized sweater! I'd be inconsolable if that were the case.

Really, it's not so bad. But if I want an heirloom baby piece, I want perfection.

What your worst gotta-rip-it-out story?

Pitter Patter: Knitted Baby Socks

As I mentioned earlier this week, our life plans have undergone a massive makeover in the last two months. The job out West fell apart, so we have decided to stick to our roots and buy a house in our hometown in Illinois. In the meantime, my loving parents have graciously opened their house to us while we sort things out. Gotta love family!!

Though we are in a gypsy state of living with my parents until we find a house, my nesting desires are growing stronger everyday. My body doesn't care that my mom would probably flip her lid if I painted the living room while she was out. I want colors! I want to decorate! I want to move furniture around! Okay, I don't want to personally move the furniture, but I want to tell Sailor to move stuff around as much as my prego brain desires.

But alas! Though our house hunt is going well, we are not in our own place yet. So I have to be content with casting on and making some socks. If I can't force my husband to do manual labor, whipping out some adorable socks is the next best thing, right? Right. Don't argue with me. I'm pregnant.

I used the Leftovers Baby Socks pattern that I found on Ravelry. It's free. It's easy. It's adorable.I am pretty sure I'm going make at least a bajillion more. They work up super quick, especially if you are watching Dr. Who on Netflix in you pjs on a rainy day. Just sayin'.

Cuffed or uncuffed, these socks are adorable.

 I really like how tall the socks are. Baby Z is going to be born in August, which means winter will be right around the corner. Gotta keep those darling little newborn legs cozy! Especially if this coming winter is anything like the winter we still have hanging about. Did I mention it snowed last week? Barf.

Pretty proud of these heels. I am indeed. Why was I scared of socks before?

You can bet your sweet biffy that baby-type projects are going to increase dramatically in the coming days. Nothing wrong with that, right? Right. Riiiiggghhhtt.

We Need to Talk.

We need to talk. We really do.

No, you aren't in trouble. We need to talk is scary. Don't those words just make your stomach churn? Like some adult authority figure has discovered the fact that you did the thing.... The thing you were under no circumstances supposed to do? Yeah. I probably should have said, "Hey, can we chat?" Chat is nice. Chat is friendly. Chat means they didn't find out about the plate you broke.

So let's chat.

I've been gone a while. Well, I've been gone for....a few weeks? Heh. Yeah.

In my absence, my real life has been changing more rapidly than you can say "wireless access point." I've been thinking a lot about my life in general and my choices and how I spend my time and blah blah blah adult chores. I've come to two realizations:

1. I'm having a baby in 4.5 months.
2. No matter how clever you are at planning, if it's not God's will, it's ain't gonna happen.



While obvious, these two things alone have driven me to inspect various areas of my personal life with a new lens. I won't bore you with a weird tale of self discovery or emotional breakdowns, but I will fill you in on how my view on my blog has changed.

One of my long-distance crafty buddies had mentioned to me a week or so ago via la texting that she could tell I was super busy, since I hadn't updated my blog in so long. It suddenly struck me that I was busy, but not that busy. I mean, I was busy before and I still managed to churn out several blog posts a week. I then, staring blankly at her text, began to think about why I hadn't been posing things on my blog? Really, why hadn't I?! Things have happened! I've been crafty! I could share stuff!

So....why not post?

Every time I logged on to blogger to start a post, I felt drained. I know, I'm pregnant. Tired is my day to day life. This tired was more a mental tired than anything. Doing a blog post meant making sure I update Facebook and Google+ and put all the fancy tag words in it and posting it to link parties and Pinterest and watching page views and numbers climb and drop and and and -sigh- nope, I'd rather watch Netflix. And knit. Or scrub toilets. Anything but blog.

I took a break, because I was looking at blogging the wrong way. I was comparing myself to big-name bloggers who have bazillions of pageviews a day. The ones that companies beg to write reviews of their products. The ones whose projects show up on thousands of Pinterest boards instantly. The ones who make moolah off of their blog. I had started to idolize them. To study their habits, and their tips on the best way to be seen, develop a following, and create great content...while making money doing it.

This is my personal opinion. I am not hateful of the peeps who have mad blog-money-making skillz. That is great for them, for their families, and whatnot. I do not think that any blogger who reaps money from their blog is a sell out, or evil, or anything like that. For me, however, the blogs I love to read and the ones I follow most closely, are not the big-name mega blog queens. They are people who share interests with me. People who inspire me with their creative outpourings and silly tidbits on life. People who answer my comments and who I feel I can develop a real relationship with, albeit online.

It all dawned on me with that one text. Why was I writing a blog that I hoped would become a big blog, instead of focusing on being the type of writer that I would love to read? Why was I feeling angst about not having thousands of page views a day instead of relishing the people who did take the time to read my nerdiness? It was crazy, I tell you, crazy. And incredibly selfish. And it made me avoid writing on my own blog. Well, no more, I say!

I am not going to monetize this blog. Though the thought still delights me, it was kind of the reason I started to hate what I was doing. Again, I am not writing this to try and bash on people who write sponsored content. If you can make money off your blog, good for you! I don't hate you or think what you are doing is dumb. I just hate how I felt when I realized the reason I was avoiding my own blog was because I wasn't having fun writing it when the goal at the back of my mind was "more pageviews" and "someday making money off my blog."

So how is this new direction going to change things? Really, the biggest changes are going to be behind the scenes things. Mostly things that happen up in my brain. The result will be more frequent posts and more sassy commentary. And more belly pictures. Because I love my belly and I don't care who hates belly pictures. Sorry I'm not sorry?

16 weeks (aka 3.5 weeks ago)

So, three cheers for having a silly outlet for your crafty musings! Three cheers for being true to yourself! Three cheers for probably overthinking this entire thing, but not caring!

Has anyone else been feeling similar angst? It would be nice to know I'm not alone on this crazy train of thought.

New in the Shop: Darling Deer Baby Hat

 There's a new item in the shop, and it is ohsocute. I had juuusstt enough yarn left over from the adult-sized Darling Deer Hat I was commissioned to make to whip out this little piece of adorable. A pint-sized version of the big hat!! I am pretty smitten, and I think I may require more yarn so I can make one for Baby Z.

 I really love how it turned out. Baby-sized earflap hats are too cute. And a baby earflap hat with antlers? Come on. You know it's adorable.

Those widdle antlers!!! I love.

My hand looks so weird in this picture. The hat measures about 7.5" across.

Pop on over to Last in Line Shop on Etsy to see this hat and other adorable goods!

Linkin' up at these fine sites!

Crochet Scrap Blanket: Fourteen Years in the Making

My grandmothers both impressed upon me a desire to save any useful thing. As a result, I've been saving my scraps of yarn since I was eight years old. I wound them into a big ball with plans that when, someday far off in the future, I was pregnant, I would make a scrappy rainbow blanket.

Many people have seen my ridiculously huge yarn ball and have heard my plans for it. At long last, the day has come. I'm expecting my first child and that means it's time to work on a huge blanket made of little pieces of past projects.

It's a bit emotional for me, and no, that's not just the pregnancy hormones talking. I've been saving this yarn since two years after I learned to crochet. That's essentially my whole crocheting life wrapped up on this ball. It's just kind of supernatural to think "Wow, I planned this project when I was a little kid...and now I'm doing it because I'm going to have a kid." All the years of wondering who I will marry, what my life will be like, and how it will really feel to know that I am going to soon be a mother, and now it's happening. To say that all this is "exciting" is a bit of an understatement.

Before adding all my scraps I had on hand

 I had a pretty substantial ball before I added all the other scraps I had on hand, so you can imagine that I was excited to see how beastly the ball would become when I finished adding all the yarn. It weighed in at about six pounds!! The pictures do not do it justice. This thing is massive.

After adding all the scraps I had around

I had decided on what type of blanket to make long ago: a ripple afghan. Every winter, my Grandma who taught me to crochet makes a "mountain" blanket. Of course, since this whole project is all about the past and the future being meshed together, I needed to do a similar blanket.

However, I did change a few things. She always crochets hers in single crochet. SINGLE CROCHET. I tell you, she is a mad woman. I went with double crochet for mine because not only will it go a bit faster, I decided that if I don't finish it before the weather gets warm, it will be a more bearable blanket to work on in the summer.

Humble beginnings

So, before we moved down here, I started on the blanket. I kind of got a little obsessed with working on it. I mean, come on. I've been waiting 14 years to make this! And each scrap of yarn is a memory of a project. It's such fun seeing the colors work with each other in such unexpected ways. I could not have asked for a better outcome so far!

Here you are seeing pictures from what the blanket looked like about a month ago. It's grown a bit since then. Heh. In fact (to my horror) I ran out of yarn. I guess I've been spoiled by knitting and forgot how much yarn is required for double crochet. Oops. But, never fear. This blanket will go on. I have been hounding scraps from my mom, sister, aunt, and close friends. I will have plenty of yarn to finish this beast up. Plus, it kind of gives the project even more sappy sentimental value: just like me, it is made up of pieces from the people who love me. Awwwwwwww.

Come on, you know you like the sap.

Currently, the Scrapghan is about 6 feet wide and 4 feet long. This monster is going to be the ultimate cuddle blanket, I swear. I am already picturing blanket forts made of it. It will be glorious.

-Swoon- Family, history, scraps, and memories all in one project? I don't know if I'll be able to top this one for "amount of feels in a craft project".

Have you ever made a scrap blanket? How did it go? (Crochet, knit, quilted or whatever it is you do.)
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An Update and a DIY: What's in the Cards for us?

As you may have noticed, I have been sort of missing in action the last few weeks. Things have been a touch crazy here since Phase #1 of our big move. In fact, they have been so crazy that our entire plan for moving and the whole reason we were going to move across the country fell apart.

Say whaattt?

Yeah, that's kind of how I felt when it all happened. The job Sailor got out West has been postponed until further notice. His employer gave him the choice to wait it out, or say "no thanks" and pursue other opportunities. After much talking and prayer, we went with the latter option. That meant that a) we were no longer moving, b) he didn't have a job anymore, and most importantly c) we would be staying in the area where both our families live. Pros and cons all over the place. And stress. Did I mention I was a bit stressed about all this? I was. Juussttt a bit.

This story has an amazingly happy ending though. Within four days of saying "no thanks" to several months of waiting to move and not having a pay check, Sailor got a job. What. A. Blessing. I cannot stop thanking God for providing for us. I mean, the job market is a bit slim where we will be living now, and he was able to find a job in four days. Four days people!! I've been doing my happy dance for a week now. Booyah!

How well this all worked out makes me feel super silly for stressing out so much. God finds a way to make schtuff happen no matter what. Gotta look through the clouds and rain and prepare for the sun.



Speaking of rain, it was super gross-nasty in the Midwest last week. Nasty rain-snow slush poo winter weather. I am so ready for spring. The last few days though, there's been hope. Sunshiney, slightly above freezing-y hope. But it's supposed to be below zero in a few days again. Gotta take what I can get, I suppose.

Bleck. Rainsnow.

 What better way to cheer the sloopy weather than by making pretty things?? And what better than making pretty things you can send to other people to spread the cheer?? I don't know! What could be better? Nothing, I think.

There is nothing more cheerful than a big stack of mail to send that isn't all bills.

 I've been taking any downtime I've had these last crazy weeks to distract myself with crafting. My sister is giddy with joy that Sailor and I will be in the area so she can throw "a billion baby showers" for Baby Z. Her words, not mine.

With the prospect of many thank you notes in need of being written in the near future, I decided to get a jump on making thank you cards. I promise, I'm not one of those crazy overachievers who creates time-intensive and stunning cards. I make simple cards. I don't know if it even counts as making cards, because really, I just stamp cute stuff on some cards and call it a day.

REGARDLESS. I am very pleased with these ahdorable cards I churned out.

I had all the stamps on hand from various impulse buys at Michael's. Their dollar stamps are irresistible!! Dat hedgehog! Come on. Can you blame me?

I also found the blank cards and envelopes at Michael's. They were sold in sets of 8 for $1.50. I bought two packages of cards with lil word bubbles cut out of them. I also bought a blue ink pad (also $1.50).

So my grand total so far for these thank you notes is: $4.50. Breaking the bank here, yo. That's probably cheaper than buying sixteen thank-you notes, and I got the added joy of designing my own.

I can't get over that hedgie. Sooo cuuutteee.

I am having a very hard time not knowing what gender Baby Z is. I just want to theme all the things. All the baby colors and things and stuff. It's hard to be neutral. -dramatic sigh- At least hedgehogs are pretty neutral, right? The flowers might be a little girly, but it's close enough, right?

Love the cut out! So fun.

 And because doing 16 cards wasn't enough, I had to dazzle up the envelopes too. It's totally legit to have matching cards and envelopes; it makes the card seem even more special!!! I stuck with the same stamps, even though I was tempted to use all the stamps I own on the outside. Gotta practice restraint sometimes.

Gotta have matching envelopes!!

Return address fancy-ness. I feel so posh.

I was surprised how fast I got done with all the baby thank yous. I had some other kind folks I needed to thank for non-baby related things, so I decided to make some other notes to send out. And since I only have black and blue ink, I went with nautical themed thank-yous. It may or may not also be true that I have a ton of nautical stamps. Maybe. Kinda. I have a theme problem. It's a bit of an obsession.

AHOY SHIPMATE!!!

I had to make the cards for these notes, but it was super easy. I snatched some cardstock, measured my envelopes, and went to town. I added graph paper accents because, why not? Plus, the blue lines match my blue ink and matching is best. Always.

One of my fave stamps: "Just a Quick Note"

Again, matching envelopes. I cannot resist the matchingness.

I just love getting and sending mail. I've already used one of the baby notes and three of the nautical ones. I have a hankering to make even MORE cards and just send them to people. If I have your address, beware. Prepare your mailbox for an overload. Hehe.

Do you make cards?
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New Yarn and Upcoming Projects

 So I scored some new yarn from Knitting-Warehouse.com. If you are a yarn crafter and you don't know about this site yet, you really need to check it out. They sell major name brands of yarn at discounted prices. If you are like me and you need some good-quaility yarn that you have worked with before but are too nauseated to leave the couch don't want to drop big dollars at Michael's, this is the site for you! Plus, in my opinion, they have a better selection of colors than most chain-craft-stores. Yaayy!!

I got 8 skeins of Lion Brand Cotton Ease for less than $30, plus shipping. Woohoo!! I consider that a win. -high fives self-

 I purchased two skeins of this nice grey and some ocher to make a baby cardigan for Baby Z. Since I want to get crafting and it's a bit too early to know the gender of our lil babu yet, I picked out colors that can go either way.

Yes, I am one of those people that sticks to the "normal gender roles color schemes": pink and purple are for girls. But pretty much everything else is fair game. Hate all you want, haters, but it's my opinion, yo.

 I want to use the Baby Sophisticate cardigan pattern by Linden Down on Ravelry for this cardi. I'll probably do the ocher for the collar/button flap. Any left overs are going to be for socks and mitts and hats for lil Baby Z.

 This color was really hard to capture on camera. Probably because the lighting here is terrible. This is about accurate to the true color of this yarn.

Regardless, I'm going to have to wait until we know if the baby is a boy or a girl for me to use this yarn. If Baby Z is a girl, I want to make the Angel Wings Pinafore by Bev's Country Cottage on Ravelry. If Baby Z is a boy, I am thinking the Wonderful Wallaby Hoodie is in order.

Blarg, soooo washed out in this pic!!

 That brings me to the last two skeins! This classic blue cotton will go to work as a baby blanket. I'm thinking it'll be a simple baby blanket like the Classic Baby Blanket by Rayn Blair on Ravelry. It's sturdy, but still pretty. But not too pretty that I won't want to use it 24/7. I mean, come on, this is cotton yarn we are talking about here. It's a work horse! Use and wash and use and wash. Babies are messy.

Can't wait to get started!! Have you used any of these patterns? How did it go? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

-Carolyn
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