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.

Darling Deer Hat: A Custom Order

Oh deer!

 An adorable custom ordered deer hat for a return customer! Nothing warms me up more than having a customer come back for more. Except perhaps, when they come back in want of a custom order!

Right before the move, a customer contacted me on Etsy in want of a deer hat. This was in fact, the same customer who ordered this unicorn hat before Christmas. I was a bit wary to take on an order, considering the high rate of possibility that I could completely lose the project in the midst of packing and chaos. But this dear lady assured me she was in no rush to get the hat. So we settled to details and I got some yarn and started cracking!

Oh, and you get a sneak peek in these pics for tomorrows post! Hehe. Guess what it is?

 I cannot tell you how incredibly pleased I am with the outcome of this hat. She wanted the antlers to be felted, which I thought was super fun. I got to pop them in the washing machine and let the wool work its magic on the spin cycle. Easy peasey, with a super cute turn out. I could not help but take a few pics of the hat at this stage. I love it so much just plain like this!!

Such a cute lil Bambi.

The customer wanted some flowers as embellishments, so I may have gone a bit overboard. Not really, but them are some bold blooms, yo! The big one is deep purple with a faded pink center to match the two little flowers. I think it is super whimsical and romantic. Which is good. Yes.

I feel like you could wear this hat to a tea party. Flowery and cute.

I made up my own pattern for the flowers. Too fun!!

Dem antlers, yo. I love.

I really didn't want to take it off.

Hopefully she is just as smitten with it as I am. I love lovelovelove LOVE custom orders! Never know what sort of adorable things my customers will dream up. This hat has inspired me to work out a lil baby version of this Darling Deer hat. Keep your eyes peeled!!

Linkin' up at these fine sites!

Knit Some Cozy Mitts: Free Pattern

Need a quick little project that is high in the cozy factor? With the temp dipping back down below zero here again, I did. My hands are ALWAYS COLD. ALWAYS. I have been wanting to make some mitts for a while now, and after seeing this free pattern by Carissa Knits I knew it was time.

While I have not been active online, I have been very active at home. Well, maybe not "very" active. But somewhat active. More active than I have been online, at least. As you can see by the pictures of piles of boxes and moving supplies that I'm not showing you, I've gotten a lot done. And that means I earned knitting time, right? Right.

Siiigghhhh. Moving is so messy.

 I used one of my fave shades of Caron Simply Soft. This saturated, jewel-tone teal is just yummy yummy for my eyes. I love it. I am sort of kind of making a blanket out of jewel tones like this. It's on hold though, so I stole the teal for these mitts.

 Another fun tidbit about this project: it was my first experience with cables!! I am smitten. I want to cable everything.

Socks. Underwear. Shower curtains. Pants. Sweaters. Vests. A box.

Everything.

 I also would like to note that I discovered I was doing "make 1"s wrong. I suspected it was incorrect when I was working on Sailor's Christmas present and ended up with a vampire-bite looking hole where I had done two m1's. I had increased stitches before in other projects, but had been with the knit through the back of the stitchy thing method. So I looked up how to ACTUALLY make one using the "raise the bar" technique. And look how clean it looks! That niiceeee lil row of new stitches. So proud.

This pattern is really quite easy. I would recommend, though, checking the sizing a bit. My hands are itty bitty baby hands, and these mitts are a lil too big for me. I prefer skin-tight, my-fingers-are-turning-purple gloves. You know, the kind that...fit like a glove. Right.

I don't fault the pattern with this, because my hands are freakishly small.

Give this pattern a try! Your hands deserve to be stylishly warm like mine are.

Happy Friday!!
-Carolyn
Linkin' up at these fine sites!

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
Linkin' up at these fine sites!