I’ve been holding off on this post because these two Snug As A Bug Sleepsacks were knit as a baby gift for a friend who recently had twin boys.  I’m hoping these little sleepers will help keep her boys warm during cold evenings and possibly make things just a little bit easier on her and her husband.  I can’t even imagine having twins, especially when they have two other boys under five at home as well.

When I was trying to decide what to knit up for her, I remembered seeing this pattern and went searching for it.  It was really fast to knit up and the first time I’ve ever done a 3rd needle bind off (which I loved).  I have a lot of pregnant friends right now, so I’m guessing I’ll be making a lot more of these!

**Evie wasn’t very happy when I borrowed her doll to snap these pics! She kept running around saying “Where baby?”

Back in December, I finally got the DSLR camera that I’ve been wanting for years.  Since then, my creative focus has drifted from knitting* and sewing to photography.  It is unbelievable how much I have to learn.  Not only do I have to learn the basics of photography, I also have to figure out how to apply that all to my camera.  In order to learn as much as possible, I’ve been checking out some photography forums and finally found Clickin’ Moms, which seems to be the best fit for me.

As I’ve been browsing around the forum, I have seen some amazing newborn photos.  Not only are they giving me some major baby fever (my baby is turning 2 in two weeks!), but also some baby knitting fever.  Almost all of my favorite newborn photos I’ve seen recently feature some adorable chunky knitted and crocheted items.  There have been some gorgeous hats, baby cocoons, stork slings, and blankets.  This photo session in particular just killed me.  And the yarn!  The beautiful shades spun in a thick-thin mix are driving me insane.  I have to find some of that!

All of this desire for chunky knitted baby items led me to search both Etsy and Ravelry.  I did find a few patterns I want to try, but (so far) I haven’t found the yarn I want.  I’m going to start looking around locally, but I do most of my yarn shopping at either Hobby Lobby or Joann’s and I don’t recall seeing anything like that.  I guess it’s time for me to graduate to a real yarn shop.

So, now I need some advice.  I need to find a good local yarn shop in the Kansas City area that would carry fun super chunky yarn and I need some fun patterns to go with it.  Anyone have any suggestions?

*Yes, I am still knitting when I can find the time.  I just keep forgetting to photograph my finished knits to post!  Seems to be a bit of irony there considering the topic of this post, eh?

Way back, almost 3 months ago, I started working on a Drop Stitch Scarf for a friend.  I’ve worked on it off and on, taking breaks in between to work on other projects (Christmas gifts, etc.) and it is getting closer and closer to being finished.  I absolutely love this scarf, but I kind of hate knitting it.

It is a very simple pattern, but I have to actually pay attention to what I’m doing and count stitches as I go along instead of mindlessly knitting while I watch TV as I usually do.  The pattern is fun, and beautiful, and I love the effect of the dropped stitches.  It just seems to be taking me forever to finish.

But, it is nearing the end.  I’m so close to being done I can almost taste it.  I may even finish it tonight while I watch my shows.  I’ll be happy to have it done, but so sad to hand it over to my friend instead of wrapping it around my own neck.

P.S. In the nearly 3 months(!) since I’ve posted here, I’ve been keeping very busy.  While I have been knitting, my focus has been on cleaning/organizing my house, learning how to use my new camera, building a new web site for my church, and spending every free moment I can find with my kids and husband.  As life settles back into our normal winter routine, I hope to be updating more often here!

In my last post I asked for scarf pattern recommendations and Marilyn suggested that I get on Ravelry and look up the Drop Stitch Scarf pattern.  Since she’s all kinds of awesome, I took it to heart and jumped on Ravelry.  There were lots of scarf patterns listed under “Drop Stitch Scarf” but I’m pretty sure this is the one she meant in her suggestion.

I took a look at the pattern, decided I could handle it and cast on that night.  I cast on with size 9 circulars because apparently I don’t have any straight needles in that size, but it seems to be working out ok.  I will admit to having to rip out a couple rows due to accidentally dropping the wrong stitch and not noticing until I was a couple rows past it, but overall this is a fun pattern.  All of the yarn overs and stitch dropping can be a little scary at first but I think it will turn out great.

The only drawback is I think this one is going to require blocking when I’m all done and I’ve never blocked anything (Shhhh…don’t tell the knitters!)  I guess I’ll have something new to learn, eh?

Anyway, this is as far as I’ve gotten on it so far because I was busy making Halloween cookies last night but I plan on working on it some more tonight while I watch my shows.

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately knitting hats. The weather turned colder, the knitting needles came out, and I haven’t really stopped since. A while back I ran across a hat pattern called the “Holly Hat” over at A Suburban Hippie’s Knitting Blog. It’s a very basic knitted hat pattern with options for completing several different styles. If you want a basic hat pattern to go off of, this is it.  I saved it to my iPhone so that I always have it with me if the mood to knit strikes.

My favorite is the rolled brim hat because it is super simple and quick to knit up.  Plus, it’s super cute (especially on little girls, which I happen to have one of!).  I’ve been knitting a ton of these lately – some for gifts and some specially requested by friends after seeing mine.

Next up I have to find some sort of simple scarf pattern. I had a request for a matching hat/scarf set and I’m stumped on how to do the scarf. Simple stockinette won’t work as it rolls. I could do a k1, p1, ribbing, but that would get a little boring after a while. I need it to be a quick knit as I have a stack of Christmas gifts planned that I haven’t started on yet, but I don’t want it to be boring either. If anyone has any suggestions, I’d be happy to take it!

**If you’re reading through a feed reader, I’d love it if you’d click through and check out the new site layout! I finally switched Getting Crafty over to Thesis theme (one of the best WordPress themes in my opinion) and would love to hear what you think. There’s still a few quirky spacing issues I have to figure out in the sidebar and I may add a few more things there, but it’s mostly ready for viewing.

Most of the things I make end up being gifts for other people.  I make things for my kids, for other people’s kids, and for other family members, but I rarely ever make anything for myself.  I have one tote bag and a couple of knitted hats, but that’s all I’ve ever kept for myself…until now.  I finally make something just for me! I now have nice warm purple scarf for winter and I can’t wait for it to get cold enough to use it.  It is just a simple garter stitch scarf that was quick to whip up but I love it!

Nearly two years ago, when my daughter was growing in my belly, I thought it would be a great idea to buy some of those pre-cut wooden letters to decorate the kids’ room with.  Since the two would be sharing a room, I was trying to come up with some fun ideas that would give them each something of their own in the room.  I think I searched all over town before I finally found all the right letters for both of their names.  Unfortunately, they ended up being slightly different sizes and styles.  The letters have been sitting on a shelf now for well over a year just waiting to be painted.

A week or so ago, I finally got them out to paint.  When Zach saw what I was doing he wanted to help too.  I let him do the first coat of paint, then I did a second coat to cover up any splotches.

I had really grand ideas of how I was going to paint these. Evie’s were supposed to have flowers and butterfly designs painted on. With Zach’s I wasn’t sure, but I figured I would come up with some kind of design to decorate them with. As you can see, I did none of that. To save time, I just went with solid colors. Since I did Evie’s all in the same color, I used a little bit of ribbon to tie some bows for decoration.

They weren’t at all what I had in mind when I started out, but they’ll still spruce up the room a little.

Tomorrow is September 1st which marks the beginning of Halloween shopping for me!  Before I had kids I absolutely hated that Halloween stuff was out so early every year, but now I know it sometimes takes that long to find just the right costume for your little ghouls and goblins (or you know, Princesses and Buzz Lightyears).

One thing I never can seem to find is a good trick or treat bag for my kids.  We tried several different store bought bags, plastic grocery bags, and even the cheap plastic pumpkins, but never could find something that was comfortable to carry, didn’t drag the ground (for the little ones), and held plenty of goodies.  That’s why last year I decided to just make my own.

They were so fun and easy to make that I made up a bunch of them to sell and give away. My kids and my nephews all used them last year and they were a huge hit.

Each bag is reversible, as shown in the pictures above. Of course they don’t have to be used as Trick or Treat bags, they make great tote bags for just about anything!

And of course the reason I’m telling you all of this, is that I have 4 of these cute little bags left over and would love to get rid of them. I’m selling them for $10 each and I have 2 each of the two designs. Size may vary slightly.

If you are interested, please e-mail me at dee@gettingcrafty.com. I’ll take payments by PayPal only. If you absolutely cannot do PayPal let me know and we’ll talk, but I can’t guaranty that I’ll make an exception.

It may not be Fall quite yet, but football has started, kids are headed back to school (my oldest is starting preschool!), the weather is cooling off just a bit, and I am getting the itch to knit.  The leaves will be falling before we know it.  I’ve found myself digging through my yarn stash and browsing patterns online trying to decide which project I want to tackle first.  I would really like to work through some of my stash this winter, but some of the projects I want to do will require new yarn purchases.

First up is a scarf for me.  I thought I was going to make this two years ago, but just never got around to it.  That’s why it’s first on the list this time around.  I started it last night, but didn’t get very far.  I’m hoping to watch a movie or two and work on it this weekend.

Next on my list is to attempt making Evie some pants, or “longies” as they’re called in the cloth diapering world.  I’ve found a couple patterns that adapt for those of us who don’t cloth diapers so I want to take a stab at it.  It may be a bit of an ambitious goal.  If anyone has any longies patterns that they love, please send a link my way!

I also have some Christmas gifts in mind, mainly for my three nieces.  I’ve got some cute girly yarn in bright colors (seen on this hat) that would make some really cute hats or other items.  I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do with it, but the wheels are churning.

I’d also like to crochet Evie another Roselette top.  They’re just so cute and I’m pretty sure she’s outgrown the ones I made last year.  She may get a few more wears out of them, but they aren’t going to make it through the entire Winter.

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]]> http://www.gettingcrafty.com/feelin-knitty/feed/ 3 http://www.gettingcrafty.com/simple-and-practical/ http://www.gettingcrafty.com/simple-and-practical/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:23:22 +0000 Dee http://www.gettingcrafty.com/?p=157

Somehow on Saturday I managed to find a chunk of time where I was not being needed by anyone else.  Evie was napping, Zach was watching a movie, and Hubby was on his computer.  I suddenly found myself with absolutely nothing to do.  Instead of sitting doing nothing, I decided to go dig through my fabric stash and whip up a couple of things that have been sitting in the back of my mind for a while.

First up was this cute little camera strap cover.  The strap that came with my camera is fine, but when I’m carrying it around on all day outings, it tends to really rub my neck.  I made the cover out of a soft flannel fabric and it feels much nicer slung around my neck.  It is basically just a tube that slides up over the regular strap so it can be easily changed out for another one or taken off for washing.

Next, I used the same fabric, along with a coordinating striped fabric and made a small makeup pouch to take with me when we travel. I don’t wear a lot of makeup, and actually could have made this a bit smaller for what I do carry, but wanted just a small little bag to throw in a purse or suitcase for those occasions when I want to dress up.

Both were fast and simple projects. I love when I can make something useful and save a little money at the same time!