Hmmm...how many different colors can I make?

I'm sure you all know that annoying friend who finds a song she/he loves, and they keep playing it over and over again. You don't want to ride in her/his car because the music selection will be an issue (do you really want to listen to Party in the USA on loop?). Well, my friends, I am one of those people! Thank God iPods were invented because now I can be addicted to my own songs, and I can shut out everyone else's whining. These days, I'm obsessed with Angus and Julia Stone, particularly their song "And the Boys." So, amazing.

My obsession with replaying songs I love can sometimes carry over to certain culinary creations that are adored by my friends and family, and on occasion the same can be said about knitting patterns. Especially those patterns that are easy (knit in the round with an easy-to-memorize pattern), functional (the person receiving the gift will actually wear it), and beautiful. That can most certainly be said about Elvira by Sanne Bejerregaard (you can also purchase the PDF pattern off of Ravelry).

This is the version I made for my friend's daughter. It isn't blocked, so please, ignore the slight crinkle in the yarn!



My favorite part of tunic/dress are the buttons. Little Y chose them. She was only 18 months old when I asked her to choose buttons that matched the dress (she already knew her colors by then). So as we sat in the huge button isle of a mega fabric store by our house, she giggled at all the buttons shaped like animals and grabbed for the ones sparkled like resin poured into a rhinestone mold (wait, that's exactly what they were - cheap rhinestone buttons). Then she laid her hands on the ones she finally chose. They look like stained glass, and they match perfectly without it being too perfect.



I will definitely be making this dress again, now all I have to do is decide which colors...

Nana's Habitat

Winter in the midwest is brutal, so I warm, cozy hat is a must-have winter accessory. Growing up my dad never wore knit wool hats. Instead he opted for a wool ascot hat. He has them in a range of colors - from a light camel wool to stark, dignified black. Many of his ascots even have retractable ear flaps that only made an appearance on the coldest of cold winter mornings. So, this winter I was thoroughly surprised to hear my dad declare that he'd like to find a new winter hat. I asked him why he never wore a knit wool cap, and he admitted that he had tried, but never seemed to find one that was warm, soft, and roomy enough to fit his rather large noggin. I immediately decided that the best solution was to make a hand knit hat for him, with some extra stitches here and there to ensure a roomy but snug fit. I also wanted to make sure my dad's hat would cover his ears, providing the same coverage as his beloved ascot caps.

My pattern choice was easy - brooklyn tweed's Habitat. Jared Flood's is truly an amazing fiber artist, and his cable patterns are exquisite. The modifications I made to the hat along with yarn details can be found on my Ravelry page (you need to have a Ravelry account to access the page). I used Malabrigo Yarn Merino in a worsted weight, and I will definitely be using it again. I used the magic loop to knit the hat in the round.

 The hat fits my dad perfectly (his ears are covered nicely!), and most importantly he loves it. Seeing my parents happy makes me happy!

So They Said...

Before I became a mom, all of my mom friends (including my sisters) told me that I'll love my mom even more once I have my own little one. The sentiment makes sense, right? I mean, moms sacrifice their physical and mental well-being to care for their children. The pregnancy itself leaves many to wonder what their body was like pre-pregnancy (a reality I'm still coming to grips with myself). And "sleep" takes on a new meaning - no more deep, restful sleeping. Sleep is simply the byproduct of exhaustion. So, the idea is that once a new mom realizes how much her mom had to sacrifice to take care of her when she was a little baby, the new mom will have a deeper appreciation for her own mother. That seems logical, but before becoming a mother, I thought, I already love and appreciate my mom. I wasn't quite sure how much further it could go.

I'm very close to my parents, but to understand exactly what that means, you have to know a bit more about my family. I'm the youngest out of four children, and we're all pretty close in age. Even though there are four of us siblings, our house was full of at least six to eight kids at any given time because our house had a revolving door - cousins and friends would come and go seven days a week, almost twenty four hours a day. I remember one of my cousins saying that she loved hanging out at our house because it was so "lively." Well "lively" is one way of looking at it. Now being a mom myself, I think I'd use a word like "maddening" or "anarchy" to describe the atmosphere.

Given all of these chaos and activity, I still forged a very close relationship with my parents, especially my mom. I think it had something to do with being the youngest. I was always the one left at home. I was left at home when my siblings went off to school full time. I was left at home when they were allowed to have an extended curfew in high school. I was left at home when they went to college. I was left at home when each of them got married. (As a disclaimer I have to mention that I wasn't technically living at home at this point, but I still spent the most time at home since I had fewer responsibilities). Being around them without my siblings helped me form a very open line of communication with my parents. My mom will always be my mom first and foremost, but she is also a dear friend. So, given our already close relationship, I wasn't sure how much more I could love and appreciate her once I became a mom myself.

Once I emerged from the haze of being a new mom (which took me a good three months), I soon realized that my mom friends were right. As my experience of motherhood takes its course, the more I truly understand just how much my own mom sacrificed for me, and I appreciate and love her more than I ever thought possible. We talk almost every day, even if it's a simple, three minute conversation. And I try to show her how much she means to me through small gestures of appreciation.

The most recent gift I gave my mom is this pair of French Press felted slippers (the link to the knitting pattern only works if you have a Ravelry account). My mom loves the slippers, and that makes me so very happy (who doesn't like keeping their feet warm in these darn cold midwestern winters).

This is my first felted project, and I have to admit that the felting process was much easier than I had expected. I used my sister's washing machine because her's is a top-loading washer, a pillowcase, and six tennis balls. I'm hoping to try more extensive felting projects in the near future. I will make these slippers again, and here are the changes I will make/mistakes I will correct:

1 - I will sew the two side pieces together at the toe, just past the hump. On the left slipper I sewed too far down, past the hump. Sewing just past the hump is what gives the shoe a ballet shoe look.

2 - The cuffing trick for the backs of the slippers works really well, but again, I took it too far with the left slipper. I need to use more restraint next time!

3 - Instead of using puff paint traction, I'm going to try these suckers out. Apparently they can be sewn on to felted projects as well.

One more note, I used a very sharp and rather thick needle to sew the straps onto the already felted slippers. I actually used a needle that's meant for sewing through leather. It worked like a charm.

These adorable ballet slippers were knit using triple strands for the bottom and double for the sides. It was knit in six pieces (as seen below).

Then the pieces were sewn together. Sides first:

Then the bottoms sewn on:

Once they were felted, I stuffed the toes with crumpled plastic bags to help with shaping.

Once dried, I figured out the placement for the straps and buttons.

After applying puff paint traction on the bottom, here they are on my mom's feet. Yay for my first felting project!

Toasty Valentines for My Valentines

So, yes, I am posting this almost a year (eeeks! talk about procrastination) after I completed this hilariously cute project. But I guess that it's better late than never (unfortunately that seems to by my mantra when it comes to knitting because I'm always behind on wip's). My Hubs and I were over the moon about becoming parents to our spunky little gal. So, for Valentine's day, I made the two loves of my life matching winter hats. It's from a pattern called Sarah's Cabled Hat (you have to be a member of Ravelry to view the link). The pattern is written for adults, so my modification was to make the hats out of a light fingering weight yarn (Dale of Norway/Dalegarn Baby Ull to be exact). I held the yarn in a single strand for Sweetie Mama and double strand for the Hubs.

There's No Such Thing as Blue Food...

A few weeks ago on Top Chef (I love that show!) the challenge was for the chef's to cook a course based upon a theme. Fabio's team (Fabio is my fan favorite of this season) received the color blue as their theme. As the chef's were prepping their dishes, Tom Colicchio said something about there being no such thing as blue food. Upon hearing that, I became obsessed with trying to find a food that's naturally blue... and gosh darn it, I think Chef Colicchio was right! Blueberries? No - they're purple. Blue potatoes - again, nope. Purple. (You get the picture...)

Anyhow, the reason this is relevant is because I was planning to knit a hat/mitten set for my husband's cousin's baby girl's first birthday (wow that's a mouth full). The pattern I decided on was Ann Norling's Kid Fruit Cap. I found some beautiful blue yarn, so I thought, I'll make a blueberry hat. Little did I realize that there's no such thing as blue food! Regardless, I think the hat and mittens turned out thoroughly adorable.