Christmas Tree for a little girl

I really want to work on as many hats and things as I can churn out while my little mind and fingers are willing.  I had I Love This Yarn (Sparkle) in Grapette and the White, as well as a LOT of buttons I've been collecting.  With a little photo inspiration I set to work.

This hat is going up on Etsy in a few moments but it's a baby girl's hat.  Approx. 13 inches in circumference and 5 1/2inches in height.  It should fit a standard newborn and possibly up to a 3-4 month old. 

I love using this I Love This Yarn and Sparkle collection is soooo pretty.  Sometimes what I do is surf the net, google, etsy, whereever and I save photos.  When I see the one I like, if it has the owner information, I save that as well.  If my item is just like that, I contact them and ask permission to use the "idea".  My Jack Skellington hat...Alissa at CutieHats.  It was so funny, I convo'd her on Etsy and asked if I could create a hat like hers.  She thought I meant use her photo and was super nice trying to explain how hard it is for her to do the work, set up the pics, etc.  I said "oh no no no, I mean I want to look at your photo and come up with my own pattern".  After a good laugh she basically said 'yeah, duh, it's what we do as artist.  We look at things, get ideas and create.  Go nuts.'  Basically. :)

In this case the only thing similar is it has a tree on it and uses yarn.  Either way I think this will make a really great hat for some little girl for Christmas.

Bearded Hats are the bomb

I'm not a huge fan of Larry The Cable Guy but I do agree when he said "That's funny, I don't care who you are."

This is our eldest, whom I call Legs because he's a half foot taller than me.  His name is very Norse and he loves bearded hats, so I wasn't too surprised when he came to me and asked for a helmet with horns and an orange beard.  We are a family of Pittsburgh Steelers fans and used that when we had discussed colors for the hat.


I attempted a bearded hat many moons ago.  About a year and a half ago I think.  The hat itself was brown, the beard was sewn to it, unmovable.  Before long the beard was stretched and needed tightened.  My son wore it to school (half mile walk in south eastern PA) so it ended up frizzy and full of fuzzballs.  I added an extra strip around the bottom of the hat with a darker color lined around the edges to strengthen where I had stitched the beard.  The popcorn beard wasn't very impressive.  I made it up on the fly as I didn't have a good understanding of the stitch.

After being asked for the hat I searched for some that were similar.  Cutie Hats (link on the lower right) had one but I wanted multiple colors and horns smaller and more similar to the red one eyed monster I'd done before.  Also I wanted a couple of features no one would have.  Buttons.  Not just on the beard, that's been done.  No no, I wanted removable horns.  Sounds nuts.  Yeah,  I know.  But the cup like bands around the bottom of the horn was the key.  I could make that, stitch buttons to it and stitch the horn on after that.  I placed two buttons under each horn and one on each side of the head, in the hat, for the beard. 

I did have a good reason for this madness though.  We currently live in the country, so no more long walks or need for the beard all the time.  The Eldest rides the bus beginning at 6:50am until 7:30 or so.  He may not want to wear the horns or be allowed to on the bus.  Once he's at school, hats off until 3pm.  So I wanted to make something that's similar to a beanie, look cool, but also functions with funny horns and beard. 

Legs came home from school yesterday with both horns at the front of his head.  He's a weirdy but he loves his hat.  When asked "where did you get that?", his reply was "Well you can't get it from Walmart, I'll tell you that right now!" :p  He's heard me fuss enough about cheap knit hats killing the knitting circles and folks at home working their fingers til they're sore.  That's our boy.

Hello there Kitty cat

While I love (LOVE) anime and lots of Japanese kawaii, I never understood the fascination with Hello Kitty. I've never watched it, though it's been around since 1974. I've seen lots of crochet out there recently for Hello Kitty though and a friend of mine had asked if I could do such a thing. I wasn't all that sure but figured I could try. I did indeed crochet the hat and think it turned out pretty well.

I used Red Heart Yarns throughout. Nothing too fancy. I did, however, take special care with it because I've seen some that just didn't take the cake. It's easy to make things look sloppy on a white crochet hat. The bow was simply a strip of left to right crochet. I suppose about 10 dc back and forth for about 4 inches. I made a small strip for the middle and single crochet them together in the back. I thought that was easier, in case something happens to the bow, it's a simple replacement. Plus it makes the corners stand up well for a good crisp edge. For the ears I did a crab stitch over them.

I looked at a lot of photos via google before I settled on one I liked. Generally I like to find one that I love and mimic it. Be it a hand drawing, a sticker from the 80s or movie poster. If I think I can do it, I do. Or take bits from one or two that I like. It's art. I'm not always perfect with it and don't always think it's a great job but I like to make people happy. The young teen girl was overjoyed with it. I've never met her but her mother says she loves me. :p To make a kiddo that happy with some yarn and knots, makes me incredibly happy. :)

Snowman Hat

Last year I made a couple of adorable hats for a friend of mine at work.  Her son was serving over seas and was able to come home just after Thanksgiving for a visit.  He had a daughter around 6 and son about 6 month-1 year old.  I created a little snow man hat for him using Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn Sparkle in Royalty blue.  For nearly a year I forgot about that hat and put it out of my mind.  Recently I found photos of the hats and created another similar.  This is the hat I put up today in my Etsy Shop 

What I'd really like to do is make several of them and the girls hat as well, that was a red hat, sparkle, with pink and white snow flakes.  I hope to get back into the swing of it in the coming weeks and make someone some nice gifts. :)

Cool Glow, check 'em...yo

I wanted to throw on here that I've added a new affiliate.  I'm trying to keep this blog very low on the ad revenue end.  Mostly because I've never, ever made money one it...ever.  BUT one can hope. 

I still have Newegg, Lakeside Collection and Amazon but our newest affiliate is Cool Glow.  As with the others, I have this one for a reason.  I love things that glow. They not only keep the kids busy but they're a life saver when one is "scared of the dark, mommy".  I LOVE them at Halloween.  There are so many uses for them.  Putting them in balloons at evening parties, putting them in a votive rather than a candle and my favorite is simply safety.  We walk a lot on Halloween night to gather goodies and it helps to know where my kiddos are and for them to find me.  It's bright enough to spot them, or they can use them to see where they're going.  They can put them on their shoes, wear glow rings, bracelets or necklaces.  They wear them on Drive-In night also.  They're just good fun!

Cool Glow has a 10% off sale on the link to the right or use SAVE10 at checkout.  If you use one of my links to get there, I might get some change in return. :p 

Pinwheel Flower Wrap

I've called it HeadWrap, HairWrap, etc but none of them quite fit.  It's not a hat or a head band so I'm unsure what to call it.  What it mostly showcases, however, is the Pinwheel Flower.  I had a request for another one and after making a flower in red with white trim I realized it was more of a holiday looking flower.  I wanted to do another one a little more low-key. 

So I did these two.  The one on the right is just Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Red with the Love This Yarn White Sparkle on the edges.  While the one above is done in Red Heart Super Saver in Buff Fleck with Red Heart Eco-Ways recycled blend yarn in Fern.

I didn't realize that it matched the button but it looks great together. :)  I'm very satisfied with that and delivered both yesterday.

Diary of the Ladybugs Part 2

As previously mentioned in Diary of the Ladybugs, I had planned on doing a ladybug hat for a friend of mine.  You may remember this friend, as I also did the Olivia Blanket for her first granddaughter.  She had requested a ladybug hat for Olivia's first birthday, as it's still a while away I had not begun the project.  Since she was going out of state to see them this weekend though I did go ahead and whip it up and take it to her.  Here is my finished project. :)

It's hard to tell, but the top of the antennae have curly q's.  I did not add very many dots and I did consider putting a black crocheted line down the middle, from the front between the eyes to the back, to aid visualization of two sides or wings.

For the rim of the hat I used standard black Red Heart Super Saver Yarn but for the dots, antennae and face I used Caron Super Soft in black.  I did this because it's a thinner yarn.  When making things to put on a hat it's easy to just slap things on there but when you look at it later you think there is fiber fill or something beneath it because it seems puffier than the rest.  I hate that.  This yarn I stitched on but it wasn't as thick and I feel good that it won't be very heavy.

At the last minute as I was choosing the eyes I decided on fancy buttons. I don't usually do that, however I thought, if I ever were that close to a ladybug it might have more detailed eyes than just a plain button or a yarn blob.  I think these are so adorable that I'll zoom in for ya. :D

Yep, those are awesome!  Hopefully the hat will be the correct size, as I generally go by the sizes found at Bev's Country Cottage when it comes to doing hats for children.  I have been told that they run a bit big but I suppose I'd rather have that than too small.

I had the ladybug hat, another flower for a second hair wrap and a baby hat to complete and mail.  It was super busy and I enjoyed it.  I think I'll do another post about the extra flowers.  Yes I shall do that now.

HeadWrap in all it's glory

I will detail what yarns I used in the "making of" but for now I'll start with this...

This is my new HeadWrap.  I had gotten a text message this summer from a friend who saw the pinwheel flower design and had to have it.  It is beautiful but I'd never seen any such thing and had no idea how to make it.  I set out to the Great Google Machine and found several free patterns.  None of which did I actually understand. 

I'm slow.  I get it. ;)  So I used ideas from doing crocheted leaves in previous projects and put them into making this.  I thought the edging needed to be something a bit more special and I once again hit the net.  This is the Crab Stitch edging.  I find that to be hilarious.  I've never heard of any such thing but learned to do it via Youtube and Teresa.  I don't know her but I do like her videos. 

I used very chunky yarn, the Super Bulky (6) Lion Brand Yarn Hometown USA and this one is in Houston Cream.  I used Red Heart Super Saver Yarn (medium 4) for the flower itself because it's certainly easier to handle but it also keeps form a bit better.

I finished the project and surprise mailed it and two flowers to my friend.  She was only a week or two from giving birth to her son and taking leave from work so it was a nice surprise.  I make mine so the end there has at least two loops to go around the button I have on the other end.  This is to make it tighter or looser depending on who is wearing it.  Also, yarn stretches after a while and it may need to be pulled tighter at some point. 

The flowers also come off. :O WHA? YES! The flowers are interchangeable!  BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!  I'm selling the pattern on my @Home Ninja Etsy Shop!  MORE? YES!  It's only $5 for the pattern!  I'm going to try to set up the Visa section so it accepts it and not just paypal.  I really hope you guys enjoy it. :) 

Diary of the Ladybugs

I decided on naming this after the Ladybugs my awesome hubby purchased to help kill off the aphids attacking our pepper plants but after doing a bit of reading, they're only ladybugs here in America.  It seems nearly everywhere else call them ladybirds, as they have wings like a bird.  Neither are correct really because they are neither bugs nor birds but a beetle.  I still like ladybugs, yes I do, and thusly I shall still call them Ladybugs. :)

Now that I have that out of the way I must tell you that somehow ladybugs have gone close to the forefront of my every day life for about two weeks.  I realize that's one of the craziest things I could post about but ya know, it's the absolute truth.  A couple of weeks ago one of my dandiest lil friends sent me a txt and said "can you do this?" along with a pic of a ladybug hat.  I tend to get a few "can you do this" messages from time to time. :) I love ladybugs and the hat idea is adorable so very very soon I shall be making a hat for her granddaughter's first birthday.

Just about the same time we were preparing to come back home after being in Zachary, Louisiana for the summer.  Legs, Lil Bit and I were packing and getting the plants prepared for the 12ish hour journey home.  One of our pepper plants had become infested with worms and aphids.  We'd bought this plant at the Farmers Market and it already had one large pepper and a small one growing.  It produced one other pepper after that.  About the time the third pepper started, all of a sudden (honestly) it was attacked by buggies.  I had been using a soapy solution to keep the other one clean of aphids and that one as well.  I'd kept every single worm killed off.  After two days the Market pepper plant was dried up, dead and covered with aphids.  That one wasn't going to make the journey.

We brought home the mini pepper plant we'd grown from seeds.  We have yet to have a single pepper out of it but I sure do like to think we'll have one eventually. :p  Once we got home, it rained on all the plants.  I had to leave them outside and within a couple of days they, too, had aphids.  I was preparing the soapy solution when I saw ants all over the plant also.  hm.  I asked awesome hubby and he said the ants actually live on the juices the aphids produce and in trade the ants offer a sort of protection.  The best thing to do was to get rid of the aphids.  While we could spray it down again, there was another alternative.  Ladybugs love dining on aphids. :)

Awesome hubby purchased 1500 ladybugs and a small ladybug house and had them shipped here ASAP.  The ladybugs arrived after a couple of days.  The house got to our local post office from Mississippi, then oddly enough before it was delivered was shipped to Atlanta, who shipped it back to Mississippi somewhere and back to Nashville and here.  :\

Either way the house arrived today so here's my Diary of the Ladybugs:

This is the box the ladybugs were delivered in. They came with a small sponge inside and a bit of hay. As long as I keep them in the refrigerator they are in a sleep like state, drinking only what is on the sponge from time to time. I keep it moist though because it dries out every day or so in the fridge.

 The house itself is made from fresh wood (or it's been lightly rubbed with something green like fresh grass) with a thin piece of metal on the roof.  The latch is simply made and it has only some side air / escape vents for the little guys.  On the back is a hole for hanging up on a house or post.

As you see, the door opens downward with two hinges on the bottom.  We have a rental house, however, so attaching it to the house is not an option.  I can attach it to the deck but that puts it by the front door.  While I don't mind the little guys watching a little tv with me, I think they'll be most beneficial outside so I chose to hang them on the bird feeder hooks.  Small problem.  No way to do that.  The hole isn't large enough and if it were, it still would have trouble fitting properly over the hook.  So I came up with a fix for that with the chain I have from the now defunct bird bath.  I used only two pieces of the three I had, used a thumb tack to poke a small hole on either side and two small closed hooks from a photo hanging kit we've had for ages.

So far, my only regret is not moving them more toward the front because where they sit on the pole, it could tilt forward (a bit top heavy) and flip over.  Being that I centered them on the side it makes it more unstable.  I may move the chain forward to act more as a counter balance when it leans against the pole.

The finished product, ready for ladybugs in the evening :

 Now on to the ladybug deposits:

Yep, going to just cut a spot and pour them in, says I.  I took two of the leaves that had aphids on it and put them inside.  I don't know if that will keep them there but it sure seems like a start.  It was about this time that I realized I needed to cut the bag open a bit more or I'd be there all night.  After opening it larger it seems as though they came out much faster but once they all started flying around...you guessed it, I moved my hand and poked myself in the eye.

Immediately after, Legs apologized.  He said "oh no mom, I think I took a pic of you when you did that."  :p  He's a good kid but I agree with awesome hubby that it's pretty good comic relief that I'm a dillhole and jabbed myself in the eye.  Luckily my eyeball itself is fine, it's the rest of my face that hurts. lol




Last but not least, the pepper plant with our darling lil ladybugs.

Hopefully this is just the beginning for them.  I'll be doing the ladybug hat soon and perhaps this is inspiration. :)

Olivia Blanket

Oh my, they've updated blogger and I have no idea what I'm doing lol so work with me for a moment. ;)

I've been working more toward putting more time into my crochet. I have several projects going at once and I tend to overwhelm myself then put things off. In November I had told a friend of mine that I'd love to try my hand at crocheting a baby blanket for her first grandbaby and all I needed to know was the sex. I have never crocheted a blanket before. A few months later she found out they were expecting a granddaughter. I had lots going on at the time and forgot about the blanket. In May they were getting closer to the baby's due date. I had yet to start this blanket. I had lunch with my darling friend and she told me that the new mommy's colors were a light pink and brown. I believe my words were "shut-up!" I just so happened to have two small bundles of Red Heart Soft Baby Steps yarn in Cherry Cola. It's a gorgeous yarn and I'd started playing with circles ages ago but never did anything with them. Here was my chance!

I piddled around with the circles and made them squares. It's easier to stitch them together into a blanket that way. I had many made up so I used them up and looked at the remainder of my yarn. Hm. After spacing things out and moving them around I decided to put squares in there also. I made several "basket weave" squares and put those in. I was worried it would be too light around the edges with the baby yarns and would cause the edges to curl. It would also fray/frizz easily with more use on the outer edges. I went to Walmart (as where I am now it's a 45 minute drive to a yarn store) to find more Cherry Cola yarn or something like it. I searched online once before for the Cherry Cola yarn but they want, in some cases, as much as $6 a skein for it and it costs nearly that much to ship it. Um. What?

Instead, I found the Red Heart Super Saver Pink Camo. It's very similar in color, though it is thicker. This should minimize any frizzies! I finished the blanket and added shell edging. It measures roughly 29" x 42". The new grandbaby was born in early June and her name is Olivia. I present to you, the Olivia Blanket. I'll be mailing that this coming week.