Crochet Snowflakes

Last Christmas I crocheted my dad a giraffe hat (because he likes giraffes), and I had so many problems with figuring out a good pattern that I had to stop and restart numerous times, and ultimately the gift arrived a day after Christmas. I don't have a picture of my dad wearing his hat, but here is a blurry, poorly lit, phone picture of Eric wearing it just before I shipped it. I was pretty sad that my parents didn't get their Christmas presents on time, and all because I couldn't get it together with this hat, which I had been planning to make him for months and months.

When we were visiting my parents in Texas this summer they gave me a book of crochet snowflake patterns. My mom made it really clear to me that she wanted some of these for her Christmas tree. After crocheting the knight hoods for Halloween I started making snowflakes, and I learned pretty quickly that they were more challenging than I expected. My mom's birthday is November 3, so I had enough time to finish and send just three snowflakes.

But for Christmas, my offering was much more significant. These are just 15 of the twenty I sent. And bonus! I got them shipped on December 15, and they arrived in time for Christmas. (The others were in the starching process.)

These are fairly challenging to make, simply because the hook is small, and the thread is fairly delicate. It is not the same as working with yarn. Each one takes between thirty minutes to an hour. The largest ones are about 3 inches across, and the smaller ones are about 1.5 inches. I watched a lot of "House M.D." while working on these beauties. I hope to continue to work on them all year so our own tree can be decorated with them next Christmas.

Here are some closeups:

 

Halloween 2014

Last week the boys donned their Halloween costumes for the first time. Somebody was happy to be a knight.

Somebody else was not.

 Like, for real, not happy about being a knight.

Once he took his hood off, he was sort of okay, but he grabbed at his tunic frequently and whined, "Off! Off!"

By Monday night he was sufficiently distracted to agree to wear the hood for quite a while.

And on Real Halloween, there was some finagling, but he eventually agreed.

They had a great night begging the neighbors for candy.

I used variations of this pattern for their knight hoods. They weren't particularly challenging, but they were reasonably time-consuming. Eric is responsible for everything else you see. 

Baby Brown Bear Beanie

Remember how I said I was busy crafting while watching General Conference? This past weekend I finished one of the projects that I started during Conference. It's an adorable brown bear hat for my friend's new baby. (If you follow me on Instagram, then sorry that you are seeing it again, but these are definitely better pictures.)

I used a pattern for a polar bear hat, and it whipped together really easily. I was using a different yarn than she used, so I had to modify the pattern a bit, but I made sure it matched up size-wise with the sock monkey hat that I made for Felix two years ago. Now I can focus all my crafting attention to my Halloween projects. I'm sure there will be post-Halloween pictures to come.

Crochet Pumpkin Bunting

This year around Valentine's Day I visited a friend who had some adorable crochet heart bunting hanging in her home. I thought, "I could do that!" I went home and found a pattern and did it. I subsequently found patterns and made a shamrock garland for St. Patrick's Day (which is kind of a big deal to me) and an Easter egg garland for Easter.

After reading Happier At Home by Gretchen Rubin, I decided to beef up my Halloween decorations by featuring photos of our family at Halloween. I made a few pumpkins before I found the best pumpkin pattern. I worked on this during General Conference (along with a few other crochet crafts that I may or may not post about.) Eventually I'll get around to making some more pumpkins to intersperse with additional pictures. But I'm quite happy with it as-is.

Roman Shade Project

If you follow me on Instagram then you already know I spent a lot of time a couple of weeks ago making a Roman shade for my kitchen window. This window had been in great need of a covering since we moved in. I even set a goal in 2012 to get it done, but it just didn't happen. (I did manage to get curtains for the patio door, though.) Finally, I saw something on Pinterest that seemed like it would be a perfect solution for the window. It was a really straightforward Roman shade tutorial. I read over it a few times, and then I got busy.

After consulting a friend I ordered some fabric from the interwebs. I got lucky and bought the last two yards they had in stock, and it was marked down to a decent price. I tried to get most of the hardware at Home Depot, and they really didn't have most of the things I needed. Ultimately I bought it all on Amazon. The really nice thing about buying it there is that once I added drapery cord to my basket, Amazon suggested all the other stuff I needed. It made it incredibly easy.

Pinning and sewing the shade was a bit more challenging than I expected, largely because the window I was covering was so wide (46 inches). The friend I'd consulted with on choosing the fabric worked with me on the shade. Actually, she pretty much did everything and I helped. If I had done it on my own, I can assure you that I would have had to tear out a lot of stitches.

Hanging it was a bit of a challenge because my window seems to have some sort of metal plate that runs along the top, but Eric was super handy and managed to get it hung. And now we can go downstairs in our skivvies without worrying that the neighbors behind us (who can see straight into our kitchen window because their home is on a hill) might catch a glimpse of us.

Toddler Christmas Tree

I got this idea from Pinterest, but I didn't read the instructions. I just saw the picture and decided it was something I wanted to do. Eric didn't think that ticky tack would make the tree stick to the wall. He was wrong. Eric didn't think Ike would like it. He was wrong again. (In Eric's defense, he was a very good sport about helping me put the thing together considering he thought the boy wouldn't even care about it.)

I didn't manage to put on proper clothes or make-up that day. And Ike isn't matching because I let him choose his shirt, and it was time to do laundry. That is just how Mondays go around here.

"I can wear that!"

I am not crazy about Halloween. (As I have mentioned the last two years.) I rarely dress up, and I don't get the big deal. But this year is different. This year I have a toddler who is capable of understanding the concept of Halloween. Last year we dressed Ike up as a monkey. We got the costume at a yard sale for very cheap, but we didn't go to any Halloween parties or take him trick-or-treating or anything. It would have been way over his head. He looked adorable in his monkey costume, and we were glad we bought it, but in general there wasn't anything particularly thrilling about Halloween with a non-walker and non-talker.

I saw a pattern for a crochet sock monkey hat on Pinterest, and I knew that this year my boys would be sock monkeys. I whipped up Felix's hat very quickly. He is a newborn, and he doesn't really have opinions. If he doesn't like his sock monkey hat, he has no way of expressing that sentiment. Plus, he lacks the coordination to take his hat off.

Ike, on the other hand -

Well, Ike doesn't really like to wear his sock monkey hat. He likes the idea of the sock monkey hat, but getting him to wear the hat has been a challenge. I've taken to bribing him with candy to get him to wear it. I don't like bribery as a parenting method, but I figure for a Halloween costume, it's okay. After all, the whole point of wearing a Halloween costume is to get candy.

Seinfeld has said it best. (You can watch the whole thing, or you could stop at about 1:10, since that is where the relevance to this blog post ends.)

On Saturday our city hosted a little Halloween activity at a local park. A whole bunch of local businesses came and passed out fliers for grownups and candy for children. Ike very quickly picked up on the concept. He didn't say "trick or treat" (or anything remotely resembling the phrase). Instead, he just walked up to the people with the big bowls and said, "candy." He was hit or miss with saying "thank you" on his own. Most of the time I had to remind him, and usually he was so excited about having another piece of candy that it took him a moment to thank the appropriate person. Several times he just thanked whoever was standing closest to him, regardless of the age of that person.

I wasn't able to get a great picture of Ike on Saturday. He was so excited he just couldn't be still. These two are the best I have so far, and they should give you an idea of his costume.

The hat was definitely the most elaborate part, and even then it was a simple pattern. The pants and shirt are just gray sweats. I used some plain white material to trim the arms and legs like a sock monkey. And because I wanted to still be able to use the sweats in the future, I did not sew on the trim. Instead I used double-sided tape. That's just how crafty I am.

Sleep Sack

I made Ike a sleep sack this past weekend. We keep our house pretty cold at night, and we were frequently finding him not under the covers and fairly cold. In New Zealand, my friend, Makereta, made her boy a sleep sack, and I watched part of the construction of it, so I felt confident about putting this one together.

It is not fancy by any stretch of imagination. I took some fleece, cut it into two squares and sewed it together. I did cut a little neck hole, so that's the only part of the thing that isn't just straight. I did hem the arm holes and neck hole. And there is a zipper down the side. I did it by hand because I don't have a sewing machine, and the project was simple enough that I felt like doing it by hand would be a little tedious, but not overly cumbersome. I worked on it while listneing to some audiobooks, and it only took a few hours, spaced out over a couple of days.

Ike seems to like it well enough. Eventually he'll recognize it as a bedtime object, and it's possible he won't like it as much by then.

Blanketing, part 4

This is the most recent blanket I finished for Matt and Michelle's baby. I finished it shortly after the little guy came (early), but it took me ages to mail. And even more ages to post pictures.

Why yes, yes, this blanket does have a hood. I have high hopes that the baby will consider it a cape when he gets big enough to consider such things.

Also, I adore this stitch. In American stitches it is a single and two doubles (in British it's a double and two triples). The pattern can be found here.

Blanketing, Part 3

Another blanket. This time for a nephew that came hours after I finished his blanket. (Just so you know, my brother's little Samuel Lee came a few weeks early. I wasn't running behind).


It doesn't look all that spectacular, but this blanket will grow with the kid. Let me tell you. It measured about 42 inches long and 36 inches across or so. I guess I wasn't paying very much attention when I did my first few rows. Then I was too invested to start over.

Blanketing, part 2

This is the second baby blanket I have made. I'm already working on my third. Oy! Babies galore!

I think I prefer the second. What do you think?

Blanketing

I made this baby blanket. I have decided that I really like to crochet. It's so easy to do while I listen to the news or audio books. I'd actually venture to say that most of this blanket was completed on Sunday mornings while I listened to BYU games.

More Raranga

I said before that when I wove new things I would take photos and share them. On Wednesday night I made a Kono. It is a four-courner basket. It was surprisingling easy for me to do this one. I only needed Makereta to show me one thing, and that was how to bring the sides up because it is quite different than making a kete. Other than that, I figured out myself how to split the top to cast off (which I had tried to do rather unsuccessfully just a week prior). You may not be able to tell, but splitting strips at the top makes for a much more delicate cast off.

I'm excited to try to make one shallow and broad so we can have a fruit basket.

Raranga

A few weeks ago Makereta texted me to ask if I wanted to take the weaving class that she teaches at the local community college. For an eight week course, it is only $45. She had taught me to weave a flower from New Zealand flax when we went together to Waikouaiti a few months ago, and then her mother made me a terrific woven handbag while we were on the north island. I had been thinking that it would be cool to take a weaving class, so I was eager to tell her that I would definitely take the class and definitely give her a ride!

So far I have only made flowers. Tonight we will be making a little purse. Soon I will learn to make other basic things including baskets and vases. Eventually I would love to be able to make a purse like Vilia made for me. Here are some photos:I've been putting the flowers on the window sill. What are those brown things, you ask? Well, Eric brings home buckeyes for me sometimes, and I never quite know what to do with them. So, there they are. When babies come over, they try to eat the buckeyes. When grownups come over, they say, "You know, those aren't the kind you can roast and eat." And then we have to explain that we had no intention of eating them, it's just that Eric was a Buckeye Baby. But this post is about weaving, not about buckeyes, so stop distracting me with your incessant questions about the buckeyes.

Those are some close-ups of the flowers so you can see them a bit better. Once they are dried, I will dye them.

This is the WAY awesome bag that Vilia made me. As you can see, it is very intricate. The flax strips are quite narrow, which made it possible to do such a detailed pattern. Of course, it also means that a lot more work was involved in making it. New Zealand flax is a very sturdy plant, which is why the Maoris used it to make so many day-to-day necessities like baskets and roofs. I am crazy about this bag because it is the perfect size to be my seminary bag. The handles are woven into the top, so I don't have to worry about them popping out, and it's just such a funky and beautiful bag! Plus, I assured Vilia that I would use the bag and not just let it be a decoration for my home.

New Zealand flax is different than other types of flax. There are a variety of types of plants, but essentially they look like the picture below. It grows abundantly here, which is the reason the Maoris began using it in their weaving. Historically, weaving, or raranga (pronounced with rolled Rs and with each A sounding like the A in father) was only done by older people within the tribes who had spent ages learning the different patterns. There was even a sort of initiation for people to become the tribal weavers. But, within the last several years the Maoris recognized that the skill was dying in the culture because it had been so long reserved for only a few people. Because of that, the skill has been revitalised (Do you like the British spelling? It's because I live in New Zealand!) among the younger generations. As I make more cool things, I'll be sure to take and post photos.