Beret for tea leaves

After knitting Savannah's tea leaves sweater, I had enough yarn leftover to make something else. Since Savannah already has a favorite winter hat, I wanted to make her a beret. She's young enough to get away with wearing a beret and I think the colors look great against her shiny blonde hair.

This simple pattern is available for free on www.ravelry.com by Amy Rose, called the Adah beret. I knit it in the same yarn as her sweater, my favorite Malabrigo merino. I hope she'll wear it this winter on occasion with when her favorite owl hat, but it's pretty hard to get her to wear anything else on her head.

Tea leaves sweater in ocean palette

 

I forget exactly how I began knitting this sweater. It wasn't planned. I had five minutes to grab a pattern and some yarn before taking the kids to an indoor bounce house to play during our terrible heat wave (upper 90s for a week) so I would have something to do for two hours while they got their energy out (parents aren't allowed to jump).

So using some leftover Malabrigo merino (my favorite for its soft, squooshy, warmth) I knitted this up in size 8 for my daughter. The colors are marine colors for her love of all things oceanic and piratical - emerald green trim and bobby blue for the main color. She chose the buttons herself from our button collection. None of the buttons match exactly but they are all the same size and same dark navy color.

Most importantly, she loves it. It is soft and in her favorite color - she loves all things blue. And, I finished the pattern from start to finish without wasting anything or procrastinating. (This is something I'm always working on!)

I'm glad that she likes it. I can't wait to see her wear it under a long-sleeved shirt or turtle neck this fall.

The Tiny Tea Leaves pattern is available on Madelinetosh by Melissa LaBarre or on ravelry. There's also an adult version of this sweater, which is the original version.

Aviatrix hats

Suddenly everyone I know seems to be pregnant. We know of seven babies that we expect to meet sometime in October, November and December of this year. One of the hats I wished I had had when my babes were small, is the Aviatrix. It is soft and stretchy, warm and has a chin strap to keep it on baby's lolling head.

The button can also be adjusted (I'm supposed to add a second button one inch higher than the first, but haven't yet). Here's the first hat I knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted Indigo. It is so soft and the picture doesn't do justice to how cute these look wrapped around a pair of chubby cherub cheeks.

One wasn't enough with so many winter babies on the way, so I knit a second one too, in the same yarn but with Emerald colorway. This pattern is easy but not boring and perfect using up scrap yarn since it needs less than a skein and probably less than half a skein of yarn. I plan to make a few more in girly colors and as the new babies join us, I'll bring my stash of baby hats and let the mama pick one.

Big boy bedroom

Big boys need big boy beds. So, I built one for my big boy using the plans for a toddler farmhouse bed from Ana White. I built this bed back in October of 2010, but had so much going on then (as I do now!) that it took me a whole month to sand and stain it. Then, in December when my mom came to visit, she put three clear coats on top of the stain to give it a bit of shine and to smooth out the lumber. Because I wasn't ready to move my big boy to his own bedroom, which would be two flights of stairs away from mine, I decided to renovate our walk-in closet to serve as William's first space of his own. It's close to my bed if he needs me but far enough away that he may as well be in his own bedroom.

William likes to snuggle into his big boy bed with the duvet cover I made for him from recycled materials. It's empowering to think that I made everything for him (bed, sheets, pillows, decorations) except for the mattress.

The paint color in his room is a soft neutral tone, called Sand dollar from Sherwin-Williams in Duration, a low-VOC paint that is easily washable.

The pair of round pillows I made following the tutorial from StarDustShoes. They don't match exactly because I'm trying my hardest to not purchase any new fabric and to sew only from my stash to put a serious dent in it. The only fabric I purchased for William's bedroom was the cotton checkered print I used to make his fitted sheet and pillow case (and I only have a 4" x 6" scrap leftover!) and the airplane fabric for his round floor pillows. He loves airplanes and I wanted him to have an airplane-themed space to call his own. I intended the pillows to be a simple place to sit while we read bedtime stories as well as for decoration.

And of course, there are two airplanes on the wall. William seems to be pretty proud of these because he likes to show people his airplanes, which goes something like this, "Dad-ee, Dad-eee, See! See! Airpla-ane! Two, airpla-ane!" with lots of excited gesturing. I've cleared out two of the walls of the shelves that were there, holding clothing but have a little more to go until the space is truly William's. I'm hoping to build a simple drawer with handles to slide beneath his bed to hold some of his favorite bedtime stories. It would be wide and shallow, but perfect for holding an extra blanket and some books. Use of space is priceless in this house, which is much smaller than out last house.

My hope is that William will see this as his own special safe space and will enjoy napping and sleeping at night in his big boy bed very soon...

Another quilted bag

I hadn't quilted in such a long while that I joined the Spring Quilted Bag Swap through the Quilting Gallery. I had some reservations about the first bag I made (although it did receive positive feedback on flickr) so I decided to make a second one. The tutorial for the quilted bag is free from Geta's Quilting Studio (thanks Geta!).

This time I reinforced the handles with interfacing and instead of using cotton for hidden inner layer, I used canvas, which makes the bag stand up easily on its own. The print is one of my old favorites from Kaffe Fassett and I think it is reminiscent of spring, which is appropriate for a spring themed swap. I quilted it differently, loose circles in a kind of freestyle pattern that I think I like. I am looking forward to writing a letter to my swap partner, who is overseas, and sending this bag along with a handful of other sewing goodies.

Owl skirt

My daughter is currently in love with Kathryn Lasky's series, the Owls of Ga'Hoole, so owls are frequently on her mind. For Easter I made her an owl skirt. Every year we set out our Easter baskets the night before Easter and after the children go to bed, I tell them I place one or two small mommy-made gifts inside then go to bed so the Easter bunny can fill them up the rest of the way. I like that long after their baskets have been reduced to piles of candy wrappers, the mommy-made things remain.

The fabric is Robert Kaufman's Urban Zoologie, Owls. It's a fun print and in her favorite color of blue. Nearly everywhere she's worn her skirt, she's received compliments on it. There's a spacious side pocket that she's already filled up with pine cones, leaves, and acorns. It's always an adventure sticking my hands in the pockets of her clothes before tossing them into the washing machine; never know what I might find there!

I embroidered an owl on a shirt that matches the skirt, but she has two other coordinating shirts with this print and two coordinating sweaters, which is convenient. It also matches her owl hat. This skirt should fit her for at least two years with the elastic waist band, but if we tire of it, we can always find another use for the fabric and recreate it as something else. For now, we think the owls are super cute!

Quilted spring bag

It's been too long since I've quilted and my fabric stash isn't getting any smaller, so I joined a quilt-a-long for a quilted bag exchange and promised myself I'd use only scraps.

Here is my first quilted bag made from this tutorial. I do like the bag but I'm thinking it looks more like a diaper bag with these whimsical colors and less "serious" and adult like so I'm not sure if my swap partner will like it or use it.

I'll be sending this bag to another country, so I want it to be special. I think I'll sit on it for a week and see if I want to send this one. The good news is that it sews up in no time at all so if I change my mind, I can prepare another one quickly.

I also decided to send my swap partner one of my big, fat potholder hearts. I still use mine all the time.

A toast

Knitting relaxes me; the repetition of the process, the simple twists and knots that undo the twists and knots in my mind and shoulders, and I get to create something in the process, something that's tangible and useful and maybe even pretty, something to show at the end of the day after spending most of my day doing the toughest job for which there are no tangible results or feedback (parenting in case you hadn't guessed).

I was thrilled to finally make some Toast arm warmers for myself. The pattern is ridiculously simple yet elegant and practical. I can pull on a pair of toast beneath my shirt or over my sleeves or to take the chill off a damp, rainy spring day when working on my laptop.

Heck, my daughter can even pull them on as leg warmers when she's dancing to the Nutcracker after dinner. After moving into a smaller house, I totally dig multifunctional! I knit them in a heathered purple Cascade 220 yarn, which I like more than I anticipated. Purple was never exactly one of my colors but heathered anything is.

Here's Leslie's original post with the Toast pattern (inspired by the British company of the same name). Thanks for the great pattern Leslie!

Silly hats

I have yarn in my stash that needs to get used up (call it spring cleaning). I started knitting hats to get rid of the extra bits of yarn. I'm not in love with them but they're soft and they'll do.

William models his new silly hat. This Marley pattern is from Susan Anderson's Itty-Bitty Hats book. I'm not crazy about the colors, but so be it, it's a stash hat. The important thing is that it fits him well and is soft and warm.

Here's the side view with the silly topper, which I kind of like. There's only so much time in childhood to get away with things like this.

Here's the second stash busting hat, which actually fits me too. I used up three small balls of yarn with this one including sock yarn, which makes the variegated pattern.

I didn't follow a pattern, I just started knitting, then seaming, then added the ear flaps and made the I-cord and tassels. My exact pattern is on ravelry, although there are better examples of thorpes and jester hats to follow.

I'm trying to be a better knitter - that is not in skill but in habit. I'm trying to diminish my stash to one basket worth of yarn (currently I have four) because I can't use four baskets worth all at once anyway and I'd rather have an excuse to visit my local yarn shop with an organized mind and yarn supply. Happy spring cleaning to you too!

Reusable produce bags

We try to use our reusable grocery bags when we buy groceries (admittedly, sometimes I forget and leave them in the trunk) but I end up using so many plastic bags in the produce department, it seems that I'm hardly making a dent in the amount of plastic we use. I finally took an old curtain made of 100% polyester and turned it into a set of six produce bags that I can reuse.

The material is translucent so the attendant at checkout can still read labels or count items through the fabric, but it's strong and washable so I can use them over and over. It took me less than an hour to make six and I used ribbon that I had on hand for the closure.

Room enough for at least a dozen pears, or potatoes, apples, etc. but small enough to be brought along without taking up room. Although I made my own in various sizes (longer ones for carrots, wider ones for apples) there are some tutorials I found on the web. Here's one that uses mesh. And some that are made from sheer curtain fabric like mine. You can also purchase them such as this nice set made by LoveForEarth on Etsy.