Owl Hat Patttern

The Owl Hat pattern is now available as a free download at Ravelry, you do not have to be a member to get the pattern.  It is sized for baby to adult.  I sure hope all my math is correct and that it works out for everyone who knits it.  If you do knit one and find any errors please let me know.  Thanks and enjoy.

Completed Blanket

Well I finished Christopher Jacob's blanket a week ago and have just had a crazy week and not got around to posting.  Now Norm & I just have to find a time that will coordinate with their schedule & ours to get it to him and visit with the other 5 grand kids.  Always have to make sure the older ones get attention when a new baby arrives.

I am 50% finished on a blanket for Hayley my great niece who is 14 months old now.  I am using Caron simply soft - white, soft pink, watermelon, passion and grape.  I was really worried that the colors wouldn't look nice but was pleasantly surprised at the result, now just have to hope my sister likes it too. :-) I am using the same pattern that I did for Christopher's blanket. This pattern is adaptable and one of my favorites.

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I got a really cute pic the other night of Norm, Phoebee and Blackie.  Phoebee on any given day will bark and/or chase the kittens and for some reason decided it was ok for the kitten to snuggle with her when she was in her favorite spot on Norm's knee.  Blackie even decided she was going to pose for the camera.

The weather has decided to change again as a cold front is coming along with high winds adding a wind chill :-(  So I will stay inside snuggled up with blanket and knit and crochet. I have so many projects to make I need 48 hour days.

Crochet Projects, Birthday party

Well I have been busy crocheting two baby blankets - one for Christopher Jacob who arrived on Feb 15th and weighed in at 8 pounds 7 oz and was 21 inches long. I only have 3 more rows to go and the blanket is complete. I am using Caron Simply Soft - colors Grape, blue mint, limelight and white. This pattern is available on Ravelry, it was created by Donna Mason-Svara and is called Fox's Bright Lights Round Ripple Blanket 8 points.This pattern is wonderful to crochet and could be done using a myriad of color combinations and stripe options.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/foxs-bright-lights-round-ripple-8-points

I also found another pattern at the Project Linus webpage http://www.projectlinus.org/patterns/  It is called Sideways Shell Baby Afghan (aka Newbie Shell Afghan)  I found this baby yarn when I was trying to sort out and organize my stash and love the way that it is crocheting up for this pattern.  When I get it finished will be sending it to my sister for her grand daughter Hayley.  The yarn is Bernat Candyland called Rainbowbrite - I wish that the yarn was still available as I just love the colors. 

We had a really busy weekend, Hunter is now a teen 13th birthday party instead of a tween :-)  She decided to have a skating and sledding party for her birthday and luckily the weather turned cold again so that the slushy ice on the pond was frozen. We had hot chocolate and marshmallows, chicken noodle soup, hot dogs, chips etc.  We all had a great time and Hunter loved all her gifts.  I did manage to get one picture of her brother Daniel he kept running off and hiding when I tried to take pictures. 

I took some super cute photos of Phoebee our Pug.  She sleeps in the oddest spots as only a Pug can do.  Her favorite spot to curl up is now on top of Norm's left knee - the strange part is she only started doing that after he had his knee surgery and it was completely replaced.

Owl Hat - revised Pattern

I revised my Owl Hat pattern and finally finished knitting the baby size - I was knitting and measuring as I went along because I wasn't sure if my math was correct.  Instead of decreasing one row then knitting a row I decreased two rows then knit a row and the hat ended up 5 1/2 inches in height which is exactly what I wanted.  I guess I will have to add another decrease option into my instructions.  I just have to add the beads to the eyes now to completely finish it - I just have to remember where I put them. LOL  If I don't find them then I think I will just do some french knots to accent the eyes.  Now I just need to find some more time to knit the other sizes to see if my math is correct. As soon as I knit a couple more sizes I will add the revised pattern for download - right now it is still the old pattern - just one size.

I decided that the baby blanket I was crocheting was not turning out the way I wanted so I ripped it all out and went with Smooth Fox's Round Ripple 8 point pattern on Ravelry.  I am using Caron Simply Soft - colors Grape, Limelight, Blue Mint and White.  I just love the way it is turning out and sure hope I get it done before the baby arrives - he was due Feb 5th.

Well mother nature decided to give us warmer weather but as a result we got over a foot of snow on the ground - so a good day to stay inside and keep working on the blanket.

My New Yarns

Between Ravelry and Etsy I have managed to expand my horizons regarding yarn, knitting & crocheting projects.  I am learning how to do things that I never in a million years thought I knew how to do.  Just goes to show that it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.

I recently purchased more yarn from Genevieve Noel who created an Etsy shop called Turtlepurl.   She has the most exquisite yarns available and her color combinations are gorgeous. She is an absolutely wonderful lady to deal with and provides outstanding customer service. I have a couple more yarns to take photos of to add to my stash on Ravelry but the following are pictures are my most recent additions to my stash.  I have the patterns all picked out for the self striping sock yarn - my grand daughters will all be getting shawls and since each yarn is unique they should turn out just as gorgeous as the yarn.  Now I just need to finish my other WIP's so I can get started on the shawls. :-)

The self striping sock yarns are 75% superwash merino, 25% nylon - 450 yards/100 grams.  

Yarn - What did you call me

 

Yarn - Polly wanna cracker

Yarn - Autumn

Yarn - Taste the Rainbow

I also got some yarn that is 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere, this is a lace weight 100 grams - 875 yards.  I am still searching for the pattern that tells me to use this yarn as it has to be the softest yarn I have ever purchased. The shades of purple,red etc just seem to flow into one another.

I hope that anyone who is having the cold, snowy, weather that we are here in Northern Ontario can find some great stuff to do while snuggled up at home.  

 

Owl Hat Revisions

 I have spent most of the weekend alternating between knitting the Owl hat with all the revisions I made and playing Farmville on Facebook.  I had started knitting the baby size and just got to the part of decreasing for the crown and knew right away that I had written it out incorrectly, so the whole thing got frogged and I went line by line from the old pattern to the revised one and lo and behold I had left out a few lines and forgot to include a cable line.  I am now back to starting the Owl section and hopefully this time will go better.  I am hoping to have it done by tomorrow and will post some pictures.  I am glad that I have so many grand children as I am sure that as I knit the different sizes it will be bound to fit one of them.  We are having another cold spell so is a good time to stay inside and work on all my knitting and crocheting projects.

Update & My 1st Amigurumi

Norm holding my 1st Amigurumi

Well the month of January has been a strange one to say the least, we have had above normal temperatures and then seen the temperatures drop to freezing cold with lots of wind. We also had lots of snow fall. I also ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, bruised stomach from a torn stomach muscle from coughing so hard, sinus infection, gum infection, and a touch of the flu that has been running rampant through town. I ended up spending 4 days and 3 nights on a bed in emergency along with about 20+ other people because there were no beds available to admit people.  The nurses at the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital that work in emergency deserve gold medals - not only do they have to deal with the unreal numbers of people in emergency they have to look after all the people in the beds in the hallway waiting to be admitted. 

Needless to say I have had time to work on a bunch of different items that I want to get done craft wise. I signed up at Craftsy to take the Amigurumi course taught by Stacey Trock as I adore her patterns. The course is fantastic and the tips provided are wonderful. I have completed lesson 1 now need to find more time to complete lesson 2 & 3 especially since my sister sent me a picture of the cutest lady bug pattern that I am now going to make for her grand daughter Hayley.  I had a heck of a time finding the pattern from just having a picture, but I finally did.  Unfortunately the patterns are in Dutch, but the google translator that the designer used gives enough information in English that I feel pretty confident that I will be able to make the lady bug.

My blue-bird from lesson 1 was done in purple and Hunter was here as I was finishing it and helped me stuff it.  We had a good giggle and she decided to call it Polly and got to take it home.  

Phoebee, Polly

Snowball, Polly

Polly

February has started off cold & windy so hope it starts to warm up soon.

I am working on updating my pattern for the owl hat and bag that I made for Madison on her 6th birthday, 4 years ago.  Once it has been tested and know if my math is right I will have the update available on Ravelry.  If everything works out ok there will be instructions for sizes baby, toddler, child, adult small and adult large on that hat.  It will take some extra time to figure out how to make a larger bag pattern, the one now is about the size of a cd around.  

I also have a number of items on my needles and hooks that I hope to get finished this month as well as designing a strip for the Crochet Along Afghan on my yahoo group Holiday Mystery Gifts.