baby bonanza

vine lace baby hats - pima tencel
Originally uploaded by stellesky

I have made 3 of these vine lace baby hats and I'm working on a fourth. This is a great pattern for quick, easy, and cute baby hats! Many friends are having babies, including several who are having their second babies around the same time that I am due. I decided to make some hats well enough in advance so that I could just pop them in the mail. I used leftover Cascade pima tencel from the Anouk I made for the red and purple hats.

I also made a preemie sized version in some leftover RYC Cashcotton in pink for my friend who's baby was born at 32 weeks (the baby was due around the same time mine is due, early April).


I also made a little hat out of some leftover
Indiecita Baby Alpaca Grande Paint for a friend who just had her second boy.


And finally, I finished a small baby quilt for my upcoming arrival. I had made AJ a quilt as well, and though I have less time and energy now than I did then, I managed to pull this one together. I appliqued the lace and the stripes of leftover fabric onto one of my husband's crib sheets from when he was a baby, and then combined hand quilting and machine quilting with a hand-sewn binding. I really like how the colors turned out, especially the bright blue binding.

baby knits

January was a productive month for knitting. I finished two knitted items for the new baby, coming in April.

First I made Helena, from Knitty, with Cascade Sierra Quatro. This is a great pattern! Very pretty, and knit up quite quickly. I used two skeins of yarn and literally had to patch bits together to finish this, for size 3 months. Very cute for spring!



Second, I made Anouk, also from Knitty, by Kate Gilbert. I used the Cascade Pima Tencel recommended by the pattern. I have always admired this little smock, and decided it was time to make it. I am not the best at intarsia, but I think it turned out very nicely. I knit this in the 3 month size. It is pretty tiny. I finished this on my birthday, but still need to find some cute buttons. I have some left over from Helena, but they are too small.



Now, just need to make a few little hats, and maybe some booties...

knitting in 2009

First two projects started and completed in 2009.

1. Mittens for AJ
Cascade Ecological Wool
embroidered with A's to try and motivate him to wear them once in a while...
Knit on vacation in the Poconos.


Stella's Hat
for Me
Using Noro Silk Garden yarn...
Knit mostly in the car coming back from the Poconos
This was the second of these hats I've knit. The last project I finished in 2008 was this hat in Ecological Wool for my sister Daeva. On the way to the Poconos.



And the needles are going like mad around here! Is it the nesting instinct kicking in already?!?

Haiku!

I saw this lovely Haiku sweater pattern from Knitty and decided it looked like a fun knit. I made it for my friend who is due with her second child about 2 weeks before me. Her first child is about 2 weeks older than my son! We are really in sync in the baby department :)

Anyway, this really is a haiku pattern. Simple, fun to knit, and easy to sew up. I used some leftover Classic Elite Yarns Waterspun in a pretty purple, and added some light blue buttons (they don't come out so well in the picture).

From stellesky

Christmas giving

Here are a few of the Christmas crafts that adorned the holiday this year...

Handmade ornament books.

I used techniques I learned in a book arts course and sewed these little guys out of some scrap papers. I glued the decorative rick rack and ribbon, added a little glitter, and then wrote out Christmas quotes and poems in each one. We used these on our Christmas dinner table, and had guests read from the poem books for our Christmas blessing. It was really special and fun!


Poems used:

Let me not wrap, stack, box, bag, tie, tag, bundle, seal, keep Christmas.
Christmas kept is liable to mold.
Let me give Christmas away, unwrapped, by exuberant armfuls.
Let me share, dance, live Christmas unpretentiously, merrily, responsibly with overflowing hands, tireless steps and sparkling eyes.
Christmas given away will stay fresh—even until it comes again."

-- Let Me Not Keep Christmas . . . . . . . . Linda Felver, A Book of Christmas

I will Light Candles this Christmas
by Howard Thurman

I will light Candles this Christmas;
Candles of joy despite all sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present,

Candles of peace for the tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living,
Candles that will burn all the year long.

Somehow, not only for Christmas
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

Somehow, not only for Christmas,
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others,
Is the joy that comes back to you.
And the more you spend in blessing,
The poor and lonely and sad,
The more of your heart's possessing,
Returns to you glad.

Potholders

I made a few potholders for the grandparents, with AJ's handprint. They are kind of huge, so they might make better placemats or hot pads... I embroidered his name and the year on them too (did this after taking the photo).

New Sweater

AJ got a new sweater for Christmas... I started this one over the summer I think! I finally finished it and it is big enough that it should fit him through this summer and into next fall/winter. The color is so close to his eye color, I can't believe it. I used really cute fishbowl buttons from Jimmy Beans Wool. I only had three, so I am ordering a fourth one. Great pattern -- the Aran Pullover from Knitting for Baby by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas.

Handmade hats

purple hat for MEM
Originally uploaded by stellesky

I made this hat for my niece's one year birthday -- this was knit almost entirely during the final presidential debate, with finishing and embellishments added in late November before giving it to my niece.

I used a variety of yarns, all in shades of purple and lavender. Most of the yarn came from the yarn tour event in NH I attended in October, and most of the fibers are hand spun and hand dyed wool. I don't work with hand spun too often, but it sure is nice! I also added a little leftover Morehouse Farms merino. I did a little bit of crochet around the earflaps and along the edge to help make it lie flat, and added a flower with some french knots. No real pattern used for this one...




I also bought some nice alpaca yarn and made AJ a new winter hat, which is already not quite long enough! I should always overestimate with his huge head :) I really like the yellow/chartreuse/grey combination, and this hat is so soft... again, no real pattern used...



The end of November was not an easy time, and I have had little energy for crafting, blogging and all of that, although I have a long list of things I want to do. Now that the holidays are here I am feeling a bit more energy and have been knitting again at night, and even did some sewing during AJ's Saturday naptime this past weekend. Stay tuned for a few holiday items coming up.

plaid mittens

mittens
Originally uploaded by stellesky

I made these mittens for a friend's birthday. I had a skein of Rowan Plaid in colors I thought she would like, and found a simple, free pattern from Alison Hansel on Ravelry. More knitting progress, and some sewing progress, coming soon!