Lil' Pumpkin

The temperatures may have been the in the mid-80s this past week, but that did not stop me from knitting Colbie a little pumpkin hat for the fall (those fall-like temperatures have got to be right around the corner, right?).

Knitting for babies is way better when you actually have a baby!

No more trying to find something the size of a baby head to model the hats. Nope! I have an actual, real, incredibly adorable baby to model.

2010: The Year of the Dishcloth

A little blast from the past for you today as I don't want to inundate you with ALL BABY, ALL THE TIME (though the reality is that Colbie and Colbie-related things will be showing up here quite a bit as I don't have much time for anything else – how do those mommy bloggers do it?!).

Last year one of my resolutions (in an attempt to unclutter our house a bit) was to use up all of my stashed cotton yarn. I had a habit of buying Sugar N Cream when it was on sale for 99 cents a skein and I thought a color was pretty. Needless to say I ended up with more than enough single skeins of color which isn't very practical project-wise as there's not a ton I could make with one skein of 100% cotton yarn times 10.

So I started the year off determined to knit all that cotton (plus all my cotton-ease – which is cotton blended with acrylic) into dishcloths that I could then gift at Christmas to those family members that insisted we NOT give them presents, but could not even think about not giving them some sort of token while we were celebrating the holidays with them. I ended up creating little gift sets of 3 cloths and a bar of handmade soap that I bought on etsy, and they appeared to go over well as I've found hand knit dishcloths was the best dishrags!

And though it was nearly impossible to become bored knitting dishcloths – they're so small that you finish them quick and there are thousands of free patterns so you never have to do the same one – I will admit that by Christmas I was sick of them. And of course, wouldn't you know it, I still had to finish two cloths before our final Christmas celebration. Thankfully we had a bunch of driving to do, the only crappy thing is my photos of the last couple turned out bad because I was snapping pictures in route to the final holiday get together (see row 2, picture 3 & 4). Surprisingly I'm actually a little sad that I don't have a project going on like this this year.

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2010: The Year of the Dishcloth Fun Facts

1. Favorite Pattern: Circle Cloth pattern (row 1, pic 4)
2. Yes, row 2, pic 1 says "Your Mom" – a little tribute to my knit night friends with the sense of humor of 13-year-old boys.
3. 7 patterns were designed by one person, Kris Knits, many of which were part of her monthly Mystery Dishcloth Pattern series. Sadly she had to stop creating them due to some personal reasons.
4. I actually ended up knitting the same pattern twice on two occasions. Once on purpose, the other on accident.
5. Row 4, pic 4 is the Dharma Initiative logo from LOST, I designed the pattern to commemorate the ending of the show and then offered the pattern for donations to my Relay of Life team (this was the pattern I knit twice on purpose).
6. I actually knit the cloth pictured in row 1, pic 2 while participating in Relay for Life. I knit all but 8 rows while walking around the track all night – all in all I walked 10 miles (I wore my GPS watch) and only messed up once (this is the pattern, Waffle Knit Dishcloth, I knit twice on accident).

Little Miss Sunrise

When I first found out I was pregnant, there was nothing I wanted to do more than knit something for my baby. But the worry wart in me, just couldn't bring myself to start a project. I didn't want to jinx it.

So I waited.

In that time I surfed ravelry constantly favoriting baby patterns like they were going out of style.

But still I waited.

As the weeks went by and I became more comfortable with the pregnancy, I realized I might as well continue waiting until I had my anatomy scan – the sonogram at 20 weeks where they can determine the baby's gender – that way I could knit something appropriate for either a boy or a girl rather than a generic blanket or something of that sort.

So when my anatomy scan came (at 21 weeks instead of 20, oh, it was excruciating waiting that extra week), and we saw that we were having a girl, I immediately knew what I was going to knit for her. I wanted to knit a dress for her first photo, the ones the hospital takes and posts on its website. And it wasn't any of the hundreds of things I spent the last couple months oogling over, but a pattern (the Little Sister Dress - ravelry link) that I first favorited in July 2009 and have been waiting for the perfect baby to knit it for.

I'd finally found my perfect baby.

I had the perfect yarn as well, some beautiful hand dyed bamboo in a gorgeous orange/pink colorway that I picked up in Taos, NM on our road trip last summer. Granted it was currently on the needles, knit almost completely as a shrug for myself, but I was pretty sure I didn't have enough yarn to finish.

So I frogged the shrug and tried to finish another project that I was in the middle of (which I ended up never finishing), and then I finally allowed myself to make something for my dear little Colbie when I was at 30 weeks pregnant. (Yes, she was already Colbie – we'd decided that in the week or so prior to the anatomy scan.) (And yes, it took until 30 weeks for me to really feel like I wouldn't be jinxing the pregnancy by knitting something for the baby, what can I say, I'm very superstitious.)

All hopes of having it finished prior to her June 22 due date went out the window almost immediately when it took me a handful of tries to obtain the proper gauge (the pattern calls for size 2.5 needles, I worked mine on triple zeros), but I went on strong for a couple weeks determined to make it happen.

Then I remembered a little thing.

We hadn't even started to put the nursery together and it was already May and I had grand plans for handmade stuff in there too.

Needless to say, this little dress got put on the back burner for weeks. Mike and I shopped for an outfit for her to wear for her first picture and life went on. And then someone decided to come a week early, so even if I had managed to stay on top of the knitting, it would have been fruitless.

Here we are 6 weeks after Colbie was born and I've finally finished the "dress". I say "dress" because I ended up not having enough yarn to make it a dress, so currently it's a tunic length sweater. And it fits her 6 week old body perfectly…sadly. I was really hoping to make the newborn dress and then transition it into a sweater as she got bigger.

My knit night friends have assured me that with blocking the bamboo will get drapier, so I still have a little hope that she'll be able to wear it longer than this week. This hot, hot, hot week where wearing a sweater, even a short sleeved, non-wool sweater, is ridiculous.

Perhaps I should start shopping for a shadow box frame already. As I've already determined that this will be a little piece of art, that I'll force Colbie to have hanging in her room until she moves out.

Or as Mrs Shoo suggested, I can frog it and knit something else for her with the yarn (that will NOT be happening!).

2nd Annual BYOP

Things have been rather intense around here the past couple months, with layoff notice warnings & actual layoffs (one for each of us), the subsequent worries about making ends meet, trying to figure out how the heck to run a freelance and then new jobs lined up (yes, one for each of us), but one thing was clear even when it looked like we would both be out of work at the same time…

The show must go on and the annual BYOP Carving Party would happen. Even if we had to ask our friends to not only bring their own pumpkins, but to bring food as well.

Luckily, our luck shifted rather quickly. Mike was able to line up a new job a mere 4 days after being laid off (yet somehow I don't think he was able to enjoy his month of unemployment one bit). And I – well mine took a bit longer, about a month and a half after finding out my full time job would finished come the beginning of November, I was offered a new position at a company that (fingers crossed) will have a bit more stability.

Because of the shift in luck, we were able to treat our friends this weekend to fabulous fall evening, complete with pumpkin carving, food and silly costumes (though I must give a shout out to the De Wildes for providing a yummy pumpkin soup & a couple others who brought some sweets).

Since this year's festivities took place so close to Halloween, we left it up to our guests on whether they wanted to come in costume or not. We had everything from Babe-raham Lincoln to Where's Waldo to Lindsay Lohan.

I've been wanting to dress up as Coraline since last year. I was able to find the perfect rain slicker shortly after Halloween last year, so with my rain boots and some sprayed blue hair I was able to pull it off. Though I wasn't the most recognizable obviously since I was asked multiple times if I was the Morton salt girl - ha!

Mike surprised me the morning of the party, while I was cooking the day away, when he said he wanted to go to the party as the Fantastic Mr Fox. Now when we first saw the movie last year, I immediately thought he should dress up as him and even said I'd make him the costume. Nearly a year went by and no mention of it, not even when I spoke of my costume plans. But not wanting to snuff out the flicker of enthusiasm that matched my own, I said I would make it work - that I could make him a bandit cap to wear with a corduroy blazer & pants he already owned. I still have nearly an entire bolt of orange fur fabric from four years ago, so to Mike's amazement I was even able to give him little fox ears so he didn't look entirely like a burglar. If only he had told me the night before when I went to the costume store, I could have gotten him a fox nose to make the costume perfect.

It was a mellow evening that involved devouring buffalo chicken dip, Bugle crack (caramelized Bugles) and candy corn cupcakes. But it's definitely the kind of evening that suits me, and I'm already starting to think about next year.

To Wipe the Tears...

It's the big weekend...LOST is officially ending tomorrow night and ABC has turned it into a weekend event - heaven, right?

In preparation for this momentous television event, I worked up a dishcloth pattern featuring the Dharma Initiative logo. I mean, I'm sure those in Dharmaville had something just like this to wash their dirty dishes, we just haven't seen it yet on the show. Though now that I think about it, it will probably be one of the questions we don't get answered.

I know I just recently said I don't typically do this kind of thing in this space, but later this summer (June 19, in fact) I will be participating in our local American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event. I typically stay way from doing fundraising events - basically because I have a difficult time asking people for money, but this year a friend, who is a cancer survivor, asked if I would join her team. And this year, I felt compelled to get over my issues and support my friend as well as my grandfather and uncle who have both been undergoing cancer treatments after being diagnosed early this year.

So as an incentive to donate, I'm offering this Dharma Dishcloth free with any donation! Please visit my Relay for Life donation page (for donations $10 and up) or donate via Paypal (for smaller amounts - on June 19th, 2010, I'll make one big donation on the behalf of my crafty friends on the interwebs) and give as much as you can to help fight cancer, honor a loved one lost or support someone you know who is fighting cancer or is a survivor.

You can visit the Ravelry page for the pattern for download instructions (there are also the instructions for donating too so all the info is in one spot). Or if you don't have access to Ravelry, please feel free to email me at craftnclutter {at} gmail {dot} com after you donate and I'll send it your way.

I really appreciate any donations you can make, and I look forward to seeing some other Dharma Dishcloths pop up around the web and on Ravelry - it will probably come in handy to wipe away the tears as the final credits roll tomorrow night (so you better buckle down and get this knit during the 2-hour recap before the finale - haha).

A Post A Day In May: Year 3 Starts

March Mystery KAL Dishcloth

In an effort to finally get back into a blogging groove, I'm attempting to do my annual "A Post A Day In May" challenge. I'm not sure if the official challenge still occurs, but May's kinda my month, so why not keep it going.

Hopefully this will help me get back into using my camera more regularly and more importantly, taking the photos off and editing them more than twice a month.

I have a few ideas for weekly "features' to make it a bit easier to post, so we'll see how it works. This year is a bit different the past couple, as my new job has my daily schedule off from what it had been, I don't have as much time for recreational internet usage, and then there's the whole being active thing. Exercising like 5 days a week also eats up my already limited time (and I won't mention my husband who has commandeered the netbook, leaving me with the super slow imac - just kidding honey).

Mario Dishcloth

I'm still hard at work making dishcloths. I believe I'm up to 7 for the year, not a ton, but a good start. I figure I need at least 8 more to at least do a limited version of the gifts I wanted to put together for Christmas this year. If I get more done, then more people will have the gift packs bestowed to them.

The funny thing is I actually finished another one, that I had been picking up on and off for about a month in between clues for the March KAL. Just as I was getting ready to bind off, I held it up and sadly realized I had repeated a row so my picture was split in half. One half facing the proper way and the other half upside down.

You're probably wondering how I didn't notice earlier. But I had made a push one day to finish it and just was work, work, working. Sad, but true. I ended up frogging it completely. I'll reknit it eventually.

February Mystery KAL Dishcloth

...eventually. But I've moved on for now.

I'm tackling my first full sweater! I'm hoping to have it complete for the state fair in August. I don't expect to place or anything, but hoping the pattern itself will draw some attention. It would be especially fun if I could get a pair of fair isle mittens knit in time as well - in a fun pattern. I guess I'm just hoping to spice things up in the competition. I learned last year when picking up my entry that the entrants are typically older women with very traditional styles, so it would be fun to see something atypical and maybe encouraging others in the younger age brackets to enter things. Fisherman sweaters aren't a requirement, so can do like anything with knitting.

Just in Time...

New season. New haircut. New hat?

Knitting sure has taken over my life. When I'm not working or exercising, I'm pretty much knitting. Housework is neglected (sorry mom). And I don't do things I used to do ALL the time. I haven't finished a book yet this year. So sad. Up until this year, I would read at least 2 books a month. Fiction, nonfiction. Classics, chick-lit, legal mysteries, biographies. Anything. And now, I can barely pick up a book, let alone read and finished one.

Despite losing my ability to complete even the shortest book, I at least have a small bounty of things to show for it. Loads of dishcloths (ok, not loads, but maybe 6 or so), some mittens that live a state away, slippers, and now a new hat to go with my Gay Paree City Scarf.

And hopefully soon, I will be starting on my first full sweater! The yarn has been bought (thanks to a special car trip to a yarn store into a neighboring town), I'm just waiting to finish up a couple small works-in-progress and then it's time cast-on. So it may just turn out that I don't end up finishing a single book this year.

Perhaps you could suggest some that I just won't be able to resist?

Let Me Brag a Minute...

The proof is in the photos.

Two fair isle mittens knit, complete with thumbs. Though tempting to leave as baby-like hand socks, I pushed through and got those thumbs a home of their own. And most importantly, they fit!

Though there are a few minor issues in the final product, I hope they are happily received. It's a bummer I finished them right at the end of winter, but knowing the midwest weather, A Small Fox should probably get at least one chance to wear them before they need to be put away for next fall.

Actually though, I'm surprised they only took a month and a half to finish. Sometimes I can barely get a dishcloth done in that amount of time.

And if I learned one thing from this challenge (yes, a challenge - I jumped at the chance to knit for A Small Fox, despite never having knit full mittens, let alone fair isle!), it is that I am in love with fair isle knitting. It is definitely my kind of knitting.

I love needing to focus on what I'd doing. And the reward of seeing it build before my eyes is so motivating. It seems when I am knitting projects like this and charted dishcloths, I tend to make less mistakes (that is of course if I'm not at craft group watching LOST, but that's another story because I was able to knit perfectly fine in a dim room while watching the Godfather 2 and actually keep my eyes on the screen almost constantly). I guess that's probably because I can very clearly see a mistake I make, and can therefore fix it almost immediately.

Now I'm not saying these mitts were without problem. As I was nearing the end I twice needed to rip out several rows in the same night. Funny story - the first time, I was holding them by a DPN with only a couple stitches on it, and what happened, well of course they slipped off completely. But stupid me immediately grabbed them to keep from falling...by the live yarn end. Yikes! Stitches undone galore and as I tried to repick them up, I dropped a stitch, therefore needing to tear back a few rows to get everything right.

But all in all, I feel like I do better when working on projects like this.

So in the past few weeks my Ravelry queue has been filling up with fair isle patterns. More mittens than I could possibly wear. Sweaters (scarily knit up in fingering weight yarn). Pillows. I'm anxious to pick my next project, but then again I'm conflicted because I'm really hesitant to buy new yarn right now. I so want to stick with my goal of clearing out my stash, so fair isle knitting might be put off for awhile until A - the yarn stash decreases more and B - I get the balls to knit a sweater out of fingering weight.

Cleanin' Up

Kris Knits' St Patrick's Day Dishcloth

I started the year on a major dishcloth-making kick. I probably the first month and a half I made four (I probably could have made them faster but the fourth was part of a KAL and there were some major delays in clue-posting). Not only were the dishcloths extremely satisfying quick knits, they were great ways to bust through about a quarter of my stashed cotton, and as it would turn out very useful in the near future.

This weekend, in attempt to try and push Spring a little faster into existence, Mike and I have declared it The Big Spring Cleaning Weekend.

It's much needed.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I will for the sake of honesty. In the two and a half years we've lived in our house, we've never deep cleaned it. And scarily, I don't think we've "done" the windows at all, ACK, I know!

Chinese Waves Dishcloth

So this weekend was marked a few weeks ago as THE WEEKEND.

We tackle the house.

Mike, being Mike, drew up detailed task lists for both of us (I absolutely despise him giving me tasks! I'm the one who is supposed to be giving "Honey Do" lists, not him!), and it seems I've been given the monster rooms.

You know, the rooms with the most stuff. And I only have half a day each to complete them. He's ambitious, what can I say. Well-meaning, but certainly not realistic. It could take me the entire weekend to tackle all the deep cleaning in the kitchen alone.

I'm pretty sure we have very different ideas on what "deep cleaning" means. I'm thinking that involves pulling everything out of the fridge & freezer, scrubbing it out, purging the old stuff, organizing it back in, taking everything out of the cabinets & pantry, wiping them down, reorganizing the places that weren't working, among all the normal stuff like scrubbing counters, sweeping, mopping floors.

Oh! And did I mention I spilled 16oz of fruit punch tonight. Luckily it was in the kitchen and before I did my massive cleaning. But the front of my oven is stained red and the floor is a sticky combination of fruit punch, dog saliva and dog hair.

Pleasant, I know.

But this is life.

Kris Knits' Be My Dishcloth

Instead of getting the head start I thought I would tonight (hey, I did dust my cookbook shelves which were caked in greasy dust...and managed to drop my beautiful Nigella Lawson's "How to Become a Domestic Goddess" cookbook with PMS 871 metallic gold ink into Nibbler's full water bowl), I decided it was a good time to blog.

I never claimed to be logical.

I blame the cup of hot chocolate at 9:30pm for the lack of #1 tiredness & #2 focus.

.Kris Knits' January KAL Mystery Dishcloth (psst, it's a snowman)

I must also note that I don't actually plan on using any of these dishcloths in our cleaning binge this weekend. That way when one of my family members receives one of these come Christmas, they aren't a little grossed out that I gifted them a hand knit, used dishcloth.

My plan is to continue to add to the pile of dishcloths throughout the year. Kill two birds with one stone. Use up my stashed cotton (part of my 2010: The Year to Finish It Up) and have useful, handmade things to give out to family members as Christmas gifts. So dear family, if you read this now, act surprised up December, ok? Sure it may be weird to receive a shamrocked dishcloth on Christmas Day instead of St Patrick's Day, but know they were made with love and are just as handy as something that would be seasonally appropriate come December. It's not that I don't love you enough to make something to match your decor, I just think you'll have a better chance of actually using them to wash your dirty dishes if you're not TOO in love with it.

2010: The Year of Finishing Begins

Here it is over halfway through the first month of the year and I'm just getting around to sharing a project I finished on January 1st or 2nd! Yikes. Maybe 2011 should be the year of timeliness.

So I ended 2009 by whipping up a draft stopper for our front door using the leftover fabric from Braydon's stuffed animal carrier and well, there was plenty more fabric and corn cob (even after my first ill-attempt which resulted in a tube so small it got stuck under our basement door and Mike couldn't get in the house).

I did what any good crafter would do, and I started the new year off by making a more complex version of the first. This time the door in question was our basement door in our kitchen which leads to the side entrance which we use almost exclusively. We live in an older house that has had some upgrades to it, so the small, old door has a bit of a gap at the bottom which surely lets more cold air into the main house than we'd like to think.

So learning from my first ill-attempt (see parentheses above), I decided that the only way a draft stopper would work on such a heavily used door was: #1 if the tube was significantly larger than the uneven gap, and #2 had tubes on both sides of the door that were in some way connected.

Mike didn't see how I was going to accomplish this, but I had a plan. Being a frequent craft/home blog reader for several years now, I knew I had seen someone tackle this same problem before (not martha, it turns out). So I sent my mind to work and devised my own way to use what we had on hand, took a few measurements and was off to the sewing room.

Lined again with the hideous brown & pink flower fabric I somehow ended up with several yards of, I made an approximately 8 inches wide by 2 feet long sock. I marked the center and measured out the width of my door from there. Then I sewed the sock into thirds (the long way) and filled my outer two thirds with corn cob and then sewed the open end closed across all 3 thirds.

Wah Lah! I had a draft stopper that easily slip under the gap of the door and covers it on both sides. The door can easily be opened and closed from both sides without losing the functionality of the draft stopper - which is perfect for the main door of the house, it is used all day, instead of only when we're home. And surprisingly Nibbler doesn't find it tempting, despite loving popcorn and gobbling up all the corn cob I spilled with trying to fill this thing alone. Hopefully one day she doesn't get bored enough to tear into it just for the fun of it.

I still have enough fabric and corn cob for at least another stopper, so perhaps I'll make one and put it on etsy or something, that way I can truly "finish it up" because the only other thing I can think of to use the corn cob is tas "brown" matter in my compost bin.

In Which I Finish.

Project #50 in '50 in 2009 Challenge' - Front Door Draft Stopper

Ahhh, look at that!

50 projects completed in 2009, how's that for following through?

I'm not sure how I got the idea for making a draft stopper for our front door, but it came to me and it was the perfect last project of the year. Easy, which was essential considering I only had a couple day left in the month.

I actually made another one today (a bit more complicated because it stops up both sides of the door, to use on our basement door that we use as our main entrance), which jump started my mission for 2010 - "2010: The Year of Finishing Things," which includes finishing up my various stashes (and by finishing up, I mean destashing).

So instead of trying to complete 50 projects this new year, I'm just going to focus on getting things done, crafty or otherwise. Rather than share my personal New Year's Resolutions (I've been sharing a bit too much here lately ::cough cough weekly weight updates cough cough::), I've decided to outline the things I want to get done...at least so far. I'm sure the list will just grow longer & longer as the year goes on. Hopefully I'll be successful in knocking things off as well.

- knit a winter hat to coordinate with my french yarn scarf

- use my italian yarn to knit mittens

- my May One for Me, One for You quilt square

- my June One for Me, One for You quilt square

- my July One for Me, One for You quilt square

- both August One for Me, One for You quilt square

- put together, bind & quilt my One for Me, One for You quilt

- finish the AFI Top 100 films (so close, so very very close)

- finish cataloging my PEZ collection on Flickr

- declutter the house (got a great start, just need to finish up the basement & lightly go through the rest of the house)

- deplete yarn stash to fit in my wicker laundry basket with room to spare

- deplete fabric stash

- update my inspiration books completely

- transfer our favorite recipes onto cards

- complete the sock monkey blanket

Big list so far, huh?

We'll Always Have Paris.

Project #49 in '50 in 2009 Challenge' - Gay Paree City Scarf

My big souvenir while in Paris this fall was yarn. I figured it was the perfect momento, it's pretty, it triggers the memory, it's not some little trinket to clutter up the house and it gives me something to do. That's like 4 positive aspects, so it must be an awesome souvenir, right?

In a somewhat nightmare trip to Le Bonne Marche, I picked out two different yarns this bulky Bouton d'Or (French yarn to remind me of the fun we had in Paris) and a fingering weight Phildar Lambswool (in purple that reminds me of the time we spent wandering the streets of Rome and Venice).

Though I don't typically stray from the worsted and sport weights, I was drawn to the bulky Bouton d'Or for it's beautiful mix of oranges and purples, so I had to pick it up. It ended up being a bonus that it feels really great.

It has taken a few months to finally get the time to make something for myself using the yarn, but I've been thinking about digging in since returning. I mean, I even bought a new nice winter coat to showcase the scarf I planned on making with it.

The coat is another story, but just let me say that I LOVE my new cream wool funnel neck coat. As I walk around downtown, amongst the sea of black and dark gray coats, I feel a million times happier than those people look.

So anyways, as December wound down and all my Christmas presents were wrapped up, I got to work (perfect timing with all the car time we had for the holiday). I used the Windy City scarf pattern from Stitch N Bitch knowing I was most likely going to have a short scarf as I only had three balls. With the keyhole, it would be sure to stay wrapped around my neck even if it was short.

In the end, I would have loved for it to be just a tad bit longer or had the keyhole positioned slightly further up so my ends would be even, but with a little finagling, I can make it look that way.

Now I just have to get on those mitts I have planned for the "Italian" souvenir yarn and make myself a new hat that won't horribly clash with the scarf. Hopefully those can be finished before the winter ends. Hmm, maybe I should make the hat first. Ugh, what am I saying? I can't believe I'm even contemplating knitting another hat so soon. I went to the "fancy" yarn store yesterday to pick out yarn to coordinate, so all I need to figure out is a pattern. And despite my record with hats as of late, I'm thinking I could pump out a hat faster than flip-top mitts (which I plan on knitting 2-at-a-time on circulars, just got a book on how to do socks that way so I'm hoping mitts can work the same way) so at least I would get use out of them and not have to wear my little snowboarded skullcap anymore which really takes away from the pretty cream wool coat. I'm ok with keeping the black glow-in-the-dark skeleton gloves for the time being, but the hat I'd like to change. I've been a bit spoiled with my bubble yum pink button-tab so far this winter. It's not so tight that is gives me hat hair, so I don't feel the need to pull my hair into a pony-tail when I take it off.

I guess only time will tell wear the new year takes me, right? ;)

For the Kiddies.

Project #44 in '50 in 2009 Challenge' - Activity Satchel

I admit it, I am one of those aunts (godmothers, adults in general).

I will try my darnedest not to give you the overly commercialized, plastic toys that you crave for your birthday or Christmas if you are a kid in my life.

As a kid in my life, you can expect books. When not books, handmade toys. When I can't find an appropriate book for the occasion or don't have time to make a handmade toy, you will most likely get some sort of activity to do - like an age-appropriate craft or a coloring books with crayons or if you're luckily a board game.

I can't say I'll keep this up when I eventually have children, but I like to think I will. That my home won't be overrun with brightly colored, breakable, plastic toys. And until then, I'll inflicted the wee ones in my life with my ideals.

Project #45 in '50 in 2009 Challenge' - Rodney & Chomps Stuffed Buddy Carrier

This Christmas I only crafted two gifts for the little kids in our lives (only our nephew, Braydon and Mike's cousin's daughter were lucky enough to make the list this year). The first being what I dub an "Activity Satchel" for a tiny little, princess-obsessed two-year-old who would be joining us for Christmas Eve dinner out at a restaurant. I figured she wouldn't be as quiet as she had been in the previous two years, so what better gift than one that could be put to use right away. This satchel is a simplified version of the Travel Activity Tote I made Bray a couple years ago, this time with only a pocket for a pad of paper on one side and 8 crayon pockets & a peg people pocket on the other. A simple loop handle fit for a small hand. And that was it. Compact enough to fit in mom's purse, but packed with an hour or so of continuous fun.

Happily, it was well received. She was able to rip it open almost immediately upon us entering the house and as the paper came out, little cries of "Crraaayoonnns!" were exclaimed and then she proceeded to go through at least 10 pieces of paper in the few minutes before we left the house. Luckily the restaurant table was covered in white paper so she didn't end up blowing through the entire pad in the one night.

A rather bad photo showing the special Chomps compartment.

The second gift I whipped up was for dear little Bray, who asked me before Thanksgiving if I could make him a special carrier to hold his two best buddies, Rodney the reindeer and Chomps the alligator. According to my sister, they had been out and Bray said, "Mommy, I miss Rodney & Chomps. I wish I could bring them with us." So Aunt Sarah got the call. At Thanksgiving, I took Bray to the fabric store to pick out any fabric he wanted for his bag. On the way there I was asking him what his favorite color was and if he had a favorite pattern (like stripes or polka dots) and he rambled on like only a soon-to-be-5-year-old can. Then as we started to walking through the aisle, we came across a large, dark blue striped home dec fabric and Bray exclaimed, "that's it Aunt Sarah, exactly the fabric I was telling you about!" Sadly I wasn't able to get the bag, which is of my complete own design, done in time for his birthday, but I needed to get his mom her hats and then time just slipped away until it was the weekend before Christmas and I realized it was now or never.

So last weekend I got to work whilst Harry Potter movies played in the background. It only took 3 HP movies to complete (#2, 3 & 4 for those who are interested - #1 was used in making the Activity Satchel), but it was completed in plenty of time to give at Christmas.

This bag was quite a doozy to work on. First my measurements of the stuffed animals were off, way off. As I cut out all the fabric needed for the outside and full lining, and then started to sew it together, I realized that I had an enormous bag on my hands. Like too big for even my body, let alone a 5 year old, so I had to much adjustments after having the entire outer bag sewed up. I'll just say it involved cutting off several inches of height and then sewing the side width in half. Second, I had a very specific vision for how I wanted the bag to work. It would resemble a tote bag with a long messenger bag style handle, but then it would have a side opening on the bottom appropriate for a long horizontal stuffed animal to sit and then a shorter inner lining that would act as a seat for our long time bud, Rodney. Since Chomps is an alligator, and I just so happened to have fishy fabric, I decided that Chomps needed a water based environment. The bag was lined in a watery blue and then I created a heavy interfacing base wrapped in fishy fabric that not only acts as food for Chomps, but also as structure for the bag.

In all the Christmas excitement, the bag didn't get nearly as much awe as it deserved. How can I compete with Bakugan & a real flying helicopter?! It was tough to get a picture of the little monster wearing it with his buddies stowed away. Though it didn't receive the Christmas glory, knowing how much Bray loves his Rodney & Chomps, it should get plenty of use. And that's what really matters. :)

Bray modeling his carrier (again) before heading out on Christmas Eve.

No, I Can't Buy You a Dishwasher.

Project #43 in '50 in 2009 Challenge'- Homer Simpson Dishcloth

Several weeks ago when I asked my brother-in-law what he would like for Christmas, his response was a dishwasher. I told him, surely you know I can't buy you a dishwasher, but I did get an idea of what I could give him - my most favorite cleaning device ever - a pot scraper* (like seen on the left of the second image in this post).

So I didn't end up only giving him a small 89 cent piece of plastic for Christmas (ok, plus the magazine subscription he requested), I decided to knit him up a couple of dishcloths to make a nearly complete dishwashing system.

Plus it would give me a chance to use some of my cotton stash as I've decided 2010 will be the year of finishing things (including my stash of yarn & fabric - I've finally realized that I will almost buy new materials for a new project), so why not give myself a bit of a head start.

I really enjoy doing patterns like this Homer Simpson dishcloth because with every row changing, it holds my attention and I don't tend to space out and make mistakes. Weird, I know.

I started with one of my mid-size balls of left over cotton, thinking I could surely get an entire dishcloth out of it. But as you can see, that didn't happen! Man, my eye for estimation is going out the window. And the funny thing is it happened again with the next color. A good thing for the stash busting though.

Project #48 in "50 in 2009 Challenge" - Chinese Waves Dishcloth

And since one dishcloth certainly could not be enough, I had to make him a second. Actually, I would have preferred that there had been a third as well, but considering I was knitting the Chinese Waves the morning of the day we left, I just didn't have enough time. You may notice that it's a bit squatter than what you may normally see with a dishcloth. That's because I decided I needed to have it done before we left so I could work on the last two projects of the year during our drives, so I could actually make it to 50 this year. It's probably easier to handle as well. I mean, it is only a dishcloth. There are no real size requirements.

The Chinese Waves pattern confused me a bit. You were only given four rows of the pattern, but when I went to repeat the 3rd row (the 4th was just a straight knit), it messed up the look of the pattern. I must have messed something up, but I couldn't figure out what I did wrong, so from there on out I just repeated rows 1 & 2 until it was large enough to stop. I say, oh well, it's only a dishcloth to be used on gross, dirty dishes. It doesn't need to be perfect.

I see a lot more dishcloths in my future. As I mentioned before 2010 will be my year for finishing things (so no '50 in 2010' - I need a break from the stress of trying to make it to the magic number). Though I'd like to say I'm going to clear out the yarn stash I have, I know it's not practical, I'm just not that fast of a knitter. But I do think I can clear out the stash of cotton I have, so it is very possible that everyone will be getting dishcloths next Christmas. Though then again, maybe all my cotton won't yield as much as I think it will.

We shall see. We shall see.

*I can't remember if I've touted the amazingness of this cheap piece of plastic before. We got ours at Ace Hardware, seriously 89 cents. Gets all the burned on crap off without having to use sponges or copper scrubbies, and you just throw it into the utensil basket to clean it right up. Copper scrubbies are great, but can get disgusting really fast, making me want to toss them before they were fully used. I cannot recommend the pot scraper enough, a much more environmentally-conscious method for cleaning dishes (I also find I don't need to use as much running water to rinse & scrap as I did to rinse & scrub). And hey, some hand knit dishcloths don't hurt either - I find them to be much more effective than store bought ones.