Two Weeks?!

I was just over at Marg's blog to see if there was anything new.  I love that she has me linked in the sidebar...and it shows when my last post was....and today it said "two weeks ago"!  OMG.  What have I been doing these past two weeks?  Ummm....  uhhhh....  ohhhh... I went crazy with crocheting some headbands.  I'm working on some cloth diaper repairs for my cousin.  School has been busy, physiotherapy twice a week.  I don't feel I've accomplished much, but I did do all those headbands.  So I'll get them photographed tomorrow if the sun shines :)

Sweet

I have had a single ball of Plymouth Yarn's "DreamBaby" in this pretty pastels...for ever.  I made a newborn outfit for Megan in 2005 in this yarn, in white, and it's quite possible I bought this ball at the same time.  I know for certain it was before 2009.  Actually,  I wonder if I made that white dress for Lucy (2002)?
What to do with ONE 50gr ball of DK yarn?  It's very soft, no substance at all.  The pastel baby colours did not say adult hat or scarf.  One day recently, while perusing Pinterest and Ravelry, I just decided it would be a little romper dress.

It got off to a fine start.  I made it the length the pattern said, and then decided I didn't want booties, and I did NOT want any yarn left over.  Lately, it seems the trend is to diaper covers, so I thought I would give that a go.

I started with a crochet pattern...but the sizing seemed way off.  Tried again, using the sizing info that I use for my other covers, and decided to crochet hdc in the round.  Got almost to where to divide for the legs...and realized that after that, I'd be working flat.  And hdc looks different flat than it does in the round.  Rip!  Gave crocheting it flat another try, but it seemed to be eating the yarn very quickly.

Gave knitting it a try since it uses less yarn.  I think the first time I was off on sizing, so I started again.  Interesting how different the yarn looks when knitted.  I'm not sure which I prefer though. Got the legs divided and was going along...and I just knew I wasn't going to get it done with the yarn.  Rip!

I then ripped out the last round on the dress, which is a different scallop row from the rest of the body.  Used the yarn from the diaper cover, and did another two rounds on the dress.  Not enough for another round, but I was determined there was going to be NONE left over.

Decided on a headband.  I used a narrow piece of elastic I had, sewed it into a loop about 12" around, and crocheted over it.  Made a little flower with the  last yards.  Not enough for two layers, which I felt it needed, so I grabbed a lilac yarn for the second layer.  Now, I wish I had started with that lilac, and added some details on the dress, to tie it in.  Then I might have had enough for the diaper cover (which could have also had some lilac).

Anyway.  It's done.  Used up that entire ball.  Now, instead of having a ball of yarn in the stash, I have a baby dress in the "sale box" LOL! Anyone need a baby gift? :)

Yarn In:   2576gr
Yarn Out:52gr + 4347gr = 4399gr
Balance: 1823gr more USED than bought
Costs:  $125.91 /160 days = $0.79/day

Simple Things

Every year, my kids' school has a "Spring Fling" and there is a huge raffle.  Something like 59 items/baskets this time.  You can donate individual items and/or contribute to your kids' classroom's theme basket.  My youngest had a theme of "Water activities" so I thought I do a crochet beach tote, great for not holding all the sand from the toys!  And, I also threw in a water bottle holder.  I forgot to buy a bottle of water to put in it, but I tossed in a business card and wrote a bit on the back.  My plan was actually to sew a patch on the bottom part of the strap.  My kids' school is Captain Michael VandenBos PS.  Michael was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force's demonstration team, the Snowbirds.  I also knew Michael in high school!  There is/was an Air Cadet troop that met at the school.  Their crest was similar to the Snowbirds crest, with "VandenBos" underneath.  The conductor of the community band I'm in is involved with Cadets and I saw one day he had this patch on his bag.  I asked him and he said he could sell me a couple for $10 each, and that they're hard to find now.  So, I bought two.

And hid them so well I couldn't find them.

The little circle is one of my TracyKM Designs tags.

The bottom of the bag was annoying me--I was using a smaller hook than I should have, to add some body, and my circle wasn't laying flat.  So I had to redo it with fewer stitches.  And it takes forever to do that base in single crochets!  Then I do a row through the back loop, to form the turning ridge, then a few rounds in single crochet, then a few rounds in half double crochet, then about halfway up in double crochet.  Then I switched to 1 dc, 1 ch (skipping a dc).  This speeds it up.  As I was going up, I also started doing some decreases...I split the bag into quarters and did two decreases every row, alternating front and back and sides.  At the top, I switched to single crochet in each dc and in each ch1, and then back to several rows of single crochet.  Then the strap is 12 sc wide.  I got this width from a free Bernat pattern I've done before.  However...I didn't read that it should have been decreased down to 8 sc!!  The strap seemed to take forever, LOL, but the sc really helps prevent stretching (I've had that problem with the water bottle holders I made with dc straps).

It's a good size bag!  I had quickly popped into Michaels to get the cotton yarn, and got the huge ball of Handicrafter.  I had a 20% off coupon, but the cashier used a 50% off coupon!  Score!  It used 198gr!

Yarn In:  400gr + 2176gr = 2576gr
Yarn Out: 198gr + 4149gr = 4347gr
Balance: 1771gr more USED than bought
Costs: $8.49 + $117.42 = $125.91 /156 days = $0.81/day

Where Did May Go?

I can't believe how fast May zoomed by.  I got only six posts done!  I'm not really busy with TracyKM Designs right now, so creating all those Mosaic newsboy caps, and all the caps for this post, was more of a "make work" project.  She wanted only two hats, LOL.  I made a total of ...15?

 She asked for "two shades of blue, or grey".   I searched my stash, and although I had two shades of blue in Paton's "Decor", they didn't look good together, and didn't look fresh and modern.  I had a grey Decor, but not enough for two hats.  I have some other grey acrylic, but I don't think it's "nice enough" for a new customer's newborn twins.  I trekked off to Michael's, where the only worsted weight yarn that came in two nice shades of blue was LionBrand's "Vanna Choice".  Co-incidentally, it also came in two nice shades of grey.  Just in case she went with one grey, one blue.

 I started with a pattern I've use before from poshpatterns.com.  I did some altering, since the picture she had shown me, the hats were done in double crochet, and the Posh Pattern one in dc goes through the back loop only, I believe.  And I winged the straps.  They were a bit smaller than I wanted, but still looked good.

 I tried to find buttons that would look good on all colours, and not be shiny bright--a big no-no for photographers.  These had a pewter and black look to them.

When I was photographing them, I remembered why I don't like the newsboy caps with buttons.  From straight on, the buttons look like eyes and the bill looks like a platypus.  Sorry!  Slightly longer button bands would have helped.

The client bought the two charcoal ones, so all the others are still available.  They are all NB, with the exception of one of the royal blue ones is more like 3Mos.

What do you think of my new styling ideas for the photos?  Pictures of just hats get boring!

The four balls of Vanna's Choice weighed in at 400gr, and $19.84.  I used 215gr, for an average of  31gr each.  

Yarn In:  1776gr + 400gr = 2176gr
Yarn Out: 225gr + 3924gr = 4149gr
Balance: 1973gr more USED than bought
Costs:  $97.58 + $19.84=$117.42 /153 days = $0.77/day