Really?

Yesterday I got a comment about my machine knit longies pattern/tutorial.  I answered, and wanted to include a link to a  brown newborn soaker I made for a give away/charity auction.  However, in scrolling through my blog, I can't find the post.  I know it's just a small little thing, plain old brown, not very exciting...but still, I like to post about everything I make!

Yup.  Not much too it.  Unfortunately, I never heard back from the winner, to see if it fit, or if she even got it.  I sent another email last month, but no response to that one either :(

This is in Patons Classic Wool, and is based on the Dandelion Dreamer pattern that I've shown before.  I think I handknit this; it's really quick and a nice portable project.  The icord I made on the machine though :)  It is a really easy pattern to adapt to the machine though, the biggest key is figuring out which part of the crotch you're working on, I think on the machine you do the opposite direction on the gusset (and you have to work out how many rows you need for the measurement given in the flap).  Any interest in a more detailed tutorial?

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  57gr + 16 655gr = 16 712gr
Balance: 559gr more sent OUT than IN
Costs: $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

"Epic" in Purples

Ever since I made the first Epic hat, in beiges, I had been hoping for a chance to make one in purples.  I finally got the call for one as a Christmas present,  for a four year old girl.  Super excited!

I started with going through my stash.  I plucked out anything in pure white, lilac, lavender, purple and plum.  I didn't have as much as I had hoped.  So, I headed off to Michaels' to stock up.  It takes a lot of yarn to make these hats--not actually for the individual hat (less than 200gr), but a large variety is needed, though only a few yards for each colour (at the start of the hat, about 60" per row, or just under 2 yards, but I usually do more than one row of a yarn).  Each of these hats has been a financial loss, though each one has enriched my stash tremendously, LOL!!

 I got them out and organized them, I used a black backdrop to even out the background and make the yarns stand out more.

 As I played with them (and this wasn't all the yarns I ended up using), I noticed that there were two types of purple.  A bright purple, and a more plum type purple.  I wasn't sure which way to go!  I decided to throw caution to the wind.  The hat is for a four year old who loves purple.  So, all purples shall be in it!

 Got off to a great start, though I didn't have as many bright whites as I would have liked (having used up some on those Santa hats!).  I was trying to be mindful to not have a long white section, but once again, I think I should have shortened it.

 I blended in some grey as I went up, hoping to soften the transitions between colours, and to tie the two shades of purple together.

 Reminds me of snow and ice.  Don't know if you can see it, but there are some tiny little sequins in there!

A little bit of tuck for texture in the plain yarns.  One difficulty with this hat is the frequently changing gauge of the different yarns.  I didn't get it right in the transition between the tuck and the bulky lilac.  Blocking helps somewhat, as does remembering that this was going to a four year old non-knitter :)

 In the end, I quite liked it!  Always love the tassels.  This time, I made it so there was only a little bit of the lighter colours in the inner part, and dark on the outer, to continue the darkness of the tip of the hat.

If anyone is interested in their own Epic hat, I have a stockpile of beiges, browns, greens, pinks, and purples now.  I do have quite a bit of blues too.

Yarn In: 16 153gr
Yarn Out:  122gr + 16 533gr = 16 655gr
Balance:  502gr more sent OUT than IN
Costs: $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Next Up

Thanks for the feedback on my last post.  I DO love blogging, and won't stop :)  And I really do appreciate my readers, it really brightens my day when I see the stats.  I just need to know that my readers appreciate my writing and that it's meeting their needs.  It's like being a mom....you make a great meal, everyone eats it up, but no one says anything.  So you don't make it again, or just not often.  Then someone says "Why don't you ever make that awesome dinner again?".  LOL.

I've still got a little to catch up on from last year, before I launch into this year's projects.  On a bummer note, it appears I left a water bottle and it's holder on the cruise ship Sunday.  It was a blue wool one, with an appliqued medallion, one of the first ones I made :(

Was just browsing through my photos, and forgot! about a striped long toque I made as a rush before Christmas!

Pretty much identical to one I made last winter for newborn photography, but this one was for a 4 year old.  I added the flower cause it's been in my drawer for a long time, and I thought it softened it up a little.  Made this on the LK150.  If anyone wants more info, let me know :)

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  126gr + 16 407gr = 16 533gr
Balance:  380gr more sent OUT than IN
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Still need to show purple Epic hat, flip top felted mitts and a sewn mei tai (from August LOL).  New this year, Cheryl's mitts, April's hat/cowl...

Hello?

I know I get about 10-15 views for my "average" pages, and quite a few more for pages that I have patterns (especially linked to Ravelry).  But I have 59 "followers".  Why do people follow a blog if they don't read it?  One-sixth of my "followers" read my blog regularly.  I haven't had a comment since Oct 29.  My most "commeted" month was January, and my post with the most comments?  NO knitting/crocheting content at all :(  All total, last year, I had 24 comments (including at least 4 that had nothing to do with knitting).

I write because I like to share knowledge and writing is an easy way to do that.  It's a great record of what I've created, and hopefully inspires others.

But when you have very little confirmation that others find what you have to say to be of any value...it's really hard to keep going.  At least, with my facebook page, I can get thumbs up (although pictures don't often show up in newsfeeds, and again, the number of real fans is quite low compared to how many likes you have).  Maybe I need one of those little bars under the posts, where readers can click "like/funny/agree/learned something" etc.  How do I do that?

On a positive note, my husband found a missing ball of sock yarn!  I thought it might be in a suitcase pocket, but I guess I checked the wrong suitcase.  I was so down about losing it since I had already started the socks, toe up, and was at the heels when I ran out.

Simple Santa

Shortly after making the Christmas hats for Jennifer, she wanted a simple Santa hat to go with a red basket she turned into a Santa suit. No problem, though the picture she sent had very plush fur for the trim. She didn't want that expense, but she did have the leftovers from a dollar store scarf that she had used to trim the basket. Okay, I can work with that. Then, it really matches! She also suggested instead of a pompom to cover a Styrofoam ball with the yarn.

Is that not the sweetest thing?!
How about this:

Good grief, Jennifer slays me with her beautiful shots. How can 60gr of yarn turn into something so awesome? It's the babies, I tell ya. I need to borrow a few.

Yarn In: 16 153gr
Yarn Out: 60gr + 16 347gr = 16 407gr
Balance: 254gr more used up than brought in
Costs: $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Santa Turban?

The lady that ordered the pink and brown dress and hat set, also wanted a red and white Santa hat that could also double as a winter hat.  I had just seen a picture of a little red turban style hat, done in a fine mohair, with a white picot trim.  I knew the mohair wouldn't work as a winter hat, so I went with a thicker red, and found some red Lionbrand Homespun in my stash.

I don't have good pictures of it on it's own; red is hard to photograph and I was in a rush.

 For something so simple, I actually had to start and restart a few times.  The first time I had it going the wrong way and I just couldn't wrap my brain around it.  Then it was too large one time, then too long...basically, cast on for the length you need to go from one earlobe up and over to the other.  Or, cast on half this number of stitches, and double them over the first couple rows.  Knit almost the length you need, then decrease down over a few rows, draw the yarn through the live stitches to cinch up, same with cast on (except it's not live stitches unless you start with an open cast on).  Then I used a fuzzy white to do the picot edge.  I would have liked to use a finer white, but ran out of time.

Here's the precious one wearing it.  Apparently, she was rather fidgety and kept moving the hat around so it ended up sideways.  Cute from the front, but I'm not sure that it would keep her ears warm.  This would be a nice cancer hat, or done in a terry yarn, it could even be a hair towel hat!  It's a very classic style/shape that you don't see very often anymore, but creates a great impact with minimal work.  I would like to do more, perhaps in a soft, fine mohair, and maybe on the knitting machine.  It's pretty much a rectangle after all :)

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  50gr + 16 297gr = 16 347gr
Balance:  194gr more sent OUT than IN
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day
I just discovered I have one itty bitty Santa hat to show, as well as the purple Epic hat.  I also made another pair of felted mitts for myself, but I'm not sure when I finished them...were they last year or this year? 

A Tale of Two Santa Hats

I'm almost done blogging my 2013 projects!  Looks like I might meet the Yarn In = Yarn Out goal (although, some of the things I've made have not actually left the house, LOL).

One day I got an email from Jennifer saying she just had a client, Heather, who might be contacting me about getting a hat made for her granddaughter.  I LOVE referrals!  Indeed, Heather got in touch with me, wanting  a Santa hat, in dark red, for her granddaughter to wear with striped pajamas at a breakfast with Santa.  No problem, I said, and got right to work. 

I used up the very last of the white I had from the Frosty hat, and for the pompom, since it's not a very stable yarn when you cut it in small bits, I combined it with a plain white worsted.  I like the effect.  Then I started second-guessing the darkness of the red.  It's darker than in this picture.  Not quite "wine", but I wasn't sure...

 So, I made up a second one!  Still not a bright red, it was indeed lighter.  This time I used a strand of white worsted with the eyelash in the brim and the pompom.  When I trimmed the pompom, I tried to trim just the worsted yarn, so that the eyelash would stand out.  I quite liked this one too.
I took both for Heather to pick one....and she picked both!  I love what I do!  AND, she requested two other hats!!
Both these two hats, and the next two, were done on the LK150.

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  100gr + 92gr + 16 105 = 16 297gr
Balance:  144gr more USED up than brought IN!
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Felted Clogs

I have loved making felted clogs for a long time, and every time I make another pair after a hiatus, I always say "I need to make these more often!".  The first pair after a break often feels like the very first pair ever, LOL, but then the next pair  goes better!

Back in August, I was asked to take part in another business's 400 Likes fan give away.  Sure, business was really slow for me, and giving away something for free is pretty much the same as advertising.  I offered a knit to order wool diaper cover, though the winner didn't have a baby, so I said anything up to a $20 value...she really liked the felted clogs, which I list for $40.  I said okay, but then they'd be $20, and she was fine with that.

Well, before we got it all settled, I went camping for a week, and then there was the start of school craziness, and then wham!  I got several orders from past clients....the slippers kept getting put off, and I finally finished them the end of October  Nov 7. They really don't take long, but sometimes life gets in the way.  And the inability to read a pattern you know too well :)

She liked mauve, but I didn't have much mauve, so she also picked blues.  I used the mauve as an accent, and inside.  It's fun to do the inner sole with a fun colour!

 It's always a hoot when people see the clogs before felting!

I think I forgot to take an after picture, but the winner was kind enough to.  And, since it took so long, I didn't charge her the extra $20 :)  These ones were made with two strands of Patons Classic Wool.

Christmas rolled around and I had no orders once I delivered a couple things on the 23rd.  I knew I wanted to make something for myself, but what?!  SO many things I wanted to make, but my sensible side won out and I started a pair of clogs for myself.  I was rather hasty in my yarn selection, since we were heading out on the road.  I picked a mint Lopi for the sole, and some Patons SWS for the body.

Problem.  The pattern calls for worsted weight held double.  The Lopi was almost bulky, but not 2-stands-worsted bulky.  The SWS is actually considered worsted, but feels a little thick.  I opted for one strand of each, thinking the thick yarn for the sole would be good.

We had a nasty, nasty drive, and I didn't get much of the first sole done, lost over an hour of knitting time LOL.  But once we were on the main highway I sailed through the pattern this time.

 When I felted them, the Lopi was not felting down as much as the SWS and they were too big.  I kept felting until there seemed to be a bit of a compromise, and the soles weren't bulging compared to the tops.  Then as they dried, I put bags on my feet and wore them, switching back and forth to round out the toes (that bottom one started out really pointy but is much rounder now).

Love the texture of the SWS!
They were snug at first, but have stretched nicely now.  It's wonderful to have warm feet again!!

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  265gr + 207gr + 15 633gr = 16 105gr
Balance:  48gr more brought IN than out!
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Purple Passion

I wanted to give a pair of purple mitts to a little girl that just got a purple "Epic" hat.  I compared the regular lady's pattern to the felted mitten pattern, and adapted that to my size 4 pattern.   I added two rows of fun fur to tie it in with the hat.  After finishing, I found the schematic of a mitt from Ann Budd's Book of Handy Patterns.  The wrist portion, and thumb gusset height on mine seemed a little short, so I stretched it out.  He hand part might be too long (but the over all length is good).

 Of course, I'm on the iPad mini and can't seem to move the photos around.  Below is the pre-felted size.

They are delightful, but I hope the thumb is big enough!

Would you like a pair of felted knit clog slippers or recycled wool sewn mittens?  Head over to my Facebook page to see how you can win!   www.facebook.com/tracykmdesigns

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  44gr + 15 589 = 15 633gr
Balance:  520 gr more brought IN than out
Cost:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Simple and Sweet!

One of the very first items I sold as TracyKM Designs was a simple, sideways machine-knit hat with very large crocheted flower. 

It was a newborn size, but seemed small to me.  Jennifer used it a few times, also check out her Pinterest page!  One such time was with a tiny little girl with giant blue eyes.  The hat was barely visible as the shot was about those eyes!

The mother contacted me and wanted a dress and hat to celebrate that baby's first birthday/cake smash photo session.  She loved the yarn in the original hat  so we went with that.  I made a similar hat though it came out slightly too large.  To fix that (the design of it didn't really allow to be made "slightly" smaller), I did a couple rows of single crochet around the bottom.  This made it into a sort of slouchy, not-quite-a-tam hat.

 I made the hat with leftovers from the original hat.  Then I went shopping for yarn for the dress.  Well.  There were at least SEVEN different dye lots, several of those had only one ball, one lot had three balls, and three lots had two balls.  And the lots were all very different.  Some had definite colour differences (much more chocolate brown, a different shade of cream), and some had a different sheen, and some had a different texture--they felt wimpy and thin!  I couldn't decide if I wanted two or three balls, and I didn't really like the lot with three balls, but felt it was better to be safe with enough yarn, even if it wasn't exactly what I wanted.  If the hat isn't right next to it, you can't tell anyway.

I met the little imp for a trial fitting and decided to work the dress a smidge bigger so she could get more wear out of it in warmer weather.  I haven't seen the results of the photo shoot yet, but I'm sure she was adorable.  She'd be adorable in a paper sack!!

The yarn did a funny thing on the skirt portion.  At first, I tried to fight it...then gave in, LOL.  I figured she'd be on the move and it'll just be a blur :)

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  46gr (hat) + 232gr (dress) + 15 311gr= 15 589gr
Balance:  564gr more brought IN than out
Cost:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Mittens Again!

Did you get tired of all my mitten posts last winter?  Well, I'm back at it this year!  Especially since my favourite pair seems to be misplaced at my aunt's house (I hope that's where!).  My SIL also asked for a pair of warm mitts, so I'm trying out ideas.

In the past, I had seen felted mitten patterns, for e knitting machine, but they seemed too bulky.  Then I was reading a blog and she had made felted mittens from worsted weight yarn and they didn't have a bulky look, from what I could tell.  I thought I'd give them a go.

Of course, I wasn't going to do a swatch.  I measured after, and yes, my tension was a bit off, but hey.  They're being felted!  The big mistake I made was that after the ribbing, I missed going from T6 to T8 before the thumb gusset.  I noticed after taking off the thumbs, and just moved it right up to T8.  In the end, I liked the tighter wrist area but the thumb gussets needed stretching.
They went very quickly and even sewing up didn't take too long. 

I was surprised at how long the Patons Classic Wool took to felt this time.  It used to felt very easily!  I know they changed it from 100% merino and maybe this was new stock.

I'm quite pleased with them.  In the T6 area, there is still some stitch definition.  I like my mitts fairly snug fitting, and these fit my smallish hands fine.  I do think the green is a bit bright, LOL, especially against this black background.  They might be for my SIL, or they might be for me....I wish I liked doing embroidery, cause I think these need some details.  I don't really like buttons, though maybe I could find a decorative button.  I do have some sew on patches, like hearts, stars, snowflakes, skulls...maybe there's one in there.  Doing any of these things though means they become hand specific.

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  77gr + 15 234gr = 15 311gr
Balance:  842gr more brought IN than out
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Itty Bitty Fruit Hats

I thought I had figured out blogging on the iPad, and Google was backing up all my photos...but I just took some and then tried to blog and the new pictures didn't show up, and I don't know how to get them.  So, I moved to the desktop to write a different post with pictures already downloading on the computer.  Suddenly, every time we use Internet Explorer, we are getting a ton of pop up ads (that mostly say Jump Flip Ads at the side) as well as side bars...I moved the pop up blocker to block all pop ups, but that's not doing anything.  So, I'm trying Google Chrome, but the ads are still there.  Anyone else have this issue?

Anyway.  On to the fun stuff.

My husband, Rob, had a co-worker that he liked, who's wife was having their second baby.  I offered to give them a newborn pumpkin hat.  I'm trying to expand my client list and get my name out there a bit more.  I do more than newborn photography props!

They loved the pumpkin hat, and asked for four more, in NB and 3 month sizes!

 First up is a red apple, in newborn size.  This weighed in at 32gr.  I used a nice, brownish red, instead of a bright red you often see for apple hats.

 A newborn blueberry hat.  I played with the top quite a bit.  I wanted a bit more of a flappy look--if you look closely at the top of a blueberry, it's not flat.  In the end, I went with a round of stitches picked up and then casted off.  Weighed 58gr, in Shetland Chunky or Beehive Chunky...

 A 3 month plum hat.  I had the perfect plum colour, and Rob had the idea of a ridge down the side like you see on plums.  Subtle, but effective.  A seed stitch brim on this one, used up every inch of the yarn I had, 32gr.

A last, a green grape.  I loved the green I had, and I added a grape leaf and curly cue vine!  Total, 36gr.  This is the same green I used for one of the Christmas tree hats!

All total, 158gr.

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  158gr + 15 076gr = 15 234gr
Balance:  919 gr more brought IN than out
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Okay, using Google Chrome was interesting.  I don't like the way the blog looks; the font is way too small.  However, when I went to load pictures, I could crtl + select and get more than one picture at a time.  Mmmm.

Felting Fun

For her birthday, my middle girl, Lucy, got a book on different felting projects (from her grandmother!).  Some were needle felted, some knitted and felted, some recycled sweater type projects.  Lucy saw a striped pillow and realized she could do it on my knitting machine.  She didn't like the colours in the book, but chose her own from my Patons Classic Wool collection.  She kept the same repeating pattern (ie:  brown in the book became lime, orange was now black...).  The back of the pillow is solid lime, and was the first part.  She made it with no problems.  The pattern had you make front and back separately, but I suggested to keep on going.  The stripes caused a few dropped stitches at edges, and panic, but it all worked out.  The sizing in the pattern was interesting--the width before and after felting was about the same.  Normally there is some widthwise shrinkage.  She went out with her dad to buy some stuffing, and I sewed the sides (before felting). 

You can see that the white didn't felt much.  This is a common issue with white, as it's usually bleached.  It added a nice texture to the pillow, but probably not what you want for other items.  It's not a very big pillow, but it's cute on her bed!

I've got a few more felting projects of my own to show soon!

Yarn In:  16 153gr
Yarn Out:  128gr + 14 948gr = 15 076gr
Balance:  1077gr more brought IN, than out
Costs:  $378.91/365 days = $1.04/day

Whosh!

Did anyone hear that?  It's the sound of the year flying by!

I am done my custom orders for the year. What I do have on the go: some half done baby items I don't feel like finishing.  A sweater I stopped a year ago cause I needed to measure it and plan the next stage.  A pair of socks, two at a time, toe up, from one ball.  The other ball has disappeared.  I just ripped out two pairs of mohair baby pants that just weren't right.  A multi coloured pinwheel blanket that needs an edging.

Of course, I want to start something new, and have so many things I want to do, that I can't actually decide what to do!

Things to post about:
Two Santa Hats for Heather
Striped Hat and Purple Epic Hat for Heather
Brown Soaker
Blue Clogs
Red Turban
Neopolitan Dress/Hat
Four fruit hats

Wow, I've been busy!  So much I want to do though...

A Red Head Walks into Value Village.....

.....don't tell me you've heard this one already?  LOL.

I'm still trying to get mobile blogging happening.  Got the pictures to work, by I can't change the order they appear.  Can't seem to add a label either....the labels box is there, but when I try to click on one, it just jumps around on the screen and I can't actually select it.  Onwards though.

Last week my husband and I were Christmas shopping in Value Village.  Yes, we're that kind of people.  We were looking for something specific, can't afford it new, don't need it for long, but want decent quality (I'll fill you in after Christmas!)....anyway, back in the furniture section, I noticed a couple bags of skeined yarn!  I looked and found a tag, it says Condon'sYarns, 100% wool, Charlottetown, PEI, and also 2pky Fine, 4oz/113.4gr.  I went over to the yarn section, and found some more.  I ended up with five bags, 10 skeins, 1134gr for $16.89.

This is NOT a soft merino!  It's the coarse wool people who don't know merino or BFL think of when they think of wool.  I will knit up a swatch at some point, and I hope it softens up, but I don't think it'll ever become merino.  I was picturing a fair isle sweater, but I don't know yet.

Yesterday, I mentioned going to pick up this iPad Mini.  Right next door is a yarn store, Soper Creek Yarn.  I couldn't turn that down.  I just picked up a few balls, mainly from clearance.  Left to right--Diamond Luxery Collection, "Footloose", Sirdar "Freya", more Footloose, and Regia "Snowflake".  We are loving petting the Footloose.  I am so in love with the turquoise/purpley one!  I'm going to email them and see if there's another hank.  And yes, I will drive all the way back to Bowmanville for one hank of this yarn!  What to make if there's no more?  All of this weighs in at 250gr for $29.32.

I had just delivered Christmas hats to a client, and she wanted another striped Christmas stocking hat, but when I got home, I found a message.  I had given her business cards and told her to take a look on my Facebook page.  She fell in love with the pink "Epic" hat that I just recently posted here.  Her granddaughter's favourite colour is purple, and she wanted one done in lilac/purple.  Yay!  Finally, I get to do one in those colours.  I immediately went to my stash...

 

...where I was sorely disappointed by my lack of interesting purple yarns.  I had actually just given away some lilac Astra DK, but really, I had very little in purples.  Even the white...I wanted to start the brim with white-white....and remember how I had trouble finding white-white for the snowman hat?  I had just finished what was left of that yarn on the brim of the hat I had delivered to her.  I have a cone of bright white with a bit of texture, and some bright white eyelash, but still needed a bit more white.

I did have that skein of purple mohair next to the white at the 1:00 position, and the grey fur at 3:00, and a light purple fake mohair...I actually went to Value Village first, and there were two mixed bags that had lilac yarns; those aren't in these pictures.  The two bags were $4.50 and weighed 241gr.

Uh, is that picture above sort of glistening/sparkling?  I don't know all the different settings on the iPad camera and I think I might have done something, LOL!!
At Michaels', I had a lot of fun picking out yarns.  The purples were actually fairly easy, although there were some I loved that had other colours in them too. Right now, it is REALLY difficult to find single colour, multi-textured/interesting yarns.  They blend so many colours into one skein now.  Even fun fur is challenging, Bernat Boa has a great dark plum/black eyelash, but it wasn't quite right.
All totalled, including the white and red for the new stocking hat, I spent $64.27.  Obviously, this is way more yarn than I need for the two hats (and I did have a 20% off entire order coupon, so I saved $13 with that!), but they will all be great additions to the stash.  All  11 116gr.  No way.  Got to double check that!  Okay, now I get 1216gr.  That seems more reasonable!  LOL!!

I do have some items to show soon!  My older daughter got a book for her birthday about felting and knitting/sewing....I set her up at the LK150 and she made a striped pillow that we felted.  Looks great!  I was really pleased when I weighed it and found it weighed exactly the same as the yarn I had just bought back then, but then I went and got all this yarn, LOL.  Also have the two Santa hats...what else?  Right now, I must get to work on the new order!!

Yarn In:  2841gr  + 13 312gr = 16 153gr
Yarn Out:  14 945gr
Balance:  1208gr more brought IN than out
Costs:  $114.98 + $263.93 = $378.91/351 days = $1.08/day

Hopefully I'll be back into the more OUT than in column when I post the recent finished items!  Though...at about 100gr for a stocking hat....no...not quite...

Congratulations!

I entered a photo competition earlier this fall, and won an iPad Mini!  I picked it up today and we're all having fun with it.  The kids are already Apple-smart, but it's all new to me.  There are somethings I much prefer on my tablet already, but I'll learn to like this.  Especially the outward facing camera.  My tablet doesn't have one.  The one on my cellphone is crap.  This should be good to posting to my Facebook business page quickly.  Or even for blogging.  Let's test it....tried once and it didn't work...don't know if it's blogger or iPad that'/s the issue....
Well....took several tries to get the picture window to open, then, there was the option to get pictures from picasa, my cellphone, or an URL.  Tried the phone option, but it says I need the google app.  Anyone blog using thei IPad?

Santa's Coming

One of Jennifer's clients was a 4 year old who was a little big for the Santa hat I made last year, but had an adorable photo anyway.  The grandmother thought it'd be great if she had one that would fit the girl for upcoming Breakfast with Santa photos.  She asked for dark red, so I picked up a ball of Impeccable "Claret".  I think it's a dark red, without being burgundy.  Don't know if you can see that Ravelry link.

Of course, I can't find the receipt, but it's usually about $4.99 ($5.64)on sale or with a coupon.  So I'll go with that, LOL.

I started knitting it by hand, but I took it to my daughter's skating lesson, and forgot that I wanted to do a waste yarn cast on so I can go back and knit the white cuff after.  Got started, basing gauge solely on the suggested gauge on the wrapper.  Got busy trying to finish 4 little fruit hats that were a custom order and taking too long.  Decided I should rip out the Santa hat and do it on the machine since it's needed by Friday!  The main part is almost done, I was just waiting to hear how long she wanted it.

Yarn In: 13 184gr + 128gr =13 312gr
Yarn Out: 520gr + 14 425gr =14 945gr
Balance:  1633gr more used up than brought in
Costs: $258.29+ $5.64= $263.93/342 days = $0.77/day

Halloween!

A couple years ago, my son came up with the idea of being a jar of peanut butter for his Halloween costume.  At first, we were like, "Uh, no.  Pick something normal".  Then realized we could figure it out, and it would be a great costume for him--he would live on peanut butter if he could!

This year, my daughter thought she'd like to use the costume (they're at a different school now, though most of the kids moved to the new school when they closed their old one, but there's also 300 kids they didn't know LOL).  Great!  Re-use a costume!  I was so excited. 

Then, she thought, "Wouldn't it be awesome if my BFF could be a jar of jam?".  Well....I wasn't too keen on going through the whole thing again.  We figured the second time would be easier, but there was the first hurdle of finding hoops.  We told her that if her BFF could find two hula hoops (or other suitable hoops), we'd go ahead.  I didn't have time to search them out.  Wouldn't you know...she had two matching hoops in her garage!  Surprise!  They were quite a bit larger than the peanut butter hoops, but oh well.  We had some debating about the hat.  We hadn't like the original hat too much, and this time, I had a cheap plastic table cloth for the lid material.  It turned out to be such a windy, rainy Halloween, that the had just didn't stay on her.  It needed a chin strap LOL.

 The arm holes were cut a little more to the front because the hoop was so large, she wouldn't have been able to bend her elbows and hold her bag, LOL.  This meant that the label had to go below the holes.  If we had known this before, we would have made the label smaller.

 And what did the original peanut butter jar guy go out as this year?  He hadn't been able to come up with an idea, wasn't even sure he wanted to go out.  We couldn't find the spirit gum to affix the wearwolf fur to his face.  But then we just started pulling out stuff, and we put together a rich dude look.  That's fake money he's pointing to in his pocket (click on it to see a bigger image!).  As he was getting ready to go out, the girls thought he looked like Macklemore (a singer).  Then, I heard him say he was a pimp!  OMG.  That hat and coat had been used as a pimp costume before, but I didn't want to say it! 

They went to the neighbour's, and then the neighbours came here.  Katie asked if that had been our kids just at their house, and what was our son?  I said "a rock star" and she said she wondered if he was Macklemore, or if he was a pimp, but she hadn't wanted to ask him that, LOL.  So, either way, I guess his costume was effective!

Pink Perfection

I never got around to showing this hat, because I had been hoping to get "real" pictures from the photographer.  However, she had asked for it in a 6 month size, and didn't seem to be getting any babies of any size that it would work for. 

Finally, I asked Jennifer, her partner, if she could manage to do something with it (they often share props).

It's of the same idea as the other "Epic" hats (one in browns, one in greens).  It was fun putting it all together, and I love the final result.

 Jennifer had liked how I had threaded ribbon through the inside of the beige one to make it adjustable, so this time, I made it a design element!

 I love Jennifer's picture, and creative use for it!  She didn't think the tapered tail with pompom worked in the picture, but I'm sure it probably would have still looked good. 

(I'm having a deju vu moment, like, I feel like I've already written all this before!  I wonder if it ended up as a draft?  After all, I finished this last February, and the weight was already included in my totals!).

I really want to make a blue hat like this, but I'm not doing it unless I get an actual order (hint, hint!).

Almost Forgot

I almost forgot that I sold a little bit more yarn to the other mom on the school council!  It was a lot of Bernat Baby Co-Ordinates, three full/almost full skeins and a couple part balls.  I can't find a weight for it all, but based on the solid skeins being 140gr, I'm going to list this at 520gr.

Yarn In:  13 184gr
Yarn Out:  520gr + 14 425gr =14 945gr
Balance:  1761gr more used up than brought in
Costs:  $258.29/333 days = $0.78/day