Halloween Costumes

How easy were these butterfly wings? Super easy.

Cut an old cardboard box into butterfly shape. Paint. Cut little slits. Thread elastic through. Elastic goes around the arms. Voila.

 

The bat was not hard, either. A sweatshirt plus an umbrella. Tutorial here.

Halloween Candy

This was fun. I had to run to JoAnn’s to buy something quick, and they had their Halloween candy kits on sale, so we bought one. Wally needed help with the details, but he was able to do large parts of this all by himself. We just basically had to melt the candy and put it in the mold, but if we wanted to color certain things different colors, we had to paint it in there. It was harder than you’d think, lol.

But it’s quite yummy, and we’ve been sharing them with friends and family, because we so clearly do not need this much candy!

Finished this quickie in about a day…

Hat to match her mittens

Longies… again.

 

Alright, so I made another pair of longies. Actually, I started these when we were on vacation in July, and then hibernated them for a bit while I waited for another skein of yarn – this particular pattern just EATS up yarn. It’s the Itchy Fingers pattern, which I’ve used once before. Both times, even though I follow her directions as far as measuring, etc., the end result is really kind of big. I felted these down a bit, but they’re still really roomy.

The yarn is Philosopher’s Wool. (Well, the brown is just leftover Paton’s Classic Wool.) I love this stuff. It’s got some lanolin left in it, plus it’s just kind of yummy. You can see that it kind of fuzzed up on me when I washed it – I should’ve turned it inside out, but I forgot.

I improvised the design on the legs. I knew my next project to cast on was going to be a hat for Randy in stranded two-color work, which I’ve never done, and I wanted the practice. Happily, the stranding turned out to be much easier than I realized.

 

DNA – Second Try (felted) – LOVE it

Ok, I seriously LOVE the felted DNA. I hate the way acrylic feels, but wool feels so, so nice. I’ve never felted anything stuffed before, but it worked out. I just lightly stuffed it, and then kept rearranging the stuffing during the felting process to keep it even and lump-free. Awesome.

More Tshirt Dipes

There’s a few more, too. These are all Mediums. All going up on Etsy soonish.

Making them Longer

Genna’s getting TALL! But I’m not ready to give up some of my favorite knit soakers yet. They still fit her fine around, they’re just too short!! So I’ve taken two of her soakers – one a pair of longies and one shorties – and just made them longer.

They are not works of art, but they ARE functional. I’m sure I could have done something fancier, but I wasn’t really going for fancy. Just functional.

Do you have knit soakers you’re not ready to give up yet? Making them longer is sooooo easy. Just grab yourself some circular needles and pick up the stitches all around the cast-on top. Because you’re going to be knitting UP instead of DOWN, the stitches will be one-half stitch off, but that’s OK! Just follow whatever ribbing pattern the waistband already had, and don’t worry about that half stitch difference.

Personally, I like to add an eyelet row to every pair of knit soakers. If you’re the same, go ahead and add one. (for 2×2 ribbing, you’d add an eyelet row like this: k2, yo, p2tog)

And voila! You’ve just given yourself another several months in those soakers!!

Wee Knitteds – Using up Leftovers

Been trying to use up a bit of leftover sock yarn – actually, it’s the Monkeypal I love so much. I hate to have these tiny little balls of leftover yarn sitting around, you know? So these tiny wool soakers are ADORABLE. What I’m going to do with them, I have no idea. They’re so easy to make, and fast (about an hour), I’ll probably make a few more. The pattern is here, and here’s the Ravelry project page.

And these little socks were fun to make. High-Energy Baby Socks, they’re called. Apparently named after the pattern developer’s friend’s baby, who was nicknamed High Energy Fetus. Anyway. Simple but with fun details around the top. I knitted these up mostly at the pool during our week at Okoboji, watching Wally and Daddy playing and holding a napping/nursing Genna. PS – tried nursing discreetly while wearing a bikini and knitting? Yeah, not so much. Ravelry project page.

These socks are a pattern I made up myself, based on the other two baby socks patterns I’ve used. It’s ribbed throughout, with a simple heel flap, knit top-down. I knit it on size 3′s, wanting a slightly bigger size than I was getting on size 2′s, and I’ll be honest – that was, I think, a mistake. These socks kind of slide right off of her. They fit will around the foot, but they just slide off for some reason. Grrr. But they are awfully cute, and if I put legwarmers on over them, they’ll stay up, right?

.

Then I also whipped up this sock for our DSi. I thought it would use up the rest of this yarn I inherited from my mom, but, um, there was more there than I thought. This particular pattern, though, was awesome. It’s knit in a tube, flat. I’ve read how to do this several times in several different places, but this pattern was the first to use words in a way that made sense to me. As I read it, I finally understood how this works. Ravelry project page. Pattern. NOTE: if you decide to use this pattern, on the line where she explains how the ribbing words, she says:

Slip Stitch Pattern (ribbing): k1, bring yarn to front, slip st purl wise, purl 1, slip sts purl wise, bring yarn to back

She means “…purl 1, slip st purl wise…”  ONE stitch. Not stitchES. There were some questions about that in the comments on her blog (linked above), but I don’t think she understood what was being asked.

.

And then I used the same pattern, a felted it a bit, to make this pouch for the IPod Touch. And then I used up a bit more scrap making this little pouch with the same pattern, adjusted to give me a flap to fold over and snap.

Knitting

And now for one massive knitting update post. Most of these were knitted either at Okoboji in June or in Utah in July.

Ottobre Designs soaker, made with my own adaptations. Peace Fleece yarn. (Okoboji)

 

 

 Longies made from the 1932 soaker pattern. Moda Dea Cartwheel yarn. (Utah)

 

Itchy Fingers pattern. The math is a bit nonsensical at the beginning of the pattern, but I really, really like these shorts. Moda Dea Cartwheel yarn, paired with some solid pink from Knitpicks. (This was actually done at home.)

 

 Belladonna Designs nighttime shorts. I was very disappointed in this pattern, which I paid for. The pattern has no gauge. What the…? Yeah, so they came out too small. (done at home before Utah.)

 

 

So then I just redid the pattern a bit to suit me. Love it now. Peace Fleece yarn. (Home before Utah.)

 

 

 

 I’m not super thrilled with these shorts, though it’s the yarn and not the pattern, I’m sure. The fabric just isn’t thick enough. Spare Ribs Shoaker. Patons Classic Wool Merino. (Home before Utah.)

 

Aubrey Doodlepants pattern, a really basic longies pattern that’s a standby around here. Patons wool yarn again.  (Utah)

Two Summer Sundress

The Two Summer Sundress. This is such a ingenious design – I hope it really works out the way it’s supposed to. This dress is supposed to last two years – the first year, with the straps crossed, the second year with them straight. We’ll see.

I made three total, but didn’t get a picture of the dress I made for my niece Joey. The ones pictured are for my friend’s daughter Liv for her 5th birthday later this month and for Genna for next summer

I’ve never sewed on my knitting before, and I’ll admit it was a bit scary at first. I did Genna’s dress first so if I messed up, at least it wasn’t a gift for someone else’s kid, you know? But it was super easy to do, and I didn’t screw it up too much. Now I just hope that they fit all the intended receipents!!!