Finished Hat

close up of flower

finished hat folded

finished hat unfolded

My niece's hat is done! I decided to sew the flower petals down more and to embroider a stem with little leaves. I used this embroidery stitch guide to help me with the embroidery as I had never embroidered a knitted item.  

Older Niece's Hat

I heard my older niece, who is 8, also wants a hat. Since I had run out of colors I think she would find appealing in superwash wool, I decided to make a cotton hat for now. It is similar to one of the baby hats, but it's made on the red KK loom and doesn't have a pom-pom.

My Niece's Hat

Check out this site

Little Birdie Secrets: top 50 tutorials {in one place}
some great ideas + more flowers!

Making a Flower

I'm done making my niece's hat, but it is very plain. I want to add a flower or some sort of embellishment to it.
These are some sites I found in the process.
removable knit flower tutorial A tutorial to make a layered fabric flower
I-cord Flower A flower made from a knitted I-cord
flower knitting patterns A list of links for knit flowers
Natural Suburbia: Dandelion Flower Knitting Pattern This wouldn't work for the hat, but I love the look of her other patterns.
knitted flower pattern small four petal knit flower
crochet flower patterns I don't know how to crochet, but I kind of want to learn...
http://allicrafts.blogspot.com/search/label/flower more crocheted flowers-VERY cute
Let's create: Flowers tutorial  paper flower tutorial
knitting spring flowers knit flowers
http://flowerstoknit.blogspot.com/ a blog about knitting flowers
Corsage Flower And Leaves Knitting Pattern knit flower
Head Huggers: Extra Adornment Ideas & Patterns embellishment patterns on a charity site with hat patterns

My Flower Order

Donard Variety Sea Holl

Today I ordered some perennials from Breck's. I want to put them in the shady area of my yard near some hostas. Here's what I ordered.

Astrantia Rosea

Astilbe Mighty Pip

Epimedium rubrum

 

Purple Beauty Toad Lily

More flowers!

Friday was beautiful. When I came home and looked in the backyard, I found more flowers! I was so excited that I immediately grabbed my camera and went out to take pictures of all of them.

Birthday Gifts

My yarn came on time for me to make gifts for my dad and brother-in-law.
The following gifts were for my brother-in-law. Everything was made from 100% Superwash Merino Wool from Knit Picks. They are soft, very warm, and machine washable.

Gender Neutral Wristwarmers

These fingerless mittens were made on the blue Knifty Knitter round loom with two strands of Knit Picks Swish Worsted 100% superwash merino wool in cobblestone heather. It took less than 2 balls. I altered Bethany Dailey's mittens pattern at gettinitpegged.com and used the thumb holes idea (I made them a bit bigger) from Gretchen Kalhust's Top Down Wrist Warmer Pattern. I bound off after 28 rows using the flat panel bind off. The wrist part was a bit too large for me, but I have pretty small wrists.

fingerless mittens

fingerless mittens on my hand, palm view

back of hand

my first day of March surprise

My first crocus popped up!

As usual, this Indiana weather is confusing me. Although I have lived in this state my entire life, I still have yet to understand its weather patterns. A few weeks ago we had an ice storm; last week it was sunny and in the 60s; now it is rainy and in the 40s. This is leaving me unsure as to how to proceed in several areas.
I was considering making hats as gifts for two birthdays that are this week, but my yarn has not arrived, and it seems the weather may actually get too warm for them to make sense to be given at this time of year. What should I do for two male relatives that I always seem to be buying the same things for? Plus, I am trying not to spend much money but give quality gifts.
My other area of concern with the weather is how it will affect my gardening this year. Last year's abnormal precipitation patterns caused me all kinds of problems with fungus and slugs in my garden. I have been meaning to order some perennials from Breck's. Hopefully the sale that was supposed to end last week did not.

Baby Shower Gifts

There are three pregnant women at work, all due in March. There was a baby shower for them a few weeks ago. I knitted these items for their sons (all three are expecting boys!).

Set 1: Classic Pastels Spring Socks and Hat

socks, made with Sugar 'n Cream yarn
loom knit on blue Knifty Knitter loom
flat panel, e-wrap stitch on 12 pegs, 2 strands of yarn
rows 1-5 blue
rows 6-7 yellow
rows 8-20 blue
adapted from this pattern: http://www.provocraft.com/projects/projects.php?prdindex=kniftyknitter&dsp=project&idnum=8

hat, made with Sugar n' Creme Cool Breeze Ombre
loom knit on blue Knifty Knitter loom with 1 strand of yarn
stopped after about 6 1/2 inches
added pom pom to top

with cuff folded up

with brim

Set 2: Red, Green, and Blue

socks, made with Sugar 'n Cream yarn
loom knit on blue Knifty Knitter loom
flat panel e-wrap stitch on 12 pegs, 2 strands of yarn
rows 1-2 red
row 3 blue
row 4 red
row 5 blue
rows 6-18* main color red, see pattern below
rows 19-20 blue


*colored heel

	Peg
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Row 10	r	r	r	r	r	B	r	r	r	r
Row 11	r	r	r	r	B	B	B	r	r	r
Row 12	r	r	r	B	B	B	B	B	r	r
Row 13	r	r	r	r	B	B	B	r	r	r
Row 14	r	r	r	r	r	B	r	r	r	r

I used 12 pegs, but I only included the inside 10 pegs in the pattern. The other two pegs are still used for these rows, but it was easier not to list them in the pattern because making flat panels on round looms requires only wrapping the outside pegs for some rows.

adapted from this pattern: http://www.provocraft.com/projects/projects.php?prdindex=kniftyknitter&dsp=project&idnum=8

hat, made with Sugar 'n Cream Cottage Twists
loom knit on blue Knifty Knitter loom with 2 strands of yarn
stopped after about 7 inches
added pom pom to top

folded view

rolled view

Set 3: details to come...

Purpose

I want a way to share my interests with others and to organize the resources I use for my projects.