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!