That darning pile is starting to get a little large...

Hello again!

Two posts in two days! I had written most of this to share with you yesterday but decided to split it up. I have a busy weekend planned so I figured I might as well put this up today and then you'll get a few days break from my random babbling - I promise :) 

I have more little makes to share with you today - a little bit of everything really. Some sewing, knitting and crochet. Please excuse the photo quality - the only time I can take pics is after the kids have gone to bed and we don't have great lighting in our place. As I get more organized and until the summer rolls around, I'll try to take pics on the weekends when it's sunny. Another reason to look forward to summer - nice and bright evenings!

My super duper organized hallway darning pile. I keep thinking if I leave it out in the open, I'll get to it faster but instead, we just end up staring at it longer lol

I really hate weaving in ends. It doesn't take very long and isn't very hard so I really have no excuse. I just don't like it, okay?? *hmph* Every once in a while, I'll sit down and take care of the whole thing in one go. The pile's starting to get a little tippy now though, so I imagine that will happen in the next week. Plus now I have a bit of extra motivation because I can't show you all my finished projects until the ends are sewn in, now can I?

<Insert clever segue to sewing project here> Hmmm... apparently that command doesn't work lol

Miss N and Mr. B have decided that their lovies (Baby doll and Big Blankie) require some new threads. An order has been placed for a "Hello Kitty dress with stripey under wears" and a sleeping bag for Big Blankie. I have to admit that I am making these in slow motion because my sewing space is in the basement and it's a little chilly down there in the evenings right now. Everyday when I get home from work, Miss N greets me by yelling "Daddy! Mommy is home! Mommy, my baby doll still doesn't have her dress yet" and then she looks all sad and blinky. There is usually about 5-10 minutes between the time I get home and organized and the time we eat supper, so we run down stairs, pin and sew a seam and then head up for supper. Not a very efficient way to make a dress! Slowly but surely though, it is coming together. Mr. B is much more reasonable in his demands and says that I can wait until I can just make his whole sleeping bag at once. He says I will have time on the weekend because I don't have to go to work. So clever those two!

This is my first dress using this pattern that Miss N stole from my mom. So far, so good!

On the crochet front, I have been making hats. No real destination in mind - they are just a dose of virtually instant gratification which I almost always require after working on large projects. I love the cream yarn and the coloured wools that I used for these hats. The wools were an amazing thrift shop find at $1/ball. It's so squishy and warm and the colours are fantastic! The cream yarn is what I bought to make a few flowers for the Autumn Daisies Blanket. The ball bands are all buried in my project bag but when I show you the finished hats, I'll let you know what brands and colours they are.

Random hat collection. Hats are excellent bus projects - easy, quick and portable!

Little flower experiment. I'll need to make more of different sizes and a few fabric ones before deciding what to put on each hat.

I love that these little baby hats are like blank canvases. I'm ready to get into the real fun of crocheting and sewing some little flowers and picking out some fun buttons to sew onto them. I recently purchased too many a wonderful variety of buttons off of ebay. When I added them to the stash, I realized I already had a ton of colourful buttons lol Like many crafters, I try very hard to tip toe the line between "enough variety to foster creativity" and flat out hoarding! (I'll let you guess which side of the line my other half thinks I fall on...) I really can't wait to start using them - these colourful, shapey buttons make me super happy!

I seem to have accumulated a few buttons over the past couple of years... I'm pretty sure most of them are in this bin now!

I've also started crocheting squares for a Mario blanket for my nephew's birthday in May. The squares and pattern design have been mercilessly stolen from my sister-in-law's pinterest page. (Thanks C!) I don't want to spoil too much of the surprise so I'm not going to post the inspiration photo just yet. I will share the square pattern from Creative Jewish Mom though. I did make some minor tweaks to it. Warning to non-crocheters - the next paragraph will likely sound like gibberish to you. If so, let me know and I can teach you! Or, you can simply read past it to the english text that follows :)

4" squares - 18 down, 176 to go!

I started with a ch5, instead of ch4 for my loop. It's just personal preference - I find with ch4 it gets a bit squishy for me. I have also counted my ch3 at the beginning of each row as a "dc, ch1". I found when I followed the pattern to a T, I ended up with one wedge that was one stitch larger across than the others. You can see this in the picture on the blog - it's the top right wedge. It looks fine in her square but for some reason, it was really obvious that I had a larger triangle there. So for the last repeat, I did one fewer dc and then joined with a slip stitch into the second chain of my initial ch3. I forgot to take a pic of an individual square but I'll be sure to do another update as I work on this blanket.

Gibberish complete.

My last project isn't really a WIP yet but I know I MUST make one of these this weekend. The Penguin Foundation, based in Australia, has a Knits for Nature program. The foundation uses the little sweaters for a few purposes. The first is to put on these little penguins that have been caught up in oil spills or other messes. The sweaters prevent the penguins from cleaning their feathers with their beaks and ingesting the oil. They also send sweaters to other organizations and use them for fundraising activities. Not only are these the cutest things ever, but they may also be saving these little penguins' lives! Melodramatic but true!

Knits for Nature sweaters for penguins! Pic from their facebook page. 

Anyhow, super SUPER adorable and for a good cause = must be made. Based on a recent facebook post, due to a recent news feature and a few groups sharing their pictures and links on faecbook, it seems that this organization may now receiving tons of support. I was tempted to google and see if there were other groups that need little animal knits but I am too afraid of what I might find! I have too many projects on the go already lol With all the good uses the foundation has, I'm sure they'll find a use for my sweater too :)

If you want to make a penguin knit, you can download the pdf here.

Apparently, I have a pretty busy Saturday ahead of me! What are your plans for the weekend? Know of any animals that need a cute sweater??

Have a great weekend!  

2 things from my making pile

Happy weekend everyone! It has been a crazy week - lots of appointments, errands and general running around. I'm am really looking forward to lazing around for a day or two.

I want to share two of my current work-in-progress (WIP) projects with you today. I originally wrote this post on Thursday but have been waiting for some decent light to take pics. It hasn't happened yet so I've tried to capture the colours the best I can. Hopefully, when I'm ready to show you the finished products I'll get a day of sunshine to work with!

A couple of my current WIPs

Interruption to rave about Ravelry: If you do any crocheting or knitting and haven't heard of Ravelry, I strongly suggest you check it out. There are TONS of free (and paid) patterns, as well as discussion boards, project logs, techniques, etc... It's the site I use most often for finding patterns so most of my pattern links will take you there. You will need to have an account to view the patterns and pics on the site. Don't worry - it's free and super easy! The End. 

Back in January, I started work on a blanket large shawl to wear at my work desk in the morning. I get to work a little before 7AM and it's quite chilly in our work space until the heat really kicks in. I wanted something fairly simple and not too lacy. After all, the whole point is to feel cocooned and cozy. I went with the "Penelope Shawl".

I'm loving this pattern. Simple, easy and quick - perfect work for the bus!

Part way through, I ran out of wool and then discovered that not only had the colour been discontinued but the entire line of wool seems to have been discontinued! Internet to the rescue - I found some online and since it was 60% off I made sure to order plenty of extra. The yarn I was using is Red Heart with Wool which is a wool/acrylic blend. I'm a little bit sad that's it's been discontinued because I only just discovered it and have really enjoyed working with it. Plus it comes in so many super bright colours!

I should be able to make the kids a hat set or two....

Since I am so impatient productive, I couldn't take a break while waiting for my order. And since I didn’t have anything else on the go (lies! lies!), I started work on a random baby blanket in nice, rich fall colours using this Daisies Blanket pattern. I really love this pattern, it's another one that is simple but beautiful. Once my shawl wool came in the mail, as much as I wanted to finish it, I did not want to let my beautiful little baby blanket sit and rot in my WIP basket. For once, I actually stuck to it and cast it off before jumping back to my crochet. (Actually, that may also be a bit of a fib. I mean, I am done knitting the blanket, but I still need to crochet and embroider some little flowers for it. At least it's not attached to needles anymore, right??) 

Sneak peak of my Autumn Daisies Blanket.

I was off work Wednesday to go to a few appointments and take care of a couple of errands. This meant lots of time on the bus, which meant lots of time for uninterrupted hooky :) I really made a ton of progress on the shawl and finished the last non-border row - all 359 stitches of it!

My stripey penelope shawl waiting for some finishing touches and good blocking!

Now it's decision time. I'm not sure if I want to use the border design from the pattern. It's nice and well written but a little more showy than what I had in mind. Plus I'm afriad of the lacy edge getting caught on things around the office. You may think that sounds crazy but you would be amazed how many things I have snagged clothes and wraps on in my cubicle. Admittedly, this is likely my own fault and not my cubicle's... No matter where the fault lay, this necessitates a plain and simple finishing touch - maybe a few small stripes of the blues and then a picot stitch like the one below from Craftsy. I've been looking at edgings and nothing seems to have clicked. At almost 400 stitches a row, I'm hesitant to take a gamble and ending up with something I don't love. I've frogged enough projects now to know that I should just take my time. I'll know when I find "it".

Picot edging from Craftsy

Any advice from my crafty friends? Do you have any go-to border stitches for your blankets or shawls? Send me pictures and links!

Up next: Miss N and I went and checked out Seedy Saturday this morning. I'll fill you in on our adventures. I've also got a few more projects to show you and would like to do a post about our camping goals for this year. Anyone else planning their summer camping (or other vacations) yet?