Baby Gifts

I started a couple of baby gifts for a friend at church back in August.  Her baby was born in November and I am now finished with the gift.  Both projects I got from books at the library.  The first is a baby blanket called “Cot Blanket” from the book Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding

Here are close ups of the blocks.

I thought this would be a easy project for me because the squares were just like doing dishcloths. I got bored with it a bit and it got pushed to the side several times. I was not really excited about sewing all the blocks together. I think next time – if there is a next time – I might try stitching this blanket as one big project and the blocks done in intarsia.

Put them all together with a nice border and this is what you get!

I like the front of the end result!

I had to make a matching hat for this cute blanket, so I made a Rainbow Marley Hat from the book Itty-Bitty Hats by Susan Anderson.

She’s got some cute hats in this book!

Here’s the Rainbow Marley -

I’m excited to finally give these away tomorrow!

Headbands Finished!

I finished the headbands and sent them to the nieces.

My daughters and Niece A wanted to have coral colored headbands.

Niece B wanted a red one -

I decided that Niece K would get a pink one -

Here’s the link to the headband pattern.  At first it seemed like a tricky pattern, but as I’ve done it a few times, I’ve almost got it memorized.  I use the updated decrease which makes it easier to finish.  I chose not to use the optional crochet border and think it turned out just fine.

Here are some close-ups of the flowers.

This flower pattern is not part of the headband pattern, but is one of my favorite crochet flower patterns - found on the Lion Brand Yarn site - here.

I’m hoping to get a picture of my nieces modeling their headbands, but until then, here’s a picture of my girls in theirs.

I should mention that the reason I found this pattern was because my sister wanted me to knit her a headband like one she purchased only narrower.  The headbands are about 4 inches wide and she would always fold her store bought headband in an inch along the edges to make it narrower on her head.  I knitted this narrower for the nieces and for my younger daughter.  My oldest likes the original width, so hers is wider.

Here’s another headband I whipped together from the yarn left over from my last scarf project.

I used a knitted flower pattern for this headband -

This rosette pattern comes from a hat pattern found in Knitting Daily - here.  I’ve enjoyed making this flower with variegated yarns.

Crafting With the Nieces

My nieces ages 7 and 8 had their spring break for the past two weeks.  Their parents are both going to school and had their spring break the week before the girls.  So Grandma and Grandpa were asked to watch the girls for a few weeks.  I got the privilege of crafting and playing with my nieces when I was around.  Of course, I never did pull out my camera until the day before they left.

We have a craft store near by (about 15 miles away) that has crafts for kids during spring break.  We attended three days.  Our first day the kids – my nieces, my daughter, and my son’s girlfriend -  did flower boxes.  My son made a flower for his girlfriend.

The second day at the craft store my nieces, my daughter and her friend painted ceramic animals.

On our last day attending the craft store crafts the girls made design your own flower pots.

The flower pots came with several inserts.

We also did some fun projects at home.  Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures.  I bought some “dinosaur eggs” that you place in water and the dinosaur grows and “hatches” out of the egg after several days.  Here are the two blurry dinosaurs that we hatched.

We made sun catchers. 

This was a very frustrating project!  I think that part of the frustration might have been that the cookie sheet didn’t lie completely flat.  The little beads would creep under the metal frame and then continue to spread.

I had to run my son to his school classes, but my daughter finished the project with the girls.  She got an after shot as the sun catchers were cooling.

Here are the end results.

This niece got frustrated with fitting the colors into the little areas and finally decided to make a “rainbow” butterfly.  I’m loving the end result!

The girls made masks together.  I tried to take a picture of the end results and couldn’t figure out how to get the masks to stay in position.  Finally grabbed tissue from a tissue box and propped them up.  Not the greatest – a bit of a distraction – sorry.

And the girls modeling the masks.

At the very end, we were still pushing crafts.  It was past bedtime on the last night and we started shrinky dinks.

I didn’t get pictures of the before and after.  As soon as my niece’s were done, I packed them up.  I did take a picture of my daughter’s after the weekend.

Now on to my biggest pride and joy!  Last summer when the girls visited I tried to teach them to knit.  They brought their needles and yarn for more lessons.  Niece A remembered the long-tail cast on.  As soon as her hands were in position, they just knew what to do.  I had started them both on kitchen cotton to make squares to wash with.  Well, Niece A wanted to make a scarf, and I knew that kitchen cotton wouldn’t get her the results as quickly as her interests wanted.  We got some bulky yarn and off she went!

This just makes her auntie proud!  Someone who loves the craft.

Look at how well she’s doing!  Very few mistakes - a great job for an 8 year old.

She did start my mind thinking.  She said she didn’t get as much done because she went out to play the last few days as the weather was nice.  She said that exercise was more important than knitting, right?  Hmm. . . .

I tried to get a project knitted for the girls before they left, but didn’t quite finish.  Headbands.

I decided at the last minute that my nieces little sister needed a headband also.  So I guess I’ll send these later this month.  Will post the finished projects with the link to the pattern later.