Workin' It

My poor husband is perpetually cold. And is intent on losing every hat I knit for him. So when I saw a skein of Lion Brand Chunky in the clearance bin at Hancock, I knew he was worth the $1.50.

Here is my husband in his native habitat (his office):



I'm grooving on the reverse stockingnette highlighting the decreases on hats. Here I decreased the whole way and really like the rippliness, especially with such a bulky yarn.





Now THAT is a substantial hat. Work it, baby!

I Heart Valentine's Day

I thought I'd share a few sweet hearts from my daughter's recent party to celebrate today.

Heart-shaped pizza crusts:



Heart-shaped cake:



Exhuberantly decorated heart cookies:



And one last view before the party started (see the purses in the background?):



Have you ever seen Sandra Lee of Semi-Homemade Cooking on Food TV? She is a model-perfect perky woman who always decorates her kitchen to match the theme of her menu. Are you kidding me? Who decorates their kitchens to match a menu? (See the heart garland in the window?)



Maybe I'll start growing tall, thin, and blond next?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sweetheart Bags

My daughter's birthday combined with my destashing efforts led me to think up felted purses for the girls' goodie bags. Since our theme was "Sweetheart Party", I started with a heart motif knit on straight needles. After two, I realized I needed to switch to circulars to make my deadline. I deleted the heart and hoped to find an embellishment later. I used Lion Brand's Felted Trick or Treat Bag as a starting point and added a striped bottom and a self-charted heart motif.

After eight bags, many ribbon handle auditions, and a bit of painting by my daughter, I give you the Sweetheart Eight. And yes, I'm making you look at every. last. one.

















This is the back of one of the hearts - she made faces for her friends, each as different as the bags and girls they were going to.



All ready for the party!



Such a fun project!

Baby Love

I've been working on culling my stash of old projects. Either they are getting done or are getting out of line, you know?

Long ago I spotted this very cute baby t-shirt at the Target dollar spot. Cute gift idea with a little something else, I thought. The clearance price of $0.25 decided it for me.

Soon after, I picked up a ball of Patons Astra (A for 100% acrylic) that I thought almost exactly matched the stripes in the heart (and was also on clearance). Once I got home, I realized that all of the baby sock patterns that I had were sock weight and this was worsed. I didn't want to make a hat because I didn't think that a baby would wear a hat with a t-shirt. And frankly, I was too lazy to figure out a solution. So, it got pushed to the bottom of the bin.

Finally, I got hold of a pattern in the right gauge and out came the yarn. Desperate to avoid the fair isle mittens that are torturing me, I knocked out two little socks in no time. They were so fun to knit and I was so taken with the wrong side with all the fun stripes. So instead of returning to the mittens, I designed a fun hat that showed the wrong side and would use up more yarn. Here is Big Baby modeling the ensemble. She's a newborn size and I aas aiming for 3 mo. size, so I think I got pretty close.



For the hat, I cast on 68 sts and knit 1 inch of 2x2 rib. I then increased to 70 sts and knit for a total height of about 3 3/4 inches before decreasing. For the decreases, I repeated P8, p2tog for the first row, purled a row, repeated p7, p2tog, then purled a row, etc. until the p1, p2tog; and p2tog which were done without plain purl rows between to make a flatter top. Love how it came out.



When I was thinking of making the "wrong" side show I wasn't interested in purling all of it, so I made the hat inside out with knit rows, then did the decreases in purl. I like how the decreases show up a little more on the crown.



The socks are knit like a tube sock with pointed toes. Would probably look even better on a real baby.

Not a bad effort to preserve my 25 cent investment. Now, really, I'm heading back to the mittens.