Saturday, December 21, 2013

The Cute Things in Life

I make cute things. It is the truth.  Cute things are made by me; it is an undeniable fact.

And when those cute things combine you get this:


And you thought I was lying. Cute kid, cute hat.  It makes life good.

I bought this yarn to make Stormy a hat when I was pregnant.  I am so glad I finally got around to making it.  I used KnitCol yarn and the pattern Basic Baby Hat. I really love a basic beanie and I hope to be able to make the next sizes up for little Stormy as he needs them. 


I have never used self-patterning yarn like this before.  I am not sure why I haven't, but this will certainty not be the last time.  The results make it look like I put in much more effort than I really did. I am all for making things look complicated when they are not.  It makes me look like a better knitter. Beginner knitters, this is my tip for you, let the yarn do the work.  Buy pretty yarn and everything you make will look amazing.  Tip for parents, your kid will look cute in just about anything (Stormy would be cute wearing a sack), but they will look especially cute in things handmade with love. There are a lot of babies being born into my life right now and they should all be expecting cute little hats for Christmas next year.

It is the first day of winter and we have a winter storm advisory in Central Illinois.  We should be getting an ice storm right now, but currently it is just overcast (thankfully!).  Tomorrow we should get snow, and even more snow in Iowa at my parent's house (Yay for sledding!).  On Monday, we will see negative temperatures (Boo for sledding). On days like this and coming this week, it is nice to have a warm, wool hat and now every person in my family has one handmade by me.

How are you braving the winter?

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Stockings

Do you have Christmas traditions?  Well of course you do, if you celebrate Christmas.  Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, there is probably something you do on every Christmas. We all have our little traditions.

One of my family's traditions is to have knitted stockings.  My grandma knit all her grandchildren stockings.  I also have an afghan from her. She was a very crafty lady.  Besides knitting she also painted a vast number of canvases and other objects.  I have two paintings in my house and a clock.

Grandma knit a stocking for my nephew eight years ago, but now in her 80s she no longer knits.

My stocking, made by Grandma, still lives at my mom and dad's house.  Along with the stockings my grandma made for my sister, brother and nephew.  The collection is rounded out with the stockings my mom has crocheted for her children-in-law and grandchildren.


It is quite a collection. Two on the end are for my sister's pets.  I guess they don't get crocheted stockings.

I have been a knitter for about four and a half years.  That means I was not a knitter when D was born, hence she has a store bought stocking. Even though I have been able to make her a stocking for the past four Christmases, I have not.  She already had a stocking and so I never really focused on making her one.  Yet, in the back of my mind I have always thought about making her a stocking.

Last year, my cousin had twins and she called on me to make stockings for them since grandma no longer can.  I accepted the challenge and made the twins stockings, my first ever.  A lady at work heard that I could knit and asked me to make stockings for her nephews and I did.  Yet, I didn't make one for Miss D.

This year we became a family of four and Stormy needed a stocking.  He was born to a knitter and so he gets a knitted stocking right away and this was the prefect offportunity to finally make one for D. She even helped design them.


I am pleased to report that I have stockings knit for both kids.




Please disregard that Stormy is wearing a vampire sleeper.  We enjoy Halloween themed items as long as they fit.  

I have two more stockings to knit so that the whole family can have matching stockings, but that may be a next Christmas goal.  I still have 1.5 blocks to make to finish my block-a-month afghan for 2013.

What holiday traditions are you working on? 
  

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

December Already?

I did not mean to neglect you blog.  Sometimes life gets in the way of writing about life.  And so it was for the month of November.  What happened last month?  Too much for me to remember but we drove to two out of state weddings.  We all got violently ill. D was first, then my husband, then me and my father-in-law, then my mother-in-law, then the babysitter, then the babysitter's son and finally my mom. All of us were super sick, except little Stormy.  He must have a super immune system.  A tornado hit the town over from us shocking the entire area and leaving many people homeless, including one of my immediate coworkers.  The next week, we had a lovely Thanksgiving and trip to South Dakota.  It was my our first trip to see my extended family in four years.  Luke got to meet his great-grandma. Everything else is a blur.

I knit a bib sometime in there.  I feel I have been neglecting my baby knitting.  I made a lot more bibs for other babies, but not my own.  This is my go to pattern for bib knitting.  It is from Mason Dixon Knitting.  It is simple back and forth knitting, great for watching TV or any other multitasking activity.



Stormy wasn't in the mood to model.



One thing about November is that Stormy is getting so big.  He is 4 months old now and he loves to smile, laugh and play with toys.  He wants to eat big people food too.  He just doesn't want to sleep through the night.


He is very interested in what we big people do.  He basically demands to sit in his high chair while we eat dinner.  We like to have the whole family together and he likes to be the center of attention. D is actually very good with sharing the spotlight.

Now, in the season of Advent, we are anxiously awaiting Christmas and with Christmas comes Christmas knitting and shopping.  I hope I can get it all done.

Did your November fly by too?