What's with all the knitting?

What's up with all of the knitting you say? Well I have been sewing but I can't share just yet, those pics will have to wait until 26 December ;)

But in the mean time... more knit hats!

Little i declared once again that he needed a hat. No yellow, no purple, RED is the color of the week, so he decided we had to go to the yarn store as i didn't have any red yarn. (He was actually right on this one, i didn't have any red yarn!)




I got a new pattern I wanted to try: the knox hood by plumknit. Easy to follow directions although my pom pomy bit is a bit...erm... limp.


Reminds me of Dr Suess' Who's. (I had to bribe him to get this picture.)


And a great fun hat to knit: The Hudson Hat by Ky Baby Knits. The pattern uses scrap yarn and was great fun to pick all the different colorways to go in the hat. (earflaps are a little curly as I hadn't blocked it yet.)


oopps bit blurry, the boys were fighting over this one so I think i better make another. I gotta say this is not the hat to make if you don't like weaving in ends there are loads of em!

My first (properly) kettle dyed yarn. I really like how this one turned out! Paton's Natural Marl never looked so good! LOL :)

Love
Annmarie

Uugly Hats

Little i informed me that the boys need some hats. Yes, we have a basket full of hats but he needed a knit one, 'from you know, yarn mama!" He also decided that it needed to be purple and yellow. So I got out my dyes and bulky yarn and set to work. The results were, well, ugly. I had added a little blue to the mix which blended nicely with the yellow and the purple, but the purple and yellow did not play nice together. They made an uggglllyy gross color of brown.


As you can see the brown is smack dab in the middle of the yellow so it really stands out. I decided to try again and overdyed it with green. The results are better but a little of the ugly brown is still there.



It's not quite as horrid once knit up :) this is another earthly fae pixie hat.



Super cute on...and lost already! LOL so is life with little ones. :)




Another hat from a One Skein Wonder books, Little i decided to walk around for the morning with only one earflap done- and I forgot to take a picture! It was really cute.

Well, I have projects in process, but I can't post them just yet as they are Birthday and Christmas presents and well the recipients read the blog! Maybe I will take some pictures of past projects. :D

Love
Annmarie

oh! I almost forgot! I opened up the comments so anyone can leave a comment (I didn't realize I had it set otherwise-opps), yes Mom that means you too :)

In the Nick of Time

December is upon us, time for a countdown to Christmas of course. :) What better way then with an advent calender? I picked up a panel last year after Christmas and had been putting off sewing it as it's odd to sew Christmas fabric in May, right? And August really isn't any better, so it got left until last week and finished at about 11:30 last night!


Close up of today's gift, two little snowman snowmen. It's a good thing I have more than one crafty pursuit as I was all out of fiberfill stuff so i ran to my felting supplies and used a bit of wool roving. (I must say wool makes very nice stuffing very soft and non bunchy.) I did cut the loose thread this morning :) I am not entirely pleased with the stitching on the calender, my presser foot/feed dogs are misbehaving, I think it is time to clean the machine.

And another holiday first for me: I made julekaga! I modified the recipe my mom gave me to work in my bread machine as I have never made yeast bread from scratch (outside of dumping ingredients in the bread machine pan). It turned out pretty good for the first attempt, dough was a bit sticky at first and I think I used too much cardamon, but baby n and I ate half a loaf the night we made it. :P

Love,
Annmarie

Assembly Line Sewing

Little i was in need of some pants (or trousers for those not in the states ;) everything in the stores were either blah or too short in leg so it was time to hit the sewing machine assembly line style. All of the pants are cut exactly the same using the 10 minute pants/one pattern piece method but they are different and fun!

The two pairs on the left are fully lined, the cars print is a totally awesome linen blend from echino and the polka dot are a super soft baby wale corduroy.




Close up of the outerspace and cars prints.

In action! Long enough with room to grow. And no I have not told him Wall-E comes's out on Tuesday, I think it will be more fun for him to see the video in store (and less annoying for me!)

That's all for now, had a sick baby this last week so didn't get too much done. :)

Love
Annmarie

Please don't make me wear it!

Please? I mean come on mama; who wants to wear an adorable hand knit sweater? Not ME!

:sigh: well I got the vest done and he hates it. bummer. no surprise really the more excited he is about a work in progress the more he seems to dislike the finished product. Maybe he will like it next week.



Better pic of the vest. I added two extra rows at the shoulder as some of the comments said the head opening was too small.

Vest pattern is from warm woolies


A pixie hat to match. Baby n was not the intended recipient by he was willing to sit for pictures.


pattern is super super easy! from earthly fae

I still have yarn left from this project! hmm maybe i will tackle some little mittens!

I forgot to take pictures of Little i's trousers again! Maybe tomorrow :)

Love
Annmarie

Knit Mama Knit!

Waiting for baby n to fall asleep in a carrier so thought I'd share a few knitting pics. :) Most of these are on my projects page on www.ravelry.com (what? you knit? and you are NOT on ravelry?!?! check it out ;), it's has an unbelievable list of patterns for everyone and great project planner. my screenname is sewzenmama!) I know lots of you don't knit so here's my watch tv projects.



Wristlets from One Skein Wonder book. The boys helped 'sew' these so i think i started over at least three times on each wristlet but they turned out pretty nice and are so soft and warm enough for holding the cold steering wheel, but allow me to buckle the boys into their seats (impossible to do with gloves!)


With the leftover yarn from the wristlets I made a little headband that matches. I kinda made it up as I went so I am quite pleased with myself that it turned out. oh and wool blend yarn is sticky enough to stay in my slippery hair!

Work in progress, a little vest for little i, he was so excited to try it on.


it doesn't fit yet mama, sew some more! (everything is sewing lately)



another work in progress. TBW knitalong scarf, it's nice to have a couple different stitches to try out, now the real question is: what color to dye it...

Love
Annmarie

eta...don't know why the pictures were so odd sorry about that! should be fixed now

Dr Wall-E and Bewitching Emmeline

I am a little late posting this. I was debating about not posting because the project was such a pain in the a**, but not everything can turn out perfectly so without further ado I present...

Dr Wall-E!
(and Mr I... get it?)


This was my first year making a Halloween costume, we had been moving or I couldn't find patterns/fabric/time. It was a paaain to sew. The sizing was aweful, neckline a mess, fabric shrank so I had to cut creatively, gah makes me not want to sew! But little i had a great time and really like it so it was worth the annoyance.


And a fun family shot. I actually spend most of my time with my eyes open, really I do. I did not make the pumpkin costume, but I did do the trick or treat bag!


On to a great pattern to sew!! The Emmeline Apron from Sew Liberated. Three coordinating Halloween Prints (which also shrank a ton- the fabric ended up being 40" wide!) My only complaint about the pattern is, yup that's right, hand sewing the bodice. I really and truely dislike handsewing and it never looks neat and tidy so I machine stitched the neck strap to the bodice.


Fun and funky purple spider print. I will definitely be making this pattern again and I think it could be modified into a cute dress.


I am currently working on some adorable trousers for little i and will enventually make my winter coat (but it is by the same company as the dr costume and I need a break from their patterns LOL).

Love
Annmarie