Last year when I was visiting a friend who knits, I was looking at some of the product that she sells online. She sells wool longies, skirties, shorties, and more. When I was looking at them, I was mesmerized by the beauty of these diaper covers. Cables and butterfly stitch and pretty bind-offs galore. I asked her about them and she said that she had just bought a selling license for a pattern online. I found the EviePants All-in-one on Ravelry, but it costs $7.50 and I had yet to actually pay for a pattern, so I held off and made these soakers with a free pattern. A few months later, I accidentally knit a premie sized soaker instead of a newborn size for a friend and I sold it online for cheap, but it was just enough to buy this pattern. So I did. And oh boy, I don’t regret it.

This pattern is the only one you’ll ever need for making diaper covers, and beautiful ones at that. It has instructions for soakers, longies, shorties, skirties and they each have so many options that it’s overwhelming at first. I think you could make over 100 completely different pieces with this pattern, possibly even more. I’m not willing to do the math at the moment.

Thus far, I’ve made three soakers and a skirty with this pattern, all with Patons Classic Wool. First I made this one for Twig:

Then next I made a miniature for a friend who just had a baby:

Then I made another one for Twig in purple:

And then I made a skirty for Twig:

I didn’t get a good picture (she moves so much!) before the skirty got destroyed. The only downside to wool soakers is that they keep making their way into my washing machine by accident and shrinking. Good news is that I’m pretty sure I have enough newborn wool soakers for twins though! Before this one was shrunken, I took the skirty off. I didn’t realize that even with the butterfly stitch, the a-line would curl. On top of that it kept falling down from the weight, no matter how tight I did the ties. I don’t know why it fell down, but I’m going to try to make another skirty in the future.

And the purple one, which was so cute, got destroyed too. Our cutesy little dog has a dark side when it comes to anything she sees as food. Apparently I didn’t wash the poop off of it well enough because when it was hanging to dry, she knocked it down and bit it to death. So now I’m working on another soaker since with the first one pictured above and the soaker from this giveaway, I only have two that fit her (I do have the longies from Pretty Paisley too, but they’re a tad long for this weather).

So, if you’re looking for a good soaker pattern, I’d definitely tell you to buy this one. I like the soakers from this pattern much more than the ones that I made from the other pattern (short rows are your friend!) and it has every possible soaker you’d like to make! Have fun knitting!

Just a little note that the maker of this pattern did not pay me in any way, shape, or form. I bought the pattern with my own money and I’m happy I did! 

In my post Wednesday, I shared this picture of Peanut wearing her new birthday present. Since I’ve had some questions, I figured I’d do a post about it!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen a lot of doll-sized mei tai tutorials. The problem is that with most of them, they assume you’re pretty good at sewing. I started sewing back in high school because there were no other classes I could take in that time slot and there was no point in going home, since it was neither at the beginning or end of the school day, so I’d have to come back. I was never interested in taking the “easy A” classes, so I hadn’t even considered taking sewing in the past. Since I had to take this class, I decided that I was going to rock it. Quickly I became one of my teacher’s favorite students (I’m not making it up, she told me so) and I was doing projects much more difficult than the cotton-pajama-pants-from-a-pattern that the rest of the class was doing.

So when I took sewing back up a few years later, I figured I’d excel with it. The problem is that those more-difficult-than-the-rest-of-the-class projects were still pretty dang easy. I became discouraged and pretty much quit. Recently though, I decided I wanted to start again, so I gave myself a goal of sewing half an hour each day. I figure that half an hour is enough to develop the skill, but not drive myself nuts with frustration doing it. I definitely don’t get to it all days, or even most days, but I’m slowly working on it.

So back to the tutorial.

I found this tutorial on The Shopping Mama and thought it was super cute. As I read through it, I realized it was perfect for me. She details to the T how to do each step. Nothing is assumed that you should already know it. She even goes as far as telling you that you should wash, dry, and iron your fabric before starting. Yes, for an advanced sewer it may be too much, but for me it’s perfect. I told my husband that I was going to just start it. Maybe only get as far as cutting out the pieces. Two hours later, I came down to show him the finished product. And there were zero frustrations throughout the whole thing. It was lovely.

I spent a total of $6.89 for this whole project, with a ton of left over fabric. I bought it at Joann’s, the fabric was on sale, and I had a 20% off all fabric (sale and not) coupon. And since the solid pink fabric was almost gone, I got just over half a yard extra with the end of bolt price (which is $1.01 of that price). Without the coupon (or the extra half a yard), it would have cost about $10.50. This is all assuming you already have thread that will work for the project and some extra fleece or batting sitting around. That’s a super cheap birthday present! And she’s loving it!

Here are some close-ups.

As it started to get cold outside, I decided Peanut needed some new mittens for preschool. Her current ones were not very warm, a little too small, and getting a hole. As I started to research mittens, I found some really cute sets of mittens, hat, and cowl or scarf on Ravelry. Of course, I decided I needed to make her a whole set rather than just mittens.

So it started with the hat. Peanut liked the hats I made for my friend and her daughter, so I decided to make her one of those. It was really hard getting through this hat! After doing the pattern twice, and having it be a relatively easy one to begin with, it was just so boring. Then I had a whole drama when they didn’t have the Patons Wool Roving in the pink that Peanut loved so dear. I ended up going with Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick and Quick, which is technically super bulky instead of bulky. Getting down to size 6 needles ended up making this project a pain, most literally. My hands ached every time I knit! Even though my gauge was off with the 6′s, I wasn’t willing to go any lower in size, so I made the hat to the small size, trusting it would be a bit bigger than that since I had less stitches per inch. It fits her pretty well and will probably fit for a long time. It’s nice and cozy warm too since it’s knit so tightly. The edging and braids is in some Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends I had lying around.

The mittens were super quick to work up. I finished them in 2 days and honestly probably could have done them quicker. I didn’t really like how the mittens just end abruptly and kind of have pointed squares, but that might be exasperated by the yarn that I used. They also took a ridiculously small amount of yarn and, especially since they’re knit so tight, repeal water like a fiend! I’d definitely recommend knitting some up for any small humans you know. Pattern: Daniel’s Mittens

Lastly, the cowl. I decided that since the yarn was pretty plain that I needed to a fun pattern for the cowl. This was certainly it. It was fun to do the huge cables and it’s cute enough that I seriously think an adult could wear it. It’s actually big enough to fit on an adult neck! It would be easy enough to make it a tad wider and longer to make it nice and bunchy for an adult like a real cowl though. Hrm, maybe someone will be receiving one of these modified cowls as a gift for Christmas. Pattern: Children’s Quick Knitted Cabled Cowl.

Lastly, just to prove how big the hat and cowl are, along with maybe embarrass my husband juuuust a little, here’s a fun picture.

Hello world! Life, once again, is hectic in the LG household. After doing a speech, studying for my organic chemistry test, and taking another quiz, it’s finally spring break. Right in time for Twig to get sick. So, rather than writing a real post as I was planning on this morning, I’m going to give ya’ll another knitting one in the short period of the that the wee one (and big sister) zone out in front of Yo Gabba Gabba. Enjoy!

Right after Christmas, my friend Jeannette asked me to make some hats for her and her daughter. She bought the yarn, which was Patons Classic Wool Roving in Dark Grey for the main hat and Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends in Aqua for the trim. They’re both bulky, which made these hats super quick. I knit the small one up in just over a day, but the problem was the edging.

When she first asked me to knit her earflap hats, I found the Thorpe pattern and sent it to her. She said it was perfect and we went along with the project. I didn’t inspect it closely though and didn’t realize that the edging is crochet. I’m an absolute crochet novice, being that I can only do a chain. The last time I tried to crochet a rose for a headband, I gave up after about 5 minutes. This time though, I wasn’t going to give up. I was ready to take it to some crochet-wise friends at a yarn group, but I found this video explaining how to do it and it was exactly what I needed.

All in all, it was a nice project. It was quick enough that I didn’t get bored with the circles and circles of knit stitch. Then the edging was a challenge and I’m happy I learned how to do it. Makes me feel confident enough to maybe try crocheting a wash cloth! I liked this hat so much that I ended up making one for Peanut, which will be featured in a post to come. Now, here are some cute pictures of my friend and her daughter in their matching hats. She said they’re super warm and comfy.

Cute picture.

Silly picture.

We were invited to a birthday party at the beginning of January for two sisters (click on the link for a much better picture of the dinosaur than the one I took). When I asked their mom what they liked, she said for the younger one her favorite color was blue and her favorite animal was dinosaurs. Since I’d been dying to make Dinosaur Jr, I decided this was the time. As I was going, I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough of the blue thread I started with (some random acrylic that I don’t have the info for), so I added stripes (another random acrylic). Then I ran out of both blues when I was on the feet, so I added another blue (Bernat Worsted Solids). So it’s a very blue dinosaur!

As you can see, the legs ended up different sizes. I’m alright with it though. I think it looks cute. I’m also working on doing eyes, so these weren’t as good as I’d hoped.

When I was finishing all of the plates for the dinosaur, I let Twig run around with it. Man, she lurved that thing! Since it was her birthday in a couple of weeks, I decided to make her one instead of the giraffe I’d been planning. With hers, I used the same blue that I ended with on the other dinosaur, but decided to go with a rainbow of colors for the stripes (two random acrylics, some left over Lion Brand Wool-ease from my MIL’s blanket, and Red Heart Super Saver for the yellow). Word of caution, make sure that the random acrylic you use up is the same yarn weight! I couldn’t tell the purple was going to have bigger holes (because I think it was DK weight) until I started stuffing and was well beyond that point. Oh well, it’s for a one year old.

Sadly, she hasn’t been that interested in it. It’s alright though because it’ll stick around until she’s ready to be more interested. For now, her big sister gets a kick out of it. Maybe she’ll get one for her birthday too!

Alright, so maybe they’re more gloves than mittens, but they’re still warm and woolen. That counts, right?

These are another Christmas gift. They were for my father-in-law with the intent of using them during things like shoveling snow. He said he’s used them and they work well. The pattern is Jarrod’s Gloves and I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Wood. If you look at the comments on that blog post, you can see that I had some issues when I was doing the fingers, but I figured it out. Overall, a nice pattern that was fun, especially in the pattern on the back.

Shortly after Christmas, my mother-in-law approached me asking if I could make my father-in-law a new hat. His current hat came to a point at the top and it bothered him. I said I’d be happy to and after I finished some projects, I had my husband pick out a hat pattern out of a few that I had narrowed it down to. I got some grey Sheep(ish) by Vickie Howell yarn (since his current hat was grey) and knit up Christian’s Hat. Of course, after I finished the hat, my husband told me I should have used yarn that matched the gloves. I don’t know why I hadn’t occurred to me! After looking at some other hats people on Ravelry had knit up with the Wood yarn though, it looked a tad bit too camouflage-y for my father-in-law, so I decided to just stick with the hat I had already knit. The pattern was super easy and repetitive, but fun. I was able to knit it in the dark of a movie theater while we watched Django Unchained. I love knitting in theaters. Now, here’s a cute picture of Peanut wearing her Opa’s hat.

This blanket was hard. I ripped it out literally a dozen times. I told my husband over and over again that if I had to rip it out again, that I was going to give up and find a different present to make his mother for Christmas. Every time though, it just made me that much more determined to finish it. And I did.

I used the Hemlock Ring Blanket pattern and I’m pretty sure the yarn was Lion Brand Wool-ease, but I’m not certain of that because it was part of a big bunch of yarn that my aunt gave me and it didn’t have a tag. The picture above is when it was blocking and I wish it would stayed this way, but sadly it bunched up a bit after the blocking was done. I’m hoping that after she’s washed it a few times that it’ll lay more flat. A friend of mine who has also done this pattern suggested I move up a needle size halfway through the feather and fan, but I didn’t do it because I didn’t have that needle size in a circular. If I do the blanket again, I’ll definitely try that out. And I’ll probably do this blanket again because it’s beautiful.

Another thing that helped me a ton was putting markers between each repeat. You’re essentially doing the same thing 7 times in each row and if you’re off, you have to rip out the whole row. I didn’t know that until the end when I wouldn’t be at the end of the repeat like I was supposed to be, which was super frustrating. Knowing when I’m in the repeat that’s actually the problem helps me to fix it right then if I can. Once I did that, there was no more ripping out of rows. I still kept my lifelines though just in case and I’d suggest you do them too.

Lastly, there’s a yahoo group for this pattern that was nice for searching when I had an issue. Also, when you join the group they send you a file of the chart written out, which is nice for me because I don’t like charts.

Overall, it was time consuming and frustrating, but the end result is beautiful. As I said above, I’ll definitely be doing this pattern again. I’d recommend you try it out too.

Today is my brother’s birthday. Happy birthday brother! I’m sure you don’t read this, but I do hope you have a good day. Since it’s his birthday and we gave him his gift yesterday, I figured today is a good day to share both his Christmas gift and birthday gift.

For Christmas, I knit him Sam O’Neilla.

My brother was a biology major and when I saw GIANT Microbes in the bookstore on campus I thought he’d get a kick out of one. Then I thought “Hey, I can knit that!” and, lo and behold, someone on Ravelry already had that idea! The pattern was super easy and quick. Honestly, the longest part was all of the i cords. Back and forth and back and forth! Blah! And it was a tad awkward trying to attach the flagellum to the body, so I’m hoping they stay alright for him.

After finishing up my Christmas knitting, I started looking for what to make him for his birthday. That’s when I found this pattern for more GIANT microbes and decided on the brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea to make him a Penny Cillin (name play all my own) for his Sam O’Neilla.

They’re lovers, don’t you know? But, as my husband so cleverly put it, they have a bit of a love-hate relationship. Do you get it? I do! Ahahahahaah!

Penny was also really easy, but I modified her a bit so she’d be Sam’s size. Rather than increasing her size up to 30 stitches, I stopped at 18 like Sam. This meant that I could only do 3 “fingers” instead of 5, but it worked out great. Still divisible by 6 and everything. It was my first time making pom poms too and I found this super helpful video (as the instructions for the pom pom in the pattern didn’t really make sense to a virgin pom pom’er like me).

All in all, a cute and fun project. I hope he at least got a kick out of it!