Chloe's Blanket-o-Love

I knitted this for my newborn niece. It was completed last summer, but I'm just now posting.

 This was my own design and I enjoyed knitting it... for the most part. I started by knitting in garter stitch, and randomly knitting rectangles and squares of various sizes into the blanket. I loved the way the blanket developed organically. When it was finished I cut out a million bunch of hearts from some fuzzy green fabric, and stitched them into the squares & rectangles. (This was the part I liked less - it was so tedious!)

I ended up adding one pink heart, just to add some interest & break up all that green & white.

Antique - A Baptism Gown

Last weekend, our beautiful girl (who is now 6 months old) was baptized. I knitted her gown, and one of her godmothers knitted her bonnet. Both turned out beautifully, and received many compliments. I've vacuum-sealed the gown, bonnet, extra ribbon, and the rest of the last skein of yarn used in this project all together for future generations.

Here are the specs:

Project: Antique

For: Kinsye's baptism

Pattern: Isla - A Seamless Modern Baptism / Christening Dress 
                       (which can be seen here)
Yarn: Baby Alpaca Indiecita
Color: 100

Modifications: I followed the pattern exactly as written, but I used a lace weight yarn instead of DK. I wanted a softer, lighter fabric because St. Louis in summer can be hot and muggy.

Thoughts: This was a pretty easy, quick, and fun knit! I loved that there was no seaming, and that the slight flair of the skirt was achieved by increasing needle size, instead of increasing the number of stitches.

The yarn I used made it look vintage, which is exactly what I was going for. Because I used the lace weight yarn, I ended up with a more sheer fabric, which meant that I had to sew a slip to go under it. I'm not at all good with my sewing machine [yet], but it wasn't too hard to come up with something simple to keep the gown modest.

Here are a few more pictures:

I have to say a huge thank you to my sister, Katie, from River City Images. She took fantastic photos of Kinsye in her gown!

Try it Out Tuesday: Coconut Oil

This Try it Out Tuesday entry comes from Becca, over at A Long and Winding Road. She pinned it and suggested it, and actually tried it out with good results. I wanted to see if I could do the same.

Here's my Pin for Whipped Coconut Oil, and here is the original article.

I've been hearing a lot about the virtues of cocnut oil lately, how it's healthy, can be used for cooking, beauty products, etc. The thing that really hooked my interest, though, is that it is recommended as a... "backside balm" for cloth diapered babies.

We are not exclusively cloth diapering (Kinsye wears a disposable to sleep at night, when we will be out and running around for a long day, and when we go camping). But when we are home or just visiting relatives, she's in a cloth diaper.

You can't use regular diaper creams with cloth diapers. (Actually, you can't use a lot of regular products with cloth diapers.)

So, I bought the coconut oil (which doesn't really resemble an oil at all). It's very solid, and I had my doubts.

 I measured out about a half cup and put it into my bowl.

It was sort of solid, but gloppy, and did not look like something I wanted to smear on my baby girl's backside (or Hubby's hands, or my heels).

But, I had faith. Armed with my trusty hand mixer, I started whipping.

I whipped.

And whipped.

And whipped.

And after a couple of minutes, it started to look quite smooth. 

I think I maybe could have whipped it a little longer, but here is my finished product:

So far, I have used it on chapped lips, an irritated baby-bum, and a dry patch on my elbow, all with good results. A very small amount goes a very long way, and it practically turns to liquid with a little warmth from your fingers.

So here are my thoughts:

Modifications:
None. It's pretty straightforward, so there's not much room for mods. I will say that I did not add the optional vitamin E or essential oil for fragrance. Since SugarPlum has sensitive skin, I am trying to use as few products on her as possible.

#Fail Factors:
None!

FTW!
This was really easy and quick to do. I think it took longer to find a container to keep it in than it did to complete the project. It takes a little getting used to because of the consistency, but I think we will be using this for a long time. Speaking of a long time, since a little goes a long way, this small container will likely last us a month or more.

Will I Do This Pin Again?
Absolutely. It's clean, healthy, and since a little goes a long way, it's pretty cost-effective.

Got a Pin you'd like me to try? Let me know in the comments section below!

Baby Knits!

We welcomed our newest little one on Christmas morning! As every knitter knows, there's no better reason to knit than a baby.

Here are a few of my recent baby knits:

"Sew and Tell"

I guess that technically every blog post could be titled, "Show and Tell," since the whole purpose is to show you pictures and tell about what's going on. But I am thinking about doing a semi-regular feature wherein I can show off some of my recent crafty goodness. Or "amazing feats" of cleaning and organization. Or (if I can figure out how to post videos) some of my recent educational music videos or podcasts. Or whatever I've recently done that bears mentioning.

I have to give a special thank you to my G-ma Alice for this one. She taught me how to sew. Thanks to G-ma, I understand the basics of sewing and construction and can usually find my way around my sewing machine. I am by no means good at sewing, but I can make basic items, Halloween costumes for my kids, and mend some things.

I don't have a permanent home for my sewing machine; all the stuff that seems to follow it around, so I usually wait until I have a list of things to sew. Then I haul it out and it lives on the end of my dining room table until:

• I am completely stuck on a project and can go no further...
• I am completely frustrated with a project and would rather eat it than try to finish it...
• I can no longer stand the mess on the end of the table...
• I have company or host dinner for one or more persons.

This go around, I've made sachets, worked on a quilt for Riley, and made laundry bags for our pop-up trailer. 

Whenever we go camping, we always end up with no place to put the dirty clothes. Matt's clothes end up in a plastic shopping bag, mine end up going back into my bag (where I make a futile attempt to keep the clean ones separated from the dirty ones) and the boys' clothes end up in the strangest of places (like in the refrigerator, under the mattress, and mixed up with the pop tarts and cracker boxes).

My solution was to give everyone a dirty laundry bag. I went looking, but didn't find any that were priced an amount I was willing to pay. So I made some.

I have a big box of fabric scraps downstairs and actually found four pieces big enough for bags. Then, just for fun, I personalized each one. They are by no means fantastic, but aren't bad for my limited lessons and experience.

We ended up with fun laundry bags that cost me nothing, and taught me a bit about making up my own patterns and embellishments.

Visits in the Snow

When the snow falls quiet,

we put out the tray of seed.

And a host of God's small creatures

come to visit for a while.

Thankful for what they receive,

they commune with each other,

with God,

and for a few moments, with us.

Winter is for Knitting.

Okay, well, thr truth is that as far as I'm concerned, every season is for knitting.

But winter is especially good for knitting because your hands don't sweat on the fiber.

And knitted items make great Christmas gifts.

And somebody always gives me a gift certificate for my favorite local yarn store.

And everybody knows that yarn store gift certificates will certainly burn a hole in the pocket or bag in which they are stored if left there too long. So they have to be used quickly.

I did, actually use one of my certificates today, but that's a post for another day. Today, I'm sharing pictures of the slippers I made for Riley (age 2).

I call them the Tweet-Tweet Slippers:

I knitted them with a strand of Splash and a strand of Encore worsted. The splash makes a great effect for a kid-project, but it was not very fun to knit with. It's hard to see the stitches, and Lord help you if you have to rip it back for some reason.

Now I'm working on some blue dog slippers for Tyson. I had hoped to finish them this year, but the knitting is slow with the novelty yarn, and I'm quite certain that I couldn't finish them by Friday night... even if I did absolutely nothing bu knit between now and then.