Covid-19 Face Mask for Mom

My mom (who thanks to the virus, I haven't seen in real life for ages) texted me in a panic. "Can you make me a face mask? I have to go to the doctor and they say we should wear masks."

Now, during the self-isolation, I haven't really left the house. I mean, I've taken walks and stuff, but I haven't been to the grocery or been around people, so I had no need for a mask, and DH has a face cover he's been wearing. So while people around me have been making masks, my sewing machine has just been collecting dust. I don't think I've had it out for two years. 

This was the only scrap fabric I had (which is still pretty darn cute) so I thought I'd give her mask-making a shot. I called up one of the video tutorials, managed to get the bobbin thread caught under the needle and in about two hours, I had a cute little face mask for my mother. (Although she didn't like the elastic and preferred the over-the-ear variety, so I don't know if she actually wore this more than once. Still, it's there and it's washable, and it's at least stylish at the pet stores. 

METHOD:
Following instructions. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
Sewing is fun :) And my mother was very grateful.

Crochet Headband (Ribbed Headband with Button)

This was the first official project in the "Startup Library Crochet" class both on Great Courses and on Bluprint. I had to take it apart a couple of times because I'm learning to crochet and so the stitches aren't very orderly and uniform yet, but finally I managed to get a piece that looks roughly like what the instructor made. My yarn was thicker than hers so the piece is a little bigger, but I still think it's wearable. I didn't add the button yet because I don't have one I particularly like. 

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Wool Ease Thick and Quick, from the "Fisherman" color in my stash. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. Single and Half Double Crochet stitches. Yay for me, learning something new (although technically I've tried crochet in the past but it didn't "stick." 

2. This yarn is insanely thick and working with an oversized crochet hook is crazy awkward. 

3. Now I will be able to crochet my own stuff! 

My first Homemade Breads!

I wasn't actually planning on doing a baking blog, but after doing so much baking of banana breads and bread machine breads, I took the plunge, watched a class from King Arthur flour and tried it. It really wasn't hard at all! I put off doing the kneading because I thought that was the hard part, but it was really the fun part and Little Bear did a lot of it. 

There's a run on yeast at the stores right now, but when things settle down, I might end up making homemade bread like this a lot. Maybe retire the bread machine for good :)

METHOD:
Basic White Bread - made from King Arthur recipe, yields 2 loaves

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
Bread making is fun! And the kitchen smells wonderful while it's cooking. 

New Classes! And a Crochet Necklace

Because there just wasn't enough to do on The Great Courses Plus (lol) I signed up for Bluprint, since I thought I might actually teach myself to crochet while we're on the self-isolation from Covid-19. I went for quite a while without knitting or doing anything particularly crafty, so it's kind of fun to pick up these old skills and learn some new ones.  

METHOD:
There was a demonstration on Bluprint that showed a long crocheted chain that someone looped and added beads to. I had some spun yarn that I got from Bevin that I didn't know what to do with, so I figured it might make an interesting necklace. I chained all of it, looped it, and then added way too many beads. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
How to do chain stitch in crochet. 

Charity Knit Scarves - Sashay

Okay, this is one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" kinds of things. While I was in grad school, I ended up getting drunk one Friday and insisted my husband take me over to Michaels, where they had a bunch of this ribbon yarn on clearance. I picked up about 10 balls for 15 dollars and was real proud of myself until I realized I had no idea what to do with the stuff. My first thought was to make scarves out of it and sell them on Etsy. Then I made the scarves. There is nothing about these scarves that makes me think I'd have any luck for selling them at anything over $1 online. People at the craft shows can't even give these things away.

So now that they're all made, I'm thinking I will just give most of them away, unless I can find something else to do with the yarn. I made my mom a blue one, which she likes, and Little Bear cabbaged onto the Christmas red one, so I guess the others will be Christmas charity donations or gifts for the unsuspecting.

METHOD:

This one got frogged.

Done in the pattern on the label, with Red Heart Boutique Sashay multicolor lace yarn. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
Never buy yarn when you're drunk!

Slouchy Beanie 1: Taupe Hat

I tried the Lemongrass Slouchy hat pattern again, in a more pleasing color, but I put this aside for a bit while I worked on my son's acorn hat. I wanted a slouchy beanie, and this suffices, but the decreases still throw me, and the top looks just "off" somehow. Still, it slouches and it's warm so it's great for bad hair days. Still Little Bear won't give up the acorn hat, I'm keeping this one. 

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Wook Ease Thick and Quick yarn in taupe, one skein. From the pattern "Lemongrass Slouchy Hat" on Ravely. Did it on circulars this time instead of dpns, and it's still weird. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. This is a good pattern for stash busting this particular yarn, but I'm not uber crazy about the look of the hat, even if I love the texture.

2. When I read "slouchy," this is not the look I really picture. 

Acorn Costume and Hat

"Make me an acorn costume for Halloween, Mommy!" 

Who can say no to that? I mean, how cute, right? An acorn costume. Now how to go about it...

After three hours wandering around in Joann Fabric, trying to find a way to achieve the "roundness" needed for an acorn but still allow movement and play, I came up with the idea of the sandwich board. It's not perfect, and I'm not sure it's exactly what he had in mind, but after he won "Most Original" at the library costume contest, he was sold. 

The hat actually came first (or the idea for it) since I had been eyeing the Lemongrass hat and wondering what it would look like in the other stash colors I had. I made a taupe one, but that wasn't brown enough (although the texture was perfect for an acorn cap) so I picked up a couple of skeins of a browner variety, knitted an i-cord "stem" and voila. (Little Bear has refused to remove the cap and surrender the hat, so I guess it's his now for good.) 

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Wool Ease Thick and Quick, from the Lemongrass Slouchy Hat pattern on Ravelry, in a dark brown tweed colorway. One skein. Used it all. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. Kids are cute. 

2. Eleventh hour Halloween costumes are the best. 

3. The entire costume came together with fabric glue, and no sewing machine. I'm amazed. 

Lemongrass Hat and Cowl (Bluprint Class)

The Hat was a project I sort of randomly came across on Ravelry as I was pondering getting back to knitting. (Actually what spawned the renewed interest was cleaning out the fabric closet and realizing I had a lot of yarn I needed to get rid of.) I had purchased a lot of this Wool Ease Thick and Quick, imagining I might someday make these little cardigans, but with that fantasy over, I had to figure out something else to do with them. 

Enter the Lemongrass hat. 

Now to be fair, the color of this yarn alternates between being a rather stylish off-green, like a lightly grilled spear of asparagus, to a true baby-shit green that nobody looks good in. Under store lighting, it's pretty. At home .... yeah, baby poop. 

So I found the pattern and thought why not. The instructions for the decreases are very confusing, and I should have been alerted to the weirdness by the fact that other people were commenting with questions, but I pushed on, thinking I'd figure it out. The main fabric is I think seed stitch, which gives this yarn a great texture, but the decreases at the top look weird and the color is just ... blech. 

So of course I had to make a cowl to match.

Now to be fair, the cowl was the second project from the Bluprint class, and I wanted to at least try it. I had two skeins left of the nasty Lemongrass color, so I made the cowl and it was pretty but gave me claustrophobia when I tried to wear it. So I frogged it, and made one twice as wide, which didn't really work either. Probably one that is about 1.5 skeins would work properly.

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Wool Ease Thick and Quick Lemongrass (aka Babyshit Green)

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. This is a horrendous color.

2. Frog what doesn't work, but you can only do it a few times before the yarn becomes worn. 

3. Don't stash yarn. Only buy what you actually have a legit plan for using. 

Practice Mitts (Bluprint Class)

The Great Courses Plus offers other lectures in conjunction with Craftsy/Bluprint, and I thought it was about time to maybe try knitting again, since I really hadn't done anything for a couple of years. 

This was the first project in the Startup Library Knitting class, taught by Susan B. Anderson, "Practice Mitts" which was a good re-immersion.

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Vanna's Choice leftover yarn from the Traffic Set, worked flat on #7 needles and seamed together. I made the fingers extra long so they could either flip up over the knuckles or be folded back for more access.

1. These were fun, and they ended up being warm enough for me to wear to my crosswalk a few times.

2. I love knitting things for winter while we're still in the middle of summer.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Yoga Mat Carrier

I started June out beautifully, getting up early to go to a Yoga class on the riverfront. It was a gorgeous day and a great way to start the summer. Everyone around me had snazzy little holders for their yoga mats, so of course I needed one. 

After searching around, I found this pattern, which looked cute:

https://gina-michele.com/2017/05/yoga-mat-strap-free-knitting-pattern-2.html

METHOD:
Using stashed yarn, the LionBrand Suede Ecru color, which I LOVE the feel of, this was simple garter stitch, and I did most of it while Little Bear was at the BioBots programming camp. It was easy, but turned out a little weird, and probably should not have been quite so wide. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
It's an easy and fun project, but the mesh "bag" style would probably be more useful. Still, I feel very fashionable when I wrap and unwrap my yoga mat at the Y.

Traffic Hat and Scarf

I found this on LionBrand's website and the pattern looked so cute! I made both of them for Little Bear and he said he wanted the matching sweater! He's very into "transportation" right now, but I'm afraid he'll be in college by the time I get a sweater finished. 

METHOD:
Done in LionBrand Vanna's Choice, in the recommended colors, with the recommended needles. I did change the garter stitch road to stockinette because it looked weird in garter stitch. Bear wanted a red pom pom for the hat, which looked great until the dog ate it. 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. This was my first experience with Intarsia, and it was a mess. When they say use spools, do it! Don't leave the strings hanging.

2. The scarf is a bit shorter than I like and it curls like mad, but Bear seems to like the "tube" shape it wants to take. 

3. I have the coolest kid.

Victorian Lace Scarf

I had leftover yarn from the Knitted Lace Edge T-shirt and the Teddy Bear and thought this would be a good way to use it up.

METHOD:
I found the pattern on Ravelry, called "Victorian Scarf." Knit on the recommended, with the KnitPicks "Crayon" yarn in Periwinkle.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. The thing about lace knitting is that you really have to pay attention to what you're doing on each row. I didn't, so this thing is weirdly off the pattern repeats. I'm still happy with it. 

2. I probably should have scalloped the final finished edge, but I was just so done with it and so ready to get it out of the WIPS bag that I took shortcuts.  3. I'm still confused about something that happened on a slip, k2, passo. I'm never really sure which strand to pass over. Need to look into that. 4. There is no way this cotton yarn will block or keep itself from curling. This pattern could have benefited from a stiffer yarn.

Teddy Bear toy

This little guy was just something I thought I would make to help use up the leftover Crayon yarn from Knitpicks.  I made this for my son and presented to him as a gift. He played with it for about 8 seconds and then threw it down. I guess this one is going on the shelf for me, instead. 

METHOD:
The pattern is called "Teddy" and I got it from Ravelry. (All these patterns are linked on my Ravelry account, if anyone wants them.) 

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. Trying to wrangle three stitches on three dpns is nuts. Just approach it like you're making i-cord.

2. This knit up pretty quick although it was weird sewing it together, as connecting tubes to a sphere was difficult. 

3. This could make a cute penguin doll as well. 

Coming Home Birthday Gift Poncho

I didn't get a picture of this because it was a gift, and I forgot. Suffice it to say it looks just like the purple one, only in the milk of magnesia pink color. I actually started this the summer of 2010 and intended to have it for Jen's birthday, but life (and a new baby!!!) got in the way. I ended up finishing it January 12, 2012

METHOD:
Martha Stewart's "Coming Home Plus Size" poncho, knit as per Homespun, "Cotton Candy" colorway.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. Keep the extra skeins handy. Somewhere I lost a skein of this and ended up having to buy a skein off a Ravelry member to finish the thing.
2. WTF is up with the seaming? Apparently it left a flat area and odd seam lines.
3. Jen suggested running sequins through it. I think that would make a cool border.

Baby Hats - Oh My Stars!

We are loading up on hats! Although I'm not super crazy about the envelope look. I started these on September 20, 2011 but didn't finish them until after DS was born. 

METHOD:
Done in extra stash yarn and from a pattern in Knit It! Spring 2007 magazine.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. The patterns overestimated how many stars each hat needed.
2. These are impractical, and the jersey hats that come with the onesies are much better.
3. I sort of learned how to make French knots, I guess?

Christmas Baby Hat

Precious!! The perfect little Christmas Hat for my little guy :)

METHOD:
This was from "Little Snowflakes," a pattern in my 2011 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar. I used Cascade 220 in Christmas Red, Green, and White.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. I sort of learned how to catch floats in the (fake) Fair Isle strands.
2. Elizabeth Zimmerman warns of fake Fair Isle that has more than 5 stitches between color changes. She's absolutely right. The extra floats make for weirdness inside the hat.
3. The decreases show up pretty obviously but I'm wondering if that's the nature of real wool, and can it be blasted out with a steam iron? Baby doesn't seem to care.

No Silk Garden Grows Tonight

Went to KnitWitts tonight because they were having a 15% off sale and I wanted 4 skeins of Noro Silk Garden for that entrelac scarf. Sadly, I hated the colorways on their small selection :( Now I'm thinking I might substitute a different, prettier yarn. Ended up grabbing a copy of "60 quick baby knits" and the skeins of red, green, and white Cascade 220 I needed for the baby's Christmas hat from the calendar pattern. Must remember to use 40% off coupon at Jo-Ann's for next year's pattern a day calendar. I thought this year's was pretty cool.

In other news:

Okay, so it's my fault for not being on top of my game and actually knitting the stuff right away, but seriously -- every project I've picked up lately either needs an additional skein of a colorway that has been discontinued, or I need a discontinued yarn/colorway to make a matching piece. Ebay and Amazon have failed me. Let us hope that Ravelry users will unstash and come to my rescue. ETA: YES! A Raveler came through and sent me a skein of that Homespun I needed for Jen's project. Woot!!

Baby Blanket for MY Baby!

I never thought I would be writing those words!

This is the softest combination of yarns. I had six skeins of the "Wild" that I didn't know what to do with, so this was a great way to use them to soften up the Pound of Love.

METHOD:
Used LionBrand Pound of Love and Moda Dea Wild, using size 15 needles and the pattern "Henry's Fuzzy Wuzzy Baby Blanket" from Ravelry.

The whole thing is just garter stitch, using the two yarns together, and since it's easy, I plan on toting it everywhere, to finish the blanket on time. It's going to be pretty big, to use up as much yarn and to snuggle as much as possible.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. I ended up using almost all four balls and it made for a great size. Kind of lapghan size.
2. This thing is HOT. I think the nylon seals the heat in. It's also pretty heavy, too heavy to be left in the crib, but it might be a good snuggle blanket for the toddler years. I'm leaving it over the edge of the bed as a decoration now, but I can imagine snuggling under it in winter!

What to do; what to do...

So I have a lot of "finishing" to do in the next few weeks, before baby is born. I figure I'd better do it now, or it may NEVER get done! LOL. I have to:

1. finish Jen's poncho
2. sew up my tunic sweater
3. piece together and line (groan) the tiger jacket (this one I may have to put off until I learn the skill of lining, or can get somebody local to help me with it.)
4. finish or decide what to do with the Homespun car coat
5. make the baby Christmas hat
6. make a least ONE set of booties for baby
7. finish the baby's silky blanket (which is basically just about 6 inches of garter stitch away from being done DONE!
8. And I really wanted to make him a panda hat. I hope I still have time.

sigh. I'm also considering some new year's resolutions for the Celtic new year, and for life post-baby.

1. I vow to never buy cheap LionBrand synthetic yarn again. I'm tired of how it squeaks on the needles, I don't like how it pills and comes apart, and I think my time is valuable enough that I should spend it knitting with yarn that feels good and is good quality.
2. I vow to never buy a bunch of yarn just because it's on sale. I have no more room for stashing.
3. I vow to finish the master knitter basics course in 2012.
4. I vow to learn some decent finishing techniques, and really work hard on being careful and patient when I am finishing garments.
5. I vow to learn how to do steeks without panic.
6. I vow to learn how socks can soar on 2 circular needles! (Which should take up a great deal of my sock yarn stash!)
7. I vow to learn how to do cabling and entrelac and ultimately intarsia.

I think I'd like to start at the bottom, and over Christmas work on that entrelac scarf/wrap in Noro Silk Garden. I need to spend my gift cert at KnitWitts, and they have a good variety of colors. (I think I actually dreamed about yarn shopping for that last night! But I was disappointed because all the colors were grey. weird.)

Baby Hat

Stash busting. Made a hat for baby to match Daddy's scarf!

METHOD:
I made this from leftover yarn from Daddy's Dr. Who scarf. I couldn't find dpns in the size I needed, so I sort of rigged up two circulars to do what I needed. It was not an elegant solution, but it worked.

AND WHAT DID WE LEARN?
1. Babies grow like crazy fast, so I don't think he got to wear this but once.