B now has a new pair of pajamas, sewn in 20 minute stretches over the past several weeks. Or months, but who’s keeping track? I love this pattern; I think it’s because they remind me of baseball uniforms. Seriously cute, without me having to mess with setting in a collar. The pattern is New Look 6131, and I picked up the fabric some time ago at my local Jo-Ann Fabrics store.

This boy grow up much faster than he does out, so I’ve gotten crafty with the bottoms. I added three inches when I cut them out, and made cuffs at the bottom of his pant legs. So, the first time he grows out of them, I’ll simply let the cuff down (they’re simply tacked up at the seams.). That will leave a deep hem, which I can let down for the second growth spurt. I think I’ll be rather lucky if the pants make it that long without getting worn out in the knees. But, he loves them, so I want to make them last as long as we can. Now his brother is asking for a cuffed pair of PJ bottoms, as well.

I have been knitting and spinning a little, and working on a quilt for charity. I’ll have some picture to show you all soon!

Yes, I am still knitting, but it is all socks, and nothing much to show for it. So, I’ll show you a bit of embroidery instead. My kids are knee-walkers and sliders, so I am happy if I can keep one pair of jeans unpatched. I was feeling all spring-like and embroidered a lucky little clover for this one. Unfortunately, after a time through the washer and dryer, the blanket stitch around the outside was trying to shrink like crazy. Maybe I should use doubled sewing thread for around the outside instead of embroidery floss?

Up next is this little guy. When I was on my forced knitting break due to my damaged nerve, I found that I could still hold a sewing needle. I found a clip art owl to trace and embroider. My original intention was to make a small trinket bag out of him, but I’m really not sure what he’s going to be now.

I had quite a hard time trying to find any marking pencil that would show up well on jeans. I finally asked a friend who does this sort of thing what she used, and she recommended washable markers (yes, the kind kids use.) It worked swimmingly, until I tried to wash the owl. In most of the areas, everything went well, but the marker really soaked into the floss in the eye area. All that satin stitching just sucked the ink right up.

I spent a lot of time with paper towels, trying to get all of the ink out. You can still see some in the eyes if you look. If anyone has suggestions for marking on jeans, or for what to do with this little owl, give me a shout. He stands between 5 and 6 inches tall.

In fibery news, a new local yarn shop opened up. I need another project like I need a new hole in the head, but I had to go over and see the new place! It’s a lovely shop (Downtown Knits in Apex, NC) and I walked out with this pretty gradient sock yarn from the Unique Sheep.

If you are going to be near Raleigh next weekend, stop by our 2nd annual Carolina Fiberfest! I’ll be around on Friday and Sunday afternoon, if you want to say ‘hi’. A lot of fun demos and neat vendors are all lined up to go. I can’t wait!

Book covers are another quick gift idea for kids or adults. I just realized that I never shared my first two book covers with you; they were paperback covers for my boys. This particular cover is for a composition book. I hope it will make a nice place for the hopes, doodles, and lofty plans of its new owner, who wants to build and fly airplanes someday.

I used the same basic design as I did for the paperback cover. My brilliant mother-in-law used to sell them in craft shows way back in the 80’s, and she taught me this method. Each cover has a ribbon bookmark sewn in at the top for ease of use.

Since composition books aren’t variable in size, I didn’t have to worry about an adjustable back flap. I sewed pockets on both sides for the cover to slip into.

I decided to go for a magnetic closure for the ‘wow, spiffy’ factor. It really added to the cost of the cover (the closure was about $5.50 at my local fabric store.) My boys each want a cover, but I think I’ll try to find a regular magnet and piece of steel for the next ones. This particular closure has little pointy bits on it, and I’m afraid they will wear through the fabric eventually. If, like me, you are sewing on a metal-bedded sewing machine, please make sure your sense of humor is in place before sewing anything containing a magnet. It helps. Also, if anyone has advice on other ideas for a magnetic closure, or a good source of small, strong magnets, please let me know.

Here’s a quick shot of the inside of the cover. I didn’t bother with a lining fabric, as you don’t see the white of the interfacing when the composition book is in place. I was hoping to put a pen pocket along the spine, but I ran out of time. Birthday presents are like that, sometimes. Hopefully I’ll get it worked out for version 2.0.

Here are the last of the Olivers. Or, rather, I should say the last of the Olivers for a while. This is a nice, simple, attractive pattern, so I’m sure I’ll see it again. These are for J, who picked the glittery, loud yarn from my sister’s stash all by himself (hi, sis!). He adores them, but doesn’t really want to wear them because all that glitter also makes them a bit scratchy. Please note that he’s really sensitive – your mileage may vary.

I got quite a lot of practice in left leaning decreases over these three pair of socks, including a sort I’d never tried before – the ‘slip yank twist knit, or SYTK’ method from TECHknitting. I’ve decided that my personal favorite in stockinette stitch where you’re decreasing every two or three rows is a good old ssk with a twisted knit in the non-decrease row. It’s amazing how well that twisted knit stitch helps to even out the decrease line.

My folded and much marked-up Oliver pattern is currently missing, so I’ll just promise to post my new numbers for the socks when I come across it. You can find my size mods for the first pair of boy Olivers here (same size; yay twins.) I do recall that I made this pair a bit wider, and they could still stand a smidge more room in the width department. John’s man-sized Olivers are here.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Details:

Started:	17 Dec 2009
Finished:	25 Jan 2010
Pattern:	Oliver by Marlowe Crawford. Link to pattern on Ravelry here. It was $7 US when I bought it.
Yarn:	Berocco Sox Metallic.
Needles:	US 1 / 2.25 mm
Notes:	Modifications to make it boy-sized: My kid’s foot is about 7” around and 8 1/8” long – child’s size US 3.5 / EU 35.5. 52 sts. 5” cuff. I’ll add the other details if/when I recover my notes. My Ravelry project page is here.

Painted t-shirts are one of my go-to gifts for kids. They are so easy to tailor for each kid’s taste and level of individual quirkiness. Plus, the time to cut the stencil and paint is short enough that I don’t gasp when the recipient grows out of it in two minutes flat.

For this shirt, I embraced my inner nine year old. What’s better than owning a bearded dragon? Watching it eat lunch! Nom nom nom. Run little cricket, R U N !

You can see some variation in the lizard color on this photo; some of the paint went on a bit thicker, and it really shows up in the photos. In real life you barely see the variation, especially when the shirt is on a nine year old boy who is whizzing past you on a skateboard.

The lizard was done with a freezer paper stencil. I opened out the top of the shirt, put a paper bag inside of it, and stenciled the lizard right around the neck hole – its tail goes right around the back of the shirt. I did have some trouble with fabric buckling around the neckline; next time I will either have separate stencils for the front and back, or just apply it half at a time.

I cut the little crickets out of template plastic (thinner is easier), and then used a repositionable spray adhesive to keep the paint from running under it. The beauty of using a plastic template is reuse – I washed it and flipped it over for the second cricket. Originally I was going to paint more crickets on the back, but I didn’t leave myself enough time.

My arm and hand seem to be getting better, so I should be back to knitting and spinning soon. In the meantime, I’ve been exercising my embroidery skills. Photos soon!

The Oliver sock pattern was such a hit with my husband that the boys caught his enthusiasm. Last Thanksgiving week, I found myself stranded in Ohio with no access to a local yarn shop (it was closed.) Facing a nine-hour drive back to North Carolina sans knitting, I called my sister the day before Thanksgiving, and she agreed to bring over a ball of sock yarn on Thanksgiving so I could work on some plain-Jane socks on the way back home.

I should have anticipated what happened next. After the wonderful chaos that was Thanksgiving, I sat down and was offered not a skein of yarn but a traveling yarn shop to choose from. Both of my boys chose sock yarn from Aunt Karen’s magic bag of yarn and I cast on for these Ollies during the trip. Thanks, Karen!

The yarn has a short repeat, so it was relatively easy to try and match the stripes. The matching came out better than I anticipated – right down to having the heel turn in all blue on each sock! The socks weigh 50g, but I did dip into the second skein of yarn, so buy two if you’re going to do 9 year old kid-socks in this yarn! The first skein made it through one sock and the cuff of the second. There was a little left over, but I thought it was a good place to match stripes for the rest of the second sock.

I am currently working on my third pair of Ollies, which is rather unheard of. I’m not sure I’ve ever knit three of one thing in a row before, let alone six of them. Details are below, as usual. I’ve included changes for whittling down the Oliver to a child’s size.

I wish you and yours a very happy 2010.

Details:

Started:	27 Nov 2009
Finished:	16 Dec 2009
Pattern:	Oliver by Marlowe Crawford. Link to pattern on Ravelry here. It was $7 US when I bought it.
Yarn:	Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards in colorway 56603. It took about a skein and a half to make a child’s size US 3.5 / EU 35.5.
Needles:	US 1 / 2.25 mm
Notes:	Modifications to make it boy-sized: My kid’s foot is about 7” around and 8 1/8” long. 48 sts (will do 52 next time). 5” cuff. Heel worked on 24 sts for 24 rows. Heel turn row 1: s1, p12, p2tog, p1 Heel turn row 2: s1, k3, ssk, k1 Gusset / foot modifications: Work as written through round 13. Round 14: knit. Round 15: Repeat rnd 9. Rnds 16-58: Repeat rnds 13-15. Work the rest as written (would change a bit about where the slant starts next time, to have it closer to the middle) until 1 1/4” from finished length. Work toe: dec every other row until 24 sts left, then every row until 12 sts left. Kitchener. My Ravelry project page is here.

Time for the annual Halloween recap. This year, we had a ghost and a skeleton in our midst.

The ghost costume is about eight layers of tulle put together in the fashion described in this tutorial. However, it looked nothing like the photo. You could clearly see the little ghost’s front, as it came out basically like a cape that covered sides and back. So I took leftover tulle and made about eight layers, enclosing one end in material that could stretch across J’s chest. I sewed one end to his white zippered sweatshirt, and pinned the other end after he zipped the sweatshirt closed. He thought he wasn’t white enough over his legs, but he wanted dark pants so he looked floaty. I whipped up a ‘ghost skirt’ from some stash knit fabric (I have no idea what I originally bought it for) and then snipped the bottom for a rag effect. He giggled, but it did what he wanted it to do. We took this photo right before trick-or-treating. After about 10 minutes, we figured out that he had the cape on inside out – the fabric actually floated around more than this as he walked around, and away from the porch lights he did look rather like he was floating. Spooky!

The skeleton costume is simply paint and a black sweatshirt and sweatpants. I tried glow-in-the-dark paint, but it wasn’t showing up. Two coats of the white fabric paint did the trick! For this costume, I sketched out skeleton bits on paper, cut a stencil with an xacto knife from thin template plastic, and then affixed the stencil to the fabric with re-positionable adhesive. B and I painted the bones with foam brushes. The skeleton actually lines up well – he’s all fractured here because he was running about like a maniac and had twisted his shirt a bit.

Another year done! Next year, I need to start in August.

We’re well into the rhythm of summer around here. Lazy mornings, no school, games, lego, reading, and a little crafting jumble together with camping trips, visitors, and finding ways to avoid the muggy heat (thank you, central air!)

My latest finished project is this scrappy baby quilt. When I look at it, I see bits of things I made for my own kids scattered throughout, which is an extra layer of fun just for me.
This is from the Quilt in a Day series of books, though that title is laughable from my point of view – this project was started the same year this blog was. Three years ago.

As my first all-machine pieced and quilted quilt, this little gem has more mistakes than I can count. No, I’m not telling. This year, I’m concentrating on finishing things. My thought is that something imperfect but done can be loved far more than something perfect but unfinished.
So far, so good – the tyke that received this ocean quilt loves it. It’s been gone out of my hands less than 24 hours and it’s been napped with, shown to Daddy, and used as a playmat while playing games. I’m pretty sure he’s not looking at the crooked stitching.

Details:

Started:	Jul 2006
Finished:	22 Jul 2009
Pattern:	Spider Web Scrap Quilt from Scrap Quilt: Strips and Spider Webs by Marcia Lasher.
Materials:	100% woven cotton fabric. Scraps left over from kid hats, shirts, vests, curtains, a picnic quilt, and I Spy Quilts. New fabrics were added to complete it (white sailboat print, backing, and some of the sea prints.) Cotton batting is Quilters Dream Cotton, Request (thinnest loft) from Kelsul, Inc.. Cotton-covered polyester thread (Coats Dual-Duty).
Notes:	Finished quilt size: around 42″ square. Machine applied the entire binding. Originally bought binding, but couldn’t figure it out and made my own. You Tube has a lot of binding application tutorials. Of the ones I saw, my favorite is this one. I also used a booklet I had at home, Happy Endings: Finishing the Edges of Your Quilt by Mimi Dietrich.

Somewhere in the bowels of my mother’s house lies yards of carefully folded blue fabric, half cut into a prom dress that never fully materialized. She had the best of intentions when she started the project, just as I did on the many projects that languish in my own home.

This one was never completed, and I’m aiming to finish this one in time for the little tyke’s third birthday. Ahem.

That said, this weekend I polished off a pint-sized pair of procrastination PJ’s that particularly please me. My sis started this pair of jammies for her eldest, now almost a teenager. He grew too fast, and somehow her second son blew by them, too. She gave them to me over a year ago (two? I’ve lost count) when my boys were still ridiculously small for them. She is wise. They languished in a bag for a long time, came out for a weekend of quick sewing, languished again… repeat as needed. They’ve been complete but for their buttonholes and buttons for over a month. It’s crazy! I finished them up this weekend, and I think they’re cute as can be. They are reported to be “comfy!”

Earlier this year I wrote down every half-finished project I have that I have any intention of finishing. The list isn’t quite so bad as I thought it would be – thirteen projects, two of which have since been completed. If the list is smaller every year, I’ll be happy.

Details: Started: Who knows when?! Finished: 18 Apr 2009 Pattern: Simplicity 6131 size 7 Fabric: Gifted flannel. Notes: Buttons are La Mode, 5/8″ (16mm) Style 33550. Three left over for the button jar.

Meet Knitty Kitty – so named by one of my sons, and gifted last Christmas to an exuberant toddler. If you’re looking for a baby-safe easy knit that can stand up to some serious loving, this pattern may be for you.

Everything on Knitty Kitty is knit flat and then seamed, and it’s all stockinette. All color changes are at the edge, so no need to get fancy with the one-yarn-in-each-hand trick. I just carried the unused yarn up the sides, and left all of the niggly ends inside with the stuffing. Easy peasy!

This pattern is so forgiving that I ended up using two different weights of yarn (it was what I had on hand), and it worked out just fine. Just be sure that you attach the arms, legs, and tail to the correct end of the cat. It’s no fun to go to embroider the ears and find out that the whole thing is upside down. Or so I’ve heard. Ahem.

Knitty Kitty currently resides in a posh crib, where he’s been known to wake up his new bud from his afternoon nap. “Knitty Kitty woke me up. He was being pouncy.”

Details:

Started:	10 Dec 2008
Finished:	21 Dec 2008
Pattern:	Knitted Cuddlies by Louisa Harding. Ravelry link to pattern page. The pattern also has variations for a teddy bear and rabbit. This pattern is free, though you need to sign up for the Knitting Daily website to download it (also free.)
Yarn:	Knit Picks Merino Style (DK) in color Hawk (dark gray), adn Lion Brand Wool Ease (worsted) in Gray Heather.
Needles:	US6 / 4.0mm trusty old straight aluminums.
Notes:	Features embroidered with the same yarn I used to knit him with. He’s stuffed with ‘Airtex premium’ polyester fiberfill. Ravelry link for this project.

Here you can see the back and tail… and my cat checking out the competition.