Found this pattern by Goodknits.com on these super adorable Mary Jane style slippers. The tutorial is for crochet, is beautifully easy and fast and I definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a super comfy, quick and fun project. Either for yourself or as a gift – these are perfect!
In response to a few emails, here is the pattern for my hoodie baby blanket - Please email me if you have any trouble with the directions – this is my first take at writing a pattern so it might be kind of sloppy =o) I even had the courage to add this to Ravelry! Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
**UPDATE** My apologies to everyone for a major oversight in the pattern. The directions on how to begin the hoodie section were missing. I have uploaded a new pdf to both the download link and to Ravelry. Please feel free to email me if the pattern is still unclear, and a special thank you to Turquoise for pointing out the problem to me!
I just want to point out one thing about the ties on the hood: Do not make them long enough to actually tie under the baby’s chin – that would be a hazard and the ties are not intended to be used in this way, they are just there as decoration, and to make the hood a little snugger when needed.
Edit: You can now download my pattern here:
I just finished crocheting the loveliest baby hoodie blanket!
This is one of the many reasons why I love crochet. I started this blanket on Friday night, by Sunday night it was washed and laid out to dry. The blanket is about 24″ square – try that with knitting! While I adore knitting, crochet definitely has it’s moments and fast, beautiful projects like this one are a perfect example.
I saw this hoodie blanket and really wanted to make my own version of it. I wrote the pattern to be crochet instead of knitting, to use more colours and to work outwards from a block. After that I crocheted the hood directly on to the blanket, did one row of openwork for eyelets and ran a braided rope of yarn through.
I used 4 balls of Bernat Satin yarn – it’s 100% acrylic which I don’t normally like to work with but in this case it was perfect. The yarn is soft and silky to the touch and the results are machine washable and dryable, to make care easy for a busy new parent.
Alas, I have no model babies available, but I tried out my pattern on a stuffed toy and I think it’s going to work well. I can’t wait to see what the parents think!
Meet the new baby.
This is the Canon 7D. Swaddled in TFA Grape. Yes, I said swaddled. Because nothing says love like TFA yarn. No Patons cop-out for my camera!
I crocheted a camera cosy. I’m not sure if this qualifies me as uber geek… or just incredibly lame. Maybe they’re the same thing. Nonetheless, I’m pretty proud of my new camera and it’s protective Canon-mitten =oD
There is a reason, besides just reaching for hitherto unheard of levels of crafting madness; it protects her from the elements, and allows me to tuck in a few hand-warmers around the battery casing which extends the life of lithium batteries in the cold. Really – it works. I’m taking her snow shoeing in Tobermory in a few weeks, so I’ll need it.
While I’m at it I’ll give you another little nugget of wisdom – if you’re taking your camera out in elements of dubious merit (rain, rainforest, fog etc.) then do this first: Go to a shoe store, ask them for a bag of the silica gel packs (most stores throw away a ton of these things every day) and pack a bunch of them into your camera case. Even if you’re just moving in from the cold and to a warm room, and you’re worried about condensation inside of the camera body – try this trick.
I can’t take credit for this nugget of wisdom – when I told the people at Henrys that I would be taking the camera canoeing up the Amazon river and did they have any suggestions, they could only (with sad faces), wish me good luck. When I mentioned it casually to someone at Mountain Equipment Co-Op they said ‘Hmmm… I wonder if this would work?’ and took me to the shoe department. Well, that person was a genius and I have them to thank for successfully taking a V.1. Rebel, plastic casing and all, from the Andes to the Amazon with absolutely no problem.
I left openings in the cosy for all important things, like the tripod foot and the dial for changing shooting modes, settings and of course, the shutter button.
The grody little boogly face on the right was given to me (and my 50D) in Madrid by a very nice girl who came up to me at random and gave it to me for good luck. I took some very fine shots in Spain, so I suppose it worked out for me =o) I’ve kept it on the camera ever since.
Many of the cameras other settings are accessed through the back LCD – so I didn’t need to leave anything else free.
It’s quite the engineering feat if you think about it. And yes, I’m talking about the cosy and not the camera, which we can assume is an amazing piece of equipment and which I love dearly. I’ve been a Canon shooter for over 12 years, and this, my latest appropriation, is a pretty damn amazing camera!
My 50D is being gifted to my beautiful friend Yvette, who I’ve known nearly all of my life and who is moving on to new adventures in New Brunswick next month. I can’t wait to see what beautiful work she does with it!
I’ve just completed my very first knitted shawl! The pattern is the Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante. The yarn is TFA Blue Label in Mallard. Thank you Tanis, for the recommendation! This was an ideal first lace shawl – the purl columns as well as the sk2po column make it easy to read your knitting and keep track of where you are.
I wish I had a nicer room to take photos in . Ah well, soon! In the meantime, though I loath the apartment I love the paint colour =o) I wasn’t kidding when I said turquoise was my favourite colour, I could seriously paint every surface in it and be happy.
The shawl reminded me of this silk sundress I have hidden away in the closet. I can’t wait for warm weather, I bet they’ll look great together. Yes, it’s a match made in heaven.
I was able to make the shawl a little bigger by doing 3 repeats of chart A – I have a feeling I could have squeezed in one more repeat – there is still quite a bit of yarn left. One skein of TFA goes a long way! Have I mentioned how much I love the way TFA blocks? It was like night and day, the shawl opened up so beautifully, and the details in the lace became more visible.
This was my very first shawl, crocheted in TFA Blue Label, in Grape. It was also the beginning of my love affair with this yarn. However, at the time I didn’t know much about blocking, and though the shawl was lovely it didn’t fit quite right. After seeing how much change blocking brought about on my Mallard shawl I decided to block this one and see what happened.
It worked like a charm! The lace opened right up and my painstaking beadwork is much more visible. It’s also better shaped, with longer wings. I can’t wait to wear it out!
Santa was very good this year! Among many lovely things (like girls-night-out tickets from my best friend, and lots of gift certificates to the Purple Purl!) I got two absolute killer gifts:
1. Tito got us tickets to see the Lion King! Mufasssaaaaa!!!
2. A yarn swift at last! A lovely wooden umbrella one. In one evening I believe I went through every single skein I had and wound it up. I even ran out of skeins and started re-balling stuff just because it looked messy.
You might notice a small bottle of mezcal amidst my yarn arsenal. There’s a reason for this – and it’s not the one you think! 20 Years ago I was given that bottle by my uncle Len because I was fascinated with the worm in the bottle. Throughout my teenage years many people (including me) were dared to open and drink it, but it never happened (probably a good thing). Now, after all these years I’ve finally discovered the perfect use for it!
See ? I still need to feed the yarn with my left hand a bit, and to keep it from burning, the bottle is just perfect! It shall stay with my swift from now on. Feel free to bite my tequila technique should you ever be in search of the perfect tool for feeding yarn to a ball winder.
I love the way yarn looks when it’s all balled up! These two are both alpaca skeins from Rivendell Alpacas, and were dyed in my first Kool Aid experiments. I can’t believe how nice they look! You’d think I knew what I was doing.
Speaking of mad skillz check out my lovely line up of un-skeined Tanis Fiber Arts yarn – 6 lovely balls of the Sunset colourway – the first ball is halfway though in my first ever sweater! It’s been a while coming; I have a feeling it’ll be ready in time for warm weather ;) It’s a simple top-down cardigan, I’m pretty excited to see how it turns out.
Mmmm… Yarn. I’m such a nerd, but I still can’t wait til the Purple Purl opens so I can go spend those gift certificates on more things to wind up!
My Sensei (Karate instructor)’s daughter is about 3 years old. Now 3 is old enough to have your own deadly assassin ;o) For Christmas I’ve made her a little ninja doll, using the Japanese technique of amigurumi.
Amigurumi (編みぐるみ?, lit. knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. – Taken from wikipedia.
Look at the depth in those eyes! Clearly, they have seen many battles.
All deadly weaponry has been embroidered right onto the body, to avoid creating any choking hazards.
A photo of the work in progress.
She’s a weapon of mass destruction alright, I can already tell.
I couldn’t distract her long enough to take photos with the good camera, but I managed to snap these quickies as she was guarding my windowsill.
I haven’t made many dolls, I’m pretty new to the technique of Amigurumi, but I had a lot of fun doing this and I hope she loves it!
