Here Come the Dinos!

My first try at embroidering knit! I used the same stencil I used for the orange shirt (see post below) and used duplicate stitch over the knitting to make the dino. I think the dino is slightly off center, but I don't think it's terribly noticable, so I'm not worrying about it. My DS will love it! This is on the seat of the pants, by the way. I threw around the idea of also doing dino tracks around the legs so there's a pattern on the front as well, but I think I'll leave them be. I can always add them later if I want.

Off to knit an i-cord so I can be done with these pants!

(And PS, did a load of purple this weekend. I am very good at dyeing DARK, not so good at light - meaning, I wanted lavender, ended up with regular purple. It looks nice, just not how I was going. So more experimentation needed there)

Fabric Painting!

My Dharma order didn't even sit here for 24 hours, lol. Well, most of it is still white, but this toddler shirt is not!

I did a load of orange last night, this tee and 2 diapers. Then today I sucked up all my courage and dipped the brush in the paint (I have bad luck with paint)

Actually, I did the pink onesie first as practice since I have loads of onesies, and after that turned out well, I did the dino for my DS. I can't wait until it dries so I can wash it and try it on him!



These are the diapers - the orange came out beaufitully! I'm not the biggest fan of orange on a girl, but I have tons of diapers anyway, and wanted to do the orange for my DS...and besides, there will be a cover over it anyway, lol. (So why dye them you ask? Because it's fun and looking at a drawer full of white diapers is so boring)

Anyway, I have tons of ideas floating through my head right now.

And as a final thought, did anyone catch the season premier of Family Guy? Hats off, it was hilarious! Of course, I love Star Wars anyway, but dh and I were both just rotfl...very funny!

Pink Rosebuds on a Dress

Here is my project from today -

Front view

Back view
While I love this dress, it was a royal beeeyyyooottttcch...or rather, my machine was. I am so ready to chuck that thing out the window. I don't know why it keeps flubbing up on me but the bottom bobbin is just acting up constantly. It took me over 2 hours to sew the 6 buttonholes on this dress - something that should be done in 10 minutes, TOPS. I was so mad I ate a whole sleeve of cookies (I know, not the best coping mechanism, but I was MAD). DH's response? "We can't afford another sewing machine. You probably need to clean it out." Maybe I should chuck it at him.

Despite my machine's efforts to thwart me, I did manage to finish the dress in one day and I do love it (although I think it will take me 2 weeks before I don't think about ripping out all those buttonholes again and again every time I see it). I want to make a matching hat or bonnet (haven't decided which), but I don't have the energy to even look at the machine right now. That beyotch is not on my good side.

In other news, my Dharma order came in! Hooray! I didn't think it would make it here until next week, but I opened my mailbox today and to my very pleasant suprise, there was a large polymailer in there full of beautiful white shirts! I have 4 t's for my toddler, a slew of long sleeve t's for the baby (long sleeve t's are very hard to find for infants) and one long sleeve cotton dress that I couldn't resist (plus, I got the price break at 12 articles of clothes and that was just the perfect 12th). I'm currently finishing up dying on of my toddler long sleeve t's and 2 prefold diapers Orange. It's a very dark orange...I was expecting lighter, but oh well. If all goes as planned I will paint a dino on the shirt tomorrow...DS is very into dinos right now.

And from there it will be embroidering matching dinos on the blue longies...

Ahhhhhh, my long long list of projects!

Purplicious Longies

I knitted these purple longies for a friend. They aren't wool since she doesn't use cloth diapers, so I used Caron acrylic...I love how soft it is, and the sheen on the yarn is so pretty.

This hat was in my "partially finished" box so I added ties to it tonight and will send it along with the pants.

I also found this in my "wanted to try this pattern" box. The color had ended up a little girly for my DS and though the arms fit him (yes I tried it on him :P), it's more like a cropped sweater so I'm adding it to the package to send to my friend. Hope she can get some use out of it!
I'm not sure what's next. I think I'll start a pair of adult mocs. I also ordered a nice box of dyable infant and toddler shirts, which should arrive sometime next week. When I get those I'll continue dying diapers and toss some shirts in with the diapers. I bought some fabric paint this week and stencils so I can stencil on the front of the t's.

I've been thinking about how to embroider my blue longies for DS, and I think what I'm going to do is dye a shirt for my DS orange and paint a blue dinosaur on it, then embroider orange dinosaurs on the pants to make a matched set. I'm not dead set on it yet, but that's the tentative plan, anyway.

Ok, off to watch the end of CSI (I can't wait for the season premier next Thursday!) and decide what to work on next!

Baby Blues and BabyLegs Too

Ok, not really BabyLegs, the homemade knockoff variety.





First up are the blue longies I knitted for my DS last week. These have short rows in the tush and a gusset in the crotch. I haven't woven in the ends yet because I think I'm going to try my hand at embellishing them and I'm not sure what I want to do yet, but I figure I'll wait and finish them up then. I also need to add an I-cord but I'm going to wait on that too. I'm still thinking...

And here are my homemade baby leggings. I picked the knee-socks up at WalMart this week, but I wasn't sure how the sizing would run. The smaller 2 pair are from girls Small knee highs and the larger ones are girls Large. I think the small ones might be great for a newborn, but I think the larger ones would probably do just as well, so I'll wait and see before I buy any more. These don't take long at all to whip up - maybe 20 minutes each?

On the needles now: A pair of purple longies made of acrylic for a friend who does not cloth diaper but thinks they're cute :) It's fun designing something for someone else! And after that I plan to embellish the blue longies.

TTFN

Felting Success!

I made a second attempt at the felted mocs this weekend. This time I made them in the child size rather than the toddler. When I finished knitting them they looked HUGE...I was quite worried they couldn't felt up small enough. But I threw them in the washer anyway and when they came out I compared them to one of DS's shoes...they were about the same size as a pair of swim shoes DS had already grown out of! I was sweating bullets, waiting for them to dry, and this morning I had him half dressed when I realized they should be ready to try on (hence he's half dressed in the pics)! They fit great, a little loose, so room to grow! I am very happy with the pattern and can't wait to knit up more of these!

Felting Attempt #1

I will add pics tomorrow after they dry...but I think this one is a pseudo-failure. They DID felt, just a little too much. But I don't consider it a complete failure, because they are still cute and they are still usable, just not by my toddler. Of course, all his shoes are in his room where he is currently sleeping, and as tempted as I am to sneak in and grab a shoe to compare to these mocs, I'd probably wake him up and I'm thinking it just might not be worth it when I can wait until tomorrow morning.

Anyway, I ran them through 2 washer cycles. After the first cycle, they just hadn't felted enough for me - still a lot of stitch definition. So I threw them in again, and when they came out there was no question they had felted, lol. So the question is, next time do I make them in a bigger size and felt 2 cycles, or make the same size and only felt 1 cycle, then maybe finish by hand? Argh, it's easier when it just works the first time.

Here are the prefelted slippers:

Here they are postfelted

I LOVE them, they are maybe 2 sizes too small. But they will be perfect for another toddler. So I guess I'm on to my next pair, trying again to fit my son!

Project #632: Felting

I have made one attempt at felting thus far. It went ok, no big problem. I have a fantastic pattern that I am looking to make several of, and it involves felting. I went to my local yarn store this morning to ask their recc's for felting, and in the course of conversation, they learned I have a front loader washing machine. Oh, the look of horror! According to them, it is extremely hard ot felt in a FL because everything felts fast and you can't check on it. But according to everything I've read online, it usually takes 2-3 washer cycles, so you can check inbetween. What to do? Apparently my lys is in the process of setting up a portable washing machine so customers can come in and felt items in there, so I definitely have that option, but I'd rather do it here myself, kwim? I'm working on a trial pair of mocs now for my DS and I'm planning to felt them here so I guess we'll see what happens...but I will admit, I'm a little nervous.

At least I found out that they'll be happy to let me use their yarn baller to wind up my 950 yards of sock yarn that has been staring at me in it's unwound state. I just cannot bring myself to hand ball that much yarn.

Teensy Tiny Longies

Ok, perhaps my count was a bit off ;) These were supposed to be a size small, but they are far smaller. So now I'm thinking they will make cute pants for a coming home outfit...if they even fit then. But they sure are cute and tiny! I tried to ruffle the bottom using a knitting technique rather than crochet but frankly, the result isn't nearly as nice as crochet so from now on I will stick to the hook for ruffles. I knitted these with short rows and attempted a crotch gusset that I thought worked really well. I used PureWool and they are so incredibly soft.

My new knitting book came in the mail yesterday - woohoo! I bought it for one pattern in particular - the Little Turtle Knits Family Mocs pattern. The book - 100 Knitting Projects - has some other great ideas as well, but I am drooling over the mocs. I started a pair for my DS last night but had to rip them out after I figured out I was knitting the wrong size. Oops. By then it was after 11, so I just went to bed...I will try to start again tonight.

And here's an actions shot of my DS in his new longies. He loves them :) Actually, it's the camera he's having issues with lately. Lovely, just what every mother wants...a child who hates the camera.

Harvest Spice

They're done! These are Large longies for my son to wear this winter. These were also my first attempt at short rows, and they worked great. The back has about an inch extra space to accomodate the tush. I really love the way the yarn self striped, and although the legs don't match color-wise, I like that they are different. Perfection isn't always as interesting, kwim?

I have a lot of this yarn at hand, so next up is a pair of newborn longies to match :) Poor kids, having to match already (can you hear the eyeroll eminating from my husband? He's really not liking the idea).

This wool is a tad scratchier than most I use for baby clothes, but I'm hoping that lanolizing it for use as a diaper cover will soften it up some. Even so, it's not nearly as scratchy as some, and I'm fairly sensitive to wool so if it doesn't irritate me, I don't think it will bother my kiddos. It's Nashua Wooly Stripes (see link below) in Fiesta.

BTW, this is a new pattern for me. I used the Aubrey Doodlepants pattern, and I really enjoyed trying the longies from the top down (usually I do the legs first, then join them and knit to the top). Top down gives some different options as far as the cuff edging on the legs. And while I generally prefer the look of an elastic waistband, I have learned that rib is far stretchier and will accomodate more waist sizes, so until I find a suitable hybrid, I am sticking to rib.

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone. The weather is beautiful here...we went to the zoo today and I knitting the whole hour drive up there - divine!