Babies, knitting names, and used book sites!

Hello Knitters!

As seems to be the case lately my week was a tad crazy! My sister Karra's week however has been quite a lot more crazy! She had her perfect baby boys last week, and after getting her permission I get to show off their sweet baby faces! Are they not the sweetest little things! I may be a tad biased on the whole situation, but oh my goodness I just want to kiss them!

Born at 35 weeks, she unfortunately has not been able to take a little loves home just yet. Something I imagine to be one tough situation. While her biggest baby, Grant, is doing perfectly well and is no longer in NICU, her smallest, Bennett, is having a little bit tougher time adjusting to the outside world.

He had finally gotten to the point where he didn't need a heater to help regulate his body temperature when the little man stopped breathing for 20 seconds. That doesn't sound like a very long time in the gist of things, but last night as I lay in bed worrying, as I do, I realized that 20 seconds is a very long time to go without breathing even for an adult, and I presume that it would be even worse for a tiny not even 5 pound baby. This little stunt of his understandably booked him another week at least stay in the hospital.

Karra is one of the strongest people I know. It makes me teary eyed a bit to think about how much I admire my sister. She is my best friend, and a younger sister all rolled into one. We joke about how we are like each others mother as well. We take care of each other. It's what we do.

Any way you may be asking, what Kyla does this have to do with knitting? I swear it does. My sister brought something to my attention while we were talking over the phone.  Apparently in the NICU they provide knitted or crocheted hats to the babies, but there is a clear shortage of hats and blankets for boys!

While I don't see anything wrong with a little pink on a boys hat, if you think about it, even babies have personalities at birth, and some times you just want a little blue hat for your little one. So I felt like I should bring this to the attention to all you charity knitters out there. While yes it's a lot of fun to knit little girl items and boy does it sometimes feel like there are more knitting patterns for girls than boys, lets not forget the boys too! I know I'll be knitting up some boy hats and sending them up there as soon as I can!

Speaking of little hats, my sisters boys are identical and after seeing this picture I was inspired to knit them little hats with their names on them!

Now this is not something I've done before so after some research and a lot of time spent trying to graph out different letters on plain paper.

It quickly became clear I needed some sort of graph paper, so I ran to Joann's and found graph paper that quilters use. It was exactly what I needed.

Let me tell you, It's not always easy to think in squares! It took me quite some time to get it right! However I finally got to a place where I was pleased with the end result. I actually plan on making quite a few more patterns this way. 

As you can see Bennett is missing the last two Ts, I promise they are there, they just had to be added to another piece. While I could have just popped the two Ts above, I'm a very visual person and needed to make sure that everything matched up.


After all that work I was terrified that it wouldn't work out once I actually applied it to real knitting, so I quickly cast on my stitches made a brim and knit Grant's name into it.

Oh my gosh I was so relived when it came out the way it did! I only just got the name and brim done this morning and I'm so excited to finish the hat and go on to Bennett's! I plan on getting these done by next week! So hopefully next week's post will show them finished and done!

Before I end this post, I wanted to bring another awesome site to your attention. It's not exclusively a knitting site, in fact it's a book site. A used book site in fact.

Thrift Books is a wonderful place to find inexpensive knitting books! I swear I have nothing to do with them in anyway, I just wanted to share the good news!

I was able to get five knitting books this last week shipped to me and it only cost me $18. That's amazing! Yes the books are used, however I've never gotten a book from Thrift books in bad shape, and if you love knitting books the way I do, you know that $18 is usually around the cost of just one!

Most of the books I bought were under $4, with one under $5! I think that's an amazing deal, especially if you're like me and love having a book splayed across your lap while you knit away. I have a feeling my knitting library is going to grow by leaps and bounds because of this site!

Until next time! Happy knitting!

  

Knitted Ear Warmer

Hello Knitters!

I'm sorry this week post is a few days late! My sister had her babies this weekend at 35 week along! Two sweet little identical boys came into our lives! i would post a picture, but I'm honestly not sure how my sister would feel about that and nephews or not, I don't think it's my place to post it. Though I do so reluctantly because they are so adorable!

I also had to finish some knitting and sewing for an order I received this week! In all the excitement and being so busy in my free time I simply forgot to post! So again I'm sorry

Since I've been so busy this week, I wasn't able to have time to do very much of my own knitting, which I have a quite a lot of to do it seems.

However when I did get a chance my daughter did her best to help! Miss little is taking off  development wise and is becoming quite the cute handful and always wants to be the center of attention. I have conquered this little hurdle by incorporating her into my knitting if I have too. As you can see this is easier said then done!

Honestly though she absolutely love sitting on my lap and watching me knit. She was entranced by it, well until she wasn't any more. You can only expect a five month old to watch knitting for so long, but I'm secretly hoping that this will some how make her want to knit in her future! My boys already want to know, especially my oldest, but he tends to lose interest pretty quickly, but he has some basics down, so I have hope that he will eventually take off with it. You never know!

Any way, I did get my order finished, a sweet little elephant that I'm pretty please with, however I think I may not want to do made to order orders anymore. I had two this week, one crib sheet, which I won't go into too much detail since this is a knitting blog and not a sewing blog, and that elephant. I enjoyed making both, and there wouldn't have been a problem had life not gotten in the way! However that's the joy of life, letting it get in the way!

This elephant gave me quite a bit of trouble and took a lot of coffee to complete, but he came through eventually and now he's ready to be sent off to the East coast!

I do love how they turn out, they are super cute! All my children have their own and I think except for crib sheets and mittens, I get asked to make these for people more than anything else!



I did also make a headband, I apologize the pictures are not all that amazing. It's a simple ear warmer/ headband, easy and knit in the flat! I made it to cover my ears when I take the boys to the bus stop in the morning when it gets cold! 



It's a pretty simple knit! I'll post the pattern below for you!

This week has been absolutely crazy, but also very productive so until next time knitters! As always feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!







  

Cabled Ear Warmers

With US size 7 needles, using bulky yarn of choice. Cast on 20 Stitches in cast on of choice.

1st row- Knit 3, purl 3, knit 8, purl 3, knit 3
2nd row- Purl 6, knit 8, purl 6

Repeat these two rows 4 times ending on purl row

 9th row - knit 3, purl 3, slip 4 stitches to cable needle, leave in front, knit 4 stitches from back needle, knit stitches from the cable needle, purl 3, knit 3

Repeat row 1-9 10 times, or as to fit your own head.

Knit last row once. Do not cast off. Kitchener stitch your live stitches to other end, this creates a seamless look




 

A wonderful website

I'm going to mention a wonderful site called Raverly.com.

You can find quite a few patterns for both knitted and crocheting and while I don't crochet very often, because I'm terrible at it, the knitting patterns I have found have been great! 

While you do have to pay for some of them, you can find quite a lot for free. I have found Raverly a absolute staple in my knitting journey and you can find everything from children knits to knitted rug patterns, to dog sweaters, to socks, It really is one of the best sites I have found so far to find patterns made by others as well as patterns that are published. You also can publish patterns if your so inclined to do so.

Here is a lovely link to one of my favorites called Recipe For a Rustic Jacket pattern by Mona NicLeoid, and it's free too!

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/recipe-for-a-rustic-jacket

I have a real and immense love for cables, as you will see in my knitting, and if I can find one for my boys I'm in heaven. 

I do believe this can be for both boys and girls and it can be fitted to anyone, which means if you are the daring sort, you can create one for everyone in your family. 

Can anyone say family pictures!

The pattern is quite detailed though nothing like any other pattern I have encountered, and is in fact is a tutorial with detailed pictures and it walks you through every step, and includes pictures and very detailed instructions on how to create the perfect jacket. 

You do need at least basic knowledge of how to knit and purl, as well as how to cable, (Which if you have never done a cable pattern, is much simpler than it looks) I think a beginner with that kind of basic knowledge under their belt shouldn't have too much trouble with it, and it gives you room to experiment and create the perfect jacket for the little boy in your life!  

 I hope you enjoy this pattern as well as ravelry.com, and if you are any thing like me, I apologize in advance for the many hours you will waste discovering new patterns there, though not for the many projects you will enjoy creating!