More Hats!

I've been having way too much fun with hats lately.  After my last post about hats, a friend of mine commissioned* a bunch of newborn and toddler hats.  In trying to get sizes right, I ended up making a few more, but I figured that was fine, I'd just keep them for myself to give away.  I have plenty of people I wanna make hats for anyway.  But she loved them so much, she bought them all.  My favorite is the pink one in front.  Hence why it's in front.  :)  You can see that there are a coupla hats that are exactly the same except size.

I want to start making adult hats, too, so I started by making me one.  Because, let's be honest, if I'm making all these hats, I certainly deserve one for myself.  My first attempt was a ridiculous failure.  It's still sitting in my crochet bag, mourning its sad existence.  Next time I need that yarn I'm just going to rip it all out.  It's that bad.  But that's what I get for just trying to make it up.  So I went and found a pattern and ended up finding this one. It's probably the hardest thing I've ever crocheted.  Mostly because I couldn't figure out the pattern.  (And looking at the comments, I wasn't alone.) But once I figured out the pattern, it got pretty easy.  It's also super thick because the pattern on top is basically on top of a layer of hat underneath.  Which, hopefully, will keep my ears nice and cozy warm all winter. (Note BJ in the background finally getting around to playing Zelda: Twilight Princess. I think he got it for his birthday.  In March. He's just been so busy programming!)

Front:

Top: 

And then tonight I finished another hat for Jeri (the friend who bought all the hats).  Ok, it looks kind of funny laying down by itself, but the lighting on Photobooth was horrible and you couldn't see the pattern in the stitches or the color at all.  Maybe when Jeri comes to get it I'll make her pose for a picture.  Haha.  I'm kind of proud of this one because I made up the pattern as I went.  It's all based off other hats I've made with patterns, but I've never been able to convert into an adult hat.  Today I had a brain wave and this is the result:

*If anyone else is interesting in purchasing a hat, I charge $10 for newborn, $12 for toddler and $15 for adult.  (Except that fancy shmancy cream-colored one I'm charging $18 for because of the difficulty and because it uses about twice as much yarn.)  I can customize colors.

Thanks!

It all started a month or so ago at our last Relief Society meeting that was done much like Homemaking of yesteryear.  We made cards and Boo Blocks.  (3 blocks with scrapbooking paper and the letters B-O-O modge podged on.)  And I realized that although I'm not really crafty, I really enjoy being crafty.  (I know some of you are scoffing at that statement because of the hats I've been making, but that's a different genre of crafty that I'm talking about.)

It continued when I went to Roberts the other day to get some yarn and they had a table set up of Christmas crafts and instructions of how to make them.  A couple of those crafts mixed with my desire to have some sort of Thanksgiving decor.

The result?  I was crafty!


Like, I came up with the idea (not the idea of how to do it, but the specific idea of my craft), I picked the word (creative, I know), I picked the paper (probably the hardest part), the paint and splurged on modge podge.  Who knew I'd someday own that stuff?  I did all the work, made all the mistakes, and learned all the lessons.

The result?

What do you think?  How'd I do on my color/pattern choices?

Impromptu Photo Shoot

Recently I noticed that my favorite pictures of Kessa are the close-ups.  So when she was being cute, I grabbed the camera and played.  Here are some of my favorites:

And now one just for fun.

She loves our Wii Remotes.  A lot.

Hats!

I realized the other day as Kessa and I were going out to the library that it was cold and Kessa didn't have any hats anymore!  The ones I made her last year were now WAY too small.  So I started poking around on Ravelry to find some toddler hats.  My first attempt failed miserably.  It looked more like a little pink China hat.  Y'know, like these:

So I kept looking and found a promising pattern.  I pulled out my brown yarn (because it just matches so much!) and tried again.  Success!  It was filled with big stitches for most of it, like hdc and dc so it went a lot faster.  At first Kessa didn't want to wear it when I put it on to make sure it fit, but after I showed it to her in the mirror, she loved it and wore it for most of the day!  She loves looking out our bedroom window and I loved the leaves in the background with her hat and sunflower (which I made awhile back).  Isn't it cute?

 And then BJ told me that his coworker's baby was having a birthday party that night.  Of course, by the time he got home and we ate dinner, it was way too late to go.  So we watched Planet Earth while I crocheted another hat, this time in red.  And then I decided to make a flower to go with it.  I had to play with the pattern to make the various sized flowers and totally made up the circle in the center, but in the end, I was quite pleased.  Part of me really didn't want to give it away.  It's just too cute and festive!  Haha.  Guess I'll just have to make another one for Kessa!

It has begun

Which, btw, makes covering a garden for frost and picking all the things you can't save really difficult and cold.  It was like reliving childhood (well, the gardening portion).  Except I was doing it willingly.

Uncle DelRoy

Uncle DelRoy was diagnosed with brain cancer earlier this year.  It's been a very long and hard road for his wife, Alease and his family.  But he's improving a little at a time.  Before my parents went to the MTC, DelRoy and Alease came to visit between Conference sessions.

Here's my mom and DelRoy.  They have always gotten along fabulously.  My mom likes to tell us kids that the two of them have never fought.  Ever.  I think she liked to try to convince us that it was possible for siblings not to fight and that we should be like them.  We figured that we'd all already fought, so we'd ruined our chances already.  :)

Dad and Alease, on the other hand, make up for Mom and DelRoy not fighting.  They have a relationship full of playful dislike.  Even when Dad was coming out of the anesthetic after his triple bypass, Aunt Alease came in and said hi and he responded with something like, "Oh no!  What are you doing here?!"  When he fully woke up, he didn't even remember her coming in.  But we all secretly know that they really enjoy each other's company.  And now we have proof!  Here they are hugging for a picture.  See?  Dad even is squeezing her shoulder and pulling her in!  We caught them hugging like that when they said goodbye and we pulled out the cameras.  Dad didn't want to redo it for a picture.  He tried very hard to get out of it saying that it'd end up on the Internet and everyone would see it!  Well Dad, you were right.  :D

Handprints

Jalin and I had the brilliant idea to make Mom and Dad a tablecloth out of a sheet for their mission, with handprints of all their kids and grandkids.  When Jalin spent the week with me we put all the names of kids and grandkids in crossword form on it, using freezer paper.  We added the handprints while we were all at my parents' house.

Here we have Jalin being the mean big sister and pushing me!  Or rather, pushing my hands into the tablecloth to get all the paint off my hands and onto the fabric.  Whatever.  (And Spencer in the background wearing his Eric the Half-a-bee hat that Travis gave him out of his box of stuff.)

Ahhh!  My hands are bleeding!!!!

And me returning the favor and pushing Jalin's hands.  Bwahaha. 

Her hands are bleeding, too.  But she seems happy about it.  Weirdo.  ;) 

Kim also had bleeding hands.  What crazy people we are!

BJ apparently did just fine all by himself.  He doesn't need any big sisters to push him around.  And since his hands were blue afterwards, we didn't take a picture of his bleeding hands.