Kitty cat hat

I've been working away on a custom order - large throw version of my daisy blanket - as well as these little critter hats.

My little orange tabby cat is in pieces just like Miss Pig, but I'll eventually get these all sewn up. I'm saving that for last. I also only added one whisker to see how the charcoal color looked. I thought black contrasted too much, and I think I'll stick with this softer look.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We are having unseasonably warm weather, but I'm not complaining!

This little piggy...

I started working on the pig first.

Here she is deconstructed:

I still need to finish her snout and work a sc or hdc band for the bow.

And of course weave in all of those ends... I leave long tails, so that I can sew every together with them. My customer also requested earflaps, so I ditched the scalloped edge in my rendering. I'll add some ties to the flaps after I finish sewing her all together.

(I used Caron One Pound Pink and Black and a mill end light pink I had for the inner ear - name unknown - I used Red Heart Shocking Pink for the bow and edging).

Happy Sunday!

New animal friends

One of my new orders is a request from a very sweet mom up in Maine. Her kids have a few of my blankets already, and she asked if I could work up some new hats. She requested a cat, a pig, an owl and an elephant. Here is the graphic "pattern" I came up with...stay tuned to see how I translate it into yarn!

Long time no blog

I can't believe it's already been a month since my last post! Having a four and five year-old really add to the already hectic holidays. We had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you and yours did too.

I was able to finish up quite a few jobs as well as sneak in a new baby blanket (and another cable hat). This one really makes me yearn for spring. Especially after last week's snowfall. I can't really complain; it's been so mild up until now.

I saw this little fellow outside my window this morning.

He doesn't seem to mind the cold at all. Until next time, stay warm!

Having fun with edgings

Here are some photos of the finished edge of my purple patchwork afghan. Of course I can never follow anything without adjusting it in one way or another...the book calls for a dc base and I did hdc and the picots were ch5 and ch9 - I didn't like how loopy they were, so I trimmed them down to ch3 and ch5 picots. They are more nubby, but I like them that way.

Have a wonderful week!

Scrappy purple patchwork

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I've been so busy these days finishing up some large orders for Christmas, I haven't had much time to spend on new designs or posts to this little blog. I did however get Tillie's costume done for Halloween as well as finish up some works-in-progress including this one:

I started it this past summer! I used mainly end-of-skeins that I pack into little Zip Lock bags I always keep handy (I also use baggies for my snipped tails to stuff projects!) These poor little purple squares were sitting around for too long.

Instead of using my usual go-to edgings - sc/dc or scalloped edge - I've decided to use one of the lovely edges from a new book I purchased: Around the Corner Crochet Borders. Once again, Edie Eckman does not disappoint! I'm so pleased. I've got plenty of border books, but not many that address the corners!

There were so many to choose from, but here's the one I picked.

Stay tuned to see how it turns out...

Tillie the mermaid princess

Halloween has come and gone, but I'm finally getting around to posting a photo of Tillie's finished costume. I started a couple of months ago with a crocodile stitch skirt. I wanted her to be able to walk, so I only went to her knees with the pattern and then created a dc "tail" in the front and back - open at the sides. I thought it was cute enough (to be honest, I ran out of time, so I kept it simple!). I made a little bandeau top and was going to crochet some seashells, but ran out of time, so I put a simple flower on one side. The colors were all chosen by Tillie. I just tried to coordinate for a little consistency! She was so excited to wear it, and that's all that mattered.