Sheep Blanket for Orlando

When I found out that my cousin was pregnant and that the baby's room had a farm style theme, I remembered this wonderful afghan I saw in Family Circle Easy Knitting Fall 2004 magazine. It was the first blanket I had ever knit. I had never changed yarn color in one project, carried yarn on the back side or dealt with different textures. It was way more complicated than I could have ever guessed, but I learned so much along the way.



I worked with llh tara yarn for the apple green color. It's a lovely Cotton/Nylon blend. It slid along the needles like slightly bouncy butter. The black and white yarns were from the back room of the store; no label, no information. They were fuzzy and slippery all at the same time. I wish I had some reference point for those two yarns; I'd like to work with them again.

To my utter surprise, the sheep blanket took two years to make! I may have gotten in over my head in my first knitted afghan endeavor. Now that Orlando is 18 months, it is finally done! Congratulations on your baby boy, Happy First Birthday, and Happy Thanksgiving all rolled into one.

Hat for Jillian

This is a version of the Cupcake Hat found at Slumberland.org. The site has wonderful pictures of the hat, the pattern is in pdf form, and the author can accept paypal donations for the pattern she created.

I made this little hat for another new little cousin-to-be, Jillian. Her room is pink, chocolate brown and tan with a bit of apple green.

I made mine on US #7 needles because I used Caron Simply Soft worsted weight yarn. The flower pattern, in particular, gave me a little trouble in comprehending the pattern. The first flower was an absolute disaster. After making a mess of the first one, I understood what the instructions were and it turned out to be the most fun part of making the Cupcake Hat.

Since I used a vastly different yarn, my pictures don't look exactly like the hats from the original pattern. Actually, my hat resembles the little pink jellyfish from Finding Nemo.

Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh

I got this book from the library and found that it wasn't the exact amigurumi I had hoped to knit. It's nice to try a book out before spending money on it.

The animals, mythical creatures, veggies and fruits were all cute, but not quite what I was looking for. I think size is my biggest concern. I'm looking to make tiny crafts; something smaller than my hand.

It turns out that some of the introductory information in this book was of more help to me than the patterns.

1. Washability. I always get absorbed by the color and texture of yarn and often consider whether it can be machine washed after I have already started a project. Is this amigurumi going to be a keepsake or a toy?

2. Resilient Fiber. Soft, silky fibers don't hold their shape like wool. Wool and wool blends hold a three-dimensional shape a lot longer than other fibers with less elasticity. It's a choice of 'hugging' over 'draping' yarns.