Nine Months of Crafting: Tiny Kimono Shoes

(Jordynn here). Okay, so this is a sewing project, not a knitting project, but I wanted to share these little shoes I made. You can see they aren't perfect--the seams are kind of lumpy. I think that's due to 

a) the bulky layers I stitched together--the shoes include a muslin liner, outer fabric, and fusible interfacing for stiffness. 

b) the fact that I hand sewed them, as my machine is on the fritz

c) the difficulty of turning all those layers inside out after stitching 

But, I think they are cute and they happen to match a little outfit I got as a shower gift. I have no idea if the size will be right or if they will stay on her little feet, but they were fun to make with my sewing friend, S. 

I used this free pattern to make the shoes. Maybe it is because I am a novice sewer, but I found this pattern confusing but just kept following the steps, and wound up figuring it out. This has been the story for most of my sewing projects thus far: I'm always skeptical that things will turn out right, until they do (mostly). It was a bit unclear how to pin and sew the top of the shoe to the bottom, especially since I wanted the colors to be mirrored, but I figured it out. I might make this again, in a polar fleece or something that won't require interfacing.

Nine Months of Crafting: Nursery Artwork

(Jordynn here). The artwork for the baby's room is mostly DIY, except for the two owl paintings (above the shelves), which I found at TJ Maxx. 

My mom and I collaborated on this bird painting, which is above the crib. First, we used art tape to lay out the wire lines on the canvas, and then she painted the the background using acrylics, while I cut out the bird shapes from scrapbooking paper. After arranging the birds, I used Mod Podge (best craft item in the world) to affix them to the canvas, and then coated the whole thing with more Mod Podge. Finally, my mom drew on the feet with a silver marker. 

The ABC pictures are also made with scrapbooking paper. I just downloaded letter and animal shape silhouettes and traced them onto paper.
















Then, I used (you guessed it) Mod Podge to attach them to the background paper, and went over the whole thing again with Mod Podge.

I kind of think they should be in bigger frames, and not so high up from the dresser. But, since I'm using that as my changing area, I guess they should be out of reach for practical reasons. Still, I think they look cute, and it was an easy and quick craft to do.

FO (Mostly): Nursery

(Jordynn here). So I have about 3 weeks to go (give or take) and the nursery is pretty much in order. There are lots of DIY projects here, so I thought I'd post an overview today and then go into more detail in subsequent posts.

The inspiration for the nursery colors came from a stack of quilts and blankets (some of which you can see below). My mom made the two red quilts for the nursery my sister and I used as babies, and she crocheted the white blanket to take us home from the hospital. (Peapod will be going home in the same blanket.) The pink, blue, and green blanket was my well-loved "Kanky" as a kid. I also have my husband's yellow, blue, and green blanket (not shown) in the stack. I thought it would be nice to use these to create a gender neutral nursery, along with some other things I'd collected--my "Abby" doll (the Raggedy Annie shown on the shelf, which my mom also made), some vintage Fisher Price toys, and some other items (like the vintage pale blue fan on the shelf, which I got at a thrift store back in grad school). I wanted a vintage-meets-modern feel to the room.


Aside from the crib, which was a gift, I didn't have to purchase any of the furniture shown here, although I do have a comfy rocking chair on order.  I've had the shelves since my first graduate school apartment, and the dresser came from a thrift store and was previously in the guest room. It was originally a walnut color, but my mom and I painted it white for a cleaner look. I love how it fits in the nursery. The Ikea rug came from eBay. I was a bit unsure of it at first, but I think it ties everything together nicely.

The yellow rocking chair shown in these pictures came from an old farm house and used to be in our basement. I gave it a coat of yellow paint a few years ago. It may or may not stay here when the new comfy chair comes in, or it might get a new coat of paint.

The red lamp came from a thrift store and has been around since grad school--it's been a living room piece, an office lamp, and is now in the nursery.


I've already blogged about the blue Connect Four blanket shown above, and the Peapod Pouf that I made.

The projects I'll blog about next week:

1) A DIY "Boppy" type pillow (shown on the yellow rocking chair)
2) The ABC artwork shown above the dresser
3) The blue bird painting (a collaboration with my mom), above the crib

I've also got a few other little crafty projects to post about soon.

Nine Months of Knitting: Peapod Hat

This little hat was a quick knit, and it turned out well!

I wanted this to be a bit smaller than the pattern called for so I can put it on Peapod in the hospital instead of those gross grungy hats they give you. So instead of the original cast on amount, I cast on 63 stitches and then followed the pattern as written.

I used Lion Brand Martha Stewart Crafts Extra Soft Wool Blend (that's a mouthful!). I actually quite like this yarn--it is soft, but has wool for body.

More knitting and crafting projects coming soon. 41 days of knitting left!

Nine Months of Knitting: Three Little Sweaters

So, I am nearing the home stretch, in my 33rd week of pregnancy, and I'm finishing up some projects for the baby, knitting and otherwise. Here are three little sweaters that I've made for Peapod (who still doesn't have a name!).

They are, from left to right: Garter Yoke Baby Cardi (in yellow), Tiny Tim sweater (in blue-green), and a new sweater pattern that I made to match the Bibendum booties I posted about last time.

First, the Garter Yoke Cardi. I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, which I love for baby knits. The color, maize, matches a little onesie I bought a while back for Peapod. I'll be sure to post photos when she grows into this--about a 6-12 month size. I added multicolored buttons in red, yellow, and green.

     I used these instructions from Chronicles of Yarnia for adding a hood to the sweater, and I decided to just knit the whole thing in garter stitch because I wanted a nice, cushy, textured sweater. For more details, see my Ravelry post.

The quilt in the background is from my nursery when I was a baby--my mom made it! I love it.

Next is a Tiny Tim sweater, which I have made three times before. This time, I made it as a cardigan. To do so, I just built in a garter stitch placket, adding buttonholes about every 8 rows.

I still love the back of Tiny Tim, and I love the stitch definition of the (now discontinued) Moda Dea Washable Wool that I used for this sweater. This was a stash yarn that I've had on hand for years! More info on my Ravelry page.

Finally, for the Bibendum sweater I used the same organic cotton from Lion Brand that I used for the booties. I think Katie gave me this yarn years ago. It is finally getting used up for these little projects.

This is a simple top-down sweater, using a garter stitch pattern similar to the top of the Bibendum booties. I'll post a full pattern soon! For now, here's my Ravelry project page.

You can see that the nursery is coming along.  I chose a multi-colored, gender neutral color scheme because we are planning on having at least one more baby, and I happen to love these bright colors over the somewhat sickly pastels that seem to be popular for nurseries. Here's a work-in-progress photo:

You can see that I've made a few art projects, too, which I will post about soon.

Nine Months of Knitting: Little Booties

These little booties are from the pattern Bibendum, which is free on Ravelry.  

I made them using some Lion Brand Organic Cotton in neutral to go with some of Peapod's newborn size outfits. The pattern is easy and the booties look like they might actually stay on. We'll see how well they do on actual newborn feet!

Here they are before I added ribbons: 

For more details, see my Ravelry page. 

Apparently It's a Moth-Party

So, I pulled out another shrug to wear today and was horrified to find more moth holes.

But not just one or two. FIVE. FIVE moth holes. In one sleeve. Someone had a moth-party on my sweater. Apparently Cascade 220 is just DELICIOUS.

Moth-Party! Wee-Hee! Sigh. 

I'm going to try to salvage the sweater because I love it and because I am a very stubborn person.

Here's another hole. There are two more I'm not showing you. You've seen enough.

Here's the shrug. It's called Dalloway. It's one of my own designs, and you can download it from Ravelry.

Yes, I'm wearing a nursing tank-top in this photograph. Wow, that was a long time ago.

Anyways, I didn't notice the holes at first because the darn thing is covered in eyelet lace. But now I'm sitting in a cafe and every time I look at my sleeve I want to scream. Stupid moths. 

- Katie Rose (keeping it together, not screaming, blogging instead)