Hat for a New Baby...

And she couldn't wait to get here!

I was invited to a Sprinkle this Saturday for my friend Sharon's daughter.  She was expecting a fourth child, but her older daughter is over 10 -- maybe 11?  Then she had two boys, widely spaced due to unfortunate circumstances. 

Sprinkles are kind of mini-showers, for moms who already have babies but maybe they're having a girl when they've only had boys, or it's been a while and they gave all their stuff away or whatever.  I'm sure you can google it and find out all sorts of things about them.

The new baby was due in April.  Poor mom, she didn't look like she'd make it according to reliable sources.  You know that last month if you've had a child.  It can be agony, you're tired and feel ungainly and cranky.  And then if the baby is big, or if you are, it's worse.  I remember the last six weeks before the birth of my daughter -- ugh!  Not well of course because you block those memories or no one would ever repeat the process.

Anyway, this little family loves Disney... cruises probably annually, and has a great time doing it. 

I was recruited to crochet a little hat.  The patterns are free at the blog RepeatCrafterMe (and I'm sure other places too but I picked this one).

How cute is that??!!  The pattern called for little white buttons, which I would not sew on something for an infant no matter HOW secure I thought they'd be sewn.  I used circles of white fleece instead.  Besides now it's completely soft and still washable.  They're sewn on with big stitches and four thicknesses of white thread.

The directions are good, the patterns are sized for many heads, small to large, and the variety is just what any kid would want.

That's my aunt Sonya peaking through the ears...  Hi Sonya!

Baby could not wait another month and she arrived last night.  Happy Birthday!

Now to finish up a matching dress before Saturday... oh, and I'm working on a Ninja Turtle for her brother.

Sew on!

Getting Things Done

I'm feeling very proud of myself today... not for anything I've done so far, but I got some UFOs cleaned up over the weekend.

I got my taxes done and filed.  What a relief!  Not because I'm getting a refund, but because it's done and I'm getting a refund and I'll stop getting those "what are you doing that's not doing the taxes??" look from DH when I'm sitting down with my knitting tonight.  Whew!

I also got some of my yarn inventory organized and entered into Ravelry.com in My Stash in My Notebook.  Not on Ravelry?  Why not, it's free and you can access it from your tablet while in your local yarn store so you don't buy things twice.  Or three times.  Ask me how I know this!

I bought some yarn bins that hand from the closet rods and I filled up two completely without making much of a dent in the closet they're hung in.  What filled them was the stash that was shoved into nooks and crannies in other places.  I thought to myself, at least it's now all in one spot.  But it was still kind of helter skelter so I ordered two more.  They came Friday and I filled those two in no time at all.  But now I can see the floor in front of the yarn closet!  :-)

I always buy a new white tee shirt every spring.  This year the ones at Kohl's were on sale and such lovely fabric I also picked up a red one and a black one.  But they had round necks.  Ugh!  Not my style, and usually too tight for my comfort. 

So I changed two of them to vee necks and one to a scoup neck.  First I did a row of stay stitching just a couple of threads above where I wanted the new neckline to be.  Then I cut the shirt's original neckline about 3/8 of an inch above that line.  The fabric was nice so it was pretty easy to just flip over the seam allowance and stitch it down. 

 

 

I wish I had found this picture sooner -- this is a rough estimate of where a necklace of various lengths will fall... it would have helped with the total neckline measurement.  I like to be in about the 20 inch range.

 

I also shortened the sleeves on a sweater I've had for about 10 years.  (I know, what took me?)  I had them folded up for years.  Sometimes I'd try to push them up but there was so much extra fabric there, I felt like Popeye...  I cut off the end four inches.  Since it's a knit and probably from the cuff up, nothing raveled.  I zigzagged the edges and turned them up to the now nearly permanent fold line.  Then I did two rows of the straight stitch for knits that has a tiny bit of give.  Done! 

 

Now I feel like I have a new wardrobe.  And four things are off my 'got to fix this' pile.  Actually five, I almost forgot the embroidered tee.  I bought an awesome black tee with flowers appliqued and embroidered around the neck.  Scooped neckline, fit me just right.  When I put it one, I knew why it was at the Goodwill.  Scratchy on the inside!  The no-sew fix was to iron some soft interfacing on the inside where the embroidery is.  I pinked the lower edge so you can't even tell it's there.  I wore that one to church. 

 

Sew on...