New Stuff in my Etsy Shop

It's very strange for me to have no custom orders floating around.  I've been working on some really cute stuff for friends and family that I'll be posting shortly, but until then, enjoy the few things I've made and put in my shop!  I've changed the eyes on the owlie skirty.  I like these better.  I also like the way I did the eyelashes, and may change the way I do them on monster bums too.  Also, I really like the dark sock monkeys.  I'm tempted to keep the shorties for my little guy.  If they don't sell before the weather starts to cool down, I think I'll take them down and keep them for myself.  Yes, I do smile at my baby's bum wandering around my house decorated by the monsters and monkeys I've made for him and for my nephews who've lent them back to me.  Enjoy!  All of these are made with 100% wool except for the owlie skirty which is alpaca wool blend, and all are size medium large fitting from about 12-24 months.

 

 

  

 

 

 

Itsy Bitsy Monsters

I made these for a friend whose twins were born at 23 weeks.  I should have taken a picture of them in my hand... they're about the size of my palm.  I just about died of squee while I was making them!

Hats!

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything. Shame on me! We've had a new baby (okay... he just turned one) we moved to a new city (all right... 7 months ago) and we've all been sick all winter. Those are okay excuses to not have posted anything, right? Okay I know. No excuse. I actually have done many projects, but I haven't been able to get pictures of all of them before I sent them off or gave them away. I'll do my best to catch up. We'll start with some hats that went to Canada a few weeks ago. These are all my own pattern except the Koala hat which was bought at the request of the mama who ordered the hats. I love love LOVE how soft the yarn is that I used for the Koala hat. The owls are made with my favorite Berroco Ultra Alpaca with trims in whatever, and the monster is Cestari. Enjoy! By the way, I LOVE the eyes on that little girlie owl. I'll definitely be using those again!

Monster Set

Yes, this is a repeat of Owie's monster outfit... but who can blame the mama for wanting it?  It's ADORABLE if I do say so myself, and I do :D  I need to get to work on a set for my little newbie.  Made from Cleckheaton Country 8ply washable wool.  After machine washing it, it didn't even look like I'd done anything to it at all. It was absolutely perfect, and nice and soft.  It's listed as DK weight, but it's really more of a light worsted.  I'm definitely gonna have to revisit this yarn for future washables.

Adorable Livvy!

This is my niece Livvy in an adorable outfit I made her... I sure hope my new baby is HALF as cute as she is! And just so everyone is properly impressed, she's not even 7 months old, and is already crawling and sitting up by herself! My sister says she's even starting to pull herself up! She's in big trouble if you ask me. Livvy is very petite also. Most of her clothes that fit are still 0-3 months. Love this bitty girl!

Girly Monster Hat

Look! Isn't she about the cutest thing EVER?!?! Thanks to Lauren for letting me borrow this adorable pic of her baby in this hat :) Yeah... gotta get me a girl! Only I'm pretty darn sure I'll never have one with those pretty brown eyes.

Monster longies WIP

I found this AWESOME random stripe generator. I think I'll have to use it again :). These are baby alpaca... soooooooooooo soft!

I'll post better pics later after they're blocked. Crappy lighting in my living room and it's stormy outside.

More Alpaca Monkey's

Lovely lovely lovely baby alpaca... sigh :). Fortunately I have enough to make another one, so I can keep on with the lovely lovely yarn :). In fact, I feel like I over-charged this mom. Maybe I'll make her a pair of shorties to compensate. I mean really, I don't know how I dare charge extra for the privilege of working with such a wonderful material.

And yes, I did giggle when I did the eyes. Love the monsters. Love the 100% baby alpaca... love it :).

Owen in Monster shorties

My sister has ONE CUTE KID!! How could anyone not love those curls. He was bound to have 'em. His mommy sure does! He's probably one of the most photogenic kids I've seen in a long long time. She should probably get him into modeling.

And the shorties turned out pretty cute too :)

Monster Shorties

Tee hee hee!!! Another pair of monsters! I LOVE doing monsters! And I totally love how these turned out. I dyed the darker color myself. It was supposed to be magenta... but somehow it didn't turn out that way. I had some dye that said "grape red" on the label, which I was hoping would turn out wine colored... kinda like the color I ended up with here. What did I get? PURPLE. SCREAMING PURPLE. Which is what I wanted for these shorties. But I lost it. When I went to the shop where I usually buy my dyes, they were out, so I bought one labeled "magenta" thinking it would come out, well, magenta. Nope. Instead I got the wine color I'd wanted before. Go figure. I'm totally in love with this color though, and I think I'm going to have to make Addy some skullies or monsters with it.

More Monsters and More Decisions

I have the hardest time making decisions sometimes. Decisions like, what color to make an eye cord, or how to do eyes, or how to make something usable beyond a season. I've come up with some of my best stuff with my inability to choose, like the detachable skirty. My inability to choose a color for an I-cord is just silly though. Most of the time I end up making more than one so that the mom can decide, which is what I did in this case. All I can say is that I'm grateful for the invention of the Embellish Knit because I really HATE making I-cords, and this makes it so easy. I can turn one out in about 5 minutes, so who cares if I can't make up my mind?

BTW, I TOTALLY LOVE how these monster pants turned out. I mean, I really REALLY love them! I think I'll have to have another baby boy (I have two already, but who wants a girl when there's stuff like THIS to make for boys?!?) just so I can make him a pair of monster longies just like these :).

Funky Punky Monsters

I totally forgot about putting a link to the dyer of this incredible yarn! It's incredibly soft and squishy and fun to work with and the dye job is beautiful! It's from Lollytree Yarn and comes with a cute little beaded stitch marker that I absolutely love.

I love the way the face turned out on this one. The yarn was so busy that I was afraid it wouldn't work, but I think it turned out really cute. Especially the eyelashes. I've been learning so much about embroidery. Who woulda thunk? I never ever expected that I'd be into embroidery, but just making eyelashes makes me think that I need to learn more about yet another needle art.

Don't you love the way the yarn stripes on the legs? Way fun. The mom I made these for just sent me some more yarn from Lollytree (totally in love with the fact that the seller sends along a cute little stitch marker. I know I already mentioned that, but I really really love it. The newest one has a little flying cow on it. SO CUTE!) to make a pair of shorties with Hello Kitty on them. The yarn is ADORABLE in cotton candy colors. I can't wait to dig in!

Owen's Monster Outfit

Oh cute Owen! It took a long time to finally get this outfit done for you. I'm sorry sweet baby! I need to start putting family on my waiting list so they don't have to wait a year to get something they want.

But isn't he the cutest nephew ever! Okay... so I have several nephews, and they're all incredibly adorable in their own special ways. Owen is just my cutest modeling nephew... because he's the only nephew I've had model stuff... :)

These longies are so much fun to make! These ones are made in acrylic and I thought they would hold up better than they have. I'll have to make him some wool ones when he gets too big for these ones. This particular acrylic is really pilly! I hate that. Shelley (Owen's mommy) still loves them and he wears them about once a week, so I guess that's okay :). I totally love the horns! I wasn't at all sure how they would turn out. I really had no idea what I was doing when I did them, but they're incredibly cute! I've had lots of compliments on them. Maybe I should offer them as an option?

So Tiny & Sweet

This design still kills me every time! I can't make a pair of monster longies without chuckling softly to myself, especially when I do eyelashes :). This was an exchange with my sister. She needed a shower gift, and she did a little Christmas shopping for me in return.

Alpaca Monster Soaker

On "what not to crochet" they often post cute things for babies and then remind the people viewing them who are fawning over them that someday they're going to want their children to take care of them, and the children might be less disposed to want to take care of mum and dad if they've dressed the children in cutesy things that might someday embarrass them. I'm pretty sure these monster pants (along with my monkey pants and several other things I've made) would turn up on that list. I say, bring it! I'm highly amused by their website (I've spent hours rolling on the floor of the computer room laughing at some of the stuff that's been posted there) but I have to disagree with their assessment of what will make kids mad when they grow up. I can't think that if my parents had dressed me in monkey or monster pants that I would be embarrassed by it when I grew up. I think I might just see if I could make a pair for myself! In fact, maybe it's time for some adult monster pants!.... or maybe not :). All I know is that my 4 year old wants them to be his. Every time I make a new pair of pants with something silly on the bum, he asks if they're for him and he's very disappointed when they're not. Maybe I'll have to take a little hiatus from making stuff for other people and make some stuff for my own children. Then I can continue to enjoy my own creations by watching the two little people that I love most being happy in them. Hey, maybe I can even make Anson a Spiderman sweater so he'll finally take off the Spiderman pj's he's been wearing for a month now! Hmm... now I've got to go get designing.

Monster Hat

There he is again! My adorable little Owen! Anson is standing behind me saying "Look! It's baby Owen! He's swimming!" (rolls eyes) three year olds :).

Anson loved this hat too. He wants one, and since I made this one too big for Owen (apparently) maybe I'll have to make a few at the same time for my boys and nieces and nephews... I'll have to work on a pink monster :).

Monster Skirted Longies

All I can say about this one is *giggle* :) I can't wait to see pics of this on the little girl it's for!

Classic Fit or Wide leg???

I've got the cutest little monkey in the world! I now wish I'd had my sister take pics that included his face so everyone can see what a cute baby I made :). The model in these pics is my little boy Lucas. He's quite a character. He doesn't stand still for more than about 5 seconds at a time. I guess that's pretty typical of a 2 year old, but he really is very VERY busy, and pretty hard to catch. I have many more pics of his big brother Anson than I do of him because I can't get him to stand still for long enough for the picture not to be blurry! I think we lucked out getting what we did for this blog!

When I finished the monkey pants, I absolutely had to see how they would look on. I thought they would be too short for Lucas, but obviously, I was wrong! Not only would he not stand still for a pic, he was extremely difficult to catch to get them off of him again!!! He was so funny! He did this funny little dance that made the pant legs swing around and brush his little legs... he was a tiny, tow-headed Elvis. When I finally got them off of Lucas, Anson decided he wanted to try them on too. It was heartbreaking to try to make him understand that he was just too big for them. So now I HAVE to make them for my boys!

I have to say I'm really glad that I figured out how to do wide legs. Not that it was difficult... it's basically just an inside-out or backward gusset. I love the way both fits look, but I think the wide-leg is a little more manly and boogie friendly. I would recommend them if your toddler really loves to dance :)

Jack's Monster Longies

These are even cuter on the little monster they were made for! I'm really happy with how they turned out, and the more I use Cascade 220, the more I love it.

This was the first pair that I knit both legs at the same time. I'm hooked. It's a MUCH easier technique than counting rows.