Easter Skirted Capris

The scrappies in the next post go with this skirty too. Or at least I hope they do. The mom said she loved them, but I haven't actually seen how they look together. I'll have to see if maybe she'll send me a pic.

I've had MANY compliments on this one. And you know, it wasn't even difficult to make. The hardest part was probably making the wave pattern for the grass. The easiest part? The yarn... ahhhhhhh the yarn :). Yarngasm. Oh yes. The purple is 100% baby alpaca. I'm not sure there's anything softer or more luxurious than baby alpaca, except maybe brushed baby alpaca, which is very fuzzy and wouldn't work for a soaker, so I'll probably never have the chance to work with it. :( Although I might have to buy a ball just to pet when I need some comfort.

I think I did put another butterfly on the bum of this one... I can't remember now. Oh well.

The green yarn is a blend of wool, cashmere and microfiber. I wonder how it would hold up as a soaker? It wasn't quite as nice to knit with as the alpaca, but then nothing is, but it was very very nice. It's a little pricey, but I would definitely like to add it as an option if it works. I'll have to design another soaker for Addy :).

Butterflies & Flowers Skirted Capri

Before I start complaining, I have to say that I really love how this one turned out. If I had a baby girl, I'd definitely put it on her. And I totally love that I figured out (inspired by a WAY TOO BUSY soaker I saw on Diaperswappers) two color linen stitch as a cuff option. I think it's my favorite looks wise. It just looks cool.

But seriously! The woman asked for a fairy and some butterflies and dragonflies. I couldn't for the life of me come up with a not cutesy fairy for a pair of soakers. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult! I scoured the internet and found lots of good inspiration pics for fairies, and then I dug in. I tried intarsia and fair isle. I tried embroidery. I even tried tracing a pattern on with fabric stabilizer and then embroidering over it. I think I spent quite a bit more money than I made on this one just trying to get the design right. In the end, the fairy proved to be completely elusive and I was left with butterflies and dragonflies, and even though they turned out really cute, they aren't what I'd envisioned, and even though (as I said at first) I totally love the way these turned out, I'm disappointed. I feel like I failed. Maybe I'll do it again in fingering weight yarn and see if I can get that darn fairy to cooperate. With a fine enough guage I could probably find a cross-stitch pattern that would work beautifully. I wonder if I have to go all the way down to fingering weight or if Dk would work? Hmm... sounds like I've got some work to do.... after the 10 orders I have on my waiting list. And the several soakers I owe my sister. And the blanket I owe my other sister. And the pants I promised my 4 year old....

Sock Monkey Skirty - Evolution/Refinement

The monkey skirty has come a long way from the first time I made it! It looks nothing like the first one now. I started by changing the way I did the waist band and the cord. I now do all my waistbands the same way, but I perfected it on the sock monkey skirty.

Then I bought an Embellish Knit and that completely revolutionized the way I do drawstrings. My sister didn't like the cord on the original. She said it frayed to easily. And well... the lovely little i-cord mill seriously cuts back on time. The next thing I did was change the eyes. The first ones I just embroidered on and didn't really know what I was doing. Then I had the bright idea to crochet little buttons! Way easier and more uniform. It now takes less than 5 minutes to make and sew on a pair of eyes.

After the eyes, I changed the skirt so that now it attaches different. It's been through several iterations, and now I think I've really got it where I like it most, which involves knitting it separately and grafting it on, but I don't mind that. I added a little diamond motif detail at the waist of the skirt (where it attaches) to make it lay flat and have a smoother join so that it doesn't look like an afterthought.

After the eyes and before the skirt, I added ribbing around the legs, which just makes it look much more finished, and keeps prefolds from leaking better.

Last of all (surprisingly) I've FINALLY settled on an absolute formula for the face. It's taken a while to really perfect the placing and construction of the short rows to get the smile and the eye band just right. I think it actually is to the point that I could write a pattern that someone else could make it off of. Maybe when I get sick of making them (not likely) I'll publish the pattern. Maybe. I'm very proud of this one. Mon chef d'oeuvres, one might say.

I just couldn't resist adding this las pic of my niece and nephew wearing matching monkey skirties :).

Skullie's Can They Get Any Cuter?!?!

Have I ever said how much I love purple? I do. I LOVE purple. I love this purple in particular! If you click on the pics and zoom up close, you can see how the yarn is heathered with bits of turquoise and hot pink. I LOVE it :). And I totally love how these turned out. Okay, so maybe the skullie is getting a little easier to make. I'm still not wild about using black yarn (it's really hard to see what you're doing if you're not in full sunlight) but seriously... they are super cute.

I added a little skullie on the bum of the longies this time. I thought it would be a cute detail, and make them cuter to wear without the skirt. I had to pull it out a few times before I got it right, and I'm still not sure it's all the way there. However, when my sister saw it, her face lit up and she totally thrilled over how cute it was, so I guess I've succeeded :). Thus begins the love part of my love/hate relationship with my most popular soaker... the Skullie. Who knew that all I needed was some purple?

I *heart* Dyeing Yarn!

Have I said before how much I heart dying yarn? I do. I really do :). It all started when I just couldn't find the right pink for these soakers (and these which I made at the same time for the same person) so I decided to dye some myself. I fell in love with the first strand we pulled out of the dye bath, even though it was totally the wrong color.

We (my sister Suzie and I) learned a lot about dying that first time. First of all, with Cushing's Perfection Dyes a little goes A LONG WAY, even with alpaca which doesn't want to hold the color quite as well as wool.

Also, a salad spinner is indispensable in the process of dyeing wool. Maybe you can get away without one if you're dyeing fabric, but with wool, it's really difficult to keep the yarn from turning into a big ugly mess when you're trying to get the water out without one. I guess we could have used the washing machine on the spin cycle, but that would have involved transporting it to the laundry room and it was already complicated enough dyeing yarn with 4 toddlers tripping us up. Running across the house with dripping wool didn't sound very appealing.

We learned that you get very uneven dyeing if you don't get all of the wool into the dye bath at the same time. Alpaca likes to float on top even when it's been soaking for a half an hour. I got some really uneven color the last time I dyed because when I was putting my alpaca yarn in the dye bath, the tongs got tangled in it and I couldn't get it all plunged all the way in at the same time, so some of it came out quite a bit lighter than the rest. I actually ended up liking the effect, and it wasn't very obvious since it was really just an accent color on these.

Next up, we've GOT to learn to dye our own self-patterning yarn! It's TOO FUN!! I don't wonder at all why there are so many yarn dyers out there :).

And here's the finished product. Just beautiful, if I do say so myself.

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.

Custom T-shirts and Matching Bows!!!

I did not make this. I just want to make that clear up front. I refuse to take credit for something so cute! The mamma that wanted the funky punky monsters wanted a matching t-shirt. I knew that matching that funky yarn would be impossible to do through pictures, so I contacted a friend of mine who does beautiful work with a sewing machine and asked if she'd be interested. I gave her a couple of ideas and let her loose, and I think this was the absolute perfect compliment to those silly funky monsters! :) She was even nice enough to include a little hair clip, and then she didn't want me to give her all of the money I'd charged for it. She's really too nice to be believed. Miurvy, if you ever see this, I totally heart you.

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 :).

DK Weight Ultra Alpaca

Remember how I said I love working with Berroco Ultra Alpaca yarn? Well, I've found a way to convince more people to let me make their soakers out of it! All I had to do was find it cheaper so I could make it at the same price that I make regular wool soakers, and that came in the form of a DK weight instead of worsted. I had Suzie try out a little soaker on Addy that I'd made from the DK weight to make sure it wouldn't be too thin for a soaker, but alpaca fibers are so much more water resistant than regular wool that the DK works just as well, but holds up better than the wool. And it's so pretty and soft! My mission to convert the world to alpaca is well underway! (Mwah-ha-ha-ha!!!)

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?

Lucas

Look at my cute baby!!! I can't believe how grown up he's getting. I still think he should be a model. Looking at him makes my stomach do flip-flops. Yup... I'm in love with my little Boo-boo. Now I've got to make something big enough for Anson to model so I can get pics of him up here too!

Minnie!!!

More Monsters

Seriously, who would have thought that orange would be so hard to photograph. Curse curse curse, is all I have to say! These monster longies are coming out really cute, and I wanted to send the mom a pic to get approval, but no matter what we do (and we tried for about 2 hours) the orange comes out looking like traffic cone instead of the pretty (GORGEOUS, really, and I don't like orange) kinda muted flame orange that it really is. In real life, these colors are beautiful together. I would dress my kids in it in a heartbeat. I would dress my husband in them. I might even dress myself in them. But on a computer monitor, completely wretched. I'm at a complete loss as to how to show the mom what the color really is. Curse curse curse.

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.

Treasury

I love it when I get picked by other Etsy Artisans to be on their treasuries! This has happened quite a few times since I started selling on Etsy, funny thing is, it is the SAME EXACT item that gets featured EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Sock Monkey Forever!

Mine is the first one listed, the sock monkey soaker.

Eyelashes or Eyebrows? That is the Question.

So, what do you think, brows or lashes???

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.

Scrappy Longies

I was very unsure about this project. Not unsure that I could do it of course, but whether it would be cute or not. In fact I wasn't sure I even liked it until I tried it on Princess Addy. Then... well... let's just say I didn't need any more convincing! :)

I have to say that even though I wasn't at all sure it was going to turn out cute, if it was very fun to make! All the different stitches I got to try out, and all the beautiful colors made it something I would really like to offer in my shop.

Detachable Skirt and Longies - Cat

I LOVE THIS DESIGN!! I can't help myself, I really love it. The only input I got from the purchaser was brown and black with a cat with green eyes in a 2t please. I asked for some clarification, and she said that she trusted my creativity and to do what I wanted. Well! I was a little hesitant to get started on it, and put it off for quite a while. I couldn't picture brown and black together, and I wasn't really excited about coming up with a cat design. I don't really consider myself an artist, and I had a really hard time finding a template I liked. I ended up free-handing this one on my magic knitters' graph paper. It's inspired by a Halloween wallpaper I found where the cat's eyes follow the mouse around the page. Seriously too cute! Of course, I can't find the link now! Curse. The skirt was easy, and adorable and I totally loved it. The pants were a different story. I was going to do a cat face inspired by the Monkey and Monster longies, but I couldn't make it work and had to rip it back several times, and finally decided just to embroider a little cat on the bum. It's free-hand, but really, it's just a couple of ovals and a tail, so not really difficult. What was frustrating was that I put it on the fron when I'd intended to put it on the back, and getting it off the front and onto the back was a real pain.

At any rate, I can't wait to post this as an option in my Etsy shop. It was so fun to make, and I love the design so much that I'm really hoping it'll be more popular than the skullie... which I'm still not a fan of making.