Grateful Dead Detachable Skirty Longies

Grateful Dead Dancing Bear WIP

I'm totally trippin' on these :). Love the colors, love the design, can't wait to finish them!

SCUBA longies

I'm not loving working on these. I'm so not an embroiderist. (Is that even a word?) But I'm totally loving how they're coming out. Much cuter than I'd feared. I'm sorry this has taken so long mama! Our house has been CRAZY for the last little bit. And even though I'm usually very please with the results, I'm always intimidated by an embroidery project. Guess I just need to get over that!

The front of these has the little girlie scuba diver, and the back has the little crab on the bum. I'm still "doodling" on the back. I find it's much like doodling with a pencil, except it's more frustrating when I don't like it (not easily erased) and not as easy to create what I envision. You know, I'd probably be smart to actually doodle things out on paper before I embroider them... but somehow it never works out that way. *sigh*

Just got some action shots from the mama. What a cute girl! I love getting pics of kids wearing my stuff. They make even better models than my nieces and nephews!

Owlie Longies

Call me crazy, but I think I like these even more than the owl skirty. I don't know what it is... maybe it's the extra stripes and polka dots... maybe it's that the polka dots are getting slightly easier, but I really REALLY like how these turned out. Also, I was smart and charted the owls instead of winging it. I didn't have the fabric handy so I got they eyes wrong on the little owls, but they're still cute, and I think look better than the first ones. I might actually get to like making this one!

These are made with my favorite yarn, Berroco Ultra Alpaca as the main color and also the brown. If I'd waited a couple more days to start them, I would have had the perfect green too, but I wasn't sure it would be perfect, and I had close enough on hand. The green is Cascade 220 superwash. Not quite as beautiful and soft as the others, but still very nice.

The hot pink is my new most favorite yarn EVER! It's Aurora 8 by Karabella. It's SO SOFT! It's an 8 ply, 100% merino wool but the way it's spun it feels like cashmere, only not fuzzy. It's also non-felting, but not superwash. I suspect it wouldn't even pill. I got no fuzz off it at all, even when I had to pull out some of the embroidery. That usually gets fuzz off of any yarn. SO PRETTY!!! It's almost as soft as the alpaca blend, but springier and has a beautiful sheen. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd want to make ALL my soakers out of it. Unfortunately, it's almost twice as much as the alpaca. I guess that's why they call them "luxury"... not everyone can afford them.

Saturday Morning Project

I have a million things on my to-do list, not to mention my wait list on Etsy, but sometimes, I have to take a break for one of my favorite people.

Anson, my 4 year old, has a Woody Doll (that we borrowed from a friend and haven't had a chance to give back yet... I'm just gonna have to buy it from the friend... I don't think he's going to agree to give it back to the original owner!) that doesn't have a hat. He's been very creative in substituting other things for a hat. He's used cups, lids, bottle rings, and ring toys. He's so imaginative. But I really felt like it was time for Woody to have a real hat. And I haven't knit or crocheted anything for my boys pretty much since they were born. What a bad momma I am! So this morning, I decided to make Woody a hat. Anson watched over my shoulder the entire time I was making it, taking it to try on at regular intervals. It was very quickly done, and completely improvised, but he seems to be happy with it, so I am too :).

Please ignore the mess. I'm a terrible housekeeper.

Birthday Skirty

I LOVE this skirty. If the girl I made it for doesn't appreciate it, I'm keeping it until I have a girl! It's lovely lovely alpaca, my favorite color, and really, I don't think there's much I could do to it to make it cuter. If you disagree, well, that's your own choice, but I love it :).

My Dad Is My Hero

This went to the same mama that ordered the scuba longies. I actually think I like this one better. It was simple to do, and turned out so cute! I wish I could get a model for every soaker I make, but when I can get pics of the actual baby  it was made for wearing it, well, that's even better than having a model. Look at the cute tushie on this girl! I gotta stop making baby stuff... it's making me really baby hungry.

Pink Monkey

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 :).

Horton Longies

I LOVE these longies. My sister says they're not longies, they're wearable art and I almost have to agree with her :). They took a long time to create, and the thing that took the longest was drawing Horton out on graph paper so I could knit him. It took the better part of an entire day to get it down, and then lots of tweeking to make it right. I'm not entirely happy with how Mayzie Bird turned out (if you haven't, please read Horton Hatches the Egg... it's one of Dr. Seuss's finest!) but I had to content myself in the knowledge that drawing with yarn just isn't the same as drawing with pencil and there are limitations. At least for me. Maybe when I learn a little more about embroidery I'll do better. Check out Horton's ears though! I'm very proud that they actually look like I shaded them in with pencil and not just like I went crazy with yarn and needle.

The cloud on front was an afterthought, so it's duplicate stitched, but I'm very very pleased with how it came out.

Overall, I really must say, this is my best one ever. I almost don't want to send them off (I was going to send them off this evening and then I found a couple of spots that I washed out and now they have to dry again before I send them). I want to keep them for myself! Now I wish we'd taken a pic of Jack running around in them. They're even cuter on! The cutest

thing was Jack trying to look at his own bum while he was wearing them! Yes, they're a hit with the kiddies too :).

I'm afraid that green is discontinued. I really like it for grass.

This post is so random. I'm stopping now.

Monster Shorties

NY Shorties

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 :)

Owl Skirty

I don't think this one could have turned out any cuter than it did. The mom sent me a pic of some fabric she was having made into a shirt, and I did my best, and you know, I think it was good enough this time :) I can't wait to see pics of it on the little girlie!

Look at this beautiful little princess! I love it when moms send me pics of their little ones in my soakers! Especially when they're this gorgeous! (I mean the baby of cours :))

Thanks for the pics Brandi!

Hello Kitty Shorties

I think these turned out really cute. The colors are beautiful, there's very little pooling, and the design was easy and very cute, if I do say so myself :). However, I have decided that although I see the merits of Cestari Superfine as a soaker yarn, I don't like knitting with it. It's very soft and squishy and thick, which makes for a very good soaker, but instead of being springy and slightly stretchy like most wool yarn, it's very stiff like cotton and very tiring to knit with. Plus, it has LOTS of little twigs and grass and (shudder) brown bits that could only be leftover bits of dingleberries! This is no reflection at all on the dyer, Lollytree Yarns, which are beautifully dyed, and I wouldn't have been able to finish this one without some extra help from the dyer (she sent me some white cestari superfine to make the Hello Kitty face) and I LOVE HER!, but I do not like this yarn. This is the second one I've made and I had my doubts with the first one, but it turned out so cute and I figured the twigs had to be an aberration. Why would people be so crazy about such a poor quality item? But it was not an aberration, and yeah... I would recommend something else. My new mission (or maybe just my continued mission) is to convert the world to alpaca. I love alpaca. Especially when it's blended with wool. Then it has the luxury of super soft, lustrous alpaca, and springy, stretchy, lovely wool. Maybe I can get the Lollytree Yarn girl to dye me some alpaca and convert her! Maybe that's what I'll have to do :).

I finally managed to get pictures of some new monkey shorties before I sent them out! This really is an amazing feat. I've sent out probably 6 or 7 pairs of monkey shorties without ever getting a good pic before sending it. And they're really cute! Just like the monsters, I love making the sock monkey things. Love them. Love it even more when the mom agrees that a wool/alpaca blend yarn is the only thing that's good enough for her little one! :). Yes, it's made of my very favorite yarn. I made a pair of longies to match... gotta get that pic up here too....

I *heart* TRADES!

YAY!!! Someone who wanted something other than black! Now I've got to post this on Etsy so people can see that it's just as cute in something other than black, and MUCH easier for me to knit.

My boys love to play with the girls next door, who just happen to be 4 and 3 just like my boys :). When we're outside I often take my knitting out while I'm watching them play, and the girls think it's really fun to try stuff on that I'm working on. This skirt is sized for about a 3 month old, and it's a real testament to the wonderful properties of knit fabric (and particularly the resilience of wool) that both of those girls tried on this skirt and it looked like a really cute mini on both of them! It may not have fit a diaper underneath, but at least it'll still be usable after potty training! Or during! It could a really cute skirted capri pant for a little girl. They were trying on a monkey skirty yesterday. I'm thinking next time they try stuff on, I'll have to take some pictures. They're really cute.

I traded labels for this skirted longie. I'm quite excited about it. I can't wait until they get here! I've wanted a label for a while so that people remember where they got their soakers from. I love doing trades. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who want to do trades with me don't make things I need or want, and vice versa :(. But when it works, it works great!

Olivia's

This soaker was inspired by this picture. I'm totally AND COMPLETELY in love with it! I'm in love with the little pig, I'm in love with the soaker, the heart and stars, everything! It's even made out of my favorite yarn.

When I have a girl someday, I'm definitely going to make one for myself!