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!

Music Skirty

This skirty was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, and believe me, I thought it was going to be a lot of work. Surprisingly, the difficult part was NOT the music around the skirt. I know, right? Totally looks like that took me many many hours to do. In fact, I think it only took 2, maybe 3 to embroider all of it. No, the thing that gave me a massive headache was the cute design on the bum. First I tried to embroider it on, but that was just... not pretty. I really don't understand how people get away with duplicate stitches for large patterns. I can't do it. There must be something I don't know that they do. I'm going to have to consult a master knitter and see if I can learn. It would make my life considerably easier if I could easily duplicate stitch some patterns, like this one. I got it all but finished and decided I needed to redo it, so I had to actually cut off the top part, pull it out, re-knit it with an intarsia pattern, and then sew it back onto the skirt. And that whole process, especially the sewing back on bit (you have to mark REALLY CAREFULLY where center front is on both pieces!) had to be repeated at least twice to get it right. I'm still not completely satisfied, but it's much better than it was before. I think it's acceptable. There's still so much I need to learn about knitting. I learn something new with almost every soaker I make. I wonder if I'll ever get beyond soakers or if this is just what I'm going to knit from here on out? I think I need to make a point of doing something else, just to keep me limber. Maybe I'll start on that vintage crocheted christening dress pattern I got off of ebay a while ago? Who knows, maybe someone I know, (maybe even me!) will have a girl who'll want to use it someday soon.

I've been featured on another blog! It's so gratifying to be recognized for my work like that. This one is interesting because it's NOT my Sock Monkey Soaker, per usual, it's my Sock Monkey Skirty :). On my niece no less! Isn't she cute?

Eat your heart out BYU fans! :)

Scrappy Soaker

I'm thinking maybe I should add these to my repertoire on Etsy? I could get rid of some of my stash that way, and they're fun to make since I'm changing yarns and stitch patterns every few rows. Much more interesting than something that goes on and on in the same color forever. Although, I really haven't made anything like that except the tops I made to go along with some monkey skirties I made for a photographer around Christmas time. My sister has asked whether I get sick of doing stripes. Not really. At least there's some change and it's easy to keep track of progress. You only have to measure one stripe to know how far you've gone, so if you misplace your tape-measure (or your 3 year old absconds with it) halfway into the legs of your latest soaker, you know exactly how long it is, and that's very convenient :)

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!