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Baby Gifts

Posted on September 2, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

There are days that I would love to have another baby. I mean we have cute kids and it would be a lot of fun to add more laughter to our family. Then reality kicks me in the rear. I think about being up all night with an infant, diaper changes, and the cost. No, two kids is perfect for our family – we are complete!

Of course, I love making things and putting together gifts for new babies. When my life long friend told everyone that she was pregnant, I waited to find out if she was expecting a boy or a girl. The evening that she announced that it would be a little boy, I ran out to the store to get supplies. I had a mission to start a baby blanket for her little one.

This was THE baby blanket that created baby blanket envy with my boys. In the end the blanket was finished and ready to be part of a present for Baby Z.

Of course, I can not knit a baby blanket for every gift that we need. Here’s another baby gift that we recently gave.

You can see some of my knitted wash cloths, along with some other items that the boys require us to include. Yes, we must have a buddy, and rubber duck for bath time. Plus, I think it is nice to toss in some baby wash since you will be using a lot of that with a new born.

So my question to you this week:

What do you like to give as a gift for a new baby and why?

Pssst . . . if you knit or crochet – I am on Ravelry and have more photos of my items on there.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #167

Categories:
Aloha Friday arts and crafts gift ideas knitting looking back me moments photos

Changing a Project Goal

Posted on May 29, 2011 10:54 am by TheAngelForever

Way back before the start of 2011, I taught myself a new technique in knitting.

I made a goal to do a project using this process. As you can see my Log Cabin Blanket was a large and lofty goal.

Sometimes, you find something else you like more and your goals are put off to the side. The reality is, I like mindless knitting. Log Cabin is not mindless to me and the idea of sewing everything together is daunting to me at this time. So I am changing things up. I am going to use the yarn that my family picked out to make a lighter diagonal blanket, like the one that I just finished. Here is the start:

Last night, I was in a knitting mood. I now have a stripe of all colors except the Autumn Red. I really like this project to unwind at night and keep up with my hobby of choice.

Have you ever changed up a goal or something for a project to make something else?

Categories:
arts and crafts knitting looking back me moments photos

Baby Blanket Envy

Posted on May 26, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

When my nephew was born, I gave him my first ever baby blanket that I knitted. Sure, I had started many afghans over the years, but had never actually finished one. Here is little BA sleeping under my blanket:

When my life long friend H found out in January that she was having a little boy, I told her that I wanted to knit him a blanket. That evening, I went to the craft store and bought yarn. I picked out a new pattern to try and knew the supplies that were needed. I opted to try a new adventure. A knitting buddy finally convinced me to try a diagonal blanket using circular needles. I quickly fell in love. Before I knew it, the baby blanket was complete and ready long before the baby shower.

Much to my surprise, my two young boys were quite jealous of this soft blanket and wanted me to knit something for them. Once again, I went to get supplies to make a family blanket. I knew the yarn I wanted, but they did not have nearly enough in the dye lot. I got a little more creative and opted to try the diagonal pattern using stripes. So every 25 rows, I switched from the Sunny Days yarn to dark blue. Here are some photos from the last 3 months. Thanks to trips to Disney, business, illness, school hoopla, and more – it took 3 months to knit the entire family sized blanket.

Now the blanket is knitted and I need to weave in the ends. I was shocked to see that the blanket almost fits across my entire queen sized bed. Next up, I am going to use the yarn that I had bought for a Log Cabin blanket to make another lighter and larger diagonal blanket.

If you knit or crochet, be sure to catch me on Ravelry:

Be sure to let me know what project you are working on right now. I’m always looking for more ideas to add to my list.

Categories:
arts and crafts crafts decisions gift ideas knitting looking back me moments photos

Yarn Art Fun

Posted on March 14, 2011 8:43 am by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that I have a lot of yarn scraps in storage from my knitting. I often wonder what to do with them and how to let the boys have some fun. Over February break, the boys and I were stuck at home thanks to a storm. The boys wanted to do an art project.

Thanks to their request, I started to look around the house for ideas. I found some construction paper and noticed my yarn. I quickly thought of something, so I went and gathered Elmer’s glue, scissors, and my scraps of cotton yarn. I had a mission and the boys were ready to be creative. First I cut lots of yarn into smaller pieces for all of us to use with our project.

Everyone picked out a sheet of construction paper. Then the boys made squiggles of the glue on the paper.

After this, it was time to create our masterpieces. Here are some photos of the boys with their work in progress:

I watched as the boys picked their yarn and placed them into the glue. Then I got an idea to make something for TechyDad. Here are our creations below. JSL’s is the top, NHL’s is in the middle, and mine on the bottom.

The boys really enjoyed this, but got sticky from the glue and eventually lost interest. Of course, I had an idea and wanted to do another picture. As I started working on it, NHL came over to help me get colors to use within my work.

The papers looked really great after they dried. The white glue disappeared and we were able to hang them up. I know that we will definitely be doing this again, and I have another item that I hope to try with yarn art soon.

Do you have any ideas on how to use scrap yarn with kids for crafts? If you do, I would love to hear about your projects. Please be sure to share them below in the comments.

Categories:
arts and crafts brothers fun interesting jsl knitting looking back nhl photos play time vacation

Sunny Day Blanket

Posted on February 28, 2011 7:33 am by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that I enjoy knitting. I like to sit down at night after a long day with my knitting needles and a project. For some reason, hearing the clickety-clack helps me to forget the stresses of the days. Of course, watching the yarn morph into something before my eyes is a very nice perk.

I had planned on starting a Log Cabin blanket. I had even talked about sketching it out and bought some yarn.

I have not actually started working on this. A few factors have delayed it. 1) The knitting needles I need are still finishing up a scarf. 2) The boys were jealous of a baby blanket I made for a gift. 3) Log Cabin will not be stress free and mindless at the start.

The other day there was an amazing yarn sale. Not only were the skeins of yarn on sale, but I could also use a 20% off coupon on top of this already reduced price. One night last week, I went out to the craft store alone. I found the color I wanted, but they did not have enough of it in the lot I needed. Rather than scrap the project, I looked at solid colors to pair up with it for making stripes. This is what I ended up buying.

I bought 11 skeins of each color since I can always return anything that has not been used. The boys were excited to see a project for the entire family. I allowed myself to start the project last week. Here is a preview of the large diagonal blanket.