Crochet me a river.

So I mentioned a while back that crocheting was my new hobby. Here’s the evidence.

This is what got me started (this time- I have crocheted before)—baby hats and booties to be donated to needy babies somewhere in Africa (I forgot the name of the country). In Relief Society they asked for people to knit them, and I thought it would be pretty easy for me to find a little time here and there to do some. I did 8 sets.

PATTERN for Rib-wrapped hat (second from left) HERE.

PATTERN for my favorite booties, called Easy Booties, (also second from left) HERE.

Whilst crocheting these, I read on someone’s blog about a site called Ravelry, which has a huge base of knitting and crochet patterns, very well indexed so you can search for just crochet, free vs. not, etc. It really has an enormous selection with tons of really neat patterns, so after that, I kindof got addicted. And of course, I had a baby on the way, so it kindof came naturally to crochet up some cute things for him.

So, on that note, I will show you baby items.

1- Baby blanket. I wish I would have made it bigger. I like the white trim against the tannish color. Like oatmeal and cream.

PATTERN HERE.  (I did a different border.)

And in action:

2- Cable hat and booties. I pretty much love the pattern of this hat, it’s one of the few patterns I actually paid money for. And it came with three variations, so I’m looking forward to making the other ones too. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect because I had a few issues of how to count. So the lines are a teeny bit wavy instead of perfectly straight, but I’ll do better on the next one. And the booties are my favorite pattern out of all the ones I tried.

PATTERN for Bambino beanie HERE.

PATTERN for booties is the one linked above.

In action (the fit was perfect):

3- Bear hat and booties. So, I got the yarn from the thrift store knowing it would be cool for something, but not sure what. I started to make the hat just to see what it would look like crocheted, and it turned out much cuter than any expectations I had had. I liked the hat as is, and wasn’t sure if I should make it corny by adding ears, but it kindof called out for them at the same time. Then of course, had to make some matching booties.

PATTERN for Simple Newborn Hat with Earflaps HERE.

PATTERN for Monster Booties HERE (changed up a bit).

In action (the hat’s quite big on him, so you’ll probably see this again later): Sooo cute!!

4- Elf hat and pants. I consider the hat to be a fail. But it was one of the very first things I made that was kindof different, and I was trying to make the pattern smaller at the same time, and the tan yarn was from a thrift store and too thin, so I’ll forgive myself. I really like hats like this, so maybe sometime I’ll make another, better, one. The pants are just kindof for fun. (If I had known more when I made these, I would have made them with matching stitches.)

PATTERN for Long Tail Stripey Hat HERE.

PATTERN for Little Fire Crochet Pants HERE.

In action (hat much too small, barely fit on his head (which made the yarn all stretched out which doesn’t look nice at all) which is one of the reasons I consider it a fail):

But still cute. :)

5- Brown diaper cover. I don’t have a picture of it by itself, but here it is in action. I made it smaller than the directions in the pattern, and it was almost too small. I wouldn’t shrink it down quite so much if I did it again.

PATTERN for Easiest Crochet Wool Soaker HERE.

That’s pretty much all the baby stuff. I’ll post more later. Until then, you can go back up and look again at the pictures of Orrin with the blanket. They’re my favorite. He’s so adorable!

A little confused.

The other day I was making some English toffee and called my mom to ask her a few things, and at one point I gave the phone to Ethne so I could stir it (and hold the thermometer at the same time).  Ethne started talking to her, and after a minute or two she held the phone down a bit and asked me, “Is it okay if I tell her now?”  so I said, “Tell her what?”  and she said, “What Baby Orrin’s name is.”  Obviously there is a a little lingering confusion…

A good day.

So, this was the best I got for the Christmas Eve p.j.’s shot.  Talmage wasn’t feeling it, too much distraction in the background, weird lighting because it was late, but oh well- my kids are cute.

The children nestled all snug in their bed.  They all slept in the same room on Christmas Eve.  Very surprisingly, they went to sleep with no problems.

  

Early to rise… and let the unwrapping begin!

 

Orrin enjoyed the action by chilling on the couch.

Playing with the fun new stuff.  Girls doing girly things, 

 

and boys doing boyly things.

 

And more girly stuff.

  

and Talmage feeding Orrin with the new dolly bottle when he started to cry.

And Brett’s STILL playing with Jethro’s Meccano dune-buggy.

 

Now that they’re all prettied up, they can sing and dance.

And they have to take apart the dune buggy they made, and make the other model.  (This is my favorite sequence of pictures maybe ever.)

(Derek, this is the picture that reminded me of you):

Then they all went sledding and came back in to do the next obligatory Christmas day thing—read one of your new books (Jethro got I think 24 books in all!!!).

 

Jethro likes to read a lot.  Sometimes upside down.

Yahoo for Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Bern Christmas Market

So, I wanted to mosey around the Christmas market (in fact, I kindof wanted to travel to one of the cities/villages that have much much bigger markets, but with a two-week-old baby, it just wasn’t in the cards for this year), but Brett wasn’t real excited about the idea. Instead, he came home early so that I could go. All by myself. Taking all the pictures I wanted to. No pushing a stroller or worrying about where my various children are. It was lovely. I was really grateful to Brett. Anyhoo, some pictures.

In front of the Munster Cathedral.

I thought these were very cute. Maybe I’ll show them to my father-in-law and he’ll make me one someday.

Kami, this shop was for you. They had all sorts of different cool instruments. By then however, I was short on time, or else I would have taken more pictures.

Sah-weeet.

These flowers weren’t in the actual Christmas market, just on the sidewalk downtown, but I love the sidewalk flower shops. Every time I pass beautiful roses I want to take them all home. Instead I took pictures. :)

Frohe Weihnachten!