Heart Newborn Beanie

My newborn had a 15" head at almost 6 weeks old, so this should fit a newbie right out of the oven with room to spare if you need to adjust the pattern, try going up or down in hook size before messing with the actual pattern.
Pattern is for newborn size only.



Materials:
Bulky yarn in contrasting colors
5.00mm hook
tapestry needle

Hat:

1: Magic circle, ch2, dc10, join with sl in first dc, ch2 (10)
2: 2dc in each stitch, join, ch2 (20)
3: Dc, 2dc around, join, ch2 (30)
4: Dc, dc, 2dc around, join, ch2 (40)

5-10 Dc around, join, ch2
11: sc around in contrasting color join weave in ends

Heart:
Magic circle, ch3
*all sts are done in loop, pull closed when finished.*

3trc, 3dc, ch1, 1trc, ch1, 3dc, 3trc, ch2, sl st into center, pull closed, leave tail for sewing, attach to hat, weave in ends.

 

Owl Amigurumi Family

Our family of four!





For this project I followed the pattern from Sarah over at Repeat Crafter Me. This was a really cute project that I completed in just a couple of days before our baby girl was due. I added a 4th owl and made a couple of adjustments to the number of repeats for the baby owls so that they would be different sizes.

 I also used safety eyes instead of sewing them. I also didn't sew the wings to the body, I like that they stick out. I really enjoyed making these and had fun with the color combinations!

Newborn Shadow Box

You may have noticed I have not blogged for a while, well, that's because I gave birth to our new baby girl a couple of weeks early! It was a very welcomed surprise because this mommy was very uncomfortable those last few weeks she was cooking!
Well now that she's here and we've settled in a bit I can resume working on the blog, I've missed it!
For this first post back I wanted to share the shadow box that I made for her room.

Materials:

8x8 shadow box from Michaels
1 sheet of scrapbook paper
Hat from the hospital
birth announcement

I probably should've used a bigger shadow box but I like that it's simple and there isn't too much going on in there. The scrapbook paper is already pretty busy and I still wanted to be able to see it.
So, here it is!

Ombre Yarn Letters

I tried making some letters for the new baby's room, and they came out cute, but look like there more for an older girl's room than for a nursery. So I decided to go in a different direction and start over.

These were the original ones.

 The original letters were done with 8x8 canvases, some letters, buttons, ribbon and a shit ton of glitter! These match the chevron blanket that I made but overall the new letters go with the nursery much better.

Materials:

New letters from Jo-Ann with Lion Brand Baby's First cotton yarn

Letters from Jo-Ann Fabrics
Lion Brand Baby's First cotton yarn (bulky weight)
LOTS of glue from the glue gun
-patience. I recommend doing a test wrap without glue to figure out where you're going to put all of your yarn before starting. I had to re-do the "E" before I got it right.
Because I did ombre it was a little more time consuming, but I love the way they turned out! (This would also be a great project for a monogram!)
Applique sources are listed below the pictures.
 My other piece of advice is this. Take your time! I stared at these things for weeks before I sat down to do them, I took some quiet time, put on some music and just did it.
I also took some paper and sectioned out the letters on where I wanted to change colors. You can barely see it in the top picture, but those were my very rough reference marks. it will make your life easier, just do it with something light and not a sharpie, you don't want your yarn to show through.

My Instagram pic of the work in progress

The Finished product!

 All done!! This was a super fun project and I'm very glad I got them done in time for the baby's arrival!

I love this owl!

 The M's were pretty tricky, but I figured out that if you cut small strips and lay them down in the glue it's much easier than trying to wrap around the triangle shape...that goes for the tops of the M too, once you do that you can glue down the fringe and just wrap over it so it looks seamless. Each letter poses it's own challenge but once you get the hang of it, it will go pretty quickly.

The Rose mentioned in my other posts, I added a slip stitch of the yellow to make it two-toned. I also did the foundation chain in yellow but you can't really see that.

Another close-up of hoots!

Applique sources:

ALL FREE PATTERNS!

*I found the pattern for "hoots" as I've named him, I got it from this pattern on ravelry.
*Flower on the 2nd "M" is here - I modified the pattern a bit and did the same stitch repeat for the rose (sc, hdc, dc, hdc, sc) for each of the main petals instead of what the pattern called for.
*The rose is the same I used on my crochet flip flops and winter wreath posts.
* Flower on 1st "M" is here- I also modified this one and I only did one layer. I probably should've done more as I wanted to include more colors but I was exhausted and I liked how it looked after one round of petals.

Crochet Embellished Flip Flops

I've seen quite a few pins on Pinterest showing off crochet sandals and I decided that I would make a pair. I bought the flip flops at Michael's for $1.00 and had all of the yarn on hand.

Basically all you're doing is creating a SC (single crochet) around the strap.

Start as close to the base of the sandal as you can!
-make your slipknot around the strap, leave yourself a 4" or so tail so you can weave it in.
-insert your hook under the strap, yo.
-bring your hook up, yo and pull through.
do this all the way around (even the toe part) and when you get to the other end, leave another small tail slip stitch and thread yarn through a tapestry needle.
-bring the yarn up through the inside of the strap, pull tight and cut yarn. smooth it into the strap so it's invisible.


For the rose I used the same pattern from the winter wreath and attached it with the tapestry needle and hiding the yarn ends the same way.

This was a very quick and easy way to spruce up some cheap sandals. Give it a try!

Neon Chevron Blanket

 

I have been wanting to try making a chevron blanket for awhile now but for some reason I was intimidated by most of the patterns I came across so I didn't bother. But when I decided to have chevron as a design feature in baby's nursery I had to give it a shot.
I did find a pattern here I basically followed it but I made a few changes.
1. I changed colors every 8 rows instead of 10
2. I did not fill in the triangles at the top and bottom of the blanket, I like the ripples.
3. I added a border color (sc all the way around)

After a little over 2 weeks of work it is all done, and I must say, I love it.
yes, the colors are bright for a nursery but I love neon and the yarn was on sale! Obviously you can use any color combo you want but I was feeling adventurous.

Here it is!

Crochet Flip Flops

Need I say more?

utter, cuteness!

Pattern can be purchased here for $5.00.

These were time consuming but really fun to make. It's a shame that my 3 year old can't wear them, she got totally jealous when I was making them!

If you decide to give the pattern a try, be warned. Read through it all first, It's important to have all of the steps in your head first before you start.
Have fun!

Girly Minion Hat

Another hat made for my 3 year old daughter, she loves the movie Dispicable Me and the minions. She had a "Crazy hat day" at her preschool and I just had to make this for her. I got the pattern from this blog.  There is a link to the free PDF pattern there.Things I changed: HDC for 1 less row than the pattern calls for,  adding the bow and having the border be pink instead of blue (also only 1 row of pink). All yarn used was Red Heart Super Saver.

Crochet Newsboy Hat

 

This was for the same photoshoot as the Mickey Mouse Set

 

Again, it looks way cuter on the little guy than on my makeshift display!

Photo Credt: http://www.photographybycaitlin.com/

Update:
The link for the pattern is here. (it is a free Ravelry download)
For the strap I just measured the part where I wanted it and did a chain, dc in the next row (skipping 1 stitch for the button hole) and secured it and the button to the hat!

Mickey Mouse Crochet Set

I made this set for an adorable little boy's newborn shoot. The entire set is was made using 100% cotton yarn for sensitive skin and easy maintanence.



 

Photo credit: http://www.photographybycaitlin.com/



Although I was intimidated by the pattern at first, I tackled it and had no issues. I only needed 2 nights of working on it to get it done! (which is fast for me now considering I'm usually in bed by 9pm most nights!

I think it looks much cuter on the model! Update: Free pattern I used can be found here.