Dear Emily,

 As this blanket is a special gift for a special baby.  I have written this post as a letter to her.  For those of you interested in commentary and information on the blanket,  I have provided this in the captions.
Dear Emily 

Voila! My fantastic blanket is finally finished.  The blue yarn is random stash acrylic but the beige 
is my own handspun. They didn't play as well together as I had hopped.  (Read I accidentally felted the
 handspun when washing this).  And So I decided backing it in fleece would make it look nicer.I was right.

  It will be many years before you will understand this letter and probably several more before you can read it for yourself.  I hope that someday you do read it but even if you never see this letter there are things that I wanted to say to you that I think should be sent out into the universe.  I made this blanket for you.  I started long before you were born and I have missed your birth by a couple of months.   I have spent hundreds of hours crocheting and sewing this blanket because I love you.

Frogs are my favorite critters so I couldn't resit adding one.

  I know we have never met, and that we will probably only meet infrequently in the future due to the thousands of miles spread between us.  I love you anyways.  I love you because I love your mother, but more importantly I love you because you are you.  I love you because of the potential you represent and because every person in the world needs love.

The elephant is also made of some of my handspun.  I love the lion's mane!
 When I first made him I left his mane about two inches long. 
For the longest time I bounced back and forth between wanting
to trim and leaving it long.  I decided to trim it a bit.

     I decided to make you a blanket, because I love blankets. A special blankets is a talisman.  It tells you that your are loved, and it can keep you warm and make you feel safe on a bad day.  Someday when  you are older you should ask you mom about her special blanket from a grandma she barely knew.  I remember it was pink and silky and had beautiful animals sewn all over it and she loved it.  I know she slept with it well into her teenage years and I can only hope that you might love this blanket even half as much.

This blanket tells the story of Noah's ark, but

Fishes

that's not the story I am going to tell you today.  Instead, I am going to tell you what each of the symbols on your blanket mean to me.  The boat and house represent a safe place for you to go when the world gets to be too much.  The giraffe represents your reach.  You can reach much further than you know.  Everything you do has the potential to change the world.  The lion is bravery, because you'll need it, kid.  It's jungle out there! 

Octopus!

The elephant is wisdom.  There is a folk saying that says that Elephants never forget anything.  Who knows if that's really true?  But I wanted to give as much wisdom as I had because I know things can be tough.  And the frog because everyone needs a little silliness.
I hope you remember that I love you, and if when you are older you ever need someone to talk to, even if I am a million miles away, I'd be happy to listen.
                                                                                             Love,
                                                                                          Aunt Amy

Design Week Day 6: Destined for my shop

It's Day 6 of crochet design week and I have one sample hat done.

Newborn size elephant hat

  I have a goal of opening an etsy shop by end of May and these Elephant hats are destined to be one of my first patterns.  Eventually I would like to release it as a pdf pattern but it will probably be a few months before I am ready to do that.

To get this hat ready for my shop I need to:

Figure out how to fix the jogging stripe in the trunk

Make up samples in the other sizes

Try some different eye styles

Get outside and take a bunch of good pics  ( preferably with models)

I have really enjoyed this week.  It has been challenging, interesting, fun.  I have met a bunch of great people who love the same things  I do, and I have learned a lot.  Working on this elephant from start to ( not quite) finish in just one week has been a crazy process but I think it's been really good learning process for me.

Come and visit FreshStitches to see what all the other designers are done.

Finished Object Friday: Photo Props

I have only finished a couple of things this week. At the beginning of February, I shared a Noah's Ark Afghan, that I made for my friend Angie.  After I finished it and gave it to her, she asked if I could make her a couple of photo props for new born pictures.  
I made a pink and green diaper cover and hat.  And a turtle shell and matching hat. So here they are:

Diaper cover and Hat

Turtle shell and hat

Turtle shell

Come join me at Tamis Amis to see more Great finished objects.

WIP Wednesday:

A while ago I participated in Tamis Amis Work in Progress: Wednesdays, and Finished Object Fridays and it really helped to keep me motivated.  So I have decided to do it again and hopefully keep up with it this time.Right now I have a bajillion projects in the works.

Making a crochet chart of one of my sister Mel's favorite Bass pieces:

I am planning to crochet the first one or two measures as a center panel of an afghan I am working on for her Christmas present.  So far I have:

A tenor Clef

A Turtle Shell Photo Prop and hat:

Pentagon Motifs laid out

Starting to slip stitch the pentagons together

Shell all stitched together

Matching hat

I messed up the color changes at the joins and I will need to  rip back and fix it.

Homemade buttons:

We are adding a faux leather finish to the beat up old steamer chest that lives in our entrance way:

A mystery Project--This project has taken ages and ages because we can only work on it when we go to my Mother-in-Laws house.  There just isn't room ( or tools) for woodworking in our tiny apartment. :

Can you guess what these will be?  I am so excited about them hopefully a couple more trips out to Mom's and we'll have them ready to come home and I can show you  the finished project.

Reflections on February

If January was amazing, then February was good.  In February I feel like I managed to get into the swing of working hard everyday without burning out.  I developed a system for keeping track of all the things I am working on and I managed to average two blog posts a week for the month despite not managing to get out a single post last week.   I am starting though to get the feeling of sameness that comes before I usually crash and burn.  Sometimes, I get up and think what's the point of doing x, there'll just be more to do when I am done.
It's kind of amazing by lowering my expectations,  I have actually improved my  result.  I fear though that I lack direction.  I think it is time  for goals...  not big massive goals like I used to make...instead I think it is time for me to start making tiny goals.  My daily to do list is already a sort of  informal goal list and it's been working well for me.  But I think I would like to make a more formal goal  a I will do x everyday for x amount of time kind of goal.   I think I am ready because instead of dread or worrying I will screw it up I am excited.
Enough about goals.  Lets see what I've been doing for the past month.  Some of these photos you've seen and some are on the queue of things I still need to blog about.

I finished Noah's Ark early in February

Conversation heart letters were written and received with glee.

My super simple Valentine's dinner.

Gluten free mini pies.  YUM!!!

The cutest bird hat ever.

An adorable hat and diaper cover

A bad picture of some homemade buttons

chocolate peanut butter shapes

A lovely set of ombre hand towels.

March is my favorite month of the whole year.  I was born in march and when I was little I thought that the month of March had been made just special for me.  You see when I was in kindergarten I learned about this amazing holiday that everyone celebrates by wearing green and making awesome Irish food.  And since I was little and easily confused I decided that since St. Patrick's day was near my birthday, green was my favorite color, and I loved corned beef that the holiday must have been created especially for me.
March also brings us nearer to my other favorite holiday  Easter.  Plus it usually starts getting warmer and greener, two things I am very much a fan of.  So I am excited for March.

Hopefully you are excited for  March too.  I have lots of great things planned for March.  I am going to show you guys how to put a faux leather finish on an old steamer trunk, and how to make homemade buttons. I am considering participating in Knit and Crochet Design Week.  I also want to share some recipes, and show you some of the other projects I am working on.  So Check back soon.

Noah's Ark

I have been working hard for the last few weeks on a very special project.  Before I say too much I want to show it too you.

My friend Angie is having a baby in about 4 weeks and this was her baby shower present, sort of.  She paid for the yarn and I did all the work.  I had a lot of fun making this blanket and it is really pretty simple.  There is no reason a beginner could not do this as a first or second project, but I have gotten a number of people on Ravelry who have mentioned to me that they love this blanket but could never make it because it is too hard or they don't crochet.  So I have compiled a few tips or ideas I have about this blanket in the hopes it will help you tackle this.

1.  You don't have to crochet.  Huh? What ?  Are you nuts?  Nope I am completely sane. Despite the fact that this is a crochet pattern, and I can only knit a very little bit,  I know that this is totally something that anyone with basic knitting skills could knit.  The base is a ripple afghan .  The boat is crocheted flat with a few strategic increases--you could totally buy the crochet pattern and simply knit the boat ( and house) as they are written.  The animals, with the exception of the giraffe's neck, are worked in the round from the center outward so break out your double pointed needles and you can do the same.

2.  This is a beginner to advanced beginner level crochet pattern.  So even if you just learned to crochet last week this is totally a pattern that you can do.  The background is all double crochet worked flat--super duper easy and super duper fast.  The hardest thing going on in the background are some increases and decrease ( yeah I know these are a tiny bit tricky for a beginner but you can do it).  The animals are worked in the round in single crochet which is also super duper easy.

3. Get yourself some audio-books or radio, or tv, music, movies whatever you like.  This is not super huge but you do have to work about a mile of plain old double crochet, plus sew all the animals on.

4.  Give yourself plenty of time.   I know I just said this was super duper easy and I stand by that.  However after finishing the background in about 2 1/2 days I then had to spend 5 days making little animals and about the same amount of time sewing everything together.  So although it is easy, this is not the fastest blanket in the world.

5.  Use a yarn needle with a great big eye.  You are going to end up sewing in 100 plus ends on this one.  Do yourself a favor and put your embroidery needles away after you finish the faces and dig up or buy a proper darning needle.  I have sewn in ends with embroidery needles before but it is always a fight to thread them. When you have so many ends to deal with you want to be getting the sewing done and not fighting with your needle.

6.) Use safety pins  to pin the animals in place to the blanket so they aren't wiggling all over the place.  Straight pins don't work--trust me,  and no pins are even worse.

7.)  Have Fun  The most important thing whether you knit or crochet is that you take the time to enjoy making an awesome blanket.

FO Friday: Hat and booties

There's not much to show for this week and this will be a short post. I finished the hat and booties I was working on finally.

It's not much but that’s what I’ve finished up this past 2 weeks! What have you been up to? Thanks for stopping by and reading! If you want to see more great finished items… make sure to visit Tami’s Amis blog, the organizer of this great FO Friday theme!

Have an awesome weekend.

FO Friday: A felted bowl and green booties

This post will be short and sweet as I am running out of time.

The green booties I finished last week.

With matching hat.

And last but not least:

A felted bowl I felt the need to make today. It was pretty simple and I love the way it turned out. It may become part of a larger piece that I have been playing with in my mind, but I am not sure yet.

It's not much but that’s what I’ve finished up this past 2 weeks! What have you been up to? Thanks for stopping by and reading! If you want to see more great finished items… make sure to visit Tami’s Amis blog, the organizer of this great FO Friday theme!

Have an awesome weekend.