I Heart Hats

I decided not to do a ton of handmade gifts this year for Christmas.  Last year I was too stressed trying to get everything done in time.  This year, I am knitting only a few hats.  These hats will be for a few of my friend's daughters.

Yarn

Here are two of the yarns that I am using for the first hat.  Pink as the main color (Bernat Softee Baby in Soft Peach) and a cream with a gold thread (Lion Brand, Vanna's Glamour in Topaz 170). 

This is your basic knitted hat pattern:

• Worsted weight yarn (less than 1 skein each)
• Size 8, 9 or 10 straight needle
• Cast on: 54 sts for Baby / 63 sts for Toddler, Small Adult & Large Adult
• Use Size 8 for Baby / Size 9 for Toddler & Small Adult / Size 10 for Large Adult
• Work this pattern for ~4" for Baby / ~6" for Toddler / ~7" for Small Adult & Large Adult
• *k8, p1, repeat from * to end
• After the desired length is knitted, start decreasing as follows:
• Rows 1: *k6, k2 tog, p1, repeat * to end
• Rows 2, 4, 6: Work even (p the p's and k the k's)
• Rows 3: *k2 tog tbl (through back loops), k5, p1, repeat from * to end
• Row 5: *k4, k2 tog, p1, repeat * to end
• Row 7: *k2 tog tbl (through back loops), k4, p1, repeat from * to end
• Row 8: *p2, p2 tog, k1, repeat from * to end
• Row 9: *k2 tog tbl, k1, p1, repeat from * to end
• Row 10: *p2 tog, k1, repeat * to end
• Row 11: *k2 tog tbl, repeat * to end
• There are only 6 sts left (don't worry if it is not exactly 6).  Cut the yarn so there is a tail about a foot long.  Thread it on a blunt tip needle. Take the threaded needle and cross over the sts on the wrong side and start threading the sts on the knitting needle onto the blunt tip needle and tail yarn.  (See picture below somewhere) Remove the sts off the knitting needle and pull the tail tight.  This closes up the top.  Take that tail and seam the hat down the side.  Weave in ends.  Viola!

You can do this pattern with one yarn thickness or two yarn thickness.  You can play around with the pairing of the colors.  You can do stripes.  You can continue decreasing into an I-cord or you can add a pom-pom. You can really do anything with this basic pattern.

I started with the light pink/gold pairing:

Makes a Rolled Edged Hat

I really like how the two yarns held together look:

Glistening Yarn

Here is the closing of the top with the blunt tip needle:

Thread the Tail Through the Sts on the Knitting Needle

Then remove sts from knitting needle and pull tight:

Pulled

Here is the basic hat completed:

Completed Basic Hat

I had two done by this point:

Cutie Hats

The darker pink hat yarn is Bernat Softee Baby in Soft Red held together with the same Vanna's Glamour as the light pink hat.  

My finishing touch on these hats will be a crocheted puffy heart that I will dangle off the top with a crochet chain.  I got the puffy heart crochet pattern off the internet with a video from YouTube.  They are so cute!

I Heart Puffy Heart

That puffy heart was not as easy as it looked!  It took me for-ev-a to do it right.  I'm just not a crocheter and I was using a steely hook that was a size 1.  I was very relieved that it finally did work out.

Lots of Love Hat

I only did one puffy heart for the blog.  It took me so long to do that one, that I will have to start fresh again another day on the other one.

Odd Balls Flower Pot

This post is coming from my picture archives.  Back in March, my friend Stephanie and I wanted to make something special for our friend Cathy for her birthday.   Some background: we are on a bowling team with Vince and we call ourselves the Odd Balls.  Her birthday was falling on a bowling night, so we had to do something special.

Stephanie came up with the idea of doing a potted plant.  But we just can't buy a plant and say, "Here."  So we decided to take a plain terracotta planter and paint it.  For this we bought kids paint, sponges and brushes.  Stephanie had yellow paint already for a home decor project that did not go well (for the record, none of her rooms are this color yellow!).

Stephanie painted the pot with with few coats before we got together, so we would not have to sit and watch paint dry.  When we got together, we made "stamps" out of the sponges.  This was done by printing out an outline of a pin onto paper and cutting it out.  Then we traced the outlines of the bowling pin and drew a circle for the ball on a sponge.  Once they were traced on the sponges, we cut out the surrounding sponge so the pin and ball were raised from the sponge.  Very clever thinking!

Pin Sponge Stamp

We used paper plates as the paint tray but found out that if we paint the paint onto the sponge, we would get a more even coat.

Blue Bowling Ball Stamp

Once we got the kinks out of our painting technique, we were off and painting.  She did the bowling balls and I did the white pins.

Pins Are On!

Here is another view:

Balls Are On!

Cathy's bowling ball is like a Star Trek ball where it is a dark blue swirl with a hint of glitter, like the galaxy.  So, to add that special touch, while the blue paint was still wet, Stephanie took a gift bag that had glitter on it and scrapped it onto a plate and blew the glitter onto the ball.  It stuck!  She did well!

Around the rim we painted Odd Balls, Cathy, 2011.

Lettering Is Complete

We let the artwork (and it was a piece of art, let me tell you) dry overnight.  Stephanie sprayed it with a sealant so it can withstand the weather and not chip.  She also went out and bought a few different plants and flowers and planted a small container garden in the pot.  We brought it to bowling the following day with balloons on fishing weights and buried them in the soil.  We celebrated with cheesecake!

Finished

We were pleased as punch that it came out so well.  Happy Birthday (again), Cathy!

Glitter Candle

Alright everyone, let me introduce you to my first guest blogger, Crystal.  She is from Rhode Island and is one of my very good friends.  We met through my first "real job" in Boston, MA.  When we first met, we chatted and found out that we were in the same Organic Chemistry class in college, but we barely remember each other.  Strange how paths can cross multiple times and then one day it clicks.  Anyway, I am very excited to host today's guest blog post.  Here it is:

So, it's Thanksgiving Eve, and I realize I need a hostess gift.  Being a Scrooge I didn’t want to spend too much and I thought about Nancy’s sentiment of giving hand-made gifts.  Now people usually “Oooo” and ”Ahhh” over various things I make.  While I acknowledge that I have some degree of skill I never feel totally justified receiving their praise.  Why?  Because I steal ideas from the internet or just follow a pattern.  The “art” isn’t really my own creation.  This time was different, I came up with my own craft and felt that it was worthy of a guest blog.

At first I got a really cheap ($1) candle.  It was gold and really pretty.  But when I took the wrapper off most of the gold came off with it.  They went back to the store.  Next I got a red/maroon candle from Target for about $2.



Plain 'ole candle



The next thing I did was to print a “D” for my hostess last name. I used Edwardian Script in Word with a font size of 150 bolded. I then taped it to the candle.

A "D" for Delicious (actually the Hostess' last initial) 



The next step was to use a utility knife to cut out the letter.  I would have used an Exacto knife but for some reason mine hides from me whenever I go to use it.  I didn’t gouge too deep, just enough to outline the letter.  I peeled away the black just so you can see but it really isn’t necessary.



Exacto, where are you when I need you?

At this point I was at a loss as for how to make a nice groove to hold my glue.  I wanted to create a kind of well so that the glue would just sort of flow into it.  I ended up using just a regular old pen.  Note that this chosen pen will get so waxed up it will never write again.  Hey, maybe that makes this a “green” project since you can repurpose a pen that just won’t write.  You know you have them in that junk drawer!  Anyway, I just get “writing” with the pen and digging out my groove.  It made a terrible mess which required me skitteling over to the trash to brush myself off.  Finally I went outside and shook like a wet dog; that worked.

The next pic is a little dark but I wanted to show how the etching looked.  Let’s pause here to say I am not a photographer.  I can’t take a decent picture to save my soul.



Etched out area



I then took some plain Elmer’s glue and very carefully filled in the little canals I had created.  I went through all the trouble of making these canals because I was afraid if I just wrote in glue that it would just fall off because of the waxy slipperyness of a candle.  I also didn’t think I could get the fancy contours of the line for the letter without some guidance.  It worked out pretty well.



Carefully fill in letter



I took some silver glitter and sprinkled it over the glue.  I was very generous but being Scroogey as I did it over a newspaper so that I could recover any un-stuck glitter. 



Crafting's not cheap, so save that excess glitter, ladies!


Here you can see how it looks after just shaking off the excess glitter.


Almost there!



Now you have to let it dry for a good while.  Then take a stiff, thin brush like this one...

Brush to brush 

...and gently brush away the random, spare glitter.  Now you have your finished product.  I think it is beautiful if I do say so myself.  I will feel great giving this gift and comfortable for once taking the praise I hope it will receive.



Beautiful, personalized gift!



Lastly, I want to say how much extra time it took to turn this project into a blog.  I am very grateful for Nancy’s hard work each week.  I had no idea how much it took to document a simple process.  Thanks for the blog and thanks for letting me guest!

Well, that was a great project, Crystal!  Thank you and you're welcome for being my guest blogger!  I love how the last pic has one glitter piece that is giving the little "bling" wink to everyone.  Let me know how everyone makes out with this clever project.

Anyone is welcome to guest blog, just email me and I can tell you what I need from you.  :-)