My little cupcake

Last week, my little cupcake decided she could model her hat for the camera. I gave her a ziploc of pom poms to play with and that helped her sit still for a little while. Emily is really hard to photograph right now!


She loves to say "cheese" for the camera. We have a book checked out from the library that has a picture of some zebras showing their teeth in a "smile." She always smiles back at them and says, "Cheese!"


This is how Emily felt at the end of our photo session.

Pom pom fun!

One of my good friends is expecting a baby boy next month, so I decided it was time to try knitting something for a baby boy. For the hat, I used a basic hat pattern from this book. One thing I like about this pattern is that the first thing you do is knit a four-inch swatch and count the stitches per inch. Then you do a few mathematical calculations to figure out how to size the hat based on your yarn choice.

The most exciting part of this project was the pom pom. This is my second pom pom; my first being the "practice" pom pom I made right before the official pom pom. I read online that it's good to buy a pom pom maker, but I didn't feel like going to the store (not a fan of excessive driving) and I didn't have a coupon for the craft store (my frugal side coming out). I finally found this great tutorial and tried it out myself. It works! It's pretty easy! It's free!

For the mittens, I made a lot of variations to the cupcake pattern. I still like thumbless mittens for Emily. For some reason, we have the hardest time getting her thumbs into the thumb slot. Hopefully my friend's little one will stay warm and cozy this winter!

Time to do some more knitting...I have another baby shower to go to next week!

Felted slippers

Now that I've unveiled the cupcake hat, I have to show you my most recent pair of felted slippers. I knitted these with 100% wool yarn my mom found at an estate sale. She wanted me to make slippers out of the yarn, and I managed to complete them just in time for her birthday! Whew!

After the slippers were knit using a pattern from this book, I washed them in hot water with a small amount of detergent and a pair of jeans in order to shrink them. This process is called felting. I had to check them every few minutes to see how they were doing, because you never know what is going to happen. With this pair, it took a good 10 minutes for them to start shrinking, but when they started to shrink it happened quickly. For me, one of the best things about felting is that I can shrink things and they come out fitting better and looking nicer than when I started. Most of the time shrinking is the is not viewed favorably in our house (ask James about one nice ski hat)!

Sweet little cupcakes

Have I mentioned that I like knitting? My grandma taught me to knit when I was in elementary school, but I didn't make much besides a few dishcloths until I went to college and took a couple classes through the campus craft shop. After I made two and a half pairs of socks, I threw in the towel and didn't knit much until Emily was about four months old. My mother-in-law is an avid knitter, and she helped me through a slipper pattern that had me perspiring as I tried to keep up, not lose my place, and pay attention to my baby.

I started checking out knitting books from the library and found them just as delightful as reading cookbooks (yes, I seriously like reading cookbooks). I found this blog in my search for knitting patterns and fell in love with Susan B. Anderson's cupcake hat. When I found out my best friend from college was having a girl I ordered everything I needed to make a hat and mittens for her little one and Emily. I've been a cupcake knitting maniac the last couple of months. Maybe that's why I haven't blogged. Emily has a set, two of my friends have a set, and one little one has a hat (I was in mitten rebellion at the time). I'll have to post a picture of my sweet, little cupcake in her hat soon!

This hat was knit with Swish DK yarn from KnitPicks. It includes some crocheting to make the cherry on top of the hat and the picot edge on the white portion of the cupcake. Emily's hat was the most difficult to make because I had to do four inches of ribbing to make the pink "wrapper." If you're a knitter, you know my pain!