Spell My Name Swap goodies

I have taken a break from swaps for a while, but signed up for a few in the last month, trying to get my crafting fix in before the baby comes.  One of the swaps I did is one I have done before... the Spell My Name Swap, where you craft an item for each letter of your partner's name.  First, let me show you the amazing stuff that I received from my partner stacysews:  

She made all kinds of awesome Star Wars and owlie goodies for the coming wee one.  And an awesome Miss Piggie eye cold pack for my tired eyes and aching head and some handmade lip gloss in a totally sweet little case for my inevitably chapped lips during labor.  Amazing, no!?  

So, for Stacy, here is the package I made.  It turns out we have similar interests and styles, so I didn't have to do that much shopping.  I did buy the yarn for the "hat of frustration" but I literally had all the rest of the supplies in my stash.  

Hat of frustration (a.k.a. Letter S: Skully Skullcap):  

This hat is the third one I made from the initial pattern.  The first one came out baby sized with a weird flared brim.  The second one was slightly better, but was toddler sized.  I ended up changing the number of stitches I cast on, the length I made it, and even the intarsia pattern, which had weird deformed "X's" between each skull.  I had some separation anxiety when I mailed it off after spending so much time working on it.  

Letter T: Tattoo inspired brooch

This one is based on an awesome craft I did with my super crafty friends Abbey and Jenni two years ago for Valentine's Day.  I made one for myself at the time that says "Pookie" on it, and I wear it the entire month of February every year.  Since Stacy likes tattoo art, I thought it only appropriate that she have a crafty badge to show off her crafty and hardcore sides all in one!  It's felt, and I used blanket stitch for the edges, a simple whip stitch for the "banner" and back stitch for the lettering.

Letter A: Alice In Wonderland embroidered art

Stacy had Alice in Wonderland stuff all over her Wist and Pinterest, so I knew I had to include something "Alice Inspired."  I ended up creating this sort of cameo outline design based on the Disney Alice and I included an "eat me" mushroom for our little heroine.  It was basic back stitch, since the pattern was so detailed around Alice herself.  I was quite pleased with how it came out.  

Letter C is the Cameo Cup Candle you can see in the first picture.  I apparently forgot to take a close up.  It is done with soy wax and natural vanilla scent so that she can use the mug when the candle is gone.  I love making candles... so simple and so satisfying!  

Letter Y: Yummy Cupcake Bunting

I had trouble with the letter Y.  I was thinking Yeti at first, but couldn't figure out anything yeti to craft. Then I saw the awesome cupcake bunting on Stacy's Pinterest, and KNEW I had to make it for her.  Since I already had my letter C, I thought, what are cupcakes if not yummy?  Bingo... letter Y.  This is a very satisfying pattern and project.  Super fast and really great looking when complete.  

I love the Spell My Name Swap.  It requires a bit of creative thinking, but for the most part, you can really craft things that your partner will love, and that fits their likes and personality.

Baby Extravaganza!

I've gone a little crazy with the baby items.  My nesting is definitely manifesting in the urge to make tiny cute things for the parasite.  I make things for myself here and there, but mostly I'm crafting tiny, and I'm rocking cute.  Here are the items I've finished yesterday and today:  

Cute and tiny, right?  

I've attempted to make a couple of hats already.  I say attempted not because they didn't turn out well... they did... but one was way too big and fit on my giant noggin, and the other one was too big (like more for a 3-6 month old) and way too light weight.  Guess I have a spring hat and the other hat will be donated to a not-so-needy, but cute and deserving toddler.  This time around, however, I chose proper yarn (bought at a garage sale in Eugene, OR for fifty cents!), made it the right size, and even managed to work in some fashionable cables!  

The yarn is super soft and the variegation makes it interesting, but the colors are still neutral and not too babyish.  I loathe pastels.  The pattern itself was extremely simple and still yielded excellent results.  I somehow screwed up my decreases, but I just made it work at the top.  There's a cute little nubbin made from knotting an i-cord.  Cute, whimsical, and not as weird-looking as a pom pom.

I needed a model, so my garden buddha stood in for the parasite.  Cute, yes?  

The other item that I finished today was this cute stuffed ball.  I have a ton of flannel scraps left over from making bassinet sheets, so I used some of them to make this ball.  I used an excellent tutorial from the Purl Bee.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I had some problems at the ends with the flannel fraying, but because it was at the ends of the machine sewn panels, I was able to hide it with the tops.  I am wishing I had done a panel with the turquoise polka-dot and done the circles on top with the plain green, but I'll keep that in mind for the smaller sized ones.  The large took up over half a bag of fiber-fill, so I'll have to do the smaller ones if I do some more!  

Craft Swap Goodies!

My awesome craft swap partner, Robin, has officially received her package of goodies from the Trick or Treat bag swap. That means I can post the crafty goodness on here! First off:

The most important part of the swap was to craft a really awesome bag. I happen to be well versed in the bag making, so that was pretty easy. I did have some major fabric-choosing anxiety, though, and walked around JoAnn Fabric with a completely different scheme that I didn't even like, before I went back for the plaid fabric and found the cute little vintage print hidden among the thanksgiving fabrics. This is the first time I've done a trim with a bag, and I think the little pom pom trim turned out really well. I also reinforced the handle with batting, which is my new favorite idea to keep the handle comfy and also to keep it from getting all scrunched up at the top.

Robin has two boys, Jakob and Bailey, so I couldn't leave them out of the craftiness! I made each of them a little bag with their name on it with the left over lining fabric. I free-handed their names with a bleach pen and added a little spookiness to each one.

The boys also got their own candy loot, which was a little more their speed. Skittles, Starburst, and Chocolate eyeballs. Awesome. I think much like a 7-year-old boy, so it was fun to do this for them. :)

Here is all the goodies that went inside Robin's bag all packaged up. I made four napkins out of the plaid linen fabric and used that to package everything. Below is the goodies (sans candy) all laid out:

I made that awesome potholder out of some sparkley cotton yarn I found at Hancock Fabric in Sioux Falls, SD. It was on super sale for 93 cents a skein! I had made it a while ago, not really knowing where it would end up, but it was the perfect addition to Robin's bag loot. Also, you can kind of see the rosette pin I made out of that same plaid fabric I'm obsessed with. I've tried to make rosettes out of fabric before, but haven't had much success. I threw out the rule book and tutorials I had found on-line and just made it the way I thought that it should be made, and it worked perfectly! I get a little obsessed with rules sometimes and forget the instinct part of crafting.

Finally, the piece-de-resistance was the crafted items for Robin and the boys. I purchased a candy-corn hat pattern, as she had listed one on her wist and I was dying to make one. It knit up really quickly, as it's a super thick yarn, and it's totally adorable with the little point on the head. She said she wore it out and got some great responses from people, so that's nice to hear. Also, I found a cute little batty pattern, which I love, and made one for each boy out of the remainder of the sparkley black cotton yarn from SD. I think they turned out great!

Give a Hoot.

So, at work about a week ago, I was working on one project or another, and one of my co-workers asked me if I have ever made an "animal head hat." While this seemed like a bit of a weird question, I assumed that she was getting at something, so I said that I hadn't but had seen plenty of patterns out there that I was looking to try out. One thing led to another, and she finally got to the point-- her two-year-old is going as an Owl for Halloween this year, and she was wondering if I could make him an owl head hat. She'd pay me. Well, I'll do just about anything for cash, so I hunted through patterns, piecing together what I liked from each of them and came up with this:

Turns out that Charlie is going to be a green and blue owl, so those were the colors I went with. Here is the process-- I made the chin strap and then cast on the rest of the hat in the round.

The main part of the hat was in two colors, one variegated blue and green and one light blue. Then I made a flap at the top in green and the variegated. I didn't want to finish it off in the round, because I needed some "ears" for the owl, so I left the top square and just sewed it together.

Then, after everything was sewed up, I made little tassels for the ends of the ears.

After the main part of the hat was constructed, I wove in the ends and attached a button. I found a little blue button that worked perfectly with the color of the hat.

Then I finished it off with the felt eyes and beak you saw above. It turned out so cute. I'm really happy with it, and I think little Charlie will look adorable in it. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the little guy wearing the hat to get the full affect.