Bear-y Cute!

Ok, so I know I am a super knitting dork over here, but I just can't help myself! I get these crazy ideas in my head and then I just have to see if I can make them a reality. This one, this crazy mama idea is AWESOME! I decided my little bean needed a bear hat. After all, she was a polar bean on the way home from the hospital and her fall coat is brown beary bean perfection! Of course, she needed to have a bear hat to complete the look!

It took me about four days (we're talking mom time) to finish the hat and then another night and day to do the ears and the face.

 

Without ears

 How beary cute is this!!

 The finished product! So cute!!!

Bear Hat

Brown yarn

Cast on 70 stitches on size 4 round needles. 

Knit the first row

Purl the next inch of material

Knit the rest of the hat. 

Once the material is 6 inches long, start decreasing every 6th stitch until you have 8-10 stitches remaining and then bind off.

Face

Tapestry needle

Black Yarn

Buttons - 2

Using a tapestry needle, create the nose with three stitches using black yarn.

From the middle of the nose sew down and across to create the mouth.

Sew two black buttons on for the eyes.

Ears

Brown yarn

size 6 straight needles

tapestry needle

measuring tape

Cast on 10 stitches

knit across rows 1-4

Row 5 knit one, increase one, knit across to second to last stitch and then increase, knit one (now you have 12 stitches)

Row 6 knit across

For rows 7-10 repeat 5 and 6 until you have 16 stitches.

Rows 11-14 knit across

Row 15 (start the decrease) knit one, knit two together, knit across to last 3 stitches, knit two together, knit one

Rows 16-19 repeat row 15 until you have 6 stitches remaining

Bind off all stitches and leave a long end for sewing.

Using a measuring tape, measure down two inches from the center of the top of the hat. This is where you will start sewing the ears onto the hat.

Turkey Hat Update

I finally finished the turkey hat. I'm not completely pleased with the way that it came out, but after working on it for WEEKS and redoing stitches over and over again...well, I give up! This will just have to do. I was especially disappointed because when I had the hat on Alexa's stuffed animal it didn't look quite so crooked. Oh well, I guess I learned a lesson...you can't use an oval head to make a hat for a round one!

I give you, my little gobbler...

(even she's upset that it's crooked!)

Gobble Gobble

I saw this RIDICULOUSLY adorable turkey hat on Pinterest and decided that I was going to try and make one for Alexa. Well, it has been an experience and a half making this hat. It's the Goldilocks of turkey hats...

Try #1

Ummm way too big!

Try #2

Is it seriously that small?? How did that happen?

Try #3 - the final try

SUCCESS!!

Now just to figure out how the heck to make those cute turkey legs?!

I'll update again as soon as I make some progress!

Jack Be Little Pumpkin

To close out Halloween week, I wanted to share with you a little project I was working on. It's nothing much, just a little "Pumpkin decor", but for me it's a huge project because it is the first knitting project in which I actually followed a pattern...and did so successfully!

I wanted to be fancy and make these little pumpkins for all of Alexa's friends in our Mommy & Me class, but I came up with the idea far too late and one little pumpkin took me an entire day to make because Alexa doesn't like me to ignore her for very long. An experienced knitter, or even some one with older children or no children would probably be able to complete this in just a few hours.

I give you Jack Be Little Pumpkin from The Sitting Tree.

It was a free pattern that I was able to download. I was a little (read: very) nervous about trying to read a pattern. Any other patterns I've even glanced at have looked like they were written in secret code. However, these instructions were very clear (to me) and so I decided to give it a try. Thank you Sitting Tree for writing such clear instructions and making such an easy to follow pattern!

The one pictured was the first one I made. I have a second one that just needs a stem, but before I close it off I am considering adding something to make noise. I think I'll use a mini plastic egg filled with rice or beans. I'll be sure to super glue the egg closed before inserting it into the pumpkin. 

Thanksgiving is right around the corner...I'm feeling a little turkey might be in order!

Trick or Treat Bag

Halloween is quickly approaching. It is not a very well celebrated holiday here in Austria, but I still plan on dressing Alexa up and at the very least parading her all around town in her adorable costume on October 31st. Of course, no Halloween costume is complete without a treat bag. Since these are not available here I decided to knit her one myself. I made up the pattern and design myself. About an hour after completing this project, I found an insanely easy and very cute pattern for other treat bags here.

For the Pumpkin Bag:

I used 4.5cm round needles, 3 double pointed needles, a tapestry needle, orange yarn, black yarn and olive green yarn. I started by casting on 60 stitches of orange yarn onto my round needle. I knit until I had approximately 6.5" of material. I then moved my work onto two double pointed needles (30 stitches on each) to create the bottom. I knit approximately 2-3 inches on each side. I used a 3 needle bind-off to seem the bottom together. I then used the tapestry needle and the black yarn to embroider a jack-o-lantern face onto the front of the pumpkin bag.

For the handle:

Using double pointed needles and the green yarn, I cast on 10 stitches and knit in stockinette stitch until I had 11 inches of material. (**In the future I will only knit maybe 6-7 inches of material for the handle) Bind off and then use the tapestry needle and green yarn to sew the handle onto the inside of the pumpkin bag.

Ribbit, Ribbit

Oh my goodness, how cute is this?!?! I decided to get extra creative and made my little bean a froggy hat. She loves it!

To make the hat:
Cast on 50 stitches of green yarn (I used a heavier, thicker yarn)
Knit 2 rows
Purl 2 rows
Continue on in this way until you have knitted at least 6-8" of material
Cast off

Fold the material in half and sew the two opposite open edges using the same green yarn
Turn your hat inside out

For the eyes:
Cast on 10 stitches with green yarn, leaving a 3" tail
Knit 10 rows
Cast off leaving a 3" tail
This is ONE eye
Repeat for the second eye

Cast on 7 stitches with grey or white yarn, leaving a 3" tail
Knit 8 rows
Cast off leaving a 3" tail
This is for ONE eye
Repeat for the second eye

Cast on 5 stitches with black yarn, leaving a 3" tail
Knit 6 rows
Cast off leaving a 3" tail
This is for ONE eye
Repeat for the second eye

Place the black knit square/oval on top of the grey/white square oval and center it like an eyeball. Using the tails of black yarn, sew the black square onto the grey/white square. Then repeat the same on the green square. Make the second eye the same way. Once the eyes are assembled, use the tail from the green yarn to sew the eyes directly onto the top of your hat. TADA, Froggy hat!

I considered (after the fact) making a rim with a red tongue on it. Since I am not that skilled at knitting, the rim and tongue will have to wait!

My Little Pumpkin

I love knitting little baby hats! They are so super cute (even when they are ugly or dorky looking). Plus, Alexa is nice and lets me try all the hats on her. Having a cute hat model sure does make the projects more fun! I decided that I wanted to make her a couple of holiday hats, starting with a pumpkin hat for Fall and Halloween. I am even toying with the idea of making a jack-o-lantern hat! Well, before I get ahead of myself here is the pumpkin hat...

I started off by buying bright orange yarn for the hat and a light olive green yarn for the stem and leaves. I had watched a couple of YouTube videos and saw how other people made the hats and worked on the leaves. Since I am seriously a beginning knitter I decided to just wing it. I don't know how to read patterns or do any stitches other than knit, purl and a slip stitch, so I went with what I knew and made up my own pattern!

Based on other online baby hat tutorials I knew that I would need to cast on at least 40 stitches, which is the size for a newborn hat. Since Alexa has a bigger head than that I decided to do 50 stitches and see what happened. I also measured her head (16") and knew that I would need to knit at least 8" of knitting so the hat would be big enough. (I'm pretty sure all of you knitters out there are dying from my lack of knitter's speak...sorry!)  It took me about three days to finish the hat, about six hours total knitting time.

No pumpkin hat is complete without a stem and a leaf! At first I just made one leaf, but I thought it looked pretty dumb...

 

A friend suggested that I just add a second leaf and TADA! Super cute pumpkin hat!

Hat Pattern:
Cast on 50 stitches of orange yarn
1. Knit 1 row
2. Knit 2, Slip 2 for one row
3. Knit 1 row
4. Knit 2, Slip 2 for one row
5. Knit 2 rows
Repeat steps 2-5 until you have 8 inches of knit material
Cast off
Fold your rectangle in half the short way and sew the left side and right side closed, you are left with one side open
Turn your material inside out - Tada! You made a hat!


Leaf Pattern: (I made 2 leaves)
Cast on 7 stitches of green yarn
Knit 4 rows
Knit two stitches together and then finish knitting that row (you now have 6 stitches)
Knit 3 rows
Knit two stitches together and then finish knitting that row  (you now have 5 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
Knit two stitches together and then finish knitting that row (you now have 4 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
Knit two stitches together and then finish knitting that row (you now have 3 stitches)
Knit 2 rows
Cast off

I sewed the leaves onto the hat using the tail of yarn from when I casted on and the tail from casting off.

Stem:
Cast on 5 or 6 stitches and knit until you have about 2 1/2" of material. Fold in half the long way and sew the open sides. Sew onto the hat on a short side.

Suzy and Martha

Recently, my Suzy Homemaker/Martha Stewartness has been vibing strong. I have been quite creative and crafty in the living room, not to mention super adventurous in the kitchen.

I attempted to make my own "Kinderwagonkette", or stroller toy, which was a total flop, so I moved on to knitting. I decided that I wanted to knit Alexa a hat!

Well, hat #1 was a little bit too tiny...and by little, I mean it is now her doll's hat.

It was a fun, quick project though, so I grabbed the bull by the horns, or the baby by the head(?!), remeasured and started anew. I even used old knitting squares and pulled together a pretty neat hat! Since then, I have had hat knitting fever!

Plus, I have the cutest hat model imaginable!