hat project

The hats are done.  I decided to make a few different styles because I don't know what Jeff will like.  I made the first one out of a light gray yarn that I had left over from another project.  The style looked okay for my first attempt at adding a brim to a hat, but I wasn't that crazy about the color for a man.  I found some very dark gray, almost black, and tried another style, one that had ear flaps.  I got creative with this hat and made it with extra long ear flaps that could be worn in different ways...down as flaps, wrapped under the chin for extra warmth, or wrapped up over the head if the flaps weren't needed at all.  I like this hat a lot, but decided to try one more style and another color.  I made the brim more in the style of a baseball cap with this hat since that is what Jeff does now.  He wears a knit hat over a baseball cap so that he can get the brim and the knit hat, too.  To make the brim stiffer, I cut a piece of plastic from a milk jug and used it inside the brim.  It works pretty well, I think.  Hopefully, he will like one of them.  If not, I can try something else.  The only problem is that I have to wait for awhile to find out because he is in Costa Rica until April.

My first attempt to add a brim.

This hat sports a baseball cap brim with a ribbed cuff.

The flaps of this hat can be worn hanging straight down or wrapped under chin and attached with Velcro.

This shows the above hat with the flaps wrapped up over the crown.

The three different styles of brim hats.

 Now I am ready to start on something new.  I have a request for a simple cardigan sweater for my granddaughter Lexi.  Most of her church dresses have short sleeves and her mother asked me to make one for her.  I picked up the yarn this evening and have already started in.  Hope to be finished by next week.  It is being done with very small needles, so it may take longer.  At least I know it will take a lot longer than the hats.  They were a breeze.  It just took two days to knit the three hats.  I like projects that I can see the results of in just a short time.  I have a problem...when I start in on something new that I am creating, I can't put it down until I see what it is going to look like.  It was that way with the baseball brimmed hat last night.  I was up until 1:30 a.m. trying to finish it so I could see if I liked it or not.  I'm sure glad I was satisfied, or I may not have gotten any sleep worrying about what I could do to change it.  Well, I better get back to work.

Fish completed

The fish is done.  I was able to adapt the very small toy fish to the much bigger one to become a pillow.  With a little math and a lot of chance, it came out pretty well.  I had to tweak the end of the tail just a bit in the sewing because it didn't quite look the way I had hoped it would look.

So, what is next?  I have an order to make a man's knit hat with a brim.  While I have seen hats like that, I am unable to find a pattern anywhere, so I guess it is back to trying to do it myself.  I think I can just use a regular hat pattern and try to come up with a way to add a brim to it.  Wish me luck...I'm going to need it.

This is one big smiley fish as you can see.  It nearly stretches across the whole bed.

                                

Playmat project completed

         The project is finally completed.  I decided that since I do not know what the new baby will be, I could just make a big brother doll as the farmer boy who tends to the animals.  Regardless to what the baby is, Ellis will be the big brother, so that is what I made.  Ellis is going to be a great big brother.  He loves to help with his little baby cousins. 
          Now I am ready to jump into my next project.  When Ellis was over visiting the other day he said he wanted me to make him something.  When I asked what he wanted, as if I haven't already made him a ton of things, he said that he wanted me to make him a fish, a red one.  So, I guess that is what he will get...a big red fish pillow to go on his bed with his huggy monkey (there is a picture of it in the picture of me in my profile to the right), the puppy pillow and the big striped snake that I made for his first Christmas, and the owl pillow I made for his second Christmas.  His mom said that she was going through his baby toys the other day to get things ready for the new baby and she said that probably two-thirds of his toys had been made by me.

This is what the play mat looks like with all the toys bundled inside for storage.

This is the real Ellis in his summer clothes that I made for him last summer.

This is he big brother Ellis doll, complete with the streaky blond hair.

This is the completed mat with all the animals and big brother included.

Mat animals complete

Finally, the mat animals are completed.  I still have one more item to do before the project is finished.  I am making a farm boy to tend to the animals.  He has been started and should be finished in a day or two depending on how much time my little grandbabies will let me work on him.  I have had a lot of fun doing this project and thank all the people who wrote the patterns and shared them for nothing.  I admire anyone who can think of a way to shape these toys.  The horse and goat particularly had unique shapes and it was exciting to see how the stitches would turn out.

Check out the knobby knees on this fellow.  This is suppose to be Pistol, their little pony who is so small that he can get lost in a herd of sheep when he is grazing with them.  He's a bit bigger in comparison in this farm scene.

This puppy isn't like their two dogs, but he still has character.

Here are all the animals together.  Proportions are way out of whack, but I think their cute anyway. 

more mat animals

This little cow doesn't look a thing like the cows on the farm, but I think she is cute anyway.

An orange goat, well...what can I say...it's still a goat.

This pig represents the biggest producer on the farm.

This project is becoming quite a bit of work.  I have chosen my patterns from free on-line entries.  I take what I can find and try to adapt them to the project.  Since the patterns aren't written by professional pattern writers, sometimes the directions are a little difficult to follow.  Still, it provides a challenge that I like, and it is fun to see the results.  The goat was a real mind twister that had me dizzy from turning pages back and forth to follow the directions.  In the end, I think it turned out to be a pretty cute little guy.  Actually, it wasn't so little.  That is just another one of the things that I don't know when I start a new animal.  I don't know how big it is going to be.  Well, that's all for now.  I still have two more animals to make...the horse and the dog, so its back to work again.

New Project

Well, with Christmas over, I have turned my attention to the new grandbaby due in April.  I made plastic canvas toy boxes stuffed with toys for my first four grandchildren.  For the next three, I made knitted Noah's Ark play mats stuffed with toys.  You can see a picture of one in my first blog.  For this new baby, I am also making a play mat, but it is a farm scene instead, since the family are farmers.  I also changed the format of the mat to machine applique rather than knitted.  The animals are knitted in cotton yarn for easy cleaning purposes.  I am making one of each of the types of animals they have on the farm.  Here are a few pictures of what I have finished.                    


                                 

The sheep, rabbit, chick and turkey. Notice how the barn expands for storage of the animals.

This shows the barn in its closed look.

This chick represents the more than 100 chickens they have on the farm.

This is suppose to be Tom, the only turkey they have left on the farm.

This multicolored sheep is for the large flock of sheep from which I get my wool yarn for knitting projects.

They no longer have rabbits on the farm, but I think rabbits are cute, so a rabbit is on this play farm.

Welcome Post

For my first entry, I want to share a few of my projects with you.

Dot in her Christmas hat, mittens, and fleece jacket.

Jackson on his Noah's Ark play mat

Lucy and her pet giraffe

Joey's 1st Halloween costume

Zoe's Christmas dress

         

Alexis in her blessing day dress.

Ellis showing off his new sweater

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