Nummies 911

Act 10 - Square Hats

 
Lately, I've been into the instant gratification knitting. Thereby knitting small objects on large needles with bulky yarns.  It has been so much fun.

Here are some examples:

Sweet little warm beanies for these fall and winter babies.

A little cocoon that will hold about a 7-8lb baby for a photo shoot.

Party hats in all shapes, colors and sizes, from newborn to elementary age.

Funky square hats that look absolutely daring on.  I don't have a model at the time, but Camille's bear didn't mind. 

 

Act 9 - Dyeing Yarn

While being in Creative Yarns, our local yarn shop (or YSL) is the equivalent of a being in the best bakery on earth, I couldn't help but notice some Montana undyed bulky yarn hiding in the sale section.  It was such a good deal, especially since I had just read an article on how to dye yarn using a crock pot and Wilson's food coloring on Craft Gossip. One of my other favorite hobbies is baking, so I have a rainbow of Wilson's food coloring gels. I have a crock pot, so all I needed was this $8 skein of yarn. 

I dipped one half the hank into hot water with coloring and vinegar. I turned the crock pot to hot and let the water evaporate as it seeped up the yarn.  I turned it around and did the same with another color. The directions were vague, but the results were great.  I am making Camille a watermelon colored hexagon blanket and I thought a green and red skein of thick wool would blend nicely. It did.

Here is the dyed yarn. 

And here is the yarn incorporated in the blanket.  

Pretty good match, if I do say so myself.

  

 This is the hand-dyed yarn.

 

Act 4, 5 & 6

Sometimes when I'm at my most creative is when I feel like blogging the least, so I hope you'll understand the lapses between posts indicate MORE being done, not less, usually that is :)

I just couldn't continue with the pink lace scarf because the baby pods kept coming to mind. After an exhaustive search for a free baby pod pattern on the internet, I finally found this book

When it arrived, I was overcome.  Usually knitting books are like albums, if you are old enough to remember having the buy the whole album because you liked one or two songs on the whole thing. This book was an unusual case because I liked almost every project in the whole book. I also love chunky yarn, so it was a perfect match. Then I started knitting and the further bonus was instant gratification. In every project I've done, the longest time was taken in choosing the yarn and the perfect combination of colors. The knitting was quick and mostly completed in an afternoon or evening.  

So here is what I've been doing with some of my time lately...

Of course, this is the first time I can remember in my life when I've not been surrounded by babies.  My brand new neighbors have a four month old, Marshall, but I'm so far removed from baby rules that I actually asked her to bring him to my house in the afternoon to model for me. What was I thinking?!? Baby: Sure lady, I don't know you and I'd be glad to sit on this cold table with weird fluff on my head while you flash a light in my eyes.  Sounds fun...NOT! So while the mother kept apologizing, it was me who kept assuring her that the apology was mine and one afternoon, I'd ease into her house and get to know Marshall a little better before asking him to work him magic, because he really is cute. 

The LYS only had brown in the ruffle yarn, but I've since ordered some and I cannot wait to see how the green turns out.  Although I like the brown.

These are just the tip of the iceberg and I'll post some more later. If you know of a baby who needs a hat like these, please let me know.