November 4, 2014 by Stephanie

Crocheted Baby Dinosaur Hat

The first year of a baby’s life you kind of have to go all out for all the holidays. Since Halloween was George’s first holiday, of course that meant we had to do some special costumes.

Because he is only 2 months old, I figured this would be perfect since we would not be embarking on the trick or treating part. Partially naked babies are ok then.

10750349_10100618176536631_122884763943309703_o

I felt that this would be a good opportunity to mark some things off my bucket list by crocheting something and having this be George’s 9 week photo shoot. Win win.

I found a pattern on Ravelry. Here is the link.

I just used yarn I had left over from other projects, but I think it is the basic yarn you can get at Walmart. It does not take very much yarn at all, so don’t go and buy a whole skein unless you like the colors for other projects.

1490771_10100618172699321_2342410772904845692_o

The hat and cape are really easy to do. If I remember correctly it took me maybe an hour to do.

The pattern did rounded scales, but I could not figure out the “magic circle.” Seriously, it was a whole night of me grumbling through YouTube videos trying to get it. So I finally gave up and did triangles instead, which took me about 30 minutes to make all of them. I did two different sizes of triangles, but you can’t really tell from the pictures so I think you could do all the same size or all different. You could also do a lot more than I did and have them closer together. I spaced mine out pretty far. It’s one of those things that is whatever strikes your fancy.

The other note about this pattern is to be aware of the sizing. It says newborn, but George is 2 months old and it is a little of a roomy fit. Granted he weighs about the same as some bigger newborns, but still. Since this is my second go at making a successful hat, I didn’t want to deviate from the pattern to attempt to make it smaller. So be aware if you are making it for a little one in your life.

10712491_10100618176526651_4774443714113478282_o

This was also the week that George actually started liking to lay on his tummy, so that worked out nicely for the photos. I thought it was going to be a whole day ordeal trying to get these shots seeing how tummy time went for him in the past. It ended up only taking me about a half hour, which is a huge deal in terms of baby pictures. Successful Halloween!

What were you for Halloween? Did you make your own costume?

September 24, 2014 by Stephanie

Crochet Tie and Hat

In my quest to expand my crochet skills thanks to my 35 before 35 list, I knew I wanted to make something for George.

I saw lots of cute things on Pinterest.

3ce14c873ff7e0bd25e1e2540c9de292

image via

I need this baby in my life…

3ac5bc89e430467fccc918f68a3f2948

image via

bfcfaac24e0c920a8b5e1bc328a90e36

image via

Cute right? Well some of the things I found either didn’t have patterns, the pattern wasn’t free, or the pattern included things such as buttons or I couldn’t understand the stitches. Problems.

I finally settled on this pattern for the tie. Then I used this video for the hat (which is way to big for G right now since I made it before he was born.)

I used yarn that I had left over from other projects, and it didn’t need very much for either.

This is my first successful attempt at a hat!

2014-09-23 11.15.55

It will be fun to take these pictures again in a few months to see how he has grown. That tie looks huge on him now!

This last one is possibly one of my favorites shots of him.

For the first time ever, I am feeling a crochet drought. I just am not feeling inspired to do anything. We’ll see how long that lasts. I do have projects in mind, just no gumption to do them right now.

Everything has it’s season I guess.

Have you done any projects lately? Any crochet ideas to share?

July 29, 2014 by Stephanie

Crochet Blanket Stitch

I finished a blanket for George. It’s been a long time since I made something for us, so this one was fun to figure out the pattern and colors that we would want.

When I saw this yarn though, I knew I had to have it for our future baby. Our wedding colors in ombre yarn-ugh yes please!

I bought this probably a year ago keeping it stowed until we were cooking a bun in this oven.

I will say, I will never ever buy this yarn again though. It does not go very far. One of these skeins did only 3-4 rows, which is not very much in the grand scheme of blanket making. I have no idea how many of these I used, but it was a lot, which means a lot of money. Thankfully, my trips to get them were far apart and I only bought a couple at a time, so in my head it didn’t seem as bad.

It sure is pretty though!

Grace was excited to blanket model again. She hopped on it the second I put it down.

And then she wanted me to leave her alone.

As you can see in that close up, the stitches are kind of puffed or bobbled. It is a really easy pattern that I have used before. You can find the pattern here.

This blanket took me a while to do only because I kept it in the car and only did it during our road trips over the past 6 months. This might be the reason it went a little overboard and is a little bigger than a baby needs.

For the edging, I used this website. I used pattern 243. It was pretty similar to the blanket stitch so it fit nicely with the pattern. I used yellow yarn that I already had in my stash.

I know that it doesn’t match his nursery, but especially since it is too large for baby sizing anyway, I didn’t care. This would be a great blanket to do tummy time on and travel with to put on the floor for him.

And I may or may not use it on the couch for my own personal use…

Speaking of the nursery, we have been working hard to put it all together. We will have some updates soon to share!

July 3, 2014 by Stephanie

Granny Square Crochet

I just love crocheting.

This most recent creation was for my cousin who is expecting a girl here real soon.

Her last child absolutely adored the blanket I made for her. (Not to toot my own horn…I think it was just opportune.) She drags the thing everywhere and cuddles with it at the most random times I have been told.

So when making this one for her new little sister, I knew that it needed to be a soft blanket with the potential to be another snuggle object.

I used this video as my pattern.

I am not really sure why I had been avoiding doing granny square patterns. It is actually really simple once I got started. I think following the video really helped.

I used Baby Bee yarn. It is super soft. Something I didn’t notice until after I started was that they were not all the same weight of yarn. I don’t think it made a difference once it was all together, but some were thicker than the others. They were all in the same section so I didn’t even bother to check.

I really do love the colors. Sweet and romantic. Perfect for a new little girl in the family.

I used a J hook. If I were wanting it to be a blanket for more warmth than snuggle, I would use a smaller hook size and all thick yarn. But the outcome was perfect for what I wanted for this little lady.

I did a simple crab stitch for the border.

It took me about a month to complete this. I didn’t even use a full skein of yarn in each color.

Even if the new little girl doesn’t like it, I think big sister will have no issue making use of the blanket.

Or she will learn the value of sharing…

I hope they enjoy it, and I can’t wait to see pictures of the new baby!

Now I can focus on a few projects for George. Some are even going beyond my normal blanket expertise. Get excited!

June 12, 2014 by Stephanie

Basket Weave Crochet Blanket

I know that I say this a lot about crochet patterns, but this one is probably (most definitely) one of my favorite designs.

I made this for two friends of ours in Iowa who are due with their first child here in the next month. She is exactly 10 weeks ahead of me.

I was glad I was able to deliver this baby blanket to them in person while we visited in Iowa. They were some of our closet friends, so of course I jumped on the chance to make something for their little tot!

I used this pattern as a guide. It was a very easy one to follow. It looks like it is really complicated, but it is just front and back post double crochets alternated. Once you get the pattern, easy peasy!

Plus it was simpler since I only used one color of yarn, so I didn’t have to switch skeins that much. It took me about 3 weeks to complete this.

I used a J hook.

I went through 7 skeins of the the light gray yarn and half of a skein for the dark gray border.

This yarn is absolutely perfect for baby blankets. It is super duper soft!

Peter and Noelle almost didn’t get the blanket because Tom and I were so obsessed with how the pattern turned out. It is perfectly simple but detailed uniquely.

I just may have to make George one. (If there is one thing we will never run out of, it is blankets. He will be a warm baby!)

I am almost done with another blanket, and then it will be on to making things for George’s arrival!