Premie Crochet Hats

Good Morning!

The cold weather and snow is not something we have here in Southwest Florida but I am thinking of all of our friends and family and those of you our there in blog land who are experiencing the cold and snow. Last post I told you about the early arrival of my friends' baby boy, so I make some soft little hats for him to wear while he is in the hospital.

Preemie Crochet Hat

Quick Preemie Baby Crochet Hat

I put then on my ipad so you can see how teeny they are!

They are located in Colorado Springs, CO so they will have some cold weather for quite a while, I am sure little Ben will be needing plenty of hats. I didn't follow a specific pattern, I used my daughter's new born hat that was given to her in the hospital made by one of the hospital volunteers to gage size and just winged it from there. I made sure they were smaller than the one we were given since Ben is a preemie and I remember the hat being a little too big for my daughter when she was born. I need to trim the pom pom a little to make it even, and I think I will leave the blue hate without a pom pom.

I can write out a pattern if people are interested

Happy Monday!

Susan

Ready for Baby

Hello Friends,

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. I am currently 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant - 23 days until my due date. Hopefully she is not late as it is getting very difficult to do much of anything. I am not a Happy Camper and I really do feel bad for J. He has been a good sport, and helps pull me out of bed when I can't sit up. Luckily pregnancy carpal tunnel syndrome has not been too bad this past week - knock on wood. I hate to even say that because I suspect tonight my hands and fingers will be throbbing.

The baby's room is just about done, a few more things to get and do but overall she could come today and I wouldn't feel like I had to do anything right away. Every since I made my first pink owl crochet hat I have fallen in love with owls. So we went with the Dena Happi Tree Owl theme for the crib bedding and matching wall decals.

Santa's Hat Workshop

Hello Friends,

My living room has turned into Santa's hat making workshop - well, crochet hat making workshop. I had several orders from my Etsy shop to fill and get mailed out before Christmas. So, I've been squeezing in an extra minutes I have to get these orders filled and sent out.

Some owls in pink and blue, a spiderman, a yellow bear, and some pom pom hats. The pom pom hats are very easy to make and do not require attaching of eyes like the owls or spiderman white "eye" area. I made the pink version several months ago and made my first blue one for an order.

 I used Vanna's Choice holding together a strand of Colonial Blue and Light Dusty Blue with an N/10mm hook. The hat is a quicker make, then you just make the two pom poms using both colors together and attach!

The next thing I want to show you is a stocking I made when I was around 10-12 years old. We had some yarn with red, green, and white in it - probably Red Heart Super Saver, and I made this all on my own without a pattern. I was very clever back then, I can't tell where the first chain was made or how I went about making this one. When I was in Buffalo I found it in my parent's basement and knew I needed to bring it down to my own home in Florida.

When I first moved to Florida almost 6 years ago, I was a poor doctoral student (well not super poor but you know what I mean) and I wanted to have a stocking for J but did not want to purchase one. I had some red yarn (again - Red Heart Super Saver, I used to think this was good yarn to use for crochet) and whipped up this stocking. I used Bernat's yarn for the "lace" on the trim.

I think it looks pretty good hanging considering it was a quick whip up for J's Christmas stocking.

Well, I am not going to start a career making stockings, but I have all of my hat orders complete and they were all sent off to the post office today. Now I just have to finish the rest of my Christmas cards. I did all of J's side of the cards and sent them off today. I just have to finish my list of friends and family.

Here is our Christmas tree decorated. I try to make it look a little different each year, so this year I added the white ribbon with gold trimmings on it to go with the red. Our tree is tall and thin which is perfect for the place we put it. I think the ribbons help make it look a little "fatter". Now I just have to find the rest of my ornaments - I am just not as organized this year as I usually am.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a fabulous week. I've been seeing a lot of baking and Christmas decorating on the blogs. I love seeing how each person is celebrating their holiday season through crochet, crafts, and yummy goodies. We all have many similarities and unique differences. :)

xoxo Susan

P.S. Do you like my new layout for Christmas? I have been trying to change the background for a couple weeks and was finally able to do it using html code instead of uploading a photo/graphic. Now I need to keep up on it so we aren't looking at Christmas all the time!

Yellow Bear Hat and More Lion Brand Amazing Yarn

Hello Friends,

I hope you are having a great weekend so far. My parents flew in last night for a visit and they will be in Florida for 9 days. Today J had to work all day, so my parents and I had a very nice day together. They got in late last night so we had a slow start to the morning. We went over to see our soon to be new house. They were working diligently putting up drywall so we just stopped by our actually home for a little bit and then went to see the inside of the same floor plan so they could see what it will look like once it is finished. 

I had an order for a yellow bear hat with a white flower on my Etsy site. I had a pink one made, but this was my first bear hat with earflaps. The little girl loves yellow, so I hope she loves this hat too!

Here is the pink one I made:

We also popped over to A.C. Moore before heading home this evening. I got three new colors of Lion Brand Amazing Yarn: Vineyard, Pink Shades, and Joshua Tree; and some pink Lion Brand Jiffy called Rose Spray.

I am thinking I will try a new pattern for my Amazing yarn. I've been making a lot of infinity scarves with this yarn but I think something new may be nice. If it doesn't work out and I can always go back to the infinity scarf petals pattern. I may even try some with my knitting needles.

The jiffy yarn was picked by my mom. She is looking for a scarf to go with her pink jacket and thought this yarn would be just right. I have to agree, I think the yarn will make a lovely scarf to wear with her pink coat and others.

So, now I need to get to work now hooking away. I also just remembered the candy cane scarf which MUST be finished before my parents leave on Sunday (not tomorrow but next week). The candy cane scarf will be perfect for Christmas!!!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

xoxo Susan

Baby Boy Blue Owl Hat, and another....

Hello Friends,

I have been MIA for too many days. The last month of travel has been great, but exhausting. I am now back in Florida and will be here for many weeks before having to fly anywhere else (no planned travel at least). My recent trip as you know was to Buffalo for Thanksgiving. I never made it to the Alpaca Farm -- I will have to go next year, but I did manage to do some crocheting and even practiced my knitting while I was there.

First, I had another baby to see, this one named Declan. He needed an owl hat so I crocheted a blue one for him. The first hat I made was too small, sized for a new born. I whipped up another one perfect for 4 month old Declan.

Declan and his mommy love owls, he even has an owl themed room. So a perfect little owl hat was just what he needed for the cold winter in Buffalo.

He was able to put it on Thanksgiving night after a long day of visiting with family and eating lots of turkey (jk - babies can't eat turkey!). Isn't his bib just adorable?

The closed-eye owl hat is just so cute. I think since Declan loves owls so much he is going to need another one with open eyes to get him through the long winter. Babies grow so fast and this hat just fit him.

Since just about every post has one lately, this one is no different. You guessed it, another infinity scarf. This one was made on the airplane to Buffalo. A perfect amount of time to make this lovely scarf. I wore it in the airport during our layover in Baltimore and I caught several people checking it out.

I started at the airport and finished on my flight from Fort Myers to Baltimore, so I think it took me a little over 2 hours. 2 Skeins of Lion Brand Amazing Yarn in Olive Medley. I have a tan pea coat that I wear while I am in Buffalo and this scarf was PERFECT for it.

I told my mom if she knows someone who would like those colors she can take it, but I left it there because it goes so well with my coat. So it will be there waiting for me next Thanksgiving or if I travel to Buffalo in the next few months and the weather is still cold.

I will be catching up on blog reading this weekend, I can't wait to see what you are up to.
Have a fabulous day!!
xoxo Susan

Perfect Little Baby with an Owl Hat (of course)

Hello Friends,

I was able to meet baby Anthony today, my friend Anna's new little bundle of joy. He was so perfect and cuddley I just wanted to stay forever. His owl hat is a little big right now but he is growing very quickly so by the time a lot of snow falls and he really needs to bundle up the hat should fit him perfectly.

Perfect little pumpkin

Just a little big





After visiting with Anna, her husband Anthony and Baby Anthony, I enjoyed a wonderful haddock fish fry for dinner with my family, and then went to see my 90 year old Nana. She was looking well and in good spirits. A great start to visit to Buffalo.

I hope your weekend is starting off just as fabulously as mine. Tomorrow I may get to visit an Alpaca farm I did not even know about!!!

xoxo Susan

Some Professional Photos of My Owl Hats

Hello Friends,

Thanks for stopping by! I've been trying to work on some WIPs so I can bring them up north for Thanksgiving next week. In the mean time, I have been making some more baby/kid hats because I have some orders to fill and bring to Buffalo as well. My friend Anna had a beautiful baby boy, so I will be bringing a green or blue owl hat for him too! No baby that I know will be un-covered :)

I have a family friend who is a professional photographer and was kind enough to use some of my hats in her photographs. Her name is Jill and she owns Jillian Marie Imagery, you can check out her website here: www.jillianmarieimagery.com
She just sent me a fresh batch of photos with some of my hats in them and I thought I would share them with all of you.

I took a break from making hats for a few weeks but now I am ready to go back at it, which is a good thing since the temperatures are sure to drop! I hope you had a great start to your week today.
xoxo Susan

A few more owl hats

Good Morning,

Today is my very last day of summer break. Where did the time go? This past week I tried to do as little work as possible but there are always some things that just need to be done. Overall I was able to relax and have a week of leisure.

I was able to make a couple more crochet owl hats...

This completes the collection for my college friend Jessica. She ordered two for her daughter and one little pink owl for her new niece who was born just last week. I would not have been inclined to make the dark gray owl and purple but Jessica suggested the colors after seeing a similar one and I must say, I really did love the color combo. The dark charcoal gray with the deep and bright purple really popped.

The pink owl looks extra bright in the photos but it is really a soft light pink color using Bernat's Super Soft Baby yarn. We don't want the new born to have rough yarn next to her skin. 

I am not sure what the day holds for us. The sky looks cloudy already, which means we may be in for more rain than the usually quick shower and sunny day. Maybe the pool, or some tennis, or both!

Have a great Sunday,

xoxo Susan

Hungry Caterpillar Crochet Baby Hat

Hello Friends,

I hope your week was great and you are ready to enjoy the lovely weekend ahead. Here in Florida we've been having some rain showers but mostly sunshine and warmth. Well HOT weather but it feels good on the bones and body.
One of my friends from college contacted me about making a hat for her daughter to wear for her 1 year old birthday. She found a hat resembling the Hungry Caterpillar from the children's book and wanted to have one made. The theme for her first birthday is the Hungry Caterpillar so naturally a hat would look great! I was very flattered she asked me to make the hat, especially because she could have just ordered the one she saw on Etsy.

I got right to work and was pretty happy with the final result:

The hat she found on Etsy did not include earflaps. She wanted to have earflaps added because she thought they really made the hat look extra cute! I was a little worried about getting each antenna right as I have not made anything quite like them before, but I was able to make it work!

 Because I am not the best at following patterns without a diagram, I have made all of my hats so far from my own pattern. Each yarn has slightly different thickness, even the same brand but different colors have different thickness so sometimes there is adjusting throughout the making of each hat.

I also made some more pink ones. Those closed eye owls still look so cute to me!

 I am a little torn on which type of owl "ears" I like better. The streamer ones which are much easier to make and put on the hat or the triangle like ones here. I guess it depends on the person buying the hat or wearing the hat.

My summer projects are mostly smaller items because it is too hot to have blankets to be draped on my while I hook away. As soon as things cool down I will get back to work on my granny stripe. Once the school year starts back up I am not sure how much time I will have to make hats that people order so I am trying to make them now so I have stock of them. Once the snow starts falling up north, people will be wanting more hats.

Today I purchased a new sewing machine, it should arrive sometime early next week. Please keep your fingers crossed that I have much better luck with this one. I will be sure to share it with you once it arrives. I also purchased a new crochet book, so some new flowers will be popping up very soon.

Enjoy the wonderful weekend.
xoxo Susan

First Hat Sale!

Good Morning Lovelies,

Thank you for all of your nice comments on my giant granny. Your comments make the crocheting go faster!
I finally got my etsy site up and running and in less than 24 hours I made my first sale! I only listed 6 of my baby hats on the site, because I was short on time. My first hat order was for the little green closed eye owl for 3-6 months. The prototype I made was for 0-3 months so I quickly got to work on the 3-6 month one.


On the left 3-6 month; on the right 0-6 months
Just a little bit bigger!

This little owl was shipped off yesterday to the new owner. My site is a little pitiful right now, I am working with a professional photographer to get some good images to post to advertise the hats. For now, just the hats will do.
Here is a photo of my whole gang right now:

The sleeping owls seem to be everyone's favorite, as I said in my last post, they are just so darn cute! I can't wait to see how they look on a real baby/person.

As you may have guessed, I will be spending my day grading. I hope you have some fun plans for this beautiful weekend.
xoxo Susan

Grannys and Owls

Hello Friends,

As always, thank you for stopping by :) I would also like to thank everyone for your advise on the Japanese flower scarf for my mom. One row it will be, unfortunately I stitched two flowers in the second row already so I have to find my woven ends and relocated them. I have gotten much better at weaving in the ends so my job will be a little tricky. An update on that will be coming soon.

I decided to join Angie's Giant Granny Challenge over at Le Monde de Sucrette. My granny is starting a little bit later than the rest, so I am trying to make it grow as much as I can this weekend.

I started the granny with scraps that I had and now I wish I would have started the center with a warmer color, but I think the dusty light blue will be alright. I want to make this a bright colorful giant granny :)

No real news to share for this weekend. We finally have some good rain falling over the last few days. The pond in the backyard is slowly started to fill up to somewhat normal levels. The best part about the rain in Florida is the sun that shines bright after. Hopefully I can snap a shot of a rainbow to share.

Since I still can't stop, I made a few more owls hats too...

For a little baby

I really love the closed eye owls. There is something about the eyelashes and the sleeping look that is so cute! Instead of the little streamers for the ears I tried little points (these were a little tricky for me).

The blue one was made by holding two pieces of yarn together so this hat is much thicker than the others.

Well I hope your weekend is going well. I am trying to get in as much reading and crochet time as I can. Have a fabulous Sunday tomorrow!
xoxo Susan