Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth

I recently made a vow (for lack of a better word) to myself that I would try to start making things for the home instead of rushing out to Target. My dishcloths are very ragged so I thought I would take a break from knitting longies and knit a few up. I found this great easy pattern and used 100% cotton Sugar'n Cream yarn. I love how they turned out! They are so thick and soft. My goal is every time I knit a dishcloth, I will throw an old one out until all I have are these pretty handmade ones.

My Spring Line...

Maybe someday I can launch a line of baby clothes, but for now, I will just clothe my precious little one. My goal has been to make Little Man an entire outfit consisting of knitted shorties, an appliqued shirt, cloth shoes and a matching bib. Well, here is my first outfit. Ta-da!

I found the cute chocolate brown fabric with green, orange and blue polka dots at JoAnn's. I decided this would be my color scheme.
 
I found green and orange wool yarn for cheap also at JoAnn's. It is a little scratchy, so I decided to just use it for my accent stripes. I splurged and bought Malabrigo Merino in Chocolate Brown for the main body. It is so nice and soft!


I used the polka dot fabric to make an applique in the shape of an elephant on a white t-shirt. I then used the same fabric to make cloth baby shoes following this pattern. I used 2 layers of brown felt for the soles.

And lastly, the bib. It is made with the polka dot fabric on the front and chocolate brown minky on the back. It has a matching brown snap closure.

Here are a couple modeling shots of Little Man...

Presenting...my first shorties!!!

If you read my post on dyeing wool, I'm sure you are "dyeing" to see how the shorties turned out. Well, here they are, modeled by the Little Man himself!

And here is an up close shot that shows off the drawstring waistband.

They match the shirt perfectly and they fit just right! I used the Wonderpants Pattern from Wooly Wonder. It was a little tricky learning short rows and the Magic Loop Method, but I figured them out. I love how they turned out!

Dyeing Wool...Lessons Learned

My mother-in-law gave the Little Man this adorable little shirt to wear this Spring/Summer. I love the colors in it and I thought it would be the perfect shirt to knit up a pair of wool shorties to match. To learn more about cloth diapering and the benefits of wool, click here.I thought the colors in the shirt would be fun to match up and try to dye my yarn using the Kool-Aid dyeing method.

I had looked at some nice undyed Merino wool online, but decided to go with Fisherman's Wool from Hobby Lobby since it was my first wool dyeing attempt. Plus, I had a coupon. Smart move!

First I had to unwind the skein into a hank. I put 2 of our kitchens chairs back to back and secured one end of the yarn to a chair slat.

I wound the yarn around and around the chairs. Little Buddy even helped.

 

So far so good. But here is where I made my first mistake. And it was a big one! I decided that the chairs were too close and that I wanted the hank to be larger. So I took the hank I had already created off of the chairs so that I could put them further apart and start over. This is where a big warning alarm should have went off. Needless to say, the yarn got all a tangled and full of knots and I had to cut it. Gives all new meaning to the name "Little Knit Knots"!

That was really irritating. But I decided to dye what I cut and possibly use it as trim. I finished winding my hank and then soaked it in vinegar water. I couldn't find blue Kool-Aid anywhere so I had to use Wilton's dye for blue, and used Kool-Aid for the red and orange. For more information on dyeing with Wilton's color gels, click here.

I was worried about pots on the stove and not being able to put them close enough to each other, so I decided to go with a hand painted method. I prepped my dyes in these great little condiment containers that I purchased at Wal-Mart. The colors I used were Orange (Kool-Aid), Tropical Fruit (Red Kool-Aid), and Royal Blue (Wilton's Icing). 

Here's is my yarn after applying the dye but before setting it with heat.

Looks perfect! Well, here's where I made a BIG mistake. I didn't roll it properly in the plastic wrap, and all of my colors ran together. My orange turned brown in some places and my blue turned purple in a lot of places. I redyed the blue several more times trying to get it more blue than purple. Note on using Wilton's: make sure all the gel is dissolved. Some clumps ended up on the yarn creating a few dark spots. We'll see how that turns out. Anyway, here is my drying yarn after I was finished.

It's not too bad. Little Man is too young to know he's got purple on. We'll see how it knits up. The circular needles I ordered should be arriving any day now, so I will be able to begin the shorties. I'm sure that will be an interesting experience that I will have many "lessons learned" to share with you. 

Update: To see a picture of how the shorties turned out, click here.

Don't Stop, Don't Give Up....

This is my "crafting" theme song borrowed from "Yo Gabba Gabba" (Hey, I have a two year old!)

Don't stop, don't give up
Don't stop, don't give up

Don't stop, don't stop
You'll get it right. you'll get it right
Don't stop, don't stop
You'll get it right. you'll get it right

Keep trying, keep trying
Don't give up, never give up
Keep trying, keep trying
You'll get it right, you'll get it right

From the words of the song, you may have guessed that I seem to make a lot of mistakes when learning a new craft.  But thankfully, I am a stubborn and determined girl and I don't give up easily.

For example, it has been a few years since I have knitted anything. Well, since I have started cloth diapering Little Man, I've been bitten by the knitting bug. I decided I wanted to knit a wool soaker using the Tiny Bird Organics pattern. I didn't think I needed to refresh myself on the basic knit/purl technique, so I started right away in the ribbing pattern for the waistband. Well, I forgot that when you knit/purl, you are supposed the bring the yarn over to switch. I brought it under, which doesn't even make since.I knitted, tore it out, and knitted again doing that same thing probably 10 times. My hubby joked and said that I could go into business making pencil cozies because1/2 inch was as far in distance as I ever got before I'd rip it out again. I finally looked online to see what I was doing wrong (Thank you Google!) and fixed my error. I'm so glad I didn't give up. Here is my finished soaker.

Turned out pretty decent. So what if I accidentally shrunk it in the felting process so that it is too small for Little Man. At least it's finished! (Except the leg cuffs. I figured "what's the point" since it won't fit.)

I love designing and creating new things, and even if I'm a little clumsy at my attempts right now, I know that practice makes perfect. Or at least that's what they say.

So this blog is a little glimpse into my "studio" as I learn new crafts and probably make a lot of mistakes along the way. I will share with you all the things I learn so you can learn along with me.

Happy crafting!