New hats for fall

I spent this past weekend making some new hats for fall. I now have a larger "big kid" version of my Baby Hat with Tassels that has been so popular in my shop. I think they look pretty cute, I'll have to wait and see if anyone else likes them.

I'm also adding some more brimmed hats to the shop and have included some for boys!

From start to finish

I thought I would show the step by step process I used to make my latest baby blanket. This Wonder Dreams blanket was crocheted in blue and green cotton yarn, with a white trim. All knit or crochet projects begin the same way, with a ball of yarn and a needle or hook. In this case a 5mm crochet hook and several balls of Bernat Cottontots yarn.

The blanket is made up of 25 6"x6" squares; 9 blue, 4 green, and 12 granny squares that are a combination of blue and green with a white edge.

Once all the squares were made, I crocheted them together with white yarn to form strips 5 squares long. They could also have been sewed together, but I prefer the look of the crocheted border around each square. I ended up with 5 strips that then had to be joined to form the body of the blanket. I then crocheted a white border around the entire blanket.

If you ask most knitters or crocheters (or hookers as we are known) what they like least about their craft, most of them would say, "weaving in the ends". I am no different, this was the most time consuming part of this project. As you can see in the photo there were ALOT of ends to weave in. The more color changes there are, the more ends there are too. I hope this makes you appreciate all the work that goes into making something that has many different colors. It would have been harder for me if all the squares were granny squares instead of plain. I have made many blankets with all granny squares and it has taken days just to weave in the ends.

It was worth all the effort, here is the finished product a 31"x31" baby blanket.

Boy, have I been busy!

I've had a few sales in my Etsy shop, so it's been knit, knit, knit to re-stock the shop. I also just finished a cute little crocheted dress.

I'm excited about a new Gift Set I will be offering soon, it will consist of a baby blanket, baby hat, and a pair of booties. It will be made to order and be offered in light or medium pink, light or medium blue, light green and all white. I will be starting to make a blanket for a friend in pink, and will use that one in the listing photo. I'll post it here as soon as it's done!

I've also been playing with some photo software and designed a new banner for my Etsy shop. I added it here too, what do you think? I'm addicted to it now, and have also designed new business cards. I wish I had found this software before I order 250 cards!

This week is going to be another busy one...I'm going on an all day school trip with my son tomorrow, and my daughter graduates from Nursey school on Thursday! I'll post pics of that too.