Guitar Frets Baby Leg Warmers

I wanted to make some guitar fret leg warmers for part of a guitar-shaped diaper cake that I'm working on for a baby shower. I couldn't find anything with a guitar fret pattern, so I finally decided to just create my own. I used a worsted weight yarn. I also used an H hook, but my stitches are always tight, so a G hook would probably work for most people

Chain 6 in brown or tan to begin top ribbing.
Row 1: Starting from the second chain from hook, sc across (5 stitches). Chain 1 and turn.
Row 2: In back loops only, sc across (5 stitches). Chain 1 and turn.
Row 3-29: Repeat row 2, working in back loops only, to create ribbing. You can adjust the number of rows as needed to make the leg warmers wider or narrower.
Row 30: Work the final row as the previous 29 rows, except you'll be crocheting row 30 together with row 1 (be careful not to twist). This will stitch the whole thing together in the circle.

Row 1 for leg warmer frets:
On the bottom of the circle, attach your white yarn. Chain 1, and sc in the same stitch. Sc around. Slip stitch into the first stitch and change yarn to brown (30 stitches).
Row 2: Chain 1, and sc into same stitch. SC around, and slip stitch into the first stitch (30 Stitches).
Row 3-30: Repeat row 2. On the first leg warmer, I made a white stripe on rows 1, 10, 18, and 25. On the second leg warmer, I made a white strip on rows 1, 6, 11, 15, 19, 23, 26, and 29. (30 Stitches).
Row 31: Using white yarn in the final row of the leg warmer, chain 1, sc in same stitch. SC in next 7 stitches. SC next 2 stitches together. SC in next 8 stitches. SC next 2 stitches together. SC in next 8 stitches. SC final 2 stitches together. Join with slip stitch. (27 stitches).

Attach brown yarn to one of the white loops on the bottom to begin bottom ribbing. Chain 5.
Row 1: Starting from the second chain from hook, sc across (4 stitches). Slip stitch back into the next white stitch from row 31 of the main body of the leg warmer. Slip stitch again into the next white stitch from row 31. Chain 1 and turn.
Row 2: Working in back loops only, SC across the 4 stitches of row 1. Chain 1 and turn. (4 stitches).
Row 3: Working in back loops only, SC across. (4 stitches). Slip stitch into each of the next 2 white stitches from row 31. Chain 1 and turn.
Rows 4-26: Repeat rows 2-3.
Row 27: On final row, work in back loops only and SC across while also joining the last row to row 1, completing the ribbing.

Using black yarn, add knots or cross stitches to create the finger markers between the frets. Weave in ends.

When I was finished, I pulled the warmers over a piece of cardboard to create the neck of a guitar for the diaper cake.

I then attached it to the diaper cake. For the diaper cake, I watched Thom's Crafts and Treats instructions on YouTube for ideas and guidance, which you can view using this link. I made a number of changes for mine, including these frets, so I'll be sure to update my blog soon with details on how I made mine.

Crochet Throw Pillow

I've been excited to start personalizing our new house, even though we haven't even closed on it yet! I like natural colors, especially greens, so I want to add green accessories to our future living room. I decided to make a throw pillow, and I wanted something with a simple chevron stitch, which is the popular zig-zag pattern for many afghans. I couldn't find a pattern that seemed just right, so I based mine off of this cute (and free) "bacon and eggs" crochet pillow pattern on Moogly. Instead of doing random-sized stripes, I made each stripe two rows wide and then switched colors by bringing my yarn up the side. I chose Vanna's Choice yarn in colors dusty green and linen. I needed two balls of each.

The pattern calls for you to chain 82 stitches with an H hook for a 16" wide pillow. Mine was 14" wide, so I chained 76. It worked perfectly. I followed the pattern, alternating stripes every 2 rows, until I got close to enough length of my 14" tall pillow (the pattern works for any height. Theirs was 12" tall).

I folded the bottom of the pillow up about 6". I kept the right sides together because I didn't want the seam on the outside of my pillow. If you want the seems on the outside of your pillow (like the "bacon and eggs" pillow), then put the wrong-sides together and have the right-sides facing you. I don't like hand sewing very much, so I just did a single crochet stitch up both sides of the pillow for about 6 inches, like this:

Then, I flipped it right-sides out, so the edging was on the inside, almost invisible. If you want the edging visible, then don't flip it. As you can see, I tried to keep the stripes together, so a green stripe on one side matched with a green stripe on the other.

Here's what might looks like at this step without the pillow form in it:

From there, I folded over the top to see how much more length I needed for my pillow. As you can see, you just keep going until it's the right size. That's why this pattern works for any height.

Once my throw pillow cover was long enough, I stitched together the two sides for the top part of the pillow, exactly like I did the bottom two sides. I did a single crochet up the sides, right-sides together, and then flipped it right-sides out so the seam was on the inside (just as before). I hand-stitched the two halves together in a few places in the front and added some buttons.

Here's a picture of what it looks like in the back.

I'm happy! Now I want to make a floormat using these same colors!

First Round of Halloween Costumes

This year, the kids have two Halloween costumes. Their main costume, which was chosen by Oliver, will only work for trick-or-treating (to be debuted on Halloween!). So, I decided to make them each a costume they could wear for other Halloween costume festivities! Here they are in their finished costumes.

Oliver is a "chef explorer," which is really a cross between Indiana Jones and a chef. We got the idea from Sesame Street! In one episode, Elmo is a chef explorer who goes down to "Nacho Picchu" and has to make guacamole in the "Temple of Spoons." Oliver loves that episode! So, here he is dressed as a chef explorer, complete with some measuring spoons and a mixing spoon. He was a little disappointed that I didn't have an onion for him to carry around.

Joanna is dressed as Amelia Earhart. I thought about trying to borrow a wagon to decorate it as an airplane, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll get around to it this week, but probably not!

I made the chef explorer hat pattern up by myself, but the aviator hat (free pattern!) came from the Little Sticky Fingers blog. It's for newborns, so I had to mess with it a bit to get it the right size. Both of their jackets came from this pattern by Patty Davis (pattern price is $8), but the pattern didn't work well for me. I had to make a few mess-ups and really tweak the design to get it to work. I was happy with the finished product, though!

The Little Turkeys

I've spent so many weeks making monster hats for friends and family. It got me thinking of last year, when I sent out a number of turkey hat packages to my friends and family. They all posted cute photos of their little ones wearing the hats. I thought I'd share a little collage of all the little turkeys from last Thanksgiving. 

First Snow! Bonus: Joanna's Snow Dress

I woke up this morning to Andrew telling me about the snow outside! The first thing I wanted to do was finish this knit dress I'd started for Jo last year and never finished. All I needed to do was attach a sleeve, weave in some ends, and attach some buttons. I don't know why I'd put it off for a year! Here's information on the pattern from my Ravelry post, if anyone is interested in knitting. It's a free pattern, but I altered it a lot.

I got the kids dressed, and we went outside to check out the snow. Joanna was a little afraid of it. She didn't leave my side

Oliver, on the other hand, was all about the snow! He remembers from last season. He ran right up to that table and ate a big handful. Then, he asked me if we could go to the store so he could help me scrape the snow off the car. So cute!

Jo ended up wanting to go back inside. Once we were safely inside away from the snow, she loved the stuff! She pointed to it all and had a great time. She can't say snow but, instead, calls it, "Nose." She kept saying, "Look! It's nose! Hi, nose! Bye, nose!" Here she is with her buddy, Madden, checking out the first snow of the season.

Another shot of the dress. I'm so proud of it even though it has lots of little mistakes and issues. You can't tell unless you're really looking at it, though, so I don't even care! And, yes, that is still Jo's Thomas the Train tattoo from when we had our day out with Thomas.

Giveaway: Monster Hats

Roar! That's what Jo says when she wears the cute little monster hat that I made her. I've been busy making these crochet monster hats all month! I saw these on Pinterest and just had to buy the pattern on Etsy to make some of my own. If any of my readers crochet, you can find the pattern on Etsy here for $4.99 from Emie Grace Creations. Some of the ones I made are for family, and some will be favors for the kids' birthday party at the end of October. Two are for my blog readers! Read below to learn how to enter to win one.

This is my cheesiest monster:

Here's my little ham wearing her monster hat and her Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos) dress.

This giveaway is open to anyone with a mailing address in the US (I'm not mailing out of country; sorry!). Just leave a comment below with your email address, as well as your first choice in hat and your second choice in hat.

You can enter from now until this Saturday, September 7, at 9pm MST. I will use a random number generator to choose two separate winners. I'll email the winners sometime Saturday night, and the winners will have until Tuesday, September 10, at 10am MST to get back to me with a mailing address. If I don't hear from the winners by then, I'll choose an alternate winner. I will ship out the hats snail mail sometime that same week to get them to the winners in time for fall!

Here are the hats I have for the winners to choose from (size description is below). The pink one doesn't have a face yet (oops!), but it will be finished by tomorrow.

I have the following colors and sizes of hats for the winners to choose from (please indicate your first choice, and then your second choice in case the first winner picks the same one):

1 purple hat that fits babies approximately 6-12 months old

1 silver hat that fits babies approximately 6-12 months old

1 green toddler hat (fits toddlers approximately 12 months through 2T)

1 pink toddler hat (fits toddlers approximately 12 months through 2T)

1 yellow little kid hat (fits kids approximate 3-4 years old)

1 red little kid hat (fits kids approximately 3-4 years old)

To have an extra entry, follow me with Google Friend Connect (you'll find it on the right-hand side) and leave a second comment letting me know you're a GFC follower.

Good luck to all who enter, and two winners will receive an email from me on Saturday!

Joanna's Candy Corn Dress

Now that most of our hard work on the house is behind us (oh, thank goodness!), I am trying to get organized in my in-law's basement and trying to get back into a good routine with the kiddos.

I have a new project I'm working on for a giveaway after Labor Day (more hats, yay!). They are fantastic, and I think everyone is going to love them. In addition for making two for my blog, I am making a bunch for my kids, my cousins' kids, and my niece & nephew.

As I was going through my yarn and things, I realized I hadn't posted about the candy corn dress I made for Jo last fall. Of course, I want to post pattern information for my crafty readers, but I also want her to be able to look back and know how much I enjoy making things for her. My mom always sewed for my sister and me. While I'm a novice with the sewing machine, I'm getting better and better at knitting and crochet. I look forward to making many more things for my kiddos.

I know; it's weird that I'm already thinking of the fall and Halloween. I can't help it! I'm eager for these hot days of summer to be over, and so I'm dreaming of autumn.

I'd based the candy corn dress off of Lion Brand's free pattern called the "perfect sundress." I made some big changes. First, I made the top part of the dress striped instead of solid by alternating two rows of my main color (yellow) with two rows of white. I also made that striped part ribbed by doing a basic rib stitch (knit, purl, knit, purl, etc). I decided to make the pockets that same pattern as the top (striped & ribbed), and I also made the pockets smaller. I made the bottom part of the dress (the contrast orange) in a rib stitch, too, to keep it from rolling up. Finally, I decided to sew on buttons and add button holes to the shoulder in order to 1) have more orange, and 2) ease of putting it on Jo.

The only thing I think I would change on the dress is the neck hole. I think it was too large, and it wouldn't lay flat. It was big enough on top that I might see if Jo can wear it again this year. The skirt might be short, but I can pair it with leggings!

A Baby Shower to Remember

We did it! Even with all the snow, the roads stayed clear, and the baby shower was a go! All those weeks of planning were worth it, as Aminta and I pulled off a wonderful shower to celebrate Phuong & Cactus's baby.

Aminta was in charge of the decorations and totally made everything look cute.

Here is our table display:

I love how my storks looked on the table! You can find the stork tutorial here.

One of the most hilarious mishaps was the fruit salad I made, which people dubbed the "alien baby." I'd found it on Pinterest (you can find that pin here). But, here's the thing: I don't like most melons. I've never bought a honeydew melon before nor a cantaloupe. In my mind, they were the same thing: melons that don't taste good. Ha! So, I bought a honeydew thinking it was a cantaloupe. The morning of the shower, I went to peel back the melon skin only to discover it was green! Oops. So here is the now infamous alien baby fruit salad:

I think my baby bump cake ended up looking cute! I joked that I should have tucked a plastic baby into the tummy, kind of like people do for King Cakes at Mardi Gras. You can see how I made this cake by clicking here.

Deviled eggs are some of my favorite treats. I scoured the internet looking for ways to make them cute for a baby shower. I ended up finding a pin on how to make hot dog babies in the deviled eggs. I don't eat meat, and, frankly, I wasn't sure how good deviled eggs would be with hot dogs on them anyway. So, I just made a few into babies and left the rest plain.

Aren't those little duckies cute? I bought a package of them to decorate the punch I made! I got the rubber duckie idea from Pinterest, but I didn't want to use the punch recipe. I based my recipe off of one from Allrecipes.com. I used two frozen pink lemonade concentrate cans, one two-liter bottle of club soda, and four bottles of sparkling apple juice. To make it foam, I scooped a couple pints of berry sherbet on top. It tasted like sparkling strawberry lemonade! I was so amazed at how delicious and cute the punch ended up! I used another tip from Pinterest and froze slices of lemon in water in a cupcake tray.

Aminta made these cucumber sandwiches that were soooo good. Seriously, I think I ate half of them. She added some herbs and spices to cream cheese, spread it over rye bread, and topped it with fresh cucumbers. Not pictured are some miniature cherry danishes she brought in addition to a beautiful vegetable tray with dip and hummus.

We hung the diaper wreath near the entrance. It got a lot of compliments! Everyone made me feel so appreciated for everything. In case you missed the tutorial on this diaper wreath, you can find it here.

Aminta made these cute "lollipops" for Phuong out of washcloths and baby spoons. She poked them into a sand pail & shovel and filled it with Easter grass. It almost looks like flowers blooming! That idea also came from Pinterest, and there's a tutorial with that pin.

This is the start of the gift pile. Pictured are the "lollipops" by Aminta, the diaper tricycle that I made, the blanket I made, and the giraffe I made. 

Aiiiee! They are so cute! Seriously, Phuong and Cactus are two of the sweetest people in the world, and they are going to make the best parents. They loved the giraffe and tricycle diaper cake, making all of my hard work absolutely worth it.

Here's a close-up of the blanket. The pattern for this blanket is free, so if you like to crochet, you can find it through this pin.

More decorations from Aminta!

The balloons were loved and coveted by all the children.

Here are my best friends and me, ready to get the party started!

Phuong greeted all of her guests at the door. There were new friends and old friends and friends she hadn't seen a few years. We all had one thing in common... we all wanted to create a special day to shower our dear friend with gifts for her baby!

Oh.my.gosh! This is me with my friends from high school! It's been more than a decade, but we agreed that all of us looked exactly the same. 

We had favors for our guests, of course! I'd originally planned on making these fortune cookie favors (and did), but they weren't big enough to hold candy!

So, a couple days before the shower, I was really feeling the time crunch. My supportive husband helped me cut out a couple dozen paper shoes, which I then filled with the candy that was supposed to have filled the fortune cookies. You can find the paper shoe pattern on the Michael's website, or on the description of this Pinterest pin.

I found this poem online.

For games, we had people guess the width of Phuong's belly. We also had everyone fold a paper crane to string up on a mobile for the baby. Actually, folding paper cranes was a lot harder than I expected! I'm glad a couple people there knew what they were doing and were able to help everyone else out.

Here's Jennifer helping me with my crane:

I was able to string up all of the paper cranes while Phuong opened her gifts. The cranes have a gap in the bottom, and I couldn't figure out how to string them. The knotted thread wasn't thick enough to hold up the crane. Sayaka advised me to cut out circles. Using a needle, I thread the string first through a crane, then through a circle, and then I made a knot under the circles. It worked like a charm! You can get the how-to for this paper crane mobile from my Pinterest pin.

Here's our finished mobile:

Everything was perfect. The food, the company, the decorations, the happy couple... It was wonderful! I couldn't have done it without Aminta. Aminta kept everything moving smoothly. She made sure gifts were opened when they should be opened, she had people fill out their addresses on thank-you cards, she wrote down who gave what gift. She was so organized and on-top of everything! I might have had fun decorating the shower and preparing the food, but things would have been stagnant without Aminta's expertise. Thanks, Aminta!

And here are a few random shots from the shower: