A Weather Mobile for Graham

This mobile was very easy and repetitive, using a lot of circles of single crochets. The original pattern can be found here. I cheated a little in order to save money on yarn. I used a yellow-orange color instead of a yellow and an orange. I also created the green from white yarn and kool-aid. I simply soaked the white yarn in water for 30 minutes, before I placed powder from a green kool aid packet in a bowl with 1/2 cup of water and the yarn in the sun for an hour, then pulled the yarn out and dried it in the sun (all done while sunbathing and crocheting the mobile's sun). The yarn I used was a really thin wool, the same that I used for the clouds. I used quilting batting to stuff it.

My niece was pretty excited when she came to visit while I was sewing the rays on the sun. She smiled really big, grabbed it, and ran off. I could crochet her a stuffed animal, but I am hesitant to spend the hours on it if it is going to fall apart or get lost in her overflowing toy chest. I want to crochet some stars from the yellow-orange yarn before I see if there is enough to crochet a sun for her. I envision hanging these pieces over Graham when he is in his play gym, before he is able to grab them. John's mom is giving us a baby shower this weekend. If we do not get a suitable play gym, we are going to construct one from pool noodles, pvc pipes, and ribbon. Play gyms are expensive, but we can make one ourselves for less than $10. We did receive a play gym from a family member, but the bar that held the toys was not stable when set up correctly. I don't want to have to worry about Graham's play gym collapsing on him, so we exchanged it for some clothes.

I am undecided on my next crochet project. I thought about crocheting some blocks, but I want to be able to stuff them with a solid cube so that they can be stacked without collapsing. I need ideas of a cheap material I can place inside the cubes. I have also thought about crocheting more booties and mittens for him, but will probably get a couple pairs from the shower. For the same reasoning, I have held off on crocheting a sleep sac such as:

The baby shower invitees were not provided the link to the baby registry, so I have a feeling we will be getting a lot of newborn onesies, blankets, scratch mittens, and booties (all blue of course). I will probably take a break from my crochet mania until after the baby shower.

Missing My Goober

John has been attending Pycon, a major Python programming conference, this week and this past weekend downtown. Luckily it is in Atlanta this year. Next year, we'll probably be going to San Jose Cali for it, which means John is going to try to persuade me to move there (I think it is too expensive). Normally, John works remotely from wherever we want, so I get to see him all day and we have flexibility to take road trips and visit both families. I have been terribly bored and lonely for the past two days at my mom's without him here. I realize that most women go at least seven hours without their husbands five days a week, but NOT ME! We usually don't go 2 hours without kisses or cuddles. So I've been trying to focus on crafts to keep my mind occupied from missing him.

Last week, I continued my crochet frenzy by making John and Graham matching hats. I also crocheted Graham a pair of booties to match his hat. Here are my goober and my toy penguin modeling the hats and booties.

The hats are not exactly the same, but are a similar style and are the same colors. I created my own pattern for each of the hats, which was very time consuming and frustrating. The booties pattern came from Red Heart, here, and came out much better than the yellow ones I had done previously. PS, you can kind of see my swollen prego belly in the picture of Graham's booties lol.

I also crocheted a couple fish for Graham's first mobile. I am using black, white, and bright red yarn to crochet striped fish, so Graham can see the color contrasts. I am going to attempt to hang 2-5 objects for him, changing them once a week. The first mobile is going to be out of reach, but then they can progress to some that he can grab and even shake to make noises. I have been collecting ribbons and silly trinkets like a hoarder. I have also been playing with different packing materials. I crocheted an octopus from the hat leftovers and stuffed it with paper. One of the mobile's fishes is stuffed with mardi gras beads and another is stuffed with cotton scraps from sewing.

Speaking of sewing, I completed one of my to-do list's sewing projects yesterday. BURP CLOTHS! I type that enthusiastically because I think they are adorable. I had to learn all the stuff that I should have learned in my Sewing 101 class, like sewing in a straight line, pinning, ironing, winding my bobbin, and just becoming intimate with my machine. My first one didn't come out so amazing, but I was pretty good by the time I finished my final burp cloth.

I made six, three each of two different patterns. They were pretty easy. I just sewed snuggly flannel onto the middle segment of a cotton diaper prefold. I used just over 1/4 yard of each print from the 1/2 yard I purchased for $2/yard on sale at JoAnn Fabric, so now I have scraps to play with! I love crafting leftovers. John will be busy with Pycon through Thursday. Hmmm, I have an idea of what to do with those scraps ;)

Crochet Booties & Mittens

Although there are other crafts I want to do, I am discovering that it is easier and cheaper to work on related crafts. I was able to use left over yarn from the blanket to crochet these booties and scratch mittens, so the additional cost was only $1 for the ribbon. It was also easier to pick up new skills, such as the fpdc stitch, when I have practice with the basics from the previous craft. Each bootie and each mitten took me one sitting to finish, so mine were done in three days. By comparison to the blanket, this was a very fast project. I had to learn about reading patterns and how to do rounds instead of rows (for mittens only). Now I feel confident that I can crochet matching hats for John and Graham. JoAnne's has a lot of yarn on sale this week and next, so I stocked up yesterday. I also picked up buttons, the blue ribbon in the picture, sewing patterns to make dresses for myself and toddler clothing for Graham, and fabric scissors. I spent $32 on $74 of crafting stuff thanks to sales and coupons. I need more supplies before I can sew clothing, but I can wait until sewing stuff goes on sale. JoAnne's likes to do themed sales, such as this week and next being sales on crochet and knitting supplies. I did take my sewing class there Wednesday, though I was disappointed with the instruction. The class lasted 3.5 hours, but we only spent 45 minutes sewing. If I sign up for a class on March 12th, then I can get 50% off the price of a class. I think I will take a more advanced sewing class, but only if the instructor is different than the sewing 101 instructor. I can practice sewing from old t-shirts until I feel comfortable buying fabric.