Octopus Curtains

Did you know that it is surprisingly difficult to find curtains shorter than 60 inches? We have been needing curtains in our downstairs bathroom for a while now. The window overlooks our deck, so if people are playing outside you can make eye contact them while on the toilet. This makes a lot of our visitors uncomfortable so they end up going upstairs to use the bathroom. Well I put a stop to that. It took me weeks to finally decide on a curtain...a navy blue thermal curtain to keep the warm air from escaping the drafty window. But as soon as I bought it I was having second thoughts; I worried it would make the room terribly dark, and it was too boring and didn't really go with octopus theme that the room sort of randomly acquired. So when my husband went to install the curtain and we realized that it would completely cover the toilet paper holder, I was relieved to have a second chance at selecting a curtain (and that I should pay more attention to measurements). That's when I realized there were no short curtains, never-mind ones that I like. So I decided to make some. I preordered this fantastic octopus fabric from Etsy for a great price. I only needed two yards of fabric for our window (and there was some leftover which I will use for some little projects I'm sure!).

I didn't use a pattern to make the curtains, I just kind of went for it. I cut out two large pieces of fabric with a couple inches of seam allowance in length and width. With some of the left overs, I cut out strips that I would use to attach hang the curtain from the rod. I wanted to make sure no messy edges were visible so I fold them in such a way that the ends were all tucked in and the fabric width was still maximized (double folding one end and having it overlap the other end).

I sewed the sides of the curtain first by folding the edges in a quarter of in inch, then folding over again a half an inch, ironing it, and pinning in place.

Next I double folded over the top of the curtain and iron the hem into place. But before pinning, I arranged my fabric loops across the top so that I wouln't have to sew them on separately. I folded them in half and fold the top of the two bottom edges over so no raw edges were visible. Then I pinned everything down.

I found that it was best to sew two rows of stitching across the top to make sure all the loops were secure and that the edges wouldn't come undone. I checked the length of the curtains by holding them in place over the window before I double folded the bottom edge, ironed, pinned, end sewed them to complete the curtains.

It only took a few hours to do everything. I wasn't especially careful about measuring seams and the placement of the loops because I have a pretty good eye for distance. I imagine that would add a bit of time but I would suggest that to anyone who isn't very confident in eyeing distance because you don't want your curtains to be uneven!

I'm quite please with how they came out. Not only does it give us some needed privacy for that room, but it adds a little bit of color and ties the rest of the room together. I am also please with how the light is still able to pass through the fabric so that the room still feels bright and cheery. I am in the habit of staring at and over-analyzing projects after I complete them. My husband gets a kick out of it and snapped a photo of me admiring my curtains for the fifth time after hanging them.

I feel inspired to make some for the 6 windows in our living rooms now. How about you?!

Salty Dog Hat for my love

The traditional gift for a seventh wedding anniversary is wool. So this past summer, I was excited to have an excuse to try my hand at knitting something out of wool for my husband. I found this pattern for a salty dog hat and fell in love with it. I like that it is masculine and simple, yet still has personality with some subtle cables and interesting ribbing.

Here is what the top looks like.

I made this hat using a skein from my favorite yarn maker: Quince & Co. This is their owl tweet in otus. It is 100% American wool, soft, beautifully textured and warm. This is not a hat you would want to stay outside in for hours in below freezing weather; the hat isn't thick enough. But it is great for walking to and from work in winter and for all those cool fall and spring days.

The pattern was designed by Jessica L'Heureux and is available on Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/salty-dog-mens-hat). This pattern uses a size 5 circular needle and double pointed needles. After finishing the hat and blocking it (I let the wet hat dry on my husbands head one warm summer afternoon), we found that the hat wasn't snug against his ears. If I was to do this again, I think I would start the hat on smaller needles then switch over to the size five to create a tighter fit. I'm a little bummed its not exactly how he and I would like it to be, but we love the look of it and it's definitely still functional!

Knitting Needle Roll

For Christmas, my parents bought me a brand new, beautiful, ever-so-exciting sewing machine. It's as if a whole new world has opened up to me. Prior to this, I sewed everything by hand. I actually take a lot of pride in all the beautiful things I've been able to make with my own two hands, but the problem was how LOOOONG it always took. With two little kids, time is something I do not have. Enter sewing machine.

I had this project in mind for a long time, and when I got a sewing machine, I knew it would be the first thing I'd try. Christmas came and left, and I had a sewing machine, beautiful fabric, and everything else I needed...and yet I did not start. Admittedly I was a little scared. Something about using new machines freak me out. I had not really even used a sewing machine since junior high school home economics class...which was a long time ago. Well a month went by, and finally I had a free afternoon and I sat down with the sewing machine and the included manual, and I figured it out! And you know what, it wasn't so scary! In fact, I think I'm hooked.

Materials:

1 yard of printed fabric (I used FAR, FAR AWAY by Heather Ross, Pattern No. 39657)
1 yard of sturdy, neutral fabric
ribbon

The pattern I found on a blog called Stitch Parade. The instructions were clear and easy to follow and included photographs for each step. This ended up being an excellent first project! I even figured out how to embroidaire a fancy little line of leaves over one of the pockets!

The lines aren't straight and perfect, but I am proud of how it came out. And, it's functional! I made the roll 4 inches wider than the pattern indicates because I have a lot of double pointed and circular needles already and I wanted to be able to store them all in the roll. The only thing I don't like about this pattern is that the pockets for the double pointed needles are too deep. I wish I had had the foresight to realize that and stitch along the bottom to make them shorter. But I have been making do, and it's been really nice to have my needles stored neatly and easily accessible!

Owl Study Mittens

These are my new, luxuriously soft owl study mittens made from baby alpaca wool. I made a pair for my sister and loved them so much that I made a pair for myself too. Fortunately they knit up fairly quickly, in four or five evenings.

This was a free pattern I came across on ravelry published in Alpaca Direct (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/owl-study-gloves). I used:

Yarn- Cascade Yarns, Baby Alpaca Chunky in Charcoal. I managed to make three indivividual mittens with one skein.
Needle- US 10 double pointed needles and a cable needle

 

One thing I found is that there are numerous ways to “Make 1”. With my first pair I did so by picking up an additional stitch between two stitches. This made the mittens have little holes. They still looked nice, but I would have preferred them to be tight and have a cleaner look. So I looked up another way to “Make 1” and by picking up the stitch underneath the next stitch, my hole problems was eliminated. So my second pair came out better than my first (sorry sis!).

I love the subtlety of the owl and the bit of elegance in the ribbing at the top. 

I imagine these mittens will be great for sneaking off to read a well-deserved novel on a crisp fall afternoon under the shade of crimson tree. A mom can dream, right?

Car Hat

I wanted to make something unique for my nephew, hoping to find something both functional and that he would find fun as a 4 year old boy. I stumbled across this car hat and thought it was perfect.

The pattern is free and can be found on this blog (https://katesaid.wordpress.com) as well as on Ravelry. Honestly, I was not in love with the hat shown on the blogs photographs. Mostly I didn't like the tassel I guess. When I chose colors, I decided to go with a more soothing pallet. I wanted it to be fun but also to look nice.

Materials
Needle: US 5 - 3.75 mm
Yarn: Quince and Co. Lark; colors Delft (blue), Parsley (green), Goldfinch (yellow)and Kumlien's gull (grey)

While looking through other people's finished projects with this pattern, I found some modifications recommended by Ravelry user smithmks. Because I liked how hers looked better than the original pattern, I decided to use her pattern (except for what is in bold, I added 6 rows to the suggested 14 in effort to make the hat bigger):

Cast on 80
10 rows green; back loops only on the 7th row to prevent too much rolling
8 rows gray
2 rows yellow and gray (3 yellow, 2 gray)
8 rows gray
4 rows green
20 rows blue
Begin decrease rows:
K3, K2 together (blue)
Knit 2 rows around
K2, K2 together
Knit 1 row around (blue)
Add and complete with yellow. Knit 1 row around.
K1, K2 together
Knit 2rows around.
Knit 2 together around.
Pull remaining stitches (16) together.

The pattern indicates that this hat should fit children ages 3-7, but even with my modifications to make the hat longer, it was too small for my 3 year old (didn’t cover his ears and kept popping up) and fit my 12 month old perfectly.

Totoro (and felted acorns)

My family loves the Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro. So much so that my oldest son requested a Totoro theme for his third birthday. If you have never seen this movie and are wondering "what on earth is a Totoro?", then it is worth it for you to read this plot summary I copied from the Studio Ghibli Wikki:

In 1958, the Kusakabe family reunites when a university professor and his two daughters, Satsuki and Mei (approximately ten and four years old, respectively) move into an old house in rural Japan to be closer to the hospital where their mother is recovering from an unnamed, long-term illness. The daughters find that the house is inhabited by tiny animated dust creatures called susuwatari — small house spirits seen when moving from light to dark places. When the girls become comfortable in their new house and laugh with their father, the soot spirits (identified as "black soots" in early subtitles and "soot sprites" in the later English dubbed version) leave the house to drift away on the wind. While she is playing outside one day, the younger daughter, Mei, sees two white, rabbit-like ears in the grass. She follows the ears under the house where she discovers two small magical creatures, who lead her through a briar patch, and into the hollow of a large Camphor tree. She meets and befriends a larger version of the same kind of spirit, which identifies itself by a series of roars she interprets as "Totoro" (in the original Japanese dub, it stems from Mei's mispronunciation of the Japanese pronunciation of the word "troll"). Her father later tells her that this is the "keeper of the forest".

One rainy night the girls are waiting for their father's bus and grow worried when he does not arrive on the bus they expect him on. As they wait, Mei eventually falls asleep on Satsuki's back and Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. He only has a leaf on his head for protection against the rain, so Satsuki offers him the umbrella she had taken along for her father. Totoro is delighted at both the shelter and the sounds made upon it by falling raindrops. In return he gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds. A bus-shaped giant cat halts at the stop, and Totoro boards it, taking the umbrella. Shortly after, their father’s bus arrives.

The girls plant the seeds. A few days later they awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his two miniature colleagues engaged in a ceremonial dance around the planted nuts and seeds. The girls join in, whereupon the seeds sprout and then grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes his colleagues and the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone, but the seeds have indeed sprouted.

The girls find out that a planned visit by their mother has to be postponed because of a setback in her treatment. Satsuki takes this very hard, having reached the age where she fully understands the concept of death. Frustrated and frightened, she yells at Mei, then stomps away. Mei, believing that her mother can be cured by healthy food, sets off on foot to the hospital with an ear of corn.

Her disappearance prompts Satsuki and the neighbors to search for her; eventually Satsuki returns in desperation to the Camphor tree and pleads for Totoro's help. Delighted to be of assistance, he summons the Catbus, which carries her to where the confused Mei sits. Having rescued her, the Catbus then whisks her and Satsuki over the countryside to see their mother in the hospital. The girls perch in a tree outside of the hospital, overhearing a conversation between their parents and discovering that she has been kept in hospital by a minor cold and is otherwise doing well. They secretly leave the ear of corn on the windowsill, where it is discovered by the parents, and return home on the Catbus. When the Catbus departs, it fades away from the girls' sight.

The closing credits show Mei and Satsuki's mother returning home and feature scenes of Satsuki and Mei playing with other children, with Totoro and his friends as unseen observers.

Because Totoros are creatures who protect the forest and are heroes of nature, I am of course thrilled that my son loves them. I decided to crochet him a set of his very own Totoros, hoping to complete them in time for his birthday. I made the Gray Totoro first. While the actual character is ginormous, I wasn't anticipating that the amigurumi Totoro would large as well. I anticipated a quick project and a little five inch Totoro. Once I started though, I realized this was going to be a large toy, but I was already commited to the pattern and decided to follow through.

I used Lion's Brand Wool Ease for all three of the Totoros and a size F crochet hook. The pattern indicates size E hook, but that was too small for the yarn I chose. For all three, I decided to make the eyes out of cut-out felt pieces rather than plastic eyes or crocheting them on. I like the look of the felt better and I know that they are safe for my little guys.

The Gray Totoro was made using oxford grey and fisherman colored yarn (Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar found here).

Blue Totoro was made with blue heather and frost colored yarn (Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar found here).

White Totoro was made only with white frost colored yarn (Pattern by Lucy Ravenscar found here).

I was very pleased with how these turned out, and seeing how much my children loved them definitely made them well worth the time and effort put into making them.

This wasn't the end of my Totoro crafting though. I'd like to share two more little Totoro projects I made for my son's birthday party.

Felted acorns

For party favors I made little bamboo parcels with felted acorns to mimic the gift Totoro gives to the children in the film. To make the acorns I used wool roving to felt into small balls and then glued the balls to acorn caps that I found on my run. You can find instructions on how to felt balls from wool roving on my blog post here, but note that I've found the best method to be alternating between dipping the ball in very hot soapy water and cold running water frequently as it is formed.

Totoro mobile

This cute little decoration was made in just a couple of hours.

To make the Totoro, I stitched together some pieces of wool felt using this simple pattern I found while browsing through pinterest. Then, using twine and sticks from our backyard, I fastened him onto a little swing.

The soot sprites were made from pom-poms using black yarn, a fork, and some googly eyes (you can view a pom-pom making tutorial here). I made some extra soot sprites for table decorations.

I had so much fun making all these Totoro inspired crafts for my boys!