Beginner Ribbed Newborn Hat

The other night I got a strong desire to do something other than a 12 inch square from my large project. I decided I wanted to make the little boy on the way another hat with some baby yarn I had in my stash. I wanted a vertical ribbed hat that gathered at the top. So I went looking for a pattern and this is what I found.

This is a simple pattern using hdc and sc stitches to create a rectangle that is approximately 12 inches.  This is super simple all you need to be able to do is count your stitches. I believe that you could change up the pattern stitches and still come out with a super cute hat such as using a dc with a hdc. The original pattern just called for the bow at the top, but I decided to add some flair to it by making a couple of small pom poms using two of my fingers. The pattern for this hat can be found here. If you are looking for a super cute, non traditional newborn hat to make really fast this is the hat for you.

Sweet Potato Muffins

These sweet potato muffins are fabulous! I took the original recipe from Once a Month Meals, but I altered it slightly. The original recipe called for using baby food, specifically sweet potato puree. All I could think of was gross when i read that, but you could make your own sweet potato puree that was purely sweet potato and nothing else, making it healthier and more appetizing at the same time. I pealed and boiled 3 sweet potatoes until they were very tender and drained them. Then comes the "hard" part use a fork and mash it into a puree. Obviously this is not difficult, in fact it is down right easy and no special tools are needed.

The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of the puree, I however put 2 1/2 cups of puree into my batter. I did not significantly change the recipe other than the fact that I omitted cloves and substituted pumpkin spice into the batter. I also left out the chocolate chips, because though I love chocolate I felt the sweet potato in these muffins should stand on their own two feet. This recipe yielded 12 muffins that will be a wonderful addition to breakfast here at our house.

More Crochet Squares

Being sick seriously curtails what you do around the house and now that I am starting to feel better I want to share the one thing I managed to get done before I was sick and one or two squares afterward. Some of my projects will be shared after Christmas as I want to show the finished projects on their recipients. I have finished five more squares since my last posting. I have altered some slightly from their patterns, but both their original and the alterations are pretty and fun to make.

 Shining Star Square: By Crochetville and Wheel Lattice: By Dayna's Crochet

The Shining Star Square was slightly difficult and reminded me to read and reread my patterns several times before attempting them, but it turned out wonderfully. This square is also only designed to be a 10 inch square so I added to the edges until I reached the 12 inches I desired. The Wheel Lattice square was extremely easy to complete not to mention fast.

Sunshine Jewel Granny Square

This pattern was also easy to complete. I found this pattern on Ravelry and you can see many completed projects and how you can change your colors to create a different effect within the same pattern.

Dream Catcher

This is another pattern I found on Ravelry. This worked up in around a hour with me taking my sweet time. It is made mostly of chains and single crochets, making this a very beginner friendly square.

Yarn Clouds Square

This square was fun allowing me to use a few back post stitches, which allow for more dimension and dare I say frilliness to this square. I also found this pattern on Ravelry. This pattern is worked partially like a granny square. Like I stated above I altered the pattern slightly, because I loved the pattern stitch so much.

If you missed my last post I am making a 12 inch block afghan for my husband and myself and I am working up to 56 squares to complete the project my total count at this point is 8 squares.

12 Inch Squares

In the pictures below you can see the start to my next big project. I am making a sampler afghan that will fit our queen size bed. This means I have to create 56 12 x 12 squares. Below are my first three squares I have completed with the links to their patterns posted below. These squares were fairly easy as long as you paid attention to the directions. I will be showing you more of my work on this afghan as I go along.

 Solid Stripe Square

 Lacy Sun Square

Bobby's Square

Second Chance Scarf

My latest project is this diagonal scarf from Crochet Me. I am calling this my second chance scarf, because I totally screwed up my first attempt. If you look at the picture below you can see what I mean. The scarf on the left is the completed correct scarf and the one on the right is my sad first attempt. The lesson to learn from this is though not everything in life deserves a second chance, a lot of your projects do deserve at least a second look.

 My suggestion should you attempt this scarf is to read the pattern around 5 times and do not take for granted that it will turn out right with a first reading. This was the most irritating basic pattern I have had the pleasure of dealing with... of course that was until I figured out how to do it correctly and then it was easy. 

Crochet Car Hat

My little bit is modeling a car hat I just designed and completed for a family friend. I think I may have to adjust the size slightly and make one for Sam now that he has seen it. To tell the truth I saw that coming, because he is a car fanatic.


Crochet Car Hat
Size 4-6 years old
K Hook

MC
Round 1: 12 HDC in MC sl st to join
Round 2: 2 HDC in each st around
Round 3: Hdc in next st 2 HDC in next St around
Round 4: HDC in next 2 st HDC 2x in next st around
Round 5: HDC in next 3 st HDC 2x in next st around

Round 6-16: HDC around


Ear Flaps

Row 1: On one side of the hat HDC 12 st, turn
Row 2: HDC2tog, HDC to last 2 st, HDC2tog (10)
Row 3: HDC2tog, HDC to last 2 st, HDC2tog (8)
Row 4: HDC2tog, HDC to last 2 st, HDC2tog (6)
Row 5: HDC2tog, HDC to last 2 st, HDC2tog (4)
Row 6: HDC2tog, HDC2tog (2)
Fasten Off.

Repeat on opposite side of hat.


Make a pompom. I used my hand to create this pompom. Attach to top of hat.

Car Applique

I used a pattern online for inspiration, but my final creation is my own creation.

C Hook

Ch 12.
Row 1: Turn SC in 2nd St and each st across. (11)
Row 2: Ch 1 turn DC across. (11)
Row 3,4: Ch 1 turn SC across. (11)
Row 5: Ch 10, TCH in 6th st from hook, CH 7 sl st in  10th st, SC in last two st.
Round 1: SC around car to create a substantial frame to top of car.
Fasten Off. Leave Long tail to sew to hat.

Wheels (Make 2)

MC.
12 SC in MC sl st to join. Fasten off.


Attach wheels to car body with yarn needle.

Attach completed car to hat with yarn needle.

Kids Bookshelves

My children have accumulated quite a few books over the past couple of years, so much so that I have split them into 1/3 downstairs for daytime use and 2/3 upstairs for afternoon and nighttime use. Storage of these books has been a problem however. I was going through the kids toys searching for give aways and organizing what is left, both in their play area and in their room and I got to thinking it would be nice for the books to have shelves to display them for the kids to see easily and solve my storage problem. I thought it was going to be an issue that would take a shopping trip to solve then I realized we had an empty bookshelf my husband had built several years ago that we could not decide what to do with since we did not need it any more. I decided to reuse it so I took it apart and created the shelves you see pictured above. I am not very handy with tools, but I had no problem putting together these simple tools with a drill and a few screws. These are the books downstairs...now I think I will rope my husband in to helping me with the upstairs shelves as he is much better with tools. Over all the the shelves look great I will probably paint them this summer. And they are functioning great!