Top Things Off

Okay, remember when my friend asked me to make a baby hat for her photography studio? Well, before she sent me a picture of the hat she wanted, I started looking at patterns for baby hats in case she didn't have anything specific in mind. I stumbled across one that I just thought was too cute. So after I made her the requested hat, I kind of still wanted to make the hat that I had found to give her.

So I did.

Lavender Cap by Cori 2012.

Cap modeled by (slightly less creepy than the last but still no less) naked baby doll.

Pattern: Baby Hat With Flower* by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn: JoAnn Sensations Bellazza Selection Tesoro** in Purple (maybe half a ball)
Hook: US I

*Link may require a free registration to see pattern.
**Tesoro appears to no longer be available, so link just goes to JoAnn's Sensations line.

I used a ball of wool yarn that my mom bequeathed to me the last time she was cleaning out her stash because it seemed just the right texture and color for what I had in mind. This sucker took me maybe an hour to make. It is such a simple pattern! I am not sure how I feel about the flower, but other than that I love this.

I love it so much, I decided I wanted to make a slightly bigger version for my kiddo.

So I did.

Cherry on Top by Cori 2012

Modeled by my lovely, yet seemingly uninterested, daughter.

Same pattern and hook, although I just increased the base of the hat two more times and then added more rows of the shell stitch pattern to make it larger. The yarn I used for this was Knit Picks Brava Worsted in Red (less than half a ball).

Making quick fun little projects like this really has me wishing I was more inclined to wear hats. They are so easy to make! Who knows, maybe this winter I'll be able to convince myself to don a few new caps...

More Diversions

Man, I swear that the blanket I am working on is progressing. I am actually hoping to get it finished up this week. I just keep getting distracted by quick little projects. This time, it was at the request of a friend. She has a (kickass) photography studio* and asked if I could make a newborn sized hat for an upcoming session.

Armed with a picture of a hat that she liked, and that I thought I could replicate (or at least get pretty darn close) and a description of the type of yarn she wanted it to be made out of, I went shopping and then got to work.

Here's how it turned out:

Baby Bear Hat by Cori 2012.

Baby Bear Hat will be modeled today by creepy naked baby doll.

Added feature: removable flower. Unisex hat for the win!

Yarn: JoAnn Fabrics' Sensations Sumptuous in Sumptuous Brown (one skein) and Classic Elite Sprout in Yellow (one ball)
Hooks: US P (hat) and US H (flower)

Very quick work up here. I just made a basic beanie (switching from single crochet to double once I was done increasing and then finishing the last row with single crochet) and added ear flaps and ears. I sewed a button on to the back of the flower so that it can just be slipped on the hat by sticking the button through the stitches. All in all it was a fun little project and my friend seemed very happy with it, so I call that a win.

Now, time to get back to that blanket. Here's a sneak peek for you just to prove it does actually exist:

I don't even drink coffee but this colorway is kind of giving me a craving.

*If you are in the DFW area and need a photographer, seriously go check her out. She is fantastic!

Feeling Ever So Handy

Do you ever get in one of those phases where you look around your house and think, "Wow, everything needs to be different right now," and then go on a crazy cleaning/redecorating/rearranging binge? No? Just me? Oh. Well. Okay then.

I go through that phase about once every year (sometimes more often but on a smaller scale) and have been going through a pretty major one lately. Now, the way we have our house set up, in most rooms there are limited ways that I can actually rearrange the furniture at this point. That's usually my go-to method of scratching this particular itch, but it doesn't really work once you've mounted your television on the wall.

So instead I am trying to find all of the small things that really irritate me and fix (or change completely) those specific things. I just bought a bunch of new lamps (that actually match each other, for once) to replace the ones that have just completely stopped working or that I really don't like anymore. I ordered a new desk to make my daughter's work space (she was going to get the old desk I got from Salvation Army a few years ago, but it is pretty beat up and the drawers are no longer cooperating and I really didn't feel like trying to fix it). Once the new desk arrives and is put together, I will rearrange some of the smaller furniture and hopefully that will make a big enough difference that I will be satisfied.

We will, of course, need a chair to go with the new desk. The current desk is more of a landing place for living room junk and a storage space for my current(ish) yarn projects. The new desk will not be used for either of these purposes (I've also gotten some organizer containers to solve the problem that getting rid of that desk will create). We have a really nice antique chair that we got several years ago from my husband's grandparents but that really, really, doesn't go with anything in the house. I have been thinking for a while that it would be a perfect chair for my daughter if I could make myself refinish and reupholster it. I have finally decided that the time has come to actually do that.

But I figured I should probably start small and work my way up.

Shortly after my daughter was born, a friend of ours who owned a piano repair shop decided to retire. This resulted in us getting a pretty awesome piano for an even more awesome price (we just had to pay to have it moved from the shop to our home). We also got the bench that went with the piano.

What, erm...lovely fabric you have there.

It has seen better days.

Now, we chose the piano we did partly because the wood color went fairly well with what we have going on in our house, and the same goes for the bench. The fabric on the bench is another story entirely. Not to mention the fact that this thing is not new (we are unsure how old it is but I promise you that upholstery dates back to at least the seventies). The foam pad on the seat had gone crunchy. That's just not right. I had been thinking for quite some time that I needed to replace the pad and fabric on the bench.

So I did.

This past weekend I dragged my husband out to JoAnn's so we could pick out a good replacement fabric for the seat (we went with a nice dark blue corduroy, which I figure will hold up nicely to Baby Girl's attentions for at least a few years). I also picked up some staples for my shiny new staple gun (bought explicitly with reupholstery in mind!), and some new padding, of course.

It only took me about an hour to do (even with a toddler helping), and I am fairly pleased with the results. It is not perfect, but we don't need it to be.

The hardest part was cleaning up all of the yellow dust from the disintegrating foam pad. I swept twice, broke out the dust buster, and then ran a Swiffer over it, which still came out completely yellow. Yeesh.

Crunchy is not good.

Yellow. Dust. EVERYwhere.

But once I got the old fabric and pad off, and had removed any nails sticking out, I gave the whole bench a good polish, then slapped on a new pad and stapled on the new fabric, and voila!

That oil really did wonders for the thing.

Who doesn't love corduroy?

Baby Girl seems to approve as well.

This seat is much comfier!

Time to jam!

All in all, I am pretty proud of myself. Now I just have to keep the momentum going. One more test project before the chair--a lamp that my grandparents gave me that I can't bring myself to throw away. If I can figure out how to take it apart so I can paint the ugly gold accents black, and refinish the wood body with the same finish I plan to use on the chair, we will be in business. It should be perfect for the new desk, in fact.

I already got a snazzy new lampshade for it and everything.