Lucy's 5th Birthday Blanket

Lucy turned 5 today!

This has been my favorite blanket so far.  Not so much for the blanket itself, but for the delivery.

Lucy's Blanket "with bumps"
3.5' x 4.5'

Lucy saw me making Charley's blanket and told me she wanted a blanket like that "with the bumps."  She told me her favorite colors were red, green, and yellow, but I was hesitant to believe her because this conversation happened shortly after Christmas and I was afraid she wouldn't really like those colors once the excitement of the holidays wore off.  I checked back with her several times and she kept insisting those were her favorite colors.  I tried to mute the Christmasy feeling by picking less bold shades of green and yellow, and by adding additional yarn that incorporated lots of colors, but in the end, I still think it looks like Christmas.

Lucy already has a favorite blanket, and I certainly wasn't trying to replace that, especially since I was a blanket kid and can appreciate the loyalty that goes into having a blanket, but I really wanted her to like this one.

Success!  As soon as she opened it she said she loved it and that "it was good enough to suck her thumb."  Cute!  There is no greater compliment from a 5 year old.

Proof that this blanket is good enough to suck your thumb.

Happy fifth birthday Lucy!

Charley's 2nd Birthday Blanket

Today, Miss Charley Kay turned 2 and received this blanket I made for her.

Hankie Blankie
42"x27"

I chose these colors and design because Charley has a favorite toy.  It's a stuffed dragon named Hank. I thought it would be fun to have a blanket that she and Hank could enjoy snuggling up with together.

She seemed to like it.

Hallie's Birth Day Blanket

Well, we didn't get much of a chance to celebrate Rachel's Birthday yesterday before we got the news that she would be sharing her birthday with Baby Hallie who decided to make her appearance into the world 6 weeks early!

It was a crazy morning, but I'm happy to announce Mom and baby are both doing well.  Hallie will be spending some time in the NICU until her little lungs and sucking reflex develop further, but she's doing amazingly well.

Even though her due date wasn't until May 4, I've had her blanket finished for a while.  I was happy to be able to give it to her on her actual birthday, especially since she has to spend so much time away from Mom in the NICU.  I wanted Mom to have something soft to snuggle when she can't hold her baby.

Hallie's Birth Day Blanket
Finished size: 2' 6" x 3' 3"
Inside size: 2' x 2' 9"
border is 3" on each side

This close up picture is a little blurry, but I think the effect makes it look like a watercolor painting.  The color on this yarn label was called "ice cream."  The yarn on this one is super soft.  It made it kind of difficult to work with, but resulted in an amazingly cuddly blanket.

Here is a close up of the border.  It wasn't until I was posting this picture that I realized I sewed the name tag on the wrong side.  The shell pattern in the body of the blanket is supposed to go the other way so if you turn the blanket so the shells are right side up, the label is upside down.  Oh well.  

Hallie Elaine Boynton
March 20, 2016
4 lbs 6 oz, 18" long

5/20/17 UPDATE:
Baby Hallie came home from the hospital after a month long stay and is doing great!  She likes her blanket.

Rachel's 10th Birthday Blanket

This is the blanket I made for Ms. Rachel.  She will be turning 10 on Sunday, March 20.  Mailing this blanket was kind of a big deal for me because it puts me past the point of no return.  Even if I don't finish all of the blankets for all the kids this year, I've at least committed to finishing 4 for this family and the word will be out that blankets are coming and the expectation will be set.  Kristin says I'm over analyzing things, but I can't help it.  I just don't want anyone to feel left out.

Pastel Granny Squares
61.5" x 38" with 5.5"of fringe on each side

Close up of big and little squares  I really like how this turned out, although I really don't think the pictures do it justice.

My name tag.

I've had this blanket finished for months. I'm excited to finally be wrapping it to mail.

Leah's 3rd Birthday Blankets

As I mentioned in my last post I'm making blankets for all of the nieces and nephews this year.  The first birthday is today.  Miss Leah Jane is turning 3!  I made a blanket for her when she was born, so I wanted to make her something else instead. I was thinking of making some clothes for her dolls who are always naked. She is so adorable playing with her babies and loves them so much!  But, when I asked her what kind of clothes she wanted she insisted they not have clothes.  She said she wanted a "Rainbow from the Sky Blanket."  I don't know exactly what she meant by that, but this is what I ended up with.

"Rainbow from the Sky Blanket"
16.5" x 10"

Since the "Rainbow from the Sky Blanket" was so tiny, I decided I would make a bunch of blankets that she could wrap up her naked babies with.

This next one matches the one I made for her when she was born so she and her baby can match.

Replica's of Leah's Baby Blanket 22" x 14"
Inside size 12" x 20", 36 dc per row, 34 rows

Her favorite color is pink so for the rest I just made some different things using mostly pink.

Baby Blanket 16" x 11"
Inside size 12" x 8", 25 dc per row, 21 rows

Baby Blanket 20.5" x 10"
Inside size 15" x 10"

Pink Granny Squares Baby Blanket 18" x 12.25"
Inside size 10.5" x 21"

Leah opening her birthday blankets.  I LOVE that smile!

Someone else had the same idea I did and quilted some baby blankets for Leah's Birthday.  These babies are laying on top of the quilts and you can see some of the others on the right of the picture.  All the babies will be very comfy!  I love that she used the box my blankets came in as beds.

Minion Hat- "Kevin"

Happy New Year!  I was asked by a co-worker to make a "Kevin" minion hat (two eyes, one chunk of hair standing up in the middle).  Since I had previously made so many, and got to the point I could whip them out fairly quickly, I thought it was no big deal so I agreed.  Turns out, it was a big deal.  I couldn't remember how to make them, couldn't find the pattern, once I found it and made it, it wasn't the right size, I couldn't remember how I altered the pattern to make it work, and the problems seemed to go on and on.

The first batch of these hats I made weren't minion hats, they were hats in whatever color yarn I had that I donated to a homeless shelter as part of a church service project.  I didn't care what size the hats turned out because people are all sizes and children need hats too, but it gave me the opportunity to experiment risk free with sizing, which also required no obligation to store the sizing details in my long term memory. I also have a tendency to inadvertently add stitches as I go, so some of the best sized hats ended up that way on accident.  A situation not easy to duplicate.  After several variations of undoing several rounds of work, and sometimes starting over completely, I probably made the equivalent of four or five hats to produce this finished product...

Kevin!

It looks a little goofy standing up by itself not being on a head.

It's very telling of this project that my name tag ended up crooked in the end :).

More than make a post about this particular hat, I wanted to write a post that included some tips so that I don't have to start from scratch again if I ever want to make another hat.

Tips:

• For starters, click here for the pattern.
• Round 1 says "work 10 sc in ring" but I prefer more.  For this hat, I did 12 which was acceptable, but I think I would have actually liked one or two more.  By doing 12 in the first round I ended up with 36 sc that I was working around in a circle (I'm not sure if there was supposed to be 35 and I added an extra stitch, or 37 and I dropped one) but in any case I was working with 36 for most of the hat (somewhere toward the end I finished with 38).
• I used the gold #5 crochet hook.  I don't know what I used before, probably the pink one (not sure the number), but this is the first time I really noticed the different results from the size of hook.  The gold hook has bigger stitches, so fewer rows are required for a full hat (which was nice since I made it so many times), but I actually prefer the look of the pink hook better.  The stitches are tighter and the hats feel thicker.
• My favorite hat has 42 stitches at the end (keeping in mind 42 stitches with the pink hook, not the gold one).  This is probably too big for most people because it doesn't have the snug fit associated with beanies. I really like the loose comfortable fit though because it covers my ears and doesn't slide up with movement.  Future hats should err on the side of bigger.
• Put the black band for the goggles higher than you think you'll need.  Maybe rows 9 or 10 instead of 13 (these are pink hook estimates).

That's it for now and should help me the next time I do this project.  You will be seeing more crochet from me this year as I've set a goal to make blankets for all of the nieces and nephews for their birthdays (20 total).  Some of them already have blankets that I made for them as babies, so those kids might get something else, but I'm determined to have this be a home made year, so we'll see. I also have a portrait in progress so stay tuned for lots more posts.  The first birthday is this Friday and the blanket is already done!

Nutcrackers

Time for the annual Door Decorating Contest at the School District.  Here is our entry for this year:

The Front

The Back

The hair, eyebrows, eye color, and accessories on each Nutcracker represents one of the people in our office.

The Superintendent

The Policy and Legal Services Director

The Legal Assistant/ Office Manager

Me, the Superintendent's Assistant

It's hard to tell from the picture, but my hoodie has an actual zipper that works!  It's also a little hard to tell that each hat has a 3D rim on it (you can tell it's there from the shadows).  This was a super fun project, but ridiculously labor intensive.  I kind of wish I had calculated the number of hours spent working on this because it would have been massive.  Basically all of my lunches and whatever work time I could sneak in while others were in meetings or out of the office and I could still get my work done since September!

Here is Riley standing in front of them with the door shut to give you an idea of how huge these are.  Riley is exactly 5' tall.

So, how did we fair in the contest?

Second place.

I won't lie, I was bummed.  Our door really was the most labor intensive of them all and the only reason I think we didn't win is people didn't understand that these were all individually designed, cut and glued by hand with lots of measuring and precision.  I had a ton of people ask me where I bought these, or who printed them.  I wouldn't have voted them for 1st place either if I thought someone had just bought them off a shelf and hung them on a door (of course how they thought any store was selling the exact right size to fit our doors perfectly and that represented the people who work in our office escapes me).

I did have a small fan club of people though who understood, and even before the voting, repeatedly stopped by to marvel at my design, take pictures, and tell me how much they loved it.  I even had one guy stop by and bring me treats to tell me I'd been cheated when we didn't win.  It was pretty funny how passionate people got.

So, without further ado, here are pictures of the winners:

1st place went to the Printing/Media Department:

Even though these bricks were printed they get major points for the 3D roof/awning, and the saran-wrap icicles. Also the window of the inside made from a photograph of the inside was very clever and funny!  

This is where it gets tricky to tell what they did from the pictures.  From the bricks on the lower left hand side of the picture, you can see that this is positioned right next to the door and they utilized the wall space to have a Christmas tree.

This is a second door on the right side of the Christmas tree. They created a "store window" by building a structure on the inside to support it.

Here is a close up of the inside of the store window.  It has a much better Wow Factor in person.

3rd place went to Assessment/Evaluation.  You may remember they won us last year with their Star Wars Door.

My favorite part about this one is the wood paneling.  It isn't real.  The real wall is white brick.  Nicely done!

These didn't win, but were some of my other favorites:

I don't know why "Flaky Friends" made me laugh so hard, but I loved this!

Very clever incorporating Alice in Wonderland with a Winter Wonderland.

And never has door decor represented the department so well.  This was the Information Technology Department that did "Name that Tune" in binary code. Ha ha ha!  LOVE IT!!!!