Winter Hat

Crocheted a winter hat for the kiddo over the past couple of days.  Worked most of it in the round, crocheting into the back loop only, then back and forth to make the back a little longer and add earflaps.  Went around the rim with a dark blue yarn to smooth off the edges and create braided ties. 

Baby Pants Alterations

An bit of a tutorial to help you alter store-bought pants to fit over cloth diapers:

You'll need: 

-baby pants.  make sure they are the length you need and have sufficient stretch in the waistband. 

-matching fabric (or not, as suits your fancy)

-scissors

-needle & thread or machine.  

Steps: 

1.   Cut down the back seam of the pants, from the crotch (is that the best word there is?) to the belt loop if there is one, or the yoke or a reasonable stopping point so long as it doesn't interfere with the waistband.  I cut on either side of the seam, removing it entirely so that I could have less bulk in my own seams.  Additionally, I cut about a half inch out of the top of the inseams. 

1.  Cut along seams at center back and inseam, like so.

2.  Carefully, put the pants on the kiddo in question.  Let him crawl and stretch and basically move in his usual way.  The biggest problem for us with these trim-looking baby pants is that over the cloth diaper they keep him from moving his legs smoothly while crawling, and they pull down the diaper.  Neither good.  So a main goal of mine for this project was smooth crawling.  Most of the area of the pants that needed expansion was in the rump, with just a bit in the crotch to make it wider. 

2, 3, 4.  Couldn't get a pic in use, but the gaping was a little like this.

3.  Look/measure/estimate at the amount of gaping that occurs while the kiddo is wearing the pants.  I got a general idea of the shape of the gape and measured it at its widest point using my finger.  If you can find your tape measure, feel free to do it the proper way.  I figured on a tiny bit of extra ease anyway, so didn't want to spend a lot of time measuring.

4.  Carefully take the pants back off again.  

5.  Cut out your second fabric to a bit larger than the hole including seam allowance.  

6.  Pin the fabric to the pants.  I found the easiest way for me was to tuck under the raw edges of the fabric, and pin it from the outside, so both right sides were showing on the outside, as if I were doing an applique.  I added a pleat going in either direction at the bottom, where the back panel joins the inseam, so that there could be sufficient expansion in that area as well. 

7.  Added fabric basted on.

7.  View of the pleat at the inseam.

7.   Sew the fabric to the pants.  I basted it on by hand for a trial run on the kiddo, with the intention of sewing it more securely by machine at a later point. 

8.  Press, if you're so inclined.  Finish seams if that makes you happy.  

This was incredibly quick as projects go, took me about an hour, and that was with me sewing by hand.  The results have been excellent--Chubber can crawl freely, and seems more comfortable wearing pants while being carried in the Ergo.  Pants that have back pockets may look a little silly, since the pockets get pushed off to the sides. 

Hope this helps someone out there in a similar pickle! 

Tangiential Crocheting

My Aunt has a cool new set of patterns out for crochet finger puppets in a sort of Halloween theme.  I have so far made the mummy and the one-eyed creature.  The mummy was super easy, and with my natural colored wool, it has a sufficiently decayed-bandage look.  I thought about leaving the tail of yarn untucked for an unravelled vibe, but could see that being chewed off in a matter of no time. You'll have to excuse her liberal lipstick application: being tightly wrapped and in a dark tomb for thousands of years, she has gotten a little out of practice.

Mummy

Bolstered by the success of my mummy wrapping, I set out to make the monster, but apparently I don't actually know how to crochet (which I don't think surprises anyone).  Anyway, my attempt at a triple crochet caused the round to increase, and I decided it looked more like a set of sepals on a fruit.  Then of course I had to make the tomato that went with the sepals.  At which point I realized the sepals looked most like they belonged to an eggplant.  Good thing I just happen to have purple yarn, huh?  I made skinnier sepals for the tomato, and an eggplant body for the original sepals. When I made the tomato I just decreased by skipping a loop, but fortunately before I made the eggplant I saw instructions for invisible decrease.  I'm not sure I did it right, because you can see a spiral along the eggplant's neck, but at least there aren't gaping holes.

Eggplant and Tomato

Then I figured out where I went awry with the triple crochet and made a better lumpy monster.  I don't have plain white and black yarn, so instead I used embroidery thread, and gave him 3 eyes to keep the scale true.  He says "hi!" for he is a friendlier monster than the mummy gal.

Bumpy Monster

 

Fall Garden

A while back, I put some sprouting potatoes in the ground.   A bit later I planted an onion which was sprouting, and then a sweet potato.  I didn't really have much hope for any of it to grow, but I figured it was that or over the wall to the compost area.  Who knows if they'll be ready before it gets too cold, but it was worth a shot.

There are also peppers growing that I started in May from seed, and tomatoes from around the same time.  Apparently the peppers wouldn't even start flowering until the weather cooled down, and it seems like the tomatoes were thinking along the same lines. 

Well, here's how it's looking today: 

Potato Buds

Sweet Potato

Tomato Flowers

Young Tomato

Peppers