Author Archives: Girl

Hooded blanket, now with baby!

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Back in October, my niece was born.  She is the apple of my eye and I’ve been knitting for her since well before she was out in the world.  When she was three weeks old, I posted some initial photos to a hooded blanket I made for her.  At the time, she was too small to actually be wrapped up in the blanket.

But now, at five months, she can be kept warm in the olive alpaca.  So because it’s way more fun to look at a baby wrapped up in a blanket than a teddy bear (no disrespect, A.G. Bear), here are some photos.

As a note for anyone who knits this project, it’s also a great way to entertain a baby.  In the last three photos above, you’ll see my brother bent over as he (gently) spun his little girl on the floor, swaddled in the blanket.  The hood kept her safely tucked in and she squealed with delight as she swished around on the floor.  Maybe don’t go with alpaca if you’re going to use it as a toy….but definitely get ready for lots of baby laughter.

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Stepping up from hoodies with a hooded scarf

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My sister lives in sweatshirts because she loves the hood, but of course, she has way more clothes that don’t have hoods.  She needed a way to hood-ify any outfit.  Enter hooded scarf.

This is a super easy pattern and a fairly quick knit.  In fact, I knit it almost in entirety while my family waited at the hospital for my niece to be born (only took her about 6 hours to decide she was ready to make her entrance).  I used the DROPS hooded scarf  in garter pattern with Studio Tricot Cedrone yarn in Taupe.  I highly recommend it.  And I think she would too since she wears it almost every day.

Hooded Baby Blanket

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My niece was born on October 3rd.  She is officially 3 weeks old.

And she is in fact the entire reason I decided to learn to knit.  There are just so many cute knit things out there for little ones, I could resist trying my hand at them.

One of her first gifts is a hooded baby blanket made from Misti Alpaca chunky yarn.  I found a pattern on Stitch Me Softly which wasn’t only pretty, it looked like a reasonable project for someone who had just barely learned to knit.

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Knit Topper for a Tea Towel

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Crocheted towel holder from Little Birdie Secrets

I will admit, I love me some Pinterest.  The DIY section is pretty much the only area I’ve ever ventured into but all those pictures are a fun way to get inspired for the craftiness. I recently came across a pin for this crocheted towel holder (pictured left). It caught my eye because our oven handle is so close to the oven door that you can barely get a tea towel to hang there.  But!  With a tea towel holder ring, I knew that problem would be solved.  Not to mention, it’s pretty darn cute.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to crochet.  So I decided to make up my own knit pattern to look similar and function identically. Continue reading →

K & A’s wedding, turned ornament

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Earlier this month, Boy’s sister tied the knot.  It was a beautiful wedding.  It took place in Portland, right along the river.  Boy’s sister was a gorgeous bride and her fiancé was a dashing groom.  Their wedding colors were white and teal.  There were white ribbons draping the backs of the chairs…and I stole one.  That’s right.  I stole one.  It was after the ceremony and I had gifting in mind.

As Boy was in the wedding party, he was gifted a monogrammed pocket square which was tied up with a teal ribbon.  Once he had opened his gift, he didn’t need that ribbon any more.  So I stole that one too.

After I got home and ordered some clear glass ornaments, I had everything I needed. Two ribbons, a glass ornament, and a wedding program.

I started with the program…

  1. Using a ruler and a utility knife, I (carefully) cut out strips of the program for each of the main lines of text: the bride’s name, the groom’s name, the location and the date.
  2. I then gently wrapped each strip around a pencil to curl it.
  3. Once the curls were set, I slipped them all, plus a piece of the white ribbon into the glass ornament and shook them around until they were just so.
  4. Then I popped the silver top of the ornament back on, affixed the teal and white ribbons on the top, and there you have it.  A Christmas ornament filled with mementos from a beautiful, joyous day.

And now I have 5 more glass ornaments, so more of these to come after more weddings!

Leather Straps Into Hat Hangers

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From Country Living

Though I don’t live in the country by any stretch of the imagination, I do enjoy fantasizing while looking at the lovely, rustic photos in Country Living.

One photo in one particular issue recently caught my eye.  And even though we live in the city and Boy’s hats aren’t nearly as charming as the ones they used for their photo, I thought, “Hmm…I could do that.”

The issue was that we have a lot of baseball caps.  To have easy access to them, we had them stacked and hanging from two large wall hooks.  It kept them out of the tiny closet and was functional enough but it definitely wasn’t attractive.

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Antique Frame Key Holder

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One of the first things I ever pinned on Pinterest was a key holder made out of a small ornate frame.

At the time, I had been living in my apartment for about a year and a half and still didn’t have a proper place to keep my keys.  Needless to say, that made for a lot of “I can’t find my keys!!” moments.  Then one day, I went to the Treasure Island Flea Market.  There I found the perfect small ornate frame for this project.

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Bottle Cap Magnets

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I love bottle caps.  I admit that I collect cool ones – ones with owls on them, ones with funny sayings on them (like the glorious ones from Magic Hat Brewing featured in our pictures), ones which are pretty colors.  Until now, however, the caps have been sitting in a bag in my closet.  Waiting.  Waiting…

I also love magnets.  Because they’re neat.  And they hold photos on the fridge.  So we put those two together – and kablam – bottle cap magnets.

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