Nuclear Knits: Where knitting is the bomb!

Another pair of pants for Zooey. A couple of changes. I put in thicker elastic. Which I like but I think they might be just a tad loose. I also worked on the seem around the crotch. This still isn't perfect....but better. From first cut to finished was 30 minutes! Next go round they need to be longer!

This is the Posies Shawl I've been working on. I'm trying to decide how large to make it and when will I have enough yarn for the trim.

I found this pattern on another interesting kids site . The pattern was easy enough but the description wasn't the best. I decided to alter them by adding heart patches to the knees. The Alice and Wonderland fabric is from Spoonflower!  This pattern has a bell-bottom feel to it (which I do like).

Clothing before I chopped them up! I loved these little outfits. Organic cotton and a fantastic print. I decided not to give them away - but instead to make something Zooey could still wear. I took the flower pattern off the onsie and cut the other fabric to make a shirt. I used the flower as a pocket. I call this her roller derby shirt!  It has a simple boat neck and feels just as incredible as it did when it was part of her pjs. Cut and ready to design. Finished. Zooey is ready to rock n' roll!

Dress Pieces I found this dress pattern on Prudent Baby (which is my new favorite blog!). My only issue is the head opening is a bit tight. Next time I'm going to make the neck a bit bigger and flared sleeves!  One of the things I love about the Prudent Baby site is that a lot of the patterns are adjustable.  So, dress length and sleeve length you can decide on the fly!  Over all this dress took me about 2 hours to make (and part of that was trying to figure out how the button holer on my sewing machine worked). Finished Dress. Zooey Loves It!

I'm not sure if you remember - but each year I do a calendar for either a table runner or wall hanging. Here is 2013! It is now hanging over the fire place.

Second Sock Take That!!! I decided to hit these bad boys hard and I did! I finished up the second sock today and I think my little sister will love them. Project Details: Started on May 6th and finished today January 14. A super fun, easy pattern that shouldn't have taken so long. The pattern is called Berry Patch Sock and is on Ravelry. I used Araucania Ranco sock yarn - which I'm so so on. Sort of a rough feeling yarn. Overall I think I have my sock mojo back!!

This past year has been terrible for me and socks. I use to love them ... And then something happened. I just don't want to finished the second sock. So I've decided 2013 will be the year of sock. I plan to get my mojo back. So there socks!!

Zooey loves puppets, so I finally finished a few for her!

I decided to use part of this holiday to clean out my knitting books and update my queue with things I want to knit from them. This is because with books I tend to get them, put them up and then forget that there are hundreds of patterns I want to do. I figured out I have 90 books and this bumped my queue from 19 pages to 29. But I'm happy to finally have all the patterns now updated!

Project Details: A super fast knit! I started this on January first and finished on January 2. Basically this is just knit in the round and the ears are created with bands. I used bulky yarn (left over for the stuffed sheep I did) and thus adjusted the number if stitches to 75. A very easy pattern to modify. As seen here - this hat makes for a happy baby!

I like to look back on the year and see what I've accomplished.  2012 was an exciting year around here (all around).  But, crafting wasn't too shabby either. Spun: 1462 yards (low - but I had thumb surgery) Knit: 9787 yards Sewing: Cushions for a high chair, cushions for stools, 2 soft baby books, 12 quilt bee blocks, 1 twin quilt (for Zooey), a baby quilt, modified baby outfits, little sister's wedding invitations, and a hexagon table runner. Here was 2011 from the blog: "Spun 3.5 lbs of roving for something near 5000 yards of yarn. Knit ~14,000 yards. Quilted 3 baby quilts, 2 queen size quilts, aprons, 1 wall hanging, 1 king size quilt and I started hexagon madness. Now let's see what 2012 has to offer. I'm guessing with a baby in hand I might get a little less done." I think I was right on my assessment of LESS DONE :) Let's see what 2013 holds.  HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!