Young Artists

Creativity is messy.

addendum

The modeled Aunt Anna hat.

hippo bling

Aunt Hannah made this at her art class, and donated it to The Hippo, who has worn it ever since. What’s the world coming to when even the Hippos are wearing jewelry?

a hat from Aunt Anna

We all really love this hat. I think Aunt Anna made it with Mizzou colors in mind, but the girls saw the bumble bee potential right away.

Sophie’s hippo seems to have a burning desire to wear the hat, if Sophie is to be believed.

I have decided that hats are my favorite article of clothing for any baby. The rest can be optional, as long as there’s a great hat in the mix.

The little gnome hat

Another hat for The Boy. Poor thing, he has no idea what he’s in for.

The pattern (found on Ravelry) was the hat from The Elfin Baby Set, by Lion Brand. I actually made this while in the car, en-route to the doctors office a couple of weeks ago, so now I can’t remember for certain if I had to make any changes to the pattern, but I think it ran small and I had to add several rows…

rah-rah hats

These hats were designed to coordinate with the hoodies which Uncle Zion gave to the girls, in honor of Sophie’s birthday.

After I finished Sophie’s, Dan pointed out that they reminded him of antique football helmets.

Now Kinsley calls it “her football helmet”…

Both girls really wanted The Boy to have a matching hat, but Kinsley was perplexed by the flower… “He can’t have a flower, Mama, cause he’s a boy…” So, this is what we came up with.

Once again, the patterns came from Ravelry. The Sophie’s hat pattern is the Brrr Baby Beanie, with the Picot Flower accent.

Kinsley’s hat (since she needed a size bigger) was the Cute Kid’s Earflap Hat, but with the same floral accent. I didn’t do the gauge swatch on this, and her hat is borderline too small. I may go ahead and make a duplicate in the next size up (I did the size 2-4 pattern).

The Boy’s hat was the SLK Baby Hat pattern. His hat has more of a mushroom shape than the pattern depicts, and the reason for this is that I got scared about how large it was turning out, and decreased a few rounds…

Anyway… we’ll be cheering the team in style, this year!

The Papa Hat

I’ve been taking advantage of all this ice, sleet, and snow, to accomplish a few indoor projects over the last few days. Unfortunately when I get into project mode, the basics always seem to suffer – but it does feel good to get something out of the ordinary done once in a while.

I’ve wanted to make Dan a hat for quite a while, and for some reason never quite got around to it. Last night I finally chose a pattern, pulled out the yarn basket and got started.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Dan actually likes it much, as it’s not quite as warm as his stocking cap and beanies really aren’t his style….

Kinsley says that it looks like “a pregnant mama hat”… so maybe I just have really poor taste in the pattern choosing department.

I found the pattern on Ravelry (which is one of my favorite sites to browse for inspiration and motivation.) The hat is called The Skater Beanie, and the pattern was highly adjustable, as sizing was based on measurements, instead of a gauge swatch.

I’m not certain what the yarn is, since it was a ball I collected a while back from a thrift store, but I don’t think it’s anything special… just your basic yarn.

I crocheted the hat in one sitting (except for 42 bathroom breaks) and it really only took a couple of hours.

I hope to get around to making The Boy a coordinating hat, maybe this evening…

quietness

I’d much rather the girls take their naps at the same time, since this is the only way I ever accomplish anything. But sometimes, in Real Life, this just isn’t going to happen. So the trick seems to be giving up on the idea of a nap for the Wakeful Child (hey – that just means earlier bedtime, right?), and instead finding a quite activity for her to do, while sitting still on the couch.

I’m so glad that Kinsley is finally getting into the idea of these lacing card. I think she’s been a little too young for them until just recently. She thinks she’s sewing, and so loves the Bigness of the activity.

She has recently been begging me to teach her to “crochet, except not with one needle with a thingy on the the end (like my crochet hooks), but with two needles that are pointy and don’t have thingies on the ends”…

I’m hopeful that maybe we can both learn to knit together someday, as this is one of my dream goals… doesn’t knitting just seem so much more sophisticated than crochet, somehow?

“A worm, and two reindeer”

Kinsley has taken up sculpting. She then wants me to photograph her work and “put it in a picture frame”.