Hats off to Henry Edition

Hey Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  We sure did.  We took the kids to the cottage for the first time this season (Alice's first time ever!).  It was great fun.  Different taking such a little baby with us, the first time Henry went he was at least 7 months old (I can't remember when our first trip was that year).  Not being able to move around didn't bother Alice in the slightest:

 Just having a little nap in the sunroom aka: nap time room (because pretty much anyone who lays down in here falls asleep).

Just chillin on her minky dot blankie.

But today, we aren't here for Alice are we?  That title suggests there's a hat for the big man this week.

There he is!  And looking so much healthier (we went through an epic ear infection this past month, but it seems we're finally on the mend).  

I actually made this hat!  I'm pretty proud of myself, since, as discussed last week, my sewing skills are just slightly above rudimentary.  But I found a great pattern, the Olive and S Reversible Bucket hat.  It seemed a little more complicated than the Peekaboo Bonnet but not too bad.  Also the pattern was free which is nice.  I got the fabric at Fabricland on sale for $2 per fat quarter (which is a quarter of a yard of material, but cut so it's the wide or "fat" piece rather than a skinny little quarter yard cut lengthwise).  Anyway.  After a few minor errors, I have produced a wearable, if somewhat less than perfect, bucket hat!  

Henry seems to like it, he yells "nice hat!" "nice hat!" at everyone when it's time to go outside.  That's more than enough for me.

I do plan on trying this pattern again, maybe work on some straighter top stitching, but overall I'm pleased.

 He's totally a ham and poses for the camera:

 Do I detect a little Blue Steel?

I love the skulls.  Please ignore that crooked stitiching.

Oh yea, was it father's day or something this weekend?  Of course it was!  Here's Daddy with his little chicklets.

You'll notice Henry is a lot more interested in "Adiss" than he is having his picture taken again.  Oh so sweet.

Happy belated Father's day to all the Dad's out there!  Ciao!

Now for something completely different....

I'm pretty sure I'm recycling entry titles here, but Monty Python is just so good.  In fact, let's just get this day started right for you:

Moving right along, I legitimately have something completely different this week.  Different for me anyway.  The weather has been so beautiful here lately (finally) but I find when I take Alice outside, the sun is always in her eyes.  I have a bucket hat for her that is super cute, but it's still a bit big and it slides down over her eyes, making her look like an old cowboy sleeping when she naps during stroller rides.


The Peekaboo Bonnet by Made by Rae.  My best friend posted a picture of her daughter in an adorable bonnet made by CeeGee Couture in Ottawa.  I was going to just buy one, instead I made one for myself and will just send you all over there if you want to buy one.  I needed a project and I knew I had some co-ordinating fabric laying around, so it was just a matter of getting piping and bias tape and bob's your uncle.  Well, that and acquiring a printer cable, but that's a fiasco to tell you about another time.

Blurry Photobomb!  Little stinker.  What a tease, we can't see the bonnet!

That's a bit more like it!  Making this bonnet I picked up multiple new sewing skills.  Let's look at what I had never done before:

- Piping
- Interfacing (although iron on interfacing is hardly rocket science)
- Bias Tape (I have used bias tape, but apparently never correctly)
- Gathers
- Sewing through like, 5 layers of fabric

All things considered, I could not be happier with the result.  The pattern was easy to follow, quick to make, and super cute when finished.

Here's a few more:

Again with the photobomb little man, just on the side there.

She was a little disgruntled when I was taking her picture, note the thumb in mouth.

Yummy thumb!

No face in this shot, but you can see the reverse side with the piping around the band.

Sweet girl.

 
Here you can see the two sides.  I think it turned out pretty good, in fact I'll probably make another one just for fun.  Luckily the pattern was pretty forgiving so my mistakes are hardly noticeable at all (in fact, unless I point them out, on first glance they're non-existent).  The biggest challenge was probably the piping, since I've never used it before and there are so many layers.

Now we are ready for the sunshine!

Sweet as can be

Happy Friday!

It looks like Summer may just make an appearance after all!  We've had a busy week.  Henry started nursery school, we went to the Zoo and Henry had his first soccer practice!  Somehow I managed to fit a new creation in there.

It took me a good 4 attempts to get the look right for this without a pattern.  But we got there.  The key piece in this hat (for anyone who is curious) is front and back post crochet.  The frosting is built on back loop crochets and the ribbing for the brim/cupcake cup uses alternating fphdc and bphdc (front post and back post half double crochet, just fyi).  I strung plastic pony beads onto my yarn before I started so they would be random and also to save myself stitching them on by hand at the end.  I am pretty happy with the result.

 Thanks Granny for the outfit with ice cream cones on it that goes so well with the hat!

Is this a cherry?

I told him no smiling

 He loves his little sister, it's just so adorable.

 Nicehug.

 And again, no smiling!

 My strong little girl!

 She was in the mood for pictures apparently, holding her head up and looking at me:

 I can't get over her, she's such a cutie pie.

 Hat off, so you can see her lustrous hair lol.

And just for comparison, here is Henry!  Her face here reminded me of this particular photoshoot. I took that picture of Henry when he was already 4 months old.  Alice is less than 3 months.  Probably they both weigh the same in these pictures.  Just look at those cheeks!

Funny how similar and yet different they are, my little beauties.

That's all for now!

G'day Mate!

Ok!  Shockingly I managed to finish the hat I've been working on for several weeks.  It's been a little busy around here, nothing exciting though, just the reality of having an infant and a toddler running around.  Oh Alice, you're hungry, no problem, I'll just start feeding you and...immediately Henry has smashed his head on something and needs a "nicehug" or he needs Frozen turned on immediately (because it's been at least half an hour since we watched it last).  Fun times.  Apparently I'm not alone in the two kids need me dilemma, if you see my mom, ask her about the pineapple incident.  If  you are lucky enough to hear the story (or maybe you've heard it) she tells it like it was all my fault.  In my defence, I was like 2 years old.

This hat was a special request from our favourite Australian, B.

So here we go, while my babies nap (one of them on the floor on her play mat, feel free to judge me)

Silly goose girl!  In her Koala hat.  I'm not gonna lie, this type of yarn is best suited to scarves and I can't recommend anyone try to use it for anything else.  Part of the reason this took so long is that I nearly abandoned the project on several occasions.  It tangles easily, is hard to attach things to, and heaven help you if you need to frog your work because you made a mistake 3 rows ago.  Best to just soldier on with the error as best you can (and I hate leaving mistakes, my Austrian hand-crafting teacher taught me well [also, don't get the Austrian comment confused with the Australian nature of the post]).

Well hello there handsome little man!  He wanted in on the photo shoot.

Wtf mom.

Such a cutie.  Please disregard the mountains of toys in the background.  On the other hand, feel free to note that my child is wearing a t-shirt and a sweater.  He insists on being clothed in long sleeves and pants and socks at all times; 2 year olds, fun.

Sibling love!  Here, Henry is caressing the god-forsaken fuzzy yarn with delight.  Such a little goofball.

That's all for this post.  I will make no more promises about when the next post will arrive.  Until then!

Trying to get it together

Good grief, I am way behind on blog updates.

Worse yet, I have no new baby things to show you :(

I do have this though:

It's Elsa, but wait:

It's Anna!  It gets better though:

Only one doll!  Pattern by little old me.  So about those adorable children of mine:

We went visit Granny and Granddad over the weekend, so we took another family shot.  This one was significantly easier to co-ordinate, although using a tripod always presents a few challenges (like getting the baby to look up).

That's all I've got.  Stay tuned, I swear there is a proper update coming with an adorable hat.

G.

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

We had a great weekend, Friday colouring easter eggs, which in the Wilson/Thompson household is generally hilarious.  Then Easter dinner on Sunday with the whole family.  We took some awesome pictures like this gem:

Photo credit belongs to Uncle Jeff.

But we managed to get a few great ones as well, like this:

 Sorry Chrissy, it's the one where you are looking away lol.

Also we had an easter project (actually there were several easter projects going on)

Little bunny slippers!

 It's surprisingly hard to get a shot of slippers on a wiggly baby's feet (maybe it's not such a surprise).

 Dancing girl.

 Sleepy girl (this was pretty much the only nap she had all day, it lasted about an hour).

I also made her a bonnet that you can kind of see in the group photo, but I think that's a photo shoot for another day.

In the meantime, here is boy-child:

Nice face kid.

Seems this is a long entry with all these pictures, but here's a few more:

Toques for Easter eggs!

Mom says he needs some facial hair, but I think maybe he's just the young, naive Jon Snow from Season 1 (who really does know nothing).

That's all for now folks!  I have a hat planned for this week, so you can enjoy little Alice's adorable pudgy face.

G.

Introducing Alice!

We're back!  With a new baby and a new blog.  For now I'll keep all my blogging over here, even if we happen to feature Henry in a hat.  If you want to see the old blog just click!

This time around I think I'll try not to limit myself to hats.  While hats are great, we have an awful lot of them now (as one might suspect).  Also I found it particularly challenging to come up with good hat ideas in the summer months.  Speaking of summer, is it ever coming?

In an attempt to remind myself what summer is like, here is what I made for Alice for our first blog entry:

What's this now?  Such a professional looking photo!  How did I accomplish this you may ask?  I found a great tutorial on pinterest on how to build a lightbox.  I thought to myself, I have a box, some tissue paper and some bristol board, and voila!  I'm actually impressed with how well it turned out/works.  #nailedit

Oh, you want to see the baby?  

There's my little strawberry!  She's a lot more alert than her brother was at this age, making the whole photography thing a little more challenging (never mind the toddler running around the room too).

I first knit these boots, then sewed all those little beads on them.

My grumpy old lady

Boots from another angle.

These ones I made with no pattern, just kind of trial and error.  Hats are obviously a little easier for me to get right on the first try.  I also must admit that knitting and crocheting all those hats for Henry turned me into a proper expert, now I don't often need a pattern and have yet to come across something I can't manage.  So, yay me!

There we have it, hats and booties to start us off!  Who knows what next week has in store (although a good bet says it will be easter related, since next week is, you know, easter).

I also have one last thing to show you, just for fun:

Again, lightbox ftw.  That would be our beloved Daenerys, because guess what?  Game of Thrones is back!  (Like I need to tell you, anyone who cares obviously knows this already).  I will make some more of these little guys, but I had to order some more eyes (I know, crafter problems right)?  

Nice to see you all again!

G.