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!

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.