It's a girl!

My friend Melissa had her baby on September 15, 2010.  Of course, I had to dig out a girly color to make a dress for her as soon as I got the news.  I made Bella Bambina's Azalea Dress in Snuggly Wuggly pink yarn.  I love the buttons I used on it.  I need to find more...I think I bought them in Joanne's.

I made a matching hat as well.  I used Manner's Basic Baby Hat pattern.  It's super easy and quick to make, and it naturally folds up at the bottom.

Melissa's sister sent me a picture of the baby in my outfit that night.  She looked so cute!  (Of course, she looked cute before that. *g*)

I'm working on another dress in purple in a different pattern.  I'll post it when I'm finished.  I'm about halfway done, but I took today off.  Hopefully I can get it done this weekend.

Baby Shower

I'm still slowly working on my yellow blanket, but I realized that I forgot to post the pictures of what I made for my friend Melissa's shower.  I think I posted all of these at some point, but I'll post them all here tonight.  I love this slanted shell pattern for the blanket.  I really want to make another one soon.  I decided not to crochet a border around this one, but I may try a border with my next one.

Originally I made a ruffled sweater pattern to match the blanket, but Melissa didn't want to know the sex of her baby, and a ruffled sweater might be a little feminine for a boy.  I used the Snuggly Wuggly yarn for this sweater.  It might have been my first project with the yarn.  I liked the yarn so much that I've been using it for most of my baby sweaters.  I loved the little yellow buttons I found, and I wish I could remember where I got them.  Hopefully I can find them again.

I think this one is my favorite.  I used Caron's Simply Soft yarn, and I liked that it was a slightly bigger size than the other baby sweater patterns that I've gotten from Bella Bambina's blog.  I definitely would love to make more of these.

Melissa is due in ten days.  I'm hoping to try and make something else quickly once I find out the sex of the baby.  Like, I could probably make a cute sweater dress in a few days if it's a girl.  Not sure what I'll make if it's a boy.  Maybe a blue sweater or hat.  Although, I do have a pattern for a pumpkin hat I'd like to try, and it is almost fall.  (I'm so excited for fall!)

Victory!

I can tell I'm out of practice when I have to rip out my work six times before I'm able to figure out what's wrong with it.  Finally, on Wednesday's lunch, I was sitting in our break room just staring at the directions when I had my epiphany.  I wasn't counting the last single crochet on one row as the first single crochet when I started the next row.  (Sounds strange, but hopefully it's understandable.) Once I figured it out, I couldn't understand how I managed to miss it so many times.  I haven't measured it yet, but I guess I'm about a quarter of the way done. 

I did take pictures of my friend Melissa's shower gifts.  I just haven't had the time to post them yet.  They're on my laptop, which I don't have with me at the moment.  I'll do another post with them early next week.

Hundred Yen Pouch

I haven't really been crocheting much lately.  I've been catching up on my reading instead.  I have so many books piling up!  I'm finishing up physical therapy for my arm, but my hand is still a little tingly, so I'm still crocheting kind of slowly.

I know I posted about the Hundred Yen Pouch awhile back, but I put it in my car before I could take a picture of it.  I brought it in the house today to empty it, so I thought I'd take a few pictures tonight.  It doesn't look quite the same as Melissa's, but it might because of the yarn I'm using.  (It's just some yarn I had left over from a scarf I made myself last winter.)

I'm going to try crocheting a little bit this weekend.  I have to finish up the last row of my Slanted Stitch baby blanket that I worked on my friend Melissa's baby.  About half of the last row came out while I had it stored away, so I just have to stitch that back up.  I'll take some pictures of Melissa's baby things before I wrap them up next week.

Out of practice

I am trying to get back to crocheting, but since my left hand is still a little tingly, it's slow-going.  I started another Hooded Baby Blanket, like the one I posted awhile back.  I remember it being an easy pattern, but I am having a not-so-easy time of it this time.  I had to rip out about 6 rows and start all over again.  The end of the foundation row just wasn't sitting right, and it made the edge look lopsided the more I continued.  I'm using the Pound of Love skein in Pastel Yellow, and I'll post a picture when I get a little further into it.  (The picture below is the blanket I made a few months ago.)

I was intending on making the blanket for Bella Bambina's Blanket Blitz, but we'll see how long it takes me to make it.  Hopefully, I'll be able to make more than one blanket, but I'm finding my crocheting going slowly since I'm not yet 100%.

I also started to work on a hat for a friend's baby.  To make it a surprise, I won't be posting any pictures of that until I give it to my friend.  I'm very excited to make it, because I think she'll love it.  The pattern calls for two hooks: F & G.  Unfortunately, I think I started the hat with the F hook, which wasn't right.  (I know I did at least two rows with it.)  I'm going to have to frog that whole thing, too.  Thank goodness I was only about 7 rows in, and it's a baby hat.  :D

I'll post some pictures of the things I made for my friend's shower after I give them to her.  I just have to finish the last row of her blanket, and I'm done.  I would love to make another blanket using that pattern soon.  Maybe when I'm done with my modified Hooded Baby Blanket pattern.

Update

I've been hard at work with my physical therapy.  My arm is much better, but it's not 100% yet.  I have another doctor's appointment next week, so I'll have to see if he recommends I continue with the PT or he suggests a shot.

I haven't really been crocheting, but I did try my hand at a pattern from Inner Child Crochet call a Hundred Yen Pouch.  Mine came out with tighter stitches, but I might try it again with a different yarn.  I put it right in my car, so I didn't take pictures of it yet.  I'll try to remember tomorrow.  I needed something to put my change in, since my car doesn't have an enclosed area to keep coins like my other car did.  Since last year, there's been a string of robberies where someone is breaking into cars and just taking change.  I don't want my window broken for the $2.00 in change I might leave in my car.  The site has a few other patterns I'd like to try out soon.    Crocheting felt weird, but I was able to hold the yarn, which I couldn't do a few weeks ago.

My dad passed away last week, so we spent most of that time with my mom.  She's been very interested in macro photography lately, so I thought I'd fool around with my camera in the yard one day.  This was one of the better pictures.

Healing slowly...

I can still only type with my right hand, but I've been going to physical therapy, and I'm moving my left arm around slightly better than I did before.  I thought I post some things I've sent to Bella Bambina for her Bella's Babies charity.

These are the two boys sets I did.  The pants were pretty easy and worked up quickly.  I would have liked to make hats to go with everything, but my body thought differently.

Here are two sweaters.  I loved the flower buttons.  I can see myself acquiring a huge supply of buttons if I let myself.  LOL!

Kelly has an album link up for items that other people have sent in.  There's some really beautiful things, if anyone is interested in checking it out.