Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Hat

I just listed a new hat on my Etsy shop. These hats are so fun to make. I love the effect of the swirl. I have one of them myself that I used all last winter. They are warm, they dont slide off your head and they arent too short. All these things are important when your out in the snow.



Look how cute my model is. Victoria was excited that I asked her to be my model this time. How pretty are those brown eyes? We also found the cutest white fuzzy caterpillar during our photo shoot so that made it even more fun.

Maddox The Monster

I seem to be on a monster making kick right now. Just listed to my Etsy shop is Maddox The Monster. I have made Maddox before, it was quite a while ago, but this one is alot bigger.

I used a soft and squishy yarn that has many shades of green in it. I love how squeezable his belly is.



Yep there's that butt shot.



The weather has been just right for taking photos outside. The lighting is so much better when you can do that. That will all soon change as you can feel Autumn is coming and soon after that will be all that snow.



Maddox was having way to much fun outside during this photo shoot hehe.



Whenever I do these monsters Victoria always gets a kick out of their belly buttons. That is the first thing she mentions when I show her and then she has to imitate their teeth. Ahhh the fun of monsters.

Corbin Monster

I just listed a new monster in my Etsy shop. This is Corbin. He is soft and squishy and very floppy.



This pattern was designed by Rebecca Danger of Danger Crafts. I just love her patterns. They are so much fun to make. I love how they each have little personalities.



Victoria keeps giggling at Corbin because she says he has no muscles. I keep telling her that is because he not flexing. Wait until you see him flex. He doesnt do it for just anyone. Dont even try to pick on him because he is a boy and he's pink.



Here he is enjoying the end of the Summer sun.



Here is the important butt shot.

Panda Hat

Something new for my Etsy shop finally. A good old Panda Hat. Every time I make one of these someone here wants it but I deemed this one for the shop only.



Dont you just love my beautiful model. That is my wonderful Megan who will be 17 this month. That one is hard to believe.



This panda hat is my own design. I am quite proud of it. I played around with some graph paper and came up with this cute face. The ear pattern I made up as well. I really need to write it down as every time I make one of these hats I have to remember how I did it the last time.



This hat is one of those hats that just seem to fit anyone from kids to grown ups. Yes I think its perfectly fine for a grown up to wear a panda hat hehe.



Im thinking I should try and figure out some other animal hats I could do because they are so much fun and quick to make. Winter is on its way. I know nobody wants to think about that just yet.

Snoopy Baby Blanket

Here is a blanket that I made for one of my best buddies who just had a baby. Of course I havent posted it yet and the baby is now 3 months old but it will be on its way soon. My friend is a big fan of Snoopy. I found these dishcloth patterns of Snoopy characters on Ravelry and had the idea of turning them into a blanket. There are 7 characters so I had to find a yarn that had 7 colours of yarn that I liked. I wanted it to be a natural fibre that is washable. I found this wonderful superwash wool in baby colours and was nice and fine that would make the pictures pop. The yarn is called Lanett and the brand is Sandnes Garn.



When I make baby blankets I like to make them nice and big so that can be used for a long time. Smaller blankets only seem to be good for the first few months. This blanket is big and was hard to get the whole thing to fit in a photograph.



Each dischcloth pattern was relatively the same size. I had to add a couple of stitches here and there to the border but you cant even notice. I made this in strips of each character and sewed them together as I went. I did think about putting a duplicate stitch picture in each white square but once it was all sewn together I thought the pictures would distract from the Snoopy characters which are the main focus.



Here is Charlie Brown. I was thinking he would be red when I was planning this blanket but there was no red in the group of yarn I picked. I figured this darker pink would be close enough to red.



Here is Snoopy being all cool. I went back and forth on whether to do Snoopy blue or purple. I still question my choice as Lucy should be blue but it doesnt really matter in the end I guess.



Here is Lucy. Dont you just love how much these pictures look just like their characters. The pattern designer did a great job.



Here is Marcie. She is a very light orange colour.


You cant have a Snoopy blanket without Woodstock. He may be small but he's important. Of course he had to be yellow.



Here is Peppermint Patty. Now you just knew she had to be green.



Lastly it is Sally. She looked like she needed to be light pink. She is also related to Charlie Brown so they could be close in colour.

So that is my Snoopy blanket project. It was alot of fun and the finished project turned out just like I wanted it to. Now the most important part is the mailing. It doesnt do the baby much good sitting in our house.

Kitchen Reveal

Here I am finally posting pictures of our kitchen that we finished painting in November. This first picture is what our kitchen looked like when we first saw it. Pretty dark and 70s isnt it.



This is what it looks like now with its glossy white cupboards and silver new handles. Amazing what a bit of paint can do. It even makes the not so nice yellow counters look not so bad now.



I had to take these pictures when the counter was this nice and tidy. It doesnt happen too often that it looks this neat. You know how that goes.


Here is the section on the right of the kitchen. You can see my oh so cool cow kettle which I love. I happen to have a thing for cows. We still need to get one of those exhaust fan thingys that go over the oven and paint the ceiling.



Here is a close up of some of the drawers and cupboards. You can get a better look at the handles and hinges in this one. I love the brushed silver with the white glossy paint and so much better than the old ones.



Lastly, this is a picture of the fancy new faucet and light we put in once all the painting was done. In the previous pictures the old ones were still in. You can also see The Moo Sisters that live on the windowsill, the snowman Victoria made, Megan's cactus Eugene and my pretty vintage blue glass bottles that I found at a garage sale.

Now you have finally seen my revamped kitchen. What do you think?

Destination New York City

Here is the gang that was recently sent to the New York shop. They are currently waiting for their forever home at Stoopher and Boots. Let me introduce them to you.



This is a lemur that I made months ago. He was the first in the batch I was getting ready so he has been sitting on my shelf waiting for the others. There have been kids coming to our house begging me if they could keep him including my own. I love how he turned out. He is an Alan Dart pattern, isnt he an amazing pattern designer?



This is my interpretation of Bullseye from Toy Story. I used a basic horse pattern that I found and did a few things to try to make him look like Bullseye. First off the colours had to be right, then I had to get the eyes big and bulgy and lastly I had to figure out how to make nostrils. Do you think he looks like Bullseye?



This is Arnold the pig. He is the same pig pattern that I have made quite a few times but every time I make one they end up with their own personality and size depending on the yarn that is used. In this case Arnold was made with 100% cashmere so he is super soft. Victoria fell in love with him big time. He got some snuggle time before going into the box to NY. Every now and then we wonder how he is in the big city.



This is Ferdinand the duck. I am partial to white ducks but this little yellow duck has quite the personality. He was an interesting pattern as his body is actually just a square and its the way you seam him that makes him into a duck. Victoria just says he's fat which kind of hurt his feelings.



This little green elephant was made from a combination cashmere and merino wool yarn, soft and sturdy. We never did give it a name. What do you think it should be? I think pink elephants are still my favourite.



I love to make these snakes especially in stripey yarn. It has such a cool effect. They are also good stash busters as you can just keep going and going until you finish your ball of yarn.



I just had to make a little snail to go with the rest. They dont take long and they are so cute. This is the same snail that I made for Victoria for her birthday. The same colours and everything. I was trying to make a snail that looked just like the drawing she did. I think it came out pretty close, colours and everything.

Well those are a few projects that I have been working on these past months. I have already started a new batch to send to New York. So far there is a blue and pink bunny with long ears, an almost done blue elephant, a different pattern from the one above and a doll. I love the idea of doing the knitted doll just like they use to have in the old days. I have a feeling that once I make one I will be making more and more with different hair and outfits. Thats always the trouble, to many ideas and not enough time to do them all.