red

Sun Hats

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My kids both have red hair, which means they’re very fair skinned and sunburn easily. But they both hate having sunscreen on their faces – which actually works okay since I am NOT fair skinned and never burn, therefore forget to slather them *bad mom*. So this year, I decided to try something new in the hopes that we could avoid having them burn too badly: I made them sun hats. I scoured Google for patterns both in crochet and sewing varieties. I tried a fabric one first, but I wasn’t thrilled with the way it turned out, so I scrapped that idea (no pun intended ;)). The next day, I was looking at a video tutorial on YouTube (hadn’t actually started watching it yet) on baby booties when one of the “suggested videos” caught my eye. It was a brimmed hat, which I thought would be perfect for the boys. I had M with me in my little sanctuary, so I had him pick a color from my stash (he chose light blue) and I got to work. Roughly 3 hours later, he had a hat. Next up was A’s. It took him a while to choose the color; in the end, he went with red – which I could have predicted, since that’s his favorite. I only got about half done with his that night, but easily finished it before lunch.

Now comes the hard part: reminding them to wear them every day!!

I’ve included at the bottom of this post the video tutorial for the hats if you’re interested in making one of your own. It’s very easy, and I definitely recommend trying it if you’re in the market for anything even remotely similar. Doesn’t take too much yarn, either, which is always a plus. One thing I encountered that you should be aware of should you make one (or more!) of these hats: it takes on a taco-shell-like shape for the first several rows. Once you get to around row 10, though, it evens out and finds its place as a hat.

If you prefer written instructions rather than a video, click HERE for the link to the Crochet Geek blog. Her instructions are clear and concise. If you know even the basics of crochet, you shouldn’t have any trouble following them.

Happy stitching!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ5fgRt8DK0&feature=relmfu]

Afghan for Seahawk

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As mentioned before, this pattern is one of my most used. My eldest son, after seeing the blue/blue blanket for his future-brother, wanted one of his own, so he selected the colors and I put in the work. I’m not going to post the tutorial video again since it’s the same one. Just look at the “Afghan 2 for the New Baby” post to find it.

Christmas Present Joe

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This little guy was a Christmas gift that my oldest son (8) chose to make for his little brother (5) in 2011. Daddy took the younger out for the afternoon while I stayed home with the elder and worked on the bear that has earned first place in my son’s life – I’ve even had to repair him twice already, and he’s only 4 months old! It’s gratifying to know that something I made (er, helped make) is so loved.

As a side note, he’s sitting on a quilt that I made in 2009. It’s the most elaborate one I’ve ever done with over 900 individual pieces, and took over a month to complete.