Long Post About Knit/Crochet Projects

So I haven't really posted any knitting and crocheting projects over the last few months.  So here are several of the ones I've had floating around.

This granny-square blanket was actually started a few months ago.  I found out I was pregnant with #2 on June 11th but I was getting Baby Fever for a month or so before that and had an urge to start making baby blankets.  I went through my yarn stash and pulled out all of my solid colors in worsted weight, and these are the only ones I had decent quantities of.  By decent I mean I had a skein or partial skein of each color.  The ones I only had partial skeins of I made sure were widely available brands so I can just go buy another when I run out.  Just a few of the colors were brands/colors I don't think I'll be able to get again so I have to use them sparingly.  The colors are black, teal, grey, magenta, sparkly magenta, purple, very light green, and rose.  The whitish color in the picture is actually very pale green.  It's light enough to be mistaken as white from a distance when combined with other colors, although it looks much more green in the skein.  I tried to get a decent picture without the flash because flash always distorts the colors.  I think the rose color is discontinued because my mom picked it up for me on clearance once and I did an internet search to see if I could find more and none of the websites that sell the brand have that color even listed.  So I have to use it very sparingly.  I'm afraid I'll get to the last row or 2 and run out, and then there will be pink on one side of the blanket but not on the other side.  Although the blanket looks pretty big in the picture, it's not.  I think I'm going to add at least another 10-20 squares and a thick black border in order to make it large enough to wrap up a baby easily and last through toddler-hood.  If it's too small it won't be useful for long because babies grow so fast!  Another issue with this blanket is... It's not very masculine.  If my baby is a boy, I'm in trouble, it has 3 shades of pink!  If this baby is a boy I'll just hold onto it until later on in life to see if I ever have a girl, and if I never do, I'll give it away.  I know the colors are a little.. well, unusual.  I don't think I've ever seen all of these colors combined before.  But I am actually LOVING the way it's coming along.  I think the colors look fantastic together, and it was all pretty much an accident since I had to work with my limited stash.

On the day I sent my hubby out for pregnancy tests I also asked him to buy me 1 skein of off-white yarn so I could start working on a baby bonnet (I'll show that next).  Told you I had baby fever.  I was already a baby-knitting-crocheting-machine before I even knew for sure I was pregnant.  I didn't know what he'd end up bringing home, but he actually brought home a beautiful skein of off-white yarn, Caron Simply Soft.  I believe I had this sweater entirely complete within 24 hours of finding out I was pregnant.  I improvised on the buttons.  I hated HATED the way the button band ended up looking, so I simply sewed buttons on the other side and put little loops on the other side to go around the buttons.  I think it's really unique.  The buttons are 2 beautiful buttons I found in my Granny's button collection.  I remember playing with her button collection on her living room floor when I was just a child.  I loved dumping them all on the floor and looking at every one, choosing my favorites.  I've used a few buttons here and there from her collection but only on projects I feel are special.  Zoom in on the picture for a better look at the pretty buttons, and sorry about the lousy picture quality.  I wanted to capture the colors of my projects without the flash today, but when there isn't sufficient lighting it's hard to get a clear picture without the flash or a tripod.  My hands are shaky.  =)

This is the bonnet I sent my husband out for yarn for. It's a combination of 4 granny squares sewn together and then a shell border on the face part.  I'm not really sure if this will be big enough, although I followed a pattern precisely, so I'll probably end up making another, larger one, before the baby is born just in case.  Even if this one fits the baby, he/she could grow into the bigger one.  Win/Win.  It looks beautiful though, especially in off-white.  The color gives it sort of an antique feel, in my opinion.

I call this hat my "Baby Bella Hat".  I LOVE the Twilight Saga.  I read all of the books at least 5 or 6 times and I've seen each of the movies dozens of times.  In the movie "Eclipse" the main character, Bella, wears a fantastic green knitted hat with off-white stripes.  I learned how to knit hats within days of seeing that movie simply so I could make myself a replica of her hat.  (I've actually made 2).  This hat looks similar to the hat Bella wears in Eclipse, although the stripes in this one are light yellow and the green is sparkly (unlike hers).  I didn't mean to make this resemble Bella's hat, it was an accident.  But I love it nonetheless. I think it will work well for either a male or female baby.  My favorite thing about making baby items is that they don't use that much yarn.  You don't need a huge, impressive stash to make baby hats!  Those are small enough for even scraps!

And this is "Ricky's Special Washcloth" I talked about in the last post.  He picked out the yarn all by himself a few months ago (not really, he just picked up a ball of yarn in the store and looked so proud of it we had to buy it for him) and I just now got around to making him his own special washcloth with it.  As you can see, I still haven't weaved in the ends.  In fact, not only have I not weaved in the ends, I haven't even separated the washcloth from the ball of yarn remaining.  The washcloth looks wider on the bottom in this picture, but I actually didn't notice a difference in widths between the top and bottom when looking at it in person.  Must just be the angle.

There is one final project I have going on.  I'm crocheting a baby blanket for #2 (another one aside from the granny square blanket above) which will be more gender neutral.  I had 6 skeins of yarn in bright, primary colors I was going to use, and I am going to make a 6" sections of 6 different colors (it would be 36"X36" when it's done).  Unfortunately I suddenly started questioning the colors I had.  I have 2 6" sections complete (light lime green and dark orange) and I started on the 3rd (red), but I've been stuck on it because I'm unsure about the colors I have.  I was planning on using lime green, dark orange, red, dark blue, yellow, and light orange.  But I think it would look too much like a rainbow.  I have nothing against gay people, not even in the slightest degree, but I don't really want my baby's first blankie to look like a gay pride flag.  I want it to look colorful and happy, but I don't want it to be over-the-top with the colors.  I decided to ditch the dark blue since it didn't really fit in with the other colors too well.  My next plan was to make the order go lime green, dark orange (those two are already set in stone), red, grey, light orange, and yellow.  Because then there would be no blue, purple, or dark green, and there would be 2 shades of orange so it wouldn't look like a rainbow.  It would almost have a theme.  The grey would add a neutral color to the mix (I love neutrals mixed with bright colors!) and the only "cool" color in the blanket other than grey would be the light green on the end which truly doesn't give off the "cool color vibe".  I wanted to use the same brand of yarn for each section to ensure all the yarn is exactly the same size.  I didn't plan on putting a border on this blanket because I actually love the way the edges look and the spots where the color changes, and I felt a border would take away from the beautiful edges and color changes.  If I use different types of yarn the sections may turn out slightly different sizes I'll probably need a border to pull everything together.  I don't have grey yet and I'm not even sure if it's available in the brand I'm using.  Since grey was the next section I wanted to do after red, I haven't even been working on the blanket.  I've been putting it off until I figure out for sure what colors I'm using and actually get the yarn I need.  But no worries, I'll finish it sooner or later.  I just want it to be absolutely perfect which requires a ton of brainstorming.  By the time I get the money to go yarn shopping maybe I'll have a better plan.

If anyone actually read this entire post, thanks!  It was extremely long and I hope I didn't bore anyone!  Feel free to let me know what you think of my projects!