Awake: January 2010 Archives

January 24, 2010

A Hat For Tessa Eve

When I heard that my cousin, Sara, delivered Tessa Eve into the world on Christmas Day, I immediately began to think of what to make for her. I found a hat pattern that was simple and quick enough and then proceeded to look for a snowflake motif that would work for the top of that hat. Since she was born on Christmas Day, I thought it would be fun to have a snowflake as a sort of symbol of her birth day. Well, I found a snowflake motif pattern alright, but I was so wrapped up in correcting errors in the book it came out of, not to mention the errors in my own crochet work, that I didn't really consider how exactly I thought it would be possible that a flat circle could be sewed flush upon a spherical shape without folding it over. Details, right? The first snowflake finished, I blocked it (made it flat) and admired my...complete miss of one major piece of the snowflake's edge! So I started on another one and finished it, eager to get it sewed onto the hat. I started sewing it on and realized about half way through that there was no way this snowflake was going to cooperate with me over the inherent and immutable laws of geometry.

I removed the hat-attaching stitches, managing to keep the hat in-tact and fairly unscathed and dove back into my motif book, looking for something that would fit atop the hat and therefore be immune to these pesky maths. I found a rose, which worked wonderfully and stitched up rather quickly as well. And, it's a little more "seasonally flexible" notwithstanding my brief foray into birth date symbolism. Finally done, A Hat For Tessa Eve, is one in which I hope will still fit her, even though it took so many weeks for this hopeless perfectionist to put the finishing touches on it! Happy (Belated) Zero-ith Birthday, Tessa!

My special thanks to my doll, Hippolata, for agreeing to model the hat. :)

Happy Sunday (and Monday, too)!

Posted by Amber at 09:04 PM | comments (6)

January 22, 2010

Maddie's Not Too Sure About This

But I think she wanted to like it. She really did.

Posted by Amber at 12:06 AM | comments (1)

January 21, 2010

A day at the beach

I'm continuing my quest to catch up with posting pics and such from adventures in December. While Brant, Jackie and Maddie Mae were in town, we, along with Mom, went to Ecola State Park to try and see some whales. We didn't see any, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day at Ecola.

No whales. But there were some very nice rocks there...

...including Haystack and All Its Friends.

And the beach was just beautiful, naturally.

Brant found a sand dollar! We were surprised to find one so well intact.

Jackie and Maddie Mae enjoyed themselves, I think!

Mom was delighted to have the day off to join us.

In fact, I think their whole family had a lovely time altogether.

It was a day at the beach. And it was lovely.

Happy Friday.

Posted by Amber at 11:57 PM | comments (0)

January 19, 2010

Christmas Crochet Projects

This year, I just crocheted two things: a hat and a poncho for Maddie Mae. I made the hat big so it would last her through the Spring. The poncho collar I made extra big too, but sewed a button on the collar so she could wear it now and grow into it, too. As she grows, I may add length to to the bottom or add a fringe. (Or just make her a new one!) The yarn for the poncho was extra yummy: hand-dyed Australian Merino. Yarn was purchased at my local yarn store, The Knitting Bee. The hat pattern is in Kim Werker's book, Crocheted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make & Give, published by Interweave. The poncho is in Candi Jensen's book, Candy Babies: Cute Crochet For Wee Ones, published by Sixth&Spring Books.