Sugar and Spice, ahem, Sugar'n Cream...

I love Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn. It is so versatile, comes in an endless number of different colors and color-combinations, is easy to work with, and is inexpensive. I had already made all kinds of little things with that cotton yarn, like these cute little soap sacks for the shower:





Or this little cell phone (or i-pod) "hoodie":


I have also made a baby blanket and matching hat and socks for my friend Cissy and her baby girl Ayla a while back:



I had some of the orange-pink-yellow left and wanted to crochet another easy market bag similar to these I had already whipped up at some other time (also with Lily yarn):



But in the end, it didn't turn into a market bag, but rather a totally improvised, cute little backpack, which immediately found a new owner in Jenna, my friend Malinda's little 6yo daughter.


As always, my daughter the ever patient model...


And to show my appreciation to the model, I made this little lip balm holder for her:


...which she promptly attached to the belt of her robe (but which also fits around her wrist or could be attached to a key chain).


I still have a whole big bag full of Sugar'n Cream in all kinds of different colors. Oh, the possibilities...

HATS HATS HATS HATS or Ode to all my bald friends...

When I found out that my friend Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer, I called her and asked her if there was anything I can do. Everybody feels helpless and wants to do something. But there is just not much to do... I had seen a few women at work go through similar experiences and knew the routine.

Anyway, in my desperate attempt to DO SOMETHING, I started knitting hats...

First of all I knew from my husband, who is bald by choice, that bald heads get cold easily. Also, it's one thing to shave your head as a man, especially right now, when it is fairly fashionable; it's a whole other story to loose your hair as a result of horrific chemicals being pumped into your body... Ot seems as if bald heads on women are just not quite as *IN* these days. And, from what I understand, wigs feel awkward and are not very comfortable, so many cancer-battling women are not too crazy about them.

Which brings us back to hats.

I started with Robin's Egg Blue Hat. I could not find a button large enough that matched the colors of the yarn:

Sugar'n Cream Cotton Ombre Yarn-Country Side.

So I crocheted a little flower-thingy for the spot where the button would go. Here you see my daughter sporting the hat, before they all go to Lisa's.


I like the feel of the Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn. I had some more around the house, so I started another hat in different colors. I had my eyes on that pattern for a while. Since my friend Lisa has a good sense of humor, I dared to offer her this "Berry Hat" (again, my daughter is modeling the hat for my blog):



Isn't that just the most adorable little thing?! I have a feeling I might use that pattern again some time in the future.

And on to the next project...

I was kind of going for the ruffle look and found this really nice pattern. But then the Bernat Softee Chunky (color: Nature's Way) yarn was too chunky (that's my excuse, and I am sticking with it!), and the ruffle look turned into a bonnet look. I wove a little string (made of a crochet chain) around the hat where the ruffles start, but this seemed to only strengthen the bonnet look. Here is my daughter again...



She turned the bonnet into a French baret:


Much better, isn't it?! We will have to see what Lisa thinks of that one...

Since the weather here in Texas was still warm most days, I made one more hat that was a little lighter. Not sure if Lisa will like the fact that the crochet pattern is a little hole-y. But it looks cute.


The yarn is once again Lily Sugar 'n Cream, I think the color is called Butter Cream Ombre.

Now I just can't wait to see how they look on Lisa!

Btw, she is amazing!!! I am blown away by her wonderful spirit in the light of this challenge! While she will be the first one to tell you that having cancer can be a real "ball-buster" at times, she handles it wonderfully! Way to go girl!!!!! I love you!

Market Tote (again...)

Okay, so I made yet another tote bag attempt. This time, I followed the advice of "naturallyknitty" on Ravelry to knit in the round. She suggested Judy's Magic Cast-On, which I tried for the first time and totally fell in love with!!! I will use it on all my toe-up socks from now on. It's so much easier and tidier than what I have been doing.

Since one of the things I didn't like about my two prior attempts was the sloppy sides, knitting in the round with no seams on the sides or the bottom should take care of this problem. One of the things I read, though, about knitting this bag in the round, is to make sure the top opening is large enough.


By the way, I also changed needle size and am now knitting the tote with size US 7. I am using my beloved Knit Picks Harmony needles. Since I only had one skein of the lime green yarn, I had to switch to blue when I ran out of green. I tried to make a nice transition.


As you can see in the picture, the lime green is about 7 inches long, then I did a set of pattern (i.e., 4 rows) of blue, then another set of green, and back to blue for good. I had a little bit of green left. By the way, the Cotlin blue is called "Nightfall." At around 11 inches, I divided the stitches in half and worked the two sides separately, so the opening of the tote would be a little wider. I made the two sides about an inch or a bit more. Then cast them off.

And my next challenge started. What is an I-cord???? Or an applied I-cord? I had no idea. I read the instructions, played around a little, went online for more instructions, and more instructions, found this nifty little tutorial, and finally found this online tutorial for I-cord (scroll down). I later found another tutorial on YouTube, I think I would have liked better. I will try that next time.

I started the I-cord over several times and am still not quite happy with the end result. But I wanted to finish, so I let the sloppiness slide this time around. So, I used the applied I-cord along the two cast-offs and then the regular I-cord for the actual handles. Since I had a little bit of the lime green yarn left over, I used that for the applied I-cord, which probably added to the sloppy appearance, since the lime green stands out a little more. Oh well, you live and learn. I definitely want to make this bag again, and I will do better next time. So, here is the finished product:



I was also a bit messy in joining the ends of the handles with the beginning of the applied I-cords. I wanted to make sure I have a sturdy connection and in the process probably overdid it a little.

Overall, though, I like how the tote came out. Here is my husband sporting it:




He said the handles could have been a bit longer. I was afraid to make them too long, because I didn't know how much everything was going to stretch out once the tote is in use. I will have to see about that. If it doesn't "grow" too much, I might make the next tote a little bigger.

Another "FO" (finished object)! Yeah for me!!