Crochet Beanie Hats

As I mentioned in my last post, I learn how to do a lot of different crafting techniques from YouTube.  I want to share an amazing crochet teacher on YouTube with you.  Teresa could teach a rock how to crochet!  If you are like me, a very hands-on and gotta-see-it-to-understand-it learner, you will love Teresa's videos.  I initially came across her videos when my dear husband and I were trying to figure out what stitch his grandmother used in making his afgan many years ago.  I love the design the stitch creates and wanted to do a blanket with the same stitch.  Shortly after learning that it was called the ripple stitch, and making a baby shower blanket in that stitch, I ventured on to some videos to make my unborn baby a beanie to wear home from the birth center.  I've been sold ever since on Teresa's videos.



We recently had to make several 5-hour road trips so I wanted an easy to finish crochet project for the ride.  I watched the above video several times, then went to Teresa's blog to print out the written directions.  I'm frugal and will use up what I find laying around so I made the first beanie out of some rainbow yarn my husband had leftover from a sock puppet he had to make for his military initiation...long story!  I actually ended up getting off some how and so I unraveled the whole beanie and started over.  The end result ended up being too small for my son, but will make a perfect gift for a friend who is due with a precious bundle of joy in January.  It will be perfect because we won't know if the bundle of joy is a boy or girl until the baby decides his or her birthday and join us earth-side of the womb sometime in January.  I moved up to crochet hook sizes to an "I" and made another beanie which fit Liam really nicely.  I added several rows of single crochet on the inside to get a cute little roll on the edge and to make it a bit longer down to cover Liam's ears completely.  However, just today Teresa added this video on elongated ear flaps!  I will definitely be visiting that video when I make the next beanie!

Here's Liam in his beanie that I made to match his winter jacket.  The yarn was leftover from an afgan I made for a deployment Todd went on in 2004.

He wasn't quite sure what was up with the thing on his head!  The photo below is a picture of all
three of my children a few hours after Liam was born.  He is sporting the beanie I made for him
while still pregnant.

Baby Rag Quilt

Gift giving is one of my favorite things to do.  Even more so when it is something I've made especially for the individual.  A special, one of a kind gift says a lot more than happy birthday, merry Christmas, or congratulations.  It adds value that a store bought gift just can't.

I get a lot of my crafting ideas from YouTube.  You can learn to make or do anything from the videos posted there.  One day while cuddling and feeding Liam (read: sitting in our comfy chair with nothing better to do) I came across this video on YouTube:



Expert Villiage has a lot of great videos on YouTube.  What is frustrating about their videos, though, is they aren't numbered!  After complaining to Expert Villiage directly about their lack of numbering, I was told I could find all their videos in order directly on their website. Gretchen has several really good videos and I will feature another one of her projects I made soon.

The rag quilt I made was for a baby girl baby shower.  I used different dimensions and seam allowances, but I got the idea and steps directly from the videos.  The quilt I made used (42) 7"x7" squares on each side.  I used a 1/2" seam allowance.  I am very frugal and try to be green in all that I do.  I'm frugal more so out of necessity, but also I don't see the need to spend more money on something than absolutely necessary.  Therefore, I purchased most of my flannel for this project off the clearance rack at our local fabric store.  The rose print flannel jumped off the shelf at me a few months back at just $1.95 a yard.  At the time, I didn't have a girl project.  When I found out the baby shower was for a girl I knew exactly what I would make. 

 

Here are the squares before being pieced and quilted.

The blocks going right to left have been sewn together,

next attaching the rows together.

Front sewn together before the seam is snipped.

Snipping the seam, by far the most time consuming and tedious

part of making this quilt!!  Emma was a huge help!!

Close up of the quilted blocks.

Finished front after being laundered.

Finished back.

Mei Tai Baby Carrier

Thank you for stopping by to read my blog.  I've been wanting a place to feature all my crocheting, sewing, scrapbooking, and misc craft projects.  I've given my blog the name "Modge Podge Crafting" because I love to do many different types of crafts and depending on my mood it could be anything from crocheting to whimsical one of kind projects.  About the only type of crafting I don't care to do, only because I seem inept at it, is knitting.

So, today I'm going to show you a project I finished while still pregnant with my third baby.  I never used a carrier for my older two children, but knew if I ever had another baby, I wanted a few in my stash.  I found Jan Andrea's website amazing and want to share her excellent detailed instructions along with some photos of the "man tai" in process, finished, and in use. I wanted this carrier to be Todd (husband) friendly and so hopefully he'd be willing to wear the baby, but notice who is wearing Baby Liam in the pictures below.  ;)

My materials.

Pleating the pocket, this was the first time I attempted a pleated pocket and was really happy with how it came out.

The finished mei tai.  I was thrilled with how well it came together!

Up close of the pocket and flap folded over.

Baby Liam @ 1 week.

Charleston RiverDogs Ball Game!

Snoozing while on the move!