picking up stitches...

Here's a super cute sweater vest that I made for my nephew, Jonah. He is always dressed in layers, but I know that he spends a lot of time on the move so I decided to make this little cutie so he'd have full range of movement in his arms.

The pattern is a free Ravelry download, called the Lola Vest.  I'm going to rename it The Frankie, in honor of a former student of mine who wore a sweater vest every single day that I ever had him in class for 3 whole school years.  This was the first knitting project where I had to pick up stitches on edges.  I was very careful to make the stitches evenly spaced and I think it actually came out rather well.  It was an added challenge to make the V neck actually look like a V.  Mine doesn't totally look like the photo, but it did come out pretty cute! 

I tried it on Jonah today and it fits him pretty well right now, so I'm going to give it to him early, instead of waiting until Christmas! My next vest will be a cable knit one...since I was able to teach myself the cable stitch this weekend.

button cuff bracelet...

After one year of being a nanny and spending each day with just two babies and no other grown ups, I found that I don't really have that many friends to hang out with outside of work. So, I took matters into my own hands and joined meetup. Its a great way to get together with people who are interested in your favorite hobby, exercise, food type, or lifestyle. I took a look on there to see if there was any local craft groups that I could join.  I found one that meets two blocks from my apartment!  They seem to do sewing, knitting, and papercrafting...so far I've attended a knit night and a sewing project. Both were very fun! When I was at the knitting night, I learned that our organizer, Meg is a button freak. I was not too surprised when last night's topic was announced.

The project last night was to make button cuff bracelets.  I already knew how to sew a button, so I decided to sign up, despite the steep sign up and materials fee of twenty dollars (I had invited both of my sisters to attend with me but was informed that between the three of us crafty Lerouxs we should have been able to figure it out for free...but I wouldn't have gotten to meet the new gals then, would I?) It was a pretty small group, but that just meant that we could all fit around the table and sew and chat together.

I was able to walk out of there with this nifty button cuff that I can wear with all sorts of outfits.  Mine is made with a felt base and vintage buttons that I hunted down in a huge collection of buttons.  There were huge bowls of buttons on hand to sort through and hunt down the perfect specimens for your cuff. Also on hand were precut and sewn cuffs so we could just dig in and get sewing.  Now that I know how to get started on this project, I'm excited to get my hands on a button collection and make a few more.  You could make your own button cuff using almost any type of band...even a knitted or crocheted one.  I even saw one model cuff that was made out of the cuff of an old button down shirt...it was really cool and I'd love to make a few like that!

off the hook...

Things have been pretty busy over here! I have been making more and more of those owl hats and it seems that many of my old friends and some new friends too are putting in their orders!

One of my cousins ordered a hat to go with her little girl's first birthday theme, "One's a hoot!"  She wanted it in very bright colors and I was able to gather all of the yarn in Hot Pink, Hot Orange, Hot Blue and Black to make the hats match the costume perfectly. Since she "bought" the yarn, I made up 3 hats to use up all of her yarn.  Here's a photo of two of the hats I made:

one's a hoot, two's cuter!

 I posted this same photo on Facebook and the orders are pouring in!  I've made a total of ten owls now and have just gotten another order.  All of this positive feedback has got me thinking about starting to sell these little babies on Etsy! I've been tweaking the free original pattern to fit bigger heads.  My sister, Michelle is also sporting one of these cuties on the kindergarten playground where she works.

It might take a while to make up a few items to post for sale...in the mean time I'm thinking of store names.  So far, "Stitch a Roux" is in the lead.  The name comes from the fact that both of my grandmothers (Memere Leroux and Memere Trudeau) were cracker jack crocheters and Memere Leroux was also a fantastic knitter.  Memere Trudeau used to make this dessert treat called Scotcharoos for every single get together my family ever had.  I figured this name would honor both of my memeres.

more scrappy crafts...

I have been crafting up a storm lately. We've been doing some road trips, so I've been making all sorts of smallish items in the car while Asa drives.  I've also been trying to use up scraps of yarn that I have taking up space in the yarn basket. 

booties

 

These little booties were made with leftover yarn from a baby blanket from last year.  I saw the pattern for these cuties on Ravelry and knew right away that I would be making them soon.  They were quite quick and are very cute. They don't require much yarn and many color combos are possible...and very likely! I still need to pick up some buttons to match the green or blue/purple yarn...once they have buttons, the tabs will cross over and fasten in a criss cross.

I made these little flowers on our road trip up to NH for a wedding. I didn't have anything to wear in my hair so I made two crochet hair clips on the way. They came out very cute, and I got many compliments on them.  Asa was kind enough to wear one and show off my handy work for everyone to see.

flower clipped husband

newborn frogs ~ tadpoles?

These two newborn froggy hats aren't made entirely with scraps; I bought the soft green yarn special for this hat. But, their eyes are made using some scrap yarn.  This is the first knit character hat pattern that I've worked and I'm happy with how it turned out.  Grace saw me making them and she is really hoping I make one that will fit her head.