ramblings

It has been a strange week. Hubby is now working nights until at least January 1, which makes it interesting with baby A in the house. Especially with her teething again. She does pretty well in the morning, but the afternoons are a bit more difficult.

I have been very productive this week though. I made this awesome diaper bag yesterday.
It has more pockets than I know what to do with! 2 velco pockets on the front, a velcro pocket on each side, a zipper pocket on the back and 5 elastic pockets inside. I spent $10 for material, lining, thread, velcro etc. Best of all, it is a FREE pattern! It is called the Hip Mama Diaper Bag. Instructions are available at A Mingled Yarn. If you decide to make it here are a few pointers. The original is made with a vinyl lining which will add extra sturdiness to it. Mine is made with a fabric lining. If you decide to use fabric I would suggest you buy an extra yard of the interfacing and fuse it to the lining pieces as well. I did not have enough to line the front and back panel. As a result the back of my bag is not as stiff as I would like for it to be as there is NO interfacing on the back pieces at all. Be prepared to have to ungum your sewing machine due to stitching through the iron on interfacing. That being said, this is better than any diaper bag that I have purchased and when it gets dirty I can just toss it into the washing machine.

I am also working on making some hand sanitizer pouches for each of my kids in school. There have been many cases of H1N1 flu in their schools. As a result I wanted them to have a bottle of sanitizer to keep with them at all times. So I created a simple sleeve for the 2 oz sanitizer bottles that attaches to a clip and they can wear it on their belt loop during school. The sleeve is tight enough to keep the sanitizer from falling out, but not so tight that you can't remove the bottle. K has gotten lots of positive comments about hers in high school and H says her friends in elementary school think it is cute. Making J's today so don't know if it has the middle school boy approval. Will post pics later today. Pics posted below. If there is enough interest I will post the pattern for this. Just be sure to comment if you want it! This item is currently being offered in my Etsy shop as either the completed project, or as a pattern. If you are interested, please check it out!



I am finishing up a snowboarder cap for J for Christmas. I made the first one following the instructions and it was WAY to big. It is even big on my husband who has a 23 in head! So I have worked then frogged, then worked then frogged, then worked (and hopefully won't have to frog) the main piece. I need to add the bill and the flaps. The pattern is another freebie and can be found here I went down to an H 5.0 mm hook, stopped increasing after row 9 and just worked in rounds until I reached row 25. I worked 22 sc for the brim and decreased according to the pattern. I kept the flaps at 14 sc and just followed the pattern directions. Will post a pic of the finished hat.

So, hope everyone is having a great week! Till next time

Love,