Baby Bear Boots

So lately with the weather being a bit cooler and wetter I've felt like getting out my knitting needles. That and having a lot of friends having babies or due to have babies in the next few months. Is there anything cuter than a newborn all snuggled up in hand knits?? 

You may remember (if you've been reading my blog for a little while) that I made a LOT of stuff for the Thorndon Fair which was almost a complete disaster. Anyway, you live and learn...One of the things I really loved making which did get snaffled up by a dear friend was these ridiculously cute Baby Bear Boots. You might remember seeing these as I have previously posted about them. I had another pair half finished in my project bag, the intention was two have more than one pair to sell at the fair. A week or so ago after feeling a bit over my Weekend in Stockholm Blanket, I got the unfinished boots out and finished them off. I had forgotten how quick and easy these boots are to make up. I posted a pic on my Facebook page and within a couple of hours I had sold them, plus requests for 2 more! This kind of confirms the fact that they are totally a genius idea! 

I'm happy to share the idea for the bear face, but as I am not the designer of the pattern you will need to source your own copy here or here. I think the pattern is around $5USD, which is totally affordable and honestly the best pattern I have used. I'm sure if you google baby boots pattern you'd be able to find a free pattern, but this is the one I have used, so I know it works. The best guide for size is a measurement of the baby's foot, the pattern supplies Newborn, 3 month and 6 month size. I have quite tight tension but use a bigger size needle than suggested. 

Baby Bear Boots

You will need 3 colours of yarn (I generally use 8ply wool or acrylic)

- The main boot colour;

- The face and ears colour &;

- A small amount for eyes and mouth (note I would not recommend using beads for eyes due to choking hazard)

-4.5mm crochet hook

-4mm knitting needles 

Face

Following the original pattern, when you are up to the instep part which requires you to knit on the 10 centre stitches, join the face colour and knit the rows in this colour. Once you have done this, switch back to the main boot colour. Continue with the boot as per the pattern until the end, leave the final stitches on the needle until the ears and eyes and mouth are done. 

Ears

Once the boot is finished, and Using the same colour of yarn as the face colour, make a magic circle, chain 3 and make 8 double crochet into the circle. Tighten circle and slip stitch into the ch3 to make a circular ear shape. Leave a longish tail to attach to ears. Make 2 ears. To sew the ears onto the face and working on the right side, thread both tail ends from the ears to the wrong side. Secure the ears firmly by sewing through a couple of the loops at the bottom of the ear circle. Weave in yarn tails on the wrong side of your work. 

Eyes and Mouth

Using the third colour, sew eyes onto the face and a small 'X' shape for a mouth. Be careful not to leave big loops of yarn at the back which little toes could get caught on!

Now you are ready to finish of your boot. There are several ways to cast off the stitches, but I like to use a three needle cast off as its very neat, or a weaving style. There is a very good tutorial on casting off here, along with the one linked above. 

I would so love to see if anyone makes these, so please tag me on Facebook or Instagram (@itsmariemade) or post a link to your blog in the comments! 

Happy Making :D

Baby Boots Parade!

I have written before about how much I love this Baby Bootie pattern, but seeing as I am making so many for the Thorndon Fair, I thought I would do a post showing all the different combinations I have knitted to date.  

If you want this pattern you will need to buy it here. Buying the pattern gives you permission to sell your finished items, provided you credit the pattern designer, Judy Nemish of Double Diamond Knits. The pattern is called "Oh Baby! Baby Boots".

Finished Projects: Stripes and Bows

Another quick check in to show off a couple things I finished off this past week. These were meant to be part of my Just Create June challenge, but I couldn't quite get them done before the end of the month!

Firstly a neat stripy hat off to a friend in Auckland. She sent me a picture of him wearing it yesterday, and the colours are just perfect on him. It's so lovely to see someone using and wearing something you've made isn't it?!

Something Finished....Peachy Baby Boots & Hat

Just dropping in to show off a hat and bootie set I made as a gift for a baby shower this weekend. It's lovely to make something in girl colours for a change! I'm totally in love with the pastel shades of this wool. It's girly but not overwhelmingly pink!

(Incidentally, this is the yarn I bought when I entered the wool competition! I guess it was a worthwhile trip!)

Just Create June: What I've Been Making

I have been a bit absent from this space for the last few weeks! I have been doing quite a bit of making, and my "To Do" list seems to be growing daily! I am the classic procrastinator where by I always find something new today instead of finishing what I started and seeing it through to completion.

At the end of last month I read this post on Sugar Crumbs blog, which was a bit of a challenge to create as much as you can during the month of June. For me, I decided I would like to crochet and knit through  my "To Do" list. 

Stripey Crochet Granny Monkey Blanket + Pattern and Border Tutorial

As soon as I found out my brother-in-law and his wife were having a baby, I knew I wanted to make a blanket for the new addition. I was already working on the Crochet Baby Granny Blanket and also the Granny Square Scrap Blanket but I had a few ideas floating around in my head. I really liked the way that the Baby Granny Blanket turned out in the random stripes, so I was thinking about something along those lines but different colours. 

Granny Scrap Blanket: Part Two- Joining Up

Hopefully you will have seen the previous post here in which I showed you how I started making a granny square blanket from a whole bunch of scrap yarn I had lying around. The next thing to do once you have all your squares, is to join them up!

I had in my mind, an idea of how I might like to join them. I didn't want to just sew them directly together for two reasons 1- because they looked too bright right next to each other; and 2- I am not a great sewer, and my poor skills would have been exposed in this type of project. What I was thinking about was some kind of border that linked all the squares but also created a border around the whole thing while being flat, even and uniform. 

Granny Square Scrap Blanket: Part One- The Squares

After finishing my Granny Stripe Crochet Blanket I am totally hooked (excuse the pun) on crochet, and in particular, the granny stitch. I can't believe how easy it is (once you know how). I had heard this before but I wasn't sure until I decided to have a go at making granny squares myself. I found it a bit tricky to find instructions that were confusing until I came across this tutorial with PHOTOS (Hallelujah- you know how much I LOVE photo tutorials!) by Little Tin Bird. It was so straight forward and simple, before you know it I had knocked out four granny squares just like *that* (bearing in mind I had to read the instructions three times and redo my first square three times because I didn't follow the pattern correctly the first time!). I used a few scrap yarns I had lying around from last years hat and bootie projects (check out here, here and here). I am notoriously bad at buying one ball of yarn for a small project, and so I had quite a build up of bits and pieces. Then I remembered these stupid kits I had lying around. 

Knitting Madness: Hats, Boots and Headbands

This past week I've been inspired to get back into a bit of knitting. I haven't done any the past couple of months mainly because it's been too hot for wearing wool, and we've had nice weather so I'd rather be outdoors!

It started because I wanted a gift to give a friend who is pregnant & was feeding our cat for a few days while we were away. I've got a pattern booklet from the Australian Women's Weekly (Great Winter Knits circa 2012- I bought at our local hospice shop) and a lot of the colour ways are grey with a bright contrasting colour. As I have a whole bunch of grey wool scraps, I thought I could do "something" and just get a couple new colours of wool. At Spotlight they didn't have a light, buttery yellow that I was imagining, so I settled for bright Orange and Turquoise blue. 

The pattern I always use for my hats is from Ravelry and available for free here. I just adapt it to whatever colour or size I want. Most of my wool is DK 8ply so I use 4.0mm or 4.5mm straight needles. 

What I've been up to! Making, Baking and Creating!

Last week I was SUPER busy! We had a short week because of the holiday on Monday for Labour Day. This doesn't really affect me given that I don't work on a Monday! But it was nice to have my husband at home with us. So I didn't get much done that day as a result, being in weekend mode for an extra day!

(The view from my deck, last friday night)

Finished projects....August: Hats

Thought I would update with some of those things that I started in August , and have now completed. I already posted about the baby booties, so have made just the 2 pairs of those. I have bought some gorgeous multi-coloured wool to use but now I love doing the hats so much I might use it for that instead!

Easy Baby Booties Pattern

After mastering the scarf (see here and here), I decided to branch out and try something else. I went to my local Spotlight store with every intention of getting the materials to try crochet, when I came across this pattern for One Piece Baby Booties. It was labelled "easy" so I thought I would give them a go.

Beginner Knits: Infinity Scarf Pattern

Last year sometime I saw an advert on TV for a series called "The Art of Knitting". You could buy a magazine which came with instructions, a pair of knitting needles and some wool to start you off. The idea was that each week a new magazine came out and each week you complete a knitted square which by the end of the series could be sewn together to make a blanket. I decided to give it a go as I had previously done some knitting as a child but never took it up seriously as my mum lost patience teaching me (mostly due to the fact that I am left-handed and couldn't get the hang of doing everything backwards). Anyway, I am lucky enough to work with some very talented crafty people at my work, so they said they would steer me in the right direction.