Sock Monkey Hat

Sock Monkeys are taking over the world! Well at least the hats are taking over Etsy. I went to look at the sock monkey hats for sale on Etsy just to see how my crocheting skills measured up and there were 52 pages of listings. Yes, you read that right. Not just 52 listings but 52 pages. Crazy. There's probably stuff that has more listings, but in my mind 52 pages of sock monkey hats is kind of extreme.

So, how did I get started making sock monkey hats you ask? Well, my friend, Crystal, asked if she bought a pattern, would I make her son a hat. I told her if she bought the pattern and the materials and it turned out - the hat was her's if she let me keep the pattern. It's been the best deal ever. She bought the pattern from Beezy Mom's Creations, on Etsy (see - I was right, sock monkeys are taking over the world; the 52 pages was just for sock monkey hats already made but add in the patterns as well and things get kind of scary - aaaagggghhhhh!) It was so cute and I was so excited to get started on it that I didn't even wait for her to get me the stuff. I used some yarn that I bought for another project that didn't really work out. The pattern was super easy to follow and each one has come together a little faster. A few more details after the pics. Again, thank you to Brittany for some awesome photos!

Okay, so a couple of things about this hat. Either I crochet really tight or the pattern runs really small. But either way, no worries. It's really easy to make beanie hats like this bigger. The hat shown in the pictures was the 1-4 yr old pattern but is being worn by an infant. So really check your sizes on this one. After making the monkey hat from this pattern, I found another site, Easy Make Me Happy, that has a pattern for a monkey hat for free! It's not a sock monkey hat but can easily be turned into one. The thing I like about the free pattern is the coverage the ear flaps give. And the pattern seem to fit a little more true to size. But I love, love, love the ears and the sock monkey mouth on the pattern from Beezy Mom's Creations. This pattern even comes with a pattern for a flower that you can attach if you want. So, I took the parts I liked about both patterns and combined them together. If you crochet at all, totally check out these two sites. Easy has some free patterns and others you can buy on Etsy. Beezy, as far as I can tell, just has patterns on her Etsy shop. She even has a deal where you can buy 3 or 6 patterns together and get a discount. Score! You will not have a hard time finding way more than 6 patterns that you love.

Again, if you love what you see and want one but don't know how to crochet, let me know and we can work something out. With winter right around the corner, we have to keep those head warm! I can even make them for adults - with or without the mouth and ears :).

Halloween Centerpiece

I'm back! I hope you like the leg warmers. I was at Joann's today forcing myself to not buy more sock yarn. I need a baby girl. Someday. Anyway, I have some other fun crochet stuff to post, but today I am going with a Halloween theme instead. Centerpieces are fun, but when they are yummy too, even better. I'll post the pic then talk about it after.

I first saw this on my friend's facebook page. I linked to the tutorial on See Jane Blog and knew I had to make one. Well, it's not really a tutorial, more like a "here's what to buy". There was enough info that I could figure it out. And I found out during the process that Michael's and Joann's are much more expensive in Logan. Holy moly. Prices were out of control. Let's just say I spent more than the $20 the original post said she spent. And, I think every one in Cache Valley must have seen this same tutorial because I had to go to 4 different stores to collect all the necessary items. With all those stores, I still didn't spell "boo" like I wanted to, I had to go with "eek". Oh well, it's still cute.

If I were to do this again, I would use spray paint instead of craft paint. I just think it would have given it a nicer finish. And the glue I used to attach the glass to the candlestick ended up not working out too well so I re-glued with Krazy Glue. Even though the upfront cost was a little much, I'm sure I will get more use out of this centerpiece than just the month of October. Letters and ribbon can be easily changed to fit the season, ie joy, eat, xox, etc. What other three letter words can you think of to change it for the holiday?

Another thanks to Brittany again for the photo. Also, if you want the candy to last any amount of time, make sure you get candy your family doesn't like. Josh ate all the candy bars, Benj ate nothing but candy corn all day long and I finished off the peanut butter m and ms. Maybe next holiday I'll fill it with something non-edible.

Baby Leg Warmers

I'm back! I know it's been forever since I've posted, but I've been busy making all sorts of fun stuff and finding lots more stuff I want to make. And, I was feeling a little "meh" about my crappy photos so I didn't really have a desire to post. But that has all changed since my super awesome and amazing friend, Brittany, came over and did a photo shoot with her mad skills. Now my stuff looks so great I want to post about everything today. But I won't. I will spread it out over the next little while until I can convince Brittany to come and take some more pics for me!

Okay, enough of that - on to the stuff. I decided to post the baby leg warmers first. I had so much fun making them and couldn't get over how seriously cute they look on. I had them sitting with all my crocheting stuff and I would shove them in everyone's face as soon as they walked in my door so they could tell me they were cute too. But when they were put on the cutest little model with a pair of jeggings - wow - it doesn't get much cuter than this. Okay, so here are the pics so you don't have to take my word for it.

The pattern was taken from the book Little Crochet by Linda Permann. I posted about the booties also from this book here. This pattern was a little more complex with the stitches used, but once I read the pattern a couple of times, it wasn't that bad. There are a lot of little stitches to make it around one round so I would definitely suggest using a stitch marker so you don't have to count every little stitch. The thing I liked most about this pattern was a little side note that explained how to make larger sizes than the ones in the pattern. While this cute little model fit into the pattern size, it would be fun to make bigger ones and all the guess work has been taken out.

Was I not right? Way too cute. I have decided I am going to start selling things that I've made. I will only do custom orders, so if you are interested in anything that you've seen on the blog so far, send me an e-mail at emmaheare@gmail.com and we can talk about pricing. And specifically, if there is a crocheted item out there that you would love to have, but you don't know how to crochet, let me know and we can talk about that as well. This is really in the beginning stages right now while I work out all the details. Hopefully soon it will be more official on the site.

Stay tuned in the next couple of days for some more fun links to tutorials. And I'm thinking another giveaway in the next few weeks!