28 April 2011

A Thank You Gift

A few weeks ago we acquired a hand-me-down grill from the guy I share a cubicle with at work. It's very nice and quite large and only needed a little bit of cleaning up. It was very generous of him to give it to us, but honestly, I've been feeling a little guilty that he wouldn't let us give him any money for it. So, in order to assuage my guilt and also for an excuse to knit for a little girl, I decided to make something for his 8 month old daughter.

I've had my eye on this pattern on knitty.com for quite some time now. My old roommate made it once, and I think the baby in the picture is just adorable. Also, I happened to have most of the yarn in my stash already.



I used a variation of the pattern that I found on Ravelry. It was worked in the round to make a dress instead of a pinafore. I still kept the adorable pockets though!



I thought the bodice was looking a little bare, so I made this rose to go along with it. I barely had enough purple. I even had to leave out a few rows.



This button was the first one I saw when I got to the button section of the craft store and the colors were PERFECT!



The dress keeps rolling up at the bottom. I tried steam blocking it after I read a couple of blog posts that said acrylic yarn actually CAN be steam blocked. It helped a little, and it smoothed out the dress nicely, but it still keeps rolling at the bottom. I guess I just need to grow up and start using big girl yarn (i.e. NOT acrylic).



I'm still undecided about these pants. I like them on their own, but I don't love the brown with the dress. I think the brown and orange together look too much like a Girl Scout uniform. I went to four different stores trying to find the right shirt and leggings, and this is the closest I could come. I found the perfect purple leggings at Old Navy, but the only size they had was 3T and I don't feel like ordering them online and waiting for them to come. Also, as a side rant, what's with all the baby clothes having things printed on them? It was SO HARD to find solid colors with no ironic screen printed images or sayings about how much the baby loves < insert family member here >. Seriously, is a plain white onesie with a nice collar so much to ask for?

26 April 2011

The Rainbow Connection

A couple of weekends ago we hosted a grill-out at our house. One of my friends has Celiac disease, so I was trying to think of a fun gluten-free dessert. I decided to make a rainbow jello. I don't have a jello mold, so I just made it in a glass cake pan. The recipe is super easy, but kind of time consuming. The jello needs to be checked on every 15 minutes or so as you are making the layers. It was well worth it though!



So pretty!

Side note: In making this, I learned that my fridge is not level. I also learned that I need a better camera.

11 April 2011

Itty Bitty Shoes

My brother-in-law asked me if I would make a baby gift for him to give a friend who just had a little girl. I, of course, very enthusiastically said yes. I really enjoy making projects for babies. They are usually quick and you get the instant gratification of overwhelming cuteness. It's a win-win situation! The problem is, there are not nearly enough babies in my life. So, I jump at any chance to make something when the opportunity arises.



I knit a hat (pattern:Hospital Hat by Annika Barranti on Ravelry.com) for the baby girl, and at first I was going to knit some booties to match, but then I remembered a free pattern for cloth babies shoes that I had come across one day. It was easy to follow and I DEFINITELY will be making more in the future. In fact there is an Old Ladies' Club meeting scheduled for this week. We will be making vodka infusions and sewing baby shoes. (I feel like there may be something slightly irresponsible about that combination.)

PS- Did you recognize the shoe fabric?

08 April 2011

Stir Fry

Stir fry is one of my favorite dishes to make. It requires no recipe, I just fill it with whatever vegetables I have around at the time. Also, it is so enticing with all of the colors and shapes. The other night, I made tofu stir fry and it was the best that I have made in awhile.





So delicious! I'm excited to start up my garden so I can have home-grown veggies in my stir fry.