handknits for hazel

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While I enjoy knitting, sewing usually wins out when I’m at home. Knitting, however, is the perfect craft for traveling! I had splurged on a blanket kit from Purl Soho a while back and had been slowly knitting a row or two each night.

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With the kids in bed early and not much else to do in our rental house, I found ample time to finish it up. As you can see, it’s a nice easy project – just rows and rows of knitting (perhaps a bit boring at times, but I was motivated to keep going to get to the next color!). The yarn is Purl Soho’s Worsted Twist in seven lovely colors. It’s super soft and squishy and knits up really nicely. Warm, too! There were several chilly nights in Florida, and I loved having it on my lap as I was knitting.

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Love that hot pink!

I had a tiny bit left of each color and without giving it too much thought, I decided to use up the extra bits by making a matching hat.

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I’m not much for following patterns, so I’m pretty sure this isn’t the yarn recommended for this pattern and I’m quite certain that I used much smaller needles than I should have for this particular yarn (gauge, what?) It’s only by sheer luck that I was able to actually make a hat out of the leftovers (for a while there I thought it might have to be open at the top!), and that it actually fits! (For the moment, anyway! You can see her ear already peeking out in the photo below…)

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The hat pattern is the Swirl Hat, and it’s actually the second one I’ve made. Two years ago I made one for Max – also while vacationing in Florida. I took one of my favorite photos of him modeling my honey cowl, and I couldn’t resist taking photos of Hazel in the same spot.

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Next up on the knitting list? Perhaps a new hat for me! I’m loving the Swift hat which is included in the newly published book Journey, by Jane Richmond and Shannon Cook, or perhaps the Jul hat by Wiksten…

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we interrupt the sewing for a little vacation…

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We recently spent a couple weeks in our favorite place in Florida. We filled our days with donuts at the bakery, walks on the beach, golf cart rides and plenty of time with grandparents (along with all those less than fun things that accompany a vacation with kids!).

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It was maybe a little less relaxing than vacation’s been in the past, but certainly fun to see them – Max especially – loving the new routine we established there.

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Also, beach reconstruction? Quite possibly the coolest thing in the world to a 2 1/2 year old! If you wanted to entertain Max for a while, all you had to do to bring him to the beach to watch them digging (or ‘scooping va-va’, according to Max).

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He was quick to decide that Florida was the place to be, and has been asking to return ever since we arrived back home. I’m with him. The weather there certainly beats Vermont!

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Hazel rocked all her new knickers, and I enjoyed not having to wrestle kids into winter clothes and carseats – a vacation indeed!

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And on this teeny little island I even had a chance to meet up briefly with a fellow sewer and blog reader, Meredith (Hi! So nice to meet you!).

 

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Don’t worry though, it wasn’t all lounging around (as if, with two small children!), I managed to sneak in a few crafts while I was away. A little knitting post coming up next!

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munki munki baby strings quilt

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This quilt was a fun one to make, and a fun one to see finished! It seems like it was a long time coming — perhaps because I collected these great Munki Munki prints for so many years. I love Heather Ross (as you know!), so of course I felt I had to collect these early prints she designed for Munki Munki.

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Recently I had the urge to let them see the light of day, and decided to cut them all up and use them all together in one quilt. It’s playful and fun, cheery and bright, and makes a really great I Spy quilt.

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It’s also quite possibly one of the softest quilts – these prints are printed on the nicest base cloth and it washes up to become buttery soft. Perfect for a baby quilt, no?

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I quilted it with straight lines (a bit tedious to quilt, but well worth the effort!). The batting is my favorite Quilter’s Dream cotton, and for the backing I opted for the wonderful strawberry print from Heather’s most recent line, Briar Rose.

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And as much as I love it, it’s listed here in the shop. The fun for me was collecting all these prints and then sewing them into a quilt. I’m hoping someone out there will have fun snuggling under it!

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Posted in [search] String Quilts, baby, Fabric, Posts about Quilts, Quilts | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments