Make Do & Mend

First off, kids go through clothing like crazy. I feel like I'm buying them new clothes all the time. Now with 2, I thought it would be easy to have hand-me-downs. After all, boy clothes work just fine for girls, especially shorts and pants. However, that is not quite the case with my kids. My daughter, who is almost 3, will argue with me that she has nothing to wear if the items in her drawer aren't pink or purple or have hearts or flowers on them. We will go round and round until I finally dress her and dramatic sighing ensues. When any piece of clothing isn't to her liking she will say it is her brothers or that it is too small. This even includes black leggings bought specifically for her, which she picked out. (I explained to her that neutrals, like black, make other colors prettier, so she has resigned herself to wearing them if she absolutely has to).

So, I have been saving 6 pairs of shorts sizes 2T-3T, which were my sons that I felt were pretty gender neutral. I know from experience that these just won't fly with my daughter, so I came up with the brilliant idea of embellishing them to make them more "girly". A little trip to Fabric Depot and we were in business!

My goal with each pair of shorts was that the embellishment would cost less than a new pair of shorts. So everything I did was around $1-2 or under. The first 3 I just added buttons. Off with the plain buttons and on with red heart buttons. You can't see it, but the upper left pair have strawberry buttons. These met the approval of my daughter and took under 10 minutes to do each set of shorts. 

The next pair I took polka-dot ribbon and ran it through the belt loops. I sewed it at each of the belt loops, stretching it at each one slightly, so it would stretch with the elastic. My daughter is very skinny, so I'm not too worried about them being too tight. Then I added a purple button from my button stash and called it good. She loves them!

Next pair I added a little ribbon to the pocket, I didn't think it was enough, so I added lace around the inside of the cuffs. 

The last pair, I added ribbon just under the elastic waistband and then added it around the cuffs of the shorts. I did it below the elastic, just so it wouldn't interfere with the stretch. 

It took me one afternoon and a bit of the next morning to do them all. I'm really happy with how they turned out. More importantly my daughter loves them all and thinks they are the best thing ever. So, hopefully this will mean a few less arguments in the morning and a little quicker time getting dressed!

X Hoody

I finished a hoody (rav link) for my son back in April. Of course, it's been so warm he won't really get to wear it until next fall. Good thing I made it extra long!

His sister is wearing the one that I made for him a couple of years ago out of Tosh DK. I really love this pattern from Debbie Bliss's Design It! Knit It!: Babies. It's really easy to modify, which I definitely had to do both times I knit it. The first time I made it longer. This time I used handspun I spun during Spinzilla, so the gauge was a bit different. I used Naturspun Worsted as the accent grey. Now, I can't wait for cold rainy days so they both can get use out of their sweaters!

Tonight I am speaking at the Tigard Knitting Guild at the Tigard Senior Center. If you are a member, I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight!

Knit Night

One of the things that's been keeping me busy is these mini events:

I took my yarn down to Knot Another Hat for Knit Night a couple weeks ago. This was the setup, which turned out very lovely. It was so nice that Sarah, the owner, asked me to keep it up over the weekend, so I did that. Only, I had Learn to Weave on Sunday, so I had to figure out how to get all of it and my loom into my van to get it all home. A big thanks to my friend Janeann who helped me get it all in!

I'm planning on having a similar setup next week when I give a talk at the Tigard Knitting Guild at their monthly meeting. If you are a member, make sure to stop and say hi!

Right now I'm picturing some time in July is when I'll be less busy. So, I'll try to pop back in here when I can for updates. I have lots of fun things I've been working on, but not enough time to photograph them all. I have a list of things to share, so we'll see when I can get to it!

Mother Daughter Socks

I can't believe how busy I have been lately. It just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day. However, I have been able to eek out a new knitting time during the children's bed time. My husband reads them stories every evening. So I have started taking advantage of it, by knitting something for the kids. First off the needles is a pair of socks for my daughter (rav link). These went so fast with her tiny feet. Look the pair I made myself back in August of 2006! I just had to get a photo of them both together! She loves them! Now to knit a pair for my son!

Edited to add: I realized going back through Ravelry that I never added these socks on there. So I just did and there is now a rav link.