Blizzard Socks

I am a total delinquent with this craft blog. If it makes you feel any better, I've been a total delinquent about most things for the last 6 months or so. It's to the point that a couple nights ago at dinner, my husband jokingly told me to write a letter of resignation from the chores I am abandoning, so he'll know what he needs to do to pick up the slack. (I say"jokingly" just because he wasn't mad about it, not jokingly as if he thought it wasn't true that I had decided to pawn off household chores on anyone who will do them.)

Anyway, I digress. I am finally back today to show you all what I've been up to.... You see, I caught this disease..."Knobsession", "Knitsession", er....I'm obsessed with knitting, ok? I can trace it back to the day last July that my photographer friend Kara (ps, check her out because she rocks) asked me if I could knit her a sock monkey with a matching hat to use ith babies in her photo sessions. I had never heard of such a thing and honestly, the idea of it didn't say "cute" to me. It said, "creepy baby picture that these babies will grow up to roll their eyes at and make fun of". But because Kara takes great pictures, I figured that she probably knew something I didn't, so I told her I'd give it a try.

I figured it would be easy enough to find a knitting pattern for a sock monkey hat on Ravelry.com (it's like facebook for knitters & crocheters). Kara had said that she had seen these hats "all over the internet", so there had to be patterns available, right? Well, that could be correct if I knew how to crochet, which I don't. I felt super-lucky when I finally found a site that listed a "Knitted Sock Monkey Hat" pattern. So happy, in fact, that I downloaded it immediately without allowing myself to believe that the site looked a little shady. What I actually ended up downloading was the virus that put the final nail in the coffin for our 6-year-old pc. What kind of monster attaches a computer virus to a KNITTING PATTERN, I say?!

Anyway, after that whole fiasco, and now in need of a new computer, I decided to write my own freaking pattern. Not that I had ever done that before, but I'm not one to shy away from a challenge. I found a sock monkey toy pattern here and made that sucker first while deciding how I was going to pull a matching hat out of thin air. In the end, I just figured out how to knit a basic earflap hat (which turned out to be not-so-hard, except for the part where I had to find children of friends in various sizes to fine-tune the sizing of the thing). Then I modified the face features from the sock monkey toy pattern so they would work with the size of face I was trying to create on the hat. Voila! Knitted Sock Monkey Earflap Hat Pattern was born and put up for sale at the end of July, and it's still the only one I can find on the internet (well, except for a few ugly "stocking cap" styles, but I'm not afraid of that competition!)

Since then, I think I've sold about 70 or 80 monkey hats to friends and in my etsy shop, and written 4 more patterns. Total sales at my etsy shop just topped 300 this week, and in honor of that (and being trapped in the house for 3 days because of the blizzard) I decided to write a pattern to offer up for free!

I've been wanting to do hand-knit socks, but my first few attempts were disappointing. Nothing more annoying than socks that don't stay up, or are baggy around the gussets (those are the little triangular sections on the left and right sides of your heel...the patterns I've encountered so far have not had nice, tight gussets!) So I decided I was going to write a pattern for The Best Fitting Socks Ever. And, here they are (drumroll, please......)

Nice, right? Look at those tops staying where they're supposed to be! Check out my nice, tight gussets! (Is it hot in here or is it just my socks?)
Anyway, I'm offering this pattern for FREE for the entire month of February, so if you want a copy, all you have to do is go to my etsy shop, click on the left sidebar where it says "Contact" and send me a message (including your e-mail address, so I know where to send the pattern!) saying that you saw the free sock pattern on the Sprint Street Blog. I'll be sending patterns out at least once a day, so you should get yours within 24 hours of contacting me!

Robot Diaper Cake

another cute baby, and a robot-themed diaper cake

(And fully lined).

After!

During...

Kitchen Re-Do

When I was seven, my dad (a teacher) worked with the shop teacher at his school to make me a kitchen playset out of plywood. When I got older, we gave it to my cousin. It was kept in her country carport/basement for many years, getting exposed to many winds and weathers. I forgot about it.

A few years ago, it was dropped off at my mom's house when they cleaned up the basement. I'm really glad they did this, instead of just throwing it away. I dragged it out to mom's front yard, and scrubbed it down with soap, water, and a hose. Then I let it dry in the sun, and drove it 5.5 hours back up to my house.

Now I have two little girls, and I decided to make it over. My dad had painted it with yellow house painted, rather sloppily I might add. The plywood was a bit soft, and the hardware was all rusted. I sanded it down all over, and changed out the hardware. After a lot of cussing and swearing (and nearly dragging it to the curb several times), it has been primed and repainted. I added some details, like a steel panel for magnets, a stencil, some vintage-looking knobs, and a faux oven door viewing window. I also lined the shelves with polka-dot shelf lining, which I tacked down with a little glue. My older daughter loves it and plays with it every day. (The four-month-old is, as you might imagine, largely indifferent.) For Christmas, I've bought a pink refrigerator to go with the set.

I was going to replace the dishpan, too, but I noticed that the date is on the Rubbermaid label: "1981." I kept it to show that she looks pretty good after 29 years!

before...

Back From the Dead!

I don't know about you, but life keeps getting in the way of my crafting! (Or maybe it's my knitting addiction that's getting in the way.) Either way, I haven't had much to post here about lately.

Lucky for you, my daughter is unsatisfied with almost every item of clothing I've bought for her in the last three years or so. She much prefers coming up with her own fashion ideas, then instructing me on how to create them. Today's post comes from a copy-cat tank top she begged me to make based on one I got from Ann Taylor Loft a number of years ago.

I liked the idea of my top - fairly plain at first glance, but just enough beaded detail on the shoulders to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to admit in the dressing room how ill-fitting this top way, and I now have to wear a second top underneath it to keep from flashing people on the street.

Anyhoo....back to Maya. She loves to emulate anything "big girl" and so demanded I sew beaded detail to the shoulders of her plain pink tank top. It was a very easy project, cost about $4 in supplies (that's the shirt + the beads, people!) and, as you can see from the pic, Maya is super pleased with the result. I guess this will be our "twins" outfit for summer 2010.