My mom's birthday is this month and I feel like it is always a little nicer to make something than go buy something... While I was in the store looking at the yarns she called and I was able to have her look up the colors online to pick what she liked best from my in-store selection. We went with Vanna's Choice in Barley. I got two skeins and had her look online for patterns she liked.
She asked me to make her
this "bracelet" she saw on the Better Homes website. It is basically a super long chain with a slip stitch and I took all of 35 minutes or so to make. Found a pearl-shine button to go with the Paton's brand variegated sock yarn I used. The pattern called for sport weight, but all I have is baby yarn in that weight, which really didn't match the hat I planned to make.
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| Bracelet with button. It's 72" long, so can be a necklace too :) |
Speaking of the hat... The
first hat I ever made her is a bit wonky when on, and the
cupcake hat, though cute, is not really an everyday style. I did also send her a cherry for on top of that cupcake too though...
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| A cherry. Don't choke. |
I asked her to look around the web for some hats she liked and patterns and she came back with quite a few. Since I have a lot of yarn, I decided to make two from the list she sent.
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| Mod Lace Hat |
The first,
Mod Lace Hat by Lion Brand, I made in roughly 2 hours. I used what I think is Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in a lime green color, as requested to match a ski jacket. I used a J hook which is actually larger than what is suggested, but I measured that to the gauge and was happy with the result.
I was a little confused that this started at the brim and worked its way to the crown. After completing it, I guess it was ok that way, but I tend to chain very tightly which made the brim pretty tight. Only difficult part was making sure I turned the work right at the end of each row. That makes it so that the fan shapes are staggered. I found that the hard when when my first set of rows 5-8 had both fans lined up right on top of one another... but once I got it figured out and redone it was pretty easy to keep going around. Pretty cute and, oh my goodness, so fast to work up!
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| modified Mom Beanie |
The second,
The Stage Mom Beanie, took about 4 hours to make. This is the one I had planned to match with the bracelet. I decided to go with this pattern since it was one of the few that actually used the same type of yarn that I bought, and a hook that I had on hand. (I don't own any hooks larger than the J hook and some patterns called for a super thick yarn and an M hook.) I finished the pattern and after putting it on, decided that it was a bit short. I called her up and we decided to add two more regular rows and then a brim. The brim is simply 4 more rows of sc around but using the front loops only to get the horizontal ribbing.
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| Flower detail |
We agreed that the flower on the pattern was a bit large, so I made a
basic flower from some super thick creamy ivory yarn, and a J hook, I had on hand. I then used the rest of the buttons from the bracelet to add a bit of shine to the center of the flower. Lovely!
I made all of these items over a normal 2 day weekend, so these are all great quick projects. I hope I can see a few pictures of them in action when winter rolls around.
Happy Birthday Mom! Love ya!
