Christmas Stockings!

I love holiday crafting.  Like LOVE love it.  There is the excitement of picking the *perfect* pattern with the *perfect* yarn.  I also love that I'm working towards a goal--need to get it all done before Christmas!  But then...bam...it hits.  That mad rush to finish the holiday items!  Because not only do I end up with things I want to make for gifts, but I also go into super Craftini mode for items for my Etsy store.  This year I decided things will be different.  All summer I'll be working to stock my store and will have new rules for custom holiday items.

What would be the biggest help for a Craftini like me?  Getting custom requests in early.  Like months early.  Custom items take time to make.  I put my entire heart and soul into what I make--so when you get a Craftini Marini item it is always made with love and with the best craftsmanship!  So, I was thrilled when I got a custom order in January for a holiday item!  It was an order for four Christmas stockings and I had a BLAST working with this client.  She wanted stockings for herself, her husband, and their two cats--the best part was that I got to match the cats' stockings to their fur color!

She wanted something fun and stripey for herself.  I worked with two different greens, two different reds, and white to create this fun, whimsical stocking!

For her husband she wanted something that looked like a candy cane with a green toe and heel.  I used the darker green and red from her stocking for his so that they would coordinate.  Love the way this came out!

 And for the cats she wanted a chevron pattern using each of their fur colors (silver gray and black) with white.  I LOVE the way these came out.

This was such a fun project!  These were actually my first time knitting Christmas stockings and my first time doing stranded color work.  I know that there will be more of these in my future!  Keep and eye out on my Etsy shop to see if any show up there for the holidays!

Crochet mood blanket January recap

So it has been one month since the crochet mood blanket crochet along started.  I can't believe a whole month of 2014 has come and gone--time really does fly!  Each day of the past month I've crocheted a granny square.  They are supposed to be colors that coordinate with your mood that day, but I decided to pick the color that I like the most each day and use that.  :)  I started with  13 colors, then added 7 more, and then added 6 more after that.  As I started to progress I realized that I might not have enough yarn.  Honestly, who wants to go adding new colors in the middle or the end of the year?  I'd like to have it mixed in as I go along.  If I run out from what I'm using now I'll just add stash.

The last 31 days have been good.  I've been posting each day on Instagram (follow me! @Jessicle322) and I add a little blurb (usually) about why the color I picked attracted me.  It is interesting how I get a few days of subdued colors and then shots of bright colors or sparkles.  I'm working in rows of 15, moving right to left.  January 1st starts with the sliver square at the bottom right corner of the "blanket" in the picture below and January 31st is the sparkly purple square 2 rows above.

So far I'm loving it!  It is a little slow going--I just want to keep making squares! BUT in the end it will be great!  I'm making 360 squares and using the remaining 5 days of the year to do an edging and any finishing that needs to be done.  This is definitely going to be a large blanket--it hangs off the bed widthwise already and will only get wider with the border.

I'll check back in with my progress at the beginning of March :). (And I do hope to blog more often--I've just been crafting in all my spare time!)

Newborn photo props

One of my close friends is a photographer. You can check out some of his work here.  Well, recently he asked me to make him some props for photos of newborns.  He showed me some pictures and described what he was looking for and I went right to work!  He requested 4 different outfits--a fisherman with fish, a cap and matching pants, a pumpkin cocoon and hat, and a cute hat for a girl with a flower.  So far I've finished 3 of the 4 requests.  (Moving sure does take away crafting time!)

I'm so excited by these little outfits! I tried to make things adjustable--because I know even newborns come in different shapes and sizes.  I can't wait to see the photos he will take with these outfits!

Here we have a matching set--a news boy cap and pants.  I used a gray tweedy yarn and big dark wood buttons!

Next I made two different size white hats.  I used multiple strands of yarn, including one with a little shimmer.  I wanted to get a cute look, but not something very bulky.  The flowers are attached using a button, so they can be switched between sizes :).

And finally this is the fisherman set.  I LOVE the way this came out.  I made a diaper cover that can be adjusted because the buttons fit anywhere on the tabs.  Also, the suspender portion is attached before the bottom is closed to (hopefully) make it easier to get a little one into the outfit.  The fish are attached on a yarn-chain.  AND I adore the little feathers in the hat!  I seriously cannot wait to see this on a little baby!

The Dillon Hat

I have been making custom items for my friends and family, at their requests, for some time now.  However, recently it has really taken off and I have had lots of requests for custom knit and crocheted goods.  I can do custom items in many ways--my friends can describe an idea and I'll find patterns that fit the description or they can show me various photos of knit/crocheted items and I can come up with a design that combines the aspects of each photo that they like best.

Up until recently I had never tried to create an item from a photograph that was NOT of a knit/crocheted item.  At the end of 2012 one of my friends asked me if I would be able to make a newborn-sized hat that looked like the family's bulldog.  She sent me a few different photographs of the dog (what a cutie!) and with a bit of trial and error, I was able to produce a crocheted version of him!

Here are two of the pictures of Dillon that I used as my inspiration.

Here is the final hat that I made!

And here it is on little Gianna!  She is just so adorable and could make any hat look cute! :)  I'd like to send a big thank you to her mommy, Jazmin, for sending me these pictures of her little one in the hat and letting me use them on my blog :).