Handmade: Beanie Hat & Pacifier Clips

I’ve allowed this blog to lie fallow for far too long, eh? Life with a toddler and two homeschooled kiddos is usually hectic, and I tend to sacrifice my own pursuits in order to manage everything else. My personal goal is to regain some balance in 2010.

Though this may prove challenging, thanks to the arrival of baby Ian on January 13th…

Ian sporting his beanie hat. (Photo by DoChara Photography.)

Ian is modeling a Beanie Hat from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. I also made this pattern for Brady, but the yarn that I used looked bedraggled after a couple of wears (Caron Simply Soft, I think). I used Lion Brand Cotton-Ease (in Lake and Taupe) this time around, with much better results. The only modification was adding a couple extra rows before the decreases, because my kids have giant melons. I’d like to try knitting this in the round next time, but knitting tiny little baby hats on DPNs intimidates me following some false starts with crazy amounts of laddering.

I also made half of a pair of booties from the same book, but switched to making Bev’s Stay-On Booties in the interest of saving time. Poor choice on my part- these booties do NOT stay on Ian’s long feet. Hand-knitted baby booties going astray makes me sad.

In other baby-related crafting news, I used this tutorial from My Crafty Side to make clips for Ian’s Gumdrop pacifiers. (Incidentally, the shape of the Gumdrop is far superior to the face-dominating  roundness of the Soothie, Brady’s pacifier of choice. So glad I discovered these!)

My first attempt at making a pacifier clip.

Finding grosgrain ribbon that was (a) an adequate width, (b) non-girly, and (c) coordinated with the pacifier colors (because I probably have some form of OCD…) was more difficult than I anticipated!

I’m not in love with the method of attachment. I made a trip to SAS Fabrics by the Pound, home to a million random notions, in pursuit of smaller, lighter plastic clips (like these ones, which are apparently only available in bulk quantities online); after wandering past box upon box of belt buckles, I resigned myself to using metal suspender clips. Ian doesn’t seem to mind, though.