Basket

I had seen several neat baskets on Pinterest, so I decided to try one out. I liked the one on Crochet in Color. I did my best to follow the instructions, but mine doesn't seem as stiff as hers. When it was done, the shape was a little off, so I tried getting it wet and having it dry filled with rags to make it the right shape. 

That helped a lot, but you can see that the top is a little uneven. I had made it taller than the instructions said to, which may have contributed to it not looking right. Definitely not a perfect basket, but it will work to hold my yarn for other projects.

Pillow Cover

My husband ran Ragnar last weekend, so he was going to be gone for a couple of days. Whenever he is out of town, I like to come up with some projects to keep me busy. One of my projects this time was a pillow cover. I found a pattern that I liked at one little rayndrop. Her pattern was for a different sized pillow than I had, but I figured I could adjust.

I ended up making my cover too tall. The ends were supposed to meet at the top of the pillow, but mine overlapped by quite a bit. I decided to just pull the top over and put the buttons down a little lower. I actually like how it turned out, and maybe prefer to have them down a little instead of right on the top.

Another project I had was to cover a lamp shade for the lamp in our living room. You can see it on the table in this picture.

Baby Girl Flip Flops

I'm glad I know people having babies so that I have an excuse to try out some of the cute baby things that are out there. I made these flip-flops that I found on Whistle and Ivy.  The first pair I made ended up super small, I think even too small for a newborn, so I tried out the 3-6 month size. I think they turned out pretty cute. I hope that they actually fit on little baby feet!

I thought it would be fun to make some coordinating things to go with the flip-flops, so I used the same yarn to make a pacifier clip and a headband.

Baby Boy Loafers

We went on a road trip last week and I needed a project for the car. One of my projects was this pair of loafers for my 7 month old. I found the pattern by TwoGirlsPatterns on Etsy. 

These were a fun project and I like how they turned out, except that mine don't look as stiff as they do in the picture with the pattern. Maybe I should have been doing my stitches tighter? Different yarn? More practice? Maybe all of those. I still think they are cute, though.

Easy Headband

My daughter has really fine hair that doesn't stay up in her ponytails and can get kind of wild. I try to keep it out of her face by using barrettes, but she doesn't like them and is always pulling them out. I decided to try out a headband and see if she would like that better than barrettes.

I found an easy headband tutorial at KT and the Squid and tried it out last night.

I liked that it used a rubber band in the back.

This was the thicker version of the pattern. I think I would try the thinner one next time. I would also pay more attention to making sure that the braid doesn't twist when I'm putting it together. It has purple, though, which is my daughter's current favorite color, so she's in love with it.

Baby Boy Flip-Flops

I have some friends having babies this summer, so I thought it would be fun to make some sandals. I made these flip-flops using a pattern by Two Girls Patterns. I would have had my baby boy model them for a picture but his feet are too big!

The soles don't lay as flat as I would like them to and they don't look as nice as the ones on the website. I think it's mostly because I'm still learning, and also maybe because of the kind of yarn I used. They turned out okay, but I obviously need to keep practicing.

Waffle Stitch Scarf

After making a blanket for my 4-year-old's birthday, I knew that I would need to make a blanket for my son when his third birthday comes around. I had seen blankets using the waffle stitch and I really liked the look, so I planned on making him a blue and gray waffle stitch blanket.

After looking through a few tutorials, I finally figured out how to do the waffle stitch. The instructions that I found the easiest to follow were from Crochet Geek. I started on my blanket and I was a few rows in when I realized that it was a lot shorter than I wanted it to be. I showed it to my husband and told him that I was just going to rip it out and start again (I really hadn't been working on it for long), but he suggested that I just turn it into a scarf and he would use it. So I finished it up as a scarf.

If I were to make another scarf, I would make it longer than this one. I do like the texture of the waffle stitch, though.

Now that I've made something with the waffle stitch, though, I might want to try something different for my son's blanket. I have a hard time making myself do the same thing twice. I have been working on some baby sandals and once I make up the first sandal, I have a hard time making myself finish up the other one!