Longies, Shorties and Cuties...

I love longies or shorties, possibly because I love to knit, and I love seeing little baby legs crawling around in beautifully knit diaper covers... so cuddly, old fashioned and cute.

Another great thing about wool covers is that they are super absorbent, wool can absorb 30% of it's weight in moisture before it starts to feel wet, and it also has amazing insulating properties keeping the wearer cool in the summer and warm in the winter. 

These qualities make wool an ideal material for natural, eco-friendly diaper covers.  Baby will stay dry and comfortable longer and the soft wool will not irritate sensitive infant skin.

SO click on any of these pictures to be taken to the Etsy shops that made these cute creations, or search for longies, shorties, or soakers and use the tag etsyclothdiaper as well to find sellers from the Etsy Cloth Diaper team.

Sherpa Hat with Aztec Design

I knit several hat of this pattern before Christmas.  The original pattern can be found here.  I wanted a different look for one of my sons, as he requested a mohawk hat, as I couldn't find any good patterns or instructions for the look I wanted,  I modified the original pattern to what I wanted... Here are the directions and chart for what I did.

On this Oh Snappi hat pattern, or any basic stockinette hat pattern, begin chart where you want your pattern to start.  It is a simple 2 color pattern worked in repeats of 12 stitches.  The pattern is 11 rows in length.  To add the mohawk, I blocked the hat, then layed it flat to find the center.  I started just above the colorwork pattern and used 3 strands of yarn cut about 6 inches long.  I looped them through the center stitch, making sure to get both legs of the stitch.  You add them just like latching a rug.  Pull center of yarn strips through your knit stitch with a crochet hook, then thread the ends through the loop and pull till yarn is secure.  Do this all the way up the hat until you get to the top of the pattern in the back of the hat (see picture).  After all your "Mohawk" strings have been looped on, simply lay it out flat again and give them a hair cut to desired length and to make them even.  I did not use anything to stiffen the mohawk, and it seems to be staying up and holding up well with lots of wear.

You are welcome to share this, but you may not sell this chart, it is available for anyone to use free of charge.  

Feel free to comment with any questions, or leave a picture of your own project.

Holiday Traditions

What are your Holiday Traditions?  Below is a post I did for a friends blog.  You can find her hilarious blog about life, motherhood and baking here

Christmas is a great time to talk about family traditions, it's that time of year when families look forward to doing that thing they do every year… as our family has grown and expanded traditions have come and gone… One of our all time favorites is getting together with our good family friends for an evening of eating, exchanging gifts and watching "A Christmas Story".   There are 7 boys between our two families so "A Christmas Story" just seemed to be the right movie to watch!  {and yes, our holiday decorating does now include a "leg lamp"}  After about five years of "you'll shoot your eye out!" we realized we all were basically sleeping  through the movie and it was time to move on… We still always get together, but we have switched traditions to playing games or just visiting.  All our boys are grown now and our families have expanded from 7 boys to…. 7 boys, various spouses and a total between our two families of 11 grandchildren including our one on the way!  

It is those little things that make Christmas special for our families.  My kids look forward to wearing their red union suits on Christmas morning…. when the older two got married, then their wives had to have them too… when our grand baby came along that first Christmas she had one too!  They have to have peppermint reception sticks in their hot chocolate, and of course we have a certain list of cookies that I have to make…. repeatedly…. or it doesn't seem like Christmas!

Now our grand baby is 3 and I am starting to create some "gramma's house" traditions for her and whoever else might be coming along…. Here are a few…

I stole this one from my friends mom (who is the most fun gramma I know) a bowl of giant white pom pom "snow" balls out on the coffee table, so that the little people can have their own snow ball fight and not hurt anything, or each other….

Last year I started making a ginger bread house with my grand daughter (actually we made a train, as she was really into trains last year)  this year we will do a house.  It's really just an excuse to sugar her up and send her home LOL,  I had no expectations whatsoever about how it turned out, I just let her enjoy the journey and the candy….

This year I am making her an advent calendar to count down to Christmas.  I wanted it to be more than just, open a door and have some candy, and I wanted to help her focus on the true meaning of Christmas, so I found a play nativity set,  then I put candy in some of the drawers, an ornament for her little personal christmas tree in some and in the rest I put clues as to where to find the pieces of the nativity.  That way we can talk about the Christmas story and she can play with her nativity set and decorate her tree…. I am pretty excited about starting this tradition with her…. Like our other traditions, I am sure it will evolve over time, but that is the great part about families and traditions, they change over time, but they are always there for us…. home truly is where the heart is.