More knitted cupcakes! I spent most of today packaging these little gems to be sold at a store in Florida, called Cupcakes-a-Go-Go, a cupcake specialty shop that is taking them on consignment. I think these appliques look really cute in their packages. It's a little hard to see them, due to the glare, but they are backed by patterned paper.




Here's another view of them. They are knit out of cotton yarn, and would look just adorable on a sweater, hat, bib, coat, apron, mittens, etc.



And, of course, they look very sweet on hair bows too!



this is one of my knitted cupcake hats. Instead of sprinkles and a cherry on top, I made a rosette for the top. I noticed that the cupcake shop makes them like this.



I found this great yarn for the roses, which makes them multi-colored.

Everything's Coming up Cupcakes!
I've been knitting cupcake hats, cupcake mittens, even a cupcake scarf! It's pretty much all I've knitted for a month or so. Here are some pictures of my work.


I love this color combination. The cream base really offsets the pink. The mitten pattern I made up. I just followed a regular mitten pattern and added the cupcake top!



This little teal hat turned out cute.


This was a special order for a customer. She ordered cupcake hats for her girls, and then wanted something equally cute for her boys. I invented this little snowman hat. I think it turned out pretty well!


This little yellow cupcake hat almost looks good enough to eat!


Kids aren't the only ones who like cupcakes. This set was made for an adult. She wanted convertible mittens, so I had to invent this pattern for convertible cupcake mittens!



This is one of my customer's daughter wearing my cupcake hat.


And this is my daughter modeling the cupcake scarf I made. The color choice was one a customer special ordered. I think it would look really cute in alternating pastel colors.


Here are two cupcake hats I knit. I use acrylic yarn to give the items wash-ability and to make them hypoallergenic. I myself am very sensitive to animal fibers. They make me itch like crazy.

This is a project I've been working on for several months. It is a red cabled sweater for my oldest daughter, who is going to college in a cold place. I'm quite proud of this sweater because I designed it myself. It turned out pretty well. It was shorter than she wanted it, so I added ribbing to both the sleeves and the bottom of the sweater. I even put thumb holes in the sleeves so she could use them like fingerless mitts-which she loves!


This is supposed to show the detail of the cables I did. There is an hourglass shaped motif in the center, with snaky cables on either side of it. On the sleeves are double rows of snaky cables.

Hey, I just wanted to give you all a heads-up. I've been making how to knitting videos on ehow.com. I'm going to be adding to these pretty often, so check back frequently. The videos are under hobbies and games-crafts-knitting. My userid at ehow.com is krndpx. I hope you find them helpful!

We participate in a local Farmers Market, selling our honey and I also sell knitted items and lotion that I make. Anyway, one of the other vendors approached me one day, asking if I could knit a sweater and matching hat in fall colors for a 3-year-old nephew of hers. I agreed to do it, and this is the result. I am not naturally attracted to oranges and greens, so it was a good stretching experience for me. I really like how it turned out, but I must admit to having to knit a few pink and blue small things once in awhile as I did this project just to take a break from the color theme!

The hat

The sweater--knit in the round up to the sleeve openings. Then I knit the front and back separately. It was a little tricky making sure the stripes ended up the same in the front and the back!

I've just recently started a little store at Etsy.com, where I'm selling some things I make. My user name is Kreative Karen Designs. The link is www.kreativekarendesigns.etsy.com Take a look!

I finished these little booties today and had to share the picture! Aren't they just too cute?! They're pretty little, probably a US size 1. I have to try making more of these. They knit up pretty quickly.



The pattern for these adorable little booties can be found here

Our county fair was last month, and I entered several knitted items. Here are pictures of them. I got blue ribbons on everything, and a couple of sweepstakes too!


This is a little blue baby sweater. I created the pattern myself, adapting a standard baby sweater by adding the fancy stitches. I like how it turned out.


This is one of the ear flap hats that sell so well at farmers market. This one has cute corkscrews at the top.


This is the Americana bag seen already on this blog.


This is one of the cell phone cases I designed and knitted. The flower is from Nicky Epstein's book, Knitted Embellishments.


This is my friend's baby's sweater that I knitted around Christmas time last year. I was very pleased to receive a sweepstakes ribbon for it. I was going to enter it in the state fair, but missed the submission deadline. Maybe next year.

Someone inquired about the pattern I used for this little sweater and hat. It can be found here

I haven't updated my blog in a few months. It's been unbelievably busy! I haven't stopped knitting, however, so I'm posting a couple of pictures of baby sweaters (again) that I've knitted for friends with new babies.



This one I knitted in a hurry. I'd just finished the sweater below, and my friend had already had her baby, so I made a vest--no sleeves! It went pretty fast. I used the same stitch pattern as the sweater below, which has a twisted mock cable every few stitches.



Every pregnant woman I know is having a boy...what's with that? Anyway, this sweater is made using a camo print acrylic yarn. I know a lot of people don't like acrylic, but I am so sensitive to animal fibers, I just can't imagine putting something I find that itchy on a baby! On the other hand, acrylic feels nice and soft to me, so that's what I've leaned towards.

Here is another little baby sweater I have made to give away to a new baby. This one is the first time I've installed a zipper in one of my sweaters. It is also the first hood I had to "wing," as I didn't have a matching pattern for it. I used a basic sweater pattern and added a mock cable stitch pattern. I like how it turned out. It could work for a girl or a boy.

After a few very warm, spring-like days, we're having a drizzly, chilly day that reminds me very much of the Oregon coast. It even smelled ocean-like on my walk this morning. Tomorrow the sun will be back, and it will be somewhat warmer. We really do need the moisture, so I ought not to begrudge the weather.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting. I tend to start a lot of projects and switch between them, so that I finish several projects at around the same time too, but it takes awhile.


So, here is my daughter holding up a bag that I knitted. The handle is wrapped around her neck. It is in the pre-felted stage in the picture, so it is HUGE! It's in the washer being felted right now, and getting much smaller. It's another Americana bag, hopefully the yarns will felt more evenly this time. I wasn't completely satisfied with the results of the last one.


And here's another baby sweater that I designed. I used KnitPro to make a pattern out of a photo of a horse and fence. The baby's parents own horses, and they loved the sweater. I only hope there are enough cool days that he can wear it before outgrowing it! I knit it out of Falk yarn.

This is the purse my sister-in-law asked me to knit for her. She designed it and I knitted it. I hope she likes it.

This is the latest of the baby sweaters I've been making. I duplicate-stitched the train onto it after finishing the sweater. It made the sweater a little stiff around the train, but I think it will be fine.


And here is the back of the same sweater. The baby it is intended for was born just yesterday! He's a big baby, over 8 pounds, so he might just get to wear his sweater this year. I really like it that women can get ultrasounds and find out the gender of the baby before it is born. Makes it easier for me to knit sweaters ahead of time! It's knitted from Red Heart worsted weight yarn.


This cardigan was made from Lion Brand Homespun. I like the colorway. The picture here appears a little more blue than it really is. More green in reality.


This is how I spent the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. I love it! It was a little hard to part with it, but I knitted it for my best friend's new little daughter, Sarah. The yarn I used was Red Heart Soft Baby, and the pattern was a freebee that was on the rack by the yarn at WalMart. It was not an easy stitch pattern, but it wasn't all that hard, either.


Here's a close-up so that you can see the details of the stitch pattern. It is a cable alternated with garter stitch and a fountain stitch.


This is my latest ball band discloth creation. Nice, bright colors against a black background. Like it?

Happy New Year! I knitted this cute green purse from a free pattern on Knit Pick's website. I like these handles with this purse.

Several people have asked for a pattern for the ear flap hats I've made. I'm including my version of the ear flap hat here, free for your enjoyment.

Karen's Ear Flap Hat Pattern

This pattern is a combination of a couple of different patterns I found online. I adjusted it to be used with worsted weight yarn.

Materials:
Worsted Weight yarn, 1 skein, about 4 oz. or about 200 yards (sample knit with Red Heart "Strata")
US Size 5, 16” circular knitting needle
US Size 5 double pointed needles (set of 4)
Tapestry Needle
Crochet Hook, about size F.

Guage: About 5 stitches/inch, although some flexibility is fine.

Sizes: Child's Medium (Women’s size medium, large)

Ear Flap:

Using 16” circular needle, cast on 4 stitches.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: k1, make 1 (m1) by knitting into the bar between stitches, knit to last stitch, m1, k1
Row 4: Purl

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until there are 20 sts on needle. End with row 4.
Break yarn, but leave ear flap on needle.

Make another ear flap.

Hat:

Row 1: Cast 5 (6, 8) stitches onto circular needle. Knit all sts from one ear flap. Cast on 28 (32, 34) sts. using backward loop method. Knit all sts from second ear flap. Cast on final 5 (6) sts using backward loop method. 78 (84) total stitches.

Join and mark beginning of round.

Row 2: Purl 5 (6, 8), knit ear flap stitches, purl 28 (32, 34), knit ear flap stitches, purl final 5(6, 8) stitches. Total stitches: 78 (84, 90)

Row 3: Repeat Row 2.

Knit in stockinette stitch until hat measures 6 (6, 6 ½)”, not including ear flaps. You can knit patterns into this section, or you can add stripes as desired.

Decrease Rows:

Row 1: Knit 11 (12, 13)) stitches, k2 tog. Repeat to end of row.
Row 2: Knit 10 (11, 12), k2 tog. Repeat to end of row.
Row 3: Knit 9 (10, 9), k2 tog. Repeat to end of row.

Continue this decrease pattern, switching to dpns (double pointed needles) when the hat gets too small for the circular needle. Quit when there are fewer than 10 stitches left.

Break yarn, leaving 6 inch tail. Thread yarn through remaining stitches, pulling tight. Hide all yarn ends.

Optional ending: Continue decreasing until there are 3 sts. and work an I-cord for about 3 inches. Slip 1 stitch, k2 tog., pass slipped stitch over remaining stitch. Fasten off and hide end. Tie I-cord into a knot.

Using crochet hook and starting in the middle of the back, single crochet around entire hat. Fasten off and hide ends.

Braids:
Cut 8 strands of yarn, about 1 yard long. Using tapestry needle, pull each strand through one of the 4 stitches you cast onto the bottom of the ear flaps. Divide doubled strands into 3 groups for each ear flap and braid to the end. Tie a knot in the end of braid and trim ends.

Another Purse Finished! I knitted this Brea Bag for a Christmas present. The pattern for it can be found on here on Berroco's website.

This is a hat, glove and scarf set I knitted for someone. She wanted it to go well with black or brown, and have novelty yarn. Hope it fits the bill. It should be quite warm. The yarn is a wool blend, but not at all scratchy, even to my sensitive skin.

Here's the latest little baby sweater off my needles. I like how this one turned out. Bonnie at the dry cleaners did a super job blocking it for me. I gave it to a neighbor who had a baby girl last summer. I just learned a friend of mine is expecting a boy in March. Another friend is having a baby in December, but has opted not to discover the baby's gender ahead of time. How annoying is that? I guess I'll start on a boy's sweater and maybe make a girl's one too for good measure. I have more of the yarn I made this one from.

I'm not sure I'm ready for fall. Still, with the leaves turning beautiful colors and dropping from the trees, and the temperatures dropping just as dramatically, I have no choice but to acknowledge that autumn is definitely in the air. We actually got some snow today. I hope it warms up some next week for Halloween.



I've embellished this fall colored purse. I started with the grapes, figuring that I would add a vine or something. Then I started making the cute little felted flowers. The colors seemed right, so I added them to the mix instead of a vine. I like the finished product!



This is a smaller bag, my own pattern. I got the flower pattern from Nickie Epstein's Knitted Embellishments book. I love that book! It is actually two flowers; the flat purple one, and then a small rosette added to the middle.

Wow! What a busy summer it has been! Between knitting, beekeeping, a community play, Farmers Market, and keeping up with 7 kids, I haven't had time to update my blog in awhile. So, I have tons of pictures to share! They're not in any particular order.


Here's a picture of some of our beehives. These are in the back yard, right beside my big vegetable garden. The bees seem pretty happy here. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to move them before spring. I got stung last week and, instead of the usual local swelling and itching, I got a full-body allergic reaction this time. I broke out in horrible hives. So, I'm retiring from beekeeping. I think my husband will continue to keep the bees, with the help of the kids. I'll take care of the honey!



I was thrilled to discover this yarn at my local WalMart. It's called Stratta. It's a Red Heart acrylic yarn. I like acrylic yarn because animal fibers make me itch. The reason I was so excited to find this yarn is that it stripes like sock yarn, but it's worsted weight! I've hoped for yarn like this for a long time! It makes really fun hats and scarves. It seems a bit stiff when you first knit it up, but after washing, it softens quite a bit.




I found a pattern I like for hats with ear flaps. I've been on a hat knitting jag ever since. I really like this pattern. It's fun to try in different kinds of yarn.

I've been making these little pumpkin hats for the fall. They're so cute!



Here's another ear flap hat. This one is knitted in Red Heart Symphony yarn. It's fuzzy and oh, so soft.



Here's one of my Mini Madame bags. The pattern is for sale at the Knitting Vault. I'll be embellishing this little purse with some knitted flowers. It's for my niece for Christmas.



Here's another of the ear flap hats. This one is knitted in Encore, a wool and acrylic blend yarn.





This little sweater is from a book with patterns for babies and dogs called The Gift Knitter. I thought this little sweater turned out cute. It will go to a baby in my church.




Yet another ear flap hat. This one is knitted in Red Heart acrylic camoflage yarn.




This hat and scarf set just lacks gloves, which I have purchased the yarn for, and will start soon.


This ear flap hat is knitted in Encore. The small bits of color lined up in an interesting pattern. I crochetted around the edge of this hat, as I did with some of the other hats from this pattern.

These felted flowers are from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments book. I love that book!! I love the fat little roses. I think these flowers will be just the thing to embellish some of the bags I've got in the works.



I made this ear flap hat in our local high school colors, purple and white.





This is another sweater from The Gift Knitter. It's made with chunky yarn and knitted up quite quickly. I've made two sweaters from this pattern. I knitted it during rehearsals for "Oklahoma," the musical I was in this summer. I gave it to a new mom in our church.



I hope thse scarves don't go out of style soon. I've had someone ask me to make some to sell in her store on consignment. Hope it works out. I think they're really fun.



I knitted this little hat out of some pretty yarn from my local yarn store. The store underwent an ownership change, so all the yarn was at a great discount for awhile! I liked this yarn so well, I went back for more, but it was all gone. I made another hat out of the same yarn, but in pink. I sold that hat at Farmers Market yesterday. And, they're out of the pink yarn too. Bummer. Let this be a lesson to you. Always buy more yarn than you think you'll actually need. :)



This is the hat I started and finished just today. It's a little hard to see the color. It is a light sage with pink flowers and edging. It's from the must recent issue of "Knit It" magazine. It's project number 29 in the magazine. I mistakingly thought from the picture in the mag that the picot trim was done in a contrasting color. I relized before I started that it wasn't, but I thought it would look cute, so I went ahead and did mine in a contrasting yarn. I like the result.