New Hat

Decided to take a small break from all the stuff I've been working on for MONTHS!!! and make myself something fun.  It actually turned out pretty well, which makes me happy because it means I'm getting better at them! ;)  I found this super cute newsboy hat here, but I had to adjust it slightly.  I don't have any super chunky yarn like she used, so I used my normal yarn and just added two more rows to make it wider (one extra hdc each, if you need that explained better feel free to ask) and then added another row to the end to make it longer (though the next one I make I think I'll add another row just because I like my ears a little more covered).  to make the brim I started on the 18th stitch and did 16 stitches of the 2 in 1 hdc (total of 32 instead of 20), and the next round I believe I did sc for 21 stitches (enough to match up with the sc of the first row of the brim).  I didn't expect it to turn out as well as it did so I didn't take any pictures, so if you would like to see my improvised hat step by step I'll be more than happy to do another one with pictures and instructions.  For now here's how this one turned out :)

Also, I didn't count how many stitches I did for the band, I just laid it up against the hat to see how long I wanted it, I was too tired of doing math in my head lol ;)

Jewelry

A day late, but as promised here are some pictures of some jewelry I have for sale. If you'd like to know any details or prices please leave a comment!

DIY Napkin Rings

I've been working on a fun little project over the last few days! My mom is going to have a pretty big Easter dinner get together with a bunch of folks and she wanted to have some fancy napkin rings for the event, so instead of spending big bucks on buying already made ones I offered to make them for her. Just a note: depending on what you pick for flowers and wire the cost may actually be pretty similar to buying them, but if you make them they can be exactly what you want which is always a good thing :) My mom picked out some beautiful green flowers that match her dining room with a little bit of dark pink in the center for a pop of color. I started off by cutting my wire into approximately 5" pieces. Fun tip for the day - if you don't have a ruler or measuring tape handy the middle section of your forefinger is almost exactly an inch. I did this to measure my pieces because I couldn't find a ruler or measuring tape at the time, thus the approximately 5". I then curved each piece into a circle, forming the ring. This part was difficult to hold everything together, hot glue, and take pictures, so there's not a whole lot of picture help for this step, but it's pretty self explanitory. As you could probably guess from the first picture you need to cut your flowers from the stem, not too close to the base of the flower though as you'll need something to hot glue to. Turn your flower upside down and place your ring on either side of the little remaining stem. Then simply hot glue all around both sides. Make sure it's well covered, I let each one dry and then checked for blank spots and filled in as necessary. You'll have to hold the ring upright for about a minute so they don't dry crooked. The only step I don't have pictures of, because I haven't done it yet, is trimming the excess stem you left from cutting the flowers off, and taking a small piece of felt, I'm going to be using green, and hot gluing it over the back so it hides the hot glue "glob" and flower stem. It also gives a smoother finish so the napkin ring won't catch on any napkin you should choose to use. That's tomorrow's project. I'd planned on doing it today but instead spent the whole day celebrating 3 years together with my wonderful boyfriend. Hopefully along with finishing up the napkin rings I'll also be putting up pictures of some jewelry I have for sale :) Until next time, happy crafting :)