The Mad Hatter

I recently in the past year or so have discovered my love for crocheting hats. I crocheted some scarves a few years back and made a blanket for my nephew but then lost interest in crocheting for a while, until my friend showed me some super cute baby hats she was making for a service project and so it began. I started making hats and fell in love. They are fast to make. I can finish one in an hour or two depending on the size and they are so fun to accessorize. But the one problem I had with my new hobbie was what to do with them when they were finished.

I decided my trip to see my sisters and their kids was a great opportunity to be creative and make some hats. I have 11 nieces and nephews under the age of 13 that live in the state of Washington and so I started working.

Here are some pictures of 9 of them in the hats I made for them.

 

I love little Lydia's ear poking out of her hat.

 

And incase that wasn't enough here is a close up of each with their hats cause they are so cute.

 

 

This is Kitty. She is actually wearing the hat I made for Lydia but we couldn't find her hat at the time. And this hat was too big for Lydia.

Then Jane while looking for her hat found Kitty's hat. So we took a picture of that too.

 



 

This is my favorite hat I made of the bunch. I have a hard time coming up with as many creative ideas for boy hats but Bennet loves Star Wars so I instantly thought I should make him a Yoda hat. Then I put some wire in them so that they would stick up or do whatever you wanted them to do. I love this hat. I think he did too cause he wore it pretty much the whole time I was there.

 

This is Lizzy. This hat took the longest to make because of the white and green petals around the hat. And then I had to sew th tips down so they weren't sticking out. But it turned out cute so it was worth it. And she loved it. She said it looks like frosting.

 

This is Jane from Christmas time. Even though she found Kitty's hat she couldn't find hers though I had seen it laying around all week. I found it 10 minutes after we took the pictures. Isn't it how it always works. But Luckily I had this from before.

And here is Lydia  on Christmas with her hat. She doesn't keep them on her head for very long so it is hard to get a picture. Isn't she adorable?

 

At this point we need to take a little detour from Hats to tell you about my crazy family. I am the youngest of 13 kids.The first letter of the names in our family go in alpahbetical order, kind of. There are 4 K names, then 3 L names, 3 Ms, 2 Ps, and an R. My mom, I guess, found it too taxing to write out our whole names so she created a code to make it shorter. She would use the first letter of our name and our number in the family. So K1, K2 ... L5.. M8..P11 and I was R13.

 

I don't like to use real names of kids on my blog so I am adopting that system here.

This is M1. This is one of the first hats I made. And it fits her so nicely. Yay!

M2. Her hat is done in a double crochet for those of you who know what I'm taking about. 

M3's hat is done in a single crochet. Both M2 and M3 like the same colors but I wanted to make their hats different so I used different styles.

And M4. I used a puffy stitch for this hat. Not sure what it is called. Takes a little more time but it turned out cute. I think.

And here is one more for you because I think it is adorable. You can't really see Lydia's hat but it was just a basic black hat that will be turned into an angry birds hat soon. Stay tuned for that.

Gosh I love these kiddos!

 

Stolen Tradition

I got back last night from watching the kids and visiting my sisters. I had so much fun. I can't get enough of these kids. They are great. My sister has a tradition of taking a picture of the kids every sunday. I decided to take some too because I wanted some pictures of us together as proof that I was there. Also Lizzy, Jane, and I all had matching curls in our hair.



This picture was almost perfect. If only Lydia was looking. This was the first one we took.

Then we decided to include Mr. Bingley the puppy who is super cute but Lydia ran off.

And this one makes me laugh. I love Jane's face in the top left corner. She looks so concerened. But Mr. Bingley looks cute.

And here is a close up of Jane's hair. I put a waterfall braid in it with the curls. (What is a waterfall braid? Look it up on youtube and learn how to do it.) It was very cute so I needed to document it.

 

Oh I miss them all already! 

Day 2

I am watching my sister's kids while she and her husband are on vacation. It has been great.

Here some pictures I stole from her blog of the crew.



You can find her blog here. Beware though, it's hilarious. You may just get sucked in and never return.

Aren't they just the cutest? Love them!

I am also helping to homeschool the older three while she is gone. To be honest I was expecting it to be much more challenging than it has been. (knock on wood) They have been great and well behaved. They get right to work and only occasionally need help with something.

The littlest one, Lydia, has grown to like me. She will now willingly climb up on my lap and snuggle with me. She even has learned my name "Acho." Though she was not happy this morning when I got her out of bed instead of Mommy. But she cheered up when I offered her some milk. I also find it so adorable that when I ask Jane, the second oldest girl, to set the table Lydia will climb up in her high chair to eat. She gets very upset if I try to take her out. She will just sit there and wait fairly patiently for dinner.

Kitty, the second youngest, is always wanting me to play with her and loves to play a game I created called Snuggle Tag. Played how it sounds. If I catch her she has to snuggle with me. I have been impressed with what a great listener she has been. She will do what I ask the first time almost always.

Lizzy the oldest, Bennet the boy, and Jane have all been really good at helping me find things and learn what I need to do. They really are a great group of kids. I adore them all!

My sister, Linda, has also been a great help this week. I think without her things would be much more difficult. She watches the younger two while I homeschool the older three. I sure love her.

I also get to see my other two sisters and their kids who live in town. I just love to be here. If it wasn't so cold in the winter I might consider staying.

I think 2013 is teaching me the power in family. I think I tried for too long to be independent and now I am learning even more that my siblings are here for me (though I knew that before, maybe it's I'm learning it is okay to need them) and they rock! Their is something powerful in the unconditional love of family. I love you, all of you! Yes, even you!

Oh and that Mr. Bingley, the puppy, is about the cutest puff ball on four legs. He hops around like a bunny. I just can't resist holding him all day even though he naws off my fingers.

I guess I should get to bed so I can wake up and spend another awesome day with these cuties. Night.