12 Days - Day 2

Here are the adorable little hats I made on day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas Charity!

I plan on adding some ribbon...as soon as I get some

Do you think this would work for a boy?

This one still needs its leaves

12 days - Day 1

I decided to join a short challenge for the Christmas season. "But you can't even post a picture a day for one month," you say? Well...taking a decent picture is harder for me than what I'm doing, now.

I've joined Sunset Crochet's 12 Days of Christmas Charity! I've committed to making 12 preemie hats in 12 days. Bonnie at Sunset Crochet got together a few other designers and created several adorable patterns for everyone use.

I'm having a blast!

Here's what I completed the first day:

This isn't one of her patterns, but I was anxious to get started.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I hope to make at least 12 of the little Santa hats in different sizes. I've always read that pretty much any size preemie hat will be accepted since the babies are all different sizes. I think I'd like a seasonal hat if my little one had to spend the holiday in the hospital.

It's amazing how grateful these little hats have made me. Trip spent a few days in the Level II nursery (lowest level of the NICU) due to some O2 levels. He went home with me and Jack, though. I can't imagine what the parents of babies in the NICU go through.

OK, now I'm rambling. I'm lucky enough to have been interrupted by the boys constant chattering and questions about 1,000 times during the few minutes I took to write this post.

Swiftly

Wow...I haven't blogged in six months. Shame on me! In my defense, three is a really really rough age. The big boys have been a handful to say the least. Aedan, as usual, has been a joy. He IS coming into his own with his temper and attitude, though. I think dealing with only one of him makes it easier, though.

But I'm not here to talk about the boys today. I've been getting crafty! Well...craftier, I suppose. I've really enjoyed getting more into knitting. I've crocheted since I was in my early teens (maybe even 11 or 12, I can't quite remember) and finally took the dive and learned how to knit. My wonderful knitty-friends on Twitter have been such a huge help!

And with my love of knitting, my love of nicer yarn has grown. For those of you not into needle crafts, typically nicer (pricier) yarn comes in a hank, which is basically a big loop of yarn. When you buy it, it's usually twisted into a pretzel type shape. It's really not a lot of fun to roll it into a ball by hand, so I got a ball winder for Christmas last year. Yippee!!!! I've had so much fun with it!!!

Unfortunately I was still having a difficult time due to the hanks of yarn getting tangled. For the record, Tim does not make a good helper when trying to keep a hank from getting knotted. I realized I really needed a swift. I looked all over the net and decided I really just didn't want to fork out the money for one. I found a few tutorials, but didn't really love most of them.

Then I found a tutorial I could deal with! I wasn't 100% in love with it, but with Tim's help, we changed a few things.

And here it is:

 

Here's the tutorial I found. And here are the changes I made:

 

For "A" I used two 1x36" poplar dowel squares

For "B" I used one 2x2x36" poplar square

 

My neighbor was kind enough to use his radial saw to make the dado joints for me, negating my need for a rasp or chisel. My other neighbor was kind enough to let me use her drill press, negating my need for a cordless drill.

 

I used a 5/16 3" hex bolt and 5/16 nut, three 13/32-in x 1-in Nylon Standard (SAE) Flat Washer, and two Nylon Spacers 1/2 x .328 x 1 (each cut in half with a hack saw). I also used a 1/2" spade bit, a 5/8" spade bit (to counter sink the bolt), and a 3/8" spade bit.

 

I did not use a block of wood or cd or wing nut as a spacer. This is where two of the washers come into play.

 

Procedure-wise I used the 5/8" spade bit to drill my center holes then took the Xs apart and used a soft hammer to insert the spacers into the holes. Then I put it all together in this order: bolt - B X - two washers - A X - one washer - nut.

 

I am sooooo happy with my new baby!!! It spins so nicely! I can't wait to need to wind my first ball of yarn...which should be either tonight or tomorrow morning. :-)