Daily Craft - A birthday swap!

In the October birth group on Ravelry, we elected to do a swap in honor of the pending birthdays of our little ones.  It was a secret swap and, as my partner has no clue who their package is coming from, I'm going to share the contents here.  A little pampering for both mom and baby for making it this far!

Here it is in it's entirety.  (Not a fancy background, but this is what happens when you forget to take pics at home and end up doing so at work in the commissary on top of the pool table with your cell phone...)

Top row (left to right)
- some British themed loose leaf tea.  I love the little tins too and would definitely need to repurpose
- vintage photo notecards
- our favorite Sandra Boynton book "Moo, Baa, La La La!"

Middle row
- a tea pouch that I sewed with some of my favorite teas in it, along with dried chamomile flowers to add
- crochet stitch markers that I made
- Sesame Street toddler socks (they were too cute!)

Bottom row
- Josh Groban's last studio album, and the "Whip It" soundtrack
- a couple of soft acrylic yarns from my stash
- puffy bath books (which are also a favorite for Owen)

I certainly didn't get to craft as much for this swap as I have for swap packages in the past, but I still had a blast putting it all together and was happy to add a couple of handmade touches at least.  I have a package coming my way from somebody and can't wait to see what's in it! 

Daily Craft - Candy Corn Socks

Excited to have finished knitting these socks yesterday, before becoming engrossed in the Oscars.  I had originally bought this yarn (Lion Brand Sock Ease) to make my cardigan but it didn't take me long to realize that the patterning just wasn't going to work out and the cardigan would be better suited to a solid color.  That left me with the ball of yarn to do what was originally intended - make socks!

I opted for a basic sock pattern so as not to muddy the candy corn looking stripes.  I think Lion Brand somewhat missed with naming the colorway "toffee" seeing as the darker grey mixed with the orange, yellow and white really reminds me of Halloween.

The only adjustment I made to the knitting pattern was to shorten the length of the sock so that they sit at the ankle.  I'm not a fan of longer socks, and I live in Southern California where socks aren't really needed most of the year anyway.  I'm also pretty bummed that I broke one of my DPNs finishing up the second sock.  I can still work with a set of 4 in that size though.

It's been such a long time since I knit socks that it was nice to get my sock mojo back...even if we're heading into spring and open toe weather again.

Daily Craft - Well how about that?!

I haven't designed any knitwear for a LONG time and I'm horribly ashamed of that fact.  I've got great ideas somewhere jumbled up in my head.  My problem is getting the time to put them down on paper, knit up swatches, gather test knitters etc.  Recently I've been really getting the itch to get back on the designing band-wagon, so to speak.  I also know that I'm a pro when it comes to the best of intentions going unfulfilled though!

Anyway, to give myself a little inspiration, I decided to check on Ravelry to see how my other designs have been doing.  I was thrilled to see that other people have actually made these things!  Even more exciting is that people have given my patterns very decent ratings and seem to be liking them.  There's actually people out there in the world that are making my designs.  It's so much fun for me to look through the photos of their projects and see what they thought of the pattern, check out their yarn and color choices, etc. 

Harpa Socks
Knit up by 23 Ravelry members so far!

Roman Holiday Mitts
Knit up by 43 Ravelry members so far!

I also get really excited when I think about the fact that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of non-Ravelry members out there who have pulled these patterns from my old blog, linked through from knittingpatterncentral.com, or other sites where these free patterns ended up.  It's hilarious to imagine that there's tons of mystery people wandering the streets with fingerless mitts of my design keeping their hands warm, but alas I'll never know for sure.  ;)