I made a headband/earwarmer for those days when you don’t want to wear a hat, or you want to wear your hair up and a hat would make you look like a chemo patient.

I’m already halfway through another one, for a Christmas present. On the next one I’m making I made some small changes to the increases and decreases, but it’s still a really good pattern. And I also crocheted a small flower for the side, although I’m not really sure if I’ll keep it there or not. I’m on the fence. Flower or no flower? Bigger flower? Smaller? Two or three flowers? A different color, perhaps?

In fact, next week I am going to do a Giveaway for one of these. Yep, so be sure to come back next week and I’ll have it posted. Oh yeah. That’s right, we’re back to doing giveaways! I know we haven’t done one in a while, but I’ve been a little bit busy with other things (you know, like having a baby and everything) Hm. Also, looking at these I’m noticing that this is the first time that my hair has been it’s natural color in a long time. Thinking about possibly doing some highlights to brighten up the winter blahs.

Ooh, and this weekend Paul and I are taking Sam to his first EVER football game. I’m pretty excited! We are going to the Idaho vs. Utah State. I need to get Sam some football gear, I saw some U of I onesies at WalMart that I may need to pick up! And I’ve got an idea for a football hat… not sure if it’ll work out, or not, but we’re pretty excited about going to a game as a family.

So, for those of you who don’t know (which would have included me, before I got married to Paul) college football season is just around the corner. My husband loves college football. So, he thought I should make a nice, manly toy for our son who will be born right in the start of football season. So, here it is:

It’s actually pretty fun to throw around the room. Paul and I have been practicing.

And I’m even going to give you the pattern for free today. Yep- because I am nice like that.

Yeah. Free pattern is a good pattern, right?

And if you were wondering how big the football is, here is my very large belly for comparison.

Yep, I’ll be 37 weeks on Sunday, so we’re getting pretty close.

Ok- here is the pattern:

Plush Football
Size 7 DPN’s
Stuffing
Yarn Needle
Worsted weight yarn, brown and white (Not sure on exact measurements here, since I just used up yarn I already had, but you don’t need much white yarn at all)

With brown yarn cast on 6 stitches. Divide among 3 DPN’s.

Row 1: Join in the round and knit once around
Row 2: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 9 stitches)
Row 3: Knit once around
Row 4: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit 1, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 15 stitches)
Row 5: Knit once around
Row 6: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit 3, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should have have 21 stitches)
Row 7: Knit once around
Row  8: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit 5, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 27 stitches)
Row 9: Knit once around (On ALL ODD numbered rows, knit once around- so I am just going to omit the ODD rows from here on out in the pattern)
Row 10: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 33 stitches)
Row 12: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 39 stitches)
Row 14: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 45 stitches)
*SWITCH TO WHITE YARN*
Row 16: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 51 stitches)
Row 18: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 57 stitches)
Row 20: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 63 stitches)
*SWITCH BACK TO BROWN YARN*
Row 22: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 69 stitches)
Row 24: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 75 stitches)
Row 26: Knit 1, Make 1, Knit until last stitch, Make 1, Knit 1 (Repeat on all 3 needles, you should now have 81 stitches)
Rows 27-37: Knit all the way around
Row 38: Knit 1, K2T, Knit to last 3 stitches, K2t, Knit 1  (Repeat on all 3 needles)
Row 39: Knit all the way around
*Repeat rows 38 and 39 until you have one 9 stitches left (3 stitches on each needle)*
(But remember to switch back to your white yarn when you only have 63 stitches left and then back to your brown yarn when it gets to 45 stitches)

 Cut your yarn leaving a 6 inch tail, stuff your plush football, using yarn needle pull the tail through remaining stitches and pull tight to close. Then, using white yarn create the ‘laces’ on the top of the football. I did two strands of yarn going lengthwise of the football, and six going width wise. Use the picture as a guide if you need help. Or do what I did and Google a picture of a football to make sure I had it somewhat close to being right!

Enjoy!

We have a winner!

Lauren is our lucky winner:

Hooray! I love making fishies (they might just be my very favorite thing to knit!)

We’ve had so much snow. Ridiculous amounts, really. It has snowed several inches every day for the last 8 days.

There’s a sidewalk right there… Paul just shoveled it less than an hour ago, and there’s already several inches accumulated on top of it, and it’s giving NO signs of slowing down. We’re supposed to get 3-6 more inches tonight.

As of early February we were having a really mild, nice winter. All that changed…

It is kind of pretty, but makes driving anywhere sort of difficult and scary (at least in my tiny car.) Not to mention having wet feet and the bottom 12 inches of your pants getting soaked just walking from your car across the parking lot into work.

I shouldn’t be complaining, it really is quite beautiful, and I am sure that come summer I’ll look back on all this snow with fondness… especially when I’m hugely pregnant and sweating because it’s 100 degrees outside.

So I was sitting here shivering on my couch, thinking I was getting sick because even with the heater cranked I just couldn’t get warm!  I’m glad to know that I am not getting sick (at least not anything non-pregnancy related!) and it’s just THAT cold outside tonight!

Keep warm tonight, folks.

I’ve been working on my February Lady sweater. I’ve gotten just past the point where you separate the arms from the body.

It’s not quite as “limey” as the picture lets on. The color is called Turtle. It’s made of the Cascade 220 Heather’s. I love working with Cascade yarns. They’re one of my favorites.

I also changed the raglan increases a little to make them more lacy.

I’m hoping that it turns out as cute as the other ones I’ve seen. If you’re looking for a beginners sweater this one is pretty simple in it’s construction and the lacy pattern is really pretty simple. Anyhow, turning out to be a pretty fun side project that I can work on in-between my commissioned projects.

We spent most of today doing some mid-winter cleaning, and boy does it feel good. Ok. so some parts of the house are still a little…iffy, but Paul’s clothing situation is much improved, as is the craft room. (I even spent part of the afternoon whipping up a new apron which my husband requested. No really, my husband asked for his own apron, that way he can keep his shirts dry while he does the dishes..what a guy I snagged!)

The crafting room is looking great, guys. All my buttons are in the button jar, all my thread is in the thread drawer… and all the yarn is all over my freakin’ house… but sort of contained to the couch and the craft room. At least I crammed all that was upstairs into the set of Rubbermaid drawers, which are now full to the point of bursting. I may need to invest in a 3rd set of drawers for my yarn (and I have a huge Rubbermade tub full of yarn too. Yikes.) I was just thinking that I may need to do a yarn purge sometime this year, and just cut my losses and give it away… but then I get to thinking about it, and change my mind because I think of all of the wonderful projects I can make with it all. So I guess I’ll hang onto it for now.

So, all in all it was a productive day. Even got a good walk in. Oh, did I mention that the snow melted? Like ALL of the snow! No, really! It’s amazing, guys, it’s almost like that first day when you realize spring is just around the corner… except, it’s totally not. We’re just seeing a temporary mid-winter lull in the snow flurries, they’ll be back before we know it, and we’ll eventually see spring, sure, but it won’t be for another 3 -4 months. Sigh. But we did enjoy a brisk walk in the balmy 45 degree weather today, even if it was really windy.

This evening we are going out to dinner with Paul’s parents to celebrate Paul’s dad’s birthday, we’re going out to eat Mexican food (preeeeeetty much my favorite, ever) I hope everyone had a great MLKJ Day and I hope you got the day off, too.  If you did have the day off, be a dear and tell me what you did with your free day!

Hey Knittybutton Readers! Do you want to do me a solid? Could you be a dear and fill out this brief survey for me? That’d be awesome. No, seriously, very awesome of you. I promise it’s short (six easy questions!) and, c’mon, you wanna be heard, don’t you? Plus is all anonymous and I won’t know who any of you are, so you can’t even be afraid to hurt my poor little feelings. (And remember! There are no wrong answers! Only stupid ones.)

An AD will pop up after you take the survey, you don’t have to do anything with it, you can just close the window that pops up once you’ve submitted the survey!

Seriously, you guys are the best. It’s just so we can all get to know each other a bit better and I can give you guys more of what you want. Also because I am so darn curious about where all these readers come from, I know not all of you know me in person, I know this for sure. The sheer amount of people that are looking at my silly little blog kind of astounds me.  I just started this blog to keep track of the projects I started and to show my sister my knitting stuff, since she lived across the country, I had no idea it would come to be a huge blessing to me, and a great way to have a little side business and meet some great people. One of my favorite things is when people I don’t know approach me and tell me they “know my from the blog”. I think it’s hilarious!

Anyhow, if you could just take like 3 minutes from your busy schedules to fill out this survey I’ll forever be in your debt. You guys are the best! And, if you do take the survey, but still have more to say, leave me a comment, or drop me an email (lexikaye@gmail.com)! I love hearing from you guys, it seriously makes my day. Seriously.

I will be back later with pictures, but we just got back from Rennie’s wedding. It was lovely! We had such a good time, but we are exhausted! So we are off to veg-out for a bit!