May 14, 2020

A Huge Collection of My Crafts Through the Years (Part 1)

When I was looking for some photos on my computer, I came across a folder of a bunch of crafts that I've made through the years. It was fun looking through them!

I have definitely gotten better at things as I've practiced more, and my style has changed quite a bit. I don't own most of the things I've made anymore, probably because I realized it was hideous! Hahaha. It makes me wonder if someday, I'll look back and cringe at the things I make now. (Like my enormous chalkboard clock!)

Anyways, I thought it'd be fun to post pictures of my crafts through the years. I went through phases of knitting, crocheting, sewing, and more recently, home renovation projects. (In this post, I have mostly crochet and knitting photos).

As I got the photos ready for this post, I realized I have way more than I thought! So, I'm going to post this in 2-3 posts. I'll post the second part tomorrow. (Sorry if this is totally boring. But it's more exciting than my groundhog days lately!)

By the way, the patterns for most of these can be found on Ravelry. It would take a very long time to link to each individual one. So, you can find my project page here, which links to the patterns I used.)


This is a sweater beer cozy that I made for Jerry. He LOVED it and still has it. I think I made it in 2007-ish:



This is an apple cozy (to keep the apple from bruising in a lunch box, etc. Clearly, my gauge was off! Or, I just buy small apples. It was way too big:



This is an aviator hat that I made when Becky was pregnant with Luke. She wanted a photo prop for him (and with Brian being a pilot, the aviator theme was perfect). She showed me a photo, and I ended up making this:



This was also for Luke. I made this for Becky's shower, in the colors of Luke's nursery:



These are clearly some baby booties that I made, but I have no idea who I made them for!



A friend asked me to make a baby hat as a photo prop, so this is what I came up with. I wrote out the pattern, which you can find here.



This is another baby hat pattern that I wrote myself. Why were all of my friends having babies and I don't remember who I gave these things to?! (Here is the pattern)



This I actually made about a year ago--it's ugly, but it's not meant to be pretty. I just got sick of having the kids' baseball bats lying around the floor of the garage, so I grabbed a scrap board, drilled some large holes in it, and viola! Baseball bat holder.



Eli was super into Batman when he was little, so I knitted this Batman hat for him:



This is a coffee cup cozy that actually reads "be safe". I am embarrassed to admit that it was a line from the Twilight books that Edward said to Bella. I was really into Twilight back then! (You'll see I have a few more Twilight-related things)



Speaking of Twilight, these are the mittens that Bella wore (I think it was in the first movie). Someone replicated them and posted the pattern on Ravelry. I just had to make them! 



I happen to love this beret that I no longer have. It was my first time doing cables and twisted stitches in the round, and I really enjoyed making it. I like patterns that I have to really pay attention to!



These are called "Pocketbook Slippers" because they fold up to be small enough to slip into your pocketbook. This pattern is one of the first things I ever knitted.



This was an attempt at socks. I just didn't have the patience to finish the first one, let alone start the second one. The only fun part of socks is turning the heel!



A knitted dish cloth. Why I chose brown, I have no idea!



Ugh, this hat! For a while, I was into making hats with a bill on the front. I used that plastic mesh that is meant for crafts like--well, I don't know what--and I was determined to make the perfect hat. But I just never got it right. 



A friend showed me a picture in a magazine of a hat she wanted, including a ribbon butterfly, so I copied it the best I could. I have to admit, it looked nearly identical to the magazine photo!




I made a coffee mug cozy (my own design) to fit a standard mug. I really liked how it turned out, so I published the pattern on Ravelry. You can find the pattern here



This is a double-knit (reversible) case for my camera. This was before I had a smart phone. I had a small camera, and I used this cozy to slip my camera into in order to carry it around without it getting ruined. I used this for several years, actually! I had just made a double-knit pot holder--posted somewhere below--and I thought the double knitting thing was cool, so it was a fun project for me.



Another hat with a bill. This one with cables...



This is the same hat in green... and Noah modeling it :)



I made several lip balm holders. I could crochet these in less than an hour from start to finish, and since I'm obsessed with lip balm (Burt's Bee's Original is my favorite), it was perfect. I just wish I hadn't loved the variegated yarn...



I made this one with a thin crochet thread, and it worked out much better:



I knitted a large rectangle with cables, and I had no idea what to do with it. I ended up folding it in half and turning it into a bag: 



Ugh! This hat. It was too short to fold, but too long NOT to fold. So it was pretty much useless.



This hat was on a TV show (I can't remember which show) and someone posted the pattern on Ravelry. I loved the pattern (again with the bill on the front) so of course I had to make it. I never wore it, though--I thought the bill was too long.



I clearly loved making coffee cozies.  These are fun to make because they don't take a long time, they're very useful, and you can make them in several different patterns. My favorite was the honeycomb pattern (the ones on the right):



I think this pot holder was my very first double-knit project. Double-knitting is where the back side is basically a mirror image of the front, and the colors are the exact opposite. It's time consuming, but I always like to try new techniques, so the double knitting sounded interesting to me:



This is one of the very first things that I crocheted. I made it out of kitchen cotton, and it was heavy! It wasn't very practical, so I didn't end up using it. I'm not sure what I ended up doing with it!



This was the first afghan I ever crocheted. I don't normally have the patience to crochet or knit a whole afghan, but since this one was called something like "Five Hour Afghan" it caught my eye. I actually really liked this one!



This is a baby blanket that I crocheted for a couple of friends of mine who were adopting a baby girl kind of suddenly. I didn't have much time to make something, so I chose this pattern which was apparently a quick-crochet:



I have no idea what these baby hats were for. I don't remember giving them to anyone!



I saw this hat on a movie, and I wanted to replicate it. This is attempt one and attempt two. Attempt two turned out better, but I never did get it right!



I made this as soon as I really started getting into crocheting. I needed something to hold crochet hooks, so I made this. I sewed fabric into the underside of it. I loved it at the time!



These were just some random squares that I'd crocheted. I think I had just taught myself to crochet, so I was trying out different patterns. 



No idea why I did this, but I used crochet thread to make a wrist band:



I made this for "a friend's" baby boy (again, I don't know who--my notes just say "a friend"). I can't think of who it would be! But I love how the blanket turned out:



I made this hat for my dad--it's two layers thick, so it was super warm. He'd been wearing an ugly camoflauge hat I made him YEARS prior (when I was in high school, I think) and he swore it was the warmest hat he'd ever worn. I knew he was just saying that to make me feel good, so I made him this one that should have been twice as warm. I should have made the ribbed edging a few inches longer, though, because it was kind of small. Again, too short to really cuff, but too long NOT to cuff.



This one is kind of hard to see, but I was trying out a new knitting technique called entrelac. It was fun to knit! I made another one later where you can see the pattern better, because I used variegated yarn.


And there you have it... I think this is about 40 of 120-ish photos I have of projects I've made! I'll share some more in another post.


6 comments:

  1. You're so talented! All of these projects are so great! Omg those Bella mittens are amazing! I totally remember those from the movie!

    Side note, how do you feel about Stephanie Meyer finally releasing Midnight Sun? The Twilight nerd in me that I shoved away is slowly trying to crawl out of the closet ;) I'm definitely going to read it and am low key excited about it hahaha

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  2. You are so talented! I don't have the patience to knit or crochet.

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  3. Very interesting! You're very talented!

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  4. Okay, first of all, NEVER be embarrassed about anything Twilight related. I'm SOOO excited for the release of Midnight Sun in August! I'm fan-girling already! I might have to make that" Twilight Mom" hoodie after all.....

    Second, you are crazy talented, girl! You are very good at whatever it is you set your mind to! I used the pattern you posted to make a couple of masks, and I can't get the middle seams to line up as well as you do! Every time I sew one, I"m like- "How the frickity frack does she get it to line up so smoothly, damn it!!???" Lol!!

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  5. I actually LOVE that wristband, but something other than green! I love handmade jewelry...things that are eye catching that you can't get just anywhere. I'd buy one ;-)

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  6. Hi Katie,
    Speaking of Ravelry, I just saw this forum post and thought of you:
    https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/remrants/4035633/1-25

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