11. Baby Hats

The bad news about the new baby being a boy is that I don’t get to make cute baby girl clothes.

The good news about the new baby being a boy is that I don’t have to find money to buy baby girl clothes.

Why are boy clothes so BORING? If anyone could help me out with that, I’d be very appreciative.

Anyway, we pretty much have everything we need for the new baby because we have all of C’s clothes and gear and toys. The big difference is that C was born in January, and this baby is due at the beginning of May. So I figured I could justify making him some different hats, since he probably won’t need the super-warm knit ones I made for C, but will still need a light something. So we dug out the boxes of boy pajama fabric from my mom’s basement and found a few cute, lightweight knits.

About as cute as little boy clothes get, right? I especially like the colorful tools.

Now I probably have extra hats, but come on – it’s a baby. Since I don’t get to buy little girl dresses, and the hats are basically free, I think I deserve at least one hat in each fabric I like.

3. Loop Baby Toy (and 1.1, Puzzle Ball Revisited)

More projects!

Predictably, I found the link to this awesome pattern for a Loop Baby Toy on Pinterest. So cute! I thought it would be age-appropriate and super cute to make a matching loop toy and puzzle ball. Both good grasping toys for a younger baby. Of course you can’t see in the picture that the loop toy has jingle bells stuffed into it so that it rattles – and the puzzle ball comes apart into three rings. I think they’re cute together. Would make a great set for a gift, since I only spent two (very uncommitted) days on each. Maybe eight hours of hard work altogether.

2. Baby Shoes

So many colors! As I’m looking at them, I’m thinking “should have done this color, and this color…” Maybe next month.

This project is one that has been sitting around half-finished for months. My sister-in-law wanted to learn to make baby shoes for her little one, and I found the CUTEST baby shoe pattern on Etsy at Two Girls Patterns. Not free, but inexpensive and a very well-written pattern. Completely worth the money, especially if you have a tendency to shift into mass production mode like I do.

These ones have the cutest buttons – from my mom’s stash. Moms are the best.

Anyway, I had all the buttons, yarn, hooks, pattern, everything all together in a bag, so I decided to just finish a bunch of pairs and have them be done.

My favorite part is the buttons. I’m not a big fan of bows or ruffles or sparkles – but buttons? SO CUTE! Especially the little flowers on the red shoes.

See what I mean?

1. Crocheted Amish Puzzle Ball

This project was, naturally, a Pinterest find. After I’d gotten all my stuff settled in my new craft zone, I realized there were two more boxes of yarn stashed in C’s closet – and some more fabric I had meant to use – and some other stuff in my room – anyway, there was no way it would all fit. So now I’m faced with the (awful!) predicament of finding projects to use some of this stuff up. Then I can put it back in some other room justifiably, because it will actually be clothes or a gift or some other slightly more useful… something.

The messy house actually looks pretty cute when it’s taken out of context like this. 🙂

Since I haven’t made anything for the baby yet – because I’m convinced it’s a girl but have no actual proof that making adorable little-girl clothes would be a good use of my time – I figured crocheting some toys would be a good use of yarn. And gender-neutral. And fast, so I could make three or four and keep extras for shower gifts. This Amish Puzzle Ball concept was popular on Pinterest, but most links were to sites which then linked through to this fantastic pattern:

http://www.lookatwhatimade.net/crafts/yarn/crochet-amish-puzzle-ball/

I like the blue/white/brown combo – very trendy – but I’m excited to make another one with black, white, and red. I think it will be more visually exciting, especially for a new baby. I also neglected to read the whole description of the project and went straight to the instructions, and the description mentioned some things about assembly that the instructions didn’t. So I’ll do some things differently next time around.

The Diaper Decision

So, all this time we’ve been using disposable diapers, and I’ve had this nagging…smell. Of course, there’s the nagging guilt too, but there are so many things to feel guilty about that the diapers are kind of the last thing on my mind.

The smell, on the other hand? The small person’s room always smells like septic waste. That just seems wrong somehow. Babies should get to sleep in pleasant, sunny, lemon-bar scented places. Maybe lavender if they’ve had too much time to play. But nurseries should not smell like uncleaned bathrooms.

So I’ve tried everything I could find – I’ve looked in books, online, I’ve tried my own creative solutions. What works the longest is: empty the diaper pail and scrub it with a clorox wipe. Then leave it in the hall. Open the window in the nursery and put a small dish of vinegar on the changing table. Seriously consider burning a candle. This set up goes on for as long as possible, and the smell is banished! … For about four hours. 😦

Well, my neighbor uses gDiapers, and she has been kind enough to lend me a few that her little boy isn’t using right now. I’ve read about them before, and I like the idea, but it’s hard to put out the money when I’m not sure I will like them. So I’m pretty excited to see if using the cloth diapers helps. (Cross your fingers!)