I'm still pregnant. Just in case you're wondering. But I have a c-section scheduled about 4 weeks away... so I am counting down.
Tot's birthday is also coming up, pretty close to the due date and I'm afraid that I'll end up going into labor and ruining her birthday party... so we're doing it a couple weeks early.
Here in our house we are pretty big UT Vols fans. And Tot has asked for a UT birthday. She has this little Smokey dog (their mascot) that she loves and wants a "Smokey" birthday. So that's what we're doing. The girls get to be cheerleaders and the boys... football players.
To save some money, I am making Pom Poms for the party. I saw this video online.
It's a great tutorial on how to make Pom poms, but I needed orange and white, (For the vols of course.) and finding orange trash bags might be a bit difficult. So I decided to use those cheap $1 tablecloths you can get at the dollar store, or even walmart. And they have nearly every color you could use.
Anyways, here's how I made my pom poms!
First, I rolled out the tablecloth, but did not unfold it. It was folded into 4ths, so I just left it like that.
Then I cut all the way down each side. On this side, I cut through two layers of the table cloth.
This side had the edges, so I only had to cut through one fold of the table cloth.
After that, I folded one corner down to form a triangle
Then I cut, so I'd have a square.
After I did that to the entire table cloth, I also did the same thing to a white one as well. Then, I started layering the colors. I did two squares of each color, layered on top of each other. Each table cloth forms one full pom pom, so you should be able to get two pom poms out of the two different colored table cloths. So make two piles.
After you have your pile of squares, put your fist down into the center of the square and make two lines on either side of your fist. Then you will cut about 1 inch strips on either side of those lines, making fringe for the pom poms.
Here's a picture of one side.
after you have the fringe all cut on both sides, gather square together with the fringe on either side of your fist.
Then start taping tightly around the uncut part of the squares. This is gonna be your handle.
All done taping!
After you have the handle made, set the pom pom between your legs with one fringed edge facing up. Then pull apart all the strips you cut, alternating directions and fanning them out to make the pom pom.
Be careful not to pull too much, because you will stretch out the plastic. Do this to both sides of your pom pom. And here is the final product.
The video I followed said you can trim them afterwards to make them more uniform, but since mine are just for a little girls birthday party, I'm not too worried about it being all uniformed. But I think they turned out super cute.
I'm going to make these as favors for the rest of the girls as well, but their's will not be quite as big and thick. That would end up being $2 for each girl who comes, and with the new baby on the way... I just can't quite do that right now. But I'm excited to get them done and see all the little girls dancing around with them! I may even have to whip out some of my old moves at the party. Maybe it'll help wiggle this baby out a bit.
Baby and me are both doing well. But I've had way more contractions this time around than I ever did with the first two, and my doctors have put me on a partial bedrest... Kinda.
Since I'm not supposed to be up as much, doing all that I usually do, I've started crocheting like crazy again. I even taught myself a new type of stitch, Tunisian crochet! For those who don't know, it's almost like crocheting and knitting combined just a bit. You put all your stitches on your hook, like you do with a knitting needle, then you work them back off.
I found a ton of great links and videos to help me learn how to do it all.
* This link taught me how to do the basic stitch. There were a few others that I also looked at to make sure I was able to get the hang of it, but this one was the most easy for me to follow.
* This link taught me how to make my own graph patterns. Tunisian crochet makes it really easy to crochet graphs. You can create basically anything, if you have a graph to follow. So I used this link to help me figure out how to make those graph patterns.
* This video helped me figure out how to change colors while crocheting. You can't simply just change colors quite as easily with Tunisian crochet as you can with normal crochet. But this video helped me to figure it out.
In the past three or four weeks, I've made four afghans, and I have orders to make at least 4 more already... possibly 5 or 6 if some friends were serious about wanting them. I also have a couple patterns I worked up for myself that I want to try out. I made a Tardis one, since I have a recently acquired Doctor Who addiction. And I also am going to make a Beyonce one in honor of the bloggess! I may end up sending those to some special friends when I make them. We really don't need anymore blankets around here.
Anyways... Here's the ones that I have done so far.
***This University of Tennessee Vols afghan I made for Chris for his birthday last month. He slept with it every night for a week... Which made me feel awesome! I think he actually really likes it. And this was my first actual attempt at Tunisian Crochet and I think it turned out really well.
***This was the second blanket I made. It's kinda hard to read the E, but it's for a very special friend and her new little girl. I haven't had a chance to send it yet (thank you pregnancy issues) but I'll get it sent soon. I hope she likes it.
***This afghan I made for my niece for her 6th birthday. When my nieces and nephews saw Chris's afghan, they asked me for ones for them, so I'm going to slowly go through and make one for each one of them. Hopefully I'll be able to get them done over this next year. They work up pretty quickly (this one only took about 2 1/2 days.) So hopefully they won't take me too long.
*** This afghan I made for my nephew (GO TITANS!) He asked for a T like the one I made for my husband, but he wanted blue on it I think... or maybe he said red. Either way, I got the idea to do a titans one. It was fun to create the patter on this one and put it all together. I LOVE how it turned out. And I hope he loves it.
Anyways, I am taking orders for afghans. I can work up nearly any image/symbol/initials/monograms... whatever, and can ship anywhere in the US and Canada. For more information, you can check out my Facebook page here: This Mama Is Crazy.
