School time

This year, school is looking quite different. All children are being asked to wear masks. Even those little ones just starting school at age 4. The girl twins will be 6 at the end of September. They are entering grade one in French immersion and the beginning of the school year has been pushed back a couple of weeks. Since I already made masks for the boys, who live in British Columbia, I figured I could make the twins an equal amount - one each for every day of the week. That would be 10 masks but I thought I may as well make a couple of extras. That meant getting more elastic but I thought I might try different widths of elastic to see what would be more comfortable since they have to wear them all day.

This is called elastic thread. It came in white or red. It wasn't expensive so I got 10 yards. We'll see how it holds up.

 The loose elastics I got from Fabricland and they were sold by the metre. Two of them are 1/4 inch and one bundle was 1/8th inch. The package elastic I bought at Dollarama.

The elastics in the middle I purchased at Fabricland too.

I decided to make four masks at a time so I didn't get to hate making them. Perhaps later this week I'll make four more.

Knitting squares and yarn

There is a group of three women in Ontario who are putting together a knitted blanket in memory of those who died of the Covid-19 virus. Here is the article. It is hoped that these squares are made by individuals across the country using a certain yarn (to be consistant) and a certain size. The colour doesn't matter but there is one colour (turquoise) that is being used especially for those essential workers who have passed away. I thought I could probably make a 12 inch square and I did.

I ordered this from Yarn Canada. They didn't have my first choice or my second choice so I let the sales person choose a colour.

I also purchased these from Yarn Canada.

This is the yarn. It's the worsted weight. There are so many different colours to choose from but since there are so many knitters doing the squares, some colours are sold out.

That first square went so quickly (relatively speaking) that I went out and bought two more skeins. This time I decided to buy locally (meaning I could go and pick it up instead of waiting for it in the mail.) This blue (azure) and the gray (smoke) were just two of the many colours that were not sold out. Right now there are only a charcoal and mocha colour left.

I also took a trip to a shop to get more elastics and came home with these. I wanted to make a baby outfit or a blanket using the patterns from Warm Baby Project in the UK. The mini balls I use to make my rainbow blankets. I don't know if I want to use navy again or if maybe I'll use a gray with the little yarn balls.

It's all keeping me busy and occupied. I have lots of projects on the go and even more on a list.
The Harry Potter scarf that I started in England and finally finished has been delivered and received. My grandson liked it. I did try to block it but with not much success. It still curled inward.

Baby things

My daughter's friends were expecting their first baby, a little girl, and my daughter asked me to make a couple of soother clips, a flannel blanket and some burp cloths. Since they live in the states, time was of the essence so I took time out from quilting my True Blue quilt and went searching through my stash for suitable fabrics. 

Apparently, the colour scheme for the baby's room is black and white and these are the ones that my daughter chose for the soother clips from my collection of black and white fat quarters.

Here they are finished.

I used up a bit of my flannel stash and made burp cloths or spit-up cloths, as I call them.

I found three smallish towels in my sewing stash waiting to be made into pull over bibs but I figured I could use them for heavier burp cloths.

I also made a flannel blanket. Here they all are - minus the soother clips ready for little Leona, who entered this world on the 28th of August.

Even more face masks

My eldest daughter lives in British Columbia and her two boys are going to school next month. Since they have to take the bus to and from school, they need to wear face masks. She requested one each for the boys for each day so that would have been ten masks in total.

I made twelve - just to be safe. The black ones were doubled since they could be used at Hallowe'en time. I doubt there will be any trick or treating at that time but at least the boys could celebrate with their masks.

Instead of shoe laces, I made these with elastic so it would be easier for them to put on and take off by themselves. 

There is a lot of elastic in the shops these days so it was an easy purchase. The fabric was all from my stash again. (click on the photos to make them bigger and you can see the fabrics)

I'm also sewing baby things so once I have finished, I will take photos (hopefully I remember.)

Fanny pack and face masks (again)

Once again I found myself making some face masks. I'm not finished yet but these are the ones that are completed as of today.

I made two using the same fabric as the one on the far right.

And I made two out of the blue fat quarter I had. Because of the design on the fabric, they are not identical. All told there were ten completed. I made one for Atticus since his cousins all have one and I made some extras in case they are needed.

Teemu wanted a fanny pack and his mom asked me to make him one way back in June. Well, it took time to find a nice free pattern online and luckily, there was a tutorial.

It has a secret extra pocket. This is the side that is against the body. The pattern could be found here.

Instead of using webbing for the belt, I used wide elastic. I thought it would work better and be more comfortable.

Teemu loved it and he can fit quite a bit of stuff in it. I didn't have to purchase anything for this. The fanny pack is made from an upholstery fabric sample, both zippers were in my stash and even the new closure clip was found in a drawer.