She's Baaaaack

Things have been quiet at Hipp Crafts, but super busy in the Hipp home. I have WIPs coming out of my ears. Whose idea was it to knit 2.5 pairs of socks (more on that later), a scarf, fingerless mitts, and a hat in time for Christmas? Oh yeah, mine. Every crafter seems to fall into this pit at the end of the year...but oh what a fun pit it is. There are certainly worse things than having tons of knitting to look forward to.

So as I knit my way out through the holidays, I will do my best to not ignore this blog as much as I have the past four weeks. For now, here is something beautiful Mr. Hipp captured on our recent trip to Baja.

More photos of our trip on Mr. Hipp's Flickr site starting here. (Can you spot me in my new Ravelry t-shirt? I also wore this great yarn-lover shirt.) Enjoy!

Handmade - Good for the Wallet, Good for the Soul

Would you like to give and receive handmade gifts this holiday season?

Consider taking the handmade pledge! Just click on the image above for more information.

The best thing is that the gifts don't have to be handmade by you. That means the great stuff at Etsy counts. I'd also like to recommend a handmade source dear to my heart: MayaWorks. I had the opportunity to visit some of the women behind these handcrafts in Guatemala a few years back. Their stuff is really handmade, really beautiful, really durable, and really directly improves the economic situation of women and their families. They let me hop onto a backstrap loom and weave a bit of a shawl. (I'll have to dig those photos out to show you.)

Loved ones - if you read this blog, know that you will get at least one handmade gift from me this year, and know that if you want to give a gift to me (awww, thanks!) I would appreciate a handmade gift as well.

Mr. Hipp and I are off for a much needed mini-break on Thursday. We'll be back with photos and hopefully some completed crafts next week.

The Fires and Finally, A Finished Object

This is first and foremost a crafting blog, and I debate internally on how much of my "secular" life to share here. There are times -- of which there seem to be many, lately -- when my life outside of crafting has been so overwhelming that I feel it would be disrespectful not to mention it.

The southern California wildfires are still burning, thankfully none close enough to our home to necessitate an evacuation. The Santiago Fire is in the mountains about 3 miles east of where we live. The smoke and ash in the air make it unbearable to be outside for more than a few minutes, and it is actually much better today than it had been during the early part of this week. Let's hope for a quick end to this disaster, and please keep the firefighters and the people and animals who have lost their homes in your thoughts.

And now, as they say in the morning news when they move from the Iraq War to Britney Spears: "On a lighter note...". The Child's Placket Neck Sweater is finally d-o-n-e and I l-o-v-e it. You can get the milk without buying the cow here (pattern is in pdf).

Patten: Child's Placket Neck Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Size: 0-6 month, but bigger yarn resulted in about 12-month size
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease, Dark Rose Heather
Needles: Addi Turbo 16" circulars & Clover bamboo dpns, both in US 9
Buttons: Wood, from JoAnne Crafts, and little plastic ones from some old shirt.
Modifications: Just the yarn, this pattern was super easy to follow as is!
For Ravelry users, the info is also here.

The first thought was to use grosgrain ribbon to line the placket and give stability to the button holes and the button band, but I found the stretchiness in the button holes was a good thing. If they get out of shape, I can take the sweater back and add the stabilizing ribbon then.

Instead, I used smaller plastic buttons to back up the public buttons. They are on there super duper secure, with quadrupled knotting as only a former climbing anchor builder can do. I refuse to let these buttons pop off an get into a little one's trachea.

This dear little sweater was made for a co-worker's impending baby. Since said baby is still impending, the 12-month-old sizing may not work out with the seasons. (Based on informal polling of mothers, babies often wear sizes that are 1-2 sizes bigger than their age. Meaning this baby will probably be wearing the sweater next August...not exactly sweater season in the OC.) I've decided to gift it instead to a family baby who is now a jolly 6-month-old and will be a roly poly 9-month-old come winter. And she lives on the east coast. Perfect!

Finishing this sweater was a pleasant break from the Monkey Socks, which are due to my pal this week. I've got two more repeats then the toe and sock number 2 will be d-o-n-e as well. Gotta get busy!

Hipp Crafts...Courtesy of Flickr

How cool is this? Spell with Flickr rocks! You put in your word, then it searches images on Flickr to spell it out for you. If you don't like one of the letters, you can click on it to pull up another random selection. It even auto-generates the html code so you can pop it into your blog...presto!

Found this link from the beautiful How about orange... blog. She's got a lot of other cool craftiness over there. So inspiring.

The Time Suck

Despite getting a Ravelry invite several months ago, I have only just recently logged on and started exploring. Oh my goodness, no wonder people rave about it. All of my internet goof-off time this week - which used to be dedicated to blogs - has been poured into setting up my Ravelry notebook and checking out what others have posted. It is amazing. If you haven't added yourself to the list for an invite yet, go do it now! You don't need to have a blog outside, just a Flickr account with photos of your knitting and your stash. Freaking great.

Before I go back to Ravelry today, I thought I'd share a few things I've been working on. (I seem to get super-crafty-productive only when I am stressed and busy with work. Anyone else experience the same thing?)

Mom's Guilt Socks - first one was completed last night, afterthought heel and all:

Child's Placket Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts (made from this corrected pattern) - for a co-worker's impending baby:

I still need to close up the underarms and buy some buttons, but this thing is basically done. Super fun and super easy. It's my first seamless raglan sweater and I LOVE it. I may never go back.

If you want to visit me at Ravelry, I can be found under username "MrsHipp". Take care, y'all!

(BTW: Those of you in So Cal - did you feel the earthquake a few minutes ago?!?)

HP in the House

We got one copy of the book just after midnight on Friday evening. A 15 minute drive seemed waaaaaay too long to wait to crack it open, so I had Mr. Hipp read it aloud to me as I drove home.
We finished at 10pm (me) and 11pm (Mr. Hipp) last night. An excellent read indeed! I am sad to think that it is the end of the Harry Potter saga, but at least I have the movies to look forward to.

Speaking of which, have you see the latest movie in IMAX? We saw it before picking up the book on Friday. The final fight scenes are in 3D!

Sockapalooza 4 socks are nearly done and are simply scrumptious, and my order from Halcyon Yarn arrived. That means Mom's Guilt Socks will be on the needles soon!

Coming Up for Air

Crafting content has been put on an unfortunate hold as I deal with this at work. If you've ever wondered what an epidemiologist does, this is a doozy of an example.

No pictures yet, but my attempt at knitting the latest baby bootie in the round is a success! I've decided that a button for the ankle strap is just a little too risky for my taste. Um, would you want to be the knitter who introduced a potential choking hazard to your friend's baby? So I'm going to try making an i-cord that's long enough to tie into a bow instead.

My mother gave up on waiting for her Scholar Collar. She found an acceptable substitute for herself at an REI sale - $2 for a 100% silk knit scarf! Sorry, Mom, that I didn't finish your scarf in a reasonable time, but I think you scored a major deal in the end.

Keeping checking back for my next gasp of fresh air! Send good thoughts to the ill people in this outbreak for a quick and healthy recovery.