This week in KC's Hijinx and Shenanigans:

Well it's been a typical busy week around Punk Rock Farm. Especially busy for me! I am happy to say I am being inundated with orders! LOVE it! One of the most popular items people would like me to stitch them is the infamous "boobie beanie"! That's right, that fun little beanie for babies, that when the baby is turned towards mom and having a snack, looks like mom's breast being revealed. As a militant lactivist, I think these things are wonderful, and a great *in yo face!* message to all those who turn up their noses at babies eating food Mother Nature meant for them. If you know any new moms, or mommies-to-be, have a baby shower to attend or just want to show your breastfeeding support and pride: consider a Boobie Beanie <click Boobie Beanie to be taken to my etsy shop!>! My prices are awesome and any skin tone and size is available!  

One thing I discovered this week is that in the land of crochet -- crochet breaks all the laws of physics and engineering -- because something that takes one or two hours to make? Takes four times that amount to take apart! I seriously spent a good 5-6 hours last night and today ripping out a newborn hat I didn't really care for, only to turn around and spend a half hour crocheting it back into a beanie. I used that gorgeous Mochi yarn in Strawberry and Lime Rainbow variegated and had Serena make up some amazing little tiny strawberry and lime custom buttons. NOW I am happy (but my fingertips freakin' HURT), because this hat is a present for little Sheridan Brown, born yesterday to Jim and Caseta -- and my Eden has a new baby sister! Congrats to all the Brown's on their newest addition!

Welcome to the world little Sheridan! You're already in style!

Speaking of ripping . . . ZOMP those crocodile booties I am making for Trip? I am about to lose my mind! Just when I think I'm nearly done, I look back to the purple and say "oh shit! I did the body of the slipper wrong! Nooooooooooo!" Rip, rip, rip. So I paid Pippi to sit and rip purple slippers. Which was easy bidness compared to that Mochi yarn in the wee little hat above. Thank Goodness! One thing is for sure . . . I am becoming a master of crocodile booties, AND, using nice yarn makes for some gorgeous variegated colors -- check out that green slipper!

Nooooo! Say it ain't soooo!

Pip can rip!

Look at that awesome color variation! I love these slippers!

Last week at the yarn shop I ended up getting some great deals on clearance yarn. Mostly because Boucle' is freaking HARD to crochet with (I suspect knitting it would be easier, but the knitters on Ravelry say it's a pain in the ass, too) so I spent a lot of late nights this week looking for a nice pullover sweater I can make using large crochet hooks and boucle' yarn. I even ordered a book I planned to make a sweater from, and uhm, yeah, not happening. Large hooks ONLY with this stuff!

Boucle' rhymes with "you better have a large hook and a shit-ton of patience!"

Also, while at my favorite yarn shop I picked up some gorgeous Louisa Harding yarn on clearance. It's 100% cotton, and it's essentially: velvet. That's right folks! Velvet yarn! I am still trying to decide what I want to do with it. Maybe that sweater I bought the book for? Oh man, I got to go check gauges and skein requirements! 

Just look at this stuff! Isn't it divine?

 Also, picked up some Mini-Mochi, for what else? Baby crocodile booty slippers. Because, clearly I am insane and a glutton for punishment. But it's rainbow! IT'S RAINBOW!



Then I found this amazing book . . . and bought the yarn to go with two of the patterns. One, the sea turtles pattern on the cover. My mom fell in love with the pattern and I bought the whole shebang for her birthday.

And I fell in love with the Shoals scarf, and did my own color variation to go more with a Spring color scheme. It's so gorgeous and when I have free time? I am ON IT! Well once I figure out the pattern that is.

. . . and then. And then I tried to start Sea Turtles one evening to take a break from crocodile booties. And I scratched my head. And I crocheted it all wrong. Because I was following the written pattern. Speaking of frustrated? HOLY CRAZY TALK BATMAN! It made no sense. It was like trying to understand what Boomhauer is saying. You get the gist, but all detail is completely lost. So I followed the picture and I followed the Japanese-style graph pattern and it didn't match. So guess what I had to do? Riiiiiiiiiip. Then I left a scathing review on Amazon about how poorly written the patterns are despite the gorgeous designs. However, I have learned I am good at writing patterns, and I learned how to follow Japanese Crochet graph-patterns. Or I keep telling myself this when I get pissed at paying $23 for a book that has shitty and nonsensical written patterns. 

I also bought this AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING soap at the yarn shop (I don't know why it's at the yarn shop, and I didn't ask but I LOVE that it is). If the softest, nicest ingredients you could imagine met the best scents you could imagine and became a bar of soap? You'd have Zumbar. But you don't, I do. But you should get some! Because it's freakin' amazing and at some point I am going to have to put a link in here right to them on where to order, but for now, oh look at this! Click here! They even have a store locator!

Anyway -- if you have eczema or just like spoiling yourself in the shower? BUY THIS STUFF! The dragonsblood and sandalwood & citrus smell like heaven! Between this soap and my recently arrived Fleur de Narajana, and the Beautifying floral oil from Body Shop? I smell like a Santeria shop! I LOVE smelling like a Santeria shop! And the scents, being obviously essential oils -- stay with you.

The Hankster (a yarn shop hipster tattoo guy is a Hankster. You're welcome Yarn Shop Guys!) at my yarn shop swears it's great for Eczema.

In the meantime, I got some awesome photos from customers and friends in my hats this week! I LOVE seeing you in my stuff! Like seriously, all flattered and happy and proud! Keep sending them people!

Kitten in a Pinkie Pie!

Susan, my best friend in the whole world including outer space! Alpaca beanie with flower and vintage button!

Pinkie Pie beanies with custom cupcake buttons. One adult, one child size.

Speaking of Pinkie Pie Beanies!  Oh man, the original idea-maker, Kristen, well her three beanies are finally done! She asked me to hold off for a while, so I did, but now, seeing more Pinkie Pie beanies on others? She wanted hers NOW! So you got em babe, they're on their way! I'm thinking of making more masculine style beanies too, with masculine square appliques, but with the proper custom-made buttons indicating the proper ponies -- for the Bronies! Tell me fellas, would you like your own Bronie beanies to show off your mad pony-love?

Pinkie Pies and Derpy hat with custom Lemon-Poppyseed Muffin button!

At the end of tales in the land of my crochet business, Eden asked me for a pair of legwarmers. She picked out the pattern online. She asked for natural colors. She ended up with these! They're available for custom order on Etsy in any color you might like!

Pedro installed a white board in my office area for me to keep track of all my orders. Thank goodness! Sometimes, especially when all the kids are home, I tend to get sidetracked. Now that everything is in one place, I know exactly what needs to be done and where all the projects are at! I love feeling organized. Now to just clean my desk . . . . 

What a handsome farmer!

And FINALLY in other farm news: the teen girls have started softball on their high school softball team! Four hundred dollars later, we hope they have a winning season!

Pedro got a pick-up truck! Woot woot! You can't really have a farm without a pick-up truck, and now he can haul all the tractor parts he needs all around this small farm town. And chickens! Because this year? I'm raising chickens! Fresh eggs! Fresh chicken! YES PLEASE! Congrats on your new truck baby, and thank you for the numerous dump runs you made today. Spring cleaning is in the air!

And tomorrow I believe we'll be starting seeds. Have the soil, have the seeds, have numerous small little hands around for planting starters!

And that's it for this week's farm report. Hope you and yours are well and happy! Oi Oi Oi from all of us at Punk Rock Farm!

A photographer and a hooker walk into a bar . . .

No, just kidding. But a photographer and a hooker, i.e. crocheter, DID get to chatting one evening. The photographer asked the crocheter if she could make those adorable little custom creations that one might see in beautiful portraiture photography of babies. And the crocheter said she could, and a beautiful, creative relationship was formed!

The photographer, Ms. Heather Cromack of Heather Cromack Photography in New Jersey, thank you for allowing me the freedom to create and design some amazing and versatile photo-props for your business! What a blast! If you are in the New Jersey/NYC area, please contact Heather for your portraiture needs! (She has some amazing props! Ha!)

I started with a cute little pumpkin beanie. Because, well it's a PUMPKIN BEANIE!


I then made a little blue newsboy cap at Heather's request. And what's cuter than a tiny blue newsboy cap on a baby boy's head? A matching tiny diaper cover! This is the softest, most luxurious yarn, made out of bamboo fiber!

A quick internet search revealed even more cute ideas for chunky yarn crocheted into adorable baby beanies, like this double Pom Pom beanie from Hooking on Madrid's Metro blog.



And of course, what's cuter than just a double pom pom beanie? A matching tiny diaper cover!


Then I decided that the baby girls should be rightly represented, and I swear there's nothing more precious than a baby girl in a headband with a large, pretty flower! So I took this gorgeous silk, cashmere and merino wool spun in Italy and hand-painted in Chile and made a classical head band that's adjustable for size (9mos down to newborn) added a vintage button and a reversible/removable  flower. (top)



But one vintage style wouldn't do, so I also made a fun and very colorful adjustable headband with another vintage button, this time in merino wool hand dyed in the colors of "strawberry and lime rainbow"! (bottom)

Isn't it adorable how the flowers are removable and can be pinned to other hats or dresses?Or the headbands can be worn plain?

So now that I was so impressed with the cuteness of matching sets I decided the orange pumpkin hat and matching girlie hat like this one, (but is not pictured on my blog as it's not completely assembled, however it IS part of the newborn prop set) also needed a cute matching diaper cover. For this, I decided to go for a little bit more coverage as I wanted to add appliques. There were no matching patterns for what I wanted, so I wrote my own. And voila, a versatile matching bottom that can go from Spring or Summer, and from girls to boys, and then to Fall with the matching pumpkin beanie!



The front of the drawstring-adjustable diaper cover with leaf and vine applique, and the vines wipes around to the back . . .



Where there's more vines, and cute little matching buttons.



And beautiful Fall leaves can be attached to the cute little butt. . .



Or even a bright green for Summer and flowers!

And because there's more seasons and not everyone is a fan of orange, I though how cute would it be to make a different color of beanie, remove the ribbing and the pumpkin vine, add a leaf and re-title it to:


"You're My Huckleberry!"
Double crocheted from Sublime cashmere/merino/silk yarn. 


 I've had so much fun creating all these little items, and having the freedom to come up with creative ways to make props more usable across seasons and sets. I do hope to have a chance at another set of Photographer props, because the next set will have just as much creativity but not all the same patterns and colors. Thanks for looking! And again, if in NJ or NY, consider Heather Cromack for your photos!

If you are a photographer interested in adding more props to your stash, or a parent looking for the perfect little prop for your baby's first photos? Contact me at kedroc8@gmail.com!

It all started with a pair of slippers . . . and now I am a full time hooker!

Email: kedroc8@gmail.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kcrcrane
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KCsHijinx?ref=si_shop
Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/people/Varlavortex
Paypal: kedroc8@gmail.com

Last fall, as the wind hiked up and the temps drew down, I decided I needed a pair of slippers. Since I know a lot of hookers and knitters, a lot of cute little projects come across my facebook feed. I had finished our quilt, and on a painting hiatus via painter's block, I decided to buy some cheap-o yarn and get to hooking me up some slippers (See what I did there? Double entendre FTW!).
















They were a hit! Not only were they warm and comfortable, my friends & family really took an interest into what I was making. I was seriously out-of-practice with crochet. I hadn't hooked anything in years. Much less followed a crochet-pattern. But sheer determination forged me ahead. I pulled out an old pattern a friend had sent, and retaught myself how to follow a pattern, specifically: a difficult pattern, correctly. I made a gorgeous skull shawl.

You can own this shawl, it shall be on Etsy this week!

My own design for a skull applique'!
If you would like the pattern, I'll be happy to share!

The demand for slippers grew, and then frustration with my own appliques held me back. The appliques and crochet patterns are fine, it's the embellishment that looked like crap and made me pull out my hair. Yes, I could use embroidery thread. But the worst had happened and I actually got frustrated with a project -- and skull slippers went into a desk drawer until I could figure it all out the way I wanted it. I'm so sorry Cassie, one day, when you're least expecting it -- you'll get some damn fine slippers!











In the meantime, Pedro needed beanies for work. My sister Jenny found an amazing basketweave project she JUST HAD TO HAVE. My friend "Chickyn Jane" crocheted a Cthulhu doll and I knew my son would love one, so I made one for him for Christmas. The holidays were fast-approaching. Between a lack of funds and a growing stash of yarn, I knew I could create a bunch of presents instead of buy.

My very first beanie. Yeah, not so great.

Shane realllly wanted one of those beard beanies! And this is how I look when I crochet until 1AM, and the kids wake me up at 3:30AM in anticipation of Santa.

Oh Cthulu! You cutie-pie, you!

Pippi realllllly wanted a panda bear. Pippi got one!

I fell in love with an idea I came across of using classic Granny-Squares and making them into heirloom scarves. Both Eden and Crysta (our teenage girls) got heirloom scarves with vintage buttons that allow them to be worn as cowls as well as scarves for Christmas.

I started buying a lot of cool crochet books. I even had a design idea of making Granny squares in whites, browns, light pinks and mint greens, surrounding them in a dark velvet red, and creating an afghan that looks like a giant box of chocolates! Needless-to-say, that project is on hold for quite a while!

"Box of Chocolates Afghan" squares

In January my mom came to stay with us for a spell. Being a life-long knitter as she is, I did my time in yarn shops. As a kid I would moan when she'd say as we were driving: "I'm going to stop by the yarn shop!". "Nooooooooo! At least let me get a book!" Hours upon hours I would sit while she touched this, checked that, hunted-down patterns, whipped out calculators and adjusted patterns, all while I rolled my pubescent, overly made-up: eyes. Not that I didn't grow up with a large collection of some serious bomb-ass knitted sweaters and blankets. Because I did. And my mom is a very talented knitter. So when she said "C'mon, lets go get you some proper yarn. You won't believe the difference!" I was more than willing to go, and hopefully spend hours touching yarns and dreaming up patterns and, and, and . . .   I have discovered and fallen in love with yarn shop: yarn.  For hand spun, hand painted, silk and merino and baby alpaca and everything that causes a visceral and pleasurable response to my fingertips. Yarns that make me sigh in delight as I crochet.

And just like the way I like to purchase food, or gifts or anything I can feasibly purchase from local businesses, work-from-home-moms or anything American-made: buying local helps local families. I feel good when I help local business. And I get what I pay for in return. Just like the local butcher's meat tastes fantastic compared to large meat-processing-plants -- small-batch produced yarn, hand spun, hand painted, and blends of silk and different wools? The difference is incredible! 

Paradise Fibers, Spokane, WA

The same hat can be purchased by clicking here!

My first yarn-shop yarn became a beanie for my daughter Penelope. Having a bit extra, I made another (and a lucky somebody can purchase it at Etsy!). I began making all sorts of lovely items from a variety of wools and fibers. 

This same hat can be purchased here!

My best friend laid-claim to this one!

It was when I posted pictures of my beanie-making-adventures that my dear friend Kristen Marie, a lover of MLP FIM, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, source of all this Bronie love, ordered three custom Pony-inspired beanies. One for herself and one her daughter in Pinkie-Pie's colors, and one in the colors of Derpy (which I am sure is not the Pony's name, but that's how she calls her/him, and so now I call it that, too!). She asked that I add "cupcake" buttons, and possibly a "muffin" button for Derpy. After a quick search, I discovered that the buttons I want could only be made. So I called on my friend Serena (of Jewelry by Serena, featured on my Etsy page) and asked her to create these special buttons. It's been a beautiful partnership, as Serena produces exactly what I envision, and what I request. She refers to the colors of my yarns and produces the perfect complimentary buttons, in the perfect sizes! If you would like to order custom buttons for your own knit, crochet or sewing projects? Email me at kedroc8@gmail.com, and Serena will gladly fulfill your request!  

Custom, handmade buttons made by Jewelry by Serena

My friend Kathy liked the MLP beanie so much, she ordered one for her daughter, too!

I joined Ravelry. I've started entering my "stash" into their database. I've been "favoriting" like a little coveter of every cool pattern I see! Ravelry is indeed an amazing source for all things wool!

Also, seeing all this beanie love, a friend of mine in New Jersey is building her own photography business from the ground up, and requested cute little newborn props. I've found cool patterns, I've written my own patterns, I have come up with some pretty clever little ideas for the prop-department, and I am all set to blog that next. As my "Newborn Prop Set for Photographers" is about to hit the mail this afternoon! I am so happy to have had this opportunity and send out a HUGE THANK YOU to Heather Cromack Photography, New Jersey!

When my dearest friend Lauren saw the little blue newboys cap above, she had to have one in adult size. So we poured through numerous patterns until we found the winner, and voila: a gorgeous newsboy in classic red! 

Lauren in her Brooklyn Newsboy Cap

My friend Scott ordered those adorable boobie-beanies for a lactivist friend of his who is due with another baby! If it has to do with breastfeeding pride and activism? You can count me in! As a result, another friend has also ordered a set of boobie beanies -- and informed me they are not easily available on the internet to order.  I WILL MAKE THEM, AND DUE TO MY STRONG BELIEF IN THE RIGHT TO BREASTFEED ANYWHERE AND ANYTIME YOUR BABY IS HUNGRY? I OFFER A GREAT PRICE! A set of three (Newborn-9mos) is only $20. If you would like just one, it's $7, two for $13.50, and three for $20! They are made from super-soft baby-spun acrylic and are machine washable. Email me at kedroc8@gmail.com to order your boobie beanie! 

Still the hooks and yarn call, and the project-list and orders grow longer . . . and here I am, neck-deep in yarn and ideas and inspiration, and well - it all came about today, Ash Wednesday -- that I am FINALLY gathering together all my photos, and my stories of the previous few months. I've been a busy little hooker with little time to blog! I'm kicking my own butt for not documenting as I go (except here and there on my facebook page -- feel free to add me! I might post an idea you are interested in!) -- but let's face it, between fulfilling orders and running a farm and raising five kids, my down-time is for sleeping, and fingers are for hooking. And I'm glad, because my skills have improved, like, 1,000-fold. I LIKE difficult patterns. I LOVE a challenge. And I really love creating things that make other people happy. Like those very popular crocodile boot slippers? Yep, I am making three for one of the coolest ladies in the world: Trip Day, and her two best friends!

Crocodile Stitch slipper-boots.

If you see anything you like, PLEASE feel free to email me at kedroc8@gmail.com, or leave me your email address in the comments, and I will be glad to make you whatever your heart desires at a great price!

If you make home-made items, from spinning clay to making soap? I am open to barter! Again, email me an offer you crafty people! I have a huge love for homemade soaps!

Here's a list of ways to reach me, or order custom crochet or custom buttons. I hope to have more on Etsy within a month or two, but my orders have me very busy and I will only create for-sale items when I have free time outside of orders!

Email: kedroc8@gmail.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kcrcrane
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KCsHijinx?ref=si_shop
Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/people/Varlavortex
Paypal: kedroc8@gmail.com

And FINALLY! Last weekend I made my own beanie. Because it's cold, and because I'm the only person who hasn't received a hand made crocheted item from myself -- since those slippers that started it all -- I made myself a gorgeous little beanie out of the sweetest, softest, baby alpaca yarn I've ever felt!

I want to thank you, as does Pedro, from the bottom of our hearts -- for helping us in helping our farm, raising our children, and to allow me to remain busy and doing the thing that I love: creating art! 

Baby Alpaca SQUEEE! You can buy the same yarn here!