Thanks and Giving

GIVING THANKS
It's November.. which means your Facebook feed is probably packed with the annual "I'm Thankful" posts. Mine is. I don't participate in it but a lot of people I know do. Being thankful is something that we practice all year around in our house but in November, I sit down with my kids and we discuss things that we are grateful for.

TRADITIONS
As my kids grow, I'm always trying to come up with activities we can all do together. In passed years, we made paper hand turkeys and wrote what we were grateful for and I hung them on the wall with a sign in the middle that said, We Are Thankful for...  I used construction paper and each child was given their favorite color to use for their turkeys.
Last year I came up with something a little more interactive. I typed up and printed out little papers that said this:

In the Thompson house, Being Thankful is very important to us. Throughout the month of November we are celebrating the people who make a difference in our lives by saying THANKS and GIVING a small gift that we have made.
You were chosen by _________
Because __________________
Thank you for being awesome!

I had each child chose (at least) 3 people, fill out the paper, and make a Christmas ornament to give to them. (I bought a kit at a craft store. Ornaments are what they chose) The kids had fun doing it and the recipients were very touched to have been chosen. It gave my kids a sense of pride and honored people who maybe didn't think they were making an impact on my children's lives. We will be doing this again in the coming weeks. This is definitely something I want to continue and hope that they will pass on the tradition when they have children.

I hope that you found some inspiration from this post. In a world full of hate and anger, I am trying to raise my children to choose love and compassion. It all starts with little things like this tradition.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

STARFIRE:


If you haven't already, go back and read the basic hat info.

Using your basic hat pattern, make the proper color changes to separate the face from the hair. With dark peach, I started with 14 sts, and inceased in ea side until I ended up with 18 sts. The number of rows depends on the size so plan ahead with measurements to avoid starting over.

HAIR:
After the hat is made, I added about 10 rows to the back, decreasing in each end, to extend her hair. I finished with a sc boreder adding picot sts to give a hair like appearance.

EARS:
Magic ring, dc8, ch2, turn, hdc in ea, ch1, sc along end of ea row. Attach to head.

BANGS:
ch 10, sl st, sc, hdc, dc in rest to top. Work around other side in back loops to make the same pattern. (Work it backwards) Sew to front of hair.

SIDE HAIR:
ch 20, hdc in ea st on both sides (in back loops also) Sew to head in front of ears

EYES:
Black- magic ring, sc6, join. Dk Green- 2sc in ea, join. Lime Green- dc1, dc2, rep, join. Use black to make a partial border at the top and bottom. Use picot sts to make eyelashes.

Stitch on nose and mouth.

That's about it! I have included up close photos to help you along the way. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me. The only thing I will not share is my basic hat pattern as I intend to list it in my ravelry shop soon.

Enjoy your hat! TITANS GO!

RAVEN:

If you haven't already, go back and read the basic hat info.

Start small at the top and increase all the way down to make the hood. I started with a magic ring and 6 dc inside. It will take quite a few rounds but you'll get it to the proper size if you keep gradually increasing. The number of rounds depends on the size so plan ahead with measurements to avoid starting over.
Once you get to the face area, make the proper color changes so her face has an M shape for the shadow. Be sure to use white in the center of the last 3 rows to make her nose and mouth area.

EYES:
White- magic ring, dc 10, ch2, turn, dc2 in ea. Sc across the end of ea row.
Black- MR, sc4, change to purple, sc2 in ea. Sew to white part. Stitch to head.

Stitch on mouth

That's about it! I have included up close photos to help you along the way. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me. The only thing I will not share is my basic hat pattern as I intend to list it in my ravelry shop soon.


Enjoy your hat! TITANS GO!

CYBORG:

If you haven't already, go back and read the basic hat info.

Using your basic hat pattern, make the proper color changes to separate man and machine. Half of the head will be brown and half will be sky blue. When you get about 4 rows from the bottom, drop the blue and pick up grey. (See photos for help with placement)

EYES:
Same as Robin. Make one all red.

EYEBROWS:
Same as Beast Boy

EARS:
Same as Starfire

Stitch on nose and mouth.

That's about it! I have included up close photos to help you along the way. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me. The only thing I will not share is my basic hat pattern as I intend to list it in my ravelry shop soon.

Enjoy your hat! TITANS GO!

ROBIN:

If you haven't already, go back and read the basic hat info.

Using your basic hat pattern, make the appropriate color changes to separate the face and hair. I started with about 20 peach sts increasing on ea side until I ended up with 24.

EYES:
White: Magic ring, dc8 join. ch2, turn, dc2 in ea, join. ch2, dc1, dc2, rep, join. sc across ea row. With black, sc border around entire eye.

EARS:
Same as Starfire

HAIR:
Same as Beast Boy but make 3 large spikes for the back, 2 medium for the middle, and 1 small for the front.

Stitch on nose and mouth

That's about it! I have included up close photos to help you along the way. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me. The only thing I will not share is my basic hat pattern as I intend to list it in my ravelry shop soon.

Enjoy your hat! TITANS GO!

BEAST BOY:

If you haven't already, go back and read the basic hat info.

Using you basic hat pattern, make appropriate color changes between kelly green and lime to separate the face from the hair. Basically the back is dark and the front is lime. My color changes were at each crease when the hat was lying flat. (I did the entire border in lime)

EARS:
Magic Ring, work hdc sts in a spiral to make the ear. Use dc and chs to make them pointed.

SIDEBURNS:
ch 14, dc in 2nd and ea, work around the other side in back loops also. stitch to head in front of ear.

EYES:
Magic Ring, *Black* sc 6, join. Ch2, dc2 in ea, join. Dc1, Dc2, rep, join. Use a spike st in ea to make it more animated.

EYEBROWS:
Ch 8, sc in 3, hdc in rest. Stitch to head

HAIR:
Make triangles in various lengths. Start with a MR and use dc sts throughout, increasing to form hair spikes. I made 4 total.. each one row longer than the last.

Stitch on nose and mouth, make sure you include his signature tooth.

That's about it! I have included up close photos to help you along the way. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me. The only thing I will not share is my basic hat pattern as I intend to list it in my ravelry shop soon.

Enjoy your hat! TITANS GO!

Handmade Halloween

Handmade Halloween

Every year I make my kids Halloween Costumes. Partly because store bought costumes are expensive and I have 5 kids, also because they're not meant for cold weather. * Here in northern Indiana, it's almost ALWAYS cold and rainy or snowy on Halloween. This year is no exception.*

A couple of years ago, my kids dressed as Pokémon characters. My oldest.. Ash and the 4 others were the gen 1 starters. Last year I let them decide what they wanted to be individually but it wasn't as dynamic as the group costumes.

This year we toiled over what to be for several weeks. Some of the possibilities were Mario Bros, Moana, and a Pokémon evolution... (such as pichu, pikachu, raichu) *I may have spelled those wrong* After much consideration, we went with Teen Titans Go!

The cartoon, if you're not familiar, is on Cartoon Network. It's a reboot of the Teen Titans cartoon. Teen Titans was kind of dark and serious where Teen Titans Go is funny and is reminiscent of a 90s cartoon.

I received such an amazing response from these hats. Around 1,000 people reacted to my posts in various social media platforms on day 1. I'm still seeing responses a week later. The kind words and compliments were overwhelming. I had many people ask about patterns. I did them all free hand. I didn't write down the patterns and never intended to. In the past, I have been verbally attacked and actually threatened to be turned in for making pay patterns featuring trademark characters so it's not something I do anymore. I feel like the amount of work I put into these hats would warrant monetary compensation for the written patterns, but since I don't intend to go back to writing character patterns (for profit) ever again, I thought that I would do something to help others who may want to try to free hand some Titans of their very own. I'll give you as much info as I can and provide you with up close photos to help you along the way.

Materials:
*Worsted Weight Yarn. Most were Red Heart Super Saver (because it's cheap and offers tons of colors)
*Hook H for all the hats
*Hook F for eyes and other details
*Scissors, needle, and a little imagination