Merrily we roll along...

I think merry and its variations is one of my favorite words.

Well, now that Christmas is past, I can finally put up pictures of what I made for gifts. WAIT! Not the Huddlestons! :) Ronni, you must come back to this post after we've gone, ok? Thanks.

I did not do all the things I had so fabulously planned to do. I got overwhelmed and cranky. So I made whatever I felt like making and bought the rest. Cheating, but what can you do? I'll just send random handmade gifts throughout the year as a surprise to the recipients, how about that?

First up!

More eyeglass chains for my mom! Actually, one is the repair of the one I already made her. So, she really just got one new one and the old one back. But I did make the little drawstring bags to go with them. I cheated on those, too. I used the selvege edge as the opening so I didn't have to hem it. I'm lazy with hemming. The fabric came from one of those remnant piles you see at the fabric store. Like $.83 for 3/4 a yard or something. It's really pretty though. Linen, I think, with yellow cut-out flowers. I used embroidery thread for the drawstring. Easypeasy! So easy, in fact, that I felt kind of bad and decided I had to make her something else. So while we were watching Guys and Dolls, two nights before we were set to leave to go to my parents, I knit up Calorimetry from Knitty. I used Patons SWS Yarn in Geranium and a button I happened to have in my sewing case.

For Caity, Connie, and Katrina, I made them all pretty much the same thing. They didn't seem to mind which made me happy because I really liked what I made. I bought from etsy.com all-natural soaps from Cottage Garden Therapies, who I highly recommend. They were very nice and their products seemed high-quality, and who can argue with all-natual products that they make by hand themselves?? For Caity, I got Hippie-in-a-Bar, for Connie was Orange Patchouli, and for Katrina there was Celtic Sea Moss. They all smelled rather nicely, I thought. To go along with the soaps, I knit little facial washcloths with Coats and Clark TLC Cotton Plus in Thistle. Each washcloth was a different knit pattern: seed stitch, basketweave, and my own funky lace eyelet pattern thing. To contain these items, I made little bags with remnant fabric and an old polyester silk slip for the lining and a hook-and-eye closure. The yarn was a pleasure to work with. The slip, not so much. I need someone to tell me how to make a lining that doesn't drive me crazy! I stuck in little baggies of Greek tea and instructions on how to brew it with everything. From left to right: Connie's, Trina's, and Caity's.

And finally, for the Huddlestons, I made them picture frames. Well, I painted already made frames. The grandbaby is for the parents, obviously, and the auntie one is for the sister. Duh. :) I used little stencils that totally did not work. I messed up a couple letters and a flower so I just drew the stencil on with a pencil and painted over it with a fine brush. Hope they like it!

My dad, brother, and husband got gypped. I'm in the process of making a basketweave scarf for my dad for their trip to New York in January. I hope it turns out ok. I'm usuing Lion's Brand, which is acrylic, yes, but even if you can't see the pattern very well, it's still fluffly and warm. And bright red. My brother just got some books and my husband got an awesome drill (to go with the awesome saw he got from my family) and tickets to the 24 hour Nascar race in January. He's pretty psyched, that's all I ask for.

Now that Christmas is over, hopefully I can start on some of my other projects waiting in the wings. I need to get those darned armwarmers done! Maybe I'll have a renewed interest in them.

Happy New Year!

Buyer's Week

Truly.

This week my yarn for the Pinwheel Sweater came in:

From left to right:

Two skeins Dusty Rose, One skein Nutmeg Heather, One skein Serengeti Sand, Two skeins Peridot, One skein Cedar, Two skeins Boysenberry, and Three skeins Eggplant.

I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in the color turnout. The boysenberry is a much brighter pinky-redy-purpley color than I was expecting. The dusty rose is a nice dark-light pink (if that makes sense) and the eggplant is a rich dark purple, so the boysenberry kind of stands out. David thinks they will work out when it comes together, but I think I'm going to send the boysenberry back and select another color. The rest I'm fairly satisfied with. I'd like the peridot a little less spring green and a little more lime green, like the real peridot. Anyway, I'm still pretty excited to start this project after Christmas.

Yesterday I took my Michael's 40% off coupon my mother sent me and bought two skeins of the Patons Classic Wool, one in Royal Purple and one in Leaf Green and a skein of Patons SWS in Natural Geranium. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to use any of these for, I just loved the colors and I love all-natural fibres. The only Patons I've worked with is the Patons Grace for my failed armwarmers. I loved the yarn, even if it did not work out for the armwarmers, so I have high hopes for this batch of yarn.

Today I took the fabulous Katrina's 50% off coupon for JoAnn's and headed in for fabric and patterns. Much to my dismay, most of what I wanted was on sale! That might sound weird, but I can only budget for so much crafting a month and I can't use coupons on sale items, so what I may go in to get is more expensive with the sale than the coupon. At least in the quantities I need. I did, however, take advantage of their pattern sales and get two maternity patterns, McCalls 4398 and Butterick 3403. I'm planning on making View C of the former and View A of the latter. I think I've only used Simplicity patterns before, and they never turn out right, so I'm hoping these patterns work better. I've heard good reviews about both pattern companies in general. I also got the fabric I'd like for both patterns:

The pink is for the Butterick. I accidentally told the cutting girl three yards instead of one and-a-half, but that's ok. Now I have enough to make two! The patterned fabric, destined for McCalls, is a really neat fabric. The fabric maker, I've forgotten the name (some designer name like Amy Butler except not...same idea in fabrics, though), has this huge array of beautiful patterns and textures. I wanted to buy them all. I can always go back! The base color is this super light blue, so light you think it might be white, and the flowers are not-quite-mustardy yellow and deep red. It's really pretty. I adore it. Fortunately, while the patterns ($1.99 and $5.99!) and the pink fabric ($1.99/yard) were on sale, the fancy fabric was not, and so I was able to use the fabulous coupon AND take advantage of the sale. They had some beautiful knit fabric patterns too, strangely labeled as juvenile. I don't know why, they were fun plummy and deep pinky flowers on cream fabric or beautiful plummy and deep pinky courderoys. Ah well, next time I suppose.

Oh right....I have a crafting blog...

I guess I should update it.

WELL!

I sewed the shoulder seams on my dress. Whoo! That's a celebration! I'm thinking I'm just going to take my time and if it takes me the whole pregnancy to sew it, then fine. I'm in no rush. My body isn't going anywhere for nine months. However, I would like to get together with my cousin and sew with her, if she's available. It's just always fun to sew with people. She's fun.

And I frogged my armwarmes and now the yarn is in a nice, big, tangled mess. Not fun. I've been working through it but every time I put it down it gets tangled again. So it seems, anyway. I don't have five hours to devote to untangling the stupid thing, so I'll just keep working at it. It's not looking as pretty anymore, though. This makes me sad.

I started on Connie's present. I'm an inch closer to being finished than when I started! I try to stay on the positive side. The yarn is fun to knit, though difficult to work with sometimes because there's all these loops. I'm not sure how I'm going to work the eyelets, but the yarn is loopy enough itself it may not matter. I started working with double strands, but I may go back and frog it and use single strand. It won't felt as tightly, but it will be lacier and more breathable and that might be a better result.

My cousin gave me a scarf to wear out on her boat yesterday. It was so pretty and had the most beautiful bold jewel-tone colors. It was made with one of those...not textured, but.....not eyelash.....kind of fringey yarns and there were lots of colors and strands woven to make one strand. I'm not sure of the pattern, either, because it wasn't ribbed at all. It was flat and when I examined how the strands were knotted together they looked like they formed little squares in rows all the way down the scarf. I need to make this scarf.

I need to make the Huddleston family projects, too. I may store-buy my dad and brother. My mom I haven't decided and Katrina and Caity I go back and forth on. I'd LOVE to make something for Corinne but what I want to make is like way time-consuming and may be more complex than I'm skilled to do.

And that's all, folks. I'm heading to bed. Read about my family....that's more intersting.

Hooray for blahness!

Since discovering I'm pregnant (whoo!) I have felt a whole lot less lazy and more like I have a reason to feel like not doing anything. This makes me happy and actually motivates me more. I work in contradictions.

So Saturday I finished my first armwarmer. It was AWFUL! So awful I didn't even take a picture of it. First of all, it's waaay too small. Ok, I'm not thin by any means but I am small-boned, so I wear a lot of kid-sized gloves, hats, sunglasses, underwear, etc. I have never been accused of having large hands or abnormally large forearms. However, when I made the armwarmer, it isn't big enough to go halfway around my arm. So disappointing! So I'm going to have to make the large size if I want to wear them at all, which I do, and that means serious frogging will ensue. *sigh* It breaks my heart but I'd rather have something wearable than something to just look at. This, of course, means the pattern will require some modification in order to fit the person for whom I'm making them. She's not exceptionally large, either, but I know if small and medium won't fit me, they certainly won't fit her. Ugh.

The second awful thing about this armwarmer is that you can obviously tell I've never used DPNs before and was quite uncomfortable with them. They were metal, which meant they slipped easily. And the yarn is this thin yarn, Patons Grace sportweight I think. I have to check the label. Anyway, if I'm not a tight knitter I'm a super-loose knitter, haven't gotten to the comfortable inbetween yet, so this resulted in a lot of weirdly dropped stitches. Before this project I was proud to say I had never dropped a stitch before. I guess I have to experience all the downsides so I can appreciate the accomplishment, right? And the weird thing is there are places where I can see that I dropped the stitch but it somehow twisted itself into another stitch as I knitted along, making it impossible to fix. There are also a lot of weird spaces where the needles were dividing the loops or whatever.

The positive thing is the yarn I'm using for my friend is much more forgiving with holes and things, so it should be ok. Also, because I was smart enough to practice before doing the actual gift, I know how to fix future mistakes. Maybe. I really just need more practice.

So, I know what I'm doing for my in-laws, my sister-in-law, Connie, and hopefully Katrina and Corinne (though I may be a little ambitious...we'll see). I don't know what to do for Caity, my parents, and my brother. Who am I forgetting? Not my husband....he's getting a non-homemade gift this year. Or maybe I'll make him something small to supplement his gift. We'll see.

As soon as Christmas is over then I can make fun stuff for ME! I'm excited. In fact, tonight I'm going to piece together my dress and start sewing it up. I'd like to make it and have it done because it seems like it will be a pretty good maternity dress. Then I'll get started on the Christmas things and hopefully have them done by Christmas. :)

I think I've chosen mostly quick projects for gifts, so it really shouldn't take that long to do each of them. The issue will be time managment and accumulation of materials. I don't expect to give everyone knitted gifts, so everyone better not expect to receive them! :) I sew and embroider and do jewelry and tshirts and things, too!

Time to get started, I guess. Or do my laundry. Hm. I'm really motivated to do things but I'm not motivated to actually start.

Armwarmers and Hot Chocolate

Ok, so I happen to be drinking hot chocolate while I'm typing this. It isn't actually related to knitting. It's cold outside! Hot chocolate is the best.

So I went to Maine and came back and accomplished NOTHING with my scarf. I think I hate it now. In fact, I never want to see it again. It can DIE!

I'm hoping that by hiding it at the bottom of my stay-in-the-car bag I can fool myself into forgetting about it and later come back to it with renewed interest and zeal and complete it and give it to the man. Hopefully before this cold weather runs out and we're back in the summer season.

So, I moved on to my armwarmes. I have like 80million Christmas presents I need to make, but first I need to get the money to buy the yarn. So we're using what we have until that day comes. I'm crossing my fingers it comes before Christmas. :)

I used DPNs for the first time! Whoo! The directions say to divide evenly on four needles, but I only have four needles, so I had to divide not so evenly on three. It worked out. However, somehow I made a lot of holes and spaces. Maybe it's the yarn I used. I'm making these for a Christmas present but the yarn is MUCH different for that, so it should work out very nicely. All in all, I'm very plesed with my first armwarmer! Now I just have to get started on the second....

















It's not quite done yet. I have to bind off the top and the thumb gusset. That will be fun. Ha. You can totally see all the mistakes in the picture on the right. It looks awful, I know. I don't know how to increase and decrease stitches tighter on DPNs. Really, this was a "first-time project" since I had never done most of what the directions said, except for knit. I do know how to do that. The edges in the picture on the left curl in because it's not seamed as a whole tube until it gets to the edge of the hand. There are little eyelets to thread a ribbon through to lace it up closed. It's really quite lovely and I can't wait to finish them and wear them!

In sewing news....I have none. I was supposed to complete my dress by the Friday so I could wear it to a wedding I'm interpreting for. Well, I got too engrosseed in Maine and tv shows on videotape. So I'll have to find something else to wear and figure the dress out later. I need to get started on it. Every time I walk past it I feel guilty. Grrr.

That's it for now. Goodnight.

Alas...

I had such high hopes for this week. I was going to watch my most excellent movies, knit up a frenzy, be all ready for our anniversary trip by Thursday or Friday, and enjoy a calm, peaceful, and relaxing week.

Well.......

Sunday I knitted, but I had to request my movies so I ended up watching tapes my mom had made. Monday....I didn't knit so much. Maybe a row here and there. Tuesday...nada. Wednesday.........nada. Thursday! My movies have arrived! I borrow them, get settled in...Get called to work. So Thursday I did not watch movies, or knit, or pack.

Sigh.

Friday I went to visit Mummy and Daddy on the western front. While Hubby and I are galavanting, exploring the Great White North, they are roaming mountainous Georgia for a week. Well, not really roaming. More like my mom sitting in rocking chairs and La-Z-Boys, gossiping with the gals and playing with the kitties and my dad commandeering the John Deer.

Anyway, the point is, while I had a lovely time eating shrimp, watching Oprah, cruising around the Hill with bro-man (if you can believe it, they're putting in a HOUSING DEVELOPMENT near Central....RUINATION WILL ENSUE!), and playing "sheet" with Pip, and getting rear-ended in Ocala, I accomplished nothing on my excursion related to my afformentioned high hopes of the week.

THEREFORE.

I have exactly six more inches completed on my scarf. And this was supposed to be finished before tomorrow so I could work on the arm warmers on the plane. Neither did I watch my movies. :( They had to be returned today and I had to work today (job orientation for Publix - very interesting! I love getting inside glimpses to things I wouldn't normally be allowed to see) so this afternoon was filled with stressful packing (just how do you pack for 56-degree northern weather when all you're used to is 56-degree tropical wetness?) and finally a collapse on the couch with the second disk of House Season Two.

So I'll complete my scarf tomorrow on the plane to Atlanta, in Atlanta, and to Bangor. The arm warmers will just have to wait, won't they?

Trina, my dear, sewing isn't that hard once you get used to it. Seaming is probably the easiest thing to do. If we lived closer we could swap projects - you could felt for me and I'd seam for you. Ach. Distance.

I bid adieu. See you Wednesday! Hopefully I won't have frozen my face off....

WIPs

Okeydoke, I didn't get to post yesterday because I was gone all day in Orlando. I spent most of the afternoon at the Millenia mall, pretty much my favorite mall. I love seeing the different stores and the outlandish stuff being sold, as well as the outlandish outfits worn by Americans and foreigners alike. I usually get a Starbucks and sit at the food court viewing area or whatever it's called where you can look down to the open area on the ground floor. There's always a ton of UK-ers around and for some reason Germans and, since I love both, it's really a favorite pastime to just listen and observe.

But this is not a UK/German=love blog. It is a sewing and knitting and random other sorts of homewoven handicrafts. So! Who wants to see things I'm currently working on? Ooh! I do, I do!

I really need to figure out how to link to sites on here. Oh! Ok. I learned. Now....

One of the knitting projects I'm working on is a scarf:

Indeed, it will be a very large scarf....I'm hoping to get it done in time for David for our trip to Maine next Sunday, since it's going to quite literally freezing at night. So they say, anyway. I'm using just a plain k2 p2 pattern (k=knit, p=purl) and Lionsbrand Homespun in Montana Sky. It's this gorgeous deep blue that looks like the deepest parts of the ocean. I'm using US 11 needles, so it's coming out nice and thick and chunky. Four inches is about all I've done on this, so this will be my main project for the next day or so. And a lot of movies.


Next to the scarf is a lace headband:

I'm using Molly's Headband Interweave Knits pattern. It's actually quite pretty, my picture doesn't really do it justice. Also, I'm using the cheapest of the cheap acrylic yarn that's this bright pale lime green color, so it's not coming out as evenly as it ought to. I'm really just practicing lace patterns to get the hang of yo, ssk, etc. I think I've got it!




I'm also doing an armwarmer knit pattern from Alterknits.
My brother got me the book for Christmas and I love it. I want to pretty much make everything in the book, within my skill range or not! Quite obviously the knitting is not on needles at the moment. I was using circular needles, but the plastic circle part doesn't quite get small enough for me to make the gusset for the hand. My dpns are in use with the headband, so as soon as that's finished I'll transfer them over to this so I can finish it up. That is, if I continue to use this yarn for this purpose. I think they'll look beautiful, but I also have a client whose baby girl is due mid-October, so I might use this gorgeous lavender Paton's Grace for a baby hat or something. I'm slightly torn. I really want these armwarmers! The yarn is so pretty and fun to work with, though my buttonholes are a little wobbly. It's my first time. I picked this pattern for multiple reasons, the first is the arm laces up instead of being whole pull-over-the-hand, like regular armwarmers, and the second is there are no finger gussets or whatever they're called. It stops at the knuckles. I don't think I'm ready for fingers quite yet! I'm still getting used to the dpns.

And....sewing projects!
















See my pretty sewing table and chair! $30 bucks from an estate sale! I was psyched. Ok, the jeans have been cut and are going to be used for the top of a skirt, which is what all that mulitcolored fabric is for. The jeans are an oldold pair from high school (back before they were made with Lycra) and I'm having an issue with getting the fabric strips to sew onto the jeans and come out looking straight. For some reason one side ends up longer than the other, or the seams don't match up right or something else entirely. It's quite frustrating and I'm about ready to give up on this project, except I've already spent the time, cutting, measuring, and sewing. it seems like it should be easy now: just seam up the jeans and the fabric and I'm all done. UGH! It isn't.

And finally.....a dress. Simplicity's 4072, actually. If you click on the picture a pop-up will show the pattern package cover. I'm doing the red dress on the left, except in navy blue.

After I made my apron, of which I've yet to post pictures, and the purple dress, I vowed never to use a pattern again. It's much easier to just measure and draw and cut and sew than it is to use patterns, and one day I'm going to take a pattern drafting class so I can learn the real way to do it and how to use slopings and whatnot. However, I got roped into doing this pattern by a group of gals on Crafster. I liked the style of the dress on the left and decided to go for it. However, it's been a month and so far all I've done is cut out the pattern pieces. Procrastinate much?

I've really been meaning to do it, I just haven't had a solid good four hours to sit down and piece it together and then sew. I know I don't have to do it all at once, but I'm the type who doesn't like to wait and so the sooner I get it done, the better! I guess if I work on it for four hours all at once or for an hour or two for a few days, it's the same amount of time. But I like to see the finished product that day....I don't want to wait a few days! It probably would turn out a lot cleaner and neater and more professionally done if I did take a few days to sew and not try to rush it all done at once. I need to work on that.

So, today I have a whole Sunday afternoon off! I was going to go to the beach and procrastinate some more, but it's pretty grey and rainy out there so I'm taking that as a kick in the pants to get moving and get some stuff done. Since I have a slight stomachache (I'm sure you're happy to know), I think I'm just going to lay on the couch and watch movies and knit my scarf and eat plain popcorn for the afternoon. Sounds pleasant, don't it? I have a hankerin' for Everything is Illuminated and Eternal Sunshine.... I wonder if the library has them?

The first of (hopefully) many...

So I decided to go and start a sewing/knitting/random crafting blog. Why the heck not, right? I need a place to put all my projects (WIP: works in progress) and finished projects (FO from here on out) and to keep track of things and to make notes.

We'll kick off this nifty little thing with some pictures of actually finished items! I don't finish things very often...or, I finish them, but it takes foooooreeeever (y'know, like the guy in Sandlot) to get them done. So! To start on a positive note, things I've completed in the past:

First up is the hat I recently made for Connie. It's a cloche, pattern taken from skrillaknits of craftster.org (link to come later, I hope), and knit with Yarn Valley yarn in Wine. For my first hat, I think it came out rather well:

Next are some embroidery projects I did for various babies. The hula girl one was for one of David's co-workers, the drumkit and birdie were for Allie and Jeremy, and the guitar is for Jenn and Elijah, which I still have to send off to them. Done on regular baby onesies, size 6-9mos and embroidered with generic floss using Jenny Hart's fabulous Sublime Stitching patterns:

I apologize if the formatting is a little off; it's my first time.

Um, the baby blanket for Jenn's baby, which was knit with Lion's Brand Homespun and I forget the name of the color....Sierra, maybe? Pattern was the Big Bad Baby Blanket (affectionately known as the BBBB) as printed in the Stitch 'n' B---- (SnB). The picture is, of course, pre-blocking (before I swished it around in cold water and got it all wet and then dried it into the desired shape):

which for some reason isn't showing up....oh well. It was pretty.

And the last one for today, though there are several more, is a dress I made. I used a Simplicity pattern, but Simplicity and patterns hate me and so it came out all weird and funky. I had to add a panel in the back to make it bigger, which made it too big from the hips down but still not big enough on top. What can I say? So I gave it to Jenn. :)

Oh, and I want to post a picture of the card I made for David's co-worker, just because I like the pictures and I think it's cute! And in case you can't figure it out, they were having a girl. The baby came the day after David went back to work with the onesie and the card to give to them.

Ok, that's all for tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll put up pictures of what I've been working on lately: three knitting WIP (well, technically two, one's off the needles because I needed them for another project) and two sewing WIP. PLUS Christmas! Ain't life excitin'?

Have a blessed night.