I LOVE Halloween! Even so, I haven't carved a pumpkin in years. I think the last time may have been when I had a Halloween party in 1999. I've always admired the crazy picture-style jack-o'lanterns, so when I came across a set of tools and a pattern booklet for half off last week, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Of course, I always make the mistake of thinking that it's easier than it looks and chose a pattern that was three pumpkins out of four on the scale of difficulty. T thought I was completely crazy for even trying it. Still, for a first effort, I'm pretty proud of it. I also did a smaller one with just stars all over, but I want to tweak it a little before snapping some pix. Next year, I'm going to go all out and do like five of them.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween!
I LOVE Halloween! Even so, I haven't carved a pumpkin in years. I think the last time may have been when I had a Halloween party in 1999. I've always admired the crazy picture-style jack-o'lanterns, so when I came across a set of tools and a pattern booklet for half off last week, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Of course, I always make the mistake of thinking that it's easier than it looks and chose a pattern that was three pumpkins out of four on the scale of difficulty. T thought I was completely crazy for even trying it. Still, for a first effort, I'm pretty proud of it. I also did a smaller one with just stars all over, but I want to tweak it a little before snapping some pix. Next year, I'm going to go all out and do like five of them.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
more hats
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Pumpkin mania
In any case, I got about 3/4 of the way done with it before I realized that I did not have any brown or even dark green yarn for the stem. So Wednesday afternoon, I made a quick run to Hobby Lobby while we were already out only to discover that they didn't have the right yarn in brown. Rather than make another stop at the good yarn store (the cranky baby timer was ticking down to its final seconds), I decided to just make do with some cheap 'Sugar n' Cream' yarn. Not even close to the right gauge, but at least it was the right color and right material - 100% cotton. It was a little difficult to work with because it was so much thicker, but I think it turned out pretty well.
I also had a little trouble figuring out the best way to start the decreases with the ribs, and only realized after I'd already decreased 3-4 rows that I probably should have done them before and after the purl stitches. It was way too late and I was way too tired to rip back and do it over, so again, I just made do. I wanted to make a little green leaf too to hang off the stem, but again, did not have the right yarn and also, by the time I finished everything else, including weaving in ends, it was almost 2am. I think next year's hat will be rockstar quality.
Here's a picture of the hat by itself. I also didn't get a chance to block it, so it still looks a little rough. It served its purpose though, and we got a lot of compliments on it.
Friday, October 12, 2007
leg warmer mania!
Oh and here's a picture of E wearing one each of the last batch. I definitely have a newfound love for argyle!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Two more...
Next up: I have one more pair of socks to do. Pink stripey ones! I may have to make another trip to the store tomorrow... Yes, I know that I'm crazy.
More babylegs
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Sewing Project #2
For some time, I've been coveting a few different styles of baby leg warmers (Babylegs & Huggalugs). But I was also too much of a cheapskate to pay $12-$15/pair, especially when I wasn't sure how they'd fit or even if E would wear them. So I started searching around on Ebay for used ones and discovered that there were a lot of people selling what seemed to be homemade versions. At first, I was confused. They were obviously not handknit, but they were being sold as homemade. I almost bought a pair of Halloween striped legwarmers, but still balked at paying the $10.
A few days later, I was at Target and saw women's knee socks that were the exact same patterns as a lot of the ones I'd seen on Ebay, and a lightbulb went off. Of course! I could just cut off the foot and make my own. I searched around online for directions, but didn't find anything detailed enough. I figured, screw it, I'll just give it a shot and if it doesn't work, I'm only out four bucks. Here is my first effort:
Not exactly professional looking. I'll admit though, I pretty much did it the laziest and most generic way possible. I cut off the foot, just above the heel, folded it over twice, and then did a zigzag stitch around. I discovered that it's pretty freaking hard to keep your seam allowance even when you're trying to sew in a teeny tiny circle. Also, because of where I cut the leg, there was a little bit of flare which became more pronounced after I sewed it down, and they ended up being pretty wide. After trying them on E, I realized that even with her fat little thighs, there was no way they were going to stay up. I thought about just cutting them again beneath the flare, but I worried that then they'd be too short.
Then by coincidence I came across these instructions on a moms board that I'm on, which are absolutely fantastic. This method uses the discarded foot to make an actual cuff, which ends up being the bottom instead of the top. And being the anal retentive person that I am, I of course took out the trusty old seam ripper, spent waaaayyy too much time undoing my work, and tried again. The second try is pictured at left. They're still not as perfect as I'd like (not that anything ever is) as again, it was really
hard to keep the seams straight. But the stripes match up for the most part, so I'm happy enough with it. Oh, I should note thought that I did take another lazy shortcut, and instead of cutting the foot and re-sewing it to make the cuff more narrow, I just left it as is. When I tried this new and improved version on E, I did notice that when she's standing, they have a tendency to slip down over her feet. But she still seems to like them.
A few days later, I was at Target and saw women's knee socks that were the exact same patterns as a lot of the ones I'd seen on Ebay, and a lightbulb went off. Of course! I could just cut off the foot and make my own. I searched around online for directions, but didn't find anything detailed enough. I figured, screw it, I'll just give it a shot and if it doesn't work, I'm only out four bucks. Here is my first effort:
Ta-daa!
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