Burn out

I think Halloween totally burned me out on crafting, and maybe blogging too.  It's been forever since I've posted, but believe it or not, I have still been making stuff.  Just been too lazy to edit and upload pics so I could blog.  Plus we were out of town for long stretches over both Thanksgiving AND Christmas/New Year's...and well, you get the picture.  Enough with the excuses, on to the crafts!

Like I mentioned, I haven't been totally idle, but I did take a long break from sewing after making all those costumes.  Instead, I decided to get back into knitting.  A little lower stress, and bonus points for being able to do it on the couch, in front of the TV. ;)  First up, a newborn hat that I made for a friend's new baby boy.  Photo by bernadette uzcategui photography.

 The baby's father loved the hat so much that he requested a matching hat of his own, hee.  So not only did I make one for him, but I also made a headband/headwarmer in the same colorways for the mom.

Next up, a hat for myself!  I took a quick trip to Philadelphia one weekend to visit a friend, and we went to one of my favorite yarn stores there, Nangellini. The owner, Nancy, is so wonderfully friendly (and she even remembered me from my last visit, a year ago!), I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the area.  I couldn't resist this yummy Ushya wool yarn and knit up a 'holey' hat, stranded with some Noro yarn for texture.

Of course, I also had to make a newborn hat for my new niece!  I love that this sort of looks like a candy cane.

 

And here she is modeling it at Thanksgiving.  :)  Forgive the blur, this was hastily snapped with my phone.

I also knit up a cocoon to take pictures of her in, but sadly, she was already too big (and active) for it.

 

Another baby hat. This time I experimented with a sort of twisted rib pattern. 

 

I'm not sure if I like how it turned out; I think it sort of looks like a head of lettuce, lol.  It looks slightly better when the bottom edge is turned up a bit.  Apologies for the creepy doll-model.  I don't have quick access to any tiny babies these days. 

 

Since the weather has finally gotten colder, I also knit up a quickie scarf for E.  She picked the yarn herself. I tried to hold back my gag reflex. I used a basic basketweave pattern, K4, P4 for 4 rows and then switch.

 

She got all goofy and uncooperative when I asked her to actually model the darn thing.  Ah, 3-year-olds.

Next up, holiday crafting! :D

A bunch of FO's - and more on the way!

Yes, I've been MIA.  No, I have not been slacking off.  In fact, I've been so busy that I haven't even had time to post!

I've been doing some major cleaning and reorganization of my craft room, which included the purging of stuff I know I was never going to get around to using, as well as finishing up a few old projects that have been hanging around.  I've also been working on the biggest sewing project of my entire life (yes, bigger even than the Christmas quilt), which has consumed pretty much all my free time these last few weeks.  I'll have to save the details for a separate post.

First up, a granny-square afghan.  I originally started this as a gift for someone about 7 years ago.  I love the pattern for this square, but it was extraordinarily time consuming because of all the color changes. I got about 1/4 of the way done and realized it was going to take me a million years to make it as big as I wanted, so I abandoned ship and did a different, faster (one-piece) design.  Which left me with roughly 1/4 an afghan that then sat in storage, forgotten.  Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when I found the squares in a bin and thought to myself, I may as well stitch these together and see what I can do with it.  I think it'll make a nice little lap blanket.  Or maybe baby/toddler afghan.  Still not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I thought about trying to sell it, but I'll probably gift it to someone instead.

Then here's another hat that I actually finished a while back but just never got a chance to post.  It was a commission by a friend for her son, who wanted a football hat.  I had to come up with the fair isle football design myself, and I'll confess, I'm not 100% happy with it.  But I'm also not sure how I could have improved the shape of it.  I do otherwise love it though, especially the yarn I used, which was a wonderfully soft & yummy wool/bamboo blend.

I have two more finished hats too, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of them. One is a hat I started last month as a gift for a friend's daughter.  It has a fair isle heart design all around it, which I adapted from a pattern book.  I love the hearts, but unfortunately, it turned way too big, so now it's probably going to end up as a hat for E.  Or I may put it away and sell or gift it next winter.

The other one is a hat I made for E.  After seeing the owl hat I made for a friend's son, E requested one of her own.  Knowing how rough she is on her things these days, I opted against using the same wool/cashmere blend yarn and instead picked up some Lion Brand Thick & Chunky Wool-ease.  It turned out a teeny bit bigger than the original, but she seems to be ok with it.  I still need to sew on the face, which I've been rather lazy about.  I'll try to get pics up soon.

Edit: here's the heart hat!

Slowdown

Sorry as usual for the lack of posts, but life has gotten in the way of crafting. I recently found out that our beloved dog has renal failure, so I've been too busy worrying and tending to her to be very productive. Here's a pic of my sweet girl in her prime, back when we lived in Chicago.

I have, however, still managed to finish a few items in the last couple weeks, mostly commissions for friends.

Black and white pompom hat for a toddler. I don't usually make hats with the squared-off top like that, but I think I may start. With the pompoms, it's super cute!

And this one is one of my new favorites - owl hat!

My friend's son is obsessed with owls and she asked if I could make an owl hat for him with some extra soft yarn since he's been having issues with hats being scratchy. I was really excited to find some yummy wool/cashmere yarn (Debbie Bliss Como) at my LYS in what I think are perfectly owl-y colors. I came up with the pattern on my own, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. His eyes and beak are 100% wool felt, and stitched on by hand.

E was also very excited about the owl hat, so I of course now I'm making her one too. But being the cheapskate I am, hers is made from Lion Brand's Wool-ease Thick & Chunky, which I got on sale not too long ago.

Currently, I'm working on another commission (a football themed hat in yummy wool/bamboo yarn), and I'm also making slow but sure progress on the Christmas quilt. I'm determined to have that thing done by Christmas, come hell or high water! However, in a bout of insanity, I decided I wanted to hand-quilt it. Let's just say it's not going so well right now. There may be a total about-face in the near future.

Here's some pics of the finished quilt-top and the back.

A few FOs...

For once in my life, the lack of posts here has not meant I've been slacking! Just so busy working on so many various things that I haven't had time to finish enough to post.

Here's the lone Halloween-related item I made this year:

Sadly, it's not the costume, but the striped goody bag.

I opted not to make E's costume this year. She is notoriously moody when it comes to wearing the things I make her, and I knew that if I spent a lot of time sewing her a costume only to have her refuse to wear it, I would be crushed/furious. So instead, I bought her this simple, but cute bee costume from Old Navy. It was basically a fleece vest with wings and antenna on the hood, so not only would it be easy to get on and off, it would also be highly adaptable to any variations in weather.

True to form, as soon as I showed her the costume and asked her to try it on, she refused. This continued until literally minutes before the party we attended. I actually whipped this bag up the morning of the party after being hit by a wave of guilt that I hadn't made her costume. It's about as simple as it gets: yellow felt stripes appliqued onto black felt, then folded and sewn down two sides to make a bag. I did flatten the bottom into a gusset of sorts, but that's about as fancy as it got. I thought it made a pretty cute accompaniment to her costume, and it was WAY cheaper than the $12 Pottery Barn Kids version (although I'll concede that the PBK one is a lot cuter). If I'd had a little more time and energy, I probably would have found a way to add some wings, but oh well.

My other major accomplishment this week was finishing the Stella Pixie baby hat that a friend had commissioned for her newborn baby. I absolutely adore the Cascade Heritage yarn that I used to make it, and I'm more than a little excited that I have enough leftover to make something for E too.

A couple minor warnings for anyone else making this: first of all, even knitted to gauge, it's big. Since this was for a newborn, I made this a full size smaller than the pattern originally called for and cast-on 8 sts less than the smallest size they had listed. I read this same complaint on a few other blogs, but of course, not until after I'd already started mine.

The other complaint is that the pattern I linked to on Etsy's Storque blog has an error in it (the buttonhole section towards the end), so I would recommend downloading the PDF link they have instead, which comes from the publisher. I struggled for a while with the buttonhole part, which it made no sense, before finally giving up and doing a different kind.

Here's a pic of it on one of E's dolls. It's missing the bottom strap portion, but you get a better idea of the pixie shape when it's on a head.

Last, and sort of least, there's this random stripey hat that I've been working on here and there for the last few weeks. I started it mostly to use up a few odds and ends that I had laying around, but I also wanted to try out an idea I'd seen where you knit the earflaps first and then incorporate them into the hat round. I hate picking up stitches almost as much as I hate seaming, and this was a nice compromise. This was also a nice chance for me to practice my "jogless jog" striping.

My original intention was to make a hat for E. Well, of course, it ended up HUGE so now I think it's going to be a hat for me, haha.

Return to knitting!

I honestly can't remember the last time I knit anything. Between the unbearably hot Texas summer, my newfound obsession with sewing, and also just general impatience for how slow knitting can be, I sort of lost interest for a while. But last weekend, I went to visit my best friend in Philadelphia and at the last minute grabbed one of my many unfinished projects work on during the plane ride.

It turned out to be a lifesaver as my flight ended up delayed over 3 hours; I had no music to listen to, and I couldn't focus enough to read the book I'd also brought. I'd forgotten how soothing it can be to just mindlessly knit while watching crappy TV or chit-chatting with a neighbor.

Sadly enough, the project I brought ended up frogged, but I did find some fun new yarn & related supplies to work with on my trip. I got a very cute toddler sweater pattern and some more circular needles (one can never have too many!) at Loop. I also couldn't resist some of the adorable fat quarter bundles at their sister store, Spool. And then I picked up some crazy fun "marshmallow" yarn at Nangellini, which I ended up mixing with some hot pink eyelash yarn to make this funky scarf.


I very rarely work with bulky yarns, and it was really gratifying to be able to start and finish a project in a day. It really re-inspired me to pick up my knitting again and now I'm combing through my various bookmarked and queued patterns trying to decide what to work on next. In retrospect, I should have sprung for a second ball of the marshmallows so that I could have done a tighter knit, but I think the eyelash yarn fills in the holes nicely. I also picked up some super soft green & brown variegated wool that was half off. Score! Not sure what I'm going to do with it just yet though. Oh and of course the pattern I bought calls for bulky yarn, which I don't have, so I guess I'll need to make another trip to my favorite local yarn store. ;)

Oh, and I had to come back and add that the yarn stores I went to in Philly were so different from one another, but both absolutely fabulous! Nancy, the owner of Nangellini, was particularly friendly and cool and my friend and I had a great time chatting with her.

quickie weekend update

Just so you all don't think I'm still slacking....

I did start a new knitting project on Saturday night. It's actually this exact hat kit, which my sister-in-law gave me several years ago as a Christmas gift. Yes, I know that I still suck for admitting that I've had it sitting around untouched for that long. In any case, I didn't get nearly as far as I would have liked (too much chatting, not enough knitting), and it's actually a far more complicated pattern than I initially realized, so I think it's going to take me a while to finish.

However, I did also work on some stuff on Sunday. T actually joined me for a rare joint "crafternoon," helping me out with prep for E's birthday party in a couple weeks. We're doing a farm/barnyard theme and since we had all these large cardboard boxes in the garage, I had the idea to make some large cutouts of farm animals.

Figuring out how to cut the cardboard into recognizable shapes took some thought since there was no way scissors would work on something so thick, and a box cutter would have made it hard to get clean curves. I toyed with the idea of using my electric carving knife (which is almost like a mini-saw), but then T solved the problem by finding a jigsaw attachment for his dremel tool. It worked like a charm!

I also got a base coat of white paint on everything, so now I mostly just need to fill in details. Lucky for me, I picked mainly white animals, haha!

Sorry, still no pics just yet, but I plan on working on them more tomorrow, so soon...

Sock creatures, hats and more babylegs, oh my!

I keep saying that I'm done making babylegs for good, but then I see some adorable socks and I just can't resist churning out one or two more pairs. I'm a sucker, what can I say? But here are two pairs from that last big batch that I saved for E. They're a cashmere blend so they're super soft and snuggly.


But I have also been busy making some other stuff, both for fun and for profit. Most recently, I finished this custom baby hat based on the colors of a popular local sporting team that shall remain nameless. Then based off of a post on my mom's board, I got on a crazy kick of making little sock creatures. Here's the first one I tried, and I have a couple more waiting in the wings. They're surprisingly easy and fun to make, even though they do require a bit of hand-stitching. I think I may have to make an army of them to guard the house...or maybe to give as little gifts.

I couldn't help myself

OK, I swear, I'm really not normally the type of person who would buy or wear a matching outfit with her daughter...but I couldn't resist the idea of making matching hats. Especially because both E & I needed new hats.

So after I made a cabled hat for myself, I had pretty much exactly enough yarn left in the skein to make a smaller version for E. It was my first time using Lion Brand Wool (I usually buy Patons because it's 1 oz. more for the same price), and it was nice but I really could've used that extra ounce. The hat is just barely long enough for my giant noggin. And E's just fits her too. *sigh* Oh well. I guess we'll wear them for a month or so and then maybe I'll sell them or give them away. I do really like how the cabling turned out though.

Here's a pic I managed to snap of the two of us wearing the hats before E ran away.

Yeah, I've been lazy

My case of burnout lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Especially when it comes to sewing. I finally got going on some baby leg warmers this week and realized that it had been a LONG time since I'd sewn anything! I think the last thing I made was that doll for E.

But since cool weather is finally upon us and the holidays are coming up, I really need to get my butt in gear. And what better way to motivate myself than with shame? So here's a list of all my current projects, both partially finished, and things I've promised to people that I haven't even started. I'll try to do this chronologically, but I make no promises. And some of these are probably repeats from a old post on WIPs.

The first thing that jumps to mind is a knitted sleeveless top that I started as a birthday gift for my mom...4 years ago. I honestly don't know what my problem is with this project except that I'm a bit bored by it. It's more than half done, and not a hard project by any means (almost all stockinette), but I haven't touched it in ages.


Bah, screw chronology. I'm just going to go in order of whatever my addled brain comes up with. Right now, more than anything, I need to work on stock for my Etsy store. I need to make more fruit & veggies, as well as some more breakfast sets. I also have been wanting to do some cupcakes and other sweets. I'd also like to work out a few different hat patterns. Oh, and I have a custom hat that I need to get going on too. I had originally planned on making a few hats as gifts, but not so sure I'll get to them in time. I also have been working on felt alphabet letters, but it is slow going. And I was contemplating making some silly stuffed animals too, but it's probably too much.

I have a whole bunch of stuff that I've promised to make for my friend Meighan. There's a couple of bibs from this very cute flannel kitty fabric. Then there's a tank dress from some knit kitty fabric (yes, her daughter likes kitties). A doll similar to the one I made for E. Some baby leg warmers. And probably a few other things that I'm forgetting.

Then there's the giant list of stuff for E, some of which I've stalled so long that there's almost no point in making them anymore. I have some really cute Halloween fabric that I was going to make into a dress...um, I guess for next year. Oops. And some other cute fall-ish fabric that I was going to make a pillowcase dress out of, but now I may wait until spring. I keep seeing such cute fabric and patterns, but I've finally come to grips with the fact that I cannot buy anything else until I finish some other stuff first. I know, it sounds pretty common sense to most people, but I have a problem with acquiring things. I've successfully stayed out of the fabric store for almost a month now! Woohoo!

I'm currently in the middle of knitting a matching cable-knit hat for E, to go with the one I made myself. I'm dying to knit a little sweater dress for E too, ever since I saw this adorable cable-knit Ralph Lauren one at Nordstrom Rack when I was in Chicago. And yes, I realize it would be cheaper to buy the dress than to make it, and I would have (even though it was overpriced) but they didn't have her size. So now I'm going to attempt to recreate it. Yes, I'm currently obsessed with cabling.

I'm also way way behind on all of my digital scrapbooking and crap. I had intended on making a book or calendar for the grandparents for Christmas, but not sure how far I'm going to get now. I'm starting to see why those ones you can order at Walgreens or wherever are appealing, even if they are kind of chincy.

On the plus side, I did get a bunch of baby leg warmers done this week, some of which I already mailed off without taking pictures. I should have taken a picture of the mountain of socks I had on my worktable, but again, I forgot.

But I'm going to really start cranking now. For realsies. Stay tuned for pictures of actual finished items!

A little something for myself

It's been a long time since I made something for myself. With the bit of cold weather we had a couple weeks ago, I decided it was time for a new hat. I recently got a new book of stitch patterns, and I've never made a cable-knit hat before, so I figured now was as good a time as any. It was a little tricking doing the reductions at the crown, but I think it turned out pretty cute. I want to make a matching one for E too.

How can you resist this face?

Yesterday my friend Chrystyna came over with her adorable daughter Mackenzie, and I couldn't resist putting this pumpkin hat that I had just finished on her. I decided later that afternoon that it needed a little leaf on top, so here are some more shots of the hat with the leaf (but minus the cute baby), now on sale in my Etsy shop. :)

Busy busy busy

Even though it's been a while since I've posted anything new, don't think I haven't been working on stuff! I recently finished a couple baby hats that are gifts for friends who are expecting little ones soon, and I didn't want to ruin the surprise. I figured what better hat for fall than a little bitty pumpkin hat?! It's been a long time since I made any tiny newborn hats. Ah, I can feel the baby lust taking hold.

This is actually the second hat I made. I forgot to take pictures of the first one, but hopefully I'll have pics of the hat ON a baby soon!


And even though I really should be working on stocking my Etsy store, I've been doing more personal sewing lately. In fact, just tonight I made this little doll for E. I still need to embroider her face on (which should be interesting since I've never embroidered anything in my life!), but you get the general idea. I think for a first effort, she turned out pretty darn cute!


Here's another shot where, if you look close, you can sorta see where I penciled in her face:

I think I ruined it.

:(

This weekend, I finally finished knitting the bag I started like, 6 months ago. I really like how the rectangle pattern turned out! But I debated with myself for a long time about whether I wanted to felt it or not, and in the end decided to go for it since otherwise it'd be pretty floppy.

Well, I felted it in my standard way - threw it inside a zipped pillowcase and washed it in the machine on hot with a couple pairs of T's jeans. And well...it didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped. I think the black yarn bled quite a bit into the white, and because of all the stranding in the back, the shape is pretty out of whack. I did my best to kind of stretch it back to square, but as you can see, it's still kind of wonky-looking.

Before:

After:

My friend Mee pointed out that you can still see the stitches, so she thinks it's not felted enough. So I may give it another whirl, even though it will probably get a lot smaller, to the point where I'm not sure how usable it'll be. Oh well. I'll update after I try again.

Finally finished something

The irony is, this is something I just started at Knitting Night In on Saturday. I know, I'm terrible. It's just so much more fun to start something new. Anyways, this is the wool soaker that I mentioned before. I knit it using this pattern, but as usual, I skipped the swatch guage so it turned out gigantic (if you look close, you'll see that I've already folded the waistband down too). There's a reason I never normally knit clothing. Next time (if there is a next time), I'll probably go down at least a couple needle sizes.

Still, I think it's salvageable if I felt it a bit. I do really like the colors, and the stripe used up the small bit of pink yarn I had laying around. Although now I'm wishing I had more pink since I still need to add some ribbing or ruffles around the leg holes, but I'm going to call it done enough to post.

Front:

Back:

Busy bee

I spent the better part of the weekend working on various projects. Unfortunately, not a single one is totally finished, so I have no pictures to post just yet. I was just saying the other day how I have a terrible habit of starting things and then never finishing them. I need to work on that. But in any case, I'm hoping to finish at least one thing tonight and get some pictures up. This weekend's big project was a nap mat for my friend Meighan's daughter. She bought all the materials some time ago, but I just finally started working on it last week. Like most of the things I aspire to make, I thought it was going to fairly easy, but it did turn out to be more complicated than I thought. Just lots and lots of steps to go through. And me making dumb mistakes that I had to go back and fix didn't help things either.

Other stuff I've been working on: more crochet food, including sushi! And sewing cloth diapers and more wipes. Not nearly as fun or exciting, but practical and necessary. I'm also trying my hand at knitting a wool soaker (another cloth diaper accessory, in case you have no idea what I'm talking about). It's a little funny that I've waited this long to make something like that, considering that it's actually pretty easy to make. I also really really want to try dyeing some wool yarn I have with Kool-Aid, but I'm going to hold off until I get some other things finished first.

biting the bullet

I've been thinking about opening an Etsy shop for a long time now. Well after much encouragement from some friends, I think I'm finally going to bite the bullet and do it...this fall. I need to build up some inventory first. I'm thinking it's going to be mainly baby/kids' hats, but there's a possibility of also doing some plush toys and play food. Not sure if my sewing is quite up to snuff for selling to real people yet, so most stuff will be knit or crochet. But I'd really love to hear any and all suggestions, so please feel free to leave comments!

Here's a few examples of things I've made in the past that are likely to make an appearance in my store.

Old & new

I've kind of been slacking on the knitting lately, but I went to a little knitting gathering last weekend with some other moms. It was nice to have a night out, even though only a minimal amount of knitting was done, and it did kind of "recharge" me to start some new stuff. I decided to try to make a felted bag using a pattern similar to the 'squares' hat the I recently made for a friend. Pictured at left is what I've got so far. It's turning out to be a bit narrower than I thought it was going to be, so now I'm debating whether to really felt it or not. Also, it loses so much length in the felting process that it may take me a hundred years to make it long enough pre-felt. I originally was shooting for a tote bag, but I may just leave it as is, sew a lining, and slap some wood handles on it and call it a purse.

Oh, I also finally got my second dishcloth done. It looks pretty much the same as the first one, just different colors. I like the variegated yarn a bit more though. It's a little more interesting. I really like this pattern as it's really easy and mindless to knit, so it's good for doing in front of the tv. The bag I'm working on...not so much.

I'm still working on finishing up the needle roll from the knit along. I don't know what my problem is, I just have to do the cables. I think I've just lost interest in it as a project.

I've got the sewing bug lately and have a lot of things that I want to get started. I bought a bunch more flannel to make bibs. They had some really really cute prints at Joann the other day, and I couldn't resist. I'm hoping to get some sewing done this weekend.

WIPs

I can't believe I'm going to do this, but in an effort to shame myself into finishing some of the umpteen projects I have laying around, I'm going to catalog all of the current Works in Progress that I have going. Some have been laying idle for years. This might turn into a series of posts. First up, a stuffed rhinoceros. I started this as a gift for a friend's baby. He's almost 2 now. Oops. I had a really good start, and I'm actually about 75% done. But doing all the little pieces and sewing it up just doesn't seem to appeal to me. Maybe I'll finish it in time for my next kid.

Then there's a couple pairs of booties, also intended as baby gifts for children who are definitely too big for booties. The pink ones are super close to being done. I just have to sew the soles on, and then add a button for the t-strap. It's just...the soles seem to be a big small for the top part of the shoe, and I'm annoyed/embarassed at how off the sizing is in general. And YES, I did a gauge swatch, and it still came out all wonky. The green stripey one, well, I made the one and it was enormous and I got discouraged and abandoned the other.
I feel compelled to mention that both of these booties, as well as some others that I attempted before came from this evil book, which had gorgeous pictures and made it seem like it would be so easy, and if it weren't so damn expensive, I would probably chuck it out the window or maybe set it on fire. This book is largely responsible for my hatred of following patterns. Grrr.

Next up, here's a hat that I started about 4-5 months ago for Evy. This is actually the second attempt, as the first ended up unraveled.

Here is an amigurumi bunny that I started a while back, when I first got obsessed with amigurumi. I don't know why I didn't finish this guy. He's about 90% done. Just needs another ear, 2 arms and a leg.
This is a scarf I was making as a Christmas gift for my brother's girlfriend. I'm actually going to see her next month in California, and now I'm debating whether I should still try and finish this to give to her or just make something else entirely. Argh.

This is the dishcloth that I started a couple weeks ago. It's actually almost done (the picture's old). It's the easiest, most mindless project I've got going, which is probably why I've been working on it the most lately.

What else? Hmmm...

Oh, there's the needle roll, but I won't bother posting a picture since that post is fairly recent. not to mention that nothing's changed since the last time I wrote about it. Still working on the cables...boring.

Ay, I just remembered this sad project.

It's the bottom half of what was going to be a cardigan and pants set, made from a felted sweater. The problem is, after using the sleeves to make the pants above (which still need to have an elastic waistband put on), I realized that I don't have enough material left to make the sweater. And now I have the added issues of E being too big and the weather being too warm out for wool sweaters. *sigh*

Last, but not least, I have this sleeveless top that I was going to give as a gift for my mom's birthday...5 years ago. Egad. I'm also not that far from done on this one. I don't know what my problem is. Maybe I can get it done for Mother's Day this year.

I think that's actually everything for now. I have a few pairs of knee socks that need to be converted to babylegs for a friend, but I'm actually going to knock those out tonight. So all in all, not great, but not as bad as I really thought it was going to be.