I Finished Something But This Isn't About That

I promise that I'll be posting about my finished (sewing) project this week, and I might even have teaser pictures tomorrow, but I have a link to a great tutorial for hand picked zippers today. I've been hearing a lot of my dressmaking blogs talk about hand picked zippers and I'm always made WTF face at my computer screen trying to figure out how you would even do one.

Turns out Sewaholic could practically see my WTF face and she decided to tutorialize the heck out of the sewing!

Oh, I can't resist a grainy, blurry teaser pic of the finished project that I shall parade before you later!




Do you appreciate the way that my son is already hideously embarrassed by this all?

Coming Out Of Hibernation

To tell you that I'm excited about three things.



One is my new secret obsession. Japanese washi tape. I mean, I'm obsessed with office supplies in general. However, the cuteness that is washi tape kills me. Seriously, the store Cute Tape is making me flip out. It sells cute stickers. And cute labels. And cuteness. It might as well sell kittens.

Oliver + S is going to publish a book of patterns. I'm no secret admirer of Oliver + S. I think the children patterns they put out are adorable, modern, and sweet. I just can't justify the cost of one or two or EIGHT BILLION when I don't sew enough.

Turtlegirl has posted a tutorial for an adorable twisted garter cuff for a sock. It makes me want to knit that pair of socks right now. Maybe if I didn't have two pairs of Cookie A socks on the needles right now.

I'm Totally Screwing With My Site

Since Blogger decided to update their templates, I decided to update my blog. I'm still not in love with the design, but it's both closer and farther from what I wanted. I feel like I'm losing a lot of the simplicity of my blog, while adding features I want to see (such as the Tweet This bit). We'll see how much I change it over the next couple of weeks/months.

Now, I've only got one link today, so I'll make it count. I've taught numerous people how to knit, and I've converted a hefty portion of my female family and friends to knitterdom. However, I'm a lousy, lousy teacher. I've got no patience for people, no ability to explain clearly (or even speak clearly), and a lack of understanding about how people even make mistakes which I don't normally make. To be fair, I'm usually lousy at learning things from people too. It's why I learn most of my crafts from really clear books.

However, over the course of the last year, two of my 'pupils' have made mistakes in knitting that, if I were a better teacher, probably would never have occurred. The latest instance led my cousin to admit that she had been purling incorrectly for ages. I want her, and all other people who make mistakes at knitting, to feel better about this. One of the knitting blogs I follow, a blog with nearly a thousand followers, recently admitted that she's been doing yarnovers incorrectly forever. I admire this type of post because it's the type the knitting world needs. The one where you read it and go, "Shoot, I've been doing it incorrectly as well. At least I didn't have to discover that in front of a whole class of people."

Maybe if you're making mistakes in your knitting and you fixed those mistakes, you should blog about it. I will definitely try to think of some to add myself, but my first piece of advice is: "Don't hand your lacy baby blanket to your mother to let her count the stitches because she'll drop it all off the needles and then you won't know how to fix it, so you'll just pick it up as best possible and it'll have a giant knotty hole in the middle of all the lacework."

Babbling Around The Internet

So, OMG, I miss you! No, I totally do. I love to talk, talk, talk. If you ever meet me in person (and haven't already), you'll be like, "Liar." Because when I first meet a person, I normally just stare at them suspiciously and maybe give a few nervous laughs or sentences here or there. But, then, after a while, when we become friends, you'll be all, "Okay, shut up. I've heard that story fifty times before, Kitten."

Part of having a blog if fulfilling this need to chatter on about nothingness. When I don't blog, it all builds up until when I talk to friends, I start to just babble about anything and nothing. When Paul calls me at night, I jabber on about dreams I've had, thoughts I have about television shows I've seen, books I've read, pictures I've edited for Flickr, et cetera. By posting to the blog, I get a small part of that nervous chatter out of me and it leaves me calmer. Sometimes, when I don't post to this blog, and then suddenly I post elsewhere, I spill all my stories out there. Like, Helen went on her honeymoon, and she said I could post a recipe to her food blog. I did, and then I chattered on and on about my obsession with eating ice! (So obsessed with eating ice, guys!) Mind you, that post was edited down from my original twenty billion paragraphs about eating ice and my pregnancy. It really was that long. Okay, not literally, but...

Anyway, I thought I should post to get back into the hang of things. Since I'm crafting about zero hours a week due to another cold invading our house, I thought I'd blog some of the links I've been saving up!

Let's start with three links for babies!

I always dream of the day I have a little girl I can dress up with homemade knits and sewn items. I know it'll never happen. First, I want a little girl to dress up too much, which means that should I have more children, they will definitely all be male. Second, if I have a girl, I'll just spend my life savings on items from all the cutest stores because I can't even walk by Janie and Jack now without looking at their adorable dresses for little baby girls. However, I admire and envy mothers who do this very thing. For instance, Little Purl of the Orient makes her daughters the cutest sweaters ever. She probably makes beautiful sugar cookies too and throws awesome birthday parties!

One of the things I don't want to do for a baby, but wish I knew someone who would do, is make modern gorgeous baby quilts. Look at Sew Inspired's mermaid quilt. I love the colors, I love the theme, and I love Heather Ross fabrics. If I saw this baby in real life, I would totally steal its quilt. Sorry, baby.

Now, in case you don't have a girl, like me, you're probably wondering, don't moms on the internet ever make stuff for their boys? The answer is clearly no, but I'm going to lie to you and say yes. For instance, they can make them these awesome 90 minute shirts from made. Are you tired of dressing your boy in grey, navy blue, or brown? Feel free to liven up their wardrobe with colors of your own choosing! Of course, you could also make them a navy blue, grey, or brown shirt too, but those are a dime a dozen in boy clothing land.

Okay, I'll try to be back soon with more links, if nothing else. I really am missing the chattering!

Depression, It Has Me

I crafted tonight. Or, more accurately, I am crafting tonight. It's sending me into a depression spiral that I can't seem to get out of.

The thing is that I have one major problem with sewing (and many other minor problems). That is, I can never seem to place my patterns properly on grain lines. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but it's super depressing and annoying and hateful. It's okay now that I'm making make up bags and slippers and other stuff that doesn't really hang on the body, but what's going to happen when I make a dress or jacket and I can't true the fabric and cut on grain? It's going to look hideous and I'm going to die of shame. Does anyone out there have advice for getting your fabric to true and cutting on grain. If your advice is pull on the fabric on the bias or slip a thread from the weave or weft free and use that as your guide, please explain more fully. Pulling on the fabric has not trued my fabric in the past, and I can't damn well seem to pull a thread free.

Hopefully later this week I will have some finished sewing projects to post (and a camera to use to photograph them), but until then, it's Linky Tuesday. Like how I just pretended that I always post links on Tuesdays?

Here's some of my favorite crafty finished objects! Let's start with my newest obsession, quilts. I love, love, love this beautiful quilt from CharlotteCarotte. First off, it looks simple and modern. Second, it looks soft. Third, it looks gorgeous. It makes me want to quit with the idea of fashion sewing.

Then, there are the cookies. I love cookies and I always want to be able to make beautifully decorated cookies, but if I could make ice cream cone cookies or starry window cookies, all I'd do is make cookies and charge ridiculous prices for them at craft sales.

You all know I love to cross stitch, but it takes a hell of a lot of time to do the 'good' designs because they intersperse colors very thoroughly to get a more natural looking finished product. And the really good ones that require beads require even more time and energy. That's why this finished mermaid cross stitch is a phenom. If I had made this, I'd frame it and put it up in the middle of the most seen wall in our house and I'd tell everyone that came into our house that I had made it.

Nathan is obsessed with trains, and I'm obsessed with clothes for Nathan. That means I love this adorable Kai shirt made of a very train-y fabric. I'm thinking of how it would look fantastic over some thermal shirts this winter as part of his every day wardrobe. Slip that on over some jeans and he'd look stylish without looking like a tiny little man. Helen has often pointed out that most boys are dressed like little men, and that's true, but the pointed use of cute prints can help alleviate that fact.

When I was younger, my mom would try to teach me to craft and fail. This is due to two things. One, I'm a horrible person learner. I've had fantastic people try to teach me, including my own husband (a patient tutor that many of my friends have told me is extremely patient with those willing to learn), and I can't learn from them. I dislike people telling me what to do. I hate when they keep going on about something I understand already. I dislike telling teachers I don't understand, so I let them stop teaching me when I don't understand the subject matter. I get angry with myself for disappointing people who are attempting to teach me. Two, my mom is a horrible teacher, apt to blame her 'student' for failing to learn or likely to not care about teaching. "You picked out horrible yarn to learn from, and that's why I can't teach you to knit." "I never installed zippers or buttonholes. Your grandmother did it for me. I mostly just made elastic pants." If you can't guess, these two things are probably related. That's why I'm always amazed to see these blogging mothers featuring their child's amazing creations, such as this Wall-E stuffie, or this awesomely chic knitted sweater.

I hope that one day, Paul can teach our children well or at least filter my instructions well. I can already tell that I'm more a teacher like my mom.

Highlights Of A Disorganized Internet

I was on Facebook today, and a random grade school individual who I never chatted with had friended me. I was feeling generous and I friended her back. It was odd because on reading some of her wall, I realized I'd probably like her now. I'd probably be friends with her. We have a ton in common, including reading habits and the same sense of humor. Yet, we'll probably never be anything other than Facebook friends. The internet is weird. I think I would have been happier not knowing this.

It's been a while since I posted random links to my blog to see what sticks, so let's get to it.

I'm on Ravelry, Twitter, and Facebook. Let's be social networking pals, okay? If you don't think I follow your blog, let me know, so I can!

I follow a lot of sewing blogs, and I've seen a series of people doing jeans this summer. None of them have impressed me as much as the ones Quixotic Pixel has done. If I thought I could make these jeans, I would start sewing now.

So, I have a terrible confession to make. I don't like the sweaters people make from EZ books. I just don't. I don't like her baby clothes either. It is horrible because this probably makes me a bad knitter. I mostly try to get over it, skipping EZ related podcasts/blog updates/stuff, however, I had to read this blog post about a children sized February Lady Sweater. It's so adorable on this little girl that I'm thinking about adding the FLS to my queue!

Knitted fabric scares the pants off of me. I have yet to work with it, and I'm terrified to. When scanning through Vogue's patterns one day, I noticed a very cute drawn picture of a dress made from knitted fabric and it was one of their Very Easy, Very Vogue patterns (Vogue 8571), so I added it to my wishlist of patterns. I started to believe that it was too cute in the drawing and made up it'd look horrible. Turns out? I was totally wrong. It's super cute in this blog post and I want to make it in deep red or brown or grey. What say you, internet?

Anyway, it's time for me to head out now. I need to go put on my cute new cupcake pjs and knit a row of my scarf and go to bed. Oh, what cute new cupcake pjs, you ask? Well, that's another blog post!

BTW, if any of you use a social site for keeping track of books, let me know which you prefer, okay? Thanks!

Silence On The Craft Front

I haven't been doing much recently. What with trying to get our washer/dryer fixed, a vacation booked, cards/presents for Paul's bday and Father's Day, and dealing with Nathan's first birthday, I've been mostly just vegging. I mean, I watched the beginning of True Blood and I didn't even break out any knitting during that time. Normally I love to knit while watching television, but, instead, Paul and I just cuddled. That was nice.

However, after a good restful weekend, which included delicious naps and the best quiche I've ever eaten, I decided it was time to get back on the crafting horse. Since we were driving to Paul's parents for dinner today, I took along my Schaefer Anne sock yarn and started a vanilla sock on size 0 needles. If I like the look of the variegation a lot when I come to the straight stockinette part, I might rip the whole thing out and cast on another pair of socks, only using a pattern. Or, since they give so much damned yardage and I have 'small' feet, I might just get a vanilla anklet pair and a patterned pair.

Since I don't have much to report right now, I thought I'd tell you all that a new free online knitting magazine just started! It's specifically targeted to patterns for children which makes me so happy since I have one now. Petite Purls is starting with a summer issue and it actually includes a pattern for boys. Better yet the pattern calls for two skeins of a yarn I've been dying to use. There is an adorable little stuffed lobster pattern too, but I've got my heart set on sewing my first homemade stuffed animal, and then knitting Sheldon. Of course, I'll never do any of this because I'll still be knitting the stupid Slytherin scarf when I'm 90.

Miss you all! I plan to write more soon, but let me just get past Father's Day, okay?

Go Browse

So, it is no surprise that I love to read textile blogs, right? I'm obsessed with listening, reading, doing... so long as it is related to textile crafts. Anyway, one of the blogs I read is Sew, Mama, Sew. Every Christmas, they do a gigantic giveaway contest in which they give away stuff to bloggers who do a giveaway on a certain day. This year, they decided to do a mid-year giveaway! They must have links to at least a few hundred giveaways, including finished goods and materials to make things! Go check them out, or at least browse. I've already added five new blogs to my feedreader.

I don't sign up for every giveaway, but those where I like the crafter's blogging and the thing being given away.

Hopefully, I'll have pictures of my finished boxers soon. I have everything done besides the leg hems.

Share It Sunday!

I'm not doing much crafting wise, recently, but I still want to blog. Since I'm not listening to any new podcasts (as I'm trying to listen to all the back episodes of Stash and Burn, as well as Knitmore Girls), I thought I'd share several cool links, et cetera. Feel free to ignore this post, or to read it.

First, my friend Sophy has just bought a house. Congrats, Sophy! However, even though she's probably as busy as all get out, she has not yet stopped crafting. In fact, she took the time to create an awesome Star Trek costume for the premiere! By the way, if you haven't, go see the movie. It's not deep, but it is fun.

Second, I love this video. I love the music in the video. I love that these are not model helicopters.

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Lastly, I love the new nail polish shade, Mermaid to Order, from Sephora. I tried it on today at Sephora, and I fell in love with it. I'm definitely going to buy it, and if I like wearing it, I have a feeling I might stock up on another bottle.

The Best Laid Schemes, Gang Aft A-Gley

Last week, I told you all my plans. Wow. I don't even know why I pretended to plan last week. Let us review...

Thursday: cross-stitch

I think we already know how this turned out. Now, I did cross-stitch a tiny bit that night, but ten or fifteen minutes of cross-stitch doesn't really count, does it?

By the way, thank you to everyone who so kindly complimented my socks. I'm a little defensive when people do so because I believe they look hideous in my mind, and I'm not taking the compliments. I'm sorry. They are very soft and very warm, and if I can find some colorways that I like, I will be buying more of the yarn.

I have talked of hating crazy varigations in the past, but I'm a hypocrite. While I'll always believe that a colorway like Space Dust will look like clown puke when knitted up, I'll happily buy Koi Koi or any other pinkish/bluish colorway. I believe it was Christy, my future sister-in-law, that said to me that I liked yarns that looked like unicorns had thrown up on them. Sigh.

Sunday: sewing, another cloth book

I didn't even craft on Sunday. On the weekend itself, I might have done another thread or two of cross-stitch, but nothing noticable.

Monday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)

I knit about two rounds of my Slytherin scarf. Okay, lie, I finished one of the gray groups, and started on my green rounds. I'd be sad at the slow progress if it weren't for the fact that I haven't worked on it at all for months!

Tuesday: cross-stitch OR drawing

I might have spent a few minutes cross-stitching this night.

Wednesday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)

I went to Helen's, ostensibly to knit. Then, her three foster kittens brought me low. It was horrible! I was knitting while watching The Tudors and then these three kittens sat on me and my knitting. I then proceeded to pet them because KITTENS.

So, I was going to let this whole entry going to go pictureless, but I think we all know what I think about blogs without photos. Here is a picture of The Rose of Sharon cross-stitch.



Hours and hours of work to show you that I added about two square inches of work from the last time I photographed it. Perhaps less. Next time, I'm just going to link to other people's WIPs and pretend that I did a lot more.

I also have an updated photo of the scarf!



In case you're curious as to why it is laying so oddly, I keep the actual yarn stuffed into the center of the scarf to prevent my kitties from taking it out and carrying it around my house. Since I spent part of the weekend simply rewinding my silver yarn again, I clearly needed to take action.

So, are you asking if I have plans for the upcoming week? Yes, I do. I'm not giving up on my plans. I think I have started alternating projects to good effect, but I do need to be a little less stringent about my planning.

My plans are thus: two days of sewing, two days of knitting, one day of cross-stitch, weekends are free as usual. Ideally, I'd also like to start Nathan's matching ugly socks. I'm still working on leaving my computer a bit earlier, though I've failed tonight!

I do still want to get my cloth book done for my cousin's baby, but I'm itching to start another garment with my sewing. I wasn't going to do the Flouncy Tank Top project from the book Sew Everything Workshop, but then I saw a gorgeous version that made me drool.

Mmm, I love when I find inspiring blogs or photos.

Lastly, thank you to the person who came to my blog and followed my links to Amazon and made purchases. It was nice of you and I made a whole dollar! I was stunned when Amazon told me it had happened, actually, and then I told myself that I'd buy a Simplicity pattern to make for my blog! I love the dollar pattern sales at Joann!