09 February 2009
Sundara Sock Yarn
Holy crap, peeps. I managed to score two skeins of Sundara sock yarn since she did a 1 am EST yarn update. As those of you who follow indie sock yarn dyers know, this is nearly a miracle. I shouldn't be buying sock yarn, but this stuff is prime trading material, if nothing else.
08 February 2009
And Just Where Have You Been?!
I was doing this imaginary interview in my mind, from an anonymous blog reader with me...
Blog Reader: So, why haven't you been posting?
Me: I'm super busy!
Blog Reader: With knitting?
Me: Well... no.
Blog Reader: With Nathan?
Me: No more than normal.
Blog Reader: Then what are you doing that you're so busy that you can't post?
Me: mumble, mumble
Blog Reader: What was that?
Me: I'm playing a videogame and reading FEEDS, okay? It takes time to read eight billion knitting blogs on a daily basis, you know! And my characters are not going to level themselves while I just sit around knitting and blogging, are they?
Blog Reader: You should be ashamed of yourself.
I have imaginary conversations between myself and others all the time, but this time I decided to take the advice of my imaginary harasser and post!
Anyway, since I have little knitting progress to speak of ("knit some more on the never ending Slytherin scarf, tried to pretend my socks dropped off the face of the Earth"), I thought I'd highlight four craft projects that have caught my eye over the last several months.
1) Sophy's Shalom: I love everything about this. The color is great. The stitches look so even and nice. The buttons are sweet. Sophy has stated that she does not wear it much, but I think it's a winner in the pictures, at least.
2) Jackie's Charade Socks: It's the last project on this post. I adore the pattern of this sock, but, it turns out that I only love it when combined with a darker sock yarn such as the Dream in Color Smooshy's November Muse. I've looked at the Ravelry project page for this pattern, and I would never have said I loved the pattern based on the majority of the results I found, but Jackie's socks inspired me to add the pattern to my queue.
3) Joli House's Dublin Bay Socks: This is a case where a blog I read introduced me to both a new sock pattern that I loved and a sock yarn that is both variegated and subtle. I've seen tons of socks using this pattern that I like, which is nice, but not rare. However, I rarely find sock yarns that are variegated and subtle. YAY!
4) The Yarniad's Simplicity 6197, View F: While I enjoy sewing, and I find that many people make stuff that looks okay, I do not often think to myself, "I wish I had that piece" when I see hand made items. This skirt, however, speaks to me. I love it. I found myself mentally checking my wardrobe to see what would go with it. I love the color, the way the pleats fall. I considered making myself my own version! A winner.
And that is it for today, folks. I'll get back to you soon, hopefully, with my own knitting results!
Blog Reader: So, why haven't you been posting?
Me: I'm super busy!
Blog Reader: With knitting?
Me: Well... no.
Blog Reader: With Nathan?
Me: No more than normal.
Blog Reader: Then what are you doing that you're so busy that you can't post?
Me: mumble, mumble
Blog Reader: What was that?
Me: I'm playing a videogame and reading FEEDS, okay? It takes time to read eight billion knitting blogs on a daily basis, you know! And my characters are not going to level themselves while I just sit around knitting and blogging, are they?
Blog Reader: You should be ashamed of yourself.
I have imaginary conversations between myself and others all the time, but this time I decided to take the advice of my imaginary harasser and post!
Anyway, since I have little knitting progress to speak of ("knit some more on the never ending Slytherin scarf, tried to pretend my socks dropped off the face of the Earth"), I thought I'd highlight four craft projects that have caught my eye over the last several months.
1) Sophy's Shalom: I love everything about this. The color is great. The stitches look so even and nice. The buttons are sweet. Sophy has stated that she does not wear it much, but I think it's a winner in the pictures, at least.
2) Jackie's Charade Socks: It's the last project on this post. I adore the pattern of this sock, but, it turns out that I only love it when combined with a darker sock yarn such as the Dream in Color Smooshy's November Muse. I've looked at the Ravelry project page for this pattern, and I would never have said I loved the pattern based on the majority of the results I found, but Jackie's socks inspired me to add the pattern to my queue.
3) Joli House's Dublin Bay Socks: This is a case where a blog I read introduced me to both a new sock pattern that I loved and a sock yarn that is both variegated and subtle. I've seen tons of socks using this pattern that I like, which is nice, but not rare. However, I rarely find sock yarns that are variegated and subtle. YAY!
4) The Yarniad's Simplicity 6197, View F: While I enjoy sewing, and I find that many people make stuff that looks okay, I do not often think to myself, "I wish I had that piece" when I see hand made items. This skirt, however, speaks to me. I love it. I found myself mentally checking my wardrobe to see what would go with it. I love the color, the way the pleats fall. I considered making myself my own version! A winner.
And that is it for today, folks. I'll get back to you soon, hopefully, with my own knitting results!
03 February 2009
Friendship Fingerless Mitts
These are done and they took less than ten days! They are also super cute and warm.
Project: Burgundy Mitts (ravel it!)
Pattern: Friendship Fingerless Mitts
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino
Needles: Size 4 DPNs.
Thank you for the pattern, Sophy! I ♥ it!
Now, normally I would show you some of my WIPs, but those are boring. Really, I can't show you my stupid Slytherin scarf everytime I add a new section. I'll just answer one of the comments I've received which requires a response.
ECB asked me to post a tutorial for my sewn Thanksgiving napkins. No need, ECB! I found a tutorial online before I made my own napkins. The Purl Bee's napkins are cuter than mine, for sure, but they appear to have better sewing skillz. Check out their other tutorials as well, if you like to sew. It's a wealth of knowledge and project advice!
Project: Burgundy Mitts (ravel it!)
Pattern: Friendship Fingerless Mitts
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino
Needles: Size 4 DPNs.
Thank you for the pattern, Sophy! I ♥ it!
Now, normally I would show you some of my WIPs, but those are boring. Really, I can't show you my stupid Slytherin scarf everytime I add a new section. I'll just answer one of the comments I've received which requires a response.
ECB asked me to post a tutorial for my sewn Thanksgiving napkins. No need, ECB! I found a tutorial online before I made my own napkins. The Purl Bee's napkins are cuter than mine, for sure, but they appear to have better sewing skillz. Check out their other tutorials as well, if you like to sew. It's a wealth of knowledge and project advice!
30 January 2009
Two Posts in One
So, I haven't been posting, and unlike most times, it is not because I've ceased crafting. It is because I'm a lazy jerk who values reading crappy books and playing silly videogames over blogging at times. I know! I suck. Also, Facebook (FRIEND ME!) and Flickr. They kill me by sucking up time.
Anyway, as I've said, I've been crafting. Helen has been knitting and favoriting fingerless mitts on Ravelry, and finally we decided to do a KAL on two different mitts. The first was Sophy's pattern, the Friendship Fingerless Mitts (ravel it). I finished those very quickly and will have pictures of it in Ravelry and on my blog soon! I will gush over them appropriately in their own post. We plan to do the Endpaper Mitts next, but I need to get the yarn, as does Helen. (This will be my first foray into colorwork!)
As I mentioned in a previous post, Helen is the fastest knitter in the world, and she is once again tempting me to try my hand at Continental knitting. Is it that much faster or is she just a very quick knitter? She's made a bevy of adorable hats, and if she does Thorpe, I might ask for a KAL on that too since my brother-in-law wants that.
I also did a burp cloth or two for my sewing. They are cute, but nothing spectacular, so no pics, and no love for them. (I will note that one is an adorable flannel one with penguins sledding. I love the fabric's whimsy.)
Now, as to Podcasts -- some updates first. Knitting at Night has gone by the wayside of my podcasts, and I deleted it from my subscriptions last night. It was a fine podcast, but the podcaster never managed to get organized. I liked her conversational style, but others such as Never Not Knitting do it better and more smoothly. As I have a limited amount of time and a numerous amount of podcasts, I dropped it. I'm thinking of dropping Knit Pick's Podcast. I still like it, but Kelley seems to only do interviews any more, and I don't even super care for her essays lately. Her voice is very stilted and slow during those sections, while being so much more spontaneous during her "What I'm Knitting Now" sections. I've been sticking with it, though, because I still like the odd show enough to keep with it.
I've tried Sticks and Strings, and I liked the latest episodes well enough to go back and listen to some of the early ones. The same is true of DestiKnit. I will give an in-depth review of both soon. I've only listened to three of DestiKnit, and six of Sticks and Strings, so I want to listen to a bit more of each before giving a more final word on them.
So, posts I want to do in the future: highlighting other people's finished projects, comment answers, and Friendship Fingerless Mitts finished project page!
Anyway, as I've said, I've been crafting. Helen has been knitting and favoriting fingerless mitts on Ravelry, and finally we decided to do a KAL on two different mitts. The first was Sophy's pattern, the Friendship Fingerless Mitts (ravel it). I finished those very quickly and will have pictures of it in Ravelry and on my blog soon! I will gush over them appropriately in their own post. We plan to do the Endpaper Mitts next, but I need to get the yarn, as does Helen. (This will be my first foray into colorwork!)
As I mentioned in a previous post, Helen is the fastest knitter in the world, and she is once again tempting me to try my hand at Continental knitting. Is it that much faster or is she just a very quick knitter? She's made a bevy of adorable hats, and if she does Thorpe, I might ask for a KAL on that too since my brother-in-law wants that.
I also did a burp cloth or two for my sewing. They are cute, but nothing spectacular, so no pics, and no love for them. (I will note that one is an adorable flannel one with penguins sledding. I love the fabric's whimsy.)
Now, as to Podcasts -- some updates first. Knitting at Night has gone by the wayside of my podcasts, and I deleted it from my subscriptions last night. It was a fine podcast, but the podcaster never managed to get organized. I liked her conversational style, but others such as Never Not Knitting do it better and more smoothly. As I have a limited amount of time and a numerous amount of podcasts, I dropped it. I'm thinking of dropping Knit Pick's Podcast. I still like it, but Kelley seems to only do interviews any more, and I don't even super care for her essays lately. Her voice is very stilted and slow during those sections, while being so much more spontaneous during her "What I'm Knitting Now" sections. I've been sticking with it, though, because I still like the odd show enough to keep with it.
I've tried Sticks and Strings, and I liked the latest episodes well enough to go back and listen to some of the early ones. The same is true of DestiKnit. I will give an in-depth review of both soon. I've only listened to three of DestiKnit, and six of Sticks and Strings, so I want to listen to a bit more of each before giving a more final word on them.
So, posts I want to do in the future: highlighting other people's finished projects, comment answers, and Friendship Fingerless Mitts finished project page!
10 January 2009
2009 Crafting Resolutions
I know that I owe some other posts to you guys (and that's how you know I'm from Philly, 'you guys'!), but I need to get my resolutions out before this year passes, you dig?
So, without further ado, here are some of my crafting resolutions. These are the resolutions I've thought of in the last two minutes or so.
1. I will make more cupcakes. I've been wanting to improve my cake decorating skills, but solely in the field of cupcakes. What am I waiting for? How will I ever make the best cupcakes in the world if I don't start improving my skillz?
2. I'd like to make some holiday pillowcases using my sewing skills. ANY HOLIDAY will work at this point, and I'm counting birthdays as a holiday. These pillowcases would be for my bed pillows.
3. I'd like to make Paula (and myself) some Halloween table napkins, much like my Thanksgiving napkins. In fact, I'd just like to make some more table napkins since I feel fancy when I use them, and they're now out of season.
4. Knit with Malabrigo yarn.
5. Use up some of my stash.
6. Knit several pairs of socks, but try Shaeffer Anne, Dream in Color Smooshy, and Duet Sock Yarn for some of those socks.
7. Sew a skirt.
8. Learn the skills to make my favorite dress pattern ever. I don't need to make the dress this year, but I need to get more skills.
9. Blog at least once a week.
10. Knit a sweater.
11. Lose some damned weight. (Only crafting related because it means I can buy less yarn/fabric to make clothing items!)
So, without further ado, here are some of my crafting resolutions. These are the resolutions I've thought of in the last two minutes or so.
1. I will make more cupcakes. I've been wanting to improve my cake decorating skills, but solely in the field of cupcakes. What am I waiting for? How will I ever make the best cupcakes in the world if I don't start improving my skillz?
2. I'd like to make some holiday pillowcases using my sewing skills. ANY HOLIDAY will work at this point, and I'm counting birthdays as a holiday. These pillowcases would be for my bed pillows.
3. I'd like to make Paula (and myself) some Halloween table napkins, much like my Thanksgiving napkins. In fact, I'd just like to make some more table napkins since I feel fancy when I use them, and they're now out of season.
4. Knit with Malabrigo yarn.
5. Use up some of my stash.
6. Knit several pairs of socks, but try Shaeffer Anne, Dream in Color Smooshy, and Duet Sock Yarn for some of those socks.
7. Sew a skirt.
8. Learn the skills to make my favorite dress pattern ever. I don't need to make the dress this year, but I need to get more skills.
9. Blog at least once a week.
10. Knit a sweater.
11. Lose some damned weight. (Only crafting related because it means I can buy less yarn/fabric to make clothing items!)
08 January 2009
Finished Projects 2008
Two thousand and eight was a good year for my crafting, believe it or not. I did quite a bit of knitting, pre-Nathan, and even a bit more after he was born. I got a sewing machine and learned some basics of sewing.
I am pretty proud of everything I did minus the bibs and the Ballband Dishcloth. I'm especially proud of the Cotton Booties and the Spiral Boot Socks. I wish I had some of the items here that I finished but didn't get pictures of, such as my mom's Apron (sewing) and Isaac's Baby Blanket (knitting).
My favorite finished object of 2008?
Nathaniel
I am pretty proud of everything I did minus the bibs and the Ballband Dishcloth. I'm especially proud of the Cotton Booties and the Spiral Boot Socks. I wish I had some of the items here that I finished but didn't get pictures of, such as my mom's Apron (sewing) and Isaac's Baby Blanket (knitting).
My favorite finished object of 2008?
06 January 2009
Ahem, Ahem -- Is This Thing On?
It's been about eight billion years, friends! I had so many blog posts I could have made too, but Paul took two weeks off, and I spent the majority of those two weeks chilling, relaxing, and maxing, or whatnot. I didn't knit a lot, but I did sew some. I don't have ANY pictures of my knitting or sewing too.
My first post now that I'm back is one that it is long overdue. A while back, Helen told me of a person she knew that had a knitting blog and who was a new mother. Since I had earlier this year met Sophy by blog, I was feeling positive about blogging friends, so I checked out the blog, which is called little feet, big sky.
I ended up liking the blog quite a bit, so I wrote to the blog author via Ravelry, where she is known as 'ecofriendlybaby'. She was extremely friendly and willing to message me about being a mother -- and that's my favorite topic nowadays. (Besides how much I love Pushing Daisies and how people suck for not watching it. It's just as well Pushing Daisies is dying. I'm sure people were tired of hearing me bitch and moan about Veronica Mars dying. I have a new show to bitch about now, folks!)
Anyway, where was I? Yes! So, this year, ECB sent me a lovely lovely package. It was a sock bag from The Tipsy Knitter. Well, I've been thinking about getting a sock knitting bag for awhile, so I was thrilled as all get out to receive this. Look how pretty it is too!
She did not know it, but I'm a sucker for Neapolitan coloured items too. Pink, brown, and white is one of my favorite color combinations. (I also like pink and green, blue and cream and brown, mint and brown, orange and blue, red and green, and apparently every color with every other color.) Do you see my Pomatomus socks peeking out of the bag? I've gotten next to nothing done on them!
Inside the bag, at the time of the gifting, there was some Knit Picks Bare sock yarn.
I'm thinking it is time for some Kool-Aid dying, no? Only, I'm having problems picking which shade I want to dye with.
This was a terrific gift! Thank you so much!
(Upcoming posts, knitting/sewing round-up 2008, knitting/sewing resolutions 2009, why Helen is the fastest knitter in the world, answers to comments on my blog posts, podcast reviews, highlighting other blogger's finished projects, and more!)
My first post now that I'm back is one that it is long overdue. A while back, Helen told me of a person she knew that had a knitting blog and who was a new mother. Since I had earlier this year met Sophy by blog, I was feeling positive about blogging friends, so I checked out the blog, which is called little feet, big sky.
I ended up liking the blog quite a bit, so I wrote to the blog author via Ravelry, where she is known as 'ecofriendlybaby'. She was extremely friendly and willing to message me about being a mother -- and that's my favorite topic nowadays. (Besides how much I love Pushing Daisies and how people suck for not watching it. It's just as well Pushing Daisies is dying. I'm sure people were tired of hearing me bitch and moan about Veronica Mars dying. I have a new show to bitch about now, folks!)
Anyway, where was I? Yes! So, this year, ECB sent me a lovely lovely package. It was a sock bag from The Tipsy Knitter. Well, I've been thinking about getting a sock knitting bag for awhile, so I was thrilled as all get out to receive this. Look how pretty it is too!
She did not know it, but I'm a sucker for Neapolitan coloured items too. Pink, brown, and white is one of my favorite color combinations. (I also like pink and green, blue and cream and brown, mint and brown, orange and blue, red and green, and apparently every color with every other color.) Do you see my Pomatomus socks peeking out of the bag? I've gotten next to nothing done on them!
Inside the bag, at the time of the gifting, there was some Knit Picks Bare sock yarn.
I'm thinking it is time for some Kool-Aid dying, no? Only, I'm having problems picking which shade I want to dye with.
This was a terrific gift! Thank you so much!
(Upcoming posts, knitting/sewing round-up 2008, knitting/sewing resolutions 2009, why Helen is the fastest knitter in the world, answers to comments on my blog posts, podcast reviews, highlighting other blogger's finished projects, and more!)
09 December 2008
Actual Knitting Content
There is so much knitting content that I'm dreading typing up this entry, believe it or not. First off, my yarn came from the Loopy Ewe. As you might not be aware, the Loopy Ewe promises small gifts with your first five purchases, and then you become a "Loopy Groupie". What came in that first package with my single $11 skein of yarn? Two samples of yarn -- Mountain Colors Bearfoot and Fiesta Boomerang.
I also received some cards for helping me to track my needles. Eh -- I threw them out as I didn't need them since I have Ravelry. I never impulse buy knitting needles of any type. This was still a pretty nice little set of gifts for one skein of Lorna's Laces.
I was extremely happy that I got the yarn, as I managed to finish Helen's Socks (ravel it)!! I met Helen on Saturday, and gifted them to her, and she allowed me to take some quick shots of them.
I was so amazed by my ability to do a sock in a pattern that I immediately cast on for a pair of Pomatomus with my Socks that Rock yarn that I bought at Rhinebeck. I have only just finished the ribbing on the first sock, and the pattern is looking a tiny bit wonky now which is making me nervous.
In much, much, much more exciting news, Sophy is visiting Philadelphia this week! We got together, along with Helen, and Sophy's sister Sophea. Sophea was awesome to meet, too, but I wish I knew her Ravelry name.
As you can clearly see, we also took a trip to Loop! I didn't purchase much, just one skein of Malabrigo's Silky Merino and one skein of Koigu Mori.
After we went shopping, we went to Helen's place to knit, which is where I started my socks and worked a bit on my Slytherin Scarf.
All in all, it was a great day, but the best part of it was actually getting to meet Sophy! I'm glad that Bryan directed me to her blog while I was sick this year.
This was a photo-intense blog entry, and I'm not even finished. I have so much more to add this week, including some adventures in sewing, and another package I got in the mail!
I also received some cards for helping me to track my needles. Eh -- I threw them out as I didn't need them since I have Ravelry. I never impulse buy knitting needles of any type. This was still a pretty nice little set of gifts for one skein of Lorna's Laces.
I was extremely happy that I got the yarn, as I managed to finish Helen's Socks (ravel it)!! I met Helen on Saturday, and gifted them to her, and she allowed me to take some quick shots of them.
I was so amazed by my ability to do a sock in a pattern that I immediately cast on for a pair of Pomatomus with my Socks that Rock yarn that I bought at Rhinebeck. I have only just finished the ribbing on the first sock, and the pattern is looking a tiny bit wonky now which is making me nervous.
In much, much, much more exciting news, Sophy is visiting Philadelphia this week! We got together, along with Helen, and Sophy's sister Sophea. Sophea was awesome to meet, too, but I wish I knew her Ravelry name.
As you can clearly see, we also took a trip to Loop! I didn't purchase much, just one skein of Malabrigo's Silky Merino and one skein of Koigu Mori.
After we went shopping, we went to Helen's place to knit, which is where I started my socks and worked a bit on my Slytherin Scarf.
All in all, it was a great day, but the best part of it was actually getting to meet Sophy! I'm glad that Bryan directed me to her blog while I was sick this year.
This was a photo-intense blog entry, and I'm not even finished. I have so much more to add this week, including some adventures in sewing, and another package I got in the mail!
04 December 2008
Podcasts, Sewing, and Knitting Projects
This is certainly a hodgepodge post coming up. First up, podcasts -- had to give up on Cast On. I had been listening to it and I found it acceptable, if not great. Then, in one of the early episodes, the podcaster starts to rant about someone who gave her podcast a negative review on their blog, stating that that person should do their own podcast and how she, the podcaster, was being brave putting herself out there. Blah. It is tough to put yourself out there. I agree. But, I feel this is the same argument authors make when they get a bad review on Amazon. They feel perfectly justified in arguing that bad review.
Listen, a bad review is not the worst thing in the world to happen to you, folks. If someone hates my blog, they hate my blog. If someone hates me, they hate me. It's an opinion. Listening to another person's opinion does not make it fact. For instance, I'm giving up on Cast On because I feel the podcaster is too thin-skinned and she intersperses too much music with her podcast and her knitting content does not thrill me. Does this make her a bad podcaster? No. Does this mean you shouldn't listen to her podcast? Not unless you dislike thin-skinned podcasters, too much music, and we have the exact same knitting tastes. If this is true, don't listen to her. Otherwise, give her a try. She's popular. I might be wrong.
Next up, knitting. Okay, it's boring. Again, I ordered the third skein, and I await it to complete those socks. Secondly, I'm knitting on my Slytherin Scarf again. I know! I forgot it existed too!
Lastly, the exciting stuff! Around a week before Thanksgiving, Paul said that I should sew some nice napkins for the dinner for six people we were having. Slightly intimidated by the idea, I decided to try it. Looking around, it appeared I would need a rotary cutter, self-healing pad, ruler, a yard and a half of fabric, another yard and a half of fabric, bias tape maker, and two yards of fabric for the tape.
After putting that all, plus some fabric bolts, into my cart at Joann's Fabric, I realized I had roughly one hundred dollars worth of goods for six napkins. That's ridiculous, especially considering the pure number of sales that Joann's has! I put everything back but the fabric bolts and the ruler. I went and got some tailor's chalk. Then, I asked for one and a half yards of two of the fabrics and asked for the third to be taken back. I was sadly surprised to learn that my first print choice (a set of leaves and pumpkins on a neutral background) only had one yard left, so I bought a half of a yard of my third fabric choice. After this, I went to the bias tape section and looked through the paltry selection for some matches to my fabric.
I was right to do all this, because now I have a coupon for 50% off of a single item to Joann's which takes my self-healing mat from $50.00 to $25.00! A $25.00 savings for patience. I like!
Anyway, I got home, and started chalking up some squares and cutting 'em out. This was hard for two of the fabrics which had enough stretch that the squares are more square like than perfectly square. The third, nearly thrown away, fabric had no stretch and was lovely.
The next night, I pinned everything together and started to sew! I'm fairly happy with how things came out, and now I want to do way more of these. I want a Christmas set, a winter set, a birthday set, a Halloween set, and more! I want Easter sets, summery beach sets, spring flower sets. I love them. I also want to make them for everyone I know.
Seriously, I am going to use these until I make more. And now I want all those expensive tools!
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Listen, a bad review is not the worst thing in the world to happen to you, folks. If someone hates my blog, they hate my blog. If someone hates me, they hate me. It's an opinion. Listening to another person's opinion does not make it fact. For instance, I'm giving up on Cast On because I feel the podcaster is too thin-skinned and she intersperses too much music with her podcast and her knitting content does not thrill me. Does this make her a bad podcaster? No. Does this mean you shouldn't listen to her podcast? Not unless you dislike thin-skinned podcasters, too much music, and we have the exact same knitting tastes. If this is true, don't listen to her. Otherwise, give her a try. She's popular. I might be wrong.
Next up, knitting. Okay, it's boring. Again, I ordered the third skein, and I await it to complete those socks. Secondly, I'm knitting on my Slytherin Scarf again. I know! I forgot it existed too!
Lastly, the exciting stuff! Around a week before Thanksgiving, Paul said that I should sew some nice napkins for the dinner for six people we were having. Slightly intimidated by the idea, I decided to try it. Looking around, it appeared I would need a rotary cutter, self-healing pad, ruler, a yard and a half of fabric, another yard and a half of fabric, bias tape maker, and two yards of fabric for the tape.
After putting that all, plus some fabric bolts, into my cart at Joann's Fabric, I realized I had roughly one hundred dollars worth of goods for six napkins. That's ridiculous, especially considering the pure number of sales that Joann's has! I put everything back but the fabric bolts and the ruler. I went and got some tailor's chalk. Then, I asked for one and a half yards of two of the fabrics and asked for the third to be taken back. I was sadly surprised to learn that my first print choice (a set of leaves and pumpkins on a neutral background) only had one yard left, so I bought a half of a yard of my third fabric choice. After this, I went to the bias tape section and looked through the paltry selection for some matches to my fabric.
I was right to do all this, because now I have a coupon for 50% off of a single item to Joann's which takes my self-healing mat from $50.00 to $25.00! A $25.00 savings for patience. I like!
Anyway, I got home, and started chalking up some squares and cutting 'em out. This was hard for two of the fabrics which had enough stretch that the squares are more square like than perfectly square. The third, nearly thrown away, fabric had no stretch and was lovely.
The next night, I pinned everything together and started to sew! I'm fairly happy with how things came out, and now I want to do way more of these. I want a Christmas set, a winter set, a birthday set, a Halloween set, and more! I want Easter sets, summery beach sets, spring flower sets. I love them. I also want to make them for everyone I know.
Seriously, I am going to use these until I make more. And now I want all those expensive tools!
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
02 December 2008
Doing Much of Nothing
I've been very fake busy lately, with the holidays and all sneaking up on me out of nowhere. I've not been crafting a lot. I've done some stuff, which I'll be posting about later, after I've taken pictures, but nothing horribly exciting.
My knitting has been sort of tossed to the wayside. Poor Helen's poor socks. I should have known it would happen. I've... run out of yarn. An inch before the toe. The bad part? I'll have nine/tenths of a skein left after I finish these socks. The good part? This calls for a purchase at ♥the Loopy Ewe♥. I'll be honest and say I was so tempted to buy more lovely sock yarn, but I limited myself to the skein I needed and a gift certificate for someone else. I'll get the sock yarn I want next time when I've worked through the yarn I've currently got stashed. Plus, this way, I can become a loopy groupie faster.
I've been really slow with this second sock. As most sock knitters know, once you know you're going to run out of yarn, you do one of two things. You either knit so quickly that it hurts, hoping that the pure speed of your knitting will prevent you from running out of yarn. Alternatively, you stall. You never knit on the project because you know what's coming.
What have I been doing then, you ask? Caring for a baby and reading blogs mostly. The baby has the sniffles and the blogs have a lot of posts. I've also been up and about, which is better, visiting people, lunching, whatnot. I've done a bit of sewing.
Here's some cute little 0-3 month booties for my eldest cousin's soon-to-be-arriving baby.
As the little girl will be arriving in April, I thought that some nice cool cotton booties might look sharp. My mom has asked for several more sewn items for the baby such as bibs and/or burp cloths.
Anyway, that's it for today. This is just meant to be a quick update. I'll update my next post with more pics of what I've been doing, hopefully, and include some of my future crafting plans!
My knitting has been sort of tossed to the wayside. Poor Helen's poor socks. I should have known it would happen. I've... run out of yarn. An inch before the toe. The bad part? I'll have nine/tenths of a skein left after I finish these socks. The good part? This calls for a purchase at ♥the Loopy Ewe♥. I'll be honest and say I was so tempted to buy more lovely sock yarn, but I limited myself to the skein I needed and a gift certificate for someone else. I'll get the sock yarn I want next time when I've worked through the yarn I've currently got stashed. Plus, this way, I can become a loopy groupie faster.
I've been really slow with this second sock. As most sock knitters know, once you know you're going to run out of yarn, you do one of two things. You either knit so quickly that it hurts, hoping that the pure speed of your knitting will prevent you from running out of yarn. Alternatively, you stall. You never knit on the project because you know what's coming.
What have I been doing then, you ask? Caring for a baby and reading blogs mostly. The baby has the sniffles and the blogs have a lot of posts. I've also been up and about, which is better, visiting people, lunching, whatnot. I've done a bit of sewing.
Here's some cute little 0-3 month booties for my eldest cousin's soon-to-be-arriving baby.
As the little girl will be arriving in April, I thought that some nice cool cotton booties might look sharp. My mom has asked for several more sewn items for the baby such as bibs and/or burp cloths.
Anyway, that's it for today. This is just meant to be a quick update. I'll update my next post with more pics of what I've been doing, hopefully, and include some of my future crafting plans!
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