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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.

Doing Something, Anything

Guess what I've been doing?



I've not been doing a ton, but I did cut out some boxers and mark them up. Don't you love the Chinoiserie fabric? Mmm...



I have no idea if, when sewn up, the pattern's "up" will be the same as the boxers' "up", if you know what I mean. The fabric is from Joann and it is part of Alexander Henry Fabrics collection from 2006.

Hopefully, by next week, I'll have some pictures of a finished project to show you, and possibly some updates on my other projects, and a picture of my beautifully wound Schaefer Anne yarn. Unlike the Socks That Rocks fiasco, things are already looking good. The yarn cake, newly wound, was gorgeous rather than frightening. Thanks, Christy, for helping me with that.

New Sock Yarn

I was going to skip a post this week because I was just out of it. I was tired, grumpy, allergy ridden, and tired. This led to me not doing much at all that shows. I mean, I knit a little on my scarf, and I cross-stitched, and I even finished that cloth book I showed you in my last post, but nothing exciting happened.

Then, darling Christy came through with her Knit Picks order. In the recent past, she asked Helen and me if we would like to get anything from Knit Picks so we could all get free shipping from one package. I decided to go with an extra long cabled sock needle for trying the Magic Loop again, and two skeins of Gloss Sock Yarn. This yarn has silk in it.



It's very pretty when you look at it close up.



Now, I just need to find a good pattern for this yarn. Perhaps the Bella Catena Italiana?

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.

Sadness: I Has It

I had no updates. I had no words. I had nothing to give to you today, audience. I barely did anything last week that couldn't be condensed down to: didn't get off the computer, didn't craft much, didn't do anything new, didn't do much at all with sewing or knitting. The problem with working on large cross-stitch projects or long in the round scarves is that even when you manage to make a few hours worth of work on them, it's still 'ho hum', you know? And with Nathan being suddenly the world's worst sleeper this week, I haven't gotten any sewing done either. I'm not motivated to sew and, if I do sew, the machine is loud enough to set him off.

I was pretty depressed about having no updates and considered not updating my blog this week, pretending the whole week had not occurred. I was at my mom's today, thinking about this, and how it sucked, I got kind of whiny with my mom. (Not that my mom doesn't have her faults, but she did not deserve the attitude today.) When she was sitting there with Nathan, I passively-aggressively asked if she was ever going to put any of the cross-stitch I made for her up on the walls. Or did she just lose the cross-stitch that I did for her at her request? The set that took me ten years to complete? Did she just lose it. My mom looked at me, a bit shocked, because she had forgotten about them. She said to me, "Well, my house is done. I should put them up. It'll cost too much to frame them."

I told her to just put them on the floor, and I'd photograph them. Readers, I'm going to dole them out to you when I have nothing else to show you. That's how I roll. I'm willing to take old projects and make them NEW. So, going back in the day, here's a cross-stitch I completed when I was 19, back when I was ambitious and willing to cross-stitch everything. This is not part of the previously mentioned set. This is my baby polar bears cross-stitch.



The cloth is some type of aida, but I don't know what size (14, perhaps).

As for my sewing, well, I did cut out some stuff for the cloth book my mom wants me to make for my cousin's child.



Isn't my mini-ironing board cute? That's also my crap iron that I love more than I used to love it because at least my crap iron didn't melt my sewing thread like my mom's scary iron of doom did.

How are you guys doing? Getting stuff done? I'm not going to make any firm plans for the upcoming week. If I can sew, I will. If I can't, I won't. If I get nothing done at all, I'm going back to truly firm planning.

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!

Darlings, Socks That Rock Equals Soft

Remember when I was dissing my horribly ugly socks? Well, they are still horribly ugly, but they went through the washer and dryer awesomely. If anything, they are ever softer now, and without losing any stitch definition. If I ever find a colorway that doesn't make me want to claw my eyes out, I might try to buy some Socks That Rock again. I have a feeling, I'll being making an order in the future. After my Knit Picks order comes in. And my future Loopy Ewe order.

God, I've only managed to knit six rounds on my scarf this week, and I'm planning three future yarn orders. Remember when I didn't stash?

Liar, Liar, Socks On Fire

Dude, two years ago, I wouldn't have been blogging on a Friday night unless it was to tell you all my plans to marry Gambit from the X-Men movie, because back then I would have seen it on a Friday night and I would have gone to the eleven o'clock showing. How life has changed.

Remember those plans I had? What a liar I am. I'm the biggest liar ever. I was going to say I was the worst liar ever, but I am actually a fairly decent liar. Anyway, my lie? I was going to cross-stitch last night! Ha. I finished my ugly socks instead.



Project: Ugly Anklets (ravel it!)
Pattern: My standard anklet pattern
Yarn: Blue Moon's Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Rare (UGLY!) Gems colorway
Needles: Lantern Moon Size 2 Ebony needles. YUM.

I'm not going to lie to you, folks. I have no great love for these socks. They are too wide for my feet. They aren't pretty. They were not a pleasure to knit, even, since I had so much hate for the fact they looked horrible while I was knitting a real sock pattern. Ugh.



I tried to take nice pictures of my ugly socks. However, the pure hideousness of the socks drowns out any nice qualities of the photos.

You all realize that in one year, these will be my favorite socks ever, right? They will somehow be the most perfectly soft socks I've ever knit, or something. Or more hopefully, they'll felt when I throw them into the washer/dryer and I'll have a legit excuse for throwing out the rest of this yarn.

How Goes The Plan, Stan?

Just a week ago, I decided I needed to create a plan for my crafting/free time as I was spending too many hours on the computer and not enough doing anything else. How did it go, you ask? Well, sort of okay. So, on Thursday night, I was due to work on Nathan's PJs. That went as expected. The weekend was my free time, so on Friday, I worked on the PJs again. I also worked on them Saturday night. I was even going to work on them Sunday night, but I was frustrated by my lack of proper sized trim, as described in my last post. It is quite clear that I'm obsessive about finishing my sewing projects. I finished my PJs on Monday night, the night I should have been knitting a scarf. I justified it by telling myself that it was too hot to knit a wool scarf and that I could knit on my scarf when I was in proper air-conditioning. I did finish the pajamas, so I had that, at least.



That face is just telling you that he already know that his mom loves to make excuses for when she overrides her own plans.

On Sunday night, I did work on my cross-stitch for the first time in well over a year. Since I only worked on it for one hour, I didn't get much done and it won't even be worth taking another WIP picture until I spend another nine or so hours on it. I really want to work on it again now!

I knitted on the socks on both Saturday afternoon and on Wednesday night, so that went as planned. I'm mostly done the second sock of my 'barf' pair as I affectionately call them. I'm already decreasing on the second sock, in fact, and I expect they'll be done very soon, allowing me to cast on for Nathan's matching ugly socks.



So, where did I fail? I didn't work on my sewn boxers, but I wasn't too sad about that. I've decided I only want one WIP for sewing unless I become one of those people with lots of spare time on Saturdays or Sundays who goes around cutting fifteen projects at once to be sewn during their spare time. (I would love to be one of those people.) I also didn't work on the scarf, but... I'm not too sad about that.

I have decided I'm going to redraft my plans for each week from now on, keeping weekends free for anything I'd like to do. This upcoming week, it'll be:

Thursday: cross-stitch
Sunday: sewing, another cloth book
Monday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)
Tuesday: cross-stitch OR drawing
Wednesday: knitting (scarf if it isn't too hot, socks if it is)

We'll see how it goes. I clearly wanted to up my cross-stitching and take a small relax from the sewing.

Both Sophy and Wit stated that this type of plan would stifle their creativity, but I work in the opposite way. I love plans, lists, and schedules. They make me feel happy. If I follow them, I'm getting things done. If I ignore them, I'm being a little wild. It's win-win. The worst time for my crafting this weekend was on the weekend when I had the choice to do anything I wanted. I mostly just surfed the internet.

I remember reading that the human brain likes to have a limited number of choices. No choices and we feel hemmed in, too many choices, and we become indecisive. I think that my plan limits my choices and makes me more able to break away from the computer at night. Instead of wondering which craft or activity I should be doing, and then doing nothing or defaulting to socks, I have a plan and I get to doing it. For instance, prior to my plans, at night, I could watch TV, play on the computer, read, draw, sew several items, cross-stitch, or knit on one of two items. Now, I've basically taken it down to play on the comp, craft, read, or draw. And that's something I can choose between.

Though, what I really should do is spend more time with Paul.



He's a good husband and maybe I spend too much time crafting instead of spending time with him.

The Cat's Pajamas

As you all know, I've been sewing. And sewing. And sewing. I think it is official. I'm sewed out for now. I need a break, and that might mean I need to rethink my plan. (More on that in a different post.) However, for all that sewing, I got a finish project. It's Amy Butler's Kimono Style Pajamas from Little Stitches. This project is adorable, but to be realistic, everything in Little Stitches is adorable. There is a reason Helen and I call it the cutie book. I mean, some of the other pajamas I've seen on Flickr make me drool. Trust me, if Nathan weren't already in the 12 month pajama size, he'd have a set for every three months of his first year.

So, last week, I started to trace and cut out the pattern. I carefully cut out the pieces, then pinned those pieces to the main fabric and realized I needed a touch more fabric than Amy calls for. Well, to quote Tim Gunn, I made it work. I moved that pattern around until I got all the pieces into the yardage called for. I then cut out all the strips of the second fabric. I read through the directions to make sure I didn't need to cut out anything else before I threw out the scraps. With a sinking heart, I read about... Bias tape. Oh man. I hate making bias tape. I mean, it's so pretty, but I'm so sucky at it and... Bias tape. That night, I set down the project and went to bed, a little downhearted.

The next night, I was all psyched. I had cut out all the pieces! They didn't need marking! I just had to get that stupid bias tape cut and I was ready to sew. I cut it out, and I cut out that bias tape perfectly. I was cautious, light with my chalk, perfect with my scissors. My strips were all the perfect size and cut on the bias correctly. In fact, the damnable bias tape is the one thing I'm most proud of with this project. Well, I sat down to sew and read the directions and started step one, pinning the front top trim to the front panel of the top and realized that my trim was just a bit short. I stopped and considered. Maybe this was on purpose. I looked at the directions for cutting and saw that I should have two front trim pieces cut at eight and seven-eighths inches by three and a half inches. I measured and nearly shrieked in pain. My stupid trims were seven and seven-eighths inches. I put everything aside and took a deep breath, measured all the remaining trims to make sure they were the correct size, and went to go do another project for the night. I stuck the mis-cut trim in my purse too so that I could buy another fourth of the fabric to recut my trim.

I get the fabric, recut the trim, sew the bias tape together, and start! Everything is really clear right up until the bias tape section. Wow, then the directions were crappy. According to everything I've read online, Amy Butler has terrific directions. This must mean that my reading comprehension is really far below what I used to think it was. I looked at the sole diagram presented, read the instructions a few more times, and finally figured out WTF was going on. By that time, I was tired, so I intelligently went to bed rather than continue on.

The next time I worked, I finished the top with a minimum of fuss. Most everything went right other than slightly puckered/wonky sleeves, but considering the fact that I had never set in a sleeve before in my life, I decided not to worry too much about it. I'd try harder not to screw up next shirt.



After taking the above picture, the angel and demon on my shoulders started a little fight. The angel told me to answer my email, take a shower, and go to bed. The devil told me I could finish the pants. The angel told me I was tired. The devil said, "He could be wearing these tomorrow."

I paid for listening to that devil, folks. I ripped out about fifteen seams (no lie) working on those pants. Those pants should have been as simple as all hell, and they took me forever. At one point, Nathan had a funky shaped long skirt because I had screwed up so hard. I did discover that I wanted to make myself and everyone I know pajama pants. I think if I were less tired, I could whip out a pair pretty quickly, even for adults.

Here is Nathan enjoying his outfit.



It's got an awfully cute turtle pattern on it.



You can see that the pants are already a little too small for him, but I like the project regardless.

Here he is standing up so you can see the pants.



My mom and I even took him to the park in his pajamas!



My final verdict? I wish Amy Butler had more diagrams and that her instructions were clearer, but it's an awfully cute pair of pajamas.