Confessions of a Craft Junkie

Moving

2011-05-09T07:06:00.000-05:00

This blog has moved. You can find me at http://stitch1stitch2.blogspot.com/

Needle version of a loom pattern - Chunky Braid Lace Afghan

2011-03-06T08:17:00.003-06:00

A few years ago I wrote a loom pattern for this afghan. I've gotten many comments about it and since I learned to needle knit I've meant to write the needle version, but never got around to doing it. The other day I received an email from a knitter who loved my afghan and wanted to try it; she was a needle knitter and had never used a loom before. I explained where she could get the loom, and gave her some links to show her how to get started, but also explained the loom is kind of pricey and didn't recommend buying one unless she was sure she liked loom knitting. So that's what finally made me write the needle version.

When I wrote the original pattern, I didn't know the stitch had a name. I realize now it's called the ladder stitch. So call it Chunky braid Lace, call it Ladder lace, it's all the same.

Chunky Braid Lace/Ladder Lace Afghan (needle version)
With color A, cast on 195 stitches on a size 7 30" or larger circular needle

Garter Stitch section
2 rows in Color A
2 rows in color B
2 rows in color C

Switch to size 8 needle for chunky braid/ladder sections
Chunky Braid/Ladder section
Row 1: sl1, k3, *k1, yo,sk2p, yo (repeat to the last 3 stitches) k3
Row 2: sl1, k3, purl to last 3, k3
repeat these 2 rows 10 times, ending with row 2

Switch to size 7 for garter stitch sections
Garter Stitch section
2 rows in color B
2 rows in color C
2 rows in color A

Chunky braid/ladder section again in color B

Garter Stitch section
2 rows in color C
2 rows in color A
2 rows in color B

Chunky braid/ladder section again in color C

Repeat until desired lenght, ending with Garter Stitch section, bind off.

This pattern can be modified to any size, it's a multiple of 4 plus how ever many stitches you want for the side borders. I also recommend carrying your unused yarn up the side to avoid all the weaving in.

The "Mom Cave"

2011-01-18T19:29:00.001-06:00

We’ve all heard of the “Man Cave”, but what about a “Mom Cave”? Ok, maybe Mom Cave isn’t really the right term. How about Mom’s Happy Place, or Mom’s Quiet Place. Or…I don’t know…. We can discuss what to call it later. What I’m talking about is a room that Mom can escape to when she needs to unwind or have some much needed time alone. If you could design one room in your house to be your mom cave, what would you put in it?

Mine would be a large room with sound-proof walls, so I couldn’t hear the kid’s fighting. There’d be a lock on the door to keep everyone out; otherwise the kids would trash the place when I wasn’t in there. There’d be a sewing area with a cutting table, so I can lay everything out and move smoothly from cutting, to sewing, to serger, to ironing. The wall would be covered in corkboard to hang up fabric swatches and things that inspire me. There’d be a small photo studio, so I could take my finished projects right from my sewing table to the photo studio to take pictures. Next the photo studio would be a computer area. This is so I can instantly view and edit my photos and post them in the shop and do other computer related task without having to fight the kids for computer time. And there’d also be a little TV area with a comfy chair, where I could sit and knit or read. Maybe once in a while I’d have a visitor or two while I was working so I guess I’d need a little love seat in there too.

Unfortunately I don’t have an extra room in my house to make mine. A girl can dream. The only way I could get my mom cave would be to get rid of the husband and kids; and I like having them around… most of the time.

Crooked Sweater update

2010-12-23T08:28:00.001-06:00

So I frogged the crooked sweater and reworked the cables and neckline on paper so I had some kind of pattern to follow. Somewhere I messed up the pattern and now my cables are all wonky. It looks worse than before. I have a couple choices to make here.

Throw the whole thing out and move on to something else
Start over with new yarn, since the stuff I frogged is looking pretty ragged, and redesign my sweater with 2 simple side cables, still working in the round
Start over with new yarn, the same pattern, and do it in pieces, much less to frog if I make a mistake

I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet and that's why I haven't done anything for the last 3 weeks.

A Crooked Sweater

2010-12-01T15:05:00.001-06:00

I over came my knitters block and had an idea for a sweater. I was so excited about this idea that I forged ahead without thinking it through all the way. That's how I do a lot of my projects and sometimes I have happy accidents, and sometimes I don't. This happens to be one of those times, it doesn't work out.

I cast on and worked the sweater in the round from the bottom up, and everything was going so smoothly until it came time to separate the front and back for the arms when I realized my cables were off center. I wanted a panel of cables in the front center and have the cable follow the neckline up to the shoulder. I miss counted somewhere, either in my planning or in casting on, and had 32 stitches on one shoulder and 25 on the other. I guess it would of worked if the wearer had a crooked neck. I took it off the needles to frog it and decided that not only was it crooked, it was also to small. So in a way it's kind of a good thing. I learned from my mistake; I know what went wrong and what I need to do to fix it. I've frogged the whole thing and will start over from the beginning. This time I actually have a plan.

Knitter's Block

2010-11-20T11:49:00.000-06:00

I hate to admit it, but I think I have knitter's block. I want to make something, but I'm not sure what. I look at my yarn and nothing really inspires me to pick it up. I look through patterns and nothing jumps out at me. I guess I should of seen this coming when my latest trip to the craft store was a pretty disappointing one. I walked out with nothing. Good for the wallet, but not for the crafter. I'm trying to make a hat for myself, but I'm not liking the yarn I picked so much. I'm thinking maybe I should put the knitting away and try something else for a while, but there again nothings screaming my name.

Why can't bears be pink?

2010-11-03T17:26:00.000-05:00

Or frogs blue? Why can't I draw a self portrait with green hair? I have an imagination, and in my imagination maybe I see pink bears, blue frogs, and myself with green hair.

I work in an elementary school and I have to bite my tongue when I hear "Dogs can't be purple." or "Is grass really red?" I think to myself "Why can't it be? Why does it have to one way or the other to be right? "Why are we trying to stifle the imagination of young people?" As a creative person, I think I tend to see the world a little differently. I like to take out my imagination and play with it, stretch it, bend it, wrap it around me. It's what inspires me to create the things I do. Without imagination the world be a pretty dull and boring place. Think of the movies and books that wouldn't exist if their creators hadn't used their imaginations. No Wizard of Oz, no Harry Potter. Picasso and Warhol would of been considered no talent hacks. With out imagination, we wouldn't have inventors, no innovations in technology. The world would be black and white, because it's our imaginations that make it colorful.

So I'll ask again, why can't bears be pink?

I will learn how to knit lace, even if it kills me

2010-10-07T17:23:00.002-05:00

I've been eyeing up a diamond lace pattern in my stitch dictionary for some time now and trying to think of a project I could use it in. A sweater seemed like a great idea and it was until I got to the part were I actually have to knit the lacing. Some how, no matter how careful I am I manage to mess it every time. I've ripped it out 4 times in the last week alone and I started this sweater back in August. Even after doing a practice swatch and nailing it, I still can't do it on the sweater. I'm fine until I get about 5 rows into it and that's when everything goes haywire. Last night I had gotten to row 5 with no mistakes and debated whether or not to leave it as triangles instead of diamonds, but like a fool I forged ahead without putting a lifeline in and got to the middle of row 7 when I realized something had got horribly wrong. My perfect triangles were so hopelessly deformed there was nothing to do but frog it all the way back to the beginning of the lacing. So here I sit, knitting in hand and a tear or 2 in my eye, and now I'm so flustered I can't even get through the first row correctly. I'm thinking this is one of those projects I'll have to put away for awhile and come back to later.

Back to School Bag

2010-08-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

School is just around the corner and I had been promising Funky Princess a new school bag since last summer, but really dragged my feet to even cut out the pieces. I just wasn't feeling the sewing vibe for a long time. Finally I was inspired this summer and wanted to do something that was uniquely her. Since her girl scout troop disbanded this spring we thought incorporating her uniform into her school bag would be a great way to personalize it just for her. She hasn't seen the finished product yet, but she's seen it in pieces as I was working on it and was very excited about it. I can't wait to show it to her tonight when she gets home from camp.

It's made from heavyweight denim, and a bottomweight cotton for the lining.

Dog Days of Summer Sale!

2010-07-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

Craft Junkie Creations is having it's first sale. July 26 through August 1, get 10% off your purchase; custom orders not included. If you have any questions, feel free to convo/email me.

Gardening, Knitting & Sewing

2010-07-25T15:15:00.000-05:00

15 pounds of green beans

When I'm not knitting, sewing, or playing maid, chauffeur & personal secretary to the family, I'm in the garden. Yes, you read the caption correctly that's 15 pound of green beans picked this morning. Why so much you ask? I have to ask myself that same question. I think it's from Hubby coming from a big family and he thinks we need to feed a small army everyday. The funny thing is only him and I eat green beans and 15 pounds is a little more than we can eat. So I'll be busy this week freezing beans. Oh, just wait until we start digging potatoes.

On the crafty side this week was a very productive one. I was able to get all the new listing posted in the shop and put several inches on the shrug I've been working on. I know it looks more like a blanket right now but it will all make sense when it's done and it will be be beautiful. I'm loving this yarn. It's 100% Highland Peruvian Wool. I don't normally work with wool because I like to toss everything in the washing machine, but I made an exception this time. When I started this project, my original intention was to list it in the shop, but now I'm not so sure. This might sneak it's way into my own closet.

With school a little over a month away I figured I better get started on the messenger bag I promised Funky Princess. I got the pieces cut out, but I'm having a hard time finding the ambition to sew it together. Why is it I can drop everything to knit or sew for a stranger, but can't seem to find the time to do it for my own family? Go figure. I will get it done though with time to spare.

New listings in the shop

2010-07-21T08:24:00.003-05:00

Here's a preview of the latest listings in the shop. Summer baby dresses and tops. I love making these because I never get over how cute they turn out and they're super fast to whip up. I can make these dresses and tops in sizes 6 months to 8 years, so if you're looking for something for a special little girl stop by the shop and let me know what you need.

Been a busy week...

2010-07-18T17:06:00.059-05:00

But yet I feel like I've accomplished nothing. The house was a mess until this morning, the laundry is piling up. I was hoping to finish the top I was working on before my serger class tomorrow night, but I don't think that's going to happen unless I stay up late tonight to work on it. My week has been filled with running the kids there and there, running errands and fighting the kids for "Mommy computer time". That's a hard commodity to find after our internet service was out for over a week. "Hubby, I think it's time for my own computer..." Yeah, like that's going to happen.

I have a couple items to photograph and list. I'm hoping to get that done this week because I was toying with the idea of a sale in August. Then I'm done sewing for the shop for a while. Funky Princess wants a new bag for school and wants me to incorporate her girl scout uniform into it. It will be interesting to see how it looks.

Looks like it's going to be another busy week, with a lot to get done and not nearly enough time. I better get started.

Sewing cute tops and dresses

2010-07-02T20:16:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy week of sewing. I found a great pattern for a little girl's top that is easily modified into a dress or even different designs. So I've been playing around with it all week and I'm excited to finally be able to use up some of the juvenile prints I bought way back when I thought Funky Princess would like them. She's long since grown out of those prints and there they sat. These two I made for my nieces who are 3 & 1. I'm working on some ideas for some for the shop.

Meet the models

2010-06-30T11:04:00.004-05:00

Meet the new newest hires at Craft Junkie Creations; Alice & Marie.

Alice is a toddler model. While she can model both boys & girls clothing she really loves dressing up in cute dresses and tops.

Marie is a petite model who enjoys modeling everything from the latest fashion to come from the sewing room to sweaters and scarves fresh off the knitting needles.

Both Alice and Marie are always willing to try something on even if it's not completely finished and they're not afraid of an accidental pin poke. Alice and Marie just love getting their pictures taken and are always available for impromptu photo shoots and never complain that they're tired of holding a pose.

If I were a seam ripper; where would I hide?

2010-06-21T17:44:00.000-05:00

I've been asking myself that question all weekend. Seems I misplaced yet another seam ripper. And the weird thing was I just saw it a day or so before I needed it and thought "Oh, that's a strange spot for it. I wonder how it got put there?" And now I can't remember where I saw it. I know I was using it at the kitchen table last weekend to rip out a purse I was experimenting with. The purse parts and scissors made it back to the sewing table, but I think the seam ripper decided to go on strike and hide from me.

After searching everywhere I could think, I gave up and bought a new one today. Someday after I'm gone, my kids come to clean out my stuff and find all these seam rippers stashed all over the house and they'll wonder what my seam ripper obsession was about.

Found another new hobby

2010-05-25T15:42:00.004-05:00

I need another new hobby like I need another hole in my head, but I managed to squeeze one in. The new hobby, not a hole in my head. I've taken up metal stamping.

For awhile now I've been admiring some shops on Etsy that offered metal stamped vintage silverware as garden markers. Last summer I was admiring my mom's garden and saw she used a tin can lid and scratched the name of the plant in with a nail. After being left outside for a while they started to rust, but that was part of it's charm and fit in well with her garden. This is where my new hobby came in. I tried to scratch my plant names in to the lids I saved but they just looked awful, because my spacing was bad, or I couldn't fit the whole word on there. I liked the look of the stamped metal so I bought myself an alphabet stamp set and went to work stamping my tin lids. It's still a work in progress because I've run out of lids for now, but all I need to do is punch holes in the top, hang on a wire post and stick them in the garden. I love the look of them and now I'm thinking about buy metal blanks and making charms for necklaces and bracelets.

I made into a treasury!

2010-04-28T17:08:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited, I got a message from another etsy seller letting me know she was including my latest listing in her lace up treasury.

I listed these gloves yesterday, but it got to be kind of a crazy day and I forgot to post them here. I made a pair for Funky Princess the other week and just loved how they turned out. So I had to make a pair for the shop and Lenore at Strawberry Couture must have liked them too or she wouldn't have included them.

How many miles do you knit?

2010-04-24T18:45:00.000-05:00

Sounds like a funny question, but I found a cool website where you can keep track of how much yarn you go through in a certain time period. You can set it to keep track of meters, feet, yards, kilometers or miles in a
week, month or year.

So far I've knitted 1.26 miles this year.

Visit knitmeter.com to get one for your blog or website.

New shop listing

2010-04-06T14:53:00.003-05:00

Just after I wrote about knitter block the other day, I went to my stash and started to purge everything I didn't want anymore. It was very liberating to finally realize I didn't need be a slave to an uninspiring yarn stash. Getting rid of it seemed to open up the block that I'd been feeling for months and I was once again excited about knitting. So excited in fact that I came up with some new booties for the shop.

These booties come up a little bit above the ankle; have a drawstring at the ankle for easy on and off, and a little bit of a frilly crochet ruffle around the cuff. This pair is made from light yarn, perfect for spring or summer booties. I'm working on a pattern to use heavier yarns for fall & winter.

Edit 4-15-10: Hubby pointed out to me that I spelled Tootsies wrong. These booties are suppose to be called Sweet Tootsies.

Knitter's Block

2010-04-02T11:58:00.002-05:00

I know I've been pretty quiet for a while. I think I have knitter’s block. I pull out patterns that I've saved thinking maybe that will help get the ball rolling again, but when I look at them I wonder why I even bothered to save it. My yarn stash is very uninspiring too. There's nothing in there that makes me excited to knit it into something. I thought maybe I could do some charity projects just to get rid of the stuff, but I've been resisting that too. I had to force myself to sit down and work on a blanket I started about a month ago. It's coming along, but it's not something I'm very excited about. When it's done it will go to charity along with the rest of my yarn. There's a few skeins in there that I'll keep, but most of it will go because it just sits there. I'm hoping this is just a temporary burn out. Maybe it’s the change in seasons and Mother Nature telling me “Hey, get off the couch and go outside.” What ever it is I hope it doesn’t last, I would like to come up with some new projects, but right now I’m out of ideas.

Dino/Lizard hat

2010-03-10T18:58:00.003-06:00

While working on some charity projects, I got the idea for a spiked mohawk hat. I put my charity projects on hold so I could play around with this. After I got the spikes on I decided they were a little to small for a mohawk, but they were perfect for some sort of dinosaur or lizard. So I added the eyes. Hubby says they look more like boobs than eyes. But what do you expect; he's a guy. Those eyes remind me of the Simpsons, which gave me an idea for a 3 eyed fish hat. I'll have to add that to my To Do list. I have a couple other ideas that were brought on by this one. We'll have to see what I come up with.

Frog it or toss it?

2010-03-05T14:08:00.002-06:00

I got this idea for a hat and figured I just go ahead and throw together a more of less prototype with some of the cheap yarn in my stash to see if it was going to work. I didn't pay any attention to size, and now that I'm about half way through I have a hat that's giant sized and will fit no one when it's finished. I wasn't really planning on anybody wearing this particular hat in the first place, but now that I know my idea needs a little bit of tweaking and possibly going in a different direction than I intended, it seems silly to spend any more time on it. I plan to salvage parts of it, but I'm having a hard time deciding if it's worth frogging the whole thing.

For one thing it's made from cheap yarn that I would never use for a hat. I like to keep it around for knit toys and such, but never for something that's to be worn. Secondly, I never seem to have much luck with yarn that's been frogged and reworked. It seems to loose something. And thirdly, I'm trying to get rid of some of this cheap stuff in my stash.

What to do, what to do?

Maybe I'll keep it around for the kid's projects. Seems like they're always looking for a piece of string or yarn for something.

Sweater Pics

2010-02-15T20:17:00.006-06:00

Took me long enough. I was finally able to get some photos of Funky Princess in the sweater I made her. She wasn't to happy about my choice of photo shoot location because it was darn cold outside. This is the sweater that inspired my fingerless gloves.

Keeping my hands warm

2010-02-08T20:44:00.008-06:00

I finished Funky Princess's sweater (photo to come later) and loved the way the extended sleeves turned out I had to knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves in the same pattern. These are really nice for keeping my hands warm when I'm working on the computer. This was my first cable project and now I'm in love with cables. I'll be offering these made to order in my shop soon.

This pair is mine but being modeled by Funky Princess. Although her arms are much skinnier than mine the ribbing has enough stretch to comfortably fit either one of us.

I made myself a needle organizer

2010-02-02T16:47:00.004-06:00

My knitting needle collection has grown quite a bit in the last year. More so than I thought it would. I had my straights in a can in my project basket and my DPNs in a large plastic bag, with worked ok until they started to poke through and get lost. It was getting to the point where I could only find 1 or 2 of a set and would have to go out and buy another set to complete whatever project I was working one. So I knew I needed something where I could store all my needles in one place and keep them organized and easy to find.

I had looked at some premade ones, but they only held 1 size. So then I started to look on Etsy, but couldn't find what I was looking for in my price range, so I decided I'd make one. There are lots of patterns out there on the web that are fairly simple to follow. Mine happens to be a slightly modified version of Multicrafty's Knitting Needle Case. Instead of making the bottom row of pockets wider that the rest; I sewed them all the same size and use the bottom row for my DPNs. My roll can hold 3 different lengths of needles which is exactly what I needed.

Sweater Update

2010-01-25T15:42:00.024-06:00

I'm still working on the sweater I started after Christmas. Last night I was just finishing up the second sleeve and getting excited about almost finishing it. The cabling went great once I got used to what I was doing. I do think my gauge was off a little bit because it's taking a little more yarn than the pattern called for. But I figured that in because I knew I wanted to make it slightly longer and I wanted the sleeves to come down to the first knuckle (like fingerless gloves), so I made sure to buy a few extra skeins.

Up until now everything was coming along nicely and I figured I'd be done in a few days. That is until I had Funky Princess try it on. Now I'm worried it's to small for her, I won't know until I get the edging along the front and neckline done. And I messed up one of the sleeves. The one sleeve fits perfect, but on the other one the thumb hole is on the wrong side of her hand and it's about 4 rows to long.

I'm trying to figure out how to frog back to just before the thumb without frogging to far. Every time I've attempted frogging to a certain point I've always ended up going to far or messing up the stitch pattern so I usually end up frogging the whole thing. That's something I really want to avoid this time. Other than that this is turning out to be a beautiful sweater and I'm kind of jealous I didn't make it for myself. I guess that means, I'll get the bugs worked out on this one and make mine even better. Right?

Found this great new site for embroidery

2010-01-13T09:50:00.008-06:00

I was on Facebook and saw an ad for an edgy embroidery design site. I checked it out and found designs similar to stuff I'd been looking for, for years. I can't draw so I've had to rely on the designs of others and have been adapting tattoo designs to embroidery, since there wasn't a whole lot of embroidery designs out there that weren't "Grandma" designs. I have a wearable art work in progress where I'm hand embroidering a denim shirt with different designs that have some meaning to me or ones that I think are really cool. I was really at a loss because I couldn't find designs I really wanted, but looking over this website I found a few I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering.

I'm knitting cables!

2010-01-06T09:06:00.005-06:00

I did it! I'm knitting cables and they're not that scary. Before I started them on the sweater, I had to do a practice swatch to get the hang of it. Once I figured it out it's really a pretty simple process. I never done much with texture, mostly I've knit in stockinette or garter stitch, so getting used to knits and purls in the same row kind of threw me at first.

I am using life lines in the sweater in case I make a mistake because I'd hate to have to frog all that work.

A sweater for Funky Princess

2010-01-04T09:23:00.008-06:00

Over Christmas vacation I dealt with a bout of insomnia. So one night as I sat in the living room watching TV with the sound turned down so low I couldn't hear it, I got an idea for a sweater. I wanted a seamless hoodie with a wide v neck and fingerless glove - like sleeves. The only thing is I don't know know enough to be able to knit a sweater like that from scratch. I need to follow some sort of pattern.

For the next few days I searched online looking for a pattern that was close to what I wanted, but couldn't find it exactly. I was able to find Mr. Greenjeans by Amy Swenson. It's almost what I want. I'll knit the sweater and then decide if I want to put a hood on it, but sleeve thing I can defiantly modify.

It's been to cold to leave the house so I've been sitting on the couch happily knitting since New Year's Eve and I've gotten to part where the cabling starts and now I'm scared. This will be my first attempt at cables. Although it looks like a fairly easy cable pattern, it still makes me nervous. I think I'll need to practice it a little and get the feel of it before attempting it on the sweater. I'd hate to mess up all that work I already put in it.

Happy Feet

2009-12-31T16:10:00.004-06:00

Since October, I've been on a mission to come up with a baby bootie for older babies. A friend from work has a sister-in-law who's due this spring and she wanted a pair of booties for next fall. I played around with a couple different patterns, but every time I tried to make them bigger they looked funny. They were either long and skinny or to shallow in the instep for pudgy baby feet. These came out perfect. They're a little wider, a little longer, and there's lots of room to wiggle those toes.

Finished my socks

2009-12-25T08:13:00.003-06:00

Or Funky Princess's socks. She's calling them her Christmas socks because I finished them last night (Christmas Eve).

In the process of knitting the second sock I realized why the first one came out so wonky. I didn't read the directions closely enough and after knitting the heel flap there was a little rearranging of the stitches, which I did but not correctly, so it put the heel off center and shifted everything else off center. I didn't figure this out until after I gotten past this point on the second sock, but having frogged the second sock 3 times I wasn't about to frog it again.

The second sock came out longer, simply because I didn't count rows on either one. I went by inches from the needle and thought I used the same measurement but apparently not because the second one is about 2 inches longer. It's also looser and I'm not sure it that's because the yarn came from a different dye lot or if my tension was different.

In the end they look like socks and that's what I was hoping for.

Stay out of the craft store

2009-12-21T16:03:00.005-06:00

I really need to stay out of the craft store until I have all my materials used up. Every time I go in to buy 1 or 2 things I need for a current project, I walk out with materials for 3 more.

Today wasn't so bad though, I had a list and pretty much stuck to it, but decided that while I was there I should look for some lining to go with the fabric I bought the last time I was in there for a market bag. Then thinking ahead I figured I'd pick up extra cotton belting so I'd have it on hand when I'm ready to make the next bag. Oh and I needed bobbins, and a pencil sharpener which I could swear I had one but who knows where it went. You get my drift. Luckily it was coupon commotion this week and I was able to use coupons on every item in my cart. Hubby really can't complain I got everything 50% off.

One sock down, one more to go

2009-12-19T09:58:00.002-06:00

Finished my first sock! You can't tell from the pic, but it's a little messed up. Somehow I messed up the gusset decreases and they don't match up on both sides of the ankle.

I'm working on the second one now and realized the dye lots don't match. So the second one is darker and isn't striping as evenly as the first. Funky Princess doesn't seem to mind though. I could probably knit one pink and the other one green and she would still wear them.

Up next: I'm thinking about knitting an adult sized sweater. I had an appointment this week with my massage therapist and we were talking about my etsy shop. She asked if I'd be interested in a little bartering. She said she'd love a hand knit sweater.

New listing and learning to knit socks

2009-12-15T17:13:00.001-06:00

I listed this upcycled demin totebag in my shop the other day but was fighting Hubby for computer time so I couldn't get it posted here until now.

When I was making the bag, I wasn't sure if it was something I was going to list because I didn't really like it, but once it was done I loved it and will have to make myself one. Funky Princess has put her order in too.

I have another upcycled bag, different style that I'm working on and should have it posted in the next week or so.

On a side note, I'm learning to knit socks. It's something I've been thinking about for a while, but felt a little intimidated. Working with double point needles hasn't been a one of my strong points. I can knit with them if I have to, but I try to avoid it as much as possible.

Last week I picked up a copy of Ann Budd's Getting Started Knitting Socks at the library. After skimming through the first chapter the whole thing didn't seem so mysterious. So I cast on and went at it. I've gotten as far as turning the heel and so far it's been pretty easy.

Ordinarily I don't think you would use this kind of yarn for socks but because this was my first sock and I didn't know how it would turn out, I didn't want to spend the money for sock yarn. I'm using some left over worsted weight yarn. Funky Princess has already laided claim to these, if they turn out and fit her.

No more mittens for school

2009-12-11T09:27:00.005-06:00

Last year I made several pairs of mittens and took them to school for the kids who didn't have any. We had a bag of donated mittens that the kids could pick through to keep their hands warm at recess. We're not doing that this year. This year everything including donated clothing will get turned into the lost and found and pretty much just sit there. I'm not going to waist my time and energy making mittens nobody will appreciate so I'm looking for other places to donate them. There's a food shelf that accepts clothing donations too, so I'll be checking them out in the next few days.

Just listed

2009-12-07T09:36:00.003-06:00

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36159712

Created a facebook fan page for my shop

2009-12-05T13:48:00.003-06:00

If anybody's intrested you can visit my facebook fan page at
Craft Junkie Creations Fan Page

That what seam rippers were invented for

2009-11-30T14:44:00.002-06:00

I can never get through a project without having to rip at least one seam. If I ever get through a project without ripping out a seam I know something's wrong. That's why I thought my current project was going a little to smoothly. Everything was comeing together just as it should until I sewed the bottom of the bag onto the opening. The pockets were upside down. I showed it to Funky Princess and we both laughed. It's kind of a funky bag, but not that funky.

Need baby gifts?

2009-11-29T10:07:00.009-06:00

I just listed these booties in my shop.

Made with acrylic yarn, so they're easy to care for. Machine wash & dry. Fits babies up to 6 months.

I also have some cute bibs and baby sweaters for sale. Check them out. I have more items in the works and hope to have them listed soon.

Update on my hand

2009-11-12T15:07:00.003-06:00

I went in yesterday for a recheck on my wrist. Up until yesterday I was suppose to wear the brace 24/7. Talk about a pain. I had figure out how to do things with my other hand that I wouldn't normally do, like eating. He conformed it was a sprain but also there was some tendinitis that seemed to have been aggravated from the fall. I still have to wear the brace, but only at work for another week and I have to lay off the knitting until everything feels better. It's a bummer because I had some projects I wanted to get done, but maybe this is as good of an excuse as any to move on to something else for now. I have some sewing projects waiting for me or maybe I'll just pack everything up for awhile and sit down with a couple good books.

Out of commission for awhile

2009-11-06T16:58:00.003-06:00

See my lovely splint? I tripped over a kindergardener today and landed on my wrist. I hit the floor so hard I couldn't feel the pain in my hand until an hour or so later. My whole hand was numb, but immediately started to swell and bruise.

The doctor thinks it's just a sprain, but are treating it as a fracture just in case.

Guess that means no knitting for a while.

All about the bootie

2009-10-29T09:15:00.006-05:00

No it's not what you're thinking. The last couple weeks it's been all about baby booties. I've been working on baby booties for a woman at work. I'm currently working on my 5th pair. I started off making the Lil' Tykies, but after the second pair on the loom I thought there had to be another way because I don't like sewing up the seams. So I set out to make a seamless pair on needles. My attempts to take this pattern and convert it back to needles has been a little disappointing. So I've been working on coming up with my own version. I think I got a pretty good start, but there's still some room for improvement.

Mainly I want to be able to make these in different sizes so they range in size from newborn to 12-18 mos. So I'm working on that and also in the process I'm learning how to knit in the round with 2 circular needles. It hasn't been easy. Often times I find that I accidendly picked up the end of the wrong needle and knit it all onto the same needle. I haven't figured out the magic loop with one circular and I'm not quite ready to try it out yet.

I'm hoping to have this pattern perfected soon and list them in my shop for Christmas.

Loomed Diamond Edging Tutorial

2009-10-25T11:46:00.009-05:00

By popular demand I have written up a tutorial for the Diamond Edging I used on my Pinwheel Blanket. It's written for advanced beginners on up, so most everybody should be able to understand it.

It's available for download at

http://www.box.net/shared/a8laups7g2

If you have any questions feel free to email me or ask in the comments.

I finally did it!

2009-10-17T14:53:00.013-05:00

I finally found some time to finish up some of those projects that have been bugging me for the last couple months. How did I do it? I called in sick. No not really. My weekend job is working at Hubby's landscaping business. Business has been slow and Funky Princess was sick yesterday so I asked if he really needed me today or not. He figured he could do without me, so I used this morning to finish up some sewing projects and take some pics for my shop.

Here's a few things that I'll be adding to my Etsy shop in the next few days.

This is a bag I've been working on. It was going to be just a shopping bag, but I switched gears at the last minute and made it into a short handled messenger bag, but it could be whatever kind of bag the user wants it to be.

This cute little sweater, I call Little Boy Blue. It's been done for awhile but I just haven't gotten around to listing it.

And this little cutie is Little Rose Ridinghood, not to be mistaken with Little Red Ridinghood. No, Rose is cuter and doesn't get eaten by the wolf in the end. I fell in love with this yarn when I was knitting it. I love the way it patterned itself. This yarn is by Universal Yarn Classic and is one of my new favorites.

With those projects out of the way, now I can concentrate on making mittens for school and actually knitting for myself. Oh, who am I kidding, I know I'm going to find something else to do before I finish my personal project.

Sometimes life just gets in the way

2009-10-16T15:46:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't posted any new finished projects lately. I'm having a hard time finding the time to finish them, take pics and write about them. Life has gotten in the way. Between work, housework, homework (helping the kids), and running the kids to activities I find myself exhausted by the end of the day and want nothing more then to eat supper and crawl into bed. That being said, I have found little bits of time here and there to work on things, but never get very far.

I thought this weekend, since school's out for 3 days, I'd be able to get a good deal of my projects done. That hasn't happened. I finished 2, and every time I think about working on another project, I find something else that needs to get done, like the laundry or cleaning the basement or I have to run after something for one of the kids.

I've been trying to figure out how to schedule craft time into my already busy schedule, it just doesn't seem like it's possible. I'd really love 2 or 3 days were I had nothing else to do, nobody to bug me so I could sew up the projects that need to be sewn, cut the fabric for the next couple projects, and put the finishing touches on the knits that are waiting so patiently for me. But even then I can't say I'd accomplish what I want to because I'd probably find something else to do with my time, like nap.

Bummer

2009-10-11T21:32:00.004-05:00

The little yarn shop that was about 2 miles from my house, relocated farther away. I was looking forward to trying one of their Thurs night knits this winter an now they're gone. I can't say I ever really bought any yarn there, but they were nice and convenient when I needed a new pair of needles. They're still within 20 miles, but now I can't just decide to pop in when I want to. I'll have to plan my yarn shop trips around my grocery shopping trips.

I'm a bag lady

2009-09-04T18:15:00.012-05:00

Ever since Funky Princess asked me to make her a tote bag for school, I've been obsessed with bags. Shopping/market bags, tote bags, hobo bags, messenger bags, ect. I've been looking at sewing patterns and books with bag directions and couldn't really find what I was looking for. At first I wanted just a simple bag. Nothing to fancy, just a carry all kind of thing and that's when I found a market bag tutorial at Film in the Fridge. It was exactly what I was looking for. Simple construction, multipurpose bag. So I made one and use it as my new knitting bag. Then I got to thinking that I really could use another one for whatever. So I made another one, but with a few changes.

Here's both bags. They're the same size and look the same on the outside but they are different.

Bag A is just a basic bag, no pockets but was made to be reversible.

Bag B is more of an all day bag or shopping bag. It has 2 large pockets inside and a ring to clip my keys onto so I don't lose them. It also has a magnetic closure.

I'm working on some ideas to take this pattern and make it into a messenger bag. I don't think it will be that difficult, it's just finding the time to mess with it now that I'm working again. You should soon be seeing similar bags showing up in my shop.

YAY! My serger is back

2009-09-04T08:15:00.003-05:00

I finally got my serger back this week. Just in time to. I needed to finish the one seam on Funky Princess's tote bag before school started. Before I did anything with it though, I looked to see how the loopers are threaded, I always have problems getting them threaded properly. After I finished the seam on FP's tote, I had a new project to start but debated whether or not to change the thread. I chose not to because that seems to be when I run into problems. So I have a pink & white tote that I'm using blue & black thread, but I'm just serging up the seam allowances so they don't unravel and they won't be seen once the bag is done so it shouldn't matter. I am using a matching thread for the seams that will show.

Funky Princess's Tote

2009-08-26T16:53:00.005-05:00

After the week from hell last week, I think my luck finally turned around and I was able to finish some projects without it all going to crap.

I'm still waiting for my serger to be fixed, but in the mean time I sewed up Funky Princess's tote. I just have one seam I need to serge and then it will be done. I was a little disappointed that part of the peace sign didn't show up, but she said it gives it a somewhat distressed look.

I have plans to make myself a bag, but a different style. The handles are a bit to short for me and the whole bag is a little narrow for what I want.

New item in the shop

2009-08-24T09:23:00.007-05:00

I have a new sweater in my shop. It's a kimono with matching hat. Knit with a varigated yarn in tan, deep brown and cool blue.

Murphy's Law

2009-08-17T17:30:00.004-05:00

Seriously, who is this Murphy guy and why does he seem to have it out for me? Seems everything I touch lately falls to pieces. Last week I cut the pieces for another bag I was going to do later. Put them all together and now some of them are missing. I went to finish the sweater I've been avoiding and realized somewhere along the line the sleeve had gotten sniped with a scissors and had unraveled to the point of no return. So I have to frog it and do it over. All I need now is for my sewing machine to blow up or something.

Sorry, I should have offered you a little cheese with my whine.

When good ideas go bad

2009-08-16T14:14:00.009-05:00

Upcycling is all the rage right now. Taking one thing and turning it into something completely different. Like a dress made from an old curtain, or a messenger bag made from an old skirt. In a recent re-surging of my interest in sewing I thought I'd give upcylcing a try.

I've been saving old, worn out jeans for awhile now, thinking I'd do something with them but I wasn't sure what. When Funky Princess asked if I could make her a tote bag for school, I suddenly had all kinds of ideas swimming in my head and thought I had finally found the project for those jeans.

What started out as a good idea, quickly took a left turn into Bad Implementationhood. The end results are a little disappointing to say the least.

Even though it was made mostly using one pair of pants the colors are off. The bottom of the bag doesn't quite match the handles which kind of makes it look pieced together from several different sources of material. The pieces didn't fit together as nicely as they should have giving the bag an off kilter look to it. And the process of sewing it all together took its toll by bending several pins to the point where they can't be used anymore, breaking 6 sewing machine needles and 1 serger. I have to take the serger in to be fixed now.

I was going to add this to my shop, but now that it's finished it's really not something I want my name on. I think I learned a fairly expensive lesson, I don't think upcycling is for me.

Finally got my serger threaded

2009-08-12T16:06:00.006-05:00

Oh gee, it's only been about 4 years. I begged and begged Hubby for a serger for my birthday telling him how much use I'd get out of it. That I would used it on every sewing project because I wanted my seams to have that nice professional edge where the fabric wouldn't fray. And then I got it one year for my birthday and couldn't figure out how to thread it. No matter what I did I couldn't get it threadrd right and I was breaking needles, breaking thread, when it would sew, it would unravel. So it's been sitting in the cabinet for the last 4 years.

I was sewing a bag over the weekend and thought how it would be really nice to serge the seams to re-enforce them and keep them from fraying. So I pulled it out again and tried following the diagrams and watching the video. Took me most of the afternoon, but I got it threaded and it actually works. I was able to serge up the seams on my bag so they're nice & neat and professional looking. Now I hope I never have to change the color of the thread. That might take another 4 years to accomplish.

Made a sale

2009-08-06T15:29:00.006-05:00

I made my first sale on Etsy. Actually I made it about 2 weeks ago, but it was a custom order and I wanted to keep quite about it until the deal was done and knew my customer was happy. She emailed me last night to let me know she loves it and she'll be posting a blog about different etsy shops that she likes and my shop will be mentioned. I'm so happy.

She first contacted me around the beginning of July when she found my shop and asked if I could make a kimono sweater in size 18 mos. I agreed to do it, even though I wasn't 100% sure I could, but I'd give a try. I looked at pattern after pattern to try and figure out how big each piece needed to be, I made sketches after sketch trying to get the proportions right, I consulted with my sister who said "Swatch, swatch & swatch again and error on the larger size; they'll grow into it." Finally I decided I would just make a test sweater and try it out on my grand niece who just turned 2. I figured if it would fit her, it would fit an 18 month old.

The test sweater was a great idea. I was able to learn a few new tricks that saved me a lot of work in the end. I had said before I didn't think I would do another sweater like this because of all the seaming, but as I knit the test sweater I learned the 3 needle bind off for attaching the shoulder seams and how to pick up stitches which made doing the sleeve much easier, and made the finished sweater look much nicer because there wasn't all those bulky seams.

I was hoping to get the test sweater done before the yarn arrived for the customer's sweater. It didn't quite work out that way, but I had learned enough to knit a nice sweater for the customer. I'm still working on the test sweater, I just have to sew up the side seams and attach the ties, but it's kind of on the back burner right now with back to school/work just around the corner.

The customer's sweater turned out beautiful, and I really kind of wish I could've kept it. I know I feel that way about everything I do. She supplied me with the yarn, which was Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Watercolor. It's a beautiful yarn and so soft. It inspired me to go buy some for myself. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet. I can't wait to see her blog post to see what she says about my shop and a pic of her daughter wearing the sweater.

YAY!

2009-07-24T18:42:00.004-05:00

I'm so proud of myself! I learned how to do the 3 needle bind off and I did it successfully the first time.

Dye Lot, Schmy Lot

2009-07-23T19:04:00.004-05:00

Oh boy, I'm so frustrated right now. I got a request in my Etsy shop to make a sweater based on one I've already done, but they wanted it bigger. Thinking I had all my questions answered as to what they wanted, I was so excited I ran out and bought more yarn. After another conversation with my customer she decided she wanted to supply the yarn, I was ok with that even after I bought more yarn. I figured this way, while I was waiting for her yarn, I could use my yarn to work on the sizing and list it in my shop when it was done.

Well after re-knitting the same piece 3 times and finally getting it right, I started the second piece and realized they were different dye lots. I didn't even think to check the dye lots when I was in the store. After this discovery, I checked the skeins I bought and luckily I have enough to the sweater in either dye lot. I need to decide which dye lot I want to continue with. Either way I'm going to have knit these two pieces over again to go with the correct dye lot. I was hoping to have the sample sweater done before the customer's yarn arrived, but it doesn't look like I will.

Ali's Shrug

2009-07-21T18:11:00.014-05:00

My first no-pattern sweater!

This all came about late last month when Funky Princess came home from a friend's with a teen version of "The Little Black Dress". It was a dress her friend had worn to her grandpa's funeral and didn't fit anymore so she was giving it to FP. I looked it over and told her with the thin straps I'd feel a lot better if she had some kind of wrap or shrug to wear with it and talked myself into creating a sweater for her.

This is the first needle project I've done without a pattern. I knew I wanted something lightweight, seamless, with a little bit of lace. But I hate doing lace, so I had to simple it down a little. I went with a very simple k2tog, yo repeat that I think gives it that little bit of laciness without being overly complicated. And the sport weight yarn on a #8 needle makes it very lightweight.

I did have some problems figuring out how many stitches to cast on for the neckline and after looking over different patterns I think I changed my mind at least 20 times before I even started. Not really have any idea what I was doing I finally settled on a number I got started. I worked on it until it fit under her arms and then decided to frog it because it just didn't look right.

We had just gotten back from a day trip where I spend the time in the car working on it and the next morning to Hubby's horror I was in the living room ripping it all out. He kind of freaked out and asked why I was destroying all that work. It just wasn't right and I knew that in the car the day before, but continued to knit just for something to do.

The neckline, the gauge, the pattern; it was all wrong. After ripping it out and winding the yarn back up, I suddenly had an idea. Bigger needles, more cast on stitches and more repeats. I started it a second time and was much happier with the results. The only thing I'd change if/when I knit it again is I would incorporate a garter stitch edging on the two front pieces with a button at the top.

Re-Opened my shop

2009-07-09T17:02:00.008-05:00

My etsy shop is open again. I have a few items listed and will be adding more in the next few days. Within minutes of re-opening; my shop was hearted. I know it means nothing but I'm taking it as a good sign. Wish me luck and stop by to take a look.
CraftJunkieCreations.etsy.com

Been busy

2009-07-02T13:00:00.026-05:00

As if you couldn't tell from the last couple projects I posted, I seem to be moving away from the loom and focusing more on needles. I have to say learning to use needles has opened a whole new world of possibilities. I now go into the yarn stores with confidence or see a pattern I like and say "Hey! I can do that." I don't think I'm completely ready to give up the loom just yet. I love my infinity loom for large projects and plan on keeping it around for a while, but I'm finding there are some things that are just easier done on needles.

Here's a few of my recently finished projects.

This is my first attempt at a seamless sweater. Based on the Felix Cardigan pattern at The Complete Fabrication. It’s supposed to be a cardigan but I forgot to stop increasing so it turned into a kimono. Not wanting to take it off the needles and frog it back I just decided to put ties on the bottom and make it a wrap around. Picking up stitches and knitting in the round for the sleeves scared me so I just left them.

This one I did for my etsy shop (if I ever re-open). Another kimono style sweater, but knit in pieces. I found I really don't like sewing seams, so I probably won't do another one like that again.

Remember this? It's the loom knit blanket I started back in April. Each piece was knit and then sewn together and then the edging had to be knit and sewn on. This is where I really decided I didn't like seaming, that's why it took so long. I finally decided to finish it when I saw the LYS was a drop off site for Bundles of Love. Bundles was who I had originality intended it for in the first place. Despite every curse word I uttered while sewing it together, I think it came out beautiful.

Here's one of my WIP's. Another pattern from The Complete Fabrication. Holly's Jacket. I love her patterns; they're great for beginners because they're pretty straight forward. A little secret, the ruffle on the bottom; much easier that it looks. I was able to get over my fear of DPNs and knit one sleeve. I'm still working on the other. When finished this cutie will be going to Bundles of Love also.

Knitting those baby sweaters inspired me to finally attempt to knit a larger sweater for Funky Princess. And of course I can't do anything the easy way and follow somebody else’s pattern, I have to make it up as I go. All I can say right now, it it's based on the seamless sweaters with some lace thrown in. It's still pretty iffy, so we'll see how it looks once I get past the armholes.

Told you I was busy.

Yes, I'm still alive!

2009-06-17T14:27:00.005-05:00

I know it looks like I've fallen off the face of the earth, but I've been busy. I decided instead of completely closing my etsy shop, I'd put in on vacation mode and take some time to work on projects just for the shop. I figure with all the time I have to kill this summer with Funky Princess at Sylvan 3 times a week I should be able to use that time to work on projects. I have 4 items ready and I'm working on 2 more and starting another one soon. I'm hoping to re-open in the fall.

On top of that I also have a personal project I'm working on. Something I've been thinking about for a long time. I'm embroidering (by hand) a denim shirt with graphics & symbols that inspire me. So far I only have one done, but the whole thing will be a work in progress so it will take a while. I have a few more things that I know I'll be adding to my shirt right now, it's just a matter of finding the time transfer the picture and then embroider it.

And sometimes life in general gets in the way. The kids are home, which means more meals to make, more dishes to wash, more laundry to do, more picking up after everybody.

So don't let my lack of posting fool you. I am here and I am working.

Starting to take shape

2009-05-29T07:38:00.007-05:00

I guess I spoke to soon when I said you couldn't tell what the seamless cardigan was suppose to be yet. My nephew told me he thought it was a bib. But it's really starting to take shape now. I can actually tell that it's suppose to be some kind of top. This was a practice sweater, so it's for Funky Princess's doll, and there's so many mistakes in there that I wouldn't feel good giving it to anybody else. This doll will have more clothes than she can use if I keep making practice sweaters.

At this point I'm debating if I should finish it as a cardigan, a kimono or maybe a kimono shrug. I know if I finish it as a cardigan it's going to be way to big for the doll so I'm leaning more towards one of the kimono options. The next thing I'm concerned about is doing the sleeves on DPNs.

Careful it's contagious

2009-05-28T16:57:00.005-05:00

The other week Telaine posted about her battle with Startitis. I really didn't think about it then, but now I think I have it too. Hence the 3 projects I currently have going. I'm still working on that blanket. All I have left is to sew the edging on, but I just can't seem to find the time. So while I'm waiting to do that, my hands are twitching to get going on another project. I started another Yoda Sweater, but it knits up fast and I'll have it done in no time. To give myself a little bit of a challenge I decided to use up some of this baby yarn I have (which I really don't like and will never used this particular yarn again) to make a seamless baby cardigan.

None of these projects are really photograph worthy right now. The blanket really hasn't changed much from the last photo I took and you really can't tell what the other two are yet. It seems I'm spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. Don't get to close, I don't want to pass it on to anybody else.

ACK! I created a monster

2009-05-24T09:48:00.004-05:00

So now I have lots of requests for knitted animals coming from the kids & neices and nephews. On top of that they want clothes for their animals to wear. T (Bunny Cabbit) asked for a sweater with a button. JC asked for a vest and hat for each of his. He currently has 2 but there's another one in the works. Funky Princess wants a poncho. These are great projects to use up some scraps, but I really don't want to spend all my time making toys and toy clothes. I'll never get anything esle done.

My first sweater

2009-05-21T09:23:00.003-05:00

It's finally done! My very first sweater. I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did. It wasn't without it's problems though. I had some problems figuring out where and how to attach the sleeves and like I mentioned before the back piece is a little longer than the rest of it. Other than that I would say it was a success and plan on knitting another one in the near future.

Side note: The socks the doll is wearing, I knitted last summer on one of my little sock looms.

Finally making some progress

2009-05-19T09:26:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the awful pic (it's a cell phone pic, what do you expect?) I'm finally making some progress on the baby sweater I've been working on. I sat down last night and managed to sew one sleeve and the side seam. Mattress stitching all the little parts of those stuffed animals boosted my confidence in sewing the sweater together. I got a lot of practice doing the mattress stitch on those animals. The only thing I don't like is the back piece is about a half inch longer than the 2 front pieces and it just doesn't look right. I thought I followed the directions perfectly, but maybe what I'll do next time is knit the back piece a half inch shorter so they match up.

It's a bunny, no it's a cat...

2009-05-18T18:10:00.008-05:00

No it's a bunny cabbit. This started out as a cat, but then my nephew (T) changed his mind and wanted a rabbit. Not wanting to frog it and start over I just kept the cat body and added makeshift bunny ears.

Edit: (5-20-09) I gave it to T this morning and he loved it. He happened to find a swatch JC was useing as a blanket for one of his toys and asked if I could make him too. I just happened to have a swatch laying around, so I gave that to him and he was even more thrilled.

Knitting amigurumi

2009-05-17T15:57:00.008-05:00

I know it looks like I haven't gotten anything done lately because I've been preoccupied with other things. JC is working on an animal project for school in which he needed a model of a wolf. Determined not to spend anymore money on this project than necessary, I decided we would make his model...but how?

After searching the web for directions for origami wolves, clay wolves, how to carve a wolf out of wood, finally I settled on what I do best, knit. I found Jellybums, a designer on esty who designs and sells knit amigurumi animal patterns. I bought the wolf pattern and was so surprised at how fast and easy it went that I got the bright idea to knit two cat dolls and two dog dolls to match our pets.

So far I've only gotten the two cats done. My nephew was over here the other day and saw the cats and wolf that I knitted and put his request in. So I have another cat in the works, but this is a cat with a twist because he changed his animal of choice after I got started on it. I'll post that one when I get it done.

Here's Princess & Puddle the cats and Princess & Puddle the dolls.

I got some goodies in the mail today!

2009-05-01T14:12:00.007-05:00

My sampler looms from DA Looms finally came. I'm still working on the blanket border that I originally ordered them for, but I only have a few inches left so I won't bother with switching looms. I'm sure I'll find a way to put them to good use.

My other goodie is 10 sets of dpns that I bought from someone on Ravelry. Got all 10 sets for $20 including shipping. I wasn't sure at first of that was a good deal or not but my sister assured me it was, so I ordered them. They range in size from 1-8 so I have a good sample of sizes to get started.

Current projects

2009-04-15T09:08:00.008-05:00

I've been a very busy bee lately between work and home; and with Hubby working again I'm finding my crafting time is becoming less and less because I have to take over the chores he was doing all winter. But I am able to find a moment here and there where I can sneak in some knitting.

This is a blanket I'm working on for Bundles of Love. It was knit in 8 inch squares and then sewn together. I don't think I'll be doing that again. I'm working on the border that will need to be attached when done. Not something I'm looking forward to. After I got several inches into the border I started to wish I had a smaller loom to work it on, because the infinity loom can be kind of cumbersome when you're working such a small area. I looked at the sampler set at DA Looms. For $30 you get four 6.5 inch mini looms in the different gauges. I counted the pegs on extra small mini loom and it the exact number I need to do the border, but there's a 2-5 weeks wait. I ordered it anyway, but figure if I keep plugging away I'll have the border done before the looms come.

My second project is my very first project done on needles. It's the Baby Yoda Sweater design by Cari Luna. But because this is my first needle project and my very first sweater I didn't want to buy new yarn in case I royally messed it. So I'm using some of my leftovers and doing each piece in a different color. I call it Baby Yoda Gets Funky Sweater. It will be pink, blue, green, & purple. lol Gotta use up those leftovers some how. Funky Princess has already claimed it for her doll,which is fine because I don't think I could give it to anybody else. If it comes out and looks half way decent I'll knit a real one in 1 or 2 colors.

Kreativ Blogger award

2009-04-14T16:29:00.012-05:00

"You like me! You really really like me!" Sorry, having a Sally Fields moment.

I got a Kreativ Blogger award from Telaine at Made by Telaine for the recent charity work I've been doing. Thank you Telaine. Next time I'm in Green Bay, Z will have to hook us up.

To accept this award I need to name 7 things I love and pass it on to 7 more blogger. Lets see how I do.

7 things I love

Hubby & the kids (although they do drive me crazy sometimes)

Walks in the woods

Quiet time to myself

Baby animals of any kind

Margarita's on a girls night out

Stormy summer nights (but not scary storms)

Sleeping in when I can

And the award goes to (drum roll, please)

www.mariannesmotifs.com/ I think for a while there we were looming twins, making the same projects without planning it that way

duxallinarow.blogspot.com/ I love her beautiful custom looms, although I've never bought one from her.

Sorry I don't have a lot of time to go around visiting other blogs, so I can only think of these two right now. If I can think of others I'll add them later.

Firefighter Baby Blanket

2009-04-08T15:22:00.007-05:00

Hubby is so smart. This winter I was cleaning out my fabrics and I was going to list this on ebay, but Hubby reminded me that I could use the it to make a baby blanket for our neice's baby due in July. Her husband is a fire fighter and loves anything with a fire figher motif. Hubby thought this would make a perfect blanket for them, and here I was wondering why I even have it.

I guess he's good to have around...sometimes.

Edit: My neice's husband loves the blankie. If I can find the materal again, I'll have to make one for him.

Closing my Etsy shop

2009-04-07T17:03:00.003-05:00

On June 12th I'll be closing my etsy shop. That's when my current items expire and I won't be renewing them. Things haven't worked out the way I had hoped and I don't have the time or space to continue to make and store items for the shop that I've had no luck selling.

Met with the lady from Bundles of Love...

2009-03-31T17:04:00.003-05:00

And I really think this is a great organization that I will continue to knit for. She was delighted with my donations and said they would make some new mom very happy. She showed me all the items that go into a bunde. There's enough in each bundle to give a new baby a good start. She said every bundle goes to a woman/family who is in desperate need; homeless or woman with no support system; so every item counts and 90% of it is homemade.

This will give me a great excuse to try all those baby patterns I've been collecting.

Adventures in needle knitting: Part 3 - Learning to knit in the round

2009-03-27T15:49:00.006-05:00

Ok, since my experiment on the loom with a decreased crown on a hat didn't work quite the way I wanted it to I decided to learn to knit in the round on needles. But I didn't want to waste time trying to make a hat that would actually fit somebody so instead I made a Barbie sized hat. I would have had Barbie model it for you but she seems to prefer a clothing optional life style right now. (Who knew... Barbie was a nudist?) ROTFLMAO

Anyway, back to the hat. I cast on 30 stitches and then transferred 10 to each needle. I had some trouble figuring out where to start because I didn't know how to attach the two ends to make it round. But once I got going I kind of figured it out.

Everything was good until I had to do something and put the needles down. When I picked it back up and started knitting I couldn't figure out why my knit stitches were coming out as purls. After several rows I discovered that I was holding the needles wrong. Instead of holding with the working needles in front, I was holding them with the working needles in back. Having figured that out I moved the needles where they needed to be and was able to knit in stockinette again.

I started the decrease for the crown and didn't run into any problems until I had just a few stitches left. I didn't know what to do with them. I wasn't sure if I should bind them off and cinch it closed or what I was suppose to do, so I ended up with a little bit of an i-cord. Not really what I was looking for, but for this project it's ok.

I defiantly need more practice before I attempt to make anything wearable. I just wonder how many hats Nudist Barbie is going to want.

Lots of finished projects

2009-03-25T19:34:00.012-05:00

I've been busy the last couple weeks working hard to get these projects done. I had plans to do a blanket, hat & socks for Bundles of Love but then I got invited to two baby showers and saw it as an opportunity to try a pattern I've been meaning to get to. Bethany's Booties.

The first pair (the pink ones) were so darn cute I wanted to keep them but what am I going to do with them. I decided to go with the Lil' Tykies version for shower gifts because I don't know the gender of the babies so I went with something that could go either way.

I've been looking at hat pattens and trying to figure out how to do a decreased crown on the loom. I thought I had it figured out and tried to do it on this hat. It worked for awhile, but there was a point where the loom wouldn't decrease anymore and I had to do the gathered bind off. I think I still have some bugs to work out or figure out how to do it on double pointed needles.

Now that I have these out of the way I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do next. I really don't have anything on my list that needs to get done. Maybe I'll just play round with my looms and see what I come up with.

Sometimes you just have to put things into perspective

2009-03-13T12:26:00.007-05:00

It's done. The ugliest baby blanket is no longer the ugliest. Although I'm not completely thrilled with it, I do like it better than I did a few days ago. I realized it was a combination of a few things that was really making me hate it. First the multiple strands were driving me nuts. There were 6 strands of yarn hanging off the loom that were constantly getting tangled making it very difficult to work with. Second it wasn't the project I had envisioned. I wanted a retro look with geometric shapes and a brown background but I didn't have enough brown and couldn't find any more in the stores. I had to improvise with what I had. Third, it was the stitch. I don't like e-wrap but I didn't want to spend the next 3 months working on this either. And lastly in the middle of it I got an idea for something else but I don't like to leave projects half done, especially if I need the loom it's occupying. All these things together really put a damper on my enthusiasm for this project.

After showing it to a few people and discussing my distaste for it. It was brought to my attention that even if I don't like it, that doesn't mean the person receiving, it won't love it. It's for charity, and anybody who isn't able to afford the basic needs for their newborn will appreciate the time and effort put into a hand knit blanket made just for them. So it didn't need to be the blanket I envisioned, it just needed to be a blanket to keep somebody warm.

I have a few more things I want to make for Bundles of Love before I donate them. Now that I have this big project out of the way I'm able to focus on these other items.

The ugliest baby blanket

2009-03-10T09:28:00.002-05:00

I'm making the ugliest blanket. I decided to use up some of my left over yarn and make a baby blaket to donate. But the more I work on it the uglier it gets. I'm almost embarrassed to give it away. I wanted to use up all of my very bright colors, thinking it would be ok. But this thing reminds me of something the 70's threw up on. I'm to far into it now to frog it and start over, so I'll keep plugging away at it. Hopeing that I'll use up what's left of the yarn and never put them together like that again. I hope who ever gets this blanket doesn't hate me for it.

Broken Cheveron Scarf Pattern

2009-03-04T09:50:00.014-06:00

A while ago I had bought some Bernat Camouflage yarn thinking I'd make a hat or gloves for Jepup Man with it. But he didn't want anything. He's very picky about hats and gloves and flat out refuses to wear any I would make. At one point I thought I had him talked into half finger gloves with this yarn but he changed his mind and told me he wanted a scarf. I thought that was a little odd, because he's not the scarf wearing kind. But he assured me he would wear it once I was done.

I thought since I was just learning to needle knit I'd do a simple garter stitch on the needles, but soon got bored with that. While I was at the Knit Out a few weeks ago I watched a demo on how to get the most out of your variegated yarns and that's when I inspired to frog that boring garter stitch scarf and start over with something more interesting.

I looked though my stitch dictionary, searching for an interesting stitch pattern that would give an interesting texture. I found it in the broken chevron. It's a mix of knits and purls that give the items an arrow effect.

Up until recently I wouldn't have thought to use a textured stitch with a varigated yarn thinking the stitches wouldn't show, but as I learned the texture helps to break up the striping and pooling that's so often the problem with varigated yarns.

Jepup Man is very pleased with his new scarf, and I just might have to make myself one.

Pattern download

Loomed Broken Cheveron Scarf

Got a new project

2009-02-27T19:20:00.003-06:00

So here I was feeling so uninspired by the yarn in my stash when I remembered one of my resolutions this year was to do more charity crafting. I did charity knitting last year for Knit for Peace, but this time I wanted to do something that would benefit my community. I had recently heard of a group called Bundles of Love. It's a state wide organization that helps needy infants and their families by providing them with some of the basics like clothing, bedding & baby care items.

After doing more research I found a local work group where they get together once a month to sew, knit, or crochet items for babies. I contacted the coordinator to ask about donations. I'm going to use up my yarn by making a blanket and some hats & booties to donate.

Adventures in needle knitting: Part 2- Maybe knitted lace just isn't for me

2009-02-26T09:19:00.009-06:00

I'm having a heck of a time with this lacy scarf. I can't tell you how many times it's been frogged. I finally figured out why I was getting extra stitches. There's a row where it calls for a SK2P and I misunderstood what I was supposed to do so I wasn't decreasing correctly.

Once I figured out that problem I started over an got about 30 rows into it with out any mistakes (I was so proud of myself) and then Jepup Man came to ask me a question, interrupted my concentration and I completely lost my place. I had no idea what stitch I had just done and what was to come next. I fudged a little thinking I could figure it out or correct it at the end of the row, but I ended up again with to many stitches because I missed a decrease. I don't know how you needle knitters keep track of your stitches, especially when you're doing something that requires a little bit of concentration and not just mindless knitting.

I bound it off because I wanted to keep the part that I didn't screw up. It's only about 2 inches long so it's not like I can use it for anything. I'm trying to decide if I want to start over or if I just want to scrap the yarn all together because the more I work with this particular yarn the more I don't like it.

Feeling very un-inspired

2009-02-21T16:30:00.004-06:00

I think it's time to find a new supply of yarn. I was at Jo-ann's today and nothing was calling out to me. Which is fine, because I need to use up the stuff in my stash first. But how can I do that when I've run out of ideas? I pull my yarn out to see what I have and I think, "Blah".

Maybe it's just that time of year. Cabin fever has set in and I find myself wishing for spring and a change of crafting.

Adventures in needle knitting: Part 1-Lace

2009-02-20T09:20:00.010-06:00

I'm trying to knit a lacy scarf. I just learned how to needle knit so of course I want my first project to be lace. lol

The pattern calls for multiples of 8 +1. I want to do one repeat, so I figure I'll need 16 +1. But I also want to slip the first stitch so that means I have to add one more stitch. Now I'm up to 18 stitches. I start knitting and get to the end of the 1st row and find I have 2 extra stitches. I'm not sure where they came from because I went back and counted the ones I knit and I knit everything the way I was suppose to. The next row is easy, purl back. I start row three and again I get to the end and this time I have 3 extra stitches that shouldn't be there.

I went through the pattern and counted the number of stitches I was suppose to have at the end of each row and found that I should have the same number of stitches on each row except for row 5, where it goes from 18 to 22 and then goes back down to 18 the rest of the rows. So I start over again with 18 and by the time I got to row 5 I was up 24 stitches again. I figured I'd just knit them since they were on the end of the row. I keep knitting until I get to the last row and start the repeat only to find I have way to many stitches to start row 1 again.

I don't know where they came from. I'm sure I followed the pattern stitch by stitch, but somewhere along the line I must of increased when I wasn't suppose to or didn't decrease, or maybe I cast on the wrong number to begin with. I'm not sure. I know I tried this same pattern on the loom and didn't have these problems.

Stop touching my things!

2009-02-18T09:25:00.005-06:00

Why is it the kids can't leave anything alone? Why do they have to be constantly playing with my tools and running off with them? In the last 2 weeks, I've lost 2 counters, and my favorite loom hook. Then I come down stairs and find my sewing cabinet wide open and somebody used my sewing scissors to cut paper. A while ago Funky Princess was using my rotary cutter to cut something on the basement floor and wrecked the blade. While I was going through my fabric last month I found a big piece of fabric that had a huge hole cut in the middle, making it unusable for what I had in mind. All of my paint brushes are wrecked because they never rinsed them out afterwards or left them sitting in a cup, brush down.

They seem to think that my craft tools are their craft tools and no matter how many times I tell them, "These are mine, those are yours. Stay away from mine." It just doesn't sink in. What do I have to do, put my stuff under lock and key? But then they'd probably run off with the key.

Knit Out-Little disappointed

2009-02-17T14:55:00.005-06:00

I went to the Knit Out this weekend. I got to watch the 3 demos I wanted to see and learned a couple new things. I really enjoyed that part of it, but it seemed like they really scaled back this year. Looking over the schedule it looked like the same 4-5 demos repeated all day long. I can kind of see why they did that, if you missed out on one you could go back and catch it later, but it would've been nice to have a few more choices.

I don't think standing in line for 3 hours to go through the vendor booths was really worth it though. I got 3 balls of yarn that I don't even like, a gauge ruler, 2 crochet hooks, and a pair of size 11 light up knitting needles that are already broken. It seemed like they were giving away a lot more things last year. I was really a little disappointed.

Maybe things would've been different if I had somebody to visit with while we stood in line, but I don't have any knitty friends. I don't think I'll be going back next year, unless there's something I really really want to see and even then the things I learned this weekend I could've learned on my own from magazines and websites.

Half Finger Gloves

2009-02-09T10:03:00.003-06:00

I had been thinking about these for a while and wondering exactly how I was going to do the fingers when Karen Gielen posted step by step videos on her blog for half finger gloves on the Knifty Knitter. I watched all the videos and figured the process would be the same for the AJAL loom. All I had to do was figure out how many pegs to use since my loom was a smaller gauge.

The first glove I knitted the fingers from the base to the tip then put the cast on row back on the loom to attach them to the hand, but since the cast on row was a little loose this required stitching the fingers to the palm portion when I was done knitting. Not really a big deal, just a bit of a pain to do it.

The second glove, I followed Karen's directions more closely and didn't have the finger problems. This glove fit a little tighter than the first, but because I had 2 different gloves I really didn't have pair. I couldn't decide which one I liked better so I ended up making a second glove for each and now I have 2 pair.

I've decided the looser ones (the 1st pair) I'll use at work when the weather is to warm for heavy gloves but not quite warm enough to go without, and the tighter pair I'll keep for working around the house when my hands are cold.

Karen has the pattern for half finger, full finger and glittens for sale on her blog if you're interested.

Finished it!

2009-02-01T10:11:00.004-06:00

I finally decided yesterday to sit down and do the seaming. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Knitting in my sleep

2009-01-28T09:15:00.006-06:00

Obsession is defined as the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

You know you're obsessed with something when the object of your obsession take over your every waking moment. This is me. I admit I'm obsessed with knitting.

I knit every chance I get, I rush through other things so I can sit down and knit, I knit in the car, I knit at Jepup Man's basketball practices, if I could knit at work I'd be doing that too. And now I'm knitting in my sleep. lol I just can't stop. Is there such a thing as obsessive/compulsive knitting? Because that's what it feels like.

No; I'm not actually sleep knitting, but that would be interesting to see what designs I come up with. I'm dreaming about knitting. I'm dreaming I'm knitting all kinds of things. Last night I dreamt about going to the KnitOut. I dreamt that I camped out at the mall over night to be the first one there. I had my sleeping bag, looms and yarn and I was happy to be there cuddled in my sleeping bag knitting. This isn't the first time either. There were other nights where I could swear I knit a whole afghan in one night. It's no wonder I'm tired in the mornings, I'm up all night knitting.

Everything but the seaming

2009-01-27T16:03:00.018-06:00

I did a pinwheel blanket and I have everything done, but the seaming. Anybody out there who I can outsource that too? I hate seaming, which is why I don't do things like sweaters. Luckily the baby this blanket is going to, isn't due until July, because it will probably take me that long to sew it together.

I love this pattern. It looks more complicated than it is. It's really pretty easy. I had the pinwheel section done in 2 days. The edging took a little longer, but the whole thing was knit in about a week.

Instead of the sawtooth edging that was suggested in the pattern, I went with a diamond edging. I liked the looks of it a little better, but it wasn't quite as wide so the whole blanket is about 2 inches smaller than it should be.

I found the edging pattern in Super Stitches Knitting by Karen Hemingway but it's similar to the Double Diamond listed on Knitting on the net.

More stuff listed on Ebay

2009-01-25T16:57:00.003-06:00

I just listed some more stuff on Ebay. Mostly fabric. I have a few things to relist from my last ebay post. So if you missed out on something before, stop in and take a look.

My ebay seller page

Knit-out 2009

2009-01-21T09:10:00.004-06:00

Knit-Out 2009 is coming again to the Mall of America, February 14 & 15. I can't wait to go. Last year I decided at the last minute to go and had to drag Hubby and the kids with. Hubby took the kids around the mall and took in a few rides at what was then The Park at MOA, now Nickelodeon Universe. Other then the rides the kids were bored out of their minds.

This year I decided I'd like to spend the whole day down there and pick up some of the goodies I missed out on last year, so I made arrangements for my mom to take the kids that weekend so Hubby and I can go by ourselves. Hubby will still be bored to tears, but he's a big boy and can handle it better. I made the joke that he could stand in the goodies line while I went to demos, but he said he'd rather stick knitting needles in his eyes. I'm not sure what he's going to do while I'm at the event, but he's got his ipod and a book so he'll be fine.

4 Square Afghan

2009-01-19T19:12:00.004-06:00

I just finished another afghan. This one is a wedding present for a friend. It went really fast, only took me about 2 months.

Inspired by the Big Bad Baby Blanket in Stitch 'N Bitch. This blanket was knit on the extra small gauge infinity loom with simple intarsia, entirely in e-wrap stitch with a seed stitch border.

"LOOK AT ME! I'M KNITTING WITH STICKS!"

2009-01-13T07:50:00.005-06:00

Or at least trying to. It took me forever to figure out how to cast on and the stitches kind of twisted around the needle so I wasn't sure which way was up and with way was down, so that first row might look kind of funny. Then when I was ready to start knitting, I read the directions and looked at the illustration I couldn't quite figure out what I was suppose to be doing. To me it looked like I was just moving loops from one needle to the other. Once I finally got it figured out I was so excited I yelled, Hey! Look at me! I'm knitting with sticks!"

Last night I just worked on the knit stitch and I think I know what I'm doing now. This morning I started working on the purl stitch. I prefer the knit stitch over the purl, but with some practice I'm sure I'll be able to do both equally well. Another thing I can't figure out is I seem to have more stitches than I cast on. I don't know how that happened because I didn't purposely add any. I also think I'm knitting to tight because the stitches aren't coming off the needles to easily and my one finger is sore from pushing the needle tip down to slide the stitches off.

Jepup Man asked once I learn how to do this, if I could finally knit him a Bob. I've done loom versions of Bob, but they don't look the same. I told him not to hold his breath. It will be a while before I'm comfortable doing anything other than practice pieces.

I still prefer the loom because that's what I'm used to. I don't see me making a switch anytime soon to needles, but I wanted to learn because there's some patterns I would love to try and I don't have a clue how to do them on the loom.

Cleaning out my craft cupboard

2009-01-11T15:24:00.008-06:00

I did it! I got my craft cupboard cleaned out. Now I just need to get rid of the stuff I don't want anymore. So I'm listing them on ebay. I have a lot of cross stitch items, some sewing patterns, some quilting books and a paper shape cutter to sell. I'll be listing them over the next few days, so if you don't see them yet, be patient. Here's my ebay sale page in case you're interested in checking out what I have for sale. But hurry the auctions close starting Jan 16th.

New years resolution

2009-01-05T09:23:00.005-06:00

This year instead of the usual resolution (eg: lose weight, exercise more, eat healthy. blah blah blah...) I'm going to focus my goals on my crafting.

Get that mess I call a sewing corner cleaned up and organized (or at least as organized as it can be in such a small space)
I've already started some of the process by hanging up an inspiration or idea board. This is so I can have a place to post my ideas and inspirations so they don't get lost and it's right next to my crafting cupboard so if the mood were to strike, everything is within arm's length.
Do more charitable crafting
After all, how many hats, mittens, bags and afghans do my kids need? The hat and mittens I did for Knit for Peace last spring and the mittens I sewed for school recently were very rewarding projects that I know will be appreciated. I'm not saying the kids don't appreciate what I make for them, but it's such a common occurrence for them that it might not seem as special.
And #3 teach myself to knit with needles, or at least try.
Yeah we'll see how that one goes.

Edit, because I forgot one.

4. Finish up the sewing patterns that I have cut but never got around to sewing together.
I'll finally finish that pair of capri pants I was going to make for myself. I wonder if they'll still fit. lol

More mittens

2009-01-01T16:31:00.001-06:00

Yep, I was able to dig my sewing machine out from under all of Hubby's junk on my sewing table, and finish up the mittens I had started before Christmas.

A while ago I posted about the mittens I made for the kids at school to use when they forgot to bring or don't have their own. I didn't have a pattern to follow and they looked more like oven mitts than mittens. This time around I had an actual pattern but the directions were so bad, it drove me bonkers.

I did a test mitten first. And I say test mitten because by the time I was done with it, I had ripped it apart so many times and it was such a mangled mess that there was no way it could be worn. At first I thought it was me. I thought that since it'd been about a year since I last read a sewing pattern that maybe I was a little rusty and it would take a little bit of reading and re-reading to figure out what I was suppose to do. But the more I looked at the directions and illustrations and the fabric pieces in front of me the more confused I got. What the pattern was telling me and what I had in front of me just didn't make sense. I tried every way I could think of to sew that first mitten together and every time it came out wrong. Either the seams were on the wrong side, or the thumb was sewn shut, or thumb and palm were sewn together, ect.

Finally I was able to figure out what the pattern wasn't telling me and got the thumb sewn on correctly. I was able to get the rest of it sewn together without much trouble until I came to the cuff. They showed how to sew the cuff on in a way so when you turned the mitten right side out the seam was on the outside again. UGH! Again after some finagling I got the cuff sewn on the right way and the mitten came out looking like a mitten. Or as much as it could after being ripped apart so many times. I made the necessary changes to the pattern and was able to whip up a few more without any problems. Now the kids at school won't have to wear my oven mitts anymore.

I'm all out of fleece right now; I've used it all up. Except for the initial frustration, this was a fun project and I'll probably do it again, but I think I'll wait until spring when they start to clearance out the winter fabrics to buy more.

Doing some stitch samples

2008-12-30T09:22:00.009-06:00

I've been knitting stitch samples this week. I finally decided I was ready to move on to something more advanced. I'd been looking for a stitch dictionary in the library for some time, but there was nothing, so while we were out shopping this weekend I picked up Super Stitches Knitting by Karen Hemingway.

Thumbing through the book for the first time I was a little concerned that most of the stitch patterns in there were more than I could handle. Naturally it was geared towards needle knitters, but I know how to knit and purl on the loom so I figured I start with that.

Sample #1 is a knit/purl panel called the Tree of Life. I got a little frustrated with it while I was knitting because I couldn't see the pattern coming out while I was working it. It wasn't until I got it off the loom and pulled the stitches tight that I could see the tree design pop out. I think this would make a very pretty scarf with a seed stitch border or in a border around a blanket.

Sample #2 is Berry edging. This one was a bit more advanced because it involved increases and deceases. I don't think I've ever done an increase in pattern and I've only done decreases along the edge to make simple triangles. So this one took a little more thinking, but once I got it figured out it was pretty easy. It was just a matter of moving a few stitches so I could make the increases.

Sample #3 is Feather edging. It's basically the same concept, just more stitches. I really like the way #3 came out, I think it's very pretty and I plan on using it for the edging of an upcoming project.

There are over 300 stitch patterns in the book to try. There's more advanced stitches like cables and lace that I'm not ready to try just yet, but until then there's still a lot of knit/purl patterns to do and some a couple other things I'd like to try.

It's a great resource for any knitter and I really like that they explain each abbreviation because when I read patterns it's like looking at a foreign language and it explain in plain English how to do those things. I can usally figure it out from there.

This is what happens when you leave a man to clean house

2008-12-26T18:48:00.006-06:00

Remember me complain the other week about how I can't organize my craft area because there just isn't any space? Well here's an example of the problem.

Hubby thought he was being helpful by cleaning off the shelves in the living room before Christmas but did he have to plop everything down in my sewing area? Normally I wouldn't leave my cabinet open like that, but I was in middle of a project and thought everything would be safe for a few days until I could get back to it. I guess I was wrong. The empty work table was just to much a temptation for him to stash his files and junk. How am I supposed to finish my project when I have to put all his stuff away?

"Da Bears" Hat & mittens

2008-12-26T09:25:00.013-06:00

I made these as a Christmas present for Payton (my friend’s 3 yr old son); to make up for a major flub I did last year. Her husband is a big Chicago Bears fan and I didn't even think about it last year when I knit Payton a hat that was purple with yellow flecks. When they opened the package that I sent, Paul gasped "It's Viking colors." I didn't even realize it until after I had sent it off to them and by that time it was to late. Well, it turned out the hat didn't fit him and I ended up making Payton another hat, in black and red.

This year I decided I'd make it up to them (Paul especially) by knitting a hat and mittens in Chicago Bears colors. I hope he forgives me for last year. lol

Now Payton can watch the game with his dad and wear his team colors proudly.

Both were knit on the small gauge AJAL loom. The mitten pattern is Karen Gielen's Perfect Fit Toddler Mitts that I modified slighly to fit fit the loom and the hat is my own design. It was knit in a flat panel with the two colors. Sewn up the back and finished off the top with the kitchener stitch.

Designing clothes for his toys

2008-12-23T15:08:00.003-06:00

Jepup Man insisted I show the hunting outfit he made for his stuffed toy. He made it out of a peice of left over fleece. Since he's not allowed to use my sewing machine, he cut the peices and told me how to sew them together. He's pretty proud of his himself.