CrafTBQ

First things first: I have shelves!
They’re still a work in progress but even so, I have them! Shelves for putting crafty things on! My current plans are to move the yarn out of the plastic bins and into baskets, and from there just wing it. Currently up there are books, yarn, jewelry making supplies, and cloth. *happy sigh*

Next up, there is my sock in progress:

As you can see I’m doing it toe-up on two circs. I like this much better than cuff down on DPNs. Much faster, and my OCD/perfectionist nature feels better knowing that I’m not going to run out of yarn while making the sock part of the actual sock. (Unlike before where I made it to the heel and then started fretting that the toe would turn out to be a pipe dream.) I’m very happy that I frogged the first sock attempt and went with this instead.

Then there was sewing! Which I did at 10pm last night because I’m insane. The story here is that I’ve taken to air drying my clothes, and I’m finally taking advantage of the warm weather to dry some things outside on the line. This means using clothespins and that means needing a clothespin bag.

(Well, not needing per se. I had a reused plastic shopping bag that did the job just fine. But that’s hardly fashionable or crafty!)

I have some fat quarters that I purchased off of Etsy for the specific purpose of having pretty cloth around to use for random projects just like this. I used this tutorial as general guidelines for the pattern, with tweaks along the way. Since it’s a clothespin bag for my own usage I didn’t bother with pesky things like “ironing” or “measuring.” Which is why the bag itself is “old-fashioned looking” in the sense of not having “straight seams” or “straight sides” and “obviously defines ‘old-fashioned’ as some new phrase which refers to how cats might’ve done a better job making this than the person with the opposable thumbs and the sewing machine.”

That being said I am starting to get a better feel for how things work while sewing. I’m not quite there yet but I’m nearing that “aha!” moment where it all clicks into place. Which is good since I’ve got cloth on the way that I’m hoping to turn into curtains and that’s when it’ll actually need to be done with some vague semblance of looking like I know what the frak I’m doing.

Here’s a breakdown of how it went:

The basic materials. I decided on having decorative trim to liven it up a bit. I also decided on using a wire hanger from the dry cleaners as a way to recycle it. My original thought was to sew the bag onto the hanger but as I worked I realized that it would probably be useful to be able to take the bag off if I needed to launder it. So I improvised a handle.

Step one: Cutting the main fat quarter into three pieces.

Step 2: Cutting fabric for the decorative edge.

Step 3: Doing a very loose stitch to hold the decorative fabric in place while I sewed it onto the main fabric. This was when I figured that ironing would’ve probably come in handy but that would’ve involved taking out the ironing board and iron and did I mention that I started all this at 10pm? (This would also explain the crappy picture quality.)

Step 4: Attatching said fabric to the main fabric. I used a leafy kind of stitch to vaguely match the pattern. Once this was attached I removed the loose stitches I had holding the decorative fabric in place. I’m proud to say some of the uneven appearance of those stitches is due to camera angle. We’ll just ignore how many other stitches I’m not showing you. Ahem.

After all this there was sewing the bag together, realizing I was going to go with a handle, making, and then attaching said handle. At which point we were kissing up to midnight and if I stopped for pictures I knew I probably wouldn’t start sewing again

(I hasten to add that a great deal of the time here is due to how I was sewing at the slowest possible speed on my machine so that I could have more control. This is obviously the kind of project that probably takes a half hour tops if you know what the frak you’re doing.)

Anyway, all that was done, the hanger was bent to accomodate the weight of the pins, and voila! One clothespin bag:

I haven’t had a chance to use it yet due to rain this weekend, but hopefully next weekend I can give it a whirl.

Remember this? AKA this:

Well now it’s this:

My first yarn!  I’m very excited.  Single ply so far. It went much faster this time, and I think I’m getting the hang of what my hands are doing. (What I’m supposed to do I got the first time, but why is starting to happen. The aha! moment, in other words.)

I still have plenty of roving to work with, but whee!  Fun!

Here’s me on knit in public day.  I’m working on Tasha.  (That link goes to my Ravelry account so won’t work for everyone).

As though I don’t have enough crafts to spend money on, today I got pimped into rubber stamping.  Actually I’ve had my eye on that for a while because I’ve seen some nifty tricks you can do with embossing.  This year I was even more interested because I’m trying to be better about sending cards to people, and having things on hand to make cards would be a way to help with the “ZOMG I haven’t gone to the store to buy anything!” issue.

(Granted, so would buying cards in advance, which I’ve also done this year, but still. Making my own seems like a fun thing.)

So a girl in my SnB held a Stampin’ Up party and we made Valentine’s cards and treat bags. One of the things I liked about it was that it was surprisingly less than wasteful.  Going into it you’d think there’d be a lot of paper and what have you thrown away, but what actually happens is that as you put things together you realize you can use a bit of leftover paper from over here to do one thing, and a slice of leftover paper from over there to do another.  Which isn’t to say there wasn’t a big ol’ mess to clean up when we were done, but it wasn’t as horrible as you might think.

After we had our stamping fill we sat and knitted. Then it was off for home where I managed to make it out of there without ordering any stamping products, but it was a near thing.

No pictures yet because I’m making a care package for someone out of things I made today and I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

I decided to frog the hat I’ve been working on because I just did not feel confident about the ribbing being strong enough to stay on my, or anyone’s head.

I recast with the same number of stitches but switched to 5s for the ribbing and 6s for the body of the hat.  I’m still not sure it’ll fit on my head but I do believe it’ll fit on someone’s now. 

It’s not quite done yet, but there’s an outside chance I’ll have it done by the end of this weekend.  (And of course by saying so I have guaranteed that will not happen.)

I’ve finished my first BGAL project. Rather, I have my first BGAL project which is finished. It is not the first BGAL project that I started.  I have pictures of it that I will post here and to BGAL once I get them on my computer.

Finally, this week saw the very first SnB in my hometown. I dare not say much for fear I will make it vanish, but suffice it to say that within minutes of meeting we were snarking on the snotty owner of one of the local yarn stores, so I knew I was amongst my people.

This past weekend I made significant progress on the hat. I sat and knit for hours while listening to the DVD commentary on Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  (The one with the kids, who are a-freaking-dorable.)  So I’d say I’ve got… four inches? Five? More? Somewhere around there.  It looks like a thing, and that’s what counts.

I tested it on my head and it fits in the sense of my head can go into the space, not so sure it fits in the sense of being able to stay on my head once it’s there.  But my hair is very slippy and tends to throw hats like a horse bucking a particularly annoying rider.  So if it doesn’t stay on this might not be a fault of the hat design per se.  (Though it does make me ponder possibly adding elastic to the band after the fact. Hmm.)

The latest Knitty is up.  There’s a couple of patterns I could see myself trying, especially Fetching, because I like cables and it seems a quick knit, and Halfdome, which I suspect would look good on Older Brother.

My LYS sent mixed news in their latest letter. The original owners are moving, which makes me yipey about the continued future of the store. However the new owners just added a buttload of sit-n-knit groups, one of which is scheduled for a time I could theoretically go to.  I’m so tempted to go this week but I don’t know if the schedule will allow. Perhaps I’ll play it by ear.

I cast on last night for a hat to match the ribbed scarf. I’m using the third ball of yarn that I bought, with an anticipation that I may need to dip into a fourth. If so I’m going to switch to another color.

Pattern-wise I’m basing it off of the ribbed brim variation in Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I’m doing a 2×2 rib instead of 1×1, again to match the scarf.  I’ve never done an adult hat before, let alone made adjustments to a pattern for one, so we’ll see how it goes.

Oh, and I had to change the count to adjust for the different yarn and subsequent gague.  But, you know, other than that exactly like the pattern in the book.

To be honest this is one of the things that I like about knitting. It’s similar to cooking in that I like having some general guidelines, but tweaking them as needed.  That the tweaking often involves math is merely a geeky side benefit.

Granted we’ll see if the hat fits and/or stays on my head once I’m done, but if not that’s what gifts or ripping is for.

So project wise on the needles now are the hat, which is good brainless knitting, and my BGAL project which is good for when I have a brain and wish to sit and knit.

Turns out it wasn’t that I forgot to charge the batteries in my camera, it’s that the batteries aren’t holding a charge. I’m trying again just in case I did it wrong, but in the meanwhile I loaded some regular batteries in and was able to take some pictures. First, the scarf I am currently working on:

I realize those are two very similar photos, but the first shows the color and the way it hangs better, and the second shows the actual - whaddyacallit- ribbing.

There is more to the scarf but you must wait and suffer with not knowing until I’ve finished it. In the meanwhile simply admire the beauty of those basic ribs, the soft yarn, the exquisite gauge! Also the cute left hand which belongs to me, obviously.

Other things worked on of late include this:

Which is the cheesecake I made as a combo Mother’s Day/Happy Anniversary present for my Mom and Dad. It contains Oreos, chocolate chunks, it’s topped with ganache and it was quite yummy. I got the recipe out of some magazine I have no idea how long ago, and this was the first time I had a chance to try it out. Very easy to make and totally worthwhile.

BGAL’s been given a start date of June 1. I figure that should be enough time for me people to get supplies, ideas, etc. I’m going to post it up on that KAL list I found a while ago too.

Current project is still the simple ribbed scarf. I’m up to skein 2 on it. No pictures yet because I was a big dork and let the batteries run out in my digital camera. Once they’re charged up I’ll take some in progress pics.

I did most of my knitting on it while watching Texas Ranch House. That show simultaneously made me want to throw my remote at my TV and get out needles and work on crafty stuff. Guess we can say that’s entertainment.

Cast on last night for my next project. It’s a new scarf made out of suri merino and it is ZOMG so soft you could DIE.  I’m actually pondering trying to design a top out of it (yes, design, because I do NOTHING the simple way) because dear god it’d be like being hugged by a kitten.

I also proudly jotted down details into my knitting journal, so that now I am no longer relying on slips of paper to remind me what stitches I’m doing, where I left off, and what needle size I’m using. 

Pics of the scarf in progress will come at some point in the future, but since we’re in the world of knitting meta I thought I’d toss up a pic of my knitting bag and survival gear:

The bag I got for free thanks to my boss. He got it at a dental convention.  It’s actually a great bag for knitting. There’s a place on the side for pens (for my knitting journal!), a zippered front pocket for all my notions, and plenty of room inside to hold books, yarn, and a few WIPs. (Typically I do one at a time.)  Inside at any given time we have this:

That’s the knitting journal, Stitch n Bitch (which I keep handy because I’m constantly refreshing my memory on how to do stuff, like purl), my Denises (ZOMG love, LOVE), row counter, cable needle, gauge ruler (which I didn’t know how to work properly for far too long), point protectors for regular needles, stitch markers, stitch holder, tapestry needles, and a crochet hook (F, I believe) for picking up dropped stitches.

Add in the pen in the side pocket and with these tools I can TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!

Or knit. Knitting’s more relaxing, granted.