Crafty Explosion!
I’ve been doing quite a bit a of sewing lately. Its not that difficult, I can make functional things, and I can complete a project within a day or two (or an afternoon sometimes). Over this past weekend I made my brother some Scooby-Doo PJ pants, sewed an edging onto a piece of fleece to make a blanket and whipped up a pretty summer dress (which I so not have a picture of).
Brian's PJ pants, Fleece Blanket
I have also completed 37.5 of 64 total squares for that big blanket I started a month or so ago. I pile of squares is taking over my side table. Which is GREAT! I only have to worry about weaving in HUNDREDS of ends and sewing together a mountain of squares.
Yarn and a Couple Finished Squares.
Other than that I’ve recently had some pattern brainstorms! Which is GREAT! A couple swatches and some math and I’ll have 2 new sweater patterns! I also have to get moving on typing up some other patterns that I have ready to go.
Scarf Line-Up
Scarf Line-Up
These patterns will be available thru the Serendipitous Ewe, late summer to early fall.
Bad Blogger!
I started up at a new job recently… and well, thats about it. Working at a job where I ACTUALLY WORK kinda puts a huge constraint on my knitting time! I’ve been working on a Granny Square Blanket for the apartment. In Brown, Green and two shades of Blue. Its (fiber-snobs cover your eyes) acrylic and blend- but with the dogs and the cat and the constant washing, it needs to be both washable and dryable and still affordable for me to knit. I figured I need a total of 64 squares; I have 17.5 squares down!
I have also been not blogging. Again, mainly work. The rest… Well lazy? Not enough knitting and crafting?
Went to MD Sheep and Wool last month, got some nice mohair boucle. Its destined to be a cardigan. Its nice and fine, i think it wants to be knit up on size 4s!
Been buying sewing patterns lately, and fabric… but alas, I’m not doing as much sewing as I would like to either! Working isn’t bad…. but staying home and crafting all day has a certain appeal I just can’t ignore!
And I haven’t been social either… I know, the super-fecta of bad knitter! I swear, eventually, I will be able to balance all this stuff so I can have my life, and live it too 
Lately
I have been productive, swear it! I spent Friday May 1st sewing a “tote” bag!!
Sewed goodness
Its more balanced, and less wonky than it looks in the photo. I used a more substantial interface than the last bag I made, this one has a lot of structure. Next time I’m going to do the bottom different, use interface instead of a solid piece, add a couple of inside pockets, a top snap closure, a little taller, and give it a large handle area so it can be worn over the shoulder (if your larger than 5′1″ and 90lbs that is). I like the heavy cotton twill for the body and a lighter weight cotton for the lining. I also used store bought bias tape instead of making it myself (which I see as overly time consuming).
I finished that “Forever Tweed” Sweater, mine was in black. Its a replacement for an H&M Sweater I purchased 5 or so years ago. Its the first sweater I’ve made in black. It looks great, very unhandmade looking. As per usual, I made some modifications, in this case: Gauge, lengthened the body, and the sleeves.
my replacement sweater
Also, today being May 2nd, and residing in the great state of MD, I’m journeying to the MD Sheep and Wool Festival. I have some yarn plans…. for ONE sweater. I’m thinking tweed, or an amazing semisolid DK, or maybe even some handspun… but I think a sweater’s worth of handspun is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of my budget 
Someday. Or I’ll learn to spin, and make it myself! But there will be photos… I wish the weather was going to be nicer, but I’ll just make due with the soggy day ahead.
While You Were Gone….
Until the end of next week Jordan is going to be in Germany (I know, LUCKY him!!). Which means its boring and quiet and kinda lame here at the apartment. The dogs are here with me, but its not the same.
But I’m trying to be optimistic- I can devote all my creative energy to crafts!! And not have to worry about having a mess of projects strewn all over the place; until late next week at any rate. I have made a mental list of crafty things that I would like to get accomplished in the next week or so. 1.)Finish that “Forever Tweed” sweater, just a sleeve. 2.)Finish crochet placemats, only 1/2 of the 2nd to go! 3.)Sew at least one dress, one pair of PJ pants, one purse. 4.)Fiddle around with project bag designs for the Serendipitious Ewe. 5.)Finish writting patterns. I have no less than 5 (!!!) that need to be typed and formatted.
Yes, its a little ambitious. But I have the time on my hands.
Sew, Crochet, Repeat.
April has unofficially been crochet month here. I churned out 4 crochet scarves, and half a dozen dish cloths. Sure there has been knitting thrown in; finished up the baby cardigan… except the buttons. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. They are sitting RIGHT THERE. I just haven’t done it.
I’ve been toying with sewing again. Nothing as adventurous or all encompassing as that quilt. Finished my first “dress”. Its going to be a “housedress”. The seams are imperfect… and dispite it being the correct length, its a little too short for my liking. It would be a good lenght if I was 5′4″, or 15. I am neither. So if I decide to make another for “public” use, I will 1.) make it longer, 2.) make it out of something a little heavier/darker and 3.) be extra super-duper careful about the interfacing, or just use bias tape.
Prolific Destashing!
I LOVE making double crochet scarves! I am currently working on my 4th one this month! Of the 4, three have yarns I’ve over dyed.
Double Crochet Scarves
I have the intent of donating scarves to the WWII Veteran’s Scarf Drive again this year. Last year I donated 2 scarves. This year, I hope I have more to give. The scarf on the right I plan on keeping for myself. Its Noro’s Silver Thaw, overdyed. I have a sweater in that yarn, and think having a perfectly matching scarf is a little silly. To be honest, I like the overdye a 100 times more than the original! The back scarf is the one currently in progress, its left-overs from the sweater I made my brother. The green is overdyed from this lt. brown Alpaca blend I had lying around in my stash, I had about 550 yards. The blueish on the far left is overdyed onto the leftover yarn from my Central Park Hoodie. I like the blue better than the aqua. This seems to be a trend- liking the overdye more than the base color!
I also have been making some baby sized sweaters. I’m following patterns because I don’t quite know how to size infant, toddler or children’s sizes. The current one is Baby Blueberry Cardigan from The Brown Stitch. I’m using Moda Dea’s Silk n’ Wool Blend. I’m AMAZED by how soft and squishy they yarn is! Its not scratchy or anything, PLUS it has this great heatherd quality! The silk blips are a much lighter shade. I’m working it in a Plum and Lt. Teal stripe with Browm trim. I like the result thus far! This project is NOT from my stash… It was an impulse purchase from JoAnn’s, with a few of 40% and 50% off coupons!!
Baby Blueberry Cardigan
Inspired?
I was doing REALLY good updating my silly little blog for about a week… But then what happened? I haven’t been knitting as much as I should be. I have been sewing (or attempting) handbags… and crocheting like crazy. I’m a pretty crappy crocheter…. so its nothing too amazing. I made 2 scarves to send to one of the Veteran’s scarf drive charities. I think I’m going to wait to mail it until I have a couple more. I double crochet them longways, I can finish a scarf about 7×70 in about 2 days. Plus it uses about 400 yards of stash yarn. Which means I have MORE ROOM for NEW STASH!!
I have also finished 2 dishcloths, one of which is the UGLIEST yarn EVER! It was an impulse when I was in the Walmart craft department buying fabric. My thought was “NO yarn can possibly be THIS UGLY! It must look GREAT worked up”! I was wrong. It it just horrid. I’ll post pictures of it tomorrow (??) hopefully.
Perhaps the UGLIEST yarn, EVER!
I have been working up dishcloths more or less as swatches. I have THOUSANDS of yards of this pretty Hand Dyed that I did last summer. I want to do a striped ripple pattern afghan (like I need another one I can’t throw in the wash). But want to be certain I have the RIGHT pattern. So doing these dishclothes has been weeding some of them out. So 2 down… I may just knit it… but where is the accomplishment of doing something I’m bad at?
Other non-knitting/non-crafting things: The BF and I got season passes to SixFlags America (right outside of DC). We went the other day and had a BLAST. We managed to ride ALL the coasters at least once, the good ones 2 or 3 times by 1:30 pm. Life is good when you show up early at the start of the season- we even got a super close parking space- that wasn’t “PREFERRED” or handicapped.
I have also been baking tasty treats. Today I maded these Cocoa-Gingerbread “Brownies”- they are AMAZINGLY good! Even better than the Harvest Pumpkin “Brownies” I made a couple weeks ago. I seem to be on a brownie baking kick. Which needs to end whilst my pants still fit!
Pwned!
That evil quilt has been vanquished! It is currently on my bed; where it will remain until fall, or until another usurps it.
Action shot.
And now I have time to knit more things, I started a black top-down chunky weight cowl neck to replace a commercially knit one from H&M. Its from the Spring 09 Knitscene- Forever Tweed. I have the cowl mostly done.
the start of a sweater
Tritium Design
So, I think I picked a name for my design work- Tritium Design. And therefore will be designing as: Cinnamon at Tritium Design.
I also finished up the first sweater to be patterned. Its working name was “Top-down, bi-colored, cowl-necked sweater”. I think I will call it the “Hyphenated Sweater”. I used a chair to model it… being I finished weaving in the ends before 6am, am home by myself, and still wearing my pajamas. I have high hopes for the Beta test sweater. I love the way this sweater looks when worn…. I think the yarns Ang (from the Serendipitious Ewe) and I talked about will look AMAZING! And I will admit, I’m a tad jealous that the Alpha Phased sweater won’t be quite as beautiful….. I can always knit another one!
I also am finishing up that monster quilt. I got the whole thing sewn together. But am now having a heck of a time getting the filler part in! I wrestled with it for almost an hour yesterday before I had to abandon it for actual pressing real life matters. Should I have tacked it to the backing before sewing together the front and back? I think I’m going to turn it inside-out again, tack the innards to the backing and then turn the whole thing right-side out and hand stitch thru the whole thing at the pieced corners. Despite the hassle, Jordan thinks it looks GREAT. Its nice and soft and will look great in the bedroom, and will be just the right weight for spring/summer. Bonus- I found filling that is Bamboo/Cotton. Its really thin, less than a 1/4″. I have a couple more sewing projects floating around in my noggin now- Curtains for the Living Room, another apron to add to my monsterous collection, a simple sundress, and maybe a tote or a purse.
Stupid Sewing…
So I got the BRILLIANT idea to sew a quilt. This past Christmas, my mom bought me a sewing machine. I don’t sew that much…. Prior to this endevour I made some curtains for the kitchen. They are OK, but not amazing. I started a dress, about 15 years ago…. I still have it. Its about 80% finished. It would most likely still fit. And other than that my sewing experience includes Middle School Home Ec….
So what exactly made me thing that making a QUEEN sized quilt was a good idea. And I’m not using a pattern per se. I figured I would sew together some 9 by 18 rectangles…. BRILLIANT. It wouldn’t be nearly so bad if my “squares” had straight edges. Then as I’m doing these strips, it gets all unweildy and I am apparently incapable to sewing a straight line.
Perhaps when this is all stitched up it will look better. But for now I’m going to keep on plugging thru it…. In hopes that the final product will look AWESOME.
Unlikely… but I’m still trying to be hopeful!
Torture Machine!
My fabric MESS
