Knitting and Stitching Things!

There's so much sewing happening here, I just don't have enough pictures to show you all of it!  I need a live in photographer, or maybe just a remote shutter control.  The latter is probably cheaper to maintain.

In the meantime, here's some progress on my mermaid.  See that little bit of red across her face?  Yep, that's it.  But I did manage to get the rest of the colors I was missing for this, so I can just sit down and finish her now.

And while I was shopping for the last of my colors, I decided to just buy another thread organizer and more plastic cards to wind the thread.  I have one of these somewhere absolutely stuffed with thread, but cannot find it.  It's extra large, so will take a bit longer to fill, but I still have a bunch of floss tucked away in baggies and drawers just waiting to be wound.

And I finally started on some holiday crafting.  Half of our extended family celebrates Christmas on Thanksgiving, so it tends to sneak up on me.  Hopefully this year I won't be binding and burying threads on the drive down to Connecticut.

What are your holiday crafting plans?  I usually make a big list then realize I should have started months earlier!

And you have one more day to head over to Quilty Habit to vote for your favorite Orange Peel Quilt-a-Long quilt.  I'm partial to mine, but there's a lot of great choices!

Adventures in Sock Knitting

Behold, the most exciting pair of socks I've knit.  I've been going by patterns and doing as I was told, but these were the first that I felt confident enough to go off book.

I really set out to make those bigger socks.  They're a Christmas gift for my grandmother, but because Christmas is such a crunch time for handmade presents I didn't have time to knit them.  Instead, I gave her the yarn, then asked for it back so I could immediately cast on some socks.  I made them with a really great pattern from On The Needles.  It's the best pattern for just learning how to do it.  And when you use the sock number method, the socks really do fit without any guesswork.

When I finished with Grammy's socks I had leftover yarn that I figured would be enough to make a second pair for Isaac.  And since I had a finite amount of yarn, I did a toe-up sock.  I've had a pair of socks in the works from the book Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes, but that meant my super-long circular needle was in use, and all I had was my double points.

So I just combined the toe-up method in the book, with the sock number method of the On The Needles pattern, and voila!

The other bit of excitement was with the rib knit.  I've never been able to get it to look nice.  See that gaping knitting on the right sock?  That's how it always looks, but I learned the secret to nice ribbing... twisting and untwisting your purl stitches!  The left sock turned out much nicer, and is so much stretchier.

So that's my last Christmas present crossed off the to-do list!  I might start working on some generic handmade presents just to have them on hand for next Christmas.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!

Hello Birdie Super Tote Finish!

I'm back!  It was a great break, just knitting and sewing up presents, and enjoying Christmas break.  And I got to get more practice with the fancy new camera, and I'm so excited to take pictures now.

But the tote!  It's the Noodlehead Super Tote.  I won (kind of, begged) for the pattern at our guild's Yankee Swap and was dying to make myself one of these bags.  They're super big, and zippers!

So I was just waiting for the right fabric sale to get myself some supplies, when I realized that the perfect finishing touch for my cousin's art supplies Christmas gift would be to wrap it all up in a tote.  Luckily, I'd just managed to convince a friend to spend some quality time at the Ikea fabric section for me, and she brought back this hilarious bird print.  And it was almost home dec weight, so perfect for a tote.

Finished it off with some coordinating solids and red piping, and it was done.  The whole thing only took one night, but it was a late one.  And a real testament to how easy this pattern goes together is the fact that in my caffeinated, buzzy, late night stupor, I only had to rip out one side of the zipper because the fabric was stretchier than I anticipated!  So much win!

Still haven't made one for myself, but I plan on looking through some more of those Ikea fabrics later and finding a print for me.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!

WIP Wednesday!

It's WIP Wednesday!  Time for me to get out all my projects, realize that there's way too many of them, only photograph a few, then go procrastinate and work on none of them!  I'm only half joking since I don't actually pull them all out.  I probably couldn't fit everything into one picture.

But anyway....  I am actually working on the #Catventquiltalong.  I love that it just takes about 15 minutes to finish a cat.  I've gotten one of every rainbow color done, the whole Roy G. Biv is there, so now I just have to fill in spots with more hues.

I'm finally digging into that stack of rayon that my mother picked out.  She asked for a couple copies of her favorite dress for Christmas, and naturally I said yes, even though I'd never worked with the fabric before.  After completing a dress for myself to practice, drafting a pattern, making the first dress and having my mom try it on, I'm ready to just bust out the rest of these dresses.

And I've finished the sleeves to this little commissioned sweater and I'm on to the body.  I got this far before deciding to check my gauge, and I'm concerned.  The gauge is correct, but I'm trying to replicate a sweater that I've already made, and that sweater's gauge is too big.  I'm taking a break from the knitting until I can try it on the little girl that it's for, but I have a feeling that it's going to be ripped and more stitches added to the front and back.  Still better than finding out when I got all the way up to the armpits!

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

Pinkie Pie Progress!

This project started off kind of weird.  I fell in love with the Pinkie Pie quilt that Svetlana at S.O.T.A.K. Handmade made, and making one was something that was on my list of things I wanted to accomplish eventually, but I started mentioning it to people and suddenly it was happening.  I love having sewing friends that you can mention craziness to and they just jump in and help make it happen.

So, that up there is a cross stitch pattern for my daughter's favorite My Little Pony, Pinkie Pie.  She's kind of amazing, has an emergency stash of pirate eye patches, and owns a confetti canon.


I know, right?  Amazing! We started raiding stashes for pink fabric, and did a run to Joann's for more pink fabric, because there's SO. MUCH. PINK!  And then we started cutting and piecing.  The squares are 1.5" and finish to 1", so it's going to be a generous twin size quilt.  

Here's a little taste of what we've go so far.  All the crossed off squares are done, so we're almost halfway there.

That's one whole leg!  I love how all the fabrics are playing nicely, and will hide every little stain.  It's for a toddler, stains are her forte.  

This week we'll finish up the tail and cutie mark and then it's just the head and hair!  We'll totally have it done for Christmas!

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday and My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday!

Finished Hats and an Invisible Quilt Finish!

So, it's Friday, and I have a finish to share!  But it's a gift, so I can't really show a finished picture of it, but it's so awesome.  I'll have lots of pictures after the holidays wrap up.  I'm pretty excited about so many handmade gifts this year.  

Instead of quilt pictures, I'll show you some of my knitting finishes for the week.  That bucket of yarn I pulled on Wednesday has become three hats.  The first is this one for the little girl, the kitty hat!  It was super easy to make, just a tube with some rib knit at the bottom.  No increases, or decreases, so no chance of getting weird cone-head hats, and since I've never made hats, that was a big fear of mine.  Who wants to bind off, then realize your kid looks like a Smurf.

The ears are the best part of it.  I just did a kitchener stitch across the top to bind off, and then did some whip stitch along the bottom of the ears on the inside of the hat.  And the yarn is a super soft baby alpaca and acrylic blend, lucky girl.  

This one is for her brother.  He went to school before I could get a good picture of him in it, so she'll model it for him.  Of course, she's modelling under protest, because it's not purple or cat shaped.  

This is the Chunky Dean Street Pattern that I showed you on the needles yesterday.  It's a really fast knit, and those cables are just right front crosses (not real cables), so you don't have to stop and whip out your cable needle every couple stitches.  I was a little worried about the decreases because I only had a circular needle to work with, but it seems to have worked fine.  I used Wool-Ease, so it's super warm and has plenty of stretch, so he'll be able to wear this at least two winters!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday!

WIP Wednesday!

Lots still going on around here.  I'm pretty sure that'll be the way things go until after Christmas is done.  Who am I kidding?  I'll probably have at least five projects going no matter what time of year it is.  

Anyway, I finally dug through my chest of yarn and found a lot of beauties that I'd completely forgotten about.  Most of these are from the days after I had an income, but no real financial responsibilities (the good ole days), so I'd go to the fancy yarn shop and buy balls of yarn.  I found two balls of baby alpaca, some mohair, and I can't remember what that colorful one in the center is, but it came from the same place, so fancy!

I never actually knitted anything with them, and just hoarded until now.  Kids are in need of hats, so I'll be working through this pile and perfecting my hat knitting.

This stack of square is going to slowly become an amazing quilt.  It's for a certain someone who might read this, so this is all the peek you get!

One inch squares!  Eep!

And this is the most insane project.  I was so obsessed with the Hello Kitty pixel quilt and the Pinkie Pie pixel quilt, that a friend suggested we make one ourselves.  Luckily my little girl is in love with Pinkie Pie too, and will be needing a bed quilt soon.  We're hoping to get this finished by Christmas, but the best thing about 2-year-olds is that they rarely carry around calendars and don't hold grudges if gifts arrive late.  

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

EZ Mitts!

 

I have a bit of a mitten problem.  These are so easy to make that I keep making them, though my wrist would prefer I take a short break.

The pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, which a friend conveniently had and was willing to dig out for me.  Elizabeth had a serious thing for easy, quick knits that don't look like you just whipped them up, and these are the perfect example of that.  

They're just a tube, but the pattern of increases and decreases angles the tube, so you get a fun shape at the bottom and the stitches are on a diagonal.  And the increases and decreases are the simplest ones I've ever seen.  And, because you just repeat a row of decreases and a row of straight knit until it reaches your pinkie, then eliminate the increases, I don't have to look at the pattern at all to remember where I am.  I've just been shoving the knitting in my bag, instead of the whole knitting pouch with tools and patterns and counters.  Freedom!!

I dreaded the thumb, though.  You add it after by just snipping a stitch where you want the thumb to be, unraveling 15 stitches, and then picking them up to knit.   I had to have a friend do it for me.  It's just wrong to cut into the middle of your knitting!  Of course, it worked out, though I think the thumb on these purple ones is a row too short.  (Here's a great explanation of how to do it at the Purl Bee.  Also, I need to figure out how to finish the thumb like they do.)

Currently on my second of the seafoam mitts.  That makes four mittens in less than a week (not to mention the scarf I finished before starting the purples), no wonder my whole arm is sore!  I'm going to finish these and then get back to sewing.

Linking up with The Train to Crazy for Make It Wear It Thursday and Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday!

WIP Wednesday

Last week I realized that it was getting really close to Thanksgiving.  Not a big deal, but we do Christmas at Thanksgiving!  Panic!  

So I started busting out Christmas presents like whoa!  I knitted up the blue (or indigo, or purple, depending on your light) mittens over the weekend using a pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac.  It was pretty nice sitting around the house, watching football, drinking beer, and knitting.  I don't know why I don't do it more often. 

The first pair came out so nicely and quickly that I decided to make a second pair out of the seafoam green.  It's so satisfying to start crossing projects off the list.

And this beauty just needs a border or two, and then I can quilt and bind it.  I thought that it would be more difficult to piece all those triangles and have the points match, but it was no harder than squares.  Might be my go to patchwork shape from now on.

And I have a couple Quilts For Boston to quilt up.  I'm hoping to get this one done by the weekend and my second one done by the end of the month.  That's the goal, but who knows if I'll suddenly realize that I have four more projects to finish for Christmas.  

My favorite little piece on the Boston quilt.  I'm going to like quilting this one.

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!