Yearning

Thoughts of this past weekend made Monday morning at work practically cruel and unusual punishment.

There was a lot of delving into this...

there was some return to this (obviously I was a bit rusty, one of my points is too near the edge, bah)...

there was the pure glee that came with finally getting to drop another stitch on this (that's two!)...

and it didn't even bother me that I cut out half a pair of pajama pants for the older child and then realized I didn't have enough fabric for the other half (my how she's grown!)...

Yes, today at work was torturous with memories of a delightful weekend past, and ever so slow as I counted each hour until the bliss of having all next week off for spring break.  At the beach.  With as many books and as much knitting as I can fit into the car without being yelled at by the hubbie.  Hurry up week!

Unlimited Opportunities for Obsession

That's the thing with sewing and knitting and such, there are always new aspects of all these crafty endeavors to learn, and plenty of already obsessed people to push you over the edge of reason!  For example, my dear mother, who has decided to buy a spinning wheel  and so forces me into deep conversations about fiber and all its possibilities (I'm still trying to convince her to get an alpaca, how is she resisting THIS FACE).  This, in turn, gets me thinking about how I can join in the fun without spending the bazillions of dollars that she is, which naturally leads to lots of research into spindles and hand spinning.  Throw in some birthday gift certificates, a lot of encouragement from another Kate, and winning a 40 percent off coupon at my favorite yarn store and a new hobby is born.  Here is my new spindle! (called trindles by some? difference?) 

Along with plenty of alpaca corriedale blend to get started on.

Now friends, you know it doesn't stop there.  Books must be ordered.  Fancy spindles must be shopped... these are gorgeous... and you know the minutes are being counted down until this weekend, when I will be making yarn!  Making. Yarn!  Should I mention that my ball of fiber is sitting next to me on the couch snuggled up under my arm like some sort of fluffy adoring animal?  That I just offered Jay a squeeze and assured him it would bring him inner peace?  That I made him choose between about five edited pictures of that alpaca/wool to help me decide which showed off its fluffy soft sheepiness the best?  Yeah, should probably keep all that to myself.

Handmade Party!

I love that quite often at family birthday parties in my family there are handmade gifts being given.  Not only that, but being given and really appreciated!  This past weekend I finally got to give my mom her Birdie Sling (I suspect that she coordinated her outfit ahead of time)

and she finally got to give my Uncle the quilt she has been working on for ages to commemorate his recently published book.  He is a civil war historian and of course needed a quilt made out of reproduction civil war era fabrics.  I think it turned out great!  The quilting on it is just lovely, but I'm afraid you can't tell from my picture.  Great gift mom!

Birthday Birdie Sling

This bag definitely had its challenges, but finally I have made the Amy Butler Birdie Sling for my mom's birthday.  Only a month and a half late, not toooo bad.  I had my mind set on using this Japanese Echino fabric to make this bag, but when I went to buy the yardage it was sold out everywhere.  I spent weeks looking at different fabric combinations, finally decided on what to do, and then the Echino fabric came back in stock.  At our actual birthday party, my mom got a picture of the cut out pieces of the bag and a promise of a speedy completion. 

There was a very frustrating incident that made it a little less speedy which I had never had happen before.  This was my first time working with linen, so I don't know if this is common, but when ironing the lining pieces of the bag to the fusible fleece the glue on the fleece came through the fabric.  It looked horrible.  This was definitely a low point in my efforts to get this done.  It was a waste of very expensive fabric, meant another trip to Joann's to buy a different product to see if it would work better and a whole evening's worth of sewing time lost.  Hunting down the specific pelon product suggested on the pattern proved to work much better, which baffled me because the pelon fusible fleece looked like it had more glue on it than the other fleece I had been using.  Luckily it worked, I think if I had had to find another lining fabric this bag would have been crammed in a dark place in my craft closet for eternity and my mom presented with a lovely gift certificate to the yarn store.

The first Birdie Bag I made also used actual bird fabric, I don't know if I will ever be able to make this bag any other way.  Happy Birthday mom, hope you enjoy your super cute bag!

More Handmade Love

I think it goes without saying that my mom enjoys making and giving handmade gifts (has anyone noticed that she and the girls seem to be the only ones doing any "making" lately on this blog? Ahem.  I do have a project in the works, hopefully to be shown off soon).  These hats were given to the girls for Valentine's Day and they have been worn pretty much non-stop ever since.  Often by mid February in Atlanta Spring has sprung, but not this year!  I think these little hats were the perfect thing to bring something fresh to the few more weeks of winter we are apparently going to have to tolerate.  The pattern is a free one on the Spud and Chloe website, Heart on a String.

Blog Love on Love Day

I have mixed feelings about Valentine's day.  It annoys me to no end that it's a packaged and commercialized fake holiday, but I absolutely love the chance to make handmade valentines!  It is a popular holiday for small handmade items and the inspiration on blogs is limitless.  Also, I started my blog on Valentine's day 2008 with this project, continued the handmade tradition in 2009 with owls and cats, and used this idea for our 2010 symbols of love...

The girls get really excited about making valentines for their classes.  Hopefully they are learning a little bit about love in the process.

Thank you all for visiting my sewing, knitting, and random pieces of craftiness blog.  I love you blogland!

1 thru 31 of 365

We really did make it thru a picture a day for January.  I'm really liking having a little tidbit from each day, even though some days nothing is really going on or you are too tired to think of something to take a picture of.  Looking back on the month as a whole encourages me to keep going...



If you want to see descriptions you will have to go click on each picture in my set on flickr, I try to say something about each picture.

My 2010 365 Set

Jay's 2010 365 Set

More Sewing with Grammy!

Grammy had so much fun sewing with the girls last time that she actually came back for more (brave woman that she is)!  The girls had an early release day last week and Grammy picked them up from school with project supplies in hand.  She picked a project from the book Let's make Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo! Fun Dolls.  If you are looking for a beginning project for a young sewer this is a great one.  She chose the snake pattern and a simple canvas fabric on which they used stamps and fabric markers for decorations.

This project is a simple shape that little hands can easily trace pattern pieces for, cut out, and they love personalizing the fabric to make it their own.  Sewing in the mouth and tongue was a little tricky, Grammy had to help there, but almost all of the machine sewing, stuffing and hand sewing was done by the girls.  It is really cute how much they LOVE their handmade snakes!

Sunday Sewing Bliss

This past Sunday we went to spend the day at Grammy's house to sew.  The youngest child received a Hello Kitty sewing machine, just like her big sister's, for Christmas and wanted to get started on her first quilt.  The older child has a book report due at the end of the month for which the students can choose any medium they want to do the report in.  She chose a quilt.  Do I even have to tell you how happy both of these young children yearning to sew make me?  And when I say yearning, they have both been BEGGING to sew on these projects for weeks now.  Luckily Grammy wanted to help, I don't think I could have handled both of them working at the same time.  Sewing with small children takes a lot of patience and constant vigilance since they are using irons and pins and machines, but it is so worth it when you see how proud they are of their finished projects.  Sam finished her quilt, proudly displayed below, but Courtney still has some embellishments to put on her book report quilt before it is ready to show off.

Man Scarf

Last fall, when we were out in Idaho, our second stop after getting off the plane was Isabel's yarn shop.  This yarn store always has something set up to catch your eye and this time was no exception.  As soon as we walked in the front door there was a table with the new Rowan Colourscape folk yarns and patterns.  These yarns, especially the darker color-ways, just shout man yarn.  Lots of women won't take their husbands shopping with them (especially on fiber procurement excursions) because they get told that they don't need any more yarn or fabric or whatnot, but with Jay I seem to have the opposite problem.  He has a great eye for color and design and I think I end up spending twice as much when he is with me.  I got enough to make him a matching hat too, hopefully I can whip that up before there aren't any cold days left to wear it this winter.  Luckily this is a nice spongy wool that knits up quickly.  The yarn is spun in such a way that it is fascinating to watch the colors blend into themselves and keeps you entertained while doing even a basic rib pattern.  The man scarf is flattened and pinned to the rug upstairs at the moment for blocking, but here are some pics of it straight off the needles and still curly.  I haven't ever blocked anything before so I'm very interested to see if it really does stay flat after it dries.

Pattern:  Aiden Hat from Rowan Colourscape folk
Yarn:  Rowan Colourscape chunky by Kaffe Fassett
Ravelry link here

Gifted Felt Bags

Hand knit socks were not the only knitted item under the tree this year.  My mom made these super cute little felted bags for the girls.  The initials on them and the little ruffles just kill me.  Little girls can never have too many bags... the youngest uses hers to carry around her new DS along with a small stitching project and the oldest stashes her random bits of daily life:  acorns, rocks, plastic baubles and balls.  It is always fun to peek in there and see what things they treasure on any given day.

Pattern:  Felt Ruffle Bag from knittingonthenet.com
Yarn:  Noro wool

Two Things

1)  Since yesterday 1,218 people have visited my blog because of this post.  Wow, hi everyone!

2)  Jay and I have both embarked on Project 365, you can find my set here and his set here.  We are now taking bets on who will last the longest.  Eventually I will figure out how to put a link in the sidebar or something equally fancy.

That is all.

2009 Completed Projects

I really couldn't remember any completed projects from this past year as I sat down to look through my pictures, besides the most recent socks of course.  I could only think of all the things that have kept me away from all the sewing and knitting that I would like to be getting done... the new full-time often overly demanding job, my youngest starting kindergarten and the demands of two girls in elementary school with homework and class parties and projects, the planning of a wedding and setting up of a new life with my dear hubbie, several bouts of various sicknesses running through the family the last couple of months... at first thought these events kept me away from my favorite past-times, but with a closer look at the pictures I realize that even when life is throwing crazy demands at you, you find time to work in the things that you love.

Socks were knit on the sly as the girls slept or we were out in Idaho, I fit in some less demanding projects on weekends like finishing a quilt that had been lingering for quite some time, whipping up easy skirts and dying yarn with my mom and aunt at a class.  And when my crafty endeavors were too big for the time I had available, close family and friends, and even internet friends, stepped in and helped me get everything completed. 

Those are now my favorite things... the wedding shawl my mom helped me finish and the ring pillows she helped me design and make.  The napkins that several people contributed to and the first quilt made mostly by my daughter but with lots of help from her proud mama.  It may not be all the things I wanted to do, but this collection represents a need to create and fitting that need in when possible.  I know 2010 will be no less crazy and possibly even more so, but I look forward to fitting this addiction into all the little cracks between living.  I hope all of you find the time to do something you love every chance you get too!  Happy New Year!

The Socks Really Did Get Done!

I'm still not quite sure how, but the socks for the youngest child which looked like this on December 19th:

were actually under the tree for her to discover Christmas morning.

 

It's all a blur of furious knitting.  Knitting while on work conference calls, knitting at holiday parties, knitting while watching movies until 3am several nights.  Somehow a flat of yarn became a pair of socks in just 6 days. 

I wish there had been someone to witness me doing the kitchener stitch on the toes in the wee hours of Christmas morning, but it was just me, the tree and the cat.  I know I'm not the only crafter that turns into a complete maniac right before a big gift giving event, I read many a blog of people in the same frenzy.  There is nothing like giving something you put your heart into and having your 8 year old tell you that gift made it the best Christmas ever, or having your five year old refuse to take her handknit socks off for two days.  The calloused fingertips and carpal tunnel were totally worth it!

 

Once again, the Ribbed Socks For Kids free pattern from Spud and Chloe.

I'm Sure The Next Pair Will Go Much Faster

Alright, it's crunch time.  I finished big sister's socks and now it's time to crank out some for the little sister feet.  I am inspired by The Yarn Harlot's post yesterday where she cranked out a pair of socks for herself in a day basically because she was bored.  I have seven days to make some for little bitty feet, no problem right?  Don't worry, I work best under pressure.

This pattern is the Ribbed Socks for Kids free pattern from Spud and Chloe.  Just a basic sock pattern sized down for little feet.  I didn't want to do anything fancy since they will probably outgrow these by next year.

Time to get knitting!