Experimenting with Beads April 1, 2010

After loosing some stitch markers in the craft closet abyss and ogling pretty beads at The Bead Shop, I decided to have a go at making my own.

Maneki Neko Stitch Markers

My husband and I went to see Ponyo on Valentine’s Day and since then I’ve been watching the Studio Ghibli collection and going through a bit of a Japanese thing.  This is an extension of that.  Plus, I love cats.

Purple Stitch Markers

These are just from a random assortment of purple beads.  Please, excuse the background of this one.  By the time I finished them it was dark outside and my kitchen, where the best light is, is messy, hence the Easter egg backdrop.

The happiest girl in the world March 23, 2010

Last week I acquired some old fabric from Katy, the author of Creating Misericordia, which has made me the happiest girl in the world.

If you’re unfamiliar with Creating Misericordia, you should definitely check it out.  Katy takes excellent photos, takes on some epic projects and as previously stated, has made me a very happy girl.

The arrival of these fabrics, and spring, have motivated me to get out my sewing machine.  I decided to make another New Look skirt, which for some reason, was much more difficult the second time.  The waistband on the first skirt I made is kind of awkward, so I tried to fix it this time, but was unsuccessful.  This is either due to me missing out on something with the pattern construction, which is probably the case, or it’s just a cheap pattern.

Coincidentally, I picked up some Rowan Bamboo in Antique Rose that goes really well with the pink in the fabric, so by the end of the summer, I should have a lovely outfit.  Although, I am not waiting to wear the skirt until I knit a top; I will be wearing the skirt often.

Bobbins Magazine March 2, 2010

Bobbins Magazine is an awesome knitting/crafting magazine recently published by Rubbish Knitter (don’t let the name fool you, she is far from a rubbish knitter).

There are knitting patterns, book reviews, including one by me, a recipe, a tatting pattern, and other useful articles.  No need to feel embarrassed by your ridiculous crafting mishaps because Bobbins even includes stories of massive craft fails.  If you need help reading a yarn ball band, working out how much yarn you need for a pattern, and/or like ginger cupcakes, buy Bobbins!

A few of the contributors include, audreym, Creating Misericordia and of course, Rubbish Knitter.

You can buy Bobbins online and get it shipped anywhere in the world, or buy it from the Cornerhouse shop in Manchester or Skeins in Glossop.

If you’re on Ravelry, join the Bobbins Group, follow Bobbins on Twitter, and become a Bobbins fan on Facebook.

Has it been a month? February 18, 2010

I’ve just realised it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything, though it doesn’t mean I haven’t been a busy beaver.  In the last month I’ve knitted Mary Weaver’s Mrs Darcy Cardigan and a little iphone sock.

From the moment I saw the Mrs Darcy Cardigan, I envisioned it in a bright red, but my LYS didn’t have a suitable colour.  Then, I found Cascade 220′s Christmas Red (colorway 8895) online and decided it was perfect!  Although the pattern calls for 900 yards of yarn, a little over four hanks of Cascade 220, I only used three, so now I have enough to knit a little shrug as well.

I added some length to the cardigan and made a few modifications; it’s still a bit shorter than I like, but perfectly wearable.  If I were to make another one, I would either add a few more rows of garter stitch, or maybe seed stitch at the bottom as it rolls up a lot.  While the crochet border looks nice and stabilizes the bottom, it puts the button holes off a bit.

The modifications are as follows:

16 rows stocking stitch and 19 rows twisted rib.

4 buttons/buttonholes

twisted rib:
Row 1 (RS): k1tbl, p1 to end of row
Row 2 (WS): k1, p1tbl to end of row

Right Front (knit last 3 sts for button hole band)
1-3: Knit
4-7: st st
8: p to last 3 sts, k2tog, yo, k1
9-15: st st
16: p to last 3 sts, k2tog, yo, k1
17-19: st st
20: (WS) begin twisted rib
21-23: twisted rib
24: twisted rib to last 3 sts, k2tog, yo, k1
25-31: twisted rib
32: twisted rib to last 3 sts, k2tog, yo, k1
33-38: twisted rib
39: begin scoop neck decrease

Left Front (knit first 3 sts for button hole band)

1-3: knit
4-19: st st
20-38: twisted rib
39: scoop neck decrease

Back

1-3: knit
4-19: st st
20-38: twisted rib

I haven’t got buttons for it yet, but it looks nice kept open and the sleeves and armholes are quite tight, so I’m not in a massive rush.  It also knit up really quickly, I just lost steam on the last sleeve and got distracted by the iphone (it was my husband’s Valentine’s present).

For the iphone case, I used Jennifer Small’s robot chart, knit back and forth and stitched up the side and bottom.

It stretches awkwardly because I used intarsia and there’s quite a bit of a difference in the yarns I used (King Cole Zig Zag and a random Secret Santa black).  It’s still better than a rip-off, store bought iphone sock.

Keeping Warm this Winter January 17, 2010

If you’re in the Manchester area, there is a great opportunity to knit for the homeless on Sunday 24th January 2010 between 2-8pm at the Nexus Art Cafe.

The event is all about knitting scarves, hats and gloves for the homeless people who give out The Big Issue on the streets of Manchester. It doesn’t matter if you cannot Knit, just come along, show your support and we shall show you how!

The Nexus Art Cafe is in the Northern Quarter on Dale Street, just off Oldham Street; it’s a super cozy venue, especially for knitting.

Anyone that has made a New Years Resolution to get rid of some of your stash, this is a great way and reason to do so.

On a different note, I finally finished the Springtime Bandit shawl/bandit scarf!  The reason it’s taken me so long to finish is because after I added a 5th body pattern repeat, I thought I might run out of yarn.  Turns out, it was too short and I had plenty of yarn left over, so I ripped it back, but it was too much effort trying to pick up all the stitches, so I frogged it and started over.  By this time, Christmas crafts got in the way so I had to put it aside until the new year.

This is a great pattern for a first shawl and/or as an introduction to lace.  It knits up really quickly and it’s easy to remember the pattern once you get going.  I would definitely make one again in the called for worsted weight, but this is only a personal choice mainly because I got really bored with the body pattern after the 5th repeat.  The Dream in Color Stardust is so wonderful and perfect for this project, it was totally worth the boredom, frogging and extra time.  The sparkles are amazing and catch my eye when I walk past it in my flat or catch a glimpse in a mirror.  The pictures really don’t do it justice.

After spilling coffee on my Owling Fingerless Gloves at work, I’ve decided to make a work-friendly pair of fingerless gloves, Heart to Heart, out of Twileys of Stamford Freedom Gorgeous and Patons Smoothie DK.  The Freedom Gorgeous is 75% Bamboo, 25% Nylon and the Patons Smoothie is 100% Acrylic (very surprising because it’s really not horrible and cheap looking).

Despite the coffee spill, my Owlings are fine, but when I washed them, they made my bathroom and hallway smell horrible for the day and a half it took to dry out.  So, something more durable is required for everyday wear and tear, plus, they’re cute and I love hearts.

Christmas, New Years, etc. January 3, 2010

Merry Belated Christmas & New Year!  Christmas presents have been completed, which took a while since I was mailing some and decided not to bother with the post office until after Christmas.  But now that all presents have been received, here they are:

For my mom, I made Woolly Wormhead’s Mayrose hat in King Cole Mirage.  The stripes in the yarn worked out really well with the pattern and each stripe worked out almost perfectly with swirly pattern repeat.  It was hard to part with once I finished, but I have enough from the left-overs to make another for myself.*

I also made cross stitches, which seem to require a lot of explaining to everyone except the recipients.

This is a Buffy cross stitch from the episode Hush in Season 4 where Giles is telling the story of the Gentleman via drawn pictures on an overhead projector because everyone lost their voices.  Here is the original picture from the show:

The pattern came from a fellow Buffy Swap participant on Ravelry, so I can’t take credit for the awesomeness of the pattern.  The cross stitch was for my BFF and she put it on a book shelf in her living room at the cost of looking like a psycho to everyone but me.  Although, it might prove to be an excellent conversation starter.

My husband is a big Alan Partridge fan, so I attempted to recreate his face for this cross stitch – it could be worse.  Sadly, but not surprising, it would appear that Americans are not familiar with Alan Partridge, so the reaction I got from people at home could be summed up with, ‘Why is that man shouting Jurassic Park?’  Fortunately, my husband really likes it and could tell it was Alan Partridge and not just some man shouting ‘Jurassic Park.’

The Brokeback Mountain cross stitch was for my other BFF.  There are too many layers of inside jokes to explain and make sense of to someone who doesn’t know us, but I’m really pleased with the result, all inside jokes aside.

I also had time to make a hat for myself over the Holidays.  The husband and I were surprised treated to a trip to Chicago to visit some family, so I whipped up Woolly Wormhead’s Everglade hat in, big surprise, King Cole Mirage!  As the weather in Chicago is significantly colder than VA Beach in December, a warm hat was needed.

I also made my dad some Illini pajama bottoms, but forgot to take a picture of them; you would probably just be blinded by the bright orange anyway.

I don’t ever make New Year’s resolutions, but I’m going to kick off 2010 by only knitting from my stash and completing unfinished projects.  This isn’t a year-long resolution, but when the lease on our flat is up in 6 months, it would be nice if I didn’t have so much yarn to move.  Wish me luck!

*I feel like I should say that I don’t do mother-daughter outfits.  I probably wouldn’t make one for myself, except that I know we won’t accidentally wear them out together since we live on different continents.

A Handmade Christmas – Some Free Patterns December 13, 2009

As Christmas is quickly approaching, I thought I would pass along some good free pattern/project sources to make handmade gifts.  I’m a big fan of  handmade gifts because they make for a nice personal touch and can be much cheaper than store bought.  So, these are the websites I use the most when I’m looking for free patterns and gifts ideas.

Amy Butler Design has some great free sewing patterns, a lot of them are quilts, but there are also some cute cushion and wall hanging patterns.  She also has some free paper craft patterns for cards and gift tags.

Jo-Ann has a whole project section with a large variety of craft projects.  They are generally pretty simple and the quality ranges from ‘that s**t looks homesewn’ to pretty cute.

I think the point of About.com is to get money from advertising, but whenever I type in ‘free’ it’s the site that usually comes up on the first Google page.  A lot of the projects are pretty common sense and the quality is generally ‘that s**t looks homesewn’; it’s really more of a ‘How To’ than a pattern, but it’s good if you are afraid, or don’t like to create your own pattern and want something simple like a basic bag, pot holder or apron.  I’ve also gotten free cross stitch patterns and knitting patterns from About.com, so there are a lot of other free things you can find on the site.

I also use Burda Style, but last year they stopped offering free patterns and changed the format, so I don’t really like it any more.  Nevertheless, it is a good source for patterns, there are very good tutorials and you can get a lot of great ideas from other user’s projects.  There are still free patterns, but as they are submitted by the users, they aren’t always good.

If you knit but aren’t on Ravelry, Knitting Pattern Central is an excellent source for free knitting patterns.

Hopefully this helps with your gifting this holiday, especially if you’re uber cheap like me.

Sea Mammals and Turkeys December 6, 2009

I’ve opened an Etsy Shop called I Dream of Crafts!  At the moment it’s a bit sparse and it’s still a work in progress while I get the hang of it, but I will be adding new items soon and will also make custom orders, so check it out!

I have also recently discovered the awesomeness that is cross stitch, which came to through a random handmade Christmas idea I had a few weeks ago.

I HEART Pink Sea Mammals!

During my internet research I came across Subversive Cross Stitch, which has loads of free resources and tutorials and an inspiring Flickr group.  If you’re sensitive about language, it’s probably not for you; there is a lot of cursing.  I probably wouldn’t make a lot of the stuff on the website or in the book mainly because of the language, but I appreciate it.  I think you need something in-your-face to break cross stitch’s old granny hobby reputation.  I also love that the abrasive language is decorated with hearts, flowers and bunnies.

So, after finding inspiration from the Subversive Cross Stitch Flickr photos, I bought a small cross stitch pack from the craft store and was pleased to find that cross stitching is an amazingly easy hobby.  This cross stitch is far from subversive, but I LOVE sea mammals!

This is a definite belated mention, but the lovely Creating Misericordia brought paper and crayons so everyone could make hand turkeys this Thanksgiving.  A definite success.

Thanksgiving Hand Turkeys

There will be plenty more finished projects after the holidays, so stay tuned!

Why I Hate Poetry November 22, 2009

Can you spot the difference in these two pictures?

Picture A

Picture B

Admittedly, it’s hard to tell from the pictures and the colours are very similar, but it’s the letter ‘W’ in ‘Towering.’  Picture B has the letter I knit, which I saw in the reject pile at the Poetry Society’s Manchester viewing of the final knit poem.

Notice the 'W' in 'Towering' that is not sewn onto the poem

I  understand that more letters than needed were probably allocated in case people dropped out etc.   So, I would just like to start off by saying, thank you Poetry Society for wasting several hours of my life knitting that letter!

This afternoon, while my friends were pointing out their knitted letters with pride, I got to point to my letter in the reject pile and say, there’s my letter.  There was no pride in my voice, in case you’re wondering.  In fact, before I saw my letter in the reject pile, someone said, ‘The people who knit the letters over there must be gutted.’  That statement is correct.

For this letter, Poetry Society, I couldn’t even use up yarn in my stash because I didn’t have 100% double-knit for your oh-so-strict 100% wool, intarsia only knitting project.  And, Poetry Society, I’ll be damned if that bright red ‘T’ in ‘The’ is 100% wool because it looks cheap and horrible, like 100% acrylic often does.  There are also quite a few ‘N’s that were sewn on upside down and it looks ridiculous.  Not that I’m bitter or anything.

If I would have known my letter would end up in the reject pile, I would have at least asked for the letter ‘A’ so I could have taken it home with me today to dress as Hester Prynne for a costume party.  Because after today, I will always choose novels over poetry.

And that is why I now hate poetry.

Some Assembly Required: For the Love of Buffy Part II November 8, 2009

I can now post my complete Buffy swap package as the package has been delivered and received!

Fool for Buffy

The silver package with the picture of Dark Willow is a box of chocolates called Black Magic.  Then there is an official Buffy photo of Xander from the season 5 episode ‘Out of Mind.’  I acquired the Xander photo in a very Xander appropriate way as well.  When I went to Forbidden Planet, which has always sold awesome Buffy stuff until I needed it for the swap, there was an almost empty rack of official TV show photos, there were a few X Files photos going for 4.99 or something, but most of them were of Xander for the insane price of 50 pents.  Poor, unappreciated Xander.

I included King Cole ‘Mirage’ yarn as a ‘Something Blue’ and another ribbon type yarn called ‘Firefly’ (not Buffy I know, but Joss Wheadon related and Nathan Fillion was Caleb in Buffy and there was also that other guy from “Conversations with Dead People|” who was also in “The Message,” so the link is pretty strong).

There was also some Wheetabix and a Spike themed Bag – signature black and red with a yellow Blondie Bear ribbon at the top.  One of the recipient’s favorite quotes is, ‘Dozens of times, lots of different ways, every night I save you,’ so I embroidered it on the Spike bag.  Complete with a tag of Spike not saving Buffy.

 

Hey I've died twice.

The other tags are of Buffy and Spike in “Something Blue” because that is one of my swappie’s favorite episodes.  One of my favorite pictures of Spike and Giles drinking blood and tea on the Wheetabix package because I think Wheetabix is an English thing.  And on the Fresh Bite Scarflet, a tag with Angel biting Buffy.

Not pictured, but included, were Yorkie Bars, for the whole feminist factor, and because they are SOOO yummy!Also, the bag has lots of vines and stuff on it, and I was watching Season 4 while I was making and picking out stuff for the swap, and the vines reminded me of the episode “Where the Wild Things Are.”  If you’re not familiar with Buffy, that episode has nothing to do with the much-loved children’s book.  Far from it, Buffy and her stupid boyfriend Riley have sex for pretty much the whole episode in a haunted frat house and vines grow all around the door of the bed room so no one can stop them from having sex.  The stars are for the night when vampires come out and Buffy goes on patrol.

Giles, "Doing what?" Xander, "You know, for a god of acoustic rock, you're kind of naive."

I’ve just realised I must love Buffy more than Weezer (circa 1994 – 2005 only) because, correct me if I’m wrong Dorkbutt, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so attentive and creative with any of my Weezer themed crafts.  Wow!  I am a massive dork!