If I Had A Little Girl...

I would have bunting everywhere in all of her favorite colors.

These will be going into a care package for a very special little girl. Congratulations to blog mom, Nae!

UFOs

Sometimes the best thing I can do to make myself feel better is pull out some UFOs and get some things done!  Today's project of choice is baby bibs. I have had these sitting around for months just waiting for velcro. 

But since I took so long to get my machine in for service, these have languished. About an hour of YouTube while crafting and...

19 bibs are now in my finished pile and in need of a home. If any of you are pregnant or would like a gift for a friend, let me know. I'll be happy to share some. No charge because I love babies. US only please.

My Old Friend

I have been quite lazy in my crafting life lately.  The biggest contributor to this was my Bernina being out of commission.  It needed a service and I had not yet visited the local Bernina shop. Depending on the shop and what they do in-house, it can sometimes take a week or more to get the machine back so I just didn't rush it.  Silly me.

But I finally got off my back side and got it done. Since my divorce (more about that later), I've been on a mission to recover lost time with the past-times I loved the most. I'm not quite ready to kick back into full gear with my knitting yet, so sewing was the best candidate. And I had projects sitting around waiting to be finished. I am happy to say service at Windmill was quick (~4 days). Bernina and I are back to together again and there is no love lost in this relationship.

In my pile of unfinished projects was a printed stack of paper piecing blocks from Whitney Sews. With my bag of scraps beside me, I knocked out enough to put together this small piece.

Here is a close-up shot of the block detail. 

Because of the size, I thought this would be perfect as a baby blanket. I backed it with some white flannel and stitched in a brown ribbon to use as a tie.

I think this is a great option for a changing pad. Soft, cushy, handmade, unique and just all around perfect! I can't wait to find a baby to gift this to.

Happy Mother's Day

In honor of all the mommies out there and soon to be mommies in my life, I am doing a little sewing today.

Bibs, bunting and a little paper piece quilting.  All the patterns I'm using are free from Whitney over at whitneysews.com.  I've been following her for a while on her YouTube channel. I'll give you a bit of an update when these projects look a bit more finished.

I hope you all enjoy this day, whether you are a mommy, planning to be a mommy or content without.  We all deserve to enjoy these lovely Sundays.

Back to the Knitting

I’m spending some time this weekend getting back to the things I love, knitting being the most accessible. I’ve been working on this baby blanket for awhile, but now that I have a friend that is about to pop one out, I’m prompted to get it done quickly.

I think this will be perfect for lounging around on the floor for the little one. Especially nice with the fall breezes coming through the open windows.
I’ve been looking at the blogs and checking out everyone’s projects on Ravelry and the pictures uploaded to Flickr and I am inspired by all the crafting that I am seeing. What crafts are you inspired to get back to this fall?

Reverse Applique

Reverse Applique
Originally uploaded by aldorris105

I'm trying a little reverse applique inspired by the book Alabama Stitch Book. Let's see how this turn out. The fabric underneath is a pink stripe. The purple paint will go away for the most part.

I've been doing a little bit of Christmas knitting for someone else but I am not motivated to get it finished right now. I'll really concentrate on it this weekend. For now, I am trying to make this little onesie into something cute for a special little newborn girl.

Baby Joy

I have two babies to knit for in my time off work (not including the nephew). These are two little girls that I am so happy to have around to knit for. One is here already and was a preemie so I was not able to get any projects done before she showed up. The other is yet to be born. She is due in December. Today, I found the perfect little knit for both of them and I have just enough yarn to do two. The first was completed in a few hours. I’ll start the next one in a few days.





I have to take a moment to reach out to all of you knitters out there and beg you not to model your baby wares on your pets. Every time I see a cute little baby sweater modeled by a dog, I start to itch. Be mindful of the allergens, please and keep the baby knitwear off the pets! It’s not cute people. I’m itching just thinking about it. I urge you to find other models as I have done. That is my public service announcement for the week. I promise not to do it again.

Knitting and Books

I did a lot of knitting this weekend while listening to an audiobook.  The book was The Mistress' Daughter. I first heard about this book some time ago and was really interested in the story. It is a memoir of the author's life and deal with finding out that her birth mother was the mistress of a married man.  The book starts off very good but just past the middle of the book she starts repeating things as it's five to seven years later and her character is flashing back to things that happened in the beginning of the book. If I were reading the book rather than listening to it, I may not have been so annoyed with it but when you are dealing with audio you tend to remember more and not need to be reminded of the past that just happened two hours ago.  Part of the book discusses people she found during the search of her genealogy. It got really bad as she was discussing dead people that really didn't add any interest or purpose to the story.  And some of these dead people weren't even related to her.  She just wanted someone to remember them so she threw them in.  Towards the end of the book, she lists a bunch of questions that she would ask her father if she had him sitting down for a deposition.  Those questions went on for more than half an hour.  Just question after question.  No conversation.  Just questions.  I fast forwarded through this as once again as this added nothing to the story and repeated things in question form that had happened in the book.  Sadly, I would not recommend this book to anyone.  If you read it, the first and last bits are lovely.  The bit in the middle, not so much.  I considered reading more books from the author (A. M. Homes) when I was enjoying the book but I'll have to really think about that considering the outcome.

Okay, on to the knitting.  

Using some leftover wool yarn, I made the coaster that I need for my bedside table.  I had a little bit of three colors left so I striped them.  I very happy with how it turned out.  Now I can set a glass of ice by the bed at night and not have to worry about a puddle forming during the night.  And since I still have some of the purple yarn left (this stuff refuses to die!), I will probably do a smaller one for my desk.

I managed to finish another one of the burp cloths for my friend Ching Sia.  I still need to get the applique sewn on.  So this makes six of the seven.  I will cast the last on some time this week and hopefully be ready to mail this weekend.  It took over a month to finish this one.  Let this be a sign to all of you.  If you think it's a good idea to knit a whole week of something, it's not. You will get bored long before you finish.

The procrastination scarf is finished.  I decided not to do a super long scarf because I think this is the perfect scarf for wearing with a blazer.  I'm not entirely happy with this as that means I'm left with one ball of the gray Geode and quite a bit left of the red Cascade 220 which may become another coaster.  For close up pictures of the scarf, check out my Ravely project page or my Flickr pictures.

I saw some really miserable looking people out Christmas shopping in Kohls this weekend.  The holiday season has barely started and already the unhappiness is surfacing.  I'm wishing all of you a very happy holiday season.  I don't want to see you looking unhappy walking through the mall spending way too much money for a bunch of people that may not appreciate it anyway.  Just my thought.  Be blessed.

Thanksgiving 2008

Hello all.  I know it's been quite some time (a month!) since I've blogged.  November was a very busy month.  I was on business travel in the Pittsburgh area for the first half of the month and I attended Stitches East in Baltimore and I participated in Nanowrimo and I hosted the family at my home for Thanksgiving.  That was a lot people!

Stitches East was fabulous but I didn't take any pictures so I can't show you any of the greatness.  I took two classes--one on I-cord edging and one on color/texture combining of yarns.  I enjoyed them a lot.  I went with my friend Mandy and we have already reserved our hotel room for Stitches South 2009 in Atlanta.  And because I have so many points from all the business travel I've been doing, I was able to get our room free so we have more budget for classes and yarn, although I'm looking to spend on the classes.  I bought way too much yarn during Stitches, but most of it was spent at 2 of the local shops rather than at Stitches itself.  But there was one vendor at Stitches that had a $15 bag special.  You are given a paper bag of good size--it was by no means a small bag.  You could fill the bag up with as much yarn as you wanted and it was only $15.  I got so much yarn in that bag!  And nothing was single skeins.  I was on a mission to get 2+ skeins of anything I purchased and for the most part I stuck with that.  I did buy single skeins of two colors of Valley Yarns Northhampton from Webs but that was just because there is so much yardage in a ball.

A lot of the knitting I've been doing during November was swatches of stuff I learned during Stitches but I did manage to get some felted boxes done.  They are more bowl shaped because I left them in the washer for a full cycle and just threw them in the dryer to dry.  I didn't bother trying to shape them.  And actually I like them better this way.  The fabric is much more stiff than if I had shaped it like I did a box I made some time back.

I did a three box/bowl set and will take two to work to contain all my paper and binder clips. The goal was to get rid of the 100% felting wool in my stash.  For the most part I achieved that.  I still have a little bit left from which I'll probably knit and felt a coaster for my bed side table.  I hate putting a glass of ice next to my bed at night and waking up to a puddle of water under the glass.

Before the family arrived, I spent some time knitting up some chenille hand towels.  Mandy had given me four skeins of Lion Brand Chenille and having no idea what to do with it, I went on a search in Ravelry and found a pattern for washcloths that I

thought would work well since I had two contrasting colors.  I've done three of them so far and I'm working on the fourth but I still have enough yarn left over to do at least 1 to 2 more.  

Upon seeing the felted boxes/bowls, hand towels and all the burp and wash cloths I knitted up for my friend Ching Sia's baby, my mother decided she wanted to re-learn to knit.  Now she is the one that taught me to knit so it was a bit of an adjustment to teach the teacher.  I gave her a set of needles and some cotton and walked her through the pattern and she picked it up rather quickly, finishing two wash cloths before leaving.  I'm so proud as I've been pushing her to pick back up a hobby in her old age (okay she's not that old but I want her to have something better to do in her free time than shopping).  She's off to a running start.  

I sent her home with another skein of cotton and some 100% Vintage Fisherman's wool all of which I got at Stitches East.  She is going to do more wash cloths and also the Felted Boxes from the first Mason Dixon book.  She wrote the pattern down but I went and bought her a copy of it at the fabulous Thanksgiving sale at Krazy Knitz in Dalton, GA.  I just need to get the book in the mail to her.  Okay more to come later.  This post is already long enough.

Crafting Overload

I have been doing a lot of knitting and sewing the past few weeks. My friends Ching Sia and Andrew are having a little boy. His name will be Alexander Grahm and I'm so excited and hope I get to see him at some point during his first year. They live in Malaysia so it will be a push. But to welcome little Alex, I have been knitting and sewing and embroidering and this is what I have for him so far.

Burp Cloths hand knitted with a iron on decal which I attached by sewing. Made with Sugar N Cream cotton. I am doing a full week of these. I have five done, two to go.





Wash cloths made out of the left over cotton from the burp cloths. All seven are done.







Hats! The weather in Malaysia is mostly tropical but babies still need hats for the cooler indoor climate. These are also made in cotton.



These burp cloths were sewn with a cotton collegiate fabric (Ole Miss) on one side and terry cloth on the other. The shape lends itself well to being draped over the shoulder. Both mom and dad of the new baby were my classmates at Ole Miss.



This fleece blanket and pillow combo are also made from Ole Miss collegiate series fabric. The back is solid red.







I am still working on these. I bought two sizes of onesies and will be embroidering them with different pictures and sayings just for baby Alex. I'm really excited about these so you'll be seeing more on these in the weeks to come.




My goal is to finish all of these projects up in the next couple of weeks so I can box them up and ship them off to Malaysia. I've sent letters and postcards over there, but I'm not sure how long it will take a box to get to them. Alex is due in January.

Knitting the Blues Away

First of all, thank you to all of you that have sent encouraging words regarding the job. I am still employed with my company but I'm trying to find a new job with the quickness. I'll be submitting on-line applications tonight for at least four jobs I've seen so far. My goal is to actively look in town before branching out to jobs that may require me to move.

So, to keep the stress down (as usual), I have been knitting. The local LYS had a 75% off sale on the clearance bins so I went and bought some yarn for a baby blanket and some yarn that looks like it might make a nice tank.

I cast on for the baby blanket immediately and finished it up in no time. I used a simple diagonal patten and I think it turned out quite lovely. It's 100% acrylic so it can be abused and washed but still feel quite lovely. Can you believe it on cost $9.06 pre-tax. Regular price would have been $36.25 pre-tax.

I also finished a really long scarf that I've been working on. It's the My So Called Scarf pattern that I found though Ravelry and it knits up quickly but make a mistake and you will pay dearly. I've still got to weave in the ends. I think I'm also going to line the back of it because this thing rolls like crazy. It is beautiful though and the yarn makes it extra special.But the biggest and best achievement of all is my sock!! This is my first adult sock. I did a pair for my nephew when he was a few months old but they were different sizes and not so good. So I wasn't too enthused going into the adult socks, but finally I GOT IT! I knit this toe up using the magic cast on and magic loop knitting. It took about a week of working off and on and that's mainly because I did make a few mistakes and need to tink a bit. But now that I've got it, the next one should go super fast. I'm going to cast on for it tomorrow. It's 100% Merino wool and it feels fantastic! I can't believe how warm they feel compared to the regular store bought socks that I have. Oh the joy of hand knit socks!