improvising...

Because we live in such a small place, I don't really have the space available to really spread out and access my crafty supplies and materials the way I'd like to. I also have a long list of dream items that I'd like to add to my collection, but where would I put a serger sewing machine, a swift, or a ball winder? I already have little and big stacks of gear all over the living room of our place, not to mention two sewing machines.

I recently bought some yarn to start a new project. I choose 3 hanks Cascade 220, which come like this:

I needed to wind them up into balls to be able to use them, but I can't hold the yarn and wind the yarn all by myself without a swift and/or a ball winder.  I looked around the apartment and decided to try my sewing machine cover as a make shift swift. The hanks fit perfectly around the cover and I just stood over it and wound up the balls of yarn as I went. 

It worked perfectly, but that doesn't mean that I don't still NEED a swift and ball winder. And here's a quick snap shot of the beginnings of my project using this yarn:

little cloth bags...

I have been a member of a craft group in my neighborhood for a few months now. I found these gals on Meetup and have had a great time meeting with them for knitting and sewing nights.  When I first started going to the She's Crafty Knit Nights, I would pull my work out of its handy clear plastic zipper bag, while some of my knitting pals would pull out some beautifully hand made fabric project bags. I was immediately jealous, and a bit intimidated. Not by their knitting skills (I was in awe of that), and not because they had the bags, but I did want to make one or two for myself and I had never sewn a zipper in my life...was I up to the challenge? I really felt that zipper sewing was "the next level" of sewing. I also was pretty much unaware of the existence of interfacing. What was I getting myself into?

I did a search for pattens for box bags and settled on a great tutorial for a project. I picked up a couple of fat quarters and a zipper and I got busy. Then I went out and bought some more zippers and more fat quarters and some interfacing...I'm nearly an expert now! These make great gifts for the other crafters in my life!

a couple of boxy bags and a pyramid and large folder

I've been spending much more time reading about crafts lately, too. I really enjoy seeing what others are up to!

Some dear friends of mine in Seattle spend time together for crafting pretty regularly (why do I have to live so far from them?). Anyway, they blog about it, here.  In a recent blog post, Sadie wrote about Click it Bags. I've been wanting to learn how to make one, since seeing my sister use the one that I got her at the Fremont Sunday Market when we were all at my dad's house recently. After exchanging a few Facebook comments with Sadie, I got myself hooked up with the pattern and the secret ingredient to these click it bags- the "click-it! closure"  The real deal can be found on Etsy doing a quick search for "flex frames," but the Seattle Crafty Girls Gone Mild are a recycly bunch, so they use portions of  measuring tapes to get the proper "click" in the bags. I whipped a couple of these up the other night, and I'm loving them! I think a few of my friends can expect one or two of these to come their way!

scrappy click it bags

where have I been...

too busy crafting to blog...

I wish I had a good excuse for where I've been...but I don't. I just haven't been writing much. I've been crafting up a storm lately and just haven't taken the time to post. I've been reading a ton of craft blogs and trying out some new ideas...but I haven't written about any of them either. I've been checking many knitting and sewing books out of the library and working on projects from them, but like I said...lots of craftiness, zero blogging.  I'm sorry, I've been bad. (there, that's done with)

I will tell you about some of my recent finished projects, by way of apology for my long absence!

I've been using my old hand me down sewing machine a lot lately and have made some flannel pajama pants, just in time for the 80 degree weather. I've also made a couple of faux pillow case dresses, which are much more seasonable.  The pattern can be found in the book, Small Stash Sewing, which I checked out of the library. The book has some very cute ideas and since its intended for use with fat quarters, you don't need too much laying around your fabric stash to make the projects. Grace's dress is made with left over table toppers from my Vermont Wedding.  It turns out I don't actually need 6 table topper squares of purple paisley in my real married life.

my first faux pillow case dress

Grace's new dress

I've finished one of my mega projects, a baby blanket inspired by the Hudson Bay Blankets from long ago. I used a pattern found here for the inspiration and I almost followed the whole pattern too. I didn't use the suggested yarn, instead opting for an acrylic that would be soft against baby's skin (it was a lot cheaper too). Because I used a different yarn, my gauge was way off, but I thought it didn't really matter since I was only knitting a rectangle.  I knew ahead of time that I would get a larger than crib-width blanket. I thought that would make it extra snuggly for a bigger kid too, however the blanket seemed to take forever to knit. I happen to have a short attention span for knitting and start cruising Ravelry for my next project when I reach the half way point of any project I'm working on.  I love getting onto that next project...but I stuck with this blanket, determined to finish it before baby's June arrival, and keeping in mind that I had 6 other newborn's to craft for before their May, June and July births. Its in the mail now!

Hudson Bay Inspired Blanket for baby Belgrade

...with a matching baby hat!

I've also been working on some knitting project bags. Photos of those o

cozy coffee & tea...

I love my days off. I have three of them in a row each week. Friday is my Saturday... It's a day I can get chores done, appointments done, and I can usually set aside some time to relax with my knitting or crocheting.  On this "Friday acting like a Saturday" I decided to take a break from my holiday knitting and my long term epic projects. I wanted to make something today that I could start, finish and use all in the same day.  And I found the perfect project when Asa made a pot of delicious hot Thai Tea and commented on how fast he needed to drink it in order to enjoy it hot.  We needed a Plunger Pot Cozy and we needed it FAST!

cozy Thai tea

I looked online and was able to find several free patterns for a plunger pot cozy. After checking out several, I found one that I could modify to accommodate the supplies I had on hand.  I changed the number of stitches in the existing pattern because I decided to knit mine with two strands of yarn to make it thicker, hoping it will keep our tea and coffee warmer, longer.  Because I used two strands of yarn, I also used much bigger needles for the project, meaning I had to reduce the number of stitches. I kept the basic idea of three buttons to secure the cozy in place on the pot.

buttons hold this cozy on the pot

a chain reaction...

I got this skein of yarn for free at J.P. Knit & Stitch when they were having their Go Green! Weekend. It was a 'free with purchase' sort of deal where I got to select one skein of yarn out of a huge bag of beautiful bright yarns.  I picked this purple flecked yarn thinking it would make a beautiful hat, even if it was just a boring stockinette stitch job.  But then I taught myself how to cable and thought this yarn was up to the task of holding up lots of cables. 

If you'd like to give this hat a go, here's the pattern!

This cozy little head warmer is for Barb, the neighbor and dog walker at Grace's house.  She's so sweet...I wanted to make her something handmade for her birthday and to thank her for being the only adult I talk to sometimes during my 10.5 hour shift.

one skein wonder...

Not too long ago I was invited to try out Crafsty's new workshop feature for free. This was Craftsy's version of a knit along, with the project directions provided along with great photos and a message board feature. Normally one would have to pay for a workshop, but since Craftsy offered it for free this one time, I decided to try it out.  This particular workshop was for a knit shrug that promises to use only one skein of yarn, so I knew it wasn't going to be much of an investment of my time or money. Its tiny, but cute and it was very easy to make. It only involved knitting, purling, and increasing.

Here are a couple of photos of the shrug, but none of me wearing it...the cuffs are too tight for my big ole arms!  I did change the pattern slightly in that I used a contrasting yarn for the ribbing at the cuffs and neck and back.  It was a quick project and it the directions were very easy to follow. I plan to make another one soon, but will use a bigger needle on the arm cuffs so they will fit better (the pattern called for changing needle sizes but I'll just use the same one as for the body).

For now, I'm taking names of thin armed friends who might like to try this on for size!

cable ready...

This weekend I was trying to use some beautiful merino wool that I got on sale to make the Peace Street Hat from the Interweave Knits Holiday Magazine.  This beautiful hat made the cover of the issue!

I am terrible at following grid patterns...I can follow written directions pretty well, but once they are put into a grid, I loose it completely. I can never remember what the symbols mean from one row to the next. This means that I have to do a ton of double checking which takes forever.  I can never tell if I'm supposed to reverse the grid for wrong side or not... It does not make for relaxing knitting!

So, I scrapped my messy and mistake riddled band portion of the hat and decided to try to teach myself how to create a cable stitch band instead.  I could still use the buttons, but I would use a much simpler pattern that still had some eye catching texture.  After the band was complete I was able to pick up stitches along the edge and knit the top of the hat just like the pattern for the Peace Street Hat.

The hat came out beautiful! I am tempted to keep it for myself and find a cable knit mitten pattern to make some matching mittens to go with!