on the road again…
… so all I can do is knit.
I made this hat a while ago, and other than that have just been working on the endless good ole cabled scarf.
Wardrobe Refashion, take 2
I’m doing it again! and this time I’m going to make more stuff! and better stuff! I’m excited!
Misti Alpaca hat
Used less than one skein of Misti Baby Alpaca chunky yarn! I suppose this counts as my first “design” if something so simple can count as a design. I just cast on 58 (I think it was too much though, next time I’ll try 50 I think) and then did about 1.5 inches in 1×1 rib stitch, then stockinette (knit around) till it measured 6″ (again, think this was too much – 5.5″ would be better) and then started decreasing, k9, k2tog, around, then k8, k2tog, around, till it was all k2tog and then I finished it off!
Decorating the apartment – the artwork
After over a year of living here we finally thought we’d “finish” decorating the apartment. which means of course that I got sucked into numerous home decor blogs and I know think that decorating your home is like building a wardrobe – you never really finish. Well unfortunately I don’t think I have that kind of time and energy to dedicate to making my tiny tiny tiny apartment into House Beautiful, but I can take some time to find some art I like!
Through a stroke of fate I happened to find myself on the EBSQ art site where I found Cynthia Guajardo as the featured artist. I was immediately captivated by her work and ran over to her etsy shop. Her rendition of Night Terrace Cafe as a fabric postcard was gone of course, but I emailed her and she agreed to take a commission of one of my favorite artists, Paul Klee! She is creating a fabric version of Mazzaro, you can check out the progress on her blog – and here is the original painting:
I am so excited! She also agreed to make Night Terrace Cafe again, thank goodness. Now I just have to find the perfect location on our practically blank walls to hang these lovelies. I think they are going to look great matted and hung in our sky-blue living room!
Finished the hat!
So that’s one resolution (”make a non-rectangular knitted item”) down!
About the pattern, I think the 7″ to knit before starting to decrease is too long. 6″ would have been better. Also, I don’t really like the way the ribbing is not consistent with the body of the hat – I’ll have to change that next time. But overall, it was so much fun, I’ll have to make more! next time with better yarn – this is Lion Brand Wool-Ease and you get what you pay for.
A couple of tiny projects done…
a snowflake ornament, and a cozy for my digital camera. I’m planning to whip up a lot of snowflake ornaments and use them as package toppers at christmas. I have planned this at least the last couple of christmases, and this is the first snowflake I’ve made.
and now I am working on this hat. My first hat! First time knitting in the round! One of my resolutions was to complete at least one non-rectangular knitted item, here it is only January and I’m already more than half done. I hope all my resolutions go so well! (they won’t though)
let’s get it [re]started!
one of my resolutions this year was to do more crafting, especially more green crafting. and by golly it’s gonna happen!
I’m also trying to focus on having a healthy lifestyle, with the help of this site. Actually I have a gazillion resolutions, as I am a resolution person. I am even tracking my progress on all of them in an excel spreadsheet. I’m sad to say that some of them are not working out so well. (exercise? um, not yet)
In the meantime, I have indulging my craft book addiction. A new book on quilting, on working with color, on knitting, lace crochet, and probably more that I don’t even recall now. Also, we are focusing on making this place more like home, so we’ve been spending lots of $$$ on house stuff, including our first piece of artwork! Which we purchased from Etsy.
And I still haven’t finished the scarves I posted here earlier, although we did make a lot of christmas presents, none of which I was smart enough to photograph, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I’ll list them here:
Mom & her partner:
- sushi print oven mitt (because they love sushi)
Sister:
- t-shirt with a funny saying (iron on, we bought the t-shirt)
- fabric scarf
- knitting scarf (with the Misti Alpaca posted about earlier)
Aunt & Uncle:
- gardening apron
- washcloth with gardening can decoration
Grandpa:
- crocheted scarf
Partner:
- crocheted hat
Ok maybe that’s not a lot, but considering we started extremely late, it’s a lot. Really, really, I’m not waiting till the last minute this year!
Crafty book club
craft books are my absolute weakness. I am even more prone to buy craft books than I am on buying craft supplies. and you know that’s bad. So I somehow got enticed to join a craft book club. It was only $1 each for the first 4 books, and I think I only have to buy 2 more at “regular club prices” which are more expensive than Amazon, but I think I still come out ahead.
my books came yesterday! too exciting. you can’t choose from all of the books for your first four, but I got:
The Yarn Girls Guide to Beyond the Basics
and Knitting in No Time.
Knitting in no time is terrible, I wish I’d read some reviews first instead of being too lazy to hop over to amazon and read them, but I’m really happy with the other 3. I wanted to buy Vogue Sewing anyway, so I was doubly happy.
Now how long do you think it will be until I actually make something out of these books? Let’s see, I have yet to make anything from Happy Hooker, and I bought that about two months ago. Yet to make anything from Mason Dixon, purchased last month. Sew U, at the same time, read through and put on the bookshelf where it stares at me willing me to try sewing. Origami Boxes? Years ago, still haven’t made anything. (my partner made a cute box once though. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s much craftier than me)
I did find a great free pattern on the internet that I want to make though – it looks like the perfect hat, and even better, it doesn’t require crazy expensive yarn, and I even have some Wool-Ease around. here is pdf link to the pattern. she even made little checkboxes on the pattern so you can easily count your rows!
maybe a hat I could actually finish in a reasonable time; I feel like these scarves will never be done! I can’t believe it’s November and I have yet to finish a single present! aaaargh!
