Craft Potpourri

I've been working on a potpourri of crafts lately and it has made me very happy to be crafting again. I've made two log cabin quilt squares for and am currently knitting a 12" log cabin square for sewhooked's block drive:

Log Cabins for Linus and Go Get Granny Charity Block Drive

I refashioned a freebie backpack by adding a zipper pocket to cover the company logo, and now that I have one of those under my belt, I'm going to do another one for Miss P to her specs. It's just the right size to take her lunch and camera and school supplies on her way-too-numerable field trips.I'll post pics after I finish Miss Ps's bag.

I also have decided to join in the the Twlight Crafts Mystery Quilt-along. *points to icon/link in upper right corner of blog* It's a block of the month quilt-a-long, and there'll be a begginers' block and an advanced block pattern each month. I will DEFINITELY be doing the beginners' block, lol. I've already got my first pattern printed and ready to go, and have made a little list of fat quarters to buy. I know, I'm supposed to be crafting from stash only until I've whittled the fabric and yarn stashes down by a few bins, but I don't have any that look right in my stash, and I need a zipper for Miss P's bag anyway, sooooooo, I'll be hitting Joann's Fabrics tomorrow afternoon before the "Big Game". I have been wanting to do more paper piecing, and a "block of the month" group will be just right, since I only "have" to complete one block a month. Even with my busy schedule I think I can handle that.

Also I'm going to check Ravelry for a BOM for knitting. I'd like to do crochet too, but I have yet to be able to do a simple granny square, so I think I'll save that for next year. It's only Feb so I'm only one block behind... I think I can get caught up by the end of Q1, and it'll make me try new patterns without the stress of it being a gift for someone.  I've decided this year is the time to develop my current crafting skills further, to really stretch my abilities a bit and try new patterns/techniques. I tend to stay in my comfort zone and I want to change that, challenge myself a bit.

I'm also working on a super sekkrit project and am trying some things out to get it the way I want before tackling it in the materials I'll use for the actual gift.

Hmmm, that's it for now I guess. I'm getting a bit peckish for a wee snackie, then it's back to the craft room for more experiments and fun. *waves*

Wow, long time, eh?

Kinda looks like I forgot about this blog. I didn't really forget, but throughout December and the first part of January I was working on holiday crafts/gifts that I couldn't post about without giving away the farm, so to speak. I'm having trouble keeping up with my Livejournal flist and posting there, let alone anywhere else. I barely ever update my status on facebook, too. So, I'm rethinking this blog. maybe I need to go back to just posting my crafts on LJ with public posts there, I just don't know.

Have I been crafting? Yup, here and there. I made socks for a xmas gift. I stencilled a design on a couple of tshirts for my daughter. I knit a hat for my husband. I've crocheted a 3"x33" strip (and knit one too - my first cable!) to send to an online friend who's going to crochet all the strips together into a baby blanket for charity. I have been sorting and organizing in my craft room, in an attempt to get ALL of my crafting supplies, including yarn, into that room. I have also set a goal to master using my serger this year, so I have been experimenting with that and learning how to do different things.

Today on my lunch break I went home and started piecing my very first log cabin quilt square to send to my friend Jen (blog.sewhooked.org) for her "block drive" for Linus Connection. I looke up instructions online, and decided to wing it. So far I have a 7.5"x7.5" block, so I just need 4 more rectangles to get a 12.5" square to pop in the mail.  I'll take a pic before mailing it off.

So I'm here, I'm still slowly but surely making stuff, I've just been kinda quiet.

Purr of Approval

The Chunky Log Cabin is done! And Pouncy has already given it her purr of approval... standing in the middle and kneading it with her paws (and claws) *gasp!* Actually she kept lying on it while I was knitting it. She looooooves the chunky yarn. The bed it's lying on is a queen size, so that should give you an idea of the finished size, though I haven't measured it. Started and finished in 15 days.... not bad! Thank you chunky yarn and giant needles.

New Wool Boogaloo and other things, too

So I finally finished my sweater on Tuesday, November 10.
I think it turned out great. Unfortunately, I've put on a little weight since the last time I'd tried it on, and it fits considerably snugger than it did the previous times I tried it on, but I'm still really pleased with it and I wore it to work the next day anyway. The top-down instructions I took from: http://glampyreknits.tripod.com/glampyrephotos/id44.html were really easy to follow... I didn't want to steek and make a cardigan, and I opted to start my ribbing just below the bust for maximum waist shaping, but there are many ways to knit this differently, so I'll definitely be using these instructions again... If I had worked on it every day I could have finished it in under 2 weeks, so it's a fairly quick knit, really, unless you have KADD (knitters' attention deficit disorder) like I do.

And now for something completely different... at the same parking lot sale where I bought the New Wool I used in this sweater (back in May), I bought a bunch of navy blue acrylic bulky yarn thinking I could use it as the base yarn in a boy baby blanket or something...I've tried knitting with it but I hated it on the needles recommended by the ball band. Well I decided to see just how quickly I could knit a log cabin using size 15 needles and bulky yarn.

The center bit is Lion WoolEase Thick and Quick in Cranberry, the next is the horrid navy yarn, the next is WET&Q in Butterscotch. Hopefully I can find enough contrasting bulky weight yarn around the house to break up the navy a bit, but I am going to alternate the navy in between any other colors I use, just to use up as much of this horrible yarn as possible. I cast on last night during Survivor and knit the center block as well as half the navy block. I knit the remainder of the Navy and all the butternscotch this evening... it's coming along pretty fast, maybe I can finish this weekend? *crosses fingers*

Finally, this past weekend I went to the fall parking lot sale for Fiesta/Ironstone Yarns. I didn't fill my hatchback like I did back in May, but I did find some fun stuff to play with for just a buck a skein, as well as some luxury yarns for  $4 per skein. So here's some gratuitous yarn sale pron...

as well as my sister and fellow-knitter Jan doing some major stash-building with me...

My So-called Crafty Life

Almost no knitting done this week on my sweater or anything else. I've had quite a bit of inflammation/pain in my left elbow (arthritis), and knitting aggravates it. Crochet doesn't seem to bother it, though, so I've been working on that a bit. I have so far learned single crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. I had a spot of trouble with the treble crochet, but FINALLY got it learned last night. *yays!*

Before starting the double and treble lessons I started a throw using single crochet, but after about 4 rows I was so bored I ripped the whole thing out. So in addition to learning three crochet stitches, I have also learned that I absolutely cannot do a throw out of all single crochet, unless it has more complication to it with shaping or something. It's kind of odd really, because I don't seem to bothered as much by plain knitting. Weird, huh? Once I get through the rest ofthe CD rom I may tackle a pattern. Hopeully my elbow will feel better soon, though, because I REALLY want to finish my sweater!

Not quite finished yet

Didn't get as much work done on Sweater #2 this weekend... I tried it on again and need to knit a bit more ribbing before casting off and starting the sleeves... I really loooooove how it is turning out, though. I know I've mentioned it, but I really do love it. I'm going to be so proud to wear this sweater, it's really turning out lovely.

On an additional crafty note, I picked up the Coats and Clark CD Rom "Crochet Made Easy"

this week at Joann's with my 50% off coupon. And it really IS made easy. I've tried from online tutorials and from books but nothing has clicked, I always did something wrong when attempting the second row of single crochet. Not this time. By jove I think I've got it! The Coats and Clark "Knitting Made Easy" CD Rom is how I learned to knit more than 6 years ago... it shows the camera angle directly down on the hands of the person demonstrating, so it's like looking down on your own hands. It just seems to be the way my brain needs to see it in order to understand, I guess. Anyway, I've got the single crochet down, so maybe later this week I'll delve into the next section of the cd... In a couple of hours I managed to crank out a rectangle of 6" x 10" using up the entire remnant of "I love this yarn"  and size K bamboo hook I was using for practice...

Sweater #2 "New Wool Boogaloo" coming soon to a body known by you!

I predict that Sweater #2 will be finished by the end of this weekend... I transferred it onto contrasting yarn from the needle last night and tried it on, I still have another couple inches of ribbing on the waist, then just the sleeves and I'm done!  This has been a great pattern to use, and I will DEFINITELY use it again. Stephanie Japel I have just one thing to say to you..... mwah! While trying it on last night I decided I'm just going to knit a few inches on the sleeves and then about an inch or so of ribbing and be done with it. The sweater is quite warm and I prefer to wear wool over a cotton shirt, so I'm think long sleeves might not be the way to go. Oh, and I am still only on the second skein of yarn! Wow.

On a more frightening note... remember the parking lot sale in May when I bought all this lovely New Wool yarn? Um, yeah.... they are having another one the first weekend in November... I mean, I have to go... they might have stuff they didn't have last time... or cheaper than last time... But this time I am bringing less cash and NO credit card.

Ahem.