Friday, March 16, 2012

Photo Crazy

Last night I finished another prayer shawl.  This was a very quick project.  Crocheted Bowtie Pi shawl, a free Ravelry pattern.  I used up 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon sock yarn that was  most recently going to be a skirt, and I have long since forgotten what its original purpose was.  Since I had 3 skeins I don't think it was for socks.  Socks of a short length in Kureyon are yucky enough, I cannot imagine thigh highs made out of the rough stuff.  It did work up into a nice shawl though, and I am fairly pleased with the results of this pattern.





Last night  I met my friend Amanda to exchange our pincushion swap packages.  I've been dying to share the goodies I made for her, but since she peeks into my blog sometimes, I didn't dare!

I've been obsessed with sewing items lately, so the first thing I decided to make for her was a needle book.  All felt with buttonhole stitching around the edges.  Not much could be simpler, and it turned out really cute with the felt flower on the cover.


Next up was a tea wallet made with a pattern found at Wee Folk Art.  Can't wait to make one of these for myself now.  I think I'll applique little teacups on the cover of mine.  Really fun to make and only took an afternoon to make.


This size is perfect to hold 4-8 tea bags.


In keeping with the tea theme, I knitted her a mug cozy and wrapped it around a big yellow mug.  The flowers were fun to make out of buttons from my collection.


Also added a cute quilted potholder made with coordinating owl and feather fabrics.  I have enough of each left to make a matching one for myself.


And lastly, the pincushion.  I saw the cute leaf pins at JoAnn Fabrics and the topiary idea came to me.  The felt flowers in the pot are also pins.  I'm really proud of this, even if my daughter did come home from work and say "What the bleep is that?".  Obviously she is not a seamstress and has no clue what a pincushion should look like lol.



 And now the lovely things I received from Amanda.

She crocheted me 4 washcloths.  I love handmade washcloths!



She also crocheted me a teapot cozy and bought me this cute little teapot.  The coasters are also crocheted. Can you tell we both had tea on the brain during this swap?





The yummiest lavendar soap is encased in the pretty lacy knit soap sack, and there was a cute notepad in my package as well.


And the pincushion!  A great glass jar filled with colorful buttons.


The top is a cross stitched heart that I'm afraid I'll mess up if I poke pins in it lol.


These adorable handmade wooden pins were also included and I love them.  I'm going to have to check out the store she said she got these from to see what other offerings they have.


The swap was a great success and now I can't wait for the next one to start.  Lots of ideas running around in my head for goodies.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Blank Canvas

Have you ever started a project when you didn't have just the right materials?  What you use isn't really bad, and it will do, but it wasn't what you had in mind when you pictured the project in your mind's eye?  That's what I did with the Nook cover cover.  The type of fabric I wanted to use was available in 14 count, but that would make the cover too big.  When I was shopping for the supplies, I could only find 18 count fabric in an antique ivory solid color.  What I really wanted was fiddler's cloth.  But, I wanted to start the project so badly, I settled for something I could find at the time.  Well, yesterday I had to go shopping for supplies for a different project at a different store and lo and behold they had what I was looking for.  So, last night I was again faced with a blank canvas and I restarted the Nook cover cover.  Looks sad compared to the last photo doesn't it?  Oh well, it is a fairly simple pattern and shouldn't take too long to get back to the point it was at before.



I mentioned buying materials for a new project, and in my last post I said I would make sure that the next project I started was #15 on my Ravelry project page.  I haven't cheated.  I finished up 2 small projects last night that were fairly far along in their completion.

First up is this cute little guy.  I've had him in my queue forever it seems, and I ran across appropriate yarn to make him in when digging around in the yarn room last week.  He was a really quick project and I love him! Now I need to spend some time up in my sewing room so he has a nice place to live.


I also finished up some Leafy washcloths last night.  I had the multi and blue ones done earlier in the week, but needed to spend a bit of time finishing up the tan one.


These will be stacked like so in a soap dish in my bathroom to show off the handmade lovely smelling soaps I like.



I also mentioned that I had "given up" on some projects.  One of those was the sock yarn blankie I had started about a year ago.  I haven't taken it apart yet, but it's in a closet out of the way.  One of these days, I might decide that I like that project again and really want the finished product.  In the meantime, I have succumbed to the siren's call of the Beekeepers Quilt.  This blankie is much more portable than the other and is the perfect project to take when I meet up with Amanda for our knitting dates.


Another project I've recently started (albeit not a knit/crochet, or embroidery project) is an herb garden.  Lookie at the lovely sprouts I have!  This first attempt has Rosemary, Sage, and Garlic Chives.  I've always wanted a window herb garden, so hopefully these grow and I'm able to use them.


This afternoon, I worked on another project idea found on Pinterest.  This is a painted cookie sheet covered  with pretty scrapbook papers.  The whole thing is Mod Podged and, when dry, will get a ribbon hanger and will be a magnet board to hang on the wall in my sewing room.


The pretty heart and magnets were received from an anonymous mail fairy in the Valentine swap in the Handmade Pincushion Group on Ravelry.



Friday, March 9, 2012

Losing Track

I am not doing such a good job of keeping track of projects started and finished.  Well, I know what I've finished and what I've started, but I don't think I'm sticking to that "finish 2 before starting 1" resolution I made.  Whenever this kind of thing happens, I get frustrated with all the things I have started already, decide I'm completely bored with them, and start a whole slew of new things.  This time isn't any different than all those other times.  I think I've started 4 new projects this week alone!  They are fairly simple and small projects, which is a blessing, but they are projects nonetheless. *sigh*

I did finish one of them, so that's good huh?  I've had this little guy in my Ravelry queue for some time and I decided it was time I crocheted him.  I love the hair!  He sits on my desk at work between the red high heel shoe tape dispenser and the shipping crate post-it note thingy.


I finished up my biscornu pincushion last weekend.  I love this and am planning to make a lot more.  Tiny ones to use as scissor fobs, small ones as ornaments for the Christmas tree, medium sized ones for pincushions, and large ones as pillows!  I had never heard of these before, and you can't tell on my photos of this one because of the lacy edging, but the construction is really nifty.  They are not little square pillows.  They have 8 sides, created by sewing them together with the corner of the bottom square lined up with the middle of a straight edge of the top square.  This may sound confusing, but trust me it's cool.  Look it up on Google.


When I had to cut the top out and had those scissors so close to the stitching, I felt like I did when I cut my first steeks.  Scary!


Another new project, started this evening in fact, is another prayer shawl.  This one is crocheted, and I'm using up some Noro Kureyon sock yarn that was repurposed from a project I decided to let go of.  Because, let's face it folks.  At some point, you get to an age that you decide striped sock yarn is not going to look good on your butt no matter what skirt pattern you decide to knit lol.  Since I got rid of a project to start this one, does it count as a new project?  Hmmmmmmmm.


I really enjoyed the cross-stitch and embroidery I've been doing lately, so decided to start a new project once the biscornu was complete.  Hopefully I can keep this under control and not start a gazillion embroidered projects like I do knit/crochet.

This is going to be a cover to cover my ugly Nook cover.  Haven't decided exactly how I'm going to manage to make this cover my existing cover and still get the Nook in there, but I have plenty of time to get it all figured out.


Ok, I've just checked the Ravelry projects page, and I currently have 16 projects in progress.  Rather than try to remember what I've finished and whether I'm allowed to start something new, I'll just make sure that the next thing I start does not make my count go above 15.  Let's see if that works!