May Projects

Well, here it is, the middle of June, and I bet you thought I forgot this post, didn't you?

Nope, just had more pressing things to share with you, but here it is, the May Projects post!

First up, the counted cross stitch picture that I made for Don:

This was supposed to be for our anniversary, which was on Easter Sunday.  For obvious reasons, I didn't finish on time, but this was the first project I worked on post Easter dresses.  I haven't ironed or framed it yet, however.

After spending 3 months on Easter dresses, the month of May was all about instant gratification type projects.  Here is a picture of almost everything finished:

See?  All things finished in a few days or less.  You remember that I've said I don't crochet, right?  Well, apparently, now I can crochet, at least a little bit.  It's still not my favorite, but I'm at least able to move a hook around and complete something.  I decided that dishcloths were the perfect thing to practice on.

These are all crocheted.  The dark blue hex in the back came from Lion Brand website.  The fish cloth came from here.  The red heart dishcloth I made up to test a technique I read about.  The red and white stripe "flag" sort of one came from another website, (and my apologies that I can't find it now), and the rest came from various booklets that I've picked up in the last few years. 

Here are the knit cloths I did in May:

See the cloth in the middle?  That is an optical illusion cloth, and I found the pattern here.  The cloth on the right is just a simple cloth, like the kind my mom taught me years ago.  The one on the left is my favorite, though.  Here is a picture of it by itself:

If you look at it from above, it looks like a striped cloth, but look at it from an angle and you see:

flowers!  Isn't that cool?  It's all done using strategically placed knits and purls.  If you like it, you can find the pattern for this one, plus a lot more like it, here.  This is the vintage flowers cloth.  By the way, all 12 dishcloths were made from stash yarn.

But, I did not stop at dishcloths.  No, not me!  I also made a handful of:

cat toys, for my Secret Sister at church.  Well, not for her, exactly, but for her 2 furry children.  These were made with 100% wool yarn, then, before completing the ball, a giant jingle bell was put inside, then the whole thing was felted.  When I revealed to her that I was her Sister last week, she said that her cats loved them!  Silly, but hey, it was stash yarn!
I also learned how to make market bags, but market bags with a twist.  These, when turned inside out, can be tucked into themselves, and become just right for keeping in a purse (if your purse is large, like mine) or stowing under the seat in the car, just in case.

Three marekt bags, folded up.

Three market bags, ready for shopping!

The bag in the center was made from stash yarn, the bag on the left was from yarn that my mom gave me, and the bag on the right, I bought new, specifically to match a beach towel I was giving as a gift:

I also made 3 pairs of children's ladybug slippers, which of course I forgot to take pictures of before I gave them to the person that requested them.  I do have an order for 3 more pair, so I will be sure to take pictures of those to show you.

So it was a rather productive month, using mostly what I had in house.  And I have a box full of goodies to show for it.  Might be time to take on some larger projects again soon, though.  I've already finished a couple of things this month...can't wait to show them to you!

Back again!

Hello all, I'm back again, and apologize deeply for such a long absence.  I've put the time to good use, though, I promise!

As you know, I decided back at the end of January to knit dresses and sweaters for the four younger girls for Easter.  As my deadline drew closer, I came to realize that if I spent time at the computer, that was time away from my knitting needles, and I needed every minute I could get.  So, while I was away from you, every spare minute, and I mean Every Single Spare Minute, was spent on the dresses.  But YAY, I finished, on time, and without pulling a single all- nighter!

Here are Emma's and Abby's dresses:

And here are Madison's and Katie's:

Here are the girls on Easter morning:

They were quite happy with these dresses, which was a huge relief to me, after the months spent working on them.  While at church that morning, several people complimented them on their outfits.  Without fail, (well, except for Maddie), each girl said, "Thank you, my mom made it.", which made me quite happy.  It was nice to feel that they were proud of me!

And that is nearly the sum total of my knitting projects for March and April.  I did manage this knitted, beaded necklace, which was meant for Easter, but wound up not matching the dress I bought.  I did wear it on another occasion though, and got several comments about it.  I can't wait to try another one!

And I spent quite a bit of time on a cross stitch picture for Don, which was meant to be an anniversary present.  Our anniversary fell on Easter as well, and his present wasn't finished quite on time.  As I didn't actually finish it until May, and as it isn't in a frame yet, I will post pictures of that sometime later.

Here is a picture of Don with his carrot harvest.  I have to say, initially, I thought the garden was my garden, but it turns out, it is actually Don's!  He takes great pride in the vegetables that he grows, and I, after all, get to do the fun parts, which consist of helping to choose what we are going to grown, and then doing something with them after harvest!

Don, however, prepared this harvest for the freezzer.  He cleaned all of these, then sliced them, blanched them, and put them in the freezer.  We wound up with 3 1/2 pounds of sliced carrots...not too shabby!  Added to the cauliflower and broccoli, we had quite a nice little winter garden.  That's gone now though, and the spring/summer veggies are in, and already doing quite well!

This post was meant to be short and sweet, just to let you know that I've not forgotten about you!  I'll be back soon to catch you up on some of our other doings.  See you soon!

Chemo Cap Ministry

About a month and a half ago, a ministry was started at our church to provide chemo caps to one of our local hospitals.  The lady heading up this ministry offered patterns and lessons for knitting, crocheting and/or sewing various chemo caps, and even offered materials, if necessary.

I decided to join, as I've gotten kind of fond of knitting hats, and have lots and lots of yarn in the garage just waiting for a worthy project.  Seemed like it was meant to be.  I'd purchased lots of yarn to use for a Prayer Shawl Ministry that hasn't gotten off the ground yet, so perhaps this would be a stepping stone.

This ministry was really tailored to offer something for everyone.  Can't knit?  Crochet.  Can't crochet?  Sew.  Can't do any of the 3?  Volunteer to make the cards added to each one.  That not your cup of tea either?  You can help out financially.  I think the turn out and support offered far exceeded anyone's expectations!  The organizer of this decided to have a goal date of March 22, and was hoping to have 50 caps done by this date.  Through members of our congregation, and other knitters in the community, I believe over 100 caps were completed. 

I'd really anticipated contributing heavily to the finished cap pile.  Unfortunately, the Easter Dress Project began at the same time, and I really focused my attentions there.  And ironically, although I pictured my
self knitting caps,  I only finished one (which isn't pictured here; I donated it to one of the ladies at MOPS, who wanted one for a family member.)  I took advantage of the offer of lessons from an experienced crocheter, and tried my hand at crocheting hats.

Here is a picture of the caps that I donated:

The baseball hat in back and the blue hat in front are crocheted.  The two ribbed caps are made from recycled wool sweaters, and the two on the right are "do rags", made from cotton fabric.  I have 2 other crocheted hats in progress, that I will hopefully finish in time for the March Project wrap up.

Here is a closer picture of the baseball hat.  I was browsing for patterns, and came across this.  I operate in a strange kind of way.  When I see something kind of challenging, I have to try it, just to see if I can do it.  This was one such project.  I did hit a snag, and had to pull out quite a bit, but figured out where I went wrong, and was able to fix it.  The bill is two crocheted pieces, worked over a piece of plastic canvas.  I'm very pleased with how this one came out, and hope to make a few more!

Here are the 2 do rags. They are reversible, and I used each of the two fabrics in both hats.  I have a stack of fabric waiting for me to do some more of these.  They were very quick projects, and seem as though they would be very comfortable in the summer weather.

Once my Easter goals are met, I hope to return to doing some more of these.  There is some talk about extending the ministry, to make it an ongoing project.  I hope they do!

February Finished Projects

OK, time for the update on finished projects for February.  This might've been more impactful had I done it 2 weeks ago, but better late than never!

In no particular order, as I work on multiple projects at one time:

Katie and Emma's Easter dresses.  Technically, there not done, as I still have to do the embroidery around the hems, but for my purposes today, they are done.  I'm going to wait until all 8 pieces are done, and embroider them all at once.  To refresh your memory, these are new projects, done with new yarn.

Here is a batch of 6 chemo caps that I made for the ministry group I joined at our church.  The back one is a crocheted baseball cap, done in 100% cotton yarn, that I had in my stash.  The red hat and the dice hat are actually reversible; I've pictured one hat each way.  These are "do-rags", made with fabric from my stash.  The two ribbed hats on the left are made from recycled wool sweaters, purchased over a year ago from a thrift store, so they count as from my stash.  The blue hat in front was actually my first crocheted hat.  It was made from primarily new yarn.  The tiny little bit of contrast trim was stash yarn.  Look for future blog posts about these.

This was probably my most fun (and most time consuming!) project for February!  I made this cute tote bag, not because I really need another tote bag, (although can you ever really have too many of them?), but because I had 3/4 of a wool sweater that I needed to do something with.  Also, to see if I could do it.  Everything used for this bag was a stash item:  recycled wool sweater, denim fabric, lining, fusible fleece, thread, and mat board for the frame work.  I'm very happy with how this worked out, and use it all the time now.  Look for an upcoming blog about this one too!

So, not a lot to show, but they've all been fairly sizable projects.  I also worked on Abby's dress, but didn't finish it by February 28, so it's not here.  There are miscellaneous small projects in the works also, as well as 2 more chemo caps on crochet hooks.  And I finished another cap last night, but then again, it's March, isn't it?  I'll save those for next month!

Recap:  9 projects started and finished for February.  3 were made with new materials, 6 from stash materials.  Not too bad, if you ask me!  Happy crafting!

January Finished Projects

While I don't typically make New Year's Resolutions, I did decide that one of my goals for 2011 is to finish up some of the Unfinished Objects (UFOs) that I have around my house.  And to use up some of the yarn that I have stashed in every available spot around my house and in my garage.  (I promise you, you'd be horrified if I were to disclose the size of either of those 2 categories here.)

So, in order to track my progress on that goal, I've decided to take pictures of every finished project for the year.  Hopefully, I will see some sense of productivity by year's end.  I won't be able to show you every picture every month, as a lot of them will be presents, but I will show them to you by year's end.  And, in order to stay honest, I'll let you know if the yarn used was a stash yarn, or a new purchase.  Oh, and I guess I'd better designate which projects were former UFOs, and which were new.

First up, a potholder.  Kind of mundane, I know, but I had purchased a book of patterns for dishcloths and potholders, and this was in there.  I wanted to try out some new techniques, my pot holders all look really awful, and I had the yarn in the garage, so I was totally able to justify this new project:

Next was a new hat for Maddie.  I had put a new knit hat in Don's Christmas stocking, and Maddie adopted it.  I really wanted Don to have his new hat back, so I had to make a new one for her, didn't I?  Plus, I tried a new technique, and I had both yarns in my stash.  (See how this justification stuff works???)  So here was new project #2:

P.S.:  She won't wear it.  She still has Don's hat!

Project #3 was for my grandmother, who fell and broke her finger.  I wanted to do something for her, kind of an "I'm thinking of you/get well soon" gift.  So, this was a new project.  And while I have lots of this type of yarn in my stash, I had none in her favorite color.  The picture doesn't show it very well, but this is a very soft purple color, knit in Lion Brand Homespun yarn.  It was a really quick knit, and I wrapped it up with her favorite teabags, cookies, and candy, and shipped it off.  So, while it didn't qualify for ANY of my goal criteria, I really, really enjoyed this one:

The next project was legwarmers for Katie.  That girl wears dresses or skirts almost every day, regardless of the weather!  It makes me cold just looking at her sometimes, so I made her some legwarmers, as a kind of compromise.  I actually knitted these on her birthday, and finished them the same day I started them, so they didn't stay on the needles for very long.  While they were a new project, I had the yarn in my stash, so that was a plus.  Here is Katie, modeling them:

That project led to projects 5 & 6.  Yep, that's right, they wanted legwarmers too.  So yes, 2 more new projects.  But, I used stash yarn for both, and had both pair done in 2 days.  Katie's are in the pictures too, but Emma's are pink, and Abby's are purple.  I was going to make a pair for Maddie also, but we discovered that her pair from last year still fits.

Project #7 probably shouldn't really count, but I'm going to.  I made this dishcloth last year, and it's been sitting around for at least the last 6 months.  Finished.  Except for one thing:  weaving in all the yarn ends.  And there were about 8 of them.  I hate weaving in yarn ends.  That is why this at around.  But, when I came across it, I decided that the time had come, and in approximately 15 minutes, I finally able to add a check mark to my list of UFOs. (I'm not proud, I'll take it!)  (Again, a new technique!  I found the pattern for this dishcloth online, and sadly, cannot find it now.  When I do, I will publish the link.)

I'm not going to show you project #8, because it may or may not be a present for someone.  I will say that I used yarn from my stash, but that it was a new project.  So it counts on one list, but not the other.

Project #9 will be a gift, and it was a UFO.  It was a fun project, and I learned some new techniques, so I will be making more of that one!

Projects #10 and #11 were UFOs, started before Christmas, and may or may not be gifts.  Also projects that I learned some new techniques in!

Okay, so final count:

1 new project with purchased yarn,

6 new projects with stash yarn, and

4 UFOs completed

All in all, not a bad January!

Well, It SEEMED like a good idea!

The last week of January, I got a new knitting magazine in the mail.  As I always do, I sat down right away and marked any projects that caught my eye.  Frequently, I mark projects, then get sidetracked, or come to my senses, or otherwise change my mind.  This time was different.  I found this:

from the March 2011 issue of Creative Knitting,
designed by Sara Louise Harper

I instantly thought this outfit would be so cute for each of the little girls, in their "signature colors" for Easter.  After talking to Don, I ordered the yarn.  Not the exact yarn called for, but a more affordable option.  Then I set out to finish a few more WIPs (works in progress), to "clear the decks" for my new purchases.  (Yep, so much for the New Year's Goal!)  And then, The Box arrived.  It had to have been the biggest box I've ever received from JoAnn.com.  I unpacked the yarn:

I guess I should have expected it, but some how, 5 balls of blue, 5 of pink, 5 of purple, 4 of yellow, 11 of cream and 1 of green sounded like a lot less in my head.  Unpacking that box, I felt totally overwhelmed.  What had I gotten into?  And I stretched the budget to buy it; I was committed now, or the girls wouldn't have Easter dresses. 
That night, I got started on Katie's dress.  She gets the blue, of course.  This is the beginning:

Ten rows of cream colored 2x2 rib, and the beginning row of the blue color.  So far, so good.  I think I can do this.  After getting to this point, I decided that I'm not really skilled enough to knit separate pieces of a dress at different times, and have them come out exactly the same length.  So, I cast on the back piece at the same time.  This means I was knitting 2 different pieces, on the same needle, with 2 balls of yarn.  Are you with me so far?  The first 17 inches were easy:  identical directions.  The hardest part was keeping the yarn from tangling, which still wasn't bad.  Time to cast off for armholes and neckline.  Different for each pieces, but still pretty easy.  Time too finish the arms.  This is a sleeveless dress, so it was really just armholes.  Now, I was knitting 2 pieces, on one needle, from 4 balls of yarn.  A little more challenging!  Just about the time I was thinking the twisted yarn was going to win, I discovered I was done!  Yay me!  I sat down that night and seamed the two pieces, which was a first for me.  Then, I had to pick up and knit the contrasting ribbing for the neck and sleeves, and presto, I was done, except for the embroidered details.

Yay!  And it fits her!!  Double Yay!  From the time I unpacked the yarn until I took my last stitch was only 8 days, and 2 of those days I never picked it up at all, so I'm thinking that this is very doable!  Especially since Easter is late this year.  My plan is to knit the 4 dresses, then the 4 sweaters, then do the little details.  If there is time and yarn left over, I will make them little purses too.  And yesterday, Emma asked if I could knit them hair bows.  I feel like it's all possible!

Yesterday afternoon, I started Emma's dress, but modified the pattern.  Instead of knitting 2 separate pieces and seaming them later, I joined the pieces to knit in the round.  Not only is knitting faster for me than purling (which is eliminated by doing this), I won't have to do the seaming either.  This is how far I got last night:

Almost to the halfway mark.  Not bad for about 3 hours of knititng!  I will definitely keep you posted!

Bag mania!

Sometimes, I get a little tunnel visioned, and, well,  fixated (although Don likes to call it obsessed) with an idea or project.  Recently, it was bags.  Tote bags, purses, wallets, purse organizers...they all fit into that category.  It started with the tote bag I made for my mom for her birthday.  I also made one for myself:

Next, using 100% wool yarn that I had leftover from other projects, I found a bag pattern that I just had to try:

This bag is made up of 10 hexagons and 4 diamonds, all knited in one piece, then felted.  As I wanted to use up some yarn in my stash, I used EVERY color I had, in various combinations.  No 2 hexagons are alike.  My kids promptly christened this the ugly purse.  It was felted, then I lined it, added closures and handled, and was pleased with the results.  So pleased, that I.....

...had to make a wallet and cell phone case to coordinate with it.

Next came a felted mini messenger bag for my grandmother's birthday.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it, as I was afraid that I would forget and post it before her birthday.  I did, however make one for my mom as well.  My grandmother's was purple, and my mom's was black.  Although you can't really see the detail in this picture, the flap has a cable pattern on it.  Both were fully lined, with an interior pocket.

Next came this fun little bag.  I really liked the shape of it, and couldn't resist.  It was a really quick knit, and is also felted and fully lined.

This was another quick knit, and I thought it would be good for those quick little outings, when you don't really need a big purse:

I'm not much for beads and buttons usually, but when I saw that heart bead, I thought it would be the perfect compliment to the yarn.

And finally, I found a pattern for this bag.  The pattern came in 3 sizes, and I chose to make the medium one, which did not turn out to be as large as I thought.  I may have to make the bigger one eventually, but this will be big enough for smaller projects, or quick outings.  There is a braided cable on the front that extends into the handles.

This bag is also lined, but I added a covered cardboard bottom and some pockets, to give it some stability and to help keep it organized.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The crazy thing is that I'm not the kind of person that changes purses with regularity, but I think I will have to start, with so many cute options now.

The even crazier part is ....  I still have an awful lot of wool yarn!

P.S.  Remember the charity fundraising gift basket I made for my mother-in-law?  I found out that it sold for $75 at silent auction!

The Fundraising Auction Basket

A few days ago, I mentioned that we had gone on a whirlwind trip to Southern California in July.  While we were there, I delivered the basket for my mother-in-law's fundraiser, and I remembered to take a picture of it first!  I know it's hard to tell what is in the basket, so I also took pictures of the pieces.

Here is a 5 piece spa set, knit in 100% cotton.  There is an eye mask, soap bag, wash mitt, headband, and washcloth.

A pair of ladies' size medium slippers, knit in 100% acrylic.

A teapot with tea cozy, knit in 100% cotton, along with a lidded mug.

A four piece journal set, consisting of a large journal, pocket journal, bookmark, and pen.

Honey Almond scented bath/facial products:  bath salt, bath milk, oatmeal soap, glycerin soap, and loofah soap.

A purse set of 100% wool:  cell phone case, coin purse, glasses case, and key leash.

And lastly, the tag, listing the basket components.  See where it says "Semi-Homemade"?  That is the theme that Rita chose.  The items that I pictured above were all made by me, except, of course, the teapot and mug.  As for the other things in the basket, we included unscented votive candles, assorted herbal teabags, a tranquilty CD, and a manicure set.  All in all, I think it turned out really well, and it was fun to put together as well!  That's always a plus, and I'm hoping it does well in the silent auction, which is coming up on the 25th.  If I find out how much it went for, I'll be sure to post it here!