Knitting Needle Roll for Me

I'm finally starting to feel a little less likely to throw up every half hour, so thought I'd celebrate with starting a new knitting project. That lead me to a couple hours spent browsing on Ravelry, and finally a decision on this cute little shrug. I have a feeling this baby might be a girl, but until I know for sure, this shrug will be for a friend's little girl.

After all that, I realized I never posted about the new knitting needle roll I made for myself. My knitting needles were a mess -- scattered across every room, some left in abandoned project (some so old I don't even remember what I was making!), and so a solution was necessary.

I took enough photos for a tutorial, and will get that posted soon, but for now, here's a look at my sanity-saving knitting needle roll:

The fabric was from a cheap Walmart fat quarter bundle that I had in my stash. It wrinkles a bit, but overall, I have to say I love this roll, and feel so much more organized now.

Handmade Gift Exchange: sent & received!

One of the things I enjoy most about the holidays is exchanging gifts with loved ones. And now, thanks to the Winter 2011 edition of the Handmade Gift Exchange at Craftaholics Anonymous, you can add exchanging gifts with strangers to that list as well!
My exchange partner was Ana, a Brazilian woman who moved to Manitoba after marrying her Canadian husband. Brr, I think I may have tried to persuade hubby to move to Brazil instead. Ana blogs at Tropical Momma -- check her out there or on Facebook, where you can see more of her Custom Art!
In any case, Ana said she liked the colour leaf green, so I went through my stash and found some leafy green yarn (I actually went to a friend's house and matched it against some of her houseplants!), and knitted up a little scarfette. You've seen this pattern from me before here. It's one of my favourite patterns to make.

Ana also has a young daughter, so I made her a quick crayon and notepad roll. I keep one of these in my bag for use in waiting rooms, restaurants, etc. Keeps the kids amused, and is easy to carry around. Hope she likes it!

And now for the really good stuff...this piece of Christmas gorgeousness is what she sent me! I love it! It arrived this morning, just in time for decorations starting to go up at our house. Thanks so much, Ana! Your work is great and I will treasure it.

Everest knitting needle roll

My family and I have been loving the summer weather. It means we’ve been outside a lot, biking, playing with friends and hitting the local splash pads. As much as I love doing all that with hubby and our boys, it really eats into my crafting mojo. I’ve been working on a baby quilt here and there, a total wadder jacket for myself (good pattern, BAD fabric choice), and some other odds and ends, but nothing to show yet. However, I was rooting around in my sewing room last night (boy, does it need a major clean up!), and found this project that I never posted about earlier in the year: a slightly adapted version of the ‘Everest’ knitting needle roll from luvinthemommyhood.

Don’t let the cutesy rolled up photo fool you, this baby is aptly named. It’s HUGE!

There are three large sectioned pockets with flaps to hold needles of various sizes, including sets of DPNS and circulars. There are also pockets to hold a pattern, scissors, guage, etc.

I only put in a few needles for demonstration purposes, but this roll will hold a lot of needles.
The original design called for a button closure and a handle, but the friend who requested this roll gave me some old curtains to use as fabric and it just wasn’t working with the handle, so I removed it and added a tie closure.

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I’m famous!

Ok, ‘famous’ might be overstating things just a little, but my blog did get a wee mention on Canadian Living’s ‘The Craft Blog’, thanks to the Uptown Cowl I made a while back. I’ve subscribed to the magazine for ages, but just discovered The Craft Blog yesterday and was so excited to see my name.

I’ve been super busy with ‘work’ sewing lately. Hopefully more crafty stuff to come. I’ve also been watching a video called Full Busted, which explains how to adapt clothing patterns for a full bust. I’m hoping to try out the techniques soon, so maybe a new shirt to show at some point.

Me-too scarf & hat

Every time my oldest son sees me sewing or knitting anything, he oohs and aahs, takes hold of my arm, and in the sweetest voice ever, asks if I can make one for him, too. It doesn’t matter what I’m working on – blanket, baby booties, bags – he wants one just for him.

So when he saw me working on my giveaway scarfette, it wasn’t long before he decided he needed a new scarf too. Oh, and a hat to match, too, “peese Mama. Tank you”.

He chose a multi-coloured acrylic from my stash (my kids don’t enjoy wool for some reason), and I got to work. Of course, despite coming from a long line of speed knitters, I’m a bit on the slow side, so it’s taken me two weeks of knitting a row or two at a time to make this little set.

No patterns for these: the scarf is a simple k2 p2 rib and I just knit the hat in the round until it was big enough to fit my son’s head and then decreased by a stitch every fourth stitch.

No model shots. He loves his new hat and scarf, just apparently not on demand!

Giveaway time!

I am a firm believer in the concept of Pay It Forward. Since discovering the world of blogs, I’ve been lucky enough to win a few blog giveaways. So now it’s my turn to share and to say thank you to the people who actually read my blog. In the beginning, I set it up as a log of my crafty endeavours – mostly for myself (because I’m forgetful), and also for a few family members. I never expected anyone else to be interested. Ironically, perfect strangers are reading while my family pretty much ignores what I’m doing  (=

Here’s what I’m offering up along with my gratitude: a tweedy wool, modified version of the Paula’s Scarfette pattern I discovered on Ravelry last year.

I love this pattern and will definitely be making one for myself asap!

No big hoops to jump through to enter: if you’re a follower, just leave a comment to say hello. And if you’re not a follower, please become one and then leave a comment to say hi. Good luck! I’ll draw a winner February 3rd.

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January slump…I mean progress

January is flying by and I feel like I’ve been in a crafting slump. I’ve been busy doing work for others in my free time. Mostly hemming, but there were also some fun superhero capes for a birthday party. I almost forgot photos, so excuse the lack of display…these were snapped virtually last second.

As you can see on the blue version above, I stabilized the satin neck opening with felt. The cape is closed with velcro, so I figured a little extra support would be good.

My sewing machine conked out as I was finishing the last item in my last pile of hemming. I have a Janome Memory Craft 6600, and I love it most of the time. But it has a habit of leaving me hanging by breaking down at the most inconvenient times. It’s only three years old (maybe less) and has had to be repaired three times so far (not including maintenance). Not impressed. I have two other straight stitch only machines, so I could do some sewing if I wanted to, but I feel too discouraged to bother. January blahs, I guess.

On a brighter note, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to inject some life into my little Etsy shop. I sell a lot of things locally, so my poor shop has been neglected, with only a few items listed. I am determined to remedy this situation (in spite of my sewing hiatus). So here’s a little peek at the newest item in the shop:

So far, they’re available in black and light grey, black and dark grey, and black and forest green. Definitely subdued tones, but oh-so-cozy and warm. I have plans to try some in a dark solid with bright multicoloured NORO yarn for the windows. Think that’d be fabulous…maybe so much so that I’d want to keep them for myself!

Uptown cowl

After a rush to get Christmas gifts taken care of before they had to be mailed out, I thought it would be nice to putter at a simple and useful project. Enter the Uptown Cowl. Initially, I was making it for myself, but now I'm thinking about giving it to my mom and making another for myself later.

Knitted with Bernat's acrylic/alpaca wool blend in 'Aqua'

The pattern for this little lovely was plucked from the February 2011 Canadian Living magazine. I couldn't find an online version, but it's on page 76 if anyone is interested in looking up a paper copy. It's a simple pattern to follow, and can be made with circular needles for maximum ease. DPNs are not my friend, so yay for circulars! I worked slowly and it came together over a couple of evenings of catching up on some online shows.

The cowl gives good coverage (ignore my wet hair)

I'm quite fond of the colour (aqua) and texture/stitch definition of this yarn, which is kind of amusing since my three year old son picked it. He wants a pair of mittens made of same. I love that he gets excited about creating things, and that he still thinks I can do or make anything with my mommy superpowers, so I'll be working on mittens asap.

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More Christmas gift goodies!

While Christmas is technically over for another year, I'm still relishing the peacefulness and good spirit that always comes with the season, and hoping the feeling lasts for at least a few days longer.

My family of four enjoyed a quiet day to ourselves and it was really great. This is the first year that my oldest son 'gets' the idea of Santa, so he was pretty excited this morning. I loved it! I'm also in love with the image of my little boys dressed in matching jammies. Too cute!

On the topic of gifts, this cute crocheted hat was another of the handmade goodies I made for gift giving to friends. It worked up fairly quickly and I liked how it turned out. The pattern was from Lion. Do read the reviews first if you try this one, since most of the reviewers found it a bit large if the directions are followed as presented.

I also whipped up a version of Georgie Hallam's "Paula's Scarfette" for my FIL...no photo of mine, as I was still knitting literally ten minutes before the post office closed on the last pre-Christmas mailing day and I had to boogie to get there in time. Here is the sample photo from the pattern (another Ravelry freebie):

Georgie Hallam

Super easy, super cute -- and, important in this case -- fast to complete! I made my version with some yarn I had leftover from another project, a sort of smoky blue/grey shade. I'm happy with how it turned out. I also made another pair of fingerless gloves...they were going in the same box as my FIL's scarf, so another photoless project.

I have a family dinner to attend tomorrow, but if I have time in the evening, I'll post about another Christmas gift I gave out this year -- cute little growth charts for boys.

A bit late, but Merry Christmas!

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Handmade Christmas

For the past several years, I've tried my hardest (between pregnancies and December & January babies!) to make and give handmade Christmas gifts to family and friends. Nothing extravagant, just gifts from the heart. I'm sure some people think it's a little hokey, but I prefer it to mindlessly picking up some commercial item. I can't post everything just yet (don't want to ruin the surprise), but I'll be adding photos here and there.

These are from a Ravelry pattern called Alice's Fingerless Gloves, apparently a nod to Alice from the Twilight Saga. I've not read the books nor seen the movies, but I thought the gloves would make a fun gift for my SIL. Last year, I knitted up some dishcloths and added them to a variety of homemade jams, mustard, & baking mixes as part of a kitchen basket. She apparently thought they were oven mitts (!!!) and kept burning herself, so gave the cloths to her cat. Anyhoo, these will be wrapped along with a little note saying NOT oven mitts!

The pattern is simple, and works up quickly, although I think you need a (free) Ravelry account to access the file.

Please ignore the awkward photos. For those of you who know me, I'm 'blessed' with short arms. No matter how much I stretched, I couldn't get the camera far enough away for a decent shot at any angle beyond this one.

Onward.

This little photo frame was one of the unfinished ones you can pick up at Michael's, painted with craft paint and then stamped to embellish. It didn't turn out quite the way I imagined, but I'm sure it will be fine with an appropriate snowy photo. I intended to give this to a friend, but since it 'didn't turn out', I may be gifting it to myself  (=

I used a VersaMark pad, a foam stamp, and embossing powder to create the tree. It still felt a little empty, so I grabbed the VersaMark pad (sort of a slow-drying glue/ink stuff -- surely that's the technical term) and used it to create an all-over pattern with a larger hearts and swirls pattern stamp. I considered embossing that, too, but I didn't ink my stamp well enough and had to go over the frame a few times. My goof is fairly hidden when the VersaMark ink is left as is, but I think it'd really show up covered in sparkly embossing powder!

Last item is this Little Cook's set I made for one of my playgroup's fundraising auctions: chef hat, oven mitts, felt bacon & eggs. I've made several of these items individually, and they've always been a hit, so I'm hoping someone will buy them as a gift and help out the playgroup.

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Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrapup

Knitted baby blanket

A close friend had her fourth baby boy earlier this week. I decided a cute little knitted baby blanket was in order. I've been trying to use up what I have in my craft stash lately (in prep for a big sale this weekend!), so chose a soft blue acrylic baby yarn in blue and white. It feels really nice, but I'm not at all pleased with the look of the finished blanket, which is made up of three simple strips of stockinette stitches in alternating colours surrounded by a narrow crochet border.

The edges are curling in madly (doesn't help that I'm feeling too lazy to block it), and my seams between the strips are bulky. That said, it's a blanket that's meant to be used and abused by a baby who will likely poop or throw up on it dozens of times, so I'm not going to stress over it. It's a gift from the heart. Maybe I'll whip up a quick beanie to go with it.

Capes fit for a pint-sized superhero

I finally remembered to snap a couple photos of the capes I made as favours for a friend's son's birthday party. Of course, I remembered in the wee hours of the morning, so more badly lit, middle-of-the-night-so-I-don't-have-a-model shots it is.

A wee ruffled version for the birthday boy's brand new sister

These are super shiny in real life...couldn't capture it in photos

 I'm excited to deliver these capes to their new owners. Keeping them away from my boys has been a challenge to say the least! Not much other crafty stuff going on over the past week, since I've been busy doing boring money-making work like hemming, curtains and taking in shirts for others. Not glamourous stuff, but I enjoy being able to bring in a little mad money to fund my craft habit spend on my boys. Now that most of that is out of the way, I hope to finish off the baby blanket I've been knitting, as well as a baby quilt and a charity quilt.

This week also saw a lot of baking for various fundraisers. I find charitable baking really satisfying as I'm able to fulfill my urge to bake without taking in all the calories of said baked goods. Nice! Since I was busy baking, I didn't stick to my meal plan. In this case, it was a blessing in disguise because I happened upon this recipe for cauliflower marranca and decided to experiment. So, so yummy! I added chickpeas for protein, which was great for the boys and I, but also sauteed a quick pan of shrimp for hubby, since he's really not into non-meat meals.

Use richly flavoured cheese for best result

And to finish off, healthy banana splits, made of half a sliced banana with whipped peanut butter sandwiched between the slices, vanilla Greek yogurt, fresh raspberries, and just a drizzle of chocolate sauce. We had these for lunch one day, too, and added some vanilla almond crunch cereal on top. Boys loved them. 

Mmmmm...

 Speaking of my boys, the youngest had another insect bite of some sort, this time more toward his ear rather than on his forehead. No matter, same instant swelling reaction. The swelling got worse and worse for three days before finally subsiding. I finally convinced the doctor to refer Spencer to an allergist, because I don't know what's been biting him.

First 24 hours -- swelling to the side

Day 2 -- eye fully closed now. And my little trooper is still smiling.