Goodies

Warning photo heavy post!

Project : Pomatomus by Cookie A.

started / completed : April 2009

yarn : Gyspy Girl

color : blue Hawaii

needles : US2

i love this sock! the pattern is great especially with this sock yarn and color. i originally made this with my sister in mind, but I do believe that these are going to mom this sunday for her birthday.

i even love the heel!

i went to JoAnn Fabrics over easter break and picked up some goodies for upcoming projects.

fat quarters for some kind of bag.



egyptian cotton and batik for a skirt like assemblage's.

she is my style guru! i love everything she makes and want one for myself. i hope she doesn't mind. if you don't read her blog, you need to go check it out.

this is some indigo denim for some fisherman pants. pattern from burda style.

but again inspired by assemblage.

i also spotted this magazine and couldn't resist. i love that scarf on the front.

and t does wool has a wonderful version of the scarf to check out.

i also got my blog contest winning gift from stardustshoes!

i cool bag and some seduce by berroco. the yarn is great so soft and smooth and very thin. amazingly enough this yarn uses US 7 needles. it is like fingering weight though and there is about 100 yds of the stuff! and the bag is wonderful. it can hold sooo many goodies!

yarn from nepal!

yarn : a greater gift

content : 100% hand dyed sheep's wool

single ply (azo free dye)

Yardage: 160yd

colors : orange, purple and pink

i have been assisting a long term substitute here at the school because she was having difficulty controlling one of her classes. (the kids seem to think that if they don't like a teacher they don't have to do anything they say! i think that it is atrocious! i they know that i won't stand for that behavior so while i am in the room with them she gets a little peace. it is kind of sad that they act that way) well, she leaves on friday so she got me this gift as a thank you for giving up my prep period to help her out. i told her it was completely unnecessary but i do love the yarn.

birthday gift from the mother-in-law... a drop spindle and some sample wool (from oak meadow alpaca farm in walkerton, indiana) to practice.

i had mentioned that i would like to learn to do that sometime, so she bought one! love her!

know i need to google how to do it. and buy some roving!

the sample wool. sorry i have no idea what it is!

more tomorrow!

Burb clothes

I needed another present for the baby shower to go along with the shoes, so I made a couple of burp clothes. I love this fabric pattern. I think that it just looks good for a kid. I got it in the mail in the fat quarter trade that went on over at Sew! Mama! Sew!

Ok, so how I made them. I went out to Wal-mart and bought a package of cloth diapers, washed them and then was completely disappointed by how thin they were. How did Gerbers expect these to catch anything! Anyhoo, I was just going to put a strip of material down the middle of the cloth where it is the thickest but that wasn't going to work considering how thin they were. So I took the sides and folded them in to the edge of the heavy part in the middle. Then I cut the fabric 2 inches wider than the diaper, folded the 2 inches in so that the material was slightly smaller than the edges.

Next, I folded a bit of fabric over the short ends of the diaper where I had folded them in. I just didn't like the fact that you could see that I had folded the sides in. So I just tucked the fabric up over the sides that were folded in. Then I sewed them really close to the edge so that the two side were held tight together. You can't even tell that I folded the sides in! So it worked well. I basically used a running stitch all the way around, close to the edge to attach the fabric.

The best part: the shoes look good with the burp clothes!

Project : Baby burp cloth

Pattern: basically mine

Fabric : from fat quarter trade (one fat quarter made 2 burp clothes)

Materials : Gerbers cloth diapers, thick thread, one fat quarter

Handstitched.

Baby shoes and other goodies

I got these beauties in a trade for some leftover yarn that I had. I asked for 2 and I got 6! I love the people on ravelry. They are so giving! I hope that she really enjoyed the yarn.
I realized last night that I have a baby shower to go to this Friday. So I got my butt in gear and whipped up these last night. I am still a slow handstitcher so it took me a couple hours. I am sure on a sewing machine, it would have taken less than half an hour!

This a view of the inside of the shoes with the setting sun.

I put fleece between the two sole pieces to give it some sturdiness.

Project : Kimono Baby Shoes by Aimee Larsen (found the tutorial here.)

Size : 0 - 6 months

Fabric : Some fat quarter leftovers from bags I made at Christmas
Mods: none yet, debating on putting a button on each partway

up with some thin elastic to hook over them to help them stay on.

The top opening just seems too big to stay on wiggliing baby feet.

I love the inside of these!

This fabric pattern seems very Japanese to me. Works great with this pattern.

Pomatomus is coming along swimmingly. I love how this yarn is knitting up with the pattern and the yarn itself is wonderful to use.

yarn porn and frustration

Pre yarn porn goodness: my last fat quarter from Sew, Mama, Sew!'s swap. This is great. I got a fat quarter, some extra fabric and it was wrapped in a bow. Thanks Canada!

Now for the yarn porn. Children avert the eyes. Ladies get ready to drool. I came home to 3 packages containing:

Cascade Yarns Key Largo (discontinued)

35% superfine alpaca / 65% cotton

110 yds x 9 balls = 990 yds of burgundy goodness

Knit One Crochet Too Wick

Soy / other

2 balls (blue), 1 ball butter, + 1 ball mixed = 480 yds

would make a wonderful summer tank

Lion Brand Magic Stripes
wool / nylon
2 balls Denim stripes = 660 yds


Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
80% superwash / 20% nylon
2 skeins Shadow = 430 yds

I absolutely love this the most. Like the rest of the yarn I received yesterday, they were all from trading my old knitting books for yarn. This yarn is one I have been wanting to try for years. I was so exciting to be getting it.

And then a tragedy occurred. My son opened the bag.... with scissors...

Oh the horror! Can you see it?

He managed to cut both skeins several times. Frustrating!

Still plan on using it. So I rolled the one with the most cuts into a ball last night to see the damage. He really did a number on it. I am just going to have a TON of loose ends to weave in when I use it!

A February sweater and some mail

Finally photos of my February Lady Sweater!

Buttons from Christmas button stash 2008.

It came out a little longer and thinner than I thought that it would be but really it is fine by me. I did have difficulty photographing myself in this. Every picture I took made me look pregnant. Weird, cause this one makes me look tall and skinny.

Here's the details:

Project : February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne

Started / completed : 1 -22 February 2009

Yarn : Dream in Color Classy (color : Nightwatch)

Needles : size 8

Buttons : metal from some store in Michigan

Overall very happy with this knit. The lace pattern seemed to take forever but the sleeves just flew along which helped. And I managed to finish the February sweater in February. Go me!

When I showed my husband this sweater he commented on me picking out sweaters that hang open. Well I hate to tell you hubby but I have one more sweater in the works that hangs open. Next up, the garter stitch swingy sweater.

Yesterday I got goodies in the mail! My order from Knit Picks. A new size 1 fixed circular needle with a 47" cable, a package of 47" cables and one of 60" cables, 7 balls of Comfy in Pomegranate for the garter stitch sweater and 8 balls of Shine Sport in Butter for a Runway Bolero.

The yarns are gorgeous and so springy especially the butter colored yarn. I can't wait to cast on with these. However the pomegranate Comfy has me a little worried. I was expecting a yarn that was a bit thicker. This stuff is pretty thin, just slightly thicker than the sport weight butter yarn. Hope that it works out with the size 9 needles the pattern calls for because I really liked this color for the sweater.

yummy yummies!

A note about the cables: If you have read a certain past entry you would have caught me ranting about the cables from knit picks. These cables feel completely different than the ones that I have. They are soft and more flexible. I really like them, I just hope they stick together a little better than the others.

I also got my first fat quarter from Sew, Mama, Sew!'s swap! How cool is that! This is a little bigger than the quarters that I sent out. I hope they don't mind. It has me a little worried now.

And my Heartening is almost finished. I just need to do the ribbing around the sleeve openings. So maybe some FO pictures of that tomorrow.

Swappin' fabric

I signed up a my first swap EVER! Sew, Mama, Sew! is having a fat quarter fabric swap. So these lovely ladies below are heading out to parts unknown in Canada,Virginia and Arizona today.

purchased at JoAnn's Fabric

(the closest fabric store to me besides Wal-mart. CRINGE.)

I just hope that the ladies don't mind that I didn't keep their tags. I am anal about washing my fabric as soon as I get it and I am new to the whole "record what you have got" process that seems to go along with blogging. They are really nice soft cotton fabric and I really hate to part with that blue one on the right. But I will be getting some cool stuff in return, so it is all worth it.

fabric stashing

Sew, mama, sew! is having a "Tell us about your stash," so here is my contribution, though my stash of fabric is pretty small. i am just starting to get into the sewing thing.

What do you usually sew?
So far bags. they are small. they use fat quarters! i am working up the nerve to make a couple of skirts.

When you shop for fabric, what size cuts do you usually buy?
i buy fat quarters or a couple of yards of the fabric if it isn't in fat quarters.

Do you buy on impulse or do you go out looking for something you need?
i go looking for something that i need because the closest fabric store isn't really all that close and i need a reason to be going there. once there, however, i tend to buy more than i planned!

Are you a prewasher? If you are, do you wsh your fabric before you need it, or only when you're ready to use it?
i am a prewasher because that it was all the books tell me to do and i want to be a good little new sewer. i wash it as soon as i get it because i just can't wait to get started and i can't skip that first step.

Do you iron it?
yes. always.


Do you have any special folding techniques?
not really. i just fold it into smaller sized rectangles.

Do you have a current favorite print in your stash?
yes.

i love this. i just can't decide what to make with it.

How do you sort it?

i don't have a particular way to sort it. i don't have a large enough stash to worry about it. so the above picture is how they look.

What are some of your favorite stash-busting projects?

travel tissue holders. japanese knot bags.



How do you store your fabric?
i know it is sad, isn't it? my small fabric stash is stored on an old book shelf with some yarn, scissors, and old magazines that i can't bare to get rid of.

What's your definition of a perfect stash?
a stash that houses tons of fabric that never goes out of fashion for you, full of a wide variety of prints and matching shades of solids, in a nice classy shelving unit.

fat quarters galore

i like to shop for fat quarters. i have not gotten up the nerve to hand stitch anything large than a bag yet. so fat quarters work beautifully and are cheap. the above fabric is some that i picked up at joann fabrics and i hope to make into a zakka pouch sometime. all i need is the right yarn color to go with it. white is out of the question due to the dirtiness factor. so it may take some looking to find that perfect color cotton yarn.

these are some other beautiful fat quarters that i picked up on my last visit to joann's, the only fabric store near my town. i hope to make some bags and pouches for christmas presents for next year. wishful thinking, jumping the gun like that, but i can always hope.

and lastly, these are some scraps from last christmas's projects. i hope to one day, when i have a sewing machine and am feeling ambicious, to make a quilt of some kind out of these. so one day in the future you may see these again as something much more beautiful. also some of the above fabric may look familiar to the observant. they are leftovers from making the japanese knot bag from a previous post. i hope to use them to make a matching camera bag someday.