Mr. Sparkle

Julia and I both seem to be overcoming our dishcloth procrastination at precisely the same time.  I bought some super cheap kitchen cotton at Michaels literally years ago and it rotted at the back of a closet…until Friday evening.  I started with one lowly little waffle cloth and suddenly I had somewhere to channel my lonely boredom.

Seven dishcloths! Jealous?

And now I can kick myself well and good for being a tard and putting them off so long.

Pattern: Waffle Knit Dishcloth and Double Bump Cloth (which are almost identical patterns but I got a bit bored on that last one)

Yarn: Bernat Handicrafter Cotton and Scheepjes Cotton 8

Flickr seems to have dulled my colours. Does that ever happen to anyone else?

The funny thing is, I should have known how quick dishcloths are to make – I made some for my mom a few mother’s days ago (yeah – just what every mum wants – cleaning supplies).  I think those were a little fiddlier and that turned me off.  I never took photos of them but I remember one was this.  Another amusing note: the purple / blue held togehter is the Cotton 8, which was one of the first yarn I ever bought in November or December 2004.  The ridiculous thing?  I bought it to make wrist warmers.  Out of cotton.  I was dumb.

In continuance of the pastel Easter cheesy craftiness I also blew some eggs on Friday night.

I heart glitter.

And arranged them in a supercheese fashion:

Awwwwww

What can I say? I love Easter and I love glitter.  Especially this Martha Stewart glitter.  Being a teacher in the public school system I’m used to dollar store chopped tinsel but this stuff is like multi-faceted pixie dust.  As a true child of the eighties I approve.  The instructions are here.  But please don’t come crying to me when you find sparkles in your cereal.

Feathers and Beads and Fans

Chris works with this girl Julie. When in our first conversation she knew what Etsy was AND had a shop I knew she was worthy of my friendship.    She invited me over for jewlery making the other evening. I brought my tiny collection of seed beads and she rolled out two large shelving units packed with beautiful glass and wood and camel dung beads.  This girl is serious about beading.  She let me dive in and guided me to my first jewlery ever.

First Try

I really liked these green beads but I kind of regret them here.  It seems like I needed either more or less.

Second Attempt

I prefer this one.

Now we all need to convince Julie to reopen her shop!

Despite my joint’s pleas for mercy I have been knitting.  Just before we left Japan Erin and I went to our local yarn store and I fell in love with some very soft alpaca and acrylic (!) variegated yarn.  Of course I only bought three balls so it sat around for three years.  Upon seeing Alex and Tehri’s beautiful feather and fan shawls I knew what it was destined to be.  A tea cozy!  Just kidding.  Hardy har.

Cozy

Pattern: Feather and Fan Comfort Shawl by Sarah Bradberry

Yarn: Diakeito Diaparterre – 3 skeins

Needles: 5.1 mm (silly Japanese sizes) circ and 8.0 mm crochet hook

Warmy

This grew a lot with blocking but also lost a bit of its cushiness.  I did the crochet across the top but I actually had to do a few rows because it looked really crappy.  I still think it’s perfectly presentable without the crochet but I ordered the Brittany hook from ebay so I was damn well going to use it.

Did I mention this is my first shawl ever?!  I need all the avid shawl wearers to tell me how and when they wear theirs please.

Edited to add: I almost forgot to mention that today is my little siter Diane’s sweet sixteen.  Happy birthday sweetie!

Out with the old

2008 was quite a momentous year.

Craziness

Looking at this little mosaic almost makes me dizzy, and it’s really only a small sampling of the goings on.

I have grand plans for ‘09, both personal and craftual.  I never thought of myself as a New Year’s resolution person but with knitting and sewing it really has focused me.  First, let’s revisit the ‘08 resolutions, shall we?

• Sewing lots more of my own clothes and avoiding the mall as much as possible. - I think I did well with this one, even participating in Wardrobe Refashion.  The downside is I’m down to one wearable pair of pants
• Learning more about sewing techniques and fabrics. - I tried but this will be ongoing.
• Being more laid back about my crafting and not being my own task master. I have to remember to enjoy myself and what I loved about knitting to begin with (being creative, connecting with tradition). - This I continue to struggle with
• Being less critical of myself and celebrating my talents. – Always a battle
• Stash management. Not a yarn diet, just being a little less crazed with the credit card and the internets. -Better than 2007 but this will carry forward with a vengeance into ‘09
• Take my time with projects and make sure to add length! - Needs improvement

Many of these will carry forth in the new year in some form or other.

The commandments of ‘09:

• Blast the stash.  Yarn and fabric buying will be a reward for good behaviour (i.e. paying off debt) or will be requested as gifts.  I need to work with and rework what I have, including the old clothes quilt I started four (!) year ago.  If I buy yarn or fabric I want it to be because I’m inspired not because it’s 30% off.
• KISS.  Hand painted and variegated sock yarns have their place but I need to amass more solids and semi-solids to have more pattern options.
• Think outside the crayon box.  I always, ALWAYS choose cool colours (not as in hip but as in “what season are you?”) and I need to branch out to more neutrals and earth tones.  Maybe even orange *shutters*
• Be thankful.  I’m pretty lucky to have a working sewing machine, camera, dozens of craft books and many other accouterments.  I’m going to try not to be jealous every time a fellow blogger gets a new fancy toy and be happy with what I have. The materialism that seems to have risen with the rise of craft is a peeve of mine and yet I fall into it myself.
• Lay off myself.  I have completely reworked my Ravelry queue to include only two items.  Everything else has gone into favourites.  It started to feel like a task list to be checked off.  I want to knit more on a whim and design from inspiration rather than feeling married to the list.
• Take my time and enjoy.  It’s a hobby not a race.  If there’s a technique a pattern calls for or an extra little touch I could add I need to get off my arse and pick up a book rather than ignoring it and pushing through for expediancy.
• Take millions of pictures of my finished garments.  I tend to take four or five and trust that one of them is good.  It never is.

I hope 2009 will be the year of living well for all of us.  I’m going to work at health and happiness and I wish it for all of you too!

Stocking Stuff

I hope everyone who celebrates had a great Christmas.  Ours was very quite and to be honest not very Christmasy feeling but that’s quite a privileged complaint, really.

This year, being in a place where there are no stores that one would want to receive a gift from and seeing as how we just moved cross country and bought a car, I decided to make most of my gifts.  I really enjoyed trying out some new skills and seeing how things developed.

I thought about knitting stockings for my immediate family because they’ve never really had nice ones but it got down to the wire and I couldn’t find a pattern I liked so when I saw Alicia Paulson’s brilliant sweater stockings I decided to give them a try.  Apparently for everyone I’ve ever met.

These are, I think (from left to right) my sister’s, Melina’s, a secret santa gift, Chris’s cousin Conrad’s, Chris W. (Melina’s husband), Robyn R’s, Mom’s, Ingrid’s, my brother’s, my dad’s and Braden’s.

The colour is off quite a bit here.  This one’s a bit better:

The stockings were hung from the studio wall with care.

I hope everyone who received one liked it.  There are a few more close-ups on the old Flickr page.

More to come my friends!

A very Martha Christmas

• Ingrid and I did a little Christmas swap and she sent all kind of fun handmade goodies from my home province, including this beautiful bird ornament: The pattern is from Martha Stewart and I kept planning on making them but lo and behold Christmas is almost here and I still don’t have any Martha glitter.  Ingrid to the rescue!
• It is, and has been for the last four day, minus 45 degrees celsius with the wind chill here.  When I read about cities in the northwest shutting down for a few snow flurries I laugh.  And then I cry a little.
• You must try these apple pancakes. But do add a little cinnamon and vanilla.  They taste like apple fritter without all the grease.
• Likewise, do try this Mexican hot chocolate.  So good.
• I made Martha’s Mac and Cheese for Chris’s work party Sunday and it was delish.  I wouldn’t think that mac and cheese should be such a gamble but I’ve had such a hard time finding a recipe that is flavourful and creamy without Velveeta. This is a keeper.
• Melina kindly sent me this Lush Cynthia Sylvia Stout shampoo to help me deal with our crazy hard water situation.  This stuff is amazing.  I don’t even need to condition.  AND it has two kind of liquor in it.  Can’t go wrong.
• I’ve decided that even though it will be a quiet Christmas for us I’m going all out in the food department.  Christmas Eve will be various cheesy hors d’oeuvres throughout the day and then on Christmas day we’ll have our favourite nut roast, probably mashed potatoes, I’m going to try this cauliflower gratin, these squash tarts and these rolls. I’m not sure what to make for dessert.  We’ve had our share of pies around here lately so I’m thinking maybe a spicey cake, but I’m thinking that might be too heavy.  Suggest away!

No sleep ’til January!

This weekend was a festive blur. I shopped, baked, sewed, felted, fulled, cooked and passed out at ten o’clock.

It’s killing me but of course I can’t show you some of the output but I do have some projects to share!

On Saturday we drove to the middle of nowhere and walked out to the woods searching for a Christmas tree. Apparently the trees here grow very tall and very thin. At least the trunks can be snipped with nail clippers.

TIM-BER!!!

It doesn’t look so bad all made up.

The ugly blinds will soon be covered by homemade curtains. Thank the lord!

I also refinished an old, ugly media shelf for use in my craft room.  Of course I forgot to take a before photo but pictures it: oak melamine with black plastic CD inserts.

Framed paper cut by Erin!

I spray painted it with Krylon in Buttercream and finished it with acrylic spray sealant.  The paper backing is washi from Japan mod podged on and also sealed.

It’s the same spray paint I used for my little notions shelf.  I think it will look great when I paint the room.

Aaaand I baked another pie.

This is the Sour Cream Apple pie from the brilliant Alicia Paulson.  It was tasty although I still think I prefer the recipe from The New Vegitarian Epicure (question: does anyone know the rules for sharing recipes from books?  It seems like it would be covered by copywrite but others also seem to do it all the time).  I ran out of butter so I made a shortening crust.  I think I agree with The Smitten Kitchen in that butter is better – pretty much always.  For those of you who, like me, avoided pie making do check out her posts on pie crusts.  How was I not aware of her blog until recently?  That’s sinful.

I’m supply teaching in another town tomorrow, which may have surpassed getting needles as my least favourite thing to do.  Wish me luck!

What counts as excitement around here

I have a bit of a sore neck today so I decided to forego any sewing until after my massage therapy this afternoon.  Instead, I went to Staples to get supplies for some long overdue organisational projects.

First, and less exciting are removable labels so I know what some of the bulk ingredients are up in the cupboard.

I don’t have a printer so I jazzed these up with sparkly gel pens.  Good times.

I’ve been throwing around the idea of getting a big cork board for my kitchen table studio so that I could tack up patterns and notes while I’m sewing.  But since it would have to go on my newly decorated living room walls I didn’t want anything too overwhelming.  I spotted these cork strips for $5.99 and thought they would do the trick.

Obviously I could not abide by the ugly black plastic so I thought a makeover was in order.

First, I used a DPN to pop the cork out of the frame.

Then, I got out my dollar store craft paints and mixed a few purples to make one that matched the ubiquitous floral fabric I used for my floor pillow.  I used a foam brush to paint over the black plastic.  It took three coats to hide all the black. I forgot to take a picture of this step but it looked a little something like this:

Next, I cut out some strips of fabric that were just a bit wider and longer than my cork strips

and used some  Amazing Goop to adhere it to the cork.

I let the glue dry and then the tricky part; popping the strips back in.

(By the way: when you google image search the word frustration almost all of the picture are of people kicking their computers.  Computers are frustrating.)

I used the handy sticky strips on the back to stick them to my wall at about eye level when I’m sitting.

And then I did some blow off a hooker’s stomach.*

*just kidding**

**It was angel dust.

Tra la la

I am very happy because:

• I have the best real friends and reader-friends ever. You guys are all so kind and you don’t know how much your encouragement and sweet comments mean to me. Not to mention the supreme enjoyment I get from reading all of your blogs.
• The top of these top drawer friends, Erin, sent me this adorable kitchen towel from Early Bird Special.



• I now have beautiful hand embroidered tea towels for almost all of the shelves that display the pottery and ceramics we bought in Japan. These towels were made by one of my sweet students.

(the yellow tea cup was my great-grandmother’s which my awesome grandma gave me as a wedding gift)

• Chris was approved for a student line of credit so I will be able to stay in our apartment and he will have money to take to school with him. Yaaaaaay!!!!! This also means not putting all of my much loved possessions into storage for six months and having to move by myself. Now I can focus on missing Chris instead of missing my apartment and bed and sewing machine. It also means that I will get to live by myself for the first time in my whole life. I’m looking forward to it.
• Spring is finally here. It came like a flash and I’m soaking it all in. I just got back from the park where I sat with a fun summer read and felt my neck get burned by the sun.
• I got a ten dollar SD card reader for my camera and since then my camera’s been giving me no trouble.

Good times.

And now for a dilemma: last year I picked up three skeins of Cotton Fleece to make Rusted Root but I was worried that I’d need a fourth so I ordered another online, not realizing (and perhaps being too impulsive to check) that it was from a different dye lot.

The skein on the far right with the silver label is the odd duck. Even though there isn’t much of a perceptable difference in shades I’m worried about it creating a stripey fabric. How would you proceed? Should I just start knitting with the three matching skeins and only use the fourth if I need it? Should I alternate skeins every few rows splicing as I go or carrying the unused yarn up the side? Some other method I’m not familiar with?

We had seasons in the sun

My poor little Pentax Optio seems to be dying a sudden death.  First the port was acting up, then the white balance, LED screen and focus all went at once.  While I really want a digital SLR I don’t have the cash money for it right now so it looks like I’ll have to get the old one fixed or buy another pocket digital.  Oh my poor middle class self.

This made sock picture taking and shop updating mighty frustrating yesterday.  I spent the afternoon making stitch markers to then struggle for a couple of hours with the ailing camera.  I updated anyway because who knows when I’ll pick up a replacement so behold the blurry glory of new stitch markers.

I finally made use of all the vintage beads I picked up a while ago and I restocked the popular sweater in progress markers.  I’m really excited about the owl stitch markers because not only are they removable but they can be worn as earrings.  Fun!

Spring Cleaning II

When Fabricland was having it’s fifty percent off sale I picked up some lovely drapery weight fabric for Erin and I.  I grew to love it so much that I went back and bought another metre.  Then I had an idea: if I made a floor pillow, Chris and I could eat dinner around our ottoman and then I could convert our dining room table into a sewing area.  Mwahahahaha.

I followed the pattern in In Stitches.  It also fits perfectly on our cheap and previously kind of uncomfortable Ikea chair.

I still had lots of fabric left so I decided a coordinating throw pillow for the couch was needed

I had still more fabric so a plan was hatched to cover some of those frames I took down from our bedroom wall.  First I cut out the fabric so it was just a bit bigger than the frames and then I did some fanciful machine stitching.

I borrowed one of Michelle and Alex’s five (?!?) staple guns and stapled away.

And hung them with care (I even used a tape measure – says Chris: “that’s hot”).

All three of these projects took less than three hours, I’d say, but the results are more impressive than the effort!