Posted in March 2010 …

Mar 28 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

I apparently suck at a “weekly” feature—I’m working on it! Last weekend was a last-minute trip to Redding to visit the mister’s family and help with the massive spring-cleaning effort out at his great-aunts. I’m sure our time is coming; the back yard here is calling out for help.

The last two days have been spent preparing for, and then executing a full-reboot of my computer. The mister had bought a copy of Snow Leopard about a month ago, and it took that long for me to muster up enough nerve to do a full back up, a Time Machine backup, and then hit the switch and delete everything to start over fresh with a OS upgrade.

Everything is running great, pulling out the libraries I needed for particular apps has been a breeze (like all of my half-written blog posts in Ecto, and my Delicious Library). I particularly think it was easy because the mister works for Apple in tech support, and thus actually supervised the whole deal.

Anyway. So this week is a bit short; I guess I didn’t see too much that floated my boat to the point that I wanted to share it with every one. Not sure if that is a product of the week, or just me personally. Or maybe my internets. It’s been horridly slow this week, so less web surfing was done.

  • Am seriously loving the pants over on Green Apples. I’ve never been a fan of the high-waisted look, but these pants look amazing. Next time I find Vogue patterns on sale for 99¢, I’m going to have to pick up this one.
  • There are can cozies, and then there are can cozies. You know you want your beers to be kept cold in a Star Trek uniform. Found at Knit Faster.
  • Check out these awesome egg crafts by Benita over at Chez Larsson. Each one starts with a blown egg shell cut into shape with a dremel tool, and she shows you not only the finished object, but how she put each one together, with a little story to boot!
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Mar 23 2010
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sewing

New blue polka dot skirt.


So, after two days of sewing, I managed to finish my first skirt of the year.

I used McCalls pattern M5631, which called for 3.5 yards of fabric. Before I opened up the instructions, I really couldn’t wrap my head around how a skirt could call for the same amount of yardage as a dress pattern I had bought. And then I started sewing. Having both pleats and gathers, this skirt is really full. And very likely to flip up in the wind (which totally happened when I wore it out on Monday.)

I let the Mister pick the version of the skirt to go with, and I really like the fake layers at the bottom. They’re harder to see in the polka dot, but they are a nice little detail. I like how I followed directions exactly and the skirt hits at exactly the right spot on my knee.

This is absolutely my favorite, and am pretty sure I can wear nearly any color top with it; it’s all a matter of finding the right shade. One really good thing about making my own skirts is that I can take a swatch of fabric with me when I go shopping for tops to be sure that the colors will match.

Pattern Notes:

  • I made the size 20. For serious. Had I made my waist size, the skirt would be sitting about five inches higher. I am ridiculously high-waisted. As it is, it sits about an inch below my belly button, which is exactly where I like skirts of this type to sit.
  • The pattern was really straight forward. Sizing comes completely from the waistband, the pleats and the gathers. All the sizes (14-20 in my pattern envelope) used the exact same skirt piece at the same dimentions; the smaller the size, the larger the pleats and the more the gathers. Will make it really easy to pull apart and downsize if I lose the weight I’m trying to.
  • Did the “C” view, but omitted the waist sash because I don’t really need to emphasize that.
  • Ended up inserting a regular zipper; tried to do an invisible one and failed horribly, so I went back to what I know I’m good at. I’ll try again on the next skirt.
  • The hem and fake tiers were really easy to do, as the skirt body is actually square. Thus I didn’t have to try to ease in anything on a curve.
  • I am most definitely planning on making this skirt again, as soon as I can afford some more fabric.
  • I used a light-weight cotton (no idea what, bought it at Hancock’s); but can see this in a voile with a lining, a linen, or any other light-weight fabric.
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Mar 17 2010
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knitting

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Hope everyone remembered to wear green today! Our family is a little bit Irish, and it’s my aunt’s birthday today, so we always celebrate by wearing a bit of green.

My pin knit up  from the shamrock pattern link that I shared with you all on Sunday. It was very quick to knit up; I did one for me and another for the Mister in about an hour total. I ended up using worsted weight yarn with 2.75mm needles (US 1).

I love little pins like this. Now I’m up to two: one for valentines day, and one for today. Maybe I can figure out a little flag next to do multiple holidays.

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Mar 15 2010
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thoughts

Brainstorming presents for the Mister’s birthday.

Not much craft related going on today; I actually get to do some (real) office work and I’m on a break right now.

I’m thinking about hitting up the local Hancock fabrics tonight or tomorrow; the Mister’s birthday is at the end of the month, and there’s a few things I’m thinking of making him. I’ve got a 10% off coupon as well, and I’m not afraid to use it.

Since the Mister loves the outdoors (Eagle Scout and all that), I’m thinking I’ll make him a kite from One Yard Wonders, and perhaps the placemats for camping. I’m trying to come up with inexpensive stuff I can craft that he would like.

If I was super handy with a block of wood and a drill, I’d make him a cribbage board; we love to play when we’re camping, but we don’t have a board of our own. Sure, I know you can keep score with paper, but there is something nice about a self-contained unit that stores a deck of cards as well.

We’ve been dating a little short of a year and a half, and friends for about a year more, and it’s hard to come up with creative ideas for him. I don’t want to start giving him gifts that his mom is more than willing to take care of (socks, shorts, etc.); I want him to be genuinely surprised and thrilled with what he unwraps.

It’s a darn good thing he’s an even bigger geeky dork than me, since usually it means if it tickles my funny bone, it will his as well.

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Mar 14 2010
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link round-up

[Adjective] Sunday

In a hopefully new and recurring feature around here, I’ve rounded up some ideas—be they craft related, or just plain interesting— that tickled my fancy and inspired a round of adjectives to describe them. This weeks happens to be light because I didn’t have a lot of free time this week between food prep and video prep for my grandma’s birthday.

  • Tiffany whipped up some pajama bags for her boys, and then some: “Along with the pajamas, I slip a book or two in there each night and the kids get so excited to see what I’ve selected for them.”
  • I love gnomes, and over at mama*made, Gracie Mae made an adorable one for Easter, along with sharing her source for wool felt (for which I am always on the lookout for.).
  • Knitty’s loss is our gain: Knits & Wovens has released Precipitous, a new  pattern for “removable sleeves. Don’t take up too much room in the bag, pull out when needed.” The best part? It’s in worksheet form, so you can plug in the numbers from your favorite yarn/needle combo and come up with something awesome. Totally worth the low, low price of $3!
  • I love magnetic bookmarks, and …is five shares an awesome tutorial on how to make them yourself. Don’t be surprised if you see these pop up here sometime in the future!
  • And finally, found just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Vickie Howell has a tutorial up for a quick knitted shamrock, perfect for making into a lapel pin, or anything else you might want to attach it to.
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Mar 11 2010
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thoughts

Sewing reusable produce bags?

Not much going on the craft front over here; I am mired in the time-suck that is video editing, creating a photo slideshow for my grandma’s 80th birthday party on Saturday (her birthday is today).

I’ve been working on the shawl in spurts on breaks from the video. I’ll be glad to be done. While my Macbook makes creating them relatively easy, I don’t particularly enjoy it. Especially the part where I’ll have seen the video about 50 times before I’m done.

I have been keeping up on my feeds though, and today ran across an Apartment Therapy post that spotlighted reusable produce/bulk food bags from Bite.

While I think they are a great idea, as a crafter, I can’t help but to think I could make them myself for much less (it’s $5 a bag). It doesn’t help that the upper fabric in the picture is a fabric I saw at JoAnn’s last time I was there.

I suppose my first question to making this would be, where can I find a very fine mesh fabric? The second would be, what type of seam would I use to make them look clean and crisp?

I have been thinking about reusable bags quite a bit. I make lunch for the Mister every day, and we buy his lunch “snacks” in bulk, and self portion. This leads to using lots of Ziploc bags every week, especially if he gets more than one bulk item in his lunch (i.e. Cheeze-its and Teddygrahams). I don’t want the food to go stale after I portion it, but I also want it to fit in his lunch bag. Another container is out of the question, as his sandwich container takes up most of the bag already.

So, what I need to find is probably impossible. Something that functions like a Ziploc bag, but is easily washed for cleanup and reuse.

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Mar 09 2010
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update

A day of (semi) internet silence.

I am (nearly) without Internet this morning. We’re having AT&T’s U-verse installed—fiber optic speed, here I come—so my only connection to the net comes from my iPhone.

Hopefully the changeover goes smoothly, but if not, I’ll spend the day working on Icarus. Especially since I can’t seem to pull myself away from the internet on my own.

See you on the other side!

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Mar 08 2010
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knitting, WIP

Once again into the lace.

Delphine Top

Because I apparently didn’t feel like I had enough lace knitting on my plate, I decided to once again start Delphine, the lacy cap-sleeved top. The pattern is originally from French Girl Knits (a book I am longing to add to my collection), but luckily for me, the pattern was also excerpted in the Spring ’09 issue of Interweave Knits.

In all, I think I’ve started this top about 10 times. The photo above is actually from the last time I started knitting it, when after about five inches I had come to the realization that it was never going to fit be, as I was in denial about what size I really was. All the other times I started it, I usually screwed up on the first two rows; sometimes I twisted the join, sometimes I didn’t have enough stitches, sometimes I completely screwed up the lace repeat. The yarn I’m working with, though, has held up nicely to the repeat man-handling. It’s Knit Pick’s Shine in the sport weight. I love how it feels and how it looks when knit up. I may never try a different type of cotton yarn.

This time, I seem to be going along well. I’m about four inches in, and I haven’t majorly screwed up the lace pattern yet. I seem to have a hard time remembering the yarn-over before the purl stitch on the first row of the pattern repeat, but I usually catch myself, and yarn-overs are easy enough to pick up on the next round when you see you’ve got them.

I’ve had to lay down a few rules for this top, though. Since I’m knitting the Icarus shawl at the same time, and that one has a definite due date (May first, to wear to a wedding), I’ve sternly told myself that I can’t knit on the top until I’ve finished at least one pattern repeat of the shawl that week.

So right now, I’m staring longingly at the top while I forge on ahead with the 4th pattern repeat of the chart I’m on. Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to work on the top by Wednesday. It makes good TV knitting for me since I find the four-row pattern repeat easily memorized, and easy to work on while not looking.

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Mar 06 2010
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video

YouTube Knitting Tutorial Round-up

When I first learned to knit, I didn’t have anyone to learn from. I forgot that my mom knew how (she doesn’t knit much at all anymore), and no one else I knew knit either. YouTube didn’t exist, and a high-speed internet connection was just a hope and a wish instead of reality. I learned how to knit from a book designed for children (I was 18), and supplemented my knowledge with my ever-growing knitting book collection.

The best thing ever to happen, though, was the creation of YouTube, and with it, the knitting tutorials. With how-to videos, I could finally figure out how to do that cast on that pictures didn’t do justice, how to knit a sock on one needle by watching someone do it, how to knit with a yarn in each hand.

I thought I’d round up my most valued YouTube tutorials for knitting. These are the videos I go back to for reference, or that taught me a new technique that I wanted to learn. I didn’t embed them here because some don’t allow embedding, and I think it’s much better to see them on the YouTube site. The related videos that get listed on the right of the screen are just as good, and may often show you a different way to do the same technique.

Favorite YouTube Knitting Tutorials

  1. Twisted German Cast On by theknitwitch: I can’t seem to remember how to do this cast on when I need it, but this is a great cast on for socks. It has the right amount of stretch to hold your socks up but not hold on too tight.
  2. Knitting on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi: This technique is much easier to understand when you see it done, but it allows you to knit any diameter circular project with out double pointed needles. I liked it for knitting socks until I learned magic loop knitting.
  3. Magic Loop Knitting by thelazyknitter:  Another technique for knitting in the round, with only one needle no matter the object circumference. This is my preferred method for circular knitting these days.
  4. Continental Knitting by ackwood: This type of knitting is done by holding the working yarn in your left hand. I usually hold my yarn in the right hand, but I used this video to practice continental knitting so that I could to stranded color-work with a yarn in each hand.
  5. Yarn Harlot Knitting by cuteknitter: The Yarn Harlot, aka Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, knits using the “Irish Cottage” method which is different from both english and continental styles. She’s wicked fast with her knitting, and makes me want to try it too.

These are my top five favorite knitting videos, but I come across more all the time. If you want to see what I mark as a favorite (almost usually a craft video, but sometimes something else that strikes me as awesome slips in), feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel (my user name over there is Unsympathetic)

What are some of your favorite YouTube videos, knitting or other craft related? Feel free to leave them in the comments below!.

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Mar 05 2010
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knitting

Elephant for Grandma.

Baby Elephant

This year, my Grandma is  celebrating a banner year—her eightieth, in fact.

In tribute to her and for an awesome birthday present, I decided to knit her an elephant. She loves elephants. My cousin counted all the elephants in grandma’s house once and came up with over 100. I’m sure the number has climbed even higher since the family is continually gifting her items swathed in the pachyderm.

When I ran across the baby elephant pattern by Hansi Singh (link to pattern on Ravelry*), I knew I had to knit it for her. I always have trouble finding her gifts (I feel like I shouldn’t encourage the elephant gifting, as my family had me trapped into penguin-gifting for awhile), but she didn’t have an elephant especially handcrafted for her by family. That makes it okay, right?

*I wouldn’t usually link directly to Ravelry since it requires you to login (and thus join) to see anything, but right now Hansi’s Etsy shop is empty, and the only sure-fire way to purchase her patterns is through the Ravelry pattern store.

Pattern Notes:

  • Very quick to knit up, two pieces (head and body).
  • Think the head alone would make a very interesting brooch, if you’re into that sort of thing.
  • For some reason, when I picked up the stitches to make the belly (4 stitches from holder, pick up 18, repeat) following the instructions directly afterwards would have centered the decreases on a diagonal from leg to leg. Instead, I knit 4 stitches and then followed the directions which gave me the decreases centered between the legs.
  • It reads like you pick up way too many stitches for the tail, but it looks okay once done.
  • I did the bottoms of two feet, knit the belly to the kitchener stitch, stuffed, kitchenered, and then used the other two open legs to completely stuff the body full before knitting them closed.
  • While it seems silly to bind off in the CC at the legs only to pick up stitches in the CC to knit a row and pull tight, it really looks and works better this way for the legs. Gives it a definite edge instead of rounding.

In all, I really like this pattern. It’s really well written, easy to follow, and not entirely sure that my problem with the belly decreases wasn’t my own fault (for all the completed projects on Ravelry, no one complained about a problem).  I will probably make this again; the dogs go crazy for it when they see it, and it’d be the perfect size for a baby toy.

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