More Projects

Here are some more things I've done.  I found the pictures taken by other people while my camera was in Texas.

These are wonderful photos taken by Becca of the potholders/dish cloths I gave her for her birthday.  I felt a little dorky giving her something so utilitarian, but she really likes them.  These are the best photos of projects I've done that I've ever had.

Here's another potholder I did.  I took this photo myself, so it's not as nice or pretty as the ones Bec took, but at least you can see what it looks like.  Both this one and the ones I did for Becca are done with Sugar-n-Cream yarn on 4.5 mm (US 7) needles.  They're knitted on the diagonal using increasing rows and then decreasing rows.  They take about 4 hours each to complete.

This is the heat curtain I made back in October, maybe?  I wanted something to hang in the kitchen doorway that leads to the foyer so that we could keep as much heat as possible in just the kitchen and family room.  We were heating just the kitchen and keeping a fire going in the family room, so I wanted to capture that heat as effeciently as I could.  The fabric is very heavy and really pretty lovely.  It does a really good job, too.

Now that we're into the coldest part of winter, I'm heating the whole house, so the curtain has come down.  Once the temperatures are consistently higher, though I'll probably put it back up.  We'll see.  If not, I think I'll turn it into pillows or a comforter or something.  The fabric was on clearance at JoAnn ($3 per yard!), and I really like it.

These are some kids' scarves.  They don't take long to make because they're shorter and narrower than the adult sizes, so I can finish one in a couple of evenings.  Originally the colorful one was for Audra, but I got the packages marked incorrectly at Christmas, so Georgia got that one.  The one on the bottom is Emma's, and the other blue one will be Audra's.  They're all done with Haute Fur yarn on 10 mm (US 15) needles.

Finally, here's a project Bill did on his own.  It was a real hit at the Colts/F-Pats game.  Other fans who were tailgating in the same parking lot actually asked to have their pictures taken with him because of the shirt.  He made templates of the letters, then cut them out of felt with iron-on stuff on the back and then ironed them onto the shirt.  Unfortunately, the shirt did not survive the first washing because I didn't sew the letters on, so next time, I'll do that. 

Catching Up

I've been so busy that I haven't posted in quite a while.  So here are some things I have completed recently:

Vanessa's 2008 Christmas present (Yeah, I'm a bit behind.)

Thea's 2008 Christmas present.  Well, not technically, but she did want one.

This is a scarf for Thea.  I had a hard time parting with it.  I had some really soft, fine yarn that was knitting very slowly by itself for a scarf, so I stopped that project and combined the yarn with another for this scarf.  It was my first two-yarn project, and it was luxuriously soft.  I wanted to keep it for me. 

This is the scarf I did for my mom.  It was a work in patterns, and it took a really, really long time to complete (I'm guessing around 40 hours; the other grown-up scarves take around 8-10).  Still, I learned a lot by making it, and I think it turned out very beautifully.  She loves it and said it's very warm.

This is the one I did for my grandma.  Also very, very soft.  She loves purple, too.

I wound up keeping this one for myself.  It's another two-yarn project.  This time, I used some leftover yarn from the baby blanket for Zoey and some purple fuzzy yarn.  The result was a very warm, chunky scarf.  I like it very much.

I also have some other things I want to take photos of but haven't yet.  I'll get photos of my girls in their Christmas scarves and Audra in hers, and I'll get a photo of the heat curtain I made, too.  I've been busy even though I haven't been posting.

Next on the projects list:
     ~ Curtains for the bedroom
     ~ Some gifts I am not at liberty to write about
     ~ Finish a scarf for Veronica

Don't read this entry, Jessi!

Not until Evan is here and Becca has come to see you, anyhow. :)

I am so very proud of this little knitting project. So proud.  I love it.

I felt like such a schmoe when I took store-bought items to Jessi's baby shower this summer.  I love to make things for babies, and I really didn't think I'd have a chance to get anything finished for Evan before he came into the world.  But since he's currently apparently very satisfied with his womb without a view, I managed to finish this little hat for him.

It's my first knitting project in the round, and it's my first attempt at striping something.  I think it went well on both accounts.

The stalk on the top isn't quite as large as it appears in the picture.  It's just the angle, I think.  And I stuck my hand in the photo for a size reference.

I have a couple of other projects in the works at this point, but I probably won't have photos up for a while.  Both projects are scarves, and both are taking much, much longer to complete than I anticipated.  I'll get them done, though.  Two more weeks.  :)

Scarves and Curtains and Skirts, Oh, My!

So I have been doing a lot of knitting lately. I'm getting ready to start on my first non-square-or-rectangle project, so I'll post that in a few weeks when I'm done.

In the meantime, here's a look at three scarves I've done recently. I currently have two more on needles waiting to be completed.

I also recently completed a few projects for my kitchen. I used to have little shutters in the set of double windows in the kitchen eating area. Bill really wanted them to go and be replaced by curtains, and we found these great shower curtains at HomeGoods. We bought two, thinking that we'd be able to use one for the double window, and I could cut up the other one to make a valance for the window over the sink and a skirt to go around the craft cart to hide all its messy crafty goodness.

Yeah, well, the best laid plans. I needed both curtains for the double window, and when I went back to HomeGoods the other three were all gone. I checked out clearance curtains at Pier 1 and several other places as well as clearance fabric at JoAnn and Hobby Lobby. Nothing was quite as nice. Then, when my mom was visiting, we took a chance on the HomeGoods in Carmel (I had gone to the one in Castleton), and lo and behold! There was one more curtain.

So I made my valance and cart-hiding skirt. And the bonus of using something that's already finished? The sides and bottom or top were already finished for me. SCORE!

Now, technically, I didn't make the curtains for the double window. But I did hang up the curtain rod--something I'm becoming very, very good at.

Annika's Birthday

Yup, I'm at it again.

Actually, I've been knitting quite a bit lately, but I haven't photographed either of my other complete scarves (yes, there are two!) because I haven't woven the loose yarn ends in yet. I also have two other scarves in the works. I'm a knitting maniac!

But tomorrow we head to Chicago for my niece Annika's birthday. I made her brother a hooded towel for his birthday (not sure if I posted that...), and Traci (her mother) said Annika really liked his. So, I give you Birthday Gift #1:

Yeah, it's a hooded towel. I wrapped just the outside of the hood in a fun, colorful fabric (Annika likes polka dots, so Emma chose the fabric based on that), and I used the tutorial over at Little Birdie Secrets. If you like to sew, she's a great reference page. Lots of tutorials for relatively simple projects. You do have to know a few sewing terms, though.

I also embroidered(ish) a funky A on the back in the center. I didn't do that on James's towel, so I hope it's not a problem.

In addition to the hooded towel, I also knitted her a scarf. She doesn't have a winter coat yet, so I went for a multi-colored yarn. I give you, Birthday Gift #2:

:

It's important to add at this point that this is actually the second scarf I started for Annika. I started another one with a fun, bright yarn that was a mixture of orange, yellow, pink, and light green (I know it sounds awful, but it's not). When I came to the end of the partial skein I started with, I realized that I didn't have another skein of the same yarn to continue with. It was close to 10 p.m. when I made this rather horrifying discovery.

So on Wednesday night, I stayed up until 1 a.m. knitting like the wind (and watching terrible movies of Bill's choice: Blades of Glory, Nacho Libre, and Running Scared), and did the whole scarf in one sitting. It took about 3 1/2 hours, which I suppose isn't too bad.

More Baby Projects

I have two baby showers this weekend. I made the little blanket in the previous post for the one for tomorrow, and last night I made this bag and nursing cover for the one on Sunday. My friends Kristi is having twins!


Both the bag and the cover are made of leftover fabric from Christmas. I used almost every last bit of both fabrics. It feels good to make use of something so completely.















Anyhow, the bag has long handles and six pockets on the inside. I don't expect Kristi to use it as a real diaper bag, but it should come in handy when taking all three of her kids places.

Knitting "Projects"

I put projects in parentheses because two of these little numbers are just practices for real projects. I'll start with the real project because I am actually really happy with how it turned out.

This is a baby blanket for Katy Walters's baby shower this weekend. It's small because I intended it to be a little lovie--a blanket little Miss Zoe can carry with her everywhere. It's small enough to pack in a diaper bag or stroller without having to leave other essentials at home. I hope Zoe loves it so much that it falls apart in a few years. :)

It's a lumpy, soft yarn knitted on extra long #8 needles. I started with 60 stitches, somehow worked my way up to 65 at one point, and gradually worked my way back down. The yarn was so lumpy that sometimes I would catch an extra stitch and not realize it. It's soft, beautiful yarn, but the texture made it a slow project--the yarn doesn't slide through the knit easily and gets stuck often. The finished product is worth the extra effort, though.

I hand-stitched satin blanket binding around the edge. It gives the blanket a finished look, it allowed me to put a tag on, and it covers up the unevenness of one of my knitted edges. It took several tries, though, to figure out the best way to attach it. I started by sewing it on with a big zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine, but the satin bunched up and looked terrible. So I tried a straight stitch on the machine. That didn't work, either, so I lowered the tension. That also didn't work. So I ripped stitched carefully for about an hour and just did the sewing by hand. I'm guessing that there's a way to attach the binding with the machine, but I don't know what it is.

The tag is made out of the blanket binding.

On to the boring stuff:

These are a couple of practice stretches of knitting.

This is my first attempt at knitting. It's one skein of yarn. Maybe I should take a vote: Is it a really long potholder or a really short table runner?


I can't seem to make this next section of text move down. Sorry that it's not lining up correctly...

This is a practice go at several different patterns for an upcoming project. I gave this piece to Georgia, who is thrilled to have what would otherwise be sort of a useless piece.

So there you have it. More sewing projects will follow in the next few days. I need to make a bag and nursing smock for another baby shower this weekend. Busy, busy, busy. :)