Christmas presents

I have finished the two Christmas presents I had to knit. They came out just perfect, of course. I'll get pictures up after the holiday.

My niece's sweater is turning out to be a disaster. Even though I did a gauge swatch and was spot on, it's coming out HUGE! I'm really afraid I'll run out of yarn before I get close to finishing. It's Lion Brand polarspun yarn and there is no ripping out and starting over with that. I'll keep going and if I ever actually finish it, it can be an outer layer jacket type thing since it will probably fit her with her wearing every piece of clothing in her wardrobe! I think the thing will fit me when it's done, but it may be a little short, nothing like a hot pink belly shirt!!

That's it for me since I can't really update my Christmas present projects just yet.

Priorities:
1. Niece's pullover
2. Hat for myself (waiting for the yarn to get here)
3. Gloves for myself (waiting for the yarn to get here)
4. Figure out something to do with the 10 balls of mohair I just bought from my knitting group
5. Figure out something to do with yarn I got in New Zealand (probably a nice cabled scarf like one my friend is making, so I guess that #5 is really: learn to cable!)

Charity quilt finished and bought

I finished the charity quilt on Tuesday and it was auctioned off on Wednesday for $50. I didn't take a picture of it completed, but here is one of it with pins and basting threads. It was finished off with a black binding and a rod pocket on the back. I hand quilted in the ditch aorund the major designs and then around the inside and outside edge of the black thin border. I wanted to do more, but ran out of time.
Next project: Devin's pullover. I worked on it a little bit last night and it's a lot of fun to do,but kinda hard becuase you can't see your stitches because of the texture of the yarn and I keep forgetting if I'm on a knit of a purl row! We'll see how it turns out!!

Still need to make myself a running hat but haven't gotten any yarn yet so that will have to wait.

Mittens done, quilt on it's way

The mittens are done! Only 2 small problems. 1) a little hole in the crease of the thumb which is easily fixed with a little yarn and a needle 2) a "seam" where I moved from one dp needle to the next, not sure how to fix that. I tried rotating my stitches around the needle as I went, but wound up with a stairstep looking seam. They have yet to be blocked, so maybe that will help.

I've finally made some progress on the charity wallhanging. I put 2 borders on, layered, and pinned it this weekend. It's halfway basted. I've got 2 quilting schemes in mind, 1 if I'm short on time and another to add to it if I've got extra time. The deadline is coming fast, I've got 2 weeks and 1 day. At this point I can at least get a picture of it to put on the auction website.

That's all my crafting that I've done lately, been real busy with school!

One mitten done

Ok, the first mitten is done! It came out OK, but not great. I'll get a picture up soon. The thumb has a little hole in the little crease and I can tell where I was swithing from one needle to another because the stitches aren't even. But, for my first attempt I think I did pretty good. They will do just fine as running mittens. And it fits pretty well. I probably could have made the hand part just a little bit longer because the ribbed cuff comes up a little bit onto my palm.

I'm just knitting along lately! I like that I'm getting so much done, but I really do have to do that charity quilt. But can't make it to the fabric store until the hubby comes back from him conference. It'll get done though, it SHOULD be quick.

Shawl

Ok, here's the long awaited shawl.


It's a beaut isn't it! The other 3 are the same pattern. One made of the same yarn, but in purples and reds. One is made of kidsilk yarn and that one was way to big, so it has to be folded in half and the pattern on the back is lost, but it's so soft and warm that it makes up for it. The last one is made of a green, black, and metallic gold yarn; definitely appropriate for a night of barhopping in the city.

Don't have any pictures of the mittens yet, I'll take one when the first one is finished. 5 more rows then I start decreasing for the top and then I have to figure out this whole thumb thing! Should be fun and hopefully not much longer.

Shawl is finished!

Finally. . . the shawl is done. I worked on it most of the night Friday and didn't go to bed unti it was done. It looks great. It's not as big as the other one I did with the same yarn, Imust be knitting tighter, but it's a good length. It's triangular and the points go right to the end of my fingers so it should be a perfect fit on my sister too since we're the same height. Pictures are coming. I leant my camera out this week and should be getting it back soon.

Wanted to make it to the Hancock's sale, but that didn't happen so I still don't have fabric to work on the charity quilt. I'll have to get a move on with that. But, with the hubby gone this week, I probably won't get to the store. I did make it to a knitting store and got everything I need for my running mittens. I'm making the warmest mittens from the knit knack kit. I've fnished the ribbed cuff on the first one. I'm really enjoying them. It's nice to do something new, I've been making shawls for months now and I really needed something different.

Also started the sweater for my niece, but all I did was cast on the stitches for the front piece and then I got the supplies for my mittens and was too excited to start those. My niece is turning 6 this winter so I am making it in size 7/8 so it will fit her next year (just in case). I don't want to do all this work and finish it at the end of winter and she'll only be able to wear it once. It will be big on her this year (if I finish) and it should fit nice next year, granted I sew my ends in right and it doesn't fall apart at the first washing!!

OK, that's it for my update. I'll be posting pictures of the shawl and my mittens in progress in the next few days.

5 more rows

I did another 5 rows last night on the green shawl. Only 15 more. I'm absolutely determined to finish it this weekend. I'm going to Hancock's for a big sale they're having and I hope to get a border fabric for the charity wallhanging. I'd like to finish organizing the sewing room, it's close, there's just not enough storage, maybe I'll get another bookcase. Also gonna do some fun fall stuff with the hubby so we'll see just how much crafting I can fit in. That's it, Monday I'll be sure to post my "finished with the shawl!" post

10 more rows

Well, I knitted my fingers off lastnight and finished another 10 rows of the green shawl for my sister!! I unfortunately can't make it to my usual knitting group tonight, but we're having dinner with our good friends, so it's acceptable. We'll probably be out late, but I'll try to knit a little bit when I get back. It's coming along though.
I'm adding another project to my priorities, a pair of mittens! It'll be a little tricky for me, but I think that I'm up for it! Since my first pair of mittens will probably look a little silly, I think that I'll make them to match my running hat (which is also on the list) and then I'll make another pair to actually wear to work.
Hopefully my next update will be that the shawl is in the mail to my sister, and hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of this one!!

Shawl update

I'm trying my hardest to finish the last shawl. I've got about 80 rows of 110 done. It's slow coming with all the remodeling projects we've got going on at home. It'll be done sometime soon though. I've got a charity quilt wallhanging to make and I think that I will use a wallhanging that I already started called twisted star. I'd really like to hand quilt it and there is just no way that I could have time to piece and hand quilt something by the middle of November. Ok, well, that's just my little update.

Long time no write

Well, it's been quite a long time since my last post. I was working frantically on my surprise projects to try to finish them by my wedding day (Oct. 2). But it didn't happen of course. They are no longer a surprise. I was making shawls for my 4 bridesmaids. I finished 3 of them, but of course forgot to take any pictures of them before I gave them away. I'm still working on the last one, it's getting there. I've got 63 rows done and no longer have the wedding to occupy all my time so it should go a litlte quicker now. I'm doing about 110 rows on it, but it adds 4 stitches every other row so it seems to go on forever. I'm gonna try my hardest to get it done by the end of the month, but that may be hard. But, I left the last one for my sister who is also a knitter, that way just in case I didn't finish in time, maybe she would understand just how much time these things take and not feel like I didn't try my hardest!

The wedding was perfect, not a thing to complain about! But this isn't a wedding blog, this is all about crafts!! Oh, a craft related wedding surprise for me . . . my mom made me a wedding quilt. It's gorgeous! I'll get a picture up ASAP. It's a log cabin with a heart design all done in neutrals. We hung it up at the wedding and took some portraits in front of it.

Priority of projects:
1. finish shawl for my matron of honor
2. charity quilt for a silent auction. Not sure when I need it done by, but I believe the middle of November. (I have yet to pick out a pattern/fabric for this project, but I know I'm doing a wall hanging.)
3. hat for me - I need a hat to go running in and I can't stand the idea of buying one!
4. sweater for neice - I've got all the yarn/needles/pattern for this, just need the time.

That's all I have planned at the moment.

First Sweater

I decided to try to make a sweater. I made this for my nephew since it would take the least amount of yarn (he's a little guy!) I used homespun yarn, 2 skeins colonial blue, 1 skein cream. It worked up very quickly. The front, back, and sleeves were worked up as flat pieces then sewn together. I then had to pick up stitches along the collar and knit a few rows of stockinette so it would roll over. The cuffs and bottom are done in garter and the rest is stockinette. The pattern was on the label of the homesupn yarn and is also available on the lion brand website.
I'm gonna try to make one for my niece now. A little pullover with a front pocket and a hood. I can't find the yarn that it calls for in the store, but I'm going to order it online. It'll be bright pink, perfect for a little girlie girl!!

Pictures!

I finished my craft barter quilt this weekend. I think it turned out perfect, of course!
I also finished the little companion bags for my sisters. This one is for my older sister, done in the same colors as mine.


This one is for my little sister. I was a little worried that the colors wouldn't have enough contrast. But I think it's my favorite one! It was also done in bulky and the rest were done with worsted weight. It turned out a little bit bigger than the other ones and the strap seems to be just a little bit too short, but I have no yarn left to make another one. It can still be used as a shoulder bag though. And if the straps are pulled all the way through it works as a longer purse with a pretty secure closure (the same goes for the other ones).

Here's all three that I made, with mine on the right.Next up: I need to get some small needles and I'm gonna attempt some socks. Nice and small project for the middle of the summer! Quilt wise, I'd like to get to work on the blue and white quilt again, but it's just too hot. I'll have to go home tonight and look through my stash for the next project. Maybe I'll work on the shop hop quilt my mom got me at the Quilt Festival in Houston 2 years ago!! It's main fabric is a pretty burgandyish floral, if I remember correctly.

Bag lady.

More pictures of bags are coming! I lent my camera to a friend to take some pictures of her craft projects. So I'm going to take pictures this weekend and hopefully get one bag felted (maybe both if I feel ambitious enough). The bag for my older sister has been completed. The one for my little sister has the straps done and is about 8 inches tall (the pattern calls to work it until 10 inches then begin an i-cord bind off). Any day now they'll both be done.

I'm going to try making a pair of socks when the bags are done.

The craft barter quilt is almost done. I've got the binding sewn on for 2 sides. 2 more sides, then make a label and sew it on. I'm gonna try my harest to get that done before the end of the weekend. I do have house chores to do as well though. And I've got a home inspection for a dog adoption which means I should really get the lawn mowed and house cleaned up pretty well. That's Saturday afternoon though. Which leaves the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday to craft my brains out!!

Bags, bags, bags!!

Ok, I'm officially bag crazy! I love these felted bags. It's a quick project with a really cute end product and I feel like I've actually done something with my time. I finished the bag part of the one for my older sister, it's the same colors as the last one I made, but it's mainly the ganet color since there was the most of that left. I also got the yarn in for the one for my little sister. She wanted grey and green. The colors are very pretty, but there's not much contrast. I'm a little worried about how well the stripes will show up. But, if she doesn't like it I can always keep it around for an auction my friend wants to have to benefit another friend's assistance dogs. The yarn is also bulky weight, I thought it was worsted. I guess it will make the bag a little bigger, but I'm working on the same size needles and the pattern does call for either worsted or bulky. I can just let it go another cycle in the washing machine and it should shrink down to the same size.

Once I finish the straps on my older sisters bag, I'm going to felt it and post more pictures.

NY trip

First off, here's my finished felted bag:


I love it and already have some requests from my sisters! Anything to keep me knitting! I can't believe how much it shrunk.

I've been in NY for a week visiting family and planning my wedding. I managed to squeeze in time to get the craft barter quilt pinned. I think it's absolutely gorgeous (I'm a little biased, you'll have to judge for yourself). I'm tempted to make something similar for myself. But I've got lots of other quilting projects to do first!
I just have to tie it and put the binding on. I'm going to use pearl cotton to tie it and the binding will be the same black that's used for the outer border. It should be done soon, but the 100 degree weather may slow me down a little. Who wants to have a huge quilt (super queen) sitting on their lap to tie in the dead of the summer? But I do really want to finish. This may be a time for air conditioning to come to the rescue.

Felted Bag WooHoo!!

Here's the first hat and scarf I made. Very simple scarf, just garter stitch. And the hat was a simple knit two, purl two ribbing.
I've been having tons of fun with the felted bag I'm making. It's almost done. I've got it drying right now.
This is what it looked like prefelting with a close up of the corner detail:














The felting process didn't take too long. I just put the bag and straps in with nothing else and after 4 agitation cycles it looked like it was felted enough. I'm blocking it right now and it will probably take a little while to dry. I was hoping it would be done by the time I left to see my family so I could show it off a little. But, I doubt it will be. I had a hard time finding the perfect sized boxes to fit inside. But I found a few boxes to fill it out pretty well. Here's what it looks like drying:
It had to be trimmed cause the mohair was crazy. I still need to trim the inside, but that can wait. It's adorable! I can't wait to use it. It's a nice purse size, but I have to see how practical it will be.

Blue and white quilt, take two

Well, looky here, it works! Here's my blue and white quilt that I'm making for myself and my hubby. I need to get backing material and layer it and then I'll quilt it by hand. That will take a while and I don't think that I'll have any desire to do it in the middle of the summer.

I'm excited to take picture of all my projects now and post them. I finished surprise project #2 a few nights ago (I can't post pictures of that until I give it to the person it's a surprise for). I've got two more surprise projects to go, but they're on hold for a little bit. It's the same pattern over and over again with different yarn. So, I'm going to make a felted bag. It's the My Little Companion one from Knit Kits or something like that. I'm a little disappointed with the instructions, but I love the yarn (Brown Sheep, Lamb's Pride). It just has the most beautiful sheen. I finished the bottom of the bag last night at our local S&B, and this morning I learned how to pick up stitches around the edges to start the body of the bag. I'll post pictures as I go along.

Blue and White quilt

WooHoo! I just realized how to publish pictures on this thing. Let's give it a try. Here's a picture of the blue and white quilt I'm making for me and my husband. Well, nevermind, that doesn't seem to be working for me. Damn Mac's.

First 8K

I ran my very first 8K yesterday. That's almost 5 miles! I did absolutely horrible and finished with a time of 52 minutes (place 316 out of 408). I'm a very slow runner and I've never really cared about it, but I'm starting to get a bit more serious and would like to actually finish with respectable times. Maybe one day, but I'm not thinking it will happen any time soon! No matter how slow I was, it was a good distraction from eating my way through the 4th of July.

I spent the rest of the day working on my knitting surprise project #2. I would really like to finish that so I can start making a felted bag that requires the same size circular needles. All day Sunday was spent working on my craft barter project where I'm making a quilt for a friend who's knitting me a sweater. I've got the top pieced except for the borders. It's going to be tied so it should not be too much longer til it's finished (but I've been saying that since I started). I don't nkow what quilt project to do after that. I think I'll work on finishing a blue and white quilt I started for me and my husband. I didn't have quite enough backing material (like a quarter of an inch short) and I thought I could cover it with the binding. But with all the effort that I put into that quilt, I'm not going to do a bad job on the backing. I'll have to unpin it and go buy some nice backing material.

My first hat

I knitted my first hat the other day! I'm pretty impressed with myself. I finished a surprise project last week and needed a break for a little bit before starting another surprise project (the same as the first surprise project, but with different yarn). So, I decided to make a hat to match a scarf I made. The scarf is just garter stitch, made with Lion's Brand brown yarn. The hat is a very simple knit 2 purl 2 pattern, using the same yarn as the scarf, but working with 2 strands at a time. As I was getting toward the end I realized that I didn't have enough yarn to do the crown. So, I just stopped where I was and decided to pull the yarn through the last row and pull it tight to make the top instead of shaping the crown. I think it turned out pretty good, it just doesn't turn up so much on the bottom as it was supposed to. But that's ok, a small sacrifice to avoid having partially used skeins in my house. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with it, but the hat project was to use up the leftovers from the scarf. Plus the only place I have to store craft stuff is filled with quilting fabric. I'll have ot start using up some of my stash before I buy much more.
I'm placing a limit on the number of projects I can be working on at one time. Three! Right now I'm working on surprise project #2 and I'm about to begin a felted bag. It's a kit I got from kaleidoscope yarns (www.kyarns.com). That store is going to become very dangerous for me. But the kit is for their my little companion bag. This will be my first felted project and I can't wait to get started on it. Of course it requires the same needles I'm using for surprise project #2. But I can get started on the handles, which are done on double pointed needles. My third project is going to be an attempt at a lace scarf using the leftover yarn from surprise project #1.
Of course there's always quilting projects going on too. I've got a craft barter going on with a friend. I'm making her a quilt and she's knitting me a sweater. That project is my first priority in my quilting projects. Then there's a quilt I'm making for me and my husband. It's the first one I'll have that actually fits on the bed. The other two I've made just about cover the top of a queen size bed, but are not big enough for 2 people to sleep under. So, I made a nice quilt top out of all blues. It's been layered with the backing and batting and is halfway basted. I hate basting though and I don't think that I even do it right, I don't use a hoop or anything. I still haven't decided on how to quilt it. That's all I've got started in the quilting world. But I've got fabric for another 5 or 6 quilts (I know all you quilters are thinking that's not much, but I'm only 26 and have only been quilting for a few years, so it's a lot for me!)
I've got to figure out how to put pictures on this thing and take pictures of my projects for everyone to see. And I have to write more often so each entry isn't a novel!
Happy Crafting!

Here goes nothing

Ok, so I see how this things works now. A little about me: I'm a graduate student studying marine science. My husband is a naval officer and I'm very proud of him! Although I do miss him like crazy when he's gone. I have been spending all my time lately trying to get into shape. I recently lost 70+ pounds and will be at my goal weight soon enough. A major player in the weight loss was running. I love running. I did a 5K this weekend and placed third in my age group (there were only 3 of us though!) I'm one of the slowest ones out there and usually finish with the 70 year old women, but I have fun and one day I'll care enough about my times to train to get faster. Right now I'm trying to run further and increase my longest run each week from 3 miles to 6 miles. I'm in the first week of the training program from runner's world magazine, which went pretty well. Next week I have my first 4 mile run, we'll see how that goes.
I'm also in the process of planning a wedding. Lots more stress than fun, but I'm sure the actually day will be great. I'm already technically married, but we never got to have a real wedding cause the Navy swept my husband halfway across the country and now halfway across the world. He'll be home soon enough and we'll have a real wedding and be able to finally start our life together. It's been tough cause he's been gone for 15 months now and I've been trying to focus on work, but there's no way to not think about him all day long. He's the best person in the world and I love him to pieces! We've been through a lot already. We lived in Rhode Island for a while when he was in officer training school. It was great and I would love to move back there one day. I hated my job there though, mailboxes etc. Yuck, but there were no other opportunites and no one will even consider Navy girlfriends for real jobs up there cause they know we're only temporary. After RI, we moved to Virginia. He did a 6 month deployment and then was home for about a year with a few weeks here and there when they were at sea. Then they transferred him to Texas for a year. Unfortunately I couldn't go along because of graduate school. Now he's overseas, but he's due back in about 2 and a half months. I'm counting down the days. . . 67!!
Other than thinking about my husband, work, running, and dieting I also like to do crafts. Right now I'm making a quilt for a friend who has a craft barter going on with me. I'll make her a quilt and she'll knit me a sweater. It's a pretty sweet deal. I'm also working on a knitting project, but that's a surprise for some friends so just in case, I won't say anything about that for a while. Ok, well, I guess that's all there is to say for now. I'll just be posting random stuff, I guess that's what these things are for!

First post

This is my first attempt at a blog and I'm just seeing how it works. I'm sure I'll add much more later.