Hat progress, clothes, and some beads.

Hello again! I am working on designing a top, so here's what I have so far!

This is the pattern I drew for each section. They're 5.5" at the top, and it goes straight down to an eight inch base. (It was a very old newspaper, but I read the story anyway!)

This is the front part: orange, not that electric blue, and red.

The back is the rest of the red, purple, and green. In between the purple and the green is a slit at the top where I am going to put a zipper. I'm quite ambitious! :)

It was originally going to be a skirt made from these two fabrics, but I decided to try it out on fabric I liked less first. That was a good choice, because it was too tight as a skirt and I couldn't move my legs! I think I will make it curvy so it gets bigger faster, but I will have to research that.

I have about 4" done out of the 6" of ribbing before a decrease round and more ribbing. So I'm super excited!

Yesterday I made a bunch of jewelry, and I'm probably going to make more once I finish this. Anyway, these beads came from a gorgeous necklace from a friend that unfortunately broke after only two uses (by me, I think it was used) so I put them to new use. I made earrings, a bracelet, and a new necklace. The clasps are the same, because they were perfectly good. I just had to replace the string and restring them. Most likely, I will put a bit of hot glue on the earrings to make sure they don't fall apart when I wear them.

These are kind of Aztec-ish, and I didn't have enough of one color to do them exactly the same, so they're fraternal twins, of a sort. 

The different size beads didn't come together, I just thought they look nice next to each other. As you can maybe see, the necklace and bracelet are the reverse of each other. When I do this kind of thing, I don't like things to be exactly the same, just related.

I also made two more bracelets, but I haven't taken a picture of them. I did get a lot of compliments on those, so I'm going to make a few more to give to some of my friends that liked them. So, I'll take a picture of them all together. Most likely.

Some Things. And a Button!

Whatever happened to posting everyday?!? Well, I'm back, and I have some wild and wacky things.

This is my brother's Christmas present. The button is off-center, and it should have been skinnier and longer, but oh well!

I took a piece of tulle that was splattered with black and green paint and stitched a ribbon on to the short ends. At first I tried to pin the ribbon down, but it tore little holes so I didn't on the second side.

A while ago, I made these cell phone cases. I hated this one, so I ripped out the flap, redid it, and sewed on velcro instead of the button. It looks a little bit better, but the body and the flap are different gauges.

As you may have noticed, I added a button to my sidebar. I'm a Ravenclaw!!!!! (Go away little red line!) Nerds will rule the world! Harry Potter nerds will rule the universe!!!

Some Planning for 2012

Hello again! This post is a list of projects I want to do this year, and each of them will require me to learn a new technique.

OK, here's how this works. I have made a list of techniques I would like to learn this year, and matched them up with a project. For most of them, I have an idea of who a potential recipient could be, and I'm going to use colors that appeal to them. That way, I'll end up with some Christmas presents and have less of a rush next December! (OK, I had one present to make on the twenty-third that was finished in plenty of time, but this way I can make more.)

• Circular Needles-Tempting II from Knitty.

• Cabling-Staghorn Cable Scarf on About.com

• Beads-Lithuanian Wristers from Knitty

• Intarsia-Hipster (Knitty) charts on something simple like a small pouch

• Fair Isle-Fake Isle Hat on Spunky Eclectic

• Lace-Indigenous Shawl from Knitty

• Socks-Plain Vanilla Socks from Knitty Gritty

• Toe-Up Socks-

• Double Knitting-

•Extras: Buttonholes, Bobbles, Cabling with no cable needle (If I get done with all of these projects, then I will probably just do a swatch with these, not a whole project.)

As Promised-FOs and WIPs

Man, you don't post for two months, and then you get three in less than 24 hours?

This is one of the "unknown" projects. It's a tree skirt for my mom, which I started about the twenty-third, so I knew it wouldn't be under this year's tree. It's coming along, after some trouble in the beginning that resulted in bumps near the center and some strange overlapping issues. About four or five rows in, I learned that I crochet differently than most. I learned from a book, so I didn't know there were two loops you had to go through. I was actually crocheting through BLO or FLO (not sure which) without knowing it! This made a little thing in the center that actually looks pretty cool, so I kept it, and I'm doing the rest the "right way."

I took a picture of this as an afterthought: it's the Waterfall Wrap, which became the Waterfall Pillow, which is now the Waterfall Blanket, complete with a folded down edge.

I did the knitting for this a while ago, and I just recently felted it. It didn't get that much smaller, but it did get a little less scratchy, so that's fine with me. I still need to put a closure on it; I'm thinking maybe snaps instead of a button.

This is the beginnings of the Crown Braided Hat (I think) from Folk Hats by Vicki Square. I'm not really sure what the rule about posting pictures from books is, so if you don't have the book you'll just have to wait until I'm done! If I don't die from the six inches of ribbing first. I might have two by now, but then again I might not.

This may be Calorimetry from Knitty, but I don't know how much more 2x2 ribbing I can take. It's probably going to take a trip to the frog pond.

This is the hat! I love it! I used leftover Homespun from the baby sweater I made a while back, and I described the "pattern" in my last post. Or maybe it was two posts ago...

My dad's completed Advent calendar!!! (Yes, the handles are knitting needles!)

My mom's bulletin board. See the different ribbon? And the button? I hate that button...

Next time: More progress pictures for my WIPs.

Back Again, Am I? (2 Months of Pics, Part 2)

The next post was this week! But because I didn't even leave the computer, you have to wait for hat pictures. Sorry.

I had a brief foray into the world of needle felting, attempting to make the Heartfelt Bunny from Softies by Therese Laskey. It didn't really go that well, and it is taking a time out.

This is my Dad's Christmas present, before it was finished. There was a lot of hand stitching (see the pretty stitches?) and machine stitching (I don't like Velcro anymore!) and frustration, but it was worth it, because I think he may have liked it.

Behold my mom's Christmas present: a bulletin board for her new office. As you can (hopefully) see, it isn't finished in this picture. What happened was, I needed to use the staple gun, but I'm a little nervous around "tools," so I had to wait until I could have help, and when I finally could, I ran out of ribbon after only a three strips! I went to Michaels on Black Friday, but I couldn't find this exact ribbon, so I had to go back later to get a different one that still matched. Then I pinned all of the ribbon into place so I was ready to staple as soon as I had help. My mom loved it, and I don't think she took it into the office yet, so I will try to get a picture of the finished product soon.

I got this bag for Christmas, and I really like it! It has a lot of pockets, and I am using it to hold my WIPs right now (time out zone!), but I could definitely take this on a trip, maybe even as a regular bag!

I am trying to make a t-shirt quilt with camp shirts, sports teams shirts, etc. (Just a note for the sharp-eyed, there isn't anything wrong with the shirts, I just blurred out the years and the name of the camp.) On the bottom is the bottoms of all the shirts I cut up, which I may use for my evil, upcycling purposes. Muhahahahha!

 This is a little drawstring bag I made from a jeans leg. I thought I had posted about it ages ago, but I couldn't find any pictures of it elsewhere.

My aunt once made all of her nieces purses like these, which inspired me to make my own. The hardest part was stitching over the part in the middle where the zipper is: I kept on thinking I was going to break the needle! The strap is an old belt, and the purse hangs down to my knees, so I think I'm going to have the shorten the strap somehow.

 Next post: The finished product pictures of my parent's presents, what I made my brother, and a few projects that haven't come up yet at all!

And the hat. I almost forgot the hat!

My Last Two Months in Pictures, Part 1

It has been a while since I posted; I think the last post date was in November. Sometimes, I would just rather keep crafting! So here goes, and this is just the beginning!

The first three pictures are of the hem of that skirt I made. I have a deep, dark fear of sewing a real hem, so I did the "hems" before I sewed the front and back together. I probably should have checked to make sure they ended up at the same length, but I didn't even notice until a few weeks later, when I was planning to wear it. I didn't have time to fix it properly, so I just tacked it down with a few stitches so it wasn't as noticeable, and wore it like that. The waistband was a little too big, despite my careful measuring (yeah right) so I used a hair pin to make it tighter for the day. No one asked me if I made it, so I think that's a pretty good sign!

I made this for a friend as a thank-you gift. As you can see in the top picture, I tried to made the stockinette stitch bow before me. It didn't work, shown in the next two pictures. She was very surprised and pleased, so I think another success!

This is George the Elephant King from the book Softies, by Therese Laskey. I didn't make the hat or the collar, and I messed up the legs and the trunk, but he turned out pretty well, I think! I made another one in all blue, following the pattern notes more carefully, and it's a little better looking.

I took the Waterfall Wrap and turned it into a pillow. All I had to do was sew the short ends to make a tube, and cinch the ends. I found the idea on a free pattern card from JoAnn's.

This is a lot of different things, but most importantly, it is a hat. Now, anyway. In these picture it is half of a strip that was made into a hat used the same method described above, but only cinching one end. And I added a pom-pom instead of stuffing it. In the first picture you can see that I switched how I was connecting the colors midway through. I started by having a stitch I was knitting with both strands of yarn, but then I switched to something closer to intarsia, with a little twist (literally and figuratively). I will post a picture of my finished hat (as of noon today!) the next time I post, which may or may not be this week. Hope for the former!