Puffs

I've just reached a milestone in my knitting career:

My first sweater! It's all done, and I'm really excited to be able to say that. Just one problem: I don't really like it! It fits fine (which is a miracle because I never really measured for gauge), but I'm not a fan of the sleeves. Looking at the picture, they're flat and normal and everything, but on mine, they puff like nobody's business. And unlike Anne, I don't like puffed sleeves! I'm not sure if that's something I can fix, but I will be looking into it.

Oh, and did I mention I learned how to do set-in sleeves? I'm very proud of myself. :) I used this video, which was really helpful. (Although she did say that set-in sleeves are the most flattering and fit the human body the best. So maybe I just screwed that up really badly?)

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about upcoming projects. Specifically, gifts. A couple days ago, I borrowed my mom's address book and made a list of every occasion I want to make a gift for for the rest of the year. My first project is finishing off the Pooh latch hook. Yeah. I know I posted that over a year ago, and that was at least a year after I finished it, but it's still not done. It's still going to my aunt, but I'm not sure if it's going to be in a frame (my original plan) or a pillow, or something else.

Enjoy your Easter if you celebrate, and have a nice weekend!

I Forgot

I thought of a really clever title for this post earlier, but now I have no idea what it was. 

First, check out my sleevies:

At first I thought they were different sizes, but I think they're okay. I also just wanted to show you my notepad:

See? Very full with numbers and scribbles and such. (I blurred out my to-do lists on the computer so you guys won't see how insane I am. As if you can't already tell!)

I would just like to say that picking up the 172 stitches for the neckline was a beast. (Well, less than that. Some of it was on stitch holders.) I'm almost done with the first round, which was also kind of a pain, but after that it should be smooth sailing! I was going to wait until I finished that round to post, but I'm running late and my aunt and uncle will be here any minute. Gotta run!

999

My Blogger dashboard is my home screen, so every time I open Safari, I see the basic stats for my blog, the Google Reader thing, stuff like that. And all day, I've been watching the page views count. And all day, it's been 999. Even though I know most of the page views are spam, I'm still sort of excited that it's about to be 1,000. Okay? So, if you're reading this right now, thank you.

Anyway....

More sleevie! I know it doesn't look like much, but it does go pretty quickly. Hopefully, I'll have the finished sleeve to show you tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, I just found out my aunt and uncle are visiting. Apparently they're just passing through, so they'll just be spending the night, but it does throw something of a wrench in my plans. I figured out in December that people don't like it when you work on a paper while they visit. So I'm going to go bust my butt and do extra so I don't fall behind! (Don't worry I'll knit too! :) )

Joke Time!

Here we go. Where did George Washington keep his armies? In his sleevies!!!! (It's funny. Laugh. Moving on.)

As always, the nonsense is somehow tied in to today's post:

I finished a sleevie! (And yes, I am going to say it like that for the rest of the post. Deal with it.) It really didn't take that long, which I definitely appreciate, seeing as there's two. I'm not sure if I'm going to start the second one tonight or tomorrow, but it'll be soon. Once I do that, all that's left is assembly and figuring out how the heck you're suppose to pick up stitches for the neckline. Wish me luck!

Spring Cleaning

Before I get into the real subject of this post, here's a quick progress check on the TTT:

I finished the front (yay!) and started the first sleeve. I have to admit, I had a bit of trouble making this work. Some time after I split for the neck, I realized I had way too many stitches on one side. I had to carefully rip back, while counting the rows. Then, since my scratch paper was getting kind of messy, I had to do a bunch of math to figure out where I was in each set of shaping. (And this was while trying to watch X2. I finally just put the knitting down. And yes, I am very upset about Jean.)

So now on to spring! I think I've mentioned before that I'm the kind of neat freak that gives us all a bad name, right? My room has to be spotless, or I start getting really annoyed and end of cleaning at 6 in the morning just to stop the insanity. Ahem. Anyway, although I am not the kind of person that needs a push to clean, I did start to feel it this weekend. On Saturday I put away my heavy sweaters and pulled out my summer clothes, and yesterday my dad helped my manhandle my mattress so all the bedding could get washed. (Thanks Dad!) I also helped my brother clean out his closet for the first time in years (he did not inherit the clean gene), which is where these come in:

Nice new/old bins! I used to have these in that spot:

but my brother and I got rid of so much junk I got to have four sliding bins. Much easier than having to move all of the stacking bins to get to the bottom one! Here's a quick peek at what I'm storing in them:

The top drawer is mostly knitting, but I do have my crochet hooks and a bit of thread in there, too. As you can see, I am due to make another needle roll for my DPNs. The next two drawers are both sewing:

First, I have some patterns and notions. The blue tray goes in a sewing box, but I have so much fabric I had to take it out! :) The next drawer has felt and some floss. I had no idea before today, but I actually have a lot of DMC floss. What you see there doesn't have numbers (and a few aren't DMC), and everything else was sorted into my system. You may remember that I hit a roadblock with the HP cross stitch when I realized how much floss I needed to buy. Well, this may have solved part of the problem! I need to create an inventory of some kind so I can figure this out, but hopefully at least a few of the colors I need are in those bags.

The final bin is my repurposing bin, which is currently kind of hard to open. This is mostly because of the large number of old jeans that are in there, waiting to be made into something awesome. Once I start using some of those, it'll be a lot neater.

I'm looking forward to looking more closely at the floss, but right now I have to go read forty-odd pages on Tesla. You jealous?

I Have a Neck!

When you guys were kids, did you ever draw people without important body parts? My thing was hands. For some reason, I just left them out of all of my *ahem* beautiful pictures. (For the record, I still can't draw to save my life.) Some of my friends had a different problem, though. They left out necks. (Hm... There was a point to this.... oh yeah!) As you can see, I do not have that problem right now:

I pushed hard this morning, and I got to the neck shaping! Awesomeness! Now that I've hit this checkpoint, I've realized that I'm actually getting close to the end. My spring break is next week, so I'm going to try to have the TTT done by Easter. With the way our weather's going, I'll probably be able to wear it, too! (Grr. I hate cold wet stuff!)

Have an amazing day!

Just A Little More!

As you may be able to tell form the title, I am drawing very close to the shaping for the TTT:

This is just a smidgen over 17 inches, which leaves less than half an inch to go! Hopefully I'll be able to pull that off before I post tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Watches and Frogs

Hi guys! I hope you had an awesome week and as even better weekend! Sorry for not posting last week; my real life was sort of insane! But I did get some things done this weekend, so let's do this!

First, I need to tell you that I'm sort of obsessive about knowing what time it is. If I don't have an easy way to find out (a watch) I kind of freak out. It's not normal! So when this happened, I was predictably upset:

I honestly have no idea how this happened, but a chunk of it just fell off. I didn't do anything that was rougher than normal, so it's sort of a mystery to me, but I did know I had to do something. Enter weird crafty stuff! First, I cut off most of the strap with all the holes on it, which left me with this:

 Then, I marked and cut a little hole to put a slip ring through:

which was way harder than it should have been. For some reason, the slip ring requires a hole that's much bigger than it is to go through. Then, I took another slip ring, and did a basic friendship bracelet to create a little strap. I used a lobster closure and one of the original holes to have a way to take it on and off.

This definitely isn't a perfect solution, but at least I know what time it is!

I also made knitting happen:

You are looking at almost 16 inches of TTT front. For those of you keeping track, this means I have less than two inches to go until my next round of shaping. I would probably already be there, but I had a little issue yesterday. I think I've mentioned that I split each skein into smaller balls before I started using it, and yesterday I got to the point where I needed to join another ball. I tried it sort of in the middle of the row by knitting a few stitches with both strands of yarn, except somehow I ended up with three, so I had some awkward bunching and loops. By the next row, I had an unidentifiable loops, two hanging strands, and a major headache. I tried just dropping the offending stitches, but I sort of screwed it up, so I ended up frogging to about 1.5 inches back. I was smart about it, though, and I put a sort of lifeline through it before trying to rip. It wasn't perfect, and I went through the wrong stitches a few times, but it was definitely easier than trying to do a whole bunch at once! The whole thing wasted about an hour, but the second time I tried to join the new ball, I just started on with the new yarn and loosely knotted the ends. I'll make it pretty later!

Details

I'm sure you all noticed that yesterday's post was.... um... lacking? And by that I mean there was very little detail about anything I mentioned. Today, I shall fix that! (You may find it helpful to have yesterday's post open while you read this.)

• First, the captain's hat. This was the last one I did, and I honestly had no idea how to do it. I thought it should be a little taller at the front than the back, so I took a rectangle and cut it. My original plan was to use the piece on the bottom of the picture, but I decided the other piece was a better size, so I used that instead. I wasn't really a fan of how it turned out (it looked like the next Mario Bro) so I trashed it and tried again. It turned out a little better the second time! I just stitched on a little crochet chain for the trim.
• I sort of already said this, but the construction hat was really simple. I used the same pattern as the baseball cap, then sewed a strip down the middle instead of the circle. I also made the bill a lot smaller. Piece of cake!
• I didn't mention this at all yesterday, but I did go to Michaels on Friday. I picked up three sheets each of yellow, white, black, and blue felt, and a styrofoam ball. I didn't end up using the white, but I was already out so that's alright. I used the styrofoam ball to shape the baseball cap and construction hat, which worked, but wasn't perfect. They're now covered in little pieces of styrofoam on the inside, but that's okay.
• I just want to say that the glue worked amazingly well. Honestly, I had my doubts about it, but it definitely worked. Just a note, if you do this, make sure you give them plenty of time to dry. I had to wait overnight until I could attach the tags. 

Hopefully you now have your fill of details, so I'm going to get back to work on the TTT!

Spring Forward

This is going to have to be fast, so I'm doing sort of a photo essay. These were the pieces I cut out for my first try at the captain's hat:

I was going to use the bottom, but I ended up liking the piece I cut off better. This turned into that:

 But it was way too Mario Bros for me, so I tried again and made a new one. (No individual pics, sorry!) Here's all the hats before the glue:

The construction hat was made using the baseball hat pattern, with a line down the middle and a smaller brim. Random during shot of the glue process:

As you can see, I used a styrofoam ball to shape the baseball and construction hats. If I do this again, I would definitely try something else. The insides of both hats are covered in little pieces of styrofoam.

I did the glue yesterday afternoon, and they weren't really dry until this morning. I added the tags:

and now they're totally done. I'm turning them in tomorrow, along with the rest of my project, and I'm glad to have them off my to-do list!

Sorry for the quickie, but I'll have more details tomorrow!

More Hats!

First, I would like to ask you to please excuse the horrendous pictures in this post. My camera and I are currently not speaking.

And it's just one hat:

That's Hat #2, for anyone keeping track. Now, if I was on schedule, there would be two other hats (or at least 1.5), but I had to alter my schedule a bit lot. I barely had any white, blue or black felt when I started these, and after using most of the blue and white to make the baseball cap, I really have almost none. I also haven't had any yellow felt for ages. (This is mostly due to the fact that I haven't done much with felt lately.) This is sort of problematic, because the second top hat is black, the construction hat is yellow with white columns (still working on that one), and the captain's hat is blue. So instead of making hats, I've been doing every other part of the project. This included making a brochure about the State Department, making a "Bag-It" about United States v. Nixon, and making "price tags" to attach to the hats.  I've even already cut out the elephant and donkey that will go on the second top hat:

I should be able to go to Michaels tomorrow, so I'll be able to make the last three hats this weekend! (Which is good, because all that stuff is due on Tuesday.)

I got to stay home yesterday because of "inclement weather." (Snow day!!!!) I was super happy because I got to watch Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor! Don't worry, I put my down time to good use:

I'm now up to over 12 inches! Plus, do you see that little tiny ball? That's right, I'm about to start skein #2:

I gave my wrists a break this morning to start winding.

So basically, I'm super thrilled with my progress on everything, and I can't wait to get back to work. So I'm going to stop here. Goodbye!

Mini Top Hat Tutorial (Sewing)

Materials:

1. felt
2. needle, thread, etc.
3. sharp scissors

Step 1:

• Cut out a felt rectangle: 

• To get the size, fold it into a tube (hamburger style). It should be about an inch longer than you want it, and a little taller.
• This is the point where you add any kind of embroidery, applique, etc. Trust me, it is a pain to try to do it at the end. (And I'm speaking from personal experience here. Don't laugh!)

Step 2:

• Sew the short ends of the rectangle together with the right sides together:

 Step 3:

• Put the tube on some more felt and trace around it, leaving a lot around the edge:

• It should be bigger than you think it needs to be. If it looks right, it's too small. (Not that I had to pull my first one off and try again or anything.....)
• Don't throw the scraps away; you need them later!

Step 4:

• Sew the circle onto the tube:

• For this hat, I did this while the tube was still inside out. I've done it the other way before, and I think I like it better.

Step 5:

• Using the scrap from step 3 as a stencil, draw another circle onto more felt:

• Then draw another circle around it to make a donut shape:

• Once again, if it looks big enough, it's not. It's easier to trim or take it in than to rip it out and start over.

Step 6:

• Cut out the donut:

• But beware: this is the only time bigger is not better. Cut the inside circle smaller than the line you drew.

Step 7:

• Sew the donut brim onto the center of the hat. (I don't have an in-progress picture of it, but I think you can figure it out.)

Step 8: 

• If you cut the inner circle too big, you're not alone. I totally did that too. Lucky for us, I also have a solution:

• Seriously. Just cut a slit in the brim. I suggest trying to make it line up with the seam of the tube, so you don't end up with this:

• You can now just pick one of the strips to sew on. Once you're about a 1/2 inch from the end of one strip. you can sew them together (making sure the seam allowance points down). 

You're done! There are an infinite number of uses for this: make one of those headbands, use it for doll clothes, or if you're me, slap a dollar sign on it (aforementioned applique) and call it a Civics project.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Happy sewing!

One Hat, Two Hat; Red Hat, Blue Hat

I would just like to say now that I was originally going to have a ton of pictures today. But I decided to save some of them for tomorrow, when I'll be posting a tutorial for the top hat. So, today will be mostly for the baseball hat. I took more pictures than usual (that's not saying much), so you can actually see it coming together.

First, I cut out the pieces:

For a pattern, I used the picture from this site (about half way down the page). Since this is a project about the president, I went all national colors on it. Then, I hand stitched all the triangles together, with a little circle to cover up the center:

(Aside: Doesn't this kind of look like the radiation symbol? I feel like I could use that...) Here's a picture of the back:

Up to that point, it was pretty simple to get everything lined up. Then came the visor. When you put it how it's supposed to be, it lines up fine, right?

No problem. But when you put the right sides together to sew, it obviously doesn't work:

This involved some tugging, stretching, and pulling, but I promise, it will work. And the finished product:

I think it's really cool. My plan is to do something like this to all the hats to make them stiff. I'm also hoping that will help the cap keep its shape. Then, I'll add "price tags" with the information I need. I'm also done with Hat #2:

Once I finish stitching the $ on I'll be good. I'll have more details and pictures tomorrow.

RDJ Marathon

First, check it out:

That's about 3-ish inches of the front of the TTT. (That was completed during the viewing of Sherlock Holmes (with Robert Downey Jr.), an excellent movie. Creepy, but excellent.) Plus I worked on it a little this morning. I feel like the front might go a little faster than the back, and not just because it's less knitting (I think, don't hold me to that). I am seriously in the rhythm of the 3x2 rib, and when I get in the zone, I can really zoom through it.

I'm going to have to move my focus of the TTT for the next week, because I need to make five little hats representing five of the jobs of the president. That's fun stuff, right there. I've drawn out little pictures and planned everything out, so this week is going to have a lot of itty-bitty sewing. I've got a baseball cap, two top hats, a construction hat, and a captain's hat. And no, I have no idea how I'm going to pull this off!

If you don't want to read about anything but crafty stuff, have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow!

OK, we're good. I think I mentioned last week that I was going to watch Iron Man with my brother, right? We did. And then we watched Iron Man 2. Right after. Let me tell you, that is unprecedented in our house. And it was awesome!!!!!! I completely loved both movies, and I just found out that Iron Man 3 is coming out on May 3. Even more awesome!!!!!! Then on Saturday night, we watched Sherlock Holmes (again, unprecedented) and it was also spectacular. So basically my weekend was like a Robert Downey Jr. marathon with a ton of homework in between. Not bad!

I also redid my desk yesterday afternoon, which basically just means that I took everything off, dusted the whole desk, then put everything on in a different way. This is what I do for fun. Sad, no? Anyway, I want to do the same with all my craft stuff. The way I have it now is working, but I want it to be even better. This will take more planning, but I'm looking forward to it! (After the hats. Gotta stay focused on the hats.)