4/28/13: Daffodil Time

Finally back and writing up a blog post. If you've been keeping tabs on me you would know that it's been nearly a month since I've posted. April is just whizzing by and I didn't even realize how long my absence has been!

In essence, I've been pottering along in various projects. A little crochet here, a little sewing there, no full-blown projects like the dresses you would find here and here. My sights have been moved towards other aspects of life since then and so I've been gravitating towards crafting that doesn't involve too much thought.

Crochet came to the forefront this month because a crochet-along was in the works. Back in February I started a crochet-along on a ravelry group (found here), and the chosen pattern was the Daffodil Bag designed by Marty Miller. It was featured in the March/April 2013 of Crochet Today magazine and is a great portable design because the bag is comprised of motifs that are later seamed by hand.

[ the original bag featured in the magazine ]

The object for me was to make this bag for Catherine so she could use it as her crochet project bag. This is how it turned out:

The yarn I chose for this bag was your typical go-to acrylic yarns: Red Heart Super Saver and Caron Simply Soft. It's funny to note that the first eight motifs I crocheted turned out to be completely wrong! They looked like this:

[ my motif of embarrassment ]

They should have looked like this:

Reason? Me! I was too much in a rush and didn't take my time to look at my cluster stitches. For some reason I kept on believing that a double crochet stitch was the chain I was suppose to work into. Next time, slower please!

Now about the finishings. I knew from the start that I wanted to line this bag, so Catherine chose a beige colored eyelet fabric we had on hand. Had some oddly shaped pieces to deal with so I had so seam three pieces together to form the lining. Here’s how I made it, step by step.

Found these measurements: Length and width of bag’s bottom. Height of bag (from bottom to highest point). Circumference of bag from the inside.

Bottom: 9” x 9”
Height (highest): 9”
Circumference: 25”

To figure out what fabric pieces to cut, I did some math. I wanted this lining to have its start as a tube. So the finished tube would measure 25” in circumference, and 15-1/2” in height. I arrived at the 15-1/2” measurement by adding the bag’s height (9”) to half of the bottom measurement (4-1/2”).

Added 1/2” seam allowances and 1” hem to all necessary edges.

I cut out the required pieces, seamed them together using a 1/2” seam and I created the lining’s bottom by folding in the sides like you would a Christmas package. I tacked down the folds with machine stitching; right in the area you would use scotch tape on your present.

I inserted the lining into my newly constructed bag and I folded under the top hem so that the fold just meets the crocheted, yellow border on the bag. I pinned the lining in place and slip stitched it to the bag.

[ eyelet lining sewn to top edge of bag using a slip stitch ]

So that’s how I made and inserted the lining. Now about the handles. Crocheted handles tend to stretch out of shape, especially with a heavy load, so I decided to stabilize the handles by machine stitching very narrow twill tape to the side edges. 

[ handles stabilized with twill tape ]

There you have it! Can’t wait to see my sister toting around this bag with crochet hook in hand. I've been teaching her crochet this year and they way she's been catching on, she probably could have finished this bag 2x faster than me. :)

The daffodils are finally blooming in my neck of the woods. . . Happy Spring everybody!

2/26/13: Finished Knit - My Sweet Pea Coat

Never been too fond of bulky yarn sweaters. That was until I started knitting my Sweet Pea Coat. You know, this jacket:

Now I'm a big fan. Especially when wearing my finished Sweet Pea Coat!

 

I finished it about a week ago but didn't take photos until late afternoon yesterday. The angled sun and the many trees were making quite the shadow show, but my sister (master of the camera), prevailed! :) 

As with many knitting projects I do, I followed the instructions for a size larger than I wanted and used my own gauge which was smaller than the original. I've done this with my Veste Everest vest, Acorns sweater, Liesl sweater, etc. etc. It always seems to work for me and this Sweet Pea Coat was no exception. It fits perfectly and I'm planning on lining it in the near future. I just need to see if I will have any leftover lining after I'm done with the 101 sewing projects I'm doing right now. I feel like I shouldn't tell you all the projects I'm doing. . . It will make your head spin! 

Speaking of sewing, I joined a fascinating sew-along this month and will be talking to you about that in the upcoming days. If you read sewing blogs at all you probably know all about this sew-along already, BUT come back anyway to see what plans I have!

Jump to this Sweet Pea Coat post to learn how to knit the pocket:

1/16/13: Knitting the Sweet Pea Coat

1/16/13: Knitting the Sweet Pea Coat

I'm back this week with my promised post on the jacket I'm knitting: The Sweet Pea Coat. My Ravelry project is here.

The Sweet Pea Coat was designed by Kate Gilbert for the Winter 2008 issue of Twist Collective magazine. The jacket is knitted using bulky weight yarn and it is done in pieces. The highlights to the design must be the wide, overlapping front that is closed with four buttons, (the hallmark of every sweet pea coat) the moss stitch hems and collar, and the very cute and useful pockets. 

The yarn I chose is the Knit Picks Full Circle Bulky in Fresh, which is a sage-y green color that has more green mixed in than gray. When I first pulled it out of the box I was a bit disappointed because I thought the yarn was going to be grayer than it turned out to be. It is, however, growing on me and I'm very happy with my color choice. It is also a single ply yarn and 100% wool.


I've always loved pockets so I was very much intrigued about knitting one. Once I got to the pocket instructions I soon found myself scratching my head and not understanding it one bit. Total knitting block. I went onto Ravelry to see if anyone else ran into the same pocket conundrum. According to members' projects, the pocket did cause them a knitting "hiccup" but all of them managed to make it through. Too bad they didn't leave any notes on how they got there! :(

I then scoured the Ravelry forums but came up with nothing. After all of this searching I did gather one bit of good information: other knitters had trouble and most of them left a note saying, "The pattern didn't make any sense to me, but I followed it anyway and I came out alright in the end." So I spent a good part of a Sunday afternoon with the pocket and after all was said and knitted, I had a finished pocket.

As soon as the pocket was finished I vowed to share what I learned in a blog post. This blog post idea soon turned into a video tutorial idea so I filmed the second pocket making and uploaded it to my channel.

See how I knitted the Sweet Pea Coat Pocket by clicking here.

Sweet Pea knitting has been coming along steadily. I have the BACK, RIGHT FRONT, 1 SLEEVE, and part of the LEFT FRONT knitted, blocked, and partially sewn. Just 1/2 of the LEFT FRONT and a SLEEVE to go. I've been having a little Sweet Pea vacation as of January so most of the jacket was knitted during my December "sprint." Not bad when knowing I started this project on 12/21!

[ the current status of my Sweet Pea Coat ]

I don't know if I'll go through with it, but I've been debating on lining this jacket. My reasons: it will make it easier to slip on and off, it will last longer, and, perhaps most important, it will give me the feeling of wearing a jacket instead of just a bulky sweater. What do you think? Lining yes or lining no?

1/13/13: More Knitterly Plans + Videos

The 2012-2013 winter shall go down in history as the "Winter of Knitting" for that is exactly what I've been doing since the temperature dropped. I've been knitting up a storm since the beginning of December and it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon.

Finished objects (FO's) so far this season have been the Crenellated Hat for my nephew, the St. Germain Hat for my neice, and this crocheted amigurumi doll for my brother. The knitting that is still in the works are the Sweet Pea Coat for myself, Holi Mitts for myself (started last spring!), the crocheted afghan that uses the African Flower motif (started in May last year), and finally, a design I've been coming up myself. I also have yarn all set for two other projects: the Coesite Hat and these socks.

Whew! I knew there was a lot going on but after writing all of this down I'm thinking I must be crazy. Yeah, really crazy. I'm OK with it, though. This is how I craft and I typically get things to the finish line, especially when the yarn is working well with the pattern. And everything is so far so good!

Crocheting has been particularly enticing as of late. Catherine has been taking "crocheting classes" from yours truly and she's kind of smitten with this whole crochet thing. It is so exciting! It is wonderful to have someone to crochet along with, I tell you, but I am worried about her. Crochet can be one addictive pastime! :)

My Crochet Today magazine came in the mail a couple weeks ago and Kristen Omdahl's Ruby Sweater was featured. It is one striking sweater and Catherine is going to take it on! So we both got onto Knitpicks.com to order Brava Sport for the Ruby Sweater, more yarn for my Sweet Pea Coat, and a few different yarns for a scarf she can practice on. Would you want to see it all? We put together a yarn haul video all about this knitpicks order.

See the Yarn Haul Video - Part 1, here.

[ yarn that will be made into the Ruby Sweater ]

Speaking of yarn, I went to the New Ewe yarn shop on my birthday again this year. I bought yarn for the socks I mentioned before and I bought yarn for Catherine so she can make a scarf for me and a cowl for Bernadette. Catherine blogged all about her upcoming projects here.

We also made a yarn haul video about the yarn shop visit.

See the Yarn Haul Video - Part 2, here.

[ yarn I bought at the shop ]

I really want to talk about the Sweet Pea Coat I am working on so I will be posting about that later this week. I'm also going to reopen the wild world of jean making this week so wish me luck with that! And last but not least, a royal blue A-Line might see its beginning stages soon. It's going to be one crafty January!

So have you finished any knitting project as of late? I would love to hear all about it!

12/7/12: My "Knitterly" Plans and Button Update

First my button update. In my previous post I was asking everyone their thoughts on what buttons I use as replacements on my Acorns sweater. Received a lot of great responses (mainly from Ravelry.com), but what it boiled down to is this: I'm going to keep the originals. Funny, I know. When my sisters learned that I was planning on swapping the buttons, they just couldn't see why I would want to do it. "I like those buttons!" they said. So I'm going to just keep them and maybe when I get utterly bored of them, I buy some leaf-themed buttons. Yeah, that sounds good.

So what "knitterly" plans do I have in store? Well, about six of them! I just recently made an order from KnitPicks.com when they were doing an awesome cyber monday sale. Ever since I started knitting I wanted to order from this company so it was like Christmas morning when the box arrived. I've been so excited about the yarn that I decided to share what I bought and the plans I have in store, via video. So check out my newest video on my channel by going here. Enjoy!

I have all my projects up and at the ready on my Ravelry project page. My rav id is needlestohook.

[ a little sneak peek ]

5/9/12: Sit Back and Enjoy + Design Passion

Sitting back and enjoying some small hands-on project can always calm me down and that's why I've been knitting a pair of fingerless gloves. I've talked about them briefly before. . . They're called Holi Mitts, a fingerless glove pattern designed by Jaya Srikrishnan, which was published in the Interweave Press book, ColorSTYLE. 


I am working them in the round on four double-pointed-needles. I casted on using the tubular method (which I just learned from this video), and knitted a 2x2 rib until the cuff reached 2.75" in length. Then it was time to start the fascinating slipstitch pattern that involves colorwork. The colorwork aspect of this pattern is what motivated me to start. It is so hard for me to believe: I've been knitting since I was 15 (which is about 8 years ago), but up to this project, I haven't done colorwork, except for my crochet afghan.

I was elated to find that the slipstitch pattern is incredibly easy. No need to worry about wrangling four different colors in one single row, this pattern uses only one color for two rows. Very happy about that! These mitts are just the thing for me right now.

How do you like the colors? Wasn't sure if these solid choices of mine would "jive" since the original pattern used spectacular variegated yarns. I'm very happy with the 21 rnds I've made so far! They look like a cheery quartet, don't they?

And for a side note. As if I don't have enough things filling up my days, I'm feeling the urge to design something yarn-y, knitty, or crochet-y. Just something! I came across a call for submissions from Petite Purls magazine. They're looking for designs for their upcoming Fall issue. The theme is cold weather colorwork. I don't know why but I really want to participate. The practical side of me says that is utterly stupid because a) I just started out in colorwork, b) I haven't made many children clothes, and c) I haven't designed much before. But the lofty, free spirit side of me says: go for it!

Tell you what, I'm going to dabble a little into this design plan of mine and see if the passion will carry me through. It won't hurt to try it out and see where I end up. Hey, it gives me the chance to play around with things I love!

2/5/12: Furry Fun

Are you ready for cuteness overload? Or adorable shock syndrome? Well, brace yourself for. . .

Ally my alley cat:

Are you OK? Yeah, I warned you. . .

So how do you like Ally? He's the crocheted version of the real life Ally who is a black cat with a purple collar and a lovey-dovey sort of composition. He will literally melt in your hand if you pet him. :) And that is the reason why I added a felt heart to his ensemble:

The crochet pattern I used for him was Alley Cats written by Pauline Abayon and published in Creature Crochet. The book, that came along with a kit, was given to me for my birthday last month and I have been wanting to make him ever since then. Learn more about Ally the cat by visiting my Ravelry project page. 

And what's this? Benny, another cat of ours, just had a litter and I thought she only had two kitties. . . Hmm. . .

 

2/3/12: How to Make Crocheted Buttons and a Skirt Update

Have some major news to share! OK, maybe not real major to most people, but for me they represent multiple hours of work, pricked fingers, and learning new things. :)

First: I made a crafting how-to video. Yeah, have been wanting to give this one a go for more than a year! The video is called How to Crochet Buttons a Different Way and I show you how to crochet a cover to fit around buttons so you can use those mismatching buttons you have lurking in your stash. I have a rather large stash that is an accumulation of my grandmother, mother, sisters, and myself so it is no easy feat to find five look-alikes. 

The video was published by a website called FaveCrafts and they have already uploaded it to their YouTube channel. Check it out.

They also gave me the ability to upload the same video on my YT channel. So here's that link. 

Please subscribe to both channels to keep up to date on any new videos coming from me. I have so many other ideas to turn into videos and I can't wait to begin on #2. Stay tuned!

And for the second half of this post. . .

I made my sister's Audrey Hepburn skirt! :)

What, you don't remember? That could be caused by me not touching the topic for months and months. Back in May of last year I blogged about my scheme of using a Vogue dress (the popular 9968) and making it into a tapered pencil skirt to bring to life a fashion sketch my sister Bernadette drew. After becoming kind of burnt out over drafting and fitting this skirt I put it down and just didn't pick it up.

So along came January and a new mindset. I mentioned in my New Year's post that I wanted to take things slower and to savor the moment. This little goal of mine made me motivated to take out the Hepburn skirt, and the monstrous to-do-list that was attached, and to take it one step at a time. And to learn new things as well!

There was still more fitting issues to iron out, lots of decision making, and lots of research but I finally made it to the finish line and I am very proud of the garment's workmanship.

Are you dying to see it? Don't have any photos of it yet because I just stitched the last stitch last night. But as soon as the right moment and lighting come around I will get a few shots to share!

1/21/12: Cabled Earwarmer for Catherine

When I went on my little yarn shopping spree, I picked up some soft, soft cotton/wool yarn in a fresh blue color to make an earwarmer for my sister. The original pattern (Cabled Headband by Jennifer Hagan), called it a headband but it will definitely be suitable as an earwarmer as well. So I casted on with my Cascade Sierra in color 47 on size 7 needles and managed to finish it in just a couple days. A really fast knit! Maybe too fast. . . Wanted to keep making those cables again and again.

So here is how it turned out:

And here are some pics for the finer details:

I made a small alteration to the pattern to make a narrow earwarmer. I simply removed the two stitches on either side to make the stitch count 24 instead of 28. 

It really was an easy pattern. The only bump I ran into was the provisional crochet cast-on that was recommended in the pattern. Never did this kind of cast-on before so I jumped at the chance to try it out. It seemed easy enough to cast-on but when it came time to remove the crochet chain and sew the two ends together, well, let's just say I had to go in with a crochet hook to pick up some running stitches. I think it would be a good idea next time to knit one row plain right after I cast on, instead of going straight to the charted pattern. 

Seaming aside, this earwarmer was a pleasure to knit and Catherine really loves the yarn, the color, and the coziness. Gee, what a little bit of knitting can do!

Want to see more? Visit my Ravelry project page.

1/17/12: Birthday Shopping

Birthday was last week so I went with my sisters to the local yarn shop to do some yarn shopping. I truly think nothing is more enjoyable than to leisurely stroll through a shop that has colorful fuzzy balls that could be turned into countless garments and objects. Really, nothing can come close to it. 

I've gone yarn shopping many a time via the internet but haven't gotten much of a chance to do local. Last year I did buy some yarn to make a felted purse and two years before that I picked up some Luna to make my Liesl. But nothing too recent. So it turned out that I became maybe, uh, overly excited about this trip of mine? Maybe? Probably a yes to that but it's OK by me.

So this is what I picked out from all the balls and skeins of temptation:

The eight skeins above are for three different projects. The first being the Cabled Headband by Jennifer Hagan that was published in the Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes:

Very pretty! This headband has already been knitted up (couldn't help myself), and is being used by my sister Catherine as an earwarmer. The yarn I used is Cascade Sierra in a blue very similar to Maui blue. I altered the pattern some to make it narrower in width. I removed two stitches on each edge of the piece to bring the number of stitches down to 24. I hopefully will come back and post more about this earwarmer and have a photo or two of the finished piece! 

And for the next pattern. I chose to do the Holi Mitts by Jaya Srikrishnan that was published in Color Style by Pam Allen and Ann Budd:

This book was given to me by Catherine for Christmas the other year and I've been eyeing these gloves ever since. Colorwork knitting is so tempting to do but so very intimidating at the same time. This would be my first colorwork project and I can't wait to start! I will be using four skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote in green, lavendar, blue, and white. Spring colors!

And the third and final project. This project, which I am currently working on, is the Ringwood Gloves by Rebecca Blair that was featured in the 2010 Deep Fall issue of Knitty magazine:

YES! I am doing the unbelievable feat of knitting my own gloves. Good grief--I can't even make myself believe it. :) Socks, gloves, fingerless mitts with half fingers, toys with tubular limbs. . . All of that has scared me over the years because of double pointed needles. But I am laying my fears aside and nipping the thing in the bud by doing the hardest thing I think I've done so far. 

Am I over reacting again? Definitely yes. Sorry, this is what happens sometimes, especially when knitting is in the same sentence.

Whatever the case may be, I feel like the gloves are coming along very well. I am able to wield the double pointed needles (very much unlike the time I was knitting a small stuff animal, please allow me to erase that memory), and I've made great progress. I will be posting more about the Ringwood Gloves later this week to explain some final pattern/yarn details. 

So there are my three birthday yarn projects and what fun they have been!

12/12/11: Listen While You Work

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Let's talk crochet for a minute.

I've been doing this type of needlecraft for many years now and I think have gotten farther along with it than any other type of craft I do. I don't know if this was caused by the amount of interest I showed, but rather, by the fact that it is easy to do. Really it is. And now I'm hovering back and forth over the idea of going further into this topic right now. Hmm, it sounds very tempting to me but I have an inkling it will take the rest of the evening to finish. So I will postpone that thought until later. You can exhale now. :)

The real reason why I want to talk crochet concerns the events of last month. During most of the month I was trying to squeeze in as much crochet time as possible to make some sets of handwarmers. I was to sell these handwarmers at a church bazaar on December 3 and wanted a good assortment. (I didn't wind up making as much as I wanted but I did sell a couple pair!)

The pattern I used was the Cabled Mitts by Brenda K. B. Anderson featured in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Crochet Today. I made them before as you can see here. It is a fantastically easy pattern to follow and memorize so there were many a moment when I was looking for something. . . You know. . . Something to preoccupy your mind when your doing "straightforward stitching."


I've noticed that many stitchers like to watch t.v. or listen to music when they're doing rows upon rows of stockinette or single crochet. Believe me, I gave the t.v. a try and I really couldn't pay much attention to either the program or what my hands were doing. And I am not a huge music fan (just can't seem to stay interested in most songs!), so what other choices were there?

Then audiobooks entered the scene last year. Received some free audiobook offers from Audible.com so gave The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and The Canterbury Tales a try. These books did perk my interest but they just didn't seem to work well when I was busy crocheting. If I missed hearing just a couple sentences I lost track of the story and I felt, because it was a book, I was missing out on a lot. And it was doubly hard to do this when there was a need to stop every twenty minutes or so (i.e. cooking, family, chores, etc.).

So there I was during November, busy crocheting away with a pattern in hand that enabled me to let my mind go gallivanting, and nothing was there to tame it.

Then the "Aha!" moment came. I remember searching through some knitting blogs during late October and found some authors compiling their very own podcasts. Yes, podcasts all about yarn, knitting, crochet, weaving, spinning. . . All the fun subjects. This whole podcast thing got me intrigued. So I downloaded a few and listened to a couple of their episodes. At the beginning I wasn't much impressed. I don't remember the names or whatnot, but I thought some of them were lacking in real content. A good portion talked about their latest WIP or UFO's, a yarn they love, or a festival they just came back from. All fine and good but nothing wasn't relating to me. It is hard to pinpoint where I found the problems.

Anyway, I last came to The Stash, the blog of the KnitPicks yarn company. Oh, I heard of this company from way back. I think it was the first yarn catalog that I ever saw and I have contemplated about buying their colorful, straight-from-Willie-Wonka's-Factory needles. But up to this date in time, I haven't bought a single skein or needle from them even though their forever in my yarn source list.

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And guess what I found on their blog. Oh yes. A podcast. And it has to be my favorite one to date, even down to the opening, transition, and ending music. I've already listened to an insane amount already. . . About 34 episodes. Yeah.

 

What I think is so remarkable about this podcast--besides having the ability to keep my mind preoccupied while crocheting--is the main host's infectious love for all things knitting and fiber. Her name is Kelley Petkun, and from what I've learned she is Irish, loves lace knitting, wears shawls, has a hubby named Bob, and has the unknown attribute to make anyone excited about what she's excited about. The last bit of info about Kelley may lead some people into trouble because on more than one occasion, I've felt very compelled to buy every yarn, book, or pattern she talked about on the show. I have to mentally restrain myself constantly!

The other KnitPicks staff members--Kerin, Alison, Jenny, Hannah, etc.--also host and are guests on the show. I really like when the in-house designers come in and chat (usually bringing along a sock to knit), because I am really intrigued about the thought process and design plans of knitwear designers.

Above everything else, I enjoy the interviews with book authors and designers the most. I like to keep a close eye on who designs what and it is always a pleasure to get to know the designers a little bit more.

So after about a year's worth of searching for a crochet/knit companion I think I found it in knitting podcasts. Now I am looking for more podcasts to listen to and maybe even find a good one in the realm of sewing. Let me know your favorites by leaving a comment below!