I loved how the sock yarn sleeve turned out. For my second try, I picked a yarn with lots of thick and thin weights. Not sure if I’m liking it as much. I’m going to try one more in worsted weight and then post the formula.
I wish I had taken a picture of the completed sleeve with my real camera. The yarn is so beautiful in real life. Alas, I’ve already gifted it. Plus, I promised myself not to stress over perfection. Moving on and trying to stay in the flow.
Last year I sewed a bunch of sleeves and wallets to give with gift cards. Since my sewing machine is still collecting dust, I decided this year to work on a crochet version.
I found a lot of cute patterns on Ravelry, both crochet and knit, but the ones I liked were written for a specific yarn weight. I want to use up little bits of leftovers for this project and don’t feel like dealing with gauge math for every single one.
So, I’m working on a formula, which I will share once I’ve got it figured out.
What are your favorite ways to give gift cards?
Last Saturday night my daughter was in bed by 8 pm. My husband was asleep by 8:30. I was bored. I pulled up some concerts on YouTube and started jammin’ out.
Even though Honey Cowl isn’t finished, I wanted to do something with yarn. Something new. Something with a hook.
I grabbed a bag of yarn balls and just started chaining. I may have gone overboard. Toward the end, I decided to make granny scarf. A very long granny scarf, in fact.
It felt good. I missed my hook. Double crochet clusters make me so happy.
If you spend time on Facebook and Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a lot of red squares with pink equal signs. It is a way for people to show their support for marriage equality. I wanted to do more than just change my social media avatars, so I knit up a little pin.
I don’t often knit with two colors, and I tried this a few different ways. Intarsia was easier, but too many ends to fiddle with. Duplicate stitch over a red square looked just ok. I even tried crochet, but the lines just weren’t straight enough. Fair isle won out in the end.
I’m offering the chart with the disclaimer that when it comes to fair isle, I really don’t know what I’m doing. Even though I checked my gauge and made a chart, my first few tries came out more rectangular. I wound up adding a row of red to the top and bottom to even things out. Blocking into shape was also a must.
notes: Red yarn was Lion Brand wool. Pink yarn was a random soft acrylic from my odds and ends bin. I used size five needles. Finished size is 2 x 1 3/4 inches. I also found some great video tutorials that helped me out.
— How to Knit Fair Isle with Two Hands
— How to Knit Fair Isle Neatly in Purl
— How to Carry the Yarn Across the Row
Also, here is a site where you can generate and print graph paper according to your gauge.
Remember the first prayer pillow I made? Well, the recipient’s sister was baptized last weekend, so I thought she should have one of her very own. Everything came from my stash. My daughter approved the colors and fabric.
I had some more expensive transfer paper on hand and found I didn’t like the way it worked as much as the original paper I used. I do like how it looks all distressed, but I can’t see that look working for all kinds of projects.
My daughter is really worried about getting pinched today, so I whipped up a little green hair tie for her. Pattern here. Enjoy!
It’s making a most excellent fort for today’s snow day.
Here’s some more fabric I found squirreled away in my craft closet. I remember buying this vintage seed bag at a garage sale hoping that big stain on the front would come out in the wash. It only cost $1, I think. Not that big of an investment.
I still like the typography, but I’m not sure what to do with it now. I found two small bank bags from Nebraska, as well. What I was planning to do with those I’m not sure. They’re too small to be sock knitting bags, which I was doing a lot of back then.
Keep or toss? Embrace the imperfections? Deconstruct and cut up? Such dilemmas.
I’ve been going through my crafty stash and the latest supplies subject to decluttering have been fabric and sewing notions. I found quite a few things I had squirreled away for future projects that never happened, one of which was this doll quilt.
I bought this at an antique show years ago with the thought of turning it into a tote bag. It’s definitely seen better days, but there’s something about the fabrics that I really love.
I’m not the only one who loves them. When my daughter saw this she immediately began to campaign why it would be the perfect quilt for her doll Bitty. As you can see, she was quite persuasive. Even Pinkalicious likes it.
I can’t believe it’s been over three years since I made my gift bag resolution. Since then I’ve been reusing bags we have been given and making bags when I need them. The only bags I’ve purchased are plain kraft bags. Wow. I impress myself.
Although I like the practice, I’ve been rethinking the drawstring gift bag lately, and wondering if I could do more with it. The whole point of making a simple gift bag is that it’s simple. I don’t make a lining or finish the inside edges aside from serging. If it takes too much time to make, I won’t do it.
Most of the bags I make are for kids’ gifts, so I started to think, “What kind of bag would be most fun for both boys and girls?” The answer I came up with was the drawstring backpack.
However, while that pattern isn’t hard, it’s not simple either. I wanted to stick with my no lining, serged edges policy. The result is essentially a drawstring bag with straps: when making a regular drawstring bag, add bottom loops when seaming up the sides and make the drawstrings longer. It’s almost too easy.
I used all four threads on my serger to make the seams extra sturdy and reinforced the stitches by the loops. It’s a gift bag, not a rugged backpack, but you never know what kinds of things a child will want to carry around.
stash: Batman fabric in my stash was free. I think it came from a friend of a friend. It was an odd shape, clearly leftover from some other project. It took some creative thinking to get two nice-sized pieces out of it. White cotton twill tape originally bought to make labels for myself, but they didn’t work out.
oops! I just realized you can’t see the bottom loops in the photo. They are the same as the loops over here.