I hate this Swap

It’s giving me a hell of a headache. Remember that great idea I had? Not so great. Well, I mean it was a good idea. It might have future applications. But under the weight of buttons and wonky placement, the yo-yos didn’t hold their 3D shape so well and it looked… well, stupid.

 

So that was ripped apart. But wait! I had another idea.

 

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I’m sorry- I cannot get a decent picture of it, so here’s two to give you some idea. I… don’t know if I like it. Honestly guys, is this something only a mother could love? If it is, I’m not pawning it off on someone else. This took forever and was such a pain. I’ll try two more of these because they’ll be different variations, and I’ll make my decision after. I’ve got a few more ideas up my sleeve if they don’t work, but I know one of the swap members is leaving in mid-December. It’ll have to be quick. Look what these damn ornaments have done to my couch! There’s only a Zylo-shaped spot left.

 Also, LAST DAY! It’s finally freaking over. It’s been great and junk, but damn. Damn! Now I just have to figure out how to put a badge on here and it’ll be great. But my wordpress page doesn’t seem to like me too much. It might be dicey.

Swap!

I am officially doing a swap. It’s so freaking exciting. Or it was, last night when I found out. Now that I’ve sat down and thought about it, I’m getting nervous. The ornament shape itself is turning out really cool. However, I’ll be adding a handful of buttons to each one and I’d like them all to be different. Now, logically I know that no one expects to like everything they get because we all have different taste, but I would be so pleased if they liked them. Some might be glitzy and shiny while others are subdued and vintage. There were a few websites listed for some of the people on my list, so I might stalk them and see if I can’t guess. Also, Miss Gioia is on my list! I visit her site and now I’m going to be sending her an ornament. Can I be stoked about that?

I’ll be sending out some of the Christmas scarves here pretty soon. I actually had a conversation with my grandmother the other day and she was telling me how wonderful it was to get something handmade. Score 1 Zylo. Also, she was telling me about the old quilting groups her mother had and how she still has several hand-quilted quilts that I COULD HAVE SOMEDAY! Score a zillion.

The boyfriend’s scarf has been started. This will be my first attempt at felting. This is also my first project with pure wool. I’m using bamboo needles and I found it very hard in the beginning. The yarn didn’t have any give and it wouldn’t slide off my needles easily. It started off very tight, but I think I’ve gotten the hang of it. I’m afraid of it curling even with felting, so I’m just going with garter stitch on this one. I’ve seen so many beautiful pictures and read all these blogs about knitting wool on wood needles. It just seems so rustic and romantic, and now I have a bit of that for my very own. I’ll have to see if it’s worth it.

December Challenge

Nablopomo is coming to a close and it tastes pretty bitter sweet. On one hand, I’ll be free again. I won’t feel rushed and have to pull something crafty out of my ass when all I’ve done that day is go to school, study, and pick my nose. On the other hand, I usually look forward to it. It’s become part of my daily routine. They say it only takes 3 weeks to form a new habit. While I won’t be posting everyday after November, I think I will be updating much more frequently then I used to.

This brings me back to the idea of monthly challenges. I’ve always loved the idea and wanted to do it, but never have. This was the first month and it sure helped to have people suffering blogging away with me. Only, finding monthly craft challenges hasn’t turned up many results. Plus, I don’t want to do just crafts, I want to challenge my life. I joined a Flickr group, Get Your Crafty On, where they host monthly challenges. I signed up to do a Christmas Ornament swap. I hope we get enough people because I think I have a cool idea and I’ve never done a swap before, though I don’t have much I can do with ornaments for myself.

Still, it doesn’t feel like enough. I don’t want another huge challenge like this month because, you know, Christmas Clusterfuck and all. But I will challenge myself.

I’m going to knit every day. It doesn’t have to be much, but I will keep finishing up these projects and moving on to learn more skills.

I’m going to read a book a week. I used to be such an avid reader. There are still times when I’ll tear through a couple books in a few weeks or so, but my usual reading is abysmal. Seriously, like 3 books a year and two are usually Harry Potters. There are so many more books I want to read and things I want to explore, but I manage to tell myself that I don’t want to read for whatever reason and I miss out. Not next month. I’m already into Wicked.

I’m going to cook one paper recipe a week. If you haven’t read my food blog, this might sound weird. I have a monumental stack of clipped recipes that need serious thinning. Is it so much to ask? To cook one paper recipe a week? No, but I’ve managed to avoid it before.

This sounds good to me and I’m excited about it. Anyone else have a December challenge? Anyone want to join me?

Rolls and Rolls

I had so much fun and liked the look of my sister’s scarf so much that I decided to make myself one. Then I remembered an old family friend who’d love one too, so I made her one. Then I remember another friend who’d like it, so I’m going to make her one as well. Plus I worked on my best friend’s scarf today.

 Here’s the skinny on the skinny scarves. I used two strands of eyelash yarn. One was Patons Cha Cha and I think the other was an off brand. They looked the same, but one was purple and one was all the colors of a peacock feather. I thought they looked great together. The trick to working with this stuff was to shimmy your stitches after each row to clearly see them.

 

Obviously, I had the benefit of using big needles. I did 6 stitches for each scarf. I made scarves that measured 58″, 42″, 30″. The longest is for my sister, the next longest for the family friend, and the shortest for me because it’s the perfect length to tie at the neck. I ran out of the purple first but only by two feet or so. Instead of adding the other ball I had, I just tied the end of the longer yarn to the end of the shortest and tied with the peacock color doubled over. It worked very well. With a ball each, roughly the same yardage, and size 17 needles you could get three scarves that were each 43″ long (3 1/2 feet) or two 65″ scarves (5 1/2 feet). Both are decent lengths for skinny, fluffy scarves. They’re light and pretty and can be worn for ornament anytime of the year.

 I also finally bought those huge yarn needles so I can do a decent job of weaving in ends. Up to this point, I didn’t really care. I guess I have no excuse now, huh?

On a Bigger Roll

So… I feel awesome.

Not only did I finish my dad’s scarf. 1 ball Bernat Alpaca on size 10 needles- 53″x 4-ish”

 

I also finished my sister’s scarf. 2 strands of eyelash yarn, size 17 needles, 52″x2″.

 

And have started on my best friend’s.

 

Yep.

On a Roll

Dude, yesterday when I blogged about the scarf it was 19 inches long. By the time I left the boyfriends house that night/morning, it was 33 inches. Maybe that’s not a lot to you. Maybe you can sit and knit for feet. But I totally can’t. The older I get, the more I realize that I have freakish creative ADD and can’t sit and do anything for more than 20 minutes. I counted it as a personal victory when I knitted 20 rows a day. Yeah, it’s bad. So this was amazing to me. I think I can knock it out in the next day or two.

This is just a little snapshot of last night. I liked the way the yarn, my slip, my skin, and the tiles all blended together to make a really calming, cozy scene. Plus, I had a fluffy bunny not three feet from me.

I’ve been trying to find charities that accept scarves. I heard the red scarf project has had to restrict people on the number they can send it because they’re getting so many, so that’s out for me. I also know there are tons of charities that accept warm things- not just scarves- for lots of people and reasons. There’s a ton of stitches I want to try out and I’d like to donate warm items rather than do swatches. So here’s what some searching came up with.

I found a list of knitting related charities over on this site. I also found a charity search function on the Lion Brand website that will make your head spin with how many charities will take scarves. Here’s another list from the Daily Knitter. Or how bout this one on Knitty.com or this one on BellaOnline? There are tons more. The problem now is deciding which one to do and what to knit. Decisions, decisions.

Progress and Thoughts

Dad’s scarf is coming along nicely. I’ve been knitting on it every day now and it’s over a foot and a half long. I’m still wondering why the stitches on the side are so huge, but it’s not a big deal. After his, I’m going to do my sister’s because I’d like to send them all out in one package.

Today is mostly a cleaning day; my apartment needs it. Badly. There are tons of recycled craft projects that I’d like to do, but saving up plastic bottles and cans and a million other things without cleaning them and with no place to put them isn’t good. I bit the bullet and put them in bags to recycle. There will always be more where they came from when I can make the time and place to do it.

I’ve seen a ton of Handmade Christmas badges around the blog world. I don’t think I’m technically participating since I’m not buying handmade, but I am hand-making from store bought yarn. Still counts as something better than buying my grandmother yet another cookie set. This blog, Journey of 1000 Stitches..., is doing a Homemade Christmas. I signed up for it, but can’t do buttons to save my life so here is a link to the post. I’m asking for lessons on granny squares from my mom. Alright, a bottle of good olive oil and balsamic vinegar too. I’m only human.

Big Christmas Tree

I finally started on my X-mas decorating. I’ve been wanting to do them for so long, but I think it’s tacky to go all red and green before Halloween. Waiting until Thanksgiving was the very epitome of patience on my part.

The idea was inspired by my desire for a non-tree Christmas tree and by the cone trees from Hobby Lobby and other decorating stores. You can see what I mean here. My Hobby Lobby has a cone tree that’s about 2-3′ tall for a whopping $35! I wanted something big enough to put on my porch, so I came up with my own idea. I haven’t seen any examples of it, but I know others must have thought of this too. Either way, here’s how to make your very own tree. All prices are rounded up to the nearest dollar.

Start by buying a tomato cage. This one is 54″- $2. Tie a rubber band around the top spokes to close it and make a nice cone shape. I bought two different kinds of wrapping for the two trees, so instructions may be different between them. For this, wrap newspaper around the tree, taping it to the cage for support. Newspaper- free. Do you see the Chinese takeout menu? I thought it was classic. I have no idea why it won’t post normally. I’ve never had this problem before. Just crane your neck to the side and it’ll be fine.

For this tree, I used a bag of Eco Snow that I picked up at Walmart- $5. It wants to fall apart, so be careful with it. I twisted off bits near the end and taped them to the newspaper for stability. It doesn’t have to be perfect either.

Buy 2 60-foot garlands- Walmart for $5 each. Starting at the top, wrap garland around the tree base. As you go, make sure you stretch the snow under the garland to cover any newspaper and use the garland to further anchor it to the tree. I just tied the garland to a string above it instead of taping it to secure when I started on the second bundle. I thought it was cute how the snow peeked out between strands.

The decorations are totally up to you from this point. I chose 2 bundles of gold poinsettias- $1 each- and a sprig of fake money plant- $2. To attach the flowers, I used a needle and thread to pierce through the plastic and attach the flower to a piece of white string. Tie the string to a rope of garland and tuck one of the leaves under the garland above it to properly show the flower.

Jam the stem of the money plant through the top down into the tree. I also added the red bells as another ornament. I’ve had those laying around for years. Originally, I wasn’t going to add them. My idea for the wreath has changed, so I put them on last minute. I think it takes the thunder out of the gold flowers, but it still looks pretty- just not as chic and elegant as I originally had in mind. Still, I love the results. A pretty tree, easily twice as big, for under $21. It looks better in person. Maybe when it’s outside it’ll give me a better picture.

I plan on putting these out in December as I bring in my plants for the winter. This was my elegant tree, the next one is much louder, but smaller. I still want to do some kind of garland for the balcony, a wreath, and maybe a few more things. The main thing is that is has to look classy. I don’t want it to look like the damn Griswold family Christmas. We’ll just have to see.

Well Felt Me

There have been lots of things that I’ve found inspiring lately that I would like to share here. Let’s start right away.

Bugs and Fishes is a blog I just found yesterday. She is both a blogger and Etsy seller who is undertaking something that I think is worthy of praise: crafting 365 days this year. For some, this is no big deal, but for many of us, life gets hectic and being creative gets pushed to the wayside. She is taking charge of that and doing what she enjoys every day. Also, she has the cutest felt pins! My favorite is the lucky pants pin, freaking awesome mustaches, and her mobiles.

Felt was something stupid until recently. I thought it was something cheap that soccer mom’s bought to get their kids to shut up. It looked cheap and childish and like the worst kind of homemade craft. But it’s people like her that have been changing my mind. Her work is awesome! So creative and bright. She uses the flexibility and the funky colors to her advantage and takes something that I thought was dumb and proved me wrong. Well, I can’t give her all the credit, but she’s a perfect example. There have been lots of instances that have slowly been winning me over.

It all started with this- Anna Marie Horner’s felt garland. Simple, cool, and fun. It struck me as odd that someone so talented would use the evil felt. That and the fact that I liked it. Then I started noticing felt more and more often. Faces for stuffed dolls. Pins. Accents. It… didn’t look so bad after all.

How about the awesome felt rugs, oak leaf kits, or their pillows that I saw in… was it Domino? All found at Illu Stration, one of the most inspiring stores I’ve found in a long time that I got from this cool blog, Fabulously Green.

http://flickr.com/photos/12218158@N05/2056083566/

And this is just stuff you can do with the cheapie sheets. I wasn’t even aware that you could make your own felt. That blew my mind. It’s something that you don’t think about because you buy it at the store, but it has to come from somewhere. But the things that people do with their own is amazing, like felting your dog’s fur. Or like these.

http://flickr.com/photos/12218158@N05/2056103166/

It’s not just for kids. If you knew this before, than share your inspiration with me. If not, let me invite you to the dark side. I’m so happy when I find something that’s suddenly cool for me. Like quilting or knitting. I didn’t like them either, but here I am. I love how many doors can open for you in the craft world.

I would also like to thank Megan at The Scent of Waterfor answering my million questions about getting the mosaics right. I got them right this time. Now I just have to figure out how to use my damn Flickr page to show them properly.

I’m hopeless.

Yarn and Junk

Alright, here’s the deal on my grandmother’s scarf. I bought yarn to do a crochet border on it. However, I can’t find anything that tells me how I could go about it. I’ve also seen “picking up stitches” fancy junk to knit that might help with curling but don’t know what it is or how to do it. So meh.

But! The yarn I bought for it? So cool. It’s Yarn Bee Intrigue. I first noticed it because of a certain glorious shade of blue. Well, it was on sale today. I bought the white for her scarf, the blue for me, and another Yarn Bee skein called Sassy Girl because it looked like the same colorway of Intrigue with junk in it. Intrigue is normally $9.84 and Sassy Girl $9.99. Can you believe it? For 3 ounces? I mean, I’m a college kid. But how much did I pay? Three bucks. For the price of a third of a skein, I got 9 ounces of awesomeness. The picture does NOT do the blue justice, at all. It toned it down while in person it’s so bright and vibrant and any peacock would be drooling over this.

They had a swatch of the Intrigue at the store and it’s surprising how non-scratchy it is. There is still itch-factor, but not nearly as much as I was expecting. It’s surprisingly soft under there. The Sassy Girl is even softer. No idea what I’m going to do with it. The colors work, so I could use all three together or just the two blue. Maybe as accents. Or flowers. Who cares- it’s gorgeous.

A few days earlier, Icelandic Jewels went on sale as well. $.99 a skein. I had to fight with the register lady because she was telling me that clearance price was set in stone, so I’d have to pay $3.50 a skein for clearance yarn and $.99 for stuff off the rack. Right. Anyways, I got it for the sale price, thank you very much. I now have the ten balls I arbitrarily decided on. The first five cost less than $8, these last five cost just over $5. A sweater for $13 or less. Oh yeah.

I picked up work on my best friend’s scarf again. I’ve been doing it on and off for several weeks now, mostly because I just wanted to play with the unbelievably soft bamboo yarn. We have a funny way of doing presents. She finds the most gaudy, bright, and bizarre stuff she can for me- which ends up being barely gaudy, dim, and slightly extraordinary- and I find the most boring, bland, and generic stuff for her- which is just this side of too much for her. We both think the other has horrible taste, but we can usually make it work.

However, I know her texture preferences pretty well. This yarn is a pale green. I wasn’t sure that she’d like that, but I know how crazy she goes for softness and this definitely fit the bill. Plus, I made it and she’s amazed by knitting because she can’t do it. So, score. At first, I did regular stockinette. For the same reasons I did before but also because I thought it would showcase the plushness of the yarn well. On the Bernat site, I found a scarf pattern using this yarn that was a simple rib. It’s done longways. I don’t have needles that could accommodate that, so I’m doing it shortways now that I can knit and purl together. I think it’ll be a little more interesting as well as honing my skills. Here’s what I had before I frogged.

I was just doing a few stitches here and there before I fell asleep. My main goals right now are to finish my dad’s and sister’s so I can send all theirs off in the same package. I want to send my grandmother’s early as well, but would like to do a border on it. Can anyone help? If not, it’ll be fine. I just think it’d be nicer with it.