Speaking of my shows... I've become addicted to Reign. I have always loved the history of various royal families, as well as historical fiction regarding them. While the show does not follow history hardly at all, it is a fun show to watch! What do you love to watch while you craft? Or do you prefer music? Perhaps nothing at all? Sound off in the comments below!
After focusing solely on school (and nearly driving myself crazy in the process) I'm back and trying to take time to enjoy the things I love. Trying to enjoy the simpler pleasures in life: drinking coffee slowly in the mornings, knitting while watching a favorite show, evening walks with my dog and my guy. I have begun my re-entry into the crafting world by knitting a simple baby cardigan for a friend of a friend. The pattern I'm working on is the Basic Baby Cardigan by Alana Dakos. It's a really lovely pattern to work, and easy enough to make while catching up on my shows.
Speaking of my shows... I've become addicted to Reign. I have always loved the history of various royal families, as well as historical fiction regarding them. While the show does not follow history hardly at all, it is a fun show to watch! What do you love to watch while you craft? Or do you prefer music? Perhaps nothing at all? Sound off in the comments below!
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And colors. And yarns. Confused? It's ok! I didn't exactly tell you what I was making (and congrats if you figured it out!). After digging through my stash for more yarn for an infinity scarf, I realized I have many single and random skeins of yarn leftover from various projects. So why not put them together in a sampler afghan? (Hush... I know I already have a blanket in the works. But I can have multiple blankets!) So far I just have two squares in purple, but that's not bad for a day's work. I chose two different stitch patterns that I liked and knew from memory. Please forgive me for not remembering the exact names, however I do remember that the first one is a puff stitch. Both started with a chain of 26 stitches. Once they were the desired size (about 10" I think), I went around the edges with a single crochet stitch, three stitches in the corner, to make it easier to join later. The blanket will feature both crochet and knitting skills, and hopefully I can tie it all together because I said... there are a lot of random colors left in my boxes. I am also hoping to learn a few new things. I seem to be into projects that finish quickly after beginning them. This is one such project! It was great for working on while drinking coffee and waking up in the morning, as well as to watch movies during. Very relaxing indeed, and practical too! I feel I will be making more of these. I began the project as written, however as you can see I veered away from it. I used the size US 15 needles and did 6 repeats of the lace pattern as prescribed, however then I did 8 rows of stockinette with size US 8 needles. I then returned to the size 15 needles and went back to the lace pattern, rather than making two squares and stitching them up. To seam up the sides, I crocheted them together with a large hook (to be honest I'm not sure what size it is). I then picked up stitches along the top and did about 6 rows of stockinette again, before doing an applied I-cord top that later turned into a handle and was grafted to itself. So yeah... I kind of started making my own pattern that was definitely based on this one. The bag was knit using leftover Red Heart acrylic yarn that I found in my stash. My apologies for neglecting my duties as a blogger... Life continues to get in the way, but I'm here now and let me catch you up on my crafting addictions as of late! (Promise this post is mostly pictures!) I finally finished the Ashton Shawlette! It feels like it took me forever. Unfortunately I'm not ecstatic about the finished project, and am a little disappointed. I hadn't realized that I had messed up a portion of the chart on one half of the shawlette, nor did I realize I had done the cast-off too tightly thus creating a straight edge rather than a scalloped one at the bottom. Oh well. My family's poor little shih tzu dog, Tobey, was feeling sorely neglected due to the presence of my new service dog, Patty. He was getting very jealous that she got to sleep in my bed and was following me everywhere. To help lessen the sting, I made him his own little bed from some scraps of superhero fabric that I had. Just two simply squares sewn together with a little polyester fiberfill between them to create a soft little bed for him in my room. And finally, I began a new embroidery project called "Spring Sampler" that I found on Pinterest. The pattern is from Bakercourt – Design, Bake, Craft. It's a lot of fun to work so far, and is putting my embroidery skills to the test. I decided to stitch it on some cotton fabric that I had, after dyeing it a nice beige color with some extra strong coffee. And I transferred the design using my window as a lightbox and lightly penciled it onto the fabric before stitching. So that's my crafting adventure as of late. What have you been working on? Let me know in the comments below if there are any awesome projects out there that I'm missing out on! I believe I had said in my last post that I thought I would be finishing the Ashton Shawlette (Ravelry link) the same day. Life apparently had other plans! I got very wrapped up in practice sessions with my service dog Patty (we've made good progress!) and random chores around the house to help out my parents. Long story short, I still have two charts left to go, but I'm more than halfway done with the shawl.
I also broke my new cellphone... which hopefully will get replaced today. And the new Otterbox Defender case that I bought will be coming in a few days. Hard lesson to learn but I learned it well. No more fashion cases for me! Sorry for the random and rambling post! No knitting or DIY pics today... So instead, how about these adorable pictures of Patty? After taking care of Patty, my service dog, I pulled out a skein of sock yarn that had been languishing in my stash because I was unsure of what to do with it. A brief scan of my Ravelry queue though, and I knew I'd be starting the Ashton Shawlette today! The way the chart is going I maybe finishing it, too. It works up very quickly, and the chart pattern is very easy to read. I am using US 6 needles (32" long) and sock yarn from Knit It Up's line Sock Yarn Cinema (the Twilight colorway). It is shaping up to be a nice, quiet Saturday watching movies and knitting. Also, I promised I'd plug my boyfriend's blog... So for all of you gamers out there, check out the blog for Aero Studios, which documents the creative process of an independent game designer. His ideas are really good (and yes, I am saying this from an objective position!), and I really encourage you to check him out.
I am one of those people who always has more than one craft going at a time. So when I got bored of working on my cross stitch I switched over to the blocking of my first sweater (my project notes are on Ravelry for anyone who is interested). The Shapely Boyfriend Sweater from Knitty is a pattern I have admired for a long time, but had never had the time (or the courage) to attempt. I finally decided just to dive right in. It was a quick project, taking just a little under a month to do. And I love the fact that I could try it on as I went! I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease, leftovers from a previous project. And fortunately I had buttons in my crafting stash that worked well. So now its back to the cross stitch bread cover... with two days left to finish it. Fingers crossed it gets done!
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