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. My youngest sister is headed off to her freshman year of college, and asked me if I knew how to make a monogrammed throw pillow like the ones she has been seeing on Pinterest (another Pinterest project!). I told her I could make up a monogram and then stitch it on some fabric to make a pillow for her, and so she got the supplies I would need (yay a free - for me - project!). That has been what I am working on this morning. I also seem to be relieving my teenage years and my childhood through my recent choice in music. In other words, lots of soft rock and a lot of New Found Glory. So while embroidery and punk rock may be an odd combination, it works for me. Anyone else out there have an odd taste in music while working on otherwise traditional crafts? Since the circle outline is crooked it has been decided that it will be left out of the embroidery. Fortunately pencil washes out! And I'll obviously need to fudge a bit on the design since I wasn't entirely accurate in my transfer. But that seems to happen a lot. Hopefully this afternoon will also bring some progress on the record stand. I found out I need to discharge the CRT before going on, so it might require a trip out to find some alligator clips. Oh well, I may as well go out and buy the primer and the paint while I'm there! In two and a half weeks I will be moving from my parents to my own apartment. After eight months it is time, and I'm really excited! Because this apartment will be bigger than my last, I have been trying to acquire some more furniture. Because I'm a crafter and a college student, my goal has been to fix up old furniture and save some money in the process. After a sudden bit of inspiration from Pinterest (I feel like so many conversations start that way), I realized I could turn my parents old 1978 RCA console TV into a record player stand. After recruiting the help of my tech savvy boyfriend, we removed the back of the console, only to reveal this mess: At which point I said, "Let's do a bit more research before jumping in." Meanwhile my poor service dog cowered under one of my sister's table (a garage sale find): So this project has been put on a hold for a bit, but hopefully will be resumed either later tonight or tomorrow. Any advice any one might give for dismantling a console tv would be appreciated. :) 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 often have insomnia due to various medical reasons, and often find myself crafting in an attempt to kill time or relax myself into sleep. Last night was one such night. Being a college student, I like finding any way I can to save money, and I had previously seen a pin on Pinterest of an old jar wrapped in twine to make a vase. I had even saved an old okra pickle jar that I thought had the shape I wanted: I had thought before that I wanted to wrap it in twine, too, but after realizing I had none in my crafting stash, nor did I really want to buy any, I decided I could do the same thing with acrylic yarn. After digging a little, I settled on a skein of Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue. I started wrapping at the bottom, after gluing a vertical tail along the side of the jar (using Aileen's Clear Tacky Glue). I had vertical stripes of glue running up the sides of the jar every 1/4 of the way around. I made sure to wrap it tightly, holding the yarn taught, and every now and then adjusted the rows/rounds to make sure that the yarn was tight against itself. I ran into a problem as I reached the curved upper portion - the yarn wouldn't stay. Ultimately I had to snip the yarn and start wrapping just under the first thread of the jar from the bottom and work my way down until I met up with where I had left off. Once the entire jar was covered to my satisfaction, I snipped the yarn, making sure to leave the end in a little dab of glue so that it doesn't pop up later and unravel the whole thing. If I were to do it again (and I might!), I'd start from the top and work my way down. I think it would be much smoother and more efficient than from the bottom up. Also, those aren't the flowers I plan to use, I just grabbed some from my sister's room for the effect (don't worry, I put them back where I found them!). So I want to ask, what kinds of late night crafts do you guys do? Let me know in the comments! Also, I just wanted to let everyone know that if you're using Google Chrome, and want to follow along with my blog, you'll need to install the blog reader extension. It's super easy, and it's free! You can also connect with me on Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest. And there's always good ol' fashioned email - just click the "Contact" link up near the top (where you can also sign up for email alerts of new posts). 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.
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