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'm just going to be blunt. Missouri weather is weird. Bizarre even. It is December and we are having weather that ranges from 40-60 degrees. And tomorrow it will drop to somewhere in the 20s. Like I said, strange. So you have to be prepared. It's fall, and you want to wear your boots, right? And the latest fashion is to have your boot sock cuffs come up over the top of your boots. But maybe it's too warm to wear a full wool sock. What's a girl to do? Make a boot cuff of course! I found this nifty little pattern (Scalloped Boot Cuffs by Jenny Dickens, a really lovely pattern) on Ravelry, the Facebook of yarn. And it's very simple and works very quickly. In fact, I made most of this project during two episodes of Doctor Who. I probably would have finished them during a third if I did not have some studying that needed doing! The yarn I used was some I had in my stash, Knit Picks Swish DK in Squirrel Heather. I am not sure I even used 70% of a skein, but gave that estimation just to be generous. I used a size I crochet hook. After working the scalloped edge, I slip stitched down the next side, and then did a single crochet down the side after that, just to give it a cleaner look (and the slip stitches were so I didn't have extra ends to weave in). Then the sides are seamed using a whip stitch (shown in detail above). I think I might make some more boot cuffs, simply because you never know what Missouri weather will bring! Plus they are a very easy and satisfying project. My youngest sister is leaving for camp this morning, so I decided to squeeze in an early morning blog post while I could. Hopefully some crafting will get done today. It definitely did last night! I was able to finish the chevron baby blanket (Ravelry link)! It really is a lovely pattern, and I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I finished it exactly as the pattern said, although because I used acrylic I also killed the fabric to get it to lie flat. I have to say, I love killing acrylic (it's really not as ominous as it sounds). The drape, sheen, and texture of the fabric change so much, it is almost like magic! So now I'm off to browse more patterns. Happy Saturday! The chevron blanket is progressing really nicely, and is using up a good bit of stash yarn! After doing two rows of colors, I decided to plan out my progress a little, and also added a darker skein of turquoise yarn to the mix. I am planning on following the pattern and doing 11 rows of colors. This pattern is great in that it is easy enough to do while watching TV or carrying on conversation, yet not so easy that it is boring. And as I said before, I adore chevrons! I learned something about myself today. Aside from having addictions to crafts of all kinds, DIY projects, puppies, chocolate, and food in general, I may also have an addiction to chevrons. Fortunately for me, this is very much in style right now! Some time back back I had started a chevron baby blanket (Ravelry linkfor charity in an attempt to use up some acrylic yarn in my stash. Today I revisited it, only to discover that I had grossly misread the pattern. *sigh* So I frogged what I had (fortunately only about 15 rows of single crochet) and started over, this time with more success. Even made it to the second color! Hopefully this project will be done soon, as I am already running low on things to watch during it. Which reminds me, any shows you are currently hooked on that maybe I should try? I'll watch pretty much anything. :) The pattern is the chevron baby blanket with a straight edge from the Eat, Knit, and DIY blog. It's a lovely updated version of the classic chevron crochet blanket, adding a straight edge to it later. The yarn is Red Heart Super Saver (white), TLC (orange), and I Love This Yarn (teal). It goes pretty quickly, and the color changes help to keep it interesting. 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). |