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!
0 Comments
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. :) 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 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. It's summer you say? Oh. Party pooper. My Spring Sampler is now done (as I'm sure you guessed from the title). This project was a blast to do, and because of the many different stitches I never got bored with it. We have chain stitches, lazy dasies, satin stitches, stem stitch, split stitch, herringbones, French knots, and of course, back stitches. And what embroidery sampler would be complete without a few cross stitches thrown in there as well? Ahh... I love the relaxing Saturdays that I can just sit and immerse myself in a project while listening to music and sipping coffee. That's exactly what today is. I've made some progress with my own rendition of Bakercourt's Spring Sampler. I have to say, it's really fun to work on, and very easy to lose myself in! The best part is, I'm able to make it with supplies and things that I already have, so no money is spent (amazing news for a crafter on a budget). 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). |