*facepaw*

Don't you hate it when you're happily working on a pattern (that you've knit before) and somewhere about 1/2 way through you realize, "Hey I forgot an integral step (dropping the stitches) the creates the whole look I'm going for!"

Yeah, me too!

Needling

Work continues on the crocheted stars (using this tutorial) -

I'm thinking of felting them and stringing a garland.

And I finished the Jelly bean scarf.

Looking for spring

I had some KYarns gift certificates from Christmas so off to the yarn store I went. Some wool for me, some washcloth cotton (to knit up for my mom), and a pattern for a spring vest.

I immediately had to knit the bright sock yarn (the Regia yarn in the pic above). Here's my start of the Jellybean scarf: I'm using the oblique lace (diagonal lace) pattern. I love it so much, I edited the picture for use as my spring blog header.

I did finish my Serenity socks for my friend Jane. The yarn is Deborah Norville's Serenity sock yarn in a heather blue colorway purchased from Joann's. Two years ago or so, I was all about the sock knitting. Now, not feeling it so much. But I enjoy the process when I finally do get a pair on the needles.

Sittin' and knittin'

Over the Christmas holidays, I was given a large bag of alpaca yarn. As a thank you for such a generous windfall, I knit this wrap with some of the yarn. The yarn is Classic Elite Inca: I used the blue and multi colorways from the bag. The stitch is a very easy lace pattern: basically Knit 2, [Yarn Over, Knit 2 together] until the last two stitches, then Knit 2. I picked up the stitches and added a ruffle to both ends. This yarn knit up quickly on #10 circs and the resulting fabric is lightweight but very very warm.

This pair of socks uses On Line Supersock Cotton Beach Colors in colorway 947. I'm not fully feeling the beachy vibe just yet (maybe when the thermometer decides to break 0 degrees?), but it's good to have another pair of socks in the drawer.

Once I finished these projects, I tried my hand at a little crochet. But that's a post for another day.

Oh, the indignity!

Of a cat hat. A co-worker saw this pattern and thought it looked like fun. I knitted one up, but it was too small for all the cats except Isabelle. I modified the pattern a tad, and the other two were fine! No, Izzy isn't mad - she's 'just drawn that way'. And yes that's a yellow, treble crochet mohawk.

All the seasonal decorations have been purged down and organized into 3 boxes. I'm looking forward to  going to just one place to find what I need.  

Good Intentions

Ah, the fresh beginning of the new year.

Ah, the reality of the weekend after as witnessed below - 

One project on my to-do list is to organize all my seasonal decorations in one place. Well I got them all in one place, but this is neither the organization or the place where they will eventually reside. 

(See that white strip behind the chair? That's one of the spots I need to finish spackling/touching up.)

There's more on top of the pie safe. 

However the interior of the pie safe was purged and organized this week.

With all this organizing and purging, the knitting WIPS are languishing in the project box. :- (

 Here's hoping 2011 week 2 will see some items crossed of the list!

At the last minute

I needed to come up with a quick gift, so I raided the stash and found this Knit Picks "Get Away" yarn (picked up for 1.00/skein at the local Goodwill). 3 skeins later, the simple YO lace scarf is done, wrapped, and gone.

We received this paper cutting as a Christmas card in 1991 (it's signed and dated - which is the only reason I know when we received it!) I've had it stashed away since then and last week, decided to actually do something with it. I found a dollar store frame, some dark blue fabric (with light blue stars) and a little spray adhesive later, I have a print I can keep over my kitchen sink until February - or when I can't stand looking at snow anymore!)

Remind me not to do THAT again!

A pompom garland for a niece's Christmas present. Things were going swimmingly until I set it down for a second and Izzy tried to make it her bed. Cue immense tangling and frustration. But now it's wrapped up and safely tucked away from heat-seeking feline missiles.

These projects went a whole lot quicker. A baby hat for a co-worker's great nephew and a tiny sock that I have since added to a key ring and gifted to another co-worker who just bought a new car. The yarn was leftover from this project.

Yeah, I think I'll stick to using my yarn for knitting.

Santa's crafty list

This year the Cattyfamily has decided to exchange names instead of a gift free for all. That's okeyfine by me, but I still want to do a little something for my parents. My mother's gift request is always "More dishcloths". So I broke out the cotton stash and whipped up a few of the Kitchen Cotton Dishcloths. The green and yellow cloths are Reynolds Saucy mercerized cotton and the tan cloth is Rowan's Purelife.

Here's the start of a Christmas giftie: my niece is redoing her room in the very grown-up color scheme of white, grey, and yellow. Before she gets too mature, I want her to have a  fun pompom wreath. Since this photo was taken, all the yarn has been converted to pompoms and I have the blister to show for it!

This isn't a Christmas gift, it's just a set of pulse warmers I crocheted up from some leftover stash yarn. Very quick, very cozy, and as some people tend to think, very pointless. But I think we all need a little pointless pretty in our lives.

November Projects

I said there were some more of these headbands comin' round the mountain and here they are, all ready for Christmas gifting. The darker one on the left is made from Lion Brand Tweed Stripes in Woodlands, the lighter band is Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed leftover from this project. The buttons are from my stash.

I've been intrigued by  garlands lately, so it was only a matter of time until I whipped up one of these. This is the doorway from our bedroom to my craft room. I purposedly hung the garland a bit lower than I normally would, if only to dissuade the CatMan from entering my inner sanctum.

And remember this? The $6.00 table from the Plattsburgh flea market?

Here it is all repaired, primed, and painted. You really can't tell in this pic, but the color is a pale green created when I mixed Sherwin Williams' Open Air (high gloss) with Ben Moore's Urban Nature (from a paint sample jar.) I'll see if I can get a pic of it in its new home, but I have to wait until the weekend and daylight. I left the leather top intact: just cleaned it and then used neutral shoe polish to buff it up and restore the shine.

Other craft projects waiting for their closeups - 2 button monogram pictures (Christmas gifts), a crocheted jar sleeve, crocheted pulse warmers, and a knitted scarf.

The colors of fall

My latest obsession is knitting this in various incarnations. This one is for me. I've got two more just waiting for buttons and then they are off to the Christmas box.

Project specs: Lion Brand's Amazing, Wildflowers colorway knit on #7 circs. 

During my most recent trip to Target, I picked up 2 packages of silk leaves from Dollar Spot section. A quick trip through Martha (my sewing machine), and I have a fall garland to wrap around my pinecone lights (also from Target, circa 2009). I don't think my hubby is overjoyed that his pull up bar has been relegated to a decorative fixture.

.

A knitting FO!

Yes, I still knit! I completed this bulky shrug (scroll down to #286) in just under 1 week using 3 balls of Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed. I liked this pattern because it is knit from the top down, so I could try it on to adjust the length. I definitely am going to use the pattern again and tweak it for different yarn weights, sleeve lengths and body lengths.

Getting creative

I recently saw a piece of art that stated, "Do one thing a day that you love." While I understand the sentiment, I would like to think my days should consist of more than one thing I love. So I thought why not change that to "Do one creative thing a day." Many days that is a challenge for me: between home and work it is very easy to let the creative time slide. Occasionally, the creativity may be nothing more than making a delicious, balanced dinner out of what I have in the kitchen. I'm cheating a bit this week and I'm posting a few projects completed before last Sunday.

This is my Mod Podge party: I recovered my pencil cup with a scrap of blue printed paper and some leftover ribbon. The books reside in our bathroom (don't 'ewww' me, I know there are books or magazines in your bathroom too!) One of the books had a red fabric cover that rubbed color off in the humidity. I sealed the covers so they should be impervious to moisture now. The starfish hang over our bathroom sink. And yep, I changed them up already - they are now mounted on muslin.

Speaking of starfish, here are ones I don't have plans for yet. When I got the starfish, they were all stained bright colors. I tried to spray paint them, but the porousness of the skeletons just soaked the paint right up. So finally I did 2 coats of primer, then a coat of high gloss white (the same Valspar I used on the bathroom cabinets.) So far, no bleed through. The berry baskets I bought a few years ago at an antique mall in State College: I finally got around to edging the baskets using the leftover quilt binding from my bedroom wall hanging.

This little Swedish postcard is from an antique mall in Lewisburg PA. I used spray adhesive to attach a scrap of fabric to a piece of cardboard, then some glue dots to attach the postcard. The wood frame was a $1.00 find in an antique barn here in VT.

Also on that VT outing I found this vintage fabric pouch in a box of miscellany out in a little shop's shed. It was free for a donation to the Humane Society. I pulled the drawcord out, gave the whole thing a good wash, and re-threaded a piece of ribbon as the drawstring. Right now it is housing my current knitting project: a cable and lace scarf using Serenity sock yarn.

And here's a little glimpse into our hall. This part of the house is my next major renovation - I'm leaning toward wallpaper. The hall is oddly shaped and two walls used to hold doors, so I'm approaching the whole project with fear and trepidation. But this project I was happy to accomplish: turning our bookcase into a coat cubby. We attached a brace of scrap wood on the back of the bookcase before attaching the hooks to the front. The shelf under the coats is fixed and I put the other shelf in to hold the basket. In the wintertime, that shelf holds the baskets for our gloves, hats, and mittens (which are currently in storage behind the curtain). The curtain was one of my first sewing projects with my new machine and is hung on a tension rod. The flowers on top of the bookcase are (silk) poppies and veronica. Purple loosestrife and orange day lilies are the common roadside flowers here in July and I love bringing that color combination into the house.

Inspiration

Image courtesy of whipup.net, saved to my server

It's been so hot, even the thought of yarn makes me sweat. But this is just too cute. The CatMan would love a SmartCar: I might even be convinced to drive it if it looked like this!

Full of Fail and Win

Image courtesy of Failblog.org, saved to my server

I can very easily fall into the "Life is full of Fail" mode. I make goals, lists, and expectations for myself every day. Yet depending on the day, my hormones, interruptions, and other variables, I fall short. So over the past few weeks, I've been trying to change my mindset from "Unattainable Perfection" to "Reasonable". "Reasonable" is not slacking, procrastinating, or giving up. It is acknowledging "This is a temporary place where I can rest and be refreshed while on this earth." It is a place of nurture and safety, not a place to be enslaved by the never ending to-do list. Yep, that all sounds good on the computer screen, now the difficulty is living it.

One of the 'wins' this month is finding a chair for our bedroom area. I wanted something simple, mid-century, with arms. Enter Craigslist. Here's my score - $10.00 and a good hot soapy bleach bath later (she's currently covered in white 'pleather') This fall, she will be off to be recovered, but for right now I enjoy her retro cool in the corner.

Another win is this scarf for a coworker. I knitted one for her a few years ago, which she promptly gave to her son/lost. I'm counting this one as a win because it was knit with (3) 1.00 skeins of mixed fiber yarn from Big Lots and the knit-up yarn is cuter than the yarn in the skein led me to believe. Hmmm, maybe I should go back and stock up on a few more colors. I'm also counting this as a win since the shrug cardi I'm currently knitting is too big - the "I didn't swatch" fail strikes again!

My new best friend

Edited to join up with Kimba's DIY day

Hi Miniwax Stain - I think I love you.

Here's one of our bedside tables before meeting my new best friend. I purchased these end tables many moons ago from Spiegel. They are solid Mexican wood and craftsmanship, complete with rustic iron hardware. But I was feeling a bit 'meh' about look.

Here is one of the tables after just one coat of Miniwax 'Red Mahogany' and some $0.97 knobs from Lowes. I know the color doesn't look much different on the blog, but trust me. It's gone from a flat yellowish brown to a deep red-brown lustre. The stain still lets the rustic imperfections of the wood show through, but gives it a more finished feel. I think I'm going to like the knobs way more than the dangling metal pieces, too.

(By the way, that's my new craft room curtain divider behind the finished nightstand.)

And I even had time to whip up a quick scarf this week. This is a very simple 4-stitch, 2-row lace pattern that looks like you have worked your fingers to the bone.

Project specs: 1 skein of NaturallyCaron.com's Country in 'Berry Frappe' on #7 needles.

And there's still knitting

Here is the Tutti-Frutti Citron 2.0. I used some gorgeous Mirasol Hacho in the Tutti Frutti colorway. And the little peak at the neckline is only there in the photo, not when I wear it.

I also knocked off a pair of Wool Ease socks, then went out and immediately more yarn in different colors to knit some more. I actually got 1 pair of socks out of 1 skein. Bonus!

And then there was one

That's right, I'm down to one WIP and even that one should be done this weekend. As a linear person, this makes me happy. Work has been crazy: I'm training one person right now and another newbie comes on board in a week. So sitting back with nothing in process to evaluate my stash and a new project sounds very appealing.

I did do a stash sift last weekend and have accumulated another box of yarn/patterns/misc. stuff to send to the Knitting Ladies at Interim House. I encourage you to send any of your destashing their way. It's a great way to spring clean and it all goes to good use.

Here are two projects I finished this week. The first one was a quick knit based on the ubiquitous Clapotis. Clapotease (the scarf) was knit using 2 skeins of Cascade Cotton Rich DK in color 8176 - a rich cream color on #7 needles.

I also finished a pair of socks using Premier's Deborah Norville Collection in "Tanzanite". I guess it's the bamboo in the yarn that makes these socks so squooshy. I barely touched the second skein of yarn (only needed it for the toe of the second sock). My only complaint is the yarn was a bit splitty, but I adjusted pretty quickly.

My second Citron is down to the last ruffly edge. I love this yarn! It's Mirasol's Hacho in shade 300 (which they call Tutti Frutti). I definitely am going to pick up more of this stuff when I'm in State College a few months from now.

I got 'er done

Part of the fun over at Kimba's DIY day!

The red cropped cardi was finished by Valentine's Day. I didn't wear it yet, but it's done. I'm not overjoyed by the sleeves, but after blocking they seemed to settle down a bit.

Project specs: pattern of my own devising using just under 10 skeins of Berroco Pure Merino on #7 needles. The buttons were salvaged off a jacket.

The other FO is the sock yarn scarf. This project made a reasonable dent in the sock yarn remnants, and I definitely think I'll do something like this again.

Project specs: the pattern is knit in the round on #4 double point needles, alternating strands of remnant sock yarn (2 colors -switching out to a new color when one runs out). The ends of the scarf are knit using 2 x 2 ribbing in solid black (mimicking a Gap scarf from last winter). The best part? All the ends are concealed in the tube so no weaving in! Particularly nice when you've got close to a bazillion little pieces.

Hopefully next week, I'll have a finished quilted headboard and a little DIY cake stand to show off...

Maybe by Valentine's Day?

Maybe by Valentine's Day, I'll be done with the Red Cardi. Or maybe not. I did rework the shoulders on the front and back panels and now just have to stitch them together to make sure they work. Sleeve #1 has been started, but I'm wavering on whether to make them 3/4-length or full-length. Like I said, maybe by V-day.

But at least my Christmas trip project has been completed and blocked. Citron was a great knit: fun and fast. The only problem I encountered was trying to find a cat-free place to block it out. Those cats are lucky I love 'em.