Buy You a Penny Lick

For my fellow Downton Abbey fans, the Penny Lick shawl gets its name from one of the last lines of season four when Bates offers to buy Anna a penny lick as a peace offering after a season of tension and brooding between them. Plus, I'm like a twelve year old and it sounded kind of dirty, so...

Jimmy Beans Wool hosted a mystery knitalong for this season of Downton Abbey, the result of which was this beautiful and cozy shawl that I knit from Pepperberry Knits 100% cashmere in a retired colorway Mixed Berries. I've had this particular yarn in my stash for about two years, but because I had significant yardage of a single color (as opposed to enough to make one hat) I wanted to find just the right project and I think I did!

Crescent-shaped with a seashell lace edging, it will wrap around people of all shapes and sizes, swathing you in comfort, with the cashmere adding a touch of luxury. Whether you're going to work or curling up with a book on the weekend, I think this piece fits the bill! I had a lot of fun knitting it, and if you love it as well it can be yours! Just click on over...

Cozy Up to the Oscars

This week's stash-buster is brought to you by my desire for a mindless craft that I could do while watching my favorite awards show. While the stars glammed it up, I slummed it on my couch with a glass of Washington White and a pile o' wool felt.

This craft is ridiculously easy and you can make a handful of them in minutes. Mind you, one side of the stitching is totally janked because I didn't take the time to fix the tension but, hey, I was whipping them out on a commercial break!

All you need is a stack of felt (make sure you get actual wool felt) a cut-out of this template, scissors and some pins.

I cut out the cozies while Pink rocked a tribute to Judy Garland and then stitched them up quickly using the chain piecing method during the next commercial.  These are cute, simple, and would be a great addition to a teacher gift, hostess gift or a simple thank you for a friend. Also, Easter is a'coming.

hmmm...which little xy placed a cup right in the middle of my coffee table?!

A Zig Zag on a Straight Line

From the beginning, H has had a hard time in school. Every year seems to get a little bit better overall as he matures, but there is always a period of time when things have been going swimmingly and nothing significant has changed that, BLAM-O!, I'm broad-sided with a few weeks of behaviors and choices that make me want to pull my hair out. This year, the culmination was on Monday and that evening I noticed he had a little bit of a cold, so I decided I would keep him home the next day to spend some time with him one-on-one. Without going into it too deeply, (that could be a whole blog on its own) he is such a great kid; quirky, funny, wicked smart, awesome imagination, but man is he strong-willed! He'll be a force to be reckoned with as an adult and I just have to keep repeating that to myself. Daily. Multiple times. 

I almost never keep my kids home for a sick day, so this was his first of the year and after we dropped Charlie at school and put Jack down for his nap, we had the afternoon to ourselves. 

I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said he wanted to make a gift for Charlie; a 'dragon head' bag to take his sharing objects to school each week. After we talked about logistics, I had him pick the fabric for a bag for each of them, and found an image on the computer which we printed on printable burlap. The images aren't super crisp on the burlap, it's probably something I'd use for a big bold letter for a bunting in the future, but I actually like how these turned out. The burlap has a plastic coating on the back that guides it through your printer really smoothly, and negated the need for interfacing. It was H's first time really using the sewing machine alone and he did a great job! He took his time, and it only took about an hour from picking the fabric to proudly holding his finished bag. 

After several attempts to find a dragon image that we could agree was good to take to pre-k, we switched to finding Lego images for Charlie's bag and stumble across what I'm guessing was a party favor label, because there were several names; score! Henry chose this image of a person challenging a dragon for his own. 

For the blue bag, we used a fat quarter and cut it in half so that the bottom edge was the fold. The image was sewn onto the bag before seaming. Both bags were a long, thin piece with just the two side-seams to sew, and then the top was folded over twice and hemmed. I didn't have him pin it, because stopping to take the pins out seemed like it would complicate things for such a simple, straight seam. 

Love those little boy hands against the fabric

I was pretty impressed with how straight and consistent his stitches were! He honestly did this ALL by himself.

All ready to take snacks and sharing to school

It's a Mystery

I have not been remiss in my promise to create, but it has coincidentally been the case that a lot of my crafting has been as gifts for friends or test knitting that hasn't been approved for posting yet. So, in a show of good faith, here are two of the projects that I am working on.  They used some crewel embroidery wool, a canvas bag and about a skein and a half of LB Collection Merino Wool yarn.

As you can see by the mist covering the red wool, this project is d-o-n-e done and is pinned to the blocking mat. More to come on this one later in the month!

Also, my Downton Abbey Mystery KAL shawl is cruising along. It's going to end up being a crescent based on the increases and is a really basic pattern that isn't all that impressive. However, worked in Pepperberry Knits cashmere (handspun by a Boise artist) in a really pretty mix of purples called Mixed Berries that I've had in my stash for almost four years, it is going to be so soft and luxurious. Somebody's gonna love it! There are only a few weeks of this season left, so when it's complete and blocked, I'll post about it again.

Fit to Be Tied

My sister-in-law and I hosted our other sister-in-law's baby shower this weekend. We put together a basket of essentials for the first few months, including some fun touches like these applique onesies. You can transform any shirt with whatever shape or print your desire. All you need are a pair of scissors, fabric, a shirt or onesie and fusible interfacing makes the job easier. Next time, I would use a backing fabric for the inside of the shirt so that I don't have skipped stitches like I did with the bow tie. If you're planning to use a straight stitch, you don't need to worry about it!

I wanted to do ties, so I just folded the material in half (so that my free-hand would at least be symmetrical) and then cut out an approximate neck tie and bow tie shape from two different fabrics. Iron on the material, stitch around the edge of the design to affix it to the shirt, et voila! 

I love this flannel bug print. I've had it in my stash since H was a babe!

Since I had my sewing machine out, I decided to bust out another project I've had in my queue for a few months. I have enough of each fabric to make two maxi skirts (I didn't realize this when I ordered) so I'll get creative. However, It should be noted that I did not use a tape measure or any other official tools (not even my rotary cutter) I just eyeballed it, which caused me to do the side seam twice after I realized it was several inches too large. The waistband is a foldover yoga waistband, which I did by folding a piece in half so that the folded dimension was about 6-7 inches in tall, then put all the raw edges together with right sides facing and sewed around. Because it's a knit fabric, I made it a little snug in the waist, so there are slight puckers where it attaches to the skirt body. Had I done an official measure, I'd have been able to do the side seam once, and angled it from a wider bottom to the smaller top. Since I didn't it's a little restrictive at the bottom, so I'll be making this first one a knee length skirt and then taking what I learned to make the new one the correct width. This knit fabric is from a really fun website Girl Charlee Fabrics, which has a ton of really cute knit fabrics to choose from at really reasonable prices. I have four different prints, including the bold neon stripe I used to make the shirt I wore in our family photos (below). The one tip I have for working with knits is to use a light hand in moving the fabric through the machine so that you're not stretching it as you go.

Julia Gulia

Alas, I'm only to the arm increases on the back of my Hitch sweater, because I'm really good at gauging how much time I'll have to knit half of a sweater in tiny yarn on small needles. Having it completed for my week one project was not realistic.

However, Pepperberry Knits posted a knitalong for their Julia boot cuff pattern, which I've had in my queue for some time, and I have more pepperberry cashmere than I care to admit. Actually, strike that, I love my PBK stash but hoarding it in my bonus room instead of knitting it up into projects is not doing it justice. I chose Tangerine Twist, because I love the meld of cream, tan and orange for a bright pop of color on a winter day. With a sweet double ruffle and tiny buttons for a bit of detail, these will look really cute peeking over the top of your favorite boots, but won't add bulk at your ankles like full-on boot socks would. Made from 100% cashmere they're luxury, warmth, style and function all rolled into one. Without further ado, meet Julia.

Attaching the ruffles one at a time with a three needle stitch.

I love the extra detail of the slipped stitch in the ribbing.

tiny buttons, also from my stash

52 Weeks of Stash-Busting

Christmas is over and New Year's Day is looming on the horizon. I'm not really a big resolutions gal because I just break it in a month with the rest of the nation and then feel like a loser. So, this year, I'm setting some goals.

Like this gorgeous attic craft room...

With visions from pinterest dancing in my head, I've begun to formulate a plan to transform our bonus room from cavern of crap to sweet WOman cave/crafting haven with a guest space. Aside from a wall of books, the majority of which I'd love to transfer to nice bookcases downstairs, there are DVD's, CD and then a whooooole lotta random items purchased for crafts that never came to pass...but that doesn't mean I don't want them to.

I have found that my etsy shop is a great way for me to create something beautiful and then have a good venue to pass the finished product to somebody else. However, I have learned the hard way that I need to be realistic with the amount of time I have to devote to it, and also to guard my passion. It's wonderful to make a pair of socks that I hand-knit from beautiful yarn and relax, and watch the stitches glide off the end of the needles row by row. When I get to try a new technique or pattern at the same time, it's so satisfying! Making three pairs of basic stockinette socks right in a row to fill an order as quickly as possible? Not so much. It's what turns a hobby into a chore, and it was completely my fault for letting it get to that point. Plus, inevitably, the one color I don't have is what's requested, so in addition an opportunity to cull from my stash is lost.

It was in looking through a small bag of embellishments I'd purchased with the intent of making notecards to list in the shop, but never had time for, that the idea for the year of stash-busting came to me. Sure, I've seen lots of people commit to not buying yarn for a year, but my supply hoard goes a little deeper. From chalkboards to fabric for maxi-skirts and everything in between, I've probably got it. Not massive amounts for each thing, but enough to complete one. From works in progress, to those never begun, I've got plenty to keep me busy for the year, and my goal will be to bring any one of them to completion each week. I will create, photograph and blog about the project and then list on my etsy shop if it wasn't purchased specifically for someone...and cross my fingers that it sells so that I don't end up with the new problem of hoarding said completed items. 

Idea firmly planted, where to begin? I thought a good place would be with the sweater I started for the Summer Sweater Knit Along, which I paused in knitting so I could test-knit the Antrorse Sweater for Shannon Cook. That test-knit was exactly the kind of project that makes me giddy with creative happiness. The front of my sweater is complete and I cast on the hem stitches for the back yesterday, so that I can complete it by next Sunday, enabling me to actually wear the sweater while it's still cold enough to do so. 

Here's to a year of stash-busting, please look for a new post each Sunday night! I'll work on creating a badge, and will post when it's ready, who else has a stash that they'd like to bust along with me?