Super Secret Project

Kevin---- Do not read---Christmas spoilers!


All other projects are suspended for the moment.  Kevin has taken a trip to a conference for the week so I can finally work on the best Christmas present ever!  I got started on it last night even though I only had around 3 hours of sleep the night before.  We had to be at the airport at 4:30 am for Kevin to make his flight.  I hate seeing the clock at that time.

Over a month ago, I found this pattern for knitted sock monkeys.  Which is perfect for Kevin.  Monkeys are, well, a bit of an inside joke I guess.  So many people, at some point or another, have given Kevin a stuffed monkey or something with monkeys on it.  I have 4 more days to work on it before he gets back.  Hopefully it'll be done, or almost done.

This is how far I've gotten so far.  Just a foot, but it's knitting up pretty quick.  I am not a big fan of knitting with tiny double pointed needles but couldn't figure out a way to make it with different needles.  I would have bought a lighter shade of grey or brown but this was the best that the store had.  Maybe if it goes well I'll go on a yarn hunt for a better color.  

I was watching the star trek movie again this morning so I thought it would be appropriate to have my tea in my star trek mug.  We got it in Washington at the Air and Space Smithsonian of all places.  

The Alpacanator.

My three skein scarf is finishing the first skein. It is knitting up deliciously and gotten decently big for the just one skein so far.  I have really been enjoying knitting in the round.  There's no pesky purling! I can't seem to put it down to do anything else.  Alpaca is definitely my favourite fiber, more so when it's blended with silk.

Last night I stayed up late knitting and watching bewitched.  I found Hulu!  It doesn't work in Canada, something about copyrights.  Since I'm back in the States, I can finally watch it.  I stayed up so late knitting that my skein ran out. Luckily, I have two more.

That's two more not 10 more.  The scarf is wider than I thought it would be after one skein, so I might end up just using one more and saving the last skein for a hat or something.  This morning I wound up a skein.  Well, I had to unwind the skein in order to wind it back up into a ball.  It seems like all of the most glorious wool is in skein form.  Which, of course, means all of the most glorious wool is also the most annoying wool.  Winding is one of my least favourite knitting step, along with grafting and weaving in the ends...yuck.

Lizard* made it more interesting by added unwinding obstacle.  I tend to wrap the yarn around pillows for a more convenient unwinding.  I've tried using the back of a chair or my feet but it tends to get tangled and frustrating.  I've made Kevin hold out his hands to hold the unwound skein, but it gets boring for him, especially if there isn't anything good on TV.  Pillows work best for me. 

After about half an hour or, alternatively, an episode of bewitched, the skein is unwound and made into a ball.  Here's a tip for when you wind a new ball of yarn. When wrapping the yarn around the ball, make sure to wrap it around one or two fingers as well.  If you just wrap the yarn around the ball, chances are you will stretch the yarn and nobody wants that.  It didn't take too long to wind it so I had plenty of time to keep knitting and make some delicious lemon tarts for dessert.  I was going to make whipped cream for on top but the carton of whipping cream got knocked over in the fridge and spilled everywhere.  But still, Yum! Lemon tarts!

Mmm... Lemony

*Lizard is our bearded dragon.  Well technically his name is Lizard Jr. since Kevin found a Lizard when he was deployed in Iraq and named him Lizard but had to leave him there.  Our other lizard, who's also been seen near my craft supplies, is named Tokage (toe-kah-gee), which is Japanese for lizard.  She's a Nigerian Uromastyx.  Both will, more than, likely be photographed plenty more for this blog.

In love with alpaca

The restart on my knitting project is going really well.  I've always wanted to knit a scarf in the round and I thought this would be the perfect time. The needles are the right length and the yarn is delicious for lace.  Since I didn't make a swatch last time and it resulted in me undoing everything, I made a swatch this time.

The swatch turned out great and I really like the lace pattern with this alpaca silk.  Next step was to figure out how long I wanted the scarf to be and how many stitches that would take.  For this I had to enlist the assistance of my husband.  He was closer to the calculator and I couldn't wrap my brain around figuring out how to translate the 4.5 inch swatch which was 27 stitches into a 40 inch scarf.  With the added confusion of the pattern being a repeat of 8 + 3.  Confused yet?  Me too.  The answer is 227 stitches, thank you Kevin.

Yes, that is a giant Lego Tantive from Star Wars IV.  I got a new Kitchen Aid mixer recently, which meant Kevin got a new Lego thing to add to the collection.  It matches the Imperial Destroyer, Darth Vader's tie fighter, and the half a dozen or so others.  One of them even walks! So far, it's only a centimeter wide but it's coming along pretty fast.  Here is a finished project and a brilliant idea though.

I finished this blanket right before starting this blog.  Well... I really just ran out of that kind of yarn and since I recently moved away from the yarn store I used to frequent, I had no way to get more.  However, the too short blanket ended up being perfect.  I like sleeping with a blanket and Kevin doesn't.  This is perfect for any couple who has this problem. It must be pretty common.  I heard that women  like to be 10 degrees warmer than men. 

I think I like the light blue pattern the best.  The different lace patterns were really fun to try and I had been dying to do more lace things.  This yarn is Cotton Fleece by Brown Sheep.  It's a great yarn for blankets and once it's colour is set in a vinegar wash, it is a great yarn for baby blankets too as it washes pretty easily, despite what the label says. 

Restart

One of my knitting projects is a scarf with a gorgeous alpaca silk from blue sky.  I picked a stitch pattern from the best knitting book ever, Knitting and Crochet Stitches, shown in the pictures.  I didn't pick a scarf pattern, I just picked a knit pattern I thought would look good as a scarf.  Turns out my yarn estimates were way off.  The with of the scarf was way too big for the amount of yarn I had. Time to unravel and restart.

Before: Pretty lace shawl.

I actually enjoyed unraveling it.  Maybe because it means I get to search for a new pattern.  It also means I get to roll up the yarn again and untie any of the knots that are inevitable with a giant mess of yarn.  

After:  The tangled mess. 

I think I will make a much thinner scarf than I had before.  Possibly I'll even try to knit in the round and make a cowl.  Since it never gets very cold in North Carolina, I can probably still make it a lacy pattern.  Now if I were back in Canada, it would be a super thick scarf with matching mitts and hat.

Fabric Christmas Ornament Instructions

Since I've been posting pictures these ornaments, I thought people might like to know how to make them.  They don't take very long and can get addictive.  You will need a 3" styrofoam ball, a surprising number of straight pins, and 2.5" squares of fabric.  It's best if there is both patterned and solid fabric.

The quantities are: colour A - 10; colour B - 16; colour C 16.

First thing to do is take a square of colour A and pin all 4 corners to the ball.  It's not going to lay flat but do your best to get the corners evenly spaced on the ball.  Take another square of colour A, stick a pin in the center and pin it at the center of the square on the ball.  Fold the edges down and pin the corners.  Turn the ball 90 degrees and repeat with another square.  Continue until 4 squares have been pinned.

Repeat with colour A on the opposite side of the ball.  Once that is complete you can move on to color B. Stick a pin in the center of a square and place it about a 3/8" down from the top of a triangle.  (You can choose this to be longer or shorter anywhere from 1/4" to 1/2".  Continue this, at the same distance down from the top, on the remaining three triangles.  Next is the corner triangles.  These are a bit farther down, about 3/4".  Repeat so that opposite side of ball is completed with colour B.

/

The final round is done with colour C.  Repeat same step as colour B, on both sides of the ball.  I tend to place all of the triangles are placed the same distance down from the triangle underneath.  About 3/8" -1/2".

Congratulations!  You have finished the hard part of making a fabric Christmas ornament.  Now you can use ribbon or coordinating fabric to cover the center of the ball and make the hanging loop.  Whatever you choose will need to be about 9.5-10" long and you can chose to glue it with hot glue or pin it.

Here is the finished product!  Enjoy! These are great as gifts at Christmas.  I try to have a few of them finished for the Christmas season so that whenever my husband and I are invited to a Christmas party I can give one as a host gift.

Finished Christmas Ornament

Mmmm.... Pie.

So I've been staring at a pile of peaches on the counter for a couple of days with the complete intention of making a pie.  Today it finally happened.  I put on the new star trek movie and started making the pastry.  While the pastry chilled in the fridge, I decided to finish up on of the Christmas ornaments I've been making.

I don't think I'll use this color combination again though.  The next ball will be blue.

I also picked up a couple of great blue striped shirts at a thrift store.  Hopefully there will be no more fabric searching after this.  Current tally of triangles: Large 20 (yay one is finished!); medium 35; small 83.  So still pretty far to go on the medium and small triangles.  Luckily the two shirts I picked up yielded a ton of fabric.

While the peach and blueberry pie cooked in the oven, and smelled wonderful while it did, I cut up the shirts. I don't know why but I love cutting out the fabric on shirts.  Maybe it's just that I like the seam carcass when it's done.

Perfect timing thought because when I was finished cutting them out the pie was done.  I couldn't wait until it was completely cool and it was super delicious.  

A Tally of Triangles

I finished cutting another half yard of triangles last night.  The blade on my rotary cutter needs to be changed soon.  This quilt takes quite a bit of fabric.  I've gone to most of the fabric shops within a 30 mile radius looking for striped fabric in blue and red.  Although there aren't really that many shops.

The quilt calls for enough triangles to make 20 large sqaures, 53 medium squares and 130 little squares.  My current tally is 18, 31 and 70.  I have 3/4 of a yard of fabric left.  Looks like I'll be searching for more fabric.  One of the colours is from an actual shirt, so maybe I can find some striped shirts in good condition at a used clothing store.  It won't hurt to look.  

While I'm looking for the fabric maybe I'll make another Christmas ornament.  I've made 4 already and just need the ribbon to cover the middle and make the loop for hanging on the tree.  The first one I made was a bit wonky, it'd been years since I've made one.  Each one since has been a bit better.  Hopefully by Christmas I'll have a good stash to give as gifts.  

Yup, a pink Christmas ornament.  That one's for Nana.  It'll match her pink Christmas tree.  

The Beginning

I have decided to keep track of my craftiness.  Sometimes projects get away from me and I thought blogging would be a good way to start and make sure I finish my projects.  


Right now I'm working on a quilt.  A full sized version of Kaffe Fassett's shirt striped boxes.  


I've also gotten a head start on some christmas projects.  I'm making some quilted Christmas ornaments in various colors depending on who they're going to.


Oh yeah... I have two knitting projects going right now.  A scarf / shawl of a gorgeous alpaca silk from blue sky and cotton place mats for my mom's dining room.  Neither of those have been picked up in a while.  


See the blog is working already.  I'll have to pick those up tomorrow and work on them.