Stitch, Brinn, Stitch!

Giveaway Winner and some Thrift Scoring

July 3, 2010 in stash | Tags: contest, stash, thrifting, winner | Leave a comment

First thing’s first: The winner of the fish earrings!

Congratulations to comment number one: Siobhan! I’ll be emailing you for your address!

Now for some thrift scoring. I went to the Goodwill Outlet this morning with my mother and for a grand total on NINE DOLLARS, I scored all of the following sweaters:

Three are lamb’s wool, one’s wool and angora, one’s cotton and linen and one (the green one) is cotton and silk. The cotton ones will probably become tank tops of some sort, though I’ll probably over dye the yarn. The green one with blue to get teal because although it’s a lovely color, my Green Leaves tank is in almost the exact same shade of green. The wool ones I may dye and either sell or have another giveaway on the blog because while I do love yarn (especially cheap yarn), I am running out of room to store it.

Blouse Fail

July 1, 2010 in knitting, sewing | Tags: knitting, sewing, socks | Leave a comment

So I tried to sew a blouse.

It’s really hard to find cute blouses that A, fit me and B, don’t cost a billion dollars. These things are difficult cause I have a really long torso plus am a huge cheapskate when it comes to clothes so… Yeah. So I bought some white cotton fabric and downloaded the JJ pattern from BurdaStyle. I prewashed the fabric. I measured. I even pressed all my seams. And yet, it still came out looking like this:

Yeah. Don’t be fooled by the innocuous floor shot–it’s bad. It doesn’t have buttons or button holes (cause why take all the time for a shirt I’m sure I’ll never wear on its own?). It’s way too big, there’s no shaping to speak of, and the directions are unclear and impossible to understand. Yeah. Not a good experience. It looks okay under a vest though I guess:

On the whole, I don’t like sewing from patterns. I don’t especially care for sewing clothes in general, mostly because I’m not very precise so things don’t hang or fit well. I can sew a pretty bitchin’ totebag cause there’s a lot of wiggle room so I don’t actually have to measure. It’s unfortunate because I love sewing. Just not clothes. I wish I did, but the problem with sewing clothes from patterns is that I am almost always smaller than the smallest size listed and once I cut everything out and sew it all together, it’s not like I can just take it out and redo it, like I can with knitting.

Speaking of knitting, my Lakeside swap socks currently look like this:

I’m almost through the calf shaping, which is good cause I am SO READY to turn the heel on the sucker.

PS: Want a pair of pretty earrings? There’s a giveaway! Open until Friday, July 2 at midnight!

Spinning FO: Storm Front Coming

June 29, 2010 in spinning | Tags: fiber, spinning, stash, yarn | 1 comment

So several months ago, I bought this merino fiber:

Pretty. I spun about half of it into this:

Also pretty. : ) My first attempt at thick and thin, and let me tell you, it’s not as easy as you’d think. Spinning a single is hard enough (balance enough twist to keep it together with not overtwisting it) but also once you get used to spinning thin, it’s difficult to get back to spinning thick. Plus I always had the nagging feeling that it was too dense (so I wasn’t getting enough yardage for my dollar) so I had to deal with that also.

I really love how it came out though. There’s not a lot of yardage (only about 60 yards) and the thickest bits are still only around worsted weight and I can’t imagine it’s very sturdy. It’s hella soft though, guys. It’s like a kitten. I love it.

PS: Don’t forget about the contest! Open until Friday! There’s not a lot of entries, so odds are good!

A Variety of Crafts

June 27, 2010 in embroidery, knitting, stash, swap | Tags: cross stitch, embroidery, knitting, stash, swap, wip, work in progress, yarn | Leave a comment

Seeing as I don’t have anything finished to show you (yet), I thought I’d show everything I’m working on. There are several things, none of which are particularly close to being finished, unfortunately.

First, there’s a cross stitch project:

I’m working on filling the background with a million little black x’s, and they’re taking forever.

Next, there’s a knitting project:

That would be a beautiful turned hem (god, I love turned hems) for a pair of Lakeside socks for a trade on Ravelry. They’re knit in Fleece Artist Nyoni and in return I received:

a skein of DIC Knitsophy (bottom) and a skein of STR Silkie (top).

Last is an embroidery project. Just a little teaser of this one:

It’s for a Battlestar Galactica swap I’m doing over on Craftster. I’m really pleased with how it’s coming so far, and I can’t wait to show you all when it’s finished.

Hopefully tomorrow or the next day I’ll have pictures of a finished sewing project to show you. Also, don’t forget to enter the giveaway!!

Challenge Item! And a contest!

June 25, 2010 in Misc. Crafts | Tags: contest, earrings, giveaway, jewelry | 9 comments

I finished an item from the challenge I posted about before! From these fish beads and little green beads:

and some jewelry findings, I made fish earrings!

I think the little green beads look like bubbles.

I made two pairs: one for me and one for a gift, as per the challenge. But who is the recipient of this gift? Why, it’s one of you lucky readers! That’s right: This challenge has inspired our first giveaway!

To enter to win these earrings, leave a comment below (make sure you include your email address). For an extra entry, tweet or blog about the giveaway (feel free to use my picture but please credit it to me), then come back and post a comment with the url of your tweet/post. There are up to two entries per person, and open to everyone (regardless of location).

The contest will stay open until Friday, July 2 at midnight EST, a week from today, at which point I’ll draw a winner. Good luck!

This contest is now CLOSED

FO: Sarah’s Cowl

June 23, 2010 in embroidery, knitting | Tags: cowl, embroidery, handspun, knitting, linen stitch, yarn | 1 comment

I (finally) finished and mailed my good friend Sarah her birthday present (albeit quite late):

Pattern: Uh, none. CO 30, knit in linen stitch, seam together.
Yarn: My handspun! Probably about a hundred yards of navajo-plied worsted weight SW merino.
Needles: US 10/6.5 mm circ

So this was a super easy, quick knit. I got to use my wonderful squishy handspun, and the recipient is an appreciator of both hand knitting and handspinning, so yay for that. Also: I love linen stitch. I have a deep, unyeilding PASSION for linen stitch. Regular people may think my love strange, but you knitters get it. …Right? I mean, it’s a gorgeous stitch. Look:

Pretty. And in that pretty Crown Mountain Farm colorway? Oh god. Love. I have probably about 40 yards left of this batch (with either become a little linen stitch pouch, like what I did with the remains of my green BFL or reskein it and put it in a bowl to be decorative and gorgeous. One of those for sure.

Also, I embroidered Sarah this lovely card:

Skillz. Or something. I love how it came out. I’m gradually getting hooked on embroidery–I absolutely love the effect.

So Happy Birthday to Sarah! Whose birthday was Monday the 7th. Happy (very) belated birthday to Sarah!

Challenge Project Number One!

June 21, 2010 in Misc. Crafts | Tags: challenge, miscellaneous crafts, paint | 1 comment

I finished my first challenge item!

I started out with these odd pink things:

Not really sure what they’re supposed to be. “Ah!” says I, “They look like mustaches!” So mustaches they became. First I painted them:

One black, one sort of a peppered grey. Then I affixed a finger strap:

Meaning I hot glued a tube of fabric to the back. And voila! Mustaches! And since the challenge was to create some gifts, I gifted them to my sister:

Now she’s (and the cat’s) prepared whenever she needs a disguise!

FO: Green Leaves Tank

June 20, 2010 in knitting | Tags: cotton, finished object, FO, knitting, tank top, yarn | Leave a comment

Pattern: My own! Which I am writing up and will be available for test knitting… soonish? Eventually.
Yarn: Cascade Pima Tencel (the longer 109 yarn skeins), three skeins (I know. It was close.)
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm

I love this tank. I basically made it up as I went along (I took notes though), and it’s got waist shaping, a slight A-line flare, and a deep v cut. Love it. I suspect it’s a shape that looks good on a lot of people, though the tiny straps might be too tiny for some. I find it’s super comfortable. I knit mine a little short (I was worried about the yarn I had) so I have to wear it over a tank top (otherwise it’s opaque enough to just wear a bra under).

I’ve written up the pattern and it’s currently undergoing test knitting, and I anticipate it being ready about the end of July. Which is a little late in the season, but it gets pretty hot many places in August and September, so it should still be appropriate knitting: cool fiber and no long sleeves to try on. I’ll keep you guys posted when it’s available, of course.

Challlllleeeeenge!

June 20, 2010 in stash | Tags: challenge, stash | 1 comment

Mich, of Mich L in LA is currently having a challenge/contest. She, like Heather of Dollar Store Crafts filled some envelopes with random supplies, had a drawing for names and addresses, and mailed off her packages of doom, challenging recipients to make three gifts from the contents.

As you can see, I’ve got an interesting bunch of stuff here. A bunch of beads, some weird pink things that look like mustaches, and some jewelry findings. I’ve got some immediate ideas, like earrings or a necklace, and I’m definitely going to do something with that notebook as well as the drawstring bag. Stay tuned over the next couple of days to see what I come up with! I’ve already finished one item (but I still need pictures of it, which is why it’s not included today). And don’t forget to stop by Mich’s blog!

Congrats, Little Sis

June 19, 2010 in life | Tags: life | Leave a comment

So my little sister graduated from high school today:

We’re sisters, so we fight like no one else, but I am proud of her. Congrats, Siarra. : )