Stitch, Brinn, Stitch!

Alice in Wonderland Swap

June 23, 2013 in embroidery, other people's crafts/cool things, painting/art-type things, swap | Tags: alice in wonderland, art, borograves, cross stitch, drawing, FO, jabberwocky, other people's crafts, swap | 1 comment

I did a swap! I don’t do a whole lot of them these days, but I did do an Alice in Wonderland themed swap. It was pretty fun. Here’s what I received from my partner:

Fabulous wall art based on the suits from SyFy’s Alice (which is fabulous by the way).

Minitote! Inside the minitote was Disney’s Alice tea. I don’t drink tea, but Joe likes it. So yay.

Here’s what I made for my partner:

I cross stitched the first stanza from the Jabberwocky. It came out super awesome, but let me tell you, I probably unstitched this sucker as much or more than I stitched it. I made a lot of mistakes. It did come out super great though. Even the back looks good:

I glued some felt to the back to make it all neat.

I also made a card:

I drew it by hand. Outline is sharpie pen and the colors are Crayola colored pencils. It came out SO WELL. I don’t draw really, but I can look at a picture and copy it pretty well, which is what I did here.

I hope my partner likes the things I made. This swap was pretty fun to craft for. And now, back to my knitting.

FO: Evenstar Mitts

June 21, 2013 in knitting | Tags: fingerless gloves, finished object, FO, knitting, mitts, swap, wwfy | 1 comment

Sorry for the unintended gap in posts. I was out of town for a week. And I have no excuse for the second week. Anyway, I made a thing.

Pattern: Evenstar
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Mods: All I used from the pattern is the cable chart. I pretty much just made everything else up as I went. Plus I added fingers.

I made these for a WWFY swap because Lord knows I need more yarn. (Actual fact: I do not need any more yarn). But they were quick and the yarn was pretty and I liked making them. Maybe I’ll make some for me. (I will probably not make any for me).

I am pretty keen on the cable though. Pretty. I don’t have a tremendous amount to say about them.

On to other news! I recently read Isard’s Revenge and Starfighters of Adumar because I am completely obsessed with the Star Wars Rogue Squadron books. Especially Wedge, Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie. LOVE THOSE BOYS. Anyway. Joe and I are currently reading Allegience and Choices of One (we’re about halfway through the first one). I started watching True Blood and am all caught up and ready for season six. I have not seen the new Star Trek but I really really want to. Movies are too damn expensive. But I might have a job soon! A real proper nine to five (well, eight-thirty to five-thirty) office job as a Receptionist. Temporarily anyway. Fingers crossed, folks.

FO: Tuxedo Vest

June 7, 2013 in knitting | Tags: finished object, FO, knitting, sweater, vest | 1 comment

NEVER ENDING FOS okay, maybe they’ll end soon if I stop weaving and other quick crafts. Okay, so maybe never ending FOs. Though I do have a sweater on the needles out of fingering weight yarn so if I focus on that, it’ll be a while before I finish another thing.

Anyway, I made a vest:

Pattern: Mina’s Tuxedo Vest from Custom Knits
Yarn: recycled merino with a glorious twist
Needles: US 4 and 5 as called for in pattern
Mods: none, I knit as written. I even knit the ribbing on smaller needles as instructed, which I hardly ever do.

For those keeping track at home, this is my sixth finished sweater-type object, making me officially ahead of the knitalong. Which is good because I’m at the beach next week doing very little knitting and my current sweater in progress is in fingering yarn. Okay, there’s a bulky swim cover-up too. But still.

This vest came out way too big and I had to take in the sides (no, you cannot see my seams). It fits much better now, but it still looks a lot better on Elizabeth than it does on me. I made it to wear over sun dresses, but it looks a little odd without sleeves, so maybe I’ll just wear it over blouses as the pattern intends.

I need to stop making vests. Not that I make a lot, but I don’t tend to wear them. I wear the hell out of all my knit tanks though. Need to knit more tanks. And cardigans. Not that I don’t have enough cardigans, but I do wear them a lot.

OWS FOs

June 5, 2013 in crochet, stash, swap | Tags: crochet, ewok, finished object, FO, ows, pin cushion, star wars, swap, yarn plarn | 2 comments

Sooo I’ve started swapping again. I signed up for an Alice in Wonderland swap and I’m doing ows again. I claimed A2K for some plarn and an ewok pin cushion.

Plarn is a portmanteau of plastic bag yarn. I used this tutorial to make yarn from the collection of plastic bags I’ve got kicking around.

I got a total of 202 yards in two skeins. I used my rotary cutter to slice the strips and it actually went pretty quickly. I keep forgetting to bring my reusable bags when I go grocery shopping, so I’ve got quite the collection of plastic bags. I might make some of this yarn myself and use it in weaving.

The other thing I made for the swap is an Ewok.

Pattern: Wicket the Ewok but I mostly just winged it
Yarn: Scraps. Cascade Eco and wool recycled from a sweater with a bit of colorwork.
Hook: 3.75 mm
Mods: I mostly made things up as I went, so there are a lot. Plus I used fabric for the hood and stitched it in place.

Once I finished all the pieces and stitched him together (mostly just the arms since I made the legs, body, and head all in one piece), I used a hand carder to brush out the yarn and make him fuzzy. He’s stuffed with yarn scraps from weaving, so he’s wool all the way through.

I’m particularly pleased with the hood. I played with the fabric and draping for a while before I stitched it down. I tried to crochet the hood, but I kept running out of whatever color I started it in. I guess it takes way more than I was allocating. Oh well. The fabric hood came out really nicely.

There’s a good chance that by the time this posts, the little ewok and the plarn will have made it to their destination. I hope A2K likes them!

FO: Kara Thrace Project Bags

June 3, 2013 in sewing, weaving | Tags: bags, finished object, FO, project bags, sewing, stashdash2013, weaving | 2 comments

Here at chez StitchBrinnStitch, it’s all FOs all the time. I’ve got another one today: woven project bags.

I started with this and dyed yarn, colorway Kara Thrace and her Special Destiny (a Battlestar Galactica reference) plus some recycled Shetland, held triple:

I wove it up into some fabric:

And sewed the fabric into bags:

Weaving deets:
Loom: Vergere
Reed: 5.5 dpi
Yarn: my hand dyed and tripled recycled Shetland
Pattern: plain tabby weave

I really like making these bags. They are an excellent use of hand woven fabric and weaving is an excellent use of hand dyed yarn. The goal is to make a bunch and sell them. Actually this time. I have some more fabric to sew up and god knows I have more yarn to weave.

The lining on these particular bags matches really well thanks to all the yellow and is from a fitted cotton sheet I got at the thrift store. The yarn is all recycled too, which makes these super green, eco friendly bags. I think I will advertise them as such.

These bags are also the first things I finished for the Stash Dash craftalong over with The Knit Girllls. I finished them basically on the start date, but I’ve been so behind on blogging my finished objects, I’m just now showing them off. My Stash Dash page is here if you want to keep track of my progress toward 4k.

FO: Green Dragon Scarf

June 1, 2013 in weaving | Tags: finished object, FO, scarf, weaving | 2 comments

Soo I wove a scarf the other day. I had it all done in a single day within a couple of hours. Weaving is hella fast.

Yarn: leftovers from the Green Dragon Sweater and some recycled wool tweed, tripled
Loom: Easy Weaver
Reed: Uh, the one that it comes with. I think it’s 6 dpi?

It’s done in plain tabby weave because that’s what I like to do. I imagine I’ll eventually get bored with tabby and want to do something more ambitious with pick up sticks and lace or whatever, but for the time being, tabby weave is exactly the speed I want.

The scarf came out a wee bit shorter than I wanted, but that’s what happens when you don’t measure the warp at all. And yes, I know how to measure the warp, I just don’t because I’m lazy and I don’t know the yardage of most of my yarn anyway. Winging it works for me.

The scarf is destined for the gift box that I am totally starting despite the fact that I don’t actually give that many gifts. Maybe I’ll start. For some people, anyway. Special people. Very special people.

FO: Spiderman Towels

May 30, 2013 in Uncategorized | Tags: finished object, FO, towels, weaving | 1 comment

I made some towels. Plain weave cause that’s how I do.

Yarn: Recycled cotton/acrylic. And there’s some recycled mercerized cotton in there too.
Loom: Vergere
Reed: 5.5 dpi

Super simple. Zigzagged the edges and sewed them down, just like the previous set. I love the color combination. There are three total. I really ought to start making them in lighter weights, but I just have so much worsted/dk weight cotton and I want to use it up. Eventually I’ll make some lighter ones. Maybe. Worsted weight is just so fast

Whoo, towels.

FO: Hip Bag

May 28, 2013 in knitting | Tags: bag, finished object, FO, knitting, pouch, steampunk, steampunk worlds fair | Leave a comment

I actually made this a while ago to wear for Steampunk World’s Fair, which was May 17-19th. I didn’t get any pictures of my costumes, but they weren’t very good anyway. I mostly just wore clothes. It was fun though.

Pattern: Handsfree Handbag/Look, No Hands from The Knitter’s Bible: Knitted Bags
Yarn: Schachenmayr nomotta (Regia) Extra, a DK superwash wool
Needles: US 3

Full disclosure: I got this book out from the library and liked this pattern (and several others) so much that I immediately bought the book off of Amazon. Including shipping, it was only about six bucks, but still. Then I waited for the book to arrive before I could start the project even though I had the yarn all picked out and everything.

I’m kind of in love with this bag. The zipper is a little sticky because my hand sewing is only so-so (sew-sew? Ha, I’m hilarious), but I like it. I even put in a lining:

I ended up carrying it around all weekend. It was the perfect size for my phone, money, gum, chapsticks, and little purchases along the way. Including some buttons with sheep on them.

Anyway, I just slung the bag on a belt, which I wore around my waist. Perfect. It definitely fit in with my outfits and general steaminess.

Oh, and I did take one (terrible photo) while I was there. Not of me, but of someone’s amazing cosplay/costume:

Steampunk Tigger. Because why not.

FO: Green Dragon

May 26, 2013 in knitting, life | Tags: finished object, FO, knitting, life, sweater | 3 comments

Sorry about my erratic posting schedule lately. IDEK. It’s not like I don’t have a ton of things to post. Anyway, I made a sweater.

Wine is always a good addition to project photos.

Pattern: It’s a raglan. No pattern.
Yarn: Recycled kitchen sink yarn: 40% Merino Wool 30% Viscose 20% Angora 10% Cashmere
Needles: US 10/6 mm

Ravelry tells me I knit this sweater in exactly two weeks, putting me on track (and slightly ahead) for my 12 in 12 sweater challenge. This is sweater number five.

It was a super easy knit. I had about half a skein left over (not that that means much since it was a recycled yarn) which I have since used in another thing, so that’s another sweater’s worth of yarn out of the stash. Yay! My yarn stash is my no mean excessive, but I have enough that I feel a little guilty buying more, so I’m working it down.

Excuse my silly faces. Anyway, this sweater. It came out exactly as I envisioned, which is a slightly oversized sweatshirt-type sweater that I can pull on if chilly or whatever. It actually fits well enough that I could wear it out of the house, which wasn’t really the intent. It is a nice bonus though.

Like I said, I have a ton of things I’ve been crafting, so hopefully I can get my butt in gear and type up a whole bunch of posts that I can schedule. Life’s been weird lately. I’m still nannying sort of, but I quit my regular gig. I’m actively looking for employment elsewhere as I have had about enough of children to last possibly the rest of my life. In fan news, I am working my way through Deep Space Nine. I started reading American Gods, but who knows when I’ll finish it. I watched the Doctor Who season finale and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Joe and I stopped reading the Jedi Academy trilogy, but I’m going to finish it on my own.

Spinning FO

May 24, 2013 in spinning | Tags: batt, spinning, stash, yarn | Leave a comment

I spun a thing! Which is good because I have a hell of a lot more spinning fiber thanks to MDSW. I’m kind of in love with this yarn.

It’s an art batt from Dancing Leaf Fiber Studio that I got at the first Uniquities Fiber Fest I went to back in July. It used to look like this:

It’s got wool/glitz/mohair/tencel/bamboo and came to about 2.2 oz. I attempted to spin it worsted and was partially successful.

It’s a two ply, a little thick and thin but somewhere around a sport weight. It came in at 154 yards, enough for a little something or other. I’m open to pattern suggestions.

I used my Schact Hi-Lo to spin and ply. Well, the second one. The first one I bought met with an untimely demise on one of several moves. I’ve found I really enjoy spinning batts and clearly need to buy some more.

I’ve started spinning a variety of things, including some BFL I got at Fibre Space a while ago and some of the bird nests from the last post. I have a lot of the fleeces and I want to spin some of them down. But that’s for next time.