More projects, including Dr Who stuff!

I haven't managed to get as much done as I'd have liked since my last post.  I've been more into reading in my down time lately than crafting.  That plus a few big projects I'm still working on have meant not as much to share.  I do have some things finally though!  First up is another pair of knitted socks.  I did these out of the "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks" booklet.  The book taught me how to knit socks, and this is the second pair I've done from there.  The pattern is Little Arrowhead Lace socks.  they came out ok, but I really don't like how this book decreases to the toe in all of the patterns, so the book has gone to ARC.  The socks came out nice though.

 My favorite project from this post is a dalek amigurumi.  I signed up to be an angel for a swapper on craftster who didn't ever receive a package from her partner.  It was a Dr. Who swap so I got to make a Dalek!  You can't see his death ray shooter in the picture, but I promise it's there.  This was my first time doing popcorn stitch, and it was much more simple than I expected.  I recommend finding a video online or a step by step photo tutorial to learn this stitch.  I tried doing it from written instructions and just confused myself.  The YouTube videos made it simple.

 I also made a card set, and did an iron transfer onto a t-shirt for the swap.  The transfer is a quote from the most recent Dr, and the card set is supposed to be left-over thank you cards from the wedding of Rose and the fake Dr regenerated from Dr Who's arm and Donna Noble.  Getting to be all geeky when making this stuff was actually quite fun :o)

 

Last week I made Jerry a birthday card.  I also stamped on the envelope so that's here too.

I'll hopefully be able to start posting some of the baby projects I've been working on in the next post.  I plan to have them finished before the baby is due in February!

Slacker Post

I have been a blog slacker.  There are many projects I have finished, and none that were posted.  I've mainly been yarning lately, but I did embroider a hoop for a craftster swap.  It had to monocromatic, and my partner likes peacocks so I did this:

I finished my first knitted sweater.  The shoulders didn't come out quite right so I need to steek them to lay correctly.  Steeking is sewing the fabric where you want it and cutting off the extra.  I hear it's pretty easy to do with knitting, and I'm too afraid to try it with crochet pieces.

In order to use up some of my cotton stash I made myself a Rust Goes Green market bag (free pattern on Ravelry) that I didn't take a picture of.  Sasha at work liked it and bought her own cotton so I crocheted her this one:

Finally I knit the Vesitality pattern from Knitty.  I don't have the buttons on yet, and I haven't blocked it.  Once those are done I'll share pictures.

I hope everyone is enjoying there summer so far, and I hope to have some bigger projects done to share soon.

Fun with yarn in March

First off I have finished my scrappy afghan.  The ripple pattern is pretty common amount crocheter's but I had never done one.  So I decided, way back last August, to make a ripple out of my scrap acrylics.  Well at least the one's that I thought color coordinated.  I ran out of yarn in colors I wanted to use, so the blanket is done for now.  It's going to be my car blanket.

 

I also tried something new this month.  I was supposed to go to a crafternoon and dye yarn at my friend Rachel's house, but her little ones got sick so I did it myself at home.  I got the instructions for how to dye yarn in a crockpot using food dye from the knitty website.  

First I had to skein the ball of yarn and tie it so it didn't come undone.

 Then I dyed it following the instructions with bright pink and green (the colors are little washed out in the picture).  I love how it turned out and I think I'm going to use it to crochet up some fingerless gloves. 

I used Stitch Nation Full o Sheep yarn (arian weight) for my dying.  I have a second ball of it and may try to dye it to match, or I may try something completely different.  Any ideas?

Finally done! Well kind of.

I finally finished my embroidered quilt top.  I've been working on this for at least four years.  My Grandma Clara used to make these quilt tops using variegated thread.  When she passed on she had made a quilt for each of her daughters-in-law and enough that all of the grand kids got one, except for me.  I love how they look when they are done so I decided to make my own. 
When I first considered it I thought of doing it in purple, but then I decided that blue would be better.  Good thing I switched - Jerry's favorite color is blue and a purple quilt wouldn't look very good in our bedroom :o)  The thread I used is pearl cotton 8 from DMC.

The first picture is of the three panels laid out; I still need to sew them together, pick a backing, sandwich it all, and quilt it.  The middle panel also has the small border with butterflies at the bottom.  However, I'm very happy that I have the embroidery done, so had to share with everyone!  The second is a close up of the tulips in the middle panel.

Bookmarks and Cold Weather Preparedness

I've been working on large projects for the most part so I haven't had anything to share since the beginning of the year.  So I took a break from the big project and did a bookmark swap and made a scarf. 
The scarf is for Jerry.  A couple of weeks ago we had pretty cold weather and he had to work outside for most of the day.  Well, that resulted in Mr. I-don't-wear-scarves requesting one.  I've been wanting to make the Antlers scarf from the book Son of a Stitch n Bitch since I got the book, so away I went.  I chose Dove by Taki Yarns, an alpaca yarn blend, because I wanted it to be really warm.  It didn't  cable as well as I wanted, which I expected because the yarn is a loose plied single (I think), but I do like how it turned out.

 I made these four bookmarks for a swap on craftster.  From left to right they are: a knotted purple and green book thong made from embroidry floss, a paper collage inspired by the Outlander series and the main characters time in France, a stamped cake decorator bookmark, and a crocheted fan bookmark made with Heart & Sole sock yarn.  Now I'm hoping to finish some more projects in March!

Last Project of the Year, a Wrapup and Craft Plans

I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  We spent Christmas with Jerry's family at his parents house.  It was a lot of fun and I think everyone liked their presents :o)  We spent New Year's Eve with some of my family and Shawn and Jess at our house playing games and visiting.
For Christmas I had planned to make Fran a holiday table runner.  That plan fell through when both of my sewing machines crapped out.  I have a newer Singer that is kind of a POS, but it worked to piece the runner together until I got to the final border piece.  Then I switched to the old Singer that used to be my Grandma Clara's.  I got the final border on, sandwiched the thing and began quilting.  Then Grandma's machine went out on me too.  It is currently in for servicing because apparently being at the cabin through a couple of winters without servicing was bad for it's guts.  Luckily mom brought her Bernina with her so she could have it serviced while they were in town.  So with mom's help the table runner got quilted and is now finished.  I just have to get it to Fran now.  I included a close up picture so you can see the quilting.

  

Inspired by some conversations on craftser.org I've kept track of my projects for the year.  So here it is, my 2010 craft year in review:

Quilts 

1.  Christmas table runner
Crochet
2.       Zippy hat & mittens for Fran
3.       Flip top beanie
4.       Snowflake ornaments
5.       Swap toddler hat
6.       Tunisian washcloth
7.       Lil monkey afghan
8.       Step by step socks
9.       Soap saver
10.   Mobius
11.   Flared hat
12.   Bat filet
13.   Spiderweb bookmark
14.   Felted cloche
15.   Red fingerless mitts
16.   Skinny scarf
17.   One skein scarf
18.   Swap hook holder
19.   Swap stitch marker holders
Knit
20.   Swallowtail
21.   Plum Blossom mittens
22.   Commissioned hat for Kevin
23.   Eyelet socks
24.   Accidental girly mitts
25.   Pretty as a peacock
26.   Baby yoda
27.   Sarjanti Booties
28.   Skull washcloth
29.   Lacy swap scarf
Scrapbooks
30.   2004 scrapbook
31.   2005 scrapbook
Stamping/other paper crafts
32.   Art journal swap page
33.   Amy’s wedding card
34.   Tim’s birthday
35.   Fran’s Birthday
36.   Post secret 1
37.   Post secret 2
38.   Post secret 3
39.   Post secret 4
40.   Post secret 5
41.   Washer necklaces
42.   Christmas cards
Polymer Clay
43.  Witch house miniatures
44.  Star & snowman
Household Crafty
45.  Dog biscuits for swap
46.  Valentines glitter hearts
47.   Christmas latchook
48.  Halloween wreath (swap)
49.  Felt leaf swag (swap)
50.  Shrinky Christmas hangings (swap) 
 Sewing (not quilts)
51.  Fran’s jewelry holder
52.  Eco bag (swap)
53.  Wallet (swap)

And finally these are the projects I'm hoping to complete this year.

Quilts

1.       My  quilt

2.       Christmas lap quilt

3.       Quilt kit from mom

4.       Baby quilt for just because

Crochet

1.       Crocheted table cloth

2.       Classic ripple

3.       Violet Beauregard

4.       Phoenix Mitts

5.       Thrummed Mittens

6.       Papyrus

7.       Fluffy Bunny Slippers

8.       Market Bag

9.       Baroque Tabard Tunic

10.   Coming Home Poncho

Knit

1.       sweater

2.       Versatility

3.       Cable Rolling Socks

4.       Grace Cardi

5.       Old Navy Scarf

6.       Central Park hoodie

7.       Ballband dishcloth

8.       Antlers scarf

9.       Celtic Tote

10.   HoneyCowl

ATCs

Christmas tags
Random gift tags

Scrapbooks

1.       Hawaii scrapbook

2.       Wedding scrapbook

3.       2006 scrapbook

4.       2007 scrapbook

Stamping/other paper crafts

1.       B-day cards for family

2.       Christmas cards

3.       Thank you cards

4.       Art journal

5.       Random event cards

Embroidery

1.       Embroidered quilt top

2.       New embroidered pillow cases

3.       Punch needle quilt motifs

4.       Set of towels for on hand gift

5.       New set of kitchen towels for us

Polymer Clay

1.       Polymer clay altoid tin

2.       Polymer clay/bottle cap magnets

3.       Stitch marker beads

Household Crafty

1.       Sand/re-varnish deacons bench

2.       Refinish desk

3.       Shadowbox from Grandpa’s frame

Sewing (not quilts)

1.       Halloween costume

2.       Purse

3.       Reversible bags

Cup cozies

More Fall Crafting

I've been busy making more crafty stuff since the Halloween swap.  I've also been out of town for work for two weeks, so that's my excuse for a late update :)

I've made a couple of scarves - the first is made from wool that was hand painted for me by a friend almost 2 years ago.  I used the One Skein Scarf pattern from the Happy Hooker book. The second scarf was made using left over Caron Simply Soft from the Silky Soft Scarf free pattern on Ravelry.  I think I'm going to give both away as Christmas Gifts.

I also crocheted some fingerless mitts from the same leftover Caron.  These already went to Ruth at work :o)

One of my favorite recent projects is a felted cloche, that was also crochet. I used Lambs Pride worsted weight in black and white, instead of the suggested Plymouth yarn.  I've felted Plymouth before (on accident) so should have used that brand.  The Lambs Pride felts, but not as small as I wanted.  Especially the white bit.  I've heard from others that lighter colors, especially white, don't felt as well in general though.  Even though it's a little big for me I still really like it.  As long as I fold up the brim it looks pretty cute.  This was made using another free pattern on Ravelry, the Beacon Street Cloche.

 Finally I did another swap on Craftster.  It was the Once You Pop Winter Edition swap.  In the Once You Pop swap, you clean out a Pringles can, decorate it, and fill it with crafty goodies.  They're a lot of fun and you don't have to craft a ton to fill the can.  In the picture you can see my can at the back.  I knit my partner a lacy scarflette (short scarf)   using a feather pattern from a stitch dictionary and the remains of a pound of love Lion brand yarn.  The hook case and stitch marker holder I used left over acrylic in pink & cream using the  Wave-Stitch Coin Purse pattern from Crochet That Fits.  I also made her ornaments, two from shrinky dink that I stamped on and then colored in, and two from polymer clay.  I really like the little snowman, and may make myself one.  He doesn't have any arms, cause I liked him better without them.

Now I'm looking forward to having almost two weeks off over Christmas to get more crafting done.  I'm hoping to get the center panel of an embroidered quilt top finished, finish the Christmas table runner for my MIL, finish the sweater I'm knitting, and make significant progress on hand quilting my pretty quilt top I posted awhile ago.  Of course I'll also be spending time with friends, Jerry's family, and my family so probably won't get all of that done!