Real Craft Projects!

In November I finally found some time and motivation to make some real craft projects.  Jerry and I don't have a wreath, and I was striking out on finding one that was affordable that we liked.  Instead I bought an ornament set for $5 from Target, a plain wreath, and some battery operated lights and made this:

 If I had been thinking I would have bought an ugly wreath from ARC or Savers and remade it, but I didn't think about that until after this was finished.  Next year it will need an upgrade.  I used the ties that came with the ornaments and they don't hold very well.  Shortly after it was hung, it was bumped off the door and is now missing a few balls.











This month I also signed up for an ATC swap again.  I made two cards - one a collage based on the Hunger Games district 7; the other done with water color pencil, is a Nativity scene.  I'm probably not going to do ATCs this month because I'm actually attempting to craft some Christmas presents.  Clara is crawling now, so I am finding I can only craft when she's sleeping.  Hopefully I manage to get everything finished!

Diving Back In (Little Projects)

I really haven't had much time for crafts since Clara was born.  In the last 8 months I've worked some on a couple of big projects, that will hopefully be finished before 2013, and the two projects in this blog.
First up we have a very failed experiment.  I finally signed up for Pinterest a few months ago.  This led to my believing I could paint my nails fancy if I just followed the directions others had posted.  Oh how wrong I was.  I found this pin on plaid nails.  They look great.  Then I tried it and got this

I won't be trying this again.
The good news is my second project came out great.  I've been reading about people making their own vanilla extract so I decided to try it.  This was facilitated by the fact that Jerry has been given about 4 bottles of vodka over the past year.  Some of my loved ones may be getting vanilla extract for Christmas.  If you want to make your own just do a Google search.  It's super easy!  The pic is just so you can see something that wasn't a complete flop :)  After it sat for the required time it was much darker, and tastes great.

Off to a Good Start

I've actually managed to finish more in January than I thought I would.  I'm posting my February post early to show off these goodies because I'm really hoping the baby makes an appearance this week!
Speaking of baby - my first finished project of the year is a baby blanket.  It's the OpArt baby blanket from knitty.com.  I used the recomended dk yarn from knitpicks and did the 4 skein version.  It took me a while to finish, but came out great.  Sometimes the easy patterns (this is all garter stitch with increases in the same place each round) take the longest because I get bored.  I started out joining the yarn in different colors by just dropping and then attaching the new color.  Since I hate weaving in ends I decided to Russian join about 1/2 way through.  It turned out ok, but the ends really poke out on the Knit Picks Swish.  If I use this yarn again I won't be doing a Russian join.

My crochet project for the month was a Coming Home Poncho for myself.  I finished it yesterday.  This is a pretty popular pattern based on the poncho that Martha Stewart wore when she was released from prison.  It's also a free pattern that can be found on the Lion Brand website.  I also used the recommended yarn for this pattern, Lion Brand Homespun.  Wow, two projects with recommended yarn - I've become a follower :o)  I used 3.5 skeins for this, and didn't do all of the border rows.  I was afraid I'd run out of yarn so stopped after the second row.  I like how it turned out and it's pretty cozy.  It's working great as a cover-up at work!

Finally I decided to do one more round of the ongoing ATC swap on craftster.org while I still could.  This round I only signed up for two people because I didn't want to risk not sending to someone on time.  The two themes I picked were glitter and steampunk.  I tried using acrylic paint on the steampunk card.  I actually like how these turned out and my sign up for more ATC swapping after the baby and I have a routine that allows crafting.  For the steamship it's not glittered, it's a sparkly paper that I thought would be fun.

Christmas Cards and 2012 Craft List

Now that all the cards have been sent out and, hopefully, received here are all of the lovelies that I stamped this year.  Some of them I made with my friend Renee, and some I just did at home by myself.  The picture quality isn't the best, so sorry about that.  My favorite cards where the set with the silver snowflakes and the red ornament.

I also managed to get one more crochet project done before the end of 2011.  This is a baby dress for our soon to be here little one. 

It was supposed to be a newborn size, but it's closer to one year by the time I finished blocking.  I used the Solomon's Knot Crochet Baby dress pattern which is free and can be found here.  Last Christmas my MIL gave me some wonderful sock yarn (Dream in Color Everlasting Sock in passion) that I used for this dress.  I've got about half a skein of it left and want to find something else lovely to make with it.

Finally, I'm posting my to do list for crafts for this year.  You may notice that it is pretty similar to the one from last year.  That's because I didn't add anything new, just kept the uncompleted stuff from 2011.  With the baby coming I'm not expecting to do 50 projects this year.  Last year I only managed 46.   I'm interested to see if I can stick with my list better in 2012, or if most of my projects will end up being from off list like they were in 2011.

2012 Craft List

Quilts

1.       My  quilt

2.       Christmas lap quilt

3.       Quilt kit from mom

Crochet

4.       Crocheted table cloth

5.       Violet Beauregard

6.       Phoenix Mitts

7.       Thrummed Mittens

8.       Papyrus

9.       Coming Home Poncho

Knit

10.   OpArt blanket

11.   Cable Rolling Socks

12.   Grace Cardi

13.   Old Navy Scarf

14.   Central Park hoodie

15.   Celtic Tote

16.   HoneyCowl

ATCs 

Christmas tags

Random gift tags

Scrapbooks

19.   Hawaii scrapbook

20.   Wedding scrapbook

21.   2006 scrapbook

22.   2007 scrapbook

Stamping/other paper crafts

23.   B-day cards for family

24.   Thank you cards

25.   Art journal

26.   Random event cards

Embroidery

27.   New embroidered pillow cases

28.   Punch needle quilt motifs

29.   Set of towels for on hand gift

30.   New set of kitchen towels for us

31.   Monogrammed hankie for Linda

Polymer Clay

32.   Polymer clay/bottle cap magnets

33.   Stitch marker beads

Household Crafty

34.   Sand/re-varnish deacons bench

35.   Refinish desk

36.   Shadowbox from Grandpa’s frame

Sewing (not quilts)

37.   Headbands

38.   Halloween costume

39.   Purse

40.   Reversible bags

41.   Cup cozies

Goodies from November

Last month I managed to get quite a few projects done.  I did some more ATCs for a swap, some knitting and crocheting, stamped some Christmas cards, and even did an altered tin (my first!).

First up are my ATCs from last month.  I'm not really happy with how they have been turning out, but I'm still trying.  If they don't get better I may drop this craft.  The first one is craft themed and my favorite.  I also have a wine theme, Celtic cross, beards/mustaches, and cooking.































My altered tin was also for a swap on craftster.org.  I've been wanting to try to do an altered Altoid tin for awhile, so was excited for this one.  I used Sculpy II polymer clay for the lid.  The main color is actually a sparkly silver but it didn't show up too well in the pictures.  The glitter from the silver ended up on the other colors too and created a pretty effect.  I used Martha Steward Christmas paper on the bottom (from Micheal's), and stash fabric on the inside.  The paper and fabric were stuck on with Modge Podge.  Then I wrapped some cubes of styrofoam in different wrapping papers and glued them in with E6000 (the best glue ever).

Finally my crochet and knitted projects for the month.  I did smaller things so got more done.  First up my lovely crocheted goodies.  I made a headband from the book Crochet That Fits and a pair of slippers from The Happy Hooker book.  These are from the bunny slippers pattern that I have made multiple times, just never for myself.  I used up the remaining Lambs Pride I had in pink and then did the edging in a grey stash yarn, no idea what kind.  I didn't really want to make these into bunnies so they're just regular slippers.  A little too big for me, but they keep my feet warm in the house.


My knit projects for the month were a small scarf/cowl that I made as a feel better gift for a coworker.  I used the pattern Altantic Scarf off of Ravelry and the yarn was Crucci Clan Stewart Perendale that Karen brought me back from New Zealand.  The second knit project I actually made three of using scrap acrylic yarn.  They are coffee cuffs, from the pattern Coffee Cuff Six Ways, also on Rav.  The cuff was really easy to make and I might whip up a few to go with Christmas presents in the next week.  Maybe.

The Christmas cards and holiday cards I made I'll post after they've actually been mailed out to everybody.  I hope you all enjoy whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.  I'm looking forward to having my family around for Christmas :o)

ATCs and yummy yarn

I hope everyone enjoyed their October.  This past month I did a few little projects, and one big one.  The big project I did was a crochet pattern - the froufrou sweater from the Happy Hooker book.  It's a pretty easy cardigan pattern, and I used some yummy yarn I bought at the Lamb Shoppe.  I used Aslan Trends Invernal which is a angora, merino and nylon blend.  It's so soft and warm, and super easy to work with.  A bit pricey, but I had extra play money last month.  I used just over 5 skeins.  I'd guess I used right around a yard from the 6th skein.  The body was done in granite stitch and the boarder was done by pulling up loops and joining them together, with a chain 3 joining the groups.

I also crocheted myself some hand warmers for my car using acrylic scrap leftovers.  They were done using a DROPS design I found on ravelry - 108-25 crocheted shell wrist warmers.  It was a free pattern :o)

 
Finally I joined some ATC swaps on craftster.org and finally made some new Artist Trading Cards.  The themes I had were my hometown, handdrawn map, gingerbread, and ladies of the seasons.  I have some more cards to do this weekend, so my next post will have more ATC fun.  If you like papercrafts at all these are a lot of fun to make, and are the size of a baseball card.

More yarn projects

This past month I completed three projects.  Woo!  I'd been in kind of a craft rut recently so this month was a comeback.  First up I made a shawl that I had planned to use as a cover up for breast feeding.  It came out a little small, but it will make a good scarf/work warmer this winter.  I used the pattern Nancy & Judy by Heather Zoppetti, which is a free Ravelry download.  It was a fun pattern and pretty easy to do.  If you're looking for just a little bit of lace to get into knitted lace this is a good one.

I finally used the yarn I dyed in the crock-pot awhile ago to make a Nook cover.  I went through my stitch dictionary and found a pattern that I liked (diagonal trip stitch) and modified it to be in the round.  I used a G hook and did a repeat of 38 stitches.  The yarn was Full o Sheep.  As I worked I just kept putting the Nook in the cover until it was the right size. The only issue with this project is that I didn't rinse the yarn enough when I finished dyeing it, so the back of my Nook is now a little pink.  Oops!

Finally, I did another stash buster project.  My craft room is going to be the baby's room, so I'm trying to get rid of stash instead of buying new.  We want her to have all the room she needs when she gets here.  So I used some of my dk weight baby yarn and made the super cute One Day Baby Hat by Susan Rainy.  This is also a free Ravelry download.  It only used half a skein of the Sidar Snuggly yarn, so I may make a second one for a friend who is expecting soon.  I may add some flowers to the lacey parts on the bottom of mine.  What do you think?

The Wonderfully Obnoxious Green Baby Blanket

I've read much recently about how babies can't actually see pastel colors.  If I remember correctly they all blend into grey until the eyes have developed a bit.  Bold primary colors are visible to the wee little ones though.  So I decided to make my baby to be a very bright green blanket.  Some people think it's obnoxious, but I love it.

It's crocheted using Caron Simply Soft yarn in the limelight colorway.  I used the Russian join to put together the skeins.  The pattern is Heirloom Baby Blanket, a free pattern I found on Ravelry.  It's part of the exploded doilie type of patterns.  As much as I love how this blanket came out, I wouldn't recommend this pattern to anybody who isn't very familiar with crochet and can figure out how things are supposed to go loosely based on the instructions.  The pattern is just badly and inconsistently written.  I worked on this sucker for almost two months.  Hopefully I use it more than once after the munchin is here!
Here's a shot of the pretty edging, just to share :)

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!