Toddler hat

I started knitting a hat for my 2 year old. There was some mild snow on Friday morning here. Thank goodness it did not stick. However it is making me want to make hats, scarves, and gloves for my family. The hat is made with Lion Brand's Pound of Love yarn in turquoise and brown, stripes. I cast on 75 stitches, and am knitting it in garter stitch on size US 8 needles. It's a free pattern on Lion Brand's website.

I haven't touched my sewing machine since my last post. I want to make a witch's hat out of orange Kool Aid juice pouches. I have a pattern in my head. Now I just need to make it.

Crayon Keeper (or needles & hooks), tree, & challenge

I bought the recent 2009 issue of "Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection: More Fast & Fabulous Quilting Ideas" recently. On page 108 is a pattern for making your own "Crayon Keeper" by Linda Lum Debono. As I said in my last post, I used the left over fabric from the quilt that I made for my toddler to make this. I used the backing and the binding fabric. He loves it. Now I just need to make sure that the crayons always find it back in the pockets.

This pattern looked like so many knitting needle holders that I have seen. I just had to adjust the size a bit so that the needles would not stick out of the top. I made myself a pirate one to hold my double pointed needles. I might make 2 more for my circular needles and my crochet hooks. I have a large holder for my knitting needles already. I also made a red floral holder for my husband's grandmother who crochets. I actually meant to make her a crochet hook holder in 2007, but I never got around to it. All of the fabric is stash fabric.

Here is a picture of the Christmas tree that I am knitting. The link to the pattern is in the previous blog post. It looks a little funny right now, because I just transferred it onto circular needles. It is really easy. If you make this, my tip is to place one color stitch marker on the 1st stitch and a different color stitch marker on all the other increase stitches. This way you don't need to keep counting to see when you need to increase again. This might even be cute on a small scale as an ornament.

Today I am starting the craft challenge again. However this time I am allowing myself $20 a pay check (twice a month). The reason for this is 2 part. Christmas and birthdays are coming up and I might need to spend a little more on supplies to make gifts. The second part is that I need to real in my spending. Without a set budget, I spend way to much money on craft supplies. Yes I have kept my spending to items that I use right away, but I still spend to much in my opinion. I have also joined a different challenge on ravelry.com. It's called "cold sheeping." Meaning that I have said that I would not buy any more yarn for a certain period of time. For some it is one year. My yarn stash is small compared to others. My fabric stash is not small, lol. Anyway, I signed up to go "cold sheep" until April. There is an exception to this though. I am allowed to buy yarn to make a gift (but I will try to use my stash instead), and also to finish a project. A friend of mine said that I could shop in her stash if I wanted to. My biggest goal is to use my entire Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarn stash. I've already used up 6 skeins by making dishcloths for Christmas gifts. Of course I will keep a few for myself, but only after picking out the gift ones.

Finishing those UFOs

I finished knitting my mom's scarf last night. Yeah!!!! I have it logged into ravelry, and yes I did in fact start it last December. I still have some of the yarn left over. Maybe matching mittens? A friend of mine is going to give me a simple pattern for fingerless garter stitch gloves.

I also finished machine quilting my oldest son's Christmas quilt. Now to make and attach the binding. I am so happy that both of my kids will be receiving quilts for Christmas this year.

I started a knit-a-long (KAL) today. It is making a 3-D Christmas tree on size US 10 double pointed needles. I am using left over Olive Lionbrand Homespun yarn and Lionbrand Fun Fur in lime. The homespun was used to make my mom a scarf 2 years ago. The pattern for the tree is here.

I also made my 2 year old a crayon holder today. It is very similar to knitting needle holders. There are pockets for each crayon, and then it rolls up and gets tied in place. I did take pictures, but it looks like I did not have my SD card in the camera at the time. I used left over fabric from the quilt that I made for him (and finished yesterday). I then adjusted the size and made a crochet hook holder for my husband's grandma and a double pointed knitting needle holder for myself. The pattern for this was in a quilting magazine. I'll post which magazine tomorrow. At least I have a picture of the unfinished larger ones. I made the binding for both, and now I just need to attach it.

Wordless Wednesday

1 Year!

I had not realized that 3 days ago was the 1 year anniversary of me starting this blog. One year! I wasn't sure how I was going to like blogging. I love it. I love to show off the things that I make. I'm like a kid in that way. "Look what I made!" I also wanted to share my crafts with others, and inspire others like I have been inspired by other crafters. Its a never ending circle of inspiration in the art and craft world. I love it! I started with some friends and my husband as my only followers, and now there are people that I have never met before following my blog. Thank you!

I also started this blog with a simple general rule for myself. This blog is about my creative life and not my personal life. It's a craft journal, not a diary. Yes I do share some things about my family in here, but only as it relates to my craft projects. However over the course of this year I have started a tv show, and I have gotten more environmentally active. So this is still mainly a craft blog, but I will post about environmental things that are not craft related. One of which is the zero waste challenge. Speaking of which, I am on week 3 and have just filled up my trash can. One trash can equals 3 weeks of trash, not including the diaper genie! 95% of that trash is non-recyclable plastic. It makes you think. And yes, I did throw out a garbage bag during this time, but it barely had anything in it. It did have some fruit flies, which is why it was taken out.

Anyway... Heres to another wonderful year of crafting and blogging :) I wonder where this next year will take us.

UFO October

I finished sewing the binding on my 2 year old's comfort quilt. I got to try out 2 decorative stitches on my new sewing machine. I love it. Now to get my hands on the crazy quilt blocks from last season's box exchange (from my quilt guild).

In the spirit of working on ufos, I took out this fleece baby blanket that I started in 2007. I stopped working on it after I had sewn on one side of the satin binding. I was trying to be something that I am not, a perfectionist. So tonight I quickly sewed the binding in place. It is sloppy, but it is soft and cuddly. My 2 year old's reaction was the best. He loved it and made the noises to show it.

I also took out a knitting ufo this week. My mom's scarf. It was ment to go along with the hat that I made her for either Christmas last year or her birthday (I don't remember which). So now I am trying to finish knitting it for her for Christmas. Its funny how knitting garter stitch dishcloths is fun for me, but knitting a garter stitch scarf is boring. Go figure. I guess that I might be more of a product crafter than a process one.

I am also working on sewing the edging on the cloth napkins.

With all of the UFOs that I've been working on, this might just be UFO October.

Since Friday....

I was locked out of the internet for almost 2 whole days this weekend. I was more productive as a result. My sewing machine broke on Friday. It was my 2nd sewing machine, and it lasted for 7 years. My first sewing machine was the one that my mom bought when she was pregnant with me. I bought my 2nd one from Sears. It was a Kenmore. I wanted to buy one from a sewing machine store for my 3rd time around. I also wanted a Bernina. I got one. I opened it up yesterday and made a few things. So far I love it. Whats nice about where I bought it from is that I get 2 free classes on how to use my machine. I signed up for the classes in November. Also if I am not happy with this machine with in a year's time, I can trade it in a full price for another machine.

I was in my craft room on Friday and saw 2 ufo quilts. I pulled them out and began to work on them. Both quilts had already had some machine quilting done on them. One is a Christmas quilt for my now 10 year old. I started it in 2007. Each year I think that I'll finish it for Christmas. I'm sure I will this year. It has a fleece backing and high loft batting. My son loves thick quilts. The other quilt is a comfort quilt for my 2 year old. I also started this one in 2007. It is just 2 panels f fabric with batting in between. The front is a map of the world. I'm stitching along the longitude and latitude lines. The back it a fin animal print. I finished quilting it yesterday, and not I'm ready to sew on the binding. Hopefully both of my kids will be getting a quilt for Christmas this year. My oldest thinks that I've been knitting him a penguin. I haven't, but it is on my list.

Beach Chicken, from Etsy, sent me some matchbook style notebooks with my order. I thought that it was such a clever idea. She had used food boxes for the cover. Last night I was inspired to make some larger ones. My 2 year old loved coloring in one of them. I might add those as little extras with my Christmas gifts.

I also made my oldest son a black bag to hold his lunch money in. He wanted it to be solid black. I already had the zipper and the fabric, so this project did not cost my anything to make. Well, almost anything. I did break a needle on my sewing machine.

I also added another patch to my jeans. The bottom of the jeans were looking a little raggid, so I sewed on some ribbon to them. The ribbon only cost $1.

I added some skulls and skeleton hands to the other wreath that I had. The total cost for the decorations, including the ribbon, was $4. I don't remember how much the wreath cost. I bought it on sale after Halloween last year.

I also used up 2 large skeins of Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarn. I made 6 matching dishcloths. The left over yarn I knitted on my spool knitter. I am sewing it together to make a hot pad. These items will be a Christmas gift for a family member.