Sunday, June 15, 2008
Forgotten objects
Friday, June 13, 2008
Productivity... finally
The floppy brimmed hats came about when I searched the stores in vain for a fun, stylish, yet functional hat for Baby Girl to wear to the beach in a few weeks. As much as I call her Baby Girl, she is no longer a baby and all her old hats have gotten too small. I found an online tutorial that was most helpful. This really was an excellent site. I think the hat turned out rather well, don't you?
It was a snap to make. The only modification I made was to create tucks where the crown meets the brim instead of trying to stretch it.
I liked the hat so much that I whipped one out for Sweet Pea during today's naptime.
I've also been working on a Christmas present for my mother. It's never too early to start planning for Christmas in my opinion, especially if you like to give homemade gifts as much as I do.
I'm making her the ubiquitous Irish Hiking Scarf using Dark Horse Yarn's Fantasy in Color 83. I'm knitting it with my impulse buy of Serendipity needles in size 8. I'm loving these needles. They're so lightweight. Yarn and needles were purchased at the closest thing I have to an LYS, Krazy Knitz.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Long time, no write...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
One day down...so many things to do
Crocheted Baby Blanket
Finished size: 32" x 42"
Yarn: Caron Perfect Match, Lilac
Pattern: My own making of (many) rows of triple crochet with a round of single crochet followed by a round of triple crochet ruffle made by crocheting two triple crochet in each stitch with three stitches in each corner stitch. It's a plain, utilitarian blanket that will be warm and snuggly come next winter.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Busy, busy
1. Planned and executed one Elmo birthday party for my Baby Girl who's no longer a baby but a 2 year old little girl (Smashing good time was had by all!)
2. Spent countless hours at school doing things that I shouldn't have to do because I'm on maternity leave but there I was and at least they're done
3. Discovered that my project for graduate school was much larger and difficult than anticipated and spend many, many hours working on it
4. Stared longingly at my craft supplies as I sadly put them away in preparation for the party
5. Stressed over my broken refrigerator which went out last Thursday and remains broken even now (argh to Sears repair! you're most unhelpful)
6. Slept... oh, wait...not much
I feel very tired right now and a more than a little weary. The weight of the coming week or so is baring down upon me heavily. The rest of this week and next week are all that remain of my maternity leave and then things will become so much more hectic. I have this horrible feeling of disappointment like it's the end of the summer and I haven't accomplished anything. I knew that maternity leave wasn't going to be full of free time but I did have a few things I wanted to do and I haven't really done any of them. So, in the interest of making myself feel better, here's a list of my goals for the next 11.5 days:
1. Sew Baby Girl a cushion for her rocking chair
2. Make Sweet Pea a tote bag to take to the babysitter's house
3. Make Sweet Pea some new bibs and burp cloths
4. Catch up on laundry (I'm ashamed to say there are things in my laundry room that have been there for months because they're not essential to everyday life. I should work on those. It's embarrassing.)
5. Finish a sewing project that I started for a co-worker many moons ago when I had no children (note that Baby Girl just turned 2; it's a very neglected project)
6. Finish a crocheted baby blanket (uh oh... the shower is Saturday...I might want to work on that sooner rather than later in the week)
7. Make a couple of other tote bags I've got knocking around my brain.
8. Finish Sweet Pea's crocheted carrot rattle that was supposed to be for Easter (missed that one, didn't I?)
9. Pull out Baby Girl's old clothes and see what would work for Sweet Pea. Wash any that I think will be good for her and the season.
10. Plan meals for when I go back to work and do some prep work that can be frozen to help me out when I get home at five, two kiddies in tow, tired and behind on everything
11. Sew in the ends of my knit dishclothes that have been done for at least a year and never had the ends sewn in so we can actually use them (Side note: I love using handknit dishclothes. Have you ever tried one? They're amazingly good at scrubbing gunk. I knitted half a dishcloth while I was in labor with Sweet Pea. It helped me get through some of the stress of the day when my induction started to go wrong. Knitting dishclothes clears my mind and helps me focus.)
12. Just reminded myself, sew in the ends of dishcloth knitted during labor and send to midwife who thought that it was so great that I was knitting during labor
13. Finish up thank you notes and mail
14. Begin working on Mother's Day presents (Oh, I have the best idea for those. I'm taking the grandchildren's handprints and turning them into flowers using cloth. I'll explain the process more when I've actually started the bags.)
I think I better stop the list. It's getting out of control just like everything else in my life lately. There's more I could add but with two children, a husband, graduate school, and the end of maternity leave approaching, it's unlikely that I'll even finish what I've written so far.
To end, I leave you with an amusing story. Last Sunday morning at breakfast, Baby Girl is chattering on about her Happy To Day party. We're reminding her of all the things we did, the presents she received, etc. She says, : "Nata. 'Member? Elmo broken."
Yes, Baby Girl. Elmo is indeed broken, but wasn't it fun?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Obsessed
In the days since then, I've contemplated and planned and schemed. I finally decided on materials and a plan for making these custom items. Last Friday, I ventured to Hobby Lobby to buy materials and found myself sadly disappointed. While I did find some beautiful cotton prints to make bias tape to go around the edges, the heart and soul of my project was yanked from my grasp. The cotton jersey fabric that was to be the base of my burp cloths was ruined! As the employee unrolled the fabric, my hopes of starting the burp cloths that evening disappeared with each nasty stain that appeared on the bolt of fabric. To make this long story short, a storm two weeks before had caused leaks in the building that damaged some stock. Apparently, the white jersey was one of the damaged items and I had just discovered it. To make matters worse, the store didn't have the bias tape maker I needed to give rise to my project. I tempered my sad disappointment with the purchase of one or two or nine other fabrics that caught my eye.
Tomorrow... the saga continues as our brave seamstress-y heroine continues her quest for cotton jersey and we find out why burp cloths are the obsession now instead of bibs. Also, (if I can figure out how) pictures of the beautiful fabrics she found on her journeys.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
A Beginning...
sweet pea crafting
The ramblings of a crafty soul...