Month: June 2012

Wing Chair Looks Worse

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Before

Now

It’s more colorful – just not in a good way. A store-bought slip cover will go back on until I can finish sewing the main body together.

This seat cushion took a lot longer than anticipated for 2 reasons. First, it took a back seat while the sheer curtains were being made. Secondly, all the seams were encased with a Hong Kong seam finish.

Typically, there is no reason to do anything with the seams other than press them open on a slip cover. Yet, as lovely as the green fabric is, it frays like mad. Plus, this is a slip cover that due to its light color and the fact that it must inhabit a home with a dog and a small child will get washed quite frequently. It needs to be able to withstand the wear and tear from the washer and from us. I do not want to be making another slip cover in a year. The memory of this one will need to fade away first.

In other sewing news, the pattern pieces of muslin #2 have been cut out for both Elly’s and my party dress. I anticipate a lot of work needing to be done on my muslin, but Elly’s muslin should fit perfectly. I probably just went and jinxed myself.

Sunday Snapshots (of cake eating)

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We attended a birthday party for our friend’s daughter. She was turning 3.

Elly had fun playing at the water table, hiding in the cardboard house and running after Niffler the cat.

But the best part of any birthday is the cake.

No need to remove the wrapper on the cupcake.

Preserving Elly’s Artwork

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It’s already started and Elly isn’t even in school yet. There is already a massive amount of artwork pouring out of her. Thankfully, her favorite medium is currently modeling clay and the easiest way to preserve such masterpieces is to just take a picture.

Not so with the masterpieces that are made with paint and crayons. Rather, I don’t have the heart to throw out her artwork. To combat the growing stack and to share the love, I already mail stacks of her artwork to relatives. Elly’s grandmother, great grandmother, grandfather, great aunt and dear neighbor have a collection of her artwork. Still I hadn’t quite figured out what to do with all the artwork I was keeping.

While working on the 3rd scrapbook for our family, I realized half was just Elly’s artwork. It made more sense to make a scrapbook just for her artwork. So, that is exactly what I did.

Here are my supplies spread out on my new craft table, another yard sale find. I might be becoming an addict.

I tried to keep the pages as simple as possible so that the feature was Elly’s artwork. The scrapbook can be expanded, which is a good thing.


One piece of artwork wasn’t put in the scrapbook because I just love it. If I saw it in an art gallery, I would buy it. It’s amazing.

Just look at the bright red color, the circular motion and the use of white to balance it all out. It’s good. Artists could learn something from my Elly. So, I decided to frame it instead.

Change of Knitting Plans

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Recently, I purchased Nicky Epstein’s Knitting on the Edge trilogy.
Knitting on the Edge
Knitting Over the Edge
Knitting Beyond the Edge (Amazon links)

I’m a little behind the times as the first two books were published in 2004 and 2005. The books are similar to Barbara Walker’s Treasury books, but focus just on patterns that can be used to enhance or construct an edging. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful photography. Though I haven’t had time to really peruse the books, one pattern instantly grabbed my attention, Cord n Cable.

It will go perfect with my cabled stole idea once I add in a lace ladder, maybe. The buttery merino lace wool no longer seems like a good fit though just for hoots and giggles I’ll still give it a whirl on a swatch. I’ll also try out what might be a better option, the hand-spun brown wool my MIL gifted to me after receiving it from her MIL.

Lots for Elly and Jake at Local Yard Sales

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On Saturday, friends were hosting a multi family yard sale. Despite thinking they were a bit crazy or just glutton for punishment (I prefer the lazy technique of donating all unwanted items to Purple Heart and taking the tax write-off at the end of the year), I strapped Elly into her bike trailer and headed over to find some treasures. One person’s trash is another man’s treasure, you know.

I found many treasures, but they all were for Elly and Jake save one.

For Elly, I bought a baseball toy, a Diego game set and a toy chest. You can never have too many toy chests.

My friend tried to warn me about this toy chest. She mentioned that her daughter liked to climb inside and would always fall on her head when trying to get out. I must admit that I dismissed her warning. So stupid.
The first thing Elly wanted to do with the toy chest was climb inside and play with her baby dolls.

For Jake, I bought a book filled with dog treat recipes, doggie cookie cutters, a brush and a basket to put it all in.

And the one item I bought for myself, a crocheted shawl. It’s purely for decoration as the design is so open and the yarn seems to be rayon. Yet, I think it will be fun to wear a shawl off-season.

This entire outfit was purchased at our local consignment store or local yard sale. I decided if the clothes at Evergreen Consignment were good enough for my only daughter, they were good enough for me too. I may never go back to buying clothes at department stores, except for special occasions. It’s so much cheaper and the quality is just as good. Of course if I ever get more time to sew, I may never buy special occasion clothes either.

The Hexagon Blanket

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It is finished.

According to my Ravelry project page, it took me a year to knit this blanket. Though I’m fairly sure for 6 months of that time, I had it stuffed in a basket that was then piled high with fabric. It took me a while to fall in love with the pattern. But, I did. Perhaps it was all the stitches that one must pick up in this pattern that caused me to initially hide my head in the sand. I was never very good at picking up stitches. Thanks to this pattern, I’m a pro and speedy to boot.

Speaking of the pattern, let’s talk details. I hope you want to know the stats because I am dying to share them with you. I took notes just in case you wanted to knit a hexagon blanket too or just in case you are curious. Either works for me.

Pattern: Basic Two-Needle Hexagon by Barbara Walker
Located in a 4th Treasury of Knitting Patterns book
Page 16 in my copy

Size of finished blanket: 60″ diameter
Size of individual hexagon: 20″
My gauge: 5 sts per inch on size 6 needles (though as mentioned previously, I’m a very loose knitter)

I originally made a hexagon about the size featured in the book by casting on 25 stitches. Yet, I knew Dan would find me on a train headed to the funny farm if I had to knit 20+ hexagons and then stitch them altogether. Learning from my swatch, I cast on 55 stitches. The rest of the instructions I followed to the letter. I even used 2 colors like Barbara recommended. After the first hexagon was finished, I became lax and perhaps a bit confident in my picking up skills. Finding her instructions on how to pick up exactly 55 stitches tedious, I stopped counting and proceeded to pick up only the stitches that were easy to pick up, skipping stitches at random. Rarely did I pick up the correct number. I usually had 2-4 stitches too many, but I solved that problem by quickly decreasing the extra stitches on the next row. Can I tell you that it made the hexagon just that much more enjoyable to knit? And how! As happy as I was to finish knitting before the weather got hot, I was sad to be done with the blanket. Though I’ve never knit a pattern twice, this is one pattern I would gladly make an exception for.

Now as you know, this blanket was a yarn hog. I made 2 trips to my LYS and still had to order extra yarn from a fellow Ravelry user. In the end, I used 8 skeins of Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica in natural, colorway 14 for the MC (main color). I even needed a 9th skein to stitch all the hexagons together. It was that close. For the variegated yarns, I used 3 balls of Crystal Palace Taos and 6 skeins of Noro Kureyon in colorway 250. If you plan to use Noro throughout the blanket as the CC (complimentary color), then you’ll need closer to 10 skeins.

Oddly, when I finished stitching all the hexagaons together, I didn’t like the blanket. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t as amazing as I had dreamed it could be. It looked like a bunch of little stitches with 3 different types of yarns. No angels descended from on high and sung to me. It just didn’t happen.

And then I washed it and blocked it. But more importantly, I left it at my neighbor’s house in her upstairs room to dry (she had the space to allow it to dry flat). Walking away from it for 2 days and not looking at it allowed me fall in love with the blanket when I saw it next. I think I had been too close to the blanket for too long. It looked so mundane to me because it was commonplace in my hands. Now, I truly love it again.