Crafts

Orange Cabled Hoodie

Sarah Carolyn, Knitting

I was looking for a nice fall jacket for Carrie to wear now that the evenings are getting crisp. I looked everywhere for a heavy corduroy or fleece jacket that would still would fit in the carseat, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. What I did find were sweater-jackets. They were nice, but the only ones that came in Carrie’s size were off-white. So I started thinking, “Well, honestly, I could make one of those.” And then I thought, “Wait a minute, I did make one of those!”

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All it needed was buttons. Remember when I posted about the buttons choices two years ago? I wasn’t in love with either choice, but I was determined to just sew buttons – any buttons – on the sweater. I couldn’t find either set of those buttons, but I did find that my button box had gained four of the perfect size, color and style buttons sometime in the last two years. Carrie watched me sew them on excitedly, and was more than willing to let me put the sweater on her when I was done. It fits perfectly, and Carrie loves it!

Thinking Wintry Thoughts

Sarah Knitting

Remember when I started this scarf? Why do I do this? I put it down 2/3 of the way through. It took me two evenings and an afternoon nap (Carrie’s, not mine) to finish that last third. I left the needle in it, though, because I’m knitting a matching hat and if there’s yarn left from that I’d like the scarf to be a little bit longer.

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In case anyone is wondering, the pattern for the scarf is here. (The pattern for the hat was here, but apparently it’s been published in a knitting magazine and is no longer available free online.) I’m 2/3 of the way to the hat decreases. (Uh-oh, there’s that magic 2/3 number…)

Anyway, I’m determined to finish these this year. Last year I didn’t have a scarf that matched my coat, so I didn’t wear one at all. Brrrrrrr.

Socks and Dishcloths

Sarah Knitting

I finished the first Jaywalker sock!

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I finished it Wednesday night…technically it might have been Thursday morning when I grafted the toe closed. I was slightly worried about whether I’d have enough yarn to make the second sock, since the skein was feeling a bit lighter than the sock, but I weighed them both (I used the scale at the post office, they must think I’m nuts) and the sock weighed in at 1.5 oz., leaving 2 oz. to knit the second sock. Since I’m actually all lined up at the perfect spot in the color sequence I’ll even have some leftover. Probably not enough to make baby-sized jays though. Now I just have to find the motivation to cast on the second sock.

And remember the garterlac dishcloth I started? I finished that one and made another:

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The one on the right was sitting in my dishcloth basket just needing the ends woven in. I think it’s interesting to see how the variegated yarn looks in the two dishcloths – I personally prefer the way it turned out in the entrelac block, but they’re both pretty.

Sock-A-Month 2 Knit-along

Sarah Sock-A-Month 2

I joined the Sock-A-Month 2 Knit-along last week. I figured, since I’m knitting socks anyway, it might be fun to try to challenge myself to finish a pair a month. I don’t know if I’ll manage to knit a whole pair of socks every month, but it would be a good way to get through some of my sock yarn stash!

I’ve actually already completed August’s socks, but they’re a surprise for somebody, so no pictures. At the rate I’m going, my Jaywalker socks may actually be finished for September: I’m most of the way through the gusset on the first sock, and then it’s just a few inches of foot and a toe! (And, of course, the second sock…) I’m really hoping I have enough of the yarn left to squeeze out a pair of munchkin-sized socks, because I bought Carrie an adorable outfit from Gymboree that’s all the same colors. Hm, maybe those could be the October socks?

Filed Under: What Was I Thinking?!?

Sarah Crafts

Massive cleaning is underway over here. We’re (finally) finishing converting the upstairs office into a guest room, the basement family room into a family room/office, the bedroom into a bedroom/weight room, and the craft room into…something approaching a clean craft room.

There are boxes of things I need to sort through. I won’t frighten anyone with a picture of how many boxes, but I don’t think Denis really understood exactly how much stuff I have in that room until today. (He tried to tell me I couldn’t buy any more yarn until I knit everything I had. Obviously, the man doesn’t understand the rules of stashing. I told him he should read Yarn Harlot. He said I had to own more yarn than she does. I seriously doubt it.) In my own defense, a fair amount of the contents of the boxes is stuff that doesn’t belong in my craft room in the first place – over the past two years it had become the catch-all room for anything that didn’t have a home but needed to be put somewhere – but instead of sorting before boxing I decided I’d go through it all later. The priority was getting the bed out of there and into the guest room.

Under the bed, I had two under-bed storage boxes with fabric in them. I poked through them briefly before dinner and found this:



There are, I kid you not, 5 3/4 yards of the three coffee-themed fabrics and 1 3/4 yards of the “coordinating” ugly brown fabric. I vaguely remember buying this intending to make placemats – I think, but don’t quote me on this, that it was my senior year of college, when I was renting instead of living in the dorms – but holy sh…sugar, how many placemats could I possibly have wanted to make?!? The salespeople at Jo-Ann’s must have had a really good belly laugh at my expense when I left, because I really think I could make enough placemats to cover a small country’s worth of tables with this much fabric.

What on earth do I do with it now?

Start-itis

Sarah Knitting

Uh-oh. Apparently, starting my Jaywalker socks on Saturday was a Bad Idea. Now I have a really bad case of start-itis. So far I’ve managed to channel it into just making a dishcloth:


This is a pattern called “garterlac” which I ran across last week and was charmed by. I love entrelac, and garter stitch entrelac is super easy!

In order to make progress on the ever-tedious second sock, I’ve been “bargaining” with myself – as in I can work on the dishcloth or my socks after I knit 15 rows on the gift socks. This is working so far, and I’m only 15 or so rows away from the cuff on that second sock.

And last week I picked up a UFO from my craft room, one I’d never actually documented. Remember the orange laceweight yarn I purchased at Rhinebeck three years ago? Six months later I started making a lace shawl out of that while we were in Italy. Then it ended up in the pile of UFOs when I started all the baby knitting.


(Sorry for the terrible picture. I guess orange knitting on my cedar-colored deck doesn’t work so well!)

I’ve decided that instead of beating myself up over my inability to focus on one project at the moment, I’ll cut myself some slack and keep four projects in my current rotation:

  1. one gift project
  2. one project for me
  3. something small and portable like socks or a dishcloth
  4. a UFO from my craft room

(Note that this only applies to knitting. Any sewing projects are over and above this list, and always have been.)

No Self Control

Sarah Knitting

The pink socks from my sock kit are on the needles. So much for waiting until I was finished with the gift socks!

I justified it by telling myself I would just knit a swatch. But the thing is, this yarn is just amazing to work with. I think I mentioned it has aloe in it, and it’s so incredibly soft and wonderful to knit that I couldn’t just stop with the swatch.

The good news is that halfway through the ribbing I gave myself a swift mental kick and vowed to work the other sock at least through the heel turn before I could even look at the other sock again. So far it’s working…

But the fact that I couldn’t even wait 24 hours before casting on is a pretty good explanation as to why there are several unfinished mate-less socks and many, many other UFOs in my craft room. I’m just too fickle!

Oh, I do have to mention one thing, though. I ordered some new KnitPick’s needles for my pal, and a set for myself while I was at it, so I decided to start my new sock on those instead of my Addi’s. That pretty purple cable is the most flexible circular cable I’ve ever used, and the needles themselves are nice and sharp, perfect for the “slip two together, knit the next stitch, pass the two slipped stitches over” part of the pattern. So far I think these are my favorite sock needles. Don’t tell the Addi’s. ;)

KSKS Goodies!

Sarah Knit Sock Kit Swap

Look what came in the mail today! Aren’t I lucky?

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My secret pal was Valerie, and she did such a wonderful job on my kit! (I, on the other hand, did a terrible job photographing it. I was too scared to go outside on the deck (see last night’s post) and take advantage of natural light.) I really love both sock yarns – the pink one has aloe in it! – and I’m sitting here trying to convince myself that I really need to finish the gift socks I’m currently working on before I can even swatch the yarn. I was thinking that the crazy stripey yarn looked kind of familiar…and then I realized it’s all the colors I’ve just redecorated the living play room in:
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(Remind me not to leave my finished socks laying around on top of that blanket, or I’ll never find them.)

Thank you so much, Valerie!

And…

I don’t have to feel guilty about getting my kit, because Carrie and I went to the post office this morning and mailed out my pal’s kit:

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I had the hardest time giving this bag away, because I love the fabrics and how it turned out. I really hope my pal loves it just as much!

Snow In August

Sarah Cross Stitch

It’s done.

Done! Finished! One of the oldest cross-stitch projects in my craft room is complete!

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Now I just have to get it framed and that’s one less thing on my ever-expanding craft to-do list.

(Oh, and I finished Christmas gift #5 today. I don’t have a complete list of all the things I’m making yet, but I think I’m on track to be done with everything before Thanksgiving.)

Tote Bag Fabric

Sarah Knit Sock Kit Swap

I finally picked out a pattern and some fabric to make the bag for my KSKS pal!

The middle fabric will be the outside of the bag, the blue fabric will be the lining, and the purple fabric will be the handles and a flap. There will be pockets, but I’m not sure which fabric or where. It’s going to be cute! I think I’ll make one for myself out of my fabric stash first to be sure I understand the pattern. It looks easy, but it’s been a while since I sewed anything.

Now I just have to clean out enough of my craft room to actually get to my sewing machine. Sigh. Someday I’ll stop using my craft room as a catch-all for all the junk I need to clean out of other rooms, and then it will always be clean.