Scarves for everyone!

As I mentioned in my Christmas and several other posts, I've taught myself how to knit recently.  Since I've been learning or focusing on the basics I decided to stick to scarves (since they're knit on straight needles and are relatively easy to learn, etc.).

Do you remember my two garter (knit all the stitches, wrong and right side) scarves I gave my brother and dad at Christmas? They were done with acrylic yarn and I've stuck with that yarn as I'm learning (not wasting money on the good stuff).  Well, dear friends, don't be surprised if you get a scarf this year for Christmas.  I'm going to have ton of them and I only have one neck... =).

The third scarf I attempted was the Herringbone Stitch.  Looking back, I realize that I shouldn't have tried that one for my third scarf (really should have practiced purling more, but I'm stubborn).  I found a great tutorial at New Stitch a Day.com (LOVE this place!) and got started.

First off, this is just the starting swatch of it.  The finished product curls in (No, I didn't block it yet) and the yarn bunches at the edges.  When asking a knitting friend, she said that it's the type of yarn that I used and if I used "big girl yarn" it wouldn't do that (yes, but my bank account would be silently weeping in the corner).   I like it, but I didn't use a pattern and just knit until I got bored... so it isn't really long enough for any guy friends.

The edges are lying flat here, but the longer it got, the more it curled in =\

For the fourth and fifth scarves, I did Double Knitting, which is two colors being knit and purled at the same time to get the stockingette stitch on both sides one in each color (loved this one - but it took twice as long to knit).  The video I used is this one - she does a good job explaining it and since purling wasn't my best yet, it made me happy to have someone explain it simply.

This is the fifth one... the other one looks exactly like this, only pink/green.

And, of course, Domino wanted to "help" me ....

Dis MY yarn... *purr*

Hoping to post more pictures of scarves soon... not sure what my next stitch will be. Suggestions welcome!

HIDE YO KIDS... HIDE YO... Kitchen Aid Mixer?

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaave ya met Ted my beautiful KitchenAid Mixer?

BEHOLD - A TEAL GODDESS

She's pretty epic. I adore her. I've made a couple things with her, but I'm finding more and more things to use her for all the time (MASHED POTATOES?! NUTS).  C'mon, I cleaned my itty bitty counter to put her on display. So, WHY, on earth, would I hide her teal beauty? Because my house is dusty and I don't want to clog her motor.  

I found an image of a really cute Kitchen Aid mixer cover and it linked back to an About.com tutorial.  Not going to lie, I used it as a rough guideline. I ended up measuring it with a tape measure and making my own paper templates.  I think mine came out pretty nicely (I didn't have a use for the pockets, although, looking back, I should have done them. Pockets are always a nice thing to have.)

The main side (a lovely teal) with canary yellow piping (first time using piping... fun!!)

The other side... no piping, no love. Just there. Eh about this fabric.

Now... here's the fun part. I used my lovely new machine, affectionately named Nina, to make this project.  It actually was Nina's first project with me (*tear* they grow up so fast).  I played with her various built in stitches and had a blast. I never knew sewing could be so swear-free (but cursing like a sailor is half the fun for me). 

And, as always, Domino tried to help me.

But these went so well I might make more for others! =)  Stay tuned...

Ladies and Gentleman.... Nina, the newest member to this sewing family.

Many of you don't know what I've been sewing on the past two years.  I learned on my Mom's 1970's something when I was little, but three years back I inherited my Grandma's sewing machine. An early 20th century White built-into-a-piece-of-furniture-collectible.  It's a great machine, got it up and running by a local sewing machine witch doctor out here, but I didn't like using it too much (the feed dogs and I didn't get along -- I now know that it was probably the low quality thread I was using that was the issue).  So I conned my dad into buying me an even older Singer.

Me happily fixing a cornhole beanbag for a friend... see my lovely Pinta? She's sitting on top of Santa Maria.  You'll get the names in a second.

All Pinta does is a straight stitch, which worked wonderfully for many years on many newbie projects.  But my mother-in-law (which is awesome) noticed that I needed a little more.  She's the one to blame for my interest in sewing and crafting and she has this vast amount of knowledge and experience.  It's pretty epic to have only a phone call away when I can't figure something out or when I need to dork out on a sewing thing. 

As a Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, Good Job finishing your Master's gift, my hubby and her went in together and got me a Bernina 1230 machine.  IT HAS SO MANY BUILT IN STITCHES.

I'll call her Nina. So I've got three sewing machines... the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria... BOLDLY SEWING INTO A NEW WORLD. *a-hem*

You have no idea how thrilled I am to have this machine. LET THE SEWING HARDER AND CRAZIER STITCHES BEGIN!

Punny Pot Holders

I'm trying to improve my general machine quilting skills.  To do so, I decided that making a bunch of pot holders would be an easy way of doing so.

Well, I found this gem of a tutorial and wanted to do something similar.  I made two, one for me and one for my mother-in-law.  I didn't like the "You are so hot!" on the pot holder - it wasn't funny enough for me.  So I googled heat related puns until I found two that I really liked.

Behold!

This one says, "If that pure rump roast? Nothing butt..."

You can see the back splash fabric a little better in this picture.

Mine is already stained from using it (whoops). For the blue fabric I used rotten rack fabric (the stuff people return and it's much cheaper). I loved it. So... tacky. I didn't put a loop on mine but that's because I didn't care. The hubby likes theses because they're big enough for his hands (I didn't follow the tutorial on the sizing... otherwise it would be too small).

For Valentine's Day I made my Grandmother a pair of Heart Shaped pot holders.  I used a tutorial that I can't find now (ARRRRGH) but made some minor modifications.  Even then, I think the Martha Stuart Heart  Shaped Pot Holder pattern is easier than what I did...

You can slip your hand in and just grab away (I definitely played with them for a while like duck mouths... because I'm 5.)

BEWARE - they come out small.  My hands aren't that large, but hubby's hands don't fit at all and mine barely do.  Lucky, my Grandmother is tiny and they should fit her just fine.  If not, they can double as heat pads (which I left a note letting her know that).  I didn't do the other weird material in between, but instead found some lace that I liked as a way of spicing it up.  However, it was hard to properly sew it together, so it didn't come out as well as I'd like. =\ Also, the way the tutorial has you sew them together then just flip them inside out made them bunch up at the tip of the heart and look weird.  It could be how poorly I cut the heart halves, but I doubt cutting it better would solve this issue.

Those are the only ones I managed to do before getting distracted... woot!

Jessie's B-Day!

For those of you that know me, I've had a wonderful person attached to my hip since Winter of 2006. She is an amazing person and I am lucky to have her in my life.

With that mushy crap out of the way, I can show you what I got to make her for her birthday (yesterday).  Now, I sew and knit, but she does crocheting.  She made me this AWESOME pincushion holder for my birthday, so I wanted to make her something equally useful and awesome.

Isn't he adorable?!

I found this awesome crochet/knitting supply bag holder on Pinterest, but, like most links on that damn website, it didn't show me how to make the bag. It was just bragging about. Grumble.  So I used my knowledge of bags (since I've made two already) and bugged my hubby for ideas how to properly make the bag.  He suggested for the circular bottom to use a pie pan (9") and then from there I measured the circumference for the tube shape of the bag.  

The straps have fusible batting on the inside as does the tube-like part. 

See the pockets? This is reversible too, I just gave it to her with them on the inside.

As for the height, I winged it. I wanted it to be tall enough to hold a bunch of yarn (I was pretty sure she was just stuffing her supplies into a box... I know I was shoving mine into a plastic bag).  The pockets were the part I was hesitant on. I had one crochet hook, so I was able to use it as a gauge to see how big each pocket should be.  From there, I pinned the hell out of the solid fabric to the tube one (which I didn't stitch together until AFTER I stitched on the pockets). Then took FOREVER stitching those stupid pockets down.  For the crowning touch, I went to a fancy yarn store nearby and bought her two skeins of gorgeous yarn which I made sure she understood was to be used on a project for her... not anyone else.  

She loves hers. I loved hers. So... I may have to make myself one....