I should have never made two.

I leave two bunnies for ONE week.... and this is what happens.

It is a cute family portrait. Only the blue one is mine.  The rest are Easter gifts. =)

Sheesh!  "Hoppy" Spring everyone!

When I dip, you dip, we dip.

I've been working on Nina a lot lately, so Pinta has been glaring at me in judgement the whole time.  Since she's older and needs more love, I decided to make a cover for her (something I've been meaning to do but kept forgetting) to keep the dust out.

Remember those KitchenAid Covers I made? Well, I used the same principle for it but I didn't want to make it the same boring one fabric.  I wanted to make it similar to this, but not exactly the same. So it inspired me to do a quilted block for the cover.  But I did use maxi piping again (I kind of fell in love with that stuff).

I found a really cool bear tracks block on Pinterest and modified it so it was tracks walking up and over my machine.  I added a solid stripe next to it so it would be a bear walking under the night sky.

I only did four but looking at it now I could have done six or eight and it would have looked better. Oh well.

Originally, I was going to use this as an excuse to work on my machine quilting skills with Nina, but I opted to be SUPER nerdy.  Can you tell what I did? No? Well... maybe you tell what they are from looking at the side piece of the cover ....

The dork inside me is giddy. (It's Orion the Hunter).

I started in the middle and pinned the heck out of it with the piping in between the two pieces.  Seriously, the more pins the better for this.

See the Big Dipper? I know, there's about an inch gap from the bottom.  I'm OK with that, but I'll have to add an inch next time.

You can see the Little Dipper now (that thread is from the piece of fabric place holder, not my cover).  Get why the tracks had to be bears? The original constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) are shown as bears, not cups or anything dipper-related.

Orion didn't come out as well he should have. My mistake when sewing them together.

Technically, this is reversible but I really made this side pop so... no need to see the other side. =) Happy sewing!

OK.... fine! Here's the other side. But there are no fancy stitches or piping, just plain crazy cat lady fabric....

Feedback welcome!

Sir Hops Alot and Blue Bunny

Since November I've been knitting non-stop.  I blame this pattern.

I found it on Pinterest back in October and thought it was the CUTEST thing ever.  However, when I read the pattern instructions it scared the hell out of me. It might as well have been in Chinese.  So, I taught myself via YouTube channels and friends how to knit.

My most recent adventure was finally taking the leap from scarves to knitting a toy on straight needles.  I found this adorable knit bunny pattern (thank you Pinterest!) and it seemed easy enough for me to make. 

Introducing... Sir Hops Alot!

And Blue Bunny!

I used this tutorial to make Sir Hops Alot and Blue Bunny.  I used a long pair of size 4 straight needles to make Sir Hops Alot, but that ended up hurting my wrist.  So, my Blue Bunny was knit on size 8 circular needles which made it a lot easier.  Highly recommend that (although, I don't recommend buying circular needles with 36" cables. The cables get twisted and it frustrated the crap out of me. Newbie mistake!)

To make the ears, I followed the instructions in the tutorial for decreasing and increasing the stitches, but I used this video as a guideline to make it a different color on each side.

I didn't like how she did the normal ears.  It looked too... ehh. I really wanted to add some flare to it.  Another project I'm working on had me whipstitch another knit swatch to the ears to give it two tones, but I thought was still phfft.  Tried to make it a little "me" I guess.  Plus the faceless bunny look was going to give me nightmares so I added some eyes, nose, and some whiskers.

Also, the same blog posted a new tutorial on an easier bunny... but I haven't made that yet.  It's cute, but I like mine more.

Round and Round we go...

Scarves are getting boring.

I've been finding some super cute things on Pinterest that involve Knitting in the Round.  All the needles that I inherited were straight and weren't double pointed.  So I went to Michael's and got some size 4 double pointed needles.  I prefer metal over bamboo mostly because I've read things online stating that cats tend to chew up bamboo ones (AHHHHHH considering how expensive those things are!).

I used multiple videos, again the one from New Stitch a Day.com being the most helpful, and I was able to figure it out in an afternoon.

Isn't it cute? I may have "proposed" to my hubby with it when he got home... =)  He wasn't as amused as I was. Ahhh well...

What is to come of this new skill? Only time will tell.... =)  Happy crafting!

Knitting Supply Revisited

Remember the crochet supply bag that I made for Jesse's Birthday?  Well, when the hubby came back from  visiting his parents, he brought with him a bunch of knitting supplies from his Grandma.  I inherited 10 pairs of needles and a bunch of skeins of yarn.  I needed a place to store it... and soon. Since I already knew how to make a crochet bag, I set to making myself a knitting supply bag.

I used the 9" pie pan as a template for the bottom of the bag and measured the circumference for the long tube. I made it stand as tall as a typical desk because of how much yarn I had inherited.  I wanted to hide it all from my yarn gobbling kitties.

Notice all the pins? I pinned the hell out of this project. Made it a lot easier to sew.

Again, as I mentioned in the previous post, I used fusible batting and made two straps in lieu of the one strap that the blog that inspired me used (two is more sturdy).  I then used Nina's fancy built in stitches to jazz it up a bit an have fun.  Using a zig-zag stitch to ensure that the needle pockets wouldn't rip/fall off was rather fun. Nina made this project FLY by. Thoroughly enough making it.

It can hold size US 19 needles (the pink ones) and cable ones and scissors! I tried to make it hold everything you could possibly need in your knitting projects (not the embroidery needle - they're really tiny... need to find a good fix for that).

It only stands up that much because it's full of yarn.  When it isn't, it flops over all sad. Hence... reason to buy loads of yarn!

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...