Recent Crafty Stuff

I finally finished my rendition of Selfish Seamstress's Envy Scarf. I used the exact same yarn she did (less need to think about the decision that way) -- Lang Jawoll color 99. Size 6 needles. Mine ended up about 8 feet long.


(If I were one of those arty bloggers I would've draped it over a tree branch in the snow, but I"m one of those lazy bloggers.)




I finally bound off when I had this much yarn left:


The decision being prompted more by the thought, "Okay, enough already -- I'm sick of this," than any design aesthetic. The other day someone emailed me to ask what cast on I use on hats, and I replied that I typically base most of those decisions on whim and chance. I'm a very moody crafter.

On the sewing front I made 3 more pairs of cords for Annabeth using our ever-popular rendition of Ottobre 6/2009 #17 "Neat Beat" pants, which we've made in all sorts of stretch and non-stretch fabrics, added pockets to, and changed the waistband of, and generally made about 10 pairs of so far. This time I added about an inch or so in length (she's in that pre-teen growth spurt) and about a quarter inch to the width of the legs (that was simply eyeballed as I was cutting them out).

After that I turned to a Sandra Betzina pattern I've been dying to make forever, except I discovered that it took me an entire day to shorten a piece by a centimeter, which was my clue that maybe I wasn't all that excited about it after all. So I pulled out another pants pattern for me, for which I had the fabric washed and ready ... still couldn't get the project off the ground.

Then I decided to go for more of an Instant Gratification project, Butterick 5247, which is touted as a 1 hour pattern (although whoever decided it only took an hour obviously didn't have a bored cat who comes running into the room as soon as she hears the sound of a pattern being opened). I used ponte roma from JoAnn Fabrics, and made view C which is supposed to be a tunic but fits me more like a dress:


It looks absolutely huge on me, but I think it'll be wearable with a belt and leggings. And it cleared the sewing cobwebs from my mind. Onward....