Christmas crafting

In spite of the busy-ness of preparing for White Christmas, we managed to put together a few handmade Christmas gifts.

I made a moebius scarf for Thalia.  Since it was truly infinite, being a moebius,  I thought Tardis blue was appropriate.

I got some Sherlock-themed fabric from Spoonflower, and made both girls regular infinity scarves:

I also got ratty knit fabric from Spoonflower, and made a skirt for Annabeth:

Continuing to celebrate Annabeth's role of Theda the Turtle back in October, Thalia got a purse from Goodwill and stenciled a design on it for Annabeth.  She cut the stencil herself. 

And my personal favorite -- the combo of this quote (Loki in The Avengers) and the picture of Theda makes me giggle:

Thalia also cut stencils of Sherlock and John to decorate another Goodwill purse

More Christmas gifts that celebrated Legend of Sleeping Beauty -- Christmas ornaments were in their stockings from Santa:

And Santa also left a giant stuffed sea turtle, shown here with the turtle ornament on its back:

It's worth noting that the role of Theda the Turtle was a small role in a musical that wasn't that big of deal, but one day we decided (or else we realized) that Theda is THE role in ALL the musicals.   Coincidentally, people were coming up to Annabeth after White Christmas and asking if she was the one who played the turtle -- they get it!  That Theda is really meant to rule the world!  Burdened with glorious purpose, indeed.

Really, my memories of this entire Christmas are fairly hazy.  I was sick, and somewhat incoherent.  We had also made some things to take to a Christmas celebration with the extended family, but by the time we were supposed to leave for that Annabeth and MrV were sick.  So those are still around here, and may be delivered eventually.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Scarlet Pimpernel is opening in a couple of days, and as of last weekend they didn't have enough dresses for the wedding scene.  Thalia suggested I make one for her.  The director wanted lime green, but JoAnn didn't have any lime green satin when I went on Saturday night, and I was determined to do buy fabric there since I had all of my 50% off Coupon Commotion coupons in hand.  So I went with celery.

I used the basic pattern from the Wicked Witch costume from 2011's Wizard of Oz.  A quick skirt, which has some cream brocade that I found in the basement -- I think it originally came from the charity fabric place for use, perhaps, in a Shakespeare costume or some other theater production -- okay, really, I have no clue why this piece of fabric exists in our house.  Anyway, it sort of works with the satin.

The top includes the same brocade.  I cut the neckline lower.  I purchased a yard of cheap lace, and used the ruffling foot of the serger to make lace for around the neckline.  I just cut a long strip, doubled it over so there wasn't a raw edge along the length of it, and ruffled it; then zigzagged to the neckline.

The sleeves also have some of the same lace.  In this case I used the selvedge to give a finished edge to the bottom of the lace.

And, there you have a dress. But it seems like it needs something more to look French Revolution era.

So, strips of the satin, narrow serging, and BOWS.  In this shot they're pinned onto the front and sleeves.  I think someone tacked them on during a dress rehearsal (another mom asked Thalia if I'd be offended if they tacked down the bows; Thalia told the mom that she'd need to try a lot harder if she wanted to offend me).

I also made a petticoat out of crinoline to wear under it.  It was a truly hack job, but helps the skirt poof out.

In other news, I gave Katie Watson's pattern for Little Hats (Ravelry link) a whirl.  I used size 7 needles, and Cascade 220 yarn. After one trip through the front loader it fits perfectly on a juice glass for blocking.

It also fits perfectly on a cat.

However, we were wanting something that could be fastened to a headband OR a hat for an American Girl doll.  This is too big for the headband idea, and too small for the doll.  So I'll try it again, but smaller.  Or bigger.

Snow Day

Everything we were supposed to do today got cancelled.  As a matter of fact, most of it was cancelled last night before the snow even started.  I was out this morning returning overdue library books before any precipitation began, and it was eery -- everything was still calm and dry, but very light traffic.

A few hours later the UPS truck almost got stuck on our street.  

Annabeth is the only one of us who has ventured out in it.  Thalia is sick with a cold.  Other household members have strong opinions about how to spend a day like today:

A few days ago we got a DVD player that can connect directly to our Amazon Prime account so we can watch Star Trek reruns on free streaming.  Add some knitting, and let it snow!

(This is the beginnings of a Mini Mania Scarf.)

Work in Progress Wednesday

I've been sewing the Linda pant from StyleArc patterns.  I've made 3 pairs since Christmas, and am ready to start prepping fabric on pair number 4.

I'd made this pattern a couple of times last spring in some stretch bengaline from JoAnn Fabric -- stretch bengaline is the specific fabric called for on the pattern.  But, alas, the JoAnn version of that fabric ... has issues.  Specifically, the black dye rubs off on anything cotton I wear (yes, even months later and after being washed so many times), plus it feels prickly against my skin (probably a reaction to the dye).  

Then I'd made 3 cropped/capri versions over the summer in various lightweight stretch wovens.

On Christmas Day I started browsing my stash of bottomweights for anything appropriate for the pattern.  I found some black lightweight something-or-other from somewhere-or-other, then I stopped by Hancock's a few days later and found some grey stretch poly-rayon suiting on sale for about $9 total cost (I'm pretty sure that's what's in the photo), then stopped by JoAnn to discover a heavier mauve poly-rayon twill that I could use a 50%-off coupon to purchase (about $13 total cost for fabric), and then JoAnn put ALL of the suiting on sale this week, so I bought more.

I know the StyleArc pattern is pricey -- you have to pay shipping from Australia, plus they're more expensive than the 99 cent pattern sales at the stores.  But I'm able to make pants quickly for about $10-$15 per pair worth of fabric and notions.  I've made 8 pairs of pants off of this pattern so far, and have plans for at least 2 more., so cost of pattern per pair is looking better and better.

Also, I began the New Year using my new camera (a Christmas present) to photograph some of the yarn stash I'd totally forgotten about owning.  After I got the piles sorted, I browsed Ravelry for patterns that would match up with the piles.  Then I started swatching. 

That project got set aside, though, when a friend on an online forum had a crisis.  Several people decided to band together to make a quilt for her.  I said I'd make a square.

Unperturbed that I have no clue what I'm doing, I decided I wanted to embroider a labyrinth, since it might be meditative/interesting/fun/soothing to trace the path with a finger while wrapped in the quilt.  I chose multi-color floss in the appropriate colors. I found an image of a labyrinth online, and played around with re-sizing it until it looked right for going onto a 9 inch (finished size) quilt square.

I traced the pattern onto Sulky tear-away, sewed the stabilizer to some white muslin, and started back stitching the pattern by hand.

I originally started at the outside, and then realized that it made more sense to start in the middle and work my way out.  I confined all my stitching to the actual pattern lines -- that is, I didn't cross over the gaps on the backside.

Then I tore the Sulky away using tweezers to pick it all out (I think there are still shreds in this photo).

Then I picked out some fabric for a backing.  I thought I might have different ideas about appropriate color and pattern after the embroidery was done.

I turned under the edges and sewed the labyrinth onto the 9.5 inch square as a applique.  I also sewed some more lines of white stitching following some of the rings and cross bars -- I'm hoping these help stabilize it.

And just now I've folded it up, put it in an envelope, and am mailing it to someone who volunteered to put all of the squares together.

Things I probably could improve on:  I traced the pattern in plain ol' pencil, I didn't back the embroidery with any sort of stabilizer before sewing it on to the backing cloth, I could've done something slicker for the final step of getting-rid-of-raw-edges-and-affixing-to-backing. Also, I considered putting something in the center -- a heart or a word or something -- but decided that might be twee.

In the meantime, lots of school stuff has started back up, and various other lessons and theater productions are going on.  More on that later.

Merry Christmas

Long time no blog!  While we were in silent mode, 

we have:

 Visited Santa

Saw Wicked at the Fox.  It was excellent.

Also, made lots of Christmas presents, like

this little bag that Annabeth sewed for me, and

this scarf I made for Thalia (uber-cool Tardis voile from Spoonflower), and

an amigurumi Dr. Who, 10th doctor (found the pattern on Ravelry), and

this little knitted fairy-rat I made for Annabeth (again, found the pattern on Ravelry), and

this bottle cap necklace featuring Sherlock that Thalia made Annabeth, and

these Dr. Who ornaments Annabeth made for Thalia (Spoonflower fabric, again -- a fat quarter was supposed to be used for finger puppets, but she stuffed them and attached Tardis-blue ribbons for hanging).

Plus, of course,

cookie making time!

Which had more of a Hobbit theme this year (yeah, the kids went to see the movie in IMAX that first Friday morning -- cheaper prices, but still able to see the Star Trek preview).

Then we were pretty much ready for Santa!

Work in Progress Wednesday

Before the Halloween costume sewing, I was working on Simplicity 2689 for Annabeth.  She wanted it tunic length.  It still needs a hem (you can see pins at the bottom left of this photo where we were figuring out the length).  And it needs a belt, since it turned out looking like scrubs.  Also, the sleeve length and width is wrong for her, so we need to figure out what to do about that.

But the sewing machine is currently in use with Annabeth's project for sewing class, which is a hot pink skirt.  She's having a lot of fun making it, learning a lot.  I'd recommend this pattern, Simplicity 2226, for beginners.  Occasionally she'll ask me something along the lines of, "The directions say to do XYZ -- should I?"  and I'll say, "Nah, that's really not necessary."  But those are typically little things that would be handy to do if you haven't grown up around sewing -- things like pinning the interfacing onto the yoke before fusing it, which Annabeth felt very confident doing with this particular fabric and interfacing sans pins.

On the knitting front, a month or so ago I started knitting Uma from Chic Knits patterns.  I think my lack of progress is testament to my interest level -- so far I've only made the upper back and part of the upper left front.  (It didn't help that I suddenly decided to reread Ender's Game, which is much, much more exciting than a plain cardigan.)

So I decided maybe it was time to find a new project.  I logged on Ravelry the other morning to browse for ideas, and ended up finding this video

 and sat there watching it 3 times in a row rather than looking at any patterns whatsoever. I think this may mean that I'm just not that excited about knitting right now.

Lots of other stuff in the works, too -- Girl Scouts Fall Product Sale, plus Silver Award work, figuring out dual-enrollment classes for next semester, refinishing the stairway, auditions for Seussical in a couple of week -- more on all of that later.

Finished Object Friday

A couple of things recently finished around here:

February Lace Scarf in one skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Sport.  I think the color is Cranberry.

I bought 3 skeins of the yarn years ago to make socks for the kids, which I never got around to doing.  And since I wanted a red scarf, I decided to use it for this.  It was a fairly quick, easy knit; it was hanging around on the needle, awaiting a bind off, for about a month.  I finally got around to it this week, gave the scarf a quick block, and will now probably put it away until next December, which is when I have my red scarf yearnings.

Vogue 8731 in a cotton knit I'd purchased in 1994 to make a maternity dress while pregnant with Thalia.

That's a gold light switch behind my shoulder, if you wondered.

I made a lot of maternity clothes, but the dress never materialized.  Oh well.  I bought the pattern on sale for $3.99, and at this point I'm counting the fabric as "free".  I also made the pants from a Sandra Betzina pattern, but they're just sort of generic knit pants that are a bit too long since I was trying out the pattern for the first time.

We're also working on a pile of aprons for Annie.  But, of course, that's actually a work in progress.

Busy Hands

Annabeth went to a birthday party earlier this week.  She made a scarf for her friend out of fabric she found in the basement, plus some  pompom fringe.

 I had purchased this fabric years ago, probably from Sewzanne's.  Never used it, obviously, and now the kids aren't interested in wearing things with little pink ballerinas.  But her friend loved it -- she studies dance, so it was very appropriate.

Also, I've been knitting a scarf for myself.  Something to do while waiting, which is how I seem to spend a lot of my life.

 I had the yarn, Lorna's Laces sportweight in Cranberry, in the basement for about as long as I had the fabric.  I think I was going to make the kids warm socks; the red color reminded me of Little House on the Prairie.  (I had amazing intentions about what I was going to make the kids over the years.  Also, we have interesting supplies squirreled away in our basement, some of which are holdovers from those projects that never saw the light of day.)

And we've had the annual cat-in-the-Burger's-box photo.

Every year someone sends us something from Burger's Smokehouse.  Every year the cat wants to sit in the box.  And we take the same photo of him in the box every year.  Another Christmas tradition fulfilled.

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....

Knitting!

This week in knitting class we talked about:

Kitchener stitch. I just showed them the example so they'd know it exists, and discussed applications. I never can remember how to do it without looking at directions, so I'm certainly not going to ask anyone else to memorize it. Please rest assured that I don't typically use violently contrasting yarn in these applications, but thought it made it easier to see what's going on.


Matress stitch. This one IS worth knowing off the top of your head, since it comes up so much, plus it's so easy once you see it. I went over it with a few students one-on-one -- people who were going to be using it in their projects.



And three needle bindoff, which is another easy-peasy way to join 2 pieces, although these would be 2 pieces butting up against each other. Again, I discussed some applications, drifting into my sewing mode to talk about the importance of having structure at a shoulder seam (I refrained from mentioning that I thought knitwear designers who avoid shoulder seams for the sake of avoiding seaming, choosing instead something like grafting, are obviously clueless about garment construction ... but I thought it strongly).



I'm not sure -- is this enough about joining? I hit some of the major highlights. I don't want to overburden them, but want them to be aware of the possibilities, so they don't have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, when making their own design decisions.

Frankly, the main projects right now are scarves and fingerless mitts, neither of which need seaming. Two sisters whipped up a couple of eyelash yarn scarves for a craft fair last week, and were excited to report they actually sold one! Whoot!

As for me, my current projects are also scarves. I've finished the One Row Lace Scarf out of the 2 skeins of Seduce I bought last summer whilst going nuts crocheting all of the Choreography Team collars:




Using size 8 needles, it ended up 5 and a half feet long, which is a great size for me.

And now I've started the Missoni knock-off scarf, using the exact same yarn Selfish Seamstress used (which I supposed makes it a SelfishSeamstress knock-off scarf, yes?). Although I'm using smaller needles due to my eternally looser gauge, which I assume is looser than hers. Not that I would've swatched even if she HAD provided a gauge.




Eventually I'll get around to posting about homeschool again. Really. It does go on here now and then. It's just so ... daily. It doesn't have nice, neat starts and finishes like knitting projects or feisseanna. Or Girl Scout badges (which are, frankly, the most popular posts I write). Until then, you might want to check out the amazing new discovery I've made: you can read much of the Jedi Apprentice series (apparently out-of-print) free online. I'll let you have the pleasure of figuring out where to find it, since I know you'll feel as clever as I did when it works.