Sew I See!

A few more recent or current projects, as threatened!  ;o) My as-yet unfinished Calorimetry: I had such plans for Calorimetry... I was going to make this one for myself, then make one for my mother and at least one of my sisters for Christmas-- possibly make one for every female in my family.  (Ok, not really.)  It's such a quick project, even for a new knitter like myself.  It takes hardly any yarn at all!  It's useful!  It's handmade with luv!  It's perfect!  ...But I just had a pretty awful time getting the pattern to work the way I wanted.  I couldn't eliminate the non-essential holes, and I couldn't convince myself that the holes were a "design element".  Meh, it doesn't matter.  Maybe no-one would've wanted to wear them, anyway.  (Someone said they look stupid with short hair...?) Or maybe I'll finally learn how to fill in the holes to my satisfaction, and I'll make a few of them for next year.  (g)  We...

Ok, time to really wrap up the (handmade) Christmas gifts.  When I started (and named) this blog, I didn't realize that I'd eventually become so enamored of crochet (and knitting).  I expected to spend more time learning to sew than I do-- but I do still sew a little, with plans for more, eventually-- and a couple of the gifts I gave this year were rag quilts. (Which I'm not very good at photographing, apparently. They get blurry. I need to either take them outside or get out the tripod, next time.) This one for my paternal grandparents: (I gave my maternal grandparents an almost identical one, last Christmas. Er... Actually, I'm not sure which one is pictured, but I think they were so close in appearance that it hardly matters.) Then there was this one for my husband, Donald: He's from Sweden, so when I really looked at this denim-- blue on one side, yellow on the other-- it seemed perfect for a Swedish flag rag quilt. The back of the quilt i...

Whew.  As much fun as it is, it's still good to have the busy-ness of Christmas over.  I'm happy to have relatively guilt-free craft time, again-- time when I can crochet or knit or whatever on any project that strikes my fancy, without feeling that twinge of "I really ought to be working on Secret Project #9..."  This has been quite a year for (mostly non-polymer clay-based) secret projects, by my standards.  I don't think I've ever crocheted more Christmas gifts than I did for 2011-- and that's not even counting the doilies I crocheted for a few birthdays and other special occasions earlier in the year.   While working on these Christmas projects, new ideas presented themselves, so I already have a few more handmade gifts nebulously planned for 2012, and I'm excited to get started.  (I'm aiming to start early, this year, but don't we always make such plans?)  However, first I want to do a little write-up (and yes, show-off) of the Christma...

I just discovered/realized that Ravelry has a messaging/mail feature.  And I have quite a few (by my standards) messages that I haven't even looked at, so potentially several people have thought I've been ignoring them...  *guilt-blush* Of course, I'm pretty awful about answering non-urgent e-mail and comments on other sites/blogs, so it wouldn't be completely outside the realm of possibility that I'd have ignored them, even if I had been aware of their presence.  (Bad me!) ...Still, I think I'll make an effort to read through and catch up on at least the more recent messages... - - - - - - - I'm popping my head up from under the pile of secret projects I've been working on, lately.  The end is in sight!!  On Christmas Day, we'll go to our last get-together of the season, and I'll be giving the remainder of the secret projects I've been working on over the past month or two.  Most of those gifts are crochet, and one is sewn.  (Bec...

Last night, Donald (my sweet husband) looked at my sewing machine for me. (I believe I mentioned that it had suddenly stopped working?  The needle had stopped moving, and I was afraid it would be impossible or too expensive for its value to repair, and was dreading having to shop for a new or used replacement machine.)  We took the whole case off, as best we could, and looked it over.  It's amazing, all the components and moving parts that go into something as (seemingly) simple as a basic sewing machine!  I'll never understand how anyone ever managed to figure out how to make one in the first place-- but I'm glad they did. (g) Well, long story short(ish), we think he's gotten it working again!  At least, it was working when we put the case back in place.  How long it will continue to work is anyone's guess, but there's no reason why it shouldn't last for months, if not years. It would be nice to have a new machine with a few extra bells and whistle...

Someone expressed an interest in the exact color combinations I used in the squares for my Summer in Sweden Throw, and since I'm looking for ways to procrastinate various things I ought to be doing, why not? ;o) (If you're wondering what throw I'm talking about, you can read about the "Summer in Sweden" crochet afghan in this entry -- and a few earlier ones-- or check out the Ravelry project page .) First, here's a list of the brands and colors I used.  I've assigned each one a letter, except for the Antique White, which is used as the last round in each square and for joining the finished squares. (I think I forgot to mention the peach color in at least one earlier entry.  Oops!  The peach was an unlabeled acrylic worsted I found in a thrift store.  Any peachy acrylic yarn in similar weight would work.) Caron Simply Soft: A:  Ocean B:  Dark Sage C:  Persimmon D:  Soft Blue E:  Lt. Country Blue Loops & Threads Impeccable: F...

I think I've figured out why I just couldn't get the hang of basic knitting that first time I tried.  As it turns out, the instructional video I found on YouTube just wasn't that good: But as they say, I wasn't making mistakes; I was making experiences.  ;o)

As promised!  ;o) First, apologies for the quality of the photos.  The light is sub-par this morning, but I wanted to act while I was in the mood. Ok, let's start with the Very Vintage V-Stitch Rippleghan! The last photo shows the afghan's current size. I still have many rows to go to get the length I want. Also, as you can see, I'm leaving the tails loose.  The v-stitch is so open, I think that attempting to crochet over them or otherwise hide them inside the blanket wouldn't work well enough (to my liking).  Instead, I'll crochet over them at the end, when I single crochet along the two long sides of the afghan.  You could also put fringe along those two sides, but that's a lot of fringe... (g) Next up, my current knitting project, the One Row Lace Scarf (aka Drizzled Chocolate Scarf): (Again, not the best photo, but it gets the point across.) It's fun to knit a row or two, then stop and think to myself, "Wow!  I'm k...

I apologize for the silence over the past month.  I've spent a lot of my crochet time, lately, either making or planning a handful of Christmas gifts. Working on projects that are destined to be gifts is fun, but it leaves me with less to blog about at the moment.  I don't want to risk someone seeing something they shouldn't and spoiling their surprise, so I'm trying to keep those "secret projects" under wraps.  (I'm even doing that over on Ravelry, which is something of a pain, since I have to "lie" about what pattern I'm using, hold back photos, and censor my notes.  I hope that reassigning the projects to their actual patterns won't be too much trouble, after Christmas.) So, what I've been doing that I can write about is essentially working on that v-stitch afghan I mentioned last time.  It's getting some length, now, but I still have lots of rows to add, since I want this to be a full-length couch blanket.  I'm enjoy...

Whoa.  It's already been twenty days since my last post?!  Where does the time go? I thought I'd drop by to at least mention my currently open (yarn-based) projects. #1: Oldest in the list is a cotton market bag .  Once I worked through some issues with the pattern, the bag worked up quickly, but then I got to the point where I needed to make the handle... and it got set aside... and (almost) forgotten. #2:  Then we have my third knitting project-- a pin cushion / knitting doo-dads cushion .  Again, I went through most of the project pretty quickly, but then I got to the point where I'd have to sew the pieces together... and it got set aside... and (not quite) forgotten.  (Hm.  I'm beginning to see a pattern here. (g)) #3: At that point, I started another "secret project" (gift item).  I got pretty far in that one, and I was still enjoying it, too, but somehow I was sidetracked into afghans... Ah, yes. I think it was because we were ...