Superstitch

Not much going on

I've been doing alot of floating on the river....and a lot of cross stitch! But the lazy summer has grabbed a hold of me and i haven't been doing much of anything else! I would really like to get my brown and pink zig zag quilt sent out and quilted since it is too big for my machine. Lots of plans running around my head.... but we'll see what happens!

Have i mentioned my love of cross stitch?

No? Well i do. I love all of the teeny tiny perfect stitches. Everthing is done on a grid so all of the stitches are perfectly even and orderly. I love it! I found a free trial online of software that turns picture files into cross stitch patterns and i've already created 3 fun patterns for myself. I'm at the stage where the tiny x's aren't looking like much yet.

almost like multi colored zebra stripes!

oooh there it is... abstract flowers! If you're thinking that the pattern looks familiar... well it does! I made a pattern based on a swatch of heather bailey's fabric. The cross stitch should measure 10.5 by 10.5 inches when i'm done, it will then become the center of a pillow!

A new bag

This is another one of the gifts that i was talking about.

I made it as an environmentally friendly shopping bag. It has fleece interfacing which makes it nice and sturdy. It is also pretty roomy without being gigantic, see.... it holds all the essentials...

actually i dont know who i'm kidding, we dont ever drink, that beer has been in our fridge since the superbowl... of 06! It just happenned to fit perfectly into the bag with the jug of milk. Enjoy your bag Jean!

Hmmm... i guess i really do have enough yarn

Yarn is a pretty addictive thing, my new favorite hobby is to obsessively check knitty's sale spotters board so i can hunt down yarn bargains. This is a very very bad hobby for my pitiful checking account. In an effort to curb my spending i've created a new photo album on the left sidebar to keep a record of all of the yarn that i own. Hopefully by being able to easily see just how much yarn i have, i will remember that i have plenty to work on and i dont need to add to my storgae bins.

I just started photographing my yarn today so that album will continue to grow as I dig all of my yarn out of every nook of the house. I decided that nothing would be excluded until it became a finished object. If you look through the album you'll see a few projects in progress that i haven't talked about yet, and a few that i have.

Here's where i'm at with the Bonsai Tunic. I've just bound off for the arm holes and i'm working my way up to the shoulders, should be completed this evening. Then hopefully i'll be motivated enough to cast on for the front.... i'm just remembering how long it took to get through that lace on the back that i dont want to do it for the front!  I think that i'm going to have enough yarn to finish, but just barely. Ive gone through almost 5 balls of yarn on the back so far and i think once i've cast off the back i will have used a third to a half of ball 6. Since the front is such a deep v i'm hoping that 4.5 balls of yarn will be enough. Wish me luck!

Long Time Gone

Oh my, it's been a while. I keep meaning to make a post, but then I keep realizing that I have nothing to talk about but school and work, and none of that is very interesting. But then, epiphany!

It is time to tell the story of The Scariest House.

When I drive back and forth from Lubbock and Austin I pass by this one house on 153 and it is the scariest house there ever was. It's abandoned, dilapidated, and spooky as all get-out. It sits on an empty field in a patch of tall grass and weeds, looking like no one has touched it in about seventy years.

Everytime I drive by I wish I had pictures of it, but it's usually just about dusk when I drive by, and that is just too frightening for scaredy-cat me. But then! About a month ago I was driving home, already on 153, when I realized that it was still broad daylight. Time to get some pictures. For most of them I hovered around my pulled-over car, not wanting to brave the thigh-high grass in my flip-flops and corduroys. But as I peered anxiously through my viewfinder I realized that it had taken me this long to actually stop and take pictures, if I wanted close ups, now was the time to get them.

I got close enough to take this one. I was getting confident, thinking I might get some real close ups, maybe even peer in the windows or something.... but then I heard something moving in the grass. I don't think I've ever run that fast. I jumped back into my car and didn't look back until I was at least a mile away. I don't know what it was: a snake, a rodent, perhaps a GHOST. All I know is that it scared the bejesus out of me and I probably won't be pulling over there ever, ever again. But I am glad that I got the pictures I did. You can see a few more over at my Flickr.

This is what it looked like by the time I looked back:

Oh, such a boring, lonely drive.

PS- How cute is the halter bucket? I'm so excited to get it and start using it. That fabric is my absolute favorite of the moment. I love it so much that I might even let Elizabeth teach me how to knit socks, haha. 

A week for gifts, first up - craft bucket?

I've been making alot of gifts lately and i think my new few posts will be me finally getting to show off what i've made! Thats the hardest part about making a gift, waiting for the giftee to finally get it! Well i'm cheating a little bit here because this is a gift for Sarah and as she reads this entry she will see her present for the first time!

I'm not sure what exactly to call this, craft bucket was the best i could do. It looks like a purse, but really its meant to be a sturdy tote that can sit by your feet as you knit, crochet, embroider, whatever you like. I used the same shape that i used for this bag which Sarah likes to call the "halter bag" because the shape resembles a halter top. So maybe this could be called the halter bucket? No thats dumb, i really cant name things.

The bucket is about a half inch shorter than a magazine, so whats that 11, 10.5 inches tall? by about 12 inches wide and 3 inches deep. I filled it with my yarns and knitting magazine to hopefully lure Sarah into the knitting world.... look Sarah..... yarrrrrrrrnnnn.....

Fresh cut quilt - an update

I've completed one row... out of 8! This quilt is definitely going to take me awhile, but i'm ok with that. Its looking so cool! Its a little hard to keep it looking so random with only 14 different fabrics but i think once its all put together everything will be fine.  As i mentioned in my first post about this quilt, i'm using heather bailey's free quilt pattern from free spirits website and it rocks! The only down side is that i cant strip piece it, every strip has to be cut and sewed individually, the reason its taking so long. I'll probably work on it slowly all summer.

In knitting news i've decided to put glee on hold because i'm pretty sure its too small.... i swatched and chose the right size for my gague but something just isn't working out right. I'm also not sure that i have enough yarn for it so i decided to switch gears and on monday i started to work on the bonsai tunic from spring interweave.

I'm up to the arm holes on the back and hopefully i'll have the back completed by the weekend. I was hoping to get this done fairly quickly but the tunic length and the lace pattern slowed me down a bit. I know the front will go a tiny bit faster so hopefully within a week or two i'll have a fun summer tank! Oh and the yarn is debbie bliss cotton dk in tangerine, i bought a bag of it for 26 bucks from little knits, such an awesome deal!

tug of war

My sewing machine and my kniting needles have been playing tug of war with my mind lately, i just cant seem to decide what i want to be working on at any given moment. I'll start knitting a sock and then have the strong desire to run into the other room and work on my quilt. I'll pick up clementine, get through a few rows and run back to the sewing room to work on another dress. I just cant make up my mind lately.

Luckily today was a do nothing day, i had no plans, nothing to do so i started a knitting project of course! I also started a new sewing project! I just cant stop.

I started Glee from zephyrstlye. I was sitting around after lunch trying to decide what i wanted to work on when i remembered the 7 new skeins of yarn that landed at my door a few days ago. 7 pretty skeins of supermerino bought for half off! So anyways, Glee has begun. I'm about 7 inches into it, i think i'll be able to take the sleeve stitches off in 2 inches or so. I'm really hoping that my 7 skeins will be enough! If i have to i'll try to find a matching white to knit the bottom ribbing and neckline with.

I also have 12 skeins of supermerino in the chocolate covered cherries color finding their way to my door, hopefully tomorrow! I have some kind of simple, perfectly fit, wearable cardigan in mind for those 12. But i wont start on that until at least next fall.

Something else that pulled my attention this weekend was dyeing yarn, i had tried once with koolaid and it went alright, but i recently saw a tutorial on this lovely blog for using easter egg dyes and had to give it a shot, especially when i went to walmart and found out that the egg dyeing kits were only 35 cents! I bought 10 and i might go back for more, they had tons left over. So here are my first attempts at dyeing my own yarn...

very bright and colorful! The first skein is lion brand wool, the natural color. I used pink, yellow and green. It came out very neon but i like it, it will make a nifty scar or hat. The second skein is 2 balls of a joann's brand superwash wool. I used blue, purple and red. The red came out pretty pinky and there are white patches in this skein. I dont think the treated wool was as absorbent as the lion wool, its still fun though! I will probably use both of these for christmas presents this year!

ooooh pretty....

I've really been in the mood to make a fun summer dress and I have a friend who really wanted a fun summer dress, perfect match! The 2 prints are from Anna Maria Horner's Bohemian fabric line. I'm in love with the pretty jewel tones.

I dont have the right length zipper in my stash so as soon as i get the zipper put in, this dress will be off to hawaii! Hopefully Rachelle will give us some good pictures of the dress enjoying the sun!

A couple of close ups of the bodice. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It is fully lined and there are no raw edges anywhere. The pattern i used was from Simplicity. Looking at the pattern's pictures you would never know that a pretty dress could lurk inside, i really hate the way that pattern company's make them look so unappealing and you really have to try to just look at the shape of the dress and ignore the insane 80's flower prints.

I barely even recognize myself!

Because, thats right, ANOTHER finished project!! Wow, 2 in 2 weeks, go me! Queen of starting things, and now finally i'm finishing some. So may i present to you, my jaywalkers...

 

Now would be where i explain that my feet dont look that long in real life... but i wont lie to you, i have big feet, all the better to balance my 5 foot 10ness.

Pattern: Jaywalkers

Yarn: Artyarns Ultramerino 4, color 150, 1 and a half skeins and Knit Picks Pallete in Bark for the contrast, half a skein

Needles: size 1 Inox dpns

I made the socks short becaue i was trying to be cheap. I added contrasting heel/toe/cuff because i was trying to be cheap. My plans didnt work out. I ended up having to use a second skein of the expensive stuff, and i had enough left over to make the socks almost full size, but i wasn't going to rip out a whole sock to redo it. In the end i've very happy with them, i looove the way the contrast looks, i have plans for many other socks using that same method.