Completed Project: Cotton Baby Wash Cloth

Using the Lace Dish Cloth pattern, I used some green striped cotton yarn to make this cotton wash cloth to go along with the Shades of Irish Green baby blanket.

Believe it or not, these are three photos of the same project. The lighting and background made them look very different. All the details are on Ravelry.







The blanket, the wash cloth and some baby onesies will be shipped off to South Carolina next week. Baby Decklin or Saoirse will have them all for his/her arrival in May.

Saving the Craft

Celt's Vintage Crochet site was down because of unsavory capitalistic crocheters but now there is a Yahoo Group you can join to access all those fabulous patterns. Check it out.

Completed Project: Evening Fat Bottom Bag

Another one crossed off my 2009 crafty resolution list...

3) Try to sell a project - either on Etsy, at a craft fair, or word-of-mouth. (I'm thinking a purse or coaster set are possible sellers.)

I sold my first bag!!! Yay!!!







The colors and handles were chosen by the client - black cotton yarn, a gorgeous red and black fabric lining and black bamboo handles.
Details on Ravelry.

I gave it to her yesterday and she loved it! And guess what ... I've got 3 more orders! And maybe more on the way!!! Yay!!!

Sweet!

First - a quick update since my last quick update... My car died after cake class the weekend before last. Yep - right in the parking lot of Joann's, she took her last breaths and was eventually carried off into the sunset on a tow truck sent by AAA.

But life is good and we got a new car that has plenty of room for cake class supplies and any yarn I happen to pick up after class. :)

Now - on to the cake!

I'm three weeks into the second course of Wilton cake decorating class at Joann's. Here's what I've created with color flow and royal icing so far.



Look, Ma! No cabbages!



I really like royal icing more than butter cream for flowers. I've got to find some time this week to make another batch of frosting and make a bunch of flowers that will dry before the finale cake on Saturday.

This class helps cross off one item from my crafty resolution list for 2009. But I'm feeling like an over-achiever. And because I'll be making cakes for both my boss' retirement party and my future sister-in-law's bridal shower, I'll be taking the third course of Wilton cake decorating in April. Bring on the fondant!

Quick Update

Cake class was good.

Car almost on fire was not good.

Details some other time. By the end of this week, there will be a new car in which to cart my cake supplies and yarn purchases.

Sweet Flowers

I'm off to my second cake class of Wilton II. I'll be making some royal icing flowers. I hope I'll have some photos worth posting later.

Lesson Learned

When NOT to try to learn to knit socks...

1) When tired
2) When watching something interesting on TV
3) When drinking scotch

Yep - I was doing all three of these things two weeks ago when I finally tried to teach myself to use DPNs and knit a simple sock. Believe it or not, I was actually getting it for quite a while. I won't lie to you - the whole working with 5 needles was quite stressful but I had cast on, divided the stitches, and made my way around about the circle about 6 times and I was doing great!

That is, until the three things one should not do when learning to knit socks coincided with a break to use the bathroom.

I sat back on the couch and proceeded to knit/purl - you guessed it! - in the wrong direction. I didn't notice until I got back to my stitch marker - which was at the end of my needle instead of at the beginning.

Damn it! I cursed under my breath.

But not to fear! I tried to reassure myself. I'd been here before and knew I just had to work my way back to where the problem began.

I successfully unknit/unpurled my way along two DPNs and then...

::SWOOSH!::

...the DPN slipped, 2 stitches slipped, and I swore like a sailor.

Sean quickly came to my rescue by getting my crochet hook holder. I took out an itty-bitty hook and tried to reloop my lost stitches. I could not for the life of me get those 2 stitches back. And as items 1-3 collided with frustration, I gave up, pulled out all the DPNs and rewound the yarn. I was not amused. ::insert more salty sailor verbiage here::

Sean, being the wonderful and supportive husband that he is, tried to reassure me that I had done a great job getting so many stitches on 4 needles on my first try. I, on the other hand, could not be consoled. So much work for nothing...NOTHING! I was in no mood for a lesson. I wanted a pair of socks in the making. But I knew my emotional limits for one evening and did not touch the needles or yarn again that night.

The next day I was in better spirits thanks to a good night's sleep. I was able to more realistically look at what had happened. There is only so much one can expect will or should be accomplished the first time one attempts to learn to knit socks. I was too hard on myself and I needed to try again under more ideal circumstances.

The following weekend, I tried again - this time with much better results.



Now mind you - there is only like 3 or 4 rows on this sock so far and I'm not anticipating that it will turn out to be a wearable sock. But as a first go at sock knitting, I'm enjoying it thoroughly. We'll see how much I like it when I hit the snag in my lessons.

Impulse Purchase

After many months (perhaps it's been over a year?) of dreaming about making a particular purchase, I got a coupon in my email for free shipping. And it was already on sale for 40% off... so I acted on it before I could talk myself out of it.

There's a swift on the way. YAY!!!

Girls - I have a feeling it will make MS&W weekend a lot more fun because we'll spend less time dealing with knots. :)

Best. LYS Finder. Ever.

I found a new site the other day (new to me, anyway) and I am in deep smit with it. Like Ravelry, it feeds my love for all things organized. It's called KnitMap and it's a yarn store finder - but so much more than your average yarn store finder. You can rate and write reviews, upload photos, save favorites to your account and best of all - the site shows you on GoogleMaps where the store is!

I can't tell you how much time this is going to save me. In the past, before I'd leave to travel for work, I'd check a couple of yarn store directories, like SweaterBabe and Daily Knitter. I'd look through list and then go to the web sites of the stores to see if they looked interesting. Then, for the stores I wanted to visit, I'd enter the addresses in GoogleMap to see how far they were from my hotel. This actually took quite a bit of time to do and I would have to base my selection on which stores to visit on how I felt about the store's web site.

Now, thanks to KnitMap, I just type in a city and it shows me all the posted stores for that city, plus reviews, store hours, and a link to the store's website - all in one place. Just one click and I'm at GoogleMaps to type in my hotel and see if I'll be walking or taking a cab to the store. It's AWESOME!

In order to contribute to the site that has given me so much already, I've started uploading photos and writing reviews from my previous trips. I do hope they are of interest and/or use to other fiber fiends looking for a good LYS. That's why I posted them here on the blog. They should be of more help over at KnitMap. There is also a link to KnitMap on the side bar under "Other LYS I've Visited".

Check it out and add some feedback to any LYS you've visited.

Tiny Knitting

I haven't seen the movie Coraline, but I have heard all the buzz about the handmade knitted garments in the movie. Why hand-knitted? Because everything in the movie was made by hand - all the sets, all the figurines and all the costumes. A machine knitted item would not be allowed.

Althea Crome is the artist who knitted Coraline's sweater and gloves. To be truly awed by what Althea can do, you have to check out her web site, Bugknits. There is a video of her knitting with the tiniest needles ever. But wait until you check out her photo gallery. AMAZING! The smallest fair isle knits ever! I'm sure she is going to spark a whole new interest in miniature knitting.

Knit1fortheRoad has an excellent interview with Althea and you can learn how she got the job and how it changed her life. I really enjoyed reading her comments about it never being to late to follow your passion. There's hope that I'll break the bonds of my cubicle prison and have my own LYS someday!