WIP: Duvet Cover

I've finally started to tackle the colossal project of making a cover for my new queen-size down comforter! I slowly accumulated these gorgeous fabrics through various online orders from Etsy shops, and this weekend was the first time I both had the time and the resolve to settle on a design and start cutting up the fabric! More pictures to come soon as this giant sewing project progresses...

Fabulous Art

James and I were walking around Portsmouth, NH, this weekend and we noticed a store called Nahcotta was hosting the Enormous Tiny Art Show. Of course I couldn't resist going in to look, and it was amazing! Of course the purchase of any of this art was way out of my price range (starting at like $150!) but some of them really were quite amazing. Made me dream of the day when I ditch this loser-grad-student life and start making some real money. Then I will support you all, indie artist community! My favorite art was definitely that of Dana Robson, who used maps and embroidery in painted frames (as in the image above). I also really enjoyed the art of Lucie Summers and Rebecca Daw. Amazing and delicious!

Yellow Washcloth

I haven't been updating much lately despite a relatively high frequency of crafting. It's probably because I don't have a good digital camera at hand, other than my new phone (which does okay). I've been knitting a bit with cotton - a couple of washcloths for James, in my new favorite color combination of yellow and grey. I've also been doing a little sewing, a little obsessive ordering of fabric online (I am in love with Amy Butler's Nigella fabrics!) and a mini-project of making a felt phone cover for my new LG Chocolate. Here's a tidbit of all that activity:

Green Baby Booties

My officemate Steve has a new baby, and so a month ago I knit up these cutie-pie booties designed by someone named Saartje. After knitting them, I got lazy and didn't sew the buttons on until today when I found out the baby was born! They were actually really easy to make, which is great because I'm still a pretty novice knitter. Yay!

WIP: Ribbon Lace Scarf

Kind of a crappy picture here, but here's an update to show some progress on this lace scarf! It's been kind of impossible to work on it when the weather gets really humid, but I've been doing a couple rows here and there. I'm almost done with the first skein! Maybe it will possibly be ready to wear by the fall!

geek dad

Well it seems like my dad has already spammed a picture of his father's day card across the internets, but I wanted to wait until he got it before I posted a picture. Here it is! My officemate Kevin was throwing away a laptop keyboard, so I ripped off all the keys for use at a later date. Then father's day came along, and I realized what a supernerd my dad is, and how he of all people would appreciate a robot father-daughter scene. And yes, Anna is my nickname. Anyway I really love how it came out. :)

Crewel Flower Card

Not realizing it would take 3 hours, I embroidered this cute pattern from Katherine Shaughnessy's The New Crewel, which is a gorgeous book that I had been waiting anxiously for an occasion to put to use. Unfortunately the occasion turned out to be a sympathy card, but I think the pattern was very appropriate. The linen fabric I had was a bit coarse for the fine details of the project, but the final look was okay. A father's day card is also in the works, so stay tuned for more paper-crafting!

Holiday Season of Sorts

This time of year is busy for me in some ways, what with Mother's Day, the birthdays of both of my siblings, and Father's Day approaching on the horizon. Hmm, just typing this reminds me that I still need to order my sister's present. Presents are always hard, because I always try to get something that people will actually use, rather than something cute and potentially unneeded. This is especially hard since I don't live in the same geographic region as any of my immediate family. But cards are the easiest thing to send, and I was reminded yesterday that my whole crafting obsession probably started with card-making back in high school. It slowly crescendoed through college with the gradual hoarding of paper scraps and stickers and stamps, to the current state of several boxes full of sparkly pens, cardstock, patterned papers, vellum, ribbons, stamps, punches, buttons, markers, glitter, embossing powder, glue, and my good old buddy, the x-acto knife. When I decide there are cards to be made, I sit on the floor and surround myself with a halo of paper scraps, only to disappear into the proper shoebox or folder when the cards are complete. I much prefer to make every card unique than to mass-produce a bunch of identical cards for future occasions, although maybe that's because some of them are so labor-intensive. But so satisfying, yum.

WIP: Lace Ribbon Scarf

Some slow progress as summer quickly approaches!

Rainy Weekend Knitting

I somehow gathered up the willpower to go ahead and again cast on the 53 stitches required for this lace ribbon scarf. Maybe now that I've attempted to start this project like 15 times, I'm finally getting the hang of the pattern! I've actually made a good amount of progress, happily knitting away in James's room as he worked on his taxes. The weather is still grey and drizzly, and it just makes me want to curl up and keep working on it! I adore the way this scarf is coming out (even though it's only 3 inches long so far) and I get sucked in (just as with crochet) so that I can barely take my eyes off the yarn mid-row. Mmm, delicious.

I also obtained a lovely 50%-off coupon to Michael's (thank you to Kevin) and could not resist going there even though I was not in need of any supplies. After browsing the entire store twice over (and annoying James thoroughly with my indecision), I picked out a yellow ball of Lion Brand Pound of Love. So now I'm fully equipped for the next time someone decides to have a baby, I can bust out a blanket in no time. Theoretically.

Errors

Bahhh! I have ripped out the scarf after 24 flawless rows! I knitted for a couple hours while James napped on Sunday, and for another hour and half on the train ride home to Boston. The first full pattern repeat was just complete, and I was starting to admire my knitting proficiency and imagine the sophistication it would soon add to my wardrobe. Then I came to the end of a row and one stitch felt weird! This is a lacy pattern so the yarn does strange things when you make a mistake or get shifted off the pattern. I counted back and realized that I'd missed a yarnover in the previous row. Now, I can back-stitch like 10 stitches, but there was no way I'd make it an entire row! I attempted to insert my other needle a couple rows back, but ended up making more mistakes than I could fix. I was torn - rip it out and start over, or somehow keep going and have a giant mess (possibly just an ugly strip of yarn)? I knew it would not hold up to my chic standards with a mangled end, so I took a deep breath... and frogged it! Ahhh it was the worst moment of my day! Then it took like 5 tries to cast it back on again, with the yarn all wobbly like ramen noodles. Apparently I cannot complete this scarf without focusing 100% of my attention every time I knit. Poo.

End-of-Winter Scarf

I was delighted to have a reason to visit the local yarn shop in Dover, NH, just a few blocks from James's apartment. What was my reason? My first real knitting project! I was ready to move beyond squares of stockinette stitch onto a real pattern, and after much (read: way too much) time spent perusing patterns online, I picked the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty.com. I appreciate the chic look of scarves in any weather, and I didn't want to knit anything that wouldn't be used. I've been using a knitting video website to teach myself new stitches such as SSK and YO and k2tog, as well as various ways to cast on, and it's been tremendously helpful.

Anyway, I after brunch I beelined straight for the yarn shop (Spinning Yarns), enjoying every minute of yarn-browsing with the intent to buy. The pattern called for Classic Elite Alpaca Sox yarn, which is gorgeous, but out of my price range for my first ever knit. Plus they didn't have any solid colors. But besides, I didn't want to waste really amazing yarn on my possibly nonexistant knitting skills. Instead I picked out a neutral grey-blue color of Dalegarn Baby Ull yarn, which is thankfully machine washable and very soft.

Anyway, I was itching to try out the pattern when I got home later. Dude, I must have cast on, knit, and ripped out the pattern like 8 times without getting past row 4! The problem is that when I make a mistake, I don't know how to fix it except for starting over. By the time I got to attempt 10, I'd made it past that dreaded row 4 and I'm still going strong at row 22. Yay! But boy I was ready to kill someone after ripping out those stitches so many times. Aiyo!

thinking ahead

Woohoo! A week's worth of steady crocheting has yielded me this lovely slouchy bag! I used Lily Sugar'n Cream in Soft Ecru, with an I-hook and the pattern from Lion Brand. It's supposed to be a market bag, and I can just imagine going to a summer farmer's market and filling it with tomatoes and peaches and pluots. Oh, yum. Of course, this fantasy scene in my head seems to be in Berkeley rather than Boston. But I certainly can't wait for summer to arrive here, and today we got the first taste of warmth at probably 45 degrees in the sunshine (when the wind paused for a moment). Anyway, I'm quite proud of my progress here, and I'm trying to decide what project to start next. Perhaps something knitted...?

stash busting in progress

Never one to finish a project before starting a new one, I crocheted half of a basket tonight according to the pattern by Chickpea Sewing Studio, in some Peaches & Creme yarn I have had lying around for like a couple years. The skein ran out and I haven't started adding a new one, so the basket is not as tall as it will finally be. I was sort of hoping it would come out with a larger diameter, so that I could keep my mittens and scarf and hat in there when I get to my office every day. Hmm, must think of another pile of junk that needs containing...
In other news, here's some of my knitting progress! This is from a skein of Cascade yarn that I partially used for a pillow front for my mom, but the yarn is gorgeous and I've always wanted to use the rest of it for something nice. So now it's being transformed into a scarf! Sungyon is helping me to knit some of it, and we've definitely made some progress... at least, it looks like one end of a scarf. I'll probably need to find another skein of yarn pretty soon though.

New Skillz

I'm learning to knit! My parents gave me two sets of knitting needles for my birthday, sizes 8 and 10.5, and Sungyon taught me some of the basics (knit and purl, at least). With a little extra online tutorial-watching, I figured out how to cast on and bind off, so now I'm fully equipped to make rectangles! Here's my first test swatch, in Peaches & Creme cotton yarn:

I basically tried out a stitch pattern to see how it would come out, and I think I'm getting the hang of these stitches. It's hard coming from crochet, where I know exactly how each stitch will look and how to create what I want to make, whereas knitting is still very mysterious to me - I don't know how the yarn will behave! I see all these gorgeous patterns and objects on ravelry and knitty, but I have no idea how they came from these two skinny chopsticks! Well, I guess I'm one step closer to figuring that out. Next project: semi-ribbed scarf in gorgeous seafoam-green yarn that's been sitting in my yarn pile for a year!

green baby socks

I made these baby socks for Marie-Eve and Daniel's baby, due in a couple weeks. The pattern came from "Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies" by Jane Davis, which has a ton of adorable patterns, but all the patterns seem to have egregious mistakes! Even the pattern for these simple socks had a mistake in how much ribbing to make. Kind of inexcusable, but luckily I was able to pick up the slack and still finish these in a few hours.

progress on purple socks!

Although I abandoned these poor socks for a few months, I have recently made some progress! Sock #1 is done, and Sock #2 is coming close to its final few rounds. I swear I did the same exact pattern for both socks, but the second one is coming out much wider and longer. I had to frog a bunch of stitches and redo them to fit - at least I'm learning how to create custom shapes and fits.
I love how my crochet hook matches the yarn. Scrumptious.