surprise, surprise

This week has be filled with beautiful weather. Sunshine! Temperatures in the 50s and, yes, even 60s! We opened windows and doors to air out the house. One mild night, we slept with the bedroom window slightly ajar. It was refreshing! Even though it is still early, some of the trees are starting to form the starts of buds, hoping springtime will arrive with a flourish.

On Thursday, when I got home from a very busy day, I walked in to set my bag down by my desk, and there was a big package, plopped down on my desk chair. A package? For me? Surely it was for my husband, and he had just set it down in a hurry. I checked the label. Nope. My name. I checked the return address. Cambria! Ah! A surprise from my friend! My insides jumped with excitement. I literally threw down everything I was holding and tore open the package. So. Fast. Inside was a beautiful, hand-made quilt in vibrant colors. "Oh." It was all I could say. 

I knew said friend was working on something special for me. And I have something in the works for her. But I did not expect that it would be something so perfect. It is everything I envision. Bright colors and patterns. Lovely and beautiful.

My friend and I have been going back and forth for a few years now, sending surprises and swapping art and crafts back and forth. But this quilt has so much to live up to. I am working on something unique as revenge, and I started it months and months ago. But life has kept me busy and it is not yet ready. I pledge to buckle down and finish it soon so that I can ship it off for a surprise my friend will never expect.

Thank you, Sam. Your work in incredible. 

malabrigo swap winter 2011 - spoilage for my victim

This latest round of the Malabrigo swap has a great theme: The Simple Life.
Things are simplified, as we are only permitted to send a total of FOUR items to our partner. 

• 2-3 skeins of Malabrigo (they can be sent as is or knitted/crocheted into something for your partner)
• Something edible or drinkable
• Something to read or listen to (book/pattern(s)/CD/audiobook)
• Something your partner can’t live without (something THEY say they can’t live without

It was rough. And I cheated a little with the edible/drinkable, sending a few little things as one. Included in my package to my partner were two skeins of Malabrigo Silky in Ravelry Red; chocolate, tea, and a gorgeous mug [something edible/drinkable], The Hunger Games on audio CD [something to listen to], and Burt's Bees Lip Balm [something she cannot live without]. I would have loved to receive this package, and it was a real challenge to come up with only four things.

creations

I knit this scarf for my Oma for Christmas. The pattern is Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel, and can be purchased from Frazzled Knits. I used an wool-acrylic blend and cast on almost twice as many stitches in order to make the scarf wider.

This round cloth was knit for a swap using cotton and is from 1870 Pearl's Pinwheel pattern.

For the same swap, I also knit another cloth, also with cotton, using one of my favorite patterns, Chinese Waves from Maggie's Rags.

This little scrubbie, also knit for the swap, is another of 1870's pattern's--Tribbles. It was easy and fun, really only took an hour or so to finish.

I made this pair of shoes for my cousin's newborn little girl. They are lined with extra soft fleece to keep her toes warm this fall.

This bag has taken me forever to finish. It has been knit up for ages, I just never quite got around to the felting. Over four years later, it is finally done--and may be my longest knitting project! I’m really pleased with how the colors turned out. The pattern is Fulled Lopi Tote from Adrian Bizila.

I knit this pair of Sartjee's Bootees for a friend’s gender neutral layette. I used scrap wool-blend yarn for this excellent, fast-knit project! Finished one bootie in June in just one brief sitting, but didn’t get around to the second bootie until September.

I sewed up this little drawstring project bag for a swap this past spring. I loved the alternating patterns of the fabric. It is the perfect size for a small project, like socks or a hat.

felt journal

This little felt journal is a simple, quick and practical project, great for little hands learning to sew. Evelyn made this pink bird notebook for her kids swap last month. The theme of the swap was anything Spring related, and her partner really likes the colors pink and blue. I drew the shape of the bird and she cut it out and stitched it on herself with a teeny bit of troubleshooting here and there.

Here is what we did: We used wool felt for the cover and the applique, but eco-felt works just fine, too. You can cut it to any size you desire. Sew on the applique or shapes of your choice, embellishing with beads, buttons, embroidery, or anything else. Cut a second piece of felt to line the inside of the cover to hide the stitches from the back of the applique. Then cut the paper you wish to use for the inside; we used plain white recycled scrap paper, cut to slightly smaller than the felt cover. Colored paper looks very nice, too.

Next, fold the pre-cut paper in half and punch a hole on the fold-seam. Then, with yarn or embroidery floss, sew through the layers and assemble the book by sewing along the seam. Tie the thread on the inside or the outside of the book. We left some string on the top end to create a little book marker and tied two colorful buttons to the bottom as weights (beads work perfectly, too!).

Then, take the embroidery floss and sew all around the edges, using either a running stitch or blanket stitch, to create a border and to attach the cover and liner.

The best part of this project is that you can experiment with different sizes and embellishments and come up with something completely different every time! 

may swap

I sent a swap package out to the Lady of the Month of May a few weeks ago, and she finally got it, so it is now safe for me to post pictures!

I used the Chinese Waves pattern for one of the cloths. This pattern has turned out to be a very simple and reliable knit over and over again. I highly recommend it if you are in search of a good scrubbing cloth--even though the pattern takes a little bit of practice and some patience to get the knack of.

For the green cloth, I used the double-bump cloth pattern. I also made another lovely little notions pouch. These pouches are very fun to make, and the options for creativity are endless. This particular pouch may just be my favorite yet. I love the colors and the flair. Hopefully the recipient likes it as much as I do!

Esme helped model the inside of the pouch so you could see how it is lined in the same green used on the leaves. Notice the paint on her hands? We had just finished painting her face.

spring swap

I have been so busy this month with crafts and Eva finishing up with school that I have not had time to update my blog and post pictures of the most recent swaps!

This is the package that I sent my partner, Lila, who sent me all the goodies before.

In the package, I included several fun things--two knit cotton cloths, two skeins of yarn, a box of beautiful notecards, a teeny wind chime, a lovely flower fashion pin, and, most wonderful of all, a little drawstring project bag for her knitting! Here's a close-up:

I love the lining! The bag is the perfect size for knitting socks or cloths or other small projects. I hope Lila puts it to good use!

swap: it's all in the bag

At the beginning of April, I signed up for my first swap with the Malabrigo Swap Group on Ravelry. This swap is by far the most in-depth swap I have participated in yet. The theme for this round is It's All in the Bag--a project bag theme, where everything sent to the spoiler must fit inside a knitter's project bag. The only other rule is that only one skein of yarn can be sent. We had up to six weeks of planning and making and stalking our secret partners. My secret swap partner particularly likes cool colors, including blues and purples. She also likes pinups and cutesy animals. I sent her package out on May 10th.

And after two days of suspense, she has finally received my very special package. The project bag is from Funtific on Etsy. This cotton bag, which has a lovely girly print, is about 9" x 10" and has a drawstring closure and a nice long handle for easy carrying:

I chose this particular seller and her bag design because she makes the most fantastic pockets on the inside. This bag has two large pockets and four small pockets, as the photo shows:

Even though the bag is so tiny, I sure did surprisingly fit a lot of loot inside! Here's what I included in the package:

Along with the project bag, I started with the necessity: a skein of Malabrigo Worsted in Oceanos. I also included two sets of bamboo double pointed needles in US 9 and US 5, a little red tape measure, samples of SOAK Wool Wash in three scents--citris, flora and aquae, and a box of beautiful art deco notecards from Erte. And what pinup-loving knitter would not want a copy of the fun and sexy book Naughty Needles by Nikol Lohr? A copy came into work, so I snatched that up right away, too!

Those items were what I considered the basics of the project bag. Once I fulfilled those items, I scoured my partner's Etsy favorites for ideas of more creative, personal things she may like. I purchased a nifty little pinup girl pill box from sweetheartsinner and filled it with large and extra large stitch markers. The pillbox reads "I get totally drunk. What's your hobby?":

My partner also wanted a shawl pin. I was running out of budget at this point, so I decided to make a couple of stick pins with beading supplies I already had on hand. I know they are not all that fancy and maybe not quite what she wanted, but they are cute and I hope she will get plenty of use out of them anyway. The pin on the left is made with cloisonne beads and gold accents and the pin on the right is made with glass beads and silver accents:

And what knitting bag is complete without a notions bag? Like I said, I was running out of budget, so I turned to my craft corner for yet another handmade project. I have been drooling over the yarn bags and notions pouches from the wonderfully creative PopsieDaisy’s for ages now, and I was stoked when my partner said she liked her stuff too! But, by the time I had found that out, I had already used up most of my budget. Soooo, I made a lovely little owl notions pouch of my own design (view my pouch tutorial for more details):

I had wanted to include a snack for her to enjoy, but to be honest, there just was not nearly enough room, so I popped in three Stash Black and Green Earl Gray tea bags!

I really hope my secret spoilee enjoyed this swap as much as I did, and I hope she loves everything that I picked out for her! I really did have a blast stalking her. I tried to put together things she might enjoy and at the same time picking things I would love to receive, too--does that make sense? And the best (or worst!) part was the suspense from when I shipped the package until when she received it--that was unbelievable torture! Hopefully I will have the opportunity to do another Malabrigo swap again!

owly pouch

For the Malabrigo swap, the lady I was stalking wanted a notions pouch for her project bag. Since some of the things on her Etsy favorites were of an owl theme, I though I would make my own little version of a zipper pouch specifically for her! This is what I came up with:

I think it's very cute! This is what I did: I cut out two identical pieces of felt for the bag itself, one in light blue and one in darker blue; then I cut a strip out of the center of the felt to fit a four inch zipper. I pinned the outside of the bag (darker blue felt) to the zipper, then carefully put the second piece of felt (light blue) on top of the dark piece as a liner, lining up the edges. I then pinned the two layers together along the zipper. Lining up the zipper really was the most difficult part of the project. Before I started sewing the zipper to the inner and outer liner, I made sure the zipper slid back and forth as it was pinned. I started stitching the zipper using a neat straight stitch, making sure the stitches were evenly spaced from the zipper all the way around.

After finishing the zipper, I made my cutesy owl applique and sewed that to the outer layer of the pouch. Then I did a blanket stitch around the outside, sewing the four layers (the liner and the outer fabric) together. After everything was done and in pouch form, I decided that I should add something else to counter the owl, so I put on the moon, albeit somewhat sloppily. But, all in all, it turned out very cute! I almost wanted to keep it for myself! I just hope she likes it and gets much use out of it!

If you choose to make your own version of this little owl pouch, please leave a link to your blog or photo so I can admire your creativity! I would love to see what you come up with!

april swap

Well, I was a little late getting my April Lady of the Month swap package out, but the recipient received it on Monday. This month was a little easier just because the Lady gave a few more ideas to what she really likes, including sci-fi themes, shows, and books, as well as games and puzzles. I had a lot of fun knitting the cloths for this month, too! Here's the swap package in its entirety:

In the package, I included two knit washcloths: a colorful flower cloth and a blue and red striped cloth; a bar of handmade lavender-scented soap; two books, one on Sci-Fi trivia and one Sudoku; a little bookmark; and two skeins of Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn. I am in love with both cloths! These are two of my very favorites and I hope they are well received!

I used the pattern Reverse-Bloom Flower Washcloth by Cindy Taylor from one of my all-time favorite pattern books, Weekend Knitting. This project was a lot of fun and I will totally make another one sometime! I made a few alterations to the pattern in order to make the center of the flower stand out more. This project was pretty much a stash buster; I used up some of my cotton scraps to make a lovely flower.

The second cloth I included was an ultra-simple garter-like striped cloth. I used the pattern Chinese Waves Cloth, which worked up far slower than I anticipated, but it is one of my favorite patterns. It is very clean-looking and lends itself well to adding stripes. As per the pattern, all slipped stitches were slipped purlwise, but the cloth knit up so loose that, when I knit this pattern again, I used smaller needles and slipped stitches knitwise to tighten things up a bit. I love using the vibrant red against that beautiful cornflower blue--it’s extremely striking.

The soap was another handmade concoction, lavender-scented and the sci-fi facts and trivia book really caught my eye. I love the artwork, and that was my main motivation for including it in the package.

This package is 40/52 for my 52 Project Challenge.

knitting swap ii -- March

It is once again time for me to send out my Lady of the Month package for the knitting swap group that I belong to. March's Lady of the Month, however, did not give me much to work with as to what she liked and disliked. Really, the only thing I had to go with was that she likes the color red and the aromas of pumpkin and vanilla.

With that, I did all that I could, really. I watched what some of the other ladies sent her (red yarn, red cloths) and tried to come up with something unique. I did not want to go with strictly red since that is what she has been overloaded with so far. Instead, I chose a variety of colors that highlighted the color red. After knitting half-a-dozen very different washcloths, I chose the two that I thought a woman in her sixties would most appreciate.

The first cloth I was drawn to is a pattern that is reminiscent of Linoleum but combines two or three colors in a simple slip-stitch combination that mimics a diamond pattern. It was much easier than I initially thought it would be, but nothing the Mason-Dixon knitters come up with is ever disappointing! I chose my favorite combination of colors: bright red and vibrant cornflower blue. See for yourself:

The pattern for the Linoleum cloth can be found here on the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog.

To compliment the Linoleum cloth, I picked a basic basket weave pattern in Lily Sugar'n Cream's Swimming Pool, which is a variety of blues that do a sort of color-crossover when knit up. Here's a photo:

In the final package I included these two lovely washcloths; a little floral notebook and pen; a bar of handmade vanilla-oatmeal soap; two skeins of Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn; and a couple of sample Stash tea bags. I also included a handwritten letter for an extra-personal touch. Here is a photo:

Since I am in the midst of my 52 project challenge, I consider this month's knitting swap to be project 44/52.

a batch of beaded stitch markers

Stitch markers are tiny round rings that are slipped onto a knitting needle to mark a certain place in a row of knitting. Commercial stitch markers are usually made of plain plastic or metal. They are notoriously dull. But lately, since I have been experimenting with beading, and what with my love of knitting, I decided to combine the two arts and make a handful of beaded stitch markers. I figured I would post a  few for sale in my Etsy shop and use a few for the knitting swaps I am participating in.

For the first batch, I used the rings from toggle clasps. After some experimentation, I decided that these are actually my favorite style mostly because they look the neatest. The following pink and black stitch marker is the first one I made:

The next two stitch markers I made are lovely. I sort of made them as a matching pair with pink semi-transparent glass beads:

I also tried using wire for the marker itself because they are potentially cheaper to make. The beaded portion looks pretty enough, but I have trouble getting the ring part to stay round. Overall, I was less than crazy about the results, but I gave this batch to February's Lady of the Month in the swap package since she asked specifically for stitch markers:

After considering the wire markers somewhat unfortunate, I made another pair with the toggle ring, this pair is red and blue for this month's Lady of the Month swap:

My final foray into beaded stitch markers for the day included a set of three. By this point, Evelyn was home from school and Esme was awake from her afternoon rest, so they joined in the beading fun. I think these are quite possibly my favorites of the day:

I had a variety of inspiration for these projects. I had seen someone using beaded stitch markers when I ran into a local coffee shop the week before. When I got home, I did a search on the internet, on Flickr and Etsy, to see how common they were. I turned up with hundreds of results and combined several different ideas with my own to create these markers.

As for my 52 project challenge for 2010, I consider the beaded stitch markers project 46/52.

my first knitting swap

Before the holidays, when I decided I wanted to start making my holiday gifts, I asked artists and crafters I know if they wanted to swap--meaning she would make something for me and I would make something for them, then we would swap. I got a lot of indifference and non-committal shrugs, which sort of bummed me out, especially since I love making special things for the people in my life.

Once the holidays passed, though, I had a thought: I bet there are other people like me out there--crafters who love making, sharing, and giving their handcrafts, crafters who thrive in creating and swapping for good fortune!

So, what is the first thing I inevitably do when I do not know the answer to a problem? I got on the internet. I visited countless online communities, some old favorites, like Craftster and MDC, and some new delights, like Swap-Bot, and I found hundreds of people who are looking for other crafters to swap with!

After browsing swaps here and there, I settled on a couple of smaller swaps to get me started, two specific swaps in the Friends That Swap group on Ravelry. The first one I joined is a Round Robin style washcloth swap (you receive the package, you have three days to take what you will from it and add what you want to it, and send it on to the next person on the list). The second swap I joined is a year-long swap in which twelve people participate. Each person (lady, in the case of this swap) is assigned one month, which is the month she receives twelve packages in the mail; during the eleven other months, she creates one package a month to send to the other swap members. Everyone also fills out a questionnaire describing their favorite colors, scents, etc., in order for other swap members to form an appropriate package for each recipient.

I am not Lady of the Month until September, but I have my package ready to go out to February's Lady of the Month. She likes bright, vibrant colors over dark colors and asked for stitch markers and knitting notions. So, in her package, I included two knit washcloths, five handmade beaded stitch markers, two skeins of Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn, and a couple of sample Stash tea bags--Earl Grey, of course.

The first washcloth is a Log Cabin Cloth, adapted from Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne's Mason-Dixon Knitting. I used Lily Sugar'n Cream leftovers in white, blue and a variegated blue. It was a great stash-buster and Log Cabin always looks great! Here is a picture:

I also used Lily Sugar'n Cream for the second cloth, only the colors of the yarn sort of twist to make a fun pattern. I did a basic double moss stitch throughout, and I am so happy with this cloth! The colors are absolutely vibrant! See for yourself:

Since the Lady of the Month wanted stitch markers, this swap gave me a reason to experiment with creating beaded stitch markers. I made about a dozen markers, but decided to include a matching set of five in this swap. I am very pleased with how they turned out, and I plan on making more to list in my Etsy store. Check them out:

I snapped the following picture of everything before I sealed the package:

  

This package was a lot of fun to prepare, and I really hope the Lady of the Month enjoys everything. I look forward to seeing photos of the other packages she receives. For my next project, I will be starting on the cloths for the Round Robin swap. I am third on that list, so I have some time yet. Sign-ups are still open for all you knitters and crocheters out there!

And this counts as project 47/52 for my 52 project challenge.