Its 2010, where is my robot?!

This is one of those obligatory New Years resolution posts, nothing major, nothing ground breaking.

To start it off I'll post the unfinished garment that made me feel the need to make said resolutions.

Pattern: Simplicity 4076 - View E

Status: unfinished, unwanted

1. When buying and choosing fabrics I will take into consideration that I am a 25 year old woman, not a 15 year old girl. I like bright colors and loud prints, but this is just a bit too much.          
   
2. Though I don't plan on purchasing tons of fabric this year, I promise to purchase better quality fabric when I do. I purchased this fabric about two years ago from fabric.com, I'm pretty sure it was from the "everything under $1.95"  section. At least it feels like it was from the 1.95 section.                   
   
3. When choosing a pattern I will try to base my decision on what suits my figure, my taste, and my lifestyle. I originally picked up this pattern for the faux-wrap top (views A & B) which I loved. This top was really made out of curiosity about the construction of the twist, I never thought about the fact that I wouldn't wear it due to several factors:
   

• The shirt hits a little too high for me.What can I say? I have a long torso and I like to keep my backside covered. I added an inch in length to the pattern anticipating this problem and still it is too short.

• The deep neck line- I don't really show off "the girls" that much. I'm just more comfortable that way. I knew from the envelope that this shirt had a deeper neckline than I'd like, but still I made the top not taking my personal preferences into account.
  

• Those damn bell sleeves- I took an inch off the bell and it is still way too much.

      4.  Finish what I start. Honestly I do not plan on finishing this particular garment due to my dislike for it.   That being said this year I hope to finish more of the projects that I start or have previously started but since lost interest.

 Happy New year and until next time, take care.

Back again

Once again I am back after a brief hiatus. November marked the start of the Christmas season at the studio so I've been working a bunch. Add to that a malfunctioning computer that I ended up having to reformat, and the cold that EVERYONE in the studio has had at some point, and there is how I spent my November. I did manage to squeak out a project though.

Craftster is/was running a challenge where one was to go to a thrift store, find something that would normally be passed over due to its ugliness, and give it a new life by turning it into something awesome. Total project cost was to be under 20 dollars. I was intrigued by the contest, at the time I wasn't sewing much other than hems and minor repairs, I felt like I was in a rut why not give it a try.

I managed to sneak a two hour long visit to the local goodwill one day after work. I found my ugly item fairly quickly, at first I thought it was beyond hope. It was a 100% acrylic sweater dress from the 80s with fabric accents that were poorly sewn on. I put it back on the rack and continued perusing the store, but I keep looking back at the rack holding my breath anytime someone was looking through the rack. In the end it had to be mine. I brought it up to the cashier and we had a good laugh about it after I explained why I was purchasing it and headed home, total price paid: 4.99. The rest of the evening was spent brainstorming ideas.

{before}

I kept coming back to the idea of a motorcycle jacket inspired cardigan. There was just something about the diagonal line of black ribbing on the dress that reminded me of the typical biker jacket. So I went for it. Armed with fray check, double fold bias tape, a really long zipper, and my seam ripper I went to work. Due to time contraints I worked on it about 30 minutes each night, I like to think my mood dramatically improved because of my nightly sewing.

{Gatsby inspects my progress -all pins were removed for his safety}

Lots of pre-planning, basting, machine and hand sewing later I ended up with this.

{after}

The collar overlaps in the front and has a snap closure, the button is merely decorative. Please excuse my weird hand placement...I don't know. Anyways, once the collar is undone the sweater can be unzipped.

{zipper action shot!}

So there it is, win or lose I had a lot of fun during the whole process and I got out of my sewing rut and that is truly what matters. If you want to see the other entries into the contest here is the link.

When the workplace and hobbies collide

I recently got the chance to use my knitting skills for a projects at work. During one of our slow days my manager and I were talking about ideas for photos. She said "I really want hats for infants" and showed me a few pictures of what she had in mind. Almost immediately I offered up my services. Two days later I had these...

Originally my manager had asked for a gender neutral infant sized hat, but that plan had to be scratched. When I went home and looked at my inventory there was little in the way of gender neutral yarns that I thought would photograph well and/or was willing to part with. In the end I decided to forgo neutrality in favor of vibrant colors and fantastic textures.




The first hat is made from Moda Dea's "Cache" (2355 siren). I whipped it up on size 8 dpns, guessed the amount of stitches that needed to be cast on and was actually correct on the first go, . I then proceeded to K1,P1 in the round until it measured 5 inches in length. I used the ever so handy kitchener stitch to bind off then sewed my fun and sassy tassles on . Can I just say how much I love the texture of this yarn when its all knit up?



Hat #2 was also worked up on size 8 using Lion brand suede yarn in teal (the darker blue), and mystery yarn puchased from goodwill several years ago. Same process as the hat before, only the ribbing on this hat is K2,P2 and has pom poms rather than tassles.

So far I've only seen the pink hat in action and it looks great against our brown minky baby blanket, once halloween is over and people start wanting winter pictures, they'll probably get more use. Just wait till the matching scarves are finished!

A few days after bringing them in I was asked by a coworker if it would be possble to knit hats for all their family members. They understand the specialness of a hand knit hat and are willing to pay actual money for it so yay!

Did you know its September?

This month has really flown by for me which is why I haven't updated anything until now. The first week or so I was pretty much at work. Then came Byron and Gatsby's big day, they got neutered! They had a skirmish in August which surprised and terrified me, leading to their immediate separation. Gatsby became territorial and developed a bad habit of marking near Byron's cage much to my dismay. I was upset with myself for putting off the neuter for so long that it had escalated to the point of having to keep them separated. Watching them look at each other through cage bars longingly was hard, but I knew that I couldn't let them play together due to their raging and unpredictable bunny hormones.

I went into nurse mode for about a week making sure my boys were comfortable and happy. Yesterday was their two week post surgical exam. The vet said they were fully healed and looking quite nice, though we are concerned with the weight that they put on during the two weeks since the operation (Byron put on 6 ozs !). All in all life is now back to normal, possibly a little better. Since the neuter Gatsby has not sprayed one bit- that alone is well worth the money spent, liter box habits have improved on the whole, and I think they're starting to like each other again. In another couple of weeks the boyfriend and I plan on reintroducing them and seeing if they can forgive and forget.

On the craft front I've been fairly productive as well. I have finally managed to tame the beast known as yeast and produced some fantastic cinnamon rolls. Truth be told I went a little overboard on the filling, but that's okay in my opinion. I want to make these again when my mom and sister come to visit later in October. This time around I want to incorporate pumpkin into the recipe somehow to add some seasonal flavor to these babies. Mmmm. So keep an eye out for that next month, I'll provide a link to the original recipe as well.

I managed to start and almost finish knitting another hat using the knitty foliage pattern that I adore. When I say almost finish, I mean I need to redo the cast off due to it being super tight, which means I have to find my handy dandy crochet hook which I packed up last year at this time and have not seen since moving.

In true pro-craft-ination style I also have started and almost finished making a new purse. All that is left to do is stitch around the opening of the bag... give me another two weeks and that should be done hehe.

On a final note I have also been working on my side project which I've been promising to reveal for over a month. Though I doubt people have been clamoring to find out what it is I've been working on, I think the time is drawing near to reveal it. Not today, but soonish.

That is all for now, enjoy the rest of September!

Finished

In my last post I showed off my semi-completed Christmas present, now I am quite proud to show off the finished ornament.

The back is just red fabric from a t-shirt that I have had tucked away in my fabric drawers, the green ribbon I picked up from one of my local dollar stores that has a phenomenal craft section.

{side view}

One present down, so many more to go...