My new thing is spinning yarn. I got a spindle for Christmas, and then, over my winter break, my dad made me a spinning wheel (yes, made it. In four days. Mostly from things he already had in the basement. My dad is amazing). Check it out.
Here is some stuff I’ve made. A lot of it is from before I had a lesson (and was using a homemade spindle made from a CD and a knitting needle), so it kind of sucks, but the new stuff is much better. My favorite is this one, which came from a “mystery batt” by Moustache Ride Yarns at Etsy.
I haven’t made much from my yarn yet. I made a headband, but better is my Nozzler (a Nozzler is a crochet creature that embodies the spirit of your handspun yarn). My Nozzler is very simple, like my yarn, but I have no doubt I’ll make more complex ones in the future. The Nozzler was inspired by Pluckyluff’s book Intertwined. This book is full of so many amazing things. I just want to absorb all the knowledge in it.
Anyway, I always love knowing what the other Doper crafters are up to. It’s so inspiring and fascinating. So please share!
I’m crocheting an afghan. It’s a granny “square”, but with hexagonal pieces instead of square pieces. The colored centers cost next to nothing, because when I go to garage sales you often find bags of odds and ends of yarn from other folk’s projects. And that’s what this type of afghan was devised to do, use up leftovers.
I just learned how to knit socks. I made a blue pair for myself and a really gaudy multicolored pair for my daughter, and I like the gaudy ones so much I’m going to make another pair for myself. I’m rather proud of myself, the only other things I’ve ever knitted have been scarves and calorimetries.
I’m knitting a baby blanket. It was a spur of the moment decision, made in the fresh excitement of hearing about the first baby in the family and, without near enough thought, I started it on size seven needles. I have size thirteen needles that I used for knitting a throw to snuggle up on the couch with, but went with the smaller ones for the baby blanket. It feels like it’s about a billion stitches wide, but it’s coming out really cute with soft, rainbow colored, variegated yarn in a checker board pattern. My sister’s due date is in August, so I guess my due date is then too.
Lots and lots of bridesmaid’s socks! I’m getting married in April, as some of you know, and our three pre-teen nieces will be bridesmaids and my best friend will be matron of honor. I’m making each of the girls a pair of Domino Square Socks from Vogue’s On the Go series. I can’t find a picture of them on line, but they have a large domino square on top the the foot and two rows of smaller ones on the legs. Working them is fascinating! You start by making the large square on 2 needles, work towards the toe and shape it using short rows, work back to the heel, picking up stitches along the sides as you go, shape the heel in the round, make two rows of domino squares on two needles, then switch back to working in the round for the ribbing at the top. It took about 2 weeks to finish the first sock, so I’ve got plenty of time.
On the other hand, I still have several buttons to sew onto a cabled nursing sweater from Natural Knits for Babies before I send it off to my cousin – her baby’s due in early February! :eek:
**Mirror Image egamI rorriM **, there’ll be a knitting festival here in a few weeks and I’ve signed up for a class on spinning. I’ve wanted to learn for years, and I haven’t done well teaching myself.
I recently got a hold of a bunch of art glass AND two hand glass cutters. This to go along with tile nippers (both wheeled and straight edged) so that I could experiment with cutting my own glass for mosaics.
Also, I’ve gotten a long, skinny peice of treated wood-- just long enough to border my walkway in my front yard and perhaps keep the rain from washing away my dirt. Put both these things together. . . One side of my wood now has butterflies and flowers mosaic’ed on to it. I plan to put a snake on the other. Still haven’t decided what’ll be on the third side.
Ploughing along on a lovely, soft organic cotton sweater for my husband. I have a half dozen other projects in rotation but that’s what’s at the front of the queue right now.
More exciting, though… I dragged my husband to one of the country’s biggest yarn/fiber stores on Saturday, so I could spend my Christmas gift money from his family. He spent the hour or, I dunno I lost track of how long I was there, sitting in one of the convenient comfy chairs for spouses, reading a book totally unrelated to the fiber arts, and came home, hopped on craigslist and bought a floor loom for less than a quarter of the price you’d get it new. I had been joking about taking up weaving. Looks like he’s got it covered. Neither of us have the first clue about weaving so this should be a trip!
I’m crocheting a huge, double-ply afghan for my sister’s wedding present. When finished, it will be large enough for two people to lay under comfortably, or as a slip cover for a loveseat. I’m taking my cues size-wise off a similar monster I made a few years ago (my first blanket), that gets broken out every winter. We call it the “nap blanket”, because if you use it, you are going to fall asleep. Pattern wise, it’s going to end up looking vaguely plaid, done in red and white yarns. Stitch wise, it’s very simple, mostly because I haven’t really mastered any other stitches besides single and double yet (I’ve got a book, but lack the free time and desire to translate all those freaking abbreviations. I think I need a new book with more pictures.)
Learning to design and make clothing patterns and clothes, starting back up at batik (I’m to the stage where I have all the equipment and have started practicing applying wax), and still in the middle of knitting wool socks.
You can see pics of my current projects at Ravelry - same screen name.
I’m almost finished knitting a sock and sort of dreading starting the other one since it’s taken me soooo long to finish this one. I’m also working on an ear flap hat to go with my mittens I just finished up. And I’m also starting a cardigan - although I am not fond of the yarn I bought (online) so I’m not sure if I’ll finish it or rip it and figure out something else to do with the yarn…
I’m crocheting a baby blanket for my cousin’s daughter, who is due in the next couple of weeks.
I’ve picked out a variegated yarn in blue/periwinkle/purple tones (in baby-safe and washable acrylic, bien sur) and this pattern. Since the baby’s name will be Sofia Luna, I’m also planning on embroidering a small crescent moon and the baby’s DOB onto one of the corners once she’s born, so that it’s personalized - I’m going for an “evening sky” kind of feel.
I’ve made it nice and big so that she won’t outgrow it anytime soon - my hope is that it’ll be useful for taking to daycare for naptime and such once she’s a toddler.
I’m backstitching a counted cross stitch baby bib for a friend’s baby. Baby shower is Feb. 2, and I’m out of town, so I have to finish it soon so it can go in the mail. Actually, the backstitching is going quite well.
Saturday, I spent several hours scrapbooking with friends. One of the ladies spent all afternoon making one page, suitable for framing. In the same length of time, I did half a dozen double-sided pages. There is no danger that anyone would mistake any of my pages for a page suitable for framing. This makes me a little sad, but not too bad–I totally lack interest in spending hours on a single page. Besides, I scrapbook just for me, mostly, and it was so much fun to play with my hostess’s many, many scissors with funky edges.
For Christmas, I made some red and green jingle bracelets. So now, post-Christmas, I bought some matching white beads, and am making red and white bracelets and green and white bracelets.
I’m also trying to teach myself how to knit. I think I’ve got the idea of casting-on figured out, and the knit stitch–except I don’t get the part about how one holds the yarn in one’s hand. But I have this goofy-looking scrap of pink knitted material which shows how much progress I’ve made.
(Note: this is a highly a-typical week for me–I don’t usually have 4 projects going at once).
I usually make paper mache sculptures but I wanted to make something to go outside. I’ve recently purchased a couple books on concrete and garden ornaments and I’m just in the planning stages right now. Although we aren’t getting freezes I might have to wait a little bit for the weather to stabilize so the concrete can cure properly. I have a bunch of old Styrofoam coolers from work that I plan to use as an armature to make some hypertufa planters. You cover them with chicken wire so the concrete has something to cling to. This way you don’t need as much concrete and your planter isn’t too heavy. I am also interested in mosaic so I may decorate some with mosaic.
I like to recycle stuff in my crafts so I really like to idea of using these Styrofoam containers that would otherwise end up in landfills. I used to take them to a UPS store where they ground them up to use as packing material but I realized that they’d still end up in the landfills that way.
I’m finishing up a quilt top. It’s a simple one – two blocks, one a 9-patch and the other a snowball – using just three fabrics. I was pleased to find the fabric in my stash – didn’t have to buy any. One is a juvenile print, cream background with blue and apricot, and it works well with the blue-gray solid and dark apricot print that I had.
I just finished fingerweaving a wool ‘ceinture flechee’, or arrow belt. I’m interested in traditional winter camping, with wool clothing, canvas tents, portable wood stoves, etc. I made myself some gear and decided to finish it off with the traditional sash/belt/tow strap. After a long search to find the best type of yarn, and about a week of evenings, I ended up with a 9.5 foot long heavy duty voyageursash.
I just finished spinning a pound of really pretty merino from Alpaca Direct. I set the twist yesterday and wound it into balls. I’m anxious to start knitting it, but meanwhile I’m making quick progress on a pair of socks from *Favorite Socks * and dabbling on “Alpine Lace” from Victorian Knitting Today. Next up? Spinning some of the 2lbs of icelandic roving I got from someone destashing on Ravelry and sewing Easter dresses for my daughters.
I tend to have startitis.
Things I’m fairly actively working on are knitting a baby sweater for a friend (baby due February 28th, sweater due January 26th) and a cardigan for my mother (was supposed to be done by Christmas, but I had to frog a whole lot of it) and sewing a couple of pairs of slacks for me.
The baby sweater just needs one arm sewn in and about half of the ends woven in, and then a touch of light blocking.
The cardigan is back down to me working on the bottom ribbing again, since after I frogged it, I took time off to work on the baby sweater.
The pants just need basic finishing – hems, button holes. We also didn’t overlock the edges of the fabric, since we were still fitting the pattern on these ones, and we didn’t have much time, so I’m going to serge the seam allowances shut (yes, bad, I know).
I’m getting married in April, as some of you know, and our three pre-teen nieces will be bridesmaids and my best friend will be matron of honor. I’m making each of the girls a pair of Domino Square Socks from Vogue’s On the Go series. I can’t find a picture of them on line, but they have a large domino square on top the the foot and two rows of smaller ones on the legs. Working them is fascinating! You start by making the large square on 2 needles, work towards the toe and shape it using short rows, work back to the heel, picking up stitches along the sides as you go, shape the heel in the round, make two rows of domino squares on two needles, then switch back to working in the round for the ribbing at the top. It took about 2 weeks to finish the first sock, so I’ve got plenty of time.
