Some things I have noticed while knitting on a plane.
In a nutshell, knitting on a plane generally means plenty of uninterrupted knitting time. Which, when you have no choice but to travel, is a great way to pass the time.
I finally bucked up and tackled my sewing machine. Not literally. But I have gotten over my fear of it. It’s kind of hard to be afraid of something that you’ve taken apart and successfully put back together.
What I am definitely going to have to work on is cutting fabric. You can tell that I didn’t do a great job when you see the bag because it’s lopsided. The back end is shorter than the front end and the zipper is most definitely not center. But you know what? I don’t care. I love it.
Almost Square Bag
I can only say that I’m not afraid of my sewing machine anymore. I have figured out how to use it on my own and without a safety net. Thank goodness for manuals. And the ability to read.
Closed Almost Square Bag
I see plenty of room for improvement. You really cannot wing it in sewing. Well, I can’t. And I really need to get a big, clear T ruler and a fabric pencil. Several pencils, even.
Open Almost Square Bag
This has definitely been a learning experience. And the good thing is that I have plenty of fat quarters to practice making more bags. I figure I can only go up from here. Right?
Back in 2008 (April 6th to be exact), I went to see the Yarn Harlot in Atlanta and ended up with 6 ounces of soy silk. Oh, and I also saw the Yarn Harlot. On July 5, 2011 I finally decided to spin it up. On July 13, 2011 I finished plying it and promptly did not record how many yards I spun. Seriously. How did I not do that? WHY did I not do that?!
Then in October, before leaving for SAFF, I decided that I needed to knit up the circus roving turned yarn into something. So I made myself a little handspun yarn cake and took it with me to Asheville, NC. On October 21, 2011 I bought Trillion (Ravelry link) at SAFF. I also promptly began knitting it. It’s a really simple knit and shows off my handspun yarn really nicely.
It’s a fantastic knit when you’re hanging with friends, drinking and not always paying attention to what your hands are doing. The two-row repeat is really easy to memorize. I highly recommend this pattern for when you need some easy but still enchanting to knit. And because I had no clue what the yardage was on my yarn cake, there was that element of danger as to whether or not I would run out of yarn before I had a wearable…Trillion.
And I still can’t help but wonder if I could have fit in one more row.
Neckerchief?
Wanna hear something kind of hypocritical? Even though I am technically half “yellow” I don’t actually like the color yellow. Since I’m half yellow and half white does that actually make me…beige? Either way, I still don’t love the color yellow.
Photobombed by My Own Husband
But when I wrapped the Trillion around my neck, the yellow is not so noticeable and I can live with that. This is not the best picture of how to wear the Trillion, but you’ll just have to use your imagination. Also, I feel that this is a completely acceptable reason to buy a dressform – to take photos of hand knits draped across it. Sans photobombers. And that is actually B photobombing me. I didn’t photoshop him in or anything. Clearly nothing is sacred to him. And yes, this is me wearing exactly NO makeup. (Note to self: get an under eye cream for dark circles.)
Since Thanksgiving is officially over and the Christmas season has begun, B and I decided it would be cool to have an ornament wreath to hang on our front door this year. (Also, we couldn’t remember if we had kept or tossed the wreath we used last year.)
And because I like to make shit, we headed to Michael’s to buy everything we would need to make our very own ornament wreath. Turns out that this was an excellent idea because Michael’s had some really cool ornaments on sale. Really cool ornaments. So we put about 20 tubes of ornaments in our little basket. You know, in case we ran short. What? THEY WERE ON SALE.
We eventually came to our senses and decided that maybe we should dial it back a bit. We went with a more reasonable number, grabbed another hot glue gun and glue sticks (I swear those things grow legs and run off) and headed back home.
I then proceeded to make my very own ornament wreath using these 5 10 20 easy simple steps.
Things you will need to make your very own ornament wreath:
Step 1: Prep your work space.
Step 2: Bribe the dogs with a chewy stick (we got fancy with duck this time around) to leave you alone and (probably) stay out of trouble. This is the most important thing you will do while creating your own wreath if you own 1 or more dogs.
Step 3. Assemble almost everything you will need on your prepped workspace. Behold.
Ornaments, hanger and glue gun on prepped worked space.
Step 4: Begin glueing the tops of the ornaments to stay together.
Step 5: Glue one or two ornaments and then realize you need somewhere to put them so you don’t try to re-glue the ones you’ve already done.
Step 6: Rummage around in the kitchen and came up with a big metal mixing bowl. Or use whatever you have on hand and that is convenient(ly located).
Step 7: Continue hot glueing all your ornaments. This part will feel like it takes forever. Also, you may unintentionally go heavy on the glue and will want to wipe the excess glue off the tops if you have OCD tendencies.
Tip: Hot glued ornaments look just like regular ornaments.
Step 8: Bend your wire hanger into a shape that as closely resembles a circle possible.
Step 9: Begin “stringing” your hot glued ornaments onto the wire hanger.
Stringing Ornaments
Step 10: Feel smug about making your own ornament wreath until you realize you don’t have quite enough ornaments.
Step 11: Insert all the swear words you can think of here.
Step 12: Go downstairs to the creepy room in the basement you use for storing all your Christmas decorations and find some plain silver ornaments you can add to your wreath.
Step 13: Pull all the ornaments off the wire hanger and dump them back into the bowl.
Step 14. Insert more swear words here.
Step 15: Re-string all the ornaments again, adding in your plain silver ornaments from downstairs as randomly but also as evenly spaced as possible. Only the random part will work out despite your best efforts. Go with it.
Almost Done
Step 16: Take the newspaper, the wreath and some painter’s clear gloss outside and spray down your ornaments to keep the glitter on the ornaments. (This step is optional if you use ornaments that haven’t been to a Ke$ha party) (If you live in my house, anything covered in glitter has clearly been to a Ke$ha party.)
Keeping the Ke$ha Party Where It Belongs
[SIDE NOTE] If you are like me, you may be a little overzealous with the clear gloss. This will create a frosted look on your glitter free ornaments. This is what we like to refer to as a “design element.” Go with it. [/SIDE NOTE]
Step 17: Realize that you need to find a way to hide loop that was originally the hanger hook.
Step 18: Find leftover silver lace ribbon from another project and wind it around the loop.
Step 19: Add a bow.
Step 20: Hang your ornament wreath on the door and admire your handiwork.
My Ornament Wreath, Let Me Show You It
BAD Boy is learning about Greek mythology in school and next week is Greek Week. And on this coming Friday, he has to wear a costume. They drew costume choices out of a hat. His costume? Pegasus.
That’s right. PEGASUS.
In case you were wondering, the only pegasus costumes you can buy are for babies and/or sluts.
So we improvised. We ordered some angel wings from Costume Express. And I made him this hat.
Pegasus Hat Front
Pegasus Hat Side
Pegasus Hat Back
Pegasus Hat Mane
Let me start off by saying that I am freaking AWESOME. No seriously. I am also a genius. And being humble? It’s my best trait.
Seriously, though, I am really really really happy with the way this hat turned out. Especially since I was really ready to burn the pattern. And also drink a lot. I ultimately refrained from burning the pattern. The drinking, though, really helped with deciphering what the hat pattern was saying. I used the Mohawk Hat (Raverly link) pattern, altered the mohawk to a mane and then used the Horse and Unicorn Hat (Ravelry link) crochet pattern to make the ears. (The rest of my project details are here. (Surprise! Also a Ravelry link.)
That’s right. I said CROCHET.
I have a confession to make: I am bi-craftual.
Sort of.
Actually, I’m poly-craftual, but that’s a story for another post.
ANYWAY.
BAD Boy will have this hat, the wings, a long-sleeved plain white shirt, white pants, a tail (I have more of the same yarn the mane is made out of for the tail.) and white shoes. I think that this will make an excellent pegasus costume for a boy.
Also?
I ROCK.
Last weekend I spent the majority of it on the porch with the dogs while I finished up knitting and seaming a baby sweater.
SQUIRREL! TV
My Little Hoarder
They had a blast watching the Squirrels! and just being dogs in general. Can you tell Cody used to be a stray? He has a tendency to hoard and steal treats.
Seaming Trellis
I enjoyed being out on the deck, listening to my audiobook, knittingseaming and capturing the moments. Also, two tv trays and a large blocking board can make for an excellent workspace outdoors. I can’t tell you just how much I love my deck.
Perfect Afternoon
The dogs love it, too.
Not too long after that, I went to Chicago for work and also a baby shower. For which I made this swaddling blanket and Trellis.
Finished Trellis on Swaddling Blanket
Cutest Buttons on the Planet
The presents were a huge hit.
Then on the way home from Chicago, I ended up sitting across the aisle from another Raveler whom I may have stalked from time to time, Elliebelly!
Elliebelly!
All in all, it was a good, albeit tiring week. I’m glad to be back at home; I feel mostly caught up on sleep and I’m really glad to be with my family.
I have a baby shower to go to this coming Wednesday. This is one of two gifts I’ll be giving. Or it may be one of one gifts if I don’t hurry up and finish the baby sweater. To speed my knitting along, I’m going to take my time and show you this swaddling blanket.
The pattern is one I found on Ravelry called Jewell. I, as usual, slightly modified the pattern. Instead of knitting the points with alternating rows of stockinette and knit, I just made them all stockinette.
Oh, and the pattern also called for a single crochet edging. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that’s what I did. I’m not really sure what kind of crochet edge I did, but it’s definitely crochet. And I’m really proud of it all the same.
That’s right. I can knit AND crochet. I just don’t really know exactly what I’m doing with the crochet. I just wing it until it looks good to me. Also, so long as the edge of the blanket doesn’t roll, I’m happy. I am certain the baby will also be very concerned about edge roll. Babies can be fashion conscious, too, you know.
Anyway, to really appreciate this blanket, you need to see it in action. I do not have a baby handy so I used a teddy bear instead.
Pretend this bear is a baby.
See? This babybear is swaddled. Wrapped up like a little sandwich. Or a roll. Would you like a teddy bear roll up?
And here’s the swaddled babybear being held by it’s “parent.” Can you see the fear in that babybear’s eyes? I can.
So there you have it. One present down. One to go.
After seeing two of my friends make Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies, I had to give it a go. And since I was craving something chocolatey today, it was kind of like destiny, really.
I always use the chocolate chip recipe on the back of the back of Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips with 2 small modifications. I use dark brown sugar instead of light brown and I don’t always use vanilla. Honestly? I can never really tell the difference when I use vanilla so it’s no big whoop to me. And using dark brown sugar makes the cookies turn out a more caramel color, which I find aesthetically pleasing. Tonight was a real treat because I got to bake cookies with someone who had never made them from scratch. She did an awesome job.
That's Bob in the back, watching over the cookies.
I love baking cookies. It’s a fun, kind of messy science project. You mix a whole bunch of precisely measured ingredients together. And when you do it right, the final result is super tasty. What’s not to love about that?
Anyway, if you look at some of the recipes online, the Oreos are completely engulfed top and bottom with chocolate chip cookie dough. And as much as I love sweets, that is a little too decadent even for me. So instead of doing that, we placed the Oreos on the cookie sheet and put a nice big dollop of chocolate chip cookie dough on top of them. The cookies went into the oven at 350 for about 15 – 16 minutes.
OK, so not exactly stuffed.
As they were cooking, the chocolate chip cookie dough slowly covered over the Oreo. The end result is an absolutely delicious and decadent super cookie.
COOKIEGASM!
We made almost 3 dozen cookies. As I type this, there are closer to 2 dozen cookies left. You can’t eat just one.
Love
I am absolutely thrilled with how this turned out. But I am also ridiculously tired, now. Plying is hard work!
Tomorrow I’ll find out how many yards I ended up with. One bobbin has some leftover singles on it. Did I even say that right? Anyway, one day, I’ll have two perfectly even bobbins that ply up with no yarn leftover. However.
Today is not that day.
I finished the second bobbin!
What’s that? You want to know what my bobbin is sitting on?
Bobbin for Scale
My new spinning chair from Crate and Barrel. Happy Birthday Week to me! Still!
Next up, plying!
