An Elvis sighting

Yesterday I finally got my Kentucky drivers license that came with more obstacles than I expected. After gathering all of the documents I needed which was no easy task, I arrived at the DMV and was assisted by the clerk who looks like Elvis. He had an incredible southern accent and lots of gold jewelry; I think he was even better than the Elvis who married Philip and I. Definitely the highlight of my day.

Another Super Happy Fun Day

Today was a great day. Philip and I both had the day off work so we started our day at the coffeeshop where I started knitting my cotton popcorn headband. Then we walked up the street to a used bookstore to get two copies of the Great Gatsby for the Public Library's one book Lexington program. We then walked home and read a little bit of our new books. Then we cleaned our bedroom, moved around the old furniture, added the new furniture, and hung some curtains. Our bedroom actually looks like a real room now and not just a place we throw all of our crap. When we finished we went to Gumbo Ya-yas for lunch, a staple meal for any fun day.

The best part of the day was when we stopped at a local shop so that I could buy a birthday card for a package I am sending out tomorrow. While we were there, I found out that the storefront that Sarah and I are in love with is for rent even though there are no signs. This could be it- our store. I don't want to jinx it since I still haven't spoken with the owner, but it feels really right. We would be an excellent fit for the location and we would share a customer base with the store upstairs. I can't talk about it anymore since I don't want to bring on any bad luck, just send positive thoughts my way.

Sew? I knit!

I am joining the second round of the Sew? I Knit! challenge which will be bags. This is perfect timing since I am getting ready to start a new pirate themed knitting bag from some old hemp canvas fabric that I am going to dye black as well as a vintage purse from some leftover curtain fabric and an old pattern.
I will be making the bag on the bottom left. I am not new to making bags, but since one of these bags is from a pattern I am challenging myself to actually follow the pattern, not just look at the picture.

Magic socks

As promised, here is the picture of the progress on my new socks. I had to cast on and do the cuffs on dpns, but then I switched to the magic loop for the body of the socks. This is my first attempt at knitting two thing simultaneously on one set of needles and so far it is going smoothly. At first I had a little trouble with the yarn getting twisted, but I discovered that placing one ball on each side of me prevents tangles. Another thing that made knitting with this method easier was weaving in the yarn ends in the beginning so there aren't extra strands of yarn in your way. Inspired by Desiree I am going to try the afterthought heel on this pair instead on my short row standby.

Philip and I stopped by a couple of thrift stores on Saturday while running errands and we found this little number for our bar. We will never have to search for a bottle opener again.


We also picked up these salt and pepper shakers and some great mugs for hot cocoa.

Who stole my Spring?

I can't stand it anymore, this winter has gone on too long. I hate winter and I hate the cold. We are three days into Spring and the temperatures are still freezing. All I want is a little sunshine and a little warmth. At this point I will settle for 1-2 warm days a week. The weatherman said yesterday that there is no sign of warmer temperatures our future. WTF? It doesn't help that our heating bill is almost $200 a month to keep our apartment at 60 degrees, I can't imagine how high it would be if our apartment was actually warm. I miss the radiators at our old place. They would crank out so much heat that we would wear summer clothes all winter. It was also nice that we didn't have to pay for it since it was included in our rent.

On a happier note, I started another pair of socks. I went to Meijer (big box store) late one night to buy some primer and I noticed that they were having a sale in the craft section. The Moda Dea striping yarn was included in the sale so I grabbed some since I can't pass on the opportunity to make some more socks. I was supposed to start my vintage knee socks this week, but one of the balls of stash yarn is hiding so I decided to postpone those until I find the missing ball. I am doing the new socks together using the magic loop method. I had to start the cuffs on dpns since I can't buy a 40" size 0 circular needle anywhere locally, but the rest of the socks will be done together on one circular. Once I get them both on the needles I will post a picture so that the process makes a little more sense.

See Robyn Sew

A few small problems with my new sewing machine slowed me down a bit, but after a little help from the wonderful people at the sewing center everything is fixed and working smoothly. To celebrate, I came straight home from the sewing center and whipped together these.

This is the valence that I made to go over our kitchen window. I was planning on making a straight valence, but Philip preferred the puffy style so that is what I did.


These are the curtains for the window in the back door. I was originally planning on creating a roman shade, but after looking at our options, Philip and I decided these cute little curtains were exactly what we need. I created two straps with buttonholes to easily pull back the panels and let in some light.


Also, I finally hung the cafe curtains in the dining room.


All of the curtains were made from old curtains. The red ones were in the bottom of a box of fabric that was given to us and I found the printed curtains at a thrift store for $1. I have a ton of the printed fabric left so you will probably see it again.

Sock it to me

I finished Philip's socks a few days ago, but I wanted to photograph them on his feet instead of posting another pair of socks laying on the floor. These are just basic stockinette stitch socks with a short-rowed heel and a banded toe, these are my favorite methods.



While I am on the subject of socks, here is my finished yoga sock design for the next issue of Take Back the Knit. The purpose of the sock is to provide a little warmth while the open heel and toes allows your foot to grip the mat. I made both socks with one ball of stash yarn so it felt like a free project.

I started knitting the hand grenade from Knitorama to mix things up a little before I start the vintage-style knee socks that will be my next project. I have to muster up the courage to try the two socks on one circ method again because these will be the magic socks.

An early St. Patrick's day project

Last night after the snb, Sarah came over to make a special batch of St Patrick's day cupcakes with edible green glitter on top. I first saw the edible glitter on some cupcakes at a local coffee shop and ever since I have been obsessed with making a vegan batch. As I mentioned before, I am not a baker so any baking project comes with certain challenges.

The cupcakes came out okay and the icing came out great, the trouble came when we combined the two. The first time we tried, the cupcakes were still a little warm so the icing kept melting which softened all of the nice ridges created by the decorating tip. We moved the cupcakes and the icing to the freezer for 30 minutes and tried again. This time the icing was too cold to go through the decorating tip, I ended up breaking the bag trying to get the icing through. In the end, it all worked out and we ended up with about a dozen, slightly irregular, glittery cupcakes.

A quiz, really?

I normally don't post quiz results, but it isn't everyday that I get to be a goddess.


You appear to be a Knitting Goddess. You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with reward, you simply want others to love knitting as much as you do. If someone wants to knit miles of novelty yarns, you are there for them. If someone wants to learn short row shaping, you can help. There are no taboos in knitting, only opportunities to grow. Everyone should have friend like you around if they want to learn to knit, and there's a good chance that your passion has rubbed off on a few others.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Getting comfy

My 24 hours of craftiness did not exactly go as planned. I was going to use my postponed vacation this week, but the weather caused me to cancel again which made this a normal weekend, I made a lot of progress on Philip's socks. I finished the first sock with two yards of yarn to spare, I hope I am as lucky with the second sock.

I finished the curtains for the dining room which I will post as soon as I find the curtain rod to hang them and a new pair of pajama bottoms.
I found this cute bumblebee fabric for $1/yard a little while ago and when my favorite pajamas decided to retire I knew it was time to pull it out and make some new pajama bottoms. I didn't use a pattern, but they are loosely based on my old pair with wider leg bottom and a few other changes. Somewhere I read that pj bottoms are more comfortable without outside seems so I decide to try making them in two pieces instead of four. In the end, I don't notice a difference in the comfort level, but when I was cutting the pieces I noticed it was harder to conserve fabric and I probably ended up using an extra half yard of fabric with this method.

Boys have really big feet

I started a pair of striped socks for Philip on Wednesday. I was going to reinforce the heels and toes with that thin nylon thread, but I couldn't find it and I really wanted to start the socks. Since the sock yarn already has nylon in it they will probably be fine. Since they are boy socks I am not doing any fancy stitch patterns, just basic socks. After I turned the heel I got really excited since I was past the halfway point, but I forgot that boy feet are big and Philip is no exception. I have 9 inches to knit before I can start the toe. I hope I bought enough yarn!

24 hours of crafty goodness

In honor of National Craft month I am initiating a 24 hour craft challenge loosely based on this. I am going to try to craft for 24 hours straight just to see how far I can go. I will mainly be working on things from my National Craft Month list, but will probably throw in a few more projects for good measure. I know this sounds completely insane, but if it is too horrible I might have to break my 24 hour challenge into two 12 hour challenges. Either way I will accomplish great things. The date for my challenge will be Sunday, March 12 2006!

A productive non-crafting weekend

My first weekend of National Craft Month didn't go as planned. On Saturday, Sarah, Jessica and I went to the Salavation Army for some thrifty goodness. We didn't realize that all sweaters were going to be on sale for $.99. We came out with several bags of sweaters to frog for yarn and I actually found 2 sweaters to wear. Anyway the rest of the day was spent deconstructing sweaters and balling the yarn.

On Sunday I finally broke down and started cleaning the apartment. I did a ton of laundry, categorized our books (it is a sickness), hung a few paintings, and moved furniture in addition to sweeping and dusting. Philip and I made a trip over to his aunt's house to get a fabulous green hi-fi to add to our tiki room. All of this reorganizing actually left a bigger mess than when I started so Philip and I are going to work a couple hours a night to try to get everything in order by the weekend.

When we moved we left behind a large cedar chest and a free standing closet. We we out of truck space and those were the most logical things to leave behind because we knew people who wanted them and we figured it would be easy to find something new at a thrift store. We were wrong and because of that we don't have a place to store over half of the clothing we own. There are piles of clean clothes everywhere and because the laundry baskets are storing clean clothes there are dirty clothes covering our bedroom floor. It is a war zone. Yesterday I finally asked my dad if I could have some of my bedroom furniture that I left at his house when I moved out. I have a large cedar chest that he made me for my 16th birthday and a large oak dresser that I got when I was a kid. In a few weeks, after my sister clears all of the stuff out, we will have enough room for all of our clothing and we will be able to use the laundry baskets for dirty clothes once again. It will be a glorious day.

I almost forgot, this was my score of the day.



It is a storage box for thread and bobbins and it sure beats the plastic bag that I currently use. It came in a bag of weird cross stitch patterns. I kept the case and threw the other contents of the bag back into the donation bin outside of the thrift store.

National Craft Month

March is National Craft Month as pointed out earlier this week by vania. To celebrate I am going to set crafting goals for the month of March.

Sewing
cafe curtains for the dining room
roman shades for the kitchen door
valance for the kitchen window
bag for my yoga mat
skirt for spring

Knitting
Yoga socks for the gym
Cotton popcorn headband for the warmer weather

Embroidery
strap for yoga bag