pumpkin coaster reprise

I had a great day of making on Monday. I finished up a chicken in the morning and then spent the afternoon in my sewing room playing with scraps. I sent my mom this picture and asked "want some coasters?" since my scraps were still out and ready for play. Happily, she said yes.

I had a nice time playing and ended up with another two pumpkins that look festive and fun. Mom likes bright colors, so I chose the brightest pieces I could find. I also made sure the fun cats and owls made an appearance. 

For the back I fussy cut a Disney haunted mansion print. I would use these with this side up too! I just love this fabric. It's so creative and quirky, and the mansion was one of the rides I remember liking the most at Disney as a kid. Pirates of the Caribbean was another favorite. I ran out of the felt I was using for the stems after cutting only three pieces (I needed four) so I pivoted and used a grayer green for the back of the stems and the original more olive toned green for the front. I actually quite like the way it turned out; in fact the grayer tone works very well with the colors in the print. 

I'm going to pack these up in a little envelope and send them off to mom, hopefully before October gets underway. 

Lucille

A chicken from the neighborhood has adopted our barn. The barn owner originally did not want to encourage her, especially not name her, but has since started feeding her. I named her Lucille. We may get a coop :) The owner's birthday is coming up soon, and I decided to be cheeky and gift her another chicken. 

I went scrap diving and came up with this lovely combination of muted rainbow colors that have turned into quite a pretty little hen. I am enjoying how the blue makes it seem rather French and chic. Not sure where I get that impression but it is quite strong. As expected from prior experience, this was a joyful knit and I will continue making them. I cannot help but smile when the stuffing goes in and the personality takes shape with the extra stitched details. So stinking cute. Again.

a tiny emotional support chicken

I got a bougie bath board and we had our inaugural experience Monday night after I got my back adjusted. Rather than candles and wine and cheese, this crafter decided to take some granny squares into the bath. I don’t know that I’d work on a big project, but it was pretty fun to combine two relaxing things. Would do again. 

The next day, the first thing I wanted to do when I rolled out of bed was combine those granny squares and finish this chicken. It is incredibly cute and I want to make more. I’m pretty sure I saw this on Pinterest and saved it ‘for someday’ and I’m proud of myself for actually returning to the idea and making it happen. 

I rummaged through my worsted weight yarns and came up with some scraps I thought created a pleasing palette and improvised my way through their pattern placement. Luck was with me along the way helping me use up exactly the amount I had both of the maroon center and the peachy outline yarn - very satisfying. There’s plenty of that psychedelic variegated yarn left, which is excellent because it suits the piece really well. The only downside to making this was that the needle size is quite small compared to the yarn, presumably to make a nice tight piece for keeping the stuffing in, and I kept catching it and splitting my yarn on the double and triple stitches. Annoying, but perseverance was well worth it. 

I am starting a new job at the beginning of next month, and I am gifting this to a coworker who has been both a close friend and a fellow knitter. I’m not going far, I will still be on campus, but we won’t be seeing each other quite as often so this will be a humorous avatar for her to have at her desk to give the side eye when she is frustrated at something. A very enjoyable, quick project that turned out so great even on the first try. Everyone needs a tiny chicken!

pumpkin coaster improv

This was another beautiful mess I made on the 'Sunday of stitching' at the beginning of August. Spooky season is nearly upon us, and has already firmly arrived in the realm of retail. I found some joy inducing towels depicting a horse wearing a witch's hat. I got a set for myself and a set to share with some friends who will appreciate them as much as me. For one of the gifts, I would like to pair the funny towel with some quirky pumpkin coasters. This is another project inspired and taught to me by Pin, Cut, Sew on YouTube, and it was so fun. 

As with any scrappy project, one must start with a mess. At least I must. From the chaos emerges sensical discrete combinations and lines to sew one at a time. Then in the end, from mess comes magnificence. I do enjoy the improvisational process once I am in it, but sometimes starting it can be hard to let go of expectation and control and ending it can be hard to look at the piles and know they need to be put away. These piles are still languishing. I tell myself I want more coasters, but that's not strictly true. I will likely make more because the piles are still there but that was not the intent at the end of this particular day of making. 

My first effort was made as described in the tutorial. It is a kind of wonky log cabin construction of strips around a central starting point. It was fun but time consuming and I don't have many spooky fabrics that lend themselves well to strips. I really like how this one turned out, but I didn't really feel the pull to keep going like that. Making more meant changing my tactic.

Instead what I did was combine larger pieces of fabric in a more improvisational patchwork type of layout. This worked well with the larger scale foxes and owls, and let me showcase a bunch of black kitties on one. The recipient has four black cats, so I am glad to have found that scrap to include. She also likes purple, so for the back of each pumpkin I used the same purple geometric print. This makes them reversible to all match or be scrappy as the mood strikes. 

I enjoyed the improv play in making these and I like how unique the finished product is. I like that I have one of my own to keep and a set to give, that they didn't really take up that much in the way of supplies, and that I actually would like to sit down soon and make some more. 

neptune the mystic socks, finished

Neptune the Mystic is the subject of the final movement of Gustav Holst's The Planets. It is an ethereal treat for the ears that scintillates with mystery and magic. As I worked up this yarn and considered what it was telling me about itself as I went along, this mystical character and soundscape came to mind in the deep purples and blues gently interrupted by subdued, but somehow still sparkly, pinks, greens, and browns. 

I started these the evening of August 1. After a successful day in the sewing room, I had a peaceful evening downstairs in the soft light of the living room enjoying the iridescence of the yarn as it worked up into a cozy fabric. It was wonderful to have a full and varied day of deep creative time with my hands and mind. 

    

It did not take me long to finish the first sock, just another day, and just a couple days after that I finished the second. DK weight socks certainly do work up quickly and I can understand the appeal of a slightly thicker more slipper like sock. These are slightly on the short side because I was uncertain how much yarn one sock would take in a DK weight situation. A bit of research on Ravelry suggested that my size might be kind of close to the whole skein, so I went conservative on leg length because the idea of running out of yarn at the end of a second sock is very unappealing to me. 

They turned out looking great both in dim light and in bright sunshine today where the colors can really show up. They'll either be for me to keep or as a gift for my sister in law. I think her feet are slightly larger than mine though, so they may be staying here if I can't block them bigger when I get her measurements. Such is the risk of starting socks for someone before you're sure what size they are! 

quick zips

Mom and I did some color play with my fabric stash to make a couple of zippered pouches. One is for my niece, the other for my sister in law. I had to kind of remind myself how the assembly went, but once that was figured out they went very quickly. Note for next time so I don't have to look it up: if not doing tabs on the zipper ends, flip the zipper towards the lining when sewing together so it tucks in well. 

The first one I added a little tab to the side for a little something extra. There was much debate on whether that was the correct side to put it on or if it goes on the side with the zipper pull when it is closed. I would use it on either side to hold and pull, so we decided it didn't really matter. 

For this second one I skipped the tab, though it would have been cute in that bright green lining print, and instead opted to experiment with making a tassel for the zipper pull. It turned out very cute and I would do again. More bags in the future, no doubt. These are easy to make, satisfying to finish so quickly, and a good time playing with color combinations. 

behemoth ring blanket, finished

I am so proud of how this turned out! The cotton took a while to dry, and we had an unusual cool spell for the season which was AMAZING but meant wet things stayed wet longer. Taking the blocking wires out I could see that the block was just right - the piece kept it's shape nicely, did not bounce back to a smaller size, and did not have any weird pointy bits around the edges (hooray for the wires). It's just shy of 5 feet in diameter, so a really good size for a lap blanket.

I quite like the color combination, which is pretty good for a collection of random skeins on the sale table! I kind of knew when I matched them up in the shop that they'd look good together, but it's nice to see that play out in an actual project. I especially like that putty grey color and would love to get some more to use it in another version I am dreaming up. I also really like this yarn which is Blue Sky Fiber Cotton Skinny. It has weight to it and is buttery soft and nice to work with. 

It looks great in my loft, which is where it will live for a bit while I decide if I am keeping it or not (ha!). It will probably go to my brother. These are kind of his colors and his vibe, especially the orange and I was imagining this for him as I was working on it. I enjoyed the process and would happily knit one again to keep for myself. I have some yarn in mind already that might make a really fun girly version paired with the gray leftovers, and honestly that seems like the answer. I'll wait on that though. It feels really good to have all of my big projects off the needles and just two projects in progress. It would be nice to have another one of these on the needles to keep me company in my YouTube and staff meeting hours, but I've got quite a few other projects planned already so let's keep at least the illusion of focus, shall we? What I really want to do is start my Agave sweater but it's just too much brain power at the moment! 

spreading the mushroom love

My coworker had a birthday today. It's also my half birthday, a coincidence that I take to be the universe's humor since she and I are so different yet get along so well. She is a fellow knitter and we often trade stories, pattern ideas, and show and tell along with a lot of motivation and moral support. Since I've been on a kick lately with sewing project bags, I decided to make her one for her birthday. 

It's kind of an unusual combination using the bright teal linen with the more earthy mushroom print, but I think it worked out really well. I went back to the tutorial I used to make my somewhat improvised mushroomy bag and used the actual measurements this time instead of letting the fabric tell me what it wanted to be. This turned out to be a much nicer form factor. Lesson learned.

I used this cool yellow molecule looking batik on the inside, and a deep purple zipper. Quirky, but classy. She lives in SF which matches the vibes this bag is giving (does anyone else remember designing TimBuk2 bags at their store in Hayes Valley??). I used quilt batting again, didn't interface the interior fabric, and it stands up just fine. The thicker linen blends on the outside make it so that's ok I think. If I were to use regular quilting cotton I might consider interfacing on the outside or two layers of quilt batting. 

I put a metal keyring in the little tab, and also a little bag of stitch markers I had made prior to last year's Bay Area Yarn Crawl. I included some lobster claw progress keepers just for variety. I love that those crystals look like labeled balls of yarn. 

nesting baskets

This set of very satisfying baskets was what occupied me in the evenings most of this past weekend. I have been doing so much knitting lately, I wanted to play with some crochet for a change. The yarn for this project has been hanging around in plain sight in my craft closet for a very long time. I purposely put them where I'd see them, and kind of in the way of getting my ball winder out, because when I bought them I intended to start these right away. Ha! Best laid plans... 

I'm pretty sure it was cruising around Pinterest that led me to this lined basket. I was intrigued both by the nesting habit and the two color design. Curious, I went and found the pattern (free on Ravelry) and now here we are many moons later. I have a well behaved lineup of colorful cylinders. I played around with the middle size to see what swapping the variegated and solid would look like. I like it both ways, but the solid ball of yarn has more yardage than the variegated ball does, so I wouldn't have wanted to do all of them solid on the outside. This way I used up every last bit of yarn. (Disclaimer: I did make the second one last and ended up making it one row shorter than the others to do so.)

I love how the variegation behaves differently depending on the circumference of the basket. I especially like the pooling of the largest one. These are nested up and settled in with the other things I'll be sending to my mom at some point soon for an extremely handmade Mother's Day. I have another set of solid/variegated yarn to make another set for myself, but my RSI says I should take a break from crochet and go back to knitting for a bit! 

 

bag lady reprise

Late in the evening of my "bag lady Saturday" I found myself wondering what would happen if I downsized the pattern I was using for the zippered project bags to make smaller ones. Voila! They are super cute.  I used a fun stripe print for the inside, and combined a pretty purple flower print with some sassy alpacas.

I was inspired by the piles of scraps leftover from the baby quilt I made recently, and I sort of improvised my way through the sizes based on whatever the scraps told me. I suppose I could measure and try to replicate this again, but of course I didn't write anything down so this could be like those dinners you sometimes make only once because there's some random combination of leftovers in the fridge. 

I made two, one for me and one for a friend. I think I'll keep the one with the little tab and give her the one with the purple zipper. 

bag lady

Today was quite a day! I spent the lion’s share of the day in my sewing room bookending a big organizing/clean up with sewing these perky springy bags. 

The first finish was the veggie quilted tote bag. I saw a tutorial on YouTube a while ago for a quilted tote and this has been on my mind ever since. Last night it got downright distracting - all I could think about was how much I wanted to make it! So this morning after watering my herbs outside, I sat down to realize the vision. It does not disappoint. I’m looking forward to using it at the farmer’s market next week. Both fabrics were from a box mom sent me, they must have been in her stash. (Bottom row, second over for the adorable tiny vegetable lining fabric). I was too lazy to make the fabric straps as called for, but I did have some navy cotton webbing in my stash which looks great. I ended up ordering some more webbing online because this was such a good solution, and I’d like to make more. 

 

The other three bags are project bags for hand stitching (or whatever, I suppose). Mom introduced me to these the last time she was here for the holidays, and I rewatched the tutorial so I could make some more. This is from an Elizabeth Ann Can Stitch video, and they are kind of addicting once you get into it. I loved pulling together the different fabric combinations and using the zippers as extra pops of color. These are all somewhat “precious” fabrics to me - I have resolved to use the lovelies instead of letting them sit around in piles. That bright blue bird print is a Tula Pink impulse buy from Golden State Quilting and I LOVE it with the royal blue zipper. I’m going to be keeping the gray/green birds with the eye watering neon lining and the other two will be gifted to mom and Samara. 

It has been a while since I have felt this relaxed and spacious. I had other adulting things to do too, which usually gets in my head, but none of it was urgent and I was actually able to put them aside for the day. That is pretty much unheard of. So proud of that and happy to have gotten some color play in today. Just look at them! Spring has sprung! 

girly quilt for a colleague

A coworker is expecting, and I know her well enough to feel comfortable asking if she would a) enjoy having a small quilt from a coworker and b) if girly colors and patterns were ok to use. Happily she said yes to both so I got to have a lot of fun putting this piece together. Pulling fabrics was, of course, the best part. I started out thinking I was going to use an entirely different cat fabric with bright colors, but as I pulled both from my bag of scraps I've precut into charms plus some of the pinks and floral fabrics in my stash, I gravitated more towards the softer palette here with purples, yellows, soft pinks, and neutrals. 

I knew I wanted to make something relatively simple because I didn't have much time (said coworker was going to be in town for just a week). Some creative googling led me to a tutorial on the Diamond Chain pattern at Missouri Star and followed that (loosely) to make the center panel. It looks the same, but I didn't follow the specific sewing instructions since I wasn't starting from the precuts that were shown. 

Despite including lots of yellows and purples, it was still feeling VERY neutral and kind of washed out, so I played around with some of the prints and decided to add stripes at the top and bottom. That really changed the character of the whole quilt. The purples popped much better and the yellows sparkle around the pattern instead of blending in. Very pleased with that decision!

I had exactly enough of this wonderful ric-rac stripe print for the binding. If that's not the universe saying "great choice!" I don't know what is. Aaaand it's pretty perfect. I'm finding that working with fabric collections is fun, but my real joy is in these types of projects where I can assemble something cohesive from different fabrics I've collected over time, even better if I use scraps! Some of these are offcuts from trimming quilts after quilting, one is a blender my mom sent from her stash (so quite vintage!), and of course because it's me there's some unconventional texture in there in the form of flannel. Usually it's linen, but here there be flannel kitties. 

The backing is just a couple of large leftovers of a couple of the prints that are pieced together. I quilted it with gray thread and a simple cross hatch in the center panel and "in the ditch" along the stripe seams on the top and bottom. It ended up being 32" x 44". It was a gorgeous morning today, so I snapped a couple pictures outside before heading to work with quilt in tow. I'm pleased to report that it was well received. 

firefly totes, finished

These are fun to make! I finished up a couple more Firefly Totes, one for mom and one for me. I probably have at least two more in my near future, a small one for me and a large one for mom so we'll each have a set. 

After finishing up my first one in November, I quickly cut out the pieces for this second one for mom. I didn't have enough more of the gray canvas I used, but I do have a bit of this classy brown tweedy weave on a roll, so I decided that was a good option for the outer fabric which is meant to be more sturdy. I love the green zipper with the pink polka dots - it's giving Wicked! We are both big fans. I also found an incredibly cute gnome charm for the zipper pull while out shopping for webbing for the handles. The colors were serendipity. 

  

I wish there were more options for the webbing, but I ended up coming home with a navy as a neutral because the brighter colors wouldn't quite color match. Alas, but the drawstring top done up in this bright hippy bird fabric and the shock of pink and orange inside makes up for it. I used the same thick cord for the drawstring as on my original effort. 

I was planning on making myself a project version next, but I have my eye on a sweater I want to start and I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't start it until I had this bag done for toting it around as I work on it. How's that for motivation? I also had this lightweight canvas I wanted to experiment with (spoiler alert, it worked out great using interfacing) and having made the second smaller version reminded me enough of how it went to feel confident working with a new size.  

It turned out super cute, and I definitely want to make mom a bigger one also because it's a really good size. The combination of the mushrooms with the little snails is just awesome. The colors are kind of off my usual island, but it looks very spiffy and I know I'm going to enjoy using it. I had a bit of an adventure in my stash trying to find a lining fabric. I auditioned lots of things from orange to green plaid, neither of which I had enough of, but I landed on this great Halloweeny fabric with unicorns and moons on it to add even more quirk to the whole thing. I also found a fun charm for this one, it's a little turtle with a shell made out of yarn balls and on the back it says 'slow your roll' - words to live by! 

I have already wound some of my yarn into cakes and they're tucked in this bag ready for me to start. I'm really looking forward to toting this around, I just love it. I am already planning the next ones! I have fabrics picked out and partially cut for my small one (more of that brown tweedy weave), but not sure yet what I'll use for the second large one. More fireflies to come soon!  

seed packets and pouches

It is Christmas Eve, and in true procrastination style (or: I had a sweater to finish before the 17th) I am a little late on getting friend gifts put together. I have been saving seeds from my garden all year and am going to share them with folks that I know are fellow green thumbs. They all also happen to be horse people - I wonder if the two are connected. 

I had my box of labels, bags, and bows out already so I took out the winter scrapbook paper deck I keep in there (for the occasional tag) and worked out how to make some seed packets using folding and a few pieces of scotch tape. I was pretty impressed with myself! 

I also decided they should be delivered in pretty fabric pouches. I used an easy drawstring bag tutorial and some larger fabric leftovers. In the future I will have to remember that a 5-inch wide piece of fabric ends up being kind of a pain to sew around the opening on my sewing machine. The purple print was 6-inches wide to start and much nicer to work with than the other three. Still, it was all improvising and scrap play so little snags are to be expected. 

In the end, each pouch held the seed packets just fine which is the most important part. The seeds included Chocolate Cherry Sunflowers, Grandpa Ott Morning Glory, Yellow Giant Sunflowers, and Black Knight Pincushion Flowers. It's great to be able to pass on seeds from my own garden, and I'm looking forward to seeing them thrive elsewhere.