New bags for new knitters...and a little more

I didn't get a whole lot done this week.  I was preparing for the first class of my next session of knitting.  I had 6 new students and 9 returning students.  Whew!!

 I made 7 bags and since I have two new boys, I made 2 of them with capri sun handles instead of ribbon.  The class was on Wednesday and it went really well.  The returning students were very excited to show me what they had been working on and the new students were very quick to learn.  One of the boys (a kindergartener) had the most trouble and I was worried that he was going to be frustrated.  So I asked his mom if he could meet me Thursday after school for a little bit so I could work on him one on one.  She said yes and after about half an hour, he is knitting!!  You should have seen the lightbulb go on in his brain - he was practically vibrating with excitement!

 This is something new I picked up while we were in Monterey.  Wherever we go, I just HAVE to visit the LYS and see what is there.  The Twisted Stitch was a little sparse.  Not very much yarn.  The owner was very nice and she was working on several lovely project, but did not have the yarn or the patterns for any of them.  Ditto for most of her samples.  I knew that she most definitely could teach me something and I always want to support the LYS.  She was working on a very pretty white on white shawl - I started asking her all about it and she told me who she was making it for and since I had never seen the stitch, she explained all about that as well.  I then asked if she had any appropriate yarns in her shop, that I would like to experiment with that stitch.  She helped me to pick two yarns - a very fine lace weight - and a chunky variegated yarn - and I learned a new stitch!!  "Scribble Lace" - I'm not sure it can be considered true lace as this is  the garter stitch, but it is pretty and when it gets a little longer, the weight of the chunky yarn will pull down and open up the rows of lace weight yarn.  It should be very pretty.

I finished this little circle loom hat for a new little cousin born to our family.  She is just the cutest little thing - 5 months old - and so smiley and cuddly!!  The proud parents let her be passed around to all the kids and boy could you see the love and admiration just rolling off of them!!  Kudos go to the new first time parents for letting 7 children play pass the baby - although I kept a close look out to make sure nothing went amiss.

Sharing with FO Friday, Fiber Arts Friday, Creative Friday, I've Made Friday, Keep Calm and Craft On, Fluster's Creative Muster, and Patchwork Times.  The links are all on my side bar.

Monthly-To-Do-List

This is from our trip to Monterey over the New Year.  We had such a great time.  It was relaxing and nice to just be together.  No type of screens/phones were allowed - we talked, hiked, played games and generally just hung out.  It was fabulous!!

Now we are back into the swing of things - school, homework, music lessons, sports, etc, etc, etc.  Makes for busy times.

I came across a blog today:  Pigtales and Quilts and she is running a fun blog party to set some goals for each month.  It is called the 2013 Monthly-To-Do-List and I thought I would join along for some fun to see if I can actually set some realistic goals and follow through.  So without further ado, here are my goals for this month:

1.  Finish the tote bag referenced in my last post

2.  Warp my table loom with a scarf designed by me

3.  Tune up the floor loom and get it ready to warp

4.  Sew squares for a blanket that has been on the back burner for a bit

5.  Make up one quilted mug rug to learn some quilting tecniques

Since this is already the 16th of the month, I'm not quite sure I'm going to make it, but I think if I work diligently it might come to pass.  Let's see!!  Head over to Pigtales and Quilts if you'd like to join and see what others are trying to accomplish.

WIP for the 17 year old

I have joined a group called:  2013 the year of the finished project over at a blog called "Never too hot to stitch"  Once a month you pull out a project that has been languishing in your WIP bin or your UFO bin (in my case, I have lots in both!!) and give a little detail about it.  Then you try to finish it in that month and post again at the end.  I think this is a GREAT idea!!  It's kind of giving everyone a hand up to get those WIPs accomplished.

 Here is my first one.  This is my oldest daughter's favorite CapriSun flavor.  She will not drink any other flavor.  As you know, if you have been reading this blog for awhile, I make little tote bags out of these used pouches.  Oldest daughter is a little picky and doesn't like a lot of things.  If I make her something, it is always something she has picked - design, color, fiber, etc.

 After I had made quite a few of the little totes, she asked if I could make her a larger tote bag with handles and a zipper.  I said, "YES!!".  Then she asked if it could be made out of the Lemonade flavor only.  I said, "Sure."  Now you would think that in a house filled with kids this would not be a problem, but we don't drink juice very much.  I keep a case of Capri Sun from Costco in the back cabinet for Friday nights when the kids have gobs of friends over.  And, because usually on Fridays we do have gobs of friends over, I thought, "Oh, it's going to take no time at all to collect enough Lemonade Capri Suns to make her bag".

Not so.  You would think that with all the attention to detail that I have to pay to do cross stitch, weaving and lace knitting, that I would have realized that the big cases of Capri Sun from Costco do not, in fact, have the flavor Lemonade in them.  And it took me quite awhile to realize this.  I don't think I would have ever noticed if my daughter hadn't pointed it out to me.

I had to actually go to the grocery store to buy them.  Well, since we don't usually drink juice (and even when friends are over, my kids have to have their glass of milk first), I kept forgetting to get them.  So this poor little front (or back) panel of T's tote bag just lay on the top of my sewing machine - it's been there for months.  It gets moved when I need the machine for something else and then gets put back.  I even now have all the pouches that I need to complete the tote, but still it sits.

This will be my first WIP for the new group!  After all, T will be going away in a few short months and she should have a tote bag she likes!!  Wish me luck - it really shouldn't take all that long!

I just had to include a picture of the 11 year old at her cello recital.  Doesn't she look serious?  This was not her first recital, but her pieces were quite challenging and she had worked so hard on them.  She was very  nervous that she would make a mistake (of course she did - most of them do :o), but she did great and we are so proud of her!

Check out the sidebar for the links to Tami's, Ginni's, Sara's, and my new group 2013 the year of the finished project!!  Great things happening out in blogland!

It's A Wrap!

The wrap is done!  I really liked working with this yarn.  I loved the thick and thin feel - the smooth and fuzzy and then of course that little strand of glittery ribbon yarn every so often was delightful!

 I swear, I kept knitting and knitting away, just to get to that one little strand of ribbon yarn.  I think there was only one per ball.

 The yarn is Red Heart Boutique Magical and if it was not so distinctive, I would go out and get a whole bunch more to knit up more scarves!

 The color changes were fantastic as well.

Started:  12 November 12

Finished:  January 1st 2013

Dimensions:  63" X 19 3/4"

Needles:  US 8

Yarn:  Red Heart Boutique Magical

Color:  1406 Hocus Pocus (great name!!)

Lot:  1809

I used a little over 4 balls.

It's my own pattern - Cast on 75, K 6 rows

10 rows stockinette

6 rows garter

then repeat until it's long enough and end with 6 rows garter

Look on the sidebar to see more fun projects.

Back to Weaving!

So...I have NOT been weaving for quite awhile.  If you recall from this post, we gained a couple of additions to our family that did not go so well with the table loom.  The table loom became quite the jungle gym where many a tussle took place.

 The result was this broken warp thread.  Since I am really new to weaving, I had no idea what I should do about that except sit down and cry - which I did - after yelling at my new "friends".  Who by the way paid no attention to me and came over after I yelled to sit in my lap and let me pet them.

 I did a lot of research on-line via blogs and you tube and also talked with friends who are much more accomplished than I about weaving.  One thing I learned is that broken warp threads are just a fact of a weaver's life, so I better learn how to fix them.  Above is the knot where I have tied on a new thread that is hanging over the back of my loom.

 Here is the second broken warp thread.

 And the second knot.

 Now I know that all my warp threads are under tension and they are supposed to all have the same amount of tension on them to produce an evenly woven fabric.  In comes all those film canisters that I had stashed away from when we had a camera that used film (we still have the camera by the way!!).

 I tried many things in them to get the right tension on the strings, but these little decorative marbles that you put in the bottom on vases did the trick.  I filled the canisters all the way to the top.

 I did not use a very scientific method to measure the new string.  I just kind of held it in the front of the loom, pulled enough off to reach the back and most of the way down to the floor.  This by the way was more than enough for one of the warp threads, but a little close on the second one.  I would leave a bit more thread when this happens again.

 Here are the film canisters in action!!  They provided the perfect tension to weave with.

 This is the front where the new warp threads have been attached with pins and I have started weaving.

 More weaving.  At first I had a little tension trouble, but it worked itself out and I was good to go.

 Just for a laugh, I included a picture of these screws that I took from my husband's tool box - I tried to use them in the film canisters but they were not heavy enough to provide the amount of tension needed.

More of the weaving.  The tension looks good.  I have done a fair bit since this photo.  I finished this kitchen towel which is 3 of 4 and started the 4th one.  I think in my fear of making a mistake fixing the warp threads, I forgot how much fun I have weaving!

Sharing over at Tami's, Ginny's, and Sara's.

Super Big Finish and Itty Bitty Finish

This super big finish is a project that I have been working on for several years.  I have taken breaks to do other things and make gifts for people, but on average have probably worked in about 30 to 45 minutes everyday.

I am so proud to have actually finished it!

 I could not believe my good fortune in finding what I felt was the PERFECT fabric to line the front and also to make the back.

 This is the back.  I totally love, love, love it!

 And here is the front.  This is THE biggest most complicated cross stitch project that I have ever made.  To say it was a challenge would be a huge understatement!

 There is lots and lots of backstitching in all different colors and thread amounts.  There are half and quarter stitches.  There are places where there is one stitch in one color surrounded by other single stitches in other colors - sometimes with two threads of the same color, sometimes with two threads of different colors and sometimes with only one thread.

 French knots with this lovely, shiny, but very slippery gold thread.

 So many details :o)

 Love this dog and how the package in the background looks 3D.

 A starry, snowy night.

 A tree of many, many shades of green.

 My very first go at couching and with that super slippery gold thread.

 Hanging in it's proper place, finally finished for my oldest daughter who will be going away to college next fall.  This is her last year to be living under the family roof.  So proud of her!

 My itty bitty finishes are these earrings.  This set is for my oldest daughter.

 Christmas ornament + ear wire + 45 seconds = cool holiday earrings.

 This set is for me!

Feeling good today!!  I simply cannot believe the Christmas stocking is complete, it has been on the top of my craft stack for so long!

Sharing with Tami, Fiber Arts Friday, Creative Friday and I've Made Friday.

Recycling

Do you have scads of these plastic bags??

 I do/did!  They were everywhere!  I had bags of these bags.  It seemed that they were taking over corners in my home - you know, where my yarn needed to live!

 I took each bag and turned it into these strips.

 I now have a tote bag full of strips so that I can.....

 Knit with them!  For right now, I think this will be made into a recycled grocery bag to carry my groceries.  It's really quite strong.

 I really like all the different colors!!  It's just so cool!

I picked up these two magazines the last time I was at the store (I couldn't make the picture verical) and am reading them right now.  It is getting colder and I just feel the need to be in the kitchen cooking up a storm.  Of course, chocolate is a necessary part of most meals :o)

Sharing with Tami, Ginny, and Kristine and Lydia.