Make-It Monday: Pillow (and video?)

Happy Monday, everyone! I am sorry for my absence, but life has been...normal. And  by normal, I do not mean slow, structured, or mundane, but insanely busy and full. Why do we even bother answering "busy" to the question "how's it going?" The answer is always "busy" - so really, we should just answer "normal", don't you think? Anyway, I'm back today, with two things for you:


1. Linking up with Kirsteen from Life in My Houseful of Boys - I made a pillow! The actual pillow-case part is knitted, and then I made up a crocheted flower pattern (which I ended up falling in love with!) as an accent. Ta-dah:

Bonus: this was made entiredly out of the scraps yarn I was telling you about a few weeks ago. (So, for example, when I ran out of the brown right at the end of the pillow, I just supplemented it with some of the flower-colored yarn. :)

See? Adds personality. :p


2. Announcing the contest winner from my bloggy-birthday drawing!

To read Lauren's imaginative post, click here.

Have a sun-shiny week! :)

Make it Monday: Odds, Ends, and Dress-Ups

A while ago (two years, actually), I won a fantastic basket of yarn in a raffle. Nice yarns. Beautiful yarns. Cottons, wools, and mohairs, to be precise. But I soon discovered a problem: there is very little you can make with just one skein of yarn - and the basket held no duplicates! I don't really care to make 20 cell phone cases or finger puppets, which seem to be the sum total of the brilliant, one-skein patterns available, so the yarn sat unmoletsed in that basket for TWO YEARS (can you believe it?). Finally, I decided I needed to either use the yarn, or toss it, so before going to Texas I decided to just start a project I'd been wanting to try (Stimson Ave. Stole) with a skein I had and see how far I got. :) It managed to be about half the proper length, and the other skein I used for the edging got me half-way around and then ran out - but I'm glad I did it anyway. The little girls get it to play dress-up with, and I know now how easy and beautiful the pattern really is. :)

knitting

 Ta-dah! Definitely something I will make again, with the proper yarn amounts. :)

This last week I "finished" the stole and began to search for a pattern that could be used for some lovely, lavender, lace-weight mohair. Fingerless Tea Gloves! I think I will be able to get at least two little girl pairs out of the skein (no prizes guessing who those will go to)...I love how delicate and lacy they are!


crocheting

 After starting numerous projects and not having anywhere close to the right length of yarns, I finally found a pattern for these fun ruffly neck-warmers. I made one of wool (the green/tan one) and one of...some other, mysterious, unlabeled yarn (I have a hunch it's at least partly acrylic). I think they're wonderful, but the picture is model-less, as I've yet to get buttons.


crochet

 After the wool neck warmer, I was left with simply scraps of wool - too little to be made into anything, and too much for me to feel like throwing it away. It is such nice wool! So I've started a sort of "scrap quilt". Only it's crocheted, and not really a quilt at all, just a little zig-zag pattern made out of cozy wool. This one will be a long time in the works, as I will only add to it when I have useless lengths of wooliness left over from various projects. But I like the idea, and feel quite happy with it. :)

crochet


Then there was a great, thick skein of cotton. A while back mama had made some knitted washrags that had different patterns on them by alternating your purl/knit stitch, so I decided to try it for myself! Here is washrag #1 (#2 is still in progress):

And finally, remember when I mentioned that the neck warmers needed buttons? Yes, well, I went to Joann's to get said buttons, but...did not...that is to say... when I returned home, it was not with buttons. I returned with some absolutely gorgeous, brilliantly-colored, happy-smiley bamboo silk skeins, which I've been making up into fun flower-granny squares for a blanket. I don't know yet if it will just be a lap blanket (all I could make with the squares I currently have) or if I dare go back to Joann's to buy more skeins - what with yarns, and fabrics, and patterns, that place is downright dangerous to the pocket-book!

crochet

 And those are the projects that have been keeping me busy this week. I find that I phase in and out of obsession with regards to yarn - apparently I'm in the thick of one such phase now. :) Linking up with Kirsteen from Life in My Houseful of Boys today! :)

Operation Clean Out the Closet!

The other day, I made a list of summer goals. You know, things I would like to (or need to!) have done by the end of summer (which is in only two months, by the way!!!). Here are a few of the items that made the list:

- Create a student lesson plan of composer/musical era information for the 2011/2012 school year (because I want my students to learn more than just how to play songs - I want them to learn where they came from!)

- Finish reading So Much More, Kingdom of the Cults, and Bleak House (of course, I had to have a classic in the mix!)

- Memorize the Declaration of Independence (because I've always wanted to, and now seems as good a time as any)

- Finish all crochet/knitting projects...

...*ahem* And this is where the post title comes in. You see, I love to crochet, knit, and sew. Really, I do. But when, at the end of some project, it becomes necessary for me to make an executive decision (do I like the sweater this length, or should I pull it out and make it longer? Is this really the length I want the sleeves? Should I try sewing the edging on in a different way?), I often solve my dilemma by sticking it in the closet to sit while I "think about it." And...sometimes I start a new project and the old is left collecting dust. And sometimes this means the old project sits there for quite a while. And sometimes this happens multiple times, and I'm left with multiple "old projects."

But only sometimes, mind.

However, it has come to my attention that it may be necessary for me to, well, do something about it! Namely, dig all those "old projects" out of the closet and finish them up! Here are the nuggets that surfaced from my mining. :)

1. Crochet Wool Skirt

My puzzle with this was whether I wanted to machine-sew the side seam and sew a lining into the skirt, or just put elastic on the waist and call it good. I've decided elastic in the name of "easy," with the knowledge that I can always rip it out and try again if I hate it. :)

2. Knit Silk-Wool Robe

Now, I LOVE this project, and would finish it in a heartbeat, if possible. But the simple fact is, who has the $$ to buy 20-30 skeins of half-silk-half-wool yarn in one sitting? So, I work on it as I can...this may not be completed at the end of summer, but I had to show you!

3. 1800s Knit Wool Shawl

I got this pattern from Fort Vancouver. It was written out by one of the mistresses of a Young Ladies' School in Scotland in the mid-1800s. The reason this project is undone is because I'm not sure how to edge it. I don't know how to pick up the ends and knit an edging, and I'm hesitant to just crochet around it. Hmm...Still haven't decided on a solution yet, but I will by August!

4. Crochet Merino Wool "Swing Jacket"

This project is undone because, sadly, I'm just a little short of blue wool, and consequently am in the midst of deciding how much to edge it with the burgundy. Another one I have yet to figure out...

5. Knit Wool "Bed Jacket" (aka, another sweater)

If nothing else, this post will inform you that I'm always cold, and like wool. :) Dilemma with this lovely pattern? I knit the edging a bit long, knowing it would felt, and planning to simply snip off the extra length. Just to be contrary, the wool didn't felt completely, and I'm consequently a bit wary about this cutting business. Guess I'll have to, though! If it doesn't work, I get to knit another five feet of edging - *groan* - so I hope it works!

6. Crochet Cotton Table Doily

This is my most pressing of projects, and one for which I didn't have to do any digging. It's a wedding gift for my violin teacher (I missed the wedding while I was in Utah...SO sad), and I am going to a reception in about two weeks, so it is first on the list to complete!

7. Crochet Chunky-Cotton, Super-Fun, Happy-Colored Pillow

Ok, so I really like this project! :) The front of the pillow is crocheted cotton, and for some fun texture-diversity I plan on sewing a satin backing. Procrastination point? I can't decide how I want the flowers! White squares? Green squares? Piled-up in a heap at the center? O-so-lame a reason to not have it finished, I know. But which would you do?



(No, the tails on the flowers are not permanent...they will disappear when the pillow is done!:)

 



And that is Operation Clean Out the Closet!

What's on your summer to-do list?

Why I Missed My Monday Post

My spare moments have been rather preoccupied with this...

and this...

and, most especially, this:

So much to be done! Count me as a stranger to blogland until after Friday. See you then!