A hat or twelve.

We've had some "technical difficulties" here at Sewtastically Made.  My computer sounds like it's grinding coffee.  Yes, that's bad.  Apparently it's a little thing called a hard drive.  And it's crashing.  So that means I've got to figure out a way to quickly get ALL my important information (i.e. pictures, homeschool files, itunes...yes, I know I need a "cloud".)  on to an external hard drive.  I'm scared.  I'm a giant, technologically un-gifted, scaredy cat.  (I'm just going have to put on my BGP's - big girl panties - and do it though.)  Thankfully, my wonderful daddy took the time to fix my "old computer" for me to have as a back up. 

Now for the crafty talk...

I've been knitting like a crazy person.  Or maybe just knitting like a knitter.  I swear I even dream knitting.  In the shower the other day, rinsing my hair, I saw knitted stitches on the backs of my eyelids.  Am I going insane?  Don't answer that.

I've been working on lots of small projects.  Hats mostly.  One for me.



I apologize for all the ipod photos.  It was raining to boot!

One for my oldest.

Lord he's cute.

Even one for a tiny peg person.

I love the unintentional braided look.

I started another one for a sweet, soon to be born, daughter of a dear friend.  (I can't wait to see it on her tiny head!)

Apparently it's the week of the hat.  In the wings I have lined up one for my cousin's brand new baby and even one for my husband.  Hats all around!  (And don't worry about my daughter, she received one of the first ones I made.)  

Oh, and I finally found a sweet little yarn shop with super friendly (and very helpful) staff and "yarn snob" yarn.  I'm excited to try upgraded (but NOT insanely expensive) yarn. 

I also discovered the joys of a knitting, homeschooling mom.  I think that's how I accomplished so much with knitting this week!  It's the perfect thing to sit quietly and work on while my son works on a particular problem.  Along those lines, I've currently been reading homeschool math lessons and not much else. 

Yarning along with Ginny and the gang at Small Things today.

 

 

 

 

 

A String and Two Sticks

So I'm a knitter.  I am.  I crocheted for years but I haven't once since I picked up the needles.  I started back in January and the progress felt pretty slow for a while.  I seem to be getting faster and (maybe) even better now.  I had done some basic dishrag patterns but nothing super complicated.  Well, enter Wee Folk Art and their beautiful Spicer's Scarf.  It's by far the most complicated pattern I've ever done.  Lots of K2, YO, K1, YO, K5 SL1K, K2T, PSSO, etc.  And I CAN READ THAT!  Crazytown.

We went camping this past weekend and I had quite a bit of time for this...

 

and this....

and this...

It was so relaxing.  Maybe I'm still in the "honeymoon phase" with knitting but I'm always amazed at what can come from a string and two sticks.

This will look even better once I block it!

I'm yarning along with Ginny at Small Things today.  I'm reading Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett and I've also started Pompeii by Robert Harris.  Both on my nook.

 

 

Good Knight Part 2: The Tunic

 

Remember when I showed you these arm bracers I made for a Knight's costume?  Well, I finished up the tunic a few days before the Knight and Princess party and thought you might like an update. 

  

The finished tunic.

 

A super quick rundown here.  I found an image the boy liked and set to work on the design.  I used Wee Folk Arts tip for cutting felt and it worked beautifully! 

 

It took forever to cut out but it was so worth it.

I then used spray adhesive to tack it down to the black part of the design.  After the glue dried (maybe 1 hour) I stitched around the Griffin with a running stitch.  Then I cut out a rectangle of fleece that was folded at the top.  You want your fleece to comfortably fit the length of your child front and back.

I cut an oval out of the folded edge for the neck and hemmed the neck opening.  Make sure it fits over your childs head before hemming.  I also hemmed the sides and added eyelets and lacing.  (honestly I'd have preferred black lacing here but Michael's only had brown that day.  Oh and use interfacing where you want the eyelets.)  The next step was to cut up the very center of the front and the back about 6 inches.  Hem that along with the bottom and add any decorative trim you'd like.  That's it!

This was pretty inexpensive to do honestly.  I already had the felt and eyelets on hand so I only had to purchase the fleece (about half a yard will leave you with plenty of extras), the lacing, and the red trim.  Less than $10 total.  If you have any questions about the directions please let me know.

An action shot at the party!  They had so much fun.  I'll try and show you more detail with the helmet and sword in another post (the helmet is my favorite part of the whole thing!).  I'll give you a hint though, the helmet is made from craft foam and the sword is a pizza box and some duct tape. 

 

The fair knight jousting!

 

Good times.

The Beginnings of a Good Knight

Have you missed me?  I know, me too.  This summer has been a hectic one.  I live in Colorado Springs and we've seen damaging hailstorms (yes I need a new roof), an epic firestorm that burned 346 homes, and now mudslides and flooding on the burn scar have become a major problem.  That's a lot.

You may remember my daughter was diagnosed with asthma a few months ago and well, smoke isn't good for her.  So when the wildfire moved into town and started burning down homes, along with it being very scary and stressful, the air quality became dangerous.  We needed to move up our vacation.  So we hopped in the car and drove to NC to visit my family (then I got to sneak off for a week in Italy with James).  While I've been enjoying the travel this summer, I haven't been crafting.  Anyway, I'm back now and feeling inspired to craft things again. 

You know how you get an idea in your head and completely drop everything else to start working on it? Yeah, that was me yesterday.  We got a birthday party invitation for a sweet almost 5 year old we know.  It's a Knight and Princess party and I immediately became all sorts of consumed with making a knight costume.  (We've got the princess thing covered already) I found all sorts of amazing inspiration online for chain mail, helmets, armor, sword, scabbard, and shields.  Here's where I started...

Knitted chain mail arm bracers.

Now I am still just a beginning knitter and I wanted these to be quick and easy.  Could they be done in the round?  Of course.  But I went with a rectangle that gets sewn together on the long side.  Easy.

For my 6 year old (who is on the small side - but don't tell him I said that) I used US13's and loosely cast on 30 stitches.  Then I just did the garter stitch until it was about 5 inches long un-stretched.  Bind it off leaving a long tail and sew the long edges together.  Done!  This was so simple and so fast and I'm not a very fast knitter yet.

I think we'll do this costume together in stages...

Back on the crafting wagon,

Kristin

Repost: The Tooth

** This one was originally posted on The Fipper Show July 6, 2011.**



Oh. My. Goodness. Would you look at that face! Can you see what's different? He has graduated to the official "big kid" ranks. That tooth was so wiggly for SO long. But today... it came out.

I realized YESTERDAY that we had to be getting close. I mean, that thing was barely hanging on. So, in somewhat of a panic, I started looking around for what kind of tooth fairy pillow to make him. He's a gigantic fan of the game Angry Birds (who isn't really?) so I decided to see what I could find online. I found this link yesterday afternoon and saved it to my favorites. About 10:00 last night I started gathering up all the ingredients. I didn't have some colors in the fleece but substituted wool felt. I was finished by 11:45. Just in time.

The only change I made was to add a little pocket on the back for money. It's pretty cool and a very simple tutorial. I see lots of Angry Bird making in my future.

After I finished it up last night I wrapped it up in one of our play silks. I was thinking a present waiting in the wings would help motivate him to pull it. But no, he kept telling me he wasn't going to do it. I think he was just afraid it would hurt. Enter Clif Bar's Z bar. I gave him one of these delicious little treats on the way home from the store and with the LAST BITE...the tooth came out. You know what that means?? Present time.

He figured out it was an Angry Bird right about here. 

And was SUPER excited.

Of all the things I have EVER made him, this one was the most successfully received. He was beyond thrilled. (It was very satisfying for me as I had just stayed up super late to make it.) They played with it for quite a while and he has declared he's sleeping with it forever. (which may look weird in college??)

(this is my favorite picture of the boy and his bird - taken with my ipod.)

Our boy is growing up!

Love,

JKFP and Fisher's tooth.

Not A Dishrag

I have been a crazy, dishrag knitting fool lately.  I feel like I knit them all the time.  They're so portable and easy to work with.  Plus I can practice new patterns on a small scale and still end up with something useful.  Win win.  Here's my latest.

A friend of mine recommended a new website the other day called New Stitch a Day.  It's a fantastic website filled with easy to follow instructions and videos.  Plus they email you a new technique or stitch everyday.  Somehow, through their site, I found this little knitted bunny nugget.  I had also seen it on Pinterest and I just decided it was time.  Time to knit something "not a dishrag".

I finished it up after the kids went to bed and it was actually not that difficult.  I'm kind of proud of it...even if it looks like a little kid knit it.

Those circular needles with the skinny little ears were by far the hardest part.  But still, not a dishrag. 

I'm linking up with Ginny at Small Things for the Yarn Along.  I'm reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.  I'm not too far along yet but enjoying it. 

Oh, I almost forgot! My knitting that pattern is NOT the most exciting thing that happened in the world of knitting today. My 6 yr old son learned to knit with needles. Needles he and I made together no less. He is thrilled.

So am I. 

I'm Back

Wow, can you say crappy blogger??  It has been a while.  I think I told you all back in April about the little (read that HUGE) mold problem (this post over at The Fipper Show has more detail) we had that took over our lives for a bit.  We'll that's all taken care of now but it sure took a while.  We were out of our house for about a month and still working on it when we moved back.  It's all finished now (except the base trim) and I'll be doing a "bathroom remodel" post soon.  It was a pretty big process.  Even though it took (what felt like) forever I'd do it again a hundred times.  We haven't been sick ONCE since our attack on the mold.  Not ONCE.  It's our longest stretch of good health in I can't remember how long.  That asthma diagnosis was such a blessing in disguise. 

Our next big distraction came when my husband's overseas work started back up again.  We took him to the airport last week....

...and we were quite sad about it. 

We've been getting back to our "normal" routine and things are finally starting to come together.  It's a process though so thank you all for your patience.  We have been crafting, knitting and sewing these last couple of months and I think we'll be playing catch up for a bit.  Now that you know ALL that....

Here's a quick project for you knitters. 

A happy rainbow candle holder.

I had seen something similar to this on Pinterest.  I do love Pinterest.  (I have plans to figure out the whole "follow me on Pinterest" thing soon FYI.)  Anyway, I'm a beginning knitter and still haven't messed with gauges yet.  I tend to just go for it with a vague plan of what I want to end up with.  Shockingly it's worked out for me a couple of times. 

This is a great (and quick) beginner project and I'm working on a tutorial for you now.  It's so pretty and happy.  I used the 4oz. canning jars with tea lights inside to protect everything.

In addition to the tutorial for this candle holder I have also lined up Part 2 of making your own needles where we apply the finish (they turned out great, by the way), a fabric roll for needle storage, and tiny knitted gnome hats for a little peg person.  So much fun!