I happily sewed for three days, using only things I already had in my stash. I could’ve done more, but I ran out of things like lining, interfacing, and larger pieces of fabric so I decided to clean up shop and make a mental note to buy more fabric. This is what my workspace looked like during those three days. Head to the flickr for notes on what’s going in that mess and other pics of my projects.

Now I have a pile of things to add to my “Things I’ve made that are waiting for a home” box. Some people have candy bowls that their guests can take from; I have a basket of random knitted and sewn things to give away. Read more to see a summary. Read the rest of this entry »

The weather is starting to get warm and I’ve been feeling bad about my body lately, so I haven’t been in the mood to knit anything big like a sweater or top. Therefore I’ve been churning out the accessories.

Brian got another present. After knitting for 5 years, he had only received one scarf from me. All of a sudden this season he’s requesting lots of things and I delivered two. The first were the driving gloves. The second gift are these felted slippers:

I should’ve taken pictures of them before they got felted, because they were huuuuge. While I like that felting is magical in that it transforms floppy, loose knit fabric into dense hard felt, I don’t like it because it’s kind of unpredictable. You’re not sure how much it will shrink, you have to keep shaping it. There’s not enough control and I don’t like things I don’t control! 

I also made a quick hat. It’s not my favorite. I may or may not add a flower to it.

I took a short trip to visit some friends in Portland, ME – the biggest city in Maine. It’s a nice place to visit. And I ate french fries that were fried in DUCK FAT, served with truffle ketchup!

There was a great little fabric store where I bought some small pieces:

They are so cute. I just want to look at them and pet them rather than sew with them. For the longest time, I couldn’t understand how fashion designers could design clothes for other people and clothes that they wouldn’t wear. But now I’m falling into that trap, because every time I shop for fabrics and want to make accessories, I’m always attracted to bold colors and big graphic prints. But I never wear prints, and I rarely even wear colors. 

I’m on spring break this week with nowhere to go, so I’ve dedicated it to crafting, mainly sewing. The last thing I made was a customized “hookah bag” a year ago. I haven’t done any sewing in forever; I enjoy it, but I can’t seem to do it without making a giant mess and taking up a lot of space. Stay tuned till the end of the week to see the things I’m churning out.

Oh, also, I live in a condo building that has a bar on the first floor. These two things mean that the hallways usually smell like stale cigarette smoke or, if it’s dinnertime, cooking. But our neighbor decided to call management and complain about cooking smells from our apartment. Uhhh, what does he want us to do about that? What about the 30 other units in this building? So since I don’t have any school this week, I will try to cook a lot just to annoy him.

Over the past 3 weeks, I’ve finished up three knitting projects that were hanging over my head. First up are Brian’s driving gloves. He requested fingerless gloves to keep his hands warm during the morning commute. I tried to make him these for Christmas, but they ended up being much too small. Finally, at the end of February, he got his replacement.

I’m sort of glad that the first pair didn’t work out. I had used Knitpicks Swish yarn, and I’ve been wearing them since January. They already look pilled and worn out. For these, I used the suggested yarn, Rowan Felted Tweed, which cost literally 3x more than the Knitpicks but I know they’ll look this good years from now. The pattern is from the book Son of a Stitch ‘n Bitch.

Other projects I finished were a pair of felted slippers and the Lace Ribbon Scarf – a springy/summery scarf that I started in August 08. They’re being blocked, so photos to come later.