Monday, July 28, 2014

A Sea of Scarves!

The following is a small sea of scarves.  None of the scarves/one blanket were made by me.  My mom was helping out at the VFW yard sale and these were left over after the sale was done with.  None of the items have tags on them and we are guessing that they are handmade.


One drop stitch scarf with fringe and a zig-zag blanket

One broken 1x1 rib scarf, one faux brioche scarf, and one crochet scarf
The scarf on the very left was made by doing a k1,p1 rib for a few rows, then switching the knits and the purls for a few rows.

A very pretty hairpin lace scarf/rectangle shawl

I really liked how the faux brioche scarf looked.  There might be a better name for this stitch pattern, but I don't know what it is if there is one.  I also think I have the pattern figured out.  It looks to me like the stitch count would be any number divisible by 4+1.  Then the stitch pattern would be *k3, p* across, k1.

Since I shared that nice bit of info with you I feel like I have a good excuse to show off the doll sweaters I finished.

Though they are two different sweaters they followed the same pattern.  I had no idea how fiddly and difficult they would feel.  There is nothing hard about them, really, but it doesn't feel that way when you are working on them.  In fact, it took me almost 45 minutes to sew one sleeve on and then sew the sleeve seam together.  I don't feel like something this small should have taken that amount of time.
I did surprise her with two finished (as finished as I was expected to make them) sweaters.  She had brought my payment (two boxes of Red Lobster Biscuit mix and a bag of assorted Lindt chocolates).  I think she was hoping to bribe me to work faster, but to her surprise we both had perfect timing.
Now I can get back to other things.  I think once I finish the hat I picked-up and the shawl I will work on the heart sweater pattern I have rolling around in my head.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Cloths for $1 per pound?!

I have been reading the archive of Refashionista like it holds all the answers to every question ever asked.  Actually, it is just fun to see the before and after transformations.  It is also a lot of fun, once you get a feel for what she likes to do with things, to try and guess what she is going to do with something.  She even did a year where she made something everyday and then donated them in the end.
She has mentioned a few times that there is a second hand shop that does a pound of cloths for a dollar.  One of my friends mentioned that the Good Will by where she used to live does that.  I wonder if any near me do that.  Is there a way to search for that?
I have been gathering materials and things to start making some Little Dresses for Africa.  If I could get a bunch of children through teen t-shirts for a really good price I could make a bunch of t-shirt dresses pretty quickly.  I even have a dress I bought that has a knit tank-top bodice and woven cotton bottom, so I know how to do it and it doesn't look too hard.  Just a bunch of pinning and some stretching while sewing.

I have a fun idea what I can do with my LDfA sewing.  I bought a bunch of muslin dolls and I plan to sew them a matching dress to go with the big one.  I'm wondering if I should try and dye them or not.  Dolls for Africa suggests using brown fabric when sewing the doll body.  Since the outer fabric of the dolls I bought should be muslin, it would take dye quite nicely.  I could even throw in a bunch at once to get them done.  I am still debating if I want to add faces or not.  I know they might be creepy, but I kind of like how they look without a face.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Rock on, random dudes, rock on.

There is a little brew-place near me I have been wanting to go to for a while now.  Tonight the hubby suggested we go there.  I tried two different beers at Lost Rhino Brewing Co., one I liked (Birth of Ace) and one that was strange tasting (Smokey & the Rhino).  I was trying really hard to think of how to decribe S&tR...the only word I could think of was feet.  Though I didn't mean it in a bad way.  The nachos were also super yummy.
On the way home we were passed by three random dudes in a car.  They were "whoo"ing out the passenger side of the car.  They seemed to be having a good time.  As we passed them I gave them the "rock on" signal and they loved that.  They seem like cool dudes to know.

Back to more crafterly talk.
This is the first sleeve of the Zippered Cable Sweater(Ravelry link). It is coming along quite nicely.  The body is completely finished and the ends are even woven in!  I'm glad it is going so quickly.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Some other people who also do good.

I was trying to remember how I found this, I'm not totally sure, but I think I found it on Facebook.  Knit for Kids is a pretty cool thing.   It gives people who want to donate things they have made an easy way to do it.
I know some people don't know how to find drop-off points near them, or would rather not have to deal with going to a new place.  Though they are a bit specific about what they take, it is their project.  They get to decide these things.

It also seems that at work we are doing one of those donate-some-money-and-get-to-write-your-name-on-something-that-goes-on-the-wall things.  It is for the Kids in Need Foundation and we have $1, $5, and $10 options.  I don't know if all the stores are doing it or not.  I got $9 for them today.  I don't know if I can count that on the side-bar or not, but I think a pat on the back is alright.  It seems as of right this second my work is under the Silver Partner category.  I think we need to step-up our game!

Speaking of games...mine will be down for a bit.  Why is that?  I have been bribed to work on two doll sweaters so a friend doesn't go mad and light them on fire.  I have also been asked to sew two new covers for my friend's Boppy.  I thought I had more time, but baby decided to show-up as of very early yesterday morning.
Once I get all of that out of the way there I will be free to do as I please.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Since I didn't get much else done today.

I knew I had put it off way too long so last week I finally took myself down to the Social Security Office to get my name changed.  The building was full and there was a line going out the door.  I waited for about 20 minutes but I had forgotten by iPod and my phone had almost no battery, so I had nothing to entertain myself with, so I gave up and went home.
I tried again and had more luck.  I also had some super nice people to talk to in line this time.  The girl right behind me was Russian and had a diamond in her tooth.  The lady behind her had just gotten married for the second time.  They were also going to be heading to the DMV after, I am glad I am not them today.  Though we were in line for about an hour before getting a number it was pretty fun.  There was a girl who it looked like she had been knitting a shawl, but she was leaving as I was about to get my number.
I had the nice people from the line to talk to and The Knit Girllls podcast to keep me entertained for the next hour of sitting.  The nice lady who works there was glad that mine was nice and easy, she had had some harder people before me.  I wished her luck with all the people who were waiting after me.  We then talked a luttle bit about how she was amazed at how many people came in every day.
As I was leaving I waved to the nice couple and they waved back.  They were awesome.

The kite shawl is getting big, but since it is top down it is getting harder and harder to show off.

Here, finally, is my small Skywalker shawl.  That tiny shiny thing that it looks like my shawl is going to eat is a penny.  So it isn't ridiculously small, but still smaller than I was expecting.
This yarn though...it is Vanna's Glamour.  I absolutely love how sparkly it is.  I had so many problems with the sparkle strand breaking while I was working on this.  It usually happened during the decreases.

I am super happy with how the baby blanket turned out.  I kind of made-up the middle part using double crochets and post stitches.  The border was from the Tweed Baby Blanket.

Sorry about the odd lighting on both of the pictures, a thunder storm is rolling in and I tried using my small Ottlite to pretend I had good lighting for pictures.