A Little Sweater

 I finally uploaded a few photos from my digital camera. Here is a photo from I think May, when we went to Cannon Beach.

 Here is Stella  One of my friends hand-dyes yarn. Her brand is Bumblebirch. I have hung out/helped out during a few busy times. Anyway, I was trying to find a really good project for this yarn. The colorway is called Innocent and it is a light pinky purple. Very pretty. I decided to try to make Stella and so far it is going pretty well. I am making the 12 month size. I did have to start over once, but now I am even further than these photos show. I am pretty excited, especially since we are going to the beach next weekend and I should get some extra knitting time.

Crazy Times

Yep. We moved temporarily in with my folks. House hunting still. I have been knitting through some yarn that was in my old room. Basically making short scarf-like rectangles. Not really sure what I am making. I guess a rug, though probably not too practical. Hoping the colors may work out somehow. (Maybe adding black panels to space things out?) But mainly knitting just to knit. I am trying to work through the majority of my yarn before I buy more. I will post a photo when I can, my phone doesn't want to email it for some reason.

The knitting I carry in my purse is a spiral pattern baby hat. I do like the pattern but find the whole thing a little boring, maybe because I'm not sure if it will be sized right, it is really stretchy so I'm not sure how tall to go. Also I have no specific baby in mind for it. Oh well if it doesn't work out I still learned a cool pattern. 

Also starting to brainstorm some ideas about how to release my husband's next cd. They need to get it mastered and duplicated. I have been trying to think of some merch ideas. Like a poster or printed book, something do-able yet awesome. They may do a preorder to raise some money to get it made. 

The dream continues that if we do get a house with enough rooms, I can use one for a craft room. This would be amazing because then I can get all my stuff in one place and organize it, hopefully use it too! I do want to make clothes still. Colette patterns is putting out so much good info and I have so little time to absorb it. I have bought several of their patterns but have yet to buy fabric etc.  I have a fabric depot gift card so I hope maybe to make some curtains, or pillow covers etc if we get a house. Something to make it feel like home! I kind of am also interested in the black-out curtain idea, for light and also to see how much sound it blocks out. 

I think some getting-back-into-sewing projects could be simple things like PJ pants or a simple top. Or of course one of the quilts I already have the squares cut for. ;)

Finally finished knitting

 Yep, you guessed it, I did finally finish the fingerless gloves, and the Blue Green Socks.
They were finished last week, (I wove in the ends on a beach daytrip) but I have not gotten photos til now. Slightly washed out, I believe I mentioned previously they are a pretty/ugly green/brown.

The heels look funny in the photos, but feel pretty comfortable.

I started another rainbow toddler sock, but have not made a lot of progress. I also started a toddler mitten in a pretty colorway that goes from navy to dark green to purple. It is in my purse, and I did a little bit of knitting on it, not a ton of progress...
BECAUSE...

We have moved in with family for at least a month and I have been cleaning the old apartment, and then today trying to organize all the piles of stuff in our bedroom, plus do laundry, cook etc.

I am hoping to knit from some of the random stash that has been in a box here... we'll see. Once we move to our house, I will probably primarily do lunchtime work knitting.

Finally finishing?

I did a quick project to replace one of the wine-colored kid mittens I had made for my cousin's kid. I also finally gave her the rainbow socks!

Green socks: Last night I got through the toe decreases of the sock. I first blogged about them in February, so it feels good to be finally finishing them.  Now to do one last heel and I just Kitchener'd the toes last night. It has been so great to have a take-a-long knitting project over the last few months. After this I am not sure what new project to do. 

Fingerless Mitts: I am in the middle of doing the half-fingers. I need to sit down and write out the instructions so they are more portable. Hoping to finish soon (Today?!) to give them as a present. (This is an army green/brown much prettier than in the photo.)

House: We are moving very soon, living with family for a few months. I have packed up most of my craft stuff.  It may be best to stick with the knitting projects & embroidery projects I have been doing. 

Here is the progress so far!

Slow progress

Just a little bit of cross-stitch. I have been able to work on it some because I have fewer projects going on. I have made some mistakes already but I feel pretty good about it. (And took out the worst mistakes).
Still knitting on the green socks at my lunch break, and working on fingerless gloves.

Tiny Stitches

The house is the cleanest it has ever been, Though it still needs a little work before the open house this weekend. Today I am touch up painting and doing various little jobs like cleaning bugs out of light fixtures.

 A bad photo...

 I had a few hours of free time and started working again on a counted cross-stitch. This is from a garage sale, and it is from 1995. An interesting subject matter but very stereo typically cross-stitchy. It takes so long to make any amount of progress... but since I have a lot of stuff packed, i thought it would be a good idea. It is harder to watch movies, etc, but I have been listening to lots of audio-books.

Baby Hat

Here is a little hat I made to go along with the blue sweater. I had a little extra of the yarn. The pattern is here. It is a great little pattern and I'm sure I will use it again. I believe the sweater and hat are both the 12 month size, though babies vary so much, so I don't know. The baby is due in July, so hopefully they will stretch or maybe he can wear it in the cool mornings. Haha. 

I have been trying to keep this one a secret until I give it to the mom, so am posting it after the shower.

Sweater & Socks

Two finished projects!

Baby sweater, I finished it a while back but had to block it and get better photos. It is so cute, I would like to make another one someday. (This photo is after it had been folded for a while).

The buttons are grey.  

Here are the rainbow toddler socks. I know I made mistakes, but the pattern helps hide them. I think one is also a little longer than the other, oops.  I may make another pair, I have a lot of rainbow yarn left. I think in a more solid color or even bigger stripes, it could look really cool. 

We have been busy packing and cleaning our apartment, in two weekends there will be an open house, so everything has to be in tip-top shape. Not a lot of crafting has been happening. 

I have finished another project but it is a surprise so I cannot share it quite yet. 

Packing

I have finished a baby sweater and another little baby present. Just waiting to get better photos. I just cast on for some manly fingerless mitts, I have been slowly working on the bright green/blue socks and the spiral rainbow kid socks. I have done a tiny amount on an embroidery project - counted cross stitch. 

Meanwhile, we are packing to move. Packing 90% of our things. (Packed my knitting pattern for fingerless mitts so I had to find another one online- I hope I like it.) Also trying to pack up the studio. Not sure where to put 3 organs, and a variety of keyboards, lots of other stuff, etc. It feels like we are running very low on time, since we don't know where we are moving to. 

I'm trying to decide on and prep some craft projects so I can continue to knit and embroider even if we have a lot of stuff in storage. Depending on where we live we may have less Internet so I will need books and crafts!

The future goal is to buy a house but the market is discouraging and finding room for one with a studio just complicates everything. I may be posting less frequently for a while, but I will still try to get photos up for finished projects. I am averaging about 2-3 finished projects a month, though i have longer ongoing projects like the socks. I'm trying to plan ahead on some birthday/Xmas presents if I can this year. 

Blah blah

I started a pair of rainbow spiral socks for kids. "Spiraling tube socks" is the name. They look weird because they don't have a heel, but are designed that way on purpose so they can fit kids as they grow up. They are out of the rainbow fingering that I showed on my previous post. Lately I have been trying to use up yarn and only buying new yarn for a few specific projects. I have a bin of yarn at my parents that consists of very small balls, all different colors and fibers. Occasionally I find something to make with them. In some ways it is nice to have a smallish stash, but I also wish my yarn was more usable. A lot of things I don't remember if it is washable or not, and sometimes I do burn tests to try to confirm the fiber. Perhaps toys would be a good option. Someday maybe I can carefully choose projects and buy nice yarn for them. I do want to make a sweater for myself someday. I almost wonder if a kit would be helpful, or at least a knit a long. I recently looked at the website Kitterly and I think it might be a good idea. There is generally such a $ investment (and of course time!!!) it feels a little overwhelming to think about sweaters. Perhaps also because I have made 2 in the past that are weird and I don't wear them really.

Please forgive the bad iPad photo and no links.