Enter Entrelac

I've been pretty scattered with my projects lately. I think it's the pressure of the holidays coming up... I've put the Pirate design on hold to work on teacher gifts for my kids' teachers. With three of them in school, there are a lot of teachers! My oldest is now in middle school and she, alone, has six different teachers!

So I did some searching on Ravelry and found a pattern for a Quant, which, according to the author's notes, should take about half a day to complete. "Perfect!" I thought. "I should be able to whip out six quants in no time for the female teachers!"

Well. I must be the world's slowest knitter because it's been more than a week and I'm STILL working on the first one. :) Granted, I goofed up in the beginning of the entrelac portion (this is my first attempt at doing entrelac), and granted, I don't work on the project more than a couple of hours at a time. But still.. half a day, in my vocabulary, means it should take about 8 hours to complete. Let's say I average 2 hours of work on the thing a night/day, and I should...theoretically...have one done in less than a week.

Which leads me to believe I'm just the world's slowest knitter! I'm enjoying the project...It's not repetitious at all, so it holds one's interest. But I may have to find a different project for the remaining five female teachers...not to mention finding a project for the two males....

Blogger Down!

Wow.... It's been a looooong time since I've posted anything to this blog. I'm really sorry about that...I know all one of you who is following this blog must be really chomping at the bit in anticipation of this newest posting!

Ok, silliness aside, here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to:

1. All those projects I mentioned in my last post? I did two out of four of them. The cabled purse got completed and the end product was given to my sister-in-law as part of her Christmas present. The doll backpack got finished in time for my great-niece's first birthday in October 2009. Both items turned out really cute! I may post photos here... or, alternatively, you can check them out on Ravelry: mo3insd's projects

2. My oldest nephew and his wife had a baby! So now I've got a great-nephew, too. I knit him a really cute sweater and hat....

And I'm also planning on visiting him and the rest of my extended family at the beginning of February, so I've crocheted him a blanket....

...and I'll probably try to squeeze in another sweater before I leave for the trip.

Really, I have been keeping busy with my crafting... Mostly knitting and crochet. All of my recently completed projects can be found on Ravelry.

I'll try to keep things updated here! Yet another New Year's resolution..............

Projects Galore!

I've got a lot on my plate... There are SO many wonderful patterns that I want to make and only so much time in a day. :)

This posting is pretty much just an update on what I've been doing, since I haven't been posting lately. So without further ado, here we go...

• I'm test knitting a pattern for a purse. Because this isn't just a "for me" thing, I'm actually committed to finishing it in a timely manner. So at the moment, the purse is the only project I'm really working on. And I'm a slow knitter... Plus I really try to limit when I spend time working on my knitting/crocheting until the night time after kids are in bed and I'm too tired to do anything else housework related (she says as she blogs instead of doing housework!)
• I just bought a pattern! First time ever...Other than pattern books from the store, I mean. I bought this super cute baby doll and doll backpack pattern from Kristie's Kids and can hardly wait to start working on it. There are several little girls our family knows who would LOVE to receive one. Excited!! :)
• Both of my kids tote their paperback bibles with them to church...and both of their bibles are getting pretty beat up in the process. They NEEEEEEED bible covers! But will I go to the store and simply BUY them each a cover? Heck no! I'm going to make them each one. :)
• I'm trying to get the kinks worked out on the Blue Jay pattern, too. I'm up to version 3.0 of the pattern and I have to admit, I'm ALMOST completely content with it. I think one more version will nail it, then I have to try to crank out 12 of them in a couple of weeks' time for Little J's baseball team (a bunchof 7 year olds). :)

There's also several other really cute patterns that I've stumbled across, lately, that I really want to make, but I haven't put them on the docket because there's no reason for me to make them other than I just want to. I'm sure you understand....

Speaking of Spring Cleaning...

In my little corner of the family room is a pile of yarn, pattern books, patterns that I've printed from the Internet and various other crafty supplies. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I'm trying to get that little corner cleaned up. So, in the process of sorting through everything that's been piled up, I also rediscovered two projects that I'd started for my youngest. One is a birth announcement cross-stitch, intended for his wall.

I used to love to cross-stitch. I taught myself how to do it (let's face it, it's not a hard craft to learn!) when I was in high school and subsequently taught my mom how. As I got older, my interested became more wide-spread and by the time I started having kids, cross-stitch wasn't really on my radar anymore. My mom, however, found a new passion in cross-stitch and kept up with it long after I'd stopped. All while growing up, I remember my mom crocheting. She, evidently, had traded her hooks in for  needles and hoops.

After the birth of my first child, she made a beautiful birth announcement for her which I had framed and hangs on K's wall to this day, 10 years later. By the time my second child was born, my mom had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the trachea. However, she made it her job to complete a cross-stitch for Little J's room, too. My mom passed away when Little J was 2 years old. He's now 7 and just about a month ago, we finally hung his cross-stitch on his wall. I sat in his newly rearranged room and stared at the cross-stitch for a long time. I cried a little. You see, Little J's cross-stitch is the last one my mom ever made.

Then, later in 2004 after my mom's passing, I found out I was pregnant with T. Since my mom was no longer available to make him a cross-stitch, and my mother-in-law doesn't cross-stitch (or knit or crochet, for that matter!), I decided to make one for him, instead. I started it when he was about a year old. T's 3.5 now, and it's still not done! :) So that's one project I'm putting at the top of my craft-priority list (poor K....her shrug just keeps getting bumped!).

The other project I was reminded about is a latch hook rug that, again, I'd started about 2.5 years ago. It, too, is for T's room. So that project, also, is being pushed to the top of the list.

Therefore, I'll be taking a little hiatus from knitting. At least until I get one of T's projects done! Or until my resolve wanes.... :)

Pre-Spring Cleaning

I sort of cleaned out my knitting basket over the past couple of days, trying to organize and just take stock of what I've got smashed down in the bottom of the basket! I found two projects that I'd started at least two years ago and never finished.

First, is a tunic/sweater for K's American Girl Doll:

On the right, is the "back" piece of the tunic. And I just cast on the front piece on the needle to the left.

I haven't taken another picture yet, but I finished the new piece that is shown as just cast on here. However, the piece I cast on is now the back piece since there appears to be an error in the pattern that results in the piece being made "inside out"...if that makes sense. In this picture, you're supposed to be seeing the right side of the piece...meaning, the stockinette stitching is all nice and purty. But you're seeing the wrong side of the ruffled hem. 

The ruffle has this nice detail to it: 

So I decided to redo the back piece and then frog the piece I'd already made all the way down to the ruffle.

I'm almost done, now, with the front piece. Then I have the sleeves to knit, stitch it all together, and add the neckline. I'm using a pattern from Knits for Girls and Dolls (seen through my Ravelry projects).

The other project I rediscovered is The Queen's Shrug. I have a bunch of JoAnn's Sensations Rainbow Boucle that I wanted to find a use for....and I guess the shrug was my solution. I never finished it....heck, I didn't even finish one sleeve of it, yet. :) 

But I do like the softness of the fabric and the texture. I plan on working on it again when I get the AGD sweater finished. 

In the meantime, K's shrug of my own design has taken a back seat. :)

PDF for the American Girl Doll Shrug

I decided to make a downloadable PDF for the shrug pattern, since I know I like it a lot better when I can simply download a one-page file vs. copying and pasting or...heaven forbid...printing out a whole website page! :)

Enjoy!

Download pattern

Trial Mini-Shrug Almost Done!

I was able to spend time last night and tonight working on the American Girl doll-sized shrug and am happy to report that it's almost done. I have a few more rounds of ribbing to do on one of the sleeves before it's technically finished. I'm thinking about jazzing it up a little with some of the surplus of fun fur I've got. I still haven't taken pictures, but plan to tomorrow!

The mini-shrug is exceedingly simple in design and pattern. As soon as I've got it all done and photos taken, I'll post the pattern along with the pictures.

Start Small

I decided to start small on the shrug project by making a miniature shrug for K's American Girl doll. I figured it's a good way to try out my ideas on a small scale and see if they work before committing the time and yarn to a full-size garment. 

And it seems it was a good plan! I've already discovered that one of the ideas I had concerning the sleeves isn't a great one. At least not in the sense of making a garment with little or no seaming, anyway. This is how I was going to make the sleeves, originally:      

But to achieve the look that I want (i.e., the back piece having vertical rows instead of horizontal, if that makes sense to you. :) See the completed work here for clarity), I realized that this sleeve shaping wouldn't work well for a shrug. A sweater...sure! Though making the sleeves first is probably a bass-ackwards way of doing it. :)

Who knows? Maybe the mini-shrug will turn out cute enough for me to share the pattern for other American Girl dolls! :)

The Wheels are Turning

I knitted up a test swatch last night to see what needle size I'm going to use and which yarn. My choices on yarn are limited to what I've got on hand...I really can't justify going to buy a nicer yarn right now. Not with how many skeins and skeins of yarn I've already got!

I'm planning on making K's shrug with Caron acrylic worsted weight...From a One Pound skein. Apparently I'd started another project using the same skein of yarn, which I realize was going to be an afghan for Little T, but I decided I'll make Little T's afghan another time and frogged it. 

The color will be Off-White and I plan on using size 10 needles, because I'd like it to be a "softer" fabric, vs. a tight-weave. I think I'm also going to knit it in stockinette. I considered garter, but I just really like the clean look of SS better, plus you can see the stitches.

I also think I'm going to knit it in three pieces: the front and back as all one piece, then the sleeves. I hate seaming, so my plan is just pick up stitches and knit the sleeves on in the round.

I have it in my head that I'd like to trim the wrists with  something fun. My original thought was to use this feathery marabou stuff that I'd bought for an older project (but ended up not using it), but realize that this will make washing the shrug a little difficult, if not impossible. Unless I make the cuffs detachable...

Plus, I have this box full of eyelash yarn...which would add little splashes of color to the shrug. And, if I go with the detachable cuff idea, she could mix and match her cuffs to go with whatever outfit she chose to pair the shrug with!

Anyway, I need to take some more measurements of K and then figure out my plan of attack on the front/back piece. The sleeves will be cake... But the front/back... that'll be a little different....

I'm a...designer?!

We've been having a cold front in Southern California...lots of needed rain (thank goodness) and quite chilly for this part of the country.

This morning, my family dressed to go to church and my 10 year old daughter emerged from her room wearing....a sun dress. Perplexed, I asked her if she wasn't going to be cold and she replied "Well, I don't have any little sweaters that fit me anymore."

Which got me to thinking "Shrug!" A little white or off-white shrug would have been perfect with her outfit.

After church, I spent some time browsing through several shrug patterns (I'm cheap...I go for the freebie patterns), but none of them are exactly what I'm envisioning in my head for her.

So, now I've got it in my head to make a custom shrug for her! I've started by taking several measurements of her arms, her back, her wrists, etc. And tonight, when things have settled down (i.e., normal housework and chores) and I have time to relax, I'm going to knit up a swatch using some yarn from my stash (I seriously need to use up a LOT of the yarn I've been collecting over the years...sadly, none of it is "good" yarn...such as wool, or the 'expensive' stuff...it's all pretty much acrylic and acrylic blends) to determine my gauge and then set to work!

This'll be my first foray into designing...or at least making up my own pattern. :) Stay tuned!

The weekend's almost over? Already??

Here it is, Sunday morning. Where did the weekend go?? My daughter is a Girl Scout and I'm the troop leader. Not for much longer, I don't think. I've been doing it for the past four years, now, and I'm burned out on it. I'm worried, though, that if I don't keep leading the troop, it'll disband. Though is that really so bad? I don't know...

Anyway, it's Girl Scout cookie time, so the past two weekends my daughter and I have been doing the site sales (you know, when you see the Girl Scout troops in front of your local grocery store, trying to guilt you into buying cookies with their cuteness??). Today's the last one for our troop, thank goodness!

I finished Kimberly's hat on Friday.... Pictures will be posted as soon as I take some. Although I realized after it was complete and I was staring at it wondering at how big it was that I'd forgotten to change needle sizes after the initial band ribbing. Oops! Maybe I'll get another skein of yarn and do her another hat just like it and give this one to charity.

I've also started working on completing a baby sweater I'd started a few months ago and had stopped working on. I didn't like how the sleeves were turning out, so I'd set it aside. Now I figure I'll try to finish it up just so that it's not taking up space and my needles that have been tied up with it!

Sick & Potty Training

It was only a matter of time. The kids keep bringing all sorts of germs into the house, coughing on me, sneezing on me. But I'd been fortunate enough to avoid most of their illnesses....until yesterday. It's not too terribly bad...I've definitely had worse colds before, but it's draining. All I want to do is curl up and go back to sleep, but alas...if I did that, no one would keep the baby from peeing or pooping on the floor!

Yes, I decided that, even though I wasn't feeling so great, it was time to try potty training Little T. He'll be 3 in June. I'd like him to start preschool in the fall. We've had two successful pees so far, and a bunch of failures, including one poop on the floor. Eek! But we won't give up. At least not until nap time, which is in about an hour. :)

I spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon working on the hat my daughter wants me to make. It's coming along quickly, now that I've had my "Ah ha!" moment in altering the pattern to be knit in the round. I even
had Little T model it, which is why it looks big on his head (and he's not wearing a shirt due to the potty training thing...he's running around pretty much nekkid all day today). I'll try to work on it some more later when my energy has been sapped and all I can do is sit on the sofa. :)

My First Post

Well, I decided to start a more public blog than the one I have on MySpace, mainly because the only people who see my MySpace stuff are my close friends and family. Most of them, I don't think, would appreciate my ramblings about my hobbies. Not to say that you, dear reader, will, but if you're here and reading this after checking out the welcome text describing what this blog is pretty much going to be about, then maybe you can appreciate my ramblings!

This is my first post, pretty much just to get something up here. I'll be prettifying the layout and adding more photos and info as time permits. But for now, I'll just tell you a smidge about myself and leave it at that for today.

I'm a stay-at-home mom with three, beautiful children. I have a daughter and two sons...all three years apart from the other (i.e., my daughter, K, is the oldest, her brother, Little J is three years younger than her, and my youngest, Little T, is three years younger than Little J). The older two are in elementary school, but the youngest is in preschool for half days three days a week and home with me the other two weekdays. This can make it a bit challenging to pursue my hobbies, and I try to only knit or craft when all three kids are in bed for the night or playing together nicely (which doesn't happen nearly as often as I'd like!).

I'm married to a wonderful man, Big J. I know, everyone posts that their spouse is wonderful (usually). But seriously...I'm really fortunate to have found this man. He's a great dad and a fantastic, considerate hubby, who tries to support and encourage my various crafts, even if he doesn't always understand my fascination with them!

Big J has a pseudo-hobby of restoring pinball machines. He purchased an old Cyclone pinball machine not so long ago and has been working to restore it. I've been drafted to repair the painted playfield. Unless you're a pinball hobbyist, you may not know what I'm talking about! I won't say anymore about the pinball, right now. I'll wait until I have some photos downloaded from our digital camera to post and show you.

Currently, in the knitting department, I'm working on a hat for my daughter. I made this hat:

...for my youngest son. She liked it so much that she asked me to make her one, too. Hers will be made with a variegated yarn. I haven't taken photos of it yet. Her hat is a lot more challenging, too, because the pattern was written for flat knitting. I'm attempting to knit hers in the round because I really hate seaming. :) This is the first time I've tried to take a flat project and knit it in the round, so I've been making a TON of mistakes and having to rip out rows of work at a time to get things right. The good news is that I'm writing down how I've altered the pattern to knit in the round so that the next time I make this hat, I won't have to reinvent the wheel!