Failures and Triumphs

Wow, it has really been a long time since I've updated.

First off, I have failed my own challenge. I did make one top and one dress. The button on the top fell off after one wear (and I'm not much a fan of it, anyway) and the dress is lovely. But I have yet to procure photographic proof. I'll get on that.

Also, I wound up buying more fabric. With a garment in mind....but I've hardly made a dent in my current stash. I did manage to weed out the "grandma fabrics" as Ben so lovingly calls them and plan on donating them to my local 4-H for their fabric sale. (Ironically, I'm fairly certain that I bought most of those fabrics at the 4-H sale.)

And the last bit of my failure is that I bought a few sleeveless blouses in the summer. The A/C in my car was dead and we were in the middle of a heat wave. The best option, it seemed was sleeveless blouses with a light short-sleeved cardigan for the office. That way I wouldn't completely melt on my way home. I simply didn't have the time, but I did however, have a 30% off coupon for Kohl's. And I did end up mending what I bought to fit me right.

Now, that isn't to say that I haven't been crafting away.

I am especially proud of this tea tray that I customized for my dear BFF and her new husband. They are both music geeks, even more so than I. (In fact, the groom was a member of the YellowJackets, who are doing a smashing job on the Sing Off right now. You should really check them out.) And they love tea. So I wanted to make them a literal tea tray that featured their love of music.





The tray is from Target and beautiful as is. I printed out some favorite musical pieces, soaked them in tea, and baked them a little. Then I tore them, laid them out and Mod Podged the heck out of them.



They were ecstatic. I failed to photograph the finished product myself, so I borrowed the bride's own picture.

Now, I shall get back to my Christmas present knitting (I am as pleased as a peacock, but I can't show off!) and pattern design testing. I also have some painting projects underway that I should be able to share soon.

Summer projects

Most of the summer I spent holed up in my bedroom (the only room with sufficient A/C). Even there, it was too hot to work on my biggest project most of the time. I was working on this wonderful knot-pattern scarf for my father-in-law's birthday in August. Sure, August seems like a strange time to give someone a thick, wool scarf. But it was my husband's idea (and he was so very excited about it), and well, he won't be receiving the scarf at Christmas after the ridiculous Lake Effect snow has already begun. My FIL was very pleased with the gift and said he looks forward to using it the next time his snow blower breaks in the middle of a blizzard. Hehe.

I called it the Mariner's knot scarf because he really likes to take his boat out on the lake with the entire family.




Here's a close up of the knot-pattern:



The knot was a little difficult to work with at first. If you use this pattern make sure to make all of your knit rows loose! Otherwise you won't be able to get the needle through three stitches three times in the next row. Once I figured that out it was a breeze to knit.

Also, for the cast-on method I found this video very helpful:


She goes nice and slow so you can actually see what she's doing. :)I like this method for casting on bigger projects. Once I learned it, it went by so very fast! Though I did not do the correlating bind-off, and you really couldn't tell.

My other project, when it was way too hot to knit with wool was this neat little tea wreath:

(Please excuse the glare... the lighting in our home is a bear to work with).
I had been trying to come up with a better way to offer the variety of tea I have to guests. Flinging open the cabinet always kind of intimidated them, and all the tea was high above the stove. Kojodesigns solution works out perfectly. I put the rest of the tea bags in little baggies in a drawer. No more boxes filling up my cabinet! Which is nice, since our kitchen is very organizationally space challenged.

Ok, I've rambled on enough. I am working on some Christmas projects that I'll have to wait to share. But I also just got a dress-form, so look forward to some sewing projects coming up!