Travel Sewing & Knitting

During our spring break a few weeks ago, my aunt and I took a train trip to Boston. The train itself was a bit of an adventure. We started at a small station near(ish) her town in Wisconsin and took a train to Chicago, where we caught the train that we stayed on all the way to Boston.  We were on that one for about 23 hours, and while we had a sleeper car, I apparently can't sleep in a moving train, despite the fact that I have no problems sleeping in cars or on a plane.  Lesson learned.  I wasn't quite as crabby about it on the way back, both because I knew what to expect and the timing worked out better.  I'm not sure whether I would take that long of a train trip again, but it was a cool experience. 

Before we left, I made a few travel accessories.  More coffee cozies, one for my aunt and one for myself, as well as a hot chocolate cozy for O.  I used the same tutorial as the other times I've made them.

Guess which one is O's.

I also made an earbud pouch to throw in my purse.  It's been on my mental to-do list for quite a while, but I kept putting it off, thinking it would be putzy.  Not so; it was quite quick and is super handy.  It and the cozies are great uses for scraps.

We broke out the cozies in the Chicago train station while we were waiting for train #2.

I packed three knitting projects, thinking I'd knit a ton on the train, but I only ended up finishing one and a half.

The first project was some boot toppers for myself.  It was a different pattern than the last two pairs I made, but the same yarn and a similar feel (Details on Ravelry). I am still all about the cables.  I finished them on the way out and wore them a couple of times on the trip.

I also wore them today.

On the way back I worked on a cabled -- of course -- headband to wear running, but I was pretty tired by then and wasn't able to either memorize the cable repeat or manage to keep track of where I was on the chart despite the use of sticky notes and marking the row.  It's called Bamboozled, and that's a pretty accurate description of my state by that point, so I finished it at home (Ravelry details).  I'm quite pleased with it.  I'm more of a hat-wearer in the winter, but like a headband for running in the in-between weather.

This is unrelated to my trip, but my oldest nephew's birthday was shortly before we left.  He recently declared that he should have been named Zebulon, so I broke out the freezer paper and xacto knife and made him this.  Hopefully he found it half as amusing as I did!

And now I need to make a dent in my hour for Spring Kids' Clothes Week.  I have a lot of projects to work on and really only one is something for the kids (a new fleece jacket for O), so I'm going to stick to just an hour a day this time.  Of course I have a long list of things I'd like to make if I have extra time, but that's probably overly optimistic...

Teacher Gifts Part 2: Roll-up Tote Bag & Coffee Cozy

O. didn't really have any ideas about what he wanted to give his teacher, so I suggested this roll-up tote bag along with a coffee cozy.  He came along to the fabric store with me and immediate picked out a grey and yellow print, which I loved.  Well done, O!  It was conveniently grouped with other coordinates, so he chose a yellow to go with it and we found a matching polka dot in the remnant bin.  He also chose a yellow flower button for the cozy.

Construction of the bag was pretty standard.  If/when I make another one, I'll probably use a slightly longer piece of elastic cord.  This one seemed to be stretched to the limit when the bag was rolled up.

Teacher Gifts Part 1: Aprons & Coffee Cozies

School ended last Tuesday, so as one would expect, I spent most of Monday desperately sewing.  I had decided a while ago to make E's teacher and para each an apron after they raved about the raffle apron, but I was waffling about her therapists and O's teacher (whose gift will comprise of Part 2).  I don't think I came to a final decision until Sunday afternoon, and then I had a fabric crisis when one of the pieces I bought had a big flaw that I couldn't work around, so I had to make a mad dash back to Joann's before they closed Sunday night.  Clearly, I'm never going to learn to do things ahead of time.

E's teacher and para both commented about how they liked that the neckline of the earlier apron I'd made wasn't straight across like so many are.  That was from a pre-printed panel, though, so I looked around for quite a bit trying to find one with a similar neckline.  I ended up buying the Urban Wrap pattern, which has the added bonus of being very adjustable size-wise.

They sewed up quickly, probably took me just a bit longer than an hour for each one. The instructions were thorough, and she also included a handy one-page quick reference.  I think there was only one step that I needed to refer to the more in-depth instructions. 

This is the first one I made, for E's para.

I  made her teacher's red, since she wears a lot of red.  I'm hoping it's because she really likes it and not just because it's the school color.  Ha.

I'm starting to look a little crazed in this one, as I still had loads of sewing to do and it was getting late!  Plus, I feel like a dork posing, but I always like to see things on a person.

I also made them matching coffee cozies and one for each of the therapists as well.

They were quick too, and fun to sew up. I used Insul-Bright instead of batting.

When I was buying gift cards, I asked the woman for empty cups to put them in, but I didn't notice until I got home that they were smaller than the Tall, so the cozies are a bit large on them.