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...

Birthday Knits!

I've been all about knitting lately -- I think because it's been obnoxiously cold here for so long that I'm drawn to things I can do while I'm on the couch wrapped up in a blanket.  Heh.  There are a few February birthdays in my family, and everyone received something that I knit.  (Knitted?  Apparently they're both correct, but they also both sound wrong to me.)

In reverse chronological order, here's E's birthday sweater.  Since her birthday's today -- Valentine's Day -- it seems appropriate to start with her.

This was a top-down seamless raglan that I changed from a different cable to use this cute heart cable, making it sort of Valentine-y without going over the top.  I started it on Saturday and finished it in time for her to wear it to school yesterday, since she doesn't go on Fridays.  I would not recommend this short of a time frame.  I think my hands are still recovering.  It's a little roomier than I necessarily wanted, but I don't think she looks like she's swimming in it, and it'll give her some growing room.

She's been showing a preference for purple lately and was all smiles when I showed it to her and put it on, so I think she approves!

For my sister, I made another pair of boot toppers.  I used the same pattern as last time, but made a few changes. 

 

Ray had requested some slippers for around the house, which I was pretty excited about.  He rarely asks me to make him anything.  I decided to make felted slippers, which is always fun, and also less likely to be traumatic if they accidentally get mixed in with the laundry. They looked impossibly huge before I threw them in the washer!

They felted to the perfect size, though, which always seems rather miraculous to me.

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm off to finish E's birthday cake and finish a few other last minute birthday details while the girl naps.  :)

Handmade Holidays 2013

I ended up not doing a whole lot of Christmas sewing this year (I had big plans, but didn't get to most of them), but there was a fair amount of knitting.  I just mailed out the last thing this week *sigh*, so I'm finally blogging about the gifts as well.

I made O's teacher some boot toppers and also gave her some coffee and coconut oil exfoliating scrub that apparently never got photographed.  It was brown and in cute jar, so just imagine that.  I was quite pleased with the boot toppers.  (Ravelry notes)  Someday I'd like to make myself a pair.  I looked on Ravelry a couple of days ago, and the last time I knitted myself anything was 2009!  I still wear that hat too.

E's teacher and para also got the scrub, along with some slippers.  I made her teacher Bea's Slippers (Ravelry notes) and loooooved how they turned out.  They took a lot longer to knit than I was expecting, though, so I had to find a quicker option for her para.

I ended up knitting double-stranded slippers for hers, and they were super quick and quite squishy.  (Ravelry notes)  She told me after the break that her kids kept swiping them from her.  Haha.

I also wanted to give a little some thing to the secretary at E's school, since I end up bugging her to sign in and out nearly every day at drop-off and pick-up time.  She had a bio up in the entrance at the beginning of the year that said she sewed, so I had that in the back of my head and decided to make her a jar pincushion and fill it with a few chocolates.  Honestly, she had one of the best reactions to a gift that I've given in a long time.  It made my day to see how happy she was that I had read her bio and remembered that she sews.

Here's my only actual sewn project!  Ray asked for a phone cozy for when he runs in the cold.  I took this tutorial and simplified it, since I knew he couldn't care less about the piecing.

O wanted to make E a blanket and decided a tie blanket would be the way to go.  He was right, she loves the fringe. He chose the fabric, I did the cutting and Ray and I both helped him tie it, but he did a significant part of it.

It looks like E's staring down that raccoon.

Back to knitting (I have no rhyme or reason to this post, I guess), my SIL requested an earflap hat for her younger son, so I made him this one.  (Ravelry notes)  This was my most shamefully late gift of this holiday season.  Winter doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, though, so he will have plenty of opportunity to wear it still.  Hopefully it fits!

And last, but not least, the kids' annual Christmas ornaments.  (You can see 2011's here and 2012's here.)  O has been very into watching the Peanuts holiday specials, so I was inspired by this ornament on Etsy and made him Charlie Brown.  I wanted to use a glass ball like the original, but couldn't find any when I finally went shopping (I think Hobby Lobby has them, but it was a Sunday, so they were closed).  I settled for a paper mache one instead, so Charlie Brown is a little bumpier than I would have liked, but O didn't seem to care.

E's ornament was again based on her Halloween costume (as well as her on-going love of our cat).  It ended up being a huge pain to knit and then sew up this fun fur yarn, but I do like how it turned out.  (Ravelry notes)  I used scrapbooking stickers to put her name (blurred out, obviously) and the year on the ornament the cat is holding.  Stickers are the way to go.  Much less stressful than trying to paint the name and year with a shaky hand like I did on O's!

 

And that's it!  I felt really busy, but I guess I didn't really accomplish much.  Now I'm on to working on birthday gifts, since we have several in our family in February.  Winter KCW was this week, but I didn't even make an attempt this round.  I have been enjoying looking at what other people have been making, though! Have you been sewing along?

Handmade Holidays: Knitted Gifts

On to the knitting!

For a friend, mason jar cozies in pint and quart sizes.  They're knit from Paton's Classic wool in Orchid and Bird of Paradise respectively.  The pint pattern is the ribbed variation of Mason Jar Cozy 3 Ways.  I used the same basic idea for the quart size.  You can see my pattern notes on Ravelry.

I love the bottom of the quart cozy!

A quart cozy for myself is high on my to-knit list.  I drink a smoothie most mornings and blend them right in the jar.  It's so cold in the winter that I often wrap the jar in a hand towel.  Brrrr.

E got some Classic Mittens in size 2-4.  She has small hands, but I probably should have lengthened them slightly.  They're knit in Linen I Love This Yarn, which is an acrylic.  She often bites her mittens, so I didn't want to use wool and have them felt, and I didn't have any superwash in a good color in my stash.

They were a pretty quick knit.  I especially like the length of the cuffs.

When I asked my sister for ideas for her kids, she said that my 10-year-old niece still liked last year's legwarmers, but that now she wanted some that go over her knees!  I thought that was pretty funny.  She said her favorite yarn was Red Heart Earth & Sky.  When I looked it up, I realized it looked exactly like TLC Essentials Surf & Turf, which I had a skein of already.  Perfect.  I pretty much made them up as I went along, making O. try them on occasionally for reference.  In the off chance that you also need to make over-the-knee legwarmers for a tween, you can see what I did here.  They ended up fitting like I actually knew what I was doing, which was a pleasant surprise.

I had some ideas in mind for my other niece, who is 16, so I sent her a bunch of questions, some that were directly related to what I was thinking and others just to throw her off track.  I also asked if she had any requests, and she said she's like grey or red fingerless gloves to go with her black coat.

I made Fetching from Lion Brand Wool-Ease, but used the same modifications as jc9 on Ravelry, adding a thumb gusset, an extra cable repeat at the fingers, lengthening the thumb and skipping the picot bind-off.  My pics are not the best, but I really like how they turned out, other than some rolling at the tops.  She seemed to like them a lot and tested them out right away.

Petal Skirty & Ruffled Legwarmers

A friend of mine asked me to knit her daughter a petal skirty, which I promptly decided was the cutest thing ever. Unfortunately, I started it right before the Christmas/birthday crafting rush, so it took me for-freaking-ever to finish. I actually gave it to her a month ago, but am just getting to blogging about it now. It was perfect for her little one's first birthday last weekend, when we were having unseasonably gorgeous spring weather!

My friend supplied the yarn, O-Wool, which she Kool-Aid dyed herself.   I thought the soaker underneath seemed a bit wide as written, so I subbed the Snapdragon Soaker instead, which I knew was a good fit.

It used nearly every last inch of the green, but there was quite a bit of the petal colors left, so I made some ruffled legwarmers also.

These are a bit wild, especially in combination with the skirty, but I think that's what I love about them.

E's Birthday/Valentine's Day Outfit

E. turned four on Valentine's Day.  In birthdays past, I've tended to not emphasized the whole hearts and flowers aspect, but since she's in school this year and she's in the perfect age for such shenanigans, I went for it this year.  I was, as usual, cutting things a bit close, so swapped my original, more elaborate dress idea for the beloved Fishsticks Designs Emmy pattern (Bonnie's discontinuing the design, so if you want one, jump on it!  Looks like the little girls' pattern is sold out, but there are still a few big girl patterns in stock).  I've lost track of how many of these I've made, so it went together easily -- I was going to say seamlessly, but that would be a poor word choice in this case.

I'd also picked up some owl and hearts knee highs a couple of weeks ago, because I am apparently *still* unable to resist anything with an owl on it. Since we walk to school (well, I walk, she rides in leisure, all bundled up), I thought she could use another layer on her skinny little legs and decided to finally make some legwarmers.  I can't believe I've never done this before, as the girl has a ridiculously large collection of Babylegs and Huggalugs.  It took maybe five minutes to make these.  There are a ton of tutorials on how to sew them; mine were like this.

It was a bit of a crazy busy ensemble, but if you can't be dressed a bit over the top for Valentine's Day when it's also your fourth birthday, when can you?!

E. is generally uninterested in modelling, and I have apparently forgotten how to use my camera in low-light situations with a wiggly subject, so the full-body shots are pretty terrible.  I'll just leave you with this one.

You want me to show off the legwarmers, right, Mom?

Christmas & Chanukah Cables : Legwarmers & a Slouchy Hat

The final handmade holiday gifts: knitwear!

For my nine-year-old niece, cabled legwarmers.  I used this Japanese chart (link is to the PDF) and Red Heart Super Tweed in Landshark, so they'd be easy-care.  The chart was easy to follow and memorize.  I was very happy with how relatively quickly they knitted up, since I was working on them at the last minute -- as always.

The child's size fit her perfectly, even with boot-cut jeans stuffed into them.  I was afraid the yarn might not have been a girly enough choice for her, since she's much more into glam and glitter than I am, but she told me she was never going to take them off.  That's the way to a knitting auntie's heart for sure!

And for a friend, a Star Crossed Slouchy Beret.  I've knit this before, two years ago when I made red hats for whole family for our annual photo shoot.  In a weekend.  A long weekend, but still, that was insane.

KS Photography

I used a 10.5 for the main body of mine, which wasn't overly slouchy, so I went with the pattern's suggested 11 this time, in Mir Atlantis Periwinkle Peace Fleece.  It looked a little thin as I was knitting it up, but it bloomed nicely after a wash and blocking.