HAPPY NEW YEAR AND NEW IDEAS!

It's a new year and i'm hoping this one will be filled with more creative persuits than last year or the years before. Crossing fingers that I can make that happen. I'm trying, might take me a little bit to get going but I think this year will be good.

Here are some pics of the gifts I made for family and friends for Christmas. I call these Scoodies (scarf with a hood). I looked them up on the internet and they are really a very basic pattern. I did modify it a little bit in the back behind the neck so that there wouldn't be a lot of bunching up. So far so good.

My scoodie: Black fleece with faux animal print trim on hood.




This is the one I had originally made for my grandmother but ended up giving it to my Uncle's girlfriend after my grandmother said she couldn't stand things on her head because it would mess up her hair when she saw me wearing mine. Glad I was able to change it out before I gave it to her and it never got used. It's made from fleece. I had just a plain black bias tape on the hood edge but it really felt like it needed a bit extra so I added the black lace. I also added small black looped fringe to the ends.






I made this one for my mom. It's just like the pink one except it doesn't have the bias tape edge, just lace.






Just recently I came across a tutorial on dying glass pearls over on Martha Stewart and just had to try it out.

I'm still on the fence with this one. Yellow and Tan seem to take better to the pearls than the other colors I tried, black, wine, dark green. Here are some pics of the results.

1st experiment:

2nd experiment



Other than those things, nothing new. Hopefully I will have new things to show more often this year instead of once every few months.

Hairpin Lace 2

I've sorta finished the small neck scarf I made with the hairpin lace tool. I used bulky chenille. I made 2 panels of 140 loops per panel(70 loops on each rod) and only encountered one issue, I need longer rods when working with bulky yarns. This really does work up quickly and I can do it while sitting in front of the TV. I thought about taking one of my cross stitching loom things but realized that would make the loops to wide, even if I used the biggest crochet hook I had for the center, it still wouldn't be long enough. So now I'm looking to make my own hairpin tool. I want it to be adjustable but long and i'm thinking perhaps dowel rods would work or some thin metal rods like the ones I got with the tool I have but longer. We'll see how that goes.

Here is a few pics of my 1st hairpin lace piece. I need to make a scarf pin for it or find one. It's small, a neckkerchief.

Vacation Creations

I have pics of the stuff I made over my Holiday/Vacation. Unfortunately one of the hats I made, I didn't get a pic of before I gave it away to my coworkers 1yr old daughter. I was going to get more of the yarn I used but Hobby Lobby was out. I hope they get some more in cause I want to do another hat in that color. It was originally going to be for my 5yr old niece but the hat just seemed to small. Since Hobby lobby didn't have the original yarn, I had to find something else.

Skinny tube scarf knitted on Kniffty knitter flower loom out of the yarn my daughter originally wanted to make a larger tube scarf from but we only had 1 skein and it was a Joanns exclusive yarn.



Close up:





Skinny scarf made for my 5yr old niece. This stuff is heavenly super soft and luckily for me I still have 2 skiens left to make something for myself.



Close up:



This is the hat that I made for my 5yr old niece with the new yarn. I like this yarn but I had to couple it with another yarn to make it a bit thicker. I coupled it with a very soft black yarn. If I had 2 skiens, I could have just doubled it. Might try that some other time. The yarn is very cool, I think.



With the brimmed rolled up:





Here is a large scarf/wrap that I made using another Hobby Lobby yarn called Chocolate Souffle. I used the red loom, wrapping 3 pegs and skipping one.



Close up:




I am on a friggin roll here with these Kniffty Knitter looms. I started another hat using white bulky chenille and this silvery grey fun fur stuff. I'm calling it Ice Princess. The brim of the hat has none of the fun fur because it would be itchy, so just the main part of the hat will have it. I didn't want to go to bed because I wanted to keep on knitting the hat. I have other color ideas for hats and scarves. I'm also going to attempt to make a pillow out of one of the pattern books I bought, I just need a pillow form to put it on.

I made a boucle pom-pom while showing my daughter how to make them and decided to turn it into a scarf pin or just a plain shirt pin with some wire and shiny plastic beads, we'll see how that goes.

Finished hat 3

I'm almost finished, I just have to tack the brim down so it doesn't unroll and I'll be done with that tonight. So here are the pics. I added a little loose pom pom on top and I actually like it a little bit better now. I think the pom pom on top sets it off nicely.

Side view:


Top view:


Close up:


I'm fixing to start on my skinny scarf now, YEAH!

Home for the Holidays

With Christmas and New Years just days away and my vacation starting tomorrow. WOOHOO!

I did start on hat #3 and I just have to finish it off and I'm done. Honestly, I don't like it. I thought the yarn would be pretty but nooooooooo. Don't get me wrong, the yarn is pretty just not for this project and it's to delicate to painstakingly take it apart. I have decided that i'm going to give it to my youngest brothers baby's mama. MUWAHAHAHAHA!

I bought more yarn, something even more fun than the yarn I had picked out for my 5yr old niece. I also pulled out this ohhhh so extremely soft yarn by phentex that I got from the Big Lots store for a buck that I'm going to turn into a skinny scarf. Sometimes I can find good yarn cheap there, like the bulky black chenille I made my 1st hat from. I also bought myself another kniffty knitter loom (flower loom) and a kniffty knitter loom project book. I had a few coupons so I took advantage of them.


I won't be back until after the holidays and I really hope I have more projects to share. It's been so long that I've actually made more than a few things and still desiring to make more. It feels good but I just don't seem to have enough time in a day. I will over the holidays because this year, sadly, won't be driving to see family. My car is not in any condition to make the 3hr drive and I really don't want to risk it and plus, don't have the funds for gas and stuff. So, we are going to have a belated christmas (income tax) gathering. LOL! I will be at MY home for the holidays this year instead of at family.

Down to the Wire

Thanksgiving is the week and Christmas is just around the corner. No lack of ideas but still in the energy slump. I have one present done, one I'm thinking about doing but not sure yet and no real idea for any others. My 15yr old daughter wants to make some tube scarves and we just bought a knitting ring to do that. No lack of yarn that's for sure. LOL!

Yesterday I sat down and was doodling with a skirt design for belly dance stuff. The design is fairly simple using a stretch fabric. I have some fabric I bought some time ago, just for that and didn't get around to it then. I seriously need to make myself a duct tape dummy or buy a dress dummy and soon. I have ideas busting out of my ears for sewing and plenty of fabric and even new attachments to make my sewing eaiser.

I think other than not really having the room, I don't want to upset the SO. I just need to tell them to kiss my butt, I'm going to do what makes me happy. I'm so worried about causing friction at home in our cramped apartment that i'm not helping myself and my current blues. I think that will all change this weekend because i'm going to get some durn sewing in or something. I need to get out of this slump. I keep buying material for the ideas but not doing anything with them.

Having Christmas just around the corner isn't helping any cause i'm broke and have made so many thing over the years for my family that i'm kinda lost as in what to make now. I have a few ideas but i'm limited because of space, time and money. So very frustrating.

I've lost my energy

So I was really on this thing for making scarves. I have numerous color combos I want to do but I seem to have lost the UMPH to get them started or even finished for that matter. I'm working on #4 and have only done like 4 rows and I started it about a week ago. I need something, I just don't know exactly what it is. I'm tired of this funk. I'm tired of the whirlwind spurts of creativity that are gone as fast as they show up. I try to force myself to finish something when i'm not in the mood for it and I get frustrated over it, mess up or whatever. UGH!

Scarf Crazy

So I finished one scarf but not sharing pics cause it's a christmas present and if they saw it, they'd know it was for them. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I have oddles of yarn, mostly the pain in the ass stuff to work with. I also have some red heart yarn that I've had for years. It's a lovely varigated color of purple and I bought it probably 10yrs or so ago and at that time only made a pair of slippers. I wanted to do a purple scarf and use the red heart yarn and came up with this.



It's definetly an interesting combination and I even added fringe. I was originally going to knit but the main purple boucle yarn (I think that's what it's called don't have the wrapper at the moment) didn't want to cooperate. I have a crochet hook that is a size 15.50mm, largest hook I have. I worked 2 strands of yarn in double crochet on this one. The only thing left to do on it, trim the fringe up.

After finishing up the varigated purple one, I was still on this purple kick. I have this extremely fuzzy fun fur stuff in purple with bits of silver reflections in it. I was going to pair it with a dark shade of purple chenille but it just wasn't working for me, the colors where way off. Instead, I paired this crazy furry yarn with 2 strands of thin black chenille instead. I had planned on knitting this as well but once again encountered the not wanting to cooperate syndrome. The yarn was way to fuzzy and kept catching and making it hard for the knots to slide. I figure, I'll crochet it with the big fat crochet hook. Worked out much better and atleast I can "see" with my fingers so I'd know where the next stitch went. I worked this one up in single crochet and added black chenille fringe to the end by pulling it through both corners of the ends of the scarf. I think my daughter will like it for it's fuzziness and that it's purple and black. It really is furry. The only thing left to do to this one is trim the fringe and lightly brush the fun fur up so it's even more furry.





This is the most creative I've been in a long time. I have other color schemes that I want to do. I've started now on #4 scarf using Chenille thick and quick prints with size 12.75mm (US 17)knitting needles. I normally use the 15mm (US 19)size knitting needles to make scarves with. I thought I'd try something different and a bit more challenging.

Knit and Crochet

I finished the knitted scarf I was working on as a christmas present. PHew! One down and a few more to go. I have about 5 different color combinations I want to work on. I started a new scarf last night but the yarn didn't want to be knitted so I had to resort to using the largest crochet hook that I have. The yarn combo I'm using doesn't like to slide over itself very well, so that's why the knitting wasn't cooperating. I think I like it using the crochet hook better. On the other hand the crochet hook is a bit awkard to use, it says it's a 15.50mm size hook. It's much bigger than what I normally work with so there is a bit of a learning curve, but it's interesting to use. So far I like how it's turning out, shouldn't take me to long to finish this one so that I can start on the next one. I was thinking of doing something in UT colors next but not sure yet.