Some projects finished!

I have been promising it for a few weeks, and I keep putting it off, and putting it off, but here it is...Finally some finished projects!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Brooklin's Christmas Blanket. I had been working on this for almost ayear for myself, finished it and decided to gift it!




Here is a hand knit bulky scarf in some of the SOFTEST yarn I have found. It is for my cousin-in-law, Haley. She loves Blue.



This one is going to my friend Tiffany. The colors just reminded me of her fun style, so When I finished it, I wore it a few times, and decided that it fit her better.



Do you remember the secret Santa family I adopted with my in-laws?

This is what I made them (silly me, I forgot to take picks before I wrapped everything...)




In each of the large boxes is a coloring book and a handmade fleece tie blanket. In each small box is a fairy doll for the two oldest girls (Jazmyn,8 and Lida, 5). In each stocking, there is a handmade hat/scarf set, a box of crayons, Lifesavers "Santa's Book" package, 2 snowman marshmallows, a pencil, a candy cane, and in the littlest girls Pink stocking there is a bunny rabbit (youngest is 2)

Wish I had taken pics before I wrapped it all and gave it to Holly to take to the family. But now I have the rest of my WIP list to work through! I really wish I had more hands...

Echo

Not really crafty, but helpful

I have been trying and trying and only slightly succeeding to find a budget to try and get out of debt and start a business.

Last night I built a website for my brain child of a business. Hopefully it will be a good start. Hopefully I have something here and can eventually make it a real live physical store! not just an online one.

So here it is, without further ado... Lilypad Little Ones!

In other news, I figured out my families debt...down to the last penny, and I am shocked at how much we have accumulated through school, medical emergencies, car breaking down...over and over again, and reckless spending!

And to counter it, I plotted a budget, one that allows me to put a little into saving for emergencies and still slowly but surely pay off all my debts along side of the monthly bills that come every month regardless of how much I pay them. With any luck, or any prayer, We will be able to save up enough in our account to take a REAL honeymoon in 2011. and buy new furniture, and maybe even get a decent car. or two (right now I have to drive hubby to work very night.)

Also, in potentially good news: might be getting a new part time job to buffer the state pay I am getting in school. Hubby took my resume to his boss last night (I would have done it but it's a bar and I'm not old enough) And with it, I attached a copy of the Oregon Liquor Control Commissions rules on employing minors, as well as the regulation on allowing minor patrols if they are with a spouse of age.

In addition to these advancements to my financial well-being, I have started using household scraps much more frugally to save money in the places I can so that I can buy quality products for my shop where I can't afford to skimp. Also, I have added more products to my Etsy Store. You can click on the pictures to the left of this post to link to the store.

And with that, I must head to bed. My head is pounding from all the accounting thinking.

Peace Out!

Thanks for looking!

Craft fair sucks, but Etsy took off!

So the 3 day craft sale got me -25.00 Thats right, negative numbers. I actually lost money at the fair. And now I have a TON of stocking stuffers and knitted items that are crowding up my living room...however, on the up side...now I have stocking stuffers for the family my in-laws, husband, and I adopted for a Secret Santa Holiday charity. The family has 3 little girls, and my husband and I volunteered to do the stockings. Not just to stuff the stockings, but I am actually making them... I chose some great brightly colored flannel for the stockings in pink, purple, and turquoise. Each stocking has a matching blanket in the same color. Inside each stocking we are putting some hot cocoa with candy canes, a scarf/hat set, and some coloring books and crayons. they liek disney characters, but not sure which ones, so we went with plan colors. I am putting the 1st letter of each girls name on their stockings.

The first hat and scarf set is made with Redheart White Fiesta and a blue/purple variegated. I am almost done with the scarf, the hat is already done.

The second is turquoise and lavender, and the second will be lavender and tan. The hats for each set are already done.

I'll post pictures as soon as they are finished.

Also, I was "Sneak Attack"ed by Winemakerssister on my Etsy store, every two days (or so) the HandmadeMovement does a sneak attack on an Etsy store with few or no sales. When they host an attack, several people (those who read the blog regularly) got at a designated time and purchase as many ro as few items as they want from the chosen stores. This causes a very exciting sales rush for the seller...in this case me. This could not have come at a better time. I was about to loose my water, propane, and electric this week, I could pay one other the other, but not all. The sales this week on my Etsy shop have allowed me to pay them all. This was a great thing to happen, and now I want to share to help other store owners like myself. So please, go check out th HandmadeMovement and be a part of something great.

Also, due to the huge number of sales (10 in under 2 hours) I have had to restock my store, so go check out all the new stuff...I put up nearly 15 new stitch markers, and in the next few days, I'll be putting up some of my jewelry and knitwear.

In Skein Designs (this is my Etsy store!)

Hope you have a great week!

Today is the start of a new...adventure!

Today marks my first craft fair. Many of my ideas and inspiration came from Kerry's blog but they have my own...flair!

I learned about the fair about 3 days ago, and ahve not slept for lack of time to finish, I even got my husband in on the crafty fun!

I'll post pics and tell you how I did for my very first craft fair. If you are in the area of Central Oregon this weekend, make sure to stop by! Terrebonne Grange Hall, 9-4 Thursday - Saturday

My take on the Alice Cullen wrist warmers

These are my version on the Alice Cullen wrist warmers that I blogged about here.

I changed it up a bit to make to thumb hole a little bit less...awkward looking, and then changed the bind off to make them more uniform and stretchy.

I knitted them on my KK flower loom, I knitted 6 rows in e-wrap, then the loop on peg 6 was moved to peg 5 and the loop from peg 7 was moved to peg 8, wrap again and knit off, moving both bottom loops from pegs 5 and 8. Make sure that you wrapp all the pegs, this is a double yarn over (kinda...I think)

Continue e-wrapping for another 19 rows. Then do a stretchy bind off.

SUPER-STRETCHY BIND-OFF found at yarngear.com (thanks Meilynne)

This is great for those magic or three-way scarves. There's no need to knit the last row loosely.

Cut yarn, leaving enough tail to wrap around the loom 4
times, then thread the tail through a tapestry needle.

The yarn tail should be at the last peg, so bring the tail
past the 1st peg, and sew UP through the 2nd peg, then DOWN
through the 1st peg. Sew UP through the 3rd peg, then DOWN
through the 2nd peg. Sew UP through the 4th peg, then DOWN
through the 3rd peg. Sew UP through the 5 peg, then DOWN
through the 4th....

Follow this sequence, pulling the yarn snug as you sew,
keeping the needle in front of the previous UP strand and you sew DOWN
through the loops. The last sequence will be UP through the 1st peg,
then DOWN through the last. You will make the equivalent of
little cursive E's all around the loom. Now pop everything off your loom,
and voila - stretchy bind-off.

This is also useful for flat pieces. Cut tail, leaving
enough yarn for 4 times the width of the active pegs.
The peg with the yarn tail is #1, its neighbor is #2,
the next is #3, etc.

Sew UP through #2, then DOWN through #1.
Sew UP through #3, then DOWN through #2.
Sew UP through #4, then DOWN through #3, etc.
The last stitch will be UP through the last peg,
DOWN through the 2nd to last peg, then UP through the last peg once more.

This will make the wrist warmers stretchy, I can make them the same way for everyone from my 13 year old niece (probably younger, but she is the youngest in my family that is not an infant) up to my husbands Burly Manly hands...

Thanks, hope you enjoy!

My first baby blanket

I keep telling people about the baby blanket I knitted...it seems like forever ago that I completed it, it was only a year and a half ago.

My little sister was only 16 when she had her baby girl. Finances were not exactly stable, so rather than her spending money on things like coats and baby blanket, I wanted here to have plenty of hand crafted items so she could spend her money on things like formula, and diapers.

I started this project 3 months before the baby was born, and lost the project 1 panel in (I was moving) 2 weeks after the babies due date, I found it again (notice I said due date???). I told my mom that I would work her furniture store while she helped my little sister finish setting up the nursery/ her room. In less than 3 days, I finished the blanket. The baby was born the next morning. Baby Brooklin Nichole. April 4, 2008.


Shadow's (that's the mom) favorite colors were Pink and Purple, and I found a great Variegated Red Heart super Saver that worked perfect when doubled with RH Super Saver White. Alvin, yes like the chipmunk, ( That's the highly un-liked Daddy) liked Blues and greens, so i found another great RedHeart Super Saver Variegated and paired that with the white from the pinks and purples.

The blanket was made up with 3 panels of alternating colors.

All panels were knitted on the Purple rectangle loom by Knifty knitter.

I guessed on the length of each panel, I knitted (zig-zag or figure 8 stitch) a few inches in the first color and white until the panel started to set into it's correct width (after it starts to slacken from being stretched between the pegs) and measured how wide it was, then I knitted until it was as long in that color as the panel was wide, counted the rows (this is your base row count) every other section of color will be this many rows.

Switch to the other color and white, keeping the white uncut. knit the number of rows you determined from 1st section, and switch back to the first color. Knit the number of rows you have worked out. Bind off with your preferred bind off method.

This is 1 panel. You will make another just like this.

The 3rd panel will be made the same way, but switching the colors, so that you secondary color and white will be the first and last square of color.

When all the panels are complete, you will line up the stitches and stitch them together, I used whip stitch on the blanket shown above, but in the future I would use mattress or blanket stitch to avoid the bulkiness on the back.



I accented this blanket at each of the meeting corners in the middle of color with a daisy made on the KK Flower loom. Each flower had a pearl center, do not use beads that are glued in or just sewn in if this blanket will be used as a regular child's blanket. Shadow used this one to shade baby in her swing, so baby Brooklin never actually touched this blanket until she was almost 2 years old. By which time the pearls had fallen off in the wash or in the nursery closet. My next blanket, I might use large festive buttons, or leave it without centers, just have the flowers.


Additional ideas!

If you want to make the blanket for use in a car-seat, leave a section about 6 inch wide un-sewn int he middle of one of the panels as you sew them together. this gives adequate room to buckle a seat-belt through the blanket without pulling the warmth off of the babies feet.

Reversible Beenies!

Reversible hats are often loved by people of all ages, because it allows them to have one hat that can match two outfits. In my case, I made hats to match my airsoft gear... reversible dead-rag beanies.






The pattern is as follows:


Two colored hat:


Using yellow round loom for large, green round loom for medium, or red round loom for small/child's, start with two strands of color A, e-wrap loom twice, and knit one over 1.


For Large hat: Knit 35 rows, and change to color B, knit 35 rows of color B.

For Medium hat: Knit 28 rows of color A and 28 rows of color B.

For Small hat: Knit 20 rows of color A and 20 rows of color B.


Pull end up as if making brim on regular hat, knit brim as usual and take off by gathered method. You can choose to embellish with button, flower, pom-poms, or whatever else your heart can fathom. Or you could leave it plain.




Three colored hat (main color A with brim of C outside, Main color B with brim of C inside):


Using yellow round loom for large, green round loom for medium, or red round loom for small/child's, start with two strands of color A, e-wrap loom twice, and knit one over 1.




Large hat: Knit 24 rows of color A, 20 rows of color C, and 24 rows of B.

Medium hat: Knit 20 rows of color A, 16 rows of color C, and 20 rows of Color B

Small (child's) hat: 15 rows of color A, 11 rows of Color C and 15 rows of color B


Pull end up as if making brim on regular hat, knit brim as usual and take off by gathered method. You can choose to embellish with button,flower, pom-poms, or whatever else your heart can fathom. Or you could leave it plain.