Made it: Baby Poncho

I came across this pattern for a baby poncho in the Lion Brand newsletter and thought it would be cute for little Immy. Immy belongs to Jade and Nigel (my former co-worker and her British husband). She is super cute and has crazy hair. The pattern was pretty easy. It was basically a rectangle with a hole in the middle. The hood is knitted on and picking up the right number of stitches is not so easy. Also there was supposed to be a pocket but I ran out of yarn, plus what the heck does a baby need a pocket for any way? lip balm? a cell phone? nuffin!
We ate at London Fish and Chips, a wildly popular fish n' chips place in Cary. People line up at the door and they sometimes sell out of fish early. Nigel gives it a thumbs up. He says it is less greasy than the standard fish n' chips. Jerry enjoyed it. I feel it is what it is, I am not a huge fan of overly breaded fried things (don't get me wrong, fried IS a food group ya'll).
The highlight was the very fashionable Immy in the poncho and her Union Jack shirt.

Embroidered it: "and all was for an appil"

This is what I will be working on for the next year or lifetime....
My co-worker Martha showed me a cool website (www.scarlet-letter.com) that sells reproductions of samplers. This is a reproduction of some canvas work from the 17th century. What is really cool about it is that the Adam and Eve motif was not at all common during this time. I like the really primitive look and phrase "and all was for an appil". So this is cross stitched on linen which is not an evenly woven fabric. Seeing this firsthand was overwhelming and I almost started crying, considered sending it back (I was really looking forward to this for weeks). But then I thought about it for a while and decided to pencil in a graph out line on the outside of the piece. That really helped and I have stitched about 20 stitches so far. Hopefully I will give an occasional update. Also overwhelming is the size 13"x 16". According to my calculations there are 696 squares containing 100 stitches- that equals almost 70,000 stitches. However, half of this is negative space so really it is about half that...phew! only 35,000 stitches!
I have not been blogging as much lately. I actually have posts drafted up (like the time we shaved Jerry's facial hair in stages). Maybe I will get around to it over the weekend!

Crocheted it: Scarf

This is my first time crocheting. I will always prefer knitting BUT there are certain patterns in crochet that you don't see in knitting. For example, a cloche. I had one pattern in knit and it was for a super expert. It had a complicated herringbone pattern. I figured out the pattern but when it came to the pattern and increasing and decreasing....I gave up. I must have tried to knit this 8 or 9 times. I don't feel like it was a failure because I tried several times and the person at the knit shop was impressed that I figure the pattern out and could not really help me when it came to whatever my problem was (yep, so complicated we did not even know what my problem was, just that it wasn't right) . To impress a knitting shop lady is pretty impressive so I just left it at that--pat on back!
So I got the book "Get Hooked Again!" and it is ok. The written instructions are easier than the pics, but I found this to be true of online instructions as well. Knitting seems easier to represent graphically. I did not like the colors of the yarn at the craft store so I chose another brand (Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand Yarn) and bought the hook mentioned in the gauge and am using the pattern in the book. Unfortunately the yarn is acrylic BUT the colors are awesome.
So crocheting is not too bad, everyone says it is quicker but I don't necessarily think so!

Made it: Collaging with Kate Klutz and Janet and Toffy

(I was going to spell collaging with a K but...that is just wrong) Today I finally had a chance to collage at Kate's house. Kate works at the State Library and rescues things that are destined for the landfill. As a result, she has lots of neat things useful for collaging. I fell in love with her super sharp paper scissors and various paper punches.

She also has lots of stamps from her dad's collection. Not only does she have postage for life she also has stamps letting us know that "Retarded children can be helped" (probably from the 70's? when people still used that word and that helping retarded children was news) and stamps commemorating the Pap test and its founder Dr Pap...something Greek...or Czech...or Polynesian....

(click on stamp for larger view)








Kate also has a swell dog, Toffy and a nice friend from Durham, Janet. Janet works at DesignBox in Raleigh and will probably move to Raleigh soon.

Made it: Cute purse

This was my first attempt at sewing something more than a seam or a square. It ended up looking pretty good. I learned a lot and thinks I can make one with fewer little mistakes.
I got the pattern from a book called Bend the Rules Sewing (amazon, WCPL catalog). I was pretty confused for a while but after reading the simple pattern 4 million times, I was able to sewing it in an afternoon. The freakiest thing is turning the purse so that the outside is pretty and the inside can be stuffed inside the outside. I messed up a tiny bit on it, but trying to figure out how to correct it would cause an aneurysm. As a reward for actually finishing a project I am going to buy some real sewing/fabric scissors and some sort of sewing box (probably a tool box).
The fabric was from a vintage dress I wish I had worn more. I am going to make another purse out of some curtains with a bird pattern. I would definately recommend this book for easy and cute first sewing projects.