My post on Martha Stewart Crafts

Choosing a sewing machine can be stressful and overwhelming. I know because it took me over a year to choose one for myself!

The struggle is now over and I'm the happy owner of a new machine. I documented my trip to choose a sewing machine on Martha Stewart's Crafts Department blog. Check out my post, and let me know if you've had a similar experience.

Serenity Now, Pattern!

I'm terrible at math. I'm also very anxious to get going on projects, meaning I never do things like knit swatches. Apparently my anxiousness also applies to pattern-making, and my lack of math skills doesn't help me out.

I saw this awesome wide-brim hat over on BurdaStyle. Difficulty: Novice. That's me! I can do this.

Ha!

I've cut a pattern for the crown pieces no less than eight times. When I finally thought I had the pattern right, I sewed all the pieces together. Too small! I look like I'm wearing one of those beanies my Cabbage Patch Kid boy came with. Definitely not enough seam allowance left to get the brim on there. Bleh.

Being feisty and all, I won't give up on this. I trudge onward and try again. And again!

Valentine's Day for the Cynic

Even though I have a valentine, we are not big on exchanging gifts for the "holiday." (This doesn't stop me from eating my weight in Reese's peanut butter hearts.)

But when I saw this cool Abstract Rose-Print Valentine's Day Cards project on MarthaStewart.com, I couldn't resist. The results were lovely.

To make this as un-Valentine as possible, I decided to use this to make birthday cards.

I used Craft Smart Washable water based ink pads from Michael's.

Craft Shopping Saturday

On Saturday, I was feeling crafty. I went to my favorite neighborhood craft store, Fiber Notion, and picked up supplies to do some embroidery.

This is a new undertaking for me. I did cross-stitch as a kid, but never legitimate embroidery. A few months ago, I picked up theKyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Woolly Embroidery book. Why not give it a go?

I bought some basic supplies, plus a nice color palette of tapestry wool and thread. I was also more than thrilled to see that the store carries Sublime Stitching patterns, so I picked up the stationery kit and the Russian doll pattern pack.

I finally pulled myself away from the store and ventured onward.

I've lived in New York for three years and only now am I discovering that there is a subway-accessible Michael's craft store in Queens at the Northern Blvd stop. I know, I know. How could I? But I discovered and now I have visited. I picked up way too much stuff at Michael's, including:

Scrapbook (it was on sale and my current one is overflowing)
Plywood to make a string art project
Wood stain for the plywood
Paint brush for the wood stain
More embroidery basics (needles, plastic hoops, etc.)

I was close to buying one of the Simpsons latch hook kits, but I held myself back. Now, what to start on first...

Always inspiring, always expensive

The always inspiring and always expensive Anthropolgie has stuff I want to knit. This time, I wanted to own/alter their Daisy Day Vest. Except I don't want the black and white speckles, and I think I could do without the huge daisy on the right bust, which I'd imagine only accentuates already-large things. Put 'er on the list!

Casey's Coat = Bad Friend

I am a bad friend.

Two years ago, I was the maid of honor in my friend Brittany's wedding. When Brittany settled into her new married digs in Minnesota, she got a new dog named Turtle. I promised that I would make Turtle a doggie sweater before the winter so she didn't freeze in Minnesota. I moved to New York, started grad school, and completely abandoned the sweater.

Now, I am a new person. I graduated from school and have resurrected the pattern from the Stitch n' Bitch Nation book. I e-mailed Brittany, told her I was getting started on the sweater, and knitted about 20 rows. I just noticed that I messed up the stripe sequence pattern, so I'm backing it up a bit. But hopefully this year, Turtle will have a sweater in time for winter (even though Turtle now resides back in Kentucky where winters aren't nearly as harsh).

Dogwood Donna begins

In honor of fall, I decided to start knitting something dark green. Enter Dogwood Donna from the spring Knitscene (yes, I know it was meant for spring. But now it's going to be meant for fall, ok?). So my yarn from Yarniverse in Memphis arrived Friday and I'm knitting a swatch. I've spent waaay too much time away from knitting this summer and I'm ready to get started again.

Coolest Hat Ever...

Love the Center Square pattern. Love the colors I chose. Problem? I made it too large!!

I have a big head. Blame it on the hair, blame it on the genetics (my brother claims big head status, too). So I always try to make my hats a little larger than normal.

Flashback to winter 06-07. It is unbearably cold. I drop by Urban Outfitters and check out the clearance sale on hats. Pick up two hats: one helmet style and one plain. The plain one won't fit over my head. The helmet one looks silly, but I wear it anyway because it's warm and--good Lord--it covers my whole head, chin, and neck. As a result, I get made fun of by friends and decide to make this hat.

Because the UO hat was too small, I decided to increase the gauge on the Center Square hat for my big head. This resulted in a hat that was too big. Awesome, yet too big.

I frogged it (but not before taking a lovely photo) and will most definitely redo for next winter.

Lucky not very lucky

I hate Lucky. I really do.

I've been working on this for years. As is tradition, I knit, I frog, I knit, I frog. I actually had it almost put together when I discovered that the top of one sleeve was wider than the other. Oh, it won't be obvious, I told myself. I continued to sew seams and whadya know? It looked terrible. Frog!

So here I am again, knitting and hopefully not frogging again. Will I ever finish this? Why do I continue to do things wrong and not check them when it only pisses me off in the end?

Here's the new sleeve just starting...

I hate the asymmetrical coat from Elann.

I wrestled with this durn coat back in October when I purchased way too much for this yarn to make this project for my mom's birthday on December 1. I had many many troubles with the pattern right from the start. I wrote Elann, they printed a correction, and sent the new pattern.

Things were going well until I started to finish the collar. Wrote Elann again and they said there were no other problems or corrections.

A few minutes ago, I got a revised pattern in my email. This is May. I made the coat in December. My mom can't wear the coat now, plus it looks terrible because of the botched pattern.

This is the one and only time in the history of my knitting that I can indeed say that the muss-up of the pattern was not my fault. But it still makes me wanna go GRRRR because it was a nice birthday present with is now almost unwearable. Sigh.

Here's a picture of the finished yet botched coat.

Faux Cable Vest: Frogged

The faux cable vest looked really good on the model on the cover of Knit.1. The vest looked like I was carrying two 4th graders around--one on my back and one on my belly.

That yarn is super bulky. I don't even think it would look good on a super skinny person. The cable looked so awesome, though, that I had to take a picture before I frogged it. Still partly on the needles, as you can see.

Now...what to make with the bulky yarn?