Sewing FO: Chicken Potholder

I have been pretty bad about Tasty Tuesday…  I have been finishing some projects though, so we’ll continue on this FO parade.

This is what I made for my Mom for Mother’s Day:

A chicken potholder!  Just hanging out in the industrial space at my work…

Pattern: Chicken Potholder by Myra Mitchell (no website, but here’s the first site I saw that carried it when googled)

I used a couple fat quarters that I got from Jo-Ann’s.  There is batting and Insulbrite inside.  The binding was actually left over from my quilt.  Though next time I might just buy bias tape.

The pattern wasn’t too difficult, but I had a lot of trouble sewing on the binding.  I am still a bit of an amateur when it comes to sewing.  And the base basically makes a circle, but it was hard to sew with stuffing in the head and tail.  And next time I will use the machine to sew down the other side of the binding.  No need to fuss with handsewing.  It’s just a potholder!

The pattern suggests that you make two potholders, but this one ended up being more work than I thought.  One potholder only uses two fat quarters, so it’s economical.  I used embroidery floss for the eyes, though you can use beads.

I know I’ll make at least one more in the future, especially because I already cut out plastic templates of all the pieces!  I have another potholder to make, that is shaped like a pie.  But then I’ll have to start thinking about my next quilt project!  Lucas is helping me design an applique quilt, but it may not be my next project.

What are you working on?

 

 

FO: Westport Shawl

I decided to go for it with this variegated yarn and finished the shawl.  Thank you all for your input on it!  It’s weird, I had initially really liked the stockinette sections but was hesitant about the lace parts.  But when it was all finished and blocked, I loved how the lace part looked, and I was a little dubious of the stockinette!

My Rav page here.

Pattern: Westport Shawl by Sarah Wilson

Yarn: Lorna Laces Shepherd Sock in Purple Club, 2.6 skeins

Needles: US5

Start Date: April 17, 2013

Finish Date: May 1, 2013

I didn’t make any modifications to the pattern.  I still have quite a bit of this yarn left over, because I had four skeins.  Maybe I’ll end up giving away the last skein unless I find something awesome to do with it.  These colors look different in every picture!  Probably in real life, it is most like the first picture.  The top straight edge curls quite a bit.  I don’t think it’s meant to lay flat, but just be forewarned.

I would definitely recommend the pattern.  And Sarah is doing a big KAL with giveaways in her Sexy Knitter group!

This is item #2 for the Epic KAL-CAL.

Mike Gray

I hesitated to post about this.  I don’t usually broach serious topics here.

Last week, Lucas’s father passed away unexpectedly.  He was very beloved by all who knew him.  I wish I had gotten to know him better and am saddened that I won’t be able to.  I have learned so much about him in the last week and I wanted to pay my respects here briefly.

Mike found success in almost everything that he attempted.  He was a respected documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, author and activist.  The L.A. Times had a wonderful piece about him here.

Here is one of his documentaries, “The Murder of Fred Hampton”:

And if you haven’t seen “The China Syndrome,” you need to rent it immediately.  It is amazing.

Mike, you will be truly missed.

I’ll be back to regular content later this week.

FO: Oak Trail Cloche

I finished the first of my 12 projects for the Skein After Skein Epic KAL-CAL.  One of my hats.

Project page here.

Pattern: Oak Trail by Alana Dakos from Botanical Knits

Yarn: Madeline Tosh Vintage in Filigree, maybe .6 skeins

Start Date: April 19, 2013

Finish Date: April 22, 2013

Needles: US 5.

Mods and Notes: I used the same size needle for all parts of the hat.  I got gauge on a 5 for the larger needle and it seemed excessive to go down to a US3 for the brim.  Also, I have a big head, so I thought a little extra room wouldn’t be bad.  When I got it wet the superwash really loosened up.  I liked the size that way, so if I had thought about it, I would have stuffed it while drying or pinned it out to keep it that size.  It did snug itself back up while it was drying.

I don’t know if it’s a super flattering shape on me, but I am still getting used to wearing hats.  And even getting these pictures was quite an ordeal!  I did really enjoy the pattern.  I pre-ordered Alana’s book and may have to make a bunch of things from it.  Like all of the sweaters!

Oh, and because I never posted any additional pictures of my Cerato Cowl, here they are.

The colors of this cowl have really grown on me!  I like it more and more each time I see it!

I have actually finished project #2 from the Epic KAL-CAL as well, but I need to get better pictures of it.  Hopefully next week will be a more productive blogging week!

FO: Scraps n Fats Quilt

Holy shit, I finished it!  Here she is, my first quilt.

Pattern: Scraps n Fat Quilt by Bloom Creek

Fabrics: a kit put together by Connecting Threads using their Sail Away (?) fabrics.

Size: 77″ x 86″  Or that’s what the pattern says.  I might be off a bit.

I used the Warm & Natural Cotton Batting and backed the quilt with the anchor fabric.

Here it is all laid out:

I quilted it using Connecting Threads cotton thread in Silver.  I used an allover stipple in the body of the quilt, and did two rows of loops in the borders.

Here are a few more quilting close-ups:

The stippling was easier than I thought it would be.  There is the occasional sharp angle on my stitching, but not too many.  I thought it would be harder to not cross lines.  I then got kind of cocky and was sure that the border quilting would be really easy too.  I had planned on doing spirals in the borders, but it turns out I am awful with doing large circles.  And following a drawn line was harder than I thought too!  I had to do a fair amount of practice, then some ripping out.

I drew horizontal lines on the border using chalk, breaking the border width down into quarters.  Then I started the loops using the center line as a base line, and using the quarter line as the stopping point for the small loops.  It is like drawing an e, then an l, over and over.  It worked out better when I did it freehand like this than when I tried to draw them all out.  If I do more quilting, I could be tempted to get a pounce pad and a grid stencil to mark my quilts with.

And to finish it off, I made a quilt label.  I wrote the words out using a chalk pencil, then I followed the letters using backstitch.  In the future I might want to learn some other embroidery stitches though.

I haven’t used my quilt yet, but it is already covered in cat hair…  There are definitely things that I need to improve on with my next quilt, but I am over the moon with how this one turned out!  I might take a break before I start another one!

FO: Cerato Cowl

Thank you for the opinions on my shawl.  I am just going to keep going for it!  At the end of it, if it is too crazy, I will think about overdyeing it or just give it away to someone who likes it.  But onward!

I did finish a quick project.  This was a test knit of a cowl off of the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry.

My Rav page here.

Pattern: Cerato Cowl by Nadja of Schneckenstrick.  The pattern will be released on May 1st I think.

Yarn: Knit Picks Chroma Worsted in Sunrise, 1 skein.

Needles: US 5 and US9

Start Date: April 16, 2013

Finish Date: April 19, 2013

Notes: I knit the pattern as written, except I ran out of yarn.  My row gauge must be different from the designer’s because my cowl was as tall as it was supposed to be, but I had to stop 7 rounds early.  This didn’t affect the patterning much.  I only have a couple feet of yarn left after that.

Nadja’s cowl was knit in Malabrigo Rios and looks super classy.  Mine is… less so.  I still like it, but it definitely feels like little girl colors.  Though, twice while working on it, on two separate days, people noticed that it matched what I was wearing.  I took a number of me-in-the-bathroom-mirror pictures.  I’ll edit this post in a bit and add one of those photos.  I will try to get some real pics soon though.

Also, the quilt is DONE.  Even the binding and an embroidered label.  I can not wait to get some good pictures of it to show you!!

Opinions needed!

I’ve started a shawl with some yarn from my stash.  The yarn is Lorna Laces Shepherd Sock in Purple Club.  It has a bunch of different purples in it.  It has been difficult to find a project to knit with it where the yarn doesn’t overpower the pattern.

I’ve had this shawl pattern in my queue for a while.  It’s the Westport Shawl by Sarah Wilson.  Her group on Ravelry (The Sexy Knitter) is doing a KAL right now.  And what I had loved about this shawl was how great it looked in a variegated yarn.

But now that I’ve started this shawl, I’m not so sure.

Part of me still likes it.  I like how the stockinette section looks.  But the lace is pretty garbled.  I don’t want this to be a project that people look at and cluck their tongues and shake their heads about my bad yarn choice.

Thoughts?