{Embroidery? Really?}

I've been plugging along obsessively on my Ambrosia Cardigan since I last posted.  Once I put it on and saw that it fit and looked good, it was like a fire was lit under my butt and it's all I can think about doing! I've cast off the bottom and done one sleeve, so today will be the other sleeve and the neck band.  I'm also going to sew some gross grain ribbon in under the cabling where I'll have to sew in some hooks.  I think it will help me to avoid any pulling and gapping once I'm wearing it.  YAY! Almost done!!

So, during one of my short "gosh my hands hurt" breaks from the cardigan, while I was surfing around on knitting blogs, I found this TOTALLY AWESOME site here:  Urban Threads.com and now I'm kind of obsessed with trying out my luck on some hand embroidery!!  And, I have just the project for it.

Inspired by some other blog that I saw a LONG time ago, I've been keeping my eye open for a canvas shoe organizer to hang on our shed to plant herbs in.  I never did find one, and decided once I got my sewing machine that I should try my hand at making one!  So, after $7 in canvasy outdoor fabric from Wally World, and a $3 dowel rod, I had this:

Cute, right?  The lines aren't straight of course, but that doesn't matter! hehe What DOES matter is that I want to embroider the names of the herbs on each pocket!!

The problem? I can't find embroidery supplies ANYwhere.  I'm an hour from a Michaels, and Walmart doesn't carry those supplies anymore.  I went to find somewhere to buy online, but couldn't find anywhere that didn't charge ridiculous shipping.  Plus, I kinda don't know what I need, so I wanted to be able to ask someone.   So, instead I'm going to ask you guys!!  You're all so smart! :D

What kind of needle and floss would I buy for this heavy canvas material to be able to do this?  And I THINK I need a loop of some kind, don't I?  But will it work on these pockets?  What do I need in order to transfer on to the material??   And finally (maybe most importantly) do you know an online source that charges reasonable shipping rates? 


OH and... don't feel rushed or anything? But Urban Threads is having a giveaway that ends Juen 6th.  I need to submit photos of my project for a chance to win one of 200 random $10 gift certificates. *sigh* A girl can dream. :) hehe

Thanks guys!!

{In Progress}

My current knitting obsessions is the Ambrosia Cardigan (rav link) from my Interweave Knits summer 2010 that I just got in the mail.  It's my first knit from a magazine and I even had the EXACT right yarn on hand!  The kind that the pattern asked for!  How awesome is that?  It's a top down knit too, my first grown up sized one, so it feels like it's taking longer to knit, but really it's probably going faster because there will be no need to piece anything together at the end.

Yesterday I put it on scrap yarn and tried it on.  I'm so STOKED!!

It's the perfect size!! The only other top I've knit for myself was that big sweater I did, but it's so terribly unflattering that I've never worn it out.    THIS one is going to be a favorite I think!! YAY!  It's knit in a 100% cotton that is super stiff, so with an inch or so of negative ease I think it's going to feel somewhat like a corset. lol  It's also kinda hard on the hands to knit, but I've been powering through. :)

{ A Small Project}

Well, maybe a couple?  I re-did my header - what do you think?  :)

The second was a wrist pin cushion! I followed the tutorial over at Tea Rose Home.  Super cute, right?

I haven't given it a try just yet, but I'm sure it'll come in handy very soon! :D  Can I count this as an FO??

{Oh My Gosh! So Excited!}

I have a BUNCH of stuff that's making me all excited this morning!

Alora Loves Her New Sweater! 

Who doesn't love this face?  Poor girl's been sick and teething as of late, hence the glassy eyes.  She's still adorable though!

When I embroidered on those flowers, I didn't anticipate that they'd become a play thing for her, but hey! Who's arguing? She can't pull them off, just pull them tight so they make for something fun to do while getting a fresh diaper and such. hehe

I Got A Birthday Package From Jenny!
(from Jenny's Blog On Knitting)

It arrived looking like this and I was appropriately worried. lol  That little label on the top read "may have been delivered damaged."  GULP!   Not to fear though, everything inside was squishy and non-breakable!!

That GORGEOUS bag in the back was hand sewn by Jenny's sister, Sanna!  How gorgeous is that fabric?? It's going to be my new sewing notions bag! YAY!  There was of course tons of Chocolate to be had, but most didn't make it to the photo, unfortunately.  YUM  The green yarn is a 100% wool of Swedish origin called Kampes.  I think it's going to be my Christmas Tree skirt that I posted about in my book review!  (Jenny? I might need some red too! grin ) The Lin in the front is another Swedish yarn that I already had some of in my stash and had inquired about getting more through Jenny's LYS but held off because I didn't have anything planned for the yarn yet.  Well... ta da! :D  And the merino is from Drops- super soft!  I'll find a project to use it on for sure!

Then, I was putting everything away from the picture taking and found these guys hanging out in the bag! I missed them the first time and I was all like, "There's MORE??!?"

Thank you SO SO Much to Jenny and her sister Ana!! I feel so special to deserve a great birthday package like this one!! :D

I Was Featured on Tea Rose Home! 

Yesterday I was featured on the very popular home crafty blog, Tea Rose Home!  She really loved my 100% cotton baby sweater that I finished recently.  How cool is that??  Thanks Sachiko! 

{Desk Build: The Big Reveal}

The desk has been planned, built, painted, stained and assembled and is back in our office.  We couldn't afford to buy all the lumber at once to do everything we wanted so it doesn't have a back yet, or doors, or upper shelves (for the most part).  There aren't a lot of accessories yet either, so it's pretty plain looking, but man is it functional!  I've already been using it already for sewing and crafting and I love not having to carry all my materials across the house to the dining room.  Plus, it's an easy clean up to put everything back.

This build was inspired by Ana's desk plans over at Knock Off Wood.  I LOVE this website!  There are a ton of inspiring stories from women picking up their husband's power tools! And for the record, this was the first time I used a power drill!  It felt pretty good. :)

I know you've already seen it, but here's the before:

My Mister and I are renting this old house while I'm in school and we've done a lot of work to fix it up.  We've painted every room with the exception of this one because it is the only room with real wood paneling. We've removed wall paper, painted cabinets, changed out faucets... lots of stuff.  This room is where we really do most of our living though because it's where our computers are.  It's an odd room that has two doors in to it!  The door you're looking at is one of three doors to the bedroom, so we didn't really need it except for air circulation.

The fireplace mantle is beautiful, but as you can tell from the construction paper replica, it's totally not functional at all.  I think maybe if this were my house the fireplace would take precedent over a desk, but since it isn't my house I don't have the option of fixing it.  This whole wall of our small office was monopolized by the boarded up fireplace and a superfluous door.  hehe We definitely needed more function in here.

Now, that side of the room looks like this!

My new sewing machine too! Check it out!

Mr. Pie's side for painting his miniatures

I altered Ana's plans quite a bit.  The bases are built with OSB and 1x2's for trim. They are 20" x 20" to maximize on storage space.  Eventually these will have doors on them so it's not all open storage.  I also made every base the same because when we move I want this unit to be as flexible as possible.  There are two boards for the top, both are 24" wide by 60" long to make a total of 10 feet of working space.  We chose stain grade pine boards because they came from Lowes at 24" wide and we didn't have to worry about piecing together 1 x 12 boards and having a seam down the middle of the desk horizontally.  As a bonus, one of the boards we used was pretty damaged from being on the shelf too long, crunched at one end and cracking a little in the middle.  We had to trim off 12" anyway so the crunch was gone, but we stained the board with the crack right in it.  They gave us half off that one, so we'll keep an eye on it and replace it later if necessary.

The shelving on Mr. Pie's side of the desk was made out of the left over osb that didn't get used for the base units.  These were the only pieces that Lowe's didn't cut for us!  They did ALL the rest of the cutting for free! We went in on a Monday night and they were more than willing to spend some time with us on their huge rip saw.  Truthfully, we could have found plywood cheap at the Restore and saved ourselves about $25 per sheet but without a way to cut it or to transport home the huge sheets, it just wasn't worth it.  Lowes was a huge huge help.

Price Break Down:

2 -  4' x 8' OSB, cut to size
3 -  2" x 8' trim
2 -  2' x 6' stain grade pine (one half off for damage)
stain
1 1/2" deck screws
wood filler                        
  $150

Pottery Barn Ottoman from the Habitat ReStore
 $20

1/2 gallon of Killz and 1/2 gallon of white paint
  free from home

 Total: about $170 (so far!)

And there you have it!! Next we'll have to buy some task lighting , some more baskets. I'm liking the blue ones, actually. $1 from the dollar store, can't beat that!  I'm so darn proud of us!  What do you guys think???

Linked at: Tea Rose Home, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Under The Table and Dreaming,

{Some Book Reviews}

I got FOUR new knitting books for my birthday!  I am so excited!!  It's even more fun when I get to share my opinions of these books with my blog friends, right?

 Hand Knit Holidays by Melanie Falick

It was my family that bought me this one off of my Amazon Wish list.  I put it on that list as soon as I saw the patterns online. They are AMAZING! It's a hard cover book and there a lot of patterns in this one, more than normal it seems.  They cover all the different holidays, not just Christmas, and there's a huge variety of patterns, from decor, to sweaters, to socks, mittens and hats.  There are hardly any patterns in this book that I flat out wouldn't knit, and unfortunately the cover is one of those.   I would have put any other pattern on the cover. lol There are so many patterns that I just love love love.

                                  Hannah's tablecloth   Over-the-knee socks      Aran tree skirt

These are just three patterns that I really really want to knit.  The Tablecloth is just gorgeous and uses store bought linen napkins and then pieces them together with lace knitting - breathtaking.   The Over-the-knee socks are pretty!! I imagine it would take me a year to knit them, but I could make them a size to actually fit!  And the Aran tree skirt is definitely getting made for our tree this year, and I think I even have the yarn for it! Ours had a mishap last year (of the kitten variety) so it got trashed.  I'm thinking green for the body with red trim for a more traditional feel.

I give full review points for this book.  Can't wait to start knitting out of this one!

Socks From The Toe Up by Wendy D. Johnson

Every since I trashed my first sock on 5 double pointed needles and went searching for the two circulars method, I've been in love with it.  I adore knitting socks from the toe up so this book jut seemed like it would be a good fit, so I was thrilled to get it as part of my Knit Picks gift from my Mister!   I was blown away once I started reading! They list three different heel methods with just plain vanilla socks as lessons and then go on to write patterns for each method.  They seem to be split almost half and half between lace socks and patterned socks, not much colour work or cabling in this one.  This book has so much information in it! It's now an invaluable addition to my book collection.  Here's a couple of my favorites:

                                      Dead Simple Lace Socks          Diamond Gansy Socks

Most of the patterns are on fingering weight, but there's a handful at the end on sport weight, too.  I think I'm going to pick one to cast on this evening because the cotton cardigan I'm knitting right now is a little tough on the old digits. hehe  These will be so much fun!!  I have a feeling everyone might be getting socks for Christmas this year. lol  Definitely full marks on this one too!

Knitting the Perfect Pair by Dorothy T. Ratigan

 
Another soft cover book from my Amazon wish list.  My family really loves me! hehe  I put this one on a while ago because it looked like they had a wide variety of socks, and do they over!  The only problem with this one is I'll have to read the pattern backwards to go from the toe up.   With this book you get colour work, lace, lots of cabling, heavy weight and light weight, the whole gambit of what socks can be!  Even toe socks! Two I'm looking at are:

                                        Textured Stripe Socks                      Fishnet Stockings

The stripey ones just seem a great way to use up ends, don't they? Or maybe all those odd skeins of Palette I have around.  I love the textures and I even get to practice some fair isle!  The fishnets are just pretty and fun and I'm certainly going to be making a pair of those, too.  This book is up there on the scale, just not as high as the other two.  There are some kinda zany patterns that are fun looking, but maybe too much for me to invest time in, ya know?  There are only a few of those, though. 

Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Isn't this one just a standard for every knitting library?  I haven't read all the way through it yet, but I really enjoy the conversational style of Ms. Zimmermann's writing.  It's like having an aunt over your shoulder explaining why we knit like we do, passing along the information from generation to generation.  There aren't any huge fancy pictures and it's mostly formatted like a reading book, not an instructional guide.  Old fashioned, but tried and true!  I got mine used from my family, which I love too!

Thanks folks! I hope these were helpful to you guys and if you have any other questions shoot them along! I have so many blog posts ready to go in my head, but I'm trying to pace myself. lol   Oh, and Popeye is doing great now! Thanks for everyone's caring comments!  He's eating and playing like his old self. :)

{ Excuses, Excuses}

I realize I promised you guys I would review some books today, and I still intend to do that, I promise ! It's just that I just walked in from painting the pieces of the craft desk and I am beat. 

This morning the desk went from this:

To this:

It's curing now, and will be set up tonight! YAY!