Rosettaluffagus

08/02/2013Leave a comment

Cassy of Knit The Hell Out came out with a pattern recently that made me find a small-ish child to put a garment on just so I could make it. Her Ruffaluffagus tunic/dress calls for sock yarn, of which I had plenty from making gloves. Or I thought I did. I ended up getting two more skeins because I think I really only had about a single skein to begin with.

The yarn I used was self-striping and the stripes really worked well with the gauge. For more complete information about the yarn I used, visit my Rosettaluffagus project page. The pinks in the yarn inspired the name, and also the accompanying headband.

Since the dress was for a little girl who loves hair accessories, I made a matching headband. (Project info here.) I am going to write up the pattern here soon, just to give myself a little practice writing patterns. I knit the band, then crocheted the flower separately and sewed it on with the center button.

The dress pattern was great. It was very easy to follow, which was good considering I had not knit (or even sewn, for that matter) an actual garment in a long time. The only thing I had any sort of complaint about was weaving in the ends, but that was my own darn fault. I had to buy two extra skeins of the yarn, obviously in a different dye lot than the first skein, so I not only had to stripe in the new skein to blend it, but keep up with the color changes to make the stripes correct. Lesson learned, next time make sure to have enough of the same dye lot to make the whole thing.

One of my favorite parts is how the short row sleeves make the stripe pattern mostly match up from the armhole to the sleeve. I didn’t even have to try to get that part correct.

Make It a Bat Cycle

07/31/2013Leave a comment

Remember how I told you there was a part 2 to the birthday gift from Monday?, and also how I procrastinated on it even more than the bubbles?

See, his big gift this year was his first ever bicycle. But that is a thing that is most definitely going to outlast his Batman phase and most likely be handed down to his brother. So he got a bike with flames on it but, through a series of random circumstances saw a picture of it and said he would rather have a Batman bike. Ding ding, birthday gift idea!

I had intended to measure the seat of his new bike (which he didn’t know he was getting yet) and all of that the day before his party so I could make a seat cover to give him the next day, but I never got around to it between laundry and lunchtime for baby brother. Luckily, I was set to stay with brother as he napped the next morning and everyone did things to get ready for the party. After everyone left I snuck in to where the bike was hidden, grabbed quick measurements and settled in at the dining room table to cut and sew a seat cover out of felt.

I had made the decal the night before, since that didn’t have to be any particular size. Then I cut out the four pieces of the seat, stitched the decal to the top, and backstitched them all together with embroidery thread to make the seams as secure as possible when hand sewing. I added a pullstring at the bottom so the cover just slips on the seat and is then secured with the string. Baby brother helped out by taking an insanely long nap and waking up just in time for us to walk down to the party and get cake.

It was a hit. He apparently wanted it put on his bike immediately and was incredibly excited about it. Mom was thrilled that he had his own logo on the bubble bottles. (And, let’s face it, at this age handmade gifts are more for mom than for child.) All around a successful birthday gift set.

How badly do you procrastinate on making things for others? Or am I the only one? Are you one of those super organized people who thinks months ahead about gifts and keeps them in a closet until the gift-giving occasion arrives?

XOXO

07/17/201309/30/2014Leave a comment

(I am still working on labeling my France pictures, so they should be ready by Friday. There are a lot and I have to look up what some of the specific places were.)

I love gloves. It is a serious obsession, almost rivaling my CD collection, but not quite. Gloves are my favorite “On-The-Go” project because I am not really into sock knitting (yet).

I had gotten this (apparently discontinued) yarn one day when I browsing the aisles at Michaels. It’s a super-soft acrylic and bamboo blend that I am sad doesn’t exist anymore. But, I was able to turn it into these gloves from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders.