train trip accomplishments

Ok, so I made these in November on my train trip to San Francisco.  I even took the photos then.  But now I'm cleaning up my desktop, so voila!

A giant cowl, with giant yard.  Kind of odd looking, especially as it ends right at the fullest part of my breasts, but it's warm.

My new favorite hat.  It's really soft.

A mobius wrap.  It's how nerds stay warm.  If anyone can explain to me why Blogger sometimes doesn't give a crap how I want my photos turned, I'd love to hear it.  This was rotated and saved six months ago, but apparently Blogger is too good for that.

A small grocery bag. 

All of this was the perfect level of brainless knitting/crocheting for staring out the window at the incredible scenery.

Sweater

After years of knitting and having sweater yarn for four years I finally made a sweater.  I went with a pattern that has no seams and was knit from the top down.

I'm really happy with the sweater, but it's now 85 degrees out so I won't get to wear it until next fall.

Halloween 2011

Remembering last year's time crunch (as well as Conor having no idea what he wanted to be ahead of time) saved me from trying to make all three costumes again.


As usual, it started with Ellie finding a $50 costume in a magazine, and me scoffing. It didn't turn out exactly the same (as she'll gladly tell you) but it worked. It's just a simple robe pattern, with lengthened cuffs and bottom trim, and a widened belt. The mask came with the weapons, and hides part of the collar. Pretty puffy sleeves for a ninja, but whatever.

This is the costume I love. It turned out SO WELL!!! Not just pretty good, but "this is why I sew" good. The pattern called for using tissue lame, but a) Hancock only carries that in gold and silver - Rowan wanted black - and (more importantly) b) the lady at Hancock, when I asked what it was, said "Oh honey. Unless you like to swear a lot when you sew, let's find something else" Apparently it's not fun to sew on. This is just some kind of silky fabric from the Halloween department. No different to sew with than my normal cotton. The chest armor is supposed to have horns as well, but Rowan asked to not have them. It's the silky stuff, a cotton broadcloth lining, and batting in the middle. The "muscles" are just top-stitching. It's still getting a lot of use!

Quiet Book (lots o' pictures)

Edited to add: The word "sewn" looks completely wrong to me, so if it's incorrect, sorry. Come back later when your spelling/grammar sensitivities are lessened.

This was the big kids' present to Rowan last Christmas. And as it's not yet this Christmas, I'm not too late in posting it, right? It's pretty heavy on the hand sewing, which I'm not minding as much these days. I'd love to take credit for the ideas for all of the pages, but really can't. I searched for quiet book templates, and found a ton. A lot are religious based, but I chose to skip them. Because really, this was planned more to keep R occupied at a basketball game than in church.

I found the most amazing ideas here: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/07/quiet-book-templates.html


This was also helpful: http://quietbook.blogspot.com/

The fabric, as usual, was the result of a crush. The pages are cheap muslin with batting (warm and natural, maybe?) in between. Bias tape around the edges, then buttonholes on the sides to accommodate binder rings. The cover is made-up, so I'll spare you the discussion of that. The felt pieces are doubled, sewn together after I sewed the velcro on. Most of them have a scrap of interfacing inside as well, so I feel like they're more tuggable. Here are the pages:

The cover. It's supposed to have a button on that strap to keep it closed, but I let R pick out the button and it's so hideous that I can't bring myself to use it. So it's just a flap, and the book doesn't stay closed. Big whoop.

Button on flowers.

This is one of my favorite pages. It's a lot of the places we go, that are recognizable to a non-reader. And our house, which is open at the bottom of the garage so a Matchbox car can be parked in it.






Velcro on the shapes, snaps on the apples.

Counting beads.

Velcro stoplight and tie football.

Velcro alphabet (iron on letters on felt).

Another favorite. The left is a set of pockets for 4x6 index cards and pencils. The right is a mailbox with a lid (cover? door?) that opens and closes. The mailbox is only sewn around the outside, so the cards fit inside.

Mr. Potato head and a zipper pocket for his clothes. Of which he needs more.


An old-school phone with a curly shoestring cord, and a treasure chest with a padlock and key.

A barn with finger puppets, and that back cover, which has an extra pocket.

Crafted gifts part deux

I just unpacked this next item, which I must have swiped on St. Patrick's Day to add some more fabric around the edges so it actually fits on a human head. Steve drew this during the cousin gift exchange for Christmas 2010. It inspires me to do something for myself for March 17. I love the flames!

Crafted gifts

Guess who found her camera cord? So I'm thrilled to post some hand-crafted gifts. I love the sweatshirt embroidery - the fan dancer is on the back. Front is all freestyle stitching, obviously since the sides don't really match. There is a little more orange accent around the hood, but I forgot to take pictures :)



I'm really proud that I sewed the fan dancer backwards - the pattern wouldn't show up on the back so I ironed it on the inside and stitched from the reverse side. Plus, the sweatshirt was on clearance at Old Navy for $3.50.

More Nesting: Valance and Pillow

Years ago, when I was on a trip to one of my favorite fabric stores--this one happened to be in Paris and I apologize to whomever came with me that day--I found this orange check fabric that I just loved. So, naturally, I bought 3 meters of it. And it happened to be about 3 meters wide. When you have a chunk of fabric so large, it's hard to cut into it. Luckily, this project didn't take too much of this precious commodity, but I think it was still a lovely use of it.

I am really proud of myself for the valance. I measured a lot to make it. I measured the 1x2 that holds it up, I measured to install the 1x2, I measured around the velcro that I attached to the 1x2 to hold up the valance. I measured the fabric I cut; I measured the hems and the tucks that make the valance look tailored at the corners. And I measured all those things more than once.

This valance even has a box pleat. Look:

Turns out box pleats are REALLY easy to make. I almost even matched the fabric at the pleat. Close, but not exact. Maybe next time. Next time I'll even remember to hem all the fabric BEFORE making the pleat. It got a little ugly, and next go 'round I would just use my seam ripper to un-pleat, hem, then re-pleat. But it still looks okay.

And with this close-up, you can definitely see the cording I put in along the top of the valance. Cording was also really easy on the valance.

After my success with the valance, I moved on to the pillow, which also is corded. I should have used The Google to learn more about making pillows with cording, because there is definitely only one presentable side to this pillow. And the cording is certainly not as tightly wrapped as I would have liked. But it looks okay enough, and a baby is just going to get bodily fluids all over it, which reminds me that I need to Scotchgard it pronto.

And since I'm on a roll here, I'll just show you that I was successful with making changing pad covers, too. I followed directions on aloadofcraft's blog to MAKE A PATTERN and it worked. You can see that the pad cover is contoured to the shape of the pad. Fancy, eh?
Okay, so that wraps up my crafting surge that will most likely come to a screeching halt in the next few days.

Nesting: Boppy Cover

Today I sucked it up and attempted to make something involving a zipper. It's not perfect, but you won't see the zipper until future baby pukes on this side a few times. Even then, I think the zipper should at least be out of the way of baby annoyance zone. The zipper even works...so far.

It looks like there is lots of loose fabric, but when I tried it out, it seems like that fabric spreads out once the pillow is in use around my big tummy.

Anyway, I loved the fabric, and I'm fairly pleased with how the cover turned out. We'll see how it holds up to actual use.

R2D2 Hat

Rowan is a fan of Star Wars so I decided to make him a Star Wars hat for Christmas. It has six R2D2s around the hat. I found the charts on Ravelry and made up the hat pattern. I think it looks pretty cool. So does Rowan, and that's more important.

Underwater Jeans

Tucker has recently realized that he's not supposed to wear girls' clothes, but it's been hard for him. Boys' pants are jeans or brown, nary a jewel to be seen. So after watching him vacillate between yet another pair of tan cargo pants and embroidered pink flowers and butterflies, I decided to emboider a pair of his jeans. He *loves* these. Of course they now have holes in the knees, but this flashy dresser doesn't mind.

Incidentally, we did come home from the store with one pair of pants: red cordoroys with ruby jewels in each button and metal gromit thing. That's not girls' clothes.

Halloween Costumes

Alternate title: What Was I Thinking?


It all started when Conor picked out a terribly expensive costume from a catalog. "I can make that", I said. So then all three pick out a costume for me to make. And I'm still thinking I have plenty of time.



Conor wanted to be a Star Wars guy. But apparently that franchise doesn't want you to be able to find a pattern specifically for a Star Wars guy. So we had to make a wizardy-knight one work - and an adult sized one at that. It turned out well, although in looking at the picture, it seems huge. Conor thinks it's okay. I will say that it's the first pattern that, when I found a part that I didn't understand at all, I just did it the way that made sense to me. That's a big step for me.


Rowan wanted to be a super hero. I present: Super Rowie. His pattern also included pants, shirt and gauntlets, but I was tired of costumes at this point, so I skipped them. This is actually the costume that will get worn the most. It's also the pattern that, when reading the directions, I thought "That is the stupidest way to make something that I've ever heard". So (after consulting with Mom and both of my aunt Kathys) I made it my way. Again, not following the directions is a big step for me.

And here's the girl who got the short end of the stick. I knew hers would be worn on Halloween and never again, so the only thing I made from the pattern was the gauntlets. Turns out she was thrilled with them, so she doesn't feel slighted in the least. I also made the skirt - one side seam, elastic waist, and zig zag hem. Tough stuff.

So there you have it. My first (and most likely last) attempt at making all three costumes. Next year, maybe one, but that's it!

Crochet

I've been learning how to crochet. At first it made me want to punch and kick and scream, but then I learned broomstick lace. It's pretty cool. Now I have a new scarf that I made that I didn't knit.

Thanks to the success of the scarf I'm moving on to other crochet projects. I'm excited to be able to trim my knitted work in crochet.

what you've all been waiting for

So I'm pretty sure that all of you are dying to for an update on the deodorant experiment. I mean, who isn't curious about my armpits?

[insert photo of my armpit here]

The first one I made just ran out, and I totally love it. It works so much better than Tom's, which is the deodorant I had been using before. I've been trying, especially when I'm pregnant or breastfeeding, to keep antiperspirant, and its aluminum, off my breast tissue and lymph nodes. It seems like the best choice, but I don't particularly enjoy it, because deodorants haven't worked that well for me. (On the other hand, for a while I was wearing one made with coriander, and at certain points during the day, I would think, "Yum, I smell Mexican food...no, Indian food...") And I tend to sweat a lot, for no apparent reason, sometimes.

But this deodorant totally works. I never stink. Never. I wore it all summer long. AND sweating really wasn't a problem. Occasionally my shirt was wet, but not nearly as bad as I though it would be. And sometimes I bike three kids around. I think the baking soda and cornstarch absorb quite a bit. And have I mentioned that my armpits are so soft, and I never get razor burn? It works all day, unlike Tom's, which has a "long-lasting" version that works for 12 hours. I'm not sure what Tom does, but he must get a lot of sleep.

[insert photo of armpit from another view]

The downside is that it built up in a couple of my shirts. This could be because I only wear three shirts all summer long, or because I put too much on, which I do (because I'm mature, at 34, and I know: more is always better). Also, it's kind of a pain to put on, because you have to dig it out with your fingers.

Since I'm making more, I'm trying a slightly altered recipe, using coconut oil instead of shea butter and cocoa butter. This recipe seems a bit crumblier than the last, so I'm thinking of making the old recipe, and putting it in Chris's old deodorant tube.

So now you know. Homemade deodorant is the bomb.



*******
Ok, by request I'm adding the recipes. The comments page kept weirding out on formatting.

Here's the first version, altered a bit, but from Angry Chicken:
3T shea butter
2T cocoa butter
3T baking soda
2T corn starch
1/4 t vitamin e oil
essential oil (you need quite a bit of e.o. to counteract the fact that shea butter smells like Grandpa's townhouse) - I used fir balsam

new version, which I'm not sold on:
2T coconut oil
2T baking soda
2T corn starch
1/8 t vitamin e oil
1/4 t almond oil (which I added because I thought it would be too hard, which it is. I need to re-melt and add more.)
4 drops peppermint essential oil

Either way, mix everything except the essential oil, and melt in a double boiler, microwave, solar oven, whatever. Mix well. Add essential oils and stir again. Pour in container and let cool. Then enjoy how you're sticking it to The (deodorant) Man.

Tucker's Narwal

Tucker and Chris made a narwal last winter, and when I said something about taking pictures of his pants to post on this blog, he really wanted me to add his narwal. He also wanted me to say that only he made it. But I told him I'm not a big fat liar like he is. But he was the idea man behind it, even drawing a schematic diagram.

Here's what Tucker has to say: Daddy and me made this narwal. It's made out of fabric, a plastic sunbutter jar (but you can use peanut butter if you wanna make it), and a plastic tube that's screwed in with a screw and a nut stuck into the plastic tube. Then I used markers to color it.

Socks

I have been making a lot of socks. They are amazingly comfortable. They are a portable project. They don't involve carrying around bulky wool in the summer. They look cool. They are knit on tiny needles that make me feel like a super strong bad ass when I break them mid row.

I hope to eventually have several pairs. I want to be able to wear hand knit socks every day at work.

A Quilt for Lola

The back

Lola is my goddaughter and I'll give her almost anything she wants.

So when she asked for a "Dora Blanket" I sprung into action!

I knew the exact patten I would use!

We went to the fabric store together and picked out the Dora fabric she liked best.

Then I asked her what color she saw in the Dora fabric and

she said "Orange!" so we went to the section with orange fabric
and she picked out her favorite orange...

We repeated this 2 more times and she chose blue and pink fabrics.

The pattern I used was from a Minnesota pattern book.

It was called "LeSueur"...

That is where Paula grew up and Brian and Paula met.

This is the final result... I cut it and Mom sewed it together at our

quilt retreat because she was tired of her own projects.

It turned out pretty cute!

DIY... Who needs profesionals!!!

Carol and I tore out the world's UGLIEST and dirtiest carpet

out of our guest room and put in solid oak instead!!!

We still need to stain it and put the trim up.

Pillowcases for the Grands-In-Law

I wanted to bring something personalized to my grandparents-in-law when I visited them a couple weeks ago. I thought pillowcases would be something useful, and I think they're pretty.

To make them, I cut up a 100% cotton flat king sheet that I bought when it was on sale at Target. I even measured for this project (there's nothing worse than gifting shoddy work to people who speak languages I don't understand). I cut out a big rectangle, zig-zagged the edges, then sewed the case to form the bottom and side seam. Then I ironed on the pattern, selected some colors--two shades of purple and two shades of green--and embroidered away. After I embroidered, I made the big blind hem on the end to encase the back of the stitching. Voila.