Wednesday, September 26, 2007

She thrifts, she scores!

I made pants. I MADE PANTS! You can almost tell how cute they are from these pictures. Brown corduroy with olive green cuffs and waistline. I got the idea here and followed the tutorial here. I'm such a visual/physical learner, the on-line tutorials are really great for me. I can actually make things instead of freaking out over a pattern and the written instructions.

And, I've been holding out on the funky tea set I've been collecting for a while. The clincher were these fabulous cups. I wish I had fabric with that pattern, I'd make pants for everyone out of them! They were 10 cents a piece. 10 CENTS!
And, oh, the tray. . . I'm loving the woman bringing a cooked turkey to a man who's been out fishing. It's almost like a comic strip. Man goes fishing. He doesn't catch a thing. Woman anticipates no fish. She cooks turkey.
And, I guess I'll have to pick and choose which tea cups to keep. . . the tray's full. Either that, or have a lot of people over for tea!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Booties!

Saartje's Bootees pattern (in the sidebar). I'm down with the knit, but I screwed up the sizing. I'll do more that are littler for baby feet later.



Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Harlot and other crafty news

I made a some little hair clips. This picture makes it look huge, but it's not. I was mostly inspired by Amy Karol's little clippies, but a few others caught my eye too.And, of course, another birthday crown and more clippies.
But, the real news? Yup, I did it. I actually dropped the kid off at daycare at 1pm, packed up the car and then drove to Seattle to see the Yarn Harlot, and then drove home. To put this in perspective: it takes about 3 hours to get to Seattle and that includes a ferry. On the way home, the ferry was full and I had to wait an extra 40 minutes until the next one. Try explaining that to someone who doesn't knit! It's hard enough to convince someone that it's worth the trip for a huge concert, like if Prince came to Seattle, I wouldn't make the trip. . . and that's saying a lot! So, for me to make the trip to see an author. . .an author of humor books, wait: an author of knitting humor books, well, you see how my Friday went.
The truth is, I totally needed and deserved this break. For those of you who know what's been up with my husband this summer, you know that to take 9 hours out of a day and be alone and then surrounded by fellow knitters was amazing. I was worried that I'd get tired, but I was so energized by seeing Stephanie that I floated home. It had nothing to do with the 3 diet cokes I had, really. And, as hard as it is to explain a spontaneous road trip to see a knitting author, get this: I listened to self help books on CD the whole way. Yup. That's right. . . I'm flaunting it now! I drove to Seattle to see a hysterically funny knitting author speak and I became a better person in the process. I wasn't even fussed about missing that ferry.
So, in that picture up there, I'm wearing my "Knit it or Quit it" t-shirt. I gave one to Stephanie too. I also scored her a Tom Bihn knitting bag. It's Seattle made and not even on the market yet. Still in beta. It was really fun to see her speak and then to take a few minutes of her time and say hello. . . good stuff. I think my favorite part was that after she said something applause-worthy, there would be a split second pause as everyone set down their knitting and then started clapping. That cracked me up, and so did she. Fun Fun.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

That's right. . . dayglo owls!

I should start this by adding a few details about Tom's tumor. I failed to mention that the thing was benign. It was benign and removed fully. . . very little chance of it coming back or causing further harm. He's starting to be a lot more like the man I married. . . full of beans. He's a feisty one. He's healing well.
In other news:
I went to the really huge community garage sale yesterday. I went within the first hour of it opening. That was a mistake. It was so freakin' crowded that I couldn't see a thing! And then, when I found this lovely hand knit sweater, I had to stand in line for 30 minutes to buy it. Uh, yeah. Oh, and Abby (yes, my 2 year old) took those pictures of me in the sweater.
I am so in love with this sweater. When I put my hands in the pockets. . . that's right, tissues and hall's lozenges. Just like an old lady sweater should be. . .full of the stuff of healing! It seems to be right out of Elizabeth Zimmerman's knitting workshop. . .the button band and sneaky pockets. . . I love to imagine just who it was that knit it. She was mighty smart because she lined the sleeves. . .it's an itchy wool.
Anyway, I went back today with the hope of finding treasures that had been stirred up in the frenzy. I found the coolest old fabric. There are owls in that florescent madness. OWLS!
And, could those little wee birds just make you curl up from the cuteness! And, it's linen. I LOVE it. I'm not sure what I'll do with it all. . . but handbags seem to be my thing now.




















And, holy moley. . I finished the pinwheel sweater! Abby was kind enough to put it on today just long enough for a picture. It's too cute for words. I hope she starts wearing it when it's cool enough.

















And, jeez I have a lot today, pictures of the Rumpus Room. I wish I had "before" pictures. It was just an emtpy storage room with nasty concrete floor, no shelving or cabinets and unfinished walls. There's still a bunch of little things to do, like get a futon and put something on the walls and put up curtains, but it's use-able now. Our house is so small, that this really almost doubles our living space (meaning, space that is not our kitchen, bathrooms or bedrooms). It is attached to our garage and across the yard. I am loving the quiet sewing time. Also, my lady friends can come over and drink wine without fear of waking my little one and the tired husband. . .key to my existence right now. I love that I can sew and look right out into our back yard and watch the kid play. I have a tiny t.v. and DVD player in there too, for the cold winter months when she'll be less inclined to play outside and let me play on the sewing machine or knit.

Oh, and I worked really hard before our dear friends got married in early July (read: before the tumor trauma!) to finish their cool picnic blanket. I never got a picture of it fully finished, but you get the idea from these shots of it pieced together. Blatantly copied from Amanda, the Soulemama. See her picnic blankets here.

I am so very hoping to make it over to Seattle (3 hours away) to see the Yarn Harlot speak. Oh, that would be joyful.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Ooops, it's been 3 months

Well, I have a really good excuse. My husband spent his summer in a hospital bed, and I spent mine in a cot next to his hospital bed. We were staying with his parents (3 hours from home) for most of the summer. It's a long and crazy story. Here's the ultra-short version:
Tom had a brain tumor. We didn't know until he was laying on the bathroom floor in the worst pain of his life vomiting.
I took him to the ER here in Port Angeles and within 48 hours, we were transferred to Virginia Mason in Seattle and the tumor was removed. Super quick emergency brain surgery.
Within a week of finding the tumor, he was released from the hospital to his parent's home
We went back the next day because he'd contracted meningitis.
Flash forward 7 weeks, (4 of which he spent in the hospital and another 2 at his parent's house), and another brain surgery and he's finally off of the antibiotics and starting to heal. It's been a long haul.
Despite (or because of) all of that, I've been busy in the crafting department, though did not get a chance to document it here.
A few of my summer projects:
I'm working on the Pinwheel Sweater for Abby.


I made a tote for my sweet dear friend Suzanne who is a sixth grade science teacher (that's her in the background of the tote). She's amazing and starts school tomorrow. I love this tote pattern. It's from Simple Sewing with a French Twist. I am love love loving this pattern and have made a bunch of the totes. You can't really tell from the picture, but the embroidery on the front says, "Inspire."
The back has a little apple sewn on it. Teacher-y without being too teacher-y.

And, back to the birthday crowns for little ones in my little girl's life. This one was for Lauren's 3rd birthday.
Aside from that, I finally got onto Ravelry. I went a little crazy looking at everyone else's stuff and getting excited for new projects. Now, if they only had something like that for sewing too! You can find me there with the user name: carrieknits. How appropriate.