Spacecrafty

January 25, 2010

Pearl and Feather

Filed under: General — Meg @ 11:17 pm

I have a fairly ridiculous collection of beads and bits and bobs and I have decided that this year, aside from knitting my stash, I also need to sit down and sort through my collection, work out what I am going to use and what I’m not and then actually do something with them.

So, while I haven’t sorted them out yet, I did make something. It was a rather belated birthday present for a fellow crafty librarian, the lovely Jennie Law.

Feathered kilt pin

It’s a kilt/shawl pin, with vintage pearls and silver findings. I also busted out some embroidery thread and did some paper embroidery, using a modified image from What Katie Does’s tutorial but didn’t think to take a photo of that, alas!

January 24, 2010

Stashbusting and other such stories

Filed under: Finished Object, Knitting, Work in Progress — Meg @ 10:23 pm

I am knitting from my stash this year. After hauling out my yarn boxes and sorting through them, so I could add photos of the ones I didn’t have to my Rav stash, I came to the realisation that I Must Knit The Stash before, well, it knits me. So there we are, the main goal for 2010 is that, along with learning to crochet and to finish some WIP.

I started the stashbust with a Calorimetry, which used up the remains of some Artesano Aran in green and maroon. It’s a little big and I didn’t think the colour change out too well, so there’s no photo for the blog, but you can see it on its Rav project page. I am mostly just happy with something that keeps my ears warm and used up some odds and ends.

The next stash bust was this, a Hap Blanket from Ysolda’s Whimsical Little Knits, which rejoices under the project name of The Hogswatch Hap.

FO: Hap blanket

It originally started life off as a Hemlock Ring Blanket but I stuffed up the feather and fan and decided to just frog the whole thing. I only had the one colour with me because I was working on it at my parents’ this Christmas, so it became a single colour hap. I absolutely love it! It did get a little awkward to knit once the edging was started but the end result is large enough, delightfully warm (I am sitting under it as I type) and used up a significant chunk of my stash, consisting as it does, of 7.5 balls of DROPS Alaska. It’s definitely on my list to knit again, this time with a contrasting colour.

And excitingly and also, more on the WIP finishing resolution than the stashbusting, I finally stopped sulking about the sleeves on my Cherry – er, round about August I knitted them and discovered that one was about an inch and a half shorter than the other, cue some knitterly sulking and the project being stuffed in a bag – cast on for sleeve attempt number three (the return of the electric boogaloo…) and ended up with a matching pair. Now all I need to do is sew it up, pick up the buttonband and collar and I might actually get to wear the damn thing for this spring/summer! Miracles may never cease, I tell you.

So, so far, so good and I’m determined to carry on with my stash knitting. So, here is a short list of things I am going to knit and the yarn from the stash that matches. (all links are Ravelry)

This is not the full list of course but I’m slowly working through my queue and rearranging/assigning yarns. I’m looking forward to making a dent in both the stash and my long list of queued patterns.

January 3, 2010

Steampunked New Year

Filed under: Sewing — Meg @ 1:14 pm

Steampunked

I started 2010 with a bang. That’s the costume I made for the New Year’s party I attended. And when I say made, I mean, I sewed that skirt! Oh yes! The week before Christmas saw me back with my family, hunched over my mom’s elderly sewing machine making the occasional squawky noise and being watched by my mother. But in the end there it was, a skirt in taffeta with channels for ruching up one side with ribbon, a zip and the the most annoying to make but awesome once attached ruffle.

I also made the fascinator and the goggles I wore and my ray gun. The one I’m holding in the photo was made for me by my other half for Christmas and is amazing but not something I wanted to take out on a evening, so I spent an entertaining afternoon sticking masking tape on a water pistol and then there was fun times with spray paint. In fact, masking tape featured heavily as my goggles involved heavy amounts of it as well.

goggles in progress Steampunk goggles raygun

2010 is the year I do far more sewing. My sewing class starts next week and I’m rather looking forward to it. The other plan for 2010 is to knit my damn stash. I fear it slightly but there we are, it must be done. I’m going to do another post about what I have knitted in 2009, what I have to knit and what patterns I want to knit in 2010.

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