Things Finished, Things Begun

Remember I said I had a Blizzard List? I really wanted to finish my son's sweater.

This is a case of not letting Perfection get in the way of Done. I'm not quite so happy with the center garter stitch at the neck opening. The last time I knit him this sweater, I did seed stitch there. The pattern calls for garter, but I like the seed stitch better. Too late now though, although at some point I am probably going to snag it back from him so I can try to neaten up the bottom of that panel, at least. Otherwise, this is a comfy sweater with room to grow. It's his second Wallaby, as the first was really getting too small. I used the same yarn, Spud and Chloe Sweater, and again, he picked the colors. As he said, the first one (which is two shades of blue) is a cool sweater, and this is a warm, fiery sweater. (This is the kid who identifies strongly with colors.) Details on Ravelry here.

I also wanted to finish my little embroidered trees for hanging. I knew I wanted to incorporate the selvedge, and I decided to stitch it to a backing, ready for hanging, rather than try to frame it somehow. This is what it looks like from the front.

The backing is red wool burel. I sewed on loops on the back for the dowel to slide through:

...and I'd hang it by balancing the dowel on a nail on each side. I'm running out of places to hang my stitching, though, which makes me think maybe it's time to try to start selling it? (I gave the birch trees, by the way, to my sister for her birthday. I'm a pretty awesome sister.)

Finishing my son's sweater means I could finally start mine. This is a dodgy photo I took this morning with my cell phone.

I'm making Tang, from Custom Knits, but without the turtleneck, because post-having-children, turtlenecks make me feel like I can't breathe, even though I used to wear them all the time and am still a very chilly person. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy, a total splurge, but it's so nice.

And finishing the hanging method/backing for the little trees means I can start on the next embroidery project, but all I've done thus far is transfer my drawing to the fabric. Oftentimes the first stitch of an embroidery piece is the absolute hardest for me, because, I think, embroidery is so very important to me.

Birthday Shirt

It's about that time of year again...

I realized when I made last year's shirt that I was going to have to make this a tradition. This year, though, it's not a surprise (although she won't see the finished shirt until her birthday). She just assumed it was coming because, after all, her number is changing, so she needs a new shirt. She had advance say on colors and design. In the end, she chose what I wanted to do anyway--a four with a crown--although for a while there we were awash in her initial in a circle with a crown and the four. I'm happy simplicity won out.

Goodness. I love that design, I really do!

I also really enjoyed sharing photos of where I live in the last post. Here's one more, a different pond that I drove by four times today (on the way to and from preschool gymnastics, and on the way to and from karate).

I didn't have my camera earlier in the day, so this was taken about 5 pm and it's not as vibrant, but still. Autumn is pretty here this year. Last year we sort of missed the colorful part entirely thanks to Hurricane Irene. The leaves that weren't stripped were salted, or something like that. There are a couple of trees on the way into town that are, as my son put it, so bright that it hurt his eyes to look at them. Next time I go in that direction I'm going to have to make time to stop, find a safe place to pull over, and take some photos.

Finally, I signed up for the Art Every Day Challenge. It takes place in November. I don't think I'll be posting every day, but I hope to have something to show for every day, when I do post. By the end, I'd like 30 postcard-sized pieces of artwork. I'm thinking of a variation on a theme--an animal per day, or 30 trees...something like that. Usually, if I make time to draw, it's a better day.

Before that, though, I need to sew up a sparkly cape. I didn't think I was sewing anything for Halloween this year, but the almost-four-year-old has other plans, and who can argue with the Birthday Girl?

Finished Knit: Sparkly Pink Sweater

You can't really see the sparkles, but they're there. The yarn is Dream in Color Starry; the pattern is Daisy Cardigan; the full notes are here on Ravelry. I began on US 5s, took it out and started over on US 6s. Much better. I'd forgotten how much this picot bindoff curls up, especially with wool, but when I asked the girl if I should try to block it out a bit more, she said, "No! I like the curl!" She wore it for a bit, but it's not quite sweater weather, not yet. Not for her, anyway. She's still wearing shorts and sandals half the time. Who am I to argue? She lets me know if she's cold.

Anyway, the pink sparkly thing? Kinda freaking adorable. The other day she was rummaging through our dress-up basket and informed me, "This house needs more sparkles." She wants to have jewels for Halloween. She suggested gluing them to herself. I suggested we go shopping for some costume jewelry, but in the face of her idea, I felt boring and a bit, well, lacking in a certain sparkle, no? Her sneakers are silver and sequin-y. She definitely brings sparkle to my days.

I'd have been done with her sweater slightly sooner, but partway through I took a short break to knit some baby things.

The yarn isn't quite this dullish; it was a dull grey day. It's quite pretty, actually, with some violet in there, so I when I went stash rummaging I thought this would work okay for a baby girl, the granddaughter of someone I know. The yarn was, I'm quite sure, a gift from someone, and I'm not sure where the label has gotten to, but I'm pretty sure the colorway was Passionfruit and I know it's merino with some nylon in there. Never mind all that; who can resist wee bitty baby socks?

I have So Many Big Things I want/need to knit, so instead of starting any of them when I finished the pink sparkly sweater, I cast on for a pair of socks. Knitterly avoidance, I guess. I'm not wrapping my head around some of the Big Things just yet.

I'm still grumpy about it being autumn, but knitting while watching football and drinking hot coffee isn't terrible, so there's that.

Gifts for Nieces

Last week I made a couple of small things for my nieces, which of course couldn't be shared until I gave them to them yesterday. My oldest niece turned sixteen last week, and she'd asked for a special birthday shirt, like the one I made my daughter. Of course, I was happy to make her one!

There are some smudgy bits that I'm not happy with, but I stopped myself from pointing out each and every one to my niece. Once the first coat of paint had dried, I had to touch up a few spots, so I did, but those spots (don't know why) began to look different as they dried, so I covered the whole thing with an even coat of paint, but those touched-up spots still look different to my eye. This has never happened before with this paint, so I'm not sure what caused it or what to do differently next time. Other than that, I think it's adorable and it looked really nice on my terribly grown-up looking niece.

Since we were bringing gifts for my oldest niece and a gift for my nephew (whose birthday was last month, but I was a little late!), I thought it would be nice to bring something for the youngest in the family, a five-year-old who has to wait all the way until February for another birthday. Using her Zodiac sign of Pisces as inspiration, I painted her a rock.

Black is her favorite color, and I wanted to use silver on the black, and she also likes pink...and thus the color scheme was set.

And my husband and I received a HUGE gift of our own--we left all three of our children with my sister after the birthday party and we spent the night in Boston. From about 5 pm Saturday night until about 1 pm Sunday, we were in Boston just us, doing grown-up things. We got dressed up and went out to dinner. We had brunch and I didn't have to stop eating to cut anyone's food. (It was fairly easy to find safe places for me to eat in Boston. It is such a treat to simply go out to eat.) We talked without anybody interrupting us. We slept past 7 am. When I say we have rarely managed to date since having children, that is a huge, huge understatement. This was like a decade of dates rolled into one, and it was long past-due.

(I have the best sister, don't I?)

Finished Knit: Azami

Oh, boy. I started this sometime in May. Several times, I started it. I finished it this morning, and my ten-year-old agreeably came outside to take photos for me. He doesn't even ask why or anything.

I really like this pattern (Azami by Carol Feller). I really hate this yarn (Southwick by Valley Yarns, which is Webs' house brand). This is disappointing, because I almost never use the exact yarn called for in a pattern, but I wanted to do this sweater right, so I decided to order the Southwick. It seems like a mismatch between yarn and pattern to me. Plenty of people love this yarn, and I am admittedly biased towards wool and wool blends, although I've knit with cotton and linen before and enjoyed some of those yarns very much. But I found this to be slippery, splitty, and extremely unforgiving. Picked-up stitches look like, well, crap. I also fear the yarn won't wear well, since the yarn I unraveled (sigh, I had to do this quite a bit) looked shabby just from one knit and redo. It is so frustrating to spend lots of time on a project and end up disappointed in the materials, especially when using the suggested materials. I wish I'd subbed.

But, you know, moving on. Here's a shot of the back, so you can see the hood.

(Didn't my son do a great job? He asked me how to zoom the camera and this is his original shot, no cropping on my part.) I made the hood a little shorter than called for, because I think this yarn is going to grow. Yes, I swatched, but I didn't swatch and soak and hang and beat the heck out of it to see if it would turn into some other fabric entirely. I think it might, though.

As for details, this is the 32.5" size with no waist shaping. I originally began the next size up, but when I pulled it out after one of my numerous errors (I forgot to switch to stockinette after completing the first lace repeat), it looked enormous around. I don't have as much waist as I used to, and I thought the fabric was clingy enough without adding in shaping. It's all a moot point because this is probably going to pill within four wearings. So it's a good thing my son took such nice photos...

Saturday Sewing: A Skirt For Mama

Yesterday I was awakened at 5 am by the sound of pouring rain. (I went back to sleep, no worries!) This worked perfectly into our no-plans Saturday; I wanted to sew a skirt for myself anyway. So I spent the day turning this

into this:

It's hard to see the ties there, but they're of the same fabric. I made this with a drawstring waist. Perfect? Nope. If I'm going to make more of these (and I think I am), I'm going to have to get comfortable with the buttonhole foot on my sewing machine. I did these two by hand, which definitely gives me more control but takes much longer, and probably isn't quite as neat--although I don't know, the one time I tried my buttonhole foot, it didn't seem all that fantastic, really. Also, the casing is a little (accidentally) gathered in one spot, but since the skirt itself gathers with the drawstring, it's not a huge deal. I don't expect anyone will be investigating my waistband anyway. (That's a bit too personal, no?)

Here's another view, from the back:

This skirt is really comfortable and flow-y. I love the line of it. It's a simple A-line, drafted using Sew What! Skirts. I used their suggested minimum of 2-inch ease for the top width, but I think I could go down to one. On the other hand, I like the slope from the waist to the hem the way it is now. And as you can probably tell from the one-day sewing, this was very easy to make.

And hey, look what the kids and I scored on Friday:

Someone was Freecycling wooden cigar boxes. Having never seen any before, I was picturing something less polished, that we could decorate and use for treasure boxes. We like these the way they are, but we could still personalize the inside covers, if we wanted. There are five boxes, and five of us, so we'll each get one. (The big people in the family are rather taken with these, too.) I plan to use mine for paper ephemera. I don't usually respond to Freecycle posts; it's often not anything I want, and if I do, it's already taken. But this actually worked out, and I had two of the three kids with me when I picked them up, and goodness, were we excited.

I hope you're enjoying your weekend! Today is sunny, but not too hot. Oh, and the cowbird chicks fledged...the whole story (with pictures) is here. Just so you're warned, it didn't end well for the phoebe's eggs.

Orange Ruffles

I promised to talk a little bit more about this skirt, which I volunteered to test sew for Kim.

Really, it has so many problems. But I learned how to do ruffles, and the bottom ruffle is actually pretty good. The top and middle ruffles were sewn on in what I was calling "ruffle sandwiches." So, the middle ruffle was gathered and pinned to the top of the middle skirt piece, then the bottom of the top piece was pinned, and you sew through all three layers at once. With the top ruffle, the sandwich included the waistband. I think if you look very closely you can see an extra bit of stitching below the waistband, over the ruffle, on the left of the skirt. The waistband shifted while I was sewing the sandwich, and I didn't catch the folded-under edge on the inside. The elastic doesn't sit quite perfectly either, because of the waistband shifting. And the ruffles are a little crooked in spots.

So what did I learn? Ruffles aren't that hard, but I'm probably fine with one ruffle on a skirt, and no sandwiches. This is the first time I used an attached waistband instead of just creating a casing, and I think it's more trouble than it's worth for a little girl's skirt, especially when ruffle sandwiches are involved. (But now I've done it.) I think my feedback helped the pattern designer; I hope so anyway. I know she made some changes based on everybody's feedback. (You can buy the final version of this pattern here.)

It's definitely the most involved skirt I've ever made for my daughter, and it's her favorite color, and the imperfections aren't going to be visible on a moving three-year-old. (Also, my thread color matches really well. That was smart.) Speaking of thread, this pattern used so much. I'm not sure why I'm so thread stingy; it's pretty inexpensive, even if my machine only likes Mettler and will puke thread if I try anything else. I hate running out in the middle of a project though, and having to stop and wind another bobbin. Between the basting stitches for the ruffles and all the edges that needed zig-zagging...it's a good thing I stopped and bought an extra spool of orange thread! (I might be thread-insecure because I can only find Mettler at one local shop, and it's not open on Sundays or Mondays...)

Final verdict? Achingly cute skirt, imperfections and all. I did two new things (the ruffles and the waistband), and I like confronting something that intimidates me. Now, ruffles will be a choice, not something I avoid because I think they're too hard. I can now take any simple skirt and put a ruffle on it. (I knew I could.) And what fun to get to test out a pattern for someone--it was complete impulse to offer, but I'm glad I did.

Is there something crafty-wise that's intimidating you? What would happen if you tried it anyway?

Linking up with the brave and creative folks here.

To-Do To Done

My to-do list is so big and so deep and so tall...and so eclectic, and containing some curious choices, considering. But bit by bit, I'm clearing my way through.

Something I wanted to get to before heading up to Squam...making my own bug spray. (My daughter helped--I'm sure you can see her touch with the letter placement?) I made a half-recipe (because that's the size bottle I had) of the Bug Stay-Away in The Rhythm of Family, except I substituted lavender oil for the lemongrass oil, both because I already had lavender and because that's the recipe of this bug spray that lots of people recommended in the Squam group on Ravelry. So this has essential oils of lavender, citronella, and eucalyptus. I'll let you know how it works!

Friday night my oldest and I ran errands after dinner to pick up some supplies (and presents) for his brother's birthday, which is coming up. While we were out, I bought some things for my trip.

I realized I have nothing waterproof for my feet except for my winter boots, which, while I love them, they're probably a bit much. So just in case it rains and the camp turns to puddles and mud, I now have rain boots. Actually, I have waterproof "garden boots," found in the gardening section at Target and half the price of their waterproof "rain boots." I'm thinking about painting black circles and faces on them, so they match my daughter's ladybug rain boots. I picked up a headlamp (for walking on dark trails and/or knitting in poor light in the evening) and a beach towel too. I actually don't have a beach towel--I've always just borrowed the kids' as necessary, to cut down on things to bring. But since it won't be raining (because I'm bringing rain boots, of course), I figured I can spread that towel out on the dock and relax in the sun.

Major item off my list...and I will post more on this skirt later in the week.

Winter woolens, soaking--and even more impressive is that I scrubbed that utility sink, which was filthy with paint and who-know-what-all else, I mean scrubbed, so that I could clean the kids' hats and mittens before packing them away, and then give my favorite spring cardigan a wash before I leave (because it's coming with me).

My to-do list, by the way, is one of those that doesn't actually result in an impressively clean house before guests arrive for a party (in two days). What can I say? At least the woolens will be clean.

Dinoskirt

Remember the girl's dinosaur pants? I promised her a skirt, too, when it got warmer. This is the second skirt of the week, made the same way as the first.

She likes it even better than the pink flowery one. The girl loves color--the more, the better, all in the same outfit, please! I love how easy and quick it is to make a skirt for a three-year-old. It's so absolutely satisfying to take a flat piece of fabric, cut a rectangle, and with a bit of sewing and some elastic, have a garment just a short time later. And since this skirt used less than a half-yard of fabric, it cost about a dollar. (Love that bargain loft!)

I'm linking up with the creative folk here.

Sewn: Simple Girl's Skirt

I've been liking the process posts by Maegan at Madeline Bea. I typically enjoy the process of making (current knitting project excluded; please don't ask), but I don't always take photos of each step, of course. Following her lead--and I hope she doesn't mind!--I was mindful to document the process of making my daughter a new skirt Sunday evening and Monday morning. So here is a photo-heavy post, with a few more words at the very end.

The fabric was $1.99/yard in the bargain loft, and I used the simple skirt tutorial from MADE. While the general rule of thumb is to cut skirt lengths parallel to the selvedge, I wanted to keep the big flower panel complete. It's actually just a bit on bottom of the fabric, but once cut to little girl skirt size, it ends up being the majority of the skirt. Since I had the selvedge at the hem, I just folded it under to make things easier for myself. (If I find it's flipping up later and showing the white edge, I may fold it under and sew it once more, to hide it.)

I do have a picture of my daughter modeling the skirt, but she told me I couldn't use it. As soon as my kids are old enough to ask, I do. So that's why the last photo is of the finished skirt on a hanger.

I decided to post daily photos of the phoebe nest--as long as the weather cooperates and until the phoebe begins to sit--over at G+ here. My profile and those posts are public, so you should be able to see them even if you don't have a G+ profile yourself.

Finished Knit: {A Better} Baby Yours

Two weeks ago I had just a back of a sweater; now I have the whole thing.

I don't usually photograph finished knits hanging up. But anyway. This is my second Baby Yours sweater (the first is here), and I'm much more pleased with this version, which has been modified all sorts of ways.

* I knit the six-month size in width, but to the length of the twelve-month size, and it looks way more proportional to me.

* I attached the fronts to the back at the shoulders using a 3-needle bindoff, wrong sides facing, instead of seaming. You can't even tell, because that portion is in garter stitch and it blends right in, but now the poky seam isn't on the inside where it can irritate sweet little baby shoulders.

* I picked up the stitches for the sleeves and knit them in the round, top down, eliminating the sleeve seam, which looked like it would irritate sweet little baby arms. I also ignored the pattern's instructions for increases (which would now be decreases) every four rows, and did them every ten, which worked out to every inch. The sleeves look better to me now.

They increase evenly, instead of weirdly. The pattern doesn't include a row gauge. The pattern doesn't include a row gauge. I paid $6.50 for this pattern, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that complete gauge information should be included with patterns, especially boughten ones. My stitch gauge was spot on, but I had to go down a needle size. Perhaps if my row gauge matched the designer's, the sleeves in the first version I knit wouldn't look so weirdly sloped to me. But I don't know if that's the problem. If I knew the row gauge, I could do a little bit of math ahead of time and make sure everything matched up but the pattern doesn't include a row gauge.

Anyway, this left just the sides from the bottom to the underarm to sew up, and that's not an area where a seam is going to annoy a baby. I prefer my modded-out version of this pattern to the original, but I am also happy to be done with knitting baby sweaters for a while.

A view of the back, just because. It's really a lovely cable.

It seems like ages since I've knit anything for myself. I've been knitting for Other People's Babies since December. So I began something for myself, using stash yarn that turned out to be annoying...but that's a story for another day.

Linking up with our creative spaces...

Slow But Steady {Creative Space}

My husband arrived home Saturday night from his week in Belgium, and Sunday morning I woke up with a sore throat. A week of not-enough-sleep and feeling stressed, topped off by two hours outside on a raw, cloudy Saturday afternoon, could only result in a rollicking spring cold. The symptoms went downhill from there, which means not a lot of progress has gone on this week with anything creative, although I have consumed impressive amounts of lemon/honey hot water.

But I finished the back of the second Baby Yours sweater, thank goodness.

Besides being awesome open-ended play props, play silks make excellent backgrounds for photographs! The blue color is very true to life in this photo, and I'm wondering if that's because I chose an orange background (orange is blue's complement). I'll have to keep this in mind for future photographs of tricky-colored yarn. Back to the sweater: I'm knitting the 6-month size in width and the 12-month size in length, and I think that will make for a much more proportionate sweater. The shoulder stitches are on holders, awaiting their 3-needle bindoff when I finish the fronts. I really meant to be farther along on this by now, simply because I want to be done with it.

And that's it for this week's creative space for me, but you can find more creative souls right here.

Finished Knits: Mitts and a Baby Sweater

I have some knitted things to show you (and some I'm not showing you, since I managed to knit myself the most unflattering sweater ever...). First up, fingerless mitts knit for Jen:

This was the exclusive in the Squam store last month--the yarn is by Jill Draper and the pattern, Pinehurst, is by Natalie Selles, just for Squam. I didn't have even the least tug toward buying either, overwhelmed as I am by the bins of yarn in my basement and more than happy with my modified-to-suit-myself Evangeline mitts. (I've lost count how many times I've knit those mitts as gifts. I can nearly knit them in my sleep.)

However, when Jen mentioned in the Squam Ravelry Group that she'd pay someone to knit them for her, I offered to do it. For free, of course. I've pretty much decided not to knit for money, ever, because knitting needs to stay a centering activity for me (we're not talking about that unflattering sweater, remember?), not a stressy thing for income. So she had the yarn and pattern sent to me, and I asked, in return, that she learn how to knit.

The yarn is absolutely gorgeous, lovely and soft. The pattern gives lots of choices--type of cuff, length of arm, plus three sizes. This is the horizontal cuff, long arm, size medium. Supposedly you only need one skein to knit these in any size, but see that itty tangle of yarn in the photos? That's all I had left. I was weighing as I went. I did have some trouble with the numbers given for this size/cuff combo, and I emailed the designer as suggested in the pattern. Normally I'd just work it through on my own, not email, but I really wanted to send Jen the mitts exactly as designed. But I never heard back to my email--maybe it got caught in spam? Regardless, I reworked the numbers in question, referring to the numbers given for the small size as my starting point, and after that it was smooth sailing. (Ravelry project notes are here.)

Is it weird to offer to knit something for a relative stranger? I dunno. I don't think so...I wanted to offer, so I did. Not too long before that, she'd sent me a really nice email, out of the blue, about what I'd been struggling with as far as Lyme (this after I posted my February DDD of walking, to help with the pain and fatigue). It happened to land in my inbox on a day I'd been particularly discouraged with Lyme out in the real world. Would I have offered to knit for her if she hadn't made that connection? Dunno. I do know I like to knit, and I was more than happy to, well, make her happy. Good enough, right? It's kind of a people thing, in that, people should do nice things just because we're all people.

So anyway, that's the mitt story. Before them, I knit this:

That's the Baby Yours sweater (project notes here), knit for one of my son's teachers, whose wife is due with a boy early next month. I won't lie; I am not crazy about this sweater. Oh, it's cute enough (and isn't that little gift tag I made adorable?), but I'm worried it's too small, and it's wicked fussy to sew all those pieces together, plus the end result doesn't look comfortable to me, with seams at the shoulders, down the arms (and I don't like those increases either, the arm looks like it tapers too much toward a too-narrow cuff), and on the sides. I knit the smallest size because I figured, how long will a baby due in early April wear a sweater anyway? (Especially this year, geez!) But it looks super small to me. Maybe I've forgotten how tiny new babies are? Although I'm not sure my full-term babies were ever that small. (The preemie, yes, but even he was a good size for a 34-week birth.) I really hope the parents get at least some use out of this.

My original plan was to knit two of these, one for another upcoming baby, but now I'm not so sure. I bought enough Socks That Rock Mediumweight (colourway In the Navy) for two, but either I'm going to have to make some mods to get rid of those uncomfy-looking seams, or I'm going to have to find another boy-suitable pattern in sport weight.

Also, kind of random, but I kept wanting to ink up that cable and make a print of it. So I may be knitting that cable again either way, just to ruin it.

Anyway, there you go. Proof that I occasionally still knit, too.

Some Small Sewn Things

My daughter was the main beneficiary of my weekend crafting, but it's hard to get her to stay still. So I only have a few cockeyed photos.

She picks out her own outfits. We don't quibble about matching.

First, I made her a pair of pants using some dinosaur fabric she picked out in the bargain loft at Lorraine Fabric, a huuuuuge fabric store not quite an hour's drive north from here. They don't appear to have a website; this doesn't surprise me. I don't know how long it's been there, but I can remember going there with my mom when I was a kid--mostly because I remember the sassafras tree in the parking lot near the river bank. (The store is in an old mill building. Old mill buildings are near rivers.) Anyway, everything in the bargain loft is $1.99/yard, so the girl and I went wild and bought two yards of this dinosaur fabric. She'll be getting a skirt out of it too, when it gets to be warmer.

So, pants. Her last pair of pants seemed too small (although she still wears them). In that post I wrote that I probably should have just used a toddler jammie pants pattern, so that's what I used this time. They're too baggy in the crotch, partly because the girl likes to wear her pants low in front, under her belly button (never right around her waist). I guess what I should have done is cut the front of the pants lower, and possibly used a smaller waist size but the same length. I say I guess, because pattern drafting is a bit baffling to me and is definitely something I'd like to learn more about. Even the boughten patterns seem to need adjusting, but I'm not always sure how to go about it. Knitting I can adjust--it's just math. But I have problems looking at flat sewing patterns and visualizing the finished product well enough to adjust.

Anyway. She likes the pants. I tried to get a closer-up shot of the dinosaur pattern, but on the moving girl, which didn't work so well!

It's colorful, isn't it?!

I also whipped out her requested headband.

These are so much fun. And it's useful, too, since her hair is still fine enough that it doesn't stay in barrettes or hair elastics for long. This actually keeps her hair off her face, and it's comfortable enough (just fabric and some woven elastic) that she'll keep it in for quite a while. She picked out the fat quarter, and she is pleased by her head band.

Totally not related to anything else in this post, I signed up for ihanna's handmade postcard swap. This week's "assignment" in the Creative Courage e-course was to make some postcards and send them out, and then I saw the announcement of this swap float through my twitter feed. I decided that was some sort of serendipity at work and signed up. Want to join me?

Superhero Cape

About four or five years ago, when my boys were smaller and before I knew how to sew, I saw some superhero capes that looked handmade in a local independent toy store (now, sadly, closed). The owner confirmed that a local woman made them, and I asked if she thought she’d be interested in making a couple custom capes, in my boys’ favorite colors, with the first letter of their names on the back instead of a bat or a superman symbol. I like the idea, see, of an open-ended cape, so a kid doesn’t feel he has to be superman or batman or whoever. The sewist—who I never met, or found out her name—agreed, and I bought my boys some capes. They are still in the dress-up box, and my 7yo still wears his regularly.

Now, though, I can sew. Good thing, too, since it’s no longer an option to buy one at the toy store. I thought my husband’s three-year-old nephew might like a personalized superhero cape for Christmas, so I asked my sister-in-law his favorite color and got to work, using a yard of red Kona cotton (although it didn’t take nearly all of it) and a dark blue fat quarter. I know there are many cape tutorials and patterns out there, both free and for sale, but I figured I could work backwards from the ones in the dress-up basket. It’s a simple construction, with a sewn-on collar band held closed with Velcro. While Velcro isn’t my favorite item to work with, and I hate how it snags on everything, it’s probably the safest choice for this age group. (Although I admit: I tie capes onto my own three-year-old when she asks me to.) I ended up sewing the Velcro on by hand, because I thought that would give me the greatest control over the slippery little suckers, and I could check both sides of the collar band as I worked.

Grey day, everything is grey, and I needed to use the flash.

All in all, this was relatively simple, yet I think it’s so cute, and it was interesting enough that I didn’t feel like I was just churning out product at the sewing machine (like I feel when I’m sewing jammie pants, actually). My 7yo asked if we were giving this in person, since, he said, "I like to see people open their gifts and I bet he will love it and put it on right away and we can all be super heroes together." My daughter has requested one of her own in blue; perhaps she’s tired of wearing her oldest brother’s initial on her back? I told her that would probably have to wait until after Christmas, though.

(I would like to thank my wonderful husband, who gifted me with the time to sew this cape...)

Knitting Progress

Since my last knitting post, I've finished the green Vertigo Hat and whipped up a pair of mittens, too.

I really do love those greens together. Who knew? I need to make another pair of mittens in the other green, and a spare set for my oldest in grey, and mittens for my daughter, but before I began any of that, I started on the boy dolly for my daughter for Christmas.

Here he is, waiting to be felted. Then I'll need to embroider his face, give him some hair (I'm thinking some loops), and knit him a pair of overalls, probably from my head rather than a pattern. The pattern for the doll is f.pea's Scrappy Doll, which is actually a girl, so it comes with a dress pattern. I knit her as a girl last Christmas (you can see it here). This time around I made the head smaller because it's kind of ginormous as written. I also eliminated the thumbs, because I thought they came out sort of funny on the one I knit before.

So, the boy dolly. Last Christmas Santa brought my daughter, then two, a sweet little Waldorf-style doll, but at the last minute I decided to knit a doll, too, and they sat in the Christmas-morning stroller side by side. Before too long, my daughter decided the knit doll was the mama and the other one was the baby--she likes to pair things up that way. Sometime over the spring/summer, she let me know she needed two boy dollies, because in our family we have a mama, two boys, and a girl. Of course. So for her birthday, she received a Waldorf-style boy dolly, and the second boy dolly will come for Christmas. She likes to give her dollies band-aids and cover them with blankets and take them for wild, speedy runs through the house in the stroller.

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My Creative Space: Progress Report

I think Thursday--creative space day--is a good day to post on my progress on the handmade holiday front. But before I can truly get to the Christmas stuff, I have to finish the Halloween stuff, so that's first up.

My oldest wants to be Green Lantern for Halloween, and while we could purchase an already-made costume, that's not how we roll here (except three years ago when I was scheduled to have a baby 11 days before Halloween). Plus the Green Lantern costumes look kind of cheesy, with the big muscly chest. Plus, we rock the freezer paper stencils. That's his shirt after a second coat of white paint--we worked on the stencil and the first coat together, and I did a second coat while he was at school (and also cut the felt mask from our paper mock-up; it still needs elastic sewn on).

Here's the finished shirt. The paint snuck through in a couple of spots--the two coats began to wrinkle the stencil a bit.

Still, I think it looks awesome! Plus now he'll have another shirt to wear. He wore last year's Halloween t-shirt to school today--it's orange, and we ironed on letters to spell "Camp Half-Blood." (Confused? See here.) I still like that shirt.

As for the holiday stuff, I finished embroidering all the pine cones.

Hmm, I should have taken some close-ups. I used an iron-on transfer pen to transfer these, and despite the warnings on the package that these are permanent, the lines began to wear off. (The pattern,by the way, is this one; I chose it as my thank-you pattern for stitching up the snakes.) By the time I did the last one I was kind of fudging it, but who will know? Oh! Do you know the Y stitch? After I stitched two of these, it occurred to me to try the Y stitch for the needles and boy do I love it. Don't ask me which two in that picture use it; couldn't tell you. Even staring at them in person it takes me a minute. But even so, the Y stitch is perfect for these.

So I accomplished something! (And also thought of two more things I want to make, but nevermind that for now!)

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