Frustrations and Moving On

Yep, the seam ripper is my new BFF!  Tonight I just couldn't wait anymore and decided to tackle the knitting needle bag I want to sew.  I read through the pattern several times and thought I knew exactly what to do. I even closely examined the pictures that went with the instructions (love pictures with instructions.  But I failed to figure out that I'm suppose to sew the right sides of the fabric together.  So out comes my BFF, but only after I make a DQ run and get an Oreo Cookie Blizzard.  I was so frustrated.  But I moved on and ripped out the mistakes and started over.  I have made it through half the pattern and so far it looks great! I'm super excited about it! I was very tempted to stay up all night to get it done, but then remembered I'm losing an hour of sleep tonight due to Day Light Savings...

But I just try to remember that we all have these moments. I'm sure Martha Stewart had moments when she had to restart a project a time of two, or twelve! 

Eyes of Texas

My poor friend has been stuck in Washington where its cold cold cold, wet wet wet, miserable miserable miserable. Sounds great right? I figured that she of all people needed a good scarf! First to keep her warm but also to send her some of the Texas love she needs! I had actually intended to make her arm warmers but realized right away that it was too thin and kept going to make a scarf!

To Sew or Not to Sew

I think it was about 7 years ago my mother-in-law bought me a sewing machine.  I remember at the time I was really wanting to sew things and be able to make my own purses or drapes.  I was pretty excited to get it but could never get it to work right for me.  I had a love/hate relationship with it.  I would get it working and then the next thing I know it was all jacked up.  Mostly it was the bobbin... it would go crazy and throw thread all over the bottom of the fabric. I brought my machine to a few sewing groups with my friends and they would tell me how awesome my machine was and how easy it was to use. Then I would get excited and use it again, and it went back to being crazy.

So the poor machine has been up in my closet for the last 2 and half years just collecting dust.  I gave away all my scrap fabric to a friend because I was convinced it would never work for me again.

Now I'm constantly looking for new knitting patterns and knitting blogs.  I've discovered these cool Knitting Needle Roll Ups. I have tons of needles already and I'm just storing them in a plastic zip lock bag... I looked first to see if I could buy these awesome roll ups and they run between $45 and $70!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YIKES! I just don't have the money for that kind of awesomeness... sigh...

So I kept looking online at these roll ups and thought to look for a sewing pattern to see if it would be hard to make.  I found a simple pattern and sent it to my smarty sewing friends to see what they thought.  They have approved and they are going to help me make it at our next "What Ya Makin'" Group.  But, there is still the issue of the sewing machine... So I pulled it out this morning and tried to give it a spin.  What do you know, it works like a charm!  I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed or more happy about this.  I mean, its been sitting in my closet for 2 and half years staring at me... Maybe it needed that long of a time out to get its act together??? Maybe I've just claimed the crafty gift and now all crafty things will work in my favor??? Regardless, I've got a working sewing machine (for today), I've got a pattern to make, I've got friends to help and I found this cute fabric (I just need to buy it!! The craft store was over populated on Sunday and I barely got out alive!!!)

Stripy Arm Warmers

I decided I wanted to make some arm warmers for myself.  I used some of the left over yarn I had to make these stripy ones. 

I used size 8 double pointed needles for these.  I cast on 34 stitches and knitted in a round until I got to the length I wanted.  To make the thumb area - I knitted 2, then with a scrap piece of yarn I knitted the next 6 with it and then went back to the other yarn and finished the row.  Then after finishing the warmer, I took out the scrap yarn and inserted 3 DPN on the open stitches.  I then knitted in a round and then bound off the stitches -- Hopefully that made some sense.  I went to a lot of different patterns to get my ideas and to understand what I wanted to do.  This one was the best for helping with the thumb.

Daisy Hat

I found this cute pattern for the Daisy Stitch Hat at Ravelry.  I had to give it a try and make it for myself.  Plus daisies are my favorite flower, so why not make this hat!!