Coffee for the Hero of Canton

Thank you Marci for my plastic coffee cup! It makes these all look much nicer! 

But I finally got it worked out!!!!!

Isn't awesome?????

I'm so geeked out right now!

Preview of the Purse

I was just so excited about this purse I had to post some of the pictures of it!

Here is the knitted portion.  

 And here is the lining on the inside!! 

I'm still working on it. I have to add the handles to it.  Originally the pattern is for a clutch but I'm having issues with the dowel rods so I might go find some cute handles to add to it... We'll see. But I'll post pictures when I get it together!

They're Like Bunnies!

The preemie hats keep multiplying! I've finished another one!

I got the pattern here but I adjusted it to size 6 needles and only cast on 40.  Its hard to tell, but there is a star on the hat.  These are so fun to make and very easy! 

Beautiful Blogger Award

Thank you Marci for my award! I feel honored! 

Please check out her awesome blog! She has lots of great things to share about crafting!

Here's how it works...

For the "Beautiful Blogger" award you need to:

Thank the person who nominated you & link their blog

Copy the award & paste it to your blog

Tell us 7 interesting facts about yourself

Pass this award on to 10 fantastic bloggers you have discovered

Contact your nominations and let them know they've won

~10 Blogs that I have enjoyed reading~

1. It's Always Something

2. Design, Art, Craft

3. Birds of a Feather

4.Knit Purl Girl

5. One Artsy Mama

6. Punk Projects

7.Tattie Tats

8. Mama Loves Knitting

9 MiniMak Makings

10. maedchenmitherz

(Yes, yes its suppose to be 15 but I'm still so new to this that I have just a few blogs I really follow closely!!)

7 Interesting Facts

1. I love fairies!  I even have a very large one tattooed on my back

2. I am ALMOST done getting my Masters in Social Work from the University of Texas.  It has been a long journey, but I'm so excited to be almost done!

3. I love my family! I have been married to the greatest guy for the last 10 years and we have 2 wonderful kids together!  I also have been very very blessed to get awesome in-laws in the process!

4. I still think U2 is greatest band EVER! I finally got to see them in concert last October and it was the BEST!

5. I love my converses! I wish I could wear them with every outfit!

6. While I love all things by Joss Whedon, Firefly will always be my first love.  I'm still a little hurt by Fox canceling it!  I could watch it everyday, any day!

7. And if it wasn't clear before, I will say it again, I am a Geek!

and a Gleek!

Its Only a Model

I came up with this crazy idea to make Geek inspired Coffee Cozies AKA Coffee Sleeves.  My first thought was to make a Jayne Hat one.  This is the working pro-type...





 
Its on a pretty small cup so I need to make it wider and the ear flaps are TINY in comparison to the stretched sleeve.  I've got some plans for the improvements and will work on them soon.  I've got 2 other Geek ideas as well.. I think I'm going to perfect this one first and then move onto the others, even though I think they might be easier!!! But its a learning process and its fun to try to create something without a specific pattern in place!



(notice how the top picture the flash didn't wash everything out - WHY can it do it sometimes and not every time? crazy cameras and my inability to work them!)

Preemie Hats for Charity

Recently I had been invited to join the Facebook Group Knit for a Cause by an old friend from High School.  I was excited to be apart of a group that did knitting projects to benefit other people.  So far I haven't been able to go because of my weird work schedule.  This month they are making preemie hats to donate to Seton Hospital.  AJ posted the patterns on her blog so I am able to make them at home and then I can get them to her later.

Last year I did my first internship for my graduate program at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  I loved every minute of it.  Seeing how amazing these little babies are was astounding.  Who knew that they could be born soooo little, struggle through so many things and leave perfectly healthy! Not all the babies were strong enough to survive and they didn't make it.  Others struggled through their long journey, came back a few times and then did great later.  It was a great experience.  I remember how excited the parents would get when their baby was "big" enough to wear some kind of clothing.  Normally it was something donated from a special group, but the parents didn't care. They were so glad to see that someone else loved their baby as much as they did.

Here are the hats I have made so far.  My flash stinks on my camera and it either washes out the color completely or is too dark and makes the color look funny.  These are in a light purple color. 

Doesn't this one just melt your heart????? I found the pattern here.

I thought this one just looked really cool! Pattern also available here.

Arm Warmers Strike Again

My niece wanted a pair of striped arm warmers in hot pink and black and I couldn't say no!!! I was so excited to make them for her cause I knew she would really wear them (of course now its getting to warm to wear them...).  They turned out super cute and she loved them -yeah!

Sewed!

Over the weekend I sewed my first project!  Rejoice! I was able to do it on my own, which made me very excited!  I actually figured out on my own what was my "problem" with my sewing machine, so I might be able to avoid it in the future.


I wish my camera/lighting in my house was better -- but what we have here is a knitting needle bag!  It was super easy to make and very cheap as well!  Got the pattern here. 

I made small thin pockets for the thin needles and then bigger pockets for the circular needles and double pointed needles.

I'm going to have to fix some spots on it now that I know a little more of what I am doing.  Like going back over the stitches so they don't come out when you barely pull on the pocket... or that ironing the fabric first could really help!

Some kind of harmony is on the rise

Obviously from the number of arm warmers I have already knitted, you can tell that I really love arm warmers! I think they are just the cutest thing!  I was super excited to see Felecia Day wear them in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. 

I recently came across a pattern to make these awesome arm warmers from the show! WOO!

Overall it was an easy pattern to follow. Making the button holes was my newest challenge.  I found this awesome video that explained that part of the pattern perfectly and really helped me with that process.  I hope it helps you if you want to make them for yourself! I am now making a black and hot pink pair for my niece!

I'm a WINNER!!!!

I won!!! 

I came across AJ the Purple's Blog through an event for the Austin's Knit for a Cause Group.  Of course the day I found her blog she had a contest for her Birthday and I just had to enter.  I never win anything but I thought this would be fun to try.  And I won!! WOO!!!  I'll have to return the favor by also doing a little blog give away when I have items stock piled up to give away!

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!!