Wrong yarn = cowl for the daughter!

One of my friends asked me to make them a hat they saw in the store. I found the pattern on revelry and was ready to get started. I even found yarn on sale for it!

Well I got started in the project only to discover I had bought the wrong yarn! Urg! I bought super bulky instead of just bulky. Seriously there is a difference for those who are questioning this.

I sat here for awhile messing around with the yarn and finally decided it would be perfect for a cowl and I knew just the little girl to enjoy it!

My daughter even showed me all the different ways to wear a cowl!

"It looks like a necklace mom!"

"Oh my mouth can be warm or I can be a Ninja!"

not sure what she was doing here but her ears are going to be warm!

So I'm glad I made a mistake in the purchase of my yarn! It turned into a super cute prize for my cutie daughter!

Cardigan Fail...

So remember my cardigan project I started in June?  Well I'm sad to say I had to scrap it.

Can you see what is wrong with this picture?

If you said 2 different colored yarns you would be correct! For some reason I Love This Yarn makes two shades of this green that have similar names and I somehow got the wrong one! I didn't notice until I had been going for a bit and just got so frustrated.  I could just pull out the old color and start over.  But lets me honest, I wasn't wild about the pattern.  It just wasn't working for me when I was seeing it in person.  I think some patterns are like that.

So I've been looking through some other patterns and found this one that I want to try.

I bought some I Love This Wool in Sungold with my Birthday money and I'm ready to go!

I'll post pictures as I make progress! Crossing my fingers for no more failures on this one!

Adventures in Sewing

I had today off so I thought I would get some sewing projects out of the way while I had the chance!

I have been wanting to make a double pointed needle holder for a friend for awhile and kept putting it off, but felt today was the day!

However I ran into some snags along the way.

I tried to put new thread on my bobbin and ended up with a knotted mess.  I apparently forgot to put the thread holder on to keep the tension going so it made a mess.

Then when I was cutting my material with my new cool rotary cutter, I wasn't looking at how close I was to the ruler and accidentially tried to cut the ruler. Now my new blade is dead, so I had to finish cutting the fabric out by hand. bummers.

Then when I got to sewing my machine ate my fabric!! Really, it just sucked it in and ate a piece!!!

Somehow I was able to get everything back to working order and made an awesome needle holder!!

Sometimes its good to make mistakes

Remember how I was working on that Earth Day Project?  Remember how I was going to use it as my Mother's Day gift to my mom and how it didn't turn out right the night before?

I tell you I was FRUSTRATED! I was almost done with that bag and I hated that I couldn't get it to work right or look right.  I wasn't a fan of the pattern the more and more I worked it but I didn't expect it to look so YUCKY!

 So I had the main part of the bag done.  All I needed was to attach a strap to it.

Then I had an idea! BUTTONS! I could add buttons and then add the strap!  So I rolled down the edge a bit and attached some colored buttons and added a different strap.  This is what I ended up with.  

Here is a close up of the buttons

I added buttons on both sides.  I think this turned out WAY cute! 

What do you think?

BLAH!

weheartit

I worked all day on my mom's mother's day gift and it didn't turn out right.  I need to figure out one detail to make it work right...

So with a few more hours left of the day I started on my mother-in-laws and realized that I was misreading the directions and had to start over...

I'll get the done later, I just would have loved to give it to them tomorrow!!!

Earth Day Re-do

I had great plans to make an Earth Day project for last week. 

 weheartit

I found a cute pattern, I had the yarn, I was set to go.  

 weheartit

As I worked the pattern I wasn't thrilled with it, but I kept going.  Then I ran out of yarn... easy peasy, just buy more! But I couldn't remember the brand or color type as I had bought for a prior project and have a bad habit of just tearing off the labels and throwing them away (lesson learned!)  I finally figured out the brand but could never find the right color, even after going to several stores and then going online. So what do you do? You start over and try something else!

After pulling the yarn apart Monday night I looked something like this

weheartit

So I'm ready to go now with my yarn ready.  I'm still going to make a bag, just going to make it a little different than before.  We'll see where that leads me!

On a Mario Kick

I might be going overboard on the Mario stuff, but they are so fun and cute to make!

I found this web page  that had great instructions with pictures for carrying multiple colors aka Fair Isle.  It made knitting a pattern with multiple colors easier and it looks cleaner. Plus the edges of the design weren't pulling where I had been changing the colors out!  I didn't take into account that when using 4 colors it would add more bulk plus I was a little too tight in my technique so the hat kind of pulls in the middle! OPPS!  SO while I had intended for this to be given to one of my adult friends, I think I will give it to one of my 4 or 5 year old friends =) 

Its still super cute though! 

My flash washed out some of the color but you get the idea!

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! 

"Slouch" Hat -- try and try again

Some how this post was never posted... blogger, why are you doing this???? This was from way back when.  I learned a lot from this project!

I was getting to the point to where I thought I was never going to get this hat right! First there was the simple problem that I was over thinking the pattern.  I was making it for my daughter so I thought I could just subtract a few cast on stitches from the adult pattern for the kid pattern since I couldn't find a kid pattern to my liking.  Then when I got halfway into it I realized it was A LOT smaller than I had planned.  I soon realized that I was using size 8 needles when the pattern called for size 10. Lesson #1 Always follow the needle size!!! or at least take notice of it before you get started!!  I had brief thoughts of just giving the hat to one of my younger second cousins but before I could complete the hat I ran out of yarn....

So then I decided to just start over, use the same size 8 needles, but follow the number of stitch numbers and such, figuring that smaller needles would make the pattern tighter and smaller... Tighter yes --- it didn't exactly turn out to be a slouch hat! ACK!!!!  But we added some pretty ribbon and I think it looks cute!

 

  

I got the pattern idea from here , but I made some changes to the pattern. 

So here is what I ended up really doing:

Yarn: Vanna's Choice Yarn- Rose Mist (Medium Weight)

Needles: size 8 US 16 in. circular, and set of size 8 US DPN

CO 68 sts using the circular needles

1. Work 2 X 2 rib for 2.5"
2. Knit all stitches while increasing by 12 stitches evenly (80 sts)
3. Knit all stitches while increasing by 8 stitches evenly (88 sts)
4. *K1, P1*
5. Purl all stitches
6. Repeat rows 4 and 5 until piece measures 5" from CO.

Decreasing Crown (switch to DPNs when necessary)

7. *P9, P2G* (80 sts)
8. *K1 P1*
9. *P6, P2G* (70sts)
10. *K1 P1*
11. *P5, P2G* (60 sts)

12. *K1 P1* (I switched the the Double Pointed Needles after the end of this row)

13. *P4, P2G* (50 sts)

14.  *K1 P1*

15. *P3, P2G* (40 sts)

16. *K1 P1*

17. *P2, P2G* (30 sts)
18.  *K1 P1*

19. *P1, P2G* (20 sts)

20. *K1 P1*

21. *P2G* (10 sts)
22. *P2G* (5 sts)
23. cut yarn, thread yarn through remaining stitches, pull tight and weave in remaining yarn.
Note: pattern within ** should be repeated