Crafty Pancakes

Fabric on the brain

Goodbye yarn, heeellllooooo fabric! Ok, I haven't really started actually sewing anything for myself yet but I've been having fun buying the makings of a dozen or so projects. First on my to-do list are aprons and covers for pretty much everything in my kitchen. I heart kitchen prints!...

Aside from covering everything in my kitchen in mismatched retro goodness my biggest reason for wanting to learn how to sew is so (that's confusing) that I can have the perfect skirt at all times. At 5'5" they are either too short or too long. They are suitable for a teenager or someone with a very mature taste. I'm neither. A couple of books came to the rescue...

I can't recommend the book Sew Everything Workshop enough. It really starts with the basics, expands from there, includes 10 patterns and gives you the confidence to start sewing without fear! Sew What! SKiRTS, is another "can't live without" book if you want to be sewing up skirts where the fabric does the work. I'm sure we all have a few yards of this or that lying around. It's super fab but you have no clue what to make with it. This book solves your problem. I really like it because it teaches you how to sew a skirt for YOU. You learn how to take your measurements and create your skirt from them. No more trying to fit into a generic pattern. I'm going to go skirt crazy! Now if I could only figure out how to sew up a car washing fairy that could come to life and make me less embarrassed to drive my black car around town. It's almost time for its bi-annual wash. Wait, I'll sew a car cozy. Problem solved!

 

 

A little sweater and a side of Ikea

Why haven't I been knitting baby sweaters for every little chubby cheeked cutie in the land? Well honestly, I don't want to knit boy sweaters. I want to knit oodles of baby girl Boheme sweaters...

OMG, I'm so serious. I made this one for my hair stylist's new baby girl, Lily. I knit the 12mo size because that "little" sweetheart was 11 lbs at birth. It is knit with Spud & Chloe Sweater in the Waterslide colorway. What dreamy yarn. It's 55% wool and 45% organic cotton. Perfect for a little one. After finishing this one I immediately cast one on for a friend's preschool-er. It's that fun.

In other knitting news. I'm pretty sure Jared Flood is evil. Ok, he's not evil. In fact, I've heard amazing things about him BUT his Rock Island shawl is going to be the death of me. I kid you not, I have started that frickin' frackin' edging eleventy billion times. I'm blaming the pattern and my inability to deal with so many yarn overs. The pattern is blaming the ultra splitty Wollmeise lace yarn. It's a vicious circle. Now you see why I'm goo-goo for easy baby sweaters.

Knitting is going to start taking a backseat to my latest resurrected craft though. I used to do quite a bit of sewing back in the day. Ok, let me tell it like it really is. I used to whip up stacks of charity quilts for kids. 'Sewing' made me sound fancier and better at it than I really am. Sewing quilts for kids doesn't exactly take a lot of finesse but I'm ready to take that next step. I'm ready to sew my own clothes. GASP! I'm pretty sure I'll end up looking like some sort of garage sale reject... but I'm going to be the proudest garage sale reject in Orange County! I even braved Ikea so that I could make my fashion dreams come true. Feast your eyes upon my new sewing area...

That's actually in my bedroom. Yep, my bedroom is ginormous. I live in a townhouse and that bedroom must take up a quarter of the square footage. While I'd rather have a dedicated sewing room, I'm thrilled to have room to set it up where I did and I can't wait to dive into all the fabric cubbies. Now here is where it gets tricky. I have crazy amounts of kid prints and not so many geared towards North of age 9. Don't be surprised if you hear about a crazy lady running the streets in a Care Bears wrap skirt in the near future. Take notice Moe sitting in the chair just trying to see what I might drop in that general area. I'm sure he's thinking that eating thread would be just as fun as eating yarn. If he eats it he's going to have to join the kitty circus in order to pay his own vet bills this time.

 

 

Never again

It's the kiss of blog death, me promising to write on a consistent basis. It's as if saying it automatically sends my blogging mojo straight to where my knitting mojo sometimes hides. Obviously the blogging mojo finds a really good spot to hide though unlike the knitting mojo which is usually just behind the curtains with its feet sticking out underneath.

Here's proof that I wasn't curled up in the fetal position eating cookies the entire time.

Pattern: top down 3x1 rib with heel flap and gusset

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan

Colorway: In The Clover

Pattern: top down and just an easy slip stitch

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan

Colorway: Rick's Cognac

Pattern: as vanilla as it gets

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan

Colorway: Loosey Juicy

These were my favorite project I knit. They are amazing awesome.

Pattern: Red Velvet Cupcakes by Star Athena

Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan (shocking, I know)

Colorway: Coleus (Hazel Knits Sock Club color)

And just to prove that I do occasionally knit with something other than awesome Hazel Knits yarn...

These socks were a labor of love and I'm not even referring to the fact that I had vanilla sock boredom oozing out of my ears. I refer to these socks as my $1370 socks. Why? Because my cat, Moe, decided to eat the 18" tail my second sock while it was a wip. Wanna know how much vet bill are when that happens? $1370.

Yarn: Perfect Day Yarns Dead Poet's Society Sock Club

Colorway: Sara Teasdale.

So see, it hasn't been wasted time. In fact, I've done soooo many things since I last popped in here but I'm writing a blog post and not a novel. Such a shame. I have to tell ya though, for as good as the past months have been, it's going to get better! I have some super exciting stuff on the horizon!

Who's ready for Sock Summit 2011???... this girl!!!