linques design speaks

pure and simple

I picked up one tiny skein of Rowan purelife (organic cotton) and immediately put it to good use. (Both of which are available here.)

I've got some more ideas for these pretty necklaces in the works too!

So Kyuuto!

Here's a closer look at the quilt top, with the previously mentioned dotty binding fabric. Binding a quilt is not difficult, but it usually takes me a few days to get excited about doing it.

For the quilting, I stitched 4 lines in each of the main squares, and then 2 rows on the muslin. By the way, I got a walking foot for Christmas (with some gift money!) and it was so much easier. I did, however, have a harder-then-usual time with the quilt sandwich. Once pinned, I flipped it over and the backing was all bunchy! After I carefully had laid it flat. So I get the top pins in, shifted a few, completed pinned the back, then REpinned the front. Took awhile longer, but the back is nice and flat now. And I think I only have one tiny little bunchy spot from the stitching.

On a completely different note, I picked up the two Kyuuto Japanese-into English books that are currently in print (can't wait for the others to come out). I've been meaning to order them, but never did. I saw one here, and it just made me want them more. I got the only copies at our Borders, and they were so worth it! (I wanted to get an adorable Cath Kidson mending kit-but it was $24 and didn't really give me anything I needed...but it was So Cute.)

In the Amigurumi one (which I have been pronouncing "amee gur ooh me", and the book tells me that is horribly wrong), there are GREAT descriptions. Take the sheep:

Can you read that? It says:

"Sheep from Woolen Planet
We live in the Woolen Planet's garden of princes.
Now, we come to visit the planet Earth."

Huh???? But it's kyuuto none the less.

My work in progress

Just a few things I'm working on right now. The crochet project is just for fun; something to use up some of my yarn. The quilt is a Christmas present, or will be when it's done!

I picked out most of the fabric for it online, and it's funny how many Heather Ross prints ended up in there! I had a great big selection, and when I whittled it down this is what was left. They're perfect though; cute, somewhat minimal, good colors, and a little boyish.

vacation crafts 3

A little change for you. This is a skinny scarf I crocheted at the pool. Funny, because as I was going, I just folded the done part on my stomache. I got some weird looks from people, especially because it was a super hot day.

I just got the yarn at Jo Ann's, but I love it. It's bamboo, which I've never used before. It's so soft!! It drapes really nicely. I used 3 skeins for the scarf, and it's the perfect length. I like the color a lot too. I just threw it on that table when I came in, then realized it looked pretty with the shells and rocks so I had to take that picture.

And here's a picture for you, mom! Here's your little Cosmo, cuddled up in just-out-of the dryer towels. Just don't tell Bob!

this is why i want to sew

I started on the borders of my squares. I was bummed because it was supposedly 4" between them, but doing just 2 rows will only give me 1". So I can either make a Cosmo sized blanket, make more squares, or make lots of rows of blue in between. Hmm.

I'm not sure what happened to this square. See the green? And the big gap? I must have snipped it accidentally. It wouldn't have come unraveled, because I did the no-no and tied it off before sewing the ends in, so it was secure. Weird. So now I'm down a square too.

Again, I'm getting the urge to sew, I just do not know what to make. Derek has a big huge paper to do this weekend, so maybe I'll figure something out by then. Maybe these?

On an unrelated note, I just got the August Anthropologie catalog. I really like a lot of the stuff, but can someone tell me why it's so darn expensive? Yikes. If you need my size for the following items, just let me know! Hehe.

-sweater coat-not so cute online but super cute on model
-sweet dress-again, not so cute online. they need new dress forms
-sweater dress-adorable
-green bedding-love it

I won't bore you with more, but I could go on and on. Like their shoes...

still a happy hooker

23 down, 13 to go. They're fun to make, at least after I got the hang of it! I'm crocheting over the loose ends, but I will still also sew them in too for some more security. I started by doing it all once I was done with a square, but now I'm just waiting until they're done. Then I believe my pattern has me crochet the squares together with about 4" in between each, so it's a little different then traditional Granny blankets. I'm going to be using the blue for that.

The fabric behind them is one of my new favorites. It was on clearance, I think at Hancocks of Paducah. My other favorite was in the last post, the paint by number birds. That was also clearance. And a nice surprise gift from Derek!

I mentioned before that I got a huge bag of buttons for $5. And they are GOOD buttons! Really adorable buttons that I have to find a use for. And the woman who they originally belonged to put all of them together on either thread or bobby pins to keep them sorted. I hope she's happy that someone found them who will love them as much as she did!

And here are some of my personal favorites:

I'm going to be heading to work soon. Not a normal work day for me, but they need help with emails, and I love doing that, so I'm working 11-6 today and tomorrow. I didn't have any plans, so it'll be some nice extra money!

i've been busy

I've started to crochet again. And it's fun! I made 3 hats this weekend, finished up the bunny's dress, and started a granny square blanket. I'm doing all squares the same though, not changing up the color pattern.

I also got some great buttons at Goodwill, but those will get a special post later since they're so great!

miss bunny

Meet Miss Bunny. My first ever amigurumi attempt! My first time doing decreases, actually! She's not perfect, but I like her. She's from Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful, by Narumi Ogawa.

My Miss Bunny is still awaiting her dress. And eyes. But I didn't have any, so she might either just get embroidered eyes or none at all since she's already sewn together!

mellow yellow

Do you want to see how my brain thinks?

This weekend, I was looking at some stores online. I like doing this every now and then, even though I don't currently have the money to buy everything I like. I just add things to my basket and pretend I can get them. Anyway, I was at JCrew, and saw this yellow sweater. Now, I didn't like this particular sweater--it doesn't have a particularly nice shape--but I did love that it was 1. crocheted and 2. bright yellow.

So that got me thinking. I need to make something yellow. I've always liked yellows and oranges, but you can't find them in my apartment. Or my wardrobe, really.

Then, like magic, I heard about 2 new knitting books from blogland. Fitted Knits, by Stefanie Japel, and Twinkle's Big City Knits by Wenlan Chia. And guess what. Both include photos of lovely yellow sweaters to make! Fate? I think so.

So lucky me, Derek takes me to Borders, Barnes and Noble, and JoAnn's after work on Monday to collect my now needed things. The books look wonderful, and look at these yellow sweaters! But...the patterns look hard. At least for me, unexperienced as I am. BUT I have knitted garments before - quite a few actually - but there are all puppy sized.

from Fitted Knits

from Twinkle's...not entirely yellow but HOW CUTE IS THAT!?

from Twinkle's

So now I'm not confident that I can make these beautiful sweaters. Plus the cost of nice yarn...yikes. I have never used good quality yarn before...or had to get skeins and skeins of it. I'm not even sure how much Twinkle Handknit Yarns go for because it isn't carried in a store by me, but it's so beautiful that I'm scared to find out!

So...to appease my yellow craving I have made some more practical purchases. I bought some lovely light yellow (cheap) yarn, and started this:

Yes, that's right, it looks like a baby blanket. I have no use at all for a baby blanket-I don't even know anyone to gift it to! But I didn't want to make anything too big, and I had that white fluffy yarn that I wanted to use up, so there ya go. It's fun to make at least. A whole lot funner (nice word, eh?!) since I saw Alicia's trick on the yarn ends. I HATE stitching in the ends. Hate. And I've heard of some little tricks before, but that's not something you'd see in a crocheting book, so I wasn't sure what to do. Alas, all that's needed is to hold the yarn ends over the next row, and they're nicely crocheted in. There's question about how practical this is, and that they'll probably come out in time, but trust me, when I weave the ends in they come out in a matter of hours! So this has saved me so much time. Now I might be up for tackling the granny squares.

All right, I will try to make a sweater for me. Someday. I don't have a lot of knitting needles either though, so there's another expense added to the yarn. See, I can spend the $ on the books because that's knowledge...but if I don't really know what I'm doing I don't want to buy nice yarn. So, for some practice, I'll leave you with a shot of this. Knitting, here I come.

 

snug as a bug

What a fabulous project! I finished Cosmo's blanket in a day and a half. That is super fast for me, and great motivation, because I have been known to stop projects midway if they...well, take too long. But this-now this was great! I was able to teach myself the treble stitch and make an ENTIRE puppy blanket all while watching Lost!

I made it Cosmo sized, so it's about 24" wide and maybe 3 times that long, but he uses it with the long side wrapped around. If that makes any sense at all! Anyways, I made it just for him. And I reinforce that everyday. Anytime I see him laying around I wrap him up in it! He likes to be snuggled anyway, but I think he knows he makes me happy when he stays in it!

Now Derek wants one. And he loves that yarn. But Derek's big, and that's not a weekend blanket. Plus the yarn came in a kit, so I don't have more of it. It was actually a felting kit, which I really wanted to do, but Cosmo needed another blanket to add to his 50 million he has already. MAYBE that'll happen in his lifetime!

Well, he is always doing nice stuff for me though...so we'll see! You know, like driving me around everywhere. Nice guy.

Alrighty, off to read. Yes, Derek had a bag of "new" books for me from Half Priced Books in the car when he picked me up from work. See, what did I tell you. I had been out of books, now I'm not, so it's off to read for me! Yay!