20 Minutes of Joy

There I was, having a very frustrating morning. I wasn't motivated to do any work and couldn't wait until a good friend got off of work so we could both kvetch about professional disappointments. I couldn't very well call Weedinator at work with my "problems" -- they don't pay him to listen to his wife complain. (But they should. I'm so good at it.)

So I decided to put 20 minutes to use with some fabric and an old, unflattering sweater that's been in my closet for years. I've had an idea going around in my head for about a week now.

I cut a heart shape in the sweater and the fabric and just stitched them together. I left a little hole at the top, stuffed my little heart and then closed everything up.

Sweater side of heart

Fabric side of heart

I liked it, but felt something was still missing. Combine my love of buttons with trying to fit this in 20 minutes (I went over a little) and ta-da!

I was going to put this in a Valentine's Day bag for one of the kids (it's small, fits in the palm of my hand), but I'm thinking I may just hold onto it for myself. This was 20+ minutes well-spent because afterward, I felt much better than I had before. And I think that's exactly what crafts should do for us.

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Miscellany

Last night, #1 Girl had a fancy school dance to attend. So I helped her with her hair and she put on this fancy schmancy dress and high heels and she looked very grown up. But, before she could forget where or who she was, little brothers came into the room. They acted just as goofy and silly as you'd expect little brothers to act when you're a big sister who's all dressed up with somewhere nice to go. They gawked, they covered their mouths with their hands to stifle laughter.

Then, the Dimpled One says, "She looks disgusting" and dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Maybe these socks I'm making for her will make up for the fact that she has two little brothers.

Next, I decided to put some accountability into my unofficial resolution to craft every day, so I joined the 20 Minuters at MarmaladeRose's blog. Not only does this motivate me, but I've found some lovely blogs to check out, too. I know I'm going to have some days where I'm incredibly busy, but 20 minutes? I can do 20 minutes. It's been very easy lately because Animal Magnet has tutoring sessions after school almost every day and while I wait in the car for 45 minutes, I work on my Ashford Shawl, which is perfect for mindless, not-having-to-look-at-a-pattern knitting. It's the WIP in my last post; don't be surprised if I don't have any more progress shots because right now, it looks the same, only longer.

So that's been the bulk of my 20+ minutes of crafting every day for the last week or so, but with Valentine's Day looming and my desire to make something for the family, I have lots of paper and felt and buttons and glue -- glue is important! I don't know what I'm going to do with all of this yet,

but that's part of the fun, right?

Last part of this randomness -- with the Winter Olympics coming up and the inevitable Ravelympics over at Ravelry, I wanted to take part in that, but...is it just me, or are there more terms and conditions attached to a group than there are in your average credit card agreement? My eyes were getting buggy just reading all the rules and tags and event lists and rosters and sign-in-blood right here -- okay, that last was a joke, but it's confusing! I do have a project that would fit into the spirit perfectly, but I think I'll just work on it without all the hassle. It won't be as much fun, but it won't require my signature on lines X, Y and Z, and reading forms in triplicate, either.

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Saturday

I should be working right now, even though it's Saturday and I try not to work on weekends, when everyone is home (besides, with this noise level, how am I supposed to concentrate?). But I'd rather slip on these knitted socks, knit another gift and read craft blogs. Shameful, I know, but it's raining out, it's chilly and I'm finding that the older I get, the more I crave comfortable things and domesticity.

Also, how cold can it get here exactly?

I took this little icicle photo (icicle!) last weekend when we went to visit the in-laws. They live two hours south of me and the weather there is usually warmer than the weather here, but it was a cold, bitter weekend, full of Floridians talking about possible snow flurries (which means absolutely nothing to those of you buried under a mountain of snow, I know, but humor us). The kids got a kick out of the ice chips that fell from the sky.

Alas, no snow, but I couldn't deal anyway.

Socks, tea, wool wraps to knit and an afghan -- perfect for keeping warm.

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After Today, a Tam Break

By now, you are probably sick and tired of seeing this tam! I don't blame you. But now it's all blocked and picot edge-fixed

so stick a fork in it! It is done.

Pattern: Max's Staircase Tam (Rav link)
Yarn: Queensland Collection Kathmandu Aran, leftovers
Needles: US 7 (4.5 mm) and later, US 5 for the brim fix

But now, onto the real beauty of this post, the Fair Isle Tam (Rav link). Someone at Ravelry mentioned they thought the lower part of the tam is too tall, and I have to agree. I'm gifting this (maybe) to someone with "big hair" so hopefully, this biggish tam will fit in with her hair and all will be right with the world.

Despite the fact that the lower part is a little tall for my taste, the view from above more than makes up for it.

I love this star pattern. Just love it. It got kind of fiddly working the decreases and changing colors at the same time and feeling like my eyes were crossing reading the chart, but it was all worth it. After I blocked it, I found myself having second thoughts about giving it away! So I decided I better put it in my little Christmas gift box, where all knitted gifts will stay until December. Out of sight, out of mind. Maybe. I should probably not look at my own blog lest I whip this tam right out of the box and stick it on my head.

This is almost all leftover yarn, in wool and wool/alpaca varieties. The only yarn that hadn't been used before was the deep purple. I knit the brim on US size 6 (4.0 mm) and the rest on US size 7 needles.

Tired of tams? Don't worry, my next post will be tam-free.

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Tam One, Next Chapter

In my last post, I was waiting for my greenish tam to dry. When it finally did and I tried it on, I found the brim a little too loose for my taste. Although it's not for me, the gift recipient is an adult woman and I think her head and my head are about the same size. What to do? I could either (a) frog it and knit it again, using smaller needles for the brim or (b) try a fix. I chose (b) this time around because even though it's a quick knit, I wanted to see if I could actually fix it (and maybe help someone out there who might have the same dilemma at some point).

The first step was to pick up stitches around the stockinette edge, which goes right into ribbing. As knit, the brim rolls a little.

Next, I knit 2 rounds with a US size 5 needle (the tam was knit with US 7), then knit 1 round *YO, K2tog*, then knit 6 rounds. The YO round left me with this, as seen from inside.

Once I folded the edging over, using the YO round as my fold line, I had a nice little picot edge. Getting ready to tack down the live stitches to the inside of the brim, I pinned the edging into place all the way around.

I decided to slip stitch the live stitches down, using these ridges (circled) as a guideline. You could also use scrap yarn to designate a line around the inside so that it's straight.

I began by fixing a length of yarn to the beginning of the round and slip stitched one. Using a crochet hook, I picked up one of those ridge stitches...

...then inserted the hook into the next stitch on the needle.

I brought the yarn around the hook,

and pulled the hook through all three loops,

until I was left with one.

After that, I pushed the stitch off the DPN

and it tighens up nicely as you move along, working right to left all the way around the inside of the tam.

Instead of slip stitching, you could always sew the edging to the inside of the tam, but since my sewing skills are on par with my skiing skills (that is, they're pretty non-existent), I chose to use a little crochet. And this is what I ended up with, a neat picot edge inside and out.

It's a snugger fit and I like it! Pictures of both tams soon to come.

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Tam and Tam

While this tam blocks,

I'm working on this Fair Isle tam from stash yarn (more Christmas gifts! I'm scaring myself).

It's been a long time since I've done any Fair Isle and I had to reacquaint myself with two-hand knitting. It's not like riding a bike, that's for sure. I had trouble getting my left hand tension right, but this YouTube video helped with my finger placement. Before that, I was rethinking my plan to knit another tam like this in complementary colors, but now I'm thinking I should probably do more Fair Isle to become more comfortable with it instead of avoiding it (2010 goal, perhaps?).

I've probably knitted more in the past month than I did six months last year. And it feels awesome! More knitting to come...

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Happy Crafty New Year!

Although you can't tell so far (due to knitting on my shawl night and day) I am feeling sooooo crafty and inspired and excited for this year! I've been poring over some recently acquired books and thinking about what I'm going to get into.

This upcoming fall, The Dimpled One will start kindergarten, which means all the kids will be in school all day. Excuse me while I tear up thinking about it (from joy!!!). This means I'll have so much more time to devote to all of my crafty endeavors and I cannot wait.

I've already got a jump on new crafting things -- see that middle book? Encyclopedia of Cardmaking Techniques? I picked it up a few weeks back and started gathering the things I'd need to finally begin making my own cards.

My first real card!

This isn't to say that I've never, ever made a card before, because I've made quite a few, when I didn't feel like running out to the store at the last minute or didn't have enough money to buy a handful. But now that I have many of the accessories that go along with more professional card-making, I don't know if I'll ever buy a card again!

I've gone through several card-making books, more for how to execute certain techniques than for "patterns" to follow. It's been so much fun for me thinking up my own designs, looking at color combinations, poking through all of my notions, some of which I forgot about...this has been just the kick I needed to pursue all of my other craft interests, so 2010 looks like it could be my most inspirational, craft-filled year so far, whether I'm working with yarn, needles, hooks, paper or camera. Yay!

Happy New Year, everyone!

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