Dragon's Treasure

Doll Sleepers, Pants and Sweaters

2012-01-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law mentioned that she was planning to make her daughters 16" Waldorf dolls for Christmas. I was looking for ideas of things I could make them, so I jumped on this and offered to knit the dolls some clothes. There doesn't seem to be a lot of patterns out there for Waldorf dolls, so I decided to make up my own thing based on what is popular for real babies, and what I had done for my own kids already. I didn't have a doll to measure, so I found some measurements online. I was a little nervous about making clothes without a doll to try them on, but I figured that it would work out.

First I made some sleepers. Both of them are made from wool that I dyed with icing gel. The purple one is wool dyed with pink and blue, and the second it wool dyed with blue and yellow.

Next I made them each a kimono type sweater with matching pants. The pants are based on the sheepy pants custom formula, and the sweater was my own thing. The first set was made with recycled sweater wool, and left over from sock monkey pants. The second was made with some 100purewool.com and some unknown grey yarn.

I had grand ideas of making a skirt, and maybe something else as well, but this is as far as I got before I had to mail things out, and make things for other people. The clothes fit the dolls, so that was a relief. Now I am really wanting to make a Waldorf doll.

Koolaid Dyeing Tutorial

2012-01-03T10:29:00.000-08:00

You can use most food grade dyes to dye protein (comes from an animal) fibers. Some sources of dye are koolaid (and any generic form of koolaid), cake icing dye (Wilton's from Michaels for example), food colouring, and Easter egg dye. Some people have even used Jello and stuff like Crystal lite. You should used sugar free kinds, as the sugar can scortch and ruin the fiber during heating. Also you need to be careful using Jello as the gelatin will make the yarn sticky and more difficult to manage.

The basic process for acid dyeing involves 4 things: a protein fiber, the dye, some acid, and heat. Koolaid has citric acid in it which is why it is good for dyeing, you don't have to add anything else. For the other types of food grade dye you will usually need to add some form of acid. You can use (white) vinegar, lemon juice, citric acid, or anything similar.

Usually you mix some acid into some water (like a few tablespoons of vinegar with a litre of water) and soak the fiber for at least 30 minutes, but you can leave it overnight. This is because fiber takes dye better, and more evenly when it is wet.
Next you add the dye. There are all sorts of methods for doing this depending on what you want to achieve. Here are some of the most common or easiest ways to do it:

Handpainting means that you mix the dye with water and either squirt it onto the fiber with a squirt bottle or paint it onto the fiber with a paintbrush. This is usually how you get variegated yarns. You have to be careful not to get the fiber too wet or the dye can bleed, possibly causing a lot of unwanted browns.
Kettle dyeing means that you mix the dye in some kind of dish, put the wet yarn in and heat it. This method can create a solid colour or the fiber can take up the dye in different amounts so you will have subtle variegation. You can also put the fiber into the water, then squirt different colours of dye onto different areas of the fiber. Once again you have to be careful or you can end up with muddy browns.
I have also just gotten the fiber wet then sprinkled the koolaid powder directly onto the fiber, then squished it in with our fingers. Have also put drops of food colouring directly onto the fiber (soaked in vinegar water first).

Next is heating. Most people use either the microwave or the stove top, but you can also use the oven, a crockpot, the sun, or anything that can get it hot enough to set the dye. If you are kettle dyeing you usually just leave the fiber in the dish and heat it. If you are hand painting you will want to steam it to minimize running of the dye. Most people do this by wrapping the fiber in plastic wrap. I have only ever done this using the microwave, but I have seen people talking about doing it in the oven, crockpot, etc. I just worry about the plastic melting. I have also steamed (real) acid dyes by putting a bamboo steamer over a bit of water and putting the fiber on top. The dye won't run as much if it isn't directly in the water.

Microwave heating is usually done for by heating for a short time and then letting the fiber rest for a short time (something like microwave for 2 minutes rest for 3 minutes). You do this a number of times until the dye exhausts (this means the water is clear or milky but doesn't appear to have dye in it). I find it very hard to tell if the dye has exhausted when the fiber is wrapped, so I usually microwave for a total of about 10 minutes. Once you are done microwaving, it is best to let the fiber completely cool before unwrapping it. The fiber/platic will be very hot, and the dye tends to set better if you let it cool.
Other heating methods need you to get the fiber/water to a simmer (wool around 170f, silk around 180f). Then you usually leave it at a simmer for 30-60 minutes. You should be able to see the dye exhaust. The water will be clear or milky looking.

Once you have heated the fiber and dye it is best to let it cool completely. You can leave it over night. This helps the dye set properly, and also can help prevent felting.
Once the fiber has cooled you need to rinse it carefully. You can do this by running/spraying water on it in the sink. You should rinse it until the water runs clear. This gets any extra dye out.
Let it dry completely. I usually hang my yarn to drip dry. It is best to air dry it.

Other information:

If you don't set the dye properly, the dye will run or bleed when wet. It may eventually wash out completely.
a lot of food colouring is from red dye #3 (not just the red colours). This dye is very tricky to get set properly. It is very sensitive to low pH (or acid) so won't set properly in acid. If using koolaid you may need to add baking soda to raise the pH so it will set. You can add baking soda until it stops bubbling. Lots of people will start with regular water until the red has set then slowly add acid so other colours can set. http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/what-a-kool-way-to-dye/1205497/1-25#3
If you add too much dye it wan't exhaust. In this case you heat it until you are happy with it then let it cool. You can usually reuse the dye bath, but the colour you get will be much lighter unless you add more dye.
Food grade dyes are more expensive than other acid dyes, but they are not toxic so you don't have to worry about kids or special dyeing equipment. If you use non-food grade dyes you would need to have pots/utensils/etc just for dyeing. But you still need to be careful not to inhale the koolaid powder, etc.
Baking soda apparently will remove the dye from hands and counters. I haven't tried, but the Ravelry group raves about it.
Dyeing is an excellent science project:
- you can mix colours while dyeing for colour science. (i.e. if you kettle dye with red and blue it will turn purple where the two run into each other).
- It is a chemical reaction involving the fiber, acid, and heat that causes the dye to bond to the fiber.
- The pH of the water can affect dyeing
- If you get into natural dyeing there is even more chemistry involved. You can use the same dye source and change the colour by adding different mordants (usually metals). But a lot of mordants and dye plants are toxic/poisonous so more care is needed. You can start out with food grade alum (pickling alum) and stuff you find in your yard/neighborhood, but it is best to take precautions and not use pots/utensils for food preparation after nature dyeing.

Angry Bird Hat

2012-01-01T21:55:00.001-08:00

IMG_4505
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
Everyone seems to love Angry Birds, including me. One of my friends asked me to make her son an angry bird hat.

The pattern is from here. It is well done, but a little complicated for the novice. The body of the hat is done in the round, but requires intarsia colourwork for the first rows. Intarsia is hard to do in the round without carrying the yarn across the different coloured parts of the item. You could have done that with this project no problem, especially because it is a winter hat. But carrying yarn has a number of drawbacks including using a lot more yarn, adding bulk, the carried yarn showing through to the front, and having to be careful not to pull the yarn too tight. This pattern called for cutting the yarn and weaving in the ends rather than carrying the yarn. If the intarsia was up the whole hat I might have decided to carry the yarn for added warmth, but didn't think it was the best choice for just the bottom of the hat.

The rest of the hat was fairly straight forward. The graphs were well done for placement of the beak , eye, and eyebrows. I tried doing satin stitch for the embroidery initially, but it wasn't looking very good. I decided to weave yarn from the other direction and this dramatically improved the appearance.

I am happy with how it turned out, and my kids want one now as well. Of course they don't necessarily want the red one.

Another Mei Tei and Girly Pants

2011-12-23T10:02:00.001-08:00

My cousin's wife just had his first baby. I remember 4 years ago he was holding my newborn son, and said that we had better not give his girlfriend baby fever. My Sister, my brother, and I all had newborns at the time, so it would have been pretty easy to do.But, when I saw him holding my son, I knew that one day he would be a dad. Now, four years later, he has a sweet baby girl, and appears to be completely smitten.

Modelling the Meit Tei with my 18 month old

I usually offer to make new parents a mei tei. I like to encourage baby-wearing, and I figure that even if they don't end up loving mei teis, at least they can give one a try. If the parents don't really have a preference I usually choose paisley fabric. I think it is pretty for the Mom, and not too girly for the Dad. I used this tutorial.

Girly Pants

Originally uploaded by ilailea2

My cousin-in-law was asking about cloth diapers one day. I told her about my experience, and also talked about wool. She decided to go with cloth diapers, but didn't think she wanted to deal with taking care of longies. I offered to knit her a pair so she could at least try wool out. I figure that most people won't buy expensive longies to give it a try, but may discover they love wool if they are given some.

My aunt said my cousin-in-law was a real girly-girl, so I took this opportunity to make some cute frilly pants. She asked for pink and white. The variegated pink is 3-ply merino from 100purewool.com in the colour Hasen. They are small size.

Bee hat

2011-12-03T21:54:00.001-08:00

Bee hat
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
A friend asked me to make a bee hat for her newborn baby boy for Halloween. I modified another hat pattern to make it look like a bee, and added the antennae on top. It worked out great, and it sure looked cute on the baby.

Dragon's Lair Linen Stitch Longies

2011-11-29T17:04:00.001-08:00

Dragon's Lair Linen Stitch Longies
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
Here are my second pair of linen stitch longies. They turned out better than the first. I used a pattern specifically to make linen stitch longies, which helps. I also used a really big needle, which helps the most.

I love the yarn. It is Dragon's Lair on licorice twist by Mosaic moon.

Tutorial: How to Make Reusable Food Bags

2011-10-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I made a bunch of reusable snack/food bags, and I thought that I would share how I did it. I had been wanting to do it for awhile, so I looked around for some tutorials on how to do it. I found a bunch of different styles. I don't really like hook and loop closures, especially for food, so I was looking for something different. Eventually I decided that I like this style the best, but I don't have a serger so I wanted something with finished edges. I figure they hold up better over the long run with finished edges as well.

So I started out with two long rectangles of fabric; one being rip-stop nylon and one being whatever fabric you want for the outside. In this picture I used some cloth from a pair of camo pants that had gotten a hole and been turned into shorts, but you could use any decorative fabric. These are small enough that you could upcycle all sorts of things fairly easily which makes them doubly environmentally friendly.

1. First sew one of the short ends together with wrong sides together.

Then turn the fabric to the right sides out and top stitch over the seam that you have just sewn. This is not necessary, but it looks nicer.

2. Next you fold the end you have sewn down onto the decorative fabric. I have folded it about 4.5 cm (1 3/4 inches).

Then fold the rest of the decorative fabric up on itself so that you leave a flap at the top above where the fabric is folded. You don't want to catch the nylon, it should be free other than where it is attached to the fold. Pin the sides to keep them together.

Here is a picture of the decorative fabric folded with a flap at the top and the nylon free. You will be making 2 separate pockets of outer fabric and nylon.

Sew the sides of the decorative fabric from the bottom fold to the top of the fold of nylon and outer fabric. you would stop when it changes from outer fabric to nylon. You don't want to sew the nylon to the flap that you have left.

3. Now you will match the free short end of the nylon to the end of the flap you have left, and pin all around the square. This will be the second pocket.

Here the pinned nylon is folded up so you can see that it is not attached to the decorative fabric.

Here you can see that the decorative fabric and the nylon meet to form a flap.

Now you will need to sew the sides and top, leaving an opening in the middle of flap for turning. It is easiest to sew up the sides separately from the flap, so you don't catch any of the decorative pocket when you are sewing. This means you will have a total of 4 different seams.

Cut the corners of the flap. The rest of the corners don't need to be cut.

4. Now turn the whole thing out the right way. There will be a decorative fabric pocket and a nylon pocket.

Put the nylon pocket into the decorative fabric pocket. Now you can see the fold and top stitched seam that we made at the beginning, and the flap above it with a hole in it.

5. Top stitch around the flap. This will close the hole you left for turning, as well as make it look nicer.

6. You're done and ready to use the bag. Here it is open.

Here is is with the flap put into the pocket.

And here it is closed with the folded fabric flipped over the opening.

Handspun shorties

2011-10-24T15:13:00.001-07:00

Handspun shorties
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
These are the shorties that I knit for my son. They are out of the blue-green Coopworth that I dyed and spun. I only had enough for shorties. They are nice and thick though, so they will get use at night time and inside even in the winter. If we are lucky they will still fit next summer too.

Madelyn Sweater

2011-10-24T15:07:00.001-07:00

Madelyn Sweater
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I made this sweater for my daughter as a test knit quite awhile ago, but I realized that I hadn't posted about it yet when I wrote about the second doll sleeper.

This is size 6. I used 100purewool.com. I had 2 skeins of colourway and one of a solid. I thought I was going to run out of the colourway near the end, so I started doing stripes of colourway and solid to stretch it out. I ended up having just enough to finish everything with the 3 skeins.

I let my daughter pick out the ribbon and buttons. They aren't what I would have chosen, and I actually thought she would want blue buttons and ribbon as it is her favourite colour. But the buttons and ribbon do brighten up the sweater, and hse likes it, so that is what matters.

Another Doll Sleeper

2011-10-03T10:10:00.001-07:00

Doll Sleeper 2
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
Here is my second doll sleeper. I made it for the doll that was the intended recipient of the other sleeper. The other one was slightly big for her.

This time I slipped every second stitch every second row. The sleeper has some great texture and colour. It is also amazingly stretchy. This doll is my daughter's, and she insisted that there be 4 heart buttons and one circle button. Not what I would have chosen, but it is hers, so I did what she wanted. My daughter wants a bunch of items for her doll. She would like a sweater similar to hers in particular.

I think that I am going to make doll clothes out of all my left over sock yarn from now on. It seems to be a good way to use up the yarn, and the clothes are pretty cute. I think using fingering weight yarn for doll clothes gives you more flexibility in the design of the clothes.

Peacock Doll Sleeper

2011-09-28T09:00:00.001-07:00

Peacock Doll Sleeper
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I had quite a bit of yarn left over after making my socks, so I decided to make some doll clothes. My daughter has actually gotten into playing with dolls lately, so I thought it would be nice if she had a bunch of handmade clothes for her favourite.

I made my own pattern. It is basically an off-centre, raglan-top sleeper. The doll in this picture is 10 inches tall. I actually made the sleeper for a different doll, but it fits this one too. I slipped stitches every fourth row.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, and it should be easy enough for the kids to get on and off. I still have enough yarn left over to make at least one more item.

Peacock Slippery Socks

2011-09-19T14:51:00.001-07:00

Peacock Slippery Socks
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
These are my Slippery socks in Mosaic Moon's peacock colour way. It took me a really long time to make them, but that was partly because I didn't work on them consistently. I wasn't feeling the knitting for awhile, and the baby was wanting to be held quite a bit. When I actually got down to knitting, they didn't really take that long.

I really love the colour way. I kinda wish I got it in longie wool, I think it is a great boy colour. I guess that I deserve nice colours too though, and I am really happy with the socks. The pattern is really great for showing cables in variegated yarns. Usually they would kinda disappear, but this pattern uses slipped stitches to help the cables stand out.

I now have 3 new pairs of socks for this winter season. I have another skein of Mosaic moon sock yarn in Morning Dew, as well as 2 undyed skeins of sock yarn. I think that is a pretty good start on replacing my socks that started to get holes last winter.

Blue merino/silk handspun

2011-09-06T10:17:00.001-07:00

blue merino/silk handspun
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
Here is 100g of 80% merino/20% silk. It is Navajo plied. It turned out great. Apparently I am much better at spinning finer yarns.

Before I stopped spinning I used to mainly do Navajo plied yarn. At that time I was going for a yarn where most of the colours matched up, and this could be easily done with Navajo plying. But recently I have been seeing all sorts of 2-plies where the colours are mixed up in the plying. I was going for that look with my first 2 attempts. I need to make the singles thicker for 2-ply than for 3-ply, but so far that has resulted in a drastically thicker and less even yarn.

Now I need to consider whether I want to continue to attempt the 2-ply, or if I want to go with 3-ply for now at least. If I did 3-ply with 3 sets of singles rather than Navajo plying I would get the fractures look, or even if I Navajo plied without worrying about colour changes.

What do you think?

Blue green coopworth handspun

2011-08-31T10:22:00.001-07:00

Blue green coopworth handspun
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
Here is the coopworth all spun up. I got about 160 yards from it. Less than anticipated, so I'm guessing that it is aran or thicker weight. I am going to knit a swatch and see, but I'm not sure I have enough to make pants.

I think it is still a bit under spun, but it is definitely better than my last attempt. I am eager to see what it looks like knitted up though.

I still have a bunch of fibre left over from 6+ years ago, so I am going to have to look and see what my next attempt will be. I have some already dyed, some natural that I could dye myself, and some natural darker colours. I have some fibre coming in October/November from a Bee Mice Elf coop that I would really like to make into pants for my son. I hope to have gotten enough practise by then to have some even, worsted weight with enough yardage.

Blue and Green Coopworth Roving

2011-08-28T14:46:00.001-07:00

blue and green coopworth roving
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I have a bunch of white/cream roving left over from when I was spinning more regularly. I want to get more serious about dyeing and spinning so I thought it was time that I dyed up some more roving. I'm going to use it to make my son pants for this fall/winter. I wanted a watery colourway, and I am planning embroider Cthulhu on the bum (if they aren't just too pretty without anything).

I don't have a scale at this time, so I just scooped out some dye and mixed it up. I used way too much, and had to rinse out a bunch of blue, but I like how it turned out. It is so hard to get good pictures of the colours, but this is a pretty good representation.

There is 250g of coopworth roving. I soaked it in water and vinegar for an hour or so, then I dumped out most of the water. I mixed up the dye powder with boiling water, and started heating the roving. When the roving was hot I dumped the dye in, blue on one half and green on the other. I was going for mostly blue with some green. The roving was really long and thinner than the last roving I dyed. I let it simmer for about an hour.

I am planning to get a scale before I really get serious about dyeing, but I just wanted some fibre to spin so I didn't care about being precise at this time.

Back to Spinning

2011-08-17T09:43:00.001-07:00

Handspun/hand dyed purple, blue, and pink merino
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I have not spun anything is about 6 years (since I was pregnant with my daughter). I have been wanting to get back into for quite awhile, especially seeing as beautiful dyed fibre is cheaper than beautiful dyed yarn. Also I found that the longies I made my son from stuff I spun before I had kids actually holds up really well with minimal pilling.

So I finally gave it a go the other day. I used the fibre I dyed with Wilton's icing gel awhile ago. It is 2-ply, and I'd say probably worsted or aran weight. I was going for worsted weight, but I think that it got thicker as I went on so it isn't uniform. I think it turned out pretty good for my first time in 6 years, but I am definitely going to want to get some more practising in, maybe with some plain fibre until I get back into the swing of things.

Monster pants

2011-07-27T14:45:00.001-07:00

Monster pants
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I made these awhile ago, but never got around to writing about them. They are from the Petite Purls spring edition. I knew as soon as I saw them that I had to make them. They were my son's first birthday present.

I briefly considered getting the proper yarn and making matching pairs for my boys, but I decided that I just couldn't spend that much on yarn. Plus the cotton yarn that is called for wouldn't have worked with cloth diapers. So I went to the thrift store and found a wool sweater in the appropriate colour for $10!

The sweater was actually 80%wool/20% nylon, but my son is not a heavy wetter, so I figured that it would do for a diaper cover. Once unravelled the wool was probably about fingering/sport weight. I might have been able to get gauge with it, but it would have been very loose fabric that wouldn't do as a diaper cover. So I doubled the yarn. I didn't even get close to gauge with it doubled, but the fabric was good for my purposes, so I did the math and adjusted the pattern accordingly. I aimed for about the 12-18 month size and ended up casting on 80 stitches.

The gusset was pretty interesting construction, although I would probably stick with my normal gusset in the future. I also love the button hole in the cuff so that you can button the pants up at the pocket (the nose button). I thought that was a great idea for all pants, then you could make the legs longer than needed so they can last longer.

I am really happy with how they turned out. I had enough yarn left over that I might make a pair of monster shorts for my older son. I haven't gotten around to it yet though, so maybe I will keep the yarn for next summer instead.

Scale shirt!

2011-07-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

Scale shirt
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I am super excited about this one. I have been working on it for awhile now (over a month). I had to rip it out after the first few inches because it was turning out way too big. Then we were travelling and I didn't have much knitting time. Then I ran out of scales. But I am very happy with how it turned out, and so is my son.

It is made to resemble scales attached to leather armour. The shirt portion is a really simple raglan seamless knit. There is probably around 1000 scales. Attaching the scales was very time consuming. When I originally got the idea to make a scale shirt, I thought that knitting it would be easier and faster than learning how to make chain-mail. I think I was wrong, but the nice thing about the knitted version is that it is stretchy to get on him, and has a warm layer between the scales and the boy.

I have a bunch of extra scales, so I am considering making him some gauntlets or something to go with it. I think he also needs a cape to go with it. This is probably going to be part of his Halloween costume.

Sunflower field shawl

2011-07-21T12:04:00.001-07:00

Sunflower field shawl
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I saw this pattern when it was being tested and fell in love. I couldn't test it, but I got it when it was released.

It was designed for a Tour de France KAL, so I decided to knit it right away. I just happened to have some upcycled yarn from a sweater that was about fingering weight. I had already dyed some with onion skins, so I decided to dye the rest to make the shawl. There was about 400 yards of onion skin yarn. I dyed about 200 yards with tea, and another about 400 yards with lemon lime koolaid.

I omitted the centre panel because I wanted to do the middle of the flower a different colour. I made the smallest size, which covers my shoulders, but it really is more of a scarf.

Pleated skirts

2011-07-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Last summer, when my sister-in-law and I got a big order of 100purewool.com, I made a bunch of clothes for my nieces including these. The skeins of wool went an amazingly long way, so I had a whole skein of Joanico left over. We decided to wait until spring and make a skirt. When I was making the ribbon ruffle on the rainbow dress I realized the same type of technique could be used to make a pleated skirt.

I had a bit of trim and one skein, which made a lovely pleated skirt for a one year old.

I got 2 skeins of Diante for my daughter. I initially was planning to make her a Pembroke Vest to match her brothers, but I never got around to it. After making the skirt for my niece I decided to make one for my daughter seeing as she was only wearing skirts at the time.

The two skeins made a nice pleated skirt for a bigger girl.

Rainbow Dress and soaker

2011-07-12T14:39:00.001-07:00

Rainbow Dress and soaker
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I made this dress for my niece's first birthday. I had something different in mind (like cotton instead of wool), but when we walked into Michael's my daughter saw a swatch of this yarn knit up in these colours and declared that this is what her cousin needed.

The dress is based off of The Belle Romper. I decided to make it into a dress because my niece does EC and I thought a dress would be easier. So I followed the pattern until the waist, then did increases to make the skirt. I also used the ribbon ruffle included in the pattern.

The soaker is Vanilla. I made it to match the dress, mainly because I had enough left over yarn.

Scale dice bag

2011-07-11T16:27:00.001-07:00

Scale dice bag
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
I like to do broad searches on Etsy.com to see what turns up. One day I typed in dragon and started scrolling through the listings. Eventually I came to some listings for dragon scale items, one of which was a dice bag.I instantly fell in love and decided that I needed to try making myself one.

I was able to find scales (and chainmaille supplies) on the internet for a reasonable price at the theringlord.com. The company is even Canadian which makes it even nicer. So I order some brushed aluminium scales to give it a go.

It took a couple of starts before I figured out how to attach the scales, and got the right number of stitches. But I love how it turned out!

Now I have started on making a knitted scale shirt for my son. I have run out of scales at the moment, but as soon as I get more I will finish it up and share it.

Via Flickr:
This is a dice bag knitted with scales to resemble scale armour.

Self-striping knee-high nemo legwarmers

2011-03-07T16:13:00.001-08:00

Self-striping knee-high nemo legwarmers
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
My daughter has decided that -20 degrees Celsius is a good time to refuse to wear anything but skirts and dresses. She will happily wear her snow pants, but I thought that she might like some leg warmers too.

I have had this self-striping Nemo yarn for quite some time, so I thought that it would make some nice leg warmers. I cast on 48 stitches with 2.75mm DPNs and did 2x2 rib stitch the whole way. My daughter had recently seen another girl with leg warmers that went over the knee, so she required that hers also went over the knee. I didn't quite have enough or the Nemo yarn to make them as long as she wanted, so I finished with some matching dark grey kroy sock yarn.

My daughter was pretty happy with the results, although she found them to be itchy. I soaked them in vinegar for awhile to see if that would soften them up. Initially she said that they were less itchy, but later they felt itchy again. She did wear them though, so I will cause it an optimistic success.

My first socks in 4 years socks

2011-02-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

My first socks in 4 years socks
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

It hasn't really been 4 years I realized, but this is only the third pair of socks I have knit for myself in 4 years. I love knitted socks, and before I got pregnant socks were a large part of what I knit. But then I got pregnant, was working and tired and didn't really knit for awhile. When I did get back to knitting I went through a toy obsession, followed by longies.

Lately my socks have started to get holes in the bottom. Some of these socks are probably 10 years old, and I pretty much only wear knitted socks, so I think that is extreme value for my money! I will darn them to extend the life (even more value!), but I thought that this would be a good time to make myself some new socks.

I briefly joined a sock of the month club at my LYS when I was knitting socks, and still had 3 sets of yarn to knit up. I decided to start there. The pattern is the Not-Quite Ribbed Sock that was designed for this sock club. I really like it, and I think that it might be my go to pattern when I don't have anything else I want to knit. It is simple, and pretty.

Pembroke Vest for my Boys

2011-01-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

I decided to knit matching Pembroke vests for my boys for Christmas. The yarn is 100purewool.com 3-ply worsted merino in the Warm Ice colourway. I really love this colourway. I didn't quite have enough yarn to finish the arm holes with the required number of rows, so I decided to go with fewer. I think that they turned out great, and I don't think you can really tell that the armholes are shorter.

These vests were made much easier when someone posted this tutorial on cables without a cable needle on Ravelry. Doing cables this way is almost as fast as not doing cables at all!

I altered the v-neck slightly. I decided that I wanted it to make a v, so I did ribbing to 1 stitch before the centre front (1 stitch plus the middle stitch). I then ssk those stitches, put that stitch back on the left needle, slipped the next stitch over the middle stitch, and returned it back to the right needle and continued in pattern.

Bison hat

2010-12-29T14:51:00.001-08:00

Bison hat
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

Here is a hat that I designed for my brother for Christmas. He is crazy about bison, and he is half native. Hopefully a teenager will be happy to wear this hat!

Doll Bed with Flowers

2010-12-18T10:08:00.001-08:00

Doll Bed
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

This is a doll bed I made for a friend's daughter. There is a blanket with a hood to wrap the doll in, then a basket with handles to carry the doll around. I embroidered some flowers on the hood of the blanket and on the basket. I wanted it to look girly, while still being practical and able to withstand play. I am really happy with how it turned out.

kettle dyed merino

2010-11-29T10:07:00.001-08:00

kettle dyed merino
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I really loved the yarn I kettle dyed with Wilton's pink and sky blue icing gel, so I decided that I wanted to dye some more right away. I have also been wanting to try dyeing fiber, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. I already have a bunch of fiber that I bought years ago, so I went looking through my stash and found 250g of white merino top.

I used the same process as for the yarn. I soaked the fiber in plain water in the pot so I wouldn't need to transfer the wet fiber. It was a lot of fluffy fiber and took a lot of water to get it all wet. I let it soak for quite awhil to ensure that it was all saturated, then I carefully dumped out most of the water. It was all still cool so a bit of movement didn't cause any problems. Next I mixed about half a jar each of Wilton's sky blue and pink with hot water in old dish soap bottles. I heated the fiber until it was hot to the touch so that I wouldn't shock it when I added the hot dye. When it was hot I squirted the dye all over the fiber. I left it to cook for about 20 minutes, then added a glug of vinegar. I cooked it in 20 minute increments then added more vinegar for about an hour, then I turned the heat off and let it cool over night. In the morning the dye bath was clear. I dumped the fiber into a mesh bag and put it on the spin cycle in the washing machine. I then hung it to dry, which was really fast after being in the washing machine. The top was all in one long piece, so I broke it into 3 pieces and braided it.

I am really happy with how it turned out. The fiber still looks great with no felting. I love the colours. Now I just need to figure out what to do with it. I also want to get more serious about dyeing, so I am going to have to find some proper acid dyes to try to replicate this colourway.

These colours are really hard to photograph properly. They either look washed out, or have a slightly off cast to them. This photo is closest I could get, but I think it is bluer/cooler than the actual fiber. Anyone have any hints for photographing difficult colours?

pink purple blue merino

2010-11-19T09:37:00.001-08:00

pink purple blue merino
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I have kettle dyed 200g of natural merino 3-ply that I got from 100purewool.com. I used pink and sky blue Wilton's gel. I used half the jar for each colour mixed with hot water. It is darker than I was going for, but I am really happy with the results. I was thinking of more of a baby pink colour, but I probably used too much of the pink gel.

I soaked this yarn in water with a bit of dish soap. I didn't soak it in vinegar this time because there was red dye #3 in the pink and I have read that it is sensitive to PH. I put the soaked wool into a pot with just a bit of water and started to heat. I then squirted the mixed dye onto the yarn kinda random all over the place. I wanted the blue and pink to mix and make purple. I heated for awhile and the pot almost looked completely purple. I couldn't see any pink, and only a bit of blue. I added some vinegar to the pot, and the blue popped out wherever the vinegar hit. I continued to add more vinegar every 10-20 minutes for probably an hour. The dye had not exhausted by this point, but I decided to turn off the heat and let it cool. I left it to cool overnight, and by morning the dye had mostly exhausted. It rinsed mostly clear right away.

It was really hard to get a good picture of the yarn. The sunlight completely washed out the colours. This is one of the better photos, but the actual yarn is a bit darker.

Transformers Hat

2010-11-14T19:19:00.001-08:00

Transformers Hat
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

A friend saw the Spider-man hat I made my son and asked if I could make a Transformers hat for her son.

I created my own chart for this and it is constructed similar to the Spider-man hat. There are 4 Autobots on the hat. I am pretty pleased with this. It is fun making charts and having them turn out how you envisioned.

Sugar Bear Cardi

2010-10-28T09:36:00.001-07:00

Sugar Bear Cardi
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

Here is my most recent Knit. It is a Sugar Bear Cardi, 6 months. It is pretty darn cute. My row gauge was off by quite a bit (changing needle size didn't seem to help), but I think it turned out OK and it fits which is always good. I never know if the size means up to six months or more than six months, but I figured that 12 months would be too big.

The texture pattern in this one was a killer because you did the k1,p1 on the wrong side and can't see what you are doing. I had to rip out a number of half rows because I would knit or purl 2 together and not realize it. But I think that in the end it was worth it.

I think I will probably make another in a bigger size. I just have to decide whether I will make a 12 months, or maybe a 4t for the 3 year old and pass it down.

Halle's Salute Hat

2010-10-18T15:34:00.001-07:00

Halle's Salute Hat
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

A friend saw pictures of the other Salute hats I made, and asked me to make one for her daughter. She didn't want wool because she thought it would be too itchy. I tried to find some nice soft merino, but I ended up with 80%cotton/20%merino instead. The yarn definately behaved differently, but I think that it turned out nicely anyways.

More details here.

Yoda Hat

2010-10-18T15:26:00.001-07:00

Yoda Hat
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I decided to volunteer at our local Sci-Fi convention this year. The baby was too little to leave with dad for that amount of time, so I brought him with me. This convention is the type where people usually dress up, so I decided that the baby needed a bit of a costume (also for Halloween). He was mostly in the mei tei, so I just made him this Yoda hat. I think it turned out great, and both the baby and the hat got lots of comments all weekend.

It turns out that babies are great star attractors as well. I was at the registration desk, and the baby attracted both Marina Sirtis and Ethan Phillips.

More information here.

Spiderman wearing his spiderman hat

2010-10-15T08:59:00.001-07:00

Spiderman wearing his spiderman hat
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

My son is a Spiderman fanatic, so I was happy when I found this pattern. This lighting isn't great on this picture, but the boy was happy with the hat. It actually knit up pretty quickly considering the colorwork in it. It turned out smaller than I expected it to, but I was planning to full it to make it smaller so that was ok. I think I need to use slightly thicker yarn next time if I want a bigger hat.

More information on Ravelry.

Sock Monkey Pants #3

2010-10-09T13:53:00.001-07:00

IMG_0245
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I have made some new sock monkey pants for my niece. They are done with lighter yarn that the last pairs. I didn't think I would like them as much as the darker ones, but they turned out great.

This is the last thing that I am making for my niece for the time being. Now I need to get to the post office to mail everything to them.

My list is getting shorter. Now I just have to make another Salute Hat for a friend's daughter, 2 Spiderman toques for my son and daughter, a Sugar Bear Cardi for the baby, and a Pirate sweater the the big boy!

More information on Ravelry.

Cthulhu Pants

2010-10-05T18:48:00.001-07:00

Cthulhu Pants
Originally uploaded by ilailea2
Here are some new longies for my son. I made this chart quite awhile ago. I am going to volunteer at Conversion in 2 weeks, and the baby is going to be my assistant, so I made these pants for him to wear.

Bev's (Mostly) Silk Scarf

2010-10-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the scarf that I knit for my friend in exchange for some cochineal. The kit she got came from Maiwa and it is mostly silk. There are 4 different yarns that were knit 2 strands at a time. They are silk singles, eyelash silk, silk/wool blend, and silk boucle. The pattern was simple, but the result is beautiful. You also give it a twist at the beginning to create a faux mobius type scarf.

I had my daughter model the scarf for me.

Here is a close up of the width of the scarf. The yarn was from The Silk Tree.

Warlike Heart Tunic

2010-10-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law wanted a tunic for her baby. I thought I would continue the Warlike and heart theme, and came up with an improvised pattern. I think it turned out nicely. I just hope it fits, I am really feeling paranoid about it.

I tried it on my son who is about 3 months younger. It definitely has room to grow, and he is a big boy, so I think I am ok. Now I just have one more thing to make for my niece (for now).

Warlike Heart Hat

2010-10-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

This is another hat for my niece (modelled by my son). My sister-in-law wanted a flap hat for the baby as well as the Salute Hat, so when I saw this pattern I knew it was perfect. It is a great idea, if a little involved with the intarsia. But I am happy with how it turned out.

TKGA Masters Knitting Program

2010-09-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

I have decided that it is time that I become a master knitter. I have been knitting since around the age of 5, but I have had no formal training. My mom taught me to knit, and she learned from my great Grandmother. I can knit with no problems, but there is a lot of stuff that I wasn't really taught. For instance I never learned why or how to block.

I have signed up for the first level of the Masters program from TKGA. I have an unlimited amount of time to get it done, although I want to do it relatively fast. I have to knit 16 swatches demonstrating a variety of techniques, and properly block them. I then have to answer questions about the swatches, and write a report about blocking and care of knitted items. I also have to knit a hat.

I have done some research for the report already. I have knit some of the swatches, but I am not entirely satisfied so I may reknit them. I am looking forward to learning and improving.

Cochineal

2010-09-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

I am pretty excited right now. One of my friends asked me to knit her a scarf, and she gave me some cochineal in exchange. I want to do more natural dyeing, but I really wasn't going to get too serious until the kids are a bit older, especially the baby. Lots of the natural dyes can be pretty toxic. But when you are given something, you just have to try it out. I have been reading about cochineal in Ravelry's Plants to Dye For and Natural Dyeing groups. It looks like I should be able to get a varitey of different colours by slightly changing things such as acidity. I will just have to find the time and fiber to try it out.

Salute Hat KAL

2010-09-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

There was a hat knit-along (KAL) in the knitting for boys group on Ravelry. It was a free pattern, I had yarn, so I decided to participate. The pattern is called Salute Hat by Kate Oates.

I wasn't completely sold on the pattern from the pictures, but I thought that it would by fun to do a KAL, so I decided to try it out. My sister in law also liked it, and wanted me to make my nieces some hats, so I made them some too.

Here is my son modelling the hats for his cousins. I really love how they turned out. I am happy I did the KAL, because I like the hat much better in person.

Here is the baby modelling the hat I made him. Made out of the yarn I kettle dyed.

I have some mohair/wool yarn that I spun a number of years ago. There isn't a lot, so I haven't figured out what to do with it. I am thinking about making myself a salute hat with it though. I'll have to see.

Joanico XO Cable Sheepypants

2010-08-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is the next pair of pants made for my niece.

The colourway is Joanico by 100purewool, with blue trim to match.

I did a crocheted scalloped cuff for this one. It is a nice and easy cuff, but it looks pretty too.

I also did an XO cable up the side of each leg. This is also a really easy cable, but it is cool how it forms Xs and Os.

Warlike Sheepypants

2010-08-14T19:01:00.001-07:00

Warlike sheepypants
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I have just finished these pants for my niece. My sister-in-law and I just bought a bunch of 100purewool through a co-op, and I am making longies for my niece and sone with the yarn.

The colourway here is warlike, with natural trim. I cast on and off with warlike to give the edges some extra colour. I also did a row of hearts right before I started the cuff.

These pants are custom medium, so maybe a bit smaller than a true medium, but they only took one of the two skeins with some leftover. I am pretty amazed. I thought I would need to use some of the second. This is partly due to the trim. I would have needed to start the second skein if I didn't have a trim. The yarn is super soft too, I am really happy that I got some finally to try.

My First Natural Dye

2010-08-14T18:48:00.001-07:00

Yarn dyed with Cherry tree leaves and Branches
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I have become interested in natural dyeing. It is pretty amazing what you can do with plants. I don't really have the time to really get into it at this time, so I am experimenting a bit with plant material I can easily find around my home.

My first attempt was with dandelion flowers. I gathered mostly flowers, but didn't remove all the stems. I soaked the flowers in water for maybe a week, then I heated and simmered for a couple of hours. Then I threw in 4 skeins of yarn that I had premordanted with alum (from the grocery store) and cream of tartar. Four skeins (around 400g) was too much and when the dye was exhausted I couldn't really see a difference in the colour of the yarn. So I decided to use the same skeins for other experiments.

My next attempt was sour cherry tree leaves and branches. I broke the branches into pieces that were as small as I could get them with just my hands. Most were about 1 inch, but the thincker sections were bigger. I again soaked the leaves and branch bits for a few days. The water began to feel slimy or syrupy, so I decided it was time to heat it for awhile. I let the pot simmer for about an hour, then I left it to cool in the pot over night. The next day I removed as much of the branch bits and leaves as I could then I put one skein of the yarn into the pot. I didn't remordant the yarn, as I have read that tree bark has tannins that act as mordants. I simmered the pot for about an hour. After this time the yarn was looking much darker, and there seemed to be dye left, so I put a second skein in with the first and continued simmering for awhile (less than an hour). I then let it cool in the pot, and the dye was exhausted.

The water ran clear when I rinsed, and it definately dyed the yarn. The first skein is a lovely amber, and the second skein is a lighter yellow colour. I will leave the third skein the way it is so I can make something with three colours. Now I just need to figure out what!

Left to right: original, put in second, put in first.

Sheepy Sack

2010-08-10T09:49:00.001-07:00

IMG_3601b
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

This is a sheepy sack that I made for my son. I used the rest of the left over yarn from the Argyle pants, and the rest is just plain sesame. I really really love this for night time. It makes diaper changing and night time EC a snap. I think I am going to design one that is more like a night gown with a top and sleeves though, because this one keeps sliding up. Also I have just been wearing t-shirts on him at night, so I think a nightdress would work better.

Linen stitch longies

2010-08-10T09:46:00.001-07:00

Linen stitch longies
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

These are longies I made for my son from the wool I kettle dyed. They are done in linen stitch, which I think looks really good with this yarn. I have been wanting to make some linen stitch longies for awhile, and I figured that this yarn would be perfect.

Kettle Dyeing and Icing Gel

2010-07-29T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest dyeing. I have been wanting to try Wilton's Icing gel colours for awhile, so I finally got some.

I started with sesame brown yarn, and used parts of 2 skeins and one whole skein. The yarn had some felted areas, so I removed them and spliced the yarn together as I put it into one big skein. Then I soaked the yarn in water and vinegar overnight. I used 1/2 oz of sky blue and lemon yellow, which I mixed with water only in some old dish soap bottles.

I read about kettle dyeing, so I thought this would be the perfect time to try this method of dyeing. That is partly why I chose 2 primary colours for dyeing. After soaking the yarn I dumped out most of the water/vinegar in the pot so that the water was below the yarn level, but came out when the yarn was squished. I then squirted dye on the yarn until it seemed to be covered and started heating the yarn. I put the yellow on one half and the blue on the other half, and I initially used more of the yellow than the blue. When the dye exhausted I added more dye and let it exhaust until I had used all the dye. By the end there was quite a bit of extra water in the pot, and I had allowed the blue to spread a bit to make some green.

When I had used all the dye and it had appeared to be exhausted I turned off the heat and let the yarn completely cool in the pot. Then I did a cold rinse which ran clear. When I put it in hot water and wool wash it started to bleed green. More rinsing continued to bleed green and after awhile I decided to stop rinsing and let it dry despite the water not being clear.

Now I need to decide what to make with it. I'm not sure if I want to make some longies, or something else instead.

GIMP for textile designers - more lesson 2

2010-07-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here is my next GIMP experiment.

This is the original image. I used the fuzzy select tool to select the shadow of the tree.

Then I pasted the image in a new document. I used the image 4 times on different layers. I rotated the image on 3 of the layers, and scaled the image on 2 of the layers, then put them together to form the centre splotch. Then I put a shaped gradient in the background.

GIMP for textile designers - lessons 1 and 2

2010-07-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have now read through the first two lessons of this class. The first one was basically getting to know GIMP. I have used GIMP before, but I still learned some things, especially to pay attention to parts of the program that I didn't really look at before.

The first activity that I experimented with was changing a coloured photograph into sepia. Sharon said that we would be making an oval out of the photo for the final exercise so I chose this photo of my older son holding his new baby brother.

In lesson two we learned about the selection tools, layers, and backgrounds. I used the oval selection tool to select the image, and copied it onto a new document as a new layer. Then I added a background colour. Later in the lesson Sharon talked about the gradient tool, so I changed the solid background into a graded background which I like better.

Then we used the freeform selection tool. I took a picture of an embroidery I did and selected part it to paste into a new document.

This time we were to try rotating the image. I thought that it would look nice with more than one copy of the selected area, so I pasted and rotated 3 copies. They all were rotated for different amounts. Then I filled the background with the gradient tool. Next I made a couple of frames around the center image first using the rectangular selection tool and select inverse. I filled it with the gradient tool with a different shape than the background (spiral cw). Then the final central border was used with the make border option and was filled with a solid colour.

I am very pleased with these two exercises. I already feel like I have learned a good amount of new information. It is going to be very nice to know what I am doing instead of just stumbling around.

2010-07-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

I am taking another online class at Joggles.com. It is called GIMP for Textile Designers. I have been using GIMP for some Spoonflower designs, but I don't really know what I am doing. I am pretty excited to get a better grasp on what I can do with GIMP.

I will post exercises that I do from the class. The first week it was more of an introduction adn familiarization class, so there isn't anything mch to post yet. I am looking forward to the next lesson though.

Joggles has a lot of really great online classes if you are interested in crafting.

Kassidy's bag

2010-07-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

I used my sepia alphabet pictures to spell out my niece's name, Kassidy. I also did Samantha, Anthony, and Meredith. Then I had a yard of quilting cotton printed out for each name. I am not as happy with this batch as I was with the original alphabet fabric (scroll down). It is a slightly different colour and doesn't have as much contrast between the light and dark areas. Above is a close up of the Kassidy fabric.

Here is the bag I made my niece for her birthday. I am pleased with how it turned out.

Argyle blue and orange sheepy pants

2010-06-22T11:22:00.001-07:00

Argyle blue and orange sheepy pants
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

These are my most recent pair of Sheepy Pants. They are size small, made for my new son.

The yarn was dyed with koolaid and Easter egg dyes by the oldest two kids. First I knit a double stranded dye blank. Then I mixed the dyes up in 2 squirt bottles. Then I let the kids squirt the dye blank. When they were done I microwaved to set the dye. When it was dry I unravelled the dye blank into two mostly identical balls.

I knit the waistband with undyed yarn, then switched to the dyed yarn. I alternated which ball I knit with every 2 rows until the legs, then I knit each leg with one ball.

I didn't want to cut the two balls apart in the middle, so I ended up doing a 3 needle bind off at the crotch instead of grafting. I think it looks ok, although I might do things differentky if I try this again.

At the end I duplicate stitched argyle down the sides of each leg.

I really like how these turned out. They are too big right now, but I am looking forward to when they will fit and the new baby can start wearing them.

Lime and Chocolate Romper

2010-05-17T12:25:00.001-07:00

Lime and Chocolate Romper
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

This is a new pattern, called Sweet Pea Pod Romper, that I saw in the Soakers and Longies group at Ravelry. I made the smallest size for the new baby, although it is a bit big for a newborn I think. Hopefully it will fit before it starts to get too cold.

The lime yarn is some lopi type yarn that I got at a farmer's market. The chocolate is Lamb's Pride Worsted. It was a bit thinner than the lime, but all in all I think the romper turned out nicely.

I am having some carpal tunnel issues in my hand, so I am not doing as much knitting as I would like. I have been able to keep knitting, as long as I take lots of breaks.

Navy and Cream Newborn Longies

2010-05-04T11:47:00.001-07:00

navy and cream newborn longies
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

Some more newborn longies for the new baby. My daughter picked out the colours, her favourite colour is dark blue. I decided to add some pockets to the legs.

I'm not sure how much more knitting I will be able to do before the new baby comes. I am starting to get some carpal tunnel issues. I am hoping a few days of break will be all I need, but I guess I will have to see.

Doll Sock Monkey Longies

2010-04-20T08:53:00.001-07:00

Doll Sock Monkey Longies
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I made my kids some longies for their dolls that match ones I have made for thier soon to be born brother. I thought they might like having babies that matched our new baby. I think at this point I am more excited by the pants than they are, but maybe when the baby comes they will appreciate them more. The longies are basically Sheepy Pants using the custom instructions. I modified them a bit so that they would fit the dolls well.

Newborn Felted Sweater Soakers

2010-04-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

I made 4 new newborn soakers using the same pattern from which I made these. I don't know if they will be super useful, but they are quick and easy to make so it isn't really a loss.

My first 2 babies were really small at birth (less than 5.5 lbs each probably due to my blood pressure problems), so they definately would have gotten some use out of the newborn size. The
current baby is measuring in the 90th percentile (the others were 50th percentile), and I am very hopeful that I wan't have any blood pressure problems this time, so I could very well have a significantly bigger baby that won't fit into newborn for long. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

I want to knit some longies for the new baby, as well as make some diapers. I have started making some prefold diapers from some cloth I found at the thrift store. The suggested 18" squares look enormous for a newborn, so I will need to make (or but) some smaller ones as well.

Newborn Upcycled Cabled Longies

2010-04-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest pair of Sheepypants. They took me awhile to make (almost a month versus the 3 days that I can do them in). I have a lot of projects I want to get done before the baby is born, as well as a lot of out of the house time, so I just knit when I can find a few minutes here and there.

This is the front of the pants. There is a cable on the front and back of each leg.

This is the back of the pants. The cables in the bum area are slightly longer in order to accomodate the short rows.

Here are the longies with the cabled bonnet that I made to match. This is a better indication of the colour of the pants and hat, but you can't see the cables very well.

Perpetual Teaching Calendar

2010-04-02T17:15:00.001-07:00

Perpetual Teaching Calendar
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I wanted a teaching calendar for my kids, like the ones that the lower grades have at schools. I decided that if I was going to make one that I wanted it to be really nice. So I designed a calendar template using inkscape and gimp and had some fabric printed at Spoonflower.

I am pretty happy about the actual calendar part, although I haven't done much quilting so there are a few puckers and imperfections. I struggled with how to do the pieces and I tried out a few different assembly methods. I am not 100% happy with them, but I am not sure how I could have done it better in a timely manner.

But, most importantly, my daughter is happy with the result. I am excited to get to work on teaching calendar to her.

Upcycled newborn longies

2010-03-15T15:50:00.001-07:00

Upcycled newborn longies
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

Here are some newborn longies made from the same red and pink (with a bit of orange) sweater. I am going to send these to my niece, who was born two days ago. We didn't know if it was going to be a girl or a boy, so the other three pairs I sent her were gender nuetral. Now that I know she is a girl, I wanted to send one pair of more girly pants to her.

Onbag number two

2010-03-13T11:00:00.001-08:00

Onbag with spoonflower fabric
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

Here is the Onbag that I have made for myself. It is made with the same fabric as the mei tei. Now I just need a baby!

I am trying to get things done early so that I am ready no matter what happens with the pregnancy. Last time I was hospitalized at 34 weeks, and induced at 37 weeks, and wasn't really ready. Not that I had a lot to get ready that time. This time I want to make some cloth diapers as well, but then I will pretty much be ready.

New mei tei

2010-03-11T14:41:00.001-08:00

New mei tei
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I just finished a new mei tei for my new baby. I tried a new pattern this time, which has a great tutorial here. I used some of the Spoonflower fabric that I designed. I actually made this colourway for the design especially for this mei tei and a matching Onbag that I will be working on next. This is the first big thing that I really have made with the spoonflower fabric. I am happy with how it has turned out.

Red Cabled Bonnet

2010-02-28T09:23:00.000-08:00

I have made a new cabled bonnet out of the red recycled sweater. I used the medium size pattern, but I used a smaller needle than I should have, so I think that it turned out closer to newborn size. I am going to make some newborn longies to match it now I think.

Here is a close up of the side cables.

Felted Sweater Soakers

2010-02-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

I have sewn some soakers for the new baby out of felted sweaters. The pattern is from here. These are small, but they look big for a newborn, so I will probably make some newborn ones too.

This sweater was alpaca. I have read that alpaca works like wool, but doesn't keep its shape as well in between washings. I am hoping that being felted and sewn it will keep its shape better than if I had knit with it.

This sweater felted a lot, so this soaker is very thick. It was a bit hard to sew, but I think it will work nicely.

Dinosaur Skeleton Chart

2010-02-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

I have finally made a chart for these dinosaur skeletons available. If you are interested there is a button under my free patterns in the side bar.

Large shorties

2010-02-26T22:18:00.001-08:00

Large shorties
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

These are a pair of large shorties made from the same sweater as the last pair of pants. They are all red. I originally made a ruffled cuff, but it seemed a bit much for shorts so I ripped them back and made basket weave cuffs instead. They look much better this way. They are simple, but elegant.

Upcycled red and pink heart longies.

2010-02-23T15:17:00.001-08:00

Recycled red and pink heart longies.
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I have finished my first pair of Sheepy Pants for sale. They are made from an upcycled 100% sweater. All of the colours came from the same sweater, so it coordinates beautifully. They are size medium. I wanted to try out some colourwork, so I did some simple hearts. I am happy with how they turned out.

Onbag number one

2010-02-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

This is a new diaper bag that I have made for a friend that is also expecting a baby. She bought the material. I added the embroidery to the flap, because I don't like to make things plain when I can embroider on them!

It is an Onbag, which was specifically designed for babywearers. The strap is split in the middle, which allows you to tie it is different ways depending on how you are wearing your baby. The designer has put free instructions for the bag on her site. I made a few adjustments in the construction. The pattern calls for you to do a rolled hem on all the sides that aren't sewn to another piece of the bag (i.e. the front flap, the straps, and the pockets). I did the rolled ham on the pockets, but I couldn't face ironing a hem on the long straps (3.5 meters long), so I sewed the straps, front, and back/flap wrong sides together first and turned it out. The lining fabric would have frayed terribly if it wasn't sandwiched between the layers of the bag, so it wasn't just a desire to avoid ironing. The strap is also the sides and bottoms of the bag, so once the three main pieces were turned out I sewed the strap to the front and back areas, then hemmed the strap along the seam line. I top-stitched the top of the front and around the flap. I also added heavy interfacing straps, front, and back/flap.

I also added some extra pockets inside. I took the pieces from this pattern for the side pockets and added one cell phone pocket and 3 bigger pockets.

This is the diaper bag that I am going to make for myself. I figured I could justify making another diaper bag (when I have a a perfectly good one already) if it was a different style. I really wanted one to match my new mei tei. Now I am just waiting for my fabric to arrive from Spoonflower so I can start on my own bag and the matching mei tei.

Sheepytime pants-Sock Monkey Pants

2010-02-17T10:20:00.000-08:00

Here are my most recent Sheepy Time Pants (size small). I saw a similar pair on Ravelry and had to make some. I found the perfect yarn too, so I am happy with these pants. This is Patons Classic Wool (dark beige marle), and the brown has a few different colourways that are perfect for sock monkey type projects. I think I might make one of my monkeys out of this yarn too.

Back and Front

Spoonflower- The Paisley Flower Collection

2010-02-11T12:58:00.000-08:00

I have just received my latest swatches of Spoonflower fabric. I am pretty happy with how they have turned out. It is the same image with different colourways. The petals of the flowers started out as half of a paisley yin yang design that I still need to tweak a bit. Each petal has a leaf with a flower at the tip.

Yellow and purple Paisley flowers

Red, orange and green Paisley flowers.

The centre of this design printed more orange that it looks in the digital file, but I think it still looks nice.

Chocolate and turquoise paisley flowers.

Chocolate and turquoise paisley flowers with small and large flowers.

I am going to order one of the chocolate and turquoise choices to make a new mei tei and diaper bag for the new baby we are expecting. I made this colourway especially for the baby. I'll just have to figure out which one I like best now.

New Longie and Shortie, or the Last of the Green Sweater

2010-02-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law is also pregnant, so I have made a pair of longies and shorties for the baby. I had enough of the green sweater left from making my niece 3 pairs of longies to make these. That is 5 pairs ranging from newborn to large. I think that is pretty impressive for one sweater.

Here are the newborn longies. These are so tiny! The baby is due in March, so hopefully will get some good use out of them.

Here are some small shorties for the summer.

These are just plain, because we don't know if the baby is a girl or a boy. When I find out the sex of the baby, I will probably make another pair with some embellishment.

More baby pants.

2010-02-04T08:46:00.001-08:00

IMG_2644
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

Here is another pair of small baby pants. I used the rest of the silk and wool yarn from the last pair, and made stripes with some other handspun. The yellow, red and navy blue yarn was also for the vest that I was going to make myself. The inseam is slightly smaller in this pair (closer to 7 inches), because I didn't have enough yarn.

Sheepytime pants- Grey with rainbow dyed silk noil

2010-02-01T10:17:00.000-08:00

These are my latest longies from Sheepy Time Knits pants pattern. They are made with my handspun yarn. The yarn is natural grey wool with rainbow dyed silk noil. They are size small (rise 15", waist 17", inseam 8").

I have a ton of handspun that I made years ago when I was learning to spin. A lot of it is just one skein, so I haven't really had anything that I wanted to make with it before. I have decided that longies/soaker/shorties/etc will be a perfect way to use this yarn. If I don't have enough for a whole pair, they it can be used as an accent colour.

I was going to use the above yarn to make myself a vest originally, but I didn't have enough.

Bugga Bug patterns

2010-01-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

Today I want to share the felt playsets I made for the kids for Christmas. I was looking on Etsy for felt food patterns and came across these from Bugga Bugs, and I instantly fell in love.

Sam's Camp

Anthony's Farm

The playmat closes up to make a box to hold all the animals and other pieces. I didn't manage to get them completely done in time for Christmas, but I got most of it done. The kids really like the sets, especially the animals. It was a bit time consuming, but I also work slowly (sometimes). I think that these sets will make great presents, so I will probably make more when I get motivated. I also have some ideas for coming up with my own sets. I would like to make a fairy garden, or some more fantasy type things.

Bugga Bugs also has felt food patterns, and some patterns for story book sets (i.e. The Three Little Pigs). I got 3 playset patterns (the other is a doll house) and 3 story book patterns. I will probably try the story book ones next, because they will be great for letting the kids act out stories.

Catching up

2010-01-21T14:29:00.001-08:00

I know I have been away for awhile. I have been doing things, but I haven't been publishing about them. I had a very busy summer which really got me out of the habit of blogging. I am going to try to be better now. Here is a brief summary of what I have been doing.

I made another 2 pairs of Sheepy Time pants for my niece. These ones seen in the picture are leggings (they get narrow at the bottom). The skirt is my own pattern, and I made it so that the waist cord can thread through the skirt and the pants to keep them together, or they can also be seperate. I forgot to take a picture of the second pair that I made before I sent them off, but they are plain straight down pants.

I also decided to buy a license to become a Sheepy Time Knitter for the pants pattern. I am excited about this. The pattern is well done and has lots of options. It also allows me some room for creativity which hopefully will help me distiguish myself from other longie/shortie/etc makers.

I also have also been working on some more Spoonflower fabric. I will share more when I get the swatches, but here is the last sample I got. I have been taking pictures of sepia "letters" that I see when I am out and about for awhile now. I finally got the entire alphabet once, and put it together in a strip. I am really happy about how this turned out, and I am looking forward to using the letters for making words. I have plans to make something yet to be determined for my kids and nieces with their names, but the potential is really limitless. I think that the letters will also work for digital scrapbooking, and possibly other ideas.

My Son's socks

My Daughter's socks

My Socks

And finally I made a pair of Hat Heel Socks for myself and my two kids. I was intrigued by the pattern when it came out so decided to give it a go. I made my socks from a sock blank that my kids koolaid dyed for me. I am happy with how they turned out. I think the pattern is kinda fiddly, with a lot of ends to weave in, but it was well worth trying. I don't think they are really any harder than other sock patterns, but they do seem to be stretchier than other socks. I do think that they fit your heel better than other patterns, but I never really thought that the socks I knit were uncomfortable or badly fitting either.

My daughter wanted me to make her some socks out of some yarn that she picked out. When I finished hers, my sons asked where his socks were so I made him some too. His are partly the koolaid dyed yarn that I made mine with, but I didn't have enough for his whole sock so I used some coordinating blue yarn. The ankles are done with stripes of the koolaid dyed yarn and the blue yarn.

More Spoonflower swatches

2009-09-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Spoonflower had a free swatch day awhile ago. You could order 2 swatches for free, and they were looking for donations to Heifer International. I took the opportunity to order some swatches and donate. They have also come out with some new types of fabric lately, so I decided to try out two new fabrics.

This is a close up of a Samoyed dogs eyes and nose. It was printed on Bamboo/Cotton Rayon.

This was a picture of a tree looking up from its base to the sky. The picture was taken in spring when the leaves were just starting to grow, so you could see the sky. The image then was printed in a mirror repeat on Organic Cotton Sateen fabric.

The bamboo/cotton cloth is nice and soft. I think it is my favourite of the 3 types I have tried.

Lately

2009-09-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

I have been mostly knitting lately. We had a really busy summer, and knitting was easy to do when I had some down time. Also easy to keep some knitting out when we were packing and moving.

These are Noro Kureyon sock yarn socks. I finished the first one over a year ago, and I finally finished the second one. I am happy with these socks, although I think I made them a tad too big. I hadn't made socks for awhile when I started these and I mistakenly thought that the yarn was finer than my normal sock yarn. But I thought I would wash the socks in the washing machine a few times and let them felt a bit.

I got this Nemo self-striping sock yarn quite awhile ago also. It was too cute to pass up, and one of my brothers was really into Nemo. I meant to make him socks for Christmas last year, but never got around to it, so I decided to make my daughter some instead.

I made the hell a dark grey colour so that the sock would continue to self-stripe properly along the top of the sock.

I had a ton of yarn left so I made a pair for each of my nieces as well. I still have some left, so I will have to decide what to do with it. I might make a pair of socks for one of my daughter's friends, or a pair of leg warmers. I am trying to use up the yarn I have before I get any new yarn. I discovered just how much yarn, cloth and spinning fiber I have when we moved and it is getting to the ridiculous stages!

Finally here are some new pants I made for my niece. The green is recycled sweater yarn, and the pink is a little bit I had left over from making some Hansigurumi animals.

Exciting

2009-08-31T09:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been away for awhile, butI have had an extremely busy summer. We went on an almost 5000km trip, then we came home to pack and move. I am starting to get settled now, and do have some knitting projects to share, but for now I want to share my excitment at being part of the Spoonflower Merchant Beta Testing. Hopefully Spoonflower will be offering fabric for sale to the general population, but for now it is for sale to the beta testers. It is pretty exciting though to think that people might want to buy my fabric designs.

Spoonflower Grandma Dolls

2009-06-16T14:38:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest Spoonflower fabric. I had some fabric printed to make Grandma dolls for my family. I love how it turned out, and I can't wait to get started. If you are interested in seeing the dolls as I make them check out my embroidery blog.

Another snail and some shorties

2009-06-16T11:17:00.001-07:00

I have been working on a few things lately, but it seems like there is never time to write about it. I have been making some Ditto Daddy training pants to sell. I decided to become an official licensee. I think they are pretty cute and I like making them. But I don't want to bore with constant pictures of underwear so I haven't been posting them. If you are interested I am putting pictures on Flickr.

Now on to some more interesting things. I had a little bit of yarn left from the first dye blank we made. I thought it would make a nice snail shell. I actually have a few little bits of leftover yarn that I think would make nice snail shells, so I am probably going to make some more in the near future. I really love these snails for some reason, even though I am not particularly interested in real snails!

This snail is made entirely from upcycled yarn. The body is a dark green with black flecks.

I also made these shorties for my son. He mainly had long wool pants, so I decided it was time to make him some shorts for summer. These are made out of the same dark green with black fleck yarn as the snail's body. They are 2x2 rib. I made up a simple pattern to fit him. They are pretty cute and so easy to make.

Continental Knitting

2009-05-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

I was taught English style knitting (throwing) when I was very young. In fact I didn't even know there was a different way to do it until recently. When I discovered continental knitting (picking), I knew I had to learn it. It looked so much faster. But it is really hard to try something new when you are already well practiced with another. So over the last year or so I have been trying the odd continental stitches here and there, but never really going for it. That is until now.

My daughter decided it was time to do some more Koolaid dyeing. She wants me to make her some mittens (despite summer almost being here). We had some pretty cold days on which her hands got really cold. So I set about knitting up a dye blank. Then I realized that it would be the perfect time to practice continental knitting. It didn't matter what the blank looked like, so I started practicing. It was a bit slow to begin with, but, once I got the hang of it, I improved quickly. Now I think I am close to my English proficiency of knitting. I am not comfortable knitting without looking doing it the continental way yet, but I'm sure that will come with time. I'm really excited to knit this way now, I think it will be much faster.

CalCon Dice Bags

2009-05-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

I am an organizer for CalCon, a gaming convention. I thought that it would be fun to try printing some Spoonflower fabric with the CalCon mascot. I decided to make dice bags with the fabric, so I had it printed so that all I would have to do is cut it out and sew it up the sides.

I have made one to test it out, and I think it turned out nicely. I was able to fit 12 dice bags to a yard, and I got 3 yards. So now I just have to sew up 35 more bags for a game day we are having in June.

The Front

The Back

Spoonflower Fabric Order Number 2

2009-05-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

I received my latest order of Spoonflower fabric swatches today. I am really pleased with them for the most part. I have taken pictures of the swatches and will include a link to the original.

Cubistic Tulips

This swatch was originally a picture of tulips in a vase on my kitchen floor. The background wasn't very pretty, but the colours were nice. I used GIMP to cubify the picture, and I had the swatch printed with mirror repeat. I think I may have also altered it a bit with picnik.

Red Peacock

This swatch is a picture of red peacock feathers. It is the original picture with no alterations. The swatch was printed in mirror repeat.

Altered Autumn Leaves and Berries

This swatch was originally a picture of autumn leaves and berries from a tree near where I live. The original picture (with some slight alterations using picnik) can be seen here. For this swatch I modified the picture using Gimp again (I can't remember which filter I used), and had it printed with the mirror repeat. I think this is my favourite of all the swatches so far.

Cubistic Flowering Plum

This swatch was originally a picture of a flowering plum tree in bloom. The original picture can be seen here. For this swatch I modified the picture with GIMP to cubify the picture. I also modified it using picnik. Then the swatch is printed in mirror repeat.

Sunshine

This swatch is from a drawing I made originally to embroider. I decided to try my hand at making it into a fabric graphic as well. I used Inkscape to draw the picture using Rachel Galloway's tutorials found here. I the had the swatch printed in half-step repeat. I will have to tweak the image of this swatch a bit, as the outline and words are not as clear as I would like.

X-Ray Flower

This swatch is made with a picture that hasn't been modified. I call it x-ray flower because the actual photo almost has an x-ray quality to it. This swatch was printed in a half-step repeat.

Mom's pagoda bag

2009-05-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

I made my mom this bag for her birthday. It is based off the pattern I used to make the diaper bags, but she wanted a smaller version.

I embroidered a pagoda to go on the front flap, and used some kimono fabric. There wasn't enough of the kimono fabric for the whole outside of the bag, so I used some old black pants for the contrasting fabric.

Earth Day Clothing for the Kids

2009-04-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well its been awhile, but I haven't been doing much. I have been doing a lot with the kids, and haven't been in the mood to craft very much. But I found a cute pattern for a Cap Sleeved top that was meant for recycled cotton, and I had already started some recycled wool cargo longies, so I decided it was time to do some knitting for some Earth Day clothing for the kids.

I started these awhile ago, but got distracted. They are made out of a recycled wool sweater. They are a bit big, but they stay on and have room to grow. These pictures don't do them justice, but you get the idea. They are a dark green colour. They have mock pockets on the sides of the legs and I used some recycled gold buttons for decoration.

This is a super cute and very easy spring top made out of HALF a sleeve of one of my sweaters that was falling apart. I loved the sweater, but it started falling apart at one arm pit almost as soon as I got it. I tried fixing it a bunch of times, but I couldn't stop it from unraveling. When I saw this pattern I knew that I had to make it. The top fits my skinny daughter with some room to grow, but it is tight enough that I think it could also fit some smaller girls with lots of room to grow, so I am planning on making one each for my two nieces that are almost 2.

My Latest Creations

2009-03-19T16:55:00.001-07:00

Wow, its been awhile! I have been busy making things, but not really finishing things. I have continued to make underwear for my son, but I have slowed sown a bit on that. They haven't quite worked out how I was hoping. He likes to wear them, but he thinks they are just another kind of diaper. He does better with the potty when he has nothing on! I will say this though, they keep all the accidents in almost as well as his diapers do.

Here are some new things that I have just finished up:

This is a doll mei tei. It is completely made with recycled cloth, other than the sun. The body of the mei tei is from some old wool pants, and the straps are from some old black jeans. I hand embroidered the sun's face, then machine sewed it onto the wool.

This is a matching doll blanket and basket/bed. The blanket is made from the same material as the sun on the mei tei, and has a hand embroidered sun on it. The basket is made from the same wool as the mei tei. They are both lined with a yellow receiving blanket with white rabbits and pink dots.

Here are the kids modelling them with their babies!

Navy Blue with hearts

2009-03-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to post every pair of underwear I make, but I thought I would share my favourites.

These 2 are for my niece and my son.

These were made with navy a blue t-shirt and a red t-shirt for the hearts. The A came from the red t-shirt as well. One good sized adult t-shirt has enough material to make 2 pairs (or 18-24 month) underwear as well as having left overs for details on other pairs.

I am really loving these underwear, and they are pretty easy to make once you figure out what you are doing. They also do a good job of holding in accidents, and t-shirt material rinses off pretty well!

So much underwear!

2009-02-28T09:24:00.000-08:00

Now that I have tried out the patterns and like them I decided to cut out a whole bunch so I could just sew, sew, sew. I think I have 6 girl pairs to send to my niece and 12 pairs for my son. All of them are cut out of old t-shirts that I used in another project.

More Underwear

2009-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Here are 3 more pairs of underwear. There are 2 girl pairs and 1 boy pair. I am experimenting with different ways of attaching the detail stripes on the mock fly. I'm trying to find the easiest and best looking combination.

I have been able to put pictures from the t-shirts onto the bums of the girl briefs. I think they are pretty darn cute! The 2 girl briefs are for my niece. The shirts were her Aunt's who died unexpectedly a few months ago.

My first Spoonflower Fabric

2009-02-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

I have been experimenting with images and ideas at Spoonflower for quite awhile now. I finally decided to order some 8x8 swatches to see what they would look like in real life. I have received them and I think they look pretty good. I like taking pictures of interesting things I see outside and seeing what I can do with them. I think they have potential for lots of things such as digital scrap booking, embroidery, and now fabric design. And Spoonflower now lets you tile your images in 4 different ways. I especially like the mirror tiling.

This is one of the pictures I started with. It is looking up at a winter tree.

For this one I actually made a tile using Inkscape. Then I just used the basic repeat.

The next picture is of some dead plants that grew on a chain link fence, and their fluffy seeds.

I just uploaded the picture,made it smaller using Piknik right from the Spoonflower site, then used the mirror repeat. This is how the next 2 were done as well.

Snow, ice, rocks, and a piece of dead plant.

And the resulting fabric.

Dirty windblown snow.

I love how a picture that isn't necessarily the prettiest picture, can turn into a beautiful kalediscope type image. Basically, if you keep your eye out for interesting shapes and colours, you can make you own lovely fabric.

Underwear

2009-02-20T15:15:00.001-08:00

My baby boy is very interested in the potty. At just under 19 months he is now peeing on the potty probably half the time. So I decided that it was time for something a little more convenient for pottying than diapers. We are cloth diapering, so I didn't want to go with disposable training pants. Underwear are OK but I would rather something more absorbent. Cloth training pants are hard to find these days, and are a bit expensive. But I found a Ditto Daddy trainer patterns, so I thought they would be the perfect solution.

Then nice thing about making my own is that I can upcycle. I have a bunch of my husband's old t-shirts, and I decided to make underpants out of them. All I had to buy was elastic, and stretch fabric sewing needles.

Here is the first pair. I need to improve on my technique some, but they will do the job.

Wings

2009-02-20T10:57:00.001-08:00

Wings
Originally uploaded by ilailea2

I have made 8 sets of these wings. They are for some Grandma comfort dolls that I have been working on. You can see the whole story about the Grandma Dolls Here.

Gelsomina

2009-02-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

A friend wanted me to make her a hat. About a week after she e-mailed me some pictures of what she was looking for I received an e-mail from Berrocco with the Gelsomina pattern. She said she liked that better than the others so I set about making it for her.

The pattern calls for you to crochet the hat then full it. You then dry it on the bucket hat form from Hat Shapers. I don't have that hat shaper and didn't want to buy it for one hat, so I used some items that I already hat to dry the hat. It was a bit difficult finding something the right diameter around, but I eventually did (a pot). The hat probably would have turned out better with the correct hat shaper, but I think I did fairly well without it.

Socks made from the latest dyeing

2009-02-05T09:41:00.000-08:00

Here are two pairs of socks made from the sock blank I dyed with my daughter.

The first pair is done with 1x1 twisted rib to help it be stretchy and tight.

The second pair is done with slip stitch every 3 stitches every second row. It really made a nice design on the socks I think.

Both socks have ended up being for my daughter. The second pair were too pretty to make for my son. She likes the socks, but the wool is itchier than I realized and I'm not sure she will actually wear them. Maybe they will soften up with a wash.

Latest Dyeing

2009-02-01T15:12:00.001-08:00

I saw a painted sock blank project on Ravelry and wanted to try it. My daughter isn't really drawing actual pictures yet, so I just let her do random colours on the sock blank. Now I have to get knitting some socks. If you want to see more details go here.

Robertson Tartan

2009-02-01T14:21:00.000-08:00

This is the Robertson Tartan from the book The Australian Woman's Weekly "Easy To Crochet Tartan Rugs". It is crocheted with triple crochet. Then you make long chains to weave through the holes. I used the wrong size of yarn, so it turned out much bigger than intended.

It is rather ingenious, and turned out great. It is my final Christmas present, made for my mother-in-law. It was about a month late, but it is on its way now and I think it was worth the wait.

Valentine Monkey

2009-01-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

This is my newest monkey.

It is done in pink and off white. She has hearts circling the end of her tail and each of her 3 hairs. I made her a sweater with a heart on the front.

I decided to try sewing on eye made from felt this time, and I really like the look. She is available at my Etsy shop.

My Daughter's first embroidery

2009-01-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

This is my daughter's first embroidery. She wanted to do "work" like me. I was embroidering the roses for my diaper bag, so when she finished her work she wanted me to make it into a diaper bag for her. I let her chose fabric from my stash, then I sewed her a doll/child sized diaper bag. It turned out nicely.

My Diaper Bag

2009-01-13T16:07:00.000-08:00

Here is my diaper bag made with the Wired Up Designs pattern again. It really is a nice little pattern. I embroidered some roses to applique on the front flap to match the fabric inside.

Inside is some tattoo inspired fabric. I got it awhile ago with the thought of making my daughter a dress, but never got around to it. I really love it though so I am happy that it has been used for my bag!
The inside has lots of pockets, so hopefully I can stay better organized now. I have been using a variety of market bags with everything basically dumped inside.

A little bit of skulls for the outside pockets too!

Dancing Goddess Dolls

2009-01-07T16:44:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share these great Waldorf style dolls that I got for my children for Christmas. They are from Dancing Goddess Dolls. The blue one is named Morgaine. My daughter's middle name is Morgaine, named after "The Mists of Avalon" so I really wanted to get the Morgaine doll for her. And I decided that I couldn't get one for her without getting one for my son, so I asked about a custom doll. His middle name is Rhys which means ardor, enthusiasm, rashness. Kelli at Dancing Goddess gave me some ideas and I picked the celtic cross to match Morgaine's triple spiral.

I am really happy with the dolls. I want to get some for me now too!