what i've been working on lately

crochet capelet from this pattern

I feel kind of bad about my lack of blogging of substance lately, so I thought I'd do a bit of an update about what sort of crafty things I've been doing.  Most of it involves crochet.  I figured I'd be a little burnt out on it after making 365 granny squares.  Apparently not!

The capelet above looks so great in the pattern, but I have to wonder if I'll ever wear it.  The pattern calls for a J (6mm) hook, but my gauge swatch made it clear that I needed to scale it back to an H (5mm) hook.  Even then it is coming out a little bigger than I would like.  Someone commented to me that it looks super complex, but really it isn't at all.  If you can get past the yoke part that involves a billion single crochet stitches, it goes pretty quickly with some chain stitches and clusters.  I'm over halfway done after a couple of days of stitching, but I ran out of yarn.  I should be back in business by tomorrow. 

blocking lacy stuff is totally necessary

A work friend gave me a big bag of yarn that her aunt who knitted left behind.  Who doesn't love free yarn?  All of it is sport weight or thinner.  The first thing I thought to try to crochet with it were collars.  This green one is the first I made, and in my usual fashion, I decided to make up my own pattern.  Why do I do that?  It would be so much easier to follow some tried and true instructions, but since I couldn't find a pattern I liked, I did this instead.  Having said that, I really love the way it turned out.

collar with a vintage button

After that I did find a super cute pattern that I used to crochet the yellow collar in the picture below.  I'm thinking of making another with a button closure instead of the ties.  Buttons make everything better.  Check out the link to see an adorable version with a scalloped edge!

"georgette" collar from this pattern

I'm on the lookout for more things to make from all of this thin yarn!

why can't the ends sew themselves in?

I had been putting off sewing in the ends of several of my granny square afghans because when I finished putting them together, it was summer, and the last thing I wanted to do was to bury myself under hot blankets for hours.  Now that it is freezing outside and in, it is the only thing I want to do.  Oddly enough, I still don't really want to spend time sewing in a hundred million scraps of yarn.  Since no one wants an afghan that would fall apart in the wash, it is kind of necessary though.  The afghan above is about halfway done, and the one below (the super gigantic Square A Day In May blanket) is totally complete.  My mom has discovered my blog and has picked out an afghan that she really wants.  Because for some reason the words we use for colors just don't synch up, I'm not 100% sure if she means the one above or the one below.  All I know for sure is that I'm never parting with the huge one!  I hope she wants the first one!

at least I finished the giant afghan!

I made the top for this quilt way more than a year ago, so when someone gifted me a big roll of quilt batting, finishing this project was the first thing that came to mind.  I'm starting to think that this particular batting wasn't meant for machine quilting because my sewing machine hates it.  Either that or I'm just not a natural born quilter or maybe I'm just impatient and need more practice.  I decided to hand tie it instead (just like the last and only other quilt I have made).  I'm finishing it using a self-binding method that I've seen in a few places around the internet (Carina explains it wonderfully here).  I'm almost done, but leaning over it to sew the edges up was killing my back so I've put it on the back burner yet again.  For a little while this time.

finally finishing this quilt...maybe!

So that's what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. What are you working on?

33::365

Pattern: "That Button Square" by Amelia Beebe.

Do I really need to say how cute a square with a button in the center is? Stitches worked around the back of the post of previous stitches makes the texture of the outer ring of the button. Pretty neat.

Today was even colder than yesterday! Here is Gerty, dressed for warmth. :) It is times like these that I wish we had carpet. I can still feel the super cold floor through layers of socks and slippers!

my embroidered buttons!

These are the embroidered buttons I made for my partner Caitlin for the Feeling Stitchy embroidered button swap! She likes blues and greens and when I found out that she loves French knots, I was excited to experiment with them to make these covered buttons! The result is pretty textured on the linen I used (with a layer of thin interfacing underneath to cut the shine of the metal that showed through the loose weave of the fabric), and I love it! I found it hard to make anything that wasn't pretty abstract with the French knots, so I settled on this flower-ish design. The larger one in blues is off-center due to a mistake I made in cutting, and I considered re-doing it, but I actually really liked it after I got over my error, so I left it as is. Hey, look, my buttons were featured in this post on the Feeling Stitchy blog, along with some of my favorites from flickr!

here you can see the vintage card I put the buttons on!

And I did finish my pear potholder! I really like it! :) The back side is the green wool felt.

And I made another crochet potholder. The side in the second photo below is a pattern from Beyond the Square - Crochet Motifs, a pretty cool book (another Christmas present!). The "star" side was improvised!

more needlebooks, embroidery in progress, and FS button swap!

needlebooks

Guess what? I've been making more needlebooks. It takes way longer with this crochet border, but I'm not going to let that stop me! What do you think? I like these better than the others! :) The border seals up the opening for turning that I would normally struggle to conceal and hand stitch shut, so I guess that saves a few seconds...

I just had to use that ladybug button with the hedgehog & ladybug print! I like the square one better, though. I am strangely drawn to square buttons.

needlebooks - inside view

embroidery in progress!

I went through my vintage embroidery transfers this weekend, and I rediscovered several really cute ones made for making potholders (these were inherited from a beloved family friend, which makes them even more special to me!). Do you have any of these? If so, maybe you have had the realization like I have that people must have used super tiny potholders back in the day! I totally made it bigger around the edges than the dotted lines on the pattern indicated. I'm finished with it now and will share pictures soon (edited: pictures on flickr now!), but here is a progress shot. I love this cute little pear so much! I knew I had to make him match my Orla Kiely pear potholder! Some day soon I'm going to run out the lime colored linen napkins I used for this and many other little projects, and I don't know what I'm going to do then!

This was the transfer that I REALLY hoped would work, and it was the only one of the three I tried that would still iron on. Even so, I still had to trace over the light red lines with my fabric marker. I'm just going to have to make new transfers with the ones that wouldn't work.

buttons made by Caitlin!

Speaking of cute! I am so in love with these adorable owl buttons that Caitlin of salty oat made me for the Feeling Stitchy Embroidered Button Swap! Owls! Gingham! They are so freaking cute! I can't wait to figure out what to use them for, but until then, I'm content to just stare at them!

other goodies in my package from Caitlin - chocolate not pictured...(because I already ate it)!

I love the little box she put them in, and the card those snaps are on is so cool! I'll put up pictures of what I made for her as soon as she gets them in the mail! :)

green patchwork pincushion

All of the sudden, I'm making tons of pincushions again. Unfortunately, the Valentine's one I posted earlier was lost in the mail. This one is a make-up for that one! Although either side could be the "top," I made it with the patchwork side in mind to face up. I should have used a more boring button on the bottom! :) I used pearle cotton to crochet the edge.

Gerty & Jim