30/30

Jun30

This is my last photo in the 30-day Photo Challenge for June 2011. I hear tell there will be one for July but I won’t be entering that one. I’m still debating if I have the stamina to even do any sort of photo-a-day projects. I’m torn between feeling like I need to always be out-of-doors and trying to open up my home life more. And I’m not sure I’d like to do the latter. Plus with the Beanlets around the place isn’t always spiffy and photo-ready.

I’ve been knitting off and on through this time. I’ve been busy on Pinterest, seeing lots of things I’d love to make; sewing and yarn-craft alike. The latest item to pique my interest is Mao, a cute little one-piece knitted toy cat. Mao is designed by blogging-multi-crafter OiYi. I have to admit that most of my unwillingness to knit toys was because they usually involved knitting a bunch of separate parts you would then have to seam together. This is done in one big section(just add the tail–no biggie), and you stitch on facial features with embroidery thread or thin yarn. Easy peasy. Mr BeanKnit has a few new 3rd(4th?) cousins coming soon and so I’ll definitely have little ones to give them too. Several weeks ago I bought a bunch of cotton yarn at Michaels for some potholders but those will have to go on hold while I make some Maos.

I haven’t done much sewing other than fixing a ripped seam or three but I am gonna have to dig in my heels and get to sewing because my wardrobe is woefully skimpy these days. I usually dress in layers during the colder months but since it’s warmer(read: hot!) now, all I need is one layer per section and I’m good to go! I’m not ready to tackle pants. I can’t bring myself to do it and I’d prefer more skirts. I’ve been loving the jeans skirt to death because of the built-in pockets but I will have to bite the bullet and add some pockets to the skirts I plan to make.

Well, just touching bases to let you know I’m still kicking! TTFN!

As Usual, Random

Apr25

That’s where my head’s been lately: just all over the place! And would you believe I actually sewed something? *gasp*

I’ve recently been getting back into ‘putting on’ my face. I’ve never been fond of foundation but I like shadow and lipsticks. What better way to carry them around than in a new makeup case?

It’s a simple, 3D-style zippered pouch and it was a snap(after I had to rip out a bad zipper choice, and undo a seaming mistake). I apparently also need to keep design placement in mind, because the butterflies are upside down. O.O

I adore the look of brocade but geez it unraveled like nobody’s business! I don’t know if it’s the quality of this low priced fabric or if brocades just do that sort of thing but was annoying. It’s a wonder there was anything left to sew. But sew I did and I’m very pleased, with the result and the pattern. I can see myself making this again, especially since the girl Beanlets whined that they wanted one too.

In other crafty news the girls and I(well, mostly I) made up some pretty hollow yarn balls:

I tried to get cute with it and added some glitter to the glue mixture. Waste. Of. Time. You can’t even SEE the glitter. I debated getting glue that had glitter IN it already but wondered how well that would mix with the water. Though I suspect the result might have been the same: no visible glitter.

It was a mess but fun and I’d do it again if I had any real use for them. I made 9 or 10 of them and they turned out a bit bigger than they appear in the tutorial. No matter how small I tried to blow up the balloons, they only started looking round once they got too big. Sigh. Maybe it would have worked out if I used better quality(and more expensive!) balloons, but I just couldn’t see that when I would only be popping them to get them loose from the yarn when the balls were dry.

In photography(you knew that was coming, didn’t you?), I’ve been venturing out more little by little. Still trying to decide if there’s any other kind of photography I can really get into besides the macro stuff. I do like street photography, I’m just really shy and I know how people get when strangers point cameras at them. As a NYer I might know the difference between some random person snapping me because I look like a photo of me(or what I’m doing) might get them an A on their project, and when they’re watching me because they’re a perv. But not everyone does so… yeah.

I’d been wracking my brain trying to think of convenient, non-wallet-emptying places to get a good shot for a simulated tilt-shift miniature. I say simulated because the appropriate lens setup to do a REAL one would make a grown man cry. Well, at least a grown man who couldn’t afford such a lens. A few shots and Photoshop Elements tweaks later and:

Not perfect but it’s a start. I need to get out more and get better at judging angles and all that good stuff. In the meantime, I leave you with this beauty:

TTFN!

Red and White Galore! and other things

Mar29

That’s what I saw when I entered the Park Avenue Armory to visit the “Infinite Variety:Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts” exhibit today. Red is my favorite color, so I couldn’t resist this feast for the eyes.

The exhibit displayed 650 of 1000 red and white quilts owned by a philanthropist named Joanna S. Rose, who’d collected them over a number of years. In fact, most of the quilts are older than SHE is. But they all looked to be in pretty good shape. All sorts of designs trussed up in the air, floating around like a deck of cards a la “Alice in Wonderland”. There was NO way I could get a picture of all of them and still get home in time for the Beanlets so I got what pictures I could and just generally enjoyed the vibe of the event.

Click through to see all the photos.

Sigh, I keep saying I’m going to do more quilting but chicken out. I already know I’m not going to do anything larger than a baby/lap quilt so at least I’m not setting myself up for total failure. However, I do need to get on the ball, and soon. Lately I’ve just been in a serious funk with a lot of personal stuff going on that I can’t go into here but which plague me nonetheless. I’ll get it together at some point..

I haven’t done much of any crafting. I look at the WIPs and they jeer at me and I look away. A shawl unfinished here, a sweater half done there.. a sock, alone and seeking its mate. Blah, all I want to do is take pictures. And then I hadn’t been doing much of that either, save the usual cat-and-or-kid photos. There’s still a lot of learning to do with this new hobby. I’ll get that yet.

In the meantime, here’s a some geese for you:

TTFN!

Update–On the Horizon…

Mar6

As usual I’ve finished a WIP or two and added a few more to the pile.

Panta Band. My second and I know I’ll make more. I need something for the colder months that covered my ears without interfering with my hair and this fits the bill. It doesn’t take a lot of yarn so I’m sure I could wing a few more out of some of the myriad single skeins of handspun in my stash. This is in acrylic so no blocking. The rest will be in wool!

I also started a Multnomah Shawl.

Now, before you remind me I still have another shawl I have yet to complete, let me explain myself. I’ve stated how we all sometimes need a mindless project to work on, right? Well Multnomah works. It’s simple garter stitch with some feather-and-fan type lace on the bottom. Way on the bottom. So I’ve got a while of garter stitch to enjoy. Easy peasy. I more than likely will not be posting any more WIP photos of this since it’s plain.

In sewing:

Caught a sale at the Sav-a-Thon warehouse and scored a bolt of Denim. Unfortunately for me I mistook it for STRETCH denim and bought a Jalie Jeans pattern that needs stretch denim. Dammit. I do have a pattern or two that I can use with this fabric so it’s not a total loss. Also, the Jalie goes from little girls to adults so I’m sure that when I DO get some stretch denim it’ll come in handy because these kids are ALWAYS growing.

Sitting on top of that is some bleached muslin. I don’t plan to sew with it, but I would like to use it to make a light tent for my small object/FO photos, as well as a backdrop for larger ones.

Speaking of photos, I love taking them! Sigh. As usual I find a new hobby and don’t know what to do with myself. It’s a losing battle trying to hold off the snapping and get back to crafting. Especially since I went to dSLR to take better photos OF my crafting. Go figure.

Oh well, I’m gonna get a fume high from the delicious Pork Stew in the crockpot. See ya!

More Deadline Sewing

Dec22

Though I love sewing, I really need to get out of deadline/last-minute projects. I keep finding myself doing that. But the tasks at hand are done. Take a look:

Boy and Girl Beanlets PJ pants. Biggest Beanlet will also get a pair from the same flowery print. These two needed theirs TOMORROW so I had to crank them out first.

The ‘pattern’ was simple enough. I got the idea from Instructables.com to just trace around the pants. I may have seen similar instructions elsewhere in the blogosphere but I don’t recall where right now.

It was very easy, though I will make sure to cut a longer rise next time. The kids are happy and they’ll have t-shirts covering them so I’m happy too.

There was a moment of trepidation when I saw I’d have to stretch out the waistband to get accurate measurements, until I realized I could just pin it stretched out on my trusty blocking board:

The tracing was probably the hardest part, other than selecting fabrics. I’m a female with 2 daughters and I kind of got carried away with the girly fabric purchases. Hence I had to use a thrifted bedsheet for Boy Beanlet’s pants. They kind of look like hospital scrubs, heh. He thinks they’re really cool and that’s all that matters.

I’m not sure about him, but I know Littlest Beanlet will be so proud to tell everyone, “My Mommy made these!” That’s my girl.

TTFN

Leap of Faith

Dec18

It’s been a crazy past week or so. Over a week ago I got some terrible news. My Godmother had passed away unexpectedly. I was in no way ready for a funeral, emotionally or wardrobe-wise. Mary was always impeccably dressed at church and I felt I could NOT step into that sacred place looking like crap. But, life goes on and it got in the way of me making a full outfit to wear. I did manage, however to squeeze out a new skirt. I needed something long to cover my legs since it’s Winter, but simple enough that it wouldn’t drive me nuts. After those graduation dresses last year I felt like I could sew anything. But still, I was afraid of screwing it up. I’d gone down to the wire, with last-minute attempts to just buy a skirt but none was to be found.. So sew I did..

That’s a quick shot on the train platform on the way home. I wasn’t really in the mood for photos(obviously) but I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to get a picture of the skirt before the sunlight was completely gone.

Details:
Pattern: Simplicity 3827 in size BB
Fabric: some random blue(I’d mistaken it for black when purchased, perhaps) cotton/lycra blend from the 50% off room at Paron Fabrics
Notions: black(and some blue thread, see below!), elastic for the wasteband, size 90/14 sharp sewing machine needle.

Overall this was a very simple skirt pattern. I never had to look at the instructions and scream, “WHAT?!”. It’s a 6-gore skirt in two lengths and I chose the longer of the two. For the Spring I may go with the shorter. The pattern pieces for the skirt were just two but I’d need to make two cuts from each section on folded fabric to get the extra sections. I took the time to trace copies so I could lay out all the pieces and pin once instead of pinning, cutting, removing the piece and then pinning and cutting again.

About 2/3 of the way through I ran out of thread in the bobbin and went to refill it and got this:

I just sat there staring at it for a good 10 minutes. I didn’t give up though, kept right on going, thanks to a lovely bobbin with navy blue on it. That ran out too, but the next time I went to refill with black it went off without a hitch.

I will definitely make this skirt again. It was worth the effort and time challenge, despite the circumstances which caused me to need it in the first place.

In knitting, I also took a leap of faith with some handspun yarns I’ve had in the stash for a while. So long, in fact I couldn’t remember what the fiber content was or where I got it. After some thought I’m confident it’s a wool/silk blend, but I still don’t remember when or where I got it.

The fact that the yarn was a silk blend combined with a 1×1 ribbing was not a good idea for this hat. It’s already all stretched out at the brim, but I’m not sure if a soaking would help it snap back into place. I decided to knit another a bit bigger and in some 100% wool, this time some Merino 64s I got and dyed back in 2007. A week and 3 tiny skeins later:

I like this one better. The color is more accurate in the shot with the flash.

Details:
Pattern: Laura’s Floppy Beanie(pdf file)
Yarn/Fiber: Handspun Merino 64s (don’t remember where I got it from), dyed with Orange Wiltons food coloring
Notions: 3.25mm and 3.75mm circular needles with the magic loop method

Again I’m really liking this hat more than the other and it will see some serious use this winter. I thought I had a lot of the yarn around to maybe make matching mitts or something but I guess not. I do have a little left over but it’s probably not enough to work with.

That’s all for these few weeks; we’ll see what I can get into next!

TTFN

Hubris is the mother of last-minute sewing

Dec1

Now that the Thanksgiving food coma has lifted I remembered to post this.

I opened my big fat mouth and wound up having to do something to keep from putting my foot in it. I got cute and told my cousin, who was hosting Thanksgiving dinner at her house that I would bring some Sweet Rolls for the meal. I’m a Jean E. Yuss. Because it’s a long trip(especially with transit running on a Sunday schedule), I decided I’d need to keep the rolls warm so I wouldn’t have them waiting for them to bake once I got there*. So crazy me decided to sew a quilted cake carrier tote which turned out ok, but nothing like what I envisioned.

Below is some fabrics I got at the Sav-A-Thon last year on clearance. I figured now was the time to use them.

I totally pulled the idea and the shaping out of my a$$ on this one. I thought about making a tutorial but decided against it when I realized I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But I kept at it. And the result was this:

I actually finished it the morning of Thanksgiving, having started the evening before. Around midnight I got fed up and got me a drink of coquito, and promptly went to bed.

Looking at the finished item I know now what I’d do different:
1)Make the bottom bigger and the side panel longer to go all the way around to fit so I wouldn’t need the zipper(though I do like that part of it.)
2) Really get an understanding of how to sew in elastic. I couldn’t get it to shrink down over the top as much as I’d have liked. Or,
3) I could have made the side panel taller so I could leave a few inches unquilted and fold that part over for a drawstring casing, eliminating the need to futz with the elastic in the first place. (aha, moment of genius, after it was all said and done)

Other than that, it was a fairly good experience taking my own idea and making something. The family thought it looked good despite the issues with the closure and that alone made it worth while.

* It ended up that when we were leaving she told us she was still cooking so it wouldn’t be like they were waiting for us to eat. Since I was running a bit behind(I farked up the recipe–You can’t always substitute shortening for butter, just so you know) I wound up just carting the rising dough with me instead of baking at home. The warmth provided by the quilted wrap helped them rise nice and big! Yay! Oh and I uh don’t have a pic. We ate ‘em.

Regaining Balance

Jul30

Change can be hard to adjust to. I got comfortable with my own server space and domain name, but maintaining both is just not possible right now. Maybe in the future I can go that route again. For the forseeable future, though, ladybean.net will still bring you here.

Slowly I’m regaining balance in my crafts. While my urge to sew is still generally stronger than that for knitting, I am currently working on a new shawl project and I’m rather happy about it.

The Fall/Winter Seasons Shawl kit, from KnitPicks. I’m not too thrilled with the choice of transitioning from green to orange(say what??)but that’s what was in the kit. Strangely, online and in the catalog, the difference didn’t look so glaring. If I ever knit this again I won’t need the kit; I can just order whatever colors I think would look better. There’s also a Spring/Summer shawl with brighter colors but I wasn’t too keen on the pattern and I wasn’t sure if the included amounts of yarn would work for this one.

After a few false starts I was on my way and I’m enjoying the process. Every so many rows I’m putting in a life line; I don’t find them fun to deal with but it sure beats the tedious task of un-knitting stitch by stitch to get back to a mistake, especially in lace. I won’t need the shawl for a while yet, but I’d like to have it done all the same. Just have to take my time on it.

As for sewing, I haven’t started any new projects but I’ve definitely got some goodies in the pipeline.

I’ve been reading a very inspiring refashioning blog: New Dress A Day. This sewing blogger does amazing stuff with thrifted dresses. Some stay dresses and others become tops. In one entry she was able to get a jacket AND a cover-up out of one dress!! Granted the dress was REALLY big and she’s not, so… But wow, just very inspiring. I’ve done a little refashioning here and there but nothing on that scale. Along with regaining balance I need to work on my skill level and CONFIDENCE. I’m too afraid to try anything for fear of having wasted my time, materials and still not having learned anything.

Hopefully though, a shot at this pair of wrap pants will usher me down the road to sewing proficiency(one can only hope!) I got the idea from my ever-inspiring crafty friend Spinndiva.
Don’t you just love that fabric? I do!

TTFN!

Crafting Karma rears her head

Jul18

That’s what I get.

Despite having a stack of WIPs in the UnFO pile, I thought I was gonna try and start a new project. WRONG.
Behold:

My latest knitting inspiration, the Fall/Winter Seasons Shawl, from Knitpicks. Sigh. I got the latest catalog in the mail a few weeks ago and couldn’t resist. Knowing I had a bunch of WIPs I hadn’t even touched in MONTHS. Shameful, I know. But order I did. After a brief wait, it arrived and all I wanted to do was dig in. And then it happened.

If you look closely you’ll notice the yarn is in hanks. Which means it will need winding before I can knit with it. And I CAN’T FIND MY GOT DAMN SWIFT AND BALLWINDER!! Sigh. I know I brought it with me during the move and I’ve certainly used it in the almost 2 years we’ve lived here. Well, Chez BeanKnit is about to get turned upside down because I MUST find them. For what it’s worth, I will need them when it’s time to dye more yarn to add to the Heather Hoodie I’ve been meaning to complete.

In sewing, Karma bit my rear again! I’ve also got some Un-FO’s in the fabric realm and well, it’s not nearly as bad with that. I’ve got much less undone projects in sewing but I learned a very important lesson in regards to Goodwill-ing. A few months ago I got a cute-but-odd shaped piece of fabric (pics at a later date) that I can turn into an apron. I kept meaning to get the other one(there were two but somehow I only bought one) to have more fabric in case I needed it, but I went back after too long and it was gone. Silly me, thinking no one else would want it. I’ve read things along the lines of, “If you see it there get it because when you go back it’ll be gone.”, and it really applied in this case. Oh well, I’m sure I’ve got some complementary fabric in that huge stash of mine to work with.

Lately though, it’s just been too hot to be in the living room which is where the machines are kept. One of these days I will get around to it. But DAMN I need my swift and winder!

TTFN!

Now, where were we?

May21

A few posts ago, I talked about learning that what I thought was a basil plant is actually a marigold plant. I’m over the ~~disappointment~~ shock and had decided to just go with the flow and grow this plant. And then all of a sudden:

Bad butt Cookie knocked my plant off the windowsill and the flowering stem broke almost completely off! I about lost it. Mostly because I’d put off repotting the plant way too long. Perhaps the pot wouldn’t have moved as easily if it were the heavier one I was planning on putting it in. A few gardening friends told me I could likely save the plant so I went ahead today and got the stuff to do just that.

Now the marigold plant sits in a much larger pot. I shouldn’t need to move it for a while now.

Since this window doesn’t get enough sunlight I was going to get special bulbs to simulate sunlight and keep the plant elsewhere in the livingroom. I did purchase a grow bulb, though right now I’m not sure if it truly will help. If this doesn’t work out, at least someone will get a nice bag of organic potting mix!

Craftwise, I’ve been crocheting a bunch of those Springtime Coasters, and this pattern has taken over as my hurry-up-and-wait/appointment/commute project. I’ve made so many(and I don’t even entertain!) so some lucky friends will be seeing a few land on their doorsteps!

I haven’t sewn in who knows how long. I’ve come to grips with the fact that I am NOT going to finish the first iteration of the full dress from Simplicity 2660 with the fabric I started with. I have, however, gotten an urge to make another top like this one:

I plan on using what’s left of the dress fabric to make a test garment(or muslin) of a modified Simplicity 2618 top. When I bought the pattern I couldn’t really tell that the front neckline was pleated. I thought it was gathered peasant-style. I’m thinking, though, that I can simply cut the top as is, gathering the unpleated center area with a drawstring or elastic. It should be easy to do. And if it works out, I won’t have to buy a pattern specifically for that type of blouse.

I want to at least start this project this weekend. The first shirt went fairly fast, so maybe I’ll get to wear it on Monday!
That is, if I don’t get sucked into more coaster-crocheting.

TTFN!

Adrift in Crafts

The adventures of a woman chin-deep in crafts, who doesn't want to be saved

Category Archives: Sewing/Fabric

30/30

As Usual, Random

Red and White Galore! and other things

Update–On the Horizon…

More Deadline Sewing

Leap of Faith

Hubris is the mother of last-minute sewing

Regaining Balance

Crafting Karma rears her head

Now, where were we?

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