Wherein taking the easy way ended badly

Who doesn't like to do things easily?  When presented with options that will end at roughly the same end, who doesn't say "I'll do it the way that takes less time."?

Smart people, that's who.

Yesterday, I decided to use my holidays to start some sewing projects I had been putting off.  I hauled my machine upstairs to where the light is better and hauled all my supplies up with it.

Except my iron.  I decided to heck with it I wasn't going to iron the material first.  I wasn't going to need to iron it in place before I sewed.  It was going to be a simple pillow case.  How hard could it be?

Then I decided to cut without measuring.  I figured I could eyeball it pretty well.  I just had to use the straight edge as a guide and I would be fine.  Also, there was a pattern on the material.  I could just follow that too.  It will all work out.

Finally, I needed to sew a fold into the material with an attached ribbon.  Two birds with one stone, thought I.  I will just hold the ribbon in place and sew the fold as I would normally.  It will all be fine.


I wish I could go back in time and punch myself in the nose.

The material had been cut at the store, that is true. It did have a straight edge.  However, it's bias was crooked.  Which means that the pattern on the material was on there wrong.  Just a little to the side.  What should have been simple following a path already in place, turned out to be misguided at best.  Had I noticed this right away, I could have done something about it.

The fold that I needed to create started out crooked.  I realized that in order to make it follow the material pattern, I would have to adjust the fold somehow.  More material on the one side, less on the other.  Pin and pin and I give up! Let's just sew it.


Cue the cursing.  The fold was crooked.  The ribbon pulled in some places and not in others.  The sewing missed the ribbon altogether at some points.  I ripped it all out.

I went to get the damn iron.

I'm a "making" machine! #reverb10

December 6 Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (prompt by @gretchenrubin)

Ever since learning to knit, I've been on a roll.  A coworker said that every time she turned around, I had a new project I was working on with the finished one sitting beside it.  I've been a making fiend.

I'm happiest when I'm creating.  It's a weird thing considering that it isn't something I do for work or career or anything.  But I am happiest when I am creating.  Whether it is a map of agencies, a desk top phone list, a painting, a terrible Saskatachewan Riders muff, or my new found love of knitting, I am happiest making stuff.

This week, I'm making a pair of hobo gloves for my office.  I cannot find a happy medium of heat at the office, so my hands are always cold.  Now, I do have another pair of hobo mitts, but they were too hot.  So, I thought I should make another pair.

I am in love with this pattern.  Forgive the picture (it's hard to take pics of your own arm.)  I used the pattern by Jacqueline Vance-Kuss here.  I had the colour left over from a friend's repair project.  It's such a gorgeous rust red, I fell in love with it.

Now, I just have to start the second one.  Or, just have one hand warm and one cold.  Time will tell.

What I did last night: Sewing and Innuendo

As some of you know, our dear Riders are in the Grey Cup for the second year in a row!  The Guy is going with his sister and two friends to Ed'ton for the big game.

I am staying at home with Monty and Maddy  and LynnieC and we're going to have a girl weekend.  Poor Monty.  I expect he will hide under the bed when we start putting pink bows on him.

Last night, The Guy's sister, K, came over with what looked like the pelt of Oscar the Grouch.  She also had white plastic type material and some cheap Rider neck warmers which we cut the logos out of.

We sat down for supper and I planned what to do with them.  As soon as I put my fork down, I was up and cutting material.  An hour later, we had the final project.  The THREE of a kind RIDER MUFF!

The muffs in all their glory

These immediately lend themselves to bad jokes, but they are pretty awesome.  And by awesome, I mean terribly ugly, but no one else will have them.

NaBloPoMo and prizes

Since I announced my intentions of participating in the "write a post every day for a month" thing, I decided to also provide a prize for the other participants.  I'm nice that way.  Well, not really, but I thought it would be a good thing.

Also, being that I am a crazy knitting fiend these days, I figured it should be something knitted!  Why not the first thing I ever knit?

So, I present to you, the scarf which will be auctioned off to someone who is also taking part in NaBloPoMo.

Now, the bow tied there has since been sewn into the scarf and the colour is more of a teal, but that is the scarf.  I've never actually worn it despite being so proud of it!  It's the softest material ever and I love it.  I hope that whomever inherits it will love it to. 

I've also decided that during this month, I will have a give away of another scarf for my readers!  Minues my father who lives on the far edges of the earth, everyone who comments (on the post that I claim is the post on which to comment) will be enetered to win.  And then I will pick someone randomly that I like best. 

I mean....

Randomly!

So, here it is.  The begining of NaBloPoMo and the prizes attached. 

Phew. That took me a long time.

My first Etsy sale!!

Since I opened my Etsy shop, I have had one commission piece which I haven't finished yet, but no other hits.  I sold one piece (a baby sweater) to someone at work and figured I was lucky at that.

But now?!?  I have sold my cowl neck scarf!  I am a real seller!!!  I'm a contender!

Real conversations between me and The Guy

I was at a meeting today.  When I looked up, I saw the most hideous, but awesome, piece of art work ever.  I quickly took a picture and sent it to The Guy via email entitled: New Decor.

Me: I want this for our house.

Hand carved cow head.  Awesome.

The Guy: It goes above the bed.

I believe, my friends, we have a deal.

The Knitting Spy

Lately, I have been in a rut.  It's a happy rut, but a rut nonetheless.  I have been doing very little but knitting, thinking about knitting, sewing for knitting, blogging about knitting, and watching Chuck.  It's a happy routine which I hold dear, but it's starting to affect me.

The Guy and I received the first season of Chuck for Christmas from my sisters.  We knew we would like it, but with all the other awesome shows out there (read: HGTV reruns) we just hadn't had time to watch it.  Once we had it in our hot little hands, we could not stop.  We quickly went through the first season and immediately ran out to buy the next one. 

We eat, sleep, play with the dog, and watch Chuck. 

And it's GLORIOUS.

However, these last few weeks, I have started to notice a change in my dream life.  Lately, there have been  a lot of spies and espionage.  It's been fun.  Sometimes I'm a spy, sometimes I'm watching the spies in my dream. 

This morning while I slept, I dreamt that I was the spy.  I was chasing a bad guy, saving the world from utter destruction -- you know, doing spy things -- and, suddenly, I stopped, picked up my knitting and thought Thank goodness that's over, I can get back to things that really matter.

I have a new website! About knitting!

I love knitting.  I want to talk about knitting and tell everyone about it and make everyone try it.  i bring it with me everywhere and resent when things take away from my knitting.  I know I'm insane.  I know I'm intensely intense about yarn and sticks and clacking and making stuff out of seemingly random movements. 

I think I'm driving my husband insane.  It's a good thing I didn't discover this until after the wedding.

So, I decided to start another website.  Devoted solely to knitting!!! 

Buggering Knit Monkies will be updated as often as possible and will be a journal of sorts for my projects -- finished and in the works.  If you're a knitter and you know it, click the link!

For the rest of you, you're welcome.

Monty in a normal sized sweater

I have finished the second doggy sweater. This one fits and Monty is much pleased with it. I will likely make another one as there are changes I plan to make to the design, but the overall concept is great. So here he is standing tall this time.

Look Mom, it fits!!

Side view.  I sit like a good boy.

Monty in a teeny sweater

But Mom, it doesn't fit and I feel silly.

Fine, I'll pretend to smile even.

Now can I take it off?

Wasting time and not in a good way

I spent most of the night chasing an awesome idea I had to spruce up the knitting bags I plan to make.  I hunted online for the right picture, figured out how to make it into a pattern, cut out the material, and took to painstakingly sewing it by hand in tiny stitches. 

Three hours later, it was clear it was not going to work.  Part of it might work, but may not be salvageable.  The rest?  A complete waste of time. 

Sigh.  I wasted three hours where I could have been doing something constructive.  Or, nothing at all.  Now I'm frustrated and the dog wants to go to bed.  Boo.

I'll try again tomorrow. 

Projects, lists, and plans

I have been a knitting fiend lately.  I actually stayed at work for an extra 10 minutes one day so I could finish what I was working on.  It has been an exciting discovery which has lead The Guy to shake his head and realized I have, indeed, lost my mind.  I started knitting a puppy sweater for Monty.  Although, Ky thinks I'm in over my head, that's just how I role.  I didn't want to practice on more scarves or toques.  I don't need any.  I need a puppy sweater.  In Rider green.

However, once I started knitting, I realized I needed a bag to put all my knitting things in.  I was using a small Rocky Mountain Soap Company bag, but it wasn't quite cutting it.  I had a brilliant idea for what I wanted in a bag to keep things organized.  So, I designed one and made it.  Today.

In order to do that, I had to first enlist The Guy for help.  We picked up the table I needed which had been left at the church after the wedding.  We set it up, ran power for it, and I set up a sewing area.  It looks great!  I'm starting to get organized and it took care of one more thing on my list of things I wanted to accomplish.  So, I started to sew.

Here is the final product.  I've found a few things I would change about it, but it's just the prototype for me, so it's okay.  I plan to make many others now that I have this layout and either give them away or sell them.  It didn't take too long, so I figure it will be okay.

 

Vintage 70s Fortrell which I picked up from a coworker's MiL when she moved.  

I've been dying to use it.

  

Inside the bag on the right side.  

It has four slots for tall needles and 4 for shorter ones.

  

Inside the bag on the left side.

One large pocket with flap (large enough to hold a 6" ruler)

and two open pockets for miscellaneous.

Top down view of the inside of the bag.

Scarf! and Dog!

While in Victoria, Ky taught me to knit.  I realize this enters me in the trifecta of old lady-ness: knitting, cross stitching, and joint pain, but see if I care.  I liked it.  It was relaxing and gave me something to do while watching TV that wasn't eating.

I worked on the scarf every minute I wasn't doing something else.  And now, a week later, I am finished.  It is a really long scarf that hangs down to my waist when I wrap it around my neck.  It's soft and Alpaca and teal.  Although, in the picture it looks blue.  Trust me.  It's teal.

The bow is where I ran out of material and had to start another roll.  I am likely going to weave the bow in, but for now, I like it.

And for all those who couldn't give a monkey's bare bum about knitting, a picture of Monty.  He missed me very much for those 8 days I was gone and hopes I never go away again.  I won't.  For two more weeks.  Sorry, dude.

For those who like neither knitting nor puppies, I have nothing for you.  And you have no soul.  FYI.

Another successful creation!

It's been awhile -- what with the wedding, the moving, the family, the life -- since I have been able to dedicate any time to creating things on Photoshop again.  Then my cousin Queen of West Procrastination told us of her husband's return to blogging and requested I help him out with a header.  Since he is one of my favourite people in the whole world, I agreed. 

I thought about many different ideas. One with volcanoes!  One with a science experiment!  (I tried that one, it looked like a take off of The Edison Twins.)  And finally, I figured out this.  A mix of everything that is Chris to me.  (But without the squee! of delight when he sees babies, puppies, Rider gear, etc.)

Here it is:

Another banner and a possible business opportunity

I am loving Photoshop. I've never had it before. All my banners were previously made by Paint. PAINT. It's like I was using a giant, red Kindergarten pencil to attempt to recreate Monet. How was I living?? Now that I've been introduced to Photoshop, there is a whole new world open to me. A creative world that is in focus.

I've made myself a new banner, have a back up in the works, created one for my Dad, and finally created one for my cousin (well, technically third cousin or something) who has been too busy to actually update anything for 2 months. I am hoping the new banner will change that. How could it not?


And now, I'm thinking, I should do this for money! So, I'm setting up an Etsy shop and am going to offer my services.

I think. What do you think?

The Blog Fodder banner

I was bored the other night, so decided to play on Photoshop for awhile. Thanks to Janny for teaching me how to use it and answering all my dumb questions. I decided I would create a new banner for my dad. I did an image search for The Godfather to play on the name my Dad goes by. I found this. What better thing to try and recreate?

Download the font, find a tractor, play around a bit and I finally got this. I keep thinking of ways to tweak it, but Dad seems pretty happy.

New banner!

I've been busy. If you normally look through your feed reader, come on over and see the new banner. It's all about Clip Art, baby.

Procrastination in packing

After awhile, packing is tedious. I say "after awhile" because for the most part, I really enjoy packing. I love the mindlessness of it. The organization, the paring down, the simplifying. There is something so interesting about dividing up your entire life into boxes. It makes you learn a lot about yourself. I, for example, have learned two very important things about myself: 1) for someone who doesn't cook, I own an astronomical number of cook books -- an entire TUB of them, and 2) I have too many clothes. How many pairs of yoga pants does a woman really need?

I decided I needed a distraction. I was tired of clearing out cupboards and drawers and not being able to part with something because it reminds me of that one time I did that thing and it was fun. I remembered I had lunch planned with a friend and it was her birthday so I decided to wrap her present. Oh! I had also bought my sister-in-law a house warming gift (well, it is also my brother's house, but we all know who the presents are really for) and I figured I should wrap those as well.

The gift I bought for my sister in law was a weird shaped item that could not be wrapped easily. And, of course, there was no box that would work for it. So, I improvised. I made the present into a party hat. Voila.

You will never guess what this really is.
If you do, and you ruin the surprise for Mel, I will hunt you down.

Then I moved on to the gift for crazybarefeet. I had gotten her a ginormous tub of honey for what should have been her Christmas present. I had no room in the house for it, put it in the garage (why? I have NO idea) and promptly forgot it existed. When I was cleaning I found it. Perfect timing!!!

The conundrum was, how to wrap such a gift. I figured it couldn't be done properly, so I would just include the container as part of the wrapping. I cut out a circle for the top and used old double sided window tape to attach it. Then I cut 3 strips of paper to wrap around the body of the container. It was not perfectly cylindrical, so there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. And cursing. Then, I cut the left over paper into thin strips and made curly things to attach individually to the top.

I think it turned out rather nicely. For a pail of liquid bee vomit.

I will leave you with the artsy picture of the decorated pail.
I am just like Martha that way.

I told you I was tired of packing.

Book Arts and Crafts

In a house where books are sacred, this article both intrigued me and appalled me.

There is a video of a very straight guy making a teeny purse out of a Sci-Fi novel. There is a really cool idea for a photo frame and -- Holy Frickin' Cool, Batman -- a scene from a book in a book. Then there is this piece which I don't even know how to describe.

While some of the things are beautiful and amazing and gave me all sorts of ideas, part of my heart is broken at all the books that have been destroyed here. Mind you, if they were those old Reader's Digest compilations, I could accept it a bit easier. Seriously, I can't even throw out books I bought for a quarter at a garage sale.

Homemade gifts

I had an idea this year, because I am broke, I would try to make (and/or steal) every present I wanted to give away. I started thinking up ideas and finally decided on one for crazybarefeet. I was going to make her a wall hanging thingy with her and her children's initials.

I've been working on the idea for months. Finally, this Friday I was able to give it to her. I told her to get her tears ready because (I know her too well) she was so gonna cry when she saw this. I've been wanting to put the pictures up for ages to brag, but didn't want to spoil the surprise.


This is the material I settled on. One colour for each person. All in harmony, but each very different. On all of them, I put three lines of quilting. A metaphor for their family of three. Subtle, right?

I picked sparkly, shimmery material for KB. She's a sparkly, shimmery kind of woman. I chose to quilt three lines across the square and then hand stitched the letters in. I picked different font for each person. Again, what I felt matched their personalities.

This one is for her son, A. He's a smart guy with a mind that goes from the practical to the creative. I figured the three lines of different angles suited him well.

This is for her daughter. She's a family girl, so I made her quilting come from a stem of family and branch into the three. The purple is a dress I bought years ago and then never wore because it was uber short. Like Las Vegas hooker short. What can I say? In Florida it looked a lot more modest.

This is the final product. A silvery grey material made the back and border. I made a thing to put a dowel through the top so it can be hung. The picture is blurry but only because I couldn't make it bigger without that happening. Unless I used the original picture, but that shows a lot of mess in my kitchen.

I was very pleased with the final product. However, I'm glad it isn't hanging in my house, because every time I look at it I spot a new flaw. Eventually I would have had to take it down and shred it with a knife in a fit of rage. I think this way is best for everyone.


P.S. Did you notice their initials are KBAM! It makes me happy every time.