Brynwood Needleworks

My cousin has a blog that I have recently begun to follow through Facebook. It is so great to see what she's been up to with her crafts and sewing, very inspirational to a novice like me. :) Today is her 100th post and with it, an opportunity to win some fun stuff! Check out http://www.brynwoodneedleworks.blogspot.com/ to find out how you can be entered in her giveaway, but more importantly, to take a look at some of her nifty projects.

Looking forward to the next 100 posts, Donna!!! :)

So, it's been a while. And no, I never finished the socks...or a single sock, but I have more important things to do now. It's time to start making some baby things, folks! I have quite a few projects on the agenda for the upcoming weeks, including a boatload of cloth diapers. But I already got a few knit projects done and ready to show. None of these have been washed or blocked yet, but they look nice enough as they are, so here are some pictures...

First up, 2 sleepsacks. I didn't really follow a pattern for these, so I hope they work out. They are both made with Purewool, I can't remember the colorway of the one on the left, bought it years and years ago, but it's single-ply and super soft. The one on the right is 3-ply Mesto.

Next are two pairs of longies, both made with 3-ply Purewool. On the left is a newborn pair in Biarritz and on the right is a small pair in Tiatucura. I'm not thrilled with the heavy gold hue of the yellow or the pooling in the body of these, but they'll be useable.

I'm putting these up last because they're my favorite. :) A newborn pair of shorties in 3-ply Purewool in Firmament. Love these!!!

That's it for the time being! I'm used to pulling out the knitting needles in my free time, it's going to be weird sitting at the sewing desk for a few weeks. I have some really cute diapers to make though, so hopefully I'll have pictures of those up soon too. Like I've said before, I work so much better with a deadline. :)

Sock update and King Gus

I finally started on Josh's socks! That was last Saturday, actually. I finished the leg/ankle of one and when I got to the heel, I took a break. A weeklong break. :) I will get back to it, just need to find the motivation, I supppose. So far, so good though!

And here is a picture I received from my sister of my nephew Gus. He's sporting his new crown and playsilk/cape. The crown is made from the LTK pattern out of Patons Classic wool in New Denim and Burgundy. I did have some trouble with felting and sizing it correctly, but I was able to make it work and I'm so glad it did! I really only gave myself enough time to get it right the first time, which is really nothing new for me. :) I did buy yarn at least a year ago to make my boys some crowns too. One more thing to add to my project list!

Kai Will Love Me Forever

Christmas was almost a month ago and I'm still waiting on pictures of my gifts on or with their recipients. I decided would just go ahead and post the pictures I have. Of course that means Kai is modeling two girlie hats, which he wasn't fond of wearing to begin with. I'm sure he'll be super excited to see them on the computer. :)

Here is the first one, a gift for my niece, Malia. This hat was made with RYC Soft Lux in Powder. It's a pale pink worsted weight yarn, shot through with a gold metallic fiber. Just a little sparkle, not too much. I got it to match a metallic gold coat that my mom was getting her for a Christmas gift. The pattern is called Petal and can be found here. I thought I had the correct gauge, but the small size turned out quite wide for me. It wasn't a big deal because I wasn't sure on size anyway, but in case anyone else gives it a try, watch your gauge. It is a really cute hat, I'd like one for myself if I ever get around to it.
I also made a set of mittens to go with the hat, nothing spectacular, just some plain mittens. I also had enough yarn left to make a long, lacey-type scarf. It was actually a little too long, but it still looked nice. Hopefully I'll get some pics to put up soon.

Next is a hat I made for my younger niece, Kaelana. I saw this pattern and knew I had to make this hat for her. I had a bit of trouble finding the perfect colors of yarn, but found an acceptable frosting and cup color at JoAnn in easy-care acrylic. My first attempt at this hat can be seen in the second picture on the left. It's cute, but when I put it on Kai and Zeke's head the "frosting" part hugged quite tightly to their heads and you couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be. It was definitely cuter sitting on a table or bench that it was on a head. I decided it needed to be puffier on the top, so you could tell it was a cupcake whether it was off the head or on. So I added stitches and used a smaller needle to make the ribbnig so it would still be snug on the bottom. The top picture is the result and it looked much better. Since I really didn't like the first hat and I was running short on time, I just snipped the "cherry" off hat number 1 and put it on the new one. So imagine the top hat with the red pom from the second picture. If I ever make this hat again, I may try adding "sprinkles" or something for fun.

Here are the playsilks!!! I dyed them myself and they turned out pretty decent. I'm not too fond of the first one, which was actually not the first one I did, but I've learned my lesson on wrapping my fabric too tightly. The dye just couldn't get in there.

My first attempt was the fushia/purple one and it turned out so well, I was thrilled. I made it specifically for Kaelana, so I was very happy it turned out. After doing the rest I decided to give the red, yellow and blue to August, my nephew. I also gave him a crown, which I don't have a picture of. Hopefully I will soon.

Now I need to get to work on Josh's socks. Poor guy has been waiting for those darn socks for over a year and I have been asking him to remind me since after Christmas. I really stink at getting started when I don't have a deadline. I'll get them started before the weekend! Maybe. :)

I have some catching up to do.

What can I say, I'm just not that great at following through. But I'm going to make up for it, darn it!!! Just give me a while here. :)

I think the first project I finished after my break was an Easter dress for myself. After a few days and surprisingly few dollars I sewed myself a lovely, lavender Easter dress. It was so pretty. Too bad I could never wear it. I tried it on and looked like a sausage. It was too small so I let it out a tad, which was a huge pain and left the dress looking less than perfect. I realized it was still far too small, let it out more and it looked even worse this time around. Still too small. At this point I read the pattern package, angry that they made such a huge sizing mistake, but alas, it was all my fault. Not only did I make the wrong size, I had the wrong size pattern all together. Note to self: Pattern sizes are not the same as department store sizes. I knew it before, but it didn't really register until the Easter dress incident. I think I'll try again next year, if I can find the same pattern. It was such a pretty dress, I'd really like one that fits!

That was about the last thing I did for a long time, but Halloween was going to be the project that would get me back on track. Malachi decided he wanted to be a banana and I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" I made up a pattern, got myself some fleece and went to work. It wasn't the easiest project ever, but I did it and he looked pretty great! We had some problems with the face hole since my subject wasn't as cooperative as I would've liked, but it wasn't a big deal. You can tell from the second picture it's a bit awkward around the face, but he was still hilarious and cute and he was really impressed with himself in it. He got a lot of compliments and he was all smiles the entire night. :) In this first one the bottom of the banana hasn't been stuffed yet, it wasn't that deflated looking when it was done. It looks better in the second picture, but this was the only profile shot I got.

After Halloween I moved on to my next project, which was jammies for Kai. Zeke had enough to make it until we got them for him as a lame Christmas gift, but Kai would need a couple in the meantime. So I rummaged through my fabric box and pulled out some flannel that I've had hanging around for a couple years and some fleece. They didn't really match, but I didn't care. Kai got two pairs of PJ bottoms, one red and one blue, one yellow fleece top and one neon green. That last one was from the giant piece I had left after the Super Why costume. The Pants turned out great. I sewed the pockets to the back in one pair and had to fix them, but they still look fine and I ran out of thread for the green shirt, so the arms and waist aren't hemmed, but it's fleece so I'm not worried. I'll fix it when/if I get the chance. Otherwise the only thing I didn't like was the length on the shirt. It is just too short, really. And the neck hole, a V neck, is kind of huge. Kai loves them though and wants to wear them all the time. He is also very concerned that something might happen to them. "Don't spill! These are the pajamas my mom made me!" So cute! I'll get a picture up of those sometime, if anyone wants to see.

Next up, I've been buying yarn and working on Christmas gifts, but pictures will definitely have to wait on those! I'm working on a hat, a felted crown, a hat/mittens set and some playsilks. I have most of my materials, my silks, dyes, some yarn and most of the needles I need. I still need some dying supplies, some yarn I ordered and possibly a size 10 circular needle. That is for the crown and I don't know if I want to use no tension with the 8's I have or borrow a 10 from a friend. I'm so impatient, it's actually a tough choice. I better decide soon! I'm thisclose to being done with one of the hats. I actually knit two, the first just wasn't what I was hoping for and I think the second might be better for the kiddo I'm knitting it for.

I just have so much I want to do! After the Christmas gifts are done I want to knit socks for Josh. I want to finish the tunic I never fished for Kai and which will probably end up going to Zeke, only fair considering everything I've made for Kai lately. I have all kinds of patterns I want to try out! I wish I had this kind of enthusiam in summer. Oh , well. I'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts.

A Miracle!

I found my camera, took some pictures and actually uploaded them. And to make things even more amazing, I am almost finished with 3, count 'em, 3 gifts! Sweet! Of course, there are no pictures of those yet, I'll wait until they are completed and received first, just to be safe. ;) But here are some pictures of the longies I finished months ago and the robe I gave Kai for Christmas. The pants are already getting pilly from wear, sorry, and I don't have any action shots yet because I keep forgetting. Shocking, I know. Oh, and please don't be jealous of my stellar picture-taking abilities. It takes years to develop skills like these.


Longies with elastic waist in Earth and Sky colorway from Tykie Knits. The leg isn't actually crooked or anything, I'm not quite sure what I did to it when I layed them out.



















McCalls pattern 9638

































ETA: And I totally forgot, I made those scarves for the boys and never took pictures of those either. I like Kai's, not too sure about Zeke's though. The ribbing makes it too skinny, so I may frog it and start over since he doesn't use it anyway. Should take pics of those. I'll get right on that...

Holy Cow! I have been crazy busy and am just finally getting back into the swing of things. Of course this blog totally slipped my mind and I have some catching up to do. Only a little bit though, haven't had a ton of time to work on projects. I did manage to sew a robe for Kai and knit him and Zeke a scarf for Christmas, but there were a few other projects I didn't get done that I really wanted to. That means there are two people still waiting for their Christmas gifts. Not good. So that gives me something to work on when the kids are sleeping when I don't have something else hanging over my head. My goal is to have them done by the end of the week. I also need to block those pants I finished weeks and weeks and weeks ago...and hope they still fit Zeke. Ugh... I'll have to take a picture of them and the robe and try to find the cord to upload them. I'm sure it's in a box somewhere. :)

Time to kick it in gear...hopefully I'll be back soon with pictures!