July 2003 Archives

July 30, 2003

Finally, Another Completed Project

Here's the completed Homespun scarf.

Here's the latest on the Debbie Bliss jacket.

I've finished the left front and will begin on the back tomorrow.

I've also finished crocheting Charlotte's sundress.

I'll sew up the sides tomorrow so she can try it on. Hopefully, it will fit and the dress will be finished. Otherwise, I might be putting in a longer bib or side panels. The pattern for this dress is the jumper pattern in Crochet for Babies and Toddlers by Betty Barnden. I used Paton's Bumblebee cotton for the yarn that I managed to get to the gauge used in the pattern by using a different hook size. I omitted the flowers from Charlotte's dress, so her version will only be white. I am planning on using this only as a sundress, with no shirt beneath it, so I made a shorter bodice than what was called in the pattern. This way, the dress will fit closer under Charlotte's arm. Unfortunately, I began this project back in March when Charlotte was much smaller, which is why I might need to go back and extend the bib. The only other change I plan on making is to have two buttons on the straps rather than one. If all goes well, Charlotte will be modeling the finished version on Friday's blog.

Sorry, but there will be no in progress pictures for the poncho. Due to the fact that it is large, pictures of the whole project aren't turning out very well and, because of the dark coloring, detail pictures aren't turning out well either. I still have about 8 more squares left, but progress is going well. I hope to have a finished picture of that up on Friday as well.

That's all for today. Enjoy your Wednesday.

Posted by crsattic at 6:28 PM

July 28, 2003

My biggest fans

Sorry for the delay in posting; I've had little time for blogging this last week.

I'm the owner of two cats.

Ferris

Sloan

(Their names came from the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.) These two are brother and sister Ragamuffin / Norwegian Forest mixes. We adopted them from Another Chance Cat Rescue. If you are living around Atlanta and looking to adopt a cat or kitten, I highly recommend talking to the people there. I think Ferris and Sloan are very happy that ended up in the home of someone who works with yarn. They consider my afghans to be prime nap spots and love to play with my yarn if given the chance. They really don't mind what I'm making or how it turns out. If it's made of yarn, they love it.

I'm very excited that I got my yarn in the mail.

Now I can finish Charlotte's sundress.

The rest of the yarn is for an embroidered jacket for Charlotte that I started last week. Here's my progress so far.

A finished picture of the jacket can be found on this page.
Debbie Bliss Embroidered Jacket

I'm still plugging away on the poncho and scarf and should have pictures later this week.

Posted by crsattic at 1:59 PM

July 21, 2003

Time to Leave the Nest

I was pruning bushes around our house last weekend and found a nest with baby robins in one of our rose bushes. I've been peeking at them as I come and go this last week. Most of the time the mother is there with them, either adding to the nest or giving out food. Imagine my surprise when I went out there today and found the nest completely empty. The nest is still intact, so I don't think a cat got it. (With all the thorns and the thin branches, I don't think a cat could have climbed up there anyway.) Maybe it was time for the birds to fly out on their own. I think they looked too small and helpless to fend for themselves but maybe that's just the overprotective mother in me talking. Hopefully, they are all right. Until I'm sure no one is living in the nest, I'll leave this bush unpruned.

I didn't finish the poncho and scarf this weekend as planned. The front half of the poncho is sewn up and the scarf is coming along so maybe by Wednesday I?ll have some real progress to report.

Posted by crsattic at 5:15 PM

July 18, 2003

Finished Tank

I finally finished the tank top. I originally started this project back in March, so it is great to have it finally done. I'm so glad I remade it in the larger size rather than just giving up on it after the first tank was too small.

Here's the finished tank top.

The only change I made to the pattern was to put snaps in the shoulder so that I could get the shirt over my daughter's head.

And here's Charlotte wearing her new sweater. It's a little big, but I'm sure she'll grow into it very soon.

I haven't worked on the poncho, but I have been working on a scarf. Nothing fancy, just garter stitch on big needles with Lion Brand Homespun yarn. Hopefully this and the poncho will be finished by Monday.

Other projects on my plate for this month are a shelf with a quilt rack on it for Charlotte's room, 4 more scarves, a baby afghan, a crocheted sundress for Charlotte, and two sewing projects. I have a pre-made shelf that I plan on attaching a dowel to for the quilt rack. It still needs to be sanded and painted and all of that fun stuff. I don't have all of the supplies for it yet, so I probably won't seriously work on it until next weekend. I have the yarn for the scarves already, so I'll be working on them once the poncho and my current scarf are completed. The sundress is almost complete; I had to order one skein of yarn to finish it. Once that arrives I can finish the dress. The afghan and sewing projects also require supplies, so I won't be working on them prior to Thursday. (I'm on a craft supply budget, and Thursday is payday. Currently, I'm broke, so anything that requires supplies will not be started before then.)

We're over halfway through the month, and I still have a long list of projects to complete. Hopefully I'll have some good progress to show Monday.

Posted by crsattic at 2:24 AM

July 16, 2003

The tank is almost finished. I need to sew on the snaps, and I'll be done.

It seems the older Charlotte gets, the less time I have for my projects. She's gotten to be a speed crawler now, much to the dismay of Ferris and Sloan, our cats. I'll try to pin Charlotte down long enough for a tank top photo shoot and post the pictures here by Friday.

Posted by crsattic at 4:47 PM

July 14, 2003

Well, my yarn stash has finally grown too large. During our move from GA to VA, my husband realized that there were many more balls of yarn floating around the house than he'd ever suspected. (7 large boxes of yarn are not easy to hide.) The reason for my large stash is simple. I have a short attention span when it comes to my work. I get excited about a new project, go out, buy the supplies, crochet or knit for a few days, and then it happens. I find another project which I would much rather be working on, and the process starts again. I know there are WIPs floating around the house that I don't even recognize. Yes, I have a problem, but it was much easier to ignore when I was the only one who knew about it.

Cutting off my yarn purchases completely was out of the question, so I'm starting a blog. I hope that publicly reporting my progress will help me to actually finish a sweater or two.

Here are my current WIPs

This tank top is from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss. I'm using Debbie Bliss wool/cotton in a lilac color. Here is my current status

I have to finish the neckband and armbands and sew it all up. This is my second attempt at this sweater. The first time, I made it in the 6-9 month size for my six month old. Unfortunately, it looked like a midriff top, so I pulled it all out and started over. The current tank is in the 12-24 month size, so it should fit my daughter, now 8 months, just fine. I do know from the first sweater that the neckband will not fit over her head. To fix this, I'll only sew up one shoulder seam and put snaps in the other one.

My second WIP is this

The poncho is from the February 2001 issue of Crochet with Heart. I'm making the adult large size using black worsted weight yarn. Here's what I've sewn up so far

and here's what I've left to sew up

Once it's sewn up, I'll have to do borders and fringe before it's done.

Hopefully, I can finish these up over the next two or three days so I can start on something new.

Posted by crsattic at 12:57 PM | 1 Comment

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