Pretty card

Made something quick tonight. Just a card.

I also organised my craft stuff a little better. My boxes are labelled now! Except for paints and clay, I need to gather that stuff up from all corners and condense them. I ran out of steam.

And... I found another ball of yarn. I need to find something to do with all this yarn!!

I determined that my February project will be a knotted fleece blanket. I found two pieces of fleece last week while tidying. I had bought it intending to make it for the Children's Hospital and I would like to finish it in time for Valentine's Day. So that leaves me two weeks to chip away at a big project, most likely the Elf Blanket.

But I also need to decide how to attack the sewing projects. I have nine or ten that I have most of the materials for, but need lining or interfacing and time to work on them.

I need a crafting weekend so that I can spend the two weeks prior cutting fabric so that I can just fire everything through the sewing machine all at once and be done with it. :p

I found a link on Pinterest that will help me use up some beads I've been looking at and thinking "Why did I buy these? What on earth am I going to use them for?" They're just not my style, as I see it. ;)

I must admit, I'm not sure how to count beading and card making because they're much quicker projects. And don't use up as much materials space-wise. Do I count them because I used things that have been collecting dust? Do they really count as "projects" if they take under half an hour?

I guess the best way to look at them is gravy on top of anything else I've accomplished in the month.

So, one blanket, three pairs of earrings, six cards(one design). Not bad. Not bad at all!

Here's the card I made. :)

Finished!

I finished the blanket!!

It measures about six feet by nine feet and is warm and fuzzy and the dog loves nesting in it.

Ends are all weaved in and everything. :)

See you next time. :)

Hooray!

After posting yesterday, I took a much closer look at the Elf Blanket and determined that I CAN use the tails from my leaves, but I have to work right to left instead of left to right. A bit counterintuitive, but Yay!!

So I spent an evening at Boyfriend's, and got half of two strips put together. Amazing! It's starting to look like an actual blanket! :)

I had the day off work today, so I picked up the blanket for Brother and finished it. Now I just have to weave in the ends, so I'm watching Warehouse 13 and doing that. That'll take me a couple evenings, most likely. Not the end of the world. I should be able to finish that by the end of the month without any trouble.

It's actually been a pretty busy day. Went to the dentist, ran an errand for my mum, did some grocery shopping, put gas in the car, walked the dog, finished knitting the blanket... Though while tidying, I found more yarn. Boo! I'll have to make some quick projects to get rid of some of this yarn.

Oh bother

I am a mere five rows from finishing my brothers blanket. Now if only I could be at home for enough time to knit those five rows... ;)

I know I can finish it by the end of the month. I'm totally on track for my resolution.

I finished the last strip of the Elf Blanket last night while out with friends. It's been my on-the-go project because I can fit whatever part I'm working on in a ziplock bag.

So this morning I went to grab the strip I finished last and couldn't find it. It's missing. Darn. "Oh well, I'll take the first two strips instead and sew those together." Great plan, right? Turns out sewing the strips together isn't going to work the way I thought it would. I thought I would be able to use the tails on my leaves. Nope. I'm going to have to carry around bits of all six colours. *sigh* And weave in all those extra ends. *SIGH*

But you know what? It will look amazing when it's done. :)

See you later!

Almost done!

I'm almost done the blanket for my brother. I decided that it's long enough and now time to switch to the brown border. Just three more balls of yarn and some weaving in a lot of ends and I'll be done! :)

Next, I'm teaching myself European Pic because this took way too long. I had previously told Boyfriend that I would make him a blanket next, but he has told me he doesn't want one at this time. However, he suggested I make one for my little furry friend. The dog has been nesting in the blanket when I'm not around and I'm told that it's adorable. This yarn is all warm and soft, so I'm not surprised the dog likes it. The floors have been really cold lately, so I'll make a little blanket to line his bed with. :)

On a more frustrating note, I found a bag of material this morning while putting away laundry. It's two lengths of fleece. As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was intended for. I bought it intending to make a blanket for the Children's Hospital. You know, the fleece blankets where you cut fringes and then tie them together for a double thickness blanket.

So I think I'll make that my February project and keep picking away at the Elf blanket. I've made one of these before, and what took me the longest was cutting the fringes. The tying the two together only took an evening.

See you next time!

I heart earrings

I made these the other day. I've always loved the look of seed beads dangling from a larger finding.

See you next time!

Drowning in WIPs

I have a lot of things on the go. I buy material or yarn or little kits on impulse. It's not a good thing, given that I work in a craft store. :p

So when the New Year came along, I decided that one of my resolutions would be to finish at least one project a month that I already have the materials for.

I have two knit blankets on the go, two sewing projects, and the material for five other sewing projects. It's not entirely impossible to do.

At the moment I'm focusing on the knit projects because they're bigger and will need the most work. I'm really pushing the blanket for my brother and kind of idly picking away at the Elf Blanket. (I'll post about that tomorrow)

With the sewing projects, the two on the go are already cut out. I just need to put them together. If by the end of January, I don't think I can finish a blanket, I'll switch to one of the sewing projects.

The real problem is the yarn and beads that I've bought on spec. I didn't include them in this endeavour, but I'm hoping to find something to do with them. Or trade them to someone else.

Luckily, I know that it's not as bad as the stash other people have. My beads are confined to two shoeboxes and a little caddy. My yarn a large shopping bag and a medium box.

Well, we'll see what happens, right?

See you next time!

Danglies

Made these today. Mostly from dollar store beads, but for the connectors I got at my local bead store.

See you next time!

'Feather' Earrings

I love the look if feathers on earrings, but I'm too lazy to learn how to use crimp beads. Then I saw these glittery hard feather beads. Had to have them dangling on my ears.

Beads!

I bought some beading findings at Michaels today. The clearance stuff was being marked down an additional 70%, and the way I worked the math this worked out to 82% off in total. So I walked out with 157$ worth of beads for under 25$.

Expect to see some beading projects in the near future! :D

Blanket

This is my most current Work In Progress. I started this blanket after my brother moved to Alberta. Then he moved to a camp in Saskatchewan where his bedding is provided. *sigh* So I didn't finish this blanket in time for Christmas, but it will be at home for him whenever he gets a place to call his own. I'll post again when it's actually done.

It's a variegated yarn, and I'm finding that it doesn't show off the basket-weave knitting pattern as much as I would like. Ah well. It's warm and that's really all that matters. ;)

-Sylvan