Battle Wounds

Well it was a long and crafty weekend here at Chez Lola. Unfortunately I'm going to have some scars from all the quilting fun. 'Tis but a flesh wound. Really, it's already healing. But how I could have been so stupid I don't know. Sometimes you just don't think some of your actions through. It all started as I was preparing to cut my lovely fabric for my first quilt at my sister's house. I brought my rotary cutter and a new blade, since I mostly used it in the past for paper cutting. Changing the blade went just fine, the mistake came when I realized there was some oil of some kind on the blade. I figured it's good for it, but didn't want it to get all over my beautiful new fabric, so I decided to wipe it off... with a paper towel... turning it while wiping, and well I think you can imagine what happened next. A slip of the finger and I've got a v-shaped gash on the tip of my index finger. I'm sure you don't want to know how much my finger can bleed, but really it's a lot. More than you would think a little cut on a little finger can bleed. But I'm ok, I've survived. And now I have battle wounds, that will probably turn into battle scars, and who doesn't want battle scars from crafting? It's like showing your manliness, only in this case, your craftiness. At least I didn't sew through my finger like some poor girls over at Craftster... Now that would hurt!

So I got 8 out of 10 log cabin squares all done this weekend, well Monday really. Only two more to do and then I'm ready to sew them together and into a quilt! I'm loving how it's turned out. Did I mention that it's my own pattern? Finished measurements will probably be around 60x72" including the border. Unfortunately I didn't have time to snap some progress pictures yesterday, since the light was fading by the time I called it quits for the day, but I'll definitely have to post some tomorrow. I'm using the strip method which is making it go so fast! If I wasn't piecing them randomly it would be even faster! In only two hours I got over 75% of the quilt top done! Ok, that's just sewing time, with cutting it takes a bit longer, but I still was very impressed with it. The new machine is working great too! No more fussing with tension and having to pick up scissors and cut the thread every time I stop sewing. It's great.



Stephanie, aka the Yarn Harlot, has officially declared the Knitting Olympics, which will start with the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. I've decided to join, just for the extra push it will give me to get something done and I've decided to complete my first sweater during that time. Do you think I can knit a sweater in 16 days? I'm going to do a top-down raglan with a scoop neck. Either the "Somewhat Cowl" pattern or my own design. I'm going to work really hard on finishing it. Since it's all stockinette I think that will make it easier, especially on circulars, and I'm planning on using worsted weight yarn on size US8's so that too will speed it up. Wish me luck! I'll be swatching soon, which is allowed before hand, as training.

"Cotton" Candy

I was so excited about the prospects of starting my first quilt that I had to run out last night and get fabric! It was on sale, so even more incentive to go quickly. Everything I got is Amy Butler, but I'm hoping to find some more small print to add in with it, since I'm thinking twin-size and they didn't have many fat quarters cut already, plus they only had one left of the brown/pink dot fabric. I really don't think I'll mind going back to spend another hour browsing for fabric.


Now that I look at the site, most of these are from the "Marmalade" color scheme, and from the new fall pallet. But I think they all mix well. It was a super tough decision trying to pick from all the colors, but I wanted to stick to a simple color scheme, since these are pretty busy prints to begin with. So there are about 4 colors: pink, green, orange/coral and brown.
The next question is what kind of design. There was a pattern done in the fall pallet there that I'm finding I like more and more, so I may have to get that as well. My sister has offered to teach me what she knows and since I just taught her how to knit, I find it's fitting that we're exploring each others "craft".
I also set my machine all up last night for the first time. Well, first I had to clean and organize the craft room. I got about half done but the machine was calling my name. Saying things like, "What if I don't work and you have to take me back? You should just check to make sure." Well instead of even getting to check with a swatch or something, I just set everything up and read through the user manual (a little bed-time reading - am I a dork or what?). Boy am I excited! So many stitches I don't know what I'm going to do with them all! Plus the feet! There are so many! And did you know you can sew a button on with a machine? I think I learned more last night about sewing than I ever have in the years I've been doing it. Of course my past sewing experiences have been following patterns, which, although complicated, were pretty straight forward. There hasn't been a lot of room for experimenting with a machine in the past. Plus, I haven't had all those fancy stitches either. Ooh, my other new favorite thing, the twin needle, so you can do a double stitch in one step! That's going to be great for bags! How come I never knew about these things before? Now I just wish I had Monday off too, so I could spend all day sewing...

Turning Japanese

I think I'm turning Japanese. Or at least becoming slightly obsessed... Lately I've discovered the wonderful world of Japanese crafting. I've never seen such creativity! Maybe I'm a little slow to hop on the bandwagon, but I'm ready to ride this thing... I'm really intrigued by their felt creations, purses and bags, and crochet patterns.
Some fun and helpful sites for finding Japanese craft books:
EBay: Great store
Crafting Japanese
Buzzville's collection of books (with ISBN #'s)

The one's I really want myself:
ISBN 4277171818










Such beautiful patterns, I've never been more motivated to try crochet...

ISBN 4893968491









Lots of fun and different patterns plus some super cute bags.

ISBN4579109791

So elegant and different! Every bag in here is a masterpiece!

Wow, if I could ever be so crafty...

I keep finding all kinds of things to inspire my creativity, and have a million projects I want to do. On my list of new projects to try out:

Quilting-
I am absolutely in *love* with Amy Butler's new line of quilting fabric, "Charm". All the colors are great, but I'm thinking a quilt in these would be lovely:

And I found a store near me that's having a fat quarter sale! Yay! Her quilt design is great too, I might use that (although not with so many different colors/patterns, but highlighting my favorites) or, do something like Yarnstorm's New York Quilt. I like really simple designs, plus I think it will be better for a beginner like me.

Machine Embroidery-
More inspiration from Yarnstorm. I want to try some new things out with my machine and I just love the whimsical, patch-like-quality of her designs. We'll see if machine embroidery is even possible on my machine, but I might be able to do some line drawings with decorative stitches or something like that if nothing else...

Clapotis is coming along, I have four or five repeats in the main body done, just need to keeping working on it. I didn't work on it last night, but I'll explain why in a bit. I haven't picked the socks back up yet. Those small needles can be intimidating! Sometimes while I was knitting I felt like I was going to break them in half! Bamboo are pretty flexible anyway, but seriously I don't know if I was knitting too tight or what, but they just felt so delicate.

Yesterday I spent almost an hour standing out in the pouring rain (luckily I had an umbrella, but no socks and jeans is a recipe for frozen feet, let me tell you) so I didn't feel like doing much when I finally made it home (after having to walk five blocks in what had turned into falling "slush"). Note to self: next time, plan out late night bus trip home better, or wear some different shoes.

Resolutions

I'm such a slacker for letting last week slip by, but with no progress (really) on the knitting, I felt I didn't have anything to share.

The reason for no progress last week was because I was busy reading and then watching "Memoirs of a Geisha". I really enjoyed this book, so much in fact that I couldn't put it down! It's all I wanted to do. Seeing the movie on Sat. was a perfect windup to a week of reading. I highly recommend both the book and the movie. I've read some reviews from people that they didn't like the changes from book to movie, but I thought they did an excellent job of capturing the feel of the book. They were both gorgeous and now I find myself very inspired by all Japanese art and culture. Check out this great website for more about Geisha and their culture.

I've made a list of New Year's Resolutions and I'll share a few of them here. I find as I'm nearing turning 26 I've been re-evaluating many of the things in my life, where I'm going and what I'm doing. I'm not going to share some of the deeper things I've resolved to do this year, but here's a few of the things on my list. They include both crafting/knitting related goals and life goals:

1. Start exercising with an aerobics video at home (I love to dance, it's the only way I can enjoy "working out")
2. Branch out in my knitting. Finish my first sweater!
3. Finish projects I start (which means really thinking things through before starting) and perhaps think about designing something myself.
4. Keep craft room clean and organized (it gets messy fast and then affects my desire to be creative).
5. Find new uses for my sewing machine. And use it more (including the stash of fabric). Make a quilt (my first).
6. Keep moving forward in bookbinding. Try new styles, be more creative, enter more exhibits/shows, sell more books, take a workshop at the Book Arts Program, think about applying again for an MFA.
7. Start writing more and keep a journal.
8. Be more productive and self-motivated.
9. And of course, be better about blogging (more than once a week).

Well, that's a few of the things on the list. I think it will keep me busy this year, I just need to try not to tackle them all at once, which is usually what happens, with the result that I never keep any of them. Now it's time to get back to working more on Clapotis and my first socks!