Sewing, sewing, sewing

Lately my focus seems to have completely shifted from knitting to sewing. And you know what? I'm totally cool with that! Summer is coming, and I need some new clothes. So does Mr. Social. However, the past few weeks have found me sewing for my shop. (people seem to really like my Doctor Who bags!)

This past weekend, I set myself a ridiculous goal of sewing 7 bags and knitting a hat. And I could have totally done it too, if I hadn't had to leave the house for most of the day on Sunday. What I managed to finish is 3 bags, half a hat, and the beginnings of a 2nd sock.

I'm really hoping to fit in some sewing for me this week. I have a bunch of fabric that is just calling out to me, begging to become something fabulous!

Another crazy week ahead

Last week was busy! I got 2 bags finished, spun a yarn, almost finished a pair of shorts for Mr. Social (they just need to be hemmed), almost finished knitting some socks (also for Mr. Social) and a whole bunch more! Phew! I showed off a couple things in Friday's post, but here's another finished bag and a sneak peak at the next one ;)

So, am I on track? Let's see...


Plans for April:
1) Finish Diamond Gansey socks for Mr. Social  - Almost done!!
2) Sew a bunch of bags - 2 done, 3rd almost complete
3) Make the skully dress
4) Pick another pair of socks to knit for Mr. Social - pattern picked, yarn wound and ready to go
5) Make shorts for Mr. Social - Almost done!
6) Spin a bunch of things - 1 complete (so far)
7) PROJECT ANDI - Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. - On track


Not too shabby a start to the month, if I may say so myself.

What's planned for this week? Well, I'll be finishing the Godzilla bag shown above, the Diamond Gansey socks and a baby sweater. I will also be blocking 2 projects that were finished a few weeks ago, and cutting out 2 more bags. If all goes well, I'll have the bags finished next weekend. Social life? Maybe not this week...

Plans for April and Weekly Update

I think I may be back in the groove again. I've managed to finish a bunch of stuff and am inspired to work on so much more! Here's a couple of the yarns I spun up recently. All my knitting still needs to be blocked, so no pics yet.

Plans for April:
1) Finish Diamond Gansey socks for Mr. Social (that's right, still not finished)
2) Sew a bunch of bags
3) Make the skully dress
4) Pick another pair of socks to knit for Mr. Social
5) Make shorts for Mr. Social
6) Spin a bunch of things
7) PROJECT ANDI - Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. YOU CAN DO THIS!

That list seems simple enough. Let's see if I can get through it and not get sidetracked by SHINY NEW PROJECTS!

Here's a super fun music video for your amusement

Oops, I'm a little behind

It appears I've missed a couple updates. I'm just going to go ahead and pretend it's because my life is super fabulous, exciting, and terribly busy lately...

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, and while we didn't have our trip to Boston as we'd have liked (BOO!), we did have fun. My best friend's birthday is St. Patrick's Day, so we found a place for a bunch of us to gather, that surprisingly wasn't insanely busy (like most places are in Toronto on St. Pats).

Despite it not being as busy as we expected, it was very loud. Talking over the noise of the crowd and the music caused me to lose my voice for a few days, which was entertaining in itself.

As far as crafting goes, I've been all over the place. I've had days where I needed to work on ALL THE THINGS, and days where I want to do nothing at all. I think it's all part of the HPKCHC end of term burnout. Rather than getting myself worked up over the things I haven't finished, I've been reassessing my crafting goals and needs (summer is coming and new clothes must be made!). In doing so, I think I've come up with a new, and totally doable plan of action, at least for the month of April. Oh, and I spent a lot of time re-vamping my blog. Looks pretty, n'est-ce pas?

What have I finished lately? Well, let me show you:

It's not as much as I'd normally have done over a 2 week period, but that's because of both the crafting ADD (the WIP pile is insane) and the days where I just didn't feel like doing anything.

The plan for this week? Hopefully I'll be turning the yarn shown below into a cute baby sweater.

Have a great week!

Spinning, grown-up things, and not so grown-up things

So, it seems that not only has my crafting ADD struck again, but it's spread to non-crafty pursuits as well. This week, I had planned on finishing up some projects that have been sticking around for a while, but I could not resist the siren song of my spinning wheel. So much for sewing and knitting this week!

I received a really interesting fibre batt in the mail that I was really curious to see how it would spin up. The colours are not ones I'd normally choose for myself, but I find that more and more spinning has been taking me out of my colour comfort zone. I'm so glad that I took the chance with this batt because I'm totally in love with the results!



Next up, I set to work on some beautiful fibre I bought ages ago from Hilltop Cloud. A gorgeous merino/alpaca/sparkle blend, it was just asking to be made into yarn.



The next fibre I initially picked up to spin for a handspun swap. I had the perfect idea in mind, until I discovered my partner was not a fan of art yarns. So I had to rethink what to spin for her and was left with a beautiful batt for me. I spun up the batt as evenly as I could and plied it with some white merino that was spun mostly even, but with super thick sections. I plied these two together and ended up with super pretty and fluffy art yarn! I love how it looks like clouds, or marshmallow fluff, or something.



I'm sure you're asking yourself why I spin when I have crafting ADD. It's simple, really. Spinning is as close to an instant gratification project as it gets. A simple, single yarn takes just a few hours to spin up, then it just needs its bath and to dry. A two ply can be started and finished the same day if I do it on the weekend. With knitting, unless I'm making a simple hat or something, a project can take anywhere from a few days to months. This week was all about the instant-grat stuff for me, so spinning was the logical choice.

In non crafting related news, I decided one night that as a (mostly) responsible adult, I tend to make healthy, grown-up decisions when it comes to food. So of course, I decided this means that once in a while I get to be ridiculous and have brownies for dinner. Mr. Social wholeheartedly supported this decision. I got to bake (first time in a long time) and to make brownies for the first time ever. This was a delicious decision on my part.

I forgot to take pictures, but they looked something like this....but with pecans

Of course, I had to compensate for such a childish act by spending the next day doing the following grown up things:

- 6 hours/4 loads of laundry
- making a giant pot of chili to make sure we had grab and go lunches in the freezer for the week
- doing dishes
- other assorted cleaning

Basically, I re-learned that sometimes, being a grown-up is awesome, other times, it sucks. But at least I have pretty yarn.

Monthly Planning - March 2012

Making a plan for the month really worked out well in February, so I'm having another go at it for March. Here goes nothing:

1) Finish Diamond Gansey socks for Mr. Social (you read that right, I'm still not finished these)
2) Dr. Who messenger bag
3) Dr. Who mini-satchel
4) Godzilla messenger bag
5) iPad covers
6) Hippie Hat
7) KAL socks
8) start planning sewing of summer clothing
9) green baby sweater for shop
10) Pink/white/grey shawl/scarf thing for shop

And since I did so well at it last month:

What a week!

Well, I had a jam packed week full of crafting, multiple trips to the post office, fun with friends and seeing my favourite band, The Dropkick Murphys.

The week began with a long weekend, the holiday observed here in Ontario is Family Day, which we lovingly call Turducken Day. This year was the 4th annual Turducken feast, hosted by the lovely Ms. H and Mr. D, and a most excellent time was had by all. My favourite part is always the post-dinner move from the party room to their place where the real party happens. What a night!

Big Wanda and Big Carl came out...Trouble

My trips to the post office resulted in a whole bunch of packages going out, as well as a couple packages coming in to me. Big, squishy packages full of fibre!!!!!

Squish!

As far as actual crafting goes, I got quite a bit done. In fact, I tallied up my projects for the year (I'm participating in 112 projects in 2012) and am already at 39!!! Holy crap! It's got to be all the spinning. Here are the finishes from this week:



On a sad crafting note, I had to frog 2 month's worth of crocheting :(
The crazy hat I've been working on for Mr. Social was WAY too small, despite me doing a gauge swatch and everything. So it is being restarted on a larger hook. Hopefully this time it works out.

Of course, the highlight of my week was going to see the Dropkick Murphys! They have been my fave band for what seems like forever, and no matter how many times I see them live, it never gets old.



We had originally planned to make our pilgrimage down to Boston for St. Pats to see them this year, however decided against it on account of needing to save for our trip in the fall. But, the first show of their St. Pats tour 2012 was in Toronto, so we didn't have to miss out. I got to pick up a shirt, and TORONTO WAS THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN CITY TO HEAR THEIR BRAND NEW SONG!!! How exciting is that???

There was one song I had hoped they'd play at the show that they did not, so here it is for you all to enjoy, The Dirty Glass by The Dropkick Murphys.

The First Day of Spring....Sorta

We haven't had much of a winter this year. A few days of snow, a few days of "real" cold (I define real cold as under -5°C/23°F), mostly just grey and wet. Normally, I really enjoy winter, I love the snow and the crispness of the air. I feel like I've been robbed of that this year, and for the first time that I can remember, I am looking forward to spring.

What makes me really sad is that this year we will miss out on one of the first signs of spring approaching, crocuses peeking out from the snow.

Well, Hello there!

Since I probably won't get to see that this year, I have spun up a yarn inspired by the first spring crocuses. It's called "The First Day of Spring".



A lovely blend of Merino/Nylon, Falkland, Angelina, and Mohair, this yarn almost makes up for the lack of seasonal progression.

I'll leave you all with another First Day of Spring (by the Gandharvas) for your enjoyment.

My New Addiction?

Crafty things I'm addicted to include knitting socks (full grown human and mini-sized), spinning, sewing anything, and now....baby sweaters?

Seriously, baby sweaters are so cute due to their tiny size and of course, fast to knit. I've only ever finished a full grown sweater in a week once, but the last 2 baby sweaters both took about a week each.

This week, I finished this one:

It's so cute!

I've also been working on my spinning, specifically core-spinning. This time around, it wasn't nearly as twisty as my last corespun yarn.



I still have 2 ounces left of this fibre to spin, so maybe the next attempt will be even better :)

I'm a Spinning Fool

Seems to me that making a list has helped me somewhat in keeping organized. I finished the sock required for the test knit before the deadline I set for myself, finished the Dr. Who mini-satchel I was working on and did a whole bunch of spinning. I spun 5 skeins of yarn to be exact.

I'm really happy with how the bag turned out. It's a mini-satchel, so I guess more like a purse than anything, but soon it will have a bigger messenger bag to keep it company.

It's bigger on the inside

I did A LOT of spinning so far this month. Part of this is because I was ill, and spent my time at home on the couch with tea and my wheel.

Look at all the pretties!

I guess I wasn't kidding when I said "Spin All The Things!"

Monthly Planning - February 2012

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all the things I need to do this month, so I decided to make a list to help me keep focused and to keep track of what is done vs what needs to get finished.

Here goes nothing:

1) Finish Diamond Gansey socks for Mr. Social
2) Finish test knit socks for me (left sock needs to be finished by Feb 5 at the latest)
3) Dr. Who mini-satchel
4) Baby sweater for gift
5) iPad cozy
6) Other Dr. Who satchel (size as yet undecided)
7) Kraken hat for Mr. Social
8) Start second Kraken hat
9) Pink and black hat for C
10) Spin all the things

I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but this is a good start. I'm hoping to knock a couple of these off the list this weekend.

WIP Wednesday - February 1, 2012

Last Saturday I did a sewing test as the final step of my college application process. I hadn't sewn in a while (because I'm always knitting or spinning) and had forgotten how much I love to sew. So I finally started a project I've been meaning to make for a long time.

A while back I had purchased some fantastic Dr. Who fabric and had some vague ideas as to what to make with it. For now, I have decided on a bag and am pretty excited about it. Here is my progress so far:



I've still got a lot of this fabric left, so I'm already plotting what to make next with it!

WIP Wednesday - January 25, 2012

For the past 6 months or so, I've been hosting a sock KAL. This month, I've been a very bad host and am way behind on my sock knitting. I blame the "studying", you know, spinning yarn instead of reading my books....



Anyhoo, the socks for this month are Diamond Gansey Socks by Wendy D. Johnson.



This is the first of 12 pairs of socks promised to Mr. Social to be made in 2012. Chances of finishing these by the end of the month are slim, but I'm going to do my best.

Busy, busy, busy!

Wow! Who knew that January would be so busy??? The last few weeks had me knitting up a storm to stock my shop, spinning a little bit and studying for an upcoming exam (it's on Thursday, yikes!).

Some of the things I've created the past few weeks:

The smallest Jayne hat ever!

Dalek Hat of my own design - Prototype #1

Handspun yarns. The middle one is my first ever corespun!

Taking a peak in my shop, I realize I've been on a crazy hat kick. I think I need to add more variety. Good thing that exam time is almost here. As soon as it's done I can start sewing again!

WIP Wednesday - January 4, 2012

It's WIP Wednesday! This weeks edition showcases something I've never attempted before... a baby sweater. It feels to weird to be knitting something small enough to fit a teacup human!!



Right now, it's smaller than a sheet of paper O.o

I do love how fast it's working up, which is good as I need to have this done for this weekend to send along as a baby shower gift.

Out with the old, in with the new

Good riddance to 2011. What a roller coaster of a year! 2012 will be so much better, I'm sure of it.

Mr. Social and I ushered in the year in the classiest way possible. With some pink bubbly.

Apparently we only have 1 champagne glass in the house...

I have big plans for 2012. One of which is I'd like to go back to school. The first thing I did this year was submit my college application. I look forward to the rest of the application process and can't wait to go back!

We're also planning a trip! Looks like we're going to head to Portugal (!!!) in the fall. I've never been there before! I haven't been away in a couple years, so it's nice having something to look forward to.

As far as crafting goes, so far I'm on a roll! I've finished 3 projects already (okay, okay, 2 of them were started in 2011, but they were finished in 2012) and have started several more. I started to learn to crochet. I've even got most of a yarn completed! Here's a look at what I've done so far:



Happy New Year Everyone!

Oh! I almost forgot! Remember the naughty hat I was working on? It's finished and was given to a friend :)

WIP Wednesday - December 21, 2011

I've been working like mad on my holiday knitting, taking breaks here and there to work on non-holiday things as well. I finished a last-minute gift last night, and thought I'd cast on something not holiday related as a treat for myself.

I haven't tried my hand at colourwork in a really long time, so I figured now is the time to try again.



This hat will be pretty naughty when complete. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out, and if I left enough slack in the floats for the hat to stretch properly once worn...