Jesus Bracelet

Have been playing around with copper wiring, twisting it around and watching great videos., 21 gauge. Made a Jesus bracelet.  I really like it.  One of those keepers.

I still have this as a decoration.  Reminds me of the Name of Jesus.

Finished Gnome Scalloped Hat

It's the best.  I cut a little too close and didn't weave in my ends properly at the top, so no washing for this hat or, I'll have to undo some and redo some.  I tried it on and it's snug, but the top looks strange, a pink coming out of the dark. 

I look awesome.  Like a candle.  I love it very much.  This is one for the Frankenstein Files! 

New Pics

I'm almost finished with the "baby" hat.  It's longer than the baby hat would have been.  I'm incorporating the gnome hat.  Making the gnome scalloped adult hat hybrid.  Fantastisticamo. 

Pics when I'm done.

I don't remember what happened to this hat, but I don't have it anymore.

Next 5 Week Project, I Promise I'll Take My Time

NEXT PROJECT

Pink and dark pink lace, scalloped baby hat.  

Target: Amber's new baby?  Is it a boy?  #thingsIprobablyshouldknow

It's a boy.  Hm.  Ok, I'm going to knit this on faith.  

Girl Baby, be there.  

(It was a boy!)

Rocky Knitting, Broken Needle

Two projects.

5 weeks.

problems will arise.

Plarn.  It's late.  3:11 am.

things are ok.  The bag to hold bags has strange bulges in the knitting.  I keep going, uncertain of the cause.  I count the stitches.   There are more than 20 stitches on each double point needle.  Apparently, The plarn sometimes comes in more than one strip which I simply double up, but when I get around to it, I stitch each strand, making more stitches and making strange bulges.

The hole is in the middle.  It looks like a hole in the fabric of the universe.  The extra dimension.

So I'm at a loss what to do with it.  IT. Didn't follow the pattern I made.

Doing cross stitch.  My needle broke.  Need a new needle.  Have no money.

Ok, I have a substitute.  This needle is bigger but small enough to use.

For the cross stitch:

They have these tiny, tiny green glass seed beads that don't fit any needles, except the ones that are to small to fit any size thread in the eye.  There is also a metal apple which has a hole which is equally as small.

Back to the bag:

And I have no monies.   So cross stitch is out.  Plarn still in.  I have to figure it out.  Decrease some?  Take it out?  I don't care too much about the look of the bag on one hand, but I want it to look decent.  It's like a child.  I don't care if you have mismatched socks, as long as you are fully clothed.  So I want the bag to be a little uniform and I don't like the bulges, but I'll deal with the bulges if it looks like that the whole piece.  It's getting so the stitches are coming off the needles, so no more increases.

Took it all apart and it was cathartic.  I think I'll try doing another project.  This project has tasted my  burn out.  I love the pattern I made and I bet if I had followed the creation, the pattern would have salvaged things.  I believe in that pattern.

Finished First Project!

Finished knitting the hat.  It is a smaller one than I had anticipated, but I like it just as much as the longer one I knit last time I pulled out my knitting.  I forgot to knit two decrease rows instead of just one, each decrease rows.  It turned out fine, just the same.  The top seemed a little bunchy, like this black fisherman's cap i did, which i didn't like, but it came together well and didn't leave a little hole, like the other one. 

Crafted Knitting Plairn Plastic Bag Holder Pattern (Not Tested)

Knit Version
With double pointed needles (dpn) and C, cast on 25 15 sts. Place marker for beginning of rnd. Join by working the first st on left hand needle with the working yarn from the right hand needle, being careful not to twist sts.
Bind off 57 42 sts – 3 sts remain on needles.



Ok, first my rant on Lion Yarn who used to have free patterns.  Whatever this is up there.  It is a mess.  Luckily, I'm a knitting inventor.  Here's the new pattern.

Plairn(Bascially Sport weight)
Size 8 Needles

Cast on 16.

Double ribbed.  knit 4 rows

Knit 4, add one, continue to end of row.
Knit one row.

Do this 4 times.  (or more, I'll have to do the pattern to see.)

Continue until desired length.  Cast off half sans two, knit two, cast of half sans two, knit two.

turn, knit two, cast on 16.  Knit for two rows.

Update.  Did something like this.  It is coming together but awful in how I added stitches.  Add one, which makes holes and knit into front and back, which comes up with a bar on the stitch.  I keep telling myself...It's just for the plastic bags, which go under the cabinet, anyway. 
Bind off.

Update:  I never did anything with this.  I can't even remember trying.

Here is a new pattern I've found from Lemele Knits.  I might try working with plarn.  It's not super difficult to make and I'll probably find a tutorial online that I'll link to from here.

Needles: I used a size 9 24-inch circular, using a magic loop for the first parts of the bag and working up to using the full needle. You could use DPs for bottom of the bag.

Yarn: Plastic yarn, made in this case from Safeway bags. You can find many sets of instructions on how to make plarn by searching the internet; I commented on a few methods in a previous post.

I started by knitting a flat circle for the bottom of the bag:

CO 8 stitches, join together to knit in the round.
Row 1: k8
Row 2: k1, m1 8 times
Row 3: k16
Row 4: k2, m1 8 times
Row 5: k24
Continue like this, with a total of 8 increases every 2 rounds, until your bottom is at a size you like. Then switch to wall stitch:
Row 1: knit all
Row 2: k2, yo until end. It winds up being easiest if you move your row marker one over each time, making the last stitch of each even row the k1. You’ll slowly wind up rotating your marker around the top of your bag as you go.

Continue following this pattern to make your bag as tall as you like. A word of advice: once you start filling your bag, this will stretch to be about 25%-50% longer than you started.

Bind off. Halfway around the circle, leave 7-9 loose stitches on a dp needle or cable needle. When you get to the last 7-9 stitches (the same number you used on the other side of the bag), switch to stockinette to knit the handle. I only used 5 stitches here, and will definitely make the handle wider the next time I go this. When your handle is long enough (again, remember that it will wind up stretching with use), knit it into your remaining loose stitches on the opposite side of the bag. You want to do this on the purl side (aka the inside of the bag), purling each of your working stitches onto a loose stitch. Tie off and work in the loose plarn.

By the end of the bag, I had run out of my existing plarn and so was slowly adding loops as I worked across the handle. This actually turned out to be really handy because it meant I was able to time the end of my bag exactly with the end of my yarn. I had about half a loop left when I finished binding off, which was the perfect amount to work into the bag.

Short Projects for the Holidays

Here I am.  HERE I AM. 

Small Projects that I can finish over the holidays. 

Knit Red Fisherman's Hat.  If you can see the top that's not quite finished.  I have to meld a different pattern to it, and to make up a finishing pattern for the hat because I can't find the original pattern.
(Update: I did finish this and now use it for winter wear which isn't really necessary in Texas, but I have it for whenever I want to look like a hobo.)  

It's also almost completed.  There are some discrepencies where the things are suppoed to go...crafts are like life, I suppose, they don't come out perfect. 

(Update:  I finished this and framed it at the Stiche Niche and gave it as a present to my mom.  She hasn't hung it yet, my sad gift giving or her poor interior decorating.)

As for beading.  Well.  I could string something together, but I feel like I would make a mess out of it.  I keep feeling like I'm looking for the right type of string and I may never find it.  I want to do some projects first and then cast off my beading boat into the waters of creativity. 

Other crafts.  LOL.  I have all these clothespins and glue.  So I guess....I could....glue....erhm....clothespins....hrm....together? 

(Update.  Did nothing with clothespins.)  

These are my holiday craft goals.  Finish a hat and finish that cross stich. 

Holiday Craft Vacuum

I am at the edge.  The edge.  Right on the tongue tip.  You know how you have that feeling.  That... feeling.  That feeling of collecting all your loose ends and then pinching them into profundity.  The profundity of crafts. 

I don't know how to approach this "free time."   Guilty Quiltin', Knaughty Knitting, Bad Beading, Dumb Decoupage, Crazy Crossstich. 

Which is the worst and which will I give up precious computer time to do.  I just want to sit and bask in it's glow.  I don't deserve it.  I do deserve a computer, but the times where I choose to do something I don't want to do are shrinking.  And I'm finding myself having to force myself to do things based on the experience that it's often in my best interests to do what I don't want to do. 

I'm trying to make a big deal about it.  There is no big deal.  Just me and crafts.  I need a camera tho.  It gets awkward trying to....wkw?....(ADD) take pictures with a laptop.  But I've wished for cameras before and got one that didn't make sense at all.  I know, I'm supposed to read the manual.  I am super lazy, when it seems to me that things should be straightforward.  There's a button that takes pictures.  A flash.  a move through the already taken pictures.  Why be more complicated than that?  I admire photographers, but I could never learn to be one. There's something to do with the appature and the length of the camera scope.  Love it, Yeah.  Make sense of it?  Nah. 

Now I'm centered and I can't get off centered.  I just have no respect.  Writing is intense and like I said it helps if things are simple. 

That's my messy craft container.  The muffin tins are for holding beads, there's waterproof fabric in there, skiens of yarn, a tin holding buttons.   A basket holding needles and balls of yarn.  Beading equipment.  A starter kit, and all the beading supplies I bought?  Like $60 dollars.  Not an inexpensive hobby.  Knitting, usually only comes up to $25, but I often have the needles and maybe even the yarn already. 

I have modgepodge somewhere and have thought of decoupaging some wine glasses, but the result was...frankenstienish.  or kindergartenish.  Unsalable, either way. 

I have craft glue.  Laquer, too. 

There's the unfinished crossstitch, that I probably screwed up.  The crossstich lady at

The Stiche Niche on Bowen and Arkansas in Arlington, TX is so nice.  I went to her not knowing what I wanted, and I ended up with a little kit and serged edges and instructions for how to stitch.  She was very helpful and told me I could drop by any time, which I of course didn't. 

A purple scrapbook. 

I have this self vegenace itch that wants to catalog everything in my craft box.   I'm resisting it tho.   so far. 

Cleanly negotiate my way through a tangled craft box.  An attribute I should put on my resume. 

I encourage you to clean out and take pictures of your stache.  God knows we all have one.  That way we can all be a group of crafters. Crafters who actually craft!   Truthfully, this foray into crafting is only something to keep me busy during the 2-5 weeks we have left.