Hogwarts Goodness

I've been working on this awhile and finished my Ravenclaw scarf based on the pattern from atypically knit. It's the prisoner of Azkaban style. I used a vintage dusty blue wool blend and moonlight mohair in the silver color way. I got the mohair for $1.50 a skein (used 2)and the blue in a lot off ebay that I bought for all the other yarn in there. I used all 4.5 balls that came with the order.

Overall it cost about $8. It's 6 and half feet long with fringe and 9 inches wide (knit in the round so it's a double layer)

The mohair gives it a nice aura and a bit of glitz.








Here is closeup of the fringe, striping and initial in duplicate stitch.





This scarf took upward of 50 hours of knitting including the fringing. It was my first time doing color changes and my first time doing duplicate stitch. Overall the project was easy, but time consuming.


A while back I did a swap and made this wand (alongwith the turtle and DNA pendant) It's a harry potter style wand made from recycled paper.

I've joined a Harry Potter Swap on Craftster.org, so you will eventually see more hogwarts goodness.

Recycled, Reused, Reduced

Recycled Gift bags

This week has been good for the environment. Most of what I've made has been with recycled or reused materials.

I bought an old wool sweater at a thrift store for 96 cents and felted it. I used it for craft projects before and had about half of it still sitting around on my craft desk so I made 4 gift bags.

The large one is made from the fronts of the cardigan. I left the pocket for added interest. The white ribbon down the sides is threaded through the button holes. The trick with reusing old clothing to make new things is utilizing whatever the garment gives you. The medium size bag is a sleeve with one end sewn up and a ribbon sewn on so I can be tied shut. I already used that one for valentine's day. The two little ones were made with the leftovers. One is a drawstring and the other has a flap that folds over. I had to embellish one corner with yarn because it had a small hole there.

Now I have durable, reusable gift bags suitable for many occasions.


Reusing old Valentines
My little Sprite came home with valentines on Friday so I took her valentines from this year and last year and made a place mat for her.

Placemat Materials:
cards/valentine themed stuff
plastic or cardstock cut to size of placemat
glue stick
packing tape


Process:
I laid the cards out on a piece of plastic (from a gift bag she also got) until they were arranged how I wanted them
Then I glued the back of each card to the plastic
Then I carefully laid down packing tape over the whole thing.
I did the same thing to the back side
Then trimmed the packing tape so it was just over the outside.



Reducing the Possibility of Loss
Then in preparation for the holidays (yes I'm starting early darnit or I'll never get any peace in the winter) I'm making my DH a gift certificate holder for his comic shop. They still give out paper gift certificates in plain envelopes, so I'm always afraid he'll lose it in the piles of paperwork on his desk. This should make it stand out. I used the same basic process for the envelope

Envelope Materials:
images from comics - I used pictures from the freebie preview newspaper the comic shop gives out
One envelope that I took apart
glue stick
packing tape


Process:
I laid the images out on the envelope until they were arranged how I wanted them - I love the skull, it's from a comic called apes and babes, which I know my DH does not read, but the graphic is awesome.
Then I glued the back of each comic to the envelope
Then I carefully laid down packing tape over the whole thing.
I did the same thing to the back side
Then trimmed the packing tape so it was just flush with the envelope.
I'm also planning on sewing on two buttons so It can be closed by winding string around them.

My top thrift store finds

I love shopping thrift stores. It helps me feed my crafting addiction. Many of the things I've crafted recently are slated as gifts and haven't been received yet. I can't share them here until they are, so I thought I would put together a top list of things I love to find at thrift stores instead. These are the things I look for every time I go thrift store shopping.

1. Other peoples crafts supplies - tools, fabrics, patterns, yarns and beads. Anything discarded by others because their stash got to big can add to mine. A dollar spent at the thrift store is about $5 at the fabric store so that equals big savings if I can find what I'm looking for.
   
2. Great clothes that fit- I'm always on the look out for great clothes that actually fit. This is hard to find but when I do, oh the joy! My best find by far were a pair of Salvatore Ferragamo boots for $30 in a thrift store in San Fransisco.
   
3. Clothes in great fabrics that are too big- Great fabric is great fabric and clothes that are too big allow me to tailor those clothes to make something that fits and is unique as well. I found this shirt recently for less than a dollar. It's got good front detailing. I'll need to take it in and re make the sleeves, but then it will be a great new work shirt! A gathered dress in a larger size can yield 3 or more yards of fabric to work with for any kind of project.
   
4. Cashmere or wool sweaters- I felt these and then use them to make better fitting sweaters for myself if they are big enough, dolls and other soft toys, mittens, hats and any other small thing that would be good for wool if they aren't. For those doing cloth diapers, you can make them into great soakers. The picture is of a hat made from an angora sweater. (The sock was a simple recon for taking too tight socks and cutting off the cuff and re hemming to make more comfortable socks) I can pick up sweaters for 96 cents off season.
   
5. Sweaters for recycled yarn- If you know what to look for you can dissect a sweater and reuse the yarn for your own projects. At the seam if the sweater it sewn with yarn and not serged together you take a seam ripper and carefully undo the sewn portions then unravel the sweater. This works great if you can convince your thrift store to give you the sweaters that are in such sad shape that they can't sell them. I got this one for 50 cents at a garage sale and will turn it into a cami adding some pink ribbon yarn for accents.
6. Sheets - I can get plain flat sheets for $1 at the thrift store. Or a set for under $5. I have made pajamas, a 15th century style chemise, doll clothes, hand bags, reusable grocery bag, dresses, skirts, curtains and lots of other things from sheets. They are a great resource of woven fabric. Even if you don't sew they make ready curtains by just cutting at the very top to open up the large hem at both ends to slip a curtain rod through.

These are some of my favorite things to look for. What are yours?

Making Cool Tools : Tutorial

I've been doing alot of knitting lately. I got a knifty knitter set for the holidays and am trying to figure it out. I practically destroyed the little tool that came with it because my stitches were too tight and I was being stubborn. So I got out giant paper clips and some poly clay and made these:

• knifty knitter tool (far right)
• a crochet hook (top)
• 5 stitch markers for knitting

Tutorial


Materials:

• Big paper clips
• poly clay (like Fimo or Sculpy)
  
• Needle nose pliers
  

Preparing the clay:
I rolled a thin strip of pink over and strip of blue over a log of yellow. Each stitch marker is one slice of this roll. For the crochet hook I rolled smaller canes and sliced them, then wrapped the around the paperclip to make spots. For the knifty knitter tool I tool the failed canes and just rolled them together to create a strip and rolled that around the paper clip.

Stitch markers: wrap paper clip in poly caly, leaving the largest loop open.

Crochet hook: bend the paper clip straight with pliers, then create a small hook that faces back toward the other end on one end with needle nose pliers. Wrap clay around it.

Knifty knitter tool: bend the paper clip straight with pliers, then create a small straight hook that faces up on one end with needle nose pliers. It should be 1/4 to 3/8 inch high. Wrap clay around it.

Then bake clay as directed. (I used Scupley III, so I baked it at 275 F for 20 minutes)

With my paper clip crochet hook, I made these:
Crocheted shoelaces:
I used red heart worsted yarn and chain stitched until it was 42 inches long.

Ribbons and Bows: Making a Wardrobe

I made a good dent in refashioning and creating my wardrobe over the past week or so.

Plain Jane Jacket to Ruffle Dream Coat


About a year ago I found a plain ankle length jacket in a microfiber suede material. It was way too large and for a whopping $0.96 I took it home as reclaimed fabric.

I took off the standard men's shirt type collar, the cuffs, the arms and chopped it at the waist. The part of the collar that joins the collar to the coat became the ruffled cuffs with a simple pleat. I covered it in pink polka dot ribbon to finish off the seams ($3.29). I fit the sides from the armpit to the new empire waist to fit, and sewed the arms back in. The ruffle going from the collar to the empire waist is the 5 inch section I cut off to make it an empire, doubled over and pleated to make the ruffle.

I trimmed it out with the same ribbon. I chopped off another 10 inches from top of the bottom piece before reattaching it to make it knee length. I modified the button holes to accommodate the bigger buttons I wanted and sewed the buttons far to one side to make the opening asymmetric. I adore this new coat.







I had about 18 inches left over of ribbon so I made a little flower rosette pin with the leftover ribbon, a button and a little gold jewelery finding.




Hippy chic to Dancing Drama!
I had this old ankle length tiered skirt in the most luscious black velvet. However the volume involved in the skirt made it heavy. So out cane my handy seam ripper and 20 minutes later I have a new mid calf length skirt that I can still wear my knee hi socks without showing pale pasty winter legs plus an 11 foot strip of velvet for another project.




Hair things
I made a headband from some red heart super saver in my own design. The yarn was leftover from making my mom's birthday present.












Then I also made a fascinator using extra ribbons and beads and things around the house.



Can't be more Feminine Socks!
I finally finished these socks. The second pair in a pattern of my own design, I added ribbons to make them more girly and fun. I like being girly but sometimes I want to do it in a way that doesn't involve pink or purple. I'm really happy how these turned out especially since I had to frog the first one completely and redo it, so really I made three socks.

In my last post I mentioned my plans for 2009. I finished my victorian inspired ruffly coat and I have already crafted more than usual. I plan on sending the patterns for both the socks and headband into knitting magazines. We'll see how that goes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A new year usually brings new resolutions as to how we want to change our lives. I suck as resolutions. I get two weks in and go "Why bother?" so instead I thought I'd share my plans with you for the upcoming year. I think plans are better than resolutions. There is more than a general goal involved, it becomes very specific, and the more specific a thing is in your mind, the more likely it is to get done.





1) For the first four months of 2009 I will not buy new clothes and instead will thrift them and make/refashion them myself. i've taked a 4 month pledge with wardrobe refashion. I have to post each week on my progress of not shopping for new clothes and share any clothes that I refashioned from my own wardrobe or thrifted. I plan on making several peices from existing clothes and my sewing stash including:

• A victorian ruffly coat
• a short sleeve jacket in an Asain print fabric
• A pink skirt
• modified black cords
• A purple puffy sleeve shirt with patchwork
• a purple skort

2) I plan to craft more. I have several knitting projects planned including some socks, scraves and tops. As we rang in the new year, I taught myself cabling and managed to already have a birthday present done for my mom. I'm also branching out from using established patterns and designing my own projects.

3) I plan to submit some of these designs to online knitting magazines to keep up my freelancing writing that I have neglected for the past few years.

4) I plan to periodically look at the mundane things around me and devise a better, prettier way. Functional items tend to get forgotten and I want to make sure that at least some of those functional things end up pretty, almost pieces of art in themselves but with a practical everyday use to them.

I invite you to think of what your plans for 2009 are. How do you plan to prettify your life?

2)

Handmade Holiday

Whew! the holiday season is almost over, and now I can show off a few of my creations. I made nearly all my gifts this year. (Each person usually got one completely non homemade gift) I made books, hats, bags, dishcloths, neckwarmers, mousepads, bears, dragons, and dresses Oh My!

First my little Sprite's PJ's. I winged the top and used an established pattern for the pants. I've decided I love smocking. It makes everything just that much cuter. I saw this pink paisley fabric at the thrift store. $3 for a bag with two pillowcases and a flat sheet. Scored the ribbon there too for 50 cents. I'm insanely proud of this flower embroidery. I don't even know why. It's a simple stitch accented with buttons to cover a tar stain. This is so much better than a Pajama set I could have bought in a store.

Next up are the results of a ball of striped cotton yarn and and a Thanksgiving where I tried not to stab anyone with my knitting needles.

I got a generous fluffy dishcloth out of it, another small cloth I use to wipe Sprite's face and a little fish for play cooking.

I really like this striped yarn and I'm trying to move more toward dishcloths and less toward sponges. There's nothing quite so nasty as a sponge that's fallen apart after it's been "cleaned" in the dishwasher. I'm planning on making several dishcloths. I made one in dusty hues for my mother and a frilly circular doily type one from knitting knonsense for my mother in law which for some reason I do not have a picture of.

I enjoyed making most of my gifts this year and since most of it was from my stash I feel good about what I spent considering how precarious my job seems at the moment. I hope everyone had a terrific holiday and hope the new year brings good things to all!