Playing with paper clay

The past few days I haven't been doing much crafting (although I have a lot of projects planned). It's been a week more about finishing things up and getting prepared for holiday crafting.

In the finished category:

• My online creative marketing class is over.
• Halloween is pretty much done (except for today's post).

In the getting prepared category:

• I have been cleaning the disaster area formerly known as my studio (if a craft store blew up I think I'd have a good idea what that would look like).
• I bought a bunch of materials for a bunch of holiday projects.

While at the store I also picked up this stuff called paper clay. I've been experimenting with it for a few days and it's really neat. From this picture you might be able to guess what I'm thinking it would be useful for.

Yup taking the foot impressions of my newborn nephew. Here I just tested it with a stamp instead of his actual foot. This stuff is just paper so it's totally non toxic, it's really soft which hopefully means that it will take a good impression of his foot, it dries really like weight, and can pretty much be treated just like paper afterwards so the crafting possibilities are pretty huge.

Right now I'm leaning towards holiday ornament/birth announcements.

The Onesie Experiment Continues

I got through the first part of doing the applique- cutting and ironing.

 

Turns out the flower was not a good choice. It was apparent really quickly that what seemed to be a simple shape was pretty much impossible for me to cut into fabric at such a small size. So at the last minute I decided to do initials.

Now at this point I thought I was done- Cut cute shapes into fabric. Iron on with amazing wonder under. Adorable onesies. Done right?

That's where I was wrong. Some of the shapes are lifting off at the edges and I'm going to have to sew around each one to stop the fraying. Apparently the wonder in wonder under really stands for I wonder what the advantage of using it is if I you still have to sew around the applique. I don't really sew so I might be missing something but it seems like I could've just sewed it on to begin with and skipped the adhesive.

I'm happy with how they look- 

but I feel like some might not make it through the sewing still looking this cute.

Lotsa Babies- Gonna Need Onesies!

I have good friends who have just had their first baby last week. My sister is pregnant and due in November. And I have a cousin who's having what will be her second in November too. Seems like no matter if it's at work or home there are going to babies everywhere this year!

And they're all going to need something to wear!

I've seen a ton of  cute applique baby onesies (like the one here from LollyChops) and thought I would try making some. (They'll be great to include with shower gifts).

I picked up some fabric and some wonder under.

I drew up a few patterns.

Now wish me luck because I really don't know what I'm doing!

Baby Sweater Finished!

I hesitated to post this until I had the sweater in the mail. (I think it arrived just in time for baby Lia to be born!)

Now that the sweater there- I wanted to share the results. (Sorry the pictures are a bit dark- it was late when I took them.)

Happy Friday!

MSCE April? Baby Sweater

So- it's been a busy, hot, really hot few days.

This weekend was spent fitting in errands where I could and doing a few household projects- so I'm afraid there was almost no time at all for crafting. 

But despite the unseasonably hot weather we've been having the last three days (and therefore me wanting a lap full of yarn about as much I wanted the flannel sheets that were still on the bed) I managed just a little bit of knitting late each night and I'm pretty much done with the baby sweater. 

Which is just in time for both the heat wave and the baby girl my friend is due with anytime now.

I had intended to do a new project for every day in April- so I feel a bit bad about not getting anything but a few inches of this sweater done in the last few days- but I am really glad I've been able to get this done and almost ready to mail out. I'm also really happy with how clean the stitches picked up on the collar- it was my first one like this.

Tonight I'm going to sew the side seams then add the ribbon tie along the top- and that should be it. This is pretty much how it will look when it's done.

This weekend I also did something I've been a bit shy about doing- I signed up for a knitting class. I don't know why I was so hesitant about taking a class, but it's something I've been putting off for years.  I think it has to do with being a book and online taught knitter. I've always muddled my way through patterns and problems- and I'm pretty confident in my skills, but for some reason I have this little insecurity- like I'll get there and find out I've been knitting totally wrong for all these years. Or I'll be missing some really basic skill and not even have know it. (Silly I know.)

And... I'm really excited about this one... I've also signed up for a spinning class. Ever since I started knitting I wanted to try to spin and eventually dye my own yarn. I cannot wait for this!!!!

Last but certainly not least- I've just found out there will be more baby knitting over the next few months because my sister is going to have a baby! YAY I'm going to be an Auntie. And that has propelled my Mom straight out of her "new knitter scarf rut" and directly into Grandma knitting. We just found out and she already has booties on the needles!

MSCE April Update: Baby Sweater, Baby Sweater, List, Rant.

Well I didn't flag yesterday's Earth Day List as my MSCE post because I thought I would do something else- but I think I'm going to retroactively say this was my Make Something Cool Every Day Post for Wednesday...

Mostly because this "easy" Baby Sweater I'm making is not as easy as advertised. Here's how it went:

Monday MSCE: Start sweater. I am pleased with the "easy" all one piece pattern I found online. I knit a swatch for gauge and am pretty much right on. Yippeee!

Start the pattern, knitting is going amazingly fast! I measure for gauge (but I'm not worried I got gauge on the swatch) to find gauge has half left me. I'm getting it for length but not for width- it's now a little bit too wide.

I ponder how best to fix this- and come up empty since I'm getting length. Then decide babies are pudgy it won't hurt if it's a bit too wide- and at the worst this can be a toddler sweater if the adjust the arms and make everything longer. I keep knitting.

I knit away, feeling secure in the pattern, marveling at the speed with which the rows are piling up. Clearly I am in a knitting time warp- that is actually in my favor! I casually (perhaps with a hint if smugness) say to my husband- "look at how fast this is going, I'm already around the neck and halfway done with one arm".

Then I hit an instruction in the pattern that isn't clear to me based on the knitting I have so far. I begin to consider how this sweater will come together and realize I see another problem- the garter stitch cuff doesn't go all the way around, and if I follow the next instruction as written it seems I will have a sleeve almost as wide as the back of the sweater.

This seems wrong- but I consider continuing to knit. I have felt like something might be wrong in a pattern before, trusted that the designer has a vision that I don't yet understand and have usually had it turn out O.K.

I knit a few more rows and ponder this: It seems simple enough- and because it's so simple I actual think I get how this should come together and it seems the directions are wrong. But the pattern has been online since like 2003- with no errata mentioned. Maybe I really don't understand how this should come together and I should knit on for all to be revealed later.

In a huff of frustration I stop knitting and go to bed.

Tuesday: I read, re-read, re-re-read pattern. Look it up online and find nothing. Feel as though I might be a bit dull when the only note I find online about this pattern says this is basic knitting if you can't follow this you should get knitting for dummies. Now annoyed (O.K. more annoyed) I dig around online more-

Jackpot! (so to speak). I find small thread of message posts on the site I got the pattern from (and also from like 2003) asking what I'm asking. Turns out I am right, this pattern is wrong! Victory is mine... except now I have to...

Tuesday MSCE: Frog Sweater, Restart.

Rip out inches and inches of knitting and start back where the sleeves begin.

Restart sleeves with cuff on sleeve from the get-go.

P.S. I was thinking of what I could put at the bottom of this post as a "you might also want to read" cross link and it occurs to me that I may want to write and errata for this post.

Always Read The Directions, I think I want to add- but don't always follow them!