Capecho

I'm knitting a "capecho" from the Vogue Knitting magazine Winter 2006/2007 issue. The design is the cover picture. It's rated Intermediate/Advanced, and I'm pretty surprised by how well it's coming along so far - it's a lot easier than I thought. I'm learning new stuff like picking up stitches and piecing a pattern together. I looked for a yarn color similar to the cover, but I couldn't find an affordable look-alike in a natural fiber. Instead, I got this synthetic yarn with a great color - "heather" - and it is really soft and glides smoothly on the needles. Maybe someday I'll get the natural stuff and knit this again, because I just love the design. All the yarn only cost 12 bucks!

The pattern is composed of 11 cabled pentagons pieced together, with the sleeves and collar added at the end. I'm on pentagon 3 :)

My ugly chair

I'm working on slip-covering this butt-ugly chair in our living room. Southwestern style, anyone? Blah. Obviously, the blue is the new color. I'm gonna get some matching/complementary fabric to cover the chair. It needs to be able to handle a rowdy dog with a penchant for chewing things on it. That's HIS chair.


Look how freakin' cute my dog is.

Le Hat

It's finished - the cable knit/crocheted hat. Well, sorta finished. I just mentioned to Andy: "I really think a pom pom would tie the look together." Andy's reply: "That would be cute." We'll see.

My Day Off

I didn't have work today! Since Andy just got me a sewing machine (my first!!), I decided to try to make a pillow. I did it! I didn't even poke myself, sew the wrong sides together, or forget to iron the fabric before measuring. I gotta admit, I'm pretty impressed with myself. Well, I was, at least, until I realized that I didn't leave enough room for the foam form on the inside. I was gonna put a bit of foam inside before adding the fiber fill, but oops, I messed up the measurements. It still looks like a pillow, which was the goal.


Annnnnd, with all my extra free time, I made a hat. It's not done though - I'm adding a crochet border to the bottom.

Beer Brewing

Ok, so this isn't my project, but I did take pictures of it anyway. Andy got a beer brewing kit for Christmas, and as I type the first batch of pale ale is fermenting in our pantry. Andy is a certified "brewmaster," even though we haven't actually tasted the final product. That won't happen for another couple weeks. So, here's a thumbs-up to Andy's new hobby.


Priming the bottles with sugar. The reaction of the sugar with the yeast in the beer causes it to carbonate. He used different colored bottles so see if light would affect the taste. Or something.

Handsome Devil

My dog is too cute for his own good. This is his "Hey everyone, come see how good I look" pose.


Latest creation: A baby hat. I got invited to a baby shower this weekend, so made this today. Only took a couple hours or so. I'm gonna try to make some booties to match. The pom pom is a little overpowering, so I'll trim that down.

embroidery progress

Taking a daily picture of the project seemed like a good idea. It's neat to see it progress bit by bit every day.

Today's work added satin stitch and Jacobean couching - my first try. Looks alright to me, I suppose.

Scrapbook in Progress - Shortwave Radio

Andy loves him some shortwave radio, and he got me into it too. We sit in front of this gigantic radio and scan through broadcasts that come from all over the world. If the signal is pretty decent, we take down the info (air quality, what was playing, etc., broadcast location) and mail it to the broadcaster. Usually, they send back a thank you letter and all kinds of nifty stuff. Andy had all this stuff sitting in a folder, so I decided to make a scrapbook out of it so he could show it off.

Scrapbook in Progress - Spain

This one has been in progress for about a year and half, haha. I tend to go more for pictures and less for frilly-scrapbook-type stuff, like borders and stencils and whatnot. I just have to finish the Barcelona section, based on my three-day jaunt in Barcelona. It'll have pics of Park Guell, the nudie beach, the hostels I stayed in, and other odds and ends.

El Escorial:

Toledo:

Daily walk home + Embassy ID:

Old Center of Madrid and Palacio Real:

Center:
Maybe in another year I'll finish the rest of it.

My Latest Project - Jacobean Embroidery

My first embroidery project is underway! It is based on a pattern I found in a book - I feel like I need to see more Jacobean-style embroidery before I start to make up my own patterns. Later I'd like to try doing freestyle realistic embroidery based on pictures/nature/etc. It's so exciting that I managed to do some decent french knots. I figured that part would look pretty mangled. For scale: the scissors are a bit less than 4 inches long.

Family Portrait, Christmas 2007

And a few others...

The Latest Painting - 6 O'Clock in Madrid

This is a painting based on a picture I took in Plaza Colon in Madrid. I was walking home from work at 6 o'clock and saw these awesome shadows under what I think are olive trees. I took a little artistic liberty with some of the background scene, but the feeling and the light are the same. *Sigh* I miss Madrid.

Oil on canvas, 3o inches x 40 inches. I still haven't gotten it framed - it's expensive!

Jessica's Baby Blanket

I made this for a student at school who graduated in the fall. I was talking to her about how a lot of babies in my family get knitted or crocheted baby blankets and she thought it was the neatest thing ever. She had never seen anyone knit before. I decided to make this and worked on it over vacation. I broke my wrist on about the 7th panel, and I planned for the blanket to have 9. I decided to just go ahead and finish up with 7 - I didn't want to still be knitting when the baby was starting to walk :P.

Baby Bee yarn - Sweet Delight Wrap, sea green and white.
32 inches x 28 inches, newborn size
seed stitch, knits and purls
















I was really excited with how it turned out. When I was younger I had a problem with finishing projects. Maturity has its benefits I guess :).

White Skinny Scarf

This was my first knitting project ever. It's just made with simple knits, purls, k2tog's, ssks, and yarn overs. It took me such a loooong time. I was so slow at first. It took three or four tries to actually cast on correctly, and I had to frog A LOT. Fun! But, I finally finished.
Big oops - I burned it a bit when I blocked. Now I know that when the iron says synthetics, you should probably use that setting to steam acrylic. Oops.

Crafty Crap

I've been doing a load of crafty stuff lately. Baby blanket, scarves, scrapbooking, painting, drawing, some embroidery. I've always been pretty, uh, resourceful, but since I've finished school I've gone haywire. I'm guessing it's because of all my spare time - I'm not used to it! Crafts are awesome - as a hobby, crafting is really inexpensive and incredibly satisfying. Knitting, scrapbooking, and embroidery are my favorites - I love having a useful object when I'm done with it. I LOVE reading, but when you've finished a book, it goes on your shelf or you pass the fun to a friend. With crafts, I can give gifts or find fun and retro ways to decorate my house. I can make clothes - seriously! I can make all kinds of kitschy stuff. Too much fun.

With this blog, I've decided to put up pics of what I've done for my friends and family. Everyone can see what I'm up to (and it's legal, Mom!). I've given away a few things, and will sell paintings soon, so it's another good way to archive what I've created - just for memories.

As of a couple weeks ago the crafting has gone a little slowly. I broke my wrist, got whiplash, aggravated a tailbone injury, and jacked up my back after a pretty awesome snowboarding fall over Christmas vacation. I'm starting to regain some mobility in my hand, so the pace is picking up a bit. I can't wait to get this cast off!!


Enjoy the pics!