Monday, February 22, 2016

A Quick Catching Up

So much for my goal of posting every weekend. Monday is at least weekend adjacent though, can I have partial credit for that? No? Okay.

I've been crazy busy the last couple of weeks and I have a bunch of projects that I want to share with y'all. I'll probably do in-depth posts about them later, but for right now this is what I've been up to:

Three weeks ago I made a new laundry bag as part of my goal of decorating my bathroom. I was going to write a tutorial on how I did it, but I forgot to write down the sizes I cut the pieces to, and I forgot to take pictures as I made it, so now you just get a picture of the finished object. I like it because it's fully finished (my obsession with French seams continues) and it has handles. I don't have a washer/dryer in my apartment so the handles are particularly helpful.


I wanted to make something that would stand up on its own, I had hoped the canvas was stiff enough too, but alas, it only stands when full of clothing. I think I'm going to make a couple of channels and insert some dowels, see if that does the trick, but for the moment, it works just fine. 

And speaking of bathroom projects and black canvas here is the project I just finished today:


There will definitely be a tutorial on how I made these in the future. In the meantime, I am just so stoked about them. This is probably the most organized my bathroom has ever been, and I think they are cute to boot. 

In between these two projects I had two jam-packed weekends. 

Last weekend I spent Saturday at a friend's house for her birthday. It was a potluck dinner. I brought rolls, they were a big hit. It made me realize that I need one of those quilted casserole carriers that I made for Fiance's Mother and Sister, so I'm going to have to bump that up the priority list. 

On Sunday, I went to a Cork and Canvas event with my Mom. It was way too much fun. We each had a glass of wine and followed along with an instructor to paint Mount Rainer! I had never painted before and I had way to much fun. Here is me with my mom holding our finished paintings:


I added a sailboat to my painting because Fiance builds them when he has enough space. I hung my painting in my kitchen. I feel a bit silly about it because the rest of the artwork in my apartment is all original done by professionals or my friends who have BFA's in art. Mine looks like the first attempt that it is hanging near the rest, but I'm proud of it, so I'm going to display it, silliness be darned!

Two weekends ago was Madrona Fiber Festival. It happens in Tacoma every year, but this year was the first time I had ever gone. I had a total blast. Everyone was wearing their most impressive knitwear, I've never had so much fun ogling people's clothes. This is what I wore:


Again, there will be a longer post about the dress. I made it on Friday and woke up early Saturday morning so I could sew on the buttons before heading out the door. 

My tax return came just days before Madrona so as a special treat I allowed myself to purchase enough Brooklyn Tweed Loft to make a sweater. I've been lusting after the yarn for ages. It's a tad pricey, but it is 100% made in the USA and that is a quality that I am willing to pay extra for. 


In real life, I think the color is a bit lighter than this. It's really lovely yarn. I spent ages debating between Loft and Shelter (fingering weight or worsted) and between this color (Faded Quilt) and Long John (a lovely brick red). They didn't actually have enough in one dye lot at Madrona so I ordered it there and it was shipped to me later. It came through Churchmouse Yarns on Bainbridge Island and let me just say that that is a business I will happily be going back to. Probably for Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Long John. When I ordered the yarn I gave them my name, number, and address and was told they would call for my credit card info when the yarn was ready to ship. Well, I ended up getting the yarn on Tuesday but because of a miscommunication with their shipping department I hadn't paid for it yet, so I called them up. Today I got a note in the mail from them thanking me for my honesty! The woman that I talked to on the phone was really lovely and so was everyone I met at Madrona. 

I'm not letting myself start knitting with it yet though. I've got two projects on the needles to finish first. 

One is a sweater in Rowen Felted Tweed. I've got the back done, and most of the front. I feel like I'm using up the yarn at an alarming rate, though. Even though I have the yardage that the pattern calls for I think I'm going to need at least two more balls of yarn. 

This is the back of the sweater:

I also need to finish the mate to this pair of socks for Fiance:


And be on the lookout for an upcoming post about my new wooden sock blocks, my new sewing table, and my thread holder. I have so many exciting things I need to share. I recognize that I'm saying this in a post that should have come two days ago, but I am really going to try to increase to two posts a week and stick with Wednesday and Saturday updates. Wish me luck!

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