DIY yarn swift

Last Christmas, John bought me a ball winder for yarn, which I love, but at the time, neither of us realized that I would also need a yarn swift to actually use it for winding balls of yarn. The winder cost about $25 but an umbrella-style swift is approximately $80 - $100. I guess it's not terrible, considering you'd probably only buy one of these things in your lifetime...but still, $100? I haven't been able to convince myself that I need one THAT badly. Not when I can still wind yarn into balls the old-fashioned way - by hanging the skein of yarn on the back of a kitchen chair, or sometimes by persuading people (like John) to hold the yarn on their hands while I wind it up.

But then...finally! I saw an idea for making your own swift out of Tinker Toys. Seriously! I thought, well, why not? And this was the result:




Ronan was almost as excited about it as me. Almost. He was the one who added the decorative stack of cylinders to the centre post.

Note: Swifts like the one I made (albeit made of wood and not Tinker Toys) are available on ebay for half the cost of the umbrella style.

Bags for spring

Spring is coming...slowly but surely. The signs are everywhere. Tulips and crocuses are peeking out of flowerbeds. People are outside more and smiling more - walking their dogs, washing their cars, cleaning their yards. Yard sale season is starting. Stores of full of garden tools, lawn chairs, and pastel T-shirts.

This is the time of year that my mom pulls out all her gardening books and begins to plan, in earnest, the flower and vegetable gardens. It's still too early to plant. But never too early to plan.

While she waits to dig into the gardens, she sews. Lately, a flurry of floral totes have been flying off the machine. Each one is different, but all very springlike, don't you think?













Did you notice the new addition to the bags? We finally have custom labels to sew into them. Here's a closer look:



After much experimentation and hunting for the right materials and instructions, I finally found a great tutorial at sewtakeahike. So cool.

Pleated Beauty Bag

My mom made me a new bag using the pattern from Amy Karol's book, Bend-the-Rules Sewing. It's very cute, no? She used very fine wale corduroy for the body and a paisley cotton for the lining inside the bag and the pleats. Hence the name, Pleated Beauty Bag. Here's a closer look at the pleated part:

And here's the "beauty" part:

I really like that paisley lining. A lot. The icing on the cake is this wallet she made to go with the bag:


She is the best mom EVER.

Cable love

I love knitting cables. I try to knit other things, but I keep coming back to cables. Love those serpentine patterns with those alternating twists and turns; love the many variations that look so complex but really aren't; and most especially I love the finished fabric with all its texture and weight. Even a fine, delicate yarn can be made into a thick, warm hat or scarf if you knit it up into cables. I would love to make a cable-knit sweater one of these days. I really like this pattern. Or maybe this one. And I'm also pretty excited about this. You get the picture.

I haven't knitted many things for my mom. This is partly due to the fact that she can't wear wool ("It itches!!") and partly due to the lack of great cotton yarns at my local yarn shop. (Yes, I know yarn can be found online, but I like to choose yarn from an actual store where I can see and touch the yarn. Call me crazy.) And then I found this great organic cotton yarn at a LYS here in St. Catharines. They didn't have a lot of colours in the store, but this raspberry red caught my eye. A single skein went on and on and on...it only took a couple to make this scarf and hat.

The patterns aren't particularly complicated. The scarf is from One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit or Crochet by Leigh Radford. However, I will say that I took some liberties with the pattern so it's not exactly the same. The hat is from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller (again, liberties were taken). This is the third cabled hat I've knitted...it might be time to take the leap and make a sweater.

We're here!

Happy 2009! I know, I know...it's almost February. February, people! I have no good excuse for not posting any new stuff. No good excuse whatsoever. Life happened and...let's just leave it at that.

Even though I haven't been posting about it, there has been a flurry of crafting going on behind the scenes. New felted wool projects, including a rug (!), and some cozy pillows; knitted goodies; and--our favourite--new handbags. Including one for me, made by my mom (naturally).

Stay tuned...photos of all this good stuff is coming soon. I promise.

Crafts in the woods

I found some pictures that I took a while ago, and realized I never actually published a post about our day at the Ball's Falls Craft Show. Back in October, my mom and I went to this show, which takes place every year on Thanksgiving weekend. We've lived in the Niagara region for 10+ years and never have we gone. Well. Now we know what we've been missing all this time. Vendors and artisans of all kinds, showcasing a huge variety of handmade items. Most of the booths are set up outside under tents, and some are inside an old barn. We were lucky to have warm and sunny weather that day, and so we took our time and strolled around for close to five hours. Highlights of the day:

• The booth selling fresh apple cider and apple fritters...yum
• The pipe band wearing full Scottish dress who performed throughout the day
• The Elora Soap Company booth, where I stocked up on organic soap and shampoo
• Bags of stone-ground flour in cotton feedsacks for $3 per bag from the old mill at Ball's Falls
  

One thing that I noticed was the absence of a booth with knitted crafts, or handspun yarn. I would have liked to see that. But maybe I should be looking elsewhere for this? Like the Sheep and Wool Festival, in Rhinebeck, NY. The Yarn Harlot talked about it recently on her blog (link in the sidebar).

We looked at every single table of jewellery, artwork, candles, woodcrafts, etc., etc. We got all crafted out. When we left, we still had plenty of time before we had to go home, so we decided to hit a few antique shops. My mom and I both like to just drive around and find out-of-the-way shops...no plan, no map, and no hurry. Totally random. It's the best when you're driving along and you spot a place that looks good and just pull over to check it out. We always find the best stuff that way. You can't do that when husbands are in the car. They never want to stop and look. They keep driving while you're saying, "Hey, that looks like a good place..." and then they say "What place?" and by then it's too late, and you just KNOW you missed out on something good. That's why husbands aren't invited to all-day craft shows.

We both scored some unique stuff, including some vintage Pyrex and an antique train case (which ladies used to put their cosmetics in when travelling). But the best buy of the day was a set of barkcloth curtains, which my mom picked up at the first place we stopped. These were in great condition and a steal for under $20.



Close up of the fabric:



They're now freshly washed and pressed, and tailored to fit my mom's kitchen window overlooking her backyard. Pretty!

Felted wool and the Baby Surprise Jacket

Look, it's a pile of wool sweaters! Summer is over, fall is here...it's sweater time. Some of them are for wearing, of course. But some of them I have felted in hot water on purpose, to be used in craft projects. That striped one would make cute felted mittens. The light blue-gray ones are earmarked for pillow covers for the master bedroom. The green one is supersoft cashmere. I am thinking of covering a smaller pillow for Ronan's bed with that one.

Fall also means more knitting. I finished my first Baby Surprise Jacket (with modifications). This was really a fun pattern. For those who don't knit, this pattern is unusual in that it is knit all in one piece. There are only two seams on the shoulders to sew up, as opposed to most sweater patterns that are knit flat. They usually have seams on the sides and under the arms. After knitting it, it looked like this:

It looks nothing like a sweater. So then you fold it...



...and now it's a sweater! I didn't make any stripes in this one (as is done in the original pattern). It looked a little unfinished, so I added a hood and crocheted the edges to make it look more finished. Also, the sleeves seemed way too short in relation to the body, so I picked up stitches around the wrists and added some ribbed cuffs. (These pictures are a bit more accurate, colourwise - the yarn is an aran weight called Anniversary Twist, by Briggs & Little. It's indigo blue twisted with navy.)


This pattern is a lot like potato chips: it just makes you want more. I'm already making another one in a slightly smaller size, with softer yarn, for a certain little one who will be coming into the world this December.