Bow Barrette

I made an order recently to get some yarn for a hat for my father. To qualify my order for free shipping, I also chose this wonderful orange sale sock yarn. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make socks (I only had one skien, I should be working on projects for other people...) but I couldn't resist pulling it out. I bought a set of cheap barrettes, and the decorative bit broke off of one of them. So obviously, this meant I had to make myself a hair do-dad.

Here you see most of the parts before I assembled it. I knitted a small, slim rectangle and sewing it over the barrette, with an additional layer of felt between the metal and the knitting (there were some snaggy bits, and I didn't want it to ruin the knitting, or tear a hole). I put it all together, and stitched it liberally to the barrette, I hope it will stay in place for a long while. 

Here's the final product. I really like it. While it does have a profile, it doesn't look bad from the side at all. That's my biggest pet peeve with those huge rockabilly flower hair things- they only look good head on. This bow, while being sizable, still looks pretty good from all angles. 

Cards!

These beauties came in the mail a few days ago! I love how simple they are, with the orange (my favorite color), and the nicely contrasting gray. I plan to use them as tags when I start selling things. The back is blank so I can scrawl down sizing and cost info.

I don't have an etsy store yet- when/if I do that it will be linked here and added to the next batch of cards, as well. I'm still working out many of the details involved with selling handmade goods, and don't want to take on more than I can handle just yet. Really, ever, but especially not now. I've had a nice break from classes to get many things started, but that's ending now too.

Headbands

Around the holidays this past year I made a shawl for a friend of mine with a beautiful leaf edging. In love with the edging, but less with the time involved with making the shawl- I make this headband out of the leftover yarn and the leaf pattern. I really love it because with my almost constant headache, commercially available headbands are too tight. I made this one loose enough that I can wear it most days. 

Also, I acquired a Styrofoam head.

I had some leftover fingering weight yarn and new sock needles, so I started working on another headband a few days ago. I love knitting in the round. Not the first few rows, mind you- there it is nothing but spiky chaos, but after that it picks up a nice rhythm and stockinette doesn't require any purling.

I ran out well before the headband was long enough, and switched over the the closest color I had which was much larger, and larger needles. I decreased a few times, and churned out the remainder of the headband in record time- considering how long the it took with the smaller needles. I love the final product, but it takes some time.

 Here's this headband on my Styrofoam head. The color change is totally hidden in the back.

Corner Bookmarks, and MONSTERS!

Isn't he cute? I came across Tally's post about corner bookmarks through Pinterest a few days ago and decided to make some for myself. I've been a bit of a perfectionist about the whole process, and there are a few areas to finesse.

Bookmonster says Nabokov is his favorite. Mine too bookmonster.

Here it is in full page marking and nibbling glory.

And the back! I've altered Tally's technique slightly so that both the upper triangle and the back show the pattern, and the inside shows the card stock. I had fun with some less frighteningly cute varieties as well.

For these next photos, remember that all bookmarks are oriented the same way. The top two are the same, and the bottom shows the opposite. The patterned paper can be put on the top triangle, or on the inside. I personally like it better on the top triangle, but the other way has it's charms.

Here's another monster for prosperity!

Organized Crafting

I tell myself I want to do many things. I can't count the number of projects I have started and then stashed and forgotten about. The last few days however, I've been on a serious productivity roll. I think it has something to do with being so close to the end of this quarter- I just turned in two large final projects and all the sudden have mental and physical energy aplenty. 

Anyway, I used some upholstery fabric left over from a renaissance fair bodice to make cases for my knitting needles and crochet hooks. I've made attempts at this before (I don't recommend crochet- the small hooks slip right through), but neither worked out for various reasons. 

The new set is both functional and attractive- or I think so. Judge for yourself. 

This is all three pieces together. The small blob holds stitch markers, point protectors, a set of small scissors, etc. 

The construction is actually pretty simple. I measured the height of my tools and knew I wanted the width when closed to be about five inches- so the width when open is about four times that- 20 inches. Then I cut enough of the dark blue to make a small pocket, and enough of the red to make a slightly higher pocket. My iron was my best friend! It really helped when I closed off the edges- the bias tape I had wasn't wide enough, so I made my own out of more of the red fabric.

Here's the inside of the little guy. It was a lot of small area sewing. I'm really proud of both myself and my brother sewing machine. He worked like a champ. I pilfered the zipper from a bag of Basmati rice- and it didn't have guards on either end of the zipper. I lost the zipper pull a few times. The little guy is cute and is intended to fit in project bags. 

I'm hoping to be a more productive crafter and blogger- so here's to organized productivity!