198 yards of loveliness...

In honor of the colors of fall, I give you my first official "lace" project. 

So Let's Celebrate the color!

This is a color I always gravitate to in the fall, along with oranges and greens - the berries last in, grape harvests, deep red wines. I love the light of the days during this time of year the best. 

This pattern is called "198 yds. of Heaven" by Verity Knits on Ravelry.com .  I found the pattern looking for something to make with these 2 skeins of cranberry Noro Cash Iroha (yum!).  I ran out before the pattern called for, tried to bind off in time, and then had to do something creative with 3 strands of kidsilk haze in the same color, but over all I'm really pleased with this little shawlet. 

I've done some "easy" lace patterns before with basic repeats, but so far a but chicken to try the real charted patterns (ADHD?).  Plus I really really had no idea how one blocks lace. Blocking to me is getting a sweater nice and sudsy, rinsing gently, rolling in some sweaters to get the extra water out and then painstakingly shaping and reshaping the sodden mass into your lovelly measured sweater shape. 

That works, right?  That's what it says in Stitch and Bitch, and that's what I'm sticking to~

So here, I found a rack big enough to stretch it over, then I pinned like crazy!

Every little point got pulled and pinned...

And pretty much every yarn over required opening up and pinning every here and there to stay in a nice lacy way. Pretty fun in the end because the result looked so much more polished than I expected!

Go checked out Stitched in Color - there's been a color party going on since September - I'm just a little late to join with the goods!

I need a little baby for a little fall stroller blanket

Just kidding - I need a little baby of my own like I need another hole in my head!  But I need to think of one that we know who might like a little stroller blanket now that the days are getting crisp.

The photo is an optical illusion - the blanket is only at 22" x 28" but I draped it over this miniature garden bench we have in the backyard (you know, for when we have miniature guests at our numerous barbeques!)  The story of this blanket is that I had all these different partial skeins of cotton-ease and other cotton-y yarns in my scrap stash of yarn. I thought I'd have enough to do a sort of random garter square patchwork - pretty much like what you see here.  I still have a little of a couple of colors left, but did use something that I would have eventually stuffed in a bag and either squirrelled it away where I wouldn't have to look at it or given it to our care provider, who has a magical way of incorporating random bits of crafty stuff into activities for the kids. No kidding - she's magical.

I have a couple of other knitting projects on the needles at the moment and some things queued up - but I'm trying to finish off UFOs and stash yarn only for awhile.

Actually - I'm also going on a fabric diet - my obesity issues with fabric are greater right now than yarn. So I'm quilting away when I have at least 15 minutes at a time on the Christmas quilt:

It would be great to finish in time to enter in the Blogger's Quilt Festival happening right now, but I don't know if I can finish quilting and bind it by next Friday.  If not, I'll find another quilt to enter - I love the BQF at Amy's blog!

Have a great weekend and a fun Halloween!

Do home projects that your husband did count as crafty?

Well, I'm posting about this bike rack anyway, because it was my idea and it came out so well!

We recently spent too much money rebuilding our garage.  Our garage was in such bad shape that the assessor for our home value when we bought our house didn't even count it as any value at all. He joked he should take something off since we'd have to tear it down.

For more than 10 years, Mr. Wonderful crippled that garage along to act as a storage place for a great number of things. But it was disgusting - dark, leaky, rotten wood, full of black widow spiders kind of bad. And Mr. Wonderful has never had even a workbench to call his own around here. Our house is pretty small for a family of four and without a garage there just wasn't anyplace to put hobby stuff for him besides nooks and crannies in the basement and the leaky, rotting, falling down garage. Poor man.

Now we have a shiny rebuilt garage with electricity, lighting, and even drywall!  Not only that, but our contractor "finished" a part of the walk-in crawl space with a nice concrete pad for just another grand (notice how it's always multiples of $1000 for any change order?)  I call it our "sub-tic" because not only is our house small, it doesn't even have an attic for storage of things like Christmas decorations or camping equipment.  We'll have to keep the storage locker at least for now, but this does open up a lot of possibilities.

What do we not have? Money to outfit this shiny garage with.  But one of the main space-sucking things we need to store in there are bicycles.  When it's nice, the bikes in use at any given time get locked up in the backyard with this  - a brilliant little latching post made out of plumbing parts (Mr. Wonderful is just so clever).

Okay remember at the beginning when I said the bike rack was my idea?  No, it was not my idea - I found it on the internet of course!  At instructables.com to be precise...

I went in search of space-saving bike storage  on the world wide web, and came across this:

http://www.instructables.com/id/simple-bike-storage-rack-for-many-bikes-in-small-a/step8/Youre-done/

Nifty huh? Couple of 2 x 4s, a bunch of long wood screws, and a bunch of big hooks.  That's it (except for the work of putting it together which I gather was relatively simple in the world of home improvement projects).

The hooks are cleverly staggered

I think this baby holds 6 bikes in all.
 

Just a view from the door.  Basically what you see is what you get - there isn't a vast space over to the right or anything.  There will be a workbench or two though, and this bike solution rocks the space utilization!

bumpy roads lately, but a couple of WIPs worth mention

hoooey!
I can't just get a little bout of the 24 hour "flu" like some folks huh?  now, why is that?  Last Sunday I started feeling a little feverish and just "yucky", but not overtly sick. Went to work Monday, and then had to hoof it home trying to be safe on the freeway while keeping myself together, if you know what I mean!.  This episode felt an awful lot like last December in Switzerland. The one where Mr. Wonderful finally had to com fly me home via our travel insurance service (still have to plug MedJetAssist! if you travel even more than a few hundred miles away from home it is sooooo worth it!).  I have this one sad commentary on the whole teeny Swiss Hospital where they didn't know what to do with me vs. our system of putting people in ER, no continuity to a single point of contact, release after a few hours with unclear and unaffective regimen of medication, then repeat 48 hours later...it turns out the same.  The same.  Except for the plane flight and stress of being across the world

Okay, got that out of my system.  I actually started a new blog today in which I will attempt to take control of my own health using this rock bottom place as a starting point.  Feel free to check out "Janet's Self Help Book" at http://gardenvarietydiabetic.blogspot.com/  But there won't be any crafting on that blog unless it's cool stuff to make with the freebies you find in your exam room while you wait in 30 minute increments.

In which case I will cross-post (can you do that? I never had 2 blogs before).
---

AND NOW BEHOLD IN ALL IT"S UNFINISHED GLORY.....THE TEEN WONDER T=SHIRT QUILT! (this is in all caps because I have a little Monty Python score playing in my head while I write it...teee deeee!  booom booom bom bom bom. crash)

Sad that I can't go outside an take a decent photo, but I still look like hell warmed over. And anyway, you can get the idea of it's overall magnificence even cropped.  The overall size is something like 59" x 78".  I'll ask Teen Wonder if she had some specific use in mind, but I doubt it.

I really wish I'd take photos of the pile of shirts and then the pile of scraps with not even enough for a seam allowance after she agreed to "what the lump, i'll just cut 'em out for you if it such a bunch of work". Then I went back and salvaged a few I figured she might like to see someday even if she doesn't think so now. There is a lot of ad hoc piecing here my friends!

Since TW can wait until Christmas for this, or even as a Grad present, I folded it neatly, made an attempt at tidying up the craft area and decided to tackle another space hog - the Christmas quilt.  Remember this quilt?

We'll I basted with pins on my dining table in halves.  I used these funky rubber tips for regular pins instead of saftety pins, so we'll see how that comes out.  Anyway, once I'm back to something a little normal and caught up in the backlog of work, maybe I can start some FMQ on this project!

Go Whoop it up at Sarah's Linky - and here's to good health for all of you!  http://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/2011/10/can-i-get-whoop-whoop-lazy-week.html

Where have I been? - in which I share rambling book and film reviews, a Fall Scarf project, and bizarre anxiety dream

Well, Fall is here - sort of. The weather still can't decide. But school started and I've got a Senior this year (Teen Wonder) as well as a 2nd grader Wild Thing. So things are uber busy. What better time to go off to Berlin for a conference? kidding - it's a TERRIBLE time to go away for a week. I was at the International Papillomavirus Meeting, which is always interesting for me and I get to see a lot of colleagues from around the world that I only see once a year or less. But it is a long trip every time I go to Europe (meaning far), and jet lag gets harder and harder on my body.

I haven't had a lot of time to do anything crafty. Though I have read a couple of novels with all the plane time. I finally read "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson, and started the next one "The Girl Who Played With Fire". I am totally into these, and only the most severe exhaustion allows me to go to sleep instead of staying up to read them - which confirms my general level of energy in the last three or four weeks.  I also read "Up in the Air" last week (as I hadn't bought the second Girl book yet) - the book that inspired the movie with George Clooney. I say "inspired" because the book was quite different - and it was a little disorienting to try and get into the book with the expectation that it would resemble the movie. I loved the movie (as did most others who saw it).  The book is written entirely from an inner monologue point of view, and the character is more complex than the movie quite captures. And more depressed - think Holden Caulfield. I didn't get the satirical humor feeling in the book that I had in the movie, it made me more sad - and also perhaps because I know so many more people in real life who've been downsized since that movie came out in 2009.  Anyway, my mom enjoyed the book more than me, I think, and she didn't see the movie (yet), so there is my very scientific reasoning for how seeing a movie first is usually a bad idea if you plan to read the novel.  Though I did also watch the movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" on Netflix, and found it to be pretty well done.  Another movie I saw recently that was a fairly close and accurate adaptation of the book was "Winter's Bone" - this is a very depressing story if you are not in the right mindset for it. But excellent - highly recommend!

Okay, enough of the books and films I've entertained myself with recently (oh, forgot to mention Super 8 which I just watched on the plane - that was good Stephen Spielberg fun!)

The one and only project I undertook in the past 3 weeks was a quick fall scarf project. I'm not sure what I had originally intended but I had 1/4 yard each of a crushed velvet and a Anna Marie Horner voile in my project pile. Seemed like it would be a pretty straightforward project to cut them in half lengthwise, stitch together each piece and then sew them together to make a simple scarf.  But I had to rip out most of the first try at stitching together and try again because the 2 fabrics were very hard for me to feed consistently and get an even seam. I've had this problem before. This seems to be something where an experienced sewist could help me out - or I could do a google search to see what's been shared on the topic online.  Anyway, I didn't have time even to take decent photos with my new camera - these are just from my iPod camera (or maybe it was my blackberry...) So forgive the poor quality and the messy hair!

This photo is not flattering, but it is probably an accurate version of me after a long day trying to fit it a few minutes to photograph a project I whipped out in a (relative) hurry. Anyway, you can see how long it is - but I  wore it in Berlin (with a nice blouse, brushed hair, and makeup) and even had a compliment or two so it is serving it's purpose.


 The scarf turned out way longer than I would have made if I'd given it much thought.  In fact I may have meant originally to go for a short wide one, but I don't think the 42" WOF would have been long enough to wrap around sufficiently.

Mr. Wonderful says I look more rested today. But I had one of the most bizarre and unsettling anxiety dreams last night that involved blowing a Final exam in some sort of writing class (playwriting?) - I was supposed to write a short play, cast it, and perform it...but I missed half the instructions, ran out of paper and spent most of the writing time scrambling around begging for scraps of paper.  Eventually, on little scraps of paper with a stubby pencil I wrote something that turned out to be completely off-base (due to missing instructions), and I had to fake my way out of sharing with the class while I tried to rewrite something.  I totally messed up the casting since the play was so off-base (like mine was a musical comedy instead of a serious drama), and it was like Project Runway where we were competing for the best actors (models for PR) so I was completely screwed and decided I'd perform on my own (seems like about as good an idea as representing yourself in court rather than getting a lawyer!)  I'm not even sure how the story turned out after trying to get the instructor's attention unsuccessfully to beg for mercy so I'd have time to figure something out.

Because I finally, mercifully, woke up.


Linky alert! Check out some weekly Whoop Whoop projects over here!

Three day weekend finish - the Baguette Clutch!

Did I mention how much I love my new camera?  I have hardly used it yet, but tonight I looked at the clutch I finished yesterday and thought to myself, "self! do you think your new camera can handle nighttime shots of a project without that yellow blurry look?"

Yes it can!

I don't have a lot of time, and I was pretty pleased with the on-board white balance adjustment and the manual exposure I got right off the card. But for that last shot I opened it in Photoshop Elements and just did a tiny bit of futzing around to see how I could start thinking about making the images even better. A little more contrast and such and the yellow on this Amy Butler print really pops out so much more.

Oh, the clutch itself was made from a kit that I ordered from u-handbag - the Baguette Clutch. Everything was included in the kit except thread and glue - and I bought the glue from Lisa's shop too.  If you don't know  u-handbag, the blog, and Lisa Lam, well you are missing out! I have referred to her tutorials several times and have been intending to use some of her tutorials, especially the For Pleats Sake handbag.  I also ordered her book "The Bag Making Bible" - but I haven't gotten it yet...

I saw a giveaway for one of these kits, but of course didn't win (wait, did I remember to enter? oh well...) Anyway, I've wanted to try a framed coin-purse sort of project, so I thought I'd order a kit from the guru to cut my teeth. The pattern and instructions were very clear, down to the waiting for the glue to dry awhile before sticking the bag to the frame ("make yourself a cuppa" while you wait!). I have one more kit - the easier looking one of course, and also another frame to try making my own pattern (Lisa has instructions somewhere on her blog how to do this too).

Go check it out!  The one and only drawback is the exchange rate to UK sterling, making it a little more expensive for US customers than maybe you could find for something similar on etsy. But I guarantee you won't find a better DIY kit/package and more freely shared knowledge on how to turn out a practically perfect bag first try anywhere else. That made it worth the exchange rate markup - every penny!

(another totally impractical evening bag? guess Mr. Wonderful better start cranking out some elegant date nights!)

Linked up over as Sew Much Ado:

My new toy!!

I got the most splendid birthday present and I am so excited! Years and years ago I used to take a lot of photos on film and I used a Pentax K1000, the VW Bug of film SLRs.  I loved that camera and it loved me. It traveled to different continents with me and in the jungle and savannas and cities afar. I have carousels of slides that I took with it and a couple of nice lenses.

Then I started using a point and shoot Elph with that new fancy cartridge film (what is that called?), and then moved to a couple of different digital cameras that have been okay. But I just don't take good photos with them for whatever reason.  And I think that having a slightly larger camera means I remember to take it with me (but we will test that theory now).

So, I've thought about a digital SLR for a little while now. I didn't know what to get - Canon or Nikon?  Well, there is a Pentax option that gets great reviews AND that I can use my old 50mm 1:2 lens with the K mount with. And other old Pentax lenses that may not be too expensive nowadays but would be fun to try (my dad apparently has a collection so I asked him to go through and see if there was anything interesting. I'm pretty sure he has a nice wide angle lens...)

I asked for the Pentax K-r for my birthday - and now I have one!  And I've learned that I have forgotten most of what I once knew about taking photos (which wasn't a huge amount to begin with), and digital introduces new concepts. But I have been playing a little with it, just around the house so far...I'm trying the manual mode rather than preset auto modes (of which there are several).

Cody in a semi-dark bedroom

close shot of my birthday bouquet

this is the same shot, cropped to show more detail...

And even more cropping - the image maintains nice detail even sized for the web at 60% quality.

a new shot at my little corded handbag...compared with the original shot below (which I took with a point and shoot Lumix) The first one was doctored up a bit in Photoshop Elements to get the colors right. I didn't do any editing at all with any of these photos. I used the white adjustment right on the camera before shooting.

 

A couple of different versions of the same shot of our front door from the couch - it will be fun to play with the composition of photos with different settings.

So much fun!!  Thank you to Mr. Wonderful, Teen Wonder, and Wild Thing!! I just asked for one present this year so they all pitched in (especially Mr. Wonderful). xoxoxoxo

I need a camera case for my new baby - if anyone knows of a great pattern for making one please let me know. I'm thinking I could adapt a diaper bag or box pouch pattern or combine elements somehow...

(linked to Sarah's Whoop Whoop! because I actually did get a new post in on a Friday)