She thrifts, she scores!

I made pants. I MADE PANTS! You can almost tell how cute they are from these pictures. Brown corduroy with olive green cuffs and waistline. I got the idea here and followed the tutorial here. I'm such a visual/physical learner, the on-line tutorials are really great for me. I can actually make things instead of freaking out over a pattern and the written instructions.

And, I've been holding out on the funky tea set I've been collecting for a while. The clincher were these fabulous cups. I wish I had fabric with that pattern, I'd make pants for everyone out of them! They were 10 cents a piece. 10 CENTS!
And, oh, the tray. . . I'm loving the woman bringing a cooked turkey to a man who's been out fishing. It's almost like a comic strip. Man goes fishing. He doesn't catch a thing. Woman anticipates no fish. She cooks turkey.
And, I guess I'll have to pick and choose which tea cups to keep. . . the tray's full. Either that, or have a lot of people over for tea!

Booties!

Saartje's Bootees pattern (in the sidebar). I'm down with the knit, but I screwed up the sizing. I'll do more that are littler for baby feet later.

The Harlot and other crafty news

I made a some little hair clips. This picture makes it look huge, but it's not. I was mostly inspired by Amy Karol's little clippies, but a few others caught my eye too.And, of course, another birthday crown and more clippies.
But, the real news? Yup, I did it. I actually dropped the kid off at daycare at 1pm, packed up the car and then drove to Seattle to see the Yarn Harlot, and then drove home. To put this in perspective: it takes about 3 hours to get to Seattle and that includes a ferry. On the way home, the ferry was full and I had to wait an extra 40 minutes until the next one. Try explaining that to someone who doesn't knit! It's hard enough to convince someone that it's worth the trip for a huge concert, like if Prince came to Seattle, I wouldn't make the trip. . . and that's saying a lot! So, for me to make the trip to see an author. . .an author of humor books, wait: an author of knitting humor books, well, you see how my Friday went.
The truth is, I totally needed and deserved this break. For those of you who know what's been up with my husband this summer, you know that to take 9 hours out of a day and be alone and then surrounded by fellow knitters was amazing. I was worried that I'd get tired, but I was so energized by seeing Stephanie that I floated home. It had nothing to do with the 3 diet cokes I had, really. And, as hard as it is to explain a spontaneous road trip to see a knitting author, get this: I listened to self help books on CD the whole way. Yup. That's right. . . I'm flaunting it now! I drove to Seattle to see a hysterically funny knitting author speak and I became a better person in the process. I wasn't even fussed about missing that ferry.
So, in that picture up there, I'm wearing my "Knit it or Quit it" t-shirt. I gave one to Stephanie too. I also scored her a Tom Bihn knitting bag. It's Seattle made and not even on the market yet. Still in beta. It was really fun to see her speak and then to take a few minutes of her time and say hello. . . good stuff. I think my favorite part was that after she said something applause-worthy, there would be a split second pause as everyone set down their knitting and then started clapping. That cracked me up, and so did she. Fun Fun.

That's right. . . dayglo owls!

I should start this by adding a few details about Tom's tumor. I failed to mention that the thing was benign. It was benign and removed fully. . . very little chance of it coming back or causing further harm. He's starting to be a lot more like the man I married. . . full of beans. He's a feisty one. He's healing well.
In other news:
I went to the really huge community garage sale yesterday. I went within the first hour of it opening. That was a mistake. It was so freakin' crowded that I couldn't see a thing! And then, when I found this lovely hand knit sweater, I had to stand in line for 30 minutes to buy it. Uh, yeah. Oh, and Abby (yes, my 2 year old) took those pictures of me in the sweater.
I am so in love with this sweater. When I put my hands in the pockets. . . that's right, tissues and hall's lozenges. Just like an old lady sweater should be. . .full of the stuff of healing! It seems to be right out of Elizabeth Zimmerman's knitting workshop. . .the button band and sneaky pockets. . . I love to imagine just who it was that knit it. She was mighty smart because she lined the sleeves. . .it's an itchy wool.
Anyway, I went back today with the hope of finding treasures that had been stirred up in the frenzy. I found the coolest old fabric. There are owls in that florescent madness. OWLS!
And, could those little wee birds just make you curl up from the cuteness! And, it's linen. I LOVE it. I'm not sure what I'll do with it all. . . but handbags seem to be my thing now.




















And, holy moley. . I finished the pinwheel sweater! Abby was kind enough to put it on today just long enough for a picture. It's too cute for words. I hope she starts wearing it when it's cool enough.

















And, jeez I have a lot today, pictures of the Rumpus Room. I wish I had "before" pictures. It was just an emtpy storage room with nasty concrete floor, no shelving or cabinets and unfinished walls. There's still a bunch of little things to do, like get a futon and put something on the walls and put up curtains, but it's use-able now. Our house is so small, that this really almost doubles our living space (meaning, space that is not our kitchen, bathrooms or bedrooms). It is attached to our garage and across the yard. I am loving the quiet sewing time. Also, my lady friends can come over and drink wine without fear of waking my little one and the tired husband. . .key to my existence right now. I love that I can sew and look right out into our back yard and watch the kid play. I have a tiny t.v. and DVD player in there too, for the cold winter months when she'll be less inclined to play outside and let me play on the sewing machine or knit.

Oh, and I worked really hard before our dear friends got married in early July (read: before the tumor trauma!) to finish their cool picnic blanket. I never got a picture of it fully finished, but you get the idea from these shots of it pieced together. Blatantly copied from Amanda, the Soulemama. See her picnic blankets here.

I am so very hoping to make it over to Seattle (3 hours away) to see the Yarn Harlot speak. Oh, that would be joyful.

Ooops, it's been 3 months

Well, I have a really good excuse. My husband spent his summer in a hospital bed, and I spent mine in a cot next to his hospital bed. We were staying with his parents (3 hours from home) for most of the summer. It's a long and crazy story. Here's the ultra-short version:
Tom had a brain tumor. We didn't know until he was laying on the bathroom floor in the worst pain of his life vomiting.
I took him to the ER here in Port Angeles and within 48 hours, we were transferred to Virginia Mason in Seattle and the tumor was removed. Super quick emergency brain surgery.
Within a week of finding the tumor, he was released from the hospital to his parent's home
We went back the next day because he'd contracted meningitis.
Flash forward 7 weeks, (4 of which he spent in the hospital and another 2 at his parent's house), and another brain surgery and he's finally off of the antibiotics and starting to heal. It's been a long haul.
Despite (or because of) all of that, I've been busy in the crafting department, though did not get a chance to document it here.
A few of my summer projects:
I'm working on the Pinwheel Sweater for Abby.


I made a tote for my sweet dear friend Suzanne who is a sixth grade science teacher (that's her in the background of the tote). She's amazing and starts school tomorrow. I love this tote pattern. It's from Simple Sewing with a French Twist. I am love love loving this pattern and have made a bunch of the totes. You can't really tell from the picture, but the embroidery on the front says, "Inspire."
The back has a little apple sewn on it. Teacher-y without being too teacher-y.

And, back to the birthday crowns for little ones in my little girl's life. This one was for Lauren's 3rd birthday.
Aside from that, I finally got onto Ravelry. I went a little crazy looking at everyone else's stuff and getting excited for new projects. Now, if they only had something like that for sewing too! You can find me there with the user name: carrieknits. How appropriate.

Carrie Sews

Perhaps that would be a more accurate title for this blog lately. I went a little nuts with the sewing in the last week or so.
I made Abby a new lunch sack out of oilcloth.
I made a baby-carrier for a friend. It's based on this pattern. I made one for Abby and considered just giving that one to my friend with the baby, but I'm pretty attached to it. And, once Abby saw what I was making, she insisted on climbing up and being tied to me again. She still fits and was so sweet in the grocery store while I carried her in the sling. So, I pulled mine out of hiding and have been using it again!
I also made a little summer dress for her out of thrifted fabric and a vintage sheet. I was just using what I had, as I made the pattern and wasn't sure if it would fit. It's definitely a little big, but she still likes it. I was inspired by a vintage pattern that I found at a thrift store. Unfortunately, the actual pattern piece for the jumper wasn't in the package, but I was able to come up with something close by looking at the pictures and sewing instructions. I'll make another one in a non-pink color for her. I love how it crosses in the back.

May is when my knitting slows

It's true! Every year, I think I'll beat it, but every year, my knitting slows down as soon as the days finally feel longer. I'm not sure if it's because I'm outside more or because I can't sit still when the sun finally shows. Whatever it is, the stitch 'n bitch group stops meeting, my production of knit goods slows and I start to garden. . . a little. There were a few babies and some teachers to appreciate.
I made some totes out of reclaimed and recycled material for Abby's pre-3 teachers. It's from a pattern in this book. Love them. Once I got the hang of it, I couldn't stop and ended up making two more for friends leaving Port Angeles.

I made two identical itty bitty hats from this book. I'm not sure who the second one is for, but the first was so cute, I had to do another! One skein of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk dk did both hats in the infant size (color 26005).

I finished the amaizing hat and didn't end up liking the basic pattern I made. The hat didn't end up feeling soft enough either. I probably won't use that yarn again. Made up several little waterproof totes for babes. I like to use them for dirty cloth diapers in the diaper bag. They are also really great for swim suits, wet clothes etc. I made up the pattern, but based them on these bags by bummis. They are made out of some sort of outdoor balloon-like material that my mom got for me at Seattle Fabrics. I wish I could find the exact stuff again, or knew the exact name of it, because my stash is almost gone and it's a great gift that's easy to make.

Funny story: My mom and dad found an old bag of crazy knitting that my dad's step mother must have been working on in the 1950's. She had nearly finished one argyle sock and had the cuff and one pattern repeat of the argyle done on the second. They were still on the needles, in a bag with all of the yucky acrylic and wacky 1950's pattern. They are hideous. I finished one of them, modeled here by Tom. When I tried to get working on the second one, I kept getting lost in the pattern. Finally, after lots of stitch counting, I realized that Grandma Sue had screwed up the first sock and there was no way to make the second one match. That's probably why she threw up her hands 50 years ago! If they were wool and the least bit cute and didn't reek of cigarette smoke, I would have perservered, but, due to all of that and the 50 year old screw up, I chucked the whole bag in the thrift store pile. But, we have a picture of that one ugly, stinky, screwed-up sock.
Speaking of socks. . . I finally finished my pair. Basic Pattern with Patons Kroy Socks Jacquards in "Hip Hop" colorway. I'm getting less and less enamoured with the idea of knitting socks. Not only do you knit FOREVER to get one, you then have to try and repeat the same thing exactly for a matching set. AND, despite Stephanie's best advice, I can't get them to fit properly. These are too loose and scrunch down a la 1983. Ugh. Maybe I'll stick with sewing for a while. I found some cute vintage patterns for little summer dresses for Abby at a thrift store. I'm inspired daily by Amanda and hope to hit the sewing machine again soon (check out these picnic blankets! I love them). We're almost done getting my little sewing area set up out in the extra room attached to our garage. Right now, all of my fabric is in grocery sacks sort of spread out around the dirty, shop-like garage part of our garage. I'm looking forward to having a spot to spread out! Yay!

Socks and Hat

What a boring title. And, most likely a boring post.
I'm almost done with the leg of sock number two.














I started in on a baby hat made out of amaizing yarn in the Aiden colorway. It's made of corn. I don't think it tastes good though. I'm cheap and am knitting it with my old school grandma metal knitting needles. The stuff is so slippery that I'm just about ready to get some bamboo needles to keep from losing stitches. I probably won't. This way it'll take me longer to make and give me more to bitch about.

Thrifty finds

Thrift stores Rock. That's all I can say.
Can you see the price tag on the yarn ball winder? It says 75 cents. Yes. 75 cents. I bought it. It even has all of it's parts, the original box and it works. Score!






And this fabu piece of fabric? Yup, 55 cents. It's 1 yard and a half. It will be my next tote bag (or 2 or 3). I love it.


And, that's my short hair. I took a shower, washed the aforementioned puke off of me and Tom took my picture.

There you have it.

Puke, poop and pee aka "The PPP"

That's all I've been dealing with the last week. It's gross, I know, but it's the truth. Abby got the yucky sicky thing that's been going around. I thought we'd dodged it, but I was cocky and now it's kicking my butt too. On Thursday, I had already done 2 loads of poopy, pukey laundry and had already been through 3 outfits on Abby by 9am. That was just the beginning. Poor thing, she just stood there covered in vomit saying, "mama, I pooked, I pooked on my crib and feet!" She hasn't quite figured out how to make the long "U" sound in puke. I think we're through the worst of the releasing of disgusting bodily fluids. Now we've moved on to the I'm so cold and shivery and sweaty and achey I could die part. We rented Charolette's web this morning and are hoping for a long nap out of the little one.
Moving on! Oh, that pic up there is before the PPP.





I whipped up a little "Airy Scarf" from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" for my friend Christine. I'm loving the color of it. It'll match her blue eyes! Yay. It took less than 1 skein of LLH Soft-Kid in color #63.



Also, last week, I made two more yoga mat bags. One for my friend, Heather, for her birthday, and one for me! So there! I made up the pattern. Really, it's just a rectangle of fabric serged on two sides, with a draw string at the top (I used twill tape to make the casing for the draw string. It looks neater and is easier to pull shut than a fabric casing). Then, I sewed on some webbing for a strap. I wanted to be able to sling it over one shoulder, or wear it across my chest with the bag on my back. Anyway, aside from trying to figure out how to attach the ladderlock buckle, they went together really easily. For a bag to hold a regular sized yoga mat and nothing else, I started with a piece of fabric 16"x 28". For my bag, which I put a few other things in, I used a piece that was about 20"x 30". Can you tell that I'm in love with the daffodils in my yard right now? So cute.






Anyway, a few people have requested a pic of my short hair cut. All I can say is that you'll have to wait until I'm not cleaning puke, poop or pee. It's cute, but not so cute when I'm dealing with this stuff. ugh. Instead, I'll show you this one of me finishing my second ever 5K race.


Oh, and I almost forgot about the tote bag I made for Meggan. My first lined tote bag and my first embroidery ever. It's made with linen cut off of the bottom of an ikea curtain that was too long, thrifted cotton lining and hand-me-down embroidery floss from my mom. It suits Meggan's earthy ways in that it's all recycled or reclaimed materials. It was fun too! I'll probably make more.




And, I'm still plugging away at those socks. I got close to finishing one and then realized that the foot was HUGE without continuing the ribbing I'd started on the cuff. I've torn back to the gusset to put the ribbing back in and might reduce down more for the foot. That's all for now.

Socks and toddler royalty!

I got sidetracked from my socks.

The novelty of a new project just takes hold of me and I can't help it.
Inspired by Amanda's really awesome crowns, I went out on a limb and made my own. Two little girl birthdays and a bag of thrifted felt got me moving. I even made Abby one. She likes it, but wants to wear it all hip hop. . .backwards and upside down ("down up side", as she says!).









Oh, and a slightly better photo of the slippers that she shall not wear. Ugh. My little backwards crown wearing, no slipper sporting princess.

And, as much as I love more light after dinner, I'm not down with the havoc it wrecks on sleeping schedules!