The Brown Sweater: Update (oh man)

Lengthened the sleeve by 3 1/2 inches. I've been working on this for over a year now. Pathetic :(

Update: The Brown Sweater (Sleeve #1)

 

Please someone tell me that it's not December yet and I still have a couple months left to busy out a second sleeve, a collar, and finish this sweater. Please, someone. Anyone.

Handmade

I love having handmade things around my home that I know don't exist anywhere else in the world, and I thought I'd show you a few of the ones that make me happy.

 

My brother made me this chalk board for my birthday using a license plate frame the University gave me when I graduated and some chalk board paint.

 

When Mr. Nicholas and I were still dating long distance, my Oma and I sent him cookies, and this is how I decorated the top of his box. (you can also see the green wrapping paper from his one year anniversary present)

 

Last Christmas at my Mom's, we made salt dough ornaments, and this handsome fella made by 

nick earned himself a year-round home on one of our cork boards.

 

This is another gift from my brother-- for my graduation he made me a magnetized spice board with labeled cannisters. Awesome, right?

 

This one was made by me years ago, and is one of my favorite of the bird houses I've ever made.

Basically, I love having unique handmade items around, and I try to give handmade gifts as often as possible. The most recent was for another swap. I made a leaf scarf, cookies in a jar, and added a skein of yarn.

 

I plan on handmaking all my Christmas gifts too, as well as hand making the wrap! I think the package is half the fun. This one went in the mail wrapped and decorated.

Fun right? :)

Update: The Brown Sweater

I've been working hard on getting the sweater ready for Christmas, but life had other things in mind, and it isn't ready in time; not that I won't be able to get it finished by Christmas (I still have plenty of faith in myself for that) but that the sweater won't be for my Daddy anymore.

Would you like to meet him?

 

Isn't he handsome? My dad was the most supportive man I've ever met. He was always there to help me, even when he didn't agree with what I was doing. He didn't always love his job, but he loved being able to take care of me and my brother, and he loved the men he worked with.

Last month he took a week off. He spent a few days out of state with his mom and his new wife at a family reunion, and then he came home and got some work done around the house. On September 24th he took some time to work on his motorcycle with my brother. And that night, at the age of 47, my dad had a heart attack and died. 

There's nothing fair about it.

Here's the front panel of the sweater he didn't know I was working on for him.

 

I'm going to finish it anyway. I've already asked my brother, and he said he would like it. And if you're driving around California and see this decal on someone's car:

Know that someone in that car loves my dad. If it's black, that's a friend. And if it's red, that's family. And if you happen to pass an Edison truck with a red one on it...well then you'll know that that's the truck my dad drove. 

Hot Pad (what a mess)

Do you, by any chance, remember the hot pad that I made and was going to felt? Well since I have access to a washing machine at Mom's, I went ahead and gave it a try. And got this...thing:

Clearly not going to work for it's intended purpose. So I mangled it further:

And then reassembled the pieces, so now I have an oven mitt.

Not quite how I imagined this project turning out, but it works quite well, and is actually pretty cute. I guess that makes it a win?

Menu, 8-28

Silly me, I forgot to post my menu for this week! I guess the benefit to that is that I get to actually talk about how the meals turned out, instead of just listing them!

Sunday: Leftover night. We almost never do leftover night, because it's just not nearly as fun as making dinner together. But sometimes, special circumstances necessitate eating whatever is in the fridge...and sometimes the reason is that there is too much in the fridge! On Sunday, though, I had a night shift (4pm to midnight). Usually I try to eat before I go to work, but 3:30 is too early for dinner, and midnight is too late. So that day, Nick ate leftovers by himself (sad) and I ate dinner on my lunch break.

Monday: Tuxedo Pasta. I loved this dinner! It was pasta served with mushrooms, red bell pepper, and zucchini mixed in, with a lemon juice and white wine sauce. It was amazing, and the only thing I would have changed is adding fresh tomato after the pasta was finished! We pulled this recipe from out Taste of Home cook book.

Tuesday: Tahitian Chicken from More Than a Cook Book. This was another favorite of the week! The chicken was baked with pineapple chunks and onion soup mix over it, and came out amazing! I thought the sauce was a little strong, so I scraped most of it off before I ate the chicken (the flavors all baked in nicely) but Nick didn't have any problems with it.

Wednesday: Cheesy Potatoes from No More than 5 Ingredients. This was our only "meh" dinner this week. We were supposed to start with frozen hash browns, but decided to grate fresh potatoes instead (I did an "oops" where I bought a 10 pound bag of potatoes forgetting that we still had 5 pounds in the fridge) but I didn't think to press out the extra water, so I thought this turned out a lot more watery than I would have liked. Live and learn, I suppose.

Thursday: Carl's Manicotti from Good Cookin, Good Friends. Oh wow. New favorite! We had this just last night, and it was fantastic. It's a little more involved than some of the other things we make (we started dinner at 7:45 after I got home from work and didn't end up eating until 9:20) but was completely worth the extra time. The filling for the manicotti shells was just cottage cheese, Parmesan, Mozzarella, egg, and parsley, and then the shells (after they're boiled) are baked covered in ground beef, spaghetti sauce, and Italian seasoning. It was so fantastic, and will definintly be something I keep in mind for company! Especially because the whole meal could probably be made ahead of time, set in the fridge, and then baked a half hour before dinner! That's my favorite way to do dinner when people are over :)

Today we were originally going to do our rice dinner again, but because we've made so many amazing things this week, we have tons and tons of leftovers...so instead we will be eating those for dinner tonight :) But that's still a pretty good deal! And no time spent on cooking dinner means extra time for eating Mint Moose Tracks ice cream for dessert and playing Dynasty Warriors: Empires together! Sadly, we have run out of store-bought waffle bowls, so we will be eating out of normal stoneware. Maybe I can make my own waffle bowls some day....

This weekend we're heading to Mom's to celebrate birthdays (Mom's and Alex's and maybe my Step Dad's) and make fondu and delicious cake and go to a street fair and make paper! Weekends at Mom's are always full of creative fun :)

Other than great weekends and more hours at work (due to a raise/promotion) I'm still working on that sweater.

As you can see, I'm past the arm hole section and will be starting the v-neck very very soon. 

And here's something I'm not working on right now, but I wanted to share anyway. Today I'm wearing a skirt that I made-ish. 

These used to be a pair of capris, and they fit horribly, so I cut them off at the crotch and added ruffles of two cloths I picked up at JoAnn's. I only wore the capris for about three months after I bought them, but I've been wearing this skirt for 6 years now! I guess that means it was a good investment.

We should be writing another menu tomorrow, so you'll be seeing another one soon!

Hot Pad

After the failed attempts to felt (or full) the ex-sweater pieces, I was really wanting to try to felt something else, so I bought some yarn and made a hot pad that I plan on felting later:

I know it looks weird now, but it should look really nice after it's fulled. That one missing bauble...yeah, that was on purpose. Yeah.

Rug

Remember the brown rag rug? Well that same designer had a second pattern for a rug using the same techniques that I also wanted to try! So I ripped up an old burgundy sheet and made this:

She also has a pattern using plastic grocery bags that I'm excited to try!

Major Project: Brown Sweater Update!

I know it's been forever since you heard anything about the brown sweater, but look!

 

And here you thought I wasn't getting anything done!

Knitted Belt

A small aside to point out that this is my 200th post. Yeah, pretty cool.

I have this cool little book called The Little Box of Knitted Gifts that Nick gave me for Christmas last year. and this belt was one of the projects.

Obviously, it's not quite finished yet. When I have the money, I'll buy buttons to add to it and a belt loop. Until then, it's just a strip of cloth that someday wants to grow up to be a belt!

Swap Gift Shrug

Remember the awesome yarn Jan got me for our swap gift? Look how cool the shrug I knitted up turned out:

 I plan on adding eyelet lace cap sleeves and a white ribbon border to the neck line, but for now I love my little shrug :)

I did have a problem with having enough yarn, but I wanted the shrug badly enough that I made it work by matching the color (although not the fiber). I don't recommend doing this if you can avoid it, because now it will be super difficult to wash the piece, but if you're desperate, it is an option.

Rag Rug Doily

I love love this idea. First take a bed sheet you don't need. Fitted or flat, satin, cotton, or jersey, whatever you have that you don't need. Now tear it into strips and string it all together to make yourself...yarn. Yeah, you're about to knit with an old sheet. How awesome is that?

So I made a doily mat using this pattern my boyfriend found online (and which was also on Ravelry-- very handy) and now it's next to my bed so that every morning I step out onto a rug instead of the wooden floors :)

 

Isn't it pretty? here's a close up of the detail:

  

The artist displays her half-circle version as a door step, and several other knitters made theirs as full-circle rugs.

The large needles and bulky sheet-yarn are difficult to work with, but I am of the opinion that the final result is well worth the effort!

I have one more sheet that I can use, and I'm lucky that this artist has a second rag rug pattern! I look forward to using that one, too :)

Major Project: Secret Project

What, another major project before I've gotten any significant progress done on the last major project? To which I say "shhhhhhhhh."

Here it is:

 

And I'm not going to say anything else about it, because I want it to be a surprise :)

Book Sweater

My Mom keeps asking me if my books were cold every time she sees this project, but I refuse to be offended, because it makes me happy!

 

This is actually a really simple to make, even without a pattern. Cast on enough stitches to go across the spine of your book, plus an inch or so. Work an inch in 2x2 rib, work in stockinette for long enough to travel all the way around the book, work another inch in stockinette, bind off and sew up edges.

I'm working on one now that will function more as a dust jacket, so I'll post regarding that one once it's done :)

Dish Scrubbie

When I found the super bulky yarn I used for the bias scarf, it was actually tied into a scrap yarn ball with some worsted. I separated the two weights out, and after I was done with the bias scarf, I used the rest for this scrubbie:

 

I love how it looks (it was supposed to be a circle, but I accidentally made it into a heart...when you tie it into a circle, you're supposed to pull the center tight to make it scrunch up in the middle, and I also accidentally pulled the top section tight, too) and I really do like how it functions (the ridges make washing dishes nice) but I have this aversion to sponges, because I hate that they sit there and collect mold...so if I were to make this again, I would give it an i-cord loop so that I could hang it over the faucet to dry. And I've actually seen a lot of patterns that already include this feature, so maybe I'll make one of those next, instead.

This is a pretty good way to use up some scrap yarn, though, so I think I'll keep this in mind!

Finished Cozy

My boyfriend's Mom bought me yarn :) She took me into Micheal's, led me to the yarn shop, and told me to pick out enough to finish three projects. I swooned <3

I picked out the yarn for the apron, a yarn for a super-special project I'll show you later, and this yarn here:

 

And remember how I said that the chances of me finding the same color of yarn were slim because I bought it so long ago? Well I found the exact. same. color. I was so excited!

And I figured that since I was working with 100% acrylic this cozy would be more for looks than functionality. But guess what?! This actually keeps my tea hot exponentially longer than without it! So it's a pretty cool little project :)

I even had yarn left over, which leaves me with the opportunity for future projects :)

And this cozy has a pocket in the bottom for a sachet, so at some point I will make something pretty-smelling to add to that spot :) Very excited!

Mini Cabled Scarf

Remember all that yarn I bought at a yard sale a while back? Well this is my first project using it:

  This little scarf went super quickly, and is really soft now that it is knitted up. I'm not wild about bright red, so I might be on the look-out for someone to give this to! I'm trying to get a good stock of little projects finished, because I have this idea to give away tons of knitted items around Christmas time. But if I end up not having enough this year, I'll just keep stock piling for next year!

And of course I have to leave myself time for the projects that I know I want ready for Christmas...

Bias Scarf

I've been using a lot of the old yarn that's been stored away in my closet for the last several years to use in my knitting projects instead of breaking the bank for new wool, and one of the things I had was fifty or so yards of super bulky Lion Brand yarn that I couldn't figure out what to do with. Finally I found a pattern for a scarf knitted on the bias that I think uses it up just fine:

 

But honestly, it's just fine. I'm not ecstatic about it. Give me a couple years-- I bet I rip it apart to do something else with it (or give it to someone who likes it better than I do!)

The Last Ex-Sweater Piece

Remember the massive yarn ball from my Mom's sweater? Well this is what we're left with:

 

Because I made one last piece for my Mom: A table runner :)

Tea Pot Cozy

Here's another half-finished project that I had to put on pause when I ran out of yarn: A Tea Pot Cozy.

 

It's going to be very cute, but...

  

Clearly I need more yarn. Thankfully, this is a Lion Brand yarn, so I'll be able to find something similar, but I'm pretty sure I bought it three years ago, so there are no guarantees. Here's a good reason to buy lots of yarn when there's no specific pattern in mind!