Lots o' Stitchery

Today's bargain-basement find is 1979's The Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery written by Mildred Graves Ryan and illustrated by Marta Cone for $3 (thanks, Al!).  It touches on crocheting, embroidering, knitting, macramé, rugmaking, sewing, and tatting.  The knitting chapter alone is 200 pages!

a belated happy birthday, featuring CRAFTS!

Hi Baby Sister!

 The big news from before I left for California, sadly simultaneous with the Japan earthquake/tsunami, was the long-awaited birth of Baby Sister (Lily's, not mine.)

Belatedly introducing to the world (i.e. this blog's pitifully small readership),  Miss Emeline Rachel, born March 11, 2011 at 5:23 AM, 8 lbs. 7.8 oz.

Shimmer!

The blanket is a variation on Lion Brand's Circle to Squares afghan pattern, that is, using only 2 of the 3 square sizes so as to make it  more baby-sized. The yarn is Red Heart Ltd. Shimmer in chocolate and hot pink. I must have spent half an hour roaming the yarn aisle at Michael's before finally deciding to go with them over designated baby yarn in a more traditional color scheme.  This color  scheme was inspired by Lily's winter coat. Also - did I mention that the yarn shimmers? (As does a good third of my wardrobe.)

I started out really meticulous with keeping the gauge consistent, but got lazier (read: looser with the stitches) as time went by; the outer edges are straightish instead of straight (even after I  tried blocking - and I never bother to block. My OCD self can hardly stand to look at the picture.)

Try to ignore my pasty neck.

I figured out pretty earlier I was going to have more yarn than I needed for the blanket (I'd bought 3 skeins of each color), so I started an Amigurumi giraffe using another Lion Brand pattern. 


Amanda had sent me this pattern ages ago, but it was only within the last year that I finally got around to buying the yarn to start one in the suggested colors. That one lounges, disarticulated, in my in progress bag, waiting for the next imminent baby to spur me into finishing it.


But anyway, when I finished the first giraffe , everyone who saw it (i.e. my family), raved about how cute it was, even with its somewhat gimpy eyes (the pattern calls for plastic safety eyes - I embroidered mine instead). The initial plan was to make its mate (or rather, its sister - one for Lil, one for Em) a different species all together, but I couldn't find an other Amigurumi pattern (free anyway) as cute as this one.  (Suggestions are welcome.) And so another giraffe it was; the second one was made, literally, in one night.  As to their durability? I'll have to get back to you.

It's BABY time!

It's baby time! I knit a vintage bobble baby hoodie (corrections here) and strappy baby booties using Lion Brand Cupcake yarn in Sugarplum (magical!) for my friend Katie's daughter Lily (the first of three new babies on their way).

My favorite part of this sweater hoodie are the bobbles, of course! Bobbles are fun!

Theoretically, the hoodie has a scalloped bottom edge as a result of folding and sewing the hem at the eyelet row; however, pinning my sweater allowed me to see a poor excuse for scallops, leading to several WTF moments. I could not for the life of me figure out why my sweater did not look as it should! So, I decided to blame it on the yarn and its lack of stiffness.

Foregoing my folded hem, I decided to utilize the eyelet row by threading white scalloped ribbon through it.

Seaming is not my strong suit. In fact, I hate it. And yet, here I was seaming this sleeve at 4-something in the morning. After both sleeves, I may have gotten a little sloppy with my hood seam, but I think it would take a trained-eye to notice. ;)

I chose bone-shaped buttons for the booties because Katie likes bones (as do all of my biological anthropologist friends). Granted, it's one of those indistinct blobby bones that is maybe supposed to be a humerus, but who really knows.

And every baby needs a blanket, so Ali crocheted this rockin' skull blanket! Yeah, we anthropologists are a strange bunch. :-)

A squirrel even Emily could love...

So much for baby blankets and purses - Martha Stewart has inspired me to start crocheting adorable dog toys! (That is to say, as soon as the carpal tunnel pipes down.) Dog lovers - would you pay $9.99 for one of these? For serious?

Teddy bear blanket

 I was perusing my Picasawebs drop box and came across these photos of the baby blanket I'd made for the daughter of my childhood BFF. I used a pattern for an angel baby afghan that I'd found I don't remember where and modified it into teddy bears. Can you tell they're teddy bears? Sorry the picture quality is crap; the camera on my phone and the lighting in the SF apartment left much to be desired.