Friday, April 26, 2013

Falling Water Scarf - On the Needles

I might have made a mistake a few weeks ago. I ordered what I thought was some lovely worsted weight yarn for a baby blanket, and it turned out to be sock yarn. Sad day. Plus, the colorway wasn't quite what I expected, and I had absolutely no idea what to do with this particular yarn. When I found this pattern, though, I knew it would be a good shot at using the weird, and it has turned out to be even better than I pictured! Here is the progress I have so far, although it won't look right until I block it.


I have about another 2-3 hours left to finish it, and I can hardly wait to block it! It actually looks like flames to me, my hubby and I joke that it would be fun to wear it to the Hunger Games premiere in November as a "Girl on Fire" tribute, but I'm planning on giving it away soon. I'm hoping to post pics of it finished next week!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Fully Drywalled.... CRAFT ROOM!

Hooray! The drywall on the craft room is 100% finished! My mother-in-law said once that the rooms would look so much smaller when the drywall went up, but I think it actually makes me understand how incredibly big these rooms are! Obviously, this is the room I am most excited about in our basement transformation.

Here is the view as you enter the room. The window has a lot of natural light and my main scrapbooking space will go right underneath it. Near that will be a "sewing island," which will provide enough space to cut, sew, block, or have friends over to craft with me.

 On the right you can see the gigantic closet, with 6 foot doors and 40 inches deep of space to put lots and lots of shelves, supplies, camera gear, and whatever else creative I may need to store. The diagonal is where I am putting an old dresser I got for free from my neighbor's driveway, I am thinking of painting it yellow or turquoise. I'm most excited for it to store my stash of yarn!

Next to the diagonal is the part my husband is SUPER excited about, the office nook. We didn't plan on  this in the original plans, but it kind of just evolved and it's going to be SO GREAT. It will have enough space for TWO docking stations and permanent monitors, so hubby can have his setup for working from home be permanent, peaceful, and behind a locked door. I can also have a docking station for things like photo editing without getting into his space or he in mine. This nook is going to be a GAME CHANGER for how our family runs!

This view is from inside the closet. You can still see the office nook on the right, but now you can also see where the cabinets are going to go on the left up top, with a few on the bottom and lots of counter space to work. The room is going to have a lot in it, but it's so darn HUGE I really don't think it will be a problem at all.

The bathroom is also almost 100% fully drywalled, and the hallway should get done tonight. Then all we have left is the giant living room, which should go pretty darn fast! Hopefully the update next week will have the entire basement drywalled! Hoorah!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Folium Scarf - Finished!

What a beautiful scarf. After I figured out how to do lace better, the pattern was really simple and easy to memorize, making it nice to take on-the-go (plus my swearing level decreased greatly). I wish I had used a different yarn, because at the end of the day it looks and feels exactly like what it is; a scarf made out of baby yarn. Next time I would love to go for something finer, maybe a pretty merino, and a bigger needle to make it go a bit faster. I didn’t do the full 74 inches, my attention span just wasn’t long enough. But I think the scarf itself is plenty long, and I am very excited to wear it!






Pattern: Folium by Joanna Johnson
Yarn: Yarn Bee Sweet Baby Delight in Infant Teal
Needles: 3


PS - this post has been linked up!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

On the Needles - Entrelac Blanket

Here's a fun project I have wanted to try for quite awhile now. I love the technique called Entrelac, which is a type of knitting that makes the project look like a woven basket. I especially like it for self-striping yarn because it makes the pieces look like they are different colors. Of course, I couldn't just try a scarf like a normal person. No, I have Jackson blood in me. I had to try a big ol' baby blanket instead. I don't know who this is going to go to yet, but it's coming along nicely so far. I ran out of yarn in my first skein and have yet to buy more, so this might actually get put on some waste yarn for a couple weeks while I finish up some other projects I have going right now. This is the first skein, I plan on buying two more to make it a good size blanket.




The yarn is Sensations Rainbow Classic Pattern, I use a size 8 needle and each block is 6 stitches across. For a great tutorial on Entrelac, check out this YouTube video:

Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter Shrugs, Finished!

Whew! I busted my butt to get 3 of those adorable shrugs finished before Easter. I got a little sidetracked when I ran out of yarn, but I finished the last one on Friday night and I love, love, love how they turned out! The only thing I would change is that I would have pinned them to the girls' dresses (which, btw, are handmade by Grandma!) so they would stay on. We were fighting with them for the entire photo shoot. But it was so worth it! I really think these might be my favorite dresses from my mom for the girls, but she really makes such beautiful stuff that it's hard to decide. The yellow on my girls just made their blue eyes and blonde hair POP, and they looked like little angels. We did a full photo shoot with grandparents and families, I'll post those later this week. I only took 197, so editing really well shouldn't take too long.... Happy Resurrection Day!