{Knitting} A Manly Herringbone Scarf

I just finished this Manly Herringbone Scarf I started in October for my Hubby. I haven't finished a knitted project in A WHILE, so this one felt really great to finish. 

The yarn I used is Dirty Water Dye Works "Edna" yarn in a great mustardy yellow color. I bought the yarn on a trip to Burlington, Vermont in September at a shop called Nido.

The needle size recommended by the yarn label was a size 5-7, but I wanted a super thick and warm scarf, so I used a size 4 (circular needles). I went through almost 2 skeins of this yarn, at 380 yards be skein! NO WONDER IT TOOK SO LONG! 

The scarf is about 14x70 inches and it looks GREAT on my Hubby with his dark charcoal wool coat. Considering it took me almost 2 months of seemingly constant knitting, if he loses this thing I am definitely going to make him suffer!

Then, because my husband wouldn't pose for the camera, I attempted a shameful selfie. I know it is a sad attempt and I apologize for subjecting you to it. Also, my forehead isn't 300 shades darker than the rest of my face. I promise. 

That's another finished project off of My Bucket List! Check out My Bucket List for all of the projects I want to complete, and check out My Finished Projects for everything I've completed so far (including lots of food!). Also, check out My Flickr Page for another summary of my finished projects!


Thanks for checking in! 

HOLLER!

Giveaway Winner!

Hi All,

Based on a selection using random.org, the winner is of my Blogiversary Giveaway... 

Nupur who said "How generous of you- thanks for the giveaway! As a new quilter I would use this gratefully."

Check your email Nupur, I will send you a message requesting your address, etc so I can get this package along to you quickly.

HOLLER!

Giveaway!!!

Hiiii!

This November is my 3rd Blogiversary! 

To commemorate the special occasion, I did a little Craft Room Cleaning Out. I gathered all of the supplies that have been hanging around in the stash for far too long (like 3 years) and I just haven't found the right project to use it up. I guess if I haven't found the right project in 3 years the likelihood of me finding it in the near future is not high, thus, its gotta go!

I've been gathering all of my extra supplies into a nice pile under my ironing board. The stack looks small from this point of view, but it is a lot of stuff, it must weigh 30 lbs!

 (Outdoor upholstery fabric scraps from this project!)

 (About 1/2 yard of each print from the Joel Dewberry Heirloom collection, from this project)

 (Batting scraps, both warm and white and warm and natural)

 (Terrycloth, flannel, and Insulbright scraps)

 (About 6 yards of a tone on tone white floral quilting cotton fabric)

 

 (A few yards of this tapestry fabric)

 (The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt and all of the templates cut and laminated)

 (All of the pieces from this quilt that I never finished ...)

 (Some upholstery fabric scraps)

 (Soul Blossoms scraps from this Bento Box Quilt)

 (Lots of yardage from this Anna Maria Horner Garden Party print, maybe about 5 yards total)

 (About 6 yards of this Ikea panel, they are very cute and would make a great motif quilt)

(Last but not least, a rainbow of fabrics from pinks to yellows to green, blue, and purple. These fabrics all came from my Aunt's stash and I am passing them along to someone who can use them up!)

DETAILS:

- The winner of the giveaway wins ALL of the items above! 

- To enter the giveaway you can either become a follower, leave a comment on this post, or both for 2 entries to win.

- I will randomly choose the winner on Friday November 12th and I will e-mail you.

- Obviously I will pay for shipping and whatnot. 

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions about the giveaway items. 

HOLLER :)

{From Scratch Club Guest Post} Found Kitchen Chalkboard

Those of you following this blog for a while may know that I am a blog contributor over at the amazing and wonderful From Scratch Club blog on a monthly basis. 

Here is a little excerpt from FSC's about page to give you some insight into what the FSC is all about:

"WE ARE {MAKING} FOOD MATTER, TOGETHER

We live within the Capital Region of New York State (Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Saratoga Springs) striving for a sustained connection to our kitchens, our gardens and our communities by inspiring people to jump back into the kitchen, their gardens and food communities as a daily way of life regardless of income, space & time. We host community food swaps, a podcast on iTunes, virtual food-focused book club on Goodreads and lastly, we teach DIY classes around the area. The rest of the month we are here, on the blog, sharing stories, recipes, DIY projects, homesteading tutorials, kitchen tips & tricks and food policy news."

I have been dubbed the FSC Crafter and on a monthly basis I post a crafting project for all of the FSC members and readers to recreate. I try to maintain a utilitarian focus when it comes to the craft projects that I choose to write about, as the men and women of the FSC really like to get stuff done!

This month's post was a project where I showed the readers how to re-purpose an unloved mirror or picture frame and turn it into a chalkboard for the Kitchen. I use my mainly for menu planning! 

Scoot on over to the FSC blog for the complete post and instructions!

My past posts have included:

• Crocheted Face Cloths
• Thrifted Silverware Garden Markers
• A Mug Rug
• Embroidered Jar Lids

I hope you check out my posts over at the FSC Blog and also take a look at the recipes and projects blogged about by other FSC Contributors. The website is a wealth of knowledge! 

HOLLER!

Circular Knitting Needle Roll

I have made it a goal of mine this year to make myself "Tool Rolls" for all of my knitting and crocheting needles and hooks. 

I started off with the smallest of the rolls, a crochet hook roll.

Then I moved onto a knitting needle roll, a pattern which I might want to revise a little bit in the future so that the flap is more stable, maybe just interfacing the flap. 

Then, I racked my brain for months on how to make the best circular knitting needle holder, and I think I finally found the answer for my perfect circular needle "roll". The problem with circular needles is that 1 pair takes up SO MUCH space, I knew that this roll was going to be huge and eat up a lot of fabric and be pretty big. 

I tried three different patterns and they were all terrible. I wish I kept them but I was so irritated that I just threw them in the garbage. I probably should have taken pictures. One of them involved me buying a grommet-er and did a lot of grommet-ing, and other were even worse failures.

HOWEVER, I think I've finally got it! 

First, after A LOT OF MEASURING AND I MEAN A LOT, way too much math for this accounting during off-work hours, I cut all of the fabric pieces for the roll. 

 
To give you a better idea of the different cuts I took this side shot, most pieces are stacked and have many many layers.

These are the additional supplies that I used for my project. I used a 50 weight mercerized cotton thread, Schmetz MICROTEX needles (which are flipping phenomenal, you need to get them now), and my AMAZING Bernina Binder Attachment. Have you guys used this yet? It is so amazing. Depending on the size attachment you get, it takes a 1.5 inch strip of fabric, and turns it into binding effortlessly. You can make binding strips themselves, or bind and edge of fabric or a quilt. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on that later :)


Some progress shots of me putting the roll together:

I had some MAJOR difficulty with the "Binding" of this little Circular Needle Book. I originally anticipated running the whole center spine through my machine, then once I realized that its like 25 layers of fabric and interfacing I knew there was no way, even with my trusty Bernina. 

To combat that, I used a wicked thick and sharp tapestry needle, purl embroidery floss and a metal thimble, and tried to create binding.  I do admit that this does not look perfect, but I will work on my binding techniques and a few other enhancements when I make this again. For my purposes, it is totally sufficient. I think in the future a leather punch or something that actual book binders use would be more effective than the tapestry needle. 

 Glam Shots:

The Collection so far:

That's another item off the Bucket List, wooohooo! Check out my Finished Projects page as well as my Flickr page for completed projects. 

Hope you enjoyed :)

HOLLER!

{Knitting} Nido VT Shopping & a Herringbone Man Scarf

My loving, caring, generous husband always harasses me for the fact that I never knit him anything, ever. My response is always the same thing, "when we were dating in college I knit you a beer cozy with your school name and in your school colors and you never used it and don't even know where it is" and then he is promptly silenced. He also only says these things in front of people, so I can only assume that the tone of my retort wasn't the most pleasant.

We recently found ourselves in Burlington for Labor Day weekend and I knew that if I was in Burlington I was absolutely-most-definitely-no-doubt-about-it going to the shop Nido right on college street, downtown. I learned of this shop through a giveaway I won many moons ago, and just knew I had to make it there. Ashley from the blog Film in the Fridge raves about Phiona's fabric selection on her blog all the time, and posts some pretty great projects she has done with a lot of the fabrics she buys from Nido, including several projects with handstamped fabrics, which is awesome!

The shop was in a great location right in the heart of downtown Burlington, next to all the shopping and restaurants. I walked into the shop and was very warmly greeted by the worker there, who I later asked "Are you the owner, Phiona, by chance?" and in fact she was, so we quickly struck up conversation about all the different fabrics in her shop and Ashley from Film in the Fridge and lots of other crafty things, and some personal things too like how it was her first day back from work after a 2 weeks off because she got married (veryyy exciting).

I have got to be the most annoying shopper ever. I touch everything. Literally. I have to touch and fondle everything in every store I am ever in. I got yelled at a lot in Paris! I spent about an hour groping all of the beautiful fabrics, yarns, and other goodies and Phiona didn't say boo about it, which was awesome. 

She had some spectacular fabrics that I haven't yet seen in person, like the new Heather Ross line, Nani Iro double gauze, Anna Maria Horner's Rayon Challis, Robert Kaufman's Essex Linens, etc. I totally fell for the Nani Iro prints. I honestly didn't even know what they were or that they existed at all. They are so beautiful and luxurious and subtle at the same time. I grabbed 1 yard of each of these prints and I plan on making some type of cowl or wrap that I can wear at work. I also got a yard of this Scandinavian inspired linen print. I don't know why but that print just screams Christmas to me, so I had to grab some, as I've been eying it for a while now.

Isn't this Nani Iro print unbelievably beautiful? It almost looks alive. I am obsessed with it. It reminds me of a Monet painting, don't you think?

 
My main purpose for the trip was actually for some yarn, not fabric. I mean of course I got both.  She carried wonderful yarns in the store, all from the Northeast. She had some Swan Island Yarn and lots of other brands that I hadn't even heard of. I ended up finding some BEAUTIFUL yarn in gorgeous fall colors and was instantly inspired. Finally all of my husband's nagging got to me. I don't know why really, but I think that I was mostly inspired by the yarn color, a beautiful golden wheaty mustard color with a little bit of green in it and a lot of depth to it. Husband has a dark charcoal winter coat so I think the mustard hue will go nicely. I bought two skeins that are about 300yds per skein and the yarn is probably a 3 weight yarn, not quite worsted 4 but not a fingering weight yarn. What is that, DK weight? I also bought some of the same yarn in a beautiful berry color to make myself a cowl. 

 

I searched the internet and blogosphere for a herringbone scarf pattern that was wide enough and had all of the things I like in a scarf, like a nice border to finish the scarf off on the sides and prevent curling. I didn't find everything I was looking for, but I found the general pattern for the herringbone section and then just did a quick gauge to see how many stitches I needed to cast on in order to get my desired width. Like I said, the yarn is DK weight, so I used a set of size 7 circular needles (my fav) and cast on 71 stitches, with a 3 stitch border on each side, so 6 of those stitches are for the borders only.

I haven't worked so diligently on a knitting project in a while! This scarf is taking me FOREVER. I think I probably should have upped my needle size by one or two so the yarn went a little farther and the scarf didn't take as long, but I know that I will be happy with the final product, and hubby better be too! His birthday is on Halloween (I know!!) and hopefully I will have the scarf done by then! UPDATE: Currently I am through 1 of the 2 skeins of this fantastic yarn and the scarf is about 48 inches long and I've been knitting it for about a month now! I will probably just knit through both skeins, or ask hubbs how long he wants it (as if he even knows what he wants).

As for my cowl, I am not sure what I want the cowl to look like. I will definitely be increasing my needle size to either an 8, 9, or 10. I will have to whip up some test pieces in the pattern I choose, I want it a little looser than my hubbs scarf. Maybe I will make a Purl Soho Herringbone inspired cowl to match hubbs? I was also eying this Hamanasu cowl from Quince & Co.. Or I could make the ever popular honey cowl that everyone is raving about.  Who knows? It is probably going to take me another month to finish this one so my cowl might be a tax season project. 

What has inspired your projects lately? A specific fabric or yarn? A picture? Pinterest, lol?

HOLLER

{From Scratch Club Guest Post} Crocheted Face Cloths

Those of you following this blog for a while may know that I am a blog contributor over at the amazing and wonderful From Scratch Club blog on a monthly basis. 

Here is a little excerpt from FSC's about page to give you some insight into what the FSC is all about:

"WE ARE {MAKING} FOOD MATTER, TOGETHER

We live within the Capital Region of New York State (Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Saratoga Springs) striving for a sustained connection to our kitchens, our gardens and our communities by inspiring people to jump back into the kitchen, their gardens and food communities as a daily way of life regardless of income, space & time. We host community food swaps, a podcast on iTunes, virtual food-focused book club on Goodreads and lastly, we teach DIY classes around the area. The rest of the month we are here, on the blog, sharing stories, recipes, DIY projects, homesteading tutorials, kitchen tips & tricks and food policy news."

I have been dubbed the FSC Crafter and on a monthly basis I post a crafting project for all of the FSC members and readers to recreate. I try to maintain a utilitarian focus when it comes to the craft projects that I choose to write about, as the men and women of the FSC really like to get stuff done!

My post for September was instructions for your very own set of Crocheted Face Cloths!

My past posts have included:

• Thrifted Silverware Garden Markers
• A Mug Rug
• Embroidered Jar Lids

I hope you check out my posts over at the FSC Blog and also take a look at the recipes and projects blogged about by other FSC Contributors. The website is a wealth of knowledge! 

HOLLER!

Summery Patchwork Quilt

I've had a fat quarter bundle of Lotta Jansdotter's fabric collection called "Echo" in my stash for quite a while now and these last few sunny summer days left really got me in the mood to use them up. I'm not sure why, but these fabrics just scream summer to me. 

I separated the fat quarter bundle into 3 different fabric groupings. The first bundle of fabrics for the quilt were navy, gold/yellow, gray, and a little brown. 




I was looking for a solid fabric to compliment the prints, and nothing screams summer like a natural linen fabric. Rumor has it that linen shrinks considerably compared to the quilting cotton, so I washed my linen yardage first.
 

I cut the fabric into 5 inch squares and mapped out a patchwork quilt pattern. I randomly selected print fabrics and alternated them with the natural linen fabric. Well, it was mostly random, my only rule was that the printed fabrics have to be more than 2 blocks away from the same print. The semi-randomly placement of the fabrics worked out pretty well, with only a few re-arrangements to get the final quilt layout set.

 

Now I have the quilt top fully pieced and I am trying to decide on backing and a quilt pattern. Part of me wants to buy some yardage of one of the Echo prints to complete the back, but maybe I can fish some yardage out of the stash. Not sure yet, but hopefully I will get the quilt finished soon. My quilting time is definitely dwindling now that knitting season is in full swing, so we shall see.

HOLLER!

A New Machine

My first Bernina was the ever popular gateway Bernina called the Activa 220, which I think is very similar to this current model offered. This machine was a great little machine that is definitely the most affordable option for new sewers. 

I am not sure why, but I really wanted the all mechanical model that Bernina offered called the 1008. So when I got my job at the sewing shop which is also a Bernina dealer, the first thing that I bought was the Bernina 1008 and it is a powerhouse machine. 

Then, this past month, I used all my sewing shop credit from being their accountant to buy the Bernina 710! This machine is considered a large machine, which means that the machine itsself is definitely bigger, but also the throat/neck/bed space is several inches wider than the other machines, which will make it so much easier to machine quilt with!

 

Adding a new machine to the mix meant that cleaning up the craft room was so necessary. 

I am lucky enough to have a craft room in our house. It is in one of our upstairs bedrooms, the smallest of the 4 bedrooms. It was actually a perfect set-up because the bedroom had 2 walls that were lined with built-in bookcases. Also, the closet in the room holds the stairs to the attic. So really it was craft room kismet!

Here is the view of the craft room from the hallway entrance:

 

Here is the majority of my fabric:

Here are my two machines that I still have, the Bernina 1008 and a vintage machine my girlfriend brought from Germany for me.

This shelf holds my fabric that is pre-planned for specific people or projects: 

This fabric is my main stash, organized by color for the most part. Apparently I like the color Red a lot!

I buy my favorite linens by the bolt with a 40% off coupon usually, so I can store them perfectly on this shelf:

The middle bookcase holds my designer fabric collections that I am hoarding, mainly Anna Maria Horner, as well as most of my sewing and quilting supplies:

These fabrics are spoken for also, with quilts already planned for some of my cousins as well as a series of seasonal quilts using voile and cottons that I have planned for myself:

My sewing table holds both my machine and my cutting mat:

The third bookcase has all of my crocheting, knitting, and embroidery supplies as well as my miscellaneous fabrics like home dec and another shelf for my electronics like my yarn baller and camera:

I've also segregated all my planned projects and quilts to make and sell on Etsy (more on that soon), so they are sitting out and ready to be made into some quilts, blankets, and other projects:
 

The 4th and final bookcase has my scrapbooking supplies on the top shelf, then my jewelry making supplies, and sewing notions like buttons, ribbons, and piping. It also holds some miscellaneous office supplies:

There is a little shelf under my window which is perfect for bolts of true grid (template making fabric) and interfacing, both of which I definitely buy by the bolt, as well as magazine holders that hold a lot of my patterns both that I buy and that I create:

Like I mentioned I have a great closet space to store the items that I can't find space for on the bookcases. I store things like bags of fiberfill, my gocco, and really big quilts that I'll probably never finish:

I almost forgot my ironing board. Very exciting stuff here:

Part of the Great Craft Room Clean Out was pulling everything off the shelves that I want to sell as the supplies section of my Etsy shop. I will be selling fabric scraps from various projects as well as other collections and supplies that I will just never use.

I hope you enjoyed your Tour de Craft Room. 

How often do you clean out your craft room? Monthly? Quarterly? Every 5 years?

HOLLER!