WIP Wednesday : Eeeeeeeeek!

Halloween is just around the corner and I have only just begun preparations for it! While it isn't really a Waldorf holiday, and we don't celebrate it in school, we do like to acknowledge it every year with a little fun dress up time.


Dress in progress

I planned on giving K this dress on her birthday along with her Little Red Riding Hood cape I knitted for her, but I just didn't pull it all off. It's really just a simple dress that just happens to work as a costume.

I am wishing I did not procrastinate, ahem, so I could alter the pattern and make it long sleeved instead of short. She'll wear one of her wool long sleeved tops underneath it for Halloween, to get by. I have a feeling she'll be wearing this dress all spring and summer, so it should all work out.


Finishing up the dress' apron embroidery

While I am at it, I am making a few little things from the Halloween Fairy. Every year the girls bring their candy home and then set it on the nature table for the Halloween Fairy. The next morning they wake up and the candy is gone and has been replaced with gifts. I like to give them honey sticks (always a favorite here) and something handmade. I quickly needle felted this little ladybug for K last night and I think she'll enjoy it. Now I need to think of something for C...


A ladybug for my ladybug

Back to work I go!
Happy creating everyone!!

WIP Wednesday : Eeeeeeeeek!

WIP Wednesday : Slow Return of the Creative Mojo

After a couple of months of feeling too sick to create anything, my mojo is back *knock on wood* (I don't want to curse it). I am starting small so I do not overwhelm myself. I have a few big projects I started before the morning sickness hit but I am not going to pick those back up until I know for sure I am fully back.

I started out by finishing a small project K needs for school in just a few weeks - her felted mittens to match her gnomie hat. I only had to knit and attach the cuffs so it was quick and simple. I couldn't justify buying yarn to match the rainbow colorway perfectly, so I used some leftover red yarn from K's Little Red Riding Hood cape, instead. Now I just need to lanolize them to make them really waterproof and they are set to go.


Pictures taken before I washed and blocked them

Speaking of school projects, I have a few sewing ones I really need to start but am still avoiding - place mats, napkins, cloth bag to hold her extra clothes... I feel like there is more that I am forgetting. To help my sewing procrastination *ahem* I thought I would knit up some legwarmers for K to keep at school. K was gifted with a couple of dresses and tights so I thought legwarmers would help keep her warm when she's outside playing. I am going to use up the rest of my beloved Georgia Peach yarn leftover from her neighborly.



So, not a whole lot going on but I think I can say I am slowly but surely coming back around. I hope the nesting hits soon so I can really get back to work!

What are you working on? I would love some beautiful inspiration.
Happy creating!

WIP Wednesday : Slow Return of the Creative Mojo

WIP Wednesday : Testing,1, 2, 3 ...

I was recently fortunate enough to test a pattern for my friend Michelle, and it was such a fun experience. Michelle is a very talented knitter (check out her ravelry page) among many other things and has been kind enough to come to my rescue many a times with her knitting wisdom. Believe me, I jumped at the chance to be her tester!



Her latest pattern is a sweet little cotton dress with the prettiest lace trim. It seemed so girly and perfect for C. I couldn't wait to finish it. Rav notes here



It knit up pretty fast and I actually conquered my fear of crocheting with this pattern, as well.



The test pattern was for a younger size but I think it works great as a little swing top, too. Perfect for layering with or wearing alone. As soon as Michelle releases the pattern I plan on making more in wool for our chilly summer days here in Oregon.



What's on your needles? Happy creating!

I forgot to mention, you may have noticed a new addition to my tutorials. I am trying to go back and find all of my old tutorials on here and add them to the left side bar to make it easier for everyone to find.

WIP Wednesday : Testing,1, 2, 3 ...

WIP Wednesday : In Honor of Kelly

I am taking a break from my usual WIP posts to share a project dear to me



I first learned about an amazing, amazing woman named Kelly last winter. Nicole from Gardenmama sent me an e-mail about the Wellness Tree - a project of hope and encouragement she created for Kelly. I was touched after reading her story and I knew I had to help out in any way I could. For me, that meant creating. I wet felted her this candle ornament along with one of our nightly verses that just felt perfect.

Some of you may already know Kelly recently left this world much too soon, after losing her battle with cancer. Honestly, to say I was shocked at the news is an understatement, I really wanted to pretend it wasn't real. Nicole wrote a beautiful tribute to her here.

I knew, again, that I needed to do something for her sweet baby boy Ari and husband in her memory. Then I saw that Tonya from Natural Earth Farm was starting up a blanket project and I knew that was the perfect thing.



I knit up one square using a pattern from the Spring issue of Living Crafts and I am currently working on my second square. I hope to knit quite a few squares to mail out to Tonya for this blanket ASAP.



I am asking those of you that knit to please, please check out the project and consider knitting a square. The deadline to mail them to Tonya is June 15th. The squares are 6"in size so they do not take a lot of time to make, but are still filled with all of our love.

If you do not knit but would still like to contribute please check out this post via the Wellness Tree for inspiration of other things to make. I hope after I complete some more squares for Ari's blanket I can make something else, I just haven't figured out what that something else will be yet. I wish I could do so much more...

You can learn more about Kelly at The Wellness Tree. Thank you Nicole and Tonya for putting this together and thank you to all of you who took the time to read this and, perhaps, even contributed in our efforts.

May we as mothers and women hold Kelly in our hearts and may we honor her strength in our everyday as we mother our own children and act in a mothering spirit to everyone we come across.
- Nicole at Gardenmama

WIP Wednesday : In Honor of Kelly

WIP Wednesday : Prairie Girl

Glimpses of a project in the works for K and her skuut adventures:





I finished up the play dress for K (using that fabric on sale to make this a $4 dress & bloomers set) and she loves it. Kevin nicknamed her Prairie Priya (Priya is her middle name) because she looks like a little prairie girl wearing it. I may have to sew her a little pinafore for her to complete the look. The pattern for the dress is Butterick B4176 view B and the pattern for the bloomers is McCall's M4505





I love the pattern it's fast and easy. I added about three inches in length to it and a pocket (thanks to Mary) for nature finds. It seems like the perfect play dress for her so I will surely be making more from this pattern in the future. I think the next time around I will change the closing in the back, though.
I am not sure what I did wrong, but the elastic on her sleeves keeps tucking under. Maybe I made the elastic too tight? As you can see - I am definitely learning as I go.





On the topic of dresses : I wanted to ask all of you if you have any personal favorite patterns for winter/fall dresses. I am going to the fabric store this Friday because they are having a big sale on patterns so I thought I would stock up now. With the weather here, I think we will get more use out of long sleeved dresses and jumpers, etc than the short sleeved ones. Thank you, thank you for your input!

Happy creating!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also the winner of the Waldorf Connection contest is:
Mom2Three said...
What a wonderful giveaway. I love Donna's stuff and I love Nicole's blog...very inspiring.

Kristine

Kristine please e-mail me at farmergopi@yahoo.com. Thanks!!

WIP Wednesday : Prairie Girl

WIP Wednesday : Finding My New Rhythm

To finish up with my projects from Kids clothes week, I thought I would share some recent sewing adventures. I say 'adventures' because I am truly a creature of habit... Knitting has been my habit for almost four years now so switching gears over to sewing is a challenge for me. I am not as happy with my end results when it comes to sewing as I am with my knitting. Then again, I often have to remind myself that I didn't like my knitting results when I first started out, either. So I am trying to stick with it in hopes that sewing will come back to me and I will feel confident and comfortable with what I make in the future.

Phew! Ok enough rambling, onwards!



For a quick project Tuesday morning I made K a fabric headband. I figured it will start to get too hot for her to wear her wool knitted headbands pretty soon, so some thin cotton fabric ones seemed like a good solution. I couldn't find a pattern anywhere so I just made one up. I used up the last of the scraps from her bonnet to make this tester. It fits great but just needs a couple minor adjustments and then it will be perfect. I hope to make her quite a few for the summer months as well as a few smaller ones for C. Both of my girls constantly have bangs in their eyes, poor things.



I found some fabric on sale last weekend that seemed great for play dresses. It only ended up costing me $8.00 for enough fabric to make two play dresses with matching bloomers! I was so happy to find such a deal, now I am hoping I can continue in this direction. $4.00 a dress is cheaper than anything I could ever find at a thrift store, plus they are even more special because they are made with love... or so I am hoping!

I needed to add length to the dress pattern above but didn't have any tape so I had to make do with painters tape. Ha! Whatever gets the job done, right?! And yes, I am using my husband's childhood ruler.



Now to try my hand at making my own bias tape to finish off the collar on this dress. I plan on working on that tonight. I have a new rhythm going of knitting on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights (and whenever I can during the day, any day of the week) and sewing on the other nights. I am enjoying it quite a bit.



Lastly -



I finished the hem on K's dress, which thankfully is all even now, and I made bloomers to match K's dress and a pair to match C's, as well.




Picture taken before I finished the hem

Back to the sewing machine I go.
Happy creating!!

WIP Wednesday : Finding My New Rhythm

WIP Wednesday : Kid's Clothes Week Challenge

You may have noticed this new button on the right hand side of my blog, I planned on mentioning it on Monday but completely forgot. I decided to join a few of my friends in the Kid's Clothes Week Challenge this week. This was just what I needed to get back into my sewing. My goodness, I have about a hundred dresses I want to sew for the girls for this summer alone and I really need to get to it. I don't know why but I just have a really hard time transitioning from knitting to sewing and vice versa. Since I have been so wrapped up in cabling, all my sewing just sat on my desk waiting for me to pick back up again. Well on Monday, I finally did.



I wanted to make K a dress to match C's birthday dress, since the girls love to be matchy-matchy. The problem with that project was that I cut the pattern to a size three for C so I couldn't make the size five I needed for K. Then I realized I could just do the other dress in the pattern for K since they are very similar.



I spent Monday cutting out the pattern and fabric with a little help from C (she loves to hand me pins as I need them, and put them back in the pin cushion when I am done with them). Then that night I sewed most of it together.



Tuesday morning I had K try it on (over her PJs) to see how it fit and she refused to take it off. She proclaimed it to be her 'May Faire dress' and went off dancing and twirling in it until I called her back for our pancake making time.
It seemed to fit well, I like my girls' clothes to be loose on them so I made it one size up and omitted the ties in the back that made the pattern more form fitting.



I did manage to get the dress back from her before bed Tuesday night and I tried to hem it but had no luck. C's dress was easy for me to hem as it was just a gathered skirt, but K's is pleated front and back so I am totally confused. I tried pinning it up different ways but no matter what I did, it was all uneven. I haven't had any hemming challenges in years so I am at a loss. Anyone have any tips or know of any online resources for hemming skirts with pleats?



I have just enough of that fabric left to sew the matching bloomers for both girls' dresses so I plan on doing those next (after I figure out this hem issue). I think I'll make one or two simple skirts for K this week, too. I need to buy more fabric soon so I can keep up with my dress assembly line. I have a decent fabric stash but most of it is in 1/2 yard or less pieces which makes it a bit hard to find clothes to sew for the girls with.



Since Mother's Day has passed, and Nana and Grandma both received their gifts, I thought I would share K's presents for them - Handmade book marks. I had her use a disappearing fabric pen to draw and write whatever she wanted to and then I embroidered the images in. The ink hadn't fully disappeared yet when I took the picture. Purple Grandma's had purple fabric for the back (surprise, surprise!) and Nana's had orange. We hope they liked them!

Ok, well back to sewing. Anyone else joining in this challenge? Wishing you all the best!
Happy creating!!

WIP Wednesday : Kid's Clothes Week Challenge

WIP Wednesday : Conquering my Fear

Lots of red yarn for a special gift

Ok not a serious fear but a knitting fear...

CABLING

It's a beautiful knitting technique I have admired for a long time but it intimidated me. It just looks so time consuming and complicated, and well, following graphs is not one of my strong points. All of that said, I decided I needed to bite the bullet and just do it.

There was a pattern I had been eyeing for K for a long time, but it had cables, so I just pushed it to the back burner. But now it fits perfectly with other presents I planned on making for her birthday, so I couldn't hide from it any longer.



I had my trusty computer opened up to knittinghelp.com and sat down with my yarn, needles and that crazy looking cable needle. I watched the cabling video and was blown away by how easy it looked. Surely it couldn't really be that easy...Well,you can imagine my surprise when I started and bam it really was that easy! Oh my, I did it. Once I started I couldn't stop (which is a good thing because this pattern has more stitches than I am used to knitting with and may very well take me until September to finish), I am in love!



But alas my excitement got the best of me and I goofed up my cable on one side. I must have mixed up a couple of rows on my graph. *sigh* It's ok, though, it's all a learning experience, right? I am hoping to rip it out to that row and start back over today.



Now knowing just how simple cabling is, I am left wondering - What took me so long?!



Happy creating!

*Sorry for the pics,(and the fur in all the pics - ah, life with 6 furry animals) my camera and I were fighting yesterday...*

WIP Wednesday : Conquering my Fear

WIP Wednesday : Of Monkeys and Pumpkins...

Here I sit trying to frantically finish up Mother's Day gifts so that I can mail them this week to arrive all the way back to the East coast in time...



While my MIL was here visiting I wanted to work on a project that didn't require my concentration, something I could do while talking at the same time. For me that meant some simple knitting. I looked over my mini stash and my '2010 Need to Knit List' and chose to knit C's Trick or Treat bag using this pattern.

The pattern is knit with big needles and three strands of worsted weight yarn and when it is finished you felt it. When I say big needles I mean BIG needles. I have never knitted with such gigantic needles before, they are seriously as fat as my fingers. It took a bit for me to get used to them.



But by the end of her visit I was just about done with the knitting portion, and it was looking cute. Big, but cute. I mean, look at how ginormous the bag looks hanging on C's doll high chair.



I felted it yesterday and luckily it shrank quite a bit. It should be a good size for C's little hands.



As you can see I still need to trim some strands and block it, though. I am having the hardest time trying to figure out how to block it because all of the pumpkin's sides want to cave in as I try to dry it. Any suggestions?

For the great outdoor challenge I thought I would share a few pics of my little monkey yesterday...



climbing upside down



making sure she has three limbs always touching (just like my dear friend Tiffeni taught her)



building more and more confidence all the way.

I hope you are all having a great week.
Happy creating!!

WIP Wednesday : Of Monkeys and Pumpkins...

WIP Wednesday : Something to Laugh About

Because after the week I have been having, I surely need a laugh! Won't you join me?
Have you ever had one of those off days where even the simplest of projects won't work out for you? Well, that's where I am at with C's last birthday present. Except, it's not just an off day - the whole project has been 'off' from the get go. I really couldn't tell you why, either. I have knitted this pattern dozens of times by now, doing the math and changing it as needed as the girls grow, and not once had a problem. I mean, they are simple slippers for goodness sake, what is my problem? Ok let me get to the pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

Exhibit A:


Above is my first attempt at C's birthday slippers. This was actually after my real first try with two colors of malabrigo that didn't work because I ran out of one. So for this one I used just one of the two malabrigo yarns and knit them with bigger needles to felt down. Oh my, and felt they did. They felted so much that they are too small for C. They are actually perfect in length but much too narrow for C to squeeze her little feet into.
So, I tried knitting another, this time adding on more stitches width wise which brings us to
Exhibit B


Well, it definitely is wider! I couldn't stop laughing when I pulled this out of the washer. I obviously overcompensated. By this point I had wasted almost a whole skein of malabrigo with nothing to show for it so I grieved my loss and retreated back to my corner. I was down, but I was not out! With my head hanging low I went back to my old friend Peace Fleece. The yarn is much too itchy for me to knit anything out of but when you felt it, it becomes really soft so it's perfect for slippers. This brings us to our last exhibit,
Exhibit C:


This slipper is oh so close to being just the right size but is just a bit too long. I would normally just let her grow into it but this is long enough that she would trip. Luckily, I can just knit another one just like this to put away for when her feet grow a bit more, so it's not a total loss. Phew!



Now here I am hopefully working on the last slipper prototype so I can get these done in time for her birthday. I have to finish them, just look at the perfect wooden hedgie buttons I got to put on them!


Puffa, puffa, stick, stick

I did not finish all my projects for K's room by last weekend like I had hoped to. I did, however, go thrifting and found a pink organic sheet for the back of the duvet. It's the perfect length but not wide enough, so I plan on going thrifting again this weekend to see if I am as lucky the second time around.

One thing I did finish for her room is a little knitted heart. I gave it to her the first night she spent in her room. I told her how I knitted it and filled it with my and Daddy's love for her. I hung it on her headboard and told her that it was there to remind her of how much we love her and that no matter what, we are always near. She absolutely adores it. I love how something so small is so meaningful to her.



Happy creating!

WIP Wednesday : Something to Laugh About