Finished Objects!

Yea! I have some finished objects to share. It seems like I've been so busy working on getting stuff done or planning birthday parties or sleeping (got some teething going on here and before that it was colds) or avoiding the chaos that comes from construction and home improvement projects that nothing has gotten finished in ages. But here I have two things to share.

First up and hat knitted for my mom, modeled by me and photographed by my brother-in-law. Its just a plain stockinette pattern, but it was the first time I started from the top and worked down. Not my favorite method I think, since its a bit tight until you get all your increases in. But the yarn was fantastic - Noro something or another - I know, not terribly helpful. It was mostly wool with some nylon and angora mixed in, in a beautiful self-striping colorway with lavenders, pinks, olive and ever greens a little grey and white. It's a variable weight single-ply. So much fun to knit with, but I unfortunately probably used too small of needles for the yarn and so its very tightly knit. Should function fine but took a little of the fun out of knitting it up, especially when the yarn was so lovely to work with. It makes me really want to have a hat of my own. I'll probably work on that after I finish the top secret project that's currently on my needles, which means I'll have a new hat just in time for summer.

Second up, is a sewing project - a birthday banner for my son's first year birthday, inspired by Soulemama's work. The fabric is a thrift shop freebie (yes, they actually gave me a bunch o' bags of fabric) and a donation of quilt squares from my mother-in-law that were just perfect for making the letters. As I was pulling it together, not really sure just what exactly I was doing, since I still consider myself a novice seamstress, I had lots of "no, this is total crap" moments but I kept plugging away. I was afraid it was gonna turn out like the valentine - where I do lots of prep but not so much in the finished product category. BUT I think it turned out pretty darn nice. I hope it becomes a family tradition around here.

Urban Front Yard Gardens

I've been amiss in blogging about garden design. I think its partly because I don't have lots of lovely photos to share or because I'm not working on any projects. But I've been trying to take some photos with my phone when I'm out and about and see something I like. Unfortunately the phone doesn't take the best photos, and I forget to clean the lens so there tends to be big blurry patches.

Here's a nice burgundy and green garden in the small strips next to someone's driveway. I love the small stucco wall to divide the space from their neighbors and focus attention on the plants. I don't care so much for the stamped concrete driveway, but do like the color of it.

I also like the cordyline in the planters on either side of the steps. Nice and formal but Mediterranean (or Victorian) at the same time. I think formality is very appropriate in tiny public urban spaces.

Here's a cottage planting bed, but they used a picket fence to make a formal edge. I think its quiet lovely and love how the looser plants spill out from the very open pickets. Its a nice mixture of informal constrained which I think works really well for tiny urban front yards.

I have a large incense cedar in my back yard that produces leaf litter nearly year round as well as copious amounts of shade particulary in its nether regions and I'm trying to figure out what to do next to its roots. I came apon this incense cedar at the SF Botanical Garden and really like the mondo grass the used as an underplanting. It's not totally filled in but the more woodsy feel seems to work. So I'm gonna think about that when/if I ever get around to doing anything under my cedar. I love the California Rush in the background of the bottom photo.

This last one is a of a very nice detail on a planter box. So pretty. I'm also feeling the boxwood love right now. I like the broadleaf evergreen look. I especially dig reinventing the formal feel in a California or modern or other untraditional garden.

Did I say I was moving?

Well, I changed my mind again. You can still find me here on Blogger. Enjoy.

Valentine's Day Crafting

No, its not a hot pad! Yes, I know it looks like one.

It started out as an idea to do some photoshop silliness. I was trying to think what I could make for Valentine's day and decided my son was a little too scrumptious not to make into cupid. Step 1: take nakey butt picture of son. Step 2: search yahoo photos for cupid. yahoo photos are actually better than google for this, because they pull from all the flickr tags. Step 3: mashup in PS. Once I did this I really wanted to try sewing with paper. So I had to print out some cupids. I then I thought it would be cool to try a bit of patchwork (see the back) and then quilting (see the heart shapes inside) and then well, I've never done embroidery so we gotta throw that in and put some bias tape (that's actually store bought) to tie it all together.

The fabric is all for free from a thrift store. No pattern, just trying things out. I think I even drew straight on the fabric for the embroidery. I love the red and turquoise blue together. I don't love my stitches, especially my first attempt at applying bias tape (pee-you). The blur in the upper left is my son's name tweaked to protect our privacy.

Once it all came together I had that sinking feeling of this wasn't exactly what I imagined becuase it does look exactly like a hotpad. But DH seemed to like it just the same. Perhaps its because we aren't exactly good gift givers so he was happy to receive anything from me :) I had grand plans on making everyone in the family one, but it just didn't happen with colds and the house being under construction and my underestimating the evilness that is bias tape binding. So I'v got 5 other half finished hearts in my studio now. There's always next V-day...

Moving

I've decided to move to TypePad so you can find me there now.

Sweaters To Yarn

I've fallen in love with reclaiming yarn.

I love thrift store shopping for good wool (or cotton or linen or cashmere). And then unraveling (or raveling) the yarn then measuring it by winding it around a handy device my father made for me (a piece of wood with two dowels stuck in it a yard apart). Then washing it it to remove the somebody else's house smell. And winding it into a ball by hand (I don't own a swift or ball winder at the moment - so big! where to put it?). However, I have yet to knit anything with it! Arrrg! So I'm holding off on the other sweaters I have until I get my stash more organized. However, I've keep finding nice cashmere sweaters that are too fine for unraveling, so I think I'll try to sew some longies with those! What I don't like - the little fuzzies that get everywere as I deconstruct the sweater.

Here's a GAP knitted mini-skirt in a natural colored lamb's wool.

And here's the finished balls of yarn - approximately 600 yards of sport weight (I'm guessing - I haven't mastered the art of telling the weight of the yarn yet). What to make with it, what to make....

Colors

Its kinda funny how you fall in love with a color combination and then suddenly you see it everywhere! I picked up these lovely fabrics at Ambatalia a green fabric boutique store in Mill Valley recently and when I got home from the trip I found a package with some Smartwool (oh how I love thee) socks. This pair picked up the colors on my fabric so nicely.



The other colors I'm in love with are baby blue/sky blue/robin's egg blue and red with a darker blue. It just seems to keep popping up!

Backtracking - my first sewn project

Slowly getting around to uploading pictures, I wanted to share my first sewing project. Its an Old Navy womens (?) lambswool sweater in holiday colors that had been put in hot too many times. I picked it up at a thrift store, cut the arms off, cut the seams midway down the arms so that they could become the legs, seamed the front and back and rolled a waist band with elastic, then lanolized it (that is added lanolin back to the wool to help make it less likely to absorb). Here H is sportin it over a fitted pair of training pants.



Its not too bad considering I've never sewn anything in my life and a sweater is pretty difficult material to work with for you first time out. If you were to look closely you could see spots where I missed and gaping holes and the spots where I sewed over an area way to often trying to get my seams correct. But I rather like it despite that fact.


Since I found the sweater I really wanted to get it done in time for Christmas because of the colors. And I got it done, yea! Here's to tossing paralyzing perfectionist tendencies out! And just getting the damn thing done, whatever that damn thing may be!

Oh yea, I also got the dream swatch headband (shown above, H is playing with it) done in time for Christmas as well. But I'll save that little knitting post for another time.

Toyko Tie Bag

Here's the 3rd (how much longer can I count things? I sorta gave up with knitting after a dozen) thing I've ever sewn! Its a little handbag perfect for holding wallet, cell phone and keys and it has a little tie handle that I can loop around the waist band of the Ergo (the pocket of the Ergo doesn't work very well with the baby on the back) without loading my pockets down with my essentials. Its from Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp. Amazon users gives it almost 5 stars, which again seems to be right on.

I am sewing!!

So I'm teaching myself how to sew. And I've completed one of my first real projects. Its a sewing toolkit/apron from 101 Ways to Use Your First Sewing Machine. Amazon users give the book 2.5 stars which is about right, but I got it from the library and it helped get me started, so no complaints. The apron is very cute and a good first project but I think its probably the only item I wanted to make from the book. I'm not sure how I'll use the apron but I had fun working on it. It uses pre-made piping to line the top edges and is folded over with simple straight stitches to make the pockets.



But I'm not resting on my laurels - nope, my queue of things to work on is too long and is growing faster than I can make them. So here's a sneak peak of a WIP.