The Great Craft Swap: Check!
In my great desire to check things off my never ending list of crafts to finish/start/create I have completed another long standing project. A while ago (I just checked, it was September of 2008) my lovely mother and I decided to swap projects. I would finish knitting her blanket and she would do the hand sewing of the binding on 2 of my quilts.
The blanket was the first major project I started my mother on. She knew how to knit a bit (she knit me a cute yellow sweater when I was a baby) but I had learned to knit from the books she got me. She went with me to the yarn shop a few years ago when I wanted to start my first sweater and picked out some beautiful self striping yarn in warm browns, reds, and oranges (is it sad that I can’t even remember what kind of yarn it was it was so long ago? I didn’t even know to keep the ball band yet!). She decided she would knit a blanket. I set her up with what I thought was an easy enough pattern. A simple basket weave with a garter stitch border. I did the math, chose the needles, and wrote out the pattern. It seemed simple enough, it was just knitting and purling right? Wrong. The pattern wasn’t difficult but it was an 8 row repeat that was difficult to memorize and hard to identify for a newish knitter. Is it a purl 3, knit 5 row or vice versa? Do I start with a knit 11 or a knit 12 or a knit 8? Thus my mother became slightly frustrated and, as somewhat of a perfectionist, did not wish to continue each time a stitch or two was out of place. This led to a problem because each time she made an error she would need me to fix it. She also couldn’t start in the middle of a row. She would have to go all the way across before she could put it down. These were rather long rows so this also became a bit of a problem.
Seeing that the blanket had been put aside, as had my almost finished quilts, I devised the Great Project Swap. This blanked was clearly a poor choice and had been pushed by the wayside. My quilts were so close but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. We swapped. Mom finished my brown quilt in a weekend and I chugged along on the last 7 balls for the knitted blanket.
I had one more problem with the quilt. I had finished the piecing and even sandwiched it but I wasn’t sure how to actually quilt it. My lines are never as exact as I want them to be and my corners do not always meet in a typical quilting perfect fashion. I’m really more interested in blocks of beautiful fabrics in beautiful colours and a simple design. I really love Bella Moon quilt patterns for this. They are great patterns for the ‘non-quilter’-quilter. I was discussing this issue with my mom when she suggested I find someone who quilts for hire.
I inquired at The Cloth Shop (my local quilt shop) and they had a couple of names for me. I sent my quilt out to Jackee and it came back absolutely stunning! She machine quilted it in a free form with lovely green leaves. The quilting matched the fabric and style of the quilt perfectly and I could not have been happier with her work.
Quite reasonably priced too! Since the actual quilting is not my favorite part it was great to have someone with expertise give it that finishing touch. I gave my mummy the binding and the quilt and she finished it off. I love it.
It was then that I realized I really had to finish that knitted blanket! I powered through the last 4 balls last weekend and it is finito! I’m glad my mom still has the same colour scheme, it took so long to finish. It is lovely though, and will be used by my mom, dad, and brothers on cool evenings curled up on the couch. The great project swap was a smashing success!
Knitography
In writing my own blog and in reading other blogs about knitting and crafting I always appreciate a really good picture of a project. I like to know exactly what it will look like up close, far away, on a person, on a hanger, the list is endless. I want to be able to see as much as I can before I committ to making something. Showing off your work, however is only one aspect of photographing your projects.
I also like to photograph my projects in order to keep organized and to make the gift giving process more complete. I think that if you are going to put so much effort into anything you knit you should always try to make it easier for you to repeat your success. I can’t remember the last time I knit something and I didn’t have some sort of alteration or helpful hint that I wish I’d had before I started. I like to leave myself little notes like: ‘perhaps this would be better knit in the round’, ’use longer double points, not the little short sock ones’, or ‘add 4 extra stitches’. This way, if I repeat the pattern or lend it to a friend they or I can benefit from my experience. This is where the photograph comes in: always take a picture of the finished product to keep with your pattern. This will help you remember how the project turned out and how you will alter it next time, especially if the finished product has been given away. It’s a great way to keep everything straight and organized.
Another great use for knitography is taking pictures of your own creations. If you are making your own patterns or greatly altering the ones you have you may want to type them out and keep a picture with them. This way you won’t forget your alterations or the pattern you have created.
Yet another great use of a knit-pic is to be used as a tag. This will also work for your quilts or other crafty gifts although you might want to use a smaller picture since you won’t need to attach any yarn or buttons. You can attach your 4×6 pic to a piece of cardstock that is 4.5×6.5 and on the back you can print the care instructions, materials (is it wool, cotton, alpaca, etc). This is also a good place to attach your little extra yarn (for possible *gasp* repairs) or buttons.
This way the recipient of the gift knows exactly how to care for the gift and which garment the instructions are for. It’s a really nice finishing touch if I do say so myself!
Party Season Count Down: My Patio Projects
Lately I’ve been trying to get my house together for the summer party season with some knitted and quilted accents for both indoors and outdoors. I am lucky enough to have a great big patio to entertain on in the summer and I’m jazzed about my 2 new lounge chairs. It’s going to be a great time!
First thing first, I had to choose a color palette. Anyone who knows me will tell you: I have a little trouble in this area. While my instincts are to go too colorful I often try to combat this by going too plain. The first place I lived in with my boyfriend (now husband) was almost entirely beige. Bleh! I tried to jazz it up with throw pillows and a rug but I think it was just a lost cause. Now I find it very important to really think through my color palette. I try to find something that isn’t to constricting (I think you should always be able to put an “s” on all of the colors in your palette: yellows, blues etc.) and also not too crazy. Then it just looks like someone who can’t make up their minds (which is true but I don’t really want it to look like that’s true).
This summer I decided to build upon the table runner I made last year and the fabric I bought but never got around to doing anything with (who knew weddings were so much work?!). The theme was yellows and greys but I have now added a bit of orange as well.Last year I made a great big long table runner for the patio table and that is as far as I got. I had great intentions of making a tea cozy and some cloth napkins. People I talk to can’t seem to decide whether the tea cozy is super lame or retro/vintage cool. I suppose I will just have to change their minds with some sort of inovative design or whatever. I might make the one in ‘Last Minute Knitted Gifts’ but I think cashmere is a little over the top for a tea cozy.
Anway, I didn’t get around to making any of those things so my fabric sits and waits, washed, ironed, and ready to go.I’m not sure if I am still jazzed about the cloth napkins. I have tried several ways and it just doesn’t seem to be working out. They always turn out to be about 100 times more work than I expect and they just don’t look as perfect as I want them to.This Christmas I had to enlist the help of my mom to finish the cloth napkins I had promised my friend. Thank goodness for mom!
I do, however, really want to make some blankets for those chilly nights and some pillows for the loungers. I want my patio to be inviting morning, noon, and night. I bought some more fabric with the intentions of making some super easy quilts. I want to make something that was really funky but wasn’t too much work, as they will be going outside and you just never know. Anyhow, that’s the plan for now!
The Art of Giving Crafts
Giving a handmade gift is a thoughtful thing to do, no matter how small or large, simple or complicated the project. Keeping this mantra in mind, it is not always the smartest use of time. Every crafter knows a few people who think that ’homemade’ means cheap and easy. I think the very best people to give crafty gifts to are fellow arts and crafts enthusiasts and family. Crafters are uncritical and appreciative of the effort involved and family loves you no matter how your crafts turn out and probably have a good idea of how much time you spend crafting.
The worst are the aforementioned people who equate handmade with cheap and easy, and friends outside your most inner circle. Although it is always nice (at least in my own experience) to give handmade gifts to close friends, I think it is important to keep that list pretty short. People outside of your inner circle have lesser known likes and dislikes and are more likely to say the wrong thing. It is harder to make gifts for people who you don’t know REALLY well. There is nothing worse than slaving over a project only to find that the recipient no longer likes that color and has tossed your hard work aside. Maybe I’m too sensitive but I must say that people who are less known to you are more likely to let the first thing out of their mouths when they receive a hand made gift be: ‘this would be better if it was a little longer’ or ‘I think you made a mistake here’. It can be devastating. If you have ever put hours into a gift, you know what I’m talking about!
Now boys are really a fickle breed. They are sometimes the most and sometimes the least appreciative of handmade gifts. I rarely dare to go there, except when I make photo gifts for my family. Everyone loves photos but especially when there are photos of them. My dad and my husband are always appreciative of anything I make. My dad is sentimental and my husband watches me work day in and day out so they are an excellent audience. I say, choose the gifts you make for the men in your like carefully, so as to avoid disappointment. If he’s not a scarf kind of guy stop making him scarves!
Every crafter has gift giving stories of joy and woe. My advice is to use your time wisely and know your audience. That being said: I still get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I work on a project with a certain someone in mind.
What I got for Christmas: The Quilting Edition
This Christmas my charming and craftacular mommy got me some fabulous fabric for a new quilt. I am finally going to finish a quilt just for me! The 2 quilts I have managed to complete have gone to my friend Robin for her wedding and for her son this past Christmas (more on that later). I have started many quilts but have only completed the 2, leaving none for me!
The new fabric is a colorful bird themed fabric from Moda (my latest fabric obsession). These are a few pics of my carefully washed and ironed fabric. I am planning on making the Isabella quilt from Bella Moon. It’s colorful and crazy, I think it suits the fabric well.
The only thing that concerns me is fussy cutting those adorable birds. I think they are an essential part of the quilt but fussy cutting is such a pain. Ho hum.
I also received a great new book with all kinds of great patterns for quilted and patchwork projects. The book is Joelle Hoverson’s ‘Last Minute Quilted and Patchwork Gifts’. Joelle is my personal hero. Although I am sworn to finish all the projects I already have going before starting any new ones I am already making a mental list of projects I can’t wait to get started on. I particularly like the color wheel quilt. Although I am just a fledgling quilter, I think one day I will be able to master the circular quilt! You can see some of the pics etc. from my new book here.
