Out of Africa sweater

Life thas been so crazy lately. Most of my spare time I have spent on the computer working on Christmas or spent knitting for Christmas. I finally finished my nephew's sweater. His church pants are black.

I have never done a yoke on a sweater, and so I thought that I would try it. In fact when I started it, I had every intention of making it a crewneck. Sometimes projects have a life of their own. I also had originally planned on having the gray as the bottom of the sweater, and the yoke varigated. When I grabbed the yarn in the store I was in a hurry and grabbed the wrong amounts of each one. Oh well! The yarn definately pooled, but I kind of like the effect. Although the white one the one sleeve stands out. The basic sweater is stockinette. When I got to the yoke I did it in a seed stitch. I like the texture. I think it adds a bit of something special. I hope he likes it.
In the meantime I am working on his sister's sweater. I am going to call it Little Butterflies. I have the back and part of one front done. I would have two fronts done, but realized last night that I had forgotten to change to the larger needles after the ribbing, and so I had to take it all the way down. What a newbie mistake! It is what you get when you knit and watch good TV shows I guess. LOL I am also going to put a collar on hers. I think I will do a round. Depends on the knitting muse I guess.

Daisy Stitch

I just have to say I love YouTube. I had instructions for the knitted Daisy stitch that I want to put into a sweater eventually. I read over the instructions several times, and just didn't get what they wanted me to do. I googled it and found a YouTube video. How easy. Now I know exactly how to do it. I can't wait to put it into a sweater. Maybe with a butterfly...

Moving Day

I skipped knitting group tonight to begin moving into my craft room. I am on a deadline to get my stuff in here so I can use my guest room for my mom Wed. I took some pictures of all four walls so that you can get a panoramic view. Keep in mind that I have done all the work myself and on a very small shoestring budget. I would like some nicer furniture, but this will do, and it is my own space. That is the part that I am really excited about.
From left to right in the room, here is a tour. These are the two dressers that I found at the yard sale. I am going to use them for storing yarn and projects. They were $10 a piece plus the paint.

The bookcase was my daughters, repainted of course, and my computer area. I have all ready started filling the bookcase with my knitting pattern books. A new chair is also on the list of things to get!

You can see the corner shelves that my DH suggested and put up for me. I think that I will use them for decorations and pictures. Just to the left of the box is where my sewing machine is going to go. I will put a cork board up on the wall for patterns when I am sewing, and peg board on both sides. I will use that for scissors, rulers, seam rippers, thread and bobbins, etc. To the right, at the end of the desk I have about 30" of blank wall. That is where the wrapping center is going to go.

These are my cubicles, that I have had for several years. As you can see they are really full. That is were I have our scrapbooks, photos, and magazines for ideas. I have quite a few boxes of sewing stuff to put away. Now I just have to figure out how to fit everything in here. That will take a little bit of time. LOL!!

An Accidental Trick

I was determined that I was going to get my desk done today so that I could start moving in. My mom is coming to visit Wed and the guest room has been taken over with my stuff! Imagine that!!

I went down this morning to put the varnish finish on my desk. That is the last thing to do for the desk. I started and within about 10 minutes the guys were really complaining. I must have bought varnish instead of polyurethane. The difference in smell was amazing! It was really bad. No one was very happy with me. The treat part of this whole situation is that I can start moving everything into the room. It isn't done, but it is to the point that I can start moving in.

The piece in the middle of the room is going to be my cutting table extension. It was the piece that was leftover after the cutting accident ;p I figured I should use it. I have hardware to attatch it to the desk when I want it. On the other end I will put hinged legs. When I want to cut something out I will just take it out and attatch it to the desk, with the legs down. When it is not in use it will tuck under the desk.

Over on the left side you can see that part of the desk is sticking up. That actually was done on purpose. I had to put a bookcase right in front of the plug for my computer. I cut the desk so that I would be able to get rid of the cords, and get to the plugs if I need to. The desk under it supports it, and it matches the other side will so there is no gap.

I am still going to put up the pegboard for the wrapping center and a peg board and cork board on the wall for the sewing area. I also want to do a fabric window treatment. That can be done later though.

Desk update

Tonight, I came home from work and we did dinner and then I went down and started working on the desk. I put wood putty into the coner joint and got it sanded down. I put two coats of paint on the desk, extension, and corner shelves. The painting is done for this part. Yeah!!

Lightbulb Ideas

I don't know about you, but I often get my lightbulb moments at unexpected times. For example when I am supposed to be doing something else like sleeping or working.

While we were running payroll this afternoon I got a great idea for a new knitting design. I have one more niece sweater to do for Christmas. I wanted it similar, but not the same.

Last night at knitting I was teaching Bona how to do a bobble. I was thinking about that and the sweater that I just finished and the pieces fell into place. I amb going to do a panel inbetween a small twist cable. It will be a combination of bobbles, twisted stitches, yarnovers and the stitch that is called the "butterfly" or "bow tie". I can't wait to start.

I am also gong to do something different for my nephew's sweater. At least I have not done it before, and that is to make a faux yoke with a different color and pattern on the top. I am curious to find out how it will turn out.

Craft Room Desk

I learned something this week. Cutting wood late at night is the same as cutting fabric. You shouldn't do it! I wasn't paying attention to the way the wood was turned and I cut it wrong. TWICE!! I debated for several days what to do and then I broke down and just went and got a new piece. I really wanted the bullnosed edge so that it would have a more finished look to it.
DH and I got the corner bracket up. We started drilling for the other and realized that we were hitting brick instead of a stud. We had to go borrow a stud finder. We couldn't find ours! I have marked the stud, but with DH's oral surgery and company this weekend I haven't got back in there to finish the brackets. I need to paint the desk and drill the holes in them for the electrical cords. Once I have them up, I will have a good idea of the placement. My computer is going under the window, and the sewing machine will be over by the closet. I think I am going to move the bookcase to the corner between the dressers and the desk. That way I can have that one wall for the wire cubicles that hold on the scrapbooks, magazines, pictures and negatives. I am starting to wonder if I am going to get all of this in!

I didn't want to have any unused space. When I was on the internet looking for organizatinal ideas I saw a peg board gift wrapping center. I am going to do one of those behind the closet door. It will fit perfectly. I will put up rolls of paper and have all of the tape, scissors, ribbon ect hanging with it. I am really excited about it! It will be great at Christmas time for all of us.