January - Drawing to a Close

I've been a bit under the weather for the last week and busy wrapping up all my January projects. At some point mid-month, I was approached with 3 or 4 offers for new jobs or projects, and I took them all on.

Lesson learned: you do not have to say yes to everything. 


I did, however, finish up a ton of felt brooches and list them in the shop:

I've been working a lot on my photography, and I feel like I've definitely improved in the last 6 months, but I would love some input. Are you drawn to a clean, white background when shooting photos of your work? Or do you prefer to experiment with colors and textures?

Valentines! Or... Anti-Valentines

Yesterday I listed a ton of Valentines in my Etsy shop. 

However, let's face it - Valentine's Day is kind of dumb, right? I mean, yes, it's sweet to celebrate love, etc, but shouldn't you do that every day of the year? Plus sometimes you're just not feeling up to it. 

Which is why these are my new favorite:

A bloody arrow through the heart. That's more like it. 

All of these are available in the shop.

Meghan's hat & mittens

When my family came to visit for Thanksgiving, my sister wore a hat I knit her for her birthday in January 2009. I only had one measly WIP picture of the hat, and asked her to take some more of her modeling it.

She agreed, but told me, "I need some mittens to match!" I asked her what kind she wanted - gloves, mittens or fingerless gloves?

She responded that she would like the kind of mittens where the top folds over so they can be fingerless gloves. Otherwise known as the most difficult type of mittens. 

I started with a pattern that matched her hat - BonBons - and modified it. I made the cuff longer, closed the thumb and added the flap over the fingers. I winged it with the flap, picking up stitches on the back of the hand and using even decreases with the cable pattern. There's a loop at the top so they can button back to the wrist.

The hat, by the way, is the Slouchy Copy Cat and both are knit in Wool-Ease.

So it only took two years, but now she has a matching set!

escape!

So as soon as I came back from "Christmas break," I jumped right into rehearsal for a new show. It's a new original musical called "Escape from the Haltsberg Boys' Choir," and I'm playing in the band. 

What am I playing? My accordion, of course. 

Can you see me on the left, bent by the weight of my giant accordion? Don't feel too sorry for me - I only come on stage for about about 5 minutes, and the rest of the time I sit in a chair off stage. This is my first public accordion performance, and it's been quite the learning process. Video soon! 

a custom mounted owl

Before Christmas I was contacted by my good friend Allison, who wondered if it would be possible to buy a gift certificate for her cousin, Jen, for a custom mounted mustache. On Christmas eve I sent her the certificate with links to my work, saying that she could "pick anything!"

She wrote back to me and said that although she loved the mustaches, she loved the owls more, and would it be possible to make an owl that looks like her cat?

Of course...

I am so pleased with how he came out! I made him to look like her cat, "Owl," so of course I named him "Cat." He's a little bigger than the mustaches, and much bigger than any other owl I have ever made. 

And there's the adorable Jen and Owl. I think Owl & Cat will get along fine!

Flickr Friday - A little Spring in my step

This week was snowy and cold and all I wanted to do was sleep. Can you blame me for loving these springy things?

1. colourgirl by Sarah Walton 2. ...and now i need a drink by nanaCompany  3. Mrs. Schmitt by mo + me

A little bit of sewing : the Anna Maria Horner scarf

So I mentioned last week that I was gifted the fabric to make one of Anna Maria Horner's Figure Eight Velveteen Scarves. The perks of reading the same blogs as your mom!

Anna posted instructions on how to make it here on her blog, and I sewed my scarf up on Saturday. It could not have been better timing, since we got 6" of snow on Tuesday.

I love this scarf! The fabric is super soft and easy to work with, but because the velveteen is a bit heartier, it stands up to cover my face in the wind. This is a must in Chicago - I spend most of the winter walking around looking like this:

Yeah... attractive. 

Speaking of being attractive in the winter... it always amazes me how guys will still check one out in the winter despite being covered by a giant, puffy, blue coat with a scarf wrapped around one's head. Just a little observation. 

planning my selfish knitting

So after I catch up on my Christmas knitting, I have a few selfish projects in mind.

First up, a pair of Bella's Mittens, knit from subliminalrabbit's pattern. When I pulled out all my long gloves in December, they were completely worn through, and they had already been mended and then worn through the mending! So if you ask me, it's time for new ones. I bought some bulky Lamb's Pride for these in Denver, so I'm ready to roll.

Next, a Beatnik.

This was my very favorite pattern from Knitty. Honestly, I haven't really been inspired to knit any of their patterns in a long time, but this one is perfect. Challenging but hip with a great neckline. And then Allyson from The Sweatshop of Love announced that she was doing a knit-along... I'm in, albeit I'll be casting on a little late. They started Monday, but I'll probably join in two weeks or so. I have faith I can catch up!

And lastly, I got a Sock Cocktail Kit for Christmas. Don't stone me here, but I don't really like to knit socks. But this winter, all that will change. Or I'll have a lot of left-over sock yarn. 

two little mermaidens

About a week before Christmas I decided that the matching mittens were not enough of a present for my two nieces. They needed dolls. Chalk it up to pre-Christmas insanity.

I've been thinking about making softies all year, and dabbled a little with a few puppets. I used the lovely (and free!) Mermaiden pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. The construction was really interesting - you sew the fabric pieces together before cutting them out, and then finish the whole thing by hand - and I thought they turned out quite cute. I had a bit of a problem with the green maid's face (a bit squashy), but the brown maid came out much more even. 

I really love her and think her hair looks like Loretta Lynn with a huge bouffant! I like to imagine that instead of singing like Ariel under the sea, she's singing with a twang!

a set of three matching mittens

After seeing a post from Katie, I had to make a pair of simple mittens like hers. I wasn't sure who they would be gifted to, but then I had an idea...

A set of three matching mittens for my sister-in-law and my two nieces!