BFF Jill and Rhonda were out shopping today and they encountered a couple of male aspiring knitters.
Finally, I have had a mitten success. You will remember my first try with a knitted pair. Then I tried again with a crocheted pair that I felted. I was ready to chuck it all unitil my friend, Gloria, suggested that I refelt my crocheted mittens and actually felt them to my hands. I didn't know you could do that! Gloria actually makes slippers and felts them to fit her feet!
Okay, so I made a second pair of mittens, I crocheted them this time. They were awesome. Were. There were just a little too big, so I got the bright idea to shrink them a little. BFF Jill told me about felting and the yarn that I used, according to it's tag said that it is perfect for felting. So, I followed the directions for felting. This is what I ended up with. Somehow, it shrunk in the width, but stretched in the length. Holy hell, these are worse than the first pair, I can't even get my little hand in them!
Well here it is, the shop apron that I sewed a week or so ago. I love the material and I love the pattern, but I don't love the two together. I think I would like it better if it was shorter, a solid color and maybe out of a heavier fabric.
Look at the awesome job I did of matching up the pattern on the pockets. I am very pleased with that part. I thought I would be fancy and use black thread, but the only thing it did was show exactly how crooked I sew!
I may reattempt this project again with the changes listed above. I've got to catch the sewing bug again, though.
I've been working on a pair of mittens for what seems like a year. Good mittens are hard to find, especially ones that fit my small hands. I usually resort to kids mittens, but knitted ones are hard to find, you mainly find fleece ones.
I found a pattern for an easy pair of knitted mittens. I've crocheted mittens before, but I like the look of knitted ones. I thought what the heck, I will give it a shot.
Well....something seems to be wrong with the pattern. I made the first mitten on the left. It was way too small, so I made the NEXT SIZE listed. You will see that it is freakishly way too long. I've checked and rechecked and I followed the pattern. I think this is a screwed up pattern.
Back to crocheting mittens for me!
Last week was a major crafting week for me. Well it was actually last Tuesday, not the whole week. I've been wanting to make a shop apron for some time now. I haven't sewed in a few years so I initially asked my friend Annoyed Angel to sew it for me. We were unable to hook up after PodCamp, so I thought, what the heck, I may give it a whirl.
While picking up some sewing supplies that I needed, I remembered that I had started a rag quilt years ago. I dug out the box that had all the supplies inside and realized that I had it all cut out, batting cut and pinned together. I just needed to machine quilt each block, sew all blocks together, snip edges, wash and dry.
I did this all last Tuesday. This is a very easy quilt to do, you just cut squares of fabric, then cut batting in squares that are one inch shorter, I screwed up and mine were 3/4 inch, but it was no big deal. You then pin two squares of fabric with the wrong sides facing, with a piece of batting in between. I machine quilted in an X pattern on all the squares.
It started with a simple Facebook status. "This nip in the air is making me want to get my knitting needles out". That simple status resulted in may friends asking me to teach them how to knit. My Aunt BJ suggested that I start a Stitch 'N Bitch since they are all the rage in New York.
Ford City Stitch 'N Bitch was born. What is a Stitch 'N Bitch, you ask? Well, it's a gathering, where you stitch and bitch! You knit, crochet, do counted cross stitch, embroider, anything you want, you can even just sit and visit and not craft. One hundred percent participation is required in bitching, though. If you don't know how to knit or crochet, someone will teach you!
We held our first Stitch 'N Bitch on Monday at The Purple Pinkie. It was a great success! Our plan is to move the monthly gatherings to another female-owned business each month. Many made pot scrubbies as their first project. BFF Jill made a penis lip balm holder, if you look closely at the photo, she is holding it!
BFF Jill and I have been wanting to make a second how-to video since vacation. We decided to do one on "How to make your own crocheted tampon" We learned about these and that people were actually making them and USING them on The Burgh Blog, which is now named That's Church. We have joked about these for over a year. I think our second video turned out fabulous!
After a year of skating on my new, expensive purple skates, I finally admitted that the plates are too heavy and they are contributing to my back and hip pain. I started wearing my old, cheap skates again and I have fallen back in love with derby.
Well, after having purple skates for a year, it pained me to skate with plain, old black ones. So, I decided to pimp them out!
Here is what they looked like before.
I was too lazy to take the wheels off, so I just masked around them.
I sprayed them with two coats of Outdoor paint.
I then prayed them with a matte finish, clear sealer.
After they dried, I applied Modge Podge where I wanted the racing strips to be, and then I put some gold glitter in a salt shaker and shook it over the stripes area, then dusted off the excess.
Once that dried, I sealed the glitter to the skate with another coat of Modge Podge.
Here is the finished product - A purplelicious set of skates with gold strips, what better way to represent Ford City than with the good old purple and gold!
