Bags, Gloves, and Cookies...Oh my!

It has been a while since I've updated, but I have been busy.  I started a new job at a local library which has lead to even more reading and a new blog (more on that later).  Due to some major changes in my life, I haven't been getting as many things sewn or knitted as I'd like, but I have done a few fun things.

Noodlehead's 241 Tote Pattern

I repinned this picture to my Sewing board on Pinterest.

My sister-in-law saw it and made a not-so-subtle suggestion that I make it for her.  My SIL is an incredibly generous person and she has done so much for this ridiculous family she has married in to, including planning and hosting a family reunion this past June.  So, I was more than happy to make this bag for her.

The pattern was designed by Noodlehead and can be found here.  There are two options in the pattern, to make the bag as seen in the picture above with two external pockets or with two internal pockets closed with zippers on the outside.

I made the bag with the external pockets since that was the picture my SIL had seen and because I thought they looked really cute.  Her favorite color is orange and I used that as the basis for my fabric selection.  

All fabric was purchased at Joann Fabric

I found the pattern easy to follow but I did have some issues with my personal impatience.  There are a lot of curved seams.  A LOT of curved seams. It is definitely worth the time and attention to detail, but I hate curved seams.  

The only adjustment I made was to make the strap a few inches longer because my SIL likes to wear her bags with the strap across her chest rather than just over her shoulder.

I love the mid-century feel of the main body fabric and the whimsical character of the creamsicle swirl fabric that lines the bag. This is an incredibly useful bag that I can see making again in the future...for me.

Some Nerdy Knitting

A friend of mine recently became an uncle for the first time.  I, and many of my friends, are big fans of Doctor Who.  I knew little William was going to get a lot of Doctor Who themed gifts and I wanted to do something no one else would do, so I made him a blanket based on the 4th Doctor's scarf.  You know which one I'm talking about.  Even if you've never seen an episode of Doctor Who, you know who and what I'm talking about.

Last year I made a version of the scarf for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special.

Here it is modeled by my bow tie wearing assistant.

I found the pattern on Pinterest where some awesome person put together a pattern with a list of currently available colors in Vanna White brand yarn.

Using this pattern and colors, I widened the scarf into a baby blanket.

Fairy Tale Knitting

Have you checked out Knit Picks yet? I love Knit Picks!  They have a great selection and amazing prices.  I have a set of their Rainbow interchangable needles and they are just incredible, not to mention beautiful! And a couple of times a year they have a 40% off sale in their book department.  This year it just so happened to coincide with my birthday, which gave me the perfect excuse to treat myself to a couple of books.

I had to get Green Gables Knits because I have been a fan of Anne of Green Gables since I was 12 years old and I had to add this to my collection.  Once Upon A Knit is just so full of beautiful patterns, I couldn't resist.

The first thing I made are the Bookish Belle Mitts.  My cousin (the same one I made the Gone With the Wind Christmas tree skirt for) is a huge Disney fan and her favorite princess is Belle.  While we were hanging out at the family reunion in June she asked me to make her a pair of fingerless gloves.  The patterns she kept showing me were long, they went up almost to her elbow, but I figured her love of Belle would have her accepting these smaller gloves.  And it did.  They turned out beautifully and she loves them.

Made with Knit Picks Palette Yarn

Baking

I haven't been baking as much lately, due to many reasons, but after going to the Wilton Tent Sale, I had to put my new toys to use.  

My favorite new toys are my Linzer cookie cutters and I decided to use them to make cookies for an evening with friends.

Since it was summer, I wanted to play off that theme and came up with blueberry shortbread cookies with lemon curd filling and s'mores cookies with homemade graham crackers.

For the blueberry lemon cookies, I made a basic shortbread cookie batter (2 sticks unsalted butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups flour) and I added ground up freeze dried blueberries. I started with 2 tablespoons but felt it didn't seem blueberry-y enough, so I sprinkled in more and eyeballed it until I was happy.  Then I used my round Linzer cutter and made the cookies. 

For the s'mores cookies, I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe for homemade graham crackers and used a semi-sweet chocolate ganache and marshmallow fluff to complete this summer staple.

They were both delicious, but I have to say I think the s'mores cookies were my favorite. 

New Blog

Because I haven't been busy enough lately, I decided to start a new blog.

Catching Up With Caldecott follows my journey to read all the books that have been awarded The Caldecott Medal.

The Caldecott Medal is awarded for excellence
in children's book illustrations.

Each post will highlight a winner and discuss the story and the artwork.  

Check out the first post all about Animals of the Bible, the first book to win the Caldecott in 1938

Meet Agnes

I have been quite busy lately being crafty.  I knitted my first pair of socks and my first pair of mittens.  And I must have been very good last year because Santa brought me an amazing new sewing machine, which has led to some terrific projects.

Last summer, my beloved sewing machine died while I was trying to sew a Star Wars quilt.  It had broken before and I took it to a repair shop, it cost a fortune to repair and they had kept it for nearly six months. This time, when the machine made a horrific grinding noise and locked up, I knew it was time. Unfortunately, I was unable to afford a new machine, but Christmas morning, waiting for me under the tree, was Agnes.

Yes, I named my sewing machine.  Meet Agnes, Aggie for short.

Isn't she beautiful?  I did watch the 30 minute DVD included because my last sewing machine had a thread cassette, which means I slipped the spool inside this plastic case and slipped it in the machine where it thread itself.  This time, I have to thread the machine myself, which I hadn't done since I made shorts in my Junior High Home Ec. class.

Aggie is a fancy computerized sewing machine.

Look at all the awesome specialty stitches!

Of course I tried out a bunch of the specialty stitches and I can spell out words.  How cool is that?

My first project was a simple one, I needed to get to know Aggie before I tried anything more complicated.  

Years ago, my parents redid their family room in a lighthouse theme.  I surprised them with a set of lighthouse couch pillows.  Well, years passed and several people, and dogs, used those pillows until they fell apart.  My mother asked me for a new set for her birthday.

Rather than doing lighthouses again, I found this fantastic nautical map fabric at Hancock Fabrics.  The pattern is a simple envelope pillow pattern I've used many times before, I have two oversized pillows on my own couch I made with this pattern and my dog has a bed I made with it as well.  

Around about the time I received Agnes, I discovered the website Spoonflower. I love this website.  It is a specialty fabric site that allows you to design your own fabric or buy fabric other people have designed.  It's not cheap, one yard of cotton fabric runs about $17.50, but it is all unique and really cool.

The first thing I bought, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with, but I had to own it.

The Doctor Who 10th Doctor Trifold Wallet, it's a panel with all the pieces needed to make a cotton fabric wallet based on the 10th Doctor.

David Tennant as the 10th Doctor (Doctor Who)

I had to buy it.  When it arrived I knew I had to make it for my 7 year old nephew who loves the 10th Doctor (he has his own Sonic Screwdriver and likes to wear a necktie).

This wallet was very easy to put together and came out really cute.

Wallet folded 

Exterior of the wallent

Interior of the wallet

Lining of the cash pocket of the wallet

I loved the quality of fabric and how it looked, so I returned to Spoonflower and I found Sonic Screwdriver fabric that I could not resist!  I had found a pattern for a messenger bag on Pinterest that called for a yard of fabric, so I had to buy it.

Seamus, my assistant, helping me cut the fabric.

A closeup of Aggie hard at work

I loved the coppery hues in this fabric with the pops of blue, red and green. I went to Hancock Fabric and found a copper colored fabric for the lining and a copper button.  

The pattern does not call for a button, but I wanted to try the buttonhole foot on Agnes, so I added one.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  It is bigger than I thought it would be and I've already used it for work and to carry my laptop.

While searching through Pinterest, I found a beautiful pattern to make a burlap purse.  

It is a free pattern from La Maison Reid.

A friend and I went to Hobby Lobby, where I had every intention of making a brown purse like the one above and then I saw all the colors of burlap they offer.  They had brown, tan, blue, gray, a bright orange and more.  After some deliberation, I decided to go with a pale blue for the bag, gray for the rose, and a pretty blue floral cotton for the lining.

Burlap is not easy to work with.  As soon as you cut it, it starts unraveling. I'm not going to lie, this bag brought me a lot of frustration.  I have since found a link on Pinterest that shows you how to cut burlap so it won't unravel, I'll be using those tips next time.  

But I am very happy with how the bag turned out, it's so pretty and spring-y.  

And I just love the lining.

My roses are different from the one she used on La Maison Reid, because I had trouble making them.  I tried several different techniques I learned on websites and fromYouTube videos, but it took me forever to create roses I actually liked.

And when it was all said and done, Seamus took the left over scrap of blue burlap and adopted it as his new best friend.

But I haven't just been sewing, I am still knitting as well!

I made my first pair of socks!  Yay!  I am so excited!  A new yarn shop opened about 5 minutes from my house and I am in trouble!  Little Owls Knit Shop.  The owner is very sweet and she did a lot of giveaways and free classes for the grand opening week.  She held a two hour sock making workshop and I decided to sign up.  I've wanted to make socks, but I've been very intimidated by them.  The pattern she gave us used a thicker yarn, worsted weight instead of sock weight, and larger needles, which made the pattern more accessible.  

The socks are warm and soft and cozy.  I had them finished within a week.  I used Tatamy Tweed yarn by Kreamer Yarns.  I am now a little obsessed with making more socks, so I'm sure I'll have more pairs done soon!

I also made my first pair of mittens!  I've made fingerless gloves in the past, but I hadn't attempted mittens or gloves, mainly because fingers scare me.  Well, I was snowed in one day and decided to give mittens a try.  I had found this pattern for Last Minute Mittens on Pinterest, but I made one big change.  Rather than do the ribbed cuff, I took a funky novelty yarn I had and made the cuffs out of that before using bulky gray yarn I had in my stash and I came up with these fun mittens that have kind of wonky thumbs (fingers are hard!), but I'll keep practicing and I'll master fingers someday!

Baking and Crafting in 2013

Well, it seems I have slacked off a bit in updating my blog, hasn't it?  You know who's fault it is?

 

I have become addicted to Doctor Who. 

 

I started watching it back in January, then I got busy and stopped halfway through the first season of the reboot.  A couple weeks ago I started again and now I'm halfway through the third season and I can't stop.

 

The good part is that while watching the Doctor it has given me plenty of time to get some knitting done.

 

 

 

This actually started as the Nymphadora Scarf, a mohair pattern I found on Ravelry.  But I wasn't paying attention and I didn't buy enough yarn.  I had run into a local yarn shop that was going out of business and bought some mohair at a really good price.  Then I did something stupid.  I lost the labels on the yarn.  I went back to the yarn store, but they had been all picked over and the mohair was almost entirely gone.  I had the name of the brand, but not the names of the colors.  When I looked it up online, I couldn't determine the proper shades.

 

Rather than give up, I worked until I ran out of the grey and then seamed the ends together, making it into an infinity scarf.

 

I will someday buy enough yarn to actually complete the Nymphadora Scarf.

 

 

 



Whenever I finish a project, I email a picture of it to my sister-in-law.  When she saw the Dragon's Tail Shawl, she didn't believe me that it was mine.  I took that as a compliment.

 

I bought this super soft Universal Yarn Downtown DK in Bonfire from Knitter's Dream awhile ago.  My college colors, Mansfield University, were black and red and I am a sucker for anything in those colors.  When I bought it, I had no idea what I was going to do with it, which is true of a lot of yarn I buy.

 

Then I came across the Dragon's Tail Shawl on Ravelry.  I love this pattern.  I really love this pattern.  It worked up fast and easy and looks great.  What I really like is how versatile it is.  It's worked in sections and you can pretty much design your own shawl by deciding which section to start with and how many repeats.

 

I see several versions of this shawl in my future.

 

 

I also did a few cakes in the past month. 

 

 

For Alex's second birthday he wanted Miles Axelrod from Cars 2.

 

 

It was a yellow cake with chocolate chip cookie dough filling (eggless, of course), and vanilla and chocolate buttercream.  The wheels were chocolate covered doughnuts with Rolos stuffed in the center to make the hubcaps.

 

For her 10th birthday, Emily wanted a cake that looked like her dog, Bowser. 

 

 

Emily wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up and thought it would be fun to perform surgery on a cake version of her dog.  It was a chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate ganache filling (Emily LOVES chocolate) and vanilla buttercream icing.

 

Well, it's back to work now.  I have Doctor Who to watch and I'm working on completing my first adult sweater, the Palladio Sweater by Berroco.

 

 

If I actually complete it, I'll be sure to post pictures!