Beyond Yarn

Well, it's been a long time since I rapped at ya! I thought I'd post some non-knitting needle work I did recently: I made some curtains for my bedroom. I'm often uninspired by curtains. They're too expensive, not very fun or creative, and they don't fit the window the way I want. I also want to start working with my sewing machine more, so I did and here is the result:

And here is the detail:


I found the sheer curtain at Target but it was too thin and boring, so I added the purple liner, with pink stitching!, and added a cute paisley edging to give it a little extra fun. I think I'm going to be adding panels of fabric to other things this summer (I have a cute shirt that's just a tad too short I'm going to try this with it next).
Also, my obligatory cat shots are getting way out of hand but that darn cat is a real ham!

Two little tops

There are two toddler girl birthdays coming up in the family so I took the opportunity to make my very first little kid garments. The yarn for both is super-soft Blue Sky Cotton - it would be a luxury yarn for me if I were making an adult-sized project, but since these tops use so little yarn, together they cost less than a kid's outfit from Old Navy!

This green wrap sweater is my first crochet project in a long time - years, even. It was so much fun to make, so fast and a nice change of pace. I love this color! The pattern is a free one from the Lion Brand website; the only modification I made was to use the ribbon ties instead of an inner snap and crochet chain tie for the closure. It took exactly 2 skeins (100 grams/150 yds).

This purple top is the Ballet T-shirt from Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop, the second project I've made from that book. There's an adult version of this top that I want to make for myself. The kid's version was so easy to make that it only took one afternoon & evening to finish, AND it only used a single 100 gram/150 yard skein! Actually, there was some yarn left over when I finished the pattern, so I just kept going to make it more of a tunic, and I added a single-crochet border around the neck to use up the whole skein. I think this will become a go-to pattern for gifts in the future.

Yellow bag

I (almost) finished the yellow wool bag...I'm editing this post because I decided to change the handle that's shown in this picture. A new one is in the works using the same leather in a different kind of braid.

The bag is loosely lined with fabric from an H&M cotton smock top that I didn't wear anymore.

Orange dress

Last week I bought the latest issue of Vogue Knitting and it's beautiful as always, with one project that really jumped out at me, so much that I literally put down the magazine, went to my stash trunk, and started working on it right away. It's the dress pictured on page 80, shown here with the first few inches:


The yarn is Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK - not something I'd usually use because it's expensive, and I try to buy easier-care fibers, but there was a bag of 11 balls on sale for half off at the yarn shop last fall, and I loved the color so much that I bought it and put it away until I found the right pattern. I'm a little worried I'll be cutting it close with the yardage...I guess we'll see!

And now for the action shot of my last project, the Giant Sweater!


It's extremely warm so I probably won't get much more wear out of it this season. It was pictured as a dress in the magazine but I like wearing it and other dresses over a pair of obscenely tight jeans I bought just for the purpose, so they don't add too much bulk where I don't want it :-)