Finally!

Yay!
I finally finished Tasha's socks!



They really weren't all that difficult. I had a few problems with sore joints, but that eventually went away.
My biggest problem was they just kept getting put aside for more mindless or interesting projects.
And I wasn't all the compelled to finish them, since they weren't for me (oh, doesn't that sound horrible!?)

Here is one modeled on my way too big for it foot:



Pattern is the scrolls pattern from more sensational knitted socks with extra plain rows between pattern rows. Yarn is knit Picks Essential on US size 1(2.25mm) Hiya Hiya's

I started another pair of socks at knit night tonight. But they are just going to be plain vanilla socks for mindless car knitting.


Oh yeah, and I also finished embroidering a T-shirt for Bill tonight.



the fabric was too dark to use my usual transfer pencil, so I just traced to design onto my stabilizer and ironed it onto the front of the shirt.
the lines aren't as neat as I would like, because I couldn't see exactly where my needle was going with he stabilizer sheet in the way, but overall I'm pretty happy.

pattern is from an old Workbasket, and also available on hoop love

Green is his favorite colour, and he likes mushrooms, it's great during the spring and fall he'll go out with his magnifying glass and identification book and spend hours just looking at strange types of fungus.

What I did today

Today I got up early and made Cinnamon buns:



Then I ironed my new t-shirt:

I forgot to save the peacock image last time, and I wanted to enlarge it, so I went hunting, and found two versions. one specifically for redwork, so it had easier to follow lines, but not all the design elements like the machine embroidery one did. a little time in photoshop and I had exactly what I wanted. I'm very pleased with this.


After that I decided to make some tea towels to embroider:

I came upon some cheap cotton the other day, and I thought it would be perfect for embroidery. I wanted to practice my hemming skills, so it was a perfect opportunity. These are just the first four tea towels. If I like how everything works out I may make more, I certainly have plenty of fabric.


And while I had the sewing machine out I decided to finish up a little girl doll I has been working on:

I think her torso is too long for her legs, but otherwise I'm happy. i enjoy coloring things in before embroidery, I really like the look


and the dachshund ornament for my cousin.

She just recently got her first dog, a dachshund and is completely in love with the adorable little guy.


earlier this week I also finished up a his and hers pillowcase set for Bill's parent's for Christmas:


they have two orange tabbies, and the kitties were just too adorable not to make.


And a Basset hound pillowcase for my father:

I think I'm going to give this to him for his birthday.

kittyyarnshirt

kittyyarnshirt
Originally uploaded by alien_sunset

just a quickie before I head off too kit night.
this is the shirt I'll be wearing tonight, I got the pattern from the flickr group hoop love

I've been a busy little beaver

But it's been mostly embroidery.

First the knitting content:
I'm almost finished with Tasha's socks, I have just the ribbing to go and they will be done. I'm hoping to work on them tomorrow on the trip to Watertown.

On the embroidery front:
I like peacocks; I especially like peacock blue thread. So I made a peacock:


I was thinking the other day about Dolls, and I wondered if I could figure out how to make one. So I found a little girl picture and went to town.



I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think I would have liked to have done something with her dress though, that's a lot of blank space. Perhaps next time I do one.

I was so happy with the way the doll turned out I tried another idea that had been running through my brain: Goddess Dolls. They came out better than I hoped and I really liked the way the coloring worked. I'm offering these two up for sale in my Etsy shop if anybody is interested.



With the success of the Goddess Dolls I decided to make children's dolls too, but I needed to draw the design myself in order to sell. So I started sketching. While warming up my drawing muscles I came up with a nifty little design that I though looked cool, and decided to see what it would look like worked up. I was quite pleased:


the success of my first 'art embroidery' got me going and I doodled some more and came up with a pretty heart and vine pattern that I thought would look really nice as a pillow edging. But as I was playing around I realized it would really neat on a shirt too:


(can you tell I like curlicues?)

There are meant to be flowers on the vines too, but I was having difficulty with the stitching through the stabilizer and couldn't get them to work on the shirt.

:: flail ::

OMG OMG OMG

Mondays are knit night here in Clayton, a bunch of women get together at a local cafe, and knit and chat etc.

tonight while we were all there a gentleman comes in orders a coffee and sits in a corner with his laptop.
I barely noticed him, he looked a bit scruffy, and a little familiar, but I figured he was just some local that I'd seen around town.

after he left, the owner of the cafe interrupted us.

you see... the scruffy guy? why he looked so familiar?

it was VIGGO MORTENSEN!!!

:: flails around like a silly fan girl ::

I swear to god, every single woman there freaked out, and then he came back!! luckily it was getting towards closing time, so we all had to leave or I think some of the women *cough*me*cough* may have exploded.


{EDIT}
Dear Viggo, if you ever find this (or care) we really never would have bothered you and in fact were quite impressed that you did not run scared after seeing our band of motley and slightly raucous knitters.

Embroidery, sewing and dragons, oh my!

Ok, so I'm still embroidering, but I'm running out of things to make.

I finished up a redwork dragon, and Bill is going to frame it for me along with the Pegasus I posted earlier. I think they will make a nice set.


then I made this pillow. I saw the pattern on Etsy and just had to make it. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but a pillow seemed perfect. It's so pretty! If you want to make one too the seller is here she's an amazing artist, totally go support her.


the fabric was just perfect too. It was my first time sewing a pillow case though, and I think I made the overlap too deep. Ah well, I'll know for next time.


while I had the sewing machine out I decided to whip up some more sachets for the sop while I was at it. if you want to buy you can find them here

*poke* ow *poke* ow *poke* bleed

I seem to be obsessed with embroidery.
it's so simple and the results are so pretty!

I have plans for a few pieces to make and then frame up for Christmas and mother's day presents. and I've got this wild hare to put some cute ones together in a small quilt type thing for my mom.

I may just be loosing it.
but to distract you, here have some pictures of what I've finished now:


a redwork Pegasus. I used my new washable blue tracing pencil for this guy, but it got dull before I got to the face, and it's too big to fit into a conventional pencil sharpener, so I lost a lot of face detail. also, the DMC 321 I was using bled all over. it's not as easy to see in the picture, but the fabric has a definite pink cast to it, and theres a few red splotches here and there too. I tried washing in cold water and rinsing a lot, and it helped a little, but not much.




one of the pieces I'm going to make into a quilt for mom.
it's spring themed i think, and this is the first one I finished. I used my heat transfer pencil for this one. much easer to see and stitch. but it doesn't wash out, so if I'm not perfectly careful you can see the lines.


so far so good, my technique is getting better and I'm having a lot of fun.

don't worry, I'm sure I'll run out of steam eventually, then it will be back to your regularly scheduled knit blogging.