Stitchify - Crafts and Fiber Arts Inspiration

This is a nice, practical, full-of-love thing you can make for someone enduring an extended hospital stay. Aunt Susan had a one month stay in the beginning of the year, and has another one coming up. She said that her cellphone was always slipping off of her bed and onto the floor, and she requested a little pouch with velcro staps that she could attach to the rails on her bed. This one that I made nicely fits a pen, small pad of paper, chapstick, and an iPhone or Blackberry sized cell phone. If you’d like to make one, here’s the specs:

Iron fusible interfacing on to the back of your fabric to give it a little bit of strength. Then cut five pieces in the following sizes:

(2) 6″ tall x 5″ wide

(1) 4.5″ tall x 5″ wide

(1)3.5″ tall x 5″ wide

(1) 2.5″ tall x 5″ wide

Cut two 4″ lengths of velcro - the scratchy side. Pin them to one of your 6″ pieces and sew them in place.

If you want to sew on a little felt doodad or to embroider some loving thoughts, this is the step to do it. I hand-sewed my heart onto the 2.5″ piece with embroidery floss and using blanket stitch.

Next, iron down a small hem on the 5″ side of each of the 4.5″, 3.5″, and 2.5″ pieces. Individually sew the hems down. Stack the 2.5″ on the 3.5″ on the 4.5″ on the non-velcro 6″ piece, each with their hemmed side at the top edge. Sew down the left side and the right side.

Now place the velcroed 6″ piece on top of your pocketed piece - *right side to right side*. Sew the pieces together around three of the sides - the left, bottom, and right. Now stuff your piece right-side-out. Neatly tuck in the top hole and iron the crease you just created.

Cut two 10″ velcro pieces - the fluffy side. Insert one piece of velcro into the top of your caddy, in line with one of the scratchy pieces of velcro on the back of your caddy, with the fluffy side facing the back of your piece. Repeat for the other side. Pin them in place. Your nice ironed hem with the pinned velcro is ready to be sewed shut. Go for it. Fin.

Sometimes it’s hard to think of a title!

I just wanted to pop in and say “Hello.” I’m laying low because I have a Midterm, a paper, and 2 quizzes on Thursday. Blech. And my aunt is starting her transplant next week and she’ll have to be in San Francisco for at least three months (prayers are welcomed!). Also, my uncle is in town. He was chosen as her donor. She has 3 full-blooded siblings and all three were a match! That’s a 1 in 64 chance! I’m not surprised, that’s SO Susan. =) Uncle Bill was chosen as the best match of the three. So, that’s what I’m up to.

Thursday marks the end of the first half of my last semester. It’s all downhill from here! YES!!!

And since you’re craftaholics, here’s my latest (disclaimer: Before blocking!). A present for Hazel (Dennis, don’t show Maria), who is due the day after I graduate. A new life for us both, girlfriend! It’s my first official garment! This pattern is really well written. It’s the Harvey Kimono from Natural Knits. I borrowed the book from the library, and I highly recommend it. I hope you all have a great weekend. MUCH love. OH! Thank you all for your votes - every single person urged me to knit the collar in teal! - You got it! Thanks so much for your opinions! I love you all. TTFN!

I got a lot of knitting done while on the Stitch ‘n Ride train with my Stephanie Japel Two-Tone Shrug, from the book Fitted Knits. Here is the version from the book.

I want to wear it at my graduation party with my sleeveless dress. I made the back, arms, and cuffs black, and put the project on hold until I bought a dress, which would help me decide what color to make the collar. I was going to do a creamy lemon color (because I always get fabulous comments when I wear yellow), but now I’m not so sure. I bought a dress this weekend, and it’s black and fushia with a small bit of orange. So now I’m trying to decide if I should be matchy-matchy and do a fushia collar (although I am more of a cool than warm complexion-wise), or if I should do a fun, bold teal (which my friends and family say is my best color). You’re probably thinking - a fushia and black dress with a teal and black shrug!?!? BUT let me tell you that the party theme is like a fiesta and there will be bold colors everywhere. Here are the dress and the collarless shrug.

And here is a picture of lanterns (from Cost Plus) that will be hanging in our tree during the party, to give you an idea of how colorful the party will be.

What do you think - play it safe and match the dress, or go for it with a teal collar? There are no wrong answers - please opine freely!

In other news - I got my ring and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!!! Mark at Monk’s Place Jewelry is a great guy and talented artist. I highly recommend him as a trustworthy and skillful jeweler in Sacramento. Here’s my lousy picture (taken while I was supposed to be writing a paper for school ;)) and Mark’s much better pictures. Thanks Mark, I LOVE IT!!!!!

A super fast wrap-up before I start my 12 hour work/school day (yay!):

Stitches West was awesome!!! I definitely want to go again and again and again. And Stitch and Ride was awesome too! They gave us a cute tote bag and a cool little sewing kit:

Aunt Bettie and I had gone to the local yarn store the day before, so thankfully my yarn desires were satiated. I don’t know how I could have chosen yarn at the convention. There was sooo sooo soo much yarn everywhere. I think it took us 4 hours to check out the whole convention once, and then another 2 and a half to make our second round. It was so neat!

I had my heart set on notions. There were a few vendors selling vintage beads. I bought some cool wooden toggles and a clasp for a future cardigan, cute wooden beads with flowers on them for a future baby girl project, and really cool leather beads for a future baby boy project.

I also bought a circular needle organizer, which couldn’t have happened at a better time. Just the day before I had spread my whole circ stash out on the table.

I got a lot of knitting done on the train, but I’ll have to show you that later - gotta jet - have a great day!

Disclaimer: I was just talking about NOT talking about depressing stuff on here, but the story below is only a means to a happy end, and I promise that I am not upset about it in the least anymore, so you don’t have to feel bad about it, okay? <3

You may recall that our house was robbed four weeks ago today. I discovered it, but thankfully only had to wait literally one minute for Andy to come home. We called the police and had to wait over an hour for them to arrive. In the meantime we were trying to keep ourselves from making an inventory of our house and things we hoped they didn’t get. The one thing I was worried about was a stash of really nice rings. My “engagement” ring (we really didn’t buy it until our first anniversary), a ring with a bunch of little diamonds from my grandma, and a big gold ring with a bunch of opals all over it. When we got inside, our house had been TRASHED. They threw all of our stuff EVERYWHERE. I ran to the location of the rings, and lo and behold, they were in the ONE drawer that the burglar did not touch. Hallelujiah!

The fact is that I am just not a jewelry girl. I try to be, but I’m just not. I don’t wear what I have, with the exception of my engagement ring, but it had lost a stone and gone unworn for a year. After the burglary I really worried about what to do with my stuff. I didn’t have a lot, but I knew I would never wear it, and I didn’t want it to sit in a drawer waiting to be stolen. So I got together all of my nice stuff, picked out sentimental pieces, and took the rest to a jeweler. My goal was to redesign my engagement ring, since I had honestly grown tired of the prongy way that it was; to use some of the little diamonds from my grandma’s ring; and to trade the left over gold to hopefully cover the cost of labor. And guess what - it worked out perfectly! I may even receive money back - in addition to a beautiful ring! Score!

Last night I received the pictures of the wax version for my approval. I am so excited! He did everything I asked: make the center-stone sideways and make it with no prongs to snag sweaters or my hair when I run my hand through it. I really really really like it and can’t wait to wear it! I should let you know that the wax version is slightly larger and bolder than the real version will be. But even if it wasn’t, I still love it! Yay! Can you believe that my horrible January is turning into a beautiful, joyous February? I knew that I shouldn’t waste time being angry or sad and that things would work out. I love that about the universe…

PS: If any burglars read this: #1… %@#& you… #2 this ring will never be left unattended #3 you will never get past our new attack monkey #4 we have installed hidden cameras, a security system, laser beams, and jumping spiders.

I will of course update you with new pictures once I have the real version!

Oooh, so exciting! My mother-in-law and I, and her neighborhood friends called The Knotty Knitters, are all going on an Amtrak train on Saturday to the Stitches West 2009 convention in Santa Clara! The official website says that “This is an all-out mobile yarnfest, where knitters and crocheters can meet and mingle en route to the annual Stitches West convention in Santa Clara. This is a special, dedicated train just for knitters/crocheters. Capitol Corridor holds an annual Stitch ‘n Ride event to Stitches West, the West’s biggest and best knitting expo, held at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Knitters and crocheters from Sacramento and the East Bay can climb aboard the Capitol Corridor and breeze down to the Santa Clara Convention Center for this annual event. Traveling via train, you’ll enjoy the company of other knitters traveling to the convention, share ideas and showcase your prized projects to others. The Capitol Corridor offers a relaxing atmosphere to knit while you travel, a much better option than dealing with traffic and parking!”

How exciting!!! And it’s so perfect - they are holding a chemo cap drive to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society! If you want to ride the Stitch n’ Ride train, today is the last day to buy tickets. Thank goodness the event is the day after payday! ;)

Heather aka High Desert Hooker did! She was chosen using a random number generator.

Everyone who commented will be receiving a little Thanks for Playing gift within a few weeks. <3

In other news, I am a guest blogger over on one of my favorite blogs today, La Fuji Mama. I posted two recipes of Andy’s that are sooo yummy - a balsamic vinaigrette and a black bean hummus recipe. Check it out!

Have a superb Monday!

We harvested our first heads of broccoli! The plants didn’t grow into recognizable broccoli for a really long time, then suddenly, giant heads arrived! If you recall, we planted carrots, radishes, green onions, white onions, broccoli, and lettuce about five months ago. This was our first time growing vegetables. We will definitely grow broccoli again, we won’t grow radishes again (I mean, there’s only so much you can do with them!), and the jury is still out on the other types of veggies. They haven’t grown into the edible bits yet. But we’re having fun with it. I only wish that Sacramento City allowed poultry chickens. Now - I wouldn’t have a huge flock or anything! Just two or three gals to lay some eggs. A guy in a class of mine last semester had two layers, and it sounded really fascinating and fun to me. Oh well, it’s illegal within city limits, so that won’t be happening for us any time soon.

In other home-front news. I thought you might be interested to see what we ended up hanging on that big blank wall in the dining room. There was actually a lot of drama surrounding these art pieces. I didn’t tell you about it when it was going down, because nobody reads blogs to get depressed! But, this had a happy ending, so I will give you an extremely abbreviated summary: My grandma in Missouri generously gave me two Japanese paintings. They arrived in Sacramento via FedEx but were never delivered. They were suddenly classified as “Damaged, Return to Sender”. Yadda yadda yadda drama drama drama, the package arrived back in Missouri - EMPTY. I spent hours and hours and hours riding many butts over the phone, and after three weeks, my art magically turned up in the FedEx Lost and Found. So in summary - I have them now, have inserted new glass, and although I had given up all hope, they are now hanging in my dining room where I had always envisioned them. (And who knows if the burglar would have taken them, so maybe it was good that they weren’t at our house when they were supposed to be??) Hooray for happy endings!