Crafterly

My brain is all over the place. My house is in complete disarray as well (often times, they go hand in hand for me). Now that weddings and showers are no longer on my calendar this summer, I’m determined to clean up. Laundry, clutter, sanity, etc.

I feel all over the place with my crafts too. It’s like my brain is going to explode. There are only 24 hours in a day, and I don’t have enough internal capacity to pursue all the interesting things out there! I have just recently signed up for a photography class this fall. I’m combining my wirework interests with newfound interests in metalwork (see my new favorite toy below). Firing up this baby is SO MUCH FUN. I never knew there was an inner pyro in me. After my first torch class, I want to fire up EVERYTHING!

I’ve also been playing around with jewelry. It’s been a year since I’ve been addicted, and the beading obsession is still growing strong. Here’s a little peek:

Lastly, how could I not mention any fiber crafts? After all those squeal-licious booties, I got to doing an adult-sized version (yes, there’s a pattern for this too).

The stupid thing is, I wasn’t paying attention to the pattern, and I made it slightly too big for my own foot (I crocheted with a double strand of yarn rather than a single strand). I wear a size 8.5, and I think this will fit a 9 or 10. I’ll be throwing this in the washer and dryer to block it anyways (I’m using Cotton Ease) so we’ll see how it turns out and whether it changes the fit or not.

Ok, off to cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry! Whoopee! (Can you hear the sarcasm through your computer screen?)

His and hers!!

First, one more Mary Jane, in pink and green as suggested:

And now, for the boys! I love these little loafers!!

Pattern: Little Button Loafers, by Sylvia Schuchardt (see note below)
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease, various colors
Hook: 3.5mm hook (E)
Notions: sewing needle, embroidery thread, coordinating buttons
Notes:

The soles are pretty much the same as Sylvia’s other booties patterns. Although, with this particular pattern, I had some trouble. I suspect there is some error with the pattern, because Jen had similar problems too. We checked and double-checked. So I sort of “fixed” the pattern so it would work for me. For newborn sizes, in the Body section, #1, I joined color A in the 5th stitch to the right (instead of the 3rd). And in the same section, #4, Sc 14 (instead of 15). With those minor changes, everything seemed to be better aligned.

Other than that, these were super cute and super fast to make. I don’t like sewing, much less hand sewing, but my motivation to put the buttons on was to have a uber cute finished product. Ta-da!

As promised, a couple pairs of mini Mary Janes! These went so quick, I feel like I can make a billion of them. I’ll be mailing these to Natasha. I hope she gets the package before she sees this blog post… but I have a feeling she’ll see this before she gets the mail. (Hi Tash! Hope you like them! Congrats!) =)

Blue/green:

Brown/pink:

Pattern: Baby Mary Jane “Skimmers”, by Sylvia Schuchardt
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, in various colors; Lake, Lime, Hazelnut, Berry
Hook: 3.5mm (E)
Notes:

Pattern
This pattern is very detailed and very well written! Make sure you count each stitch, however. If you’re off by one, it throws the whole pattern off, that’s how specific it is. And it goes really fast. I can finish a newborn pair in one afternoon. I love it!

Yarn
A bit on the splitty side for this type of project; you are using a worsted weight yarn with a 3.5mm hook, so things are going to be dense and a little tight (which is intentional). Slightly frustrating at first, until I loosened my grip a tad. Love the colors and the fact that it’s machine washable, of course!

What other color combos do you guys think would be cute?