Scrappin' Saturday X

Scrappin' Saturday - take a peek into my scrapbook pages, and read about how I made them!

Background Paper: The background paper is a plain brown paper.
Photos:I only wanted this to take up one page, and had a difficult time deciding how to arrange it. I finally chose the hats I liked best, and that looked different from each other and carefully cut around them. (Some of the hats were nearly identical)
Die Cuts: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Seven. The largest label is cut out of a DSP with small pastel hearts on it. I used it to journal about the project. The two smaller ones are on solid colored paper and have information about the hat patterns I used.
Project Pictured: The 300 hat project.

Blog Posts of the Week IX

Blog posts of the week; a semi-regularly published collection of my favorite blog posts from the past week. (Or however long it's been since the last time I posted my favorite blog posts.) I can't believe that it has been a month since my last collection of blog posts! I believed it once I started wading through 600+ blog posts!

Tatting Posts

Purple Glory
Yarnplayer dyed some tatting thread in lovely shades of purple, inspired by morning glories.

An Impending Death
TattingChic is back to blogging, and, after lamenting the impending death of her computer, shares a lovely celtic bookmark.

Butterfly for a New Necklace
Umi & Tsuru is a tatting blog that I've been reading for about a month now. I love the original ideas the author has of adding tatting to pre-made shapes, beads, etc. In this post she tatted around the edges of a filigree butterfly.

Knitting/Crocheting Posts

Holiday Gift Time - Shawlettes

Sheri from The Loopy Ewe blogged about how awesome shawlettes are, and quite a few links to various patterns.

NEW Knitterella Holiday Tags!

Kniterella has designed gift tags for knitters to use with their knitted gifts! The best part about these tags is that the back side has care icons, so you can circle the appropriate icon, and not have to write out care directions.

Dishcloth and a '1'st Installment'...

Jelly Wares designed this lovely crocheted little girls dress, and is sharing the pattern! To get the first installment of the pattern, follow the directions in the post.

Miscellaneous

Molly's Sketchbook: Linen Thanksgiving Napkins

This post is from The Purl Bee. Mom and I have been talking about making and using cloth napkins for quite a while. When we were on vacation in Pennsylvania, we bought some fabric to make napkins with. I really like the way the edges were finished on these, so maybe we can try it.

Painting Our Craft Room, Part Two
This is from my Mom's blog, A Crafter's Chronology. This post tells most of the saga of how the project went from simply painting to ripping out the carpet. The new carpet has yet to be installed, and then we will be carefully evaluating everything that goes back into the craft room. I still haven't figured out how we crammed all that stuff in there in the first place. The picture is how our craft room currently looks. The painting is all done. No rug, and no furniture other than the computer desk and chair. The rug has been ordered, but we don't know when it will be installed.

Scrappin' Saturday IX

This week we're going back a few pages to my cross stitch pages. There is a lot of empty space because the rest of the cross stitches that I want pictures of on these pages aren't framed yet.

Paper - I used the pages supplied with the scrapbook.
Border - The capital X's from the Cuttlebug Alphabet Die set Olivia.I'm not sure this was the best idea I've ever had. It took forever, and gluing them down was difficult, to say the least. However, given that my original idea was to draw the x's by hand, this method was probably better.
Photos - I used a combination of Creative Memories Oval and Circle cutting systems, and cropping the photos to squares or rectangles and rounding the corners with a punch.
Projects Pictured - Prayer Away, Ruth 1:16, Butterfly towel, Clothespin Angel, and Teapot Afghan. I don't seem to have blogged about the lady/angel in the oval frame. It was a kit, and nearly everything is backstitched - it was very tedious.

Scrappin' Saturday VIII

This page is titled "My Favorite Shawl" for a very good reason - I've made the shawl four times, and currently have a request to make another one!

Background Paper - The background paper is a marbled pale pink color.
Border - The border across the top is from a pack of 12" paper strips.
Letters - The letters are from the Cuttlebug die set "Olivia".
Photos -The two rectangular photos were cropped, and the corners were rounded. The two oval photos were cropped with the Spellbinders Nestabilities die sets Large Classic Ovals, and Small Classic Ovals.
Die-Cuts - The photo labels were made with Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four The larger die that has the pattern and yarn information is from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Fancy Tags set.
Embellishments - The yarn ball and 'Just Knit' stickers came from a sticker pack by K & Company.
Projects Pictured - Blue Triangle Shawl, Purple Shawl, Mom's Shawl, and Another Easy Triangle Shawl.

Scrappin' Saturday is Back!

I finally ordered the pictures I needed for my 'brag book'. It is as finished as it can be. The only pages that are incomplete are the cross stitch pages (because I don't have the other projects that I want to include framed). The other incomplete pages are the 'Sophie' pages. They are up to date, but I left extra room to add new pictures. I will be updating pictures in some of the previous Scrappin' Saturday posts, as well as scheduling the remaining pages to be posted on Saturday afternoons. As each page is published, I will add it to the link list on the Scrappin' Saturday page. Look for a post this evening, and come back on Saturday afternoons for more pages!

Knitting Rules

Lately it seems as though every time I think about blogging, something more important comes up. I finally have a little bit of time, and a question. My question is: Do you have any 'rules' about your knitting? I do. I have two, actually. The first one is easy: Don't pick a project wildly beyond your knitting capabilities. Work your skills up to the project before starting it.
The second rule is somewhat more complicated, as it has exceptions. On the surface, it seems quite simple and straightforward: Never have more than one knitting project at a time. Easy, right? The complications come with the exceptions: Dishcloths or other small no-more-than-two-sessions projects are allowed. Taking time off from one project to knit a gift is allowed. Taking two projects on vacation is a good idea, in case one of them doesn't quite go the way you'd hoped.

And that's where I ran into trouble. I went on vacation in August. I thought that it would be a good idea to have two projects. So I cast on a knit a few rounds of two separate projects. Somehow that started things spiraling out of control and I now have three four knitting projects going. One is a gift, so that doesn't really count, right? That still leaves me with three WIP's, though.


The first two pictures are the projects I took on vacation. The top picture is of Cat Bordhi's Spring Thaw Socks. (Knitter's Magazine Summer 2008) I haven't worked on the socks since the day I cast on.
The second picture is "Cabled Wristlets" by Silka Burgoyne. (Creative Knitting November 2008) I worked on these the first day of vacation. Haven't touched them since.
The third picture is of a vintage stocking that I started. The pattern was downloaded from Vintage Purls. I have no idea why I started it, especially since I already had two projects going. I have no idea why I bought the yarn, either, since I'm not supposed to be buying yarn until I use some up.

This brings us to the fourth project. All I can show you is the yarn - it's a gift, and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the recipient.

Million dollar question of the day: What project should I go back to after I finish knitting the present?