tricias penguin 8-2009 (1)
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
It's been quite awhile since I sat down and did any crocheting. For my sister in law's birthday I made her this cute little penguin since she likes penguins.
It was easy enough to make. Yarn used was just standard acrylic yarn. This should of taken only a few hours to make but I got sidetracked so it took me a couple of days.
I think he went to a happy home!
The paper and embellishments are from CTMH. It's one of their Workshops on the go packages. Due to some picture cutting errors I wasn't able to follow the exact layout in the instructions, but I like how it turned out.
This layout has started me back on my scrapbooking bug. I"m planning on organizing all my photos and start figuring out ways to get into full on scrapbooking groove.
juliannes sweater 6-12-09
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
Here's is my 3rd February lady sweater which I made. This was for a graduation present for my friend. I had this finished way before her party but I was lazy on the buttons and sewed them on about an hour before her party.
Still love this pattern.
I know this is my crafting blog and I should try and stick with the theme but sometimes there is a story that just holds so much meaning that it must be shared. This is a story which has circulated around the web for quite some time now. Every time I read it I always get a tear in my eye. It's probably one of the most heart touching stories that really expresses how a small bit of kindness can change a person's life.
Today's society and lifestyle it is very hard to forget to be kind to others. I admit that I even forget. I try my best though because I really believe in karma. Bad things done to another will always come back to bite you. It may not happen right away but eventually it will happen. A good deed done to another and the reward is reaped right at that moment in your heart and soul. Just remember treat others as you would like to be treated.
Okay enough with my battering here's the story. Enjoy!
Inspirational Story
A GLASS OF MILK - PAID IN FULL
Author Unknown
One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?” “You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.” He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Year’s later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She began to read the following words:
“Paid in full with one glass of milk”
Signed, Dr. Howard Kelly.
0506090906afeb lady sweater
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
I finished this sweater almost 2 wks ago but didn't get a chance to blog about it. I used the same pattern that I made my daughter's in for mine. The pattern is just so easy yet the end result is so striking that I knew I had to have one for myself.
I picked up this yarn from Yarn Paper Scissors (which sadly is soon to be closing their doors) on sale. The yarn is Cascade Sierra which is a cotton/wool blend. I LOVED working with this yarn. It was very soft to work with and I didn't have any problems with any splitting while working with it. I think because of the amount of cotton in the yarn this didn't make for a good yarn to block with.
The sweater is extremely comfortable to wear and it's not too hot nor heavy. I think the lace pattern also helps this. There are two things which I am not overly pleased about. I wanted long sleeves (as in all the way down to my wrist). I thought that I had made the sleeves long enough but I didn't account for when my arm bends that the length goes up. So now I'm debating to rip out the garter stitch rib and making the sleeves longer. I think since I did each sleeve in two separate sittings that I was just antsy to get it finished. Each sleeve had 23 repeats of the lace pattern.
The other issue is the collar. I found instructions on ravelry on how to incorporate a collar so I may just try it out and see how it turns out.
Overall I'm still really happy about this sweater and i"m pretty darned proud of it.
As those with children probably know the camera is constantly going off capturing those one of a kind moments. Personally I have thousands of these pictures since I have two daughters.
I've been debating for many years how I should do scrapbooks? Should I do one for each child and have another one to scrapbook family things?
I'd love to hear suggestions and comments about how I should scrapbook these memories.
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Elaines altered gift 5-10-09 (2)
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
I wanted to try to make something crafty and cute for my mother in law for Mother's Day. It took me a couple of days to figure out what to make. I decided on making her an altered tin. My sister in law had got me a bunch of different tins for a present a year or so ago so all I needed to do was decorate it.
I first started with origami paper. I lined the entire outside body with blue floral origami paper. I then used this adorable Japanese girl in a kimono stamp and stamped her 10 times. I colored half of them red and the other half. I used little rhinestones to put in the middle of her stash in red and clear.
The front of the altered tin has a little Japanese boy and girl sitting. I stamped them and colored them. They are attached with a foam 3d dot.
The top and bottom of the tin are outlined with an adorable red ribbon. The handle has the same red ribbon as the outline of the box along with light blue ribbon.
There was a small dilemma of how I was going to decorate the top of the tin. I didn't want to try and cut out the origami paper to make it fit on the top so I ended up taking the same color origami paper and using CTMH stamp set Baroque and stamped out "MOM". To also add a little bit more to the top I took the same red rhinestones and attached them to the sides of the top.
To make it personalized and signify that this was a mother's day gift I took pictures of her (adult) children and attached them to the inside lid. I then took some chipboard designs that I had that were appropriate for the occasion and attached those.
Overall I was very with the result and so was my mother in law. I loved creating this tin and for me it shows that i can be creative when the mood strikes.
I've noticed that I use this blog to mainly post my finished projects. I know that people love to look at pretty pictures but people also like to come to blogs to read about other things related to their blog's focus. So I've decided to try and incorporate other things in this blog.
I live in an area where there is a nice vast selection of yarn shops. Sadly, though due to the economy, there have been a few closures of lys (local yarn stores). Thankfully there are still plenty to choose from.
Cottage Yarns- South San Francisco, ca
This little yarn store is within walking distance from my house. This store is yarn heaven. The owner, Kathryn, has such a mass amount of yarn in her shop that one can spend so much time in here. Since there is so much yarn, it does feel a bit overwhelming when you first walk in. Once you get a feel to how the store is set up it's all over. Cottage Yarns carries a vast amount of name brands that are extremely popular. Some yarn brands are Casacade, Lamb's Pride, Malabrigo, and the list goes on.
Besides having such a wonderful selection, Kathryn is very helpful. I can't tell you how many times I've gone in and needed yarn suggestions for a product and she gladly helped me. This is probably one of the only yarn stores where I feel extremely comfortable.
Prices are competitive for other local yarn stores. Some prices may be a bit higher here but the service makes up for a whatever difference. I'll gladly pay more for yarn if the customer service is there.
I love this store and have no gripes about it. Highly recommend!
The other local yarn store I'll be reviewing today is one I just discovered about a month or so ago.
Purlescence Yarns -Sunnyvale, CA
This yarn store is a bit away from me About a 30 min drive away. The first time I went here I was extremely impressed by the customer service. The staff was friendly and very helpful with my questions. The 2nd time I came I was pretty much ignored, which kind of gave me an unfriendly feeling to the place. Maybe because it wasn't a weekend? This unnerved me a bit just because of how well I was taken care of the first time. This won't stop me from coming here. (at least not yet)
The yarn selection is wonderful. I believe this is the only local store which carries Blue Moon Fibers yarn. I've heard mixed reviews on this yarn and wanted to see it for myself. They also carry some other really nice yarns which I haven't seen anywhere locally.
The other aspect I love about this store is the selection of circular needles and dpns. I've never seen so a store stock so many addi turbo needles! It was like walking into addi heaven. The prices were wonderful also! Probably the least expensive I've seen anywhere for addi needles.
Overall I do enjoy this store. Yarn selection and price will make any knitting/crocheter eager to spend their moo-lah here.
There are other yarn stores I've been to locally but I'll just do two for now. Would love to hear other's reviews of these stores.
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0419091232 ariana sweater
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
So apparently this pattern, February Lady Sweater, is the hottest craze going around. I don't know why it took me so long to finally jump on the bandwagon.
This sweater was an extremely simple knit. It's a top down raglan sweater so no seaming required. (Gotta love that) Being that it was so simple it also got a tad boring. The garter yoke bored me to tears. Thankfully the bottom part is a lace pattern so that kept me a bit more on my toes.
I was worried about the sizing since I was having Ariana try it on while I was making it. Thankfully and luckily it fit perfect.
It's a very generous sized pattern and it does stretch a bit. I didn't use an all natural fiber since I am trying to use up as much stash as I can. It's a cotton/acrylic blend. It is a tad heavy but Ariana says it's perfect.
With such great success of this cardigan I already started one for myself!
0331092155bunny heads
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
I decided that for a treat for Alysia's class that I'd whip up something for Easter for her "friends". Being the big procrastinator that I am I waited too long to really make something cute for them. So I opted to crochet little bunny heads for the class. (Although they kinda look like dog heads).
Alysia saw me making them and loved them. She asked who was I making them for, so I told her. A few minutes later she gave me a list of names of all her friends. ( all the kids in her class). She also let me know just how many friends she had. Alysia tells me, "I have 16 friends and here are all their names."
I gave them to the teacher this morning so hopefully teacher will pass them out today or tomorrow.
The other day I entered a contest to name some yarn on Susinok's blog. She sells her handdyed yarn on etsy. This was the first time I entered a contest to try and name yarn. I thought the colors were so pretty!
So this morning while checking email I saw a message from her stating that I was a runner up and would receive a hank of her beautiful hand dyed yarn!! My names weren't chosen, but that's alright. I'm very happy to be a runner up and can't wait to receive my yarn. It'll be my first time trying any fellow etsyian yarn!
trav's socks-edited
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
ARE DONE!! These socks were done in just over 2 days. Of course it really helped that these were done in worsted weight yarn rather than fingering weight. Yarn used was Paton's Classic Wool. (Yes going to have to handwash them or else they'll felt and be super tiny)
I also totally overestimated the amount of yarn I'd need. I bought 3 skeins and I only used about 1.5, so I'll have to figure out what to do with the left over yarn. I'm thinking I might make him some fingerless gloves because his hands have been getting cold lately.
The pattern was super simple and actually fun to do. I wasn't bored with endless rows of stockinette stitch. The great thing is that they actually fit Trav and he likes them. He said that they are very warm.
I'm on a sock roll and having a lot of fun. I'm currently finishing up another pair that has been suffering from second sock syndrome for almost a year.
monkey sock 2
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
Besides the tank top I finally finished this pair of socks. I started these socks during the Olympics. So it almost took me a year to get them done. I don't know why I put these down!!
The yarn is heaven!! It's so soft and surprisingly warm. It's artyarns ultramerino 4. It's definitely worth the price. These socks took under 2 skeins of yarn.
The pattern is very easy. I admit I was a bit intimidated when I saw that it was lace. Lace in a sock?? C'mon sometimes I have trouble with lace just as a rectangle! And on top of that doing lace with double pointed needles. I worried for nothing because the instructions were wonderfully written and the chart was easy to read.
I wore these the other day and they felt sooo good. I now fully understand why everyone who makes/wears handmade socks love them so much. I can't wait to get more done for me.
0308091452
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
I finally have gotten sick and tired of having so many WIP (works in progress) laying around the house that I finally decided to start tackling them again.
This is my first tank top I did. It's done in an acrylic/cotton blend. This got put to the side because of the endless amount of stockinette stitch. It just got so boring. I was a tad disappointed with it because I messed up on sleeve edging. I didn't want to pick up stitches and knit so I decided to single crochet an edging around. BLAH!!
I will most likely wear it as it fits pretty good. The pattern was easy but the construction seemed a bit different from other shirts I've done. I'm not sure if I'll make another one, but who knows?
So I've learned that knitting blankets take me at least 5 times as long as crocheting them. This blanket took me just about 2 months to finish. Of course I wasn't working on it everyday so I probably could of finished in about a month. I did enjoy knitting this blanket as the pattern was simple yet it made a fun design. This blanket is part of my stash reduction plan for this year. So far I've used up 37 skeins of yarn!
Here it is!
So next on my list is to finally finish my monkey socks which I started during the Olympics. I developed some serious 2nd sock syndrome. I'm actually already on the foot part so hopefully it'll go pretty quickly.
I'm trying to finish up a few WIP's (work in progress) so that I can finally pick out and start a lace project. I'd like to enter another lace shawl in the fair this year so I'll have to get started soon. Plus I'm dying to start something nice and lacey.
fish scarf rev
Originally uploaded by Catheaven.
I took a small break from my knitting/crocheting because I worked like crazy for a month to prepare for some craft fairs I did in December. So I basically just got sick of working on things so quickly in so little time.
I'm finally back into the swing of things and have made a couple new projects.
This project is inspired from Morehouse Farms fish scarf pattern. Alysia did not like the colors they offered in the kit and the pattern isn't available for purchase yet. I wasn't going to be spending $30 for a yarn color she didn't like. SOOO what did I do?? I designed my own fish to put together to make a scarf. I finished last night and gave it to her this morning. She loved it!!
Another project I just finished was a shawl for Ariana. The past month has been pretty chilly over here. I started wearing my shawl at night and it kept me nice and toasty. I offered to make one for Ariana and this is what she picked!
This year I am going to work really working through my stash of yarn that I have. Here's to hoping for a great crafting year!
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