The Olympic Finish Line

Here are a couple of my recently completed projects that I did while watching the Olympics. I confess that both had the finishing done while watching Obama last night. The scarf turned out quite nicely. I still have enough yarn to make at least three more- so don’t be surprised if you get a purple scarf for Christmas! I did learn that even though the pattern was a simple repeat it can be hard to count to ten while holding your breath watching Olympic feats.

As for these lovely coasters I decided that 9 were enough for no other reason then it just seemed good and I always like odd numbers. I may need to figure out a new housewarming gift so that I don’t become too predictable.

Moth Killer

Alright this isn't really a craft moment but I thought I would share anyway. I have spent my day being a moth killer. I have taken everything out of all our kitchen cabinets, inspected it and rejected it and occasionally hopped around in an uncharacteristic ick moment. Really I am not an icky girl. Last night my dreams were flooded by moths I am pretty sure they are lurking waiting to get revenge for my eviction notice.
I have noticed that while they tend to eat only things that are real food, oatmeal, whole wheat four ect. they seem to like to nest in my dessert cookbooks. They really like Martha, well someone has too.

ankle, moths and coasters oh my...

Sorry for the long delay I have been slowed down by this:

a bad sprain to my right ankle. My guy has been taking super good care of it and reminding me that I have to take it easy and let the darn thing heal. I am however totally done with being housebound. It is amazing how much a sprained ankle can slow you down. It also makes de-mothing our house a real pain. We seem to be growing a large colony of food moths, which is super gross to say the least. I have spent the better part of two days cleaning out the cabinets and putting everything in glass because they can actually eat through plastic, super gross.

In between cleanings I have been working on some more coasters for a friend that just moved to Maine. Here is a bit of a kids ikea bedspread that I have cut up and hand quilted.

I will machine stitch around the outer edge. I cut enough for 12 but that seems like a lot of coasters. Which does make one ponder how many is too many coasters?

Belated Birthday Wishes

I must wish a belated happy birthday to a woman who has given me tremendous inspiration over the years: my pseudo grandmother Avice. Her paintings and craft projects have captured my imagination for years and there is no doubt in my mind that she has helped shape my creative hand. I am so very honored to have her in my life. This wonderful painting of hers is on our living room wall and I think of her fondly every time I see it.


I know that she will be slightly horrified that anyone pay attention to her in such a way as this but I wanted to let her know just how special she is to me. Happy birthday Avice, may we have many more together.

Olympic Fever Isn’t Always So Good For Knitting Fever

Well it seems I got too caught up with the Olympics last night, not only did I add an extra row of my lighter color but I seemed to have lost a stitch. I guess synchronized diving is just too exciting for me. Fortunately one of my best events has always been ripping out.

Knitting: an Olympic Event?

I may not glide through the water like a fish or run faster then the wind but if knitting were an Olympic event I would surely metal. Olympic fever has swept our apartment and kept us up way to late the last few nights. The good news is in the last day and a half I have added over a foot to my scarf. A few more nights and I may need a new project.

Olympic Fever

My guy and I were talking a couple weeks ago about how exciting the Olympics were to us as kids. We both remember watching them with our parents, but in the last few years of our adult lives the Olympics have lost there intrigue. Neither of us were really sure why; more TV channels, more sports doping or maybe it is a bit of the “been there, done that’s”. Whatever the case, we decided to try to actively catch Olympic fever. For me this consisted of reading the supplementary NY Times magazine on the Olympics. So far it has worked. I was very excited to see Michael Phelps Win this morning, and it wasn’t just because he was wearing on of those cool new Speedos that are welded together rather then sewn.

So I am going to give my all at being an Olympic fan this year and root for the home team, swim suites and all. I suspect that my hand crafting is going to see a big increase as my guy and I sit in front of the tube.

Green Bags

Now remember that the subtitle of this blog is confessions of a craft-o-holic. I have been making bags for the Green Bag Lady project. She got a little overwhelmed by so many bag requests and has stopped taking bag orders. But it is such a great project, and the bag is really easy to make, so I decided to help out the project. I have been organizing a Green Bag Lady event in Brooklyn as part of Church of Craft. The plan is to teach anyone and everyone how to make a reusable bag and to make more of these great bags to give away in Brooklyn, NY (sorry I can’t ship bags to folks).
My goal is to make between 50 and 100 bags to give out. I have already made about 20 and given away 10 to friends and family. I was feeling kinda grumpy the last few days and sewing usually cheers me up so I sat down and made about 10 bags. I actually made Tim Gunn (the sewing machine) break a sweat. Okay he didn’t sweat but he did get really hot and I had to turn the machine off and let it cool down.

If you’re not in the New York area and would like to make one of these great bags the Green Bag Lady has a great how to video here.

Seeing Double

While we were upstate I managed to sew in all those gosh darn ends for the last minute baby sweater. I even kitchener stitched the insides of the sleeves! The kitchener stitch is now one of my favorite things but it took us awhile to come to terms with each other. It is a weaving technique that allows you to join to ends of work so that it looks like it was knit. I first learned it in Vermont were the ferocious knitters of my knitting group would whip their stitches off the needles and in weave up the end of a sock in no time. I am a bit more timid and choose to leave my stitches on the needles until I am sure they are secure. I still haven’t mastered the art of doing it without mumbling to myself “as if to knit, as if to purl” continuously under my breath. And lord help us all if someone distracts me while I am in the middle of it! I find it best to do it by myself or at least in some hidden corner of the room away from others.
The sweater came out so well that I decided to make another one! I swear everyone we know is pregnant or trying to be and I have a lot of Debbie Bliss yarn that I got on sale a few years ago from Webs. So it looks like the baby gift of the year will be a maroon sweater.