Dewdrop’s reflections

Life has been very busy lately.  We finally broke down got a rippin’ good deal on an air conditioner unit and have a good friend who works in the industry, so Aaron spent all of last weekend tearing out ducting, installing new ducting, and installing the AC and a new furnace.  I spent most of the time trying to survive the mess and cleaning up where I could.  There’s still some work to be done – enough that I haven’t done a thorough clean up yet – but it is up and running.  My house has looked better, but hey, at least its cool.

I’ve finished quite a few sewing projects in the last couple weeks and was trying to space them all out into different blog posts, but I don’t see that actually happening, so here you go.

First off, sampler block number 5 – Ohio Star

This was a pretty simple block to do, but still fun.  Sorry about the shoddy presentation.  I didn’t realize the block needed ironed until I uploaded the photo.

Next up, a Market bag (Portabellopixie pattern).

Wow, this bag took a long time to sew.  Waaaay more than I had planned on it taking.  This was the first bag I’ve ever sewn from a pattern, with interfacing and fancy topstitching and all of that good stuff.  The fabric is from Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain line.  I picked this pattern because it’s reversible so I didn’t have to choose which of these pretty fabrics is the “outside” of the bag.

I’m slowly building my sewing skill set and learning with each project.  I definitely learned a few things on this bag and my seam ripper got quite the workout. It turned out pretty well, though, if I do say so myself.  I am a little concerned with how stain resistant this bag will be, or more like how it won’t be.  I’ve already gotten a few pretty stubborn marks on it.  I’m wondering if I should have Scotch Guard-ed it.  Hmmm.

I also managed to squeeze in sewing a couple nursing covers for a friend’s baby shower.

I don’t usually show the nursing covers I sew, which is funny because I sew quite a few of them.  They’re so simple it doesn’t seem like good blog fodder to me.  They are a good way to do show off pretty fabrics, though.

Sampler block number 6 is coming up next.  Stay tuned.

I really enjoy doing yoga.  I started several years ago on my own, then took classes at the gym, several college yoga classes, and am now back to gym classes again.  I don’t practice near as much as I want to, or, actually, as much as I should.  I foresee a renewed dedication, though.

Because, if you were a knitter who practiced yoga, what would you do?   Knit a yoga mat bag, of course.

This pattern is from Greetings from Knit Cafe, a book I have a love/hate relationship with.  It has so many great patterns in it but they are all riddled with errors.  Very annoying to have to print off a lot of errata for a pattern and then try to figure out where it fits into the pattern.  I’m knitting a cardigan from the book right now that even with the pattern errata still needs to be adjusted to come out correctly.  No fun.  I actually just picked up a new, updated, paperback copy of the book with a Joann’s coupon a couple of days ago.  It claims that it includes all of the corrections in the patterns now, but we’ll see.  If anyone wants my hardcover copy, let me know.

I used the suggested yarn for the bag, Rowan All Seasons Cotton Printed, which I got at Webs on closeout for like three bucks a ball and its great stuff.  Totally a steal.  It was really difficult to get a shot of the correct color of the yarn, but this is pretty close.

After I finished my bag (which, I’m sorry, was months ago), I loved it so much I wanted to knit one for my mom (who also does yoga) for her birthday.  I had a hard time picking between the Knit Cafe and an Interweave Knits pattern for the bag for myself, so I figured I’d knit the Interweave pattern and send whichever one I liked best to her.

Unfortunately for my mom, this pattern wasn’t such a quick knit.  And then the bag sat on my living room floor like this:

for about a month.  Until I could screw up the courage (and a large enough block of time) to seam up the darn lace pattern.

I took a picture of the seaming process because I was cracking myself up.  I actually needed my yoga flexibility to take the photo.  My right leg got really shaky from me holding it in that half-stretched out position for so long I had to take the whole thing off and transfer it to my left leg about halfway through.  It worked great, though.

Finally, I got the whole thing seamed, washed, blocked, and finished.  Yay!

This one is the Lacy Yoga Bag pattern from the Summer 2007 issue of Interweave Knits.  I used Tahki Cotton Classic, which is a very widely available yarn that comes in a bunch of colors, plus its a great cotton (Webs link).

I tried getting Aaron to take photos of me with the bag (mostly for scale), but they all ended up being more photos of my rear end (in very unflattering, baggy shorts, nonetheless) and less photos of the bag.  I cropped out what I could here people.

I like both of the bags a whole lot, but I really like the lacy one and am sending it up to my mom this week (hopefully – yet another thing to procrastinate).  I’ll be sad to part with it and will probably end up knitting another one for myself at a later date.

Look at me posting within a week of us doing something!  I’m so proud of myself (hehe).  The Dodgers game we went to ended up being both good and bad (but mostly good).

Good because we had really good seats.  Good because the seats were free (thanks to our friends who gave us their tickets).  Even better because those seats were season ticket seats, so we got good, preferred, free parking as well.  Good for me because I love the Dodgers, and baseball.

Bad for the Dodgers who were up against a really good pitcher and ended up losing.  Bad for me because now I really, really want season tickets.  Like I’m thinking of how much I’ll have to cut out my fabric and yarn budget.  Like I said, bad.

Good for my husband who caught a foul ball bare-handed in the bottom of the ninth.  See what happens when you stay for the whole game?  Totally worth it.

And, good for me for marrying the awesome guy who can make a catch like that and get cheered by the whole stadium, up on the big screen and everything.

Even better, after he sat down, he turned to me, handed me the ball, and said, “here honey, this is for you.”  Sigh.

A little church softball

It’s church ball, so the score doesn’t matter, right?  Not so my friend, not so.

I let my little friends have the camera for the day and ended up with some great candid shots.  Do you like our batting order card stuck into the top of the fence?

Fourth of July block party and BBQ with family and friends

Hitting LA’s first Renegade Craft Fair last weekend

The awesome Postcard Machine, right across from the Superbuzzy booth where I blew my budget (totally worth it).  Click this link to check out the Postcard Machine in action.  Seriously, awesome!

Other than that, Aaron went on a weekend guys fishing trip, quilt class got pushed back to next week (come take it with me, you’ll love it!), and we’re going to the Dodger game tomorrow.  And we’re trying to keep cool in our lovely non-air conditioned house (maybe by next summer, eh?).

A little knitting and sewing has been getting done, so my next post will be more crafty.  I’m also thinking about doing a couple of blog features like Musical Monday and an Etsy Friday thingy.  I don’t really have enough to talk about otherwise (being childless and having a slightly boring “adult” life).  I’m not a fast enough knitter/sewer/crafter to keep things interesting right now.  Let me know what you think.

Anyway, how’s your summer been?  I’d love to hear what your doing, so drop me a comment and let me know.

And live somewhere near LA?  Then I suggest you take this class at Home Ec/Reform School.  I’ll be going, so if you’re a friend, which I’m sure you are since you read my blog, feel free to hitch a ride.

Even if you don’t want to come take the class with me, check out Alissa’s blog.  Her work is amazing.

I took an embroidery class at Reform School a couple of months ago which was wonderful.  I’ve done absolutely no embroidery since then (honestly, not a stitch), but that’s because I got caught up with a few other projects and the embroidery got pushed to the bottom of the pile.  I need to dig it all out again.  Of course, that’s after I finish all the rest of the projects that seem to be piling up around here.  Why is it again I’m adding something else to the list?  Just kidding!

What else have I been up to?  Honestly, not much that’s blog worthy.  More sampler quilt blocks coming along, but not done yet.  I’ve been messing around with several knitting projects, most of which have failed and had to be ripped out.  The only successful knitting I’ve been doing is the socks from this post (started over a year ago, sheesh) and they’re coming along quite nicely.  One sock is done and the other one is almost to the toe, so I should be done by the end of the week (fingers crossed).  Mostly I’ve been being the good little homemaker I’m supposed to be, doing a little decorating and lots of housework.  We’ve got quite a few home improvement projects planned for the next couple months and quite a backlog of things that need done around here.  The joys of owning a home, right?  At least I have this great class to look forward to.  Hope you can make it!