Random #3: Experimental Crafting!

Howdy!  Now it's really, truly, officially spring!  I planted my bargain bin daffodils purchased late last year (it was too late to plant in fall).  With these and the ones I planted last year, I may finally have enough to make a small bouquet this year!  It's been too long since I've had a bunch of daffodils in the house so I'm really excited for them.

First up in the crafty world, it's time for the winner announcement!  I'm glad each pattern has had a few people like it each time. This past giveaway was a Calico Crossroads design called Furever. It had two people enter and the random number generator chose number one!

image found through Google search

Mini, you are the winner~  I know you will be moving soon, so if you want me to hold onto the pattern until you get settled down, I don't mind.

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cozy comfort

I did manage to finish the cover for the hot water bottle!  And it has already been put to use... nightly.  The propane for our furnace is very low and it's so expensive to restock this time of year, eep.  So, we've been rationing which leads to some cold feet at night.  Hooray for hot water bottles (and my husband, the disbeliever that he was, loves it)!  And hooray for Banana Berry colorways!  I still have a healthy amount of this yarn left too.

My gauge was a little off since I used size 10½ needles.  10 would've been better, I think.  I just adjusted the increases and decreases to fit my bottle. I used Jeny's super stretchy bind off for the cuff which was an interesting experience.  It really is stretchy, thank goodness, but I feel like the sewn bind off would've been moreso.  This cover is a little awkward to use as-is.  The bottle has to be empty to slip in/out of the cover.  I have to be a bit more careful when filling/emptying it or the cover would get wet from splashes.

Technical Details

• "All You Need - A Classic" freebie pattern by LondonLeo can be found here (ravelry).
• My ravelry project page found here.
• Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver acrylic in colorway banana berry. ♥♥♥♥
• Needles: 10½ (6.5mm) short tips and 16" cable.
• Started February 17, 2019, finished March 10, 2019; unknown hours.

All in all, this is such a simple pattern!  And hugely customizable since it includes all the math with the pattern.  I'm glad I made this useful and pretty little thing!  I love that folks over the puddle call these "hotties".  They're just "hot water bottles" here.  What're they know as for you?

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vintage stash!

I occasionally tease myself with looking things up on eBay but I couldn't pass up this lot of (mostly) vintage craft booklets, especially when it wound up being about $0.50 per booklet.  The Priscilla Irish Crochet Book is a reproduction but it's nicely done.  There were lots(!) of different edging books in this lot which are always so fun to go through and think of the dainty trims to put on everything.  It's also kind of fun to see my collection so far on the "shelves" of Ravelry! (That link may only work for those who have an account; I'm not sure.)

make everything

Here are some of my favorites of the lot, partly because of the beautiful patterns, partly because of the fun covers!  I'm really interested in the two needle mittens.  I think this will be a great way to practice seaming for a future sweater.  Speaking of sweaters...

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start with an older sweater

This is a new-to-me attempt at being thrifty, possibly thrifty to the extreme.  I've often seen people take apart sweaters to reclaim the yarn but have never braved it myself.  I picked a sweater with a somewhat nice fiber content, but was too big for me, and also wasn't quite my style.  This sweater cost a terrible $0.87 at a thrift store and net 9oz (255g) over 4 hanks of wool.  I learned what sort of construction to watch for so I didn't wind up with 20 billion tiny pieces of yarn.

looks remarkably like ramen noodles

Unraveling the sweater was sort of cathartic.  It took quite a long time too, with the unpicking of the seams, unraveling, and winding the yarn onto the back of a chair to make the hanks.  I would guess I spent around 10 hours total undoing everything.

a gentle bath

I had to be quite careful washing the yarn or else it would felt into an unusable mess.  I soaked it in cold water with a small amount of a gentle soap.  No swishing around!  It was more like... smooshing.  Then it was rolled in a towel to remove excess wetness and then hung to dry.  Washing it like this helped get rid of some of the ramen-noodliness.  I'm sure I could've weighted it down some to stretch it out more, but I was afraid of over-stretching it.

a healthy weight

It's not very fancy yarn, but it is 45% angora, 40% wool, and 15% nylon.  I'll probably never afford true angora wool unless it appears by luck but I can certainly buy sweaters in thrift stores (I'm watching for a pretty cashmere next)!  I estimate it to be somewhere between a light fingering/heavy lace weight so maybe about 1,000-1,200 yards?  While undoing the sweater, the yarn seemed to be whispering that it would like to become a shawl in its next life.  I've picked out (and even printed so you know it's serious) the pattern I'd like to attempt.

It will be a lot of firsts!  First reclaimed wool.  First knit lace.  First beading (oh my!).  First nupps which I've never even heard of before this pattern.  I'm a little anxious to see how the yarn will work up since it was reclaimed plus I have very little experience using actual wool fibers.  I hope the shawl will be wonderful and maybe make me feel like a princess instead of my usual tomboy self.  :)

yes, they are in a small daffodil glass

:D

January GG ~ From the Last to the First

Aloha, friendly readers~ I hope you all are enjoying your worldly weather. We've had a huge snowfall for our neck of the woods. It has been many years since the area has seen this much. It was wonderful. I restocked our snow ice cream for when we forget what winter is like in the midst of summer.  We shoveled snow (a lot of it).  Luckily my shoulder has healed nicely.  Last week was the first week it felt "normal" so it was good timing, and the shoveling of the snow didn't do anything other than make us sleep really well. :)

scale in inches

Of course, now they're threatening the same thing could happen this coming weekend! I wonder how much of this current snow will melt before then.  Certainly not the mountains of shoveled stuff! Oh well, I love it all! :D  This was a lovely atmospheric gift which segues nicely into the next item of interest, January's Gifted Gorgeousness!

click for more info!

First up, I made my first ever shawl!  It's a shame I couldn't get better pictures of it; this red just seems impossible.  It was made to match this hat, gifted to my husband's grandmother back in September.  I spent quite a while looking for a pattern to try!  I wanted it to have shells (like the hat) but still have somewhat open stitches so as not to be overly warm.

didn't mean to match the carpet

Technical Details

• "Tranquil Tea Wrap", crochet, freebie pattern by Lion Brand Yarn found here (ravelry).
• My ravelry project page here.
• 10mm (N/P) hook.
• Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in autumn red.
• Started: October 17, 2018, Finished: October 21, 2018, unknown hours.  

As you may notice, this was a blazing fast finish (for me) at only four days!  I think the gigantic hook helped though it felt odd using one so large.  Plus the sitting around at grandma's house made for excellent crafting time.  I made a few modifications, namely doing another repeat of the pattern to make the shawl longer.  I also did not do the edging as the pattern indicated, instead opting to keep the scalloped edge of the shells as the last part.  Afterwards, it received the spa treatment of a gentle wash and then a light blocking.  I don't much care for blocking acrylic but it opens up the shells and spacings so nicely.

assembly in progress

Next up, yes, finally the husband cube, and finally a cube~!  I had fun with this...mostly.  I used iron-on interfacing to give the rather floppy jobelan some stiffness and to close up the holes in the fabric weave so stuffing wouldn't leak out.  Also it helped with this very fray-some fabric!  I outlined each of the glyphs in DMC 310 and then went insane and joined them together with gold metallic floss because I enjoy suffering, apparently.  I wanted to do it this way to mimic the logo of the series which is in black and gold.  I then braided a small loop of black and gold crochet thread which must (must!) have something wrong with it as it is incredibly fragile.  I may at some point go back and make another, sturdier loop of something else but for now, I'm waiting to see if it's okay as-is.

assembly complete!

I rather like how it turned out, though it is much bigger than originally anticipated.  I don't think he'll be taking it to work after all, so it is proudly displayed atop our media cabinet where most of our video game consoles live.  As I was stitching it up, I had to laugh at myself.  I was stitching it on the closed top of the sewing machine.  Wouldn't that have made quick work of the cube!

what a crazy floss toss

For Christmas, my husband got me the remainder of the "old" floss colors of the DMC collection!  I would be complete now if it weren't for those silly new colors. :)   I greatly look forward to bobbinating these but I've run out of plastic storage containers.  It's so hard to find them in colors other than pink, blue, purple, and clear.  There used to be a whole bunch of options available!  Even eBay has failed me.  I'd really love a yellow one but alas, I'll probably just wind up with another clear one.

a year of giveaways!

Lastly, I've been toying around with this idea for a while.  I have a small pile of patterns I've picked up in various thrift stores so I wanted to try a Year of Giveaways!  Each GG post in 2019 I will have one chart up for grabs, and I will announce the winner in my random end of/beginning of the month post.  Since these are all thrifted designs, some might have some markings on them.  I will make note of the ones that do in their individual posts.  Here is the first chart!

PFC #14

This is an older Homespun Elegance stitch from the Plain & Fancy Collection called "Snowmen - Tall & Small".  This a totally clean (was it ever stitched?) chart.  They're really cute and I love the idea of having a twig broom embellishment!  No fancy extras will be included in this giveaway to cut down on shipping costs so you will have to source your own twig haha. I will ship the pattern worldwide though!

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines

1. Be a minion follower (upper right corner of my blog)!  Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it!  I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
2. Comment and tell me you would like to be included in the drawing!
3. Open worldwide! 
4. No winning twice in a row (example: the winner of March's drawing would not be eligible for April's).
5. Closing date: January 29th, 2019 23:59 CST.

Thanks for reading this edition of Ishkabibble Babble and good luck to anyone entering! \:D/

what to do after it snows?

October GG ~ Progress is Progress

Howdy again, world~  Here is this month's Gifted Gorgeousness where I astound(?) you all with my progress(?) on various gifted items.

click for more info

First up, a bit more progress on the last side of the Husband Cube.

before

after

Once I finally fixed all the errors I made previously, progress has happened.  He's got his flippers now.  All that's left is his gigantic tail and a bit of belly(?) decoration.

all better

Next up, I made some repairs to the house slippers I made for my husband three years ago!  It's the gift that keeps on giving. :D  The soles on his slippers were worn through and the foam wouldn't stay put any longer.  So, I made another set of soles and this time, wised up and ATTACHED THE FOAM instead of just stuffing it in there.  Now it shouldn't migrate all over the shoe whenever they're washed.  I also tacked down the cuff a bit more firmly this time too.  It did somewhat change the aesthetic of them since I had to attach the sole to the already existing shoe part instead of making the shoe on top of the sole.  But, it wasn't so drastic that they look terrible.  They're now ready for another season of toasty toes!

well-worn

I still have to repair my own slippers but that's not GG territory unless I count my feet being warm a gift to myself!  Since I didn't take a picture of the bottom of his slippers pre-repair, this was the state of mine.  As bad as they are, they are no where near as bad as his were! These pictures are kind of dark and a bit blurry... Fall weather is nice but also lots of overcast days.

vintage-inspired coasters

Lastly, I finished up some delightful little coasters for Leonore's wedding!  Unfortunately, I made the silly error of assuming post to Germany would get there as quickly as it does to the UK.  So they did not make it in time to provide table decoration for her wedding, buu. 

She asked for shades of green so I started making them in the dark green.  Then I just happened to find myself in Michael's one day (funny how that happens) and saw the pretty mint green.  So, why not both?

four each

I have to say -- I LOVE this pattern. There were a few minor issues with the pattern that I worked out in a test piece but after that, each was such a wonderful project to work on. They turn out so dainty and sweet.  I may wind up making some more for us that I would have to hide away from a certain small-item-stealing kitty (not naming names, Oreo).


Technical Details

• "Vintage Coasters" freebie pattern by Anabelia Handmade on ravelry.
• Hook: 1.65mm.
• Thread: Aunt Lydia's Crochet Classic Crochet (Size 10) in white and mint green.  American Thread Company Puritan Crochet Cotton
• My ravelry project page here.
• Started: ??  Finished: September 18, 2018, unknown hours.

Okay, that's all I got this time!  See you next time, probably for the Hallowe'en Blog Hop~ :D

September GG ~ Stash Enhancements, Hats, and a Just Jo SAL!

Hello, world~  It's time for our monthly installment of Gifted Gorgeousness!  Are you curious about the Just Jo SAL?  I'll get there eventually~  There hasn't been any progress on the last side of the MH3U husband cube as I've been a bit busy with other things that can't yet be shown to the public eye.

click for more info

I got an awesome package in the mail last week -- a nice pile of new-to-me knitting and crochet magazines!  A friend was clearing out some of her stash and asked if I needed wanted any.  Of course!  I took all she offered and anything that doesn't entirely tickle my fancy, I'll take with me to our local "yarn and yak" group.  Thank you, Awesome Friend! :D

yay!

I adore the Jane Austen Knits magazine!  I'll eventually update my ravelry patterns page with the ones I'll be keeping.  I'm getting quite the collection on there but it makes it so much easier to not wind up with duplicates~

In the spirit of giving instead of hoarding receiving, I made another "flowering hat", this time for my husband's grandmother's birthday. She's in the Red Hat Society and I thought this might work for some of her gatherings. The flower is again removable and she's already mentioned using it as a pin on a dress! How nice to hear a gift is already being used. :D

best hat pattern

I actually had a rather difficult time trying to get this color to show properly! It's actually a deep wine red.  There's also a small button at the center of the white flower holding everything together but that got washed out trying to bring out the red.  I went up a hook size for this hat and am much happier with the result.  It's so soft!  The flower might be a bit too big with that hook though...

Technical Details

• "Ridge Hat with Brim" freebie pattern by Kool Stitch on ravelry.
• Hook: 4.5mm.
• Yarn: Caron Simply Soft; Colorway: autumn red, purple, and white.
• My ravelry project page here.
• Started: ??  Finished: August 24, 2018, unknown hours.

With this finish, I have finally surpassed last year's crafting finishes (this is #16) and am on my way to surpass my most productive year (2016: 18 finishes).  I'm not a very fast or prolific crafter so this is really exciting for me.

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winner, winner, chicken dinner (?)

Here are the results to the poll from the last post regarding y'all's preferences over comment settings.  Embedded seems to be the most preferred setting!  I would guess this is because it allows people to easily reference the post they're commenting on.

I have no idea how long this poll will last, or even if it's still open to vote!  The site says they eventually clear out inactive polls but didn't specify a time.

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Now it's time to contribute in a different way to GG!  Surely by now y'all know I love thrift shopping and can often spot fun things I don't desperately need. I also watch for potential giveaways for pretty charts I know I'll never stitch but think will make someone else happy.

Just Nan - Morning Meadow band sampler

This time the giveaway is for a Just Nan chart: Morning Meadow.  I had originally offered it to our GG hostess as she sure seems to stitch a lot of Just Nans, to the point where I started calling them Just Jos!  Jo already has this particular chart but hasn't stitched it yet.  So, win this chart and have a SAL with Jo and get to count it for all sorts of Gifted Gorgeousness!  :D

what's a meadow without grasshoppers?

This giveaway is just the chart; unfortunately no fancy beads that sometimes came with them.  It's a nice, clean chart with no markings though there is a thrift store price sticker (it's a bonus? :D).  Since shipping is open worldwide, this will just be the chart, no little extras tossed in.

Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway Guidelines

1. Be a minion follower (upper right corner of my blog)!  Feedly, bloglovin', etc. do not count as there is no way to show it!  I am sorry; blame blogger for this one.
2. Comment and tell me you would like to win!
3. Open worldwide! 
4. Closing date: September 30, 2018, 23:59 CST.  Closed a little early on September 27 and will ship to the one entrant!  A popular name means a lot of people have it already haha :)

Thanks for reading this edition of Iskabibble Babble and good luck to anyone entering! \:D/