Fiber Week in Review: March 9-15

It's been a busy week both personally and professionally. We had a weekend visit from my in-laws (which was lovely), so I didn't get any dyeing done this weekend as I had hoped (I wanted to make one last run before DFW Fiber Fest). And on a sad note, my mom had to put her dog to sleep on Saturday. He's been sick and in failing health for a while now and he was finally at the point where his quality of life just wasn't there, so she made the tough choice. We enjoyed teasing her about "one-fang" Clifford (he had bad teeth and kept having to get them pulled until he had just one left), but I know he was very important to her and she's going to be missing her companion.

Knitting: I finished the booth sample I had been working on: my Lyonet Hat in my Lancelot base (colorway Morgan le Fay). I wasn't truly worried about finishing on time (on time meaning for DFW Fiber Fest), but it does feel good to have it done (and even blocked).

I also made some sample swatches of three of my other bases. From top to bottom in the picture, I have Perceval (Lady of the Lake colorway), Guenevere (Nimue colorway), and Gawain (Tintagel colorway). Because I don't have time to make the full items in each base, I did these swatches for my booth for DFW Fiber Fest. I do plan to start a project (Dorigen Cowl) with the Galahad base, which will be my project to have with me to work on at DFW, so I'll have that as the sample for Galahad.

And with those projects crossed off the to do list, I was able to get back to work on the baby blanket. Each row takes quite a while, but I feel like I've actually made progress. And this will be my project to focus on now (the baby is due in May), so I hope to have a lot more to show in future updates.

Spinning: Once again I did a little bit of spinning this week. I finished the first bobbin (of two) of the fiber I started working with last week. I probably won't get a lot done this coming week with DFW Fiber Fest, but after that I hope to get back into spinning a lot more.

Stash Enhancement: Nothing to see here again. Looking forward to my after DFW update as I expect this to be the biggest section for next week's post!

Designing: The baby blanket is the focus right now. Once I get to the halfway point, I will write up the pattern (since by then I'll have a good handle on the overall size and amount of yarn needed). I have a friend who has expressed interest in test knitting it, so I'll probably send it her way at that point. I may go ahead and do the full test knit at that point or I may wait until I have the blanket finished first. I'm going to see how long it takes me to work on it myself to figure out how much time I should give the test knitters.

I also worked on some swatches for the shawl collection I had mentioned last week. I've gotten two finished with basic plans in mind, so I think I'll more fully flesh out those two and then start knitting the sample of the first one for whenever I want a break from the baby blanket. The swatches in the picture just used leftover bits of yarn as I was testing out the stitch pattern rather than actually swatching with the intended yarn. That's coming in the more fully fleshed out plan.

Dyeing: This week was a bit low key on the dyeing front. I didn't want to get overwhelmed with a bunch to reskein and label at the last minute so I've only done a little after the big push of last weekend. But I'm looking forward to having Round Table Yarns debut at DFW Fiber Fest. After that, I'll be posting regular updates in my shop and will be working on new colorways (I have some great ideas for some variegated colorways that I've been itching to try) and even a couple of new bases (I need one for the newly released Brynhild Cowl pattern, for example).

Sewing: I dusted off my sewing machine this week to make a craft apron for DFW Fiber Fest. At Knit Night, I found out that Joann's recently got some Doctor Who fabric, so the next day I ran up there and found three of the five that had been available (the two with the TARDIS were already sold out), so that's what I used. I don't know how to best fit sewing into my already packed schedule, but I did have a good time making this, so I'll need to break out the sewing machine every now and then for sure.

Luke: Oh my gosh, Luke was definitely acting like the three year old he is this week! From having to chase him all over the Nature Park (we went to see a demonstration with raptors and owls, but he didn't want to sit still and look at them--they were so cool though!) to having to figure out how he changed the theme on my computer and change it back (as well as cleaning off the pencil marks he scribbled all over my track pad), it's been crazy. I'm thinking that because it was Spring Break and he didn't have preschool or Little Gym, he just had way too much pent up energy. We'll have to figure out something for the summer. He will have Little Gym then, but no preschool, so we'll have to get some more activities in our routine so he doesn't drive me crazy!

Hot Wheels Hanging Storage

Luke has a ton of Hot Wheels. It's hard to resist when they cost just $1 each. But those little cars just end up all over the place and finding a way to store them has become a challenge. So I decided to create a wall hanging with pockets to hold cars.

First, I searched online, especially through Pinterest, for some type of tutorial for making this. I found one but it wasn't really detailed (ex: it used a hanger at the top but did not state how it created the top to include the hanger--I probably could have figured that out but I didn't like how vague the instructions were). Other people wrote a little about what they did and usually pointed to the first tutorial that I found.

Finally, I decided just to wing it. I've done a wall hanging with pockets before (although it's been a while), so surely I could do this. I went through my fabric and found the Hot Wheels fabric that I knew that I had. So pocket fabric done. Now for the backing. I realized that I don't have a lot of neutrals. I also didn't think putting the Hot Wheels fabric on a Star Wars background would look all that great (although I do have some great Star Wars fabric). Then I unearthed some Mustang fabric that I now remember my MIL giving to me. I checked out the size and realized that it would be perfect.

I probably should have added some type of interfacing to the fabric, but I decided not to (mostly because I wanted to do it then and not have to go buy interfacing). So I just made a giant rectangle, creating a casing at the top for a dowel rod to go through. Then I measured some of the Hot Wheels to determine how tall the pockets should be. I made the first one and sewed it to the bottom of the backing. I then again used a car to measure and created the individual pockets. That turned out okay, so I measured and figured out I could fit four more rows of pockets and started making those.

Of course Luke woke up from his nap when I needed just 15 minutes or so more to finish it all up. I stupidly then tried to finish it anyway, so nearly an hour later I finally got it done. The next morning, I went to Home Depot for a dowel rod. After walking up and down the aisle that they were supposed to be in and not seeing any, I started looking for someone to help me. Okay, so every time I'm in Home Depot, I always have so many people trying to help me but I never need help. Here's the one time I needed help and the place was deserted! I finally noticed that the dowel rods were placed very unobtrusively (i.e., hidden) and got the size I had determined I needed. But then I needed it shorter. What to do? Still no one around to help. Apparently there is a little cutting center there for customers to cut things themselves. Okay. I measured the dowel rod, drew a line with a pen from my purse, and grabbed the saw. The first saw was dull and didn't want to cut. So I tried the other one. That one worked but it took me a little while to cut through my 1/2" dowel rod.

Took it home and sanded the ends. Then I took out my drill and made a hole on each end so I could pass a cord through to hang it. That actually worked! I had a horrible vision of the drill shattering the end because I picked too big of a drill bit or didn't drill straight. But I got it right. Put the dowel rod in the wall hanging, added the cord, nailed a hook in the wall, hung the car storage, and added cars--which Luke soon thought was tons of fun to take out of the hanging! (Putting them back in wasn't quite as fun.)

Sewing Mojo Is Back!

Look out world, I am sewing again! I got my sewing machine two years ago for Christmas. After buying tons of stuff for sewing, I realized that it was hard to sew when you had to go grab stuff out of a closet and inevitably have to make multiple trips to the closet because you forgot something. I didn't have a dedicated space for sewing, so it was hard to fit it in during the gaps of time I had (when Luke is sleeping). With knitting, I just grab my yarn and needles and I'm off.

So when we bought this house, I wanted a dedicated space for sewing. Next month, we'll have been in the house for a year (really? It doesn't seem possible). Until just before Christmas, my sewing machine remained in its box because I just hadn't figured out where to put it. Our extra bedroom is our guest room as well as my office and crafting space. With the futon, desk, two printers, and a small bookshelf, I had no real surface space, especially space to leave out my machine.

I got the machine out to finish up a little stocking for the cats. At that time, I set up a folding table in a small space in our master bedroom and thought maybe I would keep the sewing machine there. But again I had the problem or having all my sewing supplies back in the closet in the other room. What to do?

I had been planning to get one of the Expedit units from Ikea for storage for this guest/craft/office space. I was trying to decide between a 4x4 and a 5x5 and it would go against the wall opposite the futon. But that would give me storage space without very much usable surface space. Back to the drawing board.

In the playroom, I have two 2x4 Expedit units sitting lengthwise along one wall. I love that setup. I realized that the wall in the guest/craft/office room under the window might be big enough to fit two of those units like that. I measured the shelves in the playroom. I measured the wall under the window. Could it be true? Would they be a perfect fit? If I had measured right, it was indeed the case.

Ikea is about 45 minutes away. My husband sold his truck and got a small car last summer. I have a small SUV. The boxes wouldn't fit in it. What to do? Paying for shipping is a bit ridiculous unless you order quite a lot. Well, my brother-in-law is visiting this weekend and he has a bigger SUV. My husband measured it and we determined that the boxes would fit. So off to Ikea we went this morning.

Back home, the guys went to see a movie and I tried putting Luke down for a nap. Today he decided a nap was a terrible idea. I still went ahead and put the shelves together. And you know what? My measurements were right! A perfect fit along the back wall with plenty of space for the futon still on the side wall. On the other wall, I moved an old computer desk which had housed my printer and put the filing cabinet underneath it (the other printer had been on top of the filing cabinet). I put the printers on the top of the new Ikea shelves. I also put my spinning wheels on the top as well as a couple of other things. Then I started filling up shelves. I still actually need to figure out exactly how I want to arrange things, but I now have my sewing and knitting materials at the ready. (Please excuse the bad photos. It's dark out and also the futon is currently down as we have a guest. But I wanted to include some pictures.)

My sewing machine is now on top of the old computer desk. My laptop is on my grandfather's old desk. When I am sewing, I will move the laptop and that desk will become my cutting table. I have an ironing board that hangs on the back of a door--I put it on the closet door so it opens out into the room.

To celebrate my new space, I finally made the drawstring project bag that I've been wanting to make for ages (tutorial here). There were a few places during the tutorial that I wasn't entirely sure, when I read them, that I understood, but once I actually tried it, it made sense. It was so nice, while I was working, to just reach over to the shelves and grab the supply that I needed. I definitely see more sewing projects in my future. (I also have my knitting needles and other supplies nicely organized. I think I'll get some of the large boxes that fit the full square on the shelf and put my spinning and weaving supplies in them.) I finally have a usable crafting space!!

Notice the cat hair on the bag. How appropriate!

It's a reversible bag, but I used the same fabric on both sides. I wasn't sure it would turn out so this one was a bit of an experiment. I love it, so experiment results are excellent!