It Is Finished!

Remember back in October (October!) when I started knitting a baby blanket, similar to this lovely pattern?

Well in December right as I was about to be drowned in holiday crafting, I finished the square of the blanket, but it was a pretty wonky square.

I attempted to size it (by wetting it and ironing it into a square shape) which helped the situation some.

Once I recovered from holiday crafting in January, I began to add a border to the blanket.

Then, last Monday, I finished it!

The ends curl up a lot a bit, but it works and is generally recognizable as a blanket!

I declare it a success! Except I think I'm going to stick to scarves for awhile. :)

Super Crafty Weekend!

It feels like super crafty weekend but then I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. I also suspect that those hopes were unrealistic. Anyways...

I finished the square of the baby blanket I was working on, and counseled with Aunt Billie on how to do the border. She's modified it some which will make it easier, but it still seems kinda daunting so I'm procrastinating on it now. Oops.

I used this tutorial to make a check book cover. Although a little tight, it works and I'm super excited since my old checkbook cover was ruined in the great cat-pee-tastrophe of 2009.




And I completed one of the purses that I had planned on making for several people's Christmas gift.

It turned out a little smaller than I thought, and I had toyed with switching to fabric cubes with fun things in them instead, but everyone needs a small purse for some occasions so I'll be churning out more of these very soon!

Thanksgiving is this week which means my free time is now totally devoted to gift making. *sigh* If I had only started sooner...

UPDATED: Oops! Totally forgot to link to the purse pattern which is here. And all the lovely fabric is from Joann!

Crafty Progress

The knitting is starting to come together I think! The baby blanket is starting to look more like a blanket than scarf...maybe?


I also made some more progress on another secret project. I think it's a secret. I can't remember what I've said about it before. Hmm...I should finish it this week and it will cease being a secret soon.



My goal is that if I work really hard and finish secret project and make lots of progress on the baby blanket this week, then I should have tons of time in November for Christmas gift making. The hopefully-not-too-lofty goal is to finish gift crafting in November and dedicate December to holiday baking and other general merry-making.

(Caitlin, no this secret thing is not your mysterious birthday present, which I hope to finish in early November.)

Katie Learns to Knit

Now that I've conquered the worlds of sewing and cooking (sort of), it's time for knitting. One more year (or ten) and I'll totally be able to take Martha Stewart in some sort of domestic duel.

After knitting and purling for a couple hours with Aunt Billie last week, it is now my job to take her awesome vintage knitting guide and make a scarf. So far all I have to show for my efforts are the knitting guide, but I'm surely going to have that scarf (mostly) done by 7 p.m. on Wednesday.



I have already ambitious knitting goals, of course. Can I make this baby blanket in time for a November baby shower? If not, I already have a back-up, easier (I think.) plan: baby cocoon.

UPDATE I tried to knit on lunch today at work and the book was of no help. I've had to turn to YouTube and I think I might have figured it out. I have 36 decent-looking stitches cast so now I'm ready to knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl...