Cutest Coffee Mug Cozy Ever

So cute!

I was lurking around my Mom's Etsy favourites and saw this shop she marked that had these for sale.

Score! They were selling the pattern!!

I whipped one up ignoring the gauge - as usual - and it was way too big, the arms way too short. Serves me right. So I started over and went strictly by the measurements. 

The only thing missing is a little pocket on the sweater. I find when I cast off I always end up with a wonky corner. I can usually hide it in a seam but when the pocket is only about 4 stitches wide and 4 stitches high - it's just not happening.

I even put little hooks on the mitts so she can hook them wherever she wants. It's too much.

I gave it to my Mom when we went for high tea at The Empress. She was over the moon.

So worth every stitch and every cent.

Baseball Jersey Sweater

It's really amazing what you can find online. Take this sweater pattern I found for free. I feel like I could spend all my free time making cool stuff like this.

But first!! Before I show you the rest, check out my perfect seaming. This was way easier than I thought and I was intimidated.

This post is way overdue, I made this last year for my nephew. Here is the pattern.  There was some talk online about the neck of the sweater being too small to fit over a toddlers head. One idea was to add buttons to one of the shoulders to get around this.

I took a chance and knit it as written and the neck line is just fine. In fact, it could have been a little tighter. Overall, what a fantastic pattern. Well written, easy to follow and the end result is soooo worth the effort.

I made sure I got a good quality yarn too. My sister in law throws this sweater in the washing machine and lays it flat to dry and it still looks good. Nice.

AutoCAD Trauma, Nephew Sweaters and Fleetwood Mac

Today was stupid. Every single thing I tried to do backfired. One step forward, three steps back.

It had to do with AutoCAD which I can no longer tolerate. I'm not going to get into it, but it has to do with THIS......click it. Do it. I dare you.

So on to way more interesting topics! I started a new sweater for my nephew and it's going to be off the charts.

People.....it's a baseball jersey. There will be stripes on the other sleeve. Here's the pattern.

Super easy pattern so far. I can't believe the stuff people post online for free.

In other news......Oh. Hell. Yes........!?

I gave Brad tickets to Fleetwood Mac for his birthday. Amazing seats. I literally ran out of a staff meeting to buy the tickets, my workmates assumed I had finally gone over the deep end.

We are super stroked - maybe me more than him? (nervous laughter....)

I've had their songs on repeat for the last couple weeks. I've always loved them, but lately their music is hitting me hard. The song 'As Long as you Follow' almost had me in tears the other day. I guess I've moved on from Human Touch?

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Well, things have been busy and I have tons of crap to tell you guys about - good books, an awesome Christmas present and sweet crafting stories. I'm just putting this out there so you won't forget me.

For now I'll leave you with a really quick toque I whipped up for my nephew. Maybe a larger size is in order for some of the men in my life.

Happy New Year!

Baby Shower Crafting

My friend D had her baby shower last weekend so I was busy crafting. 

I made my usual knit apple hat - I think I've made this thing ten times now. I could do it in my sleep, but it always brings great reactions so it's well worth it!

I found a fantastic, super easy, brainless tutorial for burp cloths. Much needed, lots of potential and best of all - get rid of random scraps from the stash. Flannel on one side of course.

A stroller bag - I've made over twenty of these and they are appropriate and super handy for new moms.  

I'm on to more crafting now for Christmas and I'm stoked. I have a new nephew C. which creates new crafting opportunities - a quilt is on deck and a sweater that I KNOW you won't be able to take.

I'm going to start a toque for my first nephew J. today. Bring on Christmas, I'm ready this year!

Kurt Cobain Sweater - Complete

Behold.

The completed Kurt Cobain sweater on my little nephew! I can't take it. Especially when he wears it with his stripey red shirt and jeans. What is with kid's jeans these days? They are off the charts cute.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post this photo. What? Like I had more important things to tell you about likes scarves and edamame toast? C'mon Jabba. Get it together.

We are spending the day today with family before we leave tonight on the train. Tomorrow we wake up in Kamloops, ready for a day of reading, looking out the window and drinking in the lounge car.

Next post from somewhere east of here.

Kurt Cobain Sweater III

Behold.

I seriously can't handle this little Kurt Cobain sweater. And I can't WAIT to see it on my little blonde nephew.

The pattern was actually really great. Yes, I had to rip out once but only because of my own stupidity. This is my first sweater and I appreciated knitting it all on the needles rather than having separate pieces and having to stitch them together at the end.

Genius.

I have a few future knitting interesting projects in mind, I'll keep you posted. This is by far my proudest knitting moment so far.

Kurt Cobain Sweater II

Lots of progress on the sweater for my nephew...

This photo is weird - the sweater is dark brown....I should take a photography course.

Anyway, after realizing there was a slight error in the pattern and ripping out twice, now it's super smooth sailing until the end. It's so cute and will look amazing on my cute little blonde nephew.

Blocking it is my next hurdle, but how hard can that be?

Ripping Out

It was going well, it really was. Although I had to ask Brad not to talk to me when I started a row. I told myself...."it's my first sweater - it's supposed to be this hard."

I didn't really think about what the stitches were and why.....I trusted the pattern. Until I got this far.

(That's the collar at the top....)

I suddenly thought - why am I increasing and decreasing stitches like mad near the edges where the button holes are? It's actually making holes in my knitting....where there shouldn't be holes.


It was then that I re-read the pattern.

I was making the WRONG sweater.

Seriously...

Well, at least when I re-do it, it will be an easier sweater to make...

(Don't you think it's cool that I'm writing this post on the ferry?)

Kurt Cobain Sweater

Remember the Jellyfish quilt I made for my nephew?

I'm starting another big project for him today - he's so cute I can't resist making him stuff. Plus it's football season again so Brad is glued to our new tv these days.

He is already laughing about how I'll be up late the night before I want to give it to him panicking and scrambling to get it done. I don't even bother to deny it anymore.

This time I'm attempting my first sweater and it's going to be off the hook cute: a little Kurt Cobain sweater!

Here's the picture from the pattern.

I went to my favourite yarn shop yesterday and had one of the ladies help me out. I couldn't even figure out which needle size to use. Turns out it's super small. I had to buy new needles - I usually knit on 4.5mm needles. These are 3.25mm. It will take forever.

I'm stoked.

A Scarf for Brad

This scarf has been on the needles for ummm.......yeah....over a year. It's not that it takes me that long to knit a scarf but.....I guess I wasn't in the mood for it. I forced myself to finish it since we've been having cold spells lately.

Unfortunately while this was on the needles I lost an entire skein of the grey wool. How? I have no clue. I tore this place apart looking for it and I know one day I will find it in the most bizarre place. So it's not quite as long as he wanted but it will do the trick. He likes to pick out yarn for the stuff I make him, and it's easy since there are great yarn shops in Victoria.

Actually I think I've moved beyond knitting scarves now and want more challenging projects. Next up - perhaps a hoodie or something cute for my nephew. He seems like good target practise for future knitting projects.

Some Randomness

I knit this toque for Brad. He picked out the yarn! The last toque I knit him was great and lasted a couple of seasons but the yarn he picked pilled quickly so he was wanting a new one.

Our Bad Room Mate has taken to this cardboard box we brought home from our Kamloops trip. No matter where the box is - he's in it. If we move from one room to another, we just pick up the box with him in it and transfer it to the other room.

I'm spending time this week refreshing my brain with the Building Code and Revit. I'm super comfy again with Revit but the code is never a comfortable thing. I'm going to test myself and make sure I know where everything is. I have an old code though and the new one is laid out differently. Ah, well.

On our way into Kamloops last weekend we were planning to stay the night at Brad's parents house (it's empty, they are traveling) and heat up some dinner that we had brought from home. Not very exciting.

When the ferry had almost reached the dock, I had a bright idea. I jumped up from my seat and said to Brad, "Ohmigod! We have the CAR. Let's drive into Vancouver and get some cheap sushi!!"

Now there is a luxury: driving on the ferry.

Leafy Hat

My latest knitting success. This is my first lace pattern and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I can't understand though - why people prefer to knit toques from the top down. This is also my first attempt at this method and there was lots of swearing at the beginning.*


It's much more difficult to handle the double pointed needles when there is so little yarn holding everything together. When you knit from the bottom-up, you have the entire toque pulling at the needles, hence holding everything together.

Binding off was interesting too. Not hard, just - well, interesting. Anyway, it's a great pattern. I'll likely make more as gifts in the future.

*I'm totally stealing this term from the Angry Chicken website, it's perfect because it's exactly what happens!

Leftovers

Today I wanted to go through my knitting stuff because it needs organizing, but more importantly I want to have a knitting project on hand for our visit to my in-laws tomorrow.

So...I have this 'thing' where I pick up a new hobby and I go CRAZY with it.

Knitting for example. Actually it started out with a friend who quickly taught me how to crochet one night. I made a scarf and really liked the satisfaction of how everything came together. So what do I do? I run out and buy almost every size crochet hook and lots of yarn.

It wasn't until probably my third failed attempt at another crochet project that I realized that I don't like to crochet! But knitting - now that is something I think I can get into! So I went out and bought Knitting for Dummies and a set of needles and taught myself one night.

After completing a few "swatches", I tackled my first project - a scarf. This is where I learned that knitting is full of secrets. There are things you just know not to do after a while...like knitting a scarf in stockinette stitch. (Luckily my first scarf was extra wide so when I realized what was happening I just seamed it up the side.)

So now, what do I do? Well, obviously I run out and buy myself tons of yarn and lots of needles. Which is fine because now I'm left with a good history of fairly successful projects, but lots of remnants of yarn.



What do I do with it? They seem too big to throw away but too small to do anything with. Do you guys have this same problem?