Crafternoon #18: More Holiday Crafting & a Resurrection

Crafter-freakin-noons y'all!!!!  Yep... that just happened :)

I got a good deal of work done on my holiday crafts today... I mean, I'm half way through my cousin Ron's gift.  The idea I had for him was a set of 'man slippers' so off to search Ravelry I went.  After much looking I came upon this pattern for Crochet Moccasins.  I decided to use 2 strands of yarn (navy & grey). So far I've completed one and let me tell you that pattern needs a smidge of work.  It just has a few places where the wording is not clear and I ended up wasting so much time doing things the wrong way because of how it was written.  Oh well, now that I know, the second slipper will go so much faster.  I'll likely start on the mate later on this week.

Comfy looking huh? =)

I also did a few more rows on the Drop in the Pond afghan #2. To be precise I finished 3 rows while in a poetry club meeting.  Slowly but surely making progress on it.  I should just devote a few days this coming week to finish it up.  I was looking at the first Drop in the Pond afghan I made and kinda want to put some more border rows on it... It feels unfinished to me for some reason.  I don't think I shared the completed first afghan on here.  So here are Drop in the Pond (DP) afghans #1 & #2.

Completed DP #1

Progress on DP #2

Lastly, I did some dyeing today.  It was more of a refashioning project.  You see, a while ago I got a cream cardigan from American Eagle and eventually didn't want it anymore.  But instead of giving it away, I decided to dye it brown because I had been looking for a brown cardigan to wear to church and work, but couldn't find one I liked.  So I popped it in the sink with some RIT dye.  45 mins- to an hour later I chucked it in the wash to see what the finished product would look like... It looked HORRIBLE...  The dye didn't take evenly so it was all splotchy and whatnot and I was like, there's no way I'm wearing this!  So into my "to be fixed one day when I have time" pile it went.

Today was that day. I pulled out my new/old dye pot I got from the Ghostown Flea Market and prepared another brown dye bath.  This time, I made sure the water was pretty near boiling when I put the sweater in to insure I got a deep color.  That little sweater was in that bath for nearly 2 hours.  When the water cooled down, I rinsed the piece and ran it thru the washer and dryer, and I'm very glad that I didn't give up on this cardigan.  Now it's the perfect dark brown and the only other alteration I'm considering is changing out the buttons, but the dye bath was so hot that what use to be cream colored buttons are now brown too, lol.

Roommate said I looked like a witch stirring potions in my huge pot with my large wooden spoon...

Awkward self portrait at midnight... check...

Close up.  The buttons actually look kinda olive or army green... I'm going to change the out for gold ones.

So yep, that was my crafternoon. We didn't have anyone over for real, but sometimes I appreciate being able to crochet by myself at home.  Next Sunday, Alina and I are going to the Spin & Stitch circle at Yarn Expressions.  I was telling my mom that I'm so much more likely to go to things like that with a friend than by myself... especially if I think I'm going to be outnumbered by old ladies.  No one wants to be outnumbered.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and got some extra rest with this time change and all... Speaking of, I need to get my tail in the bed... Gotta be to work tomorrow morning.  Goodbye crafty weekend.

Crafternoon #8

Hey there.

We finally had another Crafternoon with more than myself, hurray!  Today, my friends Dee & Mimi came over for some diy time. Mimi wanted to crochet a scarf to wear in the winter & Dee wanted to learn to crochet.  So we had a crafternoon crochet lesson.  It went really well & now both ladies are working on double crochet scarves ^.^

This is the direction that I dreamed Crafternoons would take. I wanted to provide a place where people could come and learn a craft or teach one. That way, we create a melting pot of diy ability.

Cherie took a picture of me teaching Dee how to crochet.

Our crafternoon guests crocheting away at their projects :)

I wrote earlier that I finished my first official handspun yarn. I twisted it up into a wee little hank and it was very cute ^.^

Cute little hanky :) I love Kiva's face in the background.

I found this briefcase sitting outside our dumpster one night.  I decided to spray paint it. A quick coat of paint is a really easy way to spruce up a find.  First, I painted it silver, then taped the striped pattern, & then sprayed it navy blue.

Here it is mid process.

And here is the completed paint job.

I have since taken off all of the tape. The clasps and metal feet are silver and the handle is still the original black.  I'm not entirely sure where I would use it. Plus, the inside is a black/white houndstooth pattern that no longer goes with the outside.   Maybe I'll cover the inside... that's still in the design works.

Cherie worked on refashioning a shirt she got from her Grandmother.  She did a lot of nipping, tucking, and grommet setting and created a very cute lace up tube top.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it yet, but I will.

This was a great Crafternoon. Next week, I hope to host another Crafternoon just as great. :)

Sabbath Crafternoon 6

I have completely been on a crafting kick this weekend! This is a refashion project.  I thrifted a few baskets & locker shelves to hold produce in the kitchen since we don't have a pantry or much other storage for that matter.  

Progress shots

The baskets are lined inside with a couple layers of cling wrap & covered outside with a neat red/white stripe fabric.  Originally I was going to make 3 baskets, but 2 works better.

I didn't photograph the locker shelves because I haven't painted them white yet.  Now we have a nice place to keep our veggies and fruit that don't need refrigeration :)

I love thrifting & finding pieces that can be refashioned for use around the house.  Yay for making Apt 203 better! ^.^