Five Baht Elephant

my crafty home

Made: A Backpack That I Really Like

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This is the Range Backpack by Anna Graham (Noodlehead) and I’m still not exactly sure how I even got started or why I decided I needed to sew up this bag. For one, I kept seeing them pop up in my instagram feed. Two, I felt that a backpack would be nice to take on walks around the neighborhood, or bike rides to the farmers market. Three, I wanted to work with waxed canvas. I’m sure there are other reasons, but mostly I just really liked how it looked!

I bought the waxed canvas from AL Francis Textiles on Etsy and locally from Fancy Tiger and then the bag hardware from So You Need Hardware. The straps and interior fabric is Essex Linen that I also grabbed from Fancy Tiger. This came together way way easier than I could have thought. I cut the fabric and started stitching the straps on a Friday afternoon/evening and then had the whole thing finished by Saturday afternoon. Denver got some snow that weekend, and after a team workout at CrossFit Park Hill I holed myself up in my sewing room and finished it.

As with all of Anna’s patterns, the instructions were so clear. The waxed canvas was awesome to work with as well and was so easy to stitch. I did use a denim needle and polyester thread as recommended.

By Sunday, the sun came out and warmed up to the 60s. Miles and I had to get out of the house and I used this bad as intended – on a walk to the Botanic Gardens. It is perfect and I love it.

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This Morning I Planned Projects

I bought the Wayfinder Quilt Kit during a Craftsy sale (score!) and I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I hit the ‘add to cart’ button. I haven’t been sewing much in the last year. I am pretty sure it will take me quite a long time to finish it.

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The box arrived this morning, and I’m actually really excited about working on it. I took a few minutes to identify and label the different fabrics. aaaaannnnndddd then I put it all back in the box it came in. I’ll get to working on it – maybe I’ll make a project schedule?

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The other project I planned were some new socks I want to knit. After finishing up my Talia’s I knew that I wanted to knit more colorwork socks. My local yarn shop, which is within walking distance (score!), has the book _200 Fair Isle Motifs_ and after thumbing through it, I scooped it up. It is such a good resource. I am using the Talia pattern, but I charted different fair isle motifs. I used Google Sheets to play around with colors and patterns until I settled on these. I made use of conditional formatting and then the ‘find and replace’ function to make changes fairly quickly. I’m sure there are easier ways to prototype fair isle, but I found this method easy for me.

FairIsle Chart

I have the gray, navy and hot pink already in my stash but no teal. Carol and I went to Fancy Tiger where I picked up a 50g ball of Sock Yeah! by CoopKnits in Topaz. I have some travel next week (Baltimore and then Austin) and then more travel the week after (California). It’ll be painful, but at least I’ll have some quality airport and plane knitting time.

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Made: Colorful HST Baby Quilt

HST Baby Quilt

Yeah, so I actually made this quilt quite awhile ago but never really shared it. Since my latest posts have mostly been knitting, I’d thought it was time to share this one.

My friend Nicole had a baby girl in July and this is the quilt I made for her. It’s made from 2 charm packs and I grouped like colors together. I also did not over think the piecing or the layout. The quilting pattern is a bunch of little rectangles just free motioned across the entire top.

Made: Dragon Lady Shawl (and bonus Daybreak)

I love this one. It is so huge and so squishy it is like a blanket wrapped around my neck. If you recall, this is the project made with yarn I dyed myself back in November. It was slow going for awhile – those rows, man, they just got so long. And then I ran out of yarn. Twice. So if you look at mine versus the one on the pattern, mine definitely does not look the same.

We were out the other morning, and I asked my Seester to snap a photo of me and Miles in front of the colorful mural. She noticed that I matched the colors.

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I enjoyed knitting this one. The pattern – Drachenfels – was well written. The yarn -Blue Faced Leicester sport weight – is nice and soft and warm and was a dream to knit. A shawl done up in sport weight yarn comes together pretty quickly. Details are on my Ravelry project page.

…not like a shawl knitted in sock weight yarn. Which brings me to my Daybreak. I started this back in March 2015, worked on it for awhile and then stuffed it away in my craft closet when I got too bored. A Ravelry challenge motivated me to just finish it. Details are on my Ravelry project page.

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UnMade: Socks

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Welp. So much for these! They do not fit well on my foot, so I just ripped out what I’ve got so far and balled it all back up. Which is a shame really. I tried a short row toe, and when I say ‘try’ I mean I tried. Like a million times. I watched video after video to try to figure it out and must have started over half a million times. Except, I really like how the short row toe looks and fits… So I’m gonna have to go back and re-watch how to do it.

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And then Bane thinks my Makers Tote is his new CatBed. I had just cleaned it out too, so he must think it is all for him now….

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Knitting in November

Photo heavy post! (I’ve had some time to go through my photos!)

I started the Tread Hat around Halloween. I am a big fan of the designer, Shannon Cook, and this pattern is in the book Within. My mom was visiting for awhile and she wanted to buy some yarn for a scarf. We went to Fancy Tiger and I picked out this Cormo Worsted by Sincere Sheep.

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treadhat

Mom had such a good time with us, walking Miles to/from school and then knitting and taking care of Cats during the day.

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While I finished the actual knitting a few weeks ago, I was waiting for the arrival of the faux fur pompom. I stitched it down this morning. Love this hat. This is my first time knitting with Cormo and I really like the yarn. It is stiff yet soft. And I still have like half the skein left.

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Meanwhile, I also spent time taking photos and weighing some of my leftover yarn. I catalogued them into Ravelry’s stash page. yarnstash

I’ve also made some significant progress on my Dragon Lady shawl. This is knitting up nicely, and the BFL yarn is lovely.

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I’m actually using my Caravan Tote as intended – as a knitting project bag!

Adventures in Yarn Dyeing, Part 2

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So, it’s been about a year since I last dyed yarn. Terribly unhappy with the color for the Iridium sweater, I thought I’d overdye it and see what happens. Sweater quantity of yarn is a LOT OF YARN, and I couldn’t just … toss it or give it away.

I was shooting for a navy-ish color, so I just used blue, with a little black mixed in. I weighed the yarn, and then calculated how much dyestock I’d need to get the shade I would want.

I threw the dye in the pot, gave it a quick stir and then dumped the yarn it. That ‘quick stir’ was a mistake. When you pour dyestock into a pot of water, it doesn’t mix. The color kind of suspends there, which can lead to some really great tonal colors, but I was aiming for a more consistent application of color than what I’ve got.

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I also have some Blue Faced Leicester sport weight undyed yarn hanging out in my yarn stash. Drachenfels has been in my knitting queue for almost 2 years, and I bought this yarn to make one. I split the yarn – 70g, 125g and the rest 205g – and dyed it. I was aiming for pink but I added too much blue to the red and now I’ve got this light purple. Happy accident. I like the light purple. The two grays are made from the same dye, just a different ‘depths of shade’ – the light is at 0.5 DOS while the darker… well, I started at 0.75 DOS, but then I poured more dyestock into the pot. I don’t exactly know what DOS I ended up with. Either way, I’m in love with these!

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Made: Flying Geese Tote

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… and of course it is another knitting project bag! Really, I don’t need anymore; I just like making them.

This is Noodlehead‘s Maker Tote. Love her patterns – I’ve made almost every one!

For the exterior, I had some leftover strips of Allison Glass fabric and I made lots and lots and lots of flying geese. I used a paper piece template (free over at Fresh Lemons) which made easy and accurate work.

I can’t decide which is my favorite – the sparkly gray used in the handles, binding or zipper tape or the hot pink wood grain lining or the cats I used for the pockets. I can’t decide.

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2016 Ravellenic Games

“Uh, WUT?” You’re probably asking.

From the Ravelry Group Page

The Ravellenic Summer Games 2016
Dates: Friday, August 5 – Sunday, August 21

The One Rule To Rule Them All: Challenge yourself by starting and finishing one or more projects during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

What will be a stretch for you? It could be a new technique, that first sweater or pair of socks, something massive, something delicate, or maybe finishing that monster in the closet. The goal of the Ravellenic Games is to support you in expanding your knitting/crocheting horizons.

I’ve mentioned it before, but Ravelry is like the best website for knitting/crocheting. Community driven, visually pleasing and an amazing resource – if you knit you should be on Ravelry. Every Olympics, a group starts up and thousands of people join in to ‘compete’ in different events. I’ve joined a team of knitting redditors called Team Upvotes. But truthfully, there’s no competition and you don’t need to join a team. The goal really is … whatever you want it to be. Though it is fun to participate in something that a whole bunch of people from all around the world are doing at the same time.

I think I’ve been a bit ambitious in my goals for the next two weeks. I’ve entered three “Events”

WIP (Work In Progress) Wrestling: Talia Take Two

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WIP Wrestling: Strokkur  I am seriously still only like 4 rows from completing this.

Strokkur WIP

Sock Put: Another Hermione Every Day Sock

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Sweater Triathlon: Blank Canvas I’ve had this yarn for over a year, with the intent to knit this sweater. The two yarns will be held together to create a pretty unique color. This event is a bit ambitious because, well, it’s a sweater.

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Made: Geeky Science Swap Mini

SciSwap
I’m so way late on posting this – I worked on this mini last fall!

My randomly assigned partner likes biology mostly, and warm-ish palette and submitted a favorite science-y quote. I settled on making a mini-quilt of the quote, using paper-pieced alphabet patterns I bought from the etsy shop From Blank Pages I still have most of the jelly roll from the baby girl quilt I made in August, which matched the warm-ish colors that my partner favors.

This. Took. Forever.

There are like a million pieces and a million seams in these little letters. Ok. I exaggerate. But it felt like a million.

My partner, who lives in Texas, also likes to receive things from where I’m from, so I included a Bronco’s Mystery Lego Figure (I’m hoping she got Payton!) and a Colorado sticker. I also included some fabric mini charms (2.5″ squares) and an adult coloring book. Not exactly the sciency-theme, but I think she liked what I sent!

In turn, a different partner made these for me! A LOST themed mini quilt – which is amazing! 2 fat quarters (18″ x 22″) of this awesome math-geeky fabric, elephant poo note paper, decals and a needle book that glows in the dark! AWESOME.

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