Hello hello!

(Not the Adele song.) So...I was gone from the blog for a while. Obviously. But I've still been making things! Albeit a bit more slowly...

First up, a matching cowl and ear warmers:

 (This is really just a sneaky excuse to show you my Iceland pictures, hehe. This one's at Kerid Crater Lake.)

This cowl was originally supposed to be a shrug along these lines, but...that didn't work out so well. It was so ill-fitting that I don't have any pictures. (I'm still confused about how a seamed-up rectangle could fit so poorly, but...) I un-seamed it and re-seamed into this big, cozy blanket cowl. The thing is huge, but it certainly kept me warm in the cold and wind!

(At Gullfoss, Europe's most powerful waterfall. I stood there and stared for quite a while, feeling it rumble under my feet.)

I'm glad I made the earwarmers, but I wish I'd made them a bit wider. They had a tendency to fall down and/or not quite cover everything they should have. 

I also started making a matching hat before I left. I didn't get it finished before leaving, but faithfully packed it in my suitcase, thinking I'd have some time to finish it on the plane, or at the airport, or at night during the trip. I seriously overestimated my energy level (hiking + driving every day was incredibly exhausting). 

This cable-tastic hat was actually pretty easy...I think I finished it a week or two after Iceland, once my jet lag subsided. (I was mostly just tired of seeing it sit on my coffee table...)

When oh when will I learn that last-minute vacation projects never work out all that well? Have you fallen victim to the vacation trap? How did yours turn out?

Fourth-quarter resolution checkup

I thought it might be interesting to look in and see how far I have (or haven't) come with my resolutions...I originally started writing this post somewhere around June, but it's taken me this long to get around to publishing it...which probably doesn't bode well for my resolutions, does it? This means I consider it accomplished, and this means I don't. 

Scrapbooking:

• Get pictures printed! This is step #1 in completing all of those pages I need to finish, obviously. 
• Get to work for the first time in years! Once I'm in the zone, I can usually crank out quite a few pages a night, but it's hard to get started without a dedicated table/place where I can leave my mess out, so my goal is to keep my coffee table clear of everything but scrapbooking stuff and allow myself to live with the mess when I'm in the middle of pages. I have made quite a few pages so far, although, since the move, it's all been packed back up again.
• Most of my supplies are organized by theme, but not quite everything. I need to finish this task, so I can grab the theme I want when I'm ready to work on that page. [This might have to wait a while longer, actually.]
• I'm not allowed to buy anything new, unless it's something absolutely necessary to finishing a page (which, let's be honest, shouldn't ever really happen with paper and stickers and accessories). I think I'll only be allowing myself to buy adhesives and solid-colored cardstock. Done and done! I've been very faithfully putting back things that I've picked up at JoAnn, returned one Disney-themed paper pack my mom bought, and have only filled a couple of solid-colored cardstock holes.

(Garment) Sewing:

• Again, I can't buy anything unless it is absolutely necessary to finishing a project. I know that great linings, the right zipper, perfect buttons, etc. can really finish up the look, but let's be honest - I am a complete novice at sewing and it's unlikely that replacing stash pieces with store-bought perfection would actually perfect my garments. For now I just need to sew, and learn as I go and refine skills, and then I can worry about perfection once I feel more comfortable. [Realllly failed on this one. My stash has grown significantly, but that's mostly because I can't resist a good garage sale or estate sale. Or the clearance racks. Oops. However, in my defense, I've been using some of the fabrics up very quickly, and have sewn more this year than all previous years combined.]
  
  
  
  [I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that this is only a small portion of what I've bought this year, sewing-wise.]
• Just start cutting. Again, if I'm being honest with myself, none of my fabrics are pieces that I should be afraid to cut into, as they're not vintage beauties, and they hardly cost me anything. I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by cutting up so-so fabrics as muslins and practice pieces. Best-case scenario: I have a wearable muslin! Worst-case: I learned better for the next time. The four pairs of shorts I ruined should attest to that. Pair #5 might be make-it-or-break it (it also helps if I use the right size pattern when cutting out my pieces - that was my mistake with #4!). I do have some great success stories, though!

• Use the patterns I have (and make a list so I stop buying copies of the same patterns!). Most of them only cost me $1 each - if I screw them up that badly, I can buy them again, but they really just need to be used! This was maybe half-accomplished. I did finally cut into three commercial patterns, but I have realized I have a few gaps in my collection (meaning, my collection is almost entirely made up of dresses and nothing else. Oops).
• Refashion the things I've been meaning to refashion, and if they're not done by the end of the year, give them away! I did a decent closet purge a few months ago and took things to the resale shops, but as my items were out-of-season, the stores had no space for them. They suggested bringing them back in the spring, and since half of these items have never been worn, I'm reluctant to just give them away. So I'll make one more trip in early March, and whatever isn't bought is going straight to the Goodwill! Well, the year's not over, but I have managed to refashion 4 things so far, and I gave away the stuff I couldn't sell. There are still several more things sitting around to be refashioned, but I have faith.

Quilting:

• Whoa, what? I do not need to start another hobby, but I feel like this might be easier for me to accomplish than fiddling with hems and darts and fit and such. I recently came across this beauty and I know I have a million things in my stash that I could use to get a similar look.  The quilt I linked to is now DONE! It's so far from perfect that it's laughable, but I still like it. I'll be showing that off in an upcoming post, don't you worry. 

• Make my friend's T-shirt quilt. I probably won't see her again for ages, but I have to stop letting that be an excuse to keep her t-shirts hanging around and haunting me. I've made one of these before, and it's pretty simple, if a bit time-consuming, so it might be just the kick-start I need. Plus, I can always mail it to her when I'm done.  Done and done! It's not perfect, but she loves it, and I got some practice binding, so this is definitely a win. 

Knitting/crochet

• I actually don't have much of a yarn stash anymore, and it needs to stay that way. I want to try to use up most of the rest of what I have by year's-end.
• Make a case for my knitting needles, and maybe do some kind of swap to get rid of duplicates and fill in the sizes I'm missing. [This has been placed on the back-burner for now...]
  
• Start taking projects to my boyfriend's place. That way I can feel like I've accomplished something while he's playing video games. Although he's no longer in the picture, my finished cowl can attest to my success with this one! My sweater has been lingering, but I've only got about a sleeve and a half left to go on that one. Maybe I'll actually be able to wear it by the time the winter gets here!
  
• Figure out how to finish the project I started using leftover yarn from my granny square quilt. I...have no idea at this point. It's not long enough to be a scarf, and not quite halfway to being a decent sized blanket, so we'll see.
• Finally knit an infinity cowl. I wanted one last year, but never got around to it. I still want one, and may just have enough matching yarn to make one this year. If I keep it simple (no fancy patterns), it should come together pretty quickly.  

Well, there you have it, folks. Not a total win yet, but I've still got a few more months, right? How are you coming with your resolutions?

Finished project (finally!)

Wow, it's been a while, but I have been busy(ish), I promise! It's just that, working on 3-4 projects at a time, none of them ever really get finished to be able to show you. 

But finally, FINALLY, my boyfriend/Dexter cowl is done!

It's based on the Brioche Infinity Scarf pattern, found here.

So, without any further ado, I present my finished cowl!

This was a true stash-buster! I was originally planning to use a light tan and a beige that I had left over from a sock monkey I made for my mom, but as usual, I realized I was going to run out of those 2 colors long before it was done! I somehow always think my yarn's going to stretch further than it does. 

I dug through my stash some more and found a gray that went with the overall color scheme (also from a sock monkey I made!). I added that in random rows, as I did with the tan. 

Finally, I ran out of all three of those colors, and was forced to grab ANOTHER yarn from the stash, only I didn't really have anything that went with the color scheme...

So I added red! I don't think I can call this the boyfriend/Dexter cowl anymore...it's now the sock monkey scarf!

I prefer to wear it with the red at the back, but it is super warm and cozy, perfect for this crazy Chicago weather!

I love how versatile this is! It's a scarf/hat/hood/anything I need it to be, and it's great! It's a bit shorter than the other ones out there, but I was SO TIRED of working on this and just wanted/needed it to be done. I didn't quite use up all of the red, but almost, and I think I actually like it shorter like this. Any longer and it wouldn't keep out the cold so well.

Stash busted: 3.5 skeins of stashed yarn, yay!