color

24 piece crayola color pencil case.

this is a gift for a wonderful little girl i have yet to meet but i know she will grow up to be something extraordinary.

i’ll give you my attempt at a tutorial of what essentially was inspired by a gift from my leigh. it is my treasured knitting needle case.

supplies:
scraps of fabric.
1 yard ribbon
crayola color pencils

1) cut 1 piece each of contrasting fabric 20 by 10in for the lining and outer piece.

2) from the same fabric as the outer piece cut 1 piece 20 by 7 1/2in. this will be the inner pocket.

3) fold the top of the inner pocket fabric piece one inch downwards towards the wrong side of the fabric. top stitch at the fold.

4) pin the wrong side of the pocket to the right side of the inner lining where bottom pieces meet. turn. working on the wrong side of the inner lining mark ¾ spacings from end to end-starting ½ in from left side and ending 1/2 inch from right side.
following markings stitch from bottom to the pocket top. (twenty four mini pockets)

5) cut 1 yard of ribbon in half. pin ends to right side of the pocket with ribbon facing to the left.

6) place outer piece right sides facing to lining with pocket and ribbon (make sure the ribbon is centered) leaving a 2-inch hole for turning, stitch around the entire rectangle. turn. iron and top stitch around whole piece to finish.


may she draw, may she color and may she create.

an odd dog

miss opal has always been gender challenged. since we've had her we make it a point to buy her pink accessories (collar, lead etc).

she does not know she looks the least bit masculine nor does she know that she is really very overweight.

both became obstacles for me when i decided to knit her a sweater. of course i went out and bought beautiful bright pink wool. i picked my pattern- this simple lion brand “need for tweed” knit dog sweater.

besides the model is a boston too.

here is where the problems begin. the sweater is knit in two pieces, the top and the bottom. after knitting it i think it would be just as easy to knit it in the round and skip the dreadful seaming. i was pretty close to completing the top when the totally obvious was pointed out to me…. a plump round dog in a thick pink sweater is going to look something like a barnyard animal. (dare i say pig?)

oh my.

i ripped out a large enough amount to add a pattern- i was thinking stripes but the “what not to wear” tv series told me that stripes make you look wider than you are. so i opted for charlie brown zig zag in green and white.

so far so good

the top was completed and i was moving on to the bottom. the shape of the bottom piece is rather like a wine bottle. it is wide where the belly is and takes in decreases as you get closer to the neck.

i did my homework and worked out that miss opal had the body size of a medium dog and the neck size of an extra large dog. my final belly piece looked like a reversal of the original. but to my surprise it worked.

a few other mods.. i also added a ribbed collar so it would be easy to put on and take off and short sleeves because i thought it would look better.

i think she likes it.

happy hat

happy birthday my friend. i am so sorry it will be late.

i want you to go forward this fall with something to keep you warm.

you know.... if you don't like it.... i am sure it will make a suitable tea cozy.

details:

denny hat by martin storey

queensland collection bengali x 4 skeins

needle us 9 / 5.5 mm

alterations:

c/o 105 sts (instead of 103)~ you have a wonderful head full of thick curls.

... and i love you

been in a blog fog

sheeze i must be the queen of blog neglect.

i don’t really have an excuse.

for any of you longhorn fans out there i copied one of my husband’s bowties (i used a 16” neck) and sewed up 5 bowties for our bartenders at work for a texas exes dinner.

1 yard of fabric makes 5 ties.

so all of you hook'em horns fans... no excuses.

(what a hypocrite)