Are you ready for a tutorial?

Before I begin, here is the picture that I promised the other day of the cozy fleece dress that I made Lily. Well here it is. This is the 'rose' flower I had shown, its simply glued on a fold over elastic head band I quickly made yesterday morning. We picked up the tights to match it from target, she absolutely loves it. The great thing about this dress is that she can not only wear a dress in the winter but be warm as well.

Now on to the tutorial. We are going to be changing a plain, everyday tee shirt into a cardigan similar to this.

All you are going to need for this is:

a tee shirt

gross grain ribbon to match (or not if you prefer)

a lighter or flame source

a sewing machine

scissors

pins

Step one, is the tee shirt. We are going to be cutting it down the center, make sure you press to get all the wrinkles out of it. I recommend prewashing and drying prior to doing this.

Step 2: Turn the shirt inside out, matching up the side seams and shoulder seams as evenly as possible. I did mine inside out because I found it easier to find the center front.

Step 3: Once you are absolutely sure you have the found the center. Check again to double check ;). Now you are doing to cut on the center fold line you created by folding the front in half.

See all cut.

Step 4: now wear are going to heat seal the ends of our ribbon. You could use fray check if you like, but I much prefer a good old fashioned flame. Simply run the flame close to the edge of the ribbon. You will see the ends start to melt. Its really as easy as that.

Step 5: Press the ribbon in half length wise to almost form a bias tape.

Step 6: 'wrap' the ribbon round the edges of the center front . Making sure that you don't pull the shirt down, and pin it. I folded the top and bottom of my ribbon under so no edges were shown or hanging out to itch sensitive little necks.

Step 7: Sew the ribbon , I sewed close to the edges of the ribbon.

Step 8: Add a clasp to the top if you chose, I used a large hook and eye. Now its time to proudly wear your new cardigan.

Here is Lily in a dress I made her for Christmas that she could not wait to wear but had to wait because the dress is short sleeves. She is absolutely thrilled and looks mighty cute if I must say so myself.

Dress pattern is the Holiday Dress from Birdiful Stitches on Etsy. Sorry no tutorial on how I used a woven instead of a knit. But basically I made her a size 6, added seam allowance, cut the center back and used a zipper.

If you have any questions feel free to comment or email me.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading , Kristen ;)

Some recent projects

I have just a few projects to share. Last week I altered a girls long sleeve tee shirt and made it into a sweet little cardigan for Lily to wear over a dress I had made her for Christmas. Here is the cardigan. You probably cant see but it has a giant hook and eye closure.

Stay tuned tomorrow and I will try to put up a tutorial on how to do this.

Last week I also cast on a sweater dress for Lily, her 7th birthday is in March and she is getting too big for her other sweater dress I had bought, could be the fact that it is a 5t LOL. I am using a mix between the sorello and fratello. I am using part of both patterns in order to be able to create a really cute dress for her. Here is a progress pic.

Since this picture I have finished the sleeves, no picture yet of that though.

Today, I made some very sweet and toasty warm dresses for my girls. I had first saw the idea, and pdf at Un Petite Design, and got right to making some today. They really are very fast to make, I did add length to them to fit my girls, but other than that they are pretty much the same. This is Avrys, can you tell she likes it?

I also made one for Lily but for some reason, my computer is taking forever to load the picture so I will have to share that later. But I did make some flowers to match Lily's dress, also found links and tutorials from Un Petite Design.

I think that they turned out pretty darn cute. Thats all till tomorrrow.
~ thanks for reading , Kristen ;)

Amazing house smell and knitting.

As the cold weather finally approaches us I am getting to use the wood burning stove more and more. I say finally approaches because I live in New England and just last week we had temperatures in the 60's. I kid you not. Any who, we use a wood burning stove to help cut the cost of oil, since our house is set up to have oil heat. Anyone who has a wood stove, hopefully knows to use a kettle filled with water on top as a sort of humidifier. *note please only use kettles designed for wood stoves.

Last year I discovered a trick that helps make the house smell amazing, when the stove is going. I bought this little beauty , only a few drops in the kettle when I fill it and the entire house smells so good.

With cold weather on the brain, between Christmas and New Years I decided to knit myself a set. I wanted the set to include a hat, scarf and glitten. First I started with the hat, I used the striped newsboy. I used plastic canvas wrapped in duck tape for the brim.

(please excuse the side ways pics)

Next up I knitted the scarf. I just kept in the same pattern as the hat and knit for 6 feet.

(please excuse the preblocked picture)

Once I finally finished the scarf, which I never thought I would. I started on the glittens. For those that don't know a glitten is the marriage or partnership of a glove and a mitten. Its the convience of gloves and warmth of mittens at the same time. For this I used a pattern from Ann Budds the Knitters handy book of patterns. I basically knitted the glove, and fingers till the length I wanted them, ending in some ribbing around the fingers, I then picked up stitches along the top, and CO more in order to for a 'cap' for the fingers. When I had decreased and had only 4 stitches remaining I knitted an icord, which I later tacked down in order to make a button loop to hold my cap back when it wasn't needed. As you can also see I knitted ribbing on the palm side of the cap, where it isn't attached to the hand.

At this point I was done

or so I thought.

I decided I needed ear warmers to match for when my hair was up, which it often is . Shh don't tell Lily in order to co the ear warmers I had to put her hat on scrap yarn so I could use the circulars.



~ thanks for reading , Kristen ;)

Fast Food stand off!

I have decided that this year I would really like to not stop for fast food so much, dont get me wrong its not too often but nearly once a week is too much. Usually its when we are out and about running errands like on Fridays when I grocery shop. Well today I made a choice, we had come home after going to walmart. I checked grocery store ads, talked to hubby and made my list and menu for the week. I was ready to head out the door, figuring I would stop and only get a salad for me at Wendys, but salad or no salad its still fast food that the kids were going to be eating. I am happy to announce that I am eating a salad right here at home while they have cheese quesadillas, strawberries, applesauce, and carrots, much better than any fast food joint could offer.
Here is my planned menu for the week
I shop fridays so my menu goes Friday to Thursday. . Ok here goes
Friday: bake stuffed tilapia, baked potatos and roasted Brussels sprouts
Saturday: burritos bowls
Sunday: roasted chicken with green beans and probably egg noodles for Hubby and kids
Monday: meatloaf, baked mac & cheese and a veggie
Tuesday: chicken pad Thai
Wednesday: I work so Hubby and kids will have spaghetti and meatballs
Thursday: left overs from the week
Breakfast will include yogurt, oatmeal, cereal granola, smoothies, ect
And lunches will be salad with a protien usually. Snacks will be fruit, veggies with humus, granola, peanut butter , smoothies, ect

This week has been interesting to say the least, Wednesday my sweet Lily came home with some very unwanted visitors in her beautiful hair. We had the unfortunate experience of washing all her bedding, drying everyone elses, drying coats, hair accessories, vacuuming the entire house top to bottom and treating her. I kept her home yesterday just to be safe but my goodness, fun it was not. We did however try to make the most of the day. We watches Mars Needs Moms, that was cute! I CO a hat for her to knit, she has been wanting to knit since Christmas unfortunately I was using the needles that she needed, we read more of her book and I really got to enjoy the kiddies. We ended our fun day with pizza and salad for dinner.

~ thanks for reading , Kristen ;)

Its time to reverse the procrastination of the day!

The time is a little after 11am and I have successfully, sent a beautiful 6 year old off to school, started a fire (which happened to be started before she left), watched 2 shows I had DVR'd while I was working last night and knitted. The procrastination is apparently in full force today, as much as what mentioned may seem like a decent amount of things to accomplish I however feel its less than adequite lol. AH well.
Its a new day, which is a new opportunity. A chance to get to what I didnt yesterday and to do right what I may have done wrong. To me its a new begining, a fresh start. The past is behind up to learn from the present is to bask in and enjoy, and the future is something in which to look forward to.
Today I will accomplish something! But in order to do that once again I must leave the chair. First up, a poodle skirt for the dance team.
Once my procrastination has been held at bay I would really like to join Ginny over at Small Things for her Yarn along. I am always reading something and knitting something. Just need to get some pictures up and I think I just may be able to join her. Maybe next week. But for now I am reading The Choice by Nickolas Sparks and finishing up a hat, scarf and glitten set for myself.


~ thanks for reading , Kristen ;)

Goals

Not sure what it is about a new year that so many people feel the need to make 'resolutions' what makes yesterday any different from today? I am some what baffled, but I am not now going to start trying to understand what makes people tick LOL.
One might call me a hypocrite, but I too have goals, I am not going to call them resolutions because well we all now how well that goes over. I am just simply creating goals for myself and my family. Mainly I think I would like to get back into a routine and get back to menu planning. Those are my main things. I am only noting two because they both branch off and can lead to many other things all of which will be beneficial. Some of my smaller goals and plans, drinking more water and eating 6 meals a day, finding the bottom of my dirty clothes hamper, restarting school with my little two, reading more with Lily everyday and helping Jack with Potty Training. Basically I just want to be more organized.
My "To Do" list for today has been started, now I just need to remove myself from a computer chair and get moving. I have however already loaded and started the dishwasher, have my second load of laundry in and sent a certain 6 year old off to school. Next up, fold laundry, make a calender for the week, school with Little's, work on some craft things, Puppy has a Dr appointment, start a fire, need to pick up more juice, kids need showers today and I also work tonight. Here's hoping for a good productive day for all!



~ thanks for reading , Kristen ;)

Casting on for 2 at a time

Sometimes I think when knitting the worst part can be sleeves or legs, they seem to go on forever and then you need to make sure they are even. Well do get away with this I work them both at the same time.
I just recently wrote up my first pattern for fingerless gloves and wanted to use my easy way out. So I am sharing with you how I cast on and work two at a time. What you are going to need is yarn but thats a given, some double pointed needles and a long circular needle.
Wind your skein into 2 balls, or cakes whatever you prefer to work with.

To begin, Cast on all your stitches onto 1 DPN




Next up you are going to transfer half of those stitches to a second double pointed needle . Slip then purl wise onto the needle. It will look like this.
You are treating each end of the circular like its a separate needle (technically it is lol just attached) What you are going to do is slip them purlwise onto these needles. We are slipping them from where they are already joined NOT where they need to be joined. The working yarn and tail are at the other end of the DPN. Now slip these purlwise onto your circular needle. The tail and working yarn will be closest to your needle tips.

Here is a close up for you to see a lil better.

Do the same for the second arm/leg or wrist warmer what ever it is you are working 2 at a time on. From the second ball or cake of yarn.

Now you can start working in the round. The way to do this is lay your work out in front of you like I have, move the stitches w/ the tail yarn closest to the needles tip. Also slide the stitches attached to your working yarn to the cable, by pulling out that needle tip. Being careful not to twist your stitches. To avoid twisting I put all the 'ridges' to the center.

Be sure to place a stitch marker to mark the begining of your rounds. Here you can see I have worked 1/2 of 1 side of the fingerless glove

Contine working each side, making sure you are working each leg, arm, wrist or what ever it is from its own ball of yarn, otherwise you wil end up w/ a mess of joined pieces and might get confused. The yarn will be worked along a side, around the cable and along the second side.

I hope this was of some help to you all. If you already have live stitches you can just skip ahead and slip the stitches 1/2 on each needle onto your circular and just work them across, around the cable, and back across. I find it saves me time and lots of aggrivation. And will eliminate SECOND SOCK SYNDROM (insert dun dun dun right here) If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I will try to help you out.

Let me take a brief moment to spam my new pattern. It is almost done testing. Its called Action Fingers. http://ravel.me/deweysred/mwlt6

~ thanks for reading , Kristen ;)