2 years 7 months

That's exactly how long that darn sweater of death was on the needles.  And 1 week ago I was rejoicing and had such a huge weight off my shoulders!  I finished the darn thing.  Granted I still have to block it which might be time consuming but should be easy enough.  Then there is the dreaded installation of a zipper.  I'll be damned if it's not perfect though.  There's this voice inside me that just says "get it done!  who cares if its not perfect, you will be 100% done with it".  And boy do I want to give into that voice just a little - but I know better.  After almost 3 years of work on this sweater I don't want to screw up something so "little" as the zipper.  That's in quotes since really nothing about this sweater is even near little.  But I want it to be great!  I want my hubs to show it off.  I want him to boast "my wife made this for me!!"  If that zipper is half-assed I'd be hiding behind a rock somewhere when he says that instead!  So here it is -  the sweater off the needles and on a model way too small for it.  There will be a photo shoot when it is really DONE - that was one of the conditions in making this sweater.  I don't care how much my husband hates the camera!

This picture is so awful and was just meant for my hubs.  Feel special that I'm sharing it with you.  Very special.

 
Now that this is done and I have my sewing room back I'm been going crazy with sewing projects.  I've been doing well with my "finish what you start" theme for 2015 and have intentions of finishing one sweater and ripping one sweater.  Then the plan is to start the lovely Artemisia Sweater and follow the sister Craftsy class for it.  Hopefully that will keep me on track!!  I'll leave you with my latest FO and yes - that sure is some of the very coveted Frozen material (i found a steal on it!)

All Too Fast

Things are happening fast around here.  I might be having my household goods packed up in as little as a week to two weeks.  It's a bit of a whirlwind and I'm trying to prepare for the idea of a few weeks in this house (and the next) without our stuff.  We are planning to drive both cars so everything we have will have to fit in the two cars.  This means no furniture.  Maybe a camp chair or two, and an air mattress.  This is where the dilemma comes in.....where is my toddler going to sleep?  She's too small for an air mattress, plus we'd have to buy one.  And if it was just a night or two she would be fine on the floor, but for a possible month or so?  I needed something else.  And of course I turned to Pinterest.    I saw a lot of tutorials for these types of sleeping mats made out of pillows.

But I didn't want something that was going to take up so much room in the car, especially because at the time we weren't even sure if we would have to pack everything into one car.  These sleeping mats are made from pillow cases and pillows, so I started brainstorming.  What is soft, can roll up smaller and will be comfy enough for Miss A to sleep on?  Thats when I thought of my yoga mat, which was a thick foam one, not the thin grippy ones).  Honestly I would prefer a new thinner one for yoga, and the one I had was ripped up from the cats. So I decided to upcycle the one I have for Miss A. 

I let her pick out some flannel material (which I of course used a coupon to buy)!  She picked out some owls - takes after Momma!  The mat I had already had velcro straps at the end so I put buttonholes in the bottom to pull the straps through.  I cut the end off so it was more appropriately sized for a toddler.  Attached some coordinating material at the top and stuffed it with polyfill. It's by no means professional, but  I'm very happy with my final result.  I'm not the only one happy with it.  Miss A hasn't left it for longer than 10 minutes the whole morning!  I think she will be more than happy to sleep on it.

A Simple DIY Headband

So I chopped my hair.  It's not a cut I never had, but it's a cut no one I really know here has seen me with.  Its short.  I love it short, but it definitely takes a bit of styling time.  I wanted something I could do with my hair on laid-back "i don't care" days.   I started looking up ideas for head wraps on Pinterest.  Made a few and came up with an idea of my own.

Do you sew? If you've sewn with knits you will know that when cut in thin strips the material curls up on itself.  This is also known in the DIY world as t-shirt yarn (except I didn't use an old t-shirt). I had two long pieces like this.

My immediate thought was I could braid these strips and make a headband, but braid - with two pieces?  Doesn't exactly work.  So I dug into my memory of old school boondoggle days.  Remember that stuff?  I spent hours at camp every summer with it.  I remembered something called the butterfly stitch.  I treated my strips just as they were pieces of boondoggle. They twisted here or there since they don't have a flat side like boondoggle, but I'm not s huge perfectionist so it didn't bother me.

Once the "braid" was long enough I wrapped it around my head and marked where I wanted the ends to join.  I'm not crazy about tying and having ends hang, so I opened the curl up of all 4 ends, stacked them on one another and sewed.  This headband has a nice stretch to it and stays on my thin hair.  I really like it and plan to make more.  Share with me if you make one!!