Mindless TV watching and Simple Knits

I like watching TV while knitting. I used to listen to audiobooks, but that was when I had easier access to them. Now with a tighter budget, and no library card yet, I have instead turned to TV. I like things I can listen to and understand what is going on without having to keep my eyes on the screen, documentaries and DIY shows require too much attention. I don't enjoy reality TV, I think most of it is very catty and it encourages really negative behaviors and competitiveness instead of collaboration so  that leaves mostly series. I started watching Supernatural and then my husband jumped on the bandwagon, so we keep the series to watch when we're both home. So I needed a show I could watch on my own and knit to. And then I rediscovered my love for Korean dramas.

A knitting/crafting friend in Costa Rica got me hooked, by recommending The Coffee Prince, which I watched on YouTube in a week long splurge. I tried watching a different one, but it was incomplete, so I stopped and then life happened and I kind of forgot about it, except as an anecdote.

 I was channel surfing one day and found by accident a show called Secret Garden on Mundo Fox. I love the book The Secret Garden, so I wondered if it was a dramatized series or something. I found a completely different Korean drama, dubbed in Spanish but with English Subtitles! So I set my TV to record the episodes and I sat to knit lace while watching.

 

I am loving it. It is fascinating how culture is portrayed in shows, and I'm sure that Korean dramas have as much to do with Real Life as Telenovelas have to do with life in Latin America. I sometimes wonder if something I see has roots in reality or if it is soap opera fiction... I watch a webshow called Eat Your Kimchi that is made in Korea by Canadians explaining bits about culture and life in Korea, so now I'm kind of hoping I'll get to visit some day!

Back to the series. With only an episode a day and more knitting to be done, I decided I needed some more. So I did a quick search online, and found several on Netflix.  I picked one of the highest rated ones, Boys Over Flowers and after a couple of episodes, I was hooked.  However, my lace knitting was all but forgotten on my lap, since lace charts and subtitles (Series is in Korean with English Subtitles) do not mix.

So I brought out from UFO storage: the baby blanket I've been working on for close to two years. The pattern is easy enough that I can knit without taking my eyes off the screen for more than a few seconds, and I'm really enjoying the show, and feel happy about getting closer to finally completing the blanket. Win-Win.

Knitting the Kuusk Lace Cowl

 As soon as I cast off the shawl, I swatched for a new lace project, the Kuusk cowl, not because I wanted to see the gauge, but because I wanted to try out the pattern and nupps before jumping in.

The swatch was made with this cone of mystery fiber, which I then unraveled.  I had to do 3 repeats of the pattern: the first time, this swatch here, I forgot to adjust the lace pattern for the fact that I wasn't knitting in the round, so I ended up with garter stitch lace. I then did a second repeat making sure to purl on the way back, but the weave was too open. So the third time I adjusted to a smaller needle size and decided I could handle the pattern.This tiny square I didn't want to reclaim, it was from yarn I had unwound from the outside because it was decolored and stained, but knit up, you could hardly tell. In any case, I think there is enough of this yarn so that I won't need this extra bit!

The actual cowl is made with a lucious 100% alpaca skein I got at the sheep and wool festival. I have decided I need more color in my life, and pink looks nice and warming. So a pink lacy cowl it shall be, just perfect for fall and winter. 

 I have a hard time selecting yarn for a project and not doubting my decision.

At the Sheep and Wool festival I bought two skeins of alpaca, 550 yards of it, in this pink and a purple.  I didn't know which one to use for this cowl. In my mind I had an idea for a striped lace shawl, taking into account that the purple and pink go lovely together, but I just didn't find a pattern I liked enough... mostly because I don't actually think I'll wear a shawl, and also because I don't have the budget to buy one when I'm not sure about the result.  So I decided to make a cowl, which I know for sure I will wear and the pattern was free. 

 Now I feel I'm having regrets, after knitting the swatch with the cone, I kind of wish I hadn't bought the purple alpaca lace, considering that I now have two very similar yarns in purple in my stash, and no chance to make my stripey dream. I can't unknit or frog, because the yarn is so grabby, and also I'm not sure I want to! I love the way the cowl is turning out, I just feel sorry for the lonely purple lace that will no longer have its chance to shine in a striped wrap of some sort.

I want to use the yarn on the cone... I feel like I'll be able to make one of those ginormous shawls without joining any ends or running out. Because I kind of know I won't wear a shawl, it won't necessarily matter if it isn't next-to-skin soft... But do I want to put in the effort for a lovely intricate shawl and then never wear it because it is scratchy? Does it even matter?

I hold onto the hope that there is some of this pink lace left over, so I can maybe include it in a future project with the purple alpaca. At the end of the day, I really like the way this pink cowl is turning out... so I'm happy for that, and I'm sure that once I'm wearing the cowl, I won't even think about this any more.

Blocked Holden Shawlette

Finally finished the Holden Shawlette!  For my first triangular shawl, it went pretty well.

 I used some vintage Indiecita Alpaca that is labeled as  "approximately 50 Grams", no yardage given, and though it says it is 3 ply sports weight, it acts more like fingering weight. The shawlette took 2 balls and a bit extra, since I ran out of the second ball of yarn about 5 inches short of picot bind-off. Thank goodness I had extras. After finishing the shawl, there are still 8 balls of this yarn to go, and I have no idea what I'll make with them... maybe a really big yarneating shawl, since it was nice to work with.

It's interesting to me how labels have changed, back them it didn't seem that necessary to add as much information as they do now. Note where it says Natural Color, Not Dyed, and right next to it Dyed Color, and no yardage information. 

Although it came off the needles a while back, I wasn't ready to block it. I have nudged other knit projects in the past, the last time it was a woodland scarf that I pinned on a towel on the living room rug. Although it stayed there overnight, I removed it the next day while it was not completely dry and it didn't stretch out as much as I wanted, or perhaps it just shrunk back. So with that in mind, I was a bit apprehensive about the process, but braved it anyway.

I did notice that this yarn bleeds a bit. I put it in water to wash it and the water was bright pink! It reminded me of a visit to Bolivia, when we first saw cochineal bugs, and discovered that's where carmine color came from. To keep it from crazy bleeding over other clothing once it's worn, I added white vinegar to the water and hope it helps. In any case, this happens to be a shawl for my sister, who I always kid about her love of these dark reds that bleed in the wash. 

I don't have blocking wires or a dedicated surface for blocking, so for the shawl I decided to block it over the afternoon on the bed. I laid an extra sheet over the end and started pinning starting at the corner of the bed with the triangle's 90° angle.  Halfway through the drying process I wove in some  cotton yarn through the long edge to straighten it up, after realizing I didn't have enough pins to make sure I didn't get scallops.

Here is the finished shawlette, measuring 62 x 24 inches, just perfect for wrapping around the neck and shoulders.

The color is a lot redder in person.  I shall package this and send it off to my sister, in thanks for some sewing patterns she bought for me and mailed!

Alfajores

I'm getting a bit better with meal planning: I'm making yummy food for dinner with leftovers for lunch the next day. For example: this week we had mango cheese-cake popsicles, Colombian empanadas, a cold pasta salad and alfajores. I don't usually take pictures of when I cook or the process because I don't feel too great about my kitchen, there's not enough space or good spots for nice pictures and lighting is far from ideal. Also, I'm mostly cooking other people's recipes and it doesn't make much sense to do a tutorial of cooking what someone else made (and for which they already have a tutorial). Except perhaps to say YAY! Yummy.

I am adding successful recipes to a Pinterest board so that I can quickly go over them and repeat past successes.  But back to last week's experiments. Here are some pics of the alfajores I made:  I covered some in chocolate in the Argentinean style to add a little twist to the recipe.  When my beater wasn't working I worried about the cookies, but it turned out that creaming the sugar and butter by hand was just fine, the end product was just as delicious.  I'm now on the hunt for a round cookie cutter to make smaller cookies, for these I used a drinking glass and an empty crystal light canister, and ended up with just about 10 alfajores. Smaller cutter would equal more alfajores, making them easier to share.

Now that I know that the alfajores are yummy and easy to make, perhaps next time I will take some pictures, and document my own twists on the recipe. I'm thinking I could include some lemon zest in the shortbread, and then finish them differently, for example rolling the edges in coconut, dusting with sugar or coating with chocolate: 3 different kinds of alfajores to chose from, in dainty sizes to share. Sounds like a plan.

Volunteering at ScrapDC

 I've been working on a freelance job, so while it does not take up all my time, I find that once I sit in front of a computer, I tend to spend most of my day there, and it is  easy to get distracted from work due to shiny internet stuff.  However, I have been busy!

I volunteer at a creative reuse center called ScrapDC at 52 O St. NW and last week my schedule was packed with ScrapDC activities!  I went over there on Thursday to do my hours, where I usually organize shelves, put away things and sometimes make new things from the materials available at the store. A previous week, I spent the whole afternoon organizing the fabric area, and it ended up looking like this:

Not too bad for different sizes, weights and types of fabric!

Then on Friday I went to a neighborhood public charter school that we've been working with as a judge for a creative reuse vocabulary fashion show, where kids would have to illustrate through a costume a vocabulary word, ideally repurposing and recycling materials, instead of buying things new.  On Saturday morning we were at the Renwick: they were hosting a family day with crafting activities and we had gift packages made with empty toilet paper rolls and decorated with fabric, string and paper. Some great pictures of the finished products are on the Facebook page. I also had a chance to make stuff from the other organizations there: I made a pipecleaner kitty sculpture in a jar, and a beaded bracelet:

I love making things, and whenever I'm at Scrap I can't help but be inspired by all the materials around me. With the lack of craft, fabric or notions stores that are metro accessible in DC Scrap certainly fills a niche and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Making a Quilted Laptop Sleeve

So what have I been up to?  I've completed another of my "to do" tasks on the sidebar! I FINALLY finished the laptop sleeve I'd been making, tired of stuffing my computer without any protective layer inside my handbag, where all sorts of unsavory finish-marring characters hang around. I used some Marimekko fabric from the Crate&Barrel outlet for the inside, a scrap of poly-batting and then some kitenge looking fabric I got in the street market in Nairobi, Kenya for the outside. The hook and loop tape was repurposed from one of those cloth bags they are packaging bed sheets in nowadays.

 I have made laptop cases before, and I always use different methods. I, however do not have any photographs of either, which is one of the reasons why I'm doing this blog: I want to remember what I've made, and see it even after it leaves my hands. The first one I ever made used interfacing on the outside fabric and was lined with black fleece. I sewed around all edges with right sides together and then turned it inside out. I did a quick line of stitching around the opening edge and I think I used hook and loop tape to close it.  When I changed computers, I gave my old laptop to my mom, and the sleeve went with it.

The second case I made was for my netbook. I used leftover fabric from quilts, this time Kangas from Tanzania my sister in law had, and some cottons from Joanns. It had a french seam with binding around the edges, and the closure was a button and a loop of cord. Because there was only a center button and the edges weren't rounded, the edges would flip up and drive me mad, but only I noticed, it seemed everyone else complimented me on it! I gave the netbook to my sister when she was left with no computer and no money to buy a new one, and the sleeve went with it as well.

While making the current sleeve, I traced around my laptop and added a bit extra so that I would be able to put the cables or mouse in the sleeve with the computer if I needed to.  I quilted it first, making a sandwich with the fabrics and the batting, then I cut out the specific shape I had decided, and I sewed it with the lining to the inside and the edging on top so that I could fold it over and cover the seam allowances.  The front of the sleeve has more fabric than the back, to make room for the height of the computer. From the side, the binding is flat on the tabletop, instead of sticking out in the middle, which would've happened had the front and back been the same width. In the bottom, I just made some pleats to ease in the difference.

 I made the edging by ripping strips from leftover lining fabric, to tie the inside and the outside together. I could've done it on the bias, but because I don't have a cutting mat or rotary cutter, making strips with scissors on a true bias is not worth the effort.  I know that bias tape goes nicely around edges when ironed into shape. Because I didn't ease in the tape on the curves, there is less fabric going around the seam allowance than where it was sewn which makes the edging fold DOWN towards the laptop case, looking like it has a lip, and I like how that looks.

I also sewed on the binding by hand: first pass to attach binding and close sleeve was done with the machine, and I noticed my machine skipped a lot of stitches when it was going over bulkier areas. I didn't want to deal with skipped stitches on the finished edging, since they would be very obvious: so I sat down with Hemlock Grove on Netflix and after a few episodes, I was done.

So I now have a roomy laptop sleeve that reminds me of my travels. I'm glad I finally finished it, and quite happy that my laptop will be protected and in style!

Adding a cross-body strap to a purse

I have a handbag that I love to use. It is big and roomy and the olive canvas with brown accents is neutral enough that it goes with most anything. However, it keeps slipping from my shoulders whenever I use it, so whenever I wear it, I only have one hand free to do other things since the other is needed to keep the purse in place.  I decided to solve the problem by making a strap for it!

 Sometimes I need to force myself to just get things done: I had procrastinated the sewing of the strap because I wanted to sew it on the machine, make it adjustable, removable and I was waiting to find the right fabric, the leather remnant, the metal slides in similar finish and the clips so that it matched the rest of the purse.  And in waiting for the "perfect match" I was walking around with an unsolved problem.

In the end, my need was to have a cross body purse strap. Not to have the best looking, most amazing dead-ringer strap. So on the belief that anything is better than nothing, I just went ahead and made one with what I had in hand. Cost for the project = 0.

I cut a strip from an upholstery fabric remnant I had lying around that was in the same muted hues as the purse. I folded the raw edges in and then using embroidery floss I sewed a double sided running stitch.  For the end I just folded in the selvedge and did some cross stitches to keep it in place, with the sides being visibly whip stitched together.  

I liked this experiment in doing instead of thinking about doing. I call it success!