Week Ending Recap - Craft or Bust Week 12

I had a decently productive week,  but I still feel like a slacker. Why is that?

I seem to be following my pattern of abandoning a top-down sweater just after the arms get separated and the boring body knitting starts. I only did about two repeats of the lace pattern on the Feb. Lady Sweater this week. Work was busy, but not without knitting time as evidenced by this over half-complete Citron Shawl.

Besides that, I managed to get some time in the basement to clean up the dye area from the last class I did down there and to dye myself 4 reasonably matchy-matchy skeins of sock yarn for the Featherweight Cardigan KAL that I'm having at the shop. I don't have photographic evidence of those, but they turned out pretty awesome. I used "gunmetal" Jacquard acid dye and dip-dyed them so one end of the skein is a dark, almost gunmetal type color which fades slowly to a nice light blue-grey on the other end.

I also got the heat press going and put these iron-on's from the lobby of hobbies on some t-shirts for the baby. They're super cute, but I don't know how long they'll last before they start to crack and peel off. I wasn't impressed with the quality of the materials. I guess if they do suck and come off before he outgrows the shirts I can always draw my own skull and make some more.

Speaking of drawing, I need to start doing that again. Maybe I'll actually start filling up one of those sketchbooks I have laying around here. Oh, shiny...over there!

Craftin or Bustin

This week I put up all the paper flowers and things that I made a while back with the Silhouette Machine and started the big spring clearance sale at the shop. YAY! I also took more pictures of my Grandson Artie aka AJ aka Babyman. Here's one of those because he's insanely cute and has the best widow's peak ever.

In case you're wondering how the heck I have a Grandbaby when I'm only 37 years old, let me explain that. I had AJ's Dad (my son Ian) when I was barely 20. He's almost 18 now, and despite my best efforts to put a cramp in his style he managed to get some "private time" with his girlfriend. Well, condoms aren't 100% effective kids. So now we have Babyman and we love him more than we love Ian (just kidding, but he does make a better model for cute pictures).

What else did I do this week? Oh, I made some really cute bobby pins using my 1 inch button press. There is a blurry pic of the first ones I did here on flickr, but I'm going to post this photo of the second pair because I just took it with the good camera in the window with the good lighting. haha

To make these you need a 1" button press, the special attachment for the press and parts to make the flat back type buttons, some bobby pins with a little round pad for sticking stuff to, and some E-6000 industrial strength craft glue.  I'm seriously thinking of making some with yarn/knitting type images and sayings to sell at the shop. I might also do some more generic type things to sell elsewhere. It's looking like a pair of these goes for around $5 on etsy.

Making buttons has gotten a lot easier with my new circle punch. I used to use a Fiskars circle cutter on a self-healing mat to cut out button designs, but the punch is so much faster. I just flip it over, and I can get the design centered every time easy peasy! The old way I probably threw away about 10% of my circles for being wonky. 

They sell 1.33 inch circle punches at the button supply places for $150, which is INSANE. I got one from a scrapbooking supply place online for about $15. You can also get them at Hobby Lobby. Mine is only 1.25in, but it doesn't make a difference at all. The design still wraps completely to the edge. The one I got is called "Paper Shapers Whale Of A Punch". It's completely made of metal and very sturdy so it'll last a really long time.

I barely worked on my February Lady Sweater at all this week. Things were super busy at the shop with the sale and a new shipment of Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn going on, so I didn't have much time, and I'm only working on it down there. I also started a Citron Shawl, but it is still undocumented until I decide if I want to actually finish it or not. I'm still on the fence about that one.

A Couch Full Of Collinette Jitterbug

Just so ya know, this is what 30 colors (55 Skeins, I already sold 5)  of Collinette Jitterbug looks like all spread out on a couch.

February Lady Sweater

I've been crafting my butt off over here. Really.
OK, mostly this week (March 1st - 7th) I just worked on my February Lady Sweater. I'm using the new Debbie Stoller Bamboo Ewe yarn from Red Heart, and despite the brand name, this stuff is pretty nice. It's supposedly "Exclusively at JoAnn's!" but any LYS can order it from the distributor if you ask them to. A bit of LYSO trivia for you, Coats & Clark owns both Red Heart AND Rowan/Nashua/Westminster Fibers. Crazy isn't it?

Anyway, so I finally made it past the boring garter stitch part of this sweater. That was my big accomplishment for the week. I also made some stickers on the Silhouette machine and used it to cut out some super cute sale signs for the shop. I can't show you those yet because it's a Spring Break Clearance Sale that doesn't start till Saturday, but I'll show them next week.