happy halloween!

finished my almost-three-yr-old's costume a few days ago.

she wanted to be a cat,

specifically one of our cats who has Himalayan like long fur.

 this year, I didn't want to make something super "costumy",

and decided to make little parts to make a whole outfit. 

I knitted the sweater + mittens,

and used this pullover pattern and this classic mitten pattern.

and made the hat and tutu based on the patterns from Oliver + S book.(pics above)

this way, she can wear each item separately(or together) on different occasions!

and that is much more rewording for me to make something for her :)

Happy Halloween!! 

  

pullover-madness

for some reason, I don't seem not to be able to fill my head with knitting and knitted items...

my pinterest board is filling up rather quickly with the warm cozy things...

maybe because of the fall air.

yes, fall is here. definitely.

crisp, clear, fall air.

I can't stop thinking about owning a perfect piece of comfortable, warm pullover(or cardigan).

I am not a big fan of a puffy big sweaters, usually, so I don't even own a single pullover.

but I am really digging the ones below. 

(pic 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5)

if I could afford paying $$$ for a sweater(am sure it's worth the money),

I would love to own a few.

I am also daydreaming about knitting myself one,

and have been searching a perfect pattern on Ravelry,

but I haven't found a single one there.

I am sure it's not too hard to design your own if you know how to knit different kinds of cables and how to knit a basic sweater,

but I am not quite comfortable with designing my own just yet....

well... there is also another thing,,,

 I am not going to fit in it for the next while anyway as my belly is already HUGE but only keeps getting bigger...

ha.

what it turned out to be, instead...

so, I decided to take my very first cardigan for my daughter, which I knitted last march, apart

and make it into something else. 

although it was an emotionally hard decision(sort of) to make, 

the cardigan was very baggy around her neck, 

and I really wanted her to have something I knitted for this fall. 

  I purchased this pattern from Ravelry, my first purchase.

and for some reason, it was $1.20 off, which made myself justify buying the pattern 

with a promise of making more than one of them- maybe for gifts.

so, here it is!

I think I made the right choice! 

it was a super quick project, a piece o' cake.

this vest cardigan is a much better fit on her. I love the color on her, too :)

although I have been in the knitting binge lately and have a bunch of projects lined up,

 it started to drive me crazy as of yesterday...

I was excited to open my yarn order, but one of the yarn colors looked different from what I expected

(I'm sure it happens often when you're online shopping),

and I didn't read one of the patterns well enough that I am actually short on the yarn,

AND the yarn I picked for specific projects didn't seem "right" to me any more....

UGH!

maybe too much of one thing isn't good.

time for a little break?

perhaps...

knitting for babies

 a few weeks ago, I knitted the vintage pixie hat and mary jane booties for my newest niece, Sophia.

she was born in July, and I had been wanting to send her something, but didn't decide what up until now...

  

 finally sent them out last weeks and I haven't heard from my sis-in-law that they have received the package yet, 

but I think they will be perfect little cozy things to keep little Sophia warm in Winnipeg fall.

hope she sends me some pictures of her wearing these!

and because I still had the leftover yarn from the projects above, decided to knit my little baby something.

little baby booties!  

it was probably an appropriate sock project for me as I have never knitted socks before 

and to  see if I even like knitting socks. 

the first one took me a little while to get going, 

but the second half went by quickly. 

although I kida liked knitting socks, I don’t think I am ready to knit socks for “big” people…

leather work

I had been wanting to learn how to work with leather for a little while,

and finally got a chance to!

(well, this class will be done after two more classes)

so far, we made a belt, like below, and a handbag -work-in-progress. 

 learned cleaning, treating, dyeing and handstitching the leather, as well as the machine sewing of the leather.

my singer has no trouble sewing oil cloth, so I was pretty confident it will take leather with no hustle.

w.r.o.n.g.

she really didn't like sewing the leather.

I had a really thin soft pig swede, which may have something to do with it,

also none of the roller foot the teacher had didn't fit on my machine.

ugh.

I am going to find a roller foot that's made for her, so I can work more with leather in the future! 

meanwhile,

I finally got around to what I had been meaning to do for a quite sometime!

finally soled these slippers I knitted/felted last october.

I know I am a procrastinator, but I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing since I had no experience working with leather before.

 now, I know how-to, it was a piece-o-cake!

pleased with how it turned out, and it's great having a extra cushion/durability to these! 

knitting up a storm!

I have been knitting up a storm since a little bit before Christmas, 

although I had not been posting about it(which I probably should, but too lazy).

one of my this year's new years reslutions was to knit my first big project, a sweater.

so, I had started my first sweater project in mid Feb and finished it a couple weeks ago while I was down in Ashland visiting friends.

which means, it took me a whole month to finish a big project.  

that isn't that bad for my first sweater project I think!

I used a free pattern I found on Ravelry, and used this superwash yarn in teal.

knitted a swatch first, I started knitting the actual pattern.

after knitting almost the whole back piece, realized it was too big, 

and unraveled it and went down one size in the needle.

 put all the pieces together using youtube clips as a reference on how to sew them together.

and taddaaa!  here it is!!  my very first sweater!!!

 my friend, Tiffany whom we were visiting when i was finishing up the sweater, kindly offered me to choose buttons from her huge button collection.

and I picked these pretty grayish shell buttons.  

it turned out being still TOO BIG for me... :(

so I decided to give it to my mother who used to knit for me when I was little.

My mother is a health nurse, living in Japan, 

and she recently told me that she would be sent to the earthquake/tsunami affected area to provide medical/health care and emotional support.

so, I am hoping she would bring this and it will protect her from whatever happening where she is sent to...

also here is another project I finished today for my little girl.

 pattern is also a free one from lion brand yarn.  

and I used the same yarn as the sweater above since I thought it was a pretty color for her.

finished up with the fabric covered buttons I made previously.

I knitted a T3 size so that she could wear it next winter.

however it turned out so HUGE on her and looks like it is for 5yr old...

ugh.  I guess there is so much to learn about gauging and sizing!!

I have another "small" project I wand finish before the warm weather hits here.

it may not be too long for the spring to come say hello, so I will see :)


p.s.  oh!  if you have a ravelry account, please let me know!
my username is Lunatepetal.  add me as a friend, I'd love to check your projects out :)

ready for the trip!

here is a digest of what I've been making for the trip.

start with a passport/ticket holder

I had one from a travel company, but it was cheaply made not-so-good-looking one.

so decided to make up one!

the pattern is based on the 'original' one I had.

it has two big pockets, a pouch to put your passports, a slit for your tickets, and two more small pockets.

made with Echino fabric that had been hibernating in my fabric bin for a quite sometime. 

this blight purple will make it easier to see when you have tons of stuff in your traveling bag :)

(especially you have a toddler to travel with!)

next!

knitting needle case

because I can't really take my sewing machines with me on this trip,

I am planning to knit when I have free time in Japan.

I've been knitting a quite bit more than the last year,

and started accumulating knitting needles.

they deserve a proper home anyway.

this way, they are very organised and easier to travel with!

I used this tutorial, but you also can find a lot more here. 

next!

zipper pouches

 

originally made one for my ergo,

then realized they were very handy and made some more for other things!

one of them became a diaper bag, which keeps the bigger diaper bag organized 

and you can just take this smaller diaper bag out when you take the little one to a washroom.

the very big black one is used for my knitting stuff, just big enough for a few rolls of yarn and the needle case.

two more, and I think I am going to use them for socks/underwear, etc...

and the last!

traveler's jewelry case

ever since I saw this creation on Burdastyle,

I had been wanting to make myself one!

it is so handy when you travel and it keeps earrings and necklaces from getting tangled!

I often have a problem(even at home) with that and end up spending 15-20min to unravel the mess.

ha! finally!!

this will make my life so much easier!!

phew!
what a week of sewing!!
I got so much stuff done and am ready to travel!!!!!
well, I guess it's time to pack up then :)



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P.S. is anyone interested in a how-to on any of the projects above?
maybe I can put it together when I have time?? ;)
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this season's first knitting project

do you remember this post where I wrote about Happy Knit's anniversary party?

I started working on the slippers on that weekend, and it didn't take me too long to finish knitting all the parts.

 upon assembly, I came across the designer's blog for Bickford seam video tutorials.

then I did some research on 'felting' because I've never done it before, but it didn't look that hard.  however, our washing machine is an old front-loader, and it seemed having a hard time felting.  in addition to it is a front-loader having some trouble felting, compare with the top-loader, maybe the hottest set water wasn't hot enough?  hm :I                           well, that's done anyway and took them a few days to dry(I'm sure it would have been quicker outside!)

 made couple fabric covered buttons, and sewed all the parts together.                 taddaaaa :) 

actually they are technically NOT DONE yet,,,

the pattern called to put something, like puffy paint, on the bottom sole to give them more friction.

yet my housemate gave me a better piece of advised to sew leather on the sole to make them more durable and warmer.

I think it's a great idea and I'd love to try that.

that will be my first project with leather as well.

a simple, no stress project for a first timer!

I will tell you all about it once I get them done :)

stay tuned!