It just killed me to not tell you about these. I had the idea in late October, well, I found the online tutorials then. I grubbed through my fabric stash to find I finally knew the reason I'd been buying small remnants of upholstery fabric all these years. Then I had to choose a fabric for each of the eight people I wanted to make them for. I didn't really take many pictures while I was making them since I was lucky enough to be able to take my sewing machine, etc. to work with me for cutting out and sewing. I only had to buy the zippers for the dopp kits, I had all the other supplies on hand--velcro, batting, fabrics, and thread of course. I really was intrigued by the travel tray because too many times I hesitate to remove my jewelry in a motel room because I'm worried it'll go astray. They were a snap to make. They're about 7" x 9" when they're flat. You pinch the corners together to make a small tray for holding small things. Oh, it's vital that you make the inside out of solid fabric so that no tiny earring gets lost in a busy print.
The dopp kits were a bit more of a challenge since the instructions were written for separating zippers instead of the standard zippers that I had. It turned out to be lucky that I had to buy extra long zippers in the colors that I wanted so I could open them way up and mostly follow the directions. I did not bind the inside seams as the pattern directed, that was way too much work and sewing gymnastics for me, I serged them.
I used some of the travel trays as table favors at Christmas dinner and wrapped the dopp kits for Christmas gifts. Naturally they coordinate.
I couldn't shake the idea that I should have picked up one of each solid color cotton dishcloth yarn at the Knitting Guild meeting last Thursday, so I emailed Linda who directed me to Vicki who let me crash her quiet Sunday afternoon to get said yarn. Eight skeins=4 dollars. See the pretty colors? I'm more of a variegated girl so I rarely buy solids but I do admire the way Kay over at Mason-Dixon knits her ballband dishcloths with solids.
And since I have recently rediscovered the joy that is ballband Swiffer covers for dusting uncarpeted floors, I perceive more ballband knitting on my horizon...
...after I finish this Christmas stocking that I cast on a year ago in November 2011 and only recently rediscovered in the controlled chaos that is my knitting area. Today's quest was to find a less awkward to make a jogless stripe and I think I may have found a less contorted way to accomplish the pattern's recommended technique. I've said it before, there's more than one way to skin a cat--and I'm a big fan of the easiest way to be found.
I went to the winter Farmer's Market this morning (it's raining and Durwood didn't feel tiptop). I found a 3# bag of hydroponic tomatoes for my beloved... and was tempted into buying a whole bunch of various root veggies--golden & red-striped beets, parsnips, carrots, a giant rutabaga--for roasting to take to Christmas dinner. I was helpless before the mounds of colorful and not fake sparkly vegetables and kept dipping into my wallet for more money.
The first thing that tempted me was this:
a booth of YARN!
They're from Hidden Valley Farm & Woolen Mill in Valders. (I realized that Lyn, Skully, and I had gone to their holiday sale once when we first started knitting.) He told me that they raise the sheep, shear the sheep, clean the fleeces, send them out to be spun, then dye them themselves. I was strong at first, leaving the temptation behind while I sought tomatoes for Durwood, but I couldn't leave without going back to the yarn. But I only bought one skein. I should get credit for that, at least.
Some lady passed a while back and willed all of her needlecrafting things to the Embroiderer's Guild, one of whose members is a part of the Knitting Guild too. She brought bins and bags of yarn to the meeting last night to sell at greatly reduced prices, the money to benefit the guild's coffers and the remaining yarn to be used for charitable knitting. Most of it was acrylic and there was a bin of dishcloth cottons. I picked out some partial skeins, a few skeins to use to make he-man chemo hats, and a magazine with a shawl pattern I'd like to make in it. Boys like blue so I got the blue Wool Ease in both worsted & chunky, really the only non-girly yarn she had. Now I need a hat pattern for chunky yarn.
Here's my total haul--that skein of "Falling Leaf Ombre" takes me back to the late-1960s when I decorated my room in burnt orange, avocado, and brown. Groovy. It goes well with our mid-1970s burnt orange carpeting, doesn't it?
I finished the crocheted border of the Hubbard Grand-baby Blankie. I really like how it turned out. I hope CH, Baby Hubbard, and the baby mama like it too.
so to speak. When bringing fabric, cutting board, etc. to work on Monday didn't attract hordes of customers, I decided to pull out all the stops. I put my portable sewing machine, the cutout projects, and notions to complete said projects into the car and set up a beachhead on the back table. In days past, the aroma from heating my lunch soup brought people in and if there was something I had to get done that day there'd be a steady stream of them from open to close. These are what's called "desperate measures" I guess. We'll see how it works. Plus I'll get some Secret Sewing done.
I sat on the couch the other night listening to an audiobook and finished another chemo hat. I feel bad for some (probably stupid) reason that I'm crocheting more hats than I'm knitting hats. I don't know why and I'm working on getting over it... by making more crocheted hats. Good therapy, don't you think?
Now I think I'll go heat up my soup and start a sewing project all at the same time. Maybe that'll bring 'em in.
It just killed me to not tell you about these. I had the idea in late October, well, I found the online tutorials then. I grubbed through my fabric stash to find I finally knew the reason I'd been buying small remnants of upholstery fabric all these years. Then I had to choose a fabric for each of the eight people I wanted to make them for. I didn't really take many pictures while I was making them since I was lucky enough to be able to take my sewing machine, etc. to work with me for cutting out and sewing. I only had to buy the zippers for the dopp kits, I had all the other supplies on hand--velcro, batting, fabrics, and thread of course. I really was intrigued by the travel tray because too many times I hesitate to remove my jewelry in a motel room because I'm worried it'll go astray. They were a snap to make. They're about 7" x 9" when they're flat. You pinch the corners together to make a small tray for holding small things. Oh, it's vital that you make the inside out of solid fabric so that no tiny earring gets lost in a busy print.
The dopp kits were a bit more of a challenge since the instructions were written for separating zippers instead of the standard zippers that I had. It turned out to be lucky that I had to buy extra long zippers in the colors that I wanted so I could open them way up and mostly follow the directions. I did not bind the inside seams as the pattern directed, that was way too much work and sewing gymnastics for me, I serged them. 
