What I Knit/ Quilted this Weekend

     I kept myself very busy this weekend. Forced myself to finish a few little things that were sitting around and taking up space. And made some good progress on others. Here's what I did this weekend.

I made 8 more Scrappy Bento Box blocks. I would like to make 9-10 more but need to cut more fabric.

I have 12 blocks in total, made from my Christmasy scraps. Perhaps I'll have a finished quilt top by this Friday?

I finished my Potter's shawl on Saturday. Plan is to block it this week and then take even more pictures of it. Glad I decided to keep the orange as the border yarn.

I finally attached the cat faces, paws and tails to two scarves I finished weeks ago. One will be a birthday gift and the other is a Christmas present. Yes, it is March 7th and I have one Christmas present done. I am very happy about that.

Floyd was kind enough to model one this morning.

And my little Spring art piece is complete. It will hang by our side door for Spring but is currently hanging in our living room. I'm thrilled with how this turned out.

I didn't plan making this until I bought the Water Drops for Flint pattern on ravelry. Money from the pattern goes to help those in Flint. These knit up very quick.

Cloud is Rainycloud, a pattern by Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi fame. The pattern calls for using feltable yarn but I didn't so it is bigger than hers. Another great pattern that worked up quick.

Back of the canvas showing all the stitches keeping the cloud in place.

And with all that finishing, I had to start something else. Last night, I finally cast on the Beacon Hill cardigan. Enjoying it so far.

And the first of many close-up pictures of the pattern texture I'll take as I knit this.

What did you knit/ quilt/ crochet this weekend?

Weekend Craftiness

I mentioned on Monday that I was grumpy last weekend. Sometimes lack of sleep gets to me. Here are the crafts I did to get me out of my funk.

I painted. This is the background. I'm going to be adding more onto it - a yarned twig and some knitted creatures. If it turns out the way I want it to, it will be a Christmas present.

I had got out too much green paint so I got out some paper and did a tree painting. 

Sorry about the white line and reflection. I couldn't find anywhere in the house that didn't cause a reflection in the glass. I didn't notice the white line at the bottom until I loaded it onto the blog.

It turned out better than I thought so I trimmed it and put it in a frame. Not sure if I'm going to keep it or gift it. I'd like to make more tree paintings. It was fun and I have a thing for trees.

I finished hollowing out the four books I had prepped and did the final step of putting mod podge around the outside edges and inside edges. They turned out okay and I think I'm going to do more.

I started crocheting a robot for the Little Guy.

Worked on the Akron cowl.

And the Mystery KAL shawl. I finished the first clue and am half way done the second. Last clue comes out on Friday. It will look a lot better blocked.

My hollowed book with some pens.

Today I'm busy getting stuff ready so I can enjoy Friday Night Sew-In tomorrow night.

Happy Halloween - A Spider Canvas

I've been trying to get more into Halloween the past few years as this is my husband's favourite holiday. I've made Halloween themed quilts but the house needed more than that. I've been looking for something else to add when I came across this. Not sure if I found it on Pinterest or somewhere else, but I've pinned the idea twice and thought about it often so I decided to go for it. Sorry for the bad lighting in the process photos. Pictures were taken in the kitchen while I made supper.

I used a large canvas that had been used in a few failed projects. The background had already been painted blue and there were holes from a yarned twig project that just didn't sit right after being attached and was then taken off. I made some grey paint and quickly went over the blue but made sure some blue still peeked through. Looking at this template, I freehanded the spiderweb slightly off centre. If I were to do this again I would use a thinner brush and take more time making my lines. I had a toddler pulling at my legs so I had to be quick. I think adding just a little bit of glitter to the paint would also add to the spiderweb. 

This is the same spider from the website that inspired the project. You can find it and others, here. I printed it to fill the page but I still thought it was too small for the spiderweb.

The printer happens to be in the kitchen so I quickly enlarged it to 150% and had the size I liked.

I went over the spider pattern making holes with a metal needle. The tool used in the original tutorial would have been nice to have. This was the hardest part and my hand was cramping by the end.

Here are all the holes punched. I kept the spider to refer to as I stitched. I used worsted weight acrylic yarn that was in my stash. I cut long pieces of yarn, and tied the ends together after threading the needle so that the yarn was doubled. I tried with just a single and it wasn't enough. When I finished with each strand, I cut the yarn to get it off the needle, tied some knots, trimmed the ends and taped them down.

It took me a few hours that evening but the next morning there was something creepy in our living room.

His new home on the wall facing the side door. I used red for his eyes to make him look evil. I also outlined him (with yarn held double) to help define him.

I thought of adding red paint for blood dripping from his fangs but didn't. 

The messy back. I taped down my ends since I didn't weave them in. I don't think the knots will come through the canvas but I wanted to make sure they were secure.

This was a fun, quick project and if you don't have a toddler begging for attention you could finish it quicker than me. It took me most of the day. I'm already thinking of doing some wintry ones - perhaps a snowflake or snowman?