Socks that Don't Rock

So, they're done...



The toes, in the pattern as written, are far too pointy. The second sock, after the cat fiasco involved five little balls of yarn cut away from that mess. Now to cast on something that ACTUALLY rocks...

I also sewed a messenger bag, but all the photos I've attempted to take of it have been absolutely dismal.

Oh, and let's not forget that I could be voting today, but my genius state and the national democratic party have given me a fiasco where I get a choice between Clinton, Kucinich, and "uncommitted." It pisses me off. This explains well what the hell is going on. Normally I'm excited about voting, but... not today. If you hear any pundits tonight saying "Clinton wins Michigan!" they're lying.

Reversible tote bag!

Based on this craftster tutorial, I made a reversible tote bag!



Red with cherry handles...



...or cherry with red handles?

The tutorial was really well-written. Any mistakes made are solely my fault. If I had to do it over, I'd have probably gotten heavier interfacing and more of it. The bag holds its shape and could certainly carry my laptop or something, but I think I'd have liked it heavier.

I decided that I needed to accent it with a cool vintage pin.



A cheap treasure from my last antiquing outing with my mother. I have another outing with her on Thursday, so hopefully we will find some similar treasures. There's not much other news to report on the Amy front...

Pajamas

I've been working through my hedera socks, I promise, but there has been more progress on the sewing front than on the knitting front.



I finished a set of obnoxiously awesome Hello Kitty pajama bottoms. My mom got me the pattern and fabric for Xmas, and I kept putting them off until last week when I finally started them. She honestly couldn't have picked better fabric or an easier pattern. I used McCall's M5282.

I'm already at work on a second pair to be gifted. Hopefully I can get the size adjustments right.

Another thing I've been slowly working my way through is John Grisham's A Time to Kill.



My law school to be sent me a pre-law reading list, and this was the most interesting thing on it. Next I will try to slog my way through either Gideon's Trumpet or Dickens' Bleak House, but we'll see. The Dickens is something like 1,200 pages long, and that just doesn't seem terribly appealing. I'm not sure I'd finish it off before starting classes!

As far as the Grisham goes, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot twists made this book more like a suspense novel than courtroom drama. I had not read any Grisham prior to this one, and it makes me want to pick up more of his books. The plot was engaging and I loved the ending, but I do want to keep my review vague as not to ruin it for anyone out there who may be thinking about reading it.

For the rest of my evening, I have cranberry jice ad Stoli waiting for me.

Dress! Couch!

I made a dress.



The pattern was McCall's M4826. I got the slinky silky cherry fabric on clearance. Good stuff.

It's actually my first dress. I'm still new at a lot of sewing, to be honest. There are a million little mistakes in this thing, but you know, I still love it and will happily wear it out when I have an occasion!



I was feeling kind of silly. Not many of the pictures were turning out well that actually show the details of the dress. There are pockets in this dress, after all! Makes me feel very June Cleaver-ish, having pockets in a poofy dress.

I still, however, think I might alter the top a tiny bit more, and sew in some support of my nonexistent cleavage. This size was meant for someone with a few more curves than me!

And, for my second finished sewing project, a story:

My SO and I are basically poor college students. Well, I'm done for now, but money is still tight because I'm starting again soon. Nice furnishings are expensive... or are they? Steve is a very frugal guy when it comes to some things (not video games). There are green couch sectionals and footstools that were a whopping $5 each on ebay. They were leftovers from the local community college's lounges. There is a couch that paid Steve's roommate $0.41 to take; there was change in the cushions! This is an extremely nice couch in perfect shape, and comfortable. The person tossing it to the curb was redecorating. Yeah.

Enter the leather loveseat. This found its way next to the dumpster of our apartment complex. It was about to rain, so I insisted that we get rid of a green sectional for it.

Well, as time wore on and the saved-from-the-trash loveseat had graced the living room for a while, we realized why it was residing next to the dumpster. It was low-riding and hideously uncomfortable to sit on for extended periods of time. Steve wanted to put it back where we found it. I wanted to save it.

I got upholstery fabric, 3" foam, and some pillowforms. I went to work.



Now, we have a comfortable loveseat. Perfect for the activity suggested by what's on top of it. I thought the red fabric would be more interesting than matchy-matchy black vinyl.

Mac Cozy

My Macbook needed a home. Less than half a yard of black fleece and some white felt later, the mac cozy was born.



It fits snugly like one of those pricey neoprene sleeves, but was a lot cheaper to make.

I thought it needed to match and have its own little apple, if you couldn't tell. This solves the problem of throwing my laptop into one of my tote/messenger bags and not worrying about having my stuff scratching up my computer.

I feel talented!

So, this is only about 80% knitting-related, I'd say. As some of you might (and as many might not) know, I was the lucky recipient of a beautiful new sewing machine for my birthday. That thing can do everything. So, naturally, with my birthday money, I hit up the Joann clearance sale and scored 12 yards of fabric for $15, plus some more supplies and a couple of patterns.

For a long time, I'd been wanting a roll-up needle case. All this new fabric seemed like a good excuse, so thanks to the pattern on about.com and some of my own alterations, here are the fruits of my labor:



Not the best stitching job ever, but hey, I'm learning. Check out the inside:



All are heavy layers of fabric, and my sewing machine cut through somtimes six layers of the stuff as though it were nothing! The lighter purple is a heavy woven fabric, and the main fabric is a heavy printed woven fabric that's almost like denim. The slick black lining is that silky faux-Chinese fabric...

Although, let me tell you, I suck at working with fabric paint. Some of those numbers look like they were done by an eight year-old. Whoops.

I think I'll make a second one, changing around a few things, and give this one to my mom. She's a very talented knitter, and, like me, has all of her needles in a tupperware case in an incredible disarray. She won't mind the bad stitching job; she knows I'm just learning, and is probably really happy to see me stitching away on my new machine...

Magknits

Well, there's a new Magknits up for the month of July.

Things I like:

• Bakerloo, a set of sideways constructed socks done by Alice Bell. The piano keys are way awesome, but the construction makes my head spin. It's complex, but I think so worth it looking at the finished product.


• Ballet Camisole, a slinky sexy top with a gathered neck. Has the added bonus of being made out of knitpicks shine sport. That stuff is a dream... Although I wish it came in black and red, then I'd make a striped version. Hotness, no?


• Summer Nights, though I wish it had more shaping in the shoulders and wasn't done on Collinette. Collinette is always such a mess; I hate the stuff.

Things I don't like:

• Summer Shawlette, even though I suppose it's not all that bad. It's just kind of... blah, I've seen it before somewhere.

I've been concentrating on other endeavors as of late; what can I say, my birthday was yesterday and I got a sewing machine. I finished sewing a neat skirt that I'll post soon, even though it's not actually knitting. More knitting related, though, is the needle case I just found some fabric for. I went on a fabric stash-enrichment expedition (fabric SEX?) to Joann today; they were having a ridiculous sale. In all, I got 10 yards of fabric for $15. Totally flippin' awesome.