New Socks

I am knitting a new pair of socks.



I was going to knit them up with the same pattern I have been using. A basic sock, but on Friday I was reading the Yarn Harlot and she was talking about an "afterthought heel". She said that you can knit up the tube of the sock and knit the toe and then come back and add in the heel at the end. She said that you can pick up half the stitches and then cut a stitch under the row you picked up (gasp) and then pick up the row beneath too. Then you have a nice opening and you, ready for this?, knit another toe. YES, I said knit another TOE, where the heel should go. I did some more research and I was not liking the idea of cutting (gasp) a stitch. I was confused as to what to do with the cut strings on each side. Wouldn't they eventually make a hole? Nothing seemed to make sense to me.

So Saturday night I got the tube knitted up to where the heel should go and I got scared. So I just knit the heel, turning it and everything. About halfway through the heel though, I realized that I had messed up and I thought if I just finish maybe it will look okay, but in the end it didn't look okay. In fact, it was way too wide of a heel and it didn't cinch up like it should. So Sunday morning I ripped out the whole heel.

I did some more research on the internet and others were saying that you can just knit a piece of waste yarn where the heel will go later and continue to knit your regular pattern to the end of the toe. Then come back and pick up the stitches above and below your waste yarn and voila you have a hole for the heel. This made more sense to me because you weren't cutting anything.

So this is where I am. I am half way up the foot part of the sock about two inches away from starting the toe. If I am lucky (I am a slow knitter) I will finish the toe tonight and if I am industrious (or impatient) I will pick up the stitches where the waste yarn is and begin the heel (or second toe).

So far this seems to be a very quick way to knit a sock. (except for the ripping out of a very wide heel and starting over again). Heels are so hard anyway particularly if you aren't really using a pattern. I can't remember how far over to knit (or purl is it) to begin the turning part of the heel. I never seem to pick up enough stitches on each side either once the heel is turned which then makes for a bit of knitting fudge later.

Do you think I am crazy about knitting another toe into a heel spot? Let me show you something. Are you wearing store bought socks? Take one off or if you don't want to take it off grab a sock laying around close by. Look at the toe and how it decreases down to a sort of point at the end. A blunt point. Okay now turn it over and flatten out the heel, wide-ways. See how it goes down to a point too like the toe? It is a toe in the heel spot. See? Clear as mud right? Well trust me it will work (even though I haven't actually done it yet), but it will work. Those experts tell me it will and today I am trusting them.

I will post more photos of the whole process when I am done.

Smiles for now!! :) And head over to Skip to my Lou and check out what others have been working on this weekend.

Or here for a great giveaway!

SMASH Book from K&Company

Oh my goodness. Is this the most awesomist, coolist, funnest book ever??? I love that the pages are different in some and have patterned paper. I love the kookiness of it too. I can see myself sticking things in it as well as giving them to my girls to have also. They would love it!!!

Leftovers aren't always bad.

These leftovers are from a kit that I have. Let me explain. I go to this awesome Close To My Heart workshop every month. The consultant is so talented. She creates a kit from the CTMH line of paper that we pick and pairs it with embellies, stickers, ribbons, etc. We go and we make the same layouts as she does. The only problem with it is that some layouts are generic enough for me so I don't put all the embellies on it at the time we are making the layouts. I always put the papers on the layout and the basic design but sometimes my pictures don't always match what she has on hers. So I leave some stuff off usually. This creates a bit of "extra" and once I use the layouts I fumble with what to do with the extra papers, scraps, and embellies that I didn't end up using. Often times I will make additional layouts with the papers but sometimes the embellies baffle me.

Today I had that same problem. I had used all the layouts we created from the kit and I didn't know what to do with some of the bits and bobs of papers, stickers, and embellies. So I decided to make some cards. I got out a bit more cardstock from my stash and ended up creating 5 cards with all the leftovers. One card we immediately signed and stuck in an envelope for my son's basketball coach. We will see him today and we wanted to get that to him. It is a thank you card. The rest are regular note cards or thank you cards. I will save these and use them in the fall most likely.

After I completed all these cards I was left with really little bits of patterned paper which I didn't feel so guilty throwing away. I kept the extra stickers and alphas for later and the extra embellies I kept as well. I inked all the edges with brown and some of the insides also had a few extra bits of paper or a coordinating sticker.

Mixed up media!

Hee hee. I played with paper and paint and mod podge last weekend and made this:

And this:

They were fun to make, but I need a lot of practice. One thing that I have figured out over the years is when it comes to "real" art, I am not so good. I can copy ideas well but those ideas are really the ideas of someone else. I don't come up with my own ideas very well.

Still it was fun. Oh, I did not copy these from anyone in particular. I took the ideas of others and sort of combined them and made my own. Does that make sense?

Valentine's Goodies

Okay, well just cards but they were still fun to make.

My youngest daughter and I have a running "joke" about loving Dora. She used to love Dora but she no longer thinks Dora is cool. She IS 8 you know. Anyway, I had some fun 3D Dora stickers and I had used the big Dora on a layout of her 3rd birthday when she chose Dora as her theme. I had some left over ones and thought I would make her a Valentine's Day card with the rest of the stickers. I took one look at Boots and I knew exactly what the sentiment would be. I went with the rhythm of the kids valentines that you get in the box and they give to their friends. So here is the front:

And here is the back:

Don't you just love the little insect band?? They were always my favorites in the show.

Once I did her card I knew I had to make one for the other two also. My son's was easy also. I had some 3D Hot Wheels stickers that were laying around. I hadn't used them and I doubt I would have on a layout. So here is the front:

And here is the inside:

I love the way it turned out.

So then came time for my middle daughter's card. I didn't have any themed stickers for her unless she wanted Tonka trucks but I knew that she wouldn't appreciate that. So I went with something a bit prettier: butterflies from Wild Saffron. Here is the front:

And here is the inside:

I had decided from the beginning that I wouldn't be using the typical holiday colors of pink and red. I wanted something a bit different. I love how all these cards turned out and I loved their faces when they opened them.

However, there isn't a happy ending to this story as I am pretty sure that at least two of the cards are already in the trash. They weren't treasured for very long. But that is okay as they were really only meant to be savored for just a few minutes and they did their job.

Unfortunately they didn't hold any treasures which was a disappointment to the kids. Now that they are getting older they are beginning to expect a gift card or a gift of some sort for each holiday. They were disappointed this Valentine's Day when all they got was my heart, well, and a homemade card.

Remember #3 ???

From my last post on sewing??? #3 said "Sewing is addictive." Well, it is.

Here is today's sewing experiment. This cute little notecard is simple in lines but warm in sentiment.

Here is some detail.

I Sewed on Paper

I did it. I sewed on paper. I made this notecard as a practice for sewing. It is pretty fun but it takes a long long long time. Or maybe I am just a slow sewer. (ha ha...say that three times fast...slow sewer...slow sewer...slow sewer) Okay, moving on.

I learned a few things.

1. You need to poke a hole the same size as your needle but don't use your needle to do it. You will bend your needle and your pointer finger will get sore from pushing on the top of the needle.

2. When you sew through two layers or more of paper it is harder to push your needle through. There is thicker paper AND the adhesive holding the two pieces of paper together gets on your needle making it even harder to push through. Ugh!

3. Sewing is addictive. I really like the looks of the sewing, particularly the different stitches.

4. The back gets bulky with the string all back there. This makes it hard to adhere to more paper. (But it still works)

5. You really have to plan and poke your holes slowly so your holes all are in the right place as well as straight. If you don't have your holes straight your stitches won't be straight.

I think I will be sewing more often on things.