New layout for winter!

As you can probably tell I just made a new banner for winter. I hate the cold but I love how pretty the season is. Cuddling up with tea by the fire, it's lovely! I took this photo three years ago after a pretty bad ice storm, I really love all the pictures from this photoshoot...







I think that last photo was from when I drove to school only to realize it was canceled due to the weather, hahaha.

Happy holidays everyone,
♥ Freckled Crafter

Yes, I am still alive. Between school coming to a close and Chicago TARDIS last weekend it seems I've had barely any time. That being said I have been knitting a bit and I also got a new phone. This means I can upload pictures onto flickr straight from my phone, meaning no annoying cords and uploading. So here we go, let's try it out:

Being so busy I like something simple. This Baktus using stash yarn I got on clearance has been quite calming. I'm not sure who I'm going to give it to, it's not really my colors, but I'm sure it'll end up someone's Christmas present!

♥ Freckled Crafts

Tute: Making your own interchangable cables

I've been super busy with school lately, it's been kicking my butt! Thus I have a lot less time to post or knit. But I did find this awesome tutorial on craftster.org. I own two sets of interchangeable needles. Years ago I bought the Boye set from Michaels. Sadly the cables themselves really such, they're not bendy and the seams are awful. Last Christmas time I bought myself a set of knitpick harmony interchangeables. They seriously changed my world! I love wood SOOO much more than metal and the cables are fantastic. I did have a few issues with some of the cables breaking but their customer service is amazing, I simply sent them an email and they sent me a replacement right away, no questions asked!

Anyways I thought this tute was great, and incredibly simple considering. One day I might make some new cables for my Boye set.


The tute even has really adorable captions and doodles in the pictures!!!! Check it out HERE!

Have a great weekend everyone and I promise regular crafty posting will resume soon!
♥ Freckled Crafter

Clown barf hat and a busy November

Today while I was taking pictures of a finished hat to blog about I started to hear this noise and looked outside. It's officially working it's way towards winter, boo!


Reminds me of one of my favorite random quotes: "knit fast, die warm!"

Anyways here's a hat I finished a few weeks ago, right around the time I realized my short hair means there's no option to wake up and run out the door without doing something about it. I move alot in my sleep thus when I wake up my hair is usually in about 20 billion directions! Almost as crazy as this hat!



The yarn I bought a while ago while yarn shopping with my friend Beth, she thought I was crazy, I knew I was. It was on clearance times five and I just loved the crazy colors! One issue with it is it pills a TON, like while I was knitting it I'd get rainbow pills all over me and I had to wash it really well to get all the lose ones off the hat. I totally understand why it was on sale and being discontinued but I love it anyways!


Also, it's less than a month till Chicago TARDIS now, which means marathon of getting everything done. This is on the top of the list. It's for my friends Lynne and Michael's daughter. Next month she's got a huge surgery and when I heard about it I knew I needed to make her a little companion who could protect her.
He's modeled after Bob the Dalek from Torchwood Babiez who's the protector of baby Rose. He's not done, I'm just starting the bottom but I have to admit he's pretty adorable and I'm already jealous of Cait and her new buddy!
♥ Freckled Crafter

PS: Thanks to everyone to all the well wishes on my last post!

Way more treats than tricks

This weekend was super special. As usual Matt and I had planned to carve pumpkins for Halloween. We grab some B horror movies and celebrate Halloween with a few hours of attacking a big squash.

What I didn't know when I got to Matt's apartment this past Friday was that he'd taken the day off work and instead carved a pumpkin without me. He used reference pictures such as Captain Morgan, which is much funnier if you understand his love of rum and that because of that he's my pirate.

It was hidden under a microwave box on his table for a few hours before he finally revealed the surprise. He threw a coat over my head (leather, ugh, heavy!) and turned out all the lights and lit a candle. When he removed the coat this is what I saw:





It was amazing, so original and personalized, it fits our relationship perfectly. As of the 25th of last month we'd been dating for 5 years and 1 month but I guess we have a new anniversary now.

Hope your Halloween was amazing as well
♥ Freckled Crafter

Whovian Photoshoot #3

This past saturday was our third annual Doctor Who photoshoot in Chicago. It was tons of fun, I pulled out my Ten and Eleven costumes. We're lucky enough to have a friend who is a professional photographer and does these photoshoots for us. Here's just a few quick pics from my camera:


It's always loads of fun and I can't wait to see Nick's pictures, they're always bloody fantastic!

♥ Freckled Crafter

Meta Mittens

My knitting group (hey crafty ladies!!!!) has been doing a knit along for a lovely pattern on of our own members created. It's been so cool to see everyone's progress and choices in colors. I just reached the half way point and thought I'd share mitten number one!



Aren't they so cute?! Check out the Metta Mitten pattern on Ravelry as well as Beth's new blog Cotton Gin and Tonic. She's a fantastic new designer with some really unique and interesting ideas. Her patterns are also written EXCEPTIONALLY well, I've never before worked from such a detailed easy to understand pattern as her's. She even takes the time to explain stranded knitting!

If you couldn't tell I chose the German flag as my color inspiration. There's a lot of German blood in me as well as I'm currently learning the language, Ich bin zwar noch nicht so gut.

Viel Liebe und ein schönes Wochenende.
♥ Freckled Crafts

Autumn Photos: Part 1

I've been taking photos lately of this lovely autumn weather and the changing leaves. I thought I'd share them in batches just for a little fall inspiration. Also this is my last year at University so I'd like to capture my school during my favorite season!




♥ Freckled Crafter

Just a bit of crafting history...

Today I thought I'd just share a passage from a book I'm reading for class right now. I'm taking a Women in American History class and reading a book about Irish Immigration called Erin's Daughters in America I've been dragging my feet about reading it but now that I've gotten past the part about statistics and the potato famine it's gotten interesting.

"Contractors paid women cash for knitting, weaving, lacemaking, and sewing for several decades after the Famine. From the 1870s to the 1890s in places like Donegal (which sent a large portion of it's residents to the United States) these kinds of activities for women throve. One American visitor noticed that at "land meetings it was common to see in the crowd women intent on the speaker's words while their needles flashed in the sunlight"
(Diner pg 26)

With my interest in Women's history and art I've read my fair share about women throughout history and fiber arts and I always find it fascinating! When I come across passages like this I'm going to try to start writing them down, after all, this is the history of our craft and considering how many people have relatives who came from Ireland this is a piece of their history.

♥ Freckled Crafts

Study Mitts

When I'm super stressed with school I tend to find myself knitting in every spare moment. It eases my mind and give my hands something to do for a bit, all the frustration going out through my fingers. So with midterms in full force I picked up some yarn my friend gave me recently (my SnB is awesome!) and started knitting. All I knew was I wanted something small and easy so I started swatching. Three days later and I had these:

Details can be found here!

Sometimes my favorite thing to knit is something quick, simple, and straight from my mind.

♥ Freckled Crafts

In honor of my favorite season I thought I'd update my banner. Then I thought I'd try a new layout to match! When I want anything past a simple ms paint touch up I always use picnik.com. It's free and makes banners and the such super easy!

What's your favorite part of Autumn? Mine are scarves, pumpkins, Halloween, and cinnamon.

♥ Freckled Crafter

Tyrolean Stockings

These have been on the needles for AGES! At least a year, probably more. They're full of mistakes and far from perfect but I think they're perfect! I like when my handmade items aren't absolutely perfect, then you can tell they were made with someone's own hands and my hands are far from perfect.

My friend Kathy from SnB actually has recorded on her blog a photo of me from September 27th, 2009. I believe I was just a few inches in so it was sometime around there.


Pattern: Tyrolean Stockings from Interweave Knits Fall 2007
Yarn: Good old Fisherman's Wool, some say they dislike it but I think it's a great basic wool for an even better price.
Modifications: Casting on more stitches, working the leg longer, thus almost knee high.

(Disclaimer: I threw on the skirt for the photos, no I didn't think wearing that shirt with that skirt would work, it just happens to be peaking out in this pic)

I finished them in perfect time for fall, although they're so warm they are probably better suited for winter. How bout them boots and that skirt? Both are thrifted, an issue I keep meaning to blog about.

♥ Freckled Crafts

Finished Project: Doctor Who Scarf

So I finally finished it! About a month ago I decided my almost one year struggle to complete a full sized season 18 Four scarf was pointless. So I started over with the width I wanted and in less than a month finished it!


Made with the now discontinued Lion Brand Suede this scarf is super warm and just about perfect! It's my new favorite.

♥ Freckled Crafter

Happy Tuesday!

Friday Inspiration

Hey all, it's been a while since I've done a real post hasn't it? Luckly I think I finally have a good schedule down so I'll have more structured time for posting.

It's getting chillier here and the leaves are starting to change. I've been collecting the perfect little acorns on my walks back from the gym, not sure what I want to do with them yet. It thought I'd just post some autumn inspiration pictures that express all the things I love about fall.






(photos from weheartit)

♥ Freckled Crafter

A lazy weekend

It's been a lazy yet productive weekend around here. Feels like the first weekend in over a month I've had a chance to relax and didn't have to drive anywhere (well except knitting tonight). So here's a abridged story of my weekend:

Reading and enjoying the weather. I've got tons of reading for my classes so I'll be reading a lot this semester but luckly the subjects are all quite interesting. It's been really nice outside too, I get good shade from the tree outside my window and an extra chair for my drink and books.


Brewing sun tea is a must!!! My mom gave me some tea bags specifically for iced tea, one bag makes a whole pitcher! And don't forget the lemon slice!


My friend and knitwear designer Beth Wolden is responsible for my new knit, a pair of sheep mittens! It's extra fun cause we're doing it as a knitting group. Sadly my gauge is way off when I do stranding so I'll have to pick up smaller needles soon, and all this has to be ripped out *tear*


And while discussing an idea this morning with some friends I made a few hairclips for the shop. They're made from a jacket I took apart with my brother recently for his costume for comic con. One has the zipper attached in the middle and the other has a bright button, I think they're sweet :D
Now I'm off to finish my reading for monday and knit group later, hope your weekend is equally relaxing.
♥ Freckled Crafter

PS: The ice cream truck just went by playing Halloween and Christmas toons :P

Children Need Art

A few weeks back while visiting my parents I took a few snapshots of my paintings around the house from when I was a child. My mom is a painter so our house has always been full of original work, either by her people she knows or my brother and I. I can remember every birthday my mom would plan out some type of art project for me and my friends to do. She also wrote an art program for my school and I can remember her coming and teaching my class about art once a month.
All these things mean that I was completely immersed in art as a child, I learned from a young age that it's an important way to express yourself and feel good. I have struggled with whether or not I'm an artist for as long as I can remember. I'm finally starting to see that maybe I am.


This one is of the cat I had as a child, although I never remember her being quite this cute!




I love this one, always have! My mom was testing an idea for her volunteer art program so we went and cut our own reeds and ground up charcoal. We tested a bunch of things and tried to make it as realistic to how Ancient Egyptians worked as possible. I always LOVED Ancient Egypt and am actually taking a class on it this semseter!


This was when we tried out printmaking, which actually worked in my favor this summer when I took printmaking. I already understood woodblock printing:



In another life I'd do art-ed because every child deserves to learn about art! I can't even imagine where I'd be if I hadn't, it's determined my entire life!

Anyone else have some good childhood stories about art? I LOVE hearing about people being exposed to art when they were young.

♥ Freckled Crafter