The Beekeeper Saga Begins

Once upon a time (also known as a few days ago) I saw this beautiful quilt in my ravelry friends feed. I'd friended Stephanie at Tiny Owl Knits ages about because I love the cute little faery inspired knits she creates. I had never made one of her projects before but the second I saw this I knew it had to be mine!

It's made of various fingering weights and sock yarn and I almost immediatly pulled out all the sock yarn in my stash. I was suprised by just how much I had and also thankful, I won't have to buy much to finish this project.

The blanket is made by knitting these little hexagons which you fill with stuffing. You knit and knit and knit them, taking a whole year, one a day or even more. Then you sew them all together at the corners and you have a beautiful Beekeeper's Quilt.

So I started puffing and puffing and puffing (the affectionate name for creating little hexagons in the knit along on the Tiny Owl Knits ravelry group). There was talk on the boards of Stephanie's little WIP bag she used to carry around her puffs for the year. It got my brain thinking and I decided to come up with a design. A bag in the shape of a hexagon with a zipper that went almost entirely around the circumference so you could open it all the way up and work on your puffs right out of the bag.

I knew it had to be big enough for a number of recently finished puffs, needles, a current puff you're working on, some stuffing, and a few small balls of yarn to choose from for your puffs on the go.

This was just a test of my idea and I think it turned out pretty well! There are some minor changes and some helpful things that will cut down on the sewing time A LOT but I love it! I used some Winnie the Pooh curtains from when I was a kid, I thought it fit the theme. I also picked up some bee fabrics, some owl fabric, and the most adorable Bambi fabric to make some more. I'm really excited and glad it was so well received by the group. You should see them popping up on my etsy sometime next week :)

And if you're wondering what that little thing is in many of my pictures it's a little bumble bee that decided to join me while I worked on my pouch. I'm not sure what he was up to but he was just wandering up and down the stairs to my basement and was quite friendly.

♥ 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

I'm ALIVE!!!

Hello all, summer is over, full day of classes yesterday. It's back to reality and that means more regular postings, yay! I'm working on a major etsy update but I thought I'd share my current WIP besides the Time Lord socks:

Vampire Boyfriend Socks via knitty.com
They've been a ton of fun and really challenging. They're part of a True Blood knit along on ravelry but I'm not sure I'll make the deadline of the end of the season. Ah well, they're pretty anyways!

♥ Freckled Crafts

Fixing a Circular and a WIP

I guess I'm hard on my needles, particularly my circulars. Instead of going out and buy another pair I thought I'd try my hand at fixing them, what was there to lose? Well it worked and here's a quick tute. It's really quite easy but it might help someone anyways.

Tute: Fixing a broken circular

As you can see the cable ripped itself out of the metal portion of the needle. It fit back in pretty snuggly. So quick go find sand paper or an emery board. I had an emery board on hand so that's what I used.

Step 1: sand down the portion of the cable that fits into the metal casing. keep sanding around, decreasing the diameter and trying it on till it fits but is a little lose, this will leave room for glue and enough maneuvering. The little nub on mine was quite long so I also sanded it down a bit shorter.
Step 2: Now you want to do this quickly. Put on some super glue and slide the nub inside the metal part. If it's still not fitting and you can't get a flush fit (no gaps for the yarn to get stuck) quick pull it back out before the glue dries! Then go back to sanding and remove the glue along with a little more. This is the point I realized my nub was a little too long to easily stuff it in.


I used a binder clip to make grasping it easier. This way I could quickly shove the cable in and make sure it was flush with the metal.


Step 3: Marvel at how easy that was and how much money you just saved!

And here's why I wanted my needles back!

Toe up socks of my own design in Felici Time Traveler!

Look ma, no ladders!

♥ Freckled Crafter

Work in Progress: Tyrolean Stockings

Hey there everyone! Hope your tuesday is going well. I've been knitting and painting a skirt for a cosplay on thursday but thought I'd take a break to share one of my works in progress which I'm quite proud of.

These Tyrolean Stockings from Interweave Knits have really cured my need for cables and socks all in one project. Technically I started them about six months ago but I picked them back up a few weeks ago and finished the first sock. I'm about two inches into the second one. As only my third fourth ever completed sock these are my first experience with top down and I've gotta say, I really enjoy toe up much more. That's okay though cause these will be some great winter socks for boots, probably layered over stockings with skirts, one of my favorite winter styles.


In other news my little garden of sorts is doing quite well! These pictures are actually a week or two old so things are MUCH bigger now, sadly it's rainy out and thus I'm not in the mood for pictures.


This is my little windowsill garden of mint, chamomile, and basil. I think I'm going to eventually add to this with maybe some rosemary and whatever else tickles my fancy for a year long herb garden right in my kitchen window!


Here's my balcony garden of green beans, peppers, and spinach (in old milk cartons no less!). Since then the peppers and beans have doubled in size and I've added cucumber. If it clears up anytime soon I'll plant some more beans.

One issue I'm having with my outdoor balcony garden is bugs. They've been taking GIANT chunks out of the leaves and I have no idea what to do! A little research needs to be done cause I really want to avoid chemicals or anything that is going to cost a lot of money (the whole point of this endeavor being to save money).

Back later most likely with other fun things, I've still got tons to share!
♥ Freckled Crafter

Show and Tell Week Day 5: SOCKS!

So for my final show and tell this week I wanted to show off my current project. I used to be someone who had a billion projects going at once but the Ravelympics really helped me control myself and I'm a pretty good monogamous knitter these days.

Socks have always seemed like a coveted project for knitters. There's alot of reasons but I figured it was about time I figured out for myself. My summer project is to knit at least a few pairs of socks.

Pattern: Pine Tree Toe Up Socks by Kim Salazar
Yarn: Opal
Mods: I wear an 8-8.5 and ended up leaving out one increase row. Granted the pattern maker has size 10 feet so that's probably the size difference.

Here it was on monday...

...and this is what they look like right now (thus crappy night shot)!

I'm pretty proud of them and since they're so portable they're a great project for how on the go I've been lately.

Have a great weekend everyone, I'll be at a cosplay photoshoot all day tomorrow so I should have some great pics to show off soon!
♥ Freckled Crafter