Podcast Episode 1: THE BEGINNING

Show Notes:

Hello! Thanks for watching my first...very rough episode. I was super nervous but that's what firsts are all about right?!

 

 IT'S MY BIRTHDAY SO I STASH IF I WANT TO!

• Debrah Norville Serenity Sock Yarn in Surf and Burgundy

Current WIPS:

• Valentines Dragon kit from Elgin Knit Works
• Sock Yarn Blanket
• Eastwood Cardigan out of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash in Garnett Heather and Indigo Heather

Recent FOs:

• Vanilla socks out of discontinued Bamboo and Ewe Pattern

What I'm reading and watching:

• I rant about the final season of X-Files
• Peaky Blinders (Netflix)
• Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
• The Secret Garden audiobook from Librivox

The fastest way to find me on the internets!

Until next week,
Michelle

Freckled Crafts is back...in a BIG way!

For months I have been wanting to do so much more with Freckled Crafts than I ever had before. Freckled Crafts has changed so much over time.

my first logo, hand drawn and scanned...I am certainly not the next Picasso

 It started just as a blog which at times was totally neglected I admit. Sometime after that I started an etsy with the same name. I wanted to try my hand at selling little handmade things. With no clear mission I sold little Doctor Who jewelry, stitch markers, and little sewn purses and bags.

 

ALL TARDIS EVERYTHING!!

As you may have guessed with no clear goal or idea of what I wanted to do I was never terribly successful. Eventually this too fell by the wayside. I was a sometimes blogger with an etsy of two or three items. But I was busy with school and work and life.

the person who has given me strength and support through it all

 Life changed. I finished school, I got married, and I got older. I began sewing up my own cute project bags for my knitting (a constant companion through it all). I saw others were selling project bags and thought maybe I had something to offer to this community. I made my first project bags for sale a year ago and I had lots of fun selling these little boxy project bags.

The original bags, many of which I'm still making!



 I met lots of great people through ravelry, instagram, and my new knitting group. I was working at a job that was fun but certainly did not pay what I deserved and I learned an important lesson of just how awful corporations can be. I had a longing to take Freckled Crafts to the next level but time and everyday stress left me tired and without the passion to move forward. I was complacent.

Last week a wonderful thing happened. I was fired! It was a totally stupid reason, an asinine way for the new management to assert their power. Just another drop in the bucket of why corporations can suck. But I realized very soon after the fact (as in as I was walking out the door) that I was free and now I had nothing holding me back from following my dream.

So now I am here, organizing how I want to run Freckled Crafts and what exactly I want it to be. I'm back to blogging, I updated freckledcrafts.com, added new project bags to the shop, and I'm excited to finally start podcasting (seriously I've been yearning to make video podcasts for over a year!!!).

Do my new photos make you want to sit down and knit with me? I hope so!



So all of this is to say Freckled Crafts is back in a BIG way! I want to be a more active part of the knitting community and really see what my creative side can do when it gets free reign. So I hope you'll join me in this exciting journey and hopefully what will be an extremely fulfilling chapter of my life.

See you all soon,
Michelle

NaKniSweMo 2014: An exercise in preparation

If you know me you know I knit on the fly. I get the inspiration, find the yarn and pattern and jump in head first. If it's a sweater I start at the sleeve and count that as my swatch on the go. But for National Knit a Sweater in a Month I wanted to join my friend Julie (of Happy-Go-Lucky, also known as juriface on instagram) in a new annual knit along event at our local yarn shop String Theory in Glen Ellyn. The requirements are that you get your yarn from String Theory, your sweater follow all the NaKniSweMo rules and that you can swatch but not cast on until November 1st.

 

Julie helped me to pick out yarn for a pattern I've been wanting to knit up for quite a while, North Shore by Tin Can Knits. After some debating and pulling from the great yarns at String Theory we decided on Shepherd's Wool Worsted, both because Julie highly recommended the yarn and because I love the colors. This means that I am knitting a DK weight sweater using a worsted weight yarn. Definitely a time for some serious swatching!

 

North Shore, a colorwork pullover by the amazing duo at Tin Can Knits

 

Shepherd's Wool  by Stonehedge Fiber Mill, I'm so in love with those blues!

 

This past week I finally sat down and decided it was time...TO SWATCH! But how does one swatch for something knit in the round? If you start by knitting the sleeve arguably you have a good swatch. But the rules stated I could not start before November first. Time to sort out how. Julie suggested Ysolda Teague's blog post on swift swatching in the round. GENIOUS! To sum it up if you knit a small swatch in the round it's very difficult to measure because it is in essence a small tube. BUT if you knit it flat yet only knit the front, never flipping your work and carrying your yarn behind you achieve a flat swatch in which you never purl, thus obtain the gauge you will have when knitting in the round.

 

It's like MAGIC! A messy, weird looking magic!

 

The pattern called for a US 6 for the body of the sweater and 4 for the ribbing. Since I am using a bulkier yarn I took a stab in the dark and cast on my first swatch with a US 4. SUCCESS! It makes for a dense fabric but it still has drape and in my opinion it makes a lovely knit fabric. I felt like I won the knitting lottery with that much luck! 

Cast on party! (photo from String Theory's Facebook page)

 

Saturday was the NaKniSweMo launch party at String Theory. It as a fun way to get started on the project and meet some new people, because although I've been in to buy yarn I've never hung out and knit in the shop. It was fun to compare and see what everyone is knitting and the yarns everyone chose. I'm really excited to see how everyone's sweaters emerge!

 

I decided to follow the pattern and cast on with a sleeve, partially because I thought it would be easier to cast on 48 stitches than 216 when I'm socializing and meeting new people. I left that morning with a cuff, went home and kept working on it, starting the increases. I haven't been my usual fast and furious self but I've still managed to get 6,402 stitches done as of the time I decided to take a break to photograph and write up this post! The increases are done so it's just smooth sailing until I put the sleeve on holders and start the next (or perhaps I'll start on the body, you never know!)

 



My progress as of...NOW!

 

I also took the time last week to sew up a special project bag just for the occasion, something I've done for some of my major projects of late and have really enjoyed doing. I'm debating embroidering NaKniSweMo 2014 onto it, but more on my sweater project bag next time!

 



The necessary tools, not shown? A calculator to keep track of my stitch count!

 

Signing off for now,

Michelle, the Freckled Crafter

John Watson's Cabled Sweater of Warmth

I've always loved the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes but in recent years with the explosion of Sherlock in the media I've read all the stories over again and have become in specific a huge fan of BBC's Sherlock. In particular I love Martin Freeman's Watson.

As a knitter and costumer I'm always noticing what characters are wearing and from the very first moment I loved Watson's sweater he wears in the first episode. I've also always wanted to knit a wool cabled sweater and there just happened to be a pattern on ravelry so I decided it was about time!

 The pattern is really more of a collaborative set of guidelines  at times this made it harder to sort out but it lent for a lot of room for alterations. In particular I added some shaping in the waist and bust so it didn't look like a big sack, it still isn't the most figure flattering but I find it's very hard to do that with cables, at least for those of us with a bit of curves.

 I'd call this finished sweater a total success! I wore is to the friday of Chicago TARDIS and even got recognized a few times!

Till next time,
TheFreckled Crafter

Pinwheel sweater of success!

Nothing feels as satisfying a long long overdue knitting project! I started this sweater October 9th of 2011 and finished it the 19th of this October. Frankly, knitting all those rounds and rounds and rounds is BORING!

I used Red Heart Soft and Hobby Lobby I love this yarn for contrast, which means it's 100% acrylic, not my favorite and something I try to stay away from more and more but I think it's okay for this, a warm sweater to wear around the house.

I really really hate the pooling on the upper arms, wish I'd switched between two skeins or something but no way I'm going back! I had...issues with the fitting. The sleeve position is too far apart, my shoulders are apparently not that wide despite trying to be diligent about this.

For closure I crocheted some loops and used assorted buttons. There's actually another loop and two hidden buttons near the bottom to hold it together some  more.

I'm not totally thrilled with it but it's finished and that's all the success I need!

Project Rewind: Leaflette Shawlette

Previously on this blog I did a series of posts called "project rewind" in which I blogged about finished projects of the past. I thought it perfect I get started right away and shoot for a weekly post on the blog about a project I did whilst away, because there's many!

The Leaflette Shawlette appeared to be the perfect project for this Shady Haven's alpaca I'd picked up some months back at a fiber showcase with some friends. The lovely alpaca was so soft and had such great colors (and price) that I bought three skeins. One of this variegated and two in a black/grey, which I'm now knitting the Dahlila Cardigan with. It's lovely yarn, so soft, it's a total joy to knit with.

I absolutely LOVE these colors but there's one downside: the pattern is fairly hidden in the variegation. BUT after blocking it I decided I didn't care, it was too soft and lovely and the colors were so pretty. I was lucky enough to get a chance to wear it almost immediately to a wedding. As luck would have it I had the perfect purple dress to compliment it!

Love,
Freckled Crafter

   

Still puffing away, a blanket saga

I've been knitting away on my little hexipuffs! I knit them whenever I can and they're so portable I can pull them out and take up on room. Recently I've been knitting them at work between cleaning and working with clients.

Yesterday I even knit one at my mom's studio for a bit. I'm currently knitting puff number 32, which brings my daily puff count to two. Some days I don't finish a single puff and some days I knit four or more. If I average two a day for a year I'll be well on my way to a kingsize quilt! I'd also like to make some couch cushions eventually, possibly out of a worsted weight or even thicker for some really large puffs!

I've also started to join some of them together, creating a little puff pad! I'm using some leftover grey laceweight. I'm seaming them all along the sides, unlike Stephanie's, so that there's no holes for fingers or toes to pop through.

I'm totally smitten!

♥ Freckled Crafter

Many moons ago I did a post of lustful craft spaces. I really enjoyed all the eye candy and it offered a lot of inspiration. The great thing is now I will actually be able to apply my thoughts and dreams to our craft/spare bedroom in our new house. These photos have already inspired me to paint the two dressers I plan to use for storage pretty colors.

I love organizing and designing layouts so I really can't wait!

♥ The FreckledCrafter

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

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