Vintage Organizer

I was searching around etsy and came across a vintage organizer exactly like one I have.  It is a plastic, carved, wood toned paper organizer that RetroMama65 is selling for 25 smackers.

 

Huh?  I said.  I really like mine and I was planning on painting it.

Mine was sitting in the garage, waiting its turn.  See it there on the side next to the boat shelf.  I wish I could remember to take before photos.  Seems like the one I have is a bit darker than retromama65’s.

 

 I finally remembered to paint it with Typewriter MMSMP when I was painting the shelf for the gym.

 

I’m pretty happy with the way it came out.

 

 Of course, I had to stuff some yarn in it.  I have it sitting on my project table and if you think it doesn’t have all sorts of things jammed in it already – you are wrong!  I wish I could keep things neat and organized for more than 10 minutes.

Merry Christmas 2014 all!

 

 

Felted Bucket Bag

The ladies who own Solitude Wool happen to live in Loudoun County [where I live] and last summer they had a “visit the farm” series of events.  My mom and I were able to attend two of them.  The Solitude Wool yarns were displayed at the events  and they have a great selection of patterns.

The events were a great way to see how the farms take care of the animals, actually see them sheared and learn about everything that goes into running a farm and creating a line of yarn.

I was interested in the felted bags on display and the author of the bag pattern, Sue Burke, convinced me to give one a try.  She helped me selected a multi-colored Tunis/Romney yarn and a pink and teal Karakul yarn to blend with the Tunis, since two yarns are held together for this felted bag pattern.

The bag is knitted in seed stitch which creates a texture once felted.   Seed stitch is v-e-r-y slow for me, but I persevered and finally finished the bag.

 

Now to felt it.

Sue gave excellent instructions on how to felt the bag by hand and I considered this a viable option, because I have a front loading washing machine and had no idea how to check the bag while felting it, without the fear of water jetting out from the front door of the machine.  So, after much debate with my mom of the pros and cons of trying it, I decided to felt it by hand.

It took about 30 minutes of kneading the bag in hot and cold water rinses to get the knitting to felt into a thick, sturdy fabric.

I added the Cindy’s Button Company handles I purchased online I think it came out great!

 I love catching a glimpse of the pink and teal bag as I pass by.

I stuffed it full of the yarn my BFF, Sherri, brought back for me from her recent trip to Ireland.  I can’t wait to get started on something with that yarn!

Furniture Rescue: Bow Topped Shelf

I’m lucky enough to have a room on the lower level of my home that we designated as a fitness area –

we call it “the gym”.

It’s the one room in the house that I avoid like the plague.   The gym has a wonderful elliptical machine in it that taunts me each time I walk by.

As I pass by on my way up the stairs, I hear it calling, “Oh, too busy for me, huh?  Word on the street is you would rather be knitting, painting furniture in the garage or digging holes in the garden than spending some time with me.”

“You betcha”, I mutter.

But when I get to the top of the steps, all huffing and puffing, I remember that exercise is the key to fitness, resiliency and stress relief.  If only exercising was the same, as say, watching TV with my slippers on, then maybe I just might start doing it.  Maybe, I just needed to provide a bit of coziness to the activity to make it more appealing.  More slipper friendly.

So, when my FFF had this piece – a hutch top without it’s bottom – I thought this just might be a solution to my problem.

In my life when I need to cozy something up – I add a shelf.

I added some wheels.  To give the piece some height and mobile flexibility.

I re-stained the vertical supports and painted the shelf in Miss Mustard Seed’s Typewriter, which always comes out gray for me.

I sealed it with wax and brought it downstairs to sit next to the elliptical monster – I mean machine.

It’s a little shorter than I hoped it would be, but it will work great to house all the creature comforts.  The remotes, the heart rate monitor band, the elliptical manual and the slippers that I can use while exercising on this machine.

So, I have zero excuses left to not use this monster.  I’ll start tomorrow :).

Wonky Cowl

The Wonky Cowl.  I found this pattern on knitty.com back in 2009.  I had been knitting about three years by then and thought maybe I could extend my pattern choices beyond scarves.  I still love to knit scarves, but this pattern seemed doable.

I had a skein of Debbie Bliss’ Cashmerino Superbulky which was the perfect yarn for this pattern.  It knit up quick and had great stitch definition.

 

The basketweave pattern was a bit of a knitting challenge for me  back then.

Alex, my niece, modeled it for me last summer.

Since this was such a snowy winter, this cowl was in heavy rotation in my house.  It seemed as though it was the perfect piece to keep your neck warm without having to deal with the scarf tails.

I’ve always felt that once I knit a pattern I wouldn’t want to knit it again.  Kinda like reading a book twice, but this pattern I would knit again.

Now I just need to search for the perfect yarn.

 

Tiny Sweater

Sometimes something cute is just the thing you need to get you through a long workday.

For me, its my calming lava lamps and my tiny knit sweaters.  Nothing seems as bad as I might think it is when I am surrounded by the things that calm me.

So, when you have a bit of this left over.

Just turn it into one of these.

Add a tiny hanger fashioned from wire.

And you have instant happiness.

Add it to your collection of tiny sweaters on your pin-up board at work.  Just a glance, and you’re back in knitting nirvana.

Want to knit one?  Check out this pattern on Ravelry.

How do you get through a workday when you’d rather be knitting or painting or crafting in some way?

Thermis Cowl

I love a good cowl.

I find them much easier to wear than a scarf – no fussing with the scarf tails and no wondering how best to  to tie it.

Just slip on the cowl and go and, since I knit at a snail’s pace, they are “quick” to knit.

I selected the Thermis pattern written by Kris Knits, because I liked the button feature and the great gray yarn color the original was knit in.  I chose Miss Babs Yowza in Pewter to knit the cowl and I just love the yarn and the way the cowl turned out.

The Yowza yarn has a great flecks of light and dark grays.

The pattern was a mix of ribbing and a basket weave seed stitch.  Pretty easy stuff.

There was a bit of drama with this cowl.  Seems at some point the yarn fibers may have been attacked by moths which frayed the yarn and a hole appeared in the ribbing.   This is where friends that knit are very important.  Kate, my knitting friend and genius, repaired the hole with ease and this little cowl is back in rotation.

Looks great on Alex, my niece.

Looks like cowls are the way to go!

Wayfarer Scarf

Jared Flood is my other favorite male designer and yarn manufacturer who designs and produces yarn for the hand knitter.   I knit his Wayfarer Scarf using his Shelter worsted weight yarn in the color Nest.  This yarn is completely an American made fiber and is woolen spun in New Hampshire.

I loved the simple geometric pattern of the scarf and the yarn showed off the knits and purls perfectly.

I was hoping this neutral color would work with just about any outerwear.

My sister thinks the scarf works with black and it should go live at her house.

Furniture Rescue: Vanity Chair

I was on the hunt for the elusive perfect vanity chair.  Either the chair was too short, the seat was too small or it was just plain ugly.  My FFF posted this little gem and I just had to give it a try.  It had a low back and a wide seat.

It just might work.

I mixed up a batch of chalk paint using the same color as the walls in the Master Bathroom and started painting.

While the paint was drying, I tackled the seat cushion.  This was a well used little vanity chair.  There were no less than four covers stapled over each other on this guy.

I used the last one as a template for my new fabric.

Stapling it on to the seat was pretty easy.  I distressed the paint and this guy was done.

I think if I can find a set, I’ll add some casters to make the chair a bit taller, but for now I just added some felt pads to the bottoms of the legs, so they don’t scrape the tile floor.

And in case you were wondering, it is sorta weird to see your bathroom on the internet.

Aronia Cowl with Nupps

Yarn-A-Month Clubs.  Love’em.

I’ve joined one so far and the theme was sock yarn for non-sock knitters.  Perfect for me.  I love sock yarn, but am not a fan of knitting socks.

Ya know the whole knit for months and then put them on my feet…where they could touch the dirty floor?  Oh no – not on my watch.

I’ve knit socks, but these socks have never seen the soles of my feet.  So, what do I do with them?  Hmmm.  I carry them around.  I look at them.  I marvel at them.  I wonder how I made something so complicated.  I still don’t know how they were made.  Just followed the tutorial and whamo!  Socks appeared.  They’re nothing special, just basic ribbed socks, but to me they are a wonder of engineering.  And I made them.

Wear them on my feet? Never.

Remind people that I knit these socks?  Constantly.

Anyway, I digress.  The first project in my Dyed-Delights Sock Yarn Club was the Aronia Cowl with the nupp option instead of the beaded option.

“What the hell is a nupp?”  Well, it’s a bobble.  A bobble is a three dimensional design element similar to a bump.  It’s supposed to stick up from the fabric and it creates a cool pattern with textured interest.

I was told to steer away from the nupps.  Go with the beads the wise knitter who already knit this pattern said.  Against sound been there done that advice.  I went with the nupps.  The yarn was a hand dyed sock yarn 50% merino wool and 50% silk.  The yarn is gorgeous and soft as butter, but the sock weight yarn just didn’t have the umpf to hold the nupp in a raised position.

I still love the way it came out and the yarn is just gorgeous.  The Pigeon Roof Studios, 4 ply yarn in the lichen hand dyed colorway is beautiful.

Take a look.

Oh yeah.

You can just barely make out the nupps in the above picture.

Very cute.  Love the green.  Love the lace pattern.

This cowl will be going to someone who really needs her.

Furniture Rescue: Buffet

In the blogland circles I roam [DIY, furniture painting, thrift store make-overs] [Yes, there are more people out there just like me.  Frightening as Lee would say.] [I found my people.  People who get me.] this style of buffet or sideboard is quite popular.

When my FFF [Favorite Furniture Finder – if you’re new to my blog] listed one of these on Craigslist – I was smitten.  Of course, when you buy furniture as an accessory, not a life long commitment, it can get expensive and this piece was out of my budget.  I put in my best offer and kissed this piece goodbye.  I just knew someone would outbid me.  As luck would have it, my FFF called and said she wanted it out of her unit and I could have it.

 Yippppeee!

Now, I wasn’t a fan of the original wood finish.  Something about all those different wood tones, it made me a little nervous.  I needed calm. [Note:  That’s the chandelier in the corner of the pic!]

So, I decided on a safe black finish.  Why?  Because Martha Stewart has a room in one of her many, many homes that I want to use as inspiration for my dining room.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw this room.  Pink ceiling and all.  This is exactly the inspriation I needed to make my crazy idea work. Martha’s room has pale yellow walls and a pink tinged chandelier.  I have pale yellow walls and a pink crystal chandelier I bought from my FFF.  Sometimes I buy something and then say, “WTF did I just do”. But, usually there is a reason when my gut tells me to seize the opportunity.

Notice Martha has a black painted piece in her room, probably to anchor all the pastels.  Now I have a piece that will be the anchor.  Black it is.

Once you know what the plan is for a piece, the rest is easy.

I sanded to roughen the surface.  Stripped and sanded the top, because I’m going to stain it instead of paint it.

Started painting.  With latex this time.  Not milk paint.

Waited for the paint to dry.

Stained the top and put the piece in my living room until I can start the redecorating of the dining room.

I re-used the original hardware on this piece for now.  I think it blends in well, but maybe something better will work later.

I just love the way it turned out.

I lined the drawers with a music patterned wrapping paper.

Already put the top to use to display the Thanksgiving Carolers.

Now I just need to find someone to hang that crystal chandelier and paint the ceiling light pink and not call me crazy at the same time.

Wish me luck.