all this for them

Chevron Bag with Faux Leather Accents

2014-03-31T21:50:00.001-04:00

I love bags! They're a fun accessory that say a little bit about your personality. I knew when I saw this bag I wanted to give it a shot, especially because I already had some chevron fabric and some faux leather.

The tutorial was excellent! My only problem was that I didn't quite have enough main fabric, so I had to adjust the measurements to make a smaller bag. Which is fine with me. I like the finished size of my bag very much. (For example, I used a 16" zipper instead of a 20".) The only other change I made to the pattern was making faux-leather handles rather than using cotton webbing. I thought that the faux-leather handles would make the bag look a little less casual.

I added an inside pocked with a 7" zipper (and wish I took a picture of the pretty pocket fabric. Darn.). I figure I can stick my phone in there since it always seems to get lost at the bottom of my bags.

I have to say I love this bag! Faux leather (i.e., pleather) is SO much lighter than real leather, so this bag is extremely light on my shoulder, which is a wonderful thing.

Would you like to make faux-leather straps for your bag? Here's how I did it:

Cut two strips 28" long and 3" wide.

Fold in the long sides twice (like you're making bias tape) so that the rough edges are concealed inside the "tube."

Stitch the length of each strap leaving about 2.5" at each end (stitch very close to the edge).

I then used a small round object (mine happened to be an Angry Bird plastic ring) to round out the ends. I traced the round edge on the backside of the pleather with a pen, then cut.

I stitched the straps down, following the curve of the bottom, then went back and stitched an X for extra strength!

I like the look! What do you think?

Early Spring Cabled Fingerless Mittens

2014-03-24T16:10:00.002-04:00

How about a cute knitted project for early spring? What about a pair of cabled fingerless mittens? Aren't they pretty? I am super proud of myself. The cable part was really not as hard as I thought it'd be. Once you get the hang of this pattern, the mittens can sew up pretty fast.

These mitts are perfect for early spring, providing just enough warmth for those chilly walks to and from school when temps linger around 45 or 50.

It's a good pattern, but you do have to focus, at least until you get into the rhythm with counting. My husband started talking to me a few times and suddenly I couldn't quite remember which stitch number I was on. So I did have to re-start a couple times. However, once you finish one mitt and are satisfied with it, the second one goes much quicker. I actually did watch a little TV with the second one. That's the mark of success, no? Counting, cabling, and House of Cards.

The original pattern can be found on Lion Brand. In the comments section, a kind knitter named Charlotte Waters adjusted the pattern so that the cables are now centered on the back of the hand (the LB pattern had them off-center). I finished re-writing the pattern below. For my mittens, I did the exact same pattern twice, one for each hand, instead of doing the opposite as Charlotte suggests (I just flipped the second mitten upside down to sew up the thumb hole, while keeping the cables on the top of the hand).

This is the the revised pattern below:

STITCH EXPLANATION: 3/3 LC (3 over 3 left cross) Slip 3 std to cable needle and hold in front, K3, then K3 from cable needle
Using US 8 needles and worsted weight yarn,

CO 38 stitches (I used Paton's Classic Wool Worsted in Aran Tweed.)

Rows 1, 3, 5: (K1, P1) 4 times, K2, P6, K2, (P1, K1) 10 times
Row 2: (P1, K1) 10 times, P2 K6, P2, (K1, P1) 4 times
Row 4: (P1, K1) 10 times, P2, 3/3 LC, P2, (K1, P2) 4 times
Row 6: (P1, K1) 10 times, P2, K6, P2, (K1, P1) 4 times

Good luck and enjoy your new, cute mittens!

Knitted Sibling Winter Hats

2014-03-13T20:04:00.000-04:00

These are my hats for the kids this year! It took me a while to make them, and then it took me a while to post them. We still have snow on the ground in these parts, and it was a blustery, freezing 25 degrees today, so the kids got good use of these knitted hats. I love how their ears are covered and both of them enjoy the ties. These pics were taken about a month or so ago on a sunny, but chilly day when we took the kids snowshoeing.

Green is my son's favorite color, so he was pretty happy with this hat. I thought it'd also be fitting for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Looks like it'll be cold enough to still wear it this weekend.

My little girl chose orange. And then yellow. So there you have it. And the hat matches her snowshoes! Totally not planned.

I found the pattern here. The hat is too small for my head, but makes a good-sized child's hat, in my opinion (or maybe we are all a family of large heads...which may be true).

I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick for the green hat, as directed by the pattern. And I used Lion Brand Hometown USA for the orange. I found the Thick & Quick knitted up much quicker and I also had a little leftover in the end. For the orange, on the other hand, I used the entire ball and was happy she wanted yellow too -- because I couldn't have finished the hat without it. Also, her hat just feels heavier than his. I thought these were pretty interesting observations considering the fact that both are "super bulky" yarns, but definitely knit up differently.

I have had such a good time knitting recently! I am almost sad to see winter go. I have several more knitted projects to post and hope to get them up on the blog before the cold weather really leaves us. I'm sure I'm not the only one sorry to see the snowy see go...or am I?

Have a good week!