Hello Avocado

Yup, feelin' much better (sadly some of my co-workers are not faring so well).    But of course once I felt better, I was ready to cast-on a new project.

Beginnings of Avocado Baby Cardigan

Say hello to my lovely Avocado.  It is in fact a project I have worked previously.  Remember my Watermelon cardigan? It was one of my Blog Bernat projects so I did blog about it twice.  Yet I don't recall mentioning it here . . . 

Watermelon Cardigan

It was a cute cardigan and my niece wore it a few times, but she soon out-grew it.  I really liked the garter yoke, but I disliked the bottom-up construction.  So I decided to reverse the pattern by constructing it as a top-down.  I started with the number of stitches bound off--those became my cast-on stitches and then worked increases instead of decreases.

So far, so good!

Not Feeling Well . . .

This is the best I can do this week . . . 

courtesy of dreamstime.com

Feeling under the weather this weekend (there's been a couple of bugs circulating at work and one of them finally got to me).  Back soon to update when I'm feeling better.

We Has Tentacles!

While there has been little knitting, there has been progress of sorts.  Remember my octopus friend Iggy (from here and here)?

Tentacles galore!

Oh yeah, baby!  There are tentacles all about!  What?  There's only six?  Yeah, I didn't quite finish all eight, but I still wanted to sew on the appendages.

Sewing on a tentacle

So I guess my octopus is really a hexapus--ha, ha! Still, he is almost done . . . two more tentacles to go!  

The original "Eggy" has been well loved over the years.  He's looking a wee bit worn.  The yarn has pilled in spots.  And he's gotten increasingly floppy over the years (as if he's slowly losing his stuffing).

The original octopus, Eggy

To compensate, I over-stuffed Iggy so he wouldn't suffer the same fate as Eggy.  His little legs look very sausage-like . . . hee, hee!

I think someone will be very happy.

Any Crafting?

What you ask?  Have I been crafting?  Of course not!  Even with all the time off during the holidays, you'd think I'd have got some crafting done.  For all my free time, I have very little to show for (except for some tentacles and a couple of teddy bear legs).  Although I must confess that I quickly finished my Barbie's new outfit.

My doll's new outfit

I'm not happy with my finishing (very hard to make neat seams with teeny tiny stitches).  Wonder if working the same pattern in the round will offer a better finish . .  . At the very least, I joined a neat doll and amigurumi group (called Good Things Together) over on Ravelry.  They have lots of helpful links (for knitting, crochet, sewing and prop construction), so I'm hoping it'll give me the inspiration to tarry on.

Despite my general lack of crafting over the holidays, there was much baking (and subsequent eating), game-playing, lots of movie-watching and general merriment--oh yes, and much napping, LOL.  Now that I've re-entered the doldrums of everyday life, I`m slowly getting back into my daily routines.

This weekend, the house slowly returned to pre-holiday order with the ornaments going into storage and the tree going outside.  And the gifts needing "re-adjustments" were tackled.  What re-adjustments?  Namely hemming.

I can sew--sort of and in a semi-straight line.  I've devised a technique for hemming that is relatively painless for the sewing-impaired.  You will need:

• a sewing machine
• a tape measure
• scissors
• marker
• pins

1) First have person wear the pants and then fold the pants up to the intended length.  Pin in place.

2) Before cutting, use tape measure and mark off in one inch increments on the wrong side of the fabric (see example below).  Depending how much has to be taken in, you can make marks on fabric at 2", 3" and 4 " from original hemline.

One inch increments on wrong side of fabric

3) Remove pins and cut off old hem with scissors (this part might be scary, but is necessary).  Only cut enough to remove old hem.

Cutting old hem after measuring off the one-inch increments

4) Now fold over raw edge onto 2" or 3" increment.  Sew into place using straight stitch (if fabric is really stretchy, you should consider a zigzag stitch.  Using a matching thread will hide from visibility on right side).

Sewing raw edge to desired increment

5) Fold over a second time, using the 3" or 4" increment (depending on how short the pants need to be).  Sew into place in same manner as in step 4. Why sew a second time? Most fabric tend to unravel after washing.  Sewing in place a second time prevents this from happening (Yes I know about pinking shears, but I don't always find them effective).

Folding over second time and sewing into place 

6) Viola!  You're finished!  Pants are ready to be worn.  No ironing or pinning required. Easy-peasy!  

Finished hem

I've been using this technique for quite a few years.  I don't know if it's the correct way to hem a pair of pants (psst, don't tell my mom the seamstress), but works great for jeans and cotton pants.