Valentines Day Gift

My Valentines Day Gift from my husband arrived today. It was even gift wrapped and included a piece of chocolate! It’s a Knitting Needle Organizer I bought on etsy. (I got to order my own gift. hehe) I hate the hard case that my Denise needles came in. 1.) It is in my opinion too bulky to carry around easily. 2.) There is no room for expanshion. I like to have extra cords and end caps as well as a couple of duplicate size needles. First impresion of this new organirzer is a good one. It seams very well made. It’s compact and as you can see from the photo, it has enough room for everything that came in my Denise kit and then some. I also like the clear pockets. Makes it much easier to find the cords and do dads I need for knitting. The lady was also a pleasure to deal with and shiped the organizer increadibly fast. Judging from the quality of my organizer, if any of you decide to purchase something from her, I don’t think you will be disapointed. Her etsy shop is called AbsoluteWonder

Punch Embroidery A Work In Progress

I’m working on another punch embroidery project and I thought I would let you see what a work in progress looks like. To me it looks like I’m messing up, but I’m not. It doesn’t look good until it’s completed, especially little detail stuff. like the flowers on the puppies ears. as you can see when you look at the front of the work, until the color is added, the black outline just looks like a black blob. Sooo… If your just starting out with punch embroidery and your work looks like this. It’s going to be ok. Just keep going. Oh, and to keep the edge from fraying the way mine did, just add a little tape. I knew that, but I misplaced my tape!             

Small Origami

I bought a pack of 300  3″x3″ origami paper from Hobby Lobby. I’m finding I really like that size. It’s small enough that most of the time I don’t even need to lay the paper on the table to make the folds (that makes it very portable and I love things that are portable), but not so small that it’s overly difficult to work with. Here are some of the things I’ve made with it.  All of the designs I got for free on various websights. I’ll post the links for you as soon as I find them again. LOL!

Uber Origami

I am taking a break from knitting. I got a little burned out with all the holiday knitting I did. So I thought I would pull out my Uber Origami book. Here’s what I made today and the supplies I used.

Punch Embroidery

 

This was my first attempt at punch embroidery. Compared to crewel embroidery it’s pretty easy (just one stitch to learn for this project), but like most things there is a bit of a learning curve. My stitching on this is a bit uneven. some areas are thicker than others and  I had trouble ending. For some reason half the time when I would pull the needle up a bit to clip the thread, a couple of my stitches would come out, even though I tried very hard to hold the thread to prevent that. Also my lines weren’t as neat as I would have liked. I did find that they were much neater and even when I worked the stitches coming toward me rather than away from me. It made the stitching much easier for me to see that way. I’m sure it’s like everything else, I just need to do it a few times to get the hang of it and since I had so much fun with this first project I plan on doing just that.

A Good Idea!

While I was looking around for a better way to store my floss I came across these Fiber Hiders. The idea is if the thread on your needle is too short to hide the tail you slip the wire fiber hider under a few completed stitches then use the hook fiber hider to hook the tail through the wire, then pull the wire and thread tail through completed stitches and wa la thread tail hidden. If they aren’t in your budget, (I know there not in MY budget) the same thing could easily be done by using a wire needle threader and a small crochet hook.

About Monstered out!

Wow, I’m about monstered out! I’ve finished knitting a red and white one. I’m almost done knitting a green and white one and I still need to knit a green and red one. Not to mention assembling them all in time for Christmas to give to my kids. When the monsters are done, I’m going to take a knitting break. I’ve been thinking about embroidery. I haven’t done that in a long time. Maybe decorate some jeans with it. I’ve never done punch embroidery I’ll probably do that next. I got the punch needle I need off ebay for about $3.00 . I remember a really pretty piece that my Uncle Cassie made with punch embroidery. It was a big eagle on the back of a denim jacket. I wouldn’t want to use it on every thing, because the designs are so thick, but for certain things I think it would look real nice. Like maybe school themed sweat shirts for my kids. (similar to what’s on letter jackets) I also wouldn’t mind sewing some more dolls. There’s a friend of mine I’ve been wanting to make one for. She is older and doesn’t have any kids, but I think she would like it. She could sit it next to her computer and it could smile at her for me.

Monsters

I just finished the monsters for my little cousin. I hope he likes them. I haven’t made him anything since he’s been born and I thought it was about time I did something to fix that. :-)

Denise Needle Review

I’ve had my Denise needles for a couple of days now. First impression of the resin needles is I like them. They are VERY light and smooth.  The yarn does not glide across them as easily as my nickle plated needles, but it does glides across much more easily than acrylic or bamboo needles. I am happy with the points. I’ve been able to easily k2tog. The cords are thicker than I’m used to, but I haven’t had any problems with that. I’ve been able to do the magic loop method with them no problem at all. I’m also not having any problems with the joins. The yarn glides past them easily. Add to that the fact that they are made in the USA and have a life time guarantee. These needles are a great investment.

Denise

Anyone who knows me knows I love, love, love my Knit Picks nickle plated needles. I love the pointy tips (awesome for k2tog), the smoothness of the nickle (yarn just glides across them), and the thin flexible cords (makes magic loop easy peasy). Here’s my problem….. I have rheumatoid arthritis, and knitting last winter with my pretty nickle needles became VERY unpleasant. When I would hold my metal needles the cold would seep into my joints and just plain hurt. What I ended up doing so that I could actually stand to knit was to buy a couple of birch wood needles and a bamboo sock needle. They took care of my cold needle issue until the weather got warmer, but money is tight, winter is coming again, and I can’t afford to buy all the different size needles I need in bamboo or wood. I don’t mind buying a couple here or there in sizes I use a lot, but an entire set is just out of my price range right now. Sooo….. With that in mind I decided on buying a Denise Kit. They are much more affordable than buying a similar set in wood and to make it even MORE affordable, I bought a seconds kit. (that just means I got 20% off because the little box they come in has some sort of defect. The needles themselves have nothing wrong with them) They are made of resin which is not supposed to be as grabby with the yarn the way it is with many types of plastic or acrylic needles. (I like my yarn and needles to play nicely with each other) Here are also two other big selling points for me. 1.) Denise needles are made in the USA. 2.) They have a life time guarantee. I ordered them last night and will post what I think about them when they get here.