Spindle Bags and Halloween Plans.

I admired Blogless Sandy's spindle bag, made by a wonderful quilter Lorraine.  I decided to make me one and it turned into three.  Perfection issues...I know I'm not the only craft-er suffering from this.  I'm trying to get better. 

I decided to try a zipper tab for the ikat one and followed The Missouri Quilt company tutorial.

Alas, I got the dread hole at the top.  So for number two, the green poodle one, I just sewed two small strips on the end, right sides together on the cut ends of the zipper.  I adjusted the the zipper length to make allowance for the seam, but that turned out to be unnecessary and made the seams a too small.  As I'm still fiddling with zipper sewing my Janome I serge the raw edges, but forgot to serge finish the edges  on this one, and I didn't like the way the raw edges stuck out.   I miss the serpentine stitch (on my Bernina 1530)for compressing the seams .  I also did not figure out a good way to top stitch the zipper down.  Number 3 is the charm right?  Except for the part where I sewed the pyramid the wrong way and the zipper pull is on the bottom and my flowers are upside down.  Sigh.  Retirement brain.  I would have fixed it up but had already bound the seams.  Anyway, all functional and kinda cute.  Perhaps I will try one more, just a little bit longer.

Elizabeth the doll who was Princess Leia last year wanted to be Luna Lovegood this year.  She has some serious body issues,  and is not a very standard size so I have not been successful finding clothing for her.   So far she has pink pants, pattern drafted by mwah.  It would help if she had a waist.  My drafting skills did not extend to a top, so she has a hand knit one from some hand spun, long enough to cover her tummy.   There wasn't enough for sleeves.  I will either knit some in another color, maybe grey, or make really long arm warmers.  She is going with the lion hat to support Gryffindor against Slytherin.  She still has no shoes.

For the hat, I modified hellostitchesxo free lion pattern.  The yarn, Patik, is billed as aran, but is more like a dk weight.  I used Patik and some eyelash for the mane.  I may trim it more as his ears are buried in there.  The eyes are felt.  True confessions, some glue was involved.  An interesting fact I came across was that big cats, like lions, have round pupils instead of the slits the small cats have.  Pictures to come.

Still don't know what to do about shoes. 

After the last post I tried to get involved in some knitting.  The Red Scarf project scarf in cartridge rib is cast on for, but moving ever so slowly.  The frogged Shibui Twig became a Luna Lovegood scarf.  The gauge is smaller the what the pattern calls for, but the scarf is long enough for a shorty like me.  The pattern is very easy and quick to crochet.  I don't think it needs blocking. 

The Olympics is amazing.  Such outstanding athletes!! 

It's about sewing

I'm trying the usual methods to inspire some knitting for Ravellenics, but so far no go.  The knitting mojo has escaped again, in spite of the constant "sale" ads from Little Knits and Webs on Facebook.  I'm still spinning in more ways then one, too.  The green cotton seems to like being spun on the new Malcolm Fielding PuYok and also the Red John Galen Tahkli,  It's a never ending batch of green cotton.

I pieced a bunch of hexi log cabin potholders on the Singer Featherweight while the Janome was getting it's tune up.  I finished them up on the Janome since it has a walking foot and a better seam guide.  They are rather large.  I left the hanging ribbons off the last 4. 

Pattern:  Log Cabin Hexi Potholder. It makes a large potholder.
Fabric from stash.  One layer Insulbrite and one layer warm and natural. 

The Kitty Kamoflage nest was a bit of a bust.  The T-shirt yarn takes a bit of muscle to crochet.  It was not stiff enough to stand up.  Jayne Cobb the Cunning Cat does not mind.

Pattern:  Cat Nest
About 10 XL men's T-shirts
Size 8 mm crochet hook.