my new watering can

I had this laundry detergent bottle I have been hanging onto for some kind of craftiness. And I finally got around to doing something useful with it!

Clever Recycled Watering Can

Supplies needed:
Empty laundry detergent bottle
Painters tap
Scissors
Spray paint
Hammer
Nail
First I made sure to rinse it out thoroughly. (check out my radishes and bell pepper plant in the background)
After deciding to repurpose the container into a watering can (which I don't own) I decided it needed to be pretti-fied. I just cut leaf and floral shapes out of standard painters tape and stuck it on in a pleasing design. This is very easy and you can always move the pieces around a bit to get the design just how you want it. I spray painted brown, a color I had lying around, and peeled off the stickers when it dried.

To make the pour apparatus I punctured some holes with a hammer and nail. Again, very easy.

I like the fill line on the back, so I kept that.

Ta-dah!! I really use this all the time now. And I pretend like my plants appreciate getting watered in style.

Recent projects

So, actually I've made many a thing since I last posted. But I feel in the mood to post again so I'll just share a couple of recent projects.I'm pretty proud of this homespun pillow. This homespun yarn was something I started, then forgot about for like a year then came back with renewed interest. Hooray for not total abandonment! I got the pillow at Hobby Lobby and sewed the knitted piece on. I love the colors of this yarn (which is merino wool, ooo fancy). Multicolored yarns are more fun to spin because you don't know how it will look knitted up until you actually do it.

Frida also appreciates how this pillow really classes up the chair. She also enjoys that it really brings out her kitty eyes.

Another little project is baby sized. This is a soaker pattern, free on ravelry. Love me some free patterns. This is the first time that I did a nice clean kitchener stitch & I'm pretty proud of myself. It finally clicked for me, so now I won't avoid patterns with the kitchener anymore. This was a fun quick knit and I will definitely be knitting more. Its especially good for using up bits of wool in my stash.

Finished Razor Cami

Pattern: Razor Cami by Katie Marcus
Yarn: Classic Elite Sundance (5.5 skeins)
Needles: US size 5, 24'' circular
Modification: Added ribbing onto front neckline


Hooray its finished! I was a bit worried it would be too small but as you can see it fits just fine. As for the pattern, it was a really quick knit and my first time to really do any kind of lace project. I knit this in less than a month, which is really fast for me.

I think I'll actually get a lot of wear out of this top this summer.

revamp reusable bags

Here's a fun little project I did this week! My husband and I have a couple of those reusable bags that we've gotten at Tom Thumb. They are pretty handy but rather ugly. So I decided to make up a patch to cover up the 'Tom Thumb, ingredients for life' nonsense.

I've only done one so far. The are sublime stitches fruits. So I think I'll put veggies on the other. I like the way the patch came out but, the bag is pretty big and could maybe use something else...

And now for a fun pic of my Razor Cami progress. Yay! I still haven't abandoned it yet!!

Razor Cami Progress

I have been diligent with this project so far. After the ribbing I struggled with the lace pattern for a couple of rows, ripped that out, and things are going good now. Once you get a few of the lace rows going, the pattern gets easier because you can see what to do. Here we are with 3 full skeins of Classic Elite Sundance...
Earlier this week, I realized I grossly underestimated my yarn needs. So I stopped back by my LYS and picked up 3 more skeins. Now I feel confident that I have enough!

Progress on my Tweed Baby Doll Tunic. Well, this pattern has some faults which slowed me down a bit. Mostly I just got really irritated because the bust shaping was not written clearly at all so, I just ignored the project for a while. After having a few other knitters agree it was written crap-ily, I decided to wing it and just use my best judgement. I think that part came out okay in the end. Now I just have the back to finish. I'm on my last ball of yarn and really hoping it makes it!! As you can see the mid-section is looking a little on the big side. So, I probably could've knitted a size smaller. I can always seam up the sides a bit to make it fit, if bigness is the case. But that will annoy me.

And due to my impatience, I have started on a spring-inspired knit. Its the razor cami. I found the pattern on ravelry.com. Its a super cute, simple lace tank top. I am doing the small size given this time, due to my past problems of over-estimating my size. Its a stretchy top, that appears to fit many different sizes (on ravelry). The yarn is Sundance by Classic Elite Yarns. Actually my first time to buy any Classic Elite brand.

Perfect Beer Sweater

Here is my own version of a beer sweater:

Materials:

Some yarn. I used some scrap wool.

Yarn needle

Beer
Needles: 4, size 5 US DPN

Abbreviations:

kfb- knit through front, then knit through back of stitch (increase)

k2tog- knit two stitches together (decrease)

Pattern:

CO 24
k2, p2 rib for 12 rows
k one round

*k3, kfb* repeat to end (30 stitches)

k two rounds

k14, kfb, k14, kfb (32 stitches)

k two rounds

k15, kfb, k15, kfb (34 stitches)

k until piece measures ~5 1/2 inches

k15, k2tog, k15, k2tog (32 stitches)

k2,p2 rib for 3 rows

Bind off!

In contrasting color, embroider initial in chain stitch (as desired)

Action shot! Makes a great gift for guests!