Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic

Mondo-Mania!

Today was a crazy day bookended by long crabby line-standing.  I'll tell you about the morning later, because the evening was so very much more fun.

Annie and I had ourselves the ultimate girls' night out.  The local branch of Goodwill had pretty much the most genius event ever!  A clothing swap + fashion show by local students, with the fashions created from repurposed goodwill items.  And the show was judged by...Mondo!  That Mondo!  The real Mondo.  Yes, I am a total Project Runway freak and was team Mondo all the way.

The event organizers thought they'd get about 150 attendees, and they ended up cutting off ticket sales at 600.  Good thing we bought ours in advance!

 Annie and I didn't bring clothes to swap- it seemed like too much to handle with a 9 year old in tow.  And with the scale of the event, I'm glad we didn't!  But the real reason we were there was to meet Mondo.

When we arrived there was a large cluster of people surrounding Mondo's signing table.  We joined the clump, and when they organized it into a line, we found ourselves right up near the front.  So we were accidental line cutters.  Admittedly, when we realized how lucky we were, we didn't go to the back.  But if you knew about the lines at the beginning of my day, you'd forgive me.  More about that another time.

And because of our spot in line, we DID get to meet Mondo!  Annie was starstruck, extra especially when Mondo took time to chat with her and compliment her on her fabulous mixing of stripes, dots, hearts, and other patterns...  I think I love him even more now that I did on the show.

The fashion show portion of the evening was great.  The high school students were really talented, and the crowd was full of awesomely attired folks.  And they were serving cupcakes from my favorite place.  After the fashion show, Annie and I bolted before the swap.  Because we ended up at the head of the valet line, we used the extra bonus time to treat ourselves to Pinkberry...

Best part of the night, aside from spending quality time with my girl?  She was so inspired by what she saw, and that the designers in the fashion show were high school kids, she wants to try her own hand at some clothing repurposing...  Good thing I was planning to sign her up for kids' sewing classes at Fancy Tiger next month!

 

Eat them up, yum...

You know how I didn't finish any knits aside from that one cute dragon hat in time for Christmas? I *did* cast one more on with the best of intentions...  When you give a cute animal hat to one of your kids, shouldn't you give one to the other one as well?

With that thinking, and inspiration from a certain Miss K, I dug out the last leftover bits of the camo yarn I used for this,

and this,

and cast on this

. 

Because what 7 year old boy doesn't need a camoflague fish hat?

I am thrilled to say that I *finally* used up nearly every single bit of that camo yarn!  Feels very very good.  Of course, now I'll have to come up with new ideas of things to make for Henry.  And speaking of Henry... I think he likes it!

Sadly, he won't wear it to school- kids teased him last year about a fleece shark hat, and now he's terrified to wear anything too fun. I debated going to school to kick some first grade a$$, but decided that probably wouldn't help matters.  Instead, we'll save enjoying this hat for weekends.  And hey, it's way less likely to get lost that way, right?

PS Most complicated part of the pattern?  Getting my butt to the store to buy some white felt for the eyes...

An Old Knit for the New Year

I'm not at all one for new year's resolutions- I can fail at goals all year round, thanks very much.  No need to choose a particular time for it...  But I would like to do a better job photographing and blogging finished knits.  There's a few pairs of socks, two wraps, and a shawl that I haven't shown you.  And as soon as I add the eyes, a fish hat for Henry, too.  But meanwhile... we can take another look at an earlier project from last year.

Remember this?  Total case of pride goeth-ing before a fall- I was so proud of getting an Xmas knit done in September, and it turned out to be the one and only Xmas knit I did at all.  Ooops.  Just not the year for knitting, or at least, not for other people... Selfish knitting was totally accomplished.  Anyway!  You saw Henry model Annie's dragon tail hat, but now, after Xmas, check out the real thing:

Wow, if I do say so myself.  Her favorite color, her favorite (mythological) animal.  She'll even deign to wear it in public!  (Which is becoming WAY more of an issue as we approach the tweenage years...) It's a Morehouse Merino pattern, done up in some luscious malabrigo worsted weight from the ever fabulous Fancy Tiger...  Next up for the lucky girl?  Some dragon leg or arm warmers in the same fabulous blue malabrigo.

And maybe some photos of my various and assorted finished projects, too...  Just don't call that a resolution.

PS Doesn't something about that photo of Annie remind you a bit of this? Not that I am in way way comparing myself to Vermeer (not hardly!)- but it strikes the same chord for me...

It's a Christmas Mircale!

You've spent all year watching me painstakingly, block by block, work on Annie's Doggie Quilt.  The one for her 9th birthday- back on April 23rd.  And in the time it would take someone else to grow an entire human being, I have finally managed to finish one quilt.  One quilt made up of 40 blocks, each one totally unique and made up on the spot, each one featuring a different dog...  One quilt that has made one little girl VERY happy.  See?

It went straight from the dryer to the bed, and all just in time- Santa can check it out when he's making his rounds tonight!

In case you don't remember, here was the final version of the (pre-quilted) top:

The back contains all the fabrics from the front, as well as a few I never managed to fit in anywhere else.  It's wild and crazy, and really fun. 

Thank you to everyone who gave me support or feedback during this crazy long journey, and to everyone who helped to supplement my doggie fabric stash.

Here's hoping each and every one of your Christmasses has a crafty miracle in it!

See you next year!

Happy Holidays to You and Yours from Me and Mine

Done!

(Sort of.)

 

I spent Monday morning with the dog blocks... I sewed them all together without too much agonizing over placement.  Granted, I am not 100% happy with it now- I would have worked the blocks from the bottom row into the rest of the quilt for more balance- but- It's done and I'm happy enough.

And Annie is happy.

And that's what matters.

Of course, now there is the pesky matter of piecing the back (I have so much awesome leftover dog fabric...so I plan to use as much as possible in the back).  And then I need to quilt it.  Gulp.  And that's not going to happen anytime soon.

Because at halp-past noon TODAY, my mom arrives in Colorado.  The house in SC officially changed hands yesterday.  She closes on her new home here on Monday, but won't be moving in to it until November 12th- she'll be living with us until then.  And on top of that...Rich, the kids and I leave for a week at Disney World on 1pm this Sunday.

Sewing is clearly not going to be a priority for a while.  Thank god for knitting!

Wordless Wednesday, nothing like a good book edition...

Here There Be Dragons...

Or at least, a dragon tail...

...a dragon tail hat, that is.  I realize that the child pictured above is Henry, however, he was helping me out- the hat is an Xmas gift for Annie, and I wanted to get an idea of how it fit.  And take pictures so I could pist it on Ravlery, and then also here... If you happen to know Miss Annie, shhhh!  She has no idea the hat exists and I plan to keep it that way until December 25th.

The pattern is from Morehouse Farm, and I knit it up in some luscious Malabrigo worsted that I scored at Fancy Tiger on 50% off sale!  This is the squishiest dragon tail ever.  The pattern is super simple- I knit it up in 5 days- but really adorable.  I had some trouble getting gauge, but it all worked out in the end. I have 1 3/4 skeins left, so perhaps an accompaniment is in order?  They have a cute dragon leg warmer pattern, too...

 PS Did you happen to notice I already finished my first holiday gift knit? Damn!  The kids have made many many requests from the Mochimochi book, so maybe that's next...

Doggone Tired

It has been insane around here lately.

No, really.  Times are tough at my office, and I feel like I can safely say that the last 2 weeks were the worst 2 weeks of my working life.  Still love my job, still love where I work, just wish things were different right now.  On top of that, my mom decided to put her SC house on the market and see what happened.  Fast-forward 9 days, and she's got a buyer.

What?

And the buyer needs to be in on 11/1/10.  Which means Mom has to find her place in Denver way way faster than anyone thought.  So during the madness at work, she was here, and I was helping her househunt.  The happy news is that we found a place, and she's scheduled to close on 10/25.  The sad news is that the timing of all this means that she will not be able to go to Disney World with us as has been planned for nearly 11 months.  She'll be here moving in while we celebrate Halloween with Mickey and friends...

Along with all of that extra madness has been the day-to-day soccer practice, homework, birthday, etc chaos that is life around here.  I swear, Rich and I are about to collapse.  But soon Mom will live here- just close enough to be convenient with out being cloying- and maybe we'll get to go on some dates...

With all of this, there has not been much sewing going on.  I finished a knit- another Buga Baby Bunting- this one for my boss's impending granddaughter.  I have made 2 of these now and they are wonderful super easy, super adorable baby gifts- but they photograph really blah without a baby inside.  See?

Mom left Saturday morning, and by Saturday evening I had managed to clean the entire sewing room- and trust me, that was a BIG feat.  Fabric had been piled in messy heaps everywhere, and thanks to my recent attempts  to sell off stash, yarn had also exploded out of its bins...  Then, I took Sunday off.  Stayed in bed to watch the season premiere of House.  I did 6 loads of laundry and vacuumed the entire place.  And next, I managed to sew 3 of the last 6 dog blocks!

 

 

I love how bold and bright these three are.  They'll pop into the quilt nicely.  The last 3 should also be nice and wild.  And then will come the challenge of laying them all out.

But not for a few weeks, most likely.  This weekend I'm headed out to SC, ostensibly to help mom pack, but really, to say goodbye to the house- Dad's house.  Dad's favorite place. I expect that will be hard (understatement), but, I've been promised dinner at the Sea Shanty, so that should help.

He's 7! And Armed and Dangerous to Boot.

(Pardon me while I sniffle for a moment.)

Okay, I'm back.

Today my little guy turns 7.  7. Did you hear me?  7!  I cannot believe it.  It seems so grown up.  Especially when you see his choice of celebration:

Laser Tag with all his buds.  Two hours of running, shooting, killing, and being a total goofball.  Pretty much the perfect party for Henry. 

Even the cupcakes got into the violent spirit:Henry seemed pleased enough by them.

And he was equally pleased by the amazing array of nerf weaponry bestowed upon him by his friends.  Lucky guy...our cats are not so pleased- no, he's not shooting at them.  At least, not on purpose.

Happy Birthday , Henry.  I love you.

PS If you've never heard the story of Henry's super fast arrival into our lives, it's here...