New product line...soon

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you already know I've been working on something new.

My sister had a double edged idea...she wanted to make these scarves that snap, sort of like the yoga ones from lululemon, and she wanted to learn to sew.

The sewing lessons went well.

The scarves themselves....well, it's been a lot of trial, and a LOT of error.

Let me just go ahead and say a couple of things about snaps. #1. It totally doesn't work to use lightweight snaps on either leather or faux leather. #2. It also totally doesn't work to try to punch the holes through on a hardwood floor. It worked MUCH better the following day when I did it outside on the concrete patio. It would probably work much better than that if I had use of a snap press, but I don't like to invest in a lot of equipment if I'm not sure if a product is going to sell or not. #3. Leather and my sewing machine hate me right now.

In the end, I really liked the results of the test scarves pictured above, but they were too long. I was so focused on getting the leather and snaps attached, that I made a rookie mistake and didn't test out the length! They definitely work, but need to wrap around 3 times which is just uncomfortable. I tried making a couple of scarves with a real leather trim, but it's thicker than the faux stuff (which actually looks surprisingly good!) and my sewing machine seems to hate. it. so. much. I spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon having my new, ingenious method of attaching the trim just not work SO hard...and then a lot more hours Sunday evening having my bobbin skip and thread break and just general horrible things happen to me, which I solved with wine and aimless internet surfing, throwing things and avoiding the sewing room since then. Healthy coping skills!

As soon as I can face it, I'm going to try my easier method of attaching the trim with the faux leather to see if it's in fact easier. I managed to improve the snap attachment method, so surely I can do the same with the sewing...right? And if not, well.....hey, one of a kinds pictured above!!!!

Basement studio update, and a long winded decor discussion

Suddenly it's been a while since my last basement remodel update! It's been a little over two months since then, and while sadly, we aren't finished yet, we have made progress. And I've finally chosen a paint color....which I'm happy with and already second guessing.

So, as a refresher, this is the plan:

 This was the room at the end of June:

And this is the room today (by the way, the colors all look ridiculous because the room is currently lit by a single bare bulb, and these were taken at night, because, you know, life):

Looking toward the den area

 

Looking back at the sewing studio area

The only actual feature in the room right now - the removable bench/water meter casing (bench pulled out in the foreground for easier mudding) and future shelving area. You can also see a peek of the windows and how they are framing up so far. My husband has been taking on most of the work lately, and I think the plan is to frame those out with wood.

If you can't tell, the difference is walls. :)

Ok, the difference is actually electrical, heating ducts, sheetrock and 3 layers of taping and mudding of the joints. So I suppose that's an amount of work that makes sense to have taken 2 months outside of work and other such life.

As far as my decor plan.....man, this has been really hard! I don't want to sink a ton of money into finishes, so we're doing a lot of re-use of things we already have. While we've not had any water issues in the basement to date, I also hadn't planned on putting a lot of money into the finishes. My idea is to epoxy the floors (though a wood look vinyl has been suggested and is VERY tempting....), and I've chosen white from the standard Drylok colors.

 (Here you can see two samples that my sister brought over last night which are out of my price range, but again, very tempting! These run about $5/square foot, so she's going to look into some that run more like $1-2/square foot.)

I've discussed this before, but my rationale is that the gray floor tones would look SUPER basement/prison-ey, and I just don't like the tan, which leaves white! I also plan to paint the ceiling and parts of 2 walls white (Decorator White, rumored to be the perfect white) so I can have a nice, clean photography backdrop. Obviously, all of this WHITE plus the idea that I'd like to keep the wall color light because this is a basement after all and I don't want it to look like a cave, well, it all makes me nervous that the space is going to look super cold.

From my Pinterest board, this is the inspiration I've tagged on white floors that look really nice:

This is one of few I found that's a finish similar to what I am hoping to achieve, and while I like it, honestly it could use a rug or two.

While the fire certainly helps to warm up the room (har har) the major factors are probably the wood table and chair legs, wood columns and exposed brick. Now here's a weird thing....we actually have a chimney in our basement that has a very similar finish...that we drywalled over. Why? Well, we didn't want to have to bother with exposed steel beams and pipe columns in the room, and the chimney is on the OTHER side of the beam. So to expose it, we would have had to jog the wall just to expose the brick. Because we don't currently plan to add a fireplace (but how AWESOME would that be??!), it seemed like we'd be trying too hard just to expose the brick.

Again, great exposed brick, cool planked wall feature (and an odd little fridge nook)

Oh vintage rugs. If only, if only.

Great light and wood furniture go a long way.

Again, the use of natural wood is key, though the soaring ceilings certainly help.

Love the cushy rug, love the layering.

A common theme I've noted from my inspiration images is that the majority of white floors I love are painted wood. So in addition to the vinyl wood samples my sister is getting, I've asked her to look into a whitewashed vinyl wood look as well. (By the way, my sister is an interior designer, so sadly not everyone has a sister like that at their disposal!) I'm definitely on the fence about this flooring situation, but I figure that if I decide to go vinyl (which can be glued down to below grade floors unlike a lot of laminates) I can always use the white epoxy (which I already purchased, argh) in our garage which is always crazy wet and could use a moisture barrier.

Anyway, as for the rest of the room. I so wish I'd gotten a decent picture of my couches (one couch and one sofa), even though my sister says they are basically a neutral, it would have still helped me for color selection. I really thought I could find a similar couch online because they sort of scream standard 90's to me, but I couldn't! So....well they look like this right now:

Great visual, right?

Luckily they really ARE sort of neutral, unlike my mom's other 90's couch, which was a green and red and white plaid that we aren't going to talk about. She has really good taste otherwise, so we'll just blame that on the selection that was prevalent at the time! However, as inspiring as that jenga couch configuration above is, as it crowds out my laundry space, perhaps this is a little more helpful for a mood board sort of discussion:

It's got a little bit of everything, gray, white, blue, and peach....I don't plan to highlight the peach. :)

So this is the paint color we chose. It's Silver Strand by Sherwin Williams, and while its description as a "cool neutral" makes me a little nervous, it didn't look that cold in the space. While I AM Scandanavian, I haven't quite developed that all white aesthetic that they do so well, so I'm hoping this "almost color" on 2/3 of the walls will work.

I want to find some kind of great rug to ground the seating area. I'm sort of thinking something in a blueish tone, and I love the idea of a traditional looking rug.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Then there's the overdyed rugs that I've considered for YEARS....

Option 4

Option 5

Decisions, decisions.

So additionally in the space, I'll have my sewing table, which is the Melltorp from Ikea, and a refinished desk chair from a few years ago (it's holding up well Sara!)

Both of these will sit on this rug

The other pretty large thing is the sewing area will be the yet to be built cutting table, which I'll build from Ana White's tutorial.

I can't decide if I want to do the base in white or navy, but I'm pretty sure I'll do the top in a stained wood.  I'm going to put it on casters so that I can shove it around as needed, and my sister made a great suggestion to put a groove in one side for cutting straight lines in fabric! I wonder if I can get ahold of one some kind of metal to put in there like you see at craft store cutting counters? I'll have to do some research on that. Then the shelves will be the same wood tone as the cutting top.

I've done very little planning for what will actually go on the walls themselves, and I could ponder it here...but this has gone on long enough and surely I've lost most of you by now! Hopefully by my next update I'll have painted walls, a finished floor, and I can move in the basics! I doubt the room will be "pin-worthy" for quite some time, but it will be exciting just to spread out if nothing else.

Pattern Release: The Howard Hoodie!

It's official, I've released my first pattern! I did a sneak peek a couple of weeks ago, sent it off to a couple of test knitters (thanks so much for offering ladies!!), tweaked some of the language, and here it is - the Howard Hoodie!

Here's the "official" blurb about the pattern:

The Howard Hoodie is a hat and scarf all put together into one cute little package. The attached cowl keeps little necks warm, and lays nicely under a coat without adding extra bulk, and can't be easily lost like a separate neckwarmer! The hood is fastened with a button closure, so there are no ties or strings to get tangled. A rolled brim frames cute little faces, and the hat comes to an adorable elfin point.

Pattern is written for sizes 6 months, 1 year, 2-3 years, 4-5 years. Smaller sizes can be knit up in just one skein of worsted weight yarn (about 200 yards), while the 4-5 year old size will either need an additional skein or the addition of a contrasting color. Hat is worked flat and seamed with a 3-needle bind off, and the bottom scarf/cowl is picked up and knit down. Uses US size 8 circular needles (length not critical as hat is not done in the round, 16" is comfortable minimum) with additional US size 8 straight or double point for 3-needle bind off.

 I know it's terrible to think about...but it's officially September now. For those of us in the north, that's back to school time, and the official - unofficial start of fall. And for those of us in the far north, it means (snow) (....that's a whisper, not a suggestion nature!!) could theoretically fall pretty much any second now. Luckily this is a pretty fast knit. It could realistically be done in a week or so, even a weekend if one were so inclined. And IF one WERE so inclined, well, one could find this pattern in my Etsy or Ravelry shops (those with eagle eyes may have noticed that it actually went live yesterday)! Just click on one of those links, and you'll be taken to a page where you can purchase the digital download. I'd love to hear from any of you who decide to knit this what you think of it!

Project page

...or a database if you're feeling extra fancy!

This is a site update that very likely only matters to me, but that's ok. I was listening to an episode of one of my very favorite podcasts last week (Elise Gets Crafty), and she did a whole chat about FOCUS. One of her tips about how to focus if you feel like you have just too many ideas swirling around in your head to focus on any of them is to simply write them down. There's more to the exercise, but basically by giving them a place to live outside your brain, you can clear out some space to think without feeling like you're going to lose all those thoughts by not focusing on them and running through them over and over again.

I'm definitely a proponent of the "write it down" school of thought - I do it at work in a physical notebook (somehow digital task lists don't work for me there), making lists for all the to-do's of the different projects I'm on. My google calendar is my lifeblood - if I haven't written it there (and set alerts for myself!) I'm unlikely to remember that it's happening. I use Goodreads to remember what books I've read....and if I liked them (yep, it's come to that!). I use a physical notebook to organize my personal business ideas, posting schedule, pattern notes, etc.

I love Ravelry for its project page, but it's specific to yarn craft, and, as I mentioned in a comment on my last post, I'm multi-craftual! I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, and sometimes, man, it's just hard to remember where you've been. It's also sometimes hard to remember you're already working on 4 projects when you excitedly start a new one....Plus I've got an inkling that the busy season for my shop is going to creep up on me pretty soon, so I wanted to get organized.

I've divided it up into 3 sections - things I'm working on, things I've finished (and when!), and a very sneaky 3rd category that seems to plague many crafters, things that are thisclose to being done, but still need finishing. For me, I need to sew on the buttons and do an inside ribbon detail on the Nova sweater dress. The poor thing is fully knitted, seamed, and I've even woven in the ends. Then I had to buy the ribbon and it landed in a pile in the closet. So close!

To keep myself on task, I've listed my "in progress" projects in the order in which I'd like to finish them. Sometimes - in the case of gifts or Etsy orders - there are even due dates! Because I plan for this to just be an always updating list, I didn't include photos, but I did link to the projects when I've done posts on them. (I have another page coming next week that WILL have pictures, and I'm pretty excited about it.) I just went back a couple of months for my "finished" objects, but I'm excited to be more on top of it in the future. Nothing is more motivating, for me anyway, than seeing everything I've done all gathered up into a master list!

Quilter?

I'm in need of some new twin bedding in the next couple of months, and I haven't been able to decide what to do. I don't really know what colors I want to do, I don't have a clear vision, but I am running out of time. I have been going back and forth on how I feel about quilts for years. My tastes run decidedly modern, so I suppose it makes sense that much of quilting doesn't really appeal to me. I actually made a quilt in 2011 for our bed, which I seem to have exactly zero pictures of. It's really nothing that spectacular, just 4-8" long strips the length of the bed with straight line quilting.

My very talented cousins made this one for me based on a similar one I'd pinned on Pinterest a few years ago, and it's pretty reflective of my taste - simple and graphic:

Lately I've been feeling a BIT more traditional, but still not "flying geese" traditional. I read several blogs that just make quilting, or rather, living with quilts, seem like something I want.

Alicia from Posie Gets Cozy is probably the largest influencer of my newfound appreciation for a bit more softness and eclecticism. Our styles are almost totally opposite, but she's created such a lovely aesthetic that I'm about ready to ditch my whole house for hers.The entire blog, it's just such eye candy to me.

 I love the casual rumpled throw and cupboard of full of quilts of Amy Badskirt.

Ashley of Film in the Fridge is a really prolific quilter with fairly modern taste which appeals to me.

So when I got my Interweave "Free for All" what did you miss this month email this weekend, well, I was in an impressionable place. I saw these cute little hexagons and thought....that might be just about right.

I followed the links and got the 5" hexagon template from Patchwork Posse on Craftsy (it's free!). I went with the 5" over the seemingly more common 2" because, well, bigger hex's will go faster!

However, I then counterbalanced that bit of sensibility with the decision to piece the quilt top....by hand. Darn you Posie Gets Cozy!! She just makes everything seem so appealing!

Truly though, there are a couple of reasons I decided to do this by hand rather than by machine. As I've mentioned ad nauseum, my sewing room is still under construction. This means that my current sewing room is pretty much filled to the max, and I've lost the urge to keep it fully organized (other than my thread!) knowing that a new room is on the horizon. I also felt like I'd have a little more control over how the "Y" corners meet up. I've been putting an extra couple of stitches at those points to hopefully ensure that they don't open up over time, and it's something I'm not sure I'd do well with the speed of the machine as well as my inexperience at piecing quilts. Finally, since this is something that I think would take a good time investment no matter how I do it, I like the mobility around the house that I have doing it by hand rather than by machine. I can knock out a dress or something in an evening or two - this will definitely take longer. Even though I know it will take LONGER by hand, I like that I can bring it into other rooms or outside for now. And if it gets too fiddly, there's nothing to say I can't do a mix of hand and machine piecing!

My tentative plan is to do white centers and colored "petals." I don't have a specific color scheme throughout, but I have a pile of fabrics I like. I think I'll just make the flowers and then put them together at some point to see how it's shaping up. If it's too much, I can always throw in some solids or neutrals to tone it down.

So. Yeah. It's an experiment.