Young@Heart

I admit that I was initially drawn to this film after seeing the cover art on Netflix. Knitting and guitar all in one...yes, please!
 

This was one of the most delightful, sweet and touching documentaries I have seen in a long time. I was laughing and crying throughout the entire film. I highly recommend this! I definitely want to make sure that I stay active and have a great support network like this when I'm older.

Toronto...

Jon and I are supposed to be planning a trip to Toronto, so I wanted to enlist your help....

Do you have any suggestions for places to stay, things to do, food to eat? I've never been before, but Jon has and he vaguely remembers visiting a flea market and Chinatown.

We're planning a weekend away for our 4th wedding anniversary and continuing the tradition of going to Canada to celebrate.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you might be able to offer!

putting idea books to use: giveaway winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing this week! Here are the projects that you all put together. I love seeing them here and knowing that we all are getting some value out of the books we've been collecting!

Because lots of you expressed disappointment in not getting projects complete in time, I'm thinking about making this an ongoing thing. One month didn't seem like enough time last month, so let's say that the next challenge "check in" will be on April 21.
 
And, without further ado. the winner is Sam from sunnysidey!

Sam, please email me your address and I'll mail the Everything Tote and some other goodies out to you tomorrow. Thank you all for entering!

putting idea books to use: my projects

Because I didn't get around to posting the details of the projects that I made for the challenge earlier this week, here they are...

I focused on using the Weekend Sewing Book and made the Weekend Away Bag and the Everything Tote. (I'm just going to do you all a little favor and link to the errata for the book right away).



This is my first attempt at a lined zippered bag. I really like the fabric and zipper color that I used, but I was just not a big fan of the design of the pattern. All of the other projects online made with this pattern turned out great, so it's probably just a user error on my part (sewing from patterns has not been so good for me lately with everything else I have on my plate).

After being defeated by this pattern, I sought out a different zippered bag tutorial to follow and came across this genius tutorial at Flossie Teacakes.

I managed to mess up this bag by not trimming the corners around the zipper. The corners aren't square on the final project and I didn't want to undo the bag and start over. (It was at this point that I swore off all sewing for good and took a nice long break from my machine!). At least the fabric is fun, right?


So, after switching to knitting for a while to find comfort in a stress free and stress relieving hobby (for me at least), I finally made my way back to my sewing machine to make the Weekend Away Bag for the giveaway. The most glaring error on this pattern was that you need 1 yard each for the outside and lining (not 1/2 yard as the book states). Luckily, I had plenty of extra fabric on hand and I avoided a tragedy!

The instructions for this pattern were fairly thorough, but I relied on this tutorial for a bias tape tote to attach the handles and finish off the bag. Both bags are very similar, but the Everything Tote is just a million times bigger.

Basically, the Weekend Sewing book is total eye candy, especially because it uses so many of Heather Ross' fabrics in the projects, but the directions for the projects could stand to be a bit more clear and accurate.

putting idea books to use: your projects

It's been a month since I posted about the "putting idea books to use" challenge. Lots of you have joined in and posted some beautiful pictures of your projects to the flickr group. Thanks so much for participating with me! The group on flickr will continue to be open because there are lots more projects and lots more project books out there waiting to be used.


I'll be posting the projects that I made with my idea books later on this week, but in the meantime, go ahead an link up your projects in the widget below. Make sure that your flickr link or blog link includes the name of the book and project that you used.

I'll select a winner at random to win the above tote bag, made from Weekend Sewing, and I'll also include some yarn or fabric and other goodies based on the winner's crafting interests. I'll leave the drawing open until Friday at 3:00PM EST so that everyone gets a chance to enter (and finish up those last minute projects).

knitting projects & the Ravelympics

Saying that I fell off the wagon in the yarn buying department lately is a major understatement! But, I have been busy knitting up my purchases lately and making a dent in my stash.

I have been slightly obsessed with hot water bottles lately. They seem like a great alternative to heating pads because they are inexpensive and don't require electricity. I knit this up with a few leftover balls of The Plucky Knitter Worsted Merino Singly Ply and had fun playing around with stripes. Now I'm just waiting to get cramps or a muscle ache so I can try out its healing powers :). In the meantime, I'm using it to warm up my feet at night in bed. Here's a link to the pattern that I found via flickr: Green Olives Designs Hot Water Bottle Cover and my ravelry project link: craftr's Hot Water Bottle Cozy.


--

My sister and I visited a local yarn shop (her second trip to a yarn store with me) and she was totally in love with all of the bright colors. I even caught her looking over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching her before she leaned down to smell the yarn. I think that she is slowly becoming a convert to knitting and yarn buying. She picked up two balls of yarn to make a scarf and I came away with these two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd's Worsted. I couldn't pick out my favorite color, so I bought both.




I cast on immediately for the Darkside Cowl (rav link) and finished it up in two days because it was so much fun to knit with and the pattern was fun to follow. Here are the details on ravelry: craftr's Darkside Cowl.

--

I bought this yarn, Plymouth Trabajos del Peru, after I saw a sample of these handwarmers knit up at
a local yarn shop (samples do help drive sales!). These were a quick knit and the yarn is so soft and great to knit. Here are the details on Ravelry: craftr's Ribbed Handwarmers


---


I've taken the plunge and joined the Manic Purl Podcast Ravelympic group on Ravelry for the 2010 Ravelympics. I'll be casting on tonight during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for the Helleborous Yoke Cardigan from the new Knitscene Magazine. If everything goes according to plan, I'll have knitted a complete sweater once the Olympics are over on February 28. Wish me luck! It's not too late to join a Ravelympic team if you want to jump on the bandwagon.

Congratulations!

The winner of the Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Giveaway is:
 
That's Angela of My Three Sons
 
Please email me your mailing address and I'll mail your package out on Saturday!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

And, a reminder to you all that Monday is the last (official) day of the Putting Idea Books to Use Challenge. On Monday I'll have a post for you to link up the projects you've made from your idea books and I'll select another winner for a handmade prize! Check out this post for more information.
I've got a couple of projects from idea books that I'll be posting this weekend and I hope to continue using my idea book collection throughout the year.