Sewing Mittens and a Hat from a Thrifted Sweater

My first crafting hobby, at least of my adult life, was knitting. I taught myself how to knit in 2005. I have continued to knit and have become quite good. Knitting is relaxing, portable, and thoroughly rewarding to figure out. But ....

I have a new crafting love. Sewing. I bought a sewing machine last September (2011) and quickly fell in love with the speed with which you can create a project. A baby blanket, which was a month long endeavor on knitting needles can be a three hour project with a sewing machine! I've been hooked ever since.

So, when I came across this post from A Beautiful Mess about sewing with knit fabric I was intrigued but equally scared. As a knitter, the idea of cutting a knit sweater was terrifying! I filed the idea into the back of my mind in case the perfect sweater happened across my path.

$7 sweater from the thrift store

Well, today it did! I found this beautiful red intarsia sweater for $7 at the Salvation Army. It is a men's large so there is quite a lot of fabric to work with. I decided that I would try to make a mitten using the two sleeve cuffs as the mitten cuffs and a hat from the waistband area.

Mittens pinned.

No going back after this!

I followed A Beautiful Mess's advice and increased my stitch length to 3.5. The mittens went fairly smoothly, but the hat caused a bit of trouble. I decided to fold the waistband/hat cuff over and on my first attempt I sewed around the entire hat while it was inside out. When I flipped the hat to the right side and folded the brim up, the seams were on the outside. I ripped the seams and re-sewed the top of the hat (it really didn't fit correctly the first time) and the brim seams on the right side. It all turned out great the second time!

Success! Mittens!

And a hat!

Now, if the weather would get cold enough to warrant wearing hats and mittens!

No or Wrong?

We've been attending "Basic Respect" classes with both dogs for the last three weeks. They encourage us to distinguish between wrong choices the dogs make, which get corrected with a conversational "wrong," and behaviors that threaten the safety of themselves or others, which get corrected with an authoritative "no."

For the most part, our corrections are "wrong," except when Maeby decides to charge into the street to attack a bus, truck or bicycle. But after the muddy day we had yesterday, when I saw Maeby playing in the planter AGAIN this morning, I definitely used a "No!" And then I heard her playing with something that did not sound like a toy and I found her with my chocolate brown heel. Sigh. Wrong or no? I suppose there are those women in the world whose dog's safety would have been at risk for doing that to the toe of their shoe. Shoes aren't REALLY my thing, but I did like this pair, and I don't have very many fancy heel shoes. But I guess it was my fault for not paying attention.

When Rainy Days Turn Muddy

Please, I've been cooped up inside all day ....

Oh, this is why you didn't want to let me out? It's why I wanted to go out ....

I'm very sorry. Please don't use the hose ....

Rainy Days

I'm working from home today and have been in my "home office" (the dining room table) since just after 8. I really enjoy working from home. My wardrobe requires less thinking (woolly socks or fuzzy slippers?) and most importantly I don't waste two hours of my life commuting.

What's entertaining me this morning are the pooches. Does anyone else refer to their dogs as pooches? Or poochies? No? Just me and Mr. Eucalyptus Tree? Well, if you met them you might feel the urge to call them pooches or poochies too. Anyway, one of our sweet pooches, Max, is still upstairs in bed. He got up to eat at 7 (he's a beagle-mutt - skipping a meal is out of the question), but immediately after eating he crawled back into bed and hasn't moved since then. I can hear him snoring from our dining room. Our other poochie, a sweet 9 month old yellow lab mix (we call her a pygmy lab, because she looks just like a full grown lab but in miniature size), has been wandering around quietly entertaining herself while I work.

Who could ask for better office mates?