Day 29: Try Try Again

Hey Guys! So today I tried something new, and it seemed like a really simple project, but was still something I'd never done before. Basically, I was trying to make a frame for a cork board I bought. (Hopefully I'll get to show you the finished product in a few days, if everything goes well!!) I bought a really basic looking not-that-cute cork board to go up in my office and I was going to frame it with, basically a base board that I picked up at a hardware store, to give it a little more personality and make it look a little bit nicer.

I figured this would be crazy easy. My husband has a saw that cuts on an angle, so I got him to cut the pieces, and then all I had to do was glue them together, and then glue them onto the board! Easy peasy. =)

A LOT OF THE TIME I look up how to do a project and because I fully understand all of the steps and the basic concepts, I figure it's gonna work out like a dream the first time around. This ACTUALLY does not make any sense. If you have never done something before? It's not going to be a familiar action for you, and it will not likely work out like clock work. That being said, if you can get past that, and work through it, you might actually end up with a workable finished product!!

When I was trying to put the pieces together, and they weren't fitting or staying the way I wanted I got super fed up, and said it "wasn't worth it to fight with a $5 piece of base board anyway." Which is really just silly! Yeah, I didn't pay much for the project, but that was kind of the point! I wanted a nice looking cork board without PAYING for a nice looking cork board.

Anyway, we stuck with it (thanks honey!!) and now the pieces are drying in the basement, and (hopefully) tomorrow I'll have a frame that I can paint and turn into a really nice cork board. Much nicer than a pile of supplies sitting in the garbage can outside. I'm hoping I actually do learn from this, and give myself a bit of a break while I try to learn to be a bit more handy. Who knows! Maybe one day I'll actually be doing cool things like re-finishing furniture.

Day 23: Use Your Supplies

Back on Day 17 when I was sorting through and sort of taking stock of all of my knitting supplies I realized that it was almost absurd to have so much yarn. My Husband actually saw me stacking up all the now-neatly-rolled bundles and laughed "you'll never need to buy yarn again!". Problem is, I'm CONSTANTLY tempted to buy more yarn when I'm at the store. So, in order to keep off the Hoarding  show, I decided I wasn't going to buy any more yarn until I used up some of that stash!

I have been looking at knitting a cowl, or infinity scarf, for a really long time. I love how they look and figured they would be pretty wearable. I'm the kind of person who is constantly cold, so it would be nice to have a kind of scarf that I could not only wear under my jacket, but also around the house.

When I was sorting my yarn I noticed that I loved the way that these olive toned green and oatmeal colours go together. I was instantly inspired! I grabbed a pair of circular needles and set to work.

For this project I used:

Around 5mm or 6mm Circular Needles (The Packaging is gone, and it doesn't say anywhere on the needles the exact size, sorry!)

I cast on 135 stitches with the main colour
(you could make it wider by casting on more, or more narrow by casting on less, but for the textured pattern I recommend using an odd number of stitches)

I  used a (British) Moss stitch pattern, or Seed Stitch which just means that you Knit 1 Purl 1 all the way around.
        - Because you used an odd number of stitches you do not need to change anything when you start a new row, you just keep going around with your Knit 1 and Purl 1. The design is created because all of your knits are on top of purls and vice versa.

The way I did my rows was 10 rows of the main colour and 5 of the contrast colour alternating, with a total of 55 rows all together.

I'm really happy with the way the cowl turned out! and I'm also really excited to be knitting again. I already have two more cowl ideas I want to try. It's just really fun, relaxing, and rewarding! As these can be knit up in just a few days even if you don't have a ton of time to commit to them.

Day 9: Finish What You Start

I'm starting to realize that, even if you start a project for fun, if you don't finish it and you kinda just leave it for a really long time? It still nags at the back of your mind, same as if it were for work, or anything else. I guess when I start projects for fun I sort of expect them to take a really really long time, so I end up leaving them unfinished for a while, until I have a huge chunk of time to work on them.

One project that I started recently was that I decided to make new throw pillows for my couches. When my husband and I got married and moved into our new house we didn't really have a lot of furniture so most of what we have was given to us by family members who no longer needed those pieces anymore. I really like all of the furniture we have been given, which is pretty lucky, but I don't really feel like I had a big part in designing what my living room especially looks like at all. Making the throw pillows was kind of a way to put my own touch on the living room, and it also sounded like a really fun DIY!

My couches are like an eggplant/plum purple colour, so I tried to find a good colour to go with that, and I really liked like a light yellow or goldenrod kind of colour. I went down to the fabric store and found this amazing fabric on sale! I think this pattern is called "Queen Anne's Lace" and I just love it!

I decided to give up on finding a 'big chunk of time' for making the pillows, and just sort of worked on them today whenever I had more than 10 minutes. I got most of the pieces cut out and pinned for all of the pillows and now I'm just going to sew them together in the morning! I'm really excited to get them on the couches.

I got one of the pillows finished and I couldn't help but put it on the couch to see how it looked. The two pillows on the left are the ones that came with the couches, and then I switched out the ones on the right for the new pillow. I really like how it looks! It was a pretty inexpensive way to kind of update the look of the couches.

I'm really surprised too at how much I was able to get done today just by working here and there when I had a minute, like, while I waited for supper to finish baking and such. I think I'm going to try to remember that I generally have more time than I think.