birthdays and needles
Friday was my dad's birthday and I wanted to gift him with handmade stuff like I have everyone else this year.
He's really in to wild west type stuff, the Buckskinners, mountain men, etc. He's been talking about wanting an old looking shirt...no, not like a threadworn plaid number, like a historic type thing.
I did a buttload of searching and though I didn't find a pattern online, I did find some pictures and I just designed off the cuff. This is the finished result:
Isn't that a great picture? He's holding his black powder rifle and damn was he proud!
Here's another, just because:
Whenever I sew without measuring, without a pattern, without a set in stone idea, I get nervous. I actually sweat and am anxiety ridden at the idea of screwing it up. My fears were unfounded this time around though because it turned out as perfect as I could have hoped, and dad raved. He loved it.
I also wanted to make him a "possibles bag". It's basically just a pouch. I beaded a kokopelli on aida cloth and then sewed it to a leather yellow canvas, lined it with muslin and put a belt loop and a closure on it.
I can't even describe how good it makes me feel to know that the gifts I slave over are actually appreciated. Dad put his shirt on as soon as he opened it and didn't take it off the entire time we were there.
I haven't used my sewing machine in almost a year because I've been too intent on crochet and knit. It's good to know that I can still accomplish something without a hook or set of needles!
But...
I have been doing knit/crochet related things.
I went to Wal-mart last night and bought dowels and made my own knitting needles. It was really easy to do, but time consuming. Considering that it only cost me about $6.00 or so to make 4 sets of wooden needles, I can deal with the few hours it took me to make them.
And a close up of the tops:
I had fun making them, and I used a few different things for the tops. I used pewter buttons for the smallest set (size 8), for the size 10.5's I used 3 beads, starting with the largest and ending with a seed bead, and I used giant thumb tacks for the two bigger sizes (11's and 14's).
One of the sites I looked at for instruction suggested that you rub the sanded needles with wax paper and then buff them to smooth them and give them a nice finish. Since I didn't have wax paper, I used a votive candle in my favorite scent and then buffed the hell outta them. Not only do they smell delicious, but they're smooth and I'm betting that yarn will slide much better on them.
Very nifty experience. I'm hoping to be able to find more dowels in different sizes at a hardware store so I can make more.
I'm off to look for a baby blanket pattern for my cat Gutter. He's always stealing my yarn projects to sleep on and I want to make him one of his own. I was going to do the cat bed in the Stitch & Bitch handbook, but I'm not really liking all the fun fur that's on it.
Don't forget that all images are clickable thumbnails...click 'em, you can see the details. Later :)
