52 craft projects // knitting needle protector case

Guess what?




I got my knitting bag back!!! Yepp, a very nice person tied it around a street light just a couple of meters away from the bar we were at. A needle was gone (including the metal part of the cable it was attached to), my point protectors are gone and about half of the stitches were off the needle/cable. But nothing that can't be fixed!

I borrowed a cable and needle from my mom so my knitting is as good as new. Except for the point protectors that kept the stitches from sliding off the needle. Since there isn't a LYS around that carries clover knitting accessories I browsed the internet for DIY ideas and came upon the needle nooks by slipped stitch studios. Basically it's just a pouch that is closed with some snaps to keep the needles in place. Easy peasy, right?

I used a Kaffe Fassett fabric that a very nice friend gave me and some stenzo polka dot fabric for the lining. The interfacing is very thick (and fusible! :) ) to protect the needles. I made two 'nooks' - one for large needles that's about 9 inches wide (the one pictured above) and a 7" one for smaller needles and circulars. The bigger one also holds circular needles but it's much bigger than the other one. I'll switch to the smaller knitting needle protector case once I finished it(only the top stitching is left to do but I ran out of time the other day and didn't have the motivation to turn on my sewing machine for just one seam...). The snaps are kam snaps; getting the pliers was the best decision. They're so easy to use and the colors... swoon!

There's a video on how to use the needle protector case thingy with circular needles. It's not quite as fast and convenient as the point protectors I had before but it gets the job done and it was a quick and fun project. In Germany, all shops are closed on Sundays so if I had bought them online I would've had to wait until Wednesday or even Thursday. Leaving my knitting at home after three painful days of separation? No way.
This is project #13 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013.
You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

a sad story

The summer term started almost three weeks ago and pretty much all the classes I'm taking this term seem to be very time consuming. But having classes from the early morning till the evening is pretty rad because it means lots of knitting time! (Also lots of walking across the campus and thinking 'I need to bring my big camera' whenever I see all the gorgeous trees. I still haven't gotten around to taking proper pictures so I snapped some with my cell phone the other day. I'm so happy it's finally spring over here!)
Yep, I'm one of those annoying knitting in class advocates ;)
So well I've been knitting the still light tunic and it's knitting up much quicker than I had expected. I took this picture two weeks ago after 3 days of knitting. Not bad considering it's knitted with a small needles and thin yarn, right?

(I got much more likes and comments on this picture than usual on instagram - maybe I should show bare skin more often? haha)

Add a short knitting break while I was studying for an exam and one week of intense in class knitting and I was just two rows away from dividing stitches for the pockets. Which basically means I was done with 3/4 of the body. Then I had a social club meeting (during which I knitted of course) and we went to a bar afterwards. Unfortunately, my knitting project bag didn't make it home afterwards.
I suspect that it must have fallen out of my bike basket on the way home because it wasn't found at the bar. Five skeins of gorgeous alpaca yarn, my bag with my scissors, spare needles, crochet hooks, my row counter, my cute handmade knitting bags... all gone. Not to mention Two weeks worth of knitting.

When I realized it was gone the next morning I was hoping that I had forgotten it at the bar or one of my friends found it and took it home. But so far, nothing. I rode the streets like 10 times, hoping I had dropped it and someone had put it on the sidewalk or something but apparently it's just... gone?

The guy at the lost and found bureau told me to call again next week but I don't think it'll show up again. As you can imagine, my motivation to start something new is pretty much non-existent and I'll need a couple more days to 'grieve' for my knitting bag. So please excuse the non-creative blog content for the next couple of days.

To cheer us all up, here's a short Lina story:
My parents have this really ugly 'Jägermeister' reusable bag that magically appeared in their house one day. Nobody admits to having brought it into the household but just getting rid off it wouldn't be ecologically correct either, so it gets some use occasionally. The other day I collected all my flats and flip flops that were still at my parents' house and the Jägermeister bag was the closest one so I grabbed it. The minute I got home and unpacked my shoes Lina jumped into the bag and whenever I try to take it away from her she gets mad at me and give me the look.
Jägermeister means 'master of hunting' which is pretty ironic considering Lina has been an indoor cat for her whole life and hasn't even managed to catch a spider (at least not since she moved in with me...). Isn't the master of hunting adorable? hehe.

52 craft projects // pencil case

The other day I found myself sitting in a rather boring logistics class and noticed a cute, handmade pencil pouch a girl had. I made a mental note to sew one because the one I've had since high school is rather small (as in three pens and one highlighter and it won't close properly anymore). So today after trying to study for like an hour I decided to take a break and do something useful instead of just reading the same page over and over again without actually remembering anything.

I used my current favorite echino fabric (again.) and the 1€ ikea fabric for the lining. I don't have much fusible interfacing left (that stuff is hard to get in Germany... sad face) so I used some 'conventional' interfacing. It's rather thick and I was worried I'd have to quilt it to keep it from crumbling but just sewing it to the outer fabric worked fine, although it kept stretching and moving in all directions. Learning how to sew bags with fusible interfacing really spoiled me.

The zipper is from a big bag full of recycled zippers that I got at a flea market last year for 2€. It looks super sturdy and the color is awesome.

I made it big enough for my calculator, ruler and pens and highlighters. Not having to empty my entire bag in every class to search my calculator will save tons of time. The calculator seems to always end up being stuck at the bottom of my bag underneath books and binders. I guess the calculator is happy to finally have a home in my bag ;)



This is project #12 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013.
You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

Damp

This is just a quick 'in between classes' post. Here are some pictures I took during our short trip to Damp - a tiny village by the Baltic sea. There are two things in Damp: a rehabilitation center and hundreds of vacation homes that look alike and were built in the 70s and 80s. We spent three days up there visiting my dad. He's doing really great after his hip replacement surgery but giving him his camera wasn't a very good idea. He tends to do funny poses to get great shots - not a very good idea if you're using crutches and you're not supposed to do awkward poses.

On my birthday I went to Flensburg with my sister and mom to go yarn shopping! Can you imagine a better activity for birthday?! Here's what I got:

Drops Alpaca yarn for the still light tunic I've been wanting to knit forever. I casted it on a couple days ago and it knits up great! Easy pattern (I wasn't too sure if I'd like it because I wasn't too happy with Veera's instructions for the color affection shawl but so far I really like it!) and lovely yarn - as always. You seriously can't go wrong with drops alpaca!! I wanted to get a light gray color but the yarn store didn't have ten skeins of gray so I went with this gorgeous color. I'll share an update as soon as I have more than a couple of rows to show ;)

This yarn is actually more of a raspberry color - my favorite!!
I wanna make a long cardigan with some lace details. I didn't find a pattern I liked so I'm going to design my own cardigan! So excited!!!
But first I have to finish the tunic / dress....
I couldn't pass this yarn either... I wanna make the olive sweater by Helga Isager but $8 is rather pricy for a sweater pattern... maybe I'll try to improvise?

Last but not least:
a kitty picture to brighten up your day :)

twenty two

Yesterday was my twenty second birthday. I spent the weekend by the sea with my family without internet so this post is one day 'late'. Compared to last year, when I made a fancy sign and took a self portrait, this picture is pretty minimalistic. But hey, I was at the beach so how could I resist using shells to write my age?

Just to have some consistency in my birthday pictures I also had my mom take a picture of me with the 22. Take a peek here.

I'll post some more pictures of our trip to the sea (and new yarn goodness!!!) soon - after I've unpacked and had a chance to take some pictures. I'm so grateful for daylight saving time which means there'll still be natural light when I get home in the evening. And hopefully some more sunny days than in the past months.

around here

The other day I started some spring cleaning in my kitchen. I didn't take any pictures yet but my kitchen shelf is super clean and organized now. I bought some ikea food containers when we were at the h+h to store expensive yarns (I don't want any moths among my fibers...) but as I was reorganizing my baking ingredients they came in pretty handy to store nuts and cupcake decorations etc. Guess I'll have to buy some more containers for my yarn next time I'm at ikea.

During the spring cleaning I found three opened packages of walnuts. Whoops, I didn't know I have that many! Naturally I wanted to get rid off the two halfway empty bags so I decided to make walnut bread!
I didn't find any recipe that matched the ingredients I had at hand (it was about 9:30pm and I had no desire to leave my warm and cozy apartment just to get some walnut oil) so I had to improvise.
I ended up using four different kinds of (mostly whole wheat) flour (all aaaalmost empty bags!), dry yeast, water and oil, some salt and many chopped walnuts. I just mixed all the ingredients together and added olive oil until the dough felt right. I might buy walnut oil to taste the difference but the result with olive oil was pretty damn good, too!

Next time I make it I'm gonna write down the ingredients I used and put it into my 'approved recipes' book. I love baking bread and finding new recipes/combinations that work is so much fun!

Besides my bread baking adventures I don't have much to share. I'm working on a big and exciting project that is taking up much of my time and energy but it's probably gonna be a couple weeks before I can share the exciting news. Spring has finally arrived in my bedroom; the orchid I bought when it was pretty much dead started to bloom in my favorite shade of pink.

My kitty wasn't very convinced when I started exchanging my winter clothes for summer clothes. She prefers using the opportunity to sleep in my closet instead. Well I guess she's right and I can wait a little longer... if you follow me on instagram (@froggeddesigns) you might have seen that the clothes to yarn + fabrics ratio in my closet is almost 1:1. Luckily there's a lot more space in my yarn boxes now than it was last year. But I'm looking for projects to use up some of my worsted weight leftovers. Any pattern recommendations?

Baking Bunnies

Well before you're shocked. Nope, I did not bake/cook any bunnies and I'm still a vegetarian. But my mom gave me the cutest Easter presents to date: baking bunnies pot holders and a baking supplies dish towel!


Aren't they just the cutest? I love those big ears and bellies and aprons and just about everything about the bunnies! The first pot holder has 'baking days' and the second one 'bunny' quilted next to the bunny.   I love little details like that! Especially because every stripe is quilted differently.

I also got this rad dish towel. It has green and orange stand mixers and baking supplies on it!! Not to mention that the color is made for my kitchen.

There's nothing better than handmade presents! We kids used to get some chocolate from my uncles and grandparents but I can't remember a year we didn't get useful (and zero calorie!) presents from my parents.

I'm off to spend another day studying. Finals two days after Easter aren't my favorite. I'd rather spend the day with my family out in the sunshine but instead I'm stuck at home with my books and calculator. Oh well, at least my finals will be over soon and then I'll get to enjoy a relatively stress-free spring (as soon as the snow melts...) :)