A New Start

Hey guys. It's pretty much been almost a year since I updated this blog. I'm going to be completely honest and tell you that my last semester was really just way to hard on me. I lost interest in the things I loved and became too engulfed in my work. Now that things are back on track I'm really starting to gain motivation to share the things I make with people. So let's go over some of what I've done and some of my goals for 2012

Finished

• my first sweater! *squee!*
• multiple hats
• A cool scarf (picture below)

Goals

• A blanket. Preferably, the famed beekeeper's quilt
• Another sweater
• A charted pattern of my own
• More Cowls! 

Seriously, I'm obsessed with cowls. They're such a quick knit and they always turn out so beautiful. More on that later. For now, I leave you with my awesome scarf.

Some week in review

Spring break is over and it's back to school. I spent most of my time just sitting on the couch doing nothing, but in between that time, I got some crafting into the way. Life of course, got in the ways of my endeavors in crafting and I only really tried two of the ideas from the book. Lets start with the plates.
Because I'm adventurous, I decided to do a bowl while my sister and mom both did plates.

The idea is to spray paint a lace pattern onto the glass plate or substitute then spray a contrasting color to make the pattern stand out.

First step is to spray adhesive the lace to the glass.

You're suppose to you the krylon brand adhesive, but we had a different brand...that apparently wasn't suppose to be used on glass. Oops.

It kinda took some of the paint with it when we tried to take off the lace.

mine

my sister

moms

you live you learn when it comes to mixing different brands of spray paints. Of course, mom's did turn out the best with little botching in one area.

sister's

Mine

mom's

overall, a great idea, but didn't really work. It wasn't just the glue's fault, the paint ran and bled together so the patter was really botched on mine. Also, we worked with the right clear top coat spray and still, the plates were sticky and smelled like heavy duty chemicals on the bottom. Fail.

I also got to work on my decoupaging of one of my dad's handcut table tops. I decided harry potter themed. So we got some old paperback books and went to town.

Idea

Finished with a layer of varnish.

I really lied this idea and loved how it turned out. Again, instead of using the book recomended polyurethane, we used a lacquer based varnish, giving it an amber glaze over top of the words and pictures. I really liked the effect.

Of course, I knitted. Finished the legwarmers! and I didn't like how they looked on me : /

So I gave them to my sister

footloose and fancy free!

Till next time!

What to Expect

I would like to be doing this again please.

You'd think the week before spring break would be the easiest of my life, being that there's no orchestra rehearsals to attend and my english class is cancelled for the week, but you'd be wrong. I've spent my three last afternoon either working on homework for my core frustration classes (sight-singing/theory) or working on re-writes of this research paper that I've come to affectionately loath. I've had no time this week for any kind of knitting...yet. But I'm sure another post will follow this sometime for I am almost finished with my lovely leg-warmers. I digress. On to the main point.
Due to spring break, all the dorms on campus are closing, joy. Despite this putting a serious dent in my little practice time I have with accompanist, I'm going home and I'm excited. I've made a plan with my mom and have decided this:

For the next week that I have off, we will be crafting one craft from the big ol' book of crafts that was purchased for me and I have yet to use. I'm so excited for this project because it's my dream to decoupage something. My father has been working on a table that he's designed himself. They're pretty spiffy and I'm dying to add something wonderful to them. So starting Monday or Tuesday afternoon, expect very awesomely vividly detailed posts about the project I've picked out the night before. I'll let you know if their even worth the effort, how mine turned out (I'm not the best crafter), how my mom's turned out (she is the best crafter) and so on.

So if crafting is the big thing that your into and you've always been debating on this book, then let the reading begin! Maybe it can help you figure out if it's really worth it, or not. I've heard mix reviews. As always, I'll also be knitting (I have a lot of free time in my future). Looking forward to the hodge-podge.