#2017goals

As June comes to a close, so does the first half of 2017.

My big goal this year was to find more time for self-care, which for me means time to be creative and work on my hobbies.  At this point I have finished nine sewing and knitting projects, given my bedroom a makeover, enjoyed a 'paint and sip' night, and worked on my garden.  It feels great to have accomplished so many things over the last few months!

As a busy mom of a baby and toddler the days often feel long and the weeks short.  So many weeks I feel like I get nothing accomplished.  Having these little fruits of my creative labours around the house remind me that I am finding time for me here and there, even if it's a bit slow going.  I'm sure the second half of this year won't be quite as accomplished with heading back to work, but I do have a few project ideas that I want to work on yet.

Here's a rundown on my 2017 projects:

Top Row:
Little Brother's Romper
Seed Stitch Wrap
Calendar Tea Towel

Middle Row:
SeeKateSew Doll
Gradient Cowl Scarf
'One Hour' Hexagon Quilt

Bottom Row:
Like Sleeves for Baby
'One Hour' Triangle Quilt
Moda Love Charm Quilt top

A long time goal of mine has been to learn to quilt.  I got my hands 'wet' with the two cheater quilts I made for the kids, and then decided it was time to try a real quilt top with piecing.  I found a pretty charm pack at my local quilt shop (Moda's Desert Bloom) and the free pattern for the Moda Love Quilt in the charm size.  I enjoyed learning how to make half-square triangles and playing with the fabric placements until I liked the look.  Sewing the pieces together was definitely challenging!  Up close I can see all the places where my squares and points don't line up perfectly, but from far away you can't really tell, ha!  Next up is to layer, quilt and bind this piece of art for my wall!  Binding will be another new skill to learn, so I look forward to the practice!

Rainy Weekends

Rainy long weekends aren't always the best, but this weekend I was able to finish TWO craft projects, both for Maris!

The first was a 'cheater quilt' project that I sewed.  It was supposed to be one of those 'one-hour quilts' that I have seen on Pinterest a lot, but it ended up taking me a full week to complete.  I'm not the quickest sewer, and I get pulled away from the task a lot from the children.  I've always wanted to get into quilting, so this was a great starter project to practice the quilting portion of the trade!

I followed the One Hour Hexagon Quilt tutorial from See Kate Sew and ordered the hexagon fabric from her shop on Spoonflower.  I chose a complimentary fabric for the backing.

I LOVE how this quilt turned out, and Maris loves it too!  Ari wants me to make him a quilt now, so I ordered a more boyish triangle cheater quilt fabric for him with trucks for the back.  I also want to try making a real pieced together quilt for myself yet too!

The second project I finished was the Like Sleeves for Babies knit sweater.  This was actually a fairly quick knit, however, it took me awhile to finish because I don't have as much time to work on these projects as I used to.  I love the yarn I chose for this, 'Night Bloom' by Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light.  It reminds me of an orchid.  It will be a nice sleeveless sweater for summer, and, if it still fits, will be perfect for layering in the fall!

It always feels great to finish a project, and even more great to get two done in one weekend!  I can't wait for Ari's fabric to arrive to get started on the next blanket!  As for knitting, I want to make a pair of mittens for myself next, but, I'm not in a hurry to get them started.

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Another Finished Project!

2017 is shaping out to be a great year for knitting and sewing projects!  I just finished making the gradient cowl scarf from Purl Soho.  This project had been sitting in my knitting box waiting for me to finish the colour block wrap for a looong time, but, having finished that project in early February I was able to finally start this one!  This one was fairly quick to complete (about four weeks of knitting here and there) and I LOVE the colour way in this pattern -- it matches my winter coat perfectly!

I actually ended up having a lot of yarn left over from this project, so I think I will work on making a pair of mittens with it yet.

My next project to make is the one-hour hexagon quilt from See Kate Sew.  I have all my supplies ready to go!  I'm looking forward to baby-stepping my way into some quilting!

The One I Thought I'd Never Finish

I am VERY excited to share that this knitting project is finally completed!  I started knitting this seed stitch wrap from Purl Soho in November 2014.  Two years and a couple months later, here we are.  I kind of lost interest in this project about halfway through and didn't pick it up for more than a year...but some New Year's motivation pushed me to charge through the project so that I can move onto the next one.

(Above image/Purl Soho)
The wrap is meant to be worn as a scarf, but I feel that for its size (22" by 80") I will rather use it as a pretty lap blanket in the house.

I am already busy rolling yarn into balls for my next project, the gradient cowl, also from Purl Soho.  It's refreshing to be beginning a new project!

I Can Still Knit

It's been 1.5 years since my last knitting project.  That's a long time, considering I had an Etsy shop devoted to selling my knitting not that long ago.  What happened?  Babies.  It's interesting how your hands are suddenly never free to pick up the needles.

Maris is turning six months old in a couple of days and I was thinking of what she would wear for her milestone photos.  Being January and cold, I thought a knit romper with tights would be adorable.  I found so many pretty ones for sale through other shops, but the prices were quite steep and I wouldn't have been able to have it shipped in time anyway.  So, to solve my problem, I decided that I would have to knit it myself.  I found the Little Brother's Romper pattern from Petite Knit and started away.  It was so therapeutic to clack away on my needles at every spare moment.  The pattern was easy to follow and finished up quickly.  I'm so motivated now to work on other knitting projects!  This felt so good that I think my 2017 goals are to spend more time working on my passions.  Devoting all my time to my babies has taken me away from me, so this year I'm going to spend more time on ME.