Wait, are we talking about monkey prostitutes?

Hey guys! How is everyone? I've been trying to blog everyday, or close to it, but the last couple days I didn't get to because we were without internet (can you imagine? No Ravelry? No blogs? I was practically dieing...) So instead of being on the internet all day, every day, I did some crafting. Mostly knitting, granted, but I also had an cool project to do. In other words, this will be a picture heavy post, just to warn you all. Remember the other day, I asked what you could do with two frames, some fabric, and an i-cord? Well, here is part of the answer. (Actually, I did this before I lost the internet, but didn't get to blog about it. He he...) See, I needed a solution to my jewelry problem. Because my Jewelry box, while precious...

Is old and tiny, and full to the brim.

So I checked craftster.com, and foudn some neat ideas, like one person who make an earring tree from a postcard, and someone else who used cds and used a hot needle to poke holes in it. And those ideas, while very cool, weren't right for me. I couldn't see myself hanging a postcard or CDs anywhere. So I came up with my own idea. .

Jewelry Frames

I took these two picture frames I got at wally world, (3 dollars each) and some fabric I got there as well, and some tacky glue, and did this.

Actually, that's just a mess. I did THIS.

That is the earring frame. For this one, I took the glass and the cardboard piece on the back of the frame out, and cut the fabric to fit. I decided that would be too flimsy, so I added a section from the back of a phone book to the back.

I glued them together and then to the inside (not the very back) of the frame, so that there would be room for the backs of the earrings to poke through. Then I just poked my earrings through when the glue was dry, and ta da! The other frame was a little more difficult. I bought a couple packs of these little gold hooks from wally world, and I wanted to screw them into the cardboard backing. Well, this proved WAY too difficult, so I got a nail and a pair of pliers and shoves the nail through, then I screwed the hooks in. Worked much better. Then I screwed them in with the fabric on it, and when they were all in I pulled the fabric as tight as I could and glued it to the back of the cardboard.

Then I put it in the frame. Easy peasy!

I love the way it looks with the necklaces on it.

Tomorrow, we're going to hang them on the wall, and I'll add a finished picture. I didn't do the i-cord thing yet, and I'm not sure I will. I will tell you what i was thinking. I thought about hanging the frames close together, and then somehow attaching an i-cord to each of them, to hang my rings on... but I don't know if I like that idea. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do about my rings?

The Fake Isle Project

Do you guys remember my fake isle hat? Well, I finally decided what to do about the giantness of the hat. I decided to felt it a little bit. So in order to know how it would felt, I knitted a swatch with some leftover sws from my fingerless mitts, and felted it. Scariest thing ever.

But I learned some things from it. For example, I really really really like the way sws looks felted. I don't like the way it feels. It's not soft anymore. I'm thinking about making a felted purse though out of it. Possibly the geranium color. Anyway, when I started to felt it, it was 6.5 inches across (someone please explain how my gauge is, every time, 5 sts per inch, and I cast on 20 stitches, and got a swatch that was 6.5 inches across.) and 6 inches long.

After felting (isn't it pretty???) It was 4.5 inches by 4 inches. It was actually less than four but I stretched it so that it would be more square. This told me that my hat would shrink more lengthwise than width wise, which is perfect because that's what I needed. So, I entered into phase two of the scariest thing ever. I felted the hat. Here it is directly after felting.

You can't really even tell it was felted. It only looks a little tiny bit different. I wanted to go a little farther, but I didn't want it to get stiff, so I stopped. It's almost dry today, but I tried it on anyway, and good news!

(Please ignore the giant bags under my eyes... I'm an insomniac.) It fits perfectly. That picture makes it look a little baggy on the top still, but it's not... It's just the way my hair was fixed lol.

Loksins!

That's right, loksins. I'm actually working on it everyday for a little while. It is the slowest moving sock EVER. I'm on the heel flap now though. (Please try to ignore the fact that this picture is horrible and the sock looks orange. It's not.)

My camera HATES red. Or this sock. Or both. Here's a picture of the detail, which is a little better.

I love the way it looks, but I hate the way this yarn feels. It's all... icky.

In other news (yes, there's still more. Have I lost any of you yet?) I got my yarn from knitpicks, and will be starting my endpaper mitts very very soon.

Buckeye colors! Sorta. They're a little too dark, but I think they'll be ok.

Last but not least, at all, is the baby blanket. Last November, Dave bought me some baby yarn. Well, I finally decided to put it to some use. I'm making the pinwheel baby blanket. I'm using the "blue bon bon" colorway, and it's so pretty! It's blue with a little silver thread woven through. (btw, it's Benat baby coordinates.) I'm using my trusty size 8's, but I'm going to have to get a bigger circular needle... the only one I have is only 16 inches lol. I normally hate acrylic but this... this isn't so bad. I'll probably use it to lay on the floor, or over the carseat, once I have a baby. But anyway, here it is so far.

I LOVE it! Have a good weekend everyone!