Newly Opened Etsy Shop!

I've been on a major crafting roll lately, so I decided to open up an Etsy shop. HERE Sean helped me come up with the name "To Boldly Craft" since I have also been inspired by Princess Awesome and other crafters who make fantastically nerdy things for girls, for all kids, and for adults.

I have both this sweater and this hat listed right now

I imagine it will be fairly eclectic as my listings grow, as I love trying out new techniques all the time. But right now it has a number of knitted baby projects, since that's been my main stress buster lately. I've also made up some pot holders using leftover fabric from Sean's Dalek Dice Bag, and those amazing rocket ship baby gifts from last summer. Because everyone needs a little space nerd in the kitchen, right?

I'll still post some of my crafts here, and I promise not to post links to the shop too often, since that isn't what this blog is about. But I'm excited to be able to (hopefully) continuously fund my crafty hobby!

Grey and Black Baby Hat

I've held off on sharing this little project because it was a gift, but now that it's been given to the new parents I can share this cute grey and black baby hat!

I had some odd amounts of grey and black yarn in my stash, and I've discovered that baby projects are the best way to use up those small leftovers! I borrowed the book 60 Quick Baby Knits from the library, and used one of the patterns to make this hat. It's made from yarn that I'm 90% sure is wool, though I lost the wrapper to it ages ago.

This is actually my first project doing circular knitting. My awesome in-laws got me a nice new set of knitting needles for Chanukah, so I've been experimenting with trying out new techniques. I'm a little hooked on circular knitting though, so there will likely be more little hats in my future!

Quick Knitted Ear Warmer

This winter has been rather snowy here! On one of our snowy afternoons, I whipped up this quick knitted ear warmer using some leftover chenille yarn. I found this pattern, which I mostly followed. Since my chenille yarn was thicker than the yarn used in the pattern, I cast on as if I was doing the kid size, but did the length about halfway between kid and adult size since my head runs on the small size. I think I actually could have made it even shorter. If you try the pattern, I recommend measuring often!

Since I have some leftover chenille in grey I may try the pattern again and make it smaller to see if that fits me better. I do like the ear warmer for days when I don't want a full hat but need something to keep the chill off my ears when I go for a walk!

Dalek Dice Bag

Yikes, a month since my last post! That's what theater does to me, but I wouldn't change it for the world! I have a few recent projects that I'll be sharing over the next couple of days. The first is this dice bag.

Sean recently started playing D&D with our friends, so of course he had to get his own set of dice. And when you have dice, you need a dice bag. One of our friends gave me this pattern that she adapted to make dice bags for both herself and her husband. The original pattern is for a travel jewelry bag, and it has 8 interior pockets. My friend eliminated the interior pockets completely, but when Sean saw the pockets he thought it might be nice to have a few so I changed the pattern to have 4 little pockets rather than the original 8.

Sean's very happy with the results!

 the completed dice bag

Daleks on the outside with navy thread

The pattern was very simple to follow. It tells you to print out 4 copies and tape them together, but I only printed 2 and then folded the fabric, placing the center line of the circle along the fold.

stars inside with yellow thread

For the pockets, I only had to make a half circle instead of the full circle in the original pattern.

I used a black satin cord, and knotted on some blue plastic beads that I had in my bead stash.

This was a really simple project that I was able to finish in only a couple of hours. Now that I have the pattern, I might make one for myself for jewelry travel like the pattern was designed for! The only problem is that I probably shouldn't use Daleks or I might end up with dice instead of earrings by accident -- or Sean could show up to D&D night with the wrong bag! Hmmm...I guess this calls for a trip to the fabric store to find some more awesome fabric!

Knitted Baby Blanket

One of my BFFs from childhood (we can never remember exactly when we met, we've been like sisters for that long!) recently had an adorable baby boy. When she got pregnant, I started knitting this blanket, but as always I underestimated how long it would take me to finish the project and baby was born before I was done. BUT I finally had it done in time to meet him for the first time, so I think it's still a win! Here's the finished product:

The pattern is from Bernat, the "Knit Blanket" you'll find on their Baby Coordinates yarn. It was a fairly simple repeating pattern, and I made it a little different by using two colors of yarn in varying stripe widths rather than single color like it was in the pattern. It's a bigger baby blanket, so baby will be able to use it well into childhood.

Since this project was so big, I'm not doing as many handmade holiday gifts as I often do. What handmade gifts are you working on now?

Rocket Ship Baby Gifts

Last weekend I went to a friend's baby shower. Since both she and her husband are aerospace engineers, when I found this adorable rocket ship fabric I knew I had to make something special for their baby with it! Here are all of the baby items I made with it:

The trickiest was the bib, since I made that from scratch, while the other gifts were just embellished. I used the rocket ship fabric for the back, and some sturdy upcycled denim for the front -- with a rocket sunburst embellishment of course!

The onesies were fairly simple -- I just bought a pack of white onesies and used iron on paper to get the rocket ship and star on. Since my iron on paper is pretty old, I did have to do some stitching around the edges of each piece so that it will hold up. I like how it looks with the red stitching, but I'm glad I started with the iron on paper since that made it much easier than a million pins!

One of the easiest ways to personalize a baby present without going crazy is by adding a strip of fabric to a receiving blanket. I couldn't find plain white ones at Target, and wasn't willing to drive all over just for a simple receiving blanket, but I thought these light blue stripes would look nice with the space fabric. They also made it easy for me to make sure I was stitching in straight lines!

To add the strip of fabric, I measured a piece 3.5 inches wide, and 2 inches longer than the blanket. This gave me room to tuck the raw ends inside and have a clean look.

I pinned the strip, right side down, to the blanket following the lines that were already there. Then I sewed it on, and ironed it right side out. I then ironed the ends and the top hem in, so I could topstich those.

I went back over all of the edges with a decorative stitch to jazz it all up. In all, I'd say this blanket project only took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

And I still have some more rocket ship fabric left -- I wonder what the rest will become?

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Creative Jewish Mom

#WasteNot 30 Day Challenge: Day 16

Today is my sixteenth day of the #WasteNot challenge, sponsored by Travel Well Magazine. Today I'll share a way I reuse when working on a set.

Painting backdrops requires a lot of custom paint mixing. And because of the size, it's not so simple as mixing on a palette like you would when painting on a canvas. So, for the months leading up to painting a show, I collect any yogurt containers that otherwise would go in the recycling and wash them out very well. Then, I reuse them to hold paint. Yogurt containers are a great size for this, but any container with a lid that seals well will do: coffee cans, glass jars, etc.

How do you reuse containers before they head to the recycling?

Sketch a State: Maryland/DC

While staying in Maryland, we spend an afternoon in DC. Sean, Laurel and I went to the Smithsonian Botanical Gardens together and then had lunch. After we ate, we split up: Laurel went to the Museum of Natural History; Sean went to the Air and Space Museum; and I went to the National Gallery.

I love being in art museums alone. It gives me time to decompress and appreciate the things I find beautiful. I spent a bit of time sketching different paintings I loved, and then I sketched a woman who was copying one of the paintings.

Sketch a State: Pennsylvania

We left New York joined by my sister Laurel, and drove down to the DC area to visit my great-uncle and great-aunt. We only stopped in Pennsylvania to eat lunch and get gas, and didn't even leave the toll road to do that, so I was only able to get a sketch of some of the scenery:

Sketch a State Bonus: Niagra Falls

While in New York visiting family, we took a day trip up to Niagra Falls. It was Sean's first time there! While waiting to meet up with my aunts and cousins, I did this quick sketch of the falls from the American side:

The whole family did the Maid of the Mist boat tour (I got incredibly sea sick) and then we had Indian food for lunch. After lunch some of us walked across the bridge to the Canadian side of the falls, while the others took the trolley around the American side. We finished off the day with Dinosaur BBQ in Buffalo, and on the drive back Grandma pointed out different places of family history.

Sketch a State: New York

One of our big stops along our road trip was in Westfield, New York, where my mom's family lives. We had a wonderful visit, and I loved showing Sean around as he experienced western New York for the first time.

Because so much of our time was spent with family, I didn't get my Westfield sketch in until we were getting gas on our way out of town:

Sketch a State: Ohio

Ohio was another state we passed through, but didn't get to really stop and experience. So, another day of sketching while Sean drove:

Sketch a State: Indiana

In Indiana we stayed very close to the Notre Dame campus. We had dinner at Legends, the sports bar near their stadium, and then took a nice walk around campus. It's very beautiful, and we saw a lot of bunnies, ducks and fireflies. I sat and sketched a building that intrigued me: it had a Renaissance revival dome on top, but the bulk of the building itself looked like a typical Victorian Gothic revival brick classroom building. The mix-up of styles, plus batting away mosquitoes, made it hard to get the right proportions in the ribbed dome but I think it still captures my mental image of the building.

Sketch a State: Illinois

After leaving Iowa, we drove through Illinois. We didn't have time for a long stop, so I experimented with sketching while Sean drove.

Sketching while moving past the scenery at highway speeds is not easy, but you can get a feel for some of the barns we drove past that day. And of course, since Sean was mostly stationary, I sketched a quick profile of him.

Sketch a State: Nebraska

It's been a few weeks since I've posted on the blog, but I'm back to my state sketches from our July road trip. Today: Nebraska.

We drove through the entire state of Nebraska in one day, waking up in Cheyenne, Wyoming and going to bed in Des Moines, Iowa. It was a very long day of driving, but we took a nice break at Mormon Island Recreation Area to walk, sketch, swing and see chipmunks.

Sketch a State: Wyoming

After leaving Salt Lake City, we drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We had a delicious steak dinner, since Wyoming is beef country. Then we went to the Cheyenne Botanical Gardens to walk around and spend some time in nature after all those hours in the car.

While sitting and trying to sketch the geese (animals are a constant challenge for me because they move so much!) we met a woman and her two year old daughter. We started chatting, and the little girl wanted to help me draw. At first I tried to get her to draw on the blank back of the page before this goose, but naturally the pencil wandered. I figured it wasn't a very good goose anyway, and the memory that this page brings is better than if she hadn't helped!

Sketch a State: Utah

Our second stop on our road trip was Salt Lake City, Utah.

We stayed with cousins for two nights, and spent a full day exploring Salt Lake City on our own. We walked around Temple Square, and took tours of the Beehive House, 26th floor observation deck of the LDS office building and of the LDS Conference Center. We had lunch in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and I sat and sketched in the (air conditioned) lobby while Sean took care of some calls.

Sketch a State: Nevada

These past few weeks, Sean and I have been on an amazing cross country road trip! Over the next few weeks I'll be blogging about some of the different parts of this trip.

One of my goals for this trip was to stop and take a moment to sketch in every state we visited. It's all part of our all-in-one travel journal, which I'll explain in a bit more detail in another post. Today, I want to start off what I'm calling my "Sketch a State" series with our first stop, Nevada!

The first night of our trip, we stayed in a little ghost town called Unionville. A sweet old lady and her son run a bed and breakfast there, and it was a fun adventure to start off our cross country trip. We took my Civic up a tiny gravel and dust road (poor car was so dusty, you could barely see that it's blue!) and had a wonderful night away from modern civilization.

The sketch above is from our first cabin, overlooking the empty desert valley. Not long after I did this sketch, the well pump bound up and we weren't able to get water in the cabin anymore. We moved to a guest room in the owner's sister's house, and had a different but wonderful evening. The B&B really was astounding in its hospitality.

Felt Fruit - Handmade Holiday Gifts

Sean's family has quite a few kids, and we always like to get each kid a small gift for Christmas. This year, in keeping with my goal of handmade gifts, I sewed a bunch of felt fruit for the two toddlers.

I made up bananas, lemons, apples and watermelon slices (one for each kid). I also made a carry sack, which served as both a gift bag and as a place to put away their play food.

I used a pattern from McCall's (this one) so I can't take credit for the fruit design. I will say that, while the watermelon and banana were fairly simple, the lemon and apple didn't turn out quite how I hoped. The pattern talked about adding floral wire stems though, something I didn't want to do for toddlers, so maybe that's part of the problem. Oh well, I still think it was a success, and I do look forward to making more for the next little one in the family!

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One Project at a Time
Craft Schooling Sunday

TARDIS Scarf - Handmade Holiday Gifts

I already shared the simple Sharks scarf that I made for Sean's sister Sarah. Today I want to show you the Doctor Who TARDIS scarf that I made for his sister Amber.

I wanted to do a classy tone-on-tone TARDIS pattern. I didn't find anything that was what I wanted online, so I used graph paper to figure out the pattern myself. Then I did a sample in some scrap yarn to make sure my pattern worked the way I wanted it to...

And then I finally started the actual scarf in some lovely blue yarn! I went back over the pattern after it was blocked and embroidered the outline and details in silver - just a bit of pop to make the design stand out.

Unfortunately, as this was my first try at blocking a scarf, it didn't turn out perfectly. So I took the scarf back after we opened gifts so that I can finish it up the way I want it to look! (Amber didn't mind, she knows I can be a perfectionist about my creations...plus she go so much other Doctor Who stuff that she won't miss the scarf for an extra week or so of fixing it up!)

If you want to make this great TARDIS scarf for yourself or another Whovian, here is the pattern I developed:

Cast on 35 stitches
Knit one row, purl one row; continue alternating knit and purl rows until you have the base you want (I did 10 rows)
K5, P25, K5
P5, K25, P5

{K7, P3, K7, P1, K7, P3, K7
P7, K3, P7, K1, P7, K3, P7
*K7, P3, K1, P5, K1, P1, K1, P5, K1, P3, K7
P7, K3, P1, K5, P1, K1, P1, K5, P1, K3, P7* repeat this set of two rows 2 more times}

go back to the beginning of the {__} and do the whole section three more times

K7, P3, K7, P1, K7, P3, K7
P7, K3, P7, K1, P7, K3, P7

K7, P21, K7
P7, K21, P7
K9, P17, K9

P10, K15, P10
K10, P15, K10

P16, K3, P16
K16, P3, K16
P16, K3, P16
K16, P3, K16

Purl one row
Knit one row

continue alternating knit and purl rows until the scarf is almost the length you want, then repeat the TARDIS directions in reverse

Does that make sense? This is the first pattern I've ever created so please let me know if anything about these directions is confusing!

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Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways 
One Project at a Time 
Craft Schooling Sunday