I can’t say I’m a big fan of the summer knitty. A few of the patterns are OK, I guess, like the condom and tampon cozies, but I just really cannot see making most of them. I do kind of like the summer surprise, Sheerly There, but without the horrible fluffy midsection thing. I think I will make it all sheer for a light sweater.

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I got this silly cupcake collage from eiona. Boy, she sure managed to pack a lot of stuff into the cupcake. It was fun to look through all the random objects, and I got a few really neat buttons and ribbons. Not sure what I’ll do with the little plastic babies, though.

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Pearl seems to be the only store that sells Gocco supplies, and, for some reason, they are always out of bulbs. I used my last bulbs on my sister-in-law’s labels, and I’ve got a T-shirt I really want to make before I go to the yeast meeting at the end of the month. So I trawled the web looking for the cheapest Gocco supplies. Dick Blick looked promising, but I ended up going with Think Ink. They were having a sale so I got a free tube of ink. The shipping was more reasonable, too. They came in today, so now I need to go get a bunch of plain t-shirts to screen. All my lab friends are going to want one.

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Oooh, I really like the bags and belts at Martakco. They’re made of ultrasuede, with really neat flowers and colors.

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A few years ago, my mom found a stack of pieced quilt blocks at my great-grandmother’s house. She was a very good quilter all her life, and apparently these were all pieced by her but never sewed into a quilt top. The fabrics used are all wonderfully horrible. I think I even remember dresses she made with some of them. Half of them are leaf blocks in all sorts of fabrics, and the other half are a geometric design all in the same fabrics.

I made a quilt from the leaf squares for my sister’s first wedding anniversary. Quilting is hard, even though I only had to sew the blocks together, add a border, quilt it, and bind it. I used some iron-on batting, and machine-quilted in a broad grid along the seams. The binding was a lot easier than the first quilt I made. Anyway, I’m pretty happy with it, although it has a ton of flaws. My biggest fear is that it’ll fall apart the first time my sister washes it.

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Hand Knits for the Home, by Caroline Birkett is a really nice book. It’s a nice skill-building book. Most of the patterns are for pillows, which would be a great way to try a new stitch. I like the intarsia pillow in particular. There are also some simpler patterns to make rugs and cushions. I checked it out of the library for the striped bath mat pattern. It’s pretty straightforward (stst 41 stitches with size 15 needles, alternating rows of jersey cut into 150 cm x 2 cm strips with kitchen string), but gives a really nice-looking result. Using the jersey, I bet it’s pretty comfy to walk on, too.

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My sister-in-law is another crafty type. I made her these labels for her birthday. They’re Gocco-printed on satin ribbon, about 6 feet of each style. I also printed like 10 feet of unbleached muslin. They could be sewn or ironed on. She mainly knits, so I think sewing the vertically printed ones into the seams would look good. Isn’t the font cute?

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Have you seen all the t-shirts at the mall with the ribbons on the neck? They’re usually off to the side a bit, tied in a big bow with trailing ribbon. Some of them are threaded through the neck in a kind of gather, but most of them are just sewed into the neck and serve no structural purpose. I saw one I liked for some rediculous price and decided to try to make one. I literally went to 5 craft stores looking for the right color and size satin ribbon. I finally found it at a truly dumpy craft store called the Rag Shop. I should’ve known better. Even though it claims to be satin ribbon, with fabric content and all, it feels almost like that icky papery fake satin ribbon generally found on flower arrangements. Stupid me decided to try it anyway, though. First, I cut a slit in the neck of the shirt. I cut two lengths of ribbon and folded the raw edges back. Then I stitched a piece to each edge of the slit in the shirt. So far so good. It looks terrible, though. The main problem is the ribbon is too stiff. Instead of a cute, nonchalant, floppy bow, it’s a pert, obnoxious bow. So I ripped it out and sewed the edges of the slit back together again. If you look at it, you can tell that it doesn’t lay completely flat because of the new seam, but it’s OK. I’ll just cover it up with my flower pin. Maybe I’ll try it again if I find The Perfect Ribbon.

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