Manly Sleeping Mask

My boyfriend works night and requested a sleeping mask, a manly one. This is what I used :

1. 
   
   Manly car fabric
2. 
   
   Soft cotton fabric, for the reverse side
3. 
   
   Craft felt, for the inside
4. 
   
   Elastic

I cut a piece of paper into the shape of a mask and added some seam allowance. Then I cut all three pieces of fabrics attached the elastic and viola, manly sleep mask and a happy boyfriend!

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Knitorious!

Have you guys seen this Target commercial? The last 15 or so seconds looks like the perfect world. Yes, I would like to run in a field with giant balls of yarn! I love Target, and now I have a new word to annoy everyone with KNITORIOUS! Pin It Now!

Audrey Coat

This is the Audrey Coat I made last year. The pattern is from Blue Sky Alpacas and calls for their Alpaca Sport Weight melange ,which happens to be my favorite yarn. The yarn is held doubled which means you need a LOT of it. I used the toasted almond color, which sounds yummy, I wanted to use a color that could be a basic and would be chic for a long time.
I recently fixed a few minor things on it, sewed down the buttons, added an extra snap, which meant it needed a new photo shoot! Lindsay takes the best photos. If you are on Ravelry here is the link. Pin It Now!

Knitting Progress

Look what came in the mail today, six cones of Colourmart yarn! This is the same yarn i used for my Audrey in Unst sweater. I bought this on Ebay, each color comes with 3 balls, which is plenty for a sweater and its super soft merino dk weight. A sweater for $20, yes please. I think i will make this Tailored Retro Cardigan sweater from shibuiknits out of the peppermint color. It can be worn 2 ways, with buttons in the front or the back.



I have 2 sweaters in the works right now. One is freshly off the needles, I have some finishing to do and hopefully will show later this week. I am also working on a mohair cardigan, which i'm very excited about. It's from Rowan Studio 12, and made from Rowan Kidsilk Haze, a mohair. I love mohair, what I don't love is the tiny needles  I have to use (size 2).  It also happens to be the same color as my Lady Grey coat, which starts this week.

And btw if you are on Raverly make sure to friend me, my username is ErikaJ

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Knitting Book Review Part 2

I love this book! I ordered it on a whim, I haven't heard anything about it and the patterns are not on Ravelry but I'm so glad I did! Ohio Knitting Mills by Steven Tatar covers 4 decades of fashion knitwear from the archives of the mills that produced the sweaters worn by most Americans. Tatar uncovered thousands of original creations from the mills in Cleveland and adapted 26 pattens to the modern knitter. He takes you through the history of American sportswear, in a different way than other vintage knitting books. The sweaters remind me of the clothes from Fossil, Penguin and everyone's favorite Anthropologie.

What I like about this book is that the designs are actually different, I am tired of seeing the same old knitting patterns. There are actually different colors, and prints. I love the blue sweater on the back that says love all over it. These are patterns that you could actually wear, and look stylish in. The men's sweaters are also really cool, Ohio Knitting Mills even made sweaters for Mr. Rogers! That is legit. Some of the patterns include steeking (eek!), which really scares me but it might be time to learn a new technique... Pin It Now!

Knitting Book Review

Recently I bought 2 new knitting books and I thought I would share my thoughts. I actually pre-ordered this first book, Knitting it Old School  by Stitchy McYarnpants and Caro Sheridan from amazon, and was excited about it. When it finally came in the mail it was a bit of a let down, ok maybe a big let down. It is a very good concept and the cover design is very cute, but do not be fooled by the cover. Out of 41 patterns, I actually liked 3, and out of those 3 only 1 would be wearable for my body style.



Swing Time by Kirsten Kapur
Everything she makes is gorgeous so it is no surprise this is too
Just not good for me boobs + ribbing = BIG NO



Saucy Convertible by Marnie MacLean
Very cute, it would just make me nervous because of the bra problems.
I also want that pillow!

St. Moritz by Snowden Becker
This is my favorite and the only thing that is wearable for me.

Ok and now for just some of the bad ones.

No I do not need a pattern for a crochet bottle poodle.



The fastest way to make a guy break up with you...matching sweaters.





crochet cameltoe yes please!



This girl must have wanted to kill herself.

I left out some other gems, a men's sweater with a giant intarsia stag, like a bunch of speed racer sweaters, 2 Trekkie sweaters. I like kitchy things but you have to draw a line somewhere, and this book can be a bit ridiculous. I'm sorry, it is just my opinion. 

Tomorrow I will post another new book review.

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Sencha Blouse

I made the Sencha blouse from Colette patterns. I used silk crepe from Dharma Trading co. it comes undyed, and unbleached, so its ready to dye. I used the Rit dye in teal again. I used just a tiny bit of the powered dye and dyed it in a bucket, which was a mess, I would use the washing machine if I was going to do it again. It came out this really pretty light blue. I have never sewn with silk before but the pattern came out semi- smoothly. I just made a couple dumb mistakes, but its all better now. I also learned how to do catchstich! It is way easier than it looks. The buttons down the back are just covered buttons from a Dritz kit. I will be making this blouse again, another great one from Colette patterns!

Many thanks to Lindsay for taking my pictures!

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Lady Grey Progress

Here is the progress on the Lady Grey Coat. I found a lining, finally. Its a rayon, I wanted a silk but I had a hard time finding a lining that wouldn't break the bank. I mean is it worth $70 for the lining? Maybe not. I like the one I got and it was $3 a yard, I hope it works. Rayon is a natural fiber, but not as fabulous as silk. Oh well

I also made my muslin. The fit turned out nicely, I'm just having armpit issues at the moment. I need to go back and try again. I also have to try it with shoulder pads. I also bought the interlining fabric, a cotton flannel. I'm getting excited, I think its going to be really cute.

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Vintage Postcards

Here is what I did to spruce up this ugly old nightstand from the attic. I don't have a before picture because it was just too depressing. I changed the dated brass hardware to new silver ones, and to cover the damaged and stained top I got a piece of glass and put these fabulous post cards under it. It is no longer a ugly nightstand but a cute showcase!

I just love the bathing beauties in these old postcards, and some are used and have the little messages on the back. One postmarked from 1954 says:

"Hi Gerry,

Greetings from Seaside. It's been perfectly wonderful down here & wait till you see the tan I'm getting. The water has been super - so nice & warm. Hope you aren't melting with the heat.         - Sylvia"

The postcards go with the rest of the artwork in my room, which also happen to be bathing beauties. Loving my room by the beach, check it out.

Score from Homegoods.

This is Luna, I named her from the store she is from:
Stella e Luna in Point Pleasant, NJ

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Rit

My new obsession is dying stuff. I want to dye everything. And the Rit website is so much fun and inspiring. Did you know you can dye plastic white buttons??!!! This is life changing. No more emergency trips to M&J because I can't find cute buttons. Well maybe I still need to go there, my point is no more button agony! And you can dye wood, yes wood. I'm going to dye an hand-down-end table that is just too light a wood color, maybe green, or anything its dye you can mix it and make any color! So what have I dyed you ask, well let me show you...

I took this boring white bath rug from costco

Mixed together lemon yellow and and smidgy bit of teal...

And Voila! The perfect shade of green. When you first mix the dye together it is very very dark. But I had faith in the Rit dye chart from the website and went with it, and its fabu.

.

It looks so much better than boring white, and pulls together the entire bathroom. We were going for a beachy cabana theme. Love it .

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Ocean Grove Flea Market

Ocean Grove, NJ

Today my Mom and I went to the Ocean Grove flea market, and we found TREASURES! We have never been there before or even heard of it but it was packed full of people and goodies. We rarely go to flea markets because it always ends up being the same crap you can buy anywhere, or fake Chinatown purses, not so into that. Today was the most gorgeous early-fall day to go to a town like this. Ocean Grove is a beautiful Victorian seaside town in New Jersey and the perfect place for a fun trip like this. Here's what we scored:

My Mom found the perfect suitcase for her luggage rack in the guest room.

A "going steady" Sterling silver charm for my bracelet. Pretty cute for 5 bucks.

Vintage Jersey Shore postcards! Finally found a Chadwick one, I'll show you what i do with these later

And this is my FAVORITE thing:

A "sew handi knit kit"! It has knitting and sewing combined on it, and its in perfect shape. It has a hole at the top for the yarn to come out. I love it sew much. I have never seen anything like it, they have those horrible Tupperware yarn containers from Michaels, that are not cute or useful at all. I'm not sure why it has more sewing pictures than knitting on it but it makes me love it even more.  And only $15!!!!! It was like made for me and then put in a time capsule for 50 yrs.

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Lady Grey Fabric

I'm making a coat! I have been contemplating making the Lady Grey Coat by Colette patterns but the advanced label on the patten was a little scary. But then Miss Gertie announced the Lady Grey Sew-Along and squashed any concerns I had.  I have already learned so much from her blog, especially her Vlog about the coat she made last winter. ITS AMAZING. So if I'm going to do this coat I wanna do it right.

So I'm Ready (ish). I've been studing the very scary but informative Tailoring book Gertie recomended. I just bought my fabric which I am very excited about. I didn't have time to go to the garment district so I went to a fabric store down the shore. (Yeah I'm from Jersey, deal.)  The Stich and Sew Centre in Lakewood has a great selection of wool. And the lady that helped me was perfect (thanks Beth!). With the help of my Mom I picked out a magenta wool crepe from Tahari. Its so gorg. I also bought hair canvas interfacing and the heavy weight muslin i needed. I have some teal china silk coming I ordered that I'm still on the fence about but I'll let you know....

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