Organizing & Redecorating: What has been keeping me busy

My blog has been silent almost all month, but I've been getting a lot accomplished around my house. That's definitely a good thing, even though I don't always think to take pictures to share with you.

The most recent house project has been organizing and redecorating my daughter's room. Things had gotten completely out of hand in her room to the point that there was no way she could keep it clean. It had to be organized and  purged.

It took us an entire week to purge the toys she doesn't play with, doesn't want anymore, or just doesn't have room to store. I was surprised at how willing she was to part with some of her collections - you know, the "junk" collections all kids accumulate. I'm sure a lot of the motivation was a redecorated room.

At any rate, I'm finally done with the purging and organizing. The organizing itself taxed my organizational skills to the limit.

Now comes the fun part - redecorating!

You've probably guessed that I don't plan to throw thousands - or even hundreds - of dollars into redecorating. You might have also guessed that my daughter's room isn't huge, either. It's plenty big for a little girl, but it's nowhere near as big as the decorating magazines - and a lot of blogs - showcase. So you'll get to see some real-life, truly budget-friendly, realistic changes that can be made to a room when the bed takes up about a third of your floor space. Then stay tuned for my son's room - his bed takes up nearly half of his floor space! :)

I'll have to take some pictures next week because we're in revival this week and that means I'm entertaining the evangelist and his wife all week. (You probably won't hear from me again this week.)

But I thought I'd share a great idea I came across on Pinterest, in case you're in the mood to redecorate your kids' rooms.

This idea comes from Gluesticks - a bed canopy made from PVC pipe! She made hers for a toddler bed, but we're almost done with my daughter's, and hers is a twin bed. I'll try to remember to write all the details down and share it with you when I'm finished.

I think every girl has dreamed of a canopy bed at one point or another, and this is the least expensive way that I can think of to make it happen.

If you decide to try one yourself, make sure you check out this article about how to stain PVC pipe to look like wood. It's pure genius! And let me know how it turns out for you if you try it. We decided to go a different route.

Brioche Loves Variegated Yarn

Funny post title, isn't it? Well, you'd agree with me if you'd see these dishcloths in person:

I have always loved variegated yarn in skein form, but I've never cared for it worked up into projects. It always seems to pool in a really ugly way that doesn't do justice to the pretty colors that were carefully selected to go together.

Yesterday I decided to learn a new stitch I've been wanting to learn for awhile now - brioche. The (free) Prime Rib Dishcloth or Scarf pattern by Sara Baldwin is billed as the easiest, clearest tutorial, so I gave it a shot ... and I'm hooked. 

Here are the things I love most about it:

• it lays flat,
• doesn’t need a border,
• looks great from both sides (exactly the same, actually),
• is a mindless knit once you've done a few rows,
• and goes quickly.

I think my absolute favorite thing, though, is how the variegated yarns look done up in it. They actually look pretty and blend the colors nicely.

Each of these took about the same amount of yarn - 1.2 ozs (35 g).

Here's the one I'm finishing up tonight:

It's a pretty bold mixture of colors, but I really like how it's turning out in this stitch.

I'm grabbing all the variegated dishcloth cotton I've had sitting here for ages, and I'm going to knit them all in this pattern.

Kitchen/Cleaning Sponge Alternative

It's been awhile since I posted anything. I've been busy off-line, though, and the problem has mainly been a lack of motivation to write up projects that I finished awhile ago. So today I'm going to show you what I did yesterday and am working on today.

In the past few months, I made a bunch of dishcloths for our church's Mother's Day gifts. I decided I wanted to make some scrubbies to go with them.

I have been reading into this, and apparently acrylic yarn is scratchy enough to compete with nylon netting for a scrubbie. I've tried it in my own kitchen with surprisingly good results. Another older friend of mine agreed to test it out for me, too, and reported that the acrylic scrubbie worked as well as the nylon one I had made for her last year that she loved so much.

What does that mean? No more killing my fingers working with nylon netting or tulle!

So I went searching for just the right pattern. I saw (and tried) a crochet pattern for a sponge alternative, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. So I decided to take the concept and make my own knit pattern. Here are two variations I came up with:

The Ribbed Sponge (left)

Materials

US 8 knitting needles, set of double-pointed or 40" circular (I magic-looped these.)
worsted weight acrylic yarn (or cotton, if you prefer), approx. 10 grams

Gauge

5 sts/inch, 7 rnds/inch in stockinette

Instructions

Using Judy's Magic Cast-On, cast on 18 sts onto each needle (for a total of 36 sts).

Knit for 7 rounds.

Pattern Rounds:
Rnd 1: Purl.
Rnds 2-3: Knit.

Work pattern rounds a total of 5 times.

Purl 1 round.

Knit 7 rounds.

Graft with kitchener stitch or a 3-needle bind-off.

 The Waffle Sponge (right)

Materials

US 8 knitting needles, set of double-pointed or 40" circular (I magic-looped these.)
worsted weight acrylic yarn (or cotton, if you prefer), approx. 10 grams

Gauge

5 sts/inch, 7 rnds/inch in stockinette

Instructions


Using Judy's Magic Cast-On, cast on 16 sts onto each needle (for a total of 32 sts).

Knit for 5 rounds.

Pattern Rounds:

Rnd 1: Purl

Rnds 2-4: (k2, p2) around

Repeat pattern rounds a total of 4 times.

Purl 1 round.

Knit 5 rounds.

I did a 3-needle bind-off on this one, but you could also graft it with the kitchener stitch.

Both of these turn out around 3x4", so they fit comfortably in my hand. 

You could come up with an endless number of variations on this just by changing the pattern stitch in the middle. If I play around with any more, I'll be sure to share my results.

Simple Splash of Color Hat

This was a knit-along project a month or so ago, and I really like how it turned out. I used yarn from my $5 thrift store haul, so I don't know the manufacturer. It's wonderfully soft, though, so I wish I knew who made it!

This is going into my charity hat box, which now has a destination next winter: an Indian missionary society that some of my high school and college friends are missionaries with. I recently spoke with the people in the home office, and they were delighted with the thought of having warm things to give the children at Christmas. (Interestingly enough, they said that acrylic would be fine.)

This is a free pattern that was pretty fast and fun: A Simple Splash of Color.

Triple T Socks for Operation Christmas Child

I got this fun sock yarn (Yarn Bee Walk Away in the Tango colorway) at Hobby Lobby awhile back and decided to make some fun, bright socks for the Operation Christmas Child boxes.

I used a free pattern: Triple T Socks by Kristi Schueler, and I really like how they came out. They are constructed toe-up. The pattern has instructions for all sizes, and it has a few design options. I chose to do this pair in the 3x1 rib style and child size 13. I was able to get both socks from one 50-gram ball of yarn.

This is also the first time I tried a Turkish cast-on (which I think I like) and the sewn bind-off (which I know I like). This was the easiest set of instructions I’ve found yet for the sewn bind-off.

No-Fuss Shade-Loving Shawl

A friend of mine (a fellow pastor's wife) recently went through a second cancer surgery. I made this shawl as a prayer shawl and mailed it just in time to arrive the day before her surgery.

The colors are more true-to-life in the next two pictures, but here you can get an overall idea of what it looks like.

I'm wearing it in these pictures, but you get the idea. I chose coordinating colors from the thrift store haul my husband found awhile back ($5 for three large garbage bags full of yarn).

Burnt orange isn't my usual color to work with, but I discovered that it was quite pretty when I chose a monochromatic color scheme.

This shawl was super-easy and super-fast. I nearly finished it in one day. You can find the pattern for free on Ravelry: No-Fuss Shade-Loving Shawl by Susan Ashcroft.

Doll Clothes Gift

My daughter and one of her friends have baby dolls that can fit baby-sized clothing, so I made her friend this set of doll clothes for Christmas. They are all free patterns. This dress is called Strimma and was originally designed for a real baby.

Since it looked like it was falling off the shoulders of the younger models, I added 1” of ribbing at the top to make it fit tighter around the neck. It changed the look of the neckline, but I’d rather do that than frustrate the girl who puts this on her doll and has to keep pulling the sleeves back up to the shoulders.

I did the skirt hem as the pattern states, but it rolled like crazy (as I suspected). Two rows of purling just isn’t enough. I re-joined the yarn and worked 5 rows of garter stitch before binding off.

This jacket/cardigan is called Baby Sophisticate, and I made it in the 0-3 months size with no changes. It was easy and fast!

Finally, I made a hat and mittens set in the smallest size of this pattern. I worked these in the round by simply eliminating one cast-on stitch and joining them. It’s much easier for me that way.

I think she liked them quite a bit, since I've seen them on her dolls. They were pretty fun to make, too!