A little Quilting/Sewing Project

 I needed a pouch for my smartphone in the likely case it slipped out of my hands and fell to the ground. I found this nice pouch via Pinterest that really fit the bill. So I got out my cottons and got to working. My quilting and sewing skills are still not upto the mark and putting in the zipper led to a bit of the puckering. But on the whole, I am happy that this butterfingers' smartphone is finally well-cushioned.

Cookbook Cover

 

I really like to cook. One year ago, I would have vehemently denied this statement. Then, I was the person who went into the kitchen, threw together the ingredients in a pan and called it a meal. Basically, I could not wait to get out of the kitchen and get on with life. I scoffed at the food channels and felt uncomfortable/bored with any sort of food talk. I did have a small diary with a few recipes jotted down, because like it or not, I had to cook for my family and needed some help with that.

 

Then, last year, every thing changed. I am not sure how, but I started noticing the finer points about food, like taste, texture, color, presentation. Cooking became less of a chore. All of a sudden, I was planning menus, looking up new recipes, even tuning into the food channels. I started understanding and relating to the food talk. I am sure my family appreciates the change. Our food has become more balanced and there is a lot more variety to it, as I continue to try new dishes and master new techniques.

 

In line with my new interest, I needed to new binder to store my cook book and a cover for the new binder. I sewed this over the. The embroidered part is from an old shirt which I embroidered while in college. The rest of the fabrics came from my stash. It took two load shedding filled afternoons to get this done. Cannot wait to fill it up with recipes!

In other news, the colorwork sweater is progressing nicely. I am at the sleeves now, so hopefully it will be done soon, inshaAllah.

The First Felt

My husband got a PSP (playstation portable) recently and I immediately offered to make a cozy for it. Apparently, DH was thinking of a safe way to carry it with him, so surprizingly enought, he accepted. While, nomally he is not thrilled with knitted items for himself.
After a great deal of pondering and looking around at patterns, I finally decided this simple, felted cozy would be best. I made many modifications.
I started out with full intention of following the pattern but had no 6.50 mm DPNs. So, instead,I worked on straight. Also, altered the number of sts and length to adapt to DH’s PSP:
I cast on 28 sts.
Row 1: (k1, sl 1 st purlwise) repeat to the end.
Repeat this row until the piece measures 11 inches.
Next row:( k1, sl next st onto a spare needle, k next st, pass the 1st st over this st)repeat to the end.
In this way, half the sts are BO. On the remaining sts, work in st st for 5 inches. BO and weave in end. No seams to sew and ready to felt.

The yarn I used was Araucania Magallanes. I really liked this yarn. This cozy used up only a small amount, maybe 50 yards. I still have the remaining skein. So maybe I can make a bag or something out of it.
Being done with the knitting, I went looking for a good felting tutorial. Then equiped with the necessary information, I went on to try for myself. And it worked. It is quite simple really. And fun!

The great thing is that the cozy turned out exactly right sizewise and more than that, DH was very pleased with it. I also lined it witha cotton fabric, to protect the PSP from any wayward wool fiber, LOL.