Finished socks, some metalworking, and more delicious pizza

Happy March everyone!

Knitting

Stacey finally finished her second sock out of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Twinkle Twinkle Little Vampire colorway.  The first sock was cast-on on December 21, 2017, and they were completed on February 22, 2018.  The cuffs were 2x2 rib, the heel used Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel, the foot was knit around, and Reena Meijer Drees Asymmetric Wedge Toe was used for both socks.

And that was it for knitting, and well, all of Stacey's crafting.  The rest of Stacey's week was spent reading.  She really is bad at starting new projects.  Maybe next week...

Woodworking/Metalworking

Does that say metalworking? What kind of blog is this? I came here for woodworking. If that's what your thinking just wait, please. I can pull you back in I promise. 

Lee started working on Kiridashi, this is a Japanese style utility knife. Lee has been interested in these knives for quite some time and figured it was about time to make one. What does this have to do with woodworking, well the one sided blade on the Kiridashi lends itself to being used as a marking knife. Here (Miller Knives - Kiridashi) is a good youtube video that shows the process of making this knife and where Lee got his inspiration. 

Lee was able to take a piece of metal from some scraps in his fathers garage to make the knife from. Here is the pattern drawn out on the knife.

Lee used an angle grinder with a cutoff disc to get the general shape and then moved onto a belt/disc sander to establish the bevel (that's the business end) of the knife.

Onto the woodworking! Stacey and Lee have been enjoying fresh homemade pizza lately and thus decided it was time to make a pizza peel. 

Lee ripped down an oak and padauk board he had laying around from other projects. You can start to see the layout of the pizza peel here. Next week it should be finished and hopefully put to use. Mmmmm pizza.

Lee also cut down some oak scraps to make a couple air hose covers for his fathers garage. One of the things his father built into the garage before putting drywall up was air hoses for his compressor. There are two outlets above the workbench that needed covers. The covers still need their center holes drilled out and to have some screw holes countersunk. 

Delicious pizza, modal verbs, and a very large bookshelf

This week has been a bit light on crafting for us (this seems like a regular occurrence, maybe we should re-frame what a week of crafting should amount to).  On the not-so crafty side of things, we went for our first run outside in 2018, and it was cold.  I think we're going to stick to the treadmill a bit longer.  We also demolished our pantry space in our kitchen, the first of many steps for our kitchen remodel that we'll be working on in bits and pieces in the coming year (or two or three).  We also attended a social event, watched some videos, read some books, and made some delicious pizza.

Knitting

Guess who didn't finish her sock like she said she would last week?  Stacey!  To be fair, she said that she 'might' finish her sock this week, but when does she ever say that she will or won't?  It's always those modal verbs with her....  Regardless, the second of the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Twinkle Twinkle Little Vampire colorway socks are soooo close to being done, as the toe decreases are only ten rows from being completed, then its just some kitchener stitching and weaving in ends.  

Surely, Stacey will agree to having these done for next weeks post.  So long as something tragic doesn't happen in the meantime.  She refuses to make assurances that it will be completed if she happens to meet her untimely demise.  She hopes you'd understand. 

Woodworking

Lee was able to get the second coat of stain/poly on the bookshelf. The customer stopped by today to take a look and give final approval. The bookshelf has been moved out of the garage for the time being so other work can progress without getting it dusty or dirty.

Lee also spent a bit of time helping his father out with the last of the cabinet carcasses. They built one for over the fridge as well as a riser to bring the fridge up off the concrete. 

Halfway through February

Another week, another crafty update!  We hope everyone is having a wonderful February so far.

Knitting

Stacey has continued to make a fair bit of progress on her second sock out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Twinkle Twinkle Little Vampire colorway.  She knit the third wedge of Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato Heel, and continued down the foot for about 3".  There's about 1.75" left to knit before the toe decreases begin, so this one may be off the needles next week!

Since Stacey is really awful at getting things started, she has begun thinking about what will be next up on the needles.  Another pair of socks, for herself or for Lee, are of course an option.  Pfeilraupe by Alpi Alpenrose is another option, though will require a considerable amount of brain power, as the instructions are not very clear on first glance, and while their are charts, knitting from charts is not currently in Stacey's skill set.  The third option would be to move on to another craft for a while, and come back to knitting when a project calls out to her.  Of course, there's always the other 147 patterns in her ravelry queue to be considered as well.

Woodworking

Lee has made a lot of progress on both of his projects over the last week. He has been helping his father make cabinets for his new garage, and staining a bookshelf that was commissioned by a co-worker.

Lee made a sketchup model of the garage and cabinets that were built. This helped out quite a bit when it came time to cutting down the 13 sheets of plywood that would make the cabinets in the picture below. There is one cabinet left to make that will go over the fridge. The doors need to be installed on all of the cabinets and the counter top needs to have a sheet of formica glued on it. There are a couple odds and ends beyond that, but the cabinets are basically finished.

The bookshelf had a coat of stain/poly applied to it and the shelves have had two. The plan as is stands today is to get the second coat on the bookshelf this coming weekend. 

Extending the woodworking season and a finished sock

Knitting:

Stacey attended her first knit night this past week, and made a lot of progress in just two hours on her first sock out of  Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Twinkle Twinkle Little Vampire colorway.

Knit Night Sock Progress

The knitting didn't end there though.  Stacey kept knitting while we watched some television shows in the evening and cuddled with the critters, and she finished the first sock. 

 

Finished first sock!

Then, she started the second sock... that's right, no second sock syndrome here!  She even made it to into the heel, so about 3/4 of a sock was knit in just one week, which is amazing, since Stacey normally takes about a month to knit each sock.

One week's progress on second sock.

Sewing:

While folding some laundry, Stacey noticed this gaping hole on one of Lee's favorite sweatshirts.

I don't think this cuff will hold on much longer.

So, the sweatshirt was rushed off to the craft room for some emergency surgery.  The surgery was successful, and Lee was very happy to put it back to use.

 

Woodworking:

Lee and his father installed a heater in the garage last weekend. There was a pellet stove in the garage, but it was kind of a hassle to run. Having a natural gas heater with a thermostat should make the garage much more usable. 

Since there is a heater in the garage now Lee put it to use and spent some time out there staining the bookshelf that he was commissioned to build. 

All Woodworking

Happy Thursday everyone!

This week has been all Lee on the craft front, as Stacey hasn't been feeling the best and has chosen cuddles with the cat and dog over crafting.

Woodworking:

I have a wooden wallet that I made for myself around 6 months ago, and I love it. I hardly ever carry cash on me, so the wallet only needs to be big enough to hold some credit and insurance cards. The original wallet was made from walnut and cherry. The two below are made from purple heart, maple, walnut and padauk. The inner stripes are maple and padauk. The purple heart and walnut are used on the larger pieces. They still need to have some corners sanded off and to be sanded up to 220 grit. Once that is done they can be finished with a couple coats of tung or danish oil.

The return of woodworking projects and a finished cross-stitch block

This week we have the return of woodworking and a finished cross-stitch block.

Cross-Stitch

Stacey finished the Wizard of Oz block of the 2015 Story Time Sampler pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery!

The frame around the Black Beauty block has been started.

Knitting

The Twinkle Twinkle Little Vampire socks out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight are still coming along nicely.  You can see the stitch marker where I left off last week.

Woodworking

Lee was able to put together the bookshelf someone had commissioned this past weekend. The only thing left to do is stain the bookshelf to the color the customer wants. 

Lee has wanted a mallet to use in the shop for a while. His current rubber mallet leaves black marks on things it hits. This mallet is based on the Paul Sellers video found here. It has a drop in handle that gets wedged in when you swing it to stay tight. It also pops out when you tap it to come apart and make it easier to fit in a toolbox or bag. 

  

Happy Holidays!

This will be our last post for this year, as we're going to be spending much of our time between now and the beginning of 2018 with family instead of being holed up in our crafting spaces.  We're hoping to continue the weekly posts after the holidays for our six regular bots to enjoy.  (If  you take offense at being called a bot, please leave us a comment to let us know!)

Knitting:

Stacey finished her second  Knit One, Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks in colorway Cherry Cola 1233 sock!  Last week she had started the toe decreases, and now it's done, and it fits, and the ends are even woven in.

For the second sock, Stacey decided to re-knit the cuff as it was taking forever and was not very fun to pick up the ribbed stitches.  From there, the heel turn was completed, with only the three called for repeats this time!  Then Stacey attempted to attach the two halves of the sock, while trying to make the stitches look like knitting, which was not working.  After seven connected stitches and an hour's worth of crafting time, she gave up and went to work.  Later on, she had a thought, isn't this exactly what the kitchener stitch is for?  Why yes, it does seem to be.  More time was spent ripping this out, and then the kitchener stitching commenced.  Kitchener stitching 160 stitches takes quite a long time, but it looks good, and the sock is in one piece!

Woodworking:

Lee decided to use his new jointer and some of the lumber he purchased to make a new end grain cutting board. He made a cutting board in the past that we used quite a bit but it got chopped up a bit too much. He used a program called cbdesigner available at www.lastalias.com/cbdesigner/ to design the cutting board. The wood he is using on the cutting board is hard maple, walnut and padauk.

After jointing and planing and cutting the wood into the correct size strips they are glued together using Titebond III glue. Titebond III glue is one of only a few wood glues that is safe to use with cutting boards. 

The next step is to for the boards to be planed down flush again. It's a good idea to use a paint scraper, chisel or putty knife to chip off any of the solid glue before planing. The photo below is of the wood chips from the planer. It's interesting how the different types of wood produce different wood chips. The maple made nice long curls and the padauk and walnut were more like chips.

Now that the boards have been glued and planed we can cut them into strips, rotate them on end and flip then end for end to create the pattern. 

The board was a bit smaller than anticipated so we decided to put a border all the way around. With the border put on it has a nice size and heft to it.

It ended taking around 4 coats of mineral oil and 3 coats of mineral oil with wax in it. We used the Howard brand oil on our board. Lee took a video of him putting the oil on the board. It's widely agreed upon that this is the best part of most woodworking projects, especially when using exotic woods. 

All the sewing...

This week was dominated by Stacey's sewing projects.

Sewing:

Cross-back apron for Lee:

Stacey spent the weekend sewing up a storm.  She started with the cross-back apron mentioned last week for Lee, who had chosen this awesome Tula Pink Spirit Animal Lunar Otter N Chill fabric (affiliate link), which we have dubbed Space Otter.  The apron was super simple and straightforward to cut and sew and will work perfectly.

Tote bag:

Her next project was a Whistlepig Creek Productions #1144 Six Pack Stack Reversible Fat Quarter Tote, which has been gifted, and should have been received by the intended recipient.  The pattern was purchased from a local-ish quilt and knitting shop back in 2014, and was used in the first sewing class Stacey participated in, marking the start of her sewing adventures.

It is supposed to coordinate with a dark purple luggage set with bright blue and hot pink circles.  We're hoping that this goes well enough.  It was a bit of a struggle to find fabrics in the right color ranges, as they aren't the currently popular shades, but the proprietor of our local quilt store was extremely helpful in finding these fabrics.  I tried to offset the colors a bit to make the bag not seem to crazy, so the bright blue is on one side, and the pink is on the reverse.  The purple and black fabrics are a bit more mellow, so they are on both sides.

 

Stacey stopped paying attention while cutting at one point, and cut the pockets the wrong way in the fabric so they ended up shorter than the pattern called for.  The same thing happened with the straps.  She likes the look of the slightly shorter pockets, that seem to take up half the depth of the bag.  The handles are definitely still usable, but a few more inches on them would probably be better.

She also cut the corners at the bottom to make the box shape a little bit too large, a misreading on her part.  This error actually lines up the bottom of the pockets with the bottom of the bag when it is standing up, which has been perceived as a vast improvement in the look of the bag.

The bottom seam where the bag was turned right sides out was hand-stitched using the ladder stitch technique.  Look at this, you almost can't tell it was hand-sewn!  This shows a marked improvement in Stacey's hand-sewing technique since she started sewing a few years ago.

Stacey's cross-back apron:

Stacey then worked on her own cross-back apron, which she managed to cut out with the print upside down.  C'est la vie.  There wasn't enough fabric left to cut it out again, and it's just going to get messy in the kitchen anyway, so she just went with it.  Since the project was already mucked up, Stacey decided to try out some different stitches on the various seams of the apron.  The bottom hem was just a straight stitch.  The outside seams were done with the seam/overlock setting.  The armhole curve and inside strap seams were done with an S curve stitch pattern, which, in hindsight, may not have been the best idea as the clipped edges in the curve are not fully sewed down.  That can and will be fixed if needed in the future.  The top front seam was done with a rolled hem to encase the edge.  All-in-all, it fits and it'll hopefully prevent some clothing stains from kitchen messes, exactly as intended.

Slouchy headwarmer:

The next sewing project this week was the Patterns for Pirates Slouchy Headwarmer, which is one of their 2017 Holiday Freebies.  Stacey whipped this up out of remnants of the girl scout green lycra.  This project took about 20 minutes, including the hand-stitching at the end.  This is a super easy and versatile project, as it can be worn as a headband, hat, messy bun hat, or a cowl.  As usual, the tutorial from Patterns for Pirates is excellent.

Knitting:

Stacey continued working on her second Knit One, Crochet Too Ty-Dy sock in the Cherry Cola 1233 colorway, and managed to get to the toe decreases.  The stitch-marker is where the sock was last time it made it into a blog post.

Cross-stitch:

Dorothy now has a dress, and there's a rainbow on the Wizard of Oz block of the 2015 Story Time Sampler pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

Woodworking:

Lee spent some time in the workshop making a new crosscut sled. The old one went with the table saw it fit when he returned it to his father. The new crosscut sled has some improvements over the old one. This one features a stop block with a tape measure, two T slot tracks and an insert where the blade meets the front rail. The stop block is used to make accurate repeatable cuts without having to markup and measure each piece. The two T slot tracks can be used to clamp your material to the sled so you don't have to hold onto it or to attach a miter gauge that can be used to cut angles. Lastly, the replaceable inserts are used to get a clear view of where the blade will cut. When lining up your material to be cut its important to know where the blade will hit the front rail, the old sled got a little worn out which led to not knowing where the blade would cut without lining up each piece to the blade itself. Now if it gets a bit off, the insert can simply be replaced. 

A sock in pieces and a shed

This week we put a lot of our crafting time towards projects to make our lives easier.  Stacey has been watching The Great British Sewing Bee while she works on her cross-stitch project, and Lee has been watching Star Wars - The Clone Wars while playing video games and watching woodworking videos.

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Cross-stitch:

Stacey finished the top banner and the frame for the Wizard of Oz block in the 2015 Story Time Sampler pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

Knitting:

Stacey continued to try to fix her first Knit One, Crochet Too Ty-Dy Socks in colorway Cherry Cola 1233 sock.  She decided that ripping back short rows is not fun, and picked up the stitches from the cuff and the stitches from the foot, and removed all of the heel rows in the middle.  While this took quite a bit of time, the sock looks salvageable again.  Yay!

Sewing:

We are constantly searching for towels to wipe our hands on in the kitchen.  We'll go to grab one we put down two minutes ago, and poof, it's not there.  Where is it?  On the other side of the kitchen or on the other person's shoulder.  The worst part is that we normally have three kitchen towels floating around at any given point.  The solution to this problem is not more towels of course, but to make aprons that we can wipe our hands on that are attached to our bodies so they can't grow legs like those pesky towels.

Stacey likes the look and the idea of the currently popular cross-back apron, so she decided that is what she would make.  After lots of sorting through useless pins on Pinterest, and attempting to mock up her own version, she came across Cynthia Fong's Linen aprons for the whole family pattern at fabrics-store.com.  Ann Martinson's comment on the post helped her figure out how the apron is supposed to fit, and she determined that the adult size listed would work for her.  Lee, being 6' tall, needs some adjustments to have the apron fit, which was easily done based on Ann's explanation.

Here are our drafted patterns, drawn out on tracing paper.  Aside from the adjustments made for Lee's apron, both also had the armholes raised up by 7", as we're not fans of low cut armholes.

Maybe next week we'll have one or both of the aprons finished to show you.

Woodworking:

While not specifically woodworking, our next project was woodworking-adjacent.  We assembled a shed in the back yard to store the lumber cart and other things that simply take up too much room in the garage workshop but are still needed, and should be nearby.  Saturday was a balmy fifty-ish degrees (as long as you were in the sun, which we were not), so we figured it was the perfect time to get this done before winter fully kicks in.