Well it is that time of year again, time to hang up those stocking so I thought I would re-post my tutorial from last year. Enjoy!

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Last year I threw away the ratty acrylic $0.99 cent stockings my BF had promising that I would make new ones worthy of actually hanging in my living room. But I must say this is one of the brokest holiday seasons I and may other folks out there have had in a long time, so going out and buying yarn or fabric was not an option. What to do?!

A few months back I was purging old cloths, old like from high school, and I came across a beloved red and gray Fair Isle sweater that had developed some holes. Even if the holes had been fixable it was too small, so I tossed it in the washer and felted it thinking I would make a pillow out of it or start collecting to make a patchwork blanket. I remembered the sweater and I knew I had my answer.

So here it is, how to make some fun stockings out of a felted sweater:

Materials:

-One 100% Wool Sweater in holiday colors

Note: those scarry winter sweaters are great if you can find a wool one and they are very cheap at the thrift store

-Some good fabric scissors or a rotary cutter

-A sewing machine, but needle and thread work too, just slower

-A stocking pattern, optional but good for anyone not comfortable freehand sewing without a guide

The Felted Sweater

Step 0: Felt your sweater in a washing machine, just run it through with your regular wash, might take a couple washes to achieve good felting.

Step 1: If you are going to make hanging loops from the neckline first trim it off

Cutting off Neckline

Step 2:Lay out your sweater on a clear table, it may not be totally flat because different areas felted different amounts but that is fine, just do the best you can. See Top Photo.

Step 3: Cut up the center of the sweater. Just be as straight as you can or use a ruler and rotary cutter if you have them.

Cut Up the Center

Split Sweater

Step 4: Cut off the extra sleeve lengths on each sweater half, save these to make fingerless gloves. Turn the sweater halves wrong side out.

Trim Sleeves

Step 5: Sew the curve to form the toe on the sleeves. You may have to try a few different curves until you find one you like if you are not using a pattern or pre-marking the curve, it just depends on how “perfect” you want it to look. If there are any holes you can adjust the curve so they end up in the seam allowance or later you can embellish over them.

Sew the toe

Adjust the curve

Step 6: Once you have the curve you want, trim off the extra seam allowance so it won’t take up room later on.

Step 7: Sew the heel curve and leg seam, stopping just before the end. The heel seam starts up where the neck opening of the sweater is so that the ribbing/edge treatment of your sweater forms the cuff of the stocking when you are all done.

The Heel and Leg

Step 8: Insert the loop to hang it with. I used 1/2 the neckline for each loop. Fold over the strip/ribbon and insert it as in the picture below. It may be easier to sew by hand if it is very bulky, flat ribbon is easier then my neckline bit on the machine.

Insert the Loop

Step 9: Trim off any extra seam allowance from the leg and heel seam. Turn the stocking right side out.

All my waste

Step 10: Marvel at your craftyness!

Happy X-mas!

All in all this took me and Libby about an hour, mostly because we where taking pictures and giggling a lot. If you have any questions leave me a comment. You can click on the pictures to see larger versions.

Have a happy, cheap and eco-friendly holiday!!!

We started with the first cherries of the season at the farmer’s market.  We bought a big bag and munched on them all day in the warm sun.

There was music and dancing on the quad, we crashed on a blanket and ate more cherries and shared Carrie’s garlic fries.

There were booths with clothes of all kinds of patterns and fabrics and colors.

Patches of color and bikes (of course it IS Davis!)

We wore our Tie-Dye of course. There are more pictures of the low impact fun at my flickr.

The Gloves

By popular demand, here are the fingerless gloves with the stockings.  They where made with the extra sleeve ends by cutting a 1 inch snip about 1-1.5 inches down from the edging. I cut them so the seams of the sleeves ended up on the palm side. Now they are keeping my hands warm while I type this post!

Well it is that time of year again, time to hang up those stocking in hopes that someone will come along in the middle of the night and fill them with goodies.

Last year I threw away the ratty acrylic $0.99 cent stockings my BF had promising that I would make new ones worthy of actually hanging in my living room. But I must say this is one of the brokest holiday seasons I and may other folks out there have had in a long time, so going out and buying yarn or fabric was not an option. What to do?!

A few months back I was purging old cloths, old like from high school, and I came across a beloved red and gray Fair Isle sweater that had developed some holes. Even if the holes had been fixable it was too small, so I tossed it in the washer and felted it thinking I would make a pillow out of it or start collecting to make a patchwork blanket. I remembered the sweater and I knew I had my answer.

So here it is, how to make some fun stockings out of a felted sweater:

Materials:

-One 100% Wool Sweater in holiday colors

Note: those scarry winter sweaters are great if you can find a wool one and they are very cheap at the thrift store

-Some good fabric scissors or a rotary cutter

-A sewing machine, but needle and thread work too, just slower

-A stocking pattern, optional but good for anyone not comfortable freehand sewing without a guide

The Felted Sweater

Step 0: Felt your sweater in a washing machine, just run it through with your regular wash, might take a couple washes to achieve good felting.

Step 1: If you are going to make hanging loops from the neckline first trim it off

Cutting off Neckline

Step 2:Lay out your sweater on a clear table, it may not be totally flat because different areas felted different amounts but that is fine, just do the best you can. See Top Photo.

Step 3: Cut up the center of the sweater. Just be as straight as you can or use a ruler and rotary cutter if you have them.

Cut Up the Center

Split Sweater

Step 4: Cut off the extra sleeve lengths on each sweater half, save these to make fingerless gloves. Turn the sweater halves wrong side out.

Trim Sleeves

Step 5: Sew the curve to form the toe on the sleeves. You may have to try a few different curves until you find one you like if you are not using a pattern or pre-marking the curve, it just depends on how “perfect” you want it to look. If there are any holes you can adjust the curve so they end up in the seam allowance or later you can embellish over them.

Sew the toe

Adjust the curve

Step 6: Once you have the curve you want, trim off the extra seam allowance so it won’t take up room later on.

Step 7: Sew the heel curve and leg seam, stopping just before the end. The heel seam starts up where the neck opening of the sweater is so that the ribbing/edge treatment of your sweater forms the cuff of the stocking when you are all done.

The Heel and Leg

Step 8: Insert the loop to hang it with. I used 1/2 the neckline for each loop. Fold over the strip/ribbon and insert it as in the picture below. It may be easier to sew by hand if it is very bulky, flat ribbon is easier then my neckline bit on the machine.

Insert the Loop

Step 9: Trim off any extra seam allowance from the leg and heel seam. Turn the stocking right side out.

All my waste

Step 10: Marvel at your craftyness!

Happy X-mas!

All in all this took me and Libby about an hour, mostly because we where taking pictures and giggling a lot. If you have any questions leave me a comment. You can click on the pictures to see larger versions.

Have a happy, cheap and eco-friendly holiday!!!

Well is have been a bit since I have managed to sit down and blog a bit. We have been busy with visiting parents, getting the BF unpacked and the apartment cleaned up. But this are now calming down and I am making the time again.

The violets are blooming again, I am always amazed everyday that I haven’t killed them yet so when they bloom I am even MORE excited.

I have been working on greening things up around here some more. As mentioned in the last blog I have banished all of our old plastic storage containers to the recycling bin or put them out in our buildings reuse pile in the entryway for anyone else that wants them. Now in addition to the three enamel containers I had we have Pyrex bowls with lids to store our left overs and take things for lunch in. I also went out an got a dish pan for the kitchen sink, which while plastic is saving a good bit on water use since we can now soak our dishes, scrub ‘em up and then rinse them. Since we are in a drought saving water around here is pretty important.

Last Sunday I tried making bread for the first time from scratch. I have always loved to bake but mainly I made cookies, brownies, scones, and casseroles. Bread was something you made in bread makers which let you put it all in and forget about it, and if you like my family bought the ready made mixes you didn’t even have to measure anything but the water. Since I don’t have a bread maker here and don’t want one really I figured I should learn to make bread myself and save some dough (pun intended).

I made a whole wheat honey loaf with the recipe for American Sandwich bread from my American Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It came out of the oven looking good, a nice dark crust, mostly even; then I cut it open. It was still doughy, the yeast hadn’t done its job. So I went and checked the Exp. date, the yeast was a year over due. Opps. I stuck it back in the oven for a bit so that we at least just had dense instead of doughy bread.

It tasted so so, Will covered it in butter and honey and pronounced it just fine, but then all he really wanted was something to eat the honey he paid $14 bucks for at the farmers market on. He ended up eating most of the loaf, and most of the honey (he is worse then Pooh Bear). Today I got some new yeast so I will give it a try again next Saturday, maybe try a recipe for Farmer’s Bread I found. Despite the so so result I got from my first try I really enjoyed the process, hopefully next time I will get it, if not then well I will keep at it, after all artisan bakers go to school for this, I can’t really expect my first few batches to come out perfect. I’ll let you know how it goes.

It is Sunday, a lazy one at that. I have been spending the day doing a bit of this and that. This morning I got up and made scones, here is a picture that looks great but I am afraid to say they didn’t turn out as yummy as they look. The first one I took a bite of tasted like salt, the baking powder had clumped up and didn’t stir in completely. The rest of them where okay but bland, the strawberries I used were frozen and almost tasteless. Needless to say, I was rather disappointed, generally my scones come out really good. Time to get some new baking powder and some fresh strawberries.

I have been reading the new issue of Craft Magazine. I am totally in love with this magazine and I have also gotten into Make Magazine, they are totally craft junkie porn. In the new issue there is a great article on an introduction to natural dying that is very worth checking out. The only problem with reading these is that I get ideas for about ten new projects that I really don’t have the time and space to do. There is one article in the new issue of craft though which I am planning on trying. The article shows you how to make a sourdough bread starter with flour and water. Bread is the one thing I have not really tried to bake and in the interest of saving some money, and just cutting down on the amount of bread I eat (figure it I have to make it there will be less of it around).

I haven’t forgotten about my Greening, I have been taking stock of things and brainstorming. One change I have already made is to recycle my plastic Gladware. After reading posts on No Impacts Mans blog and some independent research I was ready to toss out every plastic thing I own. Then, no joke, when I was picking up the BF from BART there was a story on NPR on plastics and how chemicals that leach from them effect child development. Will and I went home and put all of our plastic food storage containers in the recycle bin. Instead of plastic Tupperware for left overs I have enameled containers (I have actually had these for a while, they just did get used). They do have plastic lids but at least the surface area that our food is in contact with is not plastic. We have also sworn off buying bottled water, between the waste from the PETE used to make the bottles, the chemicals that are leaching in to the water and the stupidity of buying packaged TAP WATER we just don’t want to have anymore part of it. NPR had a great bit on Talk of the Nation last month that you can listen to here about bottled water vs. tap. Another great bonus of nixing all those containers is the space it has freed up in my cupboards, I wasn’t even using over half of them, they were just taking up space. All for now, over and out.

This blog started out as mainly a place for me to talk about my knitting, to try to connect more with other knitters out there, so far things are kinda slow but that is my own fault really for not posting more (I am working on it, see 3 blogs is one month!!!). But I want to start talking more about other stuff I am into, not just my knitting (don’t worry there will still be lots of yarn porn). So to introduce another topic that is rather important to me (and I have to say largely responsible for my move from SoCal to NorCal):

The new buzz word in the air is Green. There is Green Living, Going Green, Sustainability, Low Impact, Carbon Neutral, etc etc ad infinitum. All this talk over the last, several years really, has made me think a lot about my own habits and what I do and could do better. I don’t want to get preachy and all Greenpeace on anyones ass, I am not an Enviro-gelical but I would like to talk about what I am doing and find out more about what others are doing in their own lives to work towards being more aware of their impact on our planet and reducing it.

I have been poking around on the web looking for interesting blogs that others have started around going green and several of them even made me want to subscribe to their blogs feeds. If anyone knows some good ones or has a green blog of their own I would love to hear about it.

One of the blogs I found is Green as a Thistle, is by a gal who is “Greening” one thing in her life everyday for a year. This concept really appeals to me because it is not about trying to suddenly living a totally different type of life then you where but instead change things day by day. So far she has given up her microwave, fridge, and her car as well as a number of other things. When I was in college at UC Davis all I had was my bike and it was all I needed, I miss those days.

The other blog I really like is No Impact Man, a guy in NYC and his family are going net zero impact for one year. They are even planning on going no electricity, something I am not willing to do for more then a week or so, when camping.

Next time I want to talk a bit about what I already do and things I want to change, maybe even starting my own year of greening, maybe even my own green blog. We shall see. One blog is all I might be able to handle right now.