I’m not a big fan of commercial patterns. I hate cutting them out. They are hard to understand. Sometimes I just don’t have the time (or brain power) to figure out a pattern on my own so I rely on commercial patterns. I don’t know what I was thinking but I’m trying to finish this by tomorrow.

If you’re like me and have commercial pattern issues, I’ve compiled a few resources that might help you out.

Reading a Sewing Pattern for Dummies

How to Read a Sewing Pattern

The little house in the middle of the street was already adorable. Now, with everything look miniature, I just want to put that street into my pocket!

Here is the picture without any editing at all.

I’m trying to resist the urge to make all of my photos tilt shift.  Here’s one more that I did.

Want to see an amazing tilt shift video? This is full of scenes from New York City.

The Sandpit from Sam O’Hare on Vimeo.

Wouldn’t you like to learn how to spit splice?  I’m sure you’ve been curious on how to join two pieces of yarn together without tying them in a knot.  Let me end your curiosity right now with this fabulous video tutorial.

Do you feel any smarter?

I knit this really cute scarf last year.  I started it in February and finished it in December.  It was my “purse project”.  I kept it in my purse and worked on it whenever I was waiting somewhere.  I used the chevron scarf pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  I used some Noro sock yarn (color 95) that I purchased on my trip to NYC in 2008.  I used one whole skein and worked from both ends to make the color changes.

When you knit something, chances are you’ll need to block it.  But, what does this mean?  Blocking is what you do to your knitted yarn to make it be the shape and size that it should be.  There are several different methods but what I’m going to show you in this post is wet-blocking.

Get your knitting wet.  My yarn is 100% wool so I want to make sure I’m using cold water and no agitation.  I don’t want it to felt!  I rolled it around in the water a bit to make sure it is all wet.

Next I wrapped up the scarf in this towel and twisted it.  This got out a lot of the excess water.  Now my scarf is completely damp and ready to be bent to my will!  Mwah ha ha.

The next thing you want to do is find a flat surface where you can pin out your project.  I used my daughter’s bed to pin out this long scarf.  You’ll want to use rust-proof pins and use them liberally.  There are blocking boards you can buy with measurements on them.  These can be helpful if you’re blocking something that needs to be very precise.  For a scarf?  Meh.  It doesn’t really matter to me.  I just wanted to soften it up a bit and make it not roll up on itself quite so much.

I let it dry overnight.  Unpin your work and wear it!

If you are blocking a project that needs seaming, you’ll want to do the blocking before you seam.  It will make the seaming process so much easier.  Trust me.

Oh, how I wish I had someone besides myself to take this picture.  Anyway, you can see the finished project.  It is a great scarf and now you know how to block your knitting!

How’s that for an attractive snapshot?  I spent some time over the weekend felting some slippers and I had the grand idea of vlogging it for all the world to see.  Don’t you want to learn how to felt?

Here’s a great video for you.

If you don’t want to take the time to watch the video (just over 3 minutes), here are some highlights.

1.  You must use 100% wool.

2.  Hot water and agitation are key.

3.  Use a top loading washer or by hand.

4.  It will take a while.

5.  Mold your finished product to the shape you want and let it dry.

You can find them at Hobby Lobby, Joann, or A.C. Moore.  You can check out some of the available designs here.   Which ones are your favorites?

I spent some quality time with my Yudu machine last night making some I (glove) MJ shirts in honor of the “This Is It” movie coming out this week.

The idea for the shirt was certainly not mine.  I saw it first on Craftster earlier this year.  I changed up the design a bit.  I printed out the letters using my printer on a blank transparency.  I freehanded the outline of the glove.  I left it blank so I could fill it with Scribbles 3-D shimmer paint to make it look like sequins.

This is what the shirt looked like before adding the “sequins”.  I think it looks pretty good like that, too.  I might make a bag and sew some real sparkles on there.  We’ll see.  I know this isn’t the last time I’ll be using this screen.

Do you have something you’d like this particular design on?  Contact me and we’ll work something out!  I won’t be in the same state as my Yudu for the rest of the week but I’d be able to get you something the first week of November if anyone is interested.

Now I need to start thinking about a shirt for New Moon.  Any good ideas?

I finally used my YUDU machine.  Sorry for the quality of these photos.  They were taken after dark.  This isn’t the most “kid-friendly” craft so we waited until after bedtime.

It was a little intimidating to take out of the box and get everything ready to do my first screen.  If I had never used the machine before (I used one at BlogHer and CHA), I might have had some severe anxiety.  Instead, I invited over the Lincoln Handmade Etsy team to help me figure it all out.

Our first try at getting the emulsion on the screen worked well.  We had to get the screen a lot more wet than suggested for it to work, but it worked well.  The next day I thought I’d try to put the emulsion on our extra screen.  I realized that it isn’t as easy to do it without a helper.  I totally ruined that one.  Oh well.  There’s $6 down the drain.  Speaking of money down the drain, this is NOT an inexpensive craft.  The machine alone will set you back $230-$300 (depending on sales and such).  I’m glad I won mine.  The emulsion sheets cost anywhere from $10-20 (using 50% off coupons for the cheapest price).  Extra screens cost $25 (you could use a coupon for that, too).  All the other extras cost around $8 (paint, blocker, emulsion remover, etc…).

For this to be worth the money, you would want to burn a screen of something that you will use on multiple items or make to sell.  I could see certain organizations want something like this if they’re making shirts or bags on a regular basis for their members or as a fundraiser.

I have lots of ideas of how I’m going to use this machine in the future.  I’m going to be making some Michael Jackson shirts for me and my friends to wear to the new movie.  I’m going to make a design for our local social media club.

What would YUDU with this machine?