Particularly crafty

I’ve always been a little ashamed of that Crafty/Tasty category because it’s hardly ever crafty. That is to say, I am not. (Not that I am tasty, either, but … you know what I mean.) I am meticulous enough to follow directions if someone hands me a project, but I don’t naturally generate my own crafty ideas. Besides, the bulk of those arty posts involved me griping about churning out volleyball scarves. I hardly think making a pile of the same exact scarf warrants true craftiness. So, I embrace it. I am not crafty at heart, and I lean on the crutch of cooking to fill out that category.

However!

I was particularly crafty during January, if I do say so myself, so, um — reward, please?

First, I finished a humongous scarf for my brother-in-law:

I started this scarf at Thanksgiving, but I only finished it in January after not working on it for the weeks surrounding Christmas. Whenever anyone saw me working on it, they’d ask, “Are you a Vikings fan? An LSU fan?”

“No,” I’d explain. “It’s for my brother-in-law. He went to James Madison.”

Blank stare.

“Their colors are purple and gold.”

“Oh!”

That’s when I ducked my head to hide the sideways shifty glance. Anyway, the scarf is obnoxiously purple and gold, so much so that I brought the yarn with me to Thanksgiving to make sure I had it right. It’s over 7 feet long, in giant stripes knit in a 1×1 rib pattern. When I sling it around my shoulders, it goes to my shins, and even when I loop it all around my neck, there is no escaping its ginormosity. I love it. I think my brother-in-law will, too, once he receives it for his birthday this month.

Second, and even more impressive (for me), I embellished four onesies for two baby showers, which occurred on consecutive Saturdays:

The onesies on the left were for identical twin boys. I tried to come up with a pair of items that were similar, but not the same; things I could draw (or copy) in a silhouette form; and things that were cute, even though my brain kept wandering to nerdy references, like time/space and Jeeves/Wooster. I finally settled on the lemon and lime, and after the fact, I panicked that someone would think I was calling one of the twins sour, but at that point, I was committed, so I went with it. Of course, now, I have a bunch of other ideas running through my brain, but all for naught! Who will have twins next?

The pink onesies on the right were for the first child of a young couple in our church. This shower wigged me out just slightly because I was the wife’s youth group leader when she was in high school, so it was a strange time-warp situation. Regardless, I chose a cursive initial for the name they picked out and … a llama. Because she and I have an unhealthy obsession with The Emperor’s New Groove (llama face!). I knew it was a little strange, but I had faith that she would love it, and when she opened it, she just about shrieked. Success!

After I prowled the internet reading tutorials, my plan was to use fusible web to make appliques in the shapes I wanted and then finish them with hand sewing. The applique process was surprisingly easy; I finished all of those steps in the time it took to do a load of laundry on a Saturday morning. Feeling optimistic, I started sewing the lime onesie that afternoon. And it was horrible. It was like I had no control over my hands, and my stitches went all over the place. I had to redo almost all of the lime, several times. Sometime during the lemon, I rediscovered my fine motor skills, and the rest of the hand sewing progressed without issue. Thank goodness I saved the loopy L until the end.

The onesies were a really inexpensive gift option, too, if I don’t monetize the time spent cursing my stitches. I only used a fraction of the fabric, thread, and fusible web I bought, but assuming I went through all of the materials, the onesies only cost $3.80 each. Not bad, right? I think I saw similar ones at Etsy for what, $25? As tempting as that is, and as proud as I am of my handiwork, I’m a little baby-ed out at this point.

Now that all of my projects are complete, I almost feel guilty when I’m watching television with nothing crafty in my hands. I suppose I could get started on those off-season scarves, like I always say I should. Eh … maybe tomorrow.