Saturday, September 28, 2013

September in Instagram Photos

I'm so happy that it's finally fall, and that I get to spend some of it at home in Colorado!

Here's a look at what I did this month, according to my Instagram photos.


We found a yarn-bombed tree on Broadway, and I knitted around a skewer in order to make a sturdy stem for a flower.

Then my friends and I joined hundreds of other yogis for sunrise yoga at Red Rocks Amphitheater.  We also drank lots of coffee and did a little ice skating.

I only wore 4 pairs of shoes this month, one of which were my skates, and I spent a weekend up in Aspen with my parents.  Isn't Colorado beautiful?

Karleen and I did a little crafting at the Firefly Handmade Market.  I also did some fall baking and set up my mom's sewing machine to attempt another sewing project on my own.

My time at home has been flying by!  How was your month?

xoxo
Laura

Friday, September 27, 2013

The Rope Twist Tutorial


Last month, when I posted my i-cord bracelet knitting pattern, I received a couple of requests for a tutorial on the way I was wearing my hair in those pictures, so here it is!

I styled my hair in a rope twist that day because I was heading to a party where I knew there would be plenty of pictures taken so I wanted to look nice, but I was also in a hurry so I wanted a hairstyle that I could do quickly.  Those two criteria pretty much sum up the rope twist!  It's vaguely like french braiding, but it's quicker and easier because you're only working with two strands of hair instead of three.

Here's how you do it:


1.  Start with two small strands of hair.  Hold one in each hand.

2.  Cross your arms.  When you do this, you always want the strand of hair that's closest to your face to cross over the strand that's closer to the back of your head. That will make your "rope" twist in the correct direction.  Because I'm working with the left side of my hair, I'll always be crossing my right arm over my left arm.

3.  Keeping your hair crossed, switch your hands so they're holding onto the opposite strands and your arms are no longer crossed.  Then add a bit more hair to each strand that you have in your hands.  In the third picture, you can see that I'm holding the existing strands in my fists while using my thumb and index finger to pick up the new hair.

4.  Cross your arms again.


5 and 6.  Continue repeating steps 3 and 4 until your rope is as long as you want it to be.  Just keep switching your hands so they're no longer crossed, adding new hair to the existing strands in your hands, and then crossing your arms, over and over again.

7.  Secure the end of your rope with bobby pins.  (Make sure they're crossed!)

8.  Shake your head around a little to test that your rope is secure.  You're all finished.

I hope you find this tutorial useful!

I probably wear my hair like this at least once a week in every day life, and almost every day when I'm performing in shows.  It's a great way to keep your hair out of your face.

Happy twisting!
xoxo
Laura

P.S.  Notice the haircut?  My friend, Shawna, cut off about a foot of my hair for me and I donated it to Locks of Love.  My hair is my favorite feature and it grows really quickly, so I decided to share the love with a kid in need.



Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Firefly Handmade Autumn Market

Image via Firefly
This weekend, Karleen and I drove up to Boulder to visit the Firefly Handmade Market.

It was still happening despite the recent flooding up there, and they were also donating some of their profits to flood relief efforts, so that was pretty cool.

Because I had never been to one of the Firefly markets before, I didn't really know what to expect, but I knew I would probably like it.  I wasn't wrong!  Every single one of the vendors was selling high quality products that looked upscale.

Most of the vendors also had cute and innovative displays for their goods, which really spoke to the blogger in me.


The Leandra George booth was our favorite one because it was an explosion of happy fabrics.

Karleen and I both ended up buying things from her; I picked out some magnets and she chose a set of push pins.  Aren't they great?


The other booth that I loved was Make My Notebook.  I hadn't intended to make any more purchases after the magnets, but I have a weakness for notebooks.  I go through so many between the blogging and the knitting that they always feel like a justifiable purchase.  (It's a slippery slope!)

I picked out a handmade cover, chose blank paper for the inside, and a white binding to finish it off.  I ended up with this:


Wondering about the little string of pennants?  I made it!

There were a couple of crafting stations set up at the market, so Karleen and I both made whimsical little pennant strings, just for fun.


All in all, it was a pretty sweet afternoon.

Have you been to any handmade markets lately?  I'd love to hear about them.

Happy crafting!
xoxo
Laura

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Link to Love: Amanda McCavour

I love Amanda McCavour's work.

She creates stunning pieces of hanging 3-dimensional art (like the steam pump pictured below) out of thread.

Image via Amanda McCavour


Incredible.

I find the construction of her work fascinating, and her reasons for creating each of her pieces is interesting as well.  The steam pump she created is based upon a turn of the century steam pump she found in Dawson City, Yukon, left over from the gold mining days of yore. McCavour writes about her creation, "I hope to contrast the heavy machine with delicate thread work to render this machine as delicate and ghostly."

She has also made a floating garden, hands working with thread, and a recreation of her old living room, among other things, all of which you can check out on her website.  There you will also find enlightening blurbs about how and why she made each of her pieces.  I found her artist's statement to be particularly eloquent.

Head on over to her site!
xoxo
Laura

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A DIY Engagement Present

My best friend is engaged to be married.

When she first told me about it, I was so happy for her that I was rendered completely speechless.  When the shock finally started to fade, it was replaced by an extreme excitement to make wedding crafts.  Lots and lots of wedding crafts!

That's how I show my love for my friends, by the way.  Some people show their love through food or through bear hugs, I show mine through knitting and crafting.  How do you show yours?


As a wedding-craft opener, I decided to make my friend and her fiancé a picture collage.

I already had all sorts of great pictures of the two of them because I was a little bit trigger happy when I went hiking with them and my new camera last fall.  Lucky for me, they always act  so adorably around each other that every picture I've ever taken of them is engagement-present-worthy.


To make a photo collage like mine, you'll need the following items:
1.  Pictures of the happy couple.  I used photoshop to make the pictures small enough that two of them fit on each 4"x6" picture that I had printed out at Target.
2.  Scissors
3.  Paper
4.  Pencil
5.  Tape
6.  Picture Frame


Directions:
1.  Cut out a piece of paper that is the same size as your photographs.  Fold the paper in half and draw a half of a heart on it.
2.  Keep the paper folded in half and cut along the line that you drew.  Unfold the paper to reveal a perfectly symmetrical heart.  This will be your stencil.
3.  Place the heart-stencil on the back of one of your pictures and trace around the outside of it with a pencil.
4.  Remove the stencil from the back of the picture and cut along the lines that you drew, turning the picture into a heart.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every picture until you have a pile of heart-shaped pictures.


5.  Now cut a piece of paper so that it's the right dimensions to fill your entire picture frame and serve as a backdrop for the picture collage.  I typed up the lyrics to a song that my friends like, printed it out, and used it as the background paper.  You could also use some colored construction paper or some fancy scrapbook paper for this step.

Once you've got your background paper all set, lay out the heart-shaped pictures on the background in the order/shape you'd like them to be in.  Pick up the pictures one at a time, place a piece of (rolled-up) tape on the back of them and stick them back down into place. Using tape instead of glue adds dimension to the collage because the pictures will pop out of the background a little bit.

When all the pictures are taped onto the background, place the collage in the frame, and you're all done!


Happy engagement, Karleen and Matt!
xoxo
Laura

Monday, September 16, 2013

Showgirl Beauty Tip: Expensive Lashes


Every once in a while, an event comes along that warrants the wearing of fake eyelashes in everyday life.  Those events include your own wedding and a performance in a play.  Those events do not include a night out at the clubs.  (Please don't be that girl.  You really are beautiful just the way you are.)

When a lash-worthy event finally comes along, it makes perfect sense to want to pop into a fancy makeup store like MAC or Sephora to buy an expensive pair of lashes.  That's what almost every rookie showgirl does when she's buying makeup for her first show.  I certainly did.

Much like high heels and ice skates, fake lashes need to be broken in before they feel comfortable.  Expensive lashes are significantly stiffer than the $5 pairs that you can buy at Target or Walmart, so they are much harder to apply to your eyes and much less comfortable the first time you wear them.

So if you're only going to be wearing the lashes for one special evening, do your eyes a favor and buy less expensive lashes.  Once they're out of the package and on your eyes, no one will know the difference anyway.

Wondering if the cheaper ones will hold up?  I like to buy my ice show lashes at Target and I usually wear the same pair every day for months before I trade them out for new ones.  I just try not to take naps with them on; then they'll be toast.  ;-)

Happy lash shopping!
xoxo
Laura


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

About a Sewing Class and a Tote Bag


Last year, when I participated in a yarn crawl, I discovered Fabric Bliss, an adorable yarn and fabric store located in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver.

I was only interested in Fabric Bliss' yarn back then, but now that I have a budding interest in sewing I decided to pop in and check out their fabric and their sewing classes.  I'm so glad that I did!

I ended up signing up for their Intro to Sewing class and making the reversible tote bag pictured above. Isn't it awesome?  It's so perfect for toting around my knitting projects.

I seriously loved every part of the class.  I loved picking out my fabric because there were so many fun prints to choose from.  I loved learning how to wind the bobbin and thread the machine so that I can be an independent sewist who knows how to do that sort of thing.  I loved our teacher, Jackie, who was patient and nice and explained everything clearly.  And I loved all my classmates who were just as eager and nervous as I was.  Here we all are with our finished bags:


I had such a great time at this class and I learned so much that I can't wait to sign up for another one.  I'm thinking about doing the Hem your Pants class because pants never fit me or maybe the Zippers Made Easy class so that I can start sewing more serious things like dresses.

If you could take a sewing class, which one would it be?


I still can't get over the fact that I made such a professional looking bag.  It even has gussets! And I know what gussets are now!  Nailing it.

xoxo
Laura

Monday, September 9, 2013

Link to Love: Embracing the Dropped Stitch


When I knit, I knit carefully.  I prefer a slow tempo that yields precise stitches, and the precision of those stitches makes the perfectionist in me deeply happy.

If I drop a stitch (gasp!), I hold my breath while I carefully pick it back up again with a crochet hook.  Tiny beads of sweat appear on my forehead.  I scrutinize the picked-back-up stitch for evidence of the train wreck.  I only breathe again when I'm sure everything's back on track.

Perhaps I cling to knitting perfection a little too tightly, but I can't help myself.

Are you the same way?

Prepare to have your mind blown by this knitting tutorial from We Are Knitters!  Seriously, click on that link.  It's a technique where you drop a stitch on purpose and then pull on your work so it ends up looking like this:

Image via We Are Knitters

Cool, right?  I can't wait to try it.

Embrace the dropped stitch!  (Eek!)
xoxo
Laura

Sunday, September 8, 2013

A Knit Flower Bouquet for a Group Yarn Bomb

Meredith from One Sheepish Girl hosted another group yarn bombing event this weekend, which she dubbed a Sheepish Bloom Drop.  The assignment was to "knit, crochet, sew, stitch, or fold a flower creation and leave it somewhere out in the world."  I've participated in her other group yarn bombings (remember the leaves and the hearts?), so of course I wanted to join in on this one as well.

For my contribution to the Bloom Drop, I knitted a 3-flower bouquet.  I made the stems by knitting i-cords around some skewers that I found in my parents' kitchen, and I attached a couple of leaves to the i-cords to make the stems look more believable.  Then I whipped up some yellow and white pom poms for the blooms themselves, and some green half pom poms to go between the blooms and their stems.   As you can tell, my love affair with my pom pom maker is still as strong as ever!

In addition to the Bloom Drop, this weekend also marks the return of my boyfriend, who's been out of town for a week, so I decided to combine the two occasions and give my Bloom Drop creation to him as a welcome back gift.


The bouquet is currently sitting on my boyfriend's front porch, waiting to be found...

Did you participate in the Bloom Drop as well?  Or have you done some other forms of yarn bombing?  I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Happy blooming!
xoxo
Laura

Friday, September 6, 2013

A Yarn Photo Shoot, Some Sidebar Tweeking, and A Bloom Drop

I decided to spruce up my sidebar yesterday, and I'm really glad I did because it led to a hilarious yarn-throwing photo shoot.  I used a tripod and a camera remote, and it was super tricky to get the timing right.  Most of the pictures ended up being of me about to throw the yarn or of me looking disappointed because I had already thrown the yarn.  I ended up with some keepers, though!

Here are 3 of them:


I chose the last one to be my new sidebar photo.  Do you think I made the right choice?

I also downloaded the KG Flavor and Frames Font, which is a a collection of frames and flags by Kimberly Geswein, and I used it to make the little banner that says "Hi there, Friends!" under the new sidebar photo.  I can't wait to use the font in other places around the blog as well!

In other news, remember the group yarn bombings led by One Sheepish Girl that I've participated in before?  (There were the leaves and the hearts.)  Well, there's another one happening this weekend, and I can't wait to show you what I'm knitting for it!

Until then...
xoxo
Laura

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Showgirl Beauty Tip: Crossing your Pins


Today's showgirl beauty tip is a 100% serious rule in ice shows:

Always cross your bobby pins!

What I mean is that every time you put a bobby pin in your hair, you should add a second bobby pin to it so the pins look like an X.  You can see an example of properly crossed pins in this crown braid tutorial.

Crossing your pins keeps them from falling out of your hair, which is pretty helpful in normal life and absolutely essential on the ice.  Skating over a bobby pin will make a skater fall every time, and I'd very much prefer it if that didn't happen when I'm up in a lift like in the pictures above.

Those pictures are from a really fun TV show that I did in Holland two years ago.  It was a "skating with the stars" type of show, and I loved participating in it with all my heart.

Happy pinning!
xoxo
Laura

Monday, September 2, 2013

DIY Arm Warmers


I'm so excited that it's finally September, which means I'm finally allowed to start acting like it's fall!  (Now it would be awesome if the weather started acting like it as well...)

Today I'm going to share with you an idea that my friend, Katie, came up with.  She was cold while she was skating one day, and she didn't have any gloves with her, so she made some quick arm warmers out of a pair of socks.  She's a genius!  And she said I can share her awesome idea here on the blog, so I made a pair of arm warmers for myself out of the cutest pair of socks that I had in my drawer.

Materials:
A pair of socks
Scissors
A needle and thread (optional)

Directions:


1.  Pick out a pair of cute socks from your closet.
2.  Cut a straight line across each sock, about 2 inches away from the heel, then cut a hole in the heels to make thumb holes.


You can now try on your new arm warmers and do any more cutting that's necessary to make them comfortable and personalized for your hand size.

If you want to make these more durable, I recommend folding in the edges that you cut and using a needle and thread to hem the edges.  If you leave the edges raw, they'll roll up or possibly fray, depending on what kind of fabric your socks are made out of.

I can't wait for it to get a little bit colder so I can wear these around town!

Happy cutting!
xoxo
Laura
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