Knit & Sew

Welcome to the Knit and Sew.
Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Lately, I've become more of a lurker and leaving comments more often than posting.
The latest...
Summer finally arrived this week in San Diego, school is back in session, and I've been doing a little bit this and a little bit of that (knitting and sewing).
Please, don't even ask about the baby blankie because I've put it to the side for a mere moment.
In order to feed that big ol' ego on mine, since I feel like a blankie-slacker, I set my sights on some instant gratification by doing some knitting and sewing. I began by knitting baby hats. Wally world had yarn on clearance and of course I couldn't pass that up, even though I have yarn coming out of my ears.

I knit a very simple knit cap. Starting with a k1, p1 ribbing and stockinette stitch until I reached an appropriate size for a baby's head. The outcome was a soft and cute hat for a baby boy.
Yarn: Bernat Baby Jacquards
Color: Boo Berries. I love this yarn.
Needle: suggested size US 6, but I only had size 5 circulars, and the hat knit up very loose - a size 4 would have been perfect. I have one more hat on the needles that I've been tackling since last night... we'll see how that turns out. I've already frogged it twice.

Next up, some sewing projects, but first...
this is a picture of my Brother CS6000i sewing machine. I loved my sewing machine until it started giving me trouble with the thread tension. Has anyone else experienced this with their machine?
True to form, I opened that baby up and started fiddling around with the screws and settings. Big mistake, but I wasn't about to be defeated by a little ol' machine!
A friend suggested I search Youtube for an instruction video on how to fix sewing machines. The guy is a genius (ok, I exaggerate). I found a video, paid close attention and I DID IT!
As we all know there's always a price to pay when you venture into the unknown and I surely paid for it with my handyman tendencies. Out of the 70 stitches my machine can whip up in a jiff, only 4 work now. Oh and the buttonhole maker doesn't function, but hey the thread tension is perfect. :-)

Luckily, the straight stitch is one that functions just fine and I'm able to continue with my sewing projects.
My little Ravelry Model's mom asked me if I could resize her drawstring bag I made for her years ago to fit a pair of grips. I think that's what they're called.
It turns out grips are protective gear for your hands and worn while swinging around in the parallel bars in gymnastic. I'd just like to brag for a moment and share that my little 7 year old model is fearless when it comes to tumbling, jumping, and balancing on all gymnastics apparatus. And, she beat her personal-best score at one of her competitions and placed top three in another. Everyone is so proud of her including me. :-)

Back to the project...the bag was a good 15" wide. I cut it in half and made one with a flap and one with a drawstring.

To keep it simple, I added a loop (esp. since my buttonhole maker is out of service) with a button perfectly matching the Hello Kitty print to the first bag. It's an additional bag she can use to carry extra gear needed for practice. I think we may have a future Olympic gymnast in the making.

More projects to come later.

It's Monday night and that means Bachelor Pad, my guilty pleasure of good-bad TV.

ttfn