I Can Arm Knit!

Hello again lovely readers! I just made a page on this blog called "My Creations" where I'll be putting all of my crafty, artsy, DIY posts so they can be easily accessed. It's getting super cold here in Alabama, but luckily for me, I've gotten into arm knitting!
When I was first introduced to Pinterest, I learned that arm knitting was a thing, but I never tried it because it seemed confusing and like it would take up a lot of time. And how would I possibly put it down to use the restroom or eat or do anything if I'm in the middle of an arm knitting project? Well, recently I saw another arm knitting tutorial on Pinterest, and this time I thought "Hey, I could do that!" So I found some yarn and tried it out. After a few first-attempts that didn't feel quite right, I made my first arm-knit scarf!

I believe I finished that one in one day. They're advertised as "30-minute Arm Knit scarves," and they really can only take 30 minutes if you do nothing but arm knit for those 30 minutes. I get easily distracted and have to take a break every few rows to respond to texts or play another episode on Netflix. But 30 minutes is a pretty accurate estimation. 

I didn't really like my first scarf all that much because it was WAY too bulky for me. When I did my second scarf, I didn't cast on as many as the video said to. I probably only did 9 or 10 when the lady in the video was doing 12. This was my second arm-knit scarf:

I believe I casted on 10 for this one and the yarn was a bit thinner, so it's not nearly as bulky as scarf number 1. I like this one a lot because it's my school colors and it matches a blue sweater that I have.

On Thanksgiving, I taught Tessa how to arm knit. We both used the same yarn for our scarves and I don't have a picture of mine, but here's hers:

Teal and black are Tessa's dance company's colors, so we'll be warm and supportive at her competitions with these scarves. 

You might have noticed that all of these scarves are some shade of blue. I noticed that too, so when I went yarn shopping the other day I picked up a couple skeins of this really pretty red wine colored yarn. Not only did I make a scarf out of it, but I had quite enough yarn left to finger knit a headband/ear warmer.

I'm so in love with this color and the buttons that I found for the headband. My new Burt's Bees plum lip shimmer looks really great with the dark red yarn. Today I put it all on:

Finger knitting feels really weird the whole time you're doing it, but it looks pretty cool! I'm not sure if there are finger knitting tutorials out there, but there probably are if you dig around enough. 

If you're interested in being handcuffed by yarn for half an hour and making beautiful, warm scarves with nothing but a couple skeins of yarn and your arms, this tutorial is awesome. If she doesn't do it for you, there are tons of other people that have made tutorials as well (which is partially why I'm not making a tutorial for it). You do have to learn to be slightly ambidextrous in order to arm knit, but don't let that scare you away. 

If you're like me and are worried about having to get up and do something important in the middle of knitting, my mom and I discovered that those little cardboard toilet paper rolls come in handy. Save one of those the next time you run out of toilet paper to transfer your yarn onto it when you need to get up. It should just slide from your arm to the roll, but you have to be careful that it doesn't slide off the roll. Don't forget which arm it was on last!

I hope I've inspired some of you to try this because it really is fun and makes such pretty scarves. For my next arm knitting project I'll be attempting a blanket! I'll try to take some pictures of my progress along the way and I'll definitely make a post about it. Stay warm!

Bandana Headband DIY

Yesterday I posted a step by step tutorial of how I made my bandana bracelet out of the bandanas my little dog used to wear before she passed away. Today, I made a headband out of one of them! This one does require sewing, so if you're like me and can't sew for your life, turn away now. Unless you're even more like me and have an awesome seamstress sister willing to help you out. 

This is the bandana I decided to use:

I started with a spare black headband and flipped the bandana upside down. Then I dug out some wire that I had in my jewelry making box and formed it to the headband, then cut it and straightened it out. 

The only reason I formed it to the headband was to get an accurate length for the wire. One way I thought to do it originally was to just wrap up the bandana and attach it to the headband, but then I thought it'd be better to wrap it around the headband, which I couldn't figure out how to manage, and that's where the wire came in.

This is where you're going to need a seamstress with a cool sewing machine. I lined the wire up where I wanted it to go on the bandana and handed it over to Tessa.

This is what it looked like once she was finished: 

It is a bit off centered, but it honestly doesn't matter at all. Neither does the color of the thread, since we will be covering it soon. She used a zig-zag stitch very slowly as to not break the needle on the wire. She says that before you start sewing to use the wheel on the side of the machine to be sure that the width of the stitch is wide enough and that it won't hit the wire. Then I had her stitch the ends of the bandana over the ends of the wire like this:

That was just a straight stitch with her sewing machine. Now you see why it doesn't matter that it's off centered!

Next was the fun part; rolling it! I rolled it up really tightly.

I didn't get a picture of it, but I folded the tip of the bandana under.

Now for more sewing!

This is where she did some hand sewing with white thread. It's called a blind stitch, which should be easy to find on Google or the wonderful world of Pinterest.

Finishing it off:

Then we formed it to her head. We did have to bend it a little more for it to be tighter, and since it is made with wire we'll probably have to do that every time, but it's no big deal and it's super cute.

Tada! There's our lovely new headband made from a bandana! This came out so well and I'm really excited about it. Yay for teamwork!