WIP Wednesday

This week has been a bit more non-knit/crochet focused than my weeks have been in a long time, lol. I still managed to get some projects worked on, but I'm in kind of a strange transition period. I'm not really sure what clicked, but all of a sudden I am desperate to get my house organized. I've been sorting through our junk room that has remained untouched since we moved as well as putting everything where it goes/making a large pile for a yard sale in the near future. And I still managed to get some stuff made! lol I'm pretty impressed with myself, I must say :)

Anyway, I started on a new commission this week just for a change of pace. Want to see her?

It's Princess Jasmine! lol She is the first in a series of 3 Disney princesses I will be making over the next few weeks. They will be for a little girl in Japan!

I already have all of Jasmine's other pieces made and ready to put on, so I'm hoping to finish her up tonight :) I just have to fix her hair and put on her jewelry. I used the Jasmine Amigurumi pattern by Sahrit Feurd-Weinstein (specifically requested). I will say, this pattern is definitely not for a newbie! The pattern includes both written row-by-row instructions along with diagrams of the stitches - believe me when I say that I there were many times that I had to look at both to figure out what the designer is trying to say. The wording can be pretty confusing, so I would have to check the diagram and go from that. Also, just the eyeliner and the hair took me a solid hour to finish! And I had to add quite a few more hair strands than the pattern recommends to get her hair to look full (translation - so she didn't have any bald spots, lol). In spite of the issues, I am really happy with how she's coming out. I can't wait to get her finished!

Like I said, after I finish Jasmine I will be making two other princesses. I think I will leave them as surprises on here :) So stay tuned for more Disney cuteness!

I also made some progress on my Myrna over the weekend - gotta love travel knitting! I managed to do all the waist decreases and I'm onto the ribbing. It still looks like it's going to fit right! Hooray :)

I really love how the waist shaping looks - so neat and tidy :)

And here's the ribbing thus far. I've pretty much accepted that I will not be able to complete this sweater for the Outfit Along because of all my other projects I need to finish by the end of the month that are for other people. It's kind of a bummer, but honestly I have come to terms with the fact that I've got to majorly cut back on my knitting/crocheting if I want to get other things about my life organized, and I am ok with that :) As fun as it is to participate in the online knitting/sewing/crocheting community, real life is more important. Plus, I've got the sewing bug again, lol. I've been desperate to try out Simplicity 2444 for a while and that desire is major amped up since I got those awesome printed cottons lately. I've already traced the pattern and cut out a muslin - in actual muslin! Novel idea, I know. I'm not sure when I'll actually get to sew it up and tweak it, but steps have been made and that's exciting.

And since I've worked so hard on this, I will show you my junk rooms even though they are incredibly shameful, lol. The photo to the left is what used to be the "room of doom" - so much so that you could barley walk in the door. As much as I was embarrassed by it, I wish I had taken a before photo just to show how far it's come. The middle is my freshly organised closet in my sewing room. The buckets now are organized by type/size of yarn (one of Caron Simply Soft, one of wool and blends like Patons Classic and WoolEase, one of Bulky, one of "fancy yarns", and one of sport - fingering) and the drawers are all my acrylics I use for amigurumi. The drawers are now organized by brand of yarn (one is Vanna's Choice and Everyday Soft Worsted, the other is Red Heart With Love and Super Saver). I have another drawer unit out in the room that is all cheap thrift store acrylic like Caron Sayelle. I also organized all those boxes at the top with sewing notions, trims, etc. It's been a ton of work. The final pic on the right is my pile thus far of "things to sell" - some will be ebay or craig's list items, but most will be in a yard sale. It's coming along!

So that's been my week :) Head over to Tami's Amis' Blog to see what others are making too!

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StainTalk Review: Carbona Silver Wipes

As a member of the Stain Talk Cleaning Heroes, I was asked to try out Carbona's new Silver Wipes. Since I work in a jewelry store where we buy used jewelry and service wear everyday, I knew I would really be able to put these babies to the test. I have access to industrial use metal cleaning solvents, so these wipes would really have to be good to impress me.

Anyway, I grabbed two piece to try these out on. The cup to the left is sterling silver - notice how nasty it looks. Yeah, that's what things look like when people bring them in to sell - yuck. Now, the one on the right I originally thought was silver plated, but as I started cleaning it I discovered it was actually just really tarnished brass - whoops.

So, I went back to the silver plated box we keep around and grabbed this little guy. This jar is silver plated.

I began with the sterling silver cup. This is just a close up so you can really see just how tarnished this was. It even had a blue-purple sheen. Normally if a customer brought this in for us to clean, I would have to first brush it really well with a tarnish remover - this works great for removing the color, but it leaves the silver slightly yellowy. To remove the yellow-ish color, I would then have to rub the piece with a polishing cloth. So, needless to say I was excited to see what just this one little cloth could do.

Can we say Holy Cow? I mean before I cleaned this I couldn't even tell it had any engraving on it. That is pretty impressive - and unlike our tarnish remover this cloth left no yellow color. After rubbing it thoroughly with the cloth, I rinsed it well with warm water and dried it with a paper towel.

Check out how dirty the cloth is! It's the same color as out counter. The only slightly negative thing I would say about this is that the cloth got dirty quickly and it loses some of its cleaning strength as the dirt rubs onto it. There is still a section on the back of the cup that could use some more cleaning, but it would have taken another cloth to do it. So if you had a large silver service and wanted to clean everything, you would go through a lot of cloths fast.

So here is another look at out silver plated guy. Normally, when people bring in silver plated piece to have us clean, I would go through the same process as for actual sterling, but it never comes out looking as nice. It is harder to clean plated pieces and you really can never get rid of certain types of spots and such.

But wow - look at that! The results of this plated piece are honestly more impressive to me than the sterling piece. There is still some tarnishing in between those ribs as well as in the detail on the handle and up under the lip - but really pieces like this are expected to have that 'patina' since it is near impossible to get into each and every little crack while polishing it. Again, the cloth was really nasty dirty - the tarnish looks much darker from the silver plated piece.

So, my professional opinion on these is that they are fantastic! And at only around $4.50 for 20 wipes they are a complete bargain. These are a zillion times more effective than the little tubs of silver cleaner you can buy in a store. These would also work great on jewelry, it would just be a little harder to get into all the small spaces, but I'm sure it could be done if you had the inclination.

These wipes get a 5 out of 5 star review and they deserve more than that! Definitely grab a can of these if you have any silver piece you need brightened up.

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