CLOSED: Nerd Games - Summer 2021

Prompt: August battle- Narrow Ruled
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Gnome Book
Project Link: N/A
Brief Description: Coptic Stitch book with a gnome theme from Gnome-a-geddon, now postponed so expect tons more gnomey goodness! The cover has both wide and narrow stripes, but I’m a narrow ruled fan!
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Prompt: Big Time #1
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Horse Cross Stitch
Project Link: N/A
Brief Description: For the Hoopla swap!
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Prompt: Zap #1
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Owl Buttons
Project Link: N/A
Brief Description: Made some owl buttons and magnets for the ongoing owling of my friend’s house!
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Prompt: Zap #2
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Gnome Buttons
Project Link: N/A
Brief Description: For… you guessed it… gnomageddon!
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I have some more to upload but the website is doing this really weird picture flashing thing and I’m worried it’s going to fail, so I’m going to stop there and do the others later. I have next week off work so hopefully I’ll get some more crafts done!

5 Likes

Ooh! I love all of the gnomes you’ve been sharing. I’m looking forward to more!

Also, yay for a whole week off! I hope we can play more Animal Crossing together then :blush:

2 Likes

Prompt: August- Narrow Ruled
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: I-Cord Test Subject
Project Link: n/a
Brief Description: This isn’t what I had intended to post as a project, but the craft mojo has been in deep hiding. So, when I was working on clearing off my craft table, I found this partially finished I-Cord (made with a knitting Jenny that has a crank). I added a little more length to it the other night. It was originally destined to be a bowl that I had planned to felt. But, I think I may have bought a non-felting yarn. In any case, this was going to become a trivet, but it started to form a cup shape as I was stitching it together (by hand). It’s only about 3" tall, and isn’t really big enough to be anything, or flat enough on the bottom to be useful. So, I will be using it as my experimental piece to throw into the wash to see if it actually felts. I still have enough I-Cord to make a trivet. I might try to machine stitch it together (zig-zag stitch), even if the felting doesn’t work.

Question for those with I-Cord experience… it really wanted to twist on me. Is there a way to keep that from happening? Or, is it a natural result of the mechanism of the mechanical knitting Jenny?

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2 Likes

I’ve never used that tool before, but when knitting icord on dpns, I have to occasionally tug the icord down from needles to help keep it straight. Can you do that with the knitting Jenny?

Another thing that can help is going up a needle size or two.

1 Like

I think anything done in the round tends to twist. Can you make a plant mat out of what you have? I use scraps of leftover yarn and then periodically make a scrappy mat…someone here used a fabric backing and did a cool design using i-cord…it is a lovely shade of blue and a project that is good when the crafting mojo wanes…

1 Like

@storerboughtcreation, Thanks for the tip! I’ve never done i-cord with actual knitting needles, but keeping it tugged (it comes with a weight, but I may not have used it consistently) is a good idea.

@AIMR, I have another i-cord made with a non-mechanical knitting jenny, and it doesn’t seem to have the twist, but it isn’t very long. This cord seemed straight at the start, but developed the twist partway through. However, since a plant mat could be a good use of the remainder, I will probably just not fight the twist when I stitch it together.

2 Likes

Sorry for the delay, the new prompts for the last moth of the Summer Nerd Games are up! I’m in denial it’s still “summer”, as you might guess from the prompts… :rofl:

2 Likes

Prompt: Research Project #2
Team: :yarn:
Project Name: HP biscornu
Project Link: Harry Potter biscornu/ornament
Brief Description: I made this for jillybeans in the OTT secret pal swap. It took me several hours to design the charts for this. I used four different patterns to create the pattern for this project. Then I had to stitch both pieces and attach. I felt like the oatmeal colored aida looked enough like parchment that I decided to do a marauders map theme for the back. I love one. It’s so colorful, and was a lot of fun to stitch up.
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4 Likes

Prompt: Big Time
Team: :yarn:
Project Name: Mosaic blanket
Project Link: Mosaic geometric design blanket
Brief Description: I finished this blanket last night. I wish we had more slots for research projects :crazy_face: I’ve already used up both of mine.
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Holy moly! That blanket is EPIC!!

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Prompt: July - Ski Vacation
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Stash Scarf
Project Link:
Brief Description: @storerboughtcreation and I did a personal swap last month. I made a few things, including this “stash scarf.” I came up with these for one of my bulk holiday gifts in 2019 and they were a huge hit. They are so nice to hold your stuff, have it accessible, and not have to carry around another bag (or you know, stash whatever you need to stash). Storer isn’t somewhere very cold, so I tried to use the lightest weight plaid shirting I could find…that had pink in it! I encourage re-gifting or donating things I make that aren’t thrilling or useful for folks, so even if it’s too warm for storer, she can pass it along to chilly willies somewhere else. It has a zipper in the seam, and the cuff is both decorative and useful if people want to cover the zipper with it for extra security.

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Prompt: August - Pencil Box
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Hot/Cold Rice Pack
Project Link:
Brief Description: Another swap item, this time rectangular. Ya’ll have seen these from me 100 times. They are just so practical. I have 8 in my freezer at any given time.

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hot cold pack


Prompt: July - Hiking Vacation
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Cutting Board
Project Link:
Brief Description: I got sloth-y with the swap-y. I wood burned a cute sloth onto a bamboo cutting board. Looking back, I might have chosen a different tip, but I needed the fine details for the face, so I used a precision tip for the whole thing. I had never burned bamboo either…the wood was harder than I thought it would be. But I like how it turned out either way!

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cutting board


Prompt: August - Ruler
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Mask
Project Link:
Brief Description: We’re still in this pandemic, you know? Storer and I had a little conversation about the state of things, and I decided to send along a mask. Back in early 2020, when things were just starting to ramp up, I made 175 of these babies and donated a bunch to local front line workers. Throughout all of this masking time, this is still the best pattern I have found, and people continue requesting them because they fit so well. I had some sitting pre-cut and ready, so I stitched this one up for the swap. Sorry, I didn’t get a photo of it out of the bag!

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Prompt: Big Time
Team: Bits and Bobs
Project Name: Wallet
Project Link:
Brief Description: This was the big item I made for the swap. It uses the Necessary Clutch Wallet pattern. I made a couple using black sparkle vinyl for my friend and me a few years ago, and knew I had some in pink, so this plan was born. Of course, I had forgotten all the lessons I learned working with the pattern and the vinyl in particular, so…let’s just say I spent some time weeping, recutting, resewing, swearing, changing needles, and reinforcing the vinyl however I could. But I filled it with sloths. And I think it turned out pretty well in the end. (And I’ve been using the one I made for myself everyday since 2017, so hopefully it will hold up well for storer, too!)

Project Photo(s):

wallet 1

And, just for fun, here is the swap package all together.

Thanks, again, storer! It was a blast to be back in the game!

4 Likes

Prompt: September - Pumpkin Bread
Team: :yarn:
Project Name: Donut trivet
Project Link:
Brief Description: I made a donut trivet. The base is brown. I am not really a fan of how this turned out, but not everything can be a winner, right? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
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1 Like

Prompt: Pumpkin Spice Latte (September)
Team: Running with Scissors
Project Name: Tomato & Goat Cheese Linguine
Project Link: N/A
Brief Description: I made this for dinner tonight to use up some cherry tomatoes from my parents’ garden. The pasta required hot water (and the tomatoes generated so. much. water in the skillet).
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3 Likes

Prompt: Pumpkin Bread (September)
Team: Running with Scissors
Project Name: Emergency “Brownies”
Project Link: N/A
Brief Description: These are baked and brown. They also contain multiple types of ingredients, namely the ones in the recipe and the baking powder I accidentally added because I was prepping two different things at the same time :woman_facepalming:t2:. So really, I made cake.
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Bread… cake… whichever this is, it looks and sounds yummy!

I mean, it definitely works, just not as a brownie :laughing:. I thought I’d scooped most of the BP out, but it’s still so. fluffy.

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I absolutely loved swapping with you! Brought back memories of other swaps we did. I love my entire package! :hearts:

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Prompt: Big Time
Team: :yarn:
Project Name: Blooming Tiles mosaic
Project Link: Blooming Tiles Mosaic blanket
Brief Description: I absolutely love this blanket!
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2 Likes

Prompt: September Battle - Spice
Team: Running With Scissors
Project Name: Northern Lights 8x10
Project Link: Northern Lights 8x10
Brief Description: The stars in this painting look like a sprinkling of celestial spice across the heavens… (so poetic! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)
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3 Likes

I love this. SO MUCH! It’s just gorgeous. I would hang it on the wall in my bedroom and pretend it was a window I was looking out every night :heart:

1 Like