SnB B-day swap

I love partaking in the stitching group swaps.  Not only do I get to spend time with adults who can think for themselves (try spending 8 hours in a retail environment..i love my job..i really do) but  I love making something for someone else and seeing what these creatively inspirational woman in the group have made for each other.

The best part of this swap - I was honored to make something for a new mommy, well almost new mommy...her second kid really, but its still thrilling!  I thought about making a layette set for her, buuuttt...how many pregnant mommies actually get something for themselves, something that has nothing to do with their newborn or other children?  I know I am wearing shoes to work that have holes in the bottom and a pant or two with holes in the pockets.  So if I cant even get myself out to the store to get pants with no pocket holes I'm guessing my swap buddy would not have the time or energy to get herself something nice.  But I could be wrong. 

So I made her this felted purse:

I am so excited as to how the felting turned out.  And I hope Jen has a wonderful time using it and the little purse that came with it:

And as I sit here procrastinating from doing house chores or studying or anything mildly productive I am sipping away at the fancy hot coco I got from Sam.  Can't wait to use the gloves she knitted me and the little ear warmer thingie..not to mention I am trying to decide what to make with that lovely yarn I got as well...mmm...

Start em Young I say!

Last month I went on a spinning spree, from spinning up some frizzy stuff for Craft Akron, to teaching a friend how to use my extra wheel and drum carder so she too can be addicted to the spinning craze.  This brought about my son's endeavor to learn how to operate the wheel -

Who can ignore this cuteness?

I also blame this on the Moswolt spinning wheel I bought on ebay and is now sitting in my garage being stained. I'll post photos once the wheel has been dressed and is ready to see the world.  However, my mother has added to this addiction by buying me another moswolt wheel ( i admit to prompting this early x-mass/b-day gift)...

I just have to find the time to spin now :)

kids away I must play

Sooo, with the kid off at 'school';  aka - daycare or as I like to call it, Mommy Sanity; and since my parasite within me has demanded another day of rest I pulled out some stuff to make cool stitch markers.  And I needed some photo's to send off for prospective classes I want to teach.

Stitch markers made with the hippie beads

 

 Had to pull out the animal beads, might remake some of these with fancier beads tho... And these have hooks so you can 'count' the number of decreases by attaching one marker to each row you decrease on.

Much fancier markers.  Somewhere in that garage are the few beads like these so I could make more. Alas the container with those beads are NOT where I left them, I blame gremlins.

And my ABC set.  My poor sister has been waiting years fro me to do a sweater for her with lots of different stitches that I will need these to keep me sane!

Is it me or are these photo's a bit off?  Somehow I think my camera has been played with by the kid or shall we say 'batman'...I may have to re-post these pic's after some adjustment to the camera settings and a small discussion on mommies toy versus kid toy.

Pin cushion sawppiness

I had an extremely hard time giving up this pin cushion.  In fact, I had to leave it at Craft Akron so I would not conviently forget it at home.

I made the pattern with muslim, put that together and stuffed it.  Then took 2 days to create the felted cover with merino wool from http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenwoodFiberworks.  I handstitched it all together and then had fun making the bugs that crawl about on the pin cushion. 

I believe this was about 6 inches in diameter.  Not that I meant to make it so large but it just grew!

A dragonfly.  Soo cute, I need to add these to the flower barrettes I make, but I am not sure how they will hold up.

Top of the dragonfly.

Side view of the butterfly.

 Top view of the butterfly.

Note to self

Note to self...no matter how fast u want to get out of the house,always bring the stinking laptop with you. Or at least the keyboard for your iPod. I forsee in about 30 - 40 years an epidemic of arthritis targeting thumbs. I cannot see how people do this more than a few minutes.

New Year's Resolution in Progress

Unlike past year's I made a resolutuon.  I am bound and determined to finish as many of my uncompleted projects as I can throughout this coming year.  And I have made progress.  I finally finished the sweater from Debbie Bliss's book Natural Knis for Babies and Moms. It is the Jo Jo Basic Crew Sweater with a few alterations.  The best alteration is to combine the front and back so I end up sewing in the round and just split the pattern when I get to the sleeves.  I just hate sewing seams.  They are my nemisis. 

So this sweater was suppose to be for my current son when he was about 1.  Yes, I know he is now almost 3.  It was not sewing sleeves that prevented this from being worn by this squidgy but buttons.  Yes, buttons.  I know they take only minutes to sew on but for some reason I was stuck on sewing them on.  So when I pulled it from one of the numerous knitting bags to see that it only needed buttons I slapped myself on the head. 

 

Not stopping with the button sweater I also found theses amigurami that were half finsihed.  Just needed eyes and ears attached. 

One of my first amigurami's here, sadly they are a little lopsided.   But the amigurimi thief has struck again.  This is the last time I have seen them anywhere in the house.  In case you were wondering, the Ninja is still MIA.  I believe he might be battling ants or monsters or has been kidnapped by the cats for some of their dastardly deeds.

Amigurumi Swappiness

What a wonderful morning at Caribou Coffee house a few weeks ago, no kids, lots of knitters, and all these cute little critters to share with each other.  I think everyone made out!  Now, if I could only find that darn little camera I had with me I could share the photo's with everyone.  But I do have the photo's of what I gave to Devona, and most likely her girls as well.

The basic larger owl design was from 2 different free patterns: 
The body design was from http://mactata.blogspot.com/2009/05/free-crochet-pattern-amigurumi.html by Expattern and
http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/2007/12/owls-and-envy.html by
Roman Sock provided the head pattern.  This was also the pattern for the owlets.  I mean who can resist something so cute and nly takes an hour to make?

I have an aversion to truly learning how to read corchet patterns, hence I look at the photo's, try to read the pattern, get frustrated and then just 'wing-it' so the little guys look like the photo.  Sometimes it works great and sometimes not so much  This time it worked out for the best!

And since I find googgley or doll eyes just a little creepy I crochet those as well.  If you every decide to do this,  first smack yourself on the head, then repeat after me "sew on the pupils before sewing the eyeball on", believe me you will need this mantra to save your fingers and sanity.

But I must say, it was all worth the effort cause they are just adorable!

There is a side story with these creations.  When I made their bodies, without eyes/beaks/wings/feet I found I had an amigurumi thief in the house.  This small 2yr old came over to the pile of bodies, smiled, then quickly nabbed the little dudes and said "I have your babies" giggled and ran away. 

Do NOT be decieved by this cute little face...he is wanted for abduction of defensless Amigurumi

Not that he went far, instead he placed them on his "treasure chest" (aka toy chest) that sites under the front window, pulled the curtains around the chest and announced they were now in his tent. 

With no 'babies' to work on I proceeded to work on the nest.  This was a basket I made with some handspun Jacob's wool that never really shrank to be a basket.  Instead it shrank and became this floppy waste of time, water, and handspun yarn.  So I cut it up, braided strands together, and attached a roundish bottom.  Whalla, the babies now have a home.  Which was then stolen and put in the tent. Sigh, a mommy sometimes just can't win.

I did bribe my abductor with promises to make him a ninja, which is now lost in his room and should the ninja come up for air I promise to fix your neck, take a photo and add you to this blog!  Just in case the "monster's" you help to kill finally take you out, or my son throttles you to death with that death grip he has when he holds you about the neck.

Busted

I was doing soo well last night.  I came home from work knowing I would have to keep myself up as late as I could because I am covering a 3rd shift (10pm - 8am) manager for the next 4 days.  So I made a list of what needed to be done and tried to be realistic on what could be accomplished.  I completed and/or made great strides in the list, GO ME!

And then it happened.  I found the warp I wanted to use for the baby's blanket I plan on weaving...dang it.  I was hoping it was buried deep in a pile of craftiness in that glorified hallway.  But nooooo, I apparently put it in a nice little baggy in the middle of a pile.  Crap.  So the last thing I did at 3:30am was to put it in the basket with the weft by the loom. 

The only reason I am awake now is this warp...I mean, I did wake up to my 2yr old at 7:30am coming to tell me he was awake.  All mothers know that this is a very important fact and must be shared with the mommy, daddy (seperately of course), the dog, and if they haven't run out of the room, the cats as well.  If the fishies were lower to the ground I think he would be telling them to.  So I laid there for a bit after "Im awake" was announced, allowed the lovely daddy here take care of the morning routine with the kid and then the 2nd one (still inside me) started to demand food or there would be no end to the acid reflux.  I believe this kid was meant to be a wrestler, he does seem to like to tangle with my tummy.  Its either born to be a wrestler or he really likes the chalk taste from tums.

So, instead of napping, instead of accomplishing something more on my list I am getting warp ready for the loom.  Maybe the craft goddess has hidden my hooky thing-a-ma-bob that takes the warp thru the heddles and beater...maybe that is where I am going to get caught at..hehe

Just one more hour of this and I promise, I promise mommy is going back to bed until the wee wrestler (aka parasite) holds my tummy as a hostage once again.

It's been a month

AACKK...I was reminded last night at SnB that I have not posted in a month..shame on me.  Life has been busy: potty training a 2yr old, trying to organize and move things around for the baby to come, and try to play with my fiber...nesting?  I might be nesting...

So with all that in mind, I brought in the help (grandparents can be bribed with their only grandson) to tear out the bar in the basement.  The bar was not being used as a bar, it had no alcohol in it, this does not mean it was a 'dry' bar but rather a glorified closet space with no doors.  In such a tiny house why do we have such an unused space?  Especially with a 2nd kid coming? And the fact that our 3rd 'bedroom' is really just a glorified hallway where we dump stuff and I try to sew/play with fiber?  I am not about to put the 2yr old there, nor the baby.  Nightmares of my son escaping into the night to become feral (would not take but a night to accomplish), or someone coming in and taking my baby is not how I want to spend my life at this house.  Hence, the destruction of the bar.

The discussion.  Grandpa Ken and the kid are 'discussing' what comes next.  I didn't make it down there before deconstruction started, but imagine a large bar top that extended from the right of the photo to the left. It came out rather easily (especially since I was just watching and holding bits, gotta love the pregnancy excuse!).

Isn't it cute to watch the indocternation of small boys into manly activities?  Like trying to hammer nails down so we won't get stabbed by them.  I wanna know where the small 2yr old went that liked to help mommy clean stuff up? Oh, right...he never really existed but in my daydreams..

The empty space.  Whoohoo!  I had one rug and it is obviously not large enough for the space.  Good in that the area is larger than I thought.  Bad in that now I have to get more rugs.  The best news is that this only took 1 day, yes 1 day!  Thank you grandparent labor!  I am now doing the happy dance; well, the pregnant happy dance, it's a little slower.

YES, YES, YES!  Everything fits.  The loom, the sewing machine, a small bookshelf (may have to upgrade that, i own waaayy to many books to fit that...maybe the magazines could go there?).  Just need some floor lamps to increase the light and to bring up the small TV from the akron house so I can listen to movies while I play...

I will post updates as I get this space up and running.  But first, I must organize the mess this has created in the tiny 2nd - defunked kitchen (it has no stove but has an upright freezer, sink and cabinets), the larger area in the basement, the hobby room/glorified hallway, and of course the 3 season room.  Sigh, I wish I had another day of vacation.

Please NOTE:  Just because I have a studio space now does not mean I will not bring anything up to the living room to work on or play.  I mean the kids have their toys up there, the hubby has a laptop (ok, ok, so i use it more than he probably does but it's still his), and thusly I should be included in the living room play time.  And it has natural sunlight, a rare comodity in this elf-tiny house.

Felted Flower Addiction

What a fun addiction to make!  I've been using hand dyed merino roving to create these little guys. Takes me about 2hrs to make about 20 of them, and the centers.  I have been known to use the blow dryer to decrease the wait time on drying so I can sew centers on and put on the backs.  I love the barretts and am thinking about finding some nice hair combs to decorate with flowers.

General size of the flowers are just a little larger than a quarter.








I will have a few classes coming up on how to make these suckers, check out dates and times at both Craft Akron and Peninsula Art Academy.

I am going to experiment with creating little insects to accent the flowers.  Thanks to Martha at Craft Akron, I can now attach the dots or legs or whatever with the needle felting needles she gave me this afternoon.  Which is just fantastic because the needles I found at home have rusted from being out in the garage...really, really need to get that studio started and completed!

train hat!

Finally!  I was able to convince the small gremlin to wear another hat this morning.  So here is the train hat.  I think it still needs fluffy smoke coming out of the stack, maybe I will add that this weekend during the conference.

The train pattern came from a kid's pattern book.  Unfortunately I cannot locate it but as as soon as I do I will post whose pattern it is.  I did adjust the pattern a little due to lack of some yarn and trying to knit with the 2yr old running about.

Not to happy about the stitching on the green railcar.  I may have to rip out and try again.  Although the kiddo seems to really like it anyway and I will be satisfied if it lasts thru this year and next year.







And the caboose.

 Last but not least, the model.  I had to distract him with monkeys!

ideas swirling

Too many ideas swirling in my head and too many unfinished projects to complete.  The best ideas swirling in around are those on the new studio space we will be creating at the end of february.  Too many steps between now and then but I am thinking of how to organize and where to put all the lovely hobbies I have into it.  SOOOO excited!

Cotton Flower Design

This scarf and hat are only in existance because of a great friend Andi!  It was her Japanese book with the scarf design in it that started me off in this flower making craze.  The hat is my idea and I do need to tear it apart, it needs just one more flower in the 3rd row to fit correctly.  Then I will work on cleaning up my instructions so I can share it!

The flowers are crocheted and are out of what i had left of 'cotton ease'.  Which I think I bought at Joanne Fabrics.  I love the yarn, its nice and soft. 

6 petaled flowers are attached where you see the petals touch.  The downfall to this design is that each petal is tied seperately and then you have to weave in the ends.  It was time consuming and I have only made one other one for a swap.   

                                                   

This flower scarf was alot of fun to make.  I used 4 skeins of soy silk/wool mixed yarn.  I used a larger crochet hook and after I made all the flowers I threw them into the washing maching and felted them down.  I then spent a few nights putting it together and stitching in a few centers with maroon or yellow dmc floss.

Just starting out

It has been suggested that I start a thread centered around all of the creative outlets I have learned and now teach.  So here it is..my begining...I am testing another site as well to test its ease of use, although I believe this will be much like starting off at the internet, where you begin with a nice easy program and progress to something much more difficult...so off I go!