Crafting as of late...

There's only been six days into this new year and I've still manage to get my crafting in daily. Yeay!! I've started another Knitted Gnome Baby, one of several for some friends of our families, I plan on gifting them at Christmas time. I don't believe they follow my blog, so I'm not too afraid to mentioning it. I guess only time will tell if I get them all done AND on time (I've got 353 days to go). I'm also STILL working on a knitted beaded bag that I volunteered to test knit in a Ravelry group I joined. I've run into problem after problem with it, mainly because I keep dropping stitches on the double pointed needles. I'm also a slow knitter and add in the string of beads and my speed has slowed WAY down. I'm farther along than what the pic shows, I just haven't taken a recent photo of it.Other than my constant dropping stitches, it's fun to work on! And I think I beaded the beads to create a spiral pattern among the colors. Yippee!

I've joined Yarni Gras Year of Enchantment which is a year long swap of enchanting Christmas ornaments. This months swap theme is the acorn or the pinecone. I wanted to do something really unique and creative for my swap partner, Natalie (who lives in Australia...SO COOL! I've wanted to go there since the fifth grade when my best friend went for a month and we did a science project on it, which was really just an "informational" project, there was no science involved, you know, the kind where you get a big ol' display board and put up a title, information and trinkety stuff to display along with it, maybe even a flyer for people to take)...anyways, back to unique and creative...I thought about it for a good week, and I always think at night when I go to bed and I'm drifting off to sleep (why do the best ideas come right at that moment in between wake and asleep??) So I had an AHA! idea that I thought would be SO CUTE and I've already got a few prototypes going when Yarni Gras posted her tutorials post here, here and here. One of the posts gave me the idea to look up on Etsy my idea and what do you know...someone had already thought of it, BUT...it's not quite the same...MY design is different...and honestly, I think I like my design better. Well, that's all I can say about that super secret crafty bit. The suspense...what could it be?? Soon you all will see!

Crazy Holidays!

I see that I haven't posted for over a month...which goes to show that I've been crazy busy with this holiday season. It all started in November with the Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap AND a mystery knit-a-long on Ravelry with Woolly Wormhead. It turns out I chose to knit Everglade which she now sells on her website. It is SUPER FUN to knit up, but I still need to finish it. That's one of my holiday knitting projects. However, I created a second hedgehog for someone...it just got mailed today so I won't say who. :) I've started testing another knitting pattern for the Ravelry group for test knitters. Turns out that I chose to work on Hermione's Beaded Bag, (hopefully this link will work for you non-ravelrers) inspired by the 7th Harry Potter book, SO COOL!! It's turning out to be more time consuming than expected largely due to my idea of beading the beads to create a pattern instead of just stringing on one color of beads. WHY did I do this to myself?? On top of that, I get to test knit Kudzu Kuffs, which are Twilight inspired knitted wrist warmers, also on Ravelry, also SO COOL, which I will be making for my mom for Christmas. Should I be mentioning this?? Mom?? How often do you read my blog?? This pattern will be available for purchase next year. I've managed to finish my gauge swatch, so now I'm ready to cast on. Don't think I'll get these done in the next 6 days, so I'm going to give my mom the pattern, needles and skein of yarn with however much I have completed by Christmas. I wanted to get a package in the mail to Wisconsin...however the items for that package are incomplete as well...yet another top secret craft project. :) Last, but not least, I wanted to knit my husband a beanie hat. I have the pattern, which was a free download (Mr. Tom's Beanie, another by Woolly Wormhead, THANK YOU WW!!), I have the yarn and needles, I'm just running out of time. Again, another gift of the pattern and yarn skeins. However, I did manage to find this woodworking project for him and it arrived pretty promptly in the mail. I hope he digs it and is excited to build it for baby. I want to encourage his hobbies, I just hope he finds wood working a hobby. I hope you all have enjoyed this non-picture post, I'm hoping the number of links makes up for that. Since it may be a while before I get on again...

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Enchanted Forest Ornamets Completed!

YEAY! I've completed my first swap! Valerie of YarniGras and YarniGras Swapper Spot hosted an Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap that I participated in. Below is the pic of everything I'll be sending off tomorrow. One adorable little hedgehog, two sweet little owlets in their holiday colored nests, lots and LOTS of little chocolates, some friendship tea and a pine scented candle for all the critters to feel at home in the forest when it's lit.

I've bundled them all among a red garland (instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap) inside the tin with the enchanting tree on the lid. :)

These two little owlets were so fun to make! I think I'm going to make more for Christmas gifts this year. My favorite part of this whole swap was that I got to buy more yarn!! FIVE NEW SKEINS!!! The brown is a super soft alpaca/acrylic blend by Bernat (it's so soft and they had great neutral colors to choose from), I lost the label to the white one but I think it's a Lion's Brand, the orange is Lion Wool (which I'm so excited to possibly use the rest for a hat, I just love the shade of orange it is!) and the red and green are Vanna's Choice. All are nice and lovely yarns to work with.

I originally posted about all of them here which has the links to the oscillating owlets and hedgehog knitting patterns, you know, just in case you'd like to knit them up as well. I'll be mailing all these guys off tomorrow to my secret top secret swap partner. I hope she enjoys them all!

Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap Update

One of the blogs I frequent for inspiration, Little Cotton Rabbits, designed this cute little guy...You can purchase his pdf pattern here.

I've been eyeballing him since she designed him, now I finally had an excuse to purchase his pattern. YEAY!! This little guy will be made up with a Christmas ribbon as well as these little guys...

They were designed by Mochimochi Land and they're another pattern I've been eyeballing since she put them up for sale here. This ornament swap has given me yet another excuse to purchase cute and adorable patterns. I'll be making up the owls in the same brown yarn as the hedgehog yet their nest will be Christmas green with Christmas red ropes to hang on the tree with. Hopefully I can get pics up soon of my WIP!!

Crafty Update

I have finally overcome my laziness of getting on the "slow" computer and downloading all my pictures from the past several months. I just dread getting on this computer because our new laptop is on and going in a snap! This first pic is a crocheted baby blanket that I made a friend who had her baby in July. I finished it the day she was born and delivered it the following day. I'm not that experienced, but I wonder if blocking it would have helped out the waves that occurred as it got larger? Not sure. I made up the pattern, it's a basic granny square with about six rows of double crochet in between the center and the outer edge. I used Lions Brand Homespun in their Tudor colorway. It took two full skeins and turned out SO SOFT!These Gabu's are all saying farewell to the pretty gray Gabu. She was made and sent as a PIF. The other four Gabu's were all made for office coworkers over the past year. There's my first Gabu, the Red Receptionist, Black Velvet Gabu with sparkly eyes, Camo Gabu with a line of black to look like his unibrow, then the green Gabu with a tuft of brown hair and a smile (he was for my son). Gabu was designed by Roxycraft and you can get the free pattern here. They are quick and easy to make, my son loves his!These owls were so fun to make! My sister-in-law came to visit and we decided to each make one, me, her and my toddler. Then I thought we could glue them to a cut branch from the backyard to cluster them all together. It turned out so cute!! We then sent them home with my mother-in-law. I got this idea from BabyCenter in an email they had sent me. You can get your instructions to make them here. It's a great craft to do with little ones since you first have to collect half the pieces. I used the hot glue gun instead of regular glue so that they would stay together faster.These were two of three Gnome Babies that I knitted to donate to our churches craft bazaar. They were another free pattern from a blog I found. You can check the pattern out here. The larger one sold and the other two were still there yesterday when we went to church. They are sitting on the four baby blankets that I sewed last week. I had the sewing machine out all week to get those baby blankets done for the church and my sons dragon costume completed.

This last picture is one I took for fun. I spilled a drop of milk on the counter when I was making my morning coffee. This is how it landed then splatted. I was so amazed I had to take a picture. You can see my feet on the floor wearing pink Smartwools, THE BEST sock your foot can ever wear. We used to get them at REI when my husband worked there, now we only get them for Christmas from family (they are not cheap!).

Well, that's what I've been up to in the crafty department for the past several months....well, really the past week mostly. The rest of it was before baby #2 was born. Enjoy!

Contests and Giveaways

Well, I submitted my bracelet for the semi-precious gemstone contest last night. YEAY!! Wish me luck! I'll find out more around April 17. I think I'm going to put together a tutorial on how to make it, it was pretty fun and easy. Although, before I get carried away, I need to finish my Golden Compass Lyra Hat from this post. I need to keep my promises. I'm also almost done with my PIF...another big YEAY!!! I've been so excited to show it, until I get it to the lucky receiver, it's a top secret project. Here's a sneak peak though...

This isn't my picture, but it's a free pattern from another blog that I took a part of from and created something different. I'll tell all in good time.

On another note...it's looking as if our Etsy shop is dwindling. I'm considering letting all the items expire and posting new and different product. I've been looking into ideas of mine, some are saturated already on Etsy, some have none at all. I'd like to sell something that is desired but not overly sold already. We didn't get many bites, nor sales, with the jewelry and buttons, but they are both areas on Etsy where's there's plenty to look at. It would have helped if we added new product weekly. My mom, aunt and I all work full time and just didn't get to it as often as we should have. We shall see!

Happy Valentines Day!

A day late, but that's okay! I currently don't have a computer at home. I came to visit my parents who live 3 hours away and am using theirs to catch up. The little one and I had a full day with our friend, we had lunch, then went to a movie, then went to the mall to have a snack and play in the kiddie area. By the time we got home we were exhausted!

A couple years ago I went and saw The Golden Compass. Towards the end of the movie, Lyra, the main character, was wearing a knitted hat in the fight scene. Since I had an infant at the time I just HAD to find the pattern online and make one in blue for him. I ended up finding a few blogs that provided knitted patterns and upon making them, found that there were a few areas I was unhappy with. I ended up changing the patterns I found and created one of my own. Here's a pic of the current one on the needles...


It was for my friends daughter for Christmas, I believe it's a little too big and since it's not finished I'm saving it for next year. I'm currently working on writing up the pattern, hopefully I'll figure out how to add it to the blog as a downloadable pdf. But for those who would like a sneak preview, here's a list of materials:

LYRA HAT (from The Golden Compass)

Materials:
1 Skein Lion Brand Wool Ease, color: Natural Heather
1 Pair 19mm US 35 Knitting Needles

Gauge:
Using both ends of the skein and doubling up the yarn: 6 stitches and 7 rows to 4 inches of stockinette stitch.

Pattern:
STAY TUNED!


Here's another WIP I started a few years ago. I finally finished the main body of it. It was a free Red Heart pattern I got at JoAnn's Fabrics for a knit cell phone cover. At the time I started it, my mom had still had a really OLD phone that would have fit into it once it was hemmed up and a flap and handle were added. Recently she finally got a new phone so the size will not work but it is a good size for an eyeglass cover. I thought I would line it with a soft flannel fabric and still add the flap and handle. It was my first cable pattern. I wanted a challenge and it ended up being very fun!

Knitted Babe Suzy Q

Since I opened up our family Etsy shop, I haven't posted much about the buttons or any crafting. I've been a busy, busy bee finishing up this Knitted Babe...

My mom's beautiful brown hair and dashing blue eyes were the inspiration behind this dolls features, only I didn't add any gray hairs. :) So I've decided to name her Suzy Q. (hee, hee) I've already made one knitted babe about a year ago, who ended up being Cowboy Bob (he just couldn't be a knitted babe for my son, my husband wasn't too excited about that idea). I have yet to make him a wardrobe, though, he only has a pair of boxers and recently a sweater. Suzy Q and her wardrobe are made from the book Knitted Babes It is such a cute book! I recommend this book to all knitters who have kids or grandkids, or are even a kid at heart (like me!) I altered the patterns for some of the clothes in the book, like her teal peacock blue corduroy jacket with tan fur-like trim (I had a fabric sample from work that was SO SOFT and the perfect scale of fur for her). Her jacket was the cowgirls shirt pattern with lengthened sleeves. Her dress is the same pattern as the book, but I didn't sew on the ribbon and I did a different stitch detail on the hem with my sewing machine. It was an experimental stitch an folding of fabric that actually turned out cute.

Here Suzy Q is lowering her jacket to show the details on the back side of her dress. Two black vintage buttons from my stash, black grosgrain ribbon at her waist and black bias tape on the sleeves.

My favorite part was making her handbag. This past summer I went to a Farm Chicks craft show and got a business card for an online quilt store. The card came with "quilters candy" which was this small piece of fabric I used for her handbag with the orange retro flower. It was the perfect size, about 3"x6". I hemmed both sides, cornered the bottom (I learned this trick from U-handblog's very fun and helpful website), then battled the top hem for a good hour just to get it take the leather cord through, glued a small piece of plastic canvas covered with green felt to the bottom and VOILA!! My own creation of a very cute Knitted Babe handbag! I always tend to enjoy the miniature side of crafting. Probably because I grew up with a mother who made miniatures and took me to miniature doll shows as a kid. Thanks Mom! Even in college my favorite part of our interior design studio was making the 1/4" scale models of our designs out of foam coar and museum board. Maybe someday I'll dig them out of our garage, photograph them, then toss them like my husband keeps asking me to do.

Now I can continue on with my Christmas gift making. I have a hat on needles, two inches of sead beads peyote stitched, and a whole bunch of patterns and ideas floating around in my head. Only twenty more days.....wish me luck!