Needle Felting

The Beholder won BOTH first prizes in the hat competition! Employee Choice and Customer Choice! They said I won "hands down!". Love it.


And here are my autumn teacher gifts this year. They are brooches! Wishin' I had one myself!

Annie's Dress

Abi recently earned $10 and knew exactly what she wanted to do with it. She's had her eye on this mini-bunny from Build-a-Bear for a while and she had just enough for it....but not for an outfit. It took a lot to convince her that I could crochet something for her and here it is. There are matching bloomers underneath! I made up the pattern as I went along so no links to patterns this time. Abi was pleasantly surprised when she got home from school today:)

Mary Jane Slippers

Abby needed some new slippers and I was ready for a new pattern hunt. I found the perfect slippers that are easily made into whatever size you need! My only changes were that I did half-double crochets instead of the double crochets the pattern calls for.

Slipper pattern

Happy Halloween!

My own creations! No patterns here! New Trick-or-Treat bags for the kids! Ben will have a bloodshot eyeball with red nerves as handles (eew!), Abby's will be a kitty face, and Conor's a Jack-o-lantern!

New Zealand Wool

I am a lucky girl! My friend in New Zealand sent me oodles of yarn! Thank you SOO much Susan!


And one of my first projects with it was this adorable little hat for a new wee-girl:)

Needle Felted Pumpkin!

Here is my first needle felted pumpkin! It was so much fun! Send me ideas for more projects!
Here is a link to the starter kit I use. I have watched many youtube videos on the subject, trying to teach myself different techniques, and it seems as though I am using the wrong grade of wool for needle felting. I am using roving which is very straight long fibers, excellent for wet felting, but what I really need (and will be getting my hands on soon!) is wool batting which is less expensive, has shorter fibers, is already a bit disorganized (cutting back on the amount of needle pokes you need) and has a less processed look to it.

Beauty is in the Eye of The Beholder

I started a new fiber craft and I LOVE it!!! Needle felting! My first project is a hat for a Halloween Hat competition at a local yarn shop. I decided to make a hat that looks like a Beholder (a crazy scary multi-eyed creature) and when I was unhappy with the crocheted eyeballs I was originally planning on using, I turned to needles! It is so much fun. I can't wait to try my hand at more projects soon.


Here she is! With wires inside each "tentacle" you can make them look wherever you like!


I debated on putting teeth around the brim of the hat. I am still on the fence about it but have decided not to at this point in time. Here is a swatch with a tooth felted onto it just to see what it would look like. I think it could work, maybe I will add them later!

Eyeballs!

Ben and I tried wet felting for the first time ever. He wanted to make an eyeball of course!





Once you get all of the fluff (wool roving) placed where you want it, you put soap and hot water on it, pat it down, and roll it up (in the bubble wrap). I put it in a bin of shallow hot water and started gently rolling it. It takes time and elbow grease but it's fun!

And when you are done you have a hand made piece of felt fabric!

Gnomerific! Gnomified!

A-DOR-A-BLE! Got the ideas from these sites, added my own mushrooms. What a fabulous little housewarming gift a fabulous little family! And now my kids want one too of course!
Gnomes
Gnome Home

Hooter Hat

OK, OK, it's inspired by a very loving group called Peaceful Parenting and has been dubbed the Baby Boobie Beanie. I started calling it the Booby Hat then switched to Hooter Hat. Ha! It's made for a newborn, stretchy enough to still fit a 12-18 month old (two winter wears!) And of course it can be worn by the baby while nursing which would really fool people passing by! It's made in the same way as the Strawberry Hat from a previous post. The only change is that I did the first couple rounds of the top part in flesh color before switching to pink.

Next Project???

I think I might give this a try! Now if I could only figure out a way to get it to make me look that good:)

Totally Not Crochet

For years I painted hand-blown glass tree ornaments, purchased for a few bucks each at Pier 1 Imports but once they were painted they were fabulous gifts. I did most of them in college in the 90's, you know, before I had kids...when I actually had time!!! I would paint at least a dozen each year for aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents, siblings, cousins, friends, etc. Funny thing though, during the mad rush to finish them all before Christmas each year I would skip making one for myself! I have a handful of them, like some Ukranian Eggs and other crafty ones but only one or two painted bulbs. Well, this year my mom decided to give me all of hers! I know this sounds crazy but we rarely celebrate Christmas at her house any more and she wants them to hang somewhere where they can be enjoyed! Here are a few of my favorites:


front/back Winnie the Pooh theme. I also did some Dr. Suess' Grinch bulbs and many other favorite cartoon characters.

My all time favorites are the top two in this shot.

The top two bulbs in this shot were some of my first, before I found the handblown bulbs. I didn't have ideas other than throwing a bunch of Christmas-related items on the bulb:)
The bottom bulb is the Earth with continents painted specific colors to match the globes in Montessori classrooms.

Finally, a couple Ukranian Eggs I made using a kit I bought from the University Bookstore. This is a very fun project, you should try it!

The bulbs are all painted with acrylic-enamels, hard to find little bottles, Ben Franklin has them. They are better than plain acrylics because they really fuse on and if you paint things that can go in the oven, like terra cotta pots, you can bake them to really set them permanently! A friend of mine recently told me about painting wooden Easter eggs each year, these paints would also be perfect for that....maybe that will be my next new Easter craft:)

Ring Toy

My version of a ring toy pattern I saw a while ago. Just make tubes by crocheting in a round, and around and around.....and around. Stuff them and join the ends!

It's cotton and cuddly! I'm sure it will be good chewin' and it's a gift for a friend's new baby girl, Finleigh.

Krochet Kitchen

My friend Katrina commissioned me for some crocheted bowls and a soup pot for a fabulous roll-up felt kitchen she made for her niece. I looked at the big bowl and it begged for fruits and veggies! So I threw in a few extras, after all, she is a fabulous friend who is always doing fabulous things for others:)


Again, no links to these items, all were freehand. There's a tomato, a pear, a green apple, a carrot, and a banana. I almost added something purple, like grapes or an eggplant, but the bowl was full! Here is a link to some fruit patterns I found but haven't tested yet.

The World is a Rainbow

A basket of rainbow balls for a special friend (and her family) who suffered a loss that no one should have to suffer. Hopefully this will brighten her day just a little, in the future, when she is ready.

I don't often come up with very unique ideas on my own and I am sure I'm not the first to think of doing this but I am proud of this particular idea. I had the rainbow balls made and wanted something for them to go in. I started with a blue and white basket, thinking it was a nice way to represent clouds and rain which are things that go hand in hand with rainbows. But I didn't like how it turned out so I started over. I ended up with this beautiful basket that represents the earth. Soil, vegetation, water, sky, clouds, and sun. What better color scheme can one ask for?

There are no pattern links this time. It's all free form crochet using techniques I've used many times before. There are plenty of patterns online for balls and baskets though.

Strawberry Baby

Maybe one of the easiest hats EVER! No need to learn how to work in a round and this method produces a very stretchy fabric for lots of growing room. All you need to know is how to half-double crochet and how to work into the back loop only. This is an infant sized hat but any size can be made very easily. You start by making a rectangle, this was 7 inches by 12 inches (unstretched, it was 14+ inches stretched). Working back and forth in the back loops creates the ridges letting it expand quite a bit.

I decided to omit embellishing it with strawberry seeds and leaves. You can also make many other fruits or just go for a striped look with a solid "cap". The green stem is made by adding green to one of the ridges and single crocheting on each of the ridges (skipping the valleys) which cinches it together a bit. From there start working in the round while decreasing (sc2tog, sc) until you have 5-6 stitches then single crochet evenly around until desired stem height is reached. Here is a link to the pattern in case I forgot any directions.


I used Vanna yarn with an I-hook, started with an hdc-foundation (youtube has good instructional videos of this and it is my preferred way of starting projects) chain of 26, and hdc in back loops for 31 more rows. This hook size produced a pretty tight fabric, I will try a J-hook next....maybe a blueberry!

Yet Another Neckwarmer. Love It!

Love this pattern. Love this yarn. Love these buttons. Love it, love it, love it!
If you haven't signed up for access to Ravelry.com yet you must!!! I found the pattern through that site but here is a link to it on the owner's blog. It's called the Catherine Wheel Scarf (neck warmers are just short scarves), I omitted the border. The buttons are made from nutshells. I believe I posted close-up shots in a previous post.

The yarn is Mini Mochi and I used a size H hook. This is a gift for a friend who is going through a very rough time in her life. I hope it brightens her day:)

I am still working on a big afghan project for my husband. A little here, a little there. With small projects in between to break it up. We are having the warmest winter ever so my mind is already wandering, what kinds of crocheted items are there to make for warmer days? Hmmmm....