The Divine Rainbow

My friend Katrina's daughter L.O.V.E.S. rainbows so when I found this Bernat Mosaic Calypso yarn I was over the moon. I'd never seen it before! I decided to make this Divine Hat pattern with it because it is so much fun, has a little pizazz with its spiral-ness, and I thought it would be perfect for this rainbow-loving 6 year old. Now I must force myself to wait until Christmas! Ack! I don't think I can do that!!!

Hooter Hat Update!

Wow! I'm falling off the blogging train! Sorry!
So, a while ago I posted about the Hooter Hat I made for a friend. Well now I wanted to update with some of the most adorable photos of the owner of this awesome hat! This is sweet Magnolia, she wears it well :)

Not Wool...

There are so many fabulous types of yarn available, from luscious Merino to shimmery Rayon in rich hues, but I've been exploring making my own yarn. Out of plastic. While looking for a project for the Girl Scouts that used recycled plastic grocery bags, I stumbled upon many sites featuring crocheted and knitted items using plastic "yarn." It's easy and fairly therapeutic to make, and you could get really creative with all of the colors out there!

It's very easy to use on a loom, and I'm only experimenting with a small pouch-like purse for my daughter, but there are many, many cool sites out there for inspiration on using this medium!

We used it for "ribbon" on some birthday and holiday gifts

And, just a few bags, makes a good amount too. This was only one bag's worth (pink bag from Top Foods/October Breast Cancer Awareness bags)
Here are the steps on how to make your own yardage:

Lay the bag out like so...

Fold five times, fairly evenly

Trim off the top (handles) and the bottom seam

Fold the length in half and cut

Continue cutting so that you end up with 8 pieces

Open up the 8 cut sections

Lay one loop over the top of another, and

pull the loop through, connecting them

Like so...

Pull the knot tight

Keep adding additional lengths to the un-knotted end of the chain, use as many bags as you want for more yardage.

Then, wind into a ball, and voila!

You've got yarn.

Happy creating! (Amazon Fresh = light green yarn, Grocery Outlet = bright yellow, Safeway = white with red and black accents, QFC = beige, and various local shops have a variety of colors... I found bright blue and red recently.)

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:)