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:)

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:)