sweet

This one's a biggie

I have sat down to post several times in the last few weeks, and it just hasn't been there. The words were stupid, the pictures awful, and it felt like the same old same old. But some of you like that I guess, because I've gotten enough grief about not blogging over the last few days, that here goes.

It's not that I haven't been doing anything. I finished this to start with:

I realize that I barely even mentioned I was starting it in the first place. It's the Lizard Ridge pattern from Knitty.com and was the bane of my life for weeks. I donated it to the silent auction at Oliver's school. Whew.

I am now working on this:

It's also a pain in the ass, but I am using this yarn that makes me shake a little when I'm in the presence of it in any significant amount, so I persevere. Add to the list of reasons my hands hurt, my own version of a "big" thing, only mine is brown:

And it's for me. My new kick-make things for myself. We'll see if I like it enough when I've finished it. If that actually happens. It will be felted by the way, hence the size.

Also my new kick-spinning. Wow, who knew that it was so satisfying?

Even when I'm doing a very, very bad job, I end up with something. This is Alpaca and it's very soft.

I have also been acquiring vintage books at an alarming rate, because I am opening the craft center. But I have waaaayyyyy too much work ahead of me to say anything more about that now. But I can reassure you it is not why I have not been blogging. Really.

They make me so deliriously happy, mostly because of pictures like this:

And the patterns are pretty cool too:

Not to mention the foxy, smoking men:

Yeah-that kind of smoking.

And now for a taste of sweet-that really is Oliver swinging basically upside down:

And as a tribute to the day, even more sweet:

Courtesy of my hunky hubbie, who's a pretty great dad:

I knew he would be.

:)

I'm exhausted

This is why:

Actually, that is why I have a pot belly again, and yes that is bacon. Mmmmmmm, bacon.

This is why I'm too blinkin' tired to blog:

Handmade playdough to sell at the Winter Faire. 14 containers of it.

And this:

I finally broke out the gocco machine, and boy, I can't believe I didn't try it earlier. It's so easy, even my kids can do it:

Which is a good thing, 'cause I have to make even more than this:

But I have this to wear while I do them, so life isn't too bad.

These will be for sale, of course, at the Winter Faire..

I hope to see you there!

:)

Chaos Reigns

What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been. Mostly due to my participation in planning our school's Winter Faire. I am in charge of the crafts (big surprise) and the little toy market we're running, where we'll be selling waldorf type toys and our hand crafted items. Some of those items are the following:

Can you figure out my new obsession?

Yep, felt bowls.

I am consumed by the differences and why they occur, and have even decided to note how I make each one so I can see if some fuzzy (pun intended) theories I have hold up. For instance, I think the lighter colors don't felt down as well, and a tight knit doesn't felt as well. Of course, the multi colored basket felted beautifully, so maybe the type of yarn? That was manos del Uruguay. The purple one is Cascade Pastaza and both the blue and pink ones are Lamb's Pride Bulky. No conclusions yet.

Since I am in charge of the market part too, it means I have been ordering inventory. We do not have a store front, so this is what my guest room looks like:

Yikes!

Despite it all, I did find a moment to pop into the Assistance League of Santa Monica thrift shop today, and look what I found:

Cost me a whole 60 cents. ahhhhhhhh.

:)

you think you gnomie

 

Meet Herman. He is to be sold at the Winter Faire.

My candles. These I am keeping. Do you hear that? Keeping!

:)

Finally! Serendipitous sale-ing

They're up! I have 3 scarf kits on my site, reallio, trulio, for sale-io! The packaging is a little rudimentary, but I thought I'd rather get them posted than keep stalling. So, if you're interested, check it out!

:)

Serendipitous Scarves

So I've finally made good on an idea I alluded to ages ago, not that anyone is expected to remember.

See this:

now you don't.

The ball of yarn in this box, if you follow my included instructions, knits into this:

Which looks like this on:

The ball is composed of 22 10 yard lengths of yarn spliced together. All the yarn is "natural" in nature, and includes wool, cashmere, linen, cotton, silk, alpaca, llama (yes, llama!), bamboo, and, get this, soy! In general it knits into stripes, and the idea is you don't know what's going to come out next, hence the box. I thought it would be a fun gift idea for the knitter who has, does and knows everything.

I have named them Serendipitous Scarves.

I will be selling them on my etsy site, but I will randomly draw a name from the coments "hatbox" on Thursday (48 hours!) and that person gets a box FREE!

:)

PS-another look, albeit a blurry one:

Kit swap and other crafty moments

I am the lucky recipient of one of the early birds in the Knit Sock Kit Swap. My package arrived yesterday while I was literally browsing the web trying to figure out who my buddy was.

Holy cow, did I luck out. My partner, it turns out, was the same master knitter I was paired with for Backtack 3, Chawne, and she treated me very well, once again.

Very well made, and very thoughtfully equipped! Thank you Chawne!

I have made progress on my kit:

The bag, made from a thrifted sweater, some ties and some kaffe fassett (I think) fabric from my stash. It's re-enforced with canvas so it sits up and open:

The yarn and the pattern (it's a book of them, since I couldn't decide-I've chosen one to write up specifically for her, but wanted to give her some choice if she didn't like it):

Handmade stitch markers-she has cats. I loved making these!

And a project bag, sock size, designed to hang from her belt loop:

I'm looking for some small add-ons, though she's requested no chocolate, so I'm collecting more in the vein of books and hooks (hehe), and maybe more yarn, you know, because the only thing better than chocolate is, well, yarn.

Thanks to Scout and Bev who organized this swap, it was a lot of fun and I'd do it again in a heart beat.

In other crafty news, we had a playmate over to play with Oliver the other day and being Waldorf spawn they asked to "sew something". So I pulled out my felted sweater collection, hacked off a couple of cuffs and had them sew marble bags. Our friend banged hers out in record time and asked for something bigger. So bigger she got.

That's a hat for her 10 year old sister. She made the pom-poms and everything (thank you Clover pom pom maker). Oliver stuck to his marble bag, but couldn't resist the pom poms either.

:)

PS-Typepad has been taking so long to upload my photos that this literally took me all day. Anyone else having trouble?

WIP

My lace:

The colorful strings are my fire breaks. Every 20 rows or so I have run sock yarn through an even row line of knitting so that if I have to rip out again, I can rip just to that point and rebuild. I've had to do this twice already and I can't tell you how relieved I am that I thought to do this. I can't remember if I read about this or if it just popped into my head, but I highly recommend it. Because lace is a bitch. Like, the really out to get you kind of bitch. Like in that high school popular kid/cheerleader out to ruin your life becuase you ruined the grade curve kind of bitch. (Though I'm sure if you were a cheerleader in high school you were actually really nice.) I can't remember the last time I tried to do something this hard, except maybe childbirth and I only spent 74 hours of my life doing that and as of now I'm sure I've spent more of my life doing this. But-I. will. win.

The other thing eating up babysitter, and if I'm honest, quality time with my children, is my craft space. I was sick of being sick with envy over how organized everyone else's rooms are so I thought I would take this and fix it. I think I made the same vow sometime around Thanksgiving, but this time I did something about it.

I went to Ikea.

I have new respect for my newly mighty Volvo. Of course I have a massive job ahead of me putting it together, but I have already made progress:

Of course, when I popped my head in to take this picture, I noticed this:

(what should be here but isn't because Typepad is now out to get me too is a picture of my shelving unit tipped out over the mound of stuff that used to be on it. It was one of theose hanging ones. Was.)

I should be devestated, but a part of me now feels justified in buying yet another organizing solution, one that des not hang on the wall, but sits on the floor, and will totally cure me of my cluttering habits. This time. Really.

:)

What's been brewing

I've been working on stuff. I've felted bowls, I've cast on lace, I've cut bits for a doll, and I've made these:

The small ones are the initial attempts, and the big ones are my final design. They are all made from recycled material-mostly shirts, pants and vintage drapes, and are uber simple to make. I hope you like this one:

and this one:

'cause they're for sale.

:)

Excuses, excuses, excuses

Please meet Daisy, soon to be international traveler.

Now for the excuses. Yes, she's late, and here's why:

Excuse number 1: Production issues

Daisy is my fourth rendition of backtack 3, and is wearing her third try at an out fit. My first softie was the Better homes and gardens pattern, and I can’t remember the last time something I made came out so shoddy or unsatisfying. I can’t even show you a picture, though it’s funny, because I’m vain. The second try was a wee bunny, and I wanted to use a thrifted sweater. Even felted the thing stretched sideways and not up, so it got rounder and rounder and more and more ridiculous. So scratch that one. Then I tried another sweater with my Twitch pattern, and that had stretching issues too, so I finally panicked back to the wee bunny and a nice, safe piece of felt. I then made a smock (lovely pattern). Then I made another one that actually fit the wee bunny. Even that one just didn’t look right, so I gave up on the smock and in the last 10 minutes of my babysitting time last week, I whipped up the skirt. Whew.

Excuse number 2: Hand, foot, and mouth disease.

No, we don’t have cows. I guess Hand, Foot, and Mouth is a common childhood disease, and not very serious, just a little icky. Poor Tabby had a fever, mouth sores and a rash last week and now Oliver is languishing on the couch too. They haven’t been happy and as a result, I haven’t had as much time as usual to “do stuff”.

Lame excuse number 3: Migraines

I started having migraines while pregnant with tabby, and they go something like this: feel a little off. Off feeling grows until I think I have a stomach virus, or I’m pregnant-not good either way. Off feeling explodes into skull fracture above left eye. Kids become intolerable, as do sunshine and birds. California has a lot of birds. And sunshine. Vomit. Crawl into bed and contemplate dying. Fall asleep, sleep for no less than 3 minutes, but usually no more than 20. Wake up cured. CURED. Jump out of bed so blinkin relieved to feel better it was almost worth having the migraine in the first place (from the back end I should note). This was my afternoon on friday (yes, already late), and I didn’t make it to the post office.

Super lame excuse number 4: Post Office hours

I have no idea when our post office is open, but apparently it isn't when people need to mail stuff. I was there Saturday, Daisy in hand, ready to send off, but they were closed. CLOSED. That meant waiting until this morning. 38 minutes to go.

So Daisy will be a little late, but she will be there by the 10th, even if I have to sell a kidney to afford the expedited shipping.

Now to make up for the pathetic list of patheticisms, here is a glimpse at why I love my life:

:)