Jane's Intarsia Knit Hat

I love making gifts for all the nieces and nephews in my life.  This year I made a series of hats for the three little girls in my life.  I happened to make this specific hat a little small for the toddler in my life.  This would actually fit a one year old perfectly. It has a circumference of 14.5 inches and is 7.5 inches tall.  So I decided to list it on my etsy shop.    You can purchase the hat here.  If you decide  to purchase the hat use this promo code for free shipping: FSKNIT

I love the color combos.  It is a modern take on the traditional intarsia knit hat.  The crosses look like flying swallows. 

If you are feeling ambitious you can get the knitting pattern here.

Christmas Yorkie

For all of my nieces and nephews I've crocheted them a special friend. (like this little turtle.)  It was time for my newest niece to get one of her own. 

My in laws happen to have a Yorkie named Sugar that my niece loves.  So of course I made her a little Sugar of her very own.

I based the pattern off of this one. 

DIY Sock Cuffs

I started crocheting when I was 17, then I tried knitting.  I think that's how every knitting fail story starts.  After accomplishing grandmother level crochet skills, knitting came just too slow and was hard to figure out.  If you are sick of trying different scarf methods and too intimidated by actual socks, this sock cuff project is perfect for you.

I started off with the Picot cast on.  Don't worry, I had no idea what that was until I saw this.  Isn't YouTube the greatest?

Then I just knit 2, purl 2 to make a rib for the length of the sock part.  It's only about 4" long and then I stopped fastened off and sewed the two sides together to make a cuff.

It was also a great opportunity for me to use some of my fancy alpaca yarn.  The needles I used are US 8 or 5.0mm.

This whole project took me almost 3 hours!  That's how slow I am.  I hardly ever knit, but I did start to gain some speed toward the end there.

Heart On Your Sleeve

Valentine's Day is just a few days away now!  I thought I'd give you a sweet little tutorial on adding elbow patches to your sweater.  I made these before work the other day.  If you know me at all that's amazing in itself.  I love to sleep in until the last minute and rush to get ready for work.  This quick project only took 10 min!

Step 1:  Cut out hearts from felt.  I get the felt in the craft aisle of hobby lobby.  You can get it anywhere and it usually costs around $0.30.

Step 2:  (Do this carefully)  I put my sweater on and pinned the hearts to where my elbows actually hit.  This can be kinda tricky, maybe have a friend help you with this part.

Step 3:  Pick out some adorably pink (or any color) embroidery floss and sew simple little stitches all around and repeat for other arm.

Step 4:  Revel in the satisfaction of a job well done!

Step 5:  Only walk backwards and approach friends and co-workers elbow first.

Step 6:  Receive compliments graciously.

Personalized Art

I had an extra canvas laying around and wanted to do something with it.

I got out some white paint, extra fabric and yarn.

I wrote some lyrics that have some meaning in my relationship.  These very words sparked a conversation between two college kids that stemmed into something beautiful.  This became the only song that was sung at our wedding.  I sewed on some crochet doodles and now have this in our bathroom.  I love the reminder.

desperate for a makeover

If only I could get the craft room/library to somehow look like this... but in real life.

Kits

I made a headband kit and a bunting kit for the craft show I did last summer and have been selling them ever since.  This is the first time I've put them online!

Valentine Garland

I have been in such a crochet mood this winter.  Winter is the best time to crochet!  Today I whipped up a fun quick project that I got from the craft blog.

VALENTINE'S HEART GARLAND

It reminds me of all of the cute thing Attic24 makes.

It's almost here!

That's right, the Soulard Market Park Arts and Craft Fair is coming this Saturday!  Everyone should come, it's going to be great and you can get your groceries too!

http://www.pastecrafts.com/soulard-market-park-arts-crafts-fair/

Christmas Project #1 Magnets

Today's date is October 5, 2008 and I just one of the Christmas presents I'll be giving to a few friends and my siblings.

Magnets

I first put in one of my favorite cartoon movies, Anastasia....

The craft all started when I bought this Science Book that was published in 1961 at a book fair for a quarter!I cut out a bunch of cute pictures to make into magnets...

Then I had to cut the pictures out the same shape as the irregular glass chips I got from Hobby Lobby.
Then I put modge podge on the picture and pressed it on the flat side of the glass chips. When that dried I modge podged the back of the glass chips.

When that dried I stuck a piece of craft magnet on the back!
Viola!

I got the instructions for this craft from the book Big Ass Craft Book by Mark Montano!

Another Day for Me

So on my day off I went to Leftovers, etc. went there while men where in my house demoing the kitchen; it was loud, annoying and I had to get out. I just wanted to show people how awesome this place is.
It accepts all kinds of donations of regular everyday things. Then teachers, Sunday school teachers, home schooling mothers can buy 30 pringles cans so their students can make maracas. I go for my personal enjoyment and to feed my ever increasing and expensive craft habit. At the door there are different size paper bags. The medium one is $4 and you can fill it to the brim with anything you'd like.



So the warehouse area is just shelves after shelves of awesome junk. I mean JUNK. If you look close enough, you can find some real treasures.


...like these SUMO buttons. I actually got a few of these thinking they'd make great centers of bows that I could put on birthday and Christmas presents to the people in my life that enjoy funny things.

So here is my stash. I got a lot of great fabric. You may remember that I made this out of some previously bought leftovers fabric. I found this awesome vintage ribbon. I have used similar ribbons on a lot of birthday presents and they've been received well so I thought I might get some more. I got the jars so that I might try to make some terrariums like in the movie Penelope. I filled the jars with wood beads (to conserve space in my bag). I think I might make a multi-tiered chunky necklace with the beads. So I got all of this for $4. So when you purchase this at the end the weigh your bag to see how much you save from the landfill. I save 4 lbs! So it is all very green.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

I thought about making a bunch of cute Valentine's Day stuff and giving it all to my friends. But then I decided I should make something for myself for Valentine's Day. So I made these guys. I also thought about making an apron for a friend and decided that I would just make one for myself.

I always wonder what people really think when I give them homemade presents. I LOVE homemade presents, I cherish them. I brag about them to my friends. BUT I also love to make homemade gifts too, so I think that is why I can appreciate them. I wonder about my friends that have no idea how much time, energy, and love go into making things think. Do they think it's weird that I crochet objects? Do they think it is ugly or stupid? My friends don't exactly have my style or would even know what the handmade nation movement is or even know what DIY stands for (let alone DIYODS!).

I've decided gifts is one of my love languages. I show love by giving gifts...
So I made two things that actually made it all the way out the door...






I gave the cupcakes to a friend. The pink was the first one that I made (without a pattern no less) and it came out a little stumpy.I made the purple cupcake second and it came out MUCH much better than the pink one. It has a tapered stump and more frosting on top. Yum!

This is the tshirt I made for the BF... it is a feather. It looks really cute on. I think he's wearing it today, so I'll try to remember to get an action shot.


Now this is another Valentine's present to myself, an apron...
I'm cleaning up my mess after making truffles for my Valentine. I LOVE my apron! I can't wait until I have my own home to showcase all of my domestic goods I've been collecting.

Projects Galore!

Okay so last week I had a funny dream...

If you know me at all this would not surprise you. I have the oddest most vivid dreams every night.

Anyway this one was about me not getting my books in time to go to class, and basically the usual stressful dream about trying to get to a class but never really getting there because there are always obstacles in the way. Anyways I fitfully tried to wake myself up with the reassurance that it was a just a dream but I remembered that I hadn't ordered my books yet! and classes must be starting soon! The truth of the matter was that classes were in fact starting the very next day but I am not signed up for any of them, because I graduated a month ago. I had to tell myself that I was never taking classes again...and I started to panic a little bit...What?!?!?! what will I do with my life?

So I started a few projects...So now I have crafting supplies strewn about my room and partially started projects thrown about as well.

I think I went into project over load. But the idea of them is really fun. So here is the inspiration for a few of the projects I had started...
This comes from an awesome blog by called Attic24 by Lucy.


This comes from an amazing blog that I've been reading for a long time, Wee Wonderfuls written by Hillary.

I found a pattern to make these hats, i plan to omit the bill... at this website that I have used since I started to crochet and is a great resource for people wanting free patterns...Crochet Pattern Central.

Project Runway's most famous challenges of creating garments out of unconventional items....


These are the inspirations for what I have lying on my floor right now... Stay tuned to see finished projects.

Help...

It's a new year and it is time for a new project. You may recall the last project I did. I want to do something like that again. I want to do another series project. During church tonight I was doodling more finger puppet ideas. I'm not sure I want to do finger puppets.

One of my ideas was to make a finger puppet representing each state. For example Alaska would have a parka on. Alabama would be a girl with daisy dukes and blond pigtails. The only downside to that is that there is 50! I might end up only doing Illinois and Michigan.

Another idea was to make finger puppets of family members. I'd only hope not to offend anyone.

I also have some interesting vinyl that I might try making a wallet out of or something like that.

I think I need some fresh new ideas. So leave a comment and tell me what you think! Please.

Drool

I got this yarn for my birthday and I have no idea what to make of it. The white and black are a chenille kind of yarn and the red and white is a furry fun yarn that is incredibly soft.

My friend Dani gave me these today. They are alpaca! They are from Odelia Farms where they have alpacas there and spin their own yarn there. The website is here....

I don't know what to make of these. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a hat out of the purple/grey/natural alpaca yarn. It is just SOO soft and pretty I don't want to give it away.

For All things must come to an end

Zachary

Zachary is a nudist.