Crafts

I'm looking for a picture of the Jelly Bean Bird, AKA, the Turd Bird, a crocheted little birdie that you stuff with Jelly Beans that dispense through, well, you know.--read more

OK, I have $200 to spend at Target -- it's gotta be Target, though it can be online.--read more

Is anyone planning on making any gifts this year to give to family and friends?--read more

Here's the Corriedale fleece I got in the yarn avalanche, all spread out in the sun on my landing to dry. It's about seven pounds worth--a little under, since Leslie says she washed up a few ounces of it a while ago.

It was bought at Black Sheep a couple of years ago, I think. Its tag says it was submitted for judging and that it's a ewe's fleece, but other than that, no identifier.

I wish I knew who the shepherd is, because this stuff is gorgeous. It had almost no vegetable matter in it, in fact, zero--what is in there is stuff that's blown onto it while drying. And it cleaned up into a blindingly white, next-to-the-skin soft cloud. I didn't get all of the lanolin out, which is fine as far as I'm concerned.

Take a look at this staple:--read more

I am sitting here looking at a big trash bag full of Gedifra, another big trash bag full of Debbie Bliss, and a third big trash bag full of Noro. Keep in mind that I've never been able to afford a BALL of Noro, and now I have a big trash bag full.

Oh, and there are two cardboard boxes packed to overflowing with the goofiest, most fun novelty yarns you've ever seen.

My god, you're thinking, Lynn, how did you afford all this?

I can't. And I didn't have to.--read more

On her blog and in email to supporters, Mabel's owner Cait Smith has announced that her ground-breaking and widely imitated knitting cafe will be closing within the next week or so:

I promise you that we tried very hard to prevent this sad turn - a number of factors have made this decision inevitable, including a saturated market in Portland and more crafters shopping online. ...

Starting this Sunday - August 12th - we will be having a storewide liquidation. All inventory will be 30% off, and we expect things to move quickly. We will open from 10AM - 6PM for the first two days, and will close at 4PM for the remaining 4 or 5 days.

On a happier note, I will be starting a new business in the same location, and many familiar faces will be right there with me. I hope you will all stop by at the end of August to check out our new
and expanded coffee house, complete with a children's area, free wi-fi, delicious coffee, bagels, treats, milkshakes.. ..all the good stuff. We hope to carry all of the coziness of Mabel's along with us.

The word is the new place will be called the Tandem Cafe and that most of the staff will be staying on. I was a customer of Mabel's literally from day one and taught beginning knitting there for a while. When I taught there it was at a time when we really needed the work, and I'll always be grateful for that.

I am wanting to embroider tea towels. As you may know, I love days-of-the-week towels, and I want to make myself a set. Except my basket full of already-stamped tea towels has gone missing--completely vanished, disappeared, kidnapped no doubt. I'm sure somewhere a little green alien with reading glasses and an Ott Lite is madly stitching away at my tea towels, chortling into her cocoa over my consternation.

And here I am, finally, with floss and replacement needles for the ones Jo's run off with and replacement hoops for the ones that Lou's run off with, and nothing to stitch.

I suppose there's nothing for it but to break out the Aunt Martha's and iron out a new set. Should I do the colonial misses or the tea cups? hmf.

We're still getting the hang of this video thing, and since it looks like we may be doing this regularly, we're going to invest in an actual video camera at some point soon.

I have been spinning like a fiend lately. It's all I seem to want to do. I haven't picked up the needles in weeks, it seems. When I go out, I've been taking my spindle and some silk with me, that's how much I've wanted to spin lately.

Here you see the last of a pound of lovely autumn-colored wool I got two OFFFs ago, hanging up to dry. I spun it on my Babe Production Wheel and chain-plied it into a 3-ply worsted weight. I only got four skeins out of it, and one of them is a thicker grist than the other three, to my consternation. That doesn't seem like much for a whole pound of roving!

The colors are a lot deeper than the color here suggests. Rust, orange, brown, even red and pink run through the yarn, it's just beautiful, and fairly soft, too.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I have a bunch of odd lots of browns and autumn tones. I'm thinking of a ripple afghan, because, really, isn't everyone?

On the wheel right now is some merino from Butternut Woolens in a color called Salmonberry. It was part of a barter I did for web work something like five years ago. Every time I think I've used the last of those rovings up, I find another one! I'm spinning this sock weight, because eventually I will knit again. Just not right now.

Josie's first wheel-spun skein. It's a mishmash of fibers; she just grabs a chunk of whatever and spins it, regardless whether the colors or fibers go. But I like the way this turned out. It gets kinda crowded in the TV room these days when we're both spinning!

These are chip bags turned into super cute pencil bags! Here's the full tutorial. [via]

--read more

My ongoing, oldest work in progress. The younger work in progress hasn't sat still long enough today to have her picture taken.

Josie has been working on crafts a lot lately. She's taking her knitting everywhere, and she's been bugging the heck out of me for sewing lessons. She's reading her Mary Frances books and can't understand how Mary Frances is so much further ahead than she is. I explained that sewing isn't as fast as reading about sewing, which seemed to startle her.

Here is the apron she's working on, by hand. It's a scrap of striped cotton that I made a pair of Turkish pants for bellydancing a loooong time ago. I like yarn-dyed stripes like this. Her hem is uneven and some of her stitching leaves a bit to be desired, but she's doing very well and should be done with the last bit tomorrow. Once we get back on our feet financially we'll finally be able to take her sewing machine to get tuned up.

In the last couple of days I've finally felt well enough to spin. I really haven't had it in me lately, even though I've got lots of lovely wool here to get through. This is a colorway called Missouri Breaks from Butternut Woolens and I cannot for the life of me remember what kind of wool it is. It's soft, It might be merino. I got it at Oregon Flock and Fiber in 2005 and I'm finally getting around to spinning it. I'm driving myself crazy spinning it very fine and then Navajo-plying it--crazy because I neglected to put on the bobbin with the higher spinning ratio and have been treadling like mad to get the laceweight. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this when it's done.

Not socks. It's going to be far too fine for socks. Besides, I'm still working on these. This is a different Butternut colorway called Aspen. This is my standard toe-up short row heel and toe pattern just knit off the top of my head. One sock is done but I'm not happy with its fit and will probably frog it. My feet and ankles are so weird now that I'm finding I have to do several sets of increases starting about halfway through the foot. But then, that's the joy of handmade socks: A custom fit. Which is good since I can't find any commercial socks that feel good now. (Shoes are a similar issue. I'm having to work out in my gardening clogs.)

Finally, here's Josie's sweater. I'm at the underarm and can't find my #8 double points to do the sleeves. Because I'm lame. But do enjoy the lovely color. Handspun worsted weight Romney in two colorways of pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms, except they don't use Romney any more, they use Corriedale. The colorway are Forget Me Not and Blue River. I've got like 2 pounds of it spun up; it took me so long that one of my girlfriends made me spin something else in the middle of it because she was sick of looking at it.

The Yarn Harlot says it for all knitters, for all time. Note that I've already got a ball winder and a swift.

If you have a knitter/yarn person in your life, this list applies as well.

--The Nietzsche Family Circus, in which random quotations from the philosopher are paired with random Family Circus cartoons.

--Looking for Halloween knitting patterns? Look no further. via.

--My favorite awards, the IgNobels, have been handed out. I missed the live webcast but wait as always for the day after Thanksgiving when Science Friday will air the replay. People came from France for the ceremony! Hilarious.

Early linkage!

--whip up whips out the organizer patterns. Some great stuff in here.

--Inspiration from Why Homeschool.

Linky goodness!

--Habetrot is a new craft blog focusing at present on art and photos. Right now she's got delft tiles of shepherdesses, pictures of sheep, pictures of spinners, all kinds of interesting things. via.--read more

For your entertainment today:

--Aaagh! Stop me now: Vintage iron-on transfers, hundreds of them! I collect "Aunt Martha" transfers, especially days of the week towel transfers. boy, this is going to be hard to avoid...

--I'm sure you've already heard, but in case you haven't: Bagged spinach linked to e-coli outbreak. If you have some, throw it out.

--Back to school help: Finding affordable tutoring. Great tips on finding help for your student, especially good if you're a homeschooling family. [hat tip]

Just dumpin' links here you'll enjoy.

--The Gentle (and Possibly Profitable) Art of Complaining: Don't trash broken stuff; send it back. Read this article now. You may end up saving a ton of money.

--Treehugger TV: Urban Homestead. Video of the wonderful people behind the Path to Freedom project.

--Paging Ray Bradbury: A house that optimizes itself. I kept thinking of that house in a Bradbury story that ends up defending itself from the parents that want to unplug it...even though this house looks completely benign..no holograms, anyways...

--Grocery Warning: The Seven Most Dangerous Ingredients in Conventional Foods. Sodium nitrate is the one I have to watch out for the most; it affects my medication. The rhyme the butcher who parts out our yearly pig taught me is "nitrites are right, nitrates we hate." Ignore the book pitch.

--Wee Wonderfuls: Make-a-Long Story. Read a story and make the dolls that act it out. Just go look, she explains it better.

I completely forgot to mention that my Button of the Month arrived today--robot buttons! How cute is that! I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but --read more

So.... Who's doing what? Holiday Grand Plan? Christmas Countdown? Flylady Cruise? HGP starts August 27 this year and I'm considering giving it a try. Those of you who usually do Flylady and have done --read more

I know that it is the begining of summer, but are there any of you out there that start crafts now for the christmas season? I do. I like to get a head start on crafts that I can give to any one for christmas. One of my favorite crafts is making a music box from a wooden cigar box.--read more

DMIL brought DD some cute little dressing-up shoes from Australia which came stuffed with undyed (but possibly bleached?) fleece. There's a nice amount of it, not sure what weight, but enough so that it feels satisfactory but not overwhelming --read more

Crafts of any kind keep your mind and hands busy. If you have arthritis doing any sort of craft is a plus. I do so many crafts U don't seem to have time to do much of any thing. Especially now that I have published a book. I am busy trying to get book signings as well as writing articles for many news papers to expose my book.--read more

There's an organization called Warm Up America where volunteers all across America knit and/or crochet 7" x 9" squares that are then sewn or crocheted together into an afghan. --read more

Make an area rug out of them:

David Kadavy took some carpet tile samples and some strapping tape, taped the tiles together in the back, et voila--instant heavy-duty fairly decorative area rug. Gotta love DIY.

Hat tip to the lovely folks at Make.

Categories: howto, DIY, recycling, rug, decorating, decor--read more

Knitting911, my knitting blog, is back on the air after being hosed by script kiddies, and I'm actively blogging there. Drop by for more concentrated craftiness. I'll probably be integrating the feed from there over here as well.

Yeah, I'm just a bloggin' fool. As I've said elsewhere, I want to concentrate on my writing rather than working for other folks. I'm going to do that by blogging my little brains out here, at Knitting911, Grandmother Spider, Dean Speaks for Me and Oregon Media Insiders, and I have a couple of other ideas as well.

I've been getting inspired going through my old Diary entries. I'd forgotten how often I used to post. And I've found all kinds of bits of Josie's and Lou's childhood, that, if I never sell a book, will be precious to have.