Knitted Dish Cloth

I thought I’d take a wee bit of a break from my crochet designs to try my hand at designing a knitted dish cloth. I went for something that would be fairly easy for a beginning knitter, while still keeping it interesting. Here is the end result….

Tiled Dish Cloth

The pattern for this dish cloth is sold in a kit. The kit includes: 50g cotton yarn, knitting needles, and the pattern. This would make a wonderful gift for teens and adults, alike! Just click on the picture above and it will take you to the online store location.

Stay-cation

I have been neglecting my posts because I’ve been on what is known as a stay-cation. Unlike a vacation, where you go to some other place to enjoy R&R, a staycation means you stay at home (or near to home). For my staycation, I’ve been house-sitting for my Mom. I decided to pretend that I was at a resort, soaking up the suns rays, reading, napping, crafting a little. So, I haven’t been home to take phone calls, business has been put on hold, and my crafting was on the back burner while I cleared my head and took some time off from the daily bump and grind.
I will soon return home and I will pick up where I left off. This includes updating my blogs and taking pictures of some of the items I’ve been knitting and crocheting while staycationing

Crochet Classes

Beginning the week of July 6th, I will be hosting Beginner Crochet Classes in my home. The fee is $58 and includes: yarn to make two projects, a 4mm crochet hook, patterns, 5 hours total instruction time and refreshments! Wow! What a deal! I will also be including some of my original patterns as a bonus!

What are the projects for this class?  With the help of my daughter, I narrowed it down to the Summer In The City Purse (Crochet! magazine, July 2009 issue)

and the Hat (Crochet, by Anne Akers Johnson).

          

I am super excited about the class because there is nothing I enjoy more than teaching others the fun and fabulous art of crochet!

Everyone Loves A Teddy

Teddy bears are comforting. Whether you’re in the mood to cuddle or just feeling that inner child coming out. They also make adorable subjects for accessories, like this Teddy Bear Camera Case I made for my daughter. Click on the link below for the FREE pattern

                               

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/teddy_bear_camera_case

Teddy bears also make great models! Much better than any baby doll!

Sporting a Cabled Newsboy Cap from Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation, my daughter’s teddy is a fashion sensation!

                                          

My version of the cap is knitted with Lang Yarns Maxi Tosca #3986. I just love the self-striping pattern and the luxe colouring. The cap is also worked on needles one size smaller than recommended in the pattern, so it will fit a child’s head. Isn’t it adorable?!

Rock N Roll

So I’m sitting at my kitchen table with some odd balls of yarn spread out before me, tapping my pen on my notebook and wondering what to make. I get up, make a coffee, sit down and tap, tap, tap some more. I work best with music playing in the background, usually something low-key and relaxing, but this time I wanted something else. Enter AC/DC Razor’s Edge…

With head bobbing, foot tapping and pen drumming on my notebook, inspiration struck! Little graphs with black notes floated before my eyes, cross-stitched guitars wailed while crossed drum sticks tapped a beat on an ivory skull! Ink started flowing onto paper and pretty soon  I had the makings of the Rock N Roll Series of crochet pattern ideas before me.

The first pattern is this sweet pink and black bag with floating musical notes…

                                          

This pattern is designed for beginner crocheters and teaches the single crochet stitch, double crochet stitch, how to change colours, attaching panels using single crochet, working from a graph and making rope ties. Pattern is available at www.otbcreations.etsy.com

Lucky Number Seven

SEVEN THINGS I WANT TO DO IN THIS LIFETIME

1. Learn a handicraft from another country while in that country  

2. Have my own LYS

3. Learn the lyrics to every Beatles song      

4. See as much of Canada as possible

5. Publish a book of knit/crochet patterns

6. See my Great Grandkids

7. Learn to fly a kite

 

SEVEN THINGS I AM GRATEFUL FOR

1. Two beautiful children that bring joy to my life

2. Smiles and laughter

3. Closets that hide my craft supplies

4. Forgiveness

5. Freedom

6. French fries and Vanilla milk shakes

7. Each day that I get to share with all of you

 

SEVEN THINGS I DID TODAY

1. Joked around with my son and laughed unabashedly !

2. Knitted the first of two deep red Spatz’

3. Visited with the folks

4. Listened to disk 1 of The Wisdom Of Forgiveness-Intimate Conversations and Journeys by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Victor Chan audio CD

5. Strutted my stuff !

6. Stuck to the grocery list even though the cookies were calling my name!

7. Rediscovered some pattern ideas and patted myself on the back for being so darn creative!

Bits and Pieces

Hiding within the voluminous mountain of yarn I call my Stash are a few ziploc bags with bits and pieces leftover from projects I have made. I was once heavily into plastic canvas work so I was able to use up those scraps of yarn quite easily, but I haven’t worked with plastic canvas in a while. So what to do with all those little bits of colourful yarn sealed up and stashed away?

Coin purses.

Yes, I’m merrily working away on my…let’s see…sixth coin purse today and I’m loving the way they’re turning out. I will be posting a link to the Free Pattern soon. They are SUPER EASY to make!

Return To The Wild

My boyfriend brought home a snail. Actually, he brought home two. They languidly left trails of goo as they slithered along his palm, looking all cute and alien-like with their extending/retracting eyes.
He raided the cupboard (or was it the recycling bin?) and found a plastic dwelling for our quiet new guests. There was much research to discover what snails eat, where they like to live, what they like to do with their spare time and who their favourite celebs are…all in an effort to make them more comfortable in their new surroundings–our home.
Boy, it didn’t take long for them to get comfy! In no time at all our two gooey pets layed a batch of eggs and Voila! a family was hatched! My boyfriend and I joked that the parent snails were our children and their offspring were our grandkids. When this little family grew to a whopping 83 members, I stopped laughing.
I don’t know if you should admire a guy for tending to 83 snails or have him sent to a therapist, but take care of them he did, to the best of his abilities. There were some casualties through the months. Baby snails are micro-miniatures of their mature counterparts and have paper thin shells. One plastic lid can decimate a handful of these fragile infants with a Snap! Crackle! Pop!
There was laughter, there were tears, there were even attempts at escape, but after being confined to a life of store-bought soil and grocery store vegetation it is time that these small slithering slugs with shells return to their home in the wild.
My boyfriend and I are no longer a couple. I have tended to the snails for a couple of months now. Their numbers have decreased drastically but not during my care. I feel for these little critters but I believe, and had argued this point more than once, that they belong on the trail where they were found, not jarred and set upon a shelf like a knick knack.
And so I shall liberate my filmy family and wish them well on their journey through the wilderness of an empty wood lot in Port Perry. Vive les escargots!

Search, Save, Find!

Every crafter has a stash of materials stuffed in all the nooks and crannies of their home. Every crafter has an extensive personal library of patterns to organize and maintain. The materials are one thing, but that long list of projects you want to make means there is as many (at least) patterns hiding somewhere to go with them. If you’re like me, you have a multitude of patterns that you don’t have supplies for and every once in a while you page through the pattern books, magazines and binders of cut-outs imagining when you might find the time (probably when you’re 80) to make all of those wonderful things. And if you’re like me, you spend time (translates as hours) surfing the net in search of more crafting inspiration…and you find it and save it to your computer. But then what? You can print it, adding to your already hazardously tall mountain of patterns. Or you can leave it saved on the computer and look at it from time-to-time until you are ready to print it off and use it.
Have you ever noticed how your documents list keeps getting longer and longer? There’s this mish mash of text files, pattern files, important files, useless files…. Well, it is almost Spring and what better time than to give your computer a good cleaning and organize those miscellaneous files so that they’re easier on the eyes and easier to find!
Let’s begin with the wonderful array of crafting files you’ve been collecting. Some are probably in your Pictures but I’m guessing most of them are in your Documents. No matter where they are, find them all and move them to one spot… “My Documents”. This way, when you do go to print them, they won’t print off in photo mode. Once all of your pattern files in are in “My Documents”, create a file called “Patterns”. Open that file and create subfolders with titles like “Crochet”, “Knit”, “Sewing”, “Scrapbook”, “”. Now start moving those pattern files you’ve collected into the relevant subfolders. If, like me, you want to go one step further, open subfolders in your subfolders so that you can organize patterns for each craft even more. I have subfolders for things like sweaters, skirts, accessories, hats, etc.
With just a few clicks of the mouse I can find any pattern on my computer easily. This same technique can be used for pictures. I have a file in “My Pictures” called “Inspiration” and in there I store pictures I have found online that inspire my crafting. They are pictures of adorable outfits, colour combinations, fancy detailing…all the things that make clothes and accessories stand out in a crowd. None of those files have text with them, they are only pictures, but they are all organized in the same manner as the patterns on my computer.
Good luck with your Spring cleaning!

Life In The Slow Lane

It’s a beautiful day and I’m eager to explore the town in the sunshine, so here’s a few links to peruse if you’re stuck inside…

www.anniemodesitt.com
www.whiteliesdesigns.com
www.chrochetville.org
www.craftster.org
www.yarntomato.com
www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

Enjoy!