Rosy Little Kits

Check out the goodies I've been getting in the mail! Two handmade ornament kits from Posie Gets Cozy! I've had my eye on them for the last three years Alicia Paulson has been making them, and I finally decided to order a couple. She comes out with a new one each year and they are simply adorable! She sells the patterns as a pdf file as well, but the kits help get you going and the quality of the supplies she sends is really nice. They don't look or feel cheap at all!



I spent last night watching Letters to Juliet and making this tree.  I was glad that I had something to do while watching the movie, because it was not as good as I expected it to be.



These pictures don't do it justice, because it's prettier, sparklier and better looking in person.

I blame the camera. The camera I normally use (Canon Rebel T2i DSLR) had an error and I ended up sending it back to Canon to be fixed, so I'm using our old Olympus Stylus 1010 and it is just not the same quality. Hopefully my camera will be back next week so I will have it for Thanksgiving weekend!

The Mailbox

When I was a baby, one of my dad's aunts sent this plastic canvas mailbox as a Christmas present to me. Since then, it has been my favorite ornament on the tree! The reason being that as long as I can remember, every day this ornament is on the tree, I have gotten "mail". When I was little, my mom would put a piece of chocolate inside for me to get before school, usually a Kiss or a mini Peanut Butter Cup. Note, this is separate from an advent calendar. Then I moved out of the house and got married, Owen took over the "mailman" responsibility and every day this ornament is on the tree I get either a chocolate or a small love note.

When the mail is late, I notice!!!

Now that I have a little one, I wanted to continue this little tradition. So, I copied my mailbox almost exactly and made Hazel her own mailbox. I cannot wait until she is a little older so that she can appreciate how great this ornament is!!

Urban Fiber Arts

There is a new yarn store in town folks! Urban Fiber Arts, in the heart of Portland's Pearl District! My friend and fellow PDXKnitblogger, Cindy Abernethy, is the owner! She is fullfilling her lifelong dream of owning a yarn shop - I just think that is so cool! Way to go Cindy!

This shop is easy to get to - it's 2 blocks from Powell's and is in the free zone of the PDX Streetcar. She is on 11th between Flanders and Glisan.

Among the awesome yarns and fibers dyed by local fiber artists, you will find some of my stitch markers, batts and handspun yarn! So go check it out!

No snag stitch markers, with crystals and pearls



Candy colored sock stitch markers, also no-snag


1 oz fiber batts that have everything but the kitchen sink in them, they make fun textured yarns!


For now, it is easier for me to consign my crafts rather than open an etsy store. This way I don't have to list items and mail them out. I don't have time for all that with Hazel running around.

The Oregonian knitting blog did a nice interview with Cindy about her shop, I'm putting the link here so I can reference it later if I need to. I didn't notice until someone pointed it out to me that a photo of my batts was included! Sweet!

Seattle Extras

So, my last post had nothing crafty in it, and I did want to share a few things.

Here I am, working on a test knit shawl for Michelle (of PDX Knitterati). I found a few moments on our trail hike to sit and enjoy the nice weather and the negative ions from the water. I'm wearing my Travelling Woman shawl (in case you were wondering)


Something I've been making for people lately - Crochet Bracelets. I made them for bday presents and for a spinning swap that I recently participated in. They are really simple to make - I used 26 gauge colored wire, beads, a size J metal crochet hook and a magnetic clasp. You can check out in Debbie Stoller's "The Happy Hooker" for the pattern I used :) I am sorry to say that I have not been photographing them, because I make them and the next day give them away, and then say, "DARN! I should have taken a picture!" So, here you go, I took one with my cell phone just to say I have a picture of one! This one may end up being gifted as well, because I think I may be allergic to the metal. I was wearing it for a little while and my arm started to itch where the bracelet was. Grr :(



Bead purchases from Shipwreck! I bought the 6/0 beads for the above mentioned shawl, some swarovski crystals, blue-green stars, two boxes of mixed beads in turquoise and purple, a few turtle charms and some Bails (for a project coming soon! well for Christmas, so probably wont post about that for a long time yet).  You can click on the picture to see the beads in better detail.

An Evening with Alicia Paulson

My friend Kathy and I have been long time readers of Alicia's Blog - Posie Gets Cozy. She just came out with a new book Embroidery Companion! When I noticed on her blog that she was having a book signing, I told Kathy that we had to go! I sadly missed her last book signing when Stitched in Time came out because Owen and I were leaving for Hawaii the next morning at 4am. I am still kicking myself for not going.

Kathy met me at my house and we drove downtown to Powell's. There was hardly any traffic and we made it down there so fast we had about an hour to wait around. We picked out front row seats and then we pulled out our knitting! I helped (or maybe didn't help much) with Kathy's shawl, and then worked on my sweater. I ended up having a slight spaghetti incident with the end of the ball of yarn so I spent some time winding from the end into a ball so that it wouldn't be tangled in my bag, and put the sweater away.

Alicia showed up with most of her book samples and Cupcakes!!! Have you ever been to a book signing where there were cupcakes?? Well, I ate one and it was so delicious - Dark Chocolate cake with an almond frosting and 3 blackberries on top!

After setting up, she did a little introduction and then had questions and answers. Of course, I wasn't prepared and couldn't think of anything to ask. One of the main things that I took away from this was that there are no "embroidery police"! Imagine that! If you pick up a needle and thread and just start, no one is going to criticize what you're doing and the back of your work doesn't have to be perfect, it could even have knots if you chose to make them. Whatever gets you started is all that counts.

The Q&A was about an hour and then she signed books. I really thought it was gracious of her to spend time with each person and talk. She signed a very nice short poem in my book and she even took a photo with me. I also got to tell her about her studio inspiring my own office remodel! Thank goodness my camera had the photo of my new yarn cabinet (which I haven't posted here because my office is a mess and I am working on cleaning it so that one day I can show it off).

We stopped over to the sample table to check out the beautiful things she made. Oh my, they are even prettier in person! We were oohing and ahhing over them when Andy Paulson (Alicia's husband) made a comment about the baby bibs being a little small for us. Hehe. Well, he is a talker and we talked about who knows what for about 15 mins (or more probably). He took photos with us, and I made sure to get Alicia's purse in my photo, because 1) it's cute and she made it herself and 2) he was holding it like a nice husband should when a lady is off doing something else!

Afterwards we went and took pictures with the "Powell's Background", we made our book purchases and went home!

And this is for Alicia - Thanks for inspiring me to pick up a hoop and needle & thread for the first time since I was in 8th grade! I made this kitchen towel as my first project from your new book! I will eventually get all of the days done, but my husband likes pie, so I started here:

Secret Sewing!

I can finally blog about the secret sewing projects I was working on! They were gifts for my friends and did not want to chance it having them read my blog (highly unlikely though). All three projects I had made 2, one for me and one as a gift, and I forgot to get pictures of the recipients' present, so mine will have to do.

First off, a yarn swift bag. I saw an add on ravelry for one of these, and they were kind of expensive, so I decided to make it myself! The tricky part was figuring out how to make it! I googled for wine bags, and yoga mat bags and came up with these instructions that I liked, and used them as guidelines to make it fit my swift. Mine are padded with fleece to give cushion it. The inside is a white fabric. I did not add the webbing hanging loop like I had wanted, but on my friend's bag I used a rope for the drawstring and that seemed strong enough she could use it to hang it if she wanted.



Knitting project bags - don't let the picture fool you, they are approx 20" long, long enough to accomodate long metal needles if I chose to use them. The same friend who I gave the swift bag to, got the pink bag. Actually, she gave me the materials to make the knitting bag for my birthday, but there was enough to make two bags so I made it to give to her for her birthday. That reads very confusingly, but you get the jist. These were made using a Honeybun Jelly Roll - long strips of fabric rolled into a roll, then you sew the strips together to make a larger fabric. It was a pain, but the end results were cool!


Lastly, I'm pretty sure I did not mention this, but for our anniversary Owen gave me a camera! It's a Canon Rebel T-2i DSLR. When we first started dating, I took pictures of everything! I loved going out on walks and taking my camera along. Over the years when digital started getting popular and then the standard, we bought a string of point and shoots. They were ok and took decent pictures, but really not the quality that I wanted. Also, they do poorly in low light or trying to snap pictures of a toddler running around! This new camera is awesome, and I had all but forgotten that I liked taking pictures of stuff other than Hazel. Anyway, the strap that comes with the camera is adequate, but not glamorous. I found a tutorial online from Made by Petchy and followed it for my camera's strap. The first one I made was too small, so I made the second one a little bigger and it fit perfectly! I also made one for my sister-in-law's camera (our cameras are one version different, hers is a T1i) out of a pretty blue fabric with a white "pottery barn" style print. She loves it!



That's all on the sewing front for a while. I have some things that are on the back burner, like a coin purse, but nothing major. Phew!

Lavender Festival

It was that time of year again to trek out to Yamhill for the Lavender Festival. This was Hazel's 2nd Lavender festival (Pix from last year) and she had a blast! She got to ride a pony named Belle. She had practice riding and holding onto a saddle from the carousel for her birthday, and those playground animal things on a spring. She knew to hold on, but when she came around the loop to where my mom and I were standing, she would take one hand off and wave at us, then go back to holding on. Owen was there just in case she fell off, but he really wasn't needed! We visited the two farms we like Willakenzie and Wild Rain. At Willakenzie they have the Alpacas which are always fun to see. In their gift shop they added skeins of alpaca yarn and patterns too. The man I met 2 years ago here was again spinning on his Lendrum, and it was neat to chat with him, now that I have more spinning experience. At Wild Rain farm we picked a bundle of lavender and walked across their farm to the rivers edge and I re-taught my mom and her friend how to make lavender wands. It was so relaxing to sit in the shade and drink lavender lemonade and craft. It would have also been the perfect place to spin if I had brought my wheel.

Watch out! I'm Sewing, and What would Tony Danza Do?

I need to have an apron or a sign that says "Watch Out! I'm Sewing" when I haul out the sewing machine to work on a project! This time, I actually had 2 projects, but one is secret. The one I can talk about is called the Manhattan Bag. I bought the pattern and a stack of complimentary fat quarters abouttttttt........3 years ago, from Craft Warehouse. Yeah, I'm a slow sewer. I had all of the stripes cut out and ready to sew together 2 years ago, but then I got a cold and put it all away and never had the energy to pull it back out to finish it. Well, it took 5 hours one evening, but I got it all done! I even made a pocket that my iphone fits into perfectly.Oh, you spotted that yummy St. Cupcake big top cupcake did you? Well, it matched my bag and outfit perfectly, how could I not get it? That was from the yarn crawl at the beginning of this month, that I didn't blog about.

In a situation like this you have to ask, What would Tony Danza Do??? Well, he would link to Tami's blogpost, because she did an awesome write up from the yarn crawl, and since I was with her the whole time, I don't know if I really need to try and one-up her. There's even a bonus picture of me eating almonds :)

so, here's what I bought:

2 Sivia Harding patterns from Twisted
Namaste Buddy from For Yarn's Sake
2 Skeins of Universal Star Light yarn in White and Blue from Naked Sheep
1 skein malabrigo lace in blue from Happy Knits
2 samples of unicorn wool wash and rinse

The hat that everyone recognized us by and complimented me on:

Si Capitan!
Pattern: Capitan by Rosi Garmendia
yarn - malabrigo worsted
turtle buttons from the button emporium

Yarn Wreath

I was inspired by Starbucks' decorations 2 Christmases ago. I've been wanting to make one for myself (since my local SB was stingy and would not sell their decorations after Christmas grr).

To make one for yourself you'll need:

plastic ornaments
yarn (I used scrap yarn and red heart)
wreath form
floral wire
more hot glue than you think you'll need ;)

I used hot glue to secure the yarn onto an ornament and just wound the yarn around until you could no longer see the ornament underneath. Using floral wire I secured the ornaments onto the form in a random order. I filled in the holes with smaller ornaments and when I had it looking the way I wanted, I just hot glued everything! Each place where an ornament was touching I hot glued. Then I hot glued the back to make sure they wouldn't fall off, and to cover the sharp ends of the wire.

I have a bow for this, but I haven't decided if I want to use it or not.

I just think this wreath is so festive! I kind of want to make more for the other seasons!

Handprint Ornaments

A last minute gift idea for the grandparents. Hazel helped us make these totally adorable handprint ornaments!

I rolled out some Crayola air dry clay and used Hazel's hand to make an impression in the clay. I used a can to cut out a perfect circle, then waited a few days for them to dry. I painted the handprint with watered down pink acrylic paint, then some glitter glue to seal the handprint. Owen helped out by making the paper piece that we spray glued onto the back of it. After it all dried we used clear acrylic sealant to preserve the whole thing! I think they turned out really cute.



I'm not lyrically talented, so we found the poem on this site!

M1 when you get to Chris

K2Tog at X&Y

Need I say more about these totally awesome Coldplay stitch markers that I made?





Ok, maybe I'll say a little bit more :)
They were very simple to make! I used shrinky dink plastic! First I got some Coldplay images from the internet, then I printed them out, cut them out, and then baked them. Then I made some wire loops, put on a bead and voila!

Appliqued Towels

A tutorial on how to do Appliqued Handtowels in 5 easy steps!

These would make great Christmas gifts :)

Hazel Rose Looms

How cool is it, that there is a company out there with the same name as my baby girl?? I first found out about Hazel Rose Looms back in March when I was at Camp Pluckyfluff. Urban Fauna Studio carried them in their store and I knew I had to have one. During Sock Summit I purchaced the 4" multi loom and I've had fun making coasters with my handspun left overs. I gave those to my friend as a housewarming present. I was delighted to find out from my friend Kathy that Hazel Rose Looms would be at OFFF. Of course, I had to take my Hazel Rose to meet them.


This is Hazel, Hazel Rose and Rose.


Checking out the looms


Look at all the shapes!!


I did add to my collection and bought a 2" multi Loom and a small pick for straightening the wefts. ( I also bought 2 oz of Border Leicester locks dyed blue and purple from Baabaara's Handspun a table I found out in the sheep barn)

Sock Summit

Wow, I can't believe Sock Summit starts up tomorrow!! I've been waiting for this gigantic sock knitting event for almost a year now!!

I'm signed up for two classes with Janel Laidman. Her Sideways Socks and Rivendell Socks. I am also taking a KnitteRx ergonomics one hour class. Then there's the Luminary Panel on Sunday that is going to be an awesome discussion about knitting today. Wait, there's more! Ravelry is having a meet-up on Saturday night, wahoo! Don't forget the Marketplace with all the shopping and yarn fumes! Not to mention the unofficial stitch marker swaps and the official book signing, where i will hopefully get my Sock Innovation book signed by Cookie A.!!! I will be in ecstasy all weekend and probably go all fangirl on some people. I can't be held responsible!

I will be blogging and posting pics from my phone all weekend!

Another sling

I made this one for Owen, he picked out the fabrics! Look, it totally matches Ernie!

Summer Dress

I found this free pattern online for the Itty Bitty dress, the pattern was very easy to follow! I even made my own bias tape and piping!! Go Me!!!

Sewing

I dusted off my sewing machine today and finished 2 projects! It was a great way to beat the heat and to make some baby stuff that wasn't knitted.

I have been having issues with my knitting projects and they are in the naughty corner right now. The baby booties I was making to match the February baby sweater weren't working, not sure if it's me, or the pattern or both, but they were not making sense and I wasn't getting the same number of stitches as the pattern. The summer cotton onesie is doomed, because the cotton I bought is not thick enough to get a good gauge. I may try to make a baby kimono out of it, but I first have to swatch.

This is a full body baby bib! I bought all of the supplies for this back in January, but never got around to sewing it. I thought this was a very easy pattern to follow and sew! Perfect for someone like me who doesn't sew very often!



A more advanced beginner project - baby sling! I think it may be a little big, but I can fix it once the baby is here and see how she fits in it. It's a lady bug cotton material and the liner is a blue fleece.

Memorial Day!

My mom came over on Sunday to celebrate Memorial Day. We had bbq tofu dogs and deviled eggs :) We slipped in some crafting time(painting onesies) and a practice walk with the stroller!