Christmas Crafting

At work we had a Christmas tree located in the front office where visitors are greeted. The tree was decorated with ornaments representing the different groups of clients. I volunteered to be the crafty person to come up with decorations for my group of 10 clients. I decided to make 3 different shapes: a snowman, gingerbread person, and reindeer that each client could pick from. The shapes would have a picture of each client in the middle and they could take them home when we left for our Christmas break. They were a big hit and super easy to make. Here they are with faces hidden to protect identities (except for Geof's)...thanks HIPAA.

I try to make a handmade ornament every year with Geof. As you can see this is what we came up with for this year. He loves it, I love it and I'm sure we'll get a kick out of it for many Christmases to come. All of the ornaments were made from craft foam except for the gingerbread people. They were made from sandpaper.



1. Rudolph, 2. Snowman, 3. Gingergirl, 4. Gingerboy

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Halloweening

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! My costume idea for myself had to be scrapped because of my procrastinating ways. So my last minute crafting came in the form of a Deviled Egg. Very easy and super quick. I just bought 2 yards of white flannel fabric. Folded it in half width-wise, traced out a fried egg/amoeba shaped form, cut it sewed up part of the sides, added a yellow circle and voila! The horns and triton-poker stick thingy were purchased to complete the ensemble. I ended up winning a costume contest at work and my prize was a box of organic pumpkin ginger cookies...I'd say it was worth the effort!

Wish in one hand, shit in the other...

I really wish I had something creative to show you. I started crocheting another Boteh scarf but for some reason kept screwing up so I frogged it and haven't picked it back up. I did make a wire and bead something or other. I have an old, I'm guessing percolator, that I use as a plant pot. I planted some viney type foliage in it and wanted to hang it up but the handle was too short and looked weird. I put some beads on some wire and made an extender for it so it would hang a little lower from the hook. I'll take a picture tomorrow, perhaps it'll make more sense that way. I do have tons of ideas for other crafty ventures. I really want to take up embroidery because I have an idea in mind that I want to make to put up on my bare walls. It's fairly simple, with a bit of a twist. My vision is of the traditional "Home is where the heart is" hanging but with a funky font and anatomically correct heart instead of the word. It's been bugging me for weeks, begging to go from the confines of my brain to something tangible. My lack of knowledge in the embroidery department is what's keeping things from moving along, but a trip to the library tomorrow should get things moving.

Because I have nothing else to blog about..

The Flickr game. I first saw this HERE.

Type your answer to each of the quesitons below into Flickr Search. Using only the first page of results for each answer, pick an image and copy & paste the url for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name? "Amanda"
2. What is your favorite food? "Hamburgers and hotdogs"
3. What high school did you go to? "RS Central High School"
4. What is your favorite color? "Turquoise"
5. Who is your celebrity crush? "Matthew McConaughey"
6. Favorite drink? "Kool Aid"
7. Dream vacation?"Some place tropical"
8. Favorite dessert? Grandma's "Frozen chocolate dessert"
9. What you want to be when you grow up? "Registered Nurse"
10. What do you love most in life? "Family"
11. One word to describe you. "Weird"
12. Your Flickr name. "yarn.junkie"

The Yarn Nook

On our way home from visiting my folks and cleaning up at the new place I decided to take the more scenic route home. I had noticed a few weeks earlier a little yarn shop tucked away in a dying shopping complex and decided to check it out. It was called The Yarn Nook, but I will call it Nirvana. Cute shop, lots of yarn, great owner. I asked her how long the shop had been at that location and she said close to 2 years. I don't travel that road too often, obviously, or this post would have been written 2 years ago! In all my fiber dork glory I asked for her permission to take pictures of her shop and she happily agreed. I was very impressed with the selection of yarns. There was more Noro than I have ever seen anywhere before. I petted it of course, but did purchase any. Oh man I could have burned a hole in my credit card for sure. Linda, the owner, said that she does have a website and she will gladly ship to anywhere. The shop is about 15 minutes from where I live now, and will be an hour from where we're moving. Just my luck to finally find a local yarn store only to be moving away from it within 3 weeks!

So, if you're ever in the western portion of North Carolina, here's another Local Yarn Shop for you to peruse....

The Yarn Nook
1261 Smoky Park Hwy.
Candler, NC 28715
Shop: (828) 665-0610
Fax: (828) 665-0610
Cell: (828) 230-5557
Email: theyarnnook@bellsouth.net
www.theyarnnook.com

I've already packed away all my yarn and crocheting supplies and haven't really thought about any future projects for a while now. I wanted to support the shop so I bought 3 skeins of Berroco Comfort Sock in the 1813 Southland colorway.


I'm either too dumb or too impatient to make socks so this sock yarn will be used to make a Boteh scarf. Unlike a lot of sock yarns out there this is the softest by far. I may have to conquer my fears and make some socks with this because I imagine it would feel so comfy.

Mean Green String Bag

Hot off the hook this morning! It took me 9 days to complete the bag, but it should only have taken maybe 2. The pattern wasn't that difficult I just got bogged down with the mesh rounds and got a bit bored. But that's just my crochet ADD acting up again. I like that the bag came out smaller than the usual market bags you see. It's easier to stuff into your pocket before heading out the door to your local grocery, farmer's market or even your own backyard garden. I'm definitely pleased with her so I guess she's a keeper!

I mentioned in a previous post that the pattern for this little bag came as a freeb handout from my favorite local crafty goodness shop in Asheville, Earth Guild. And as I also mentioned before I'm not quite sure what the rules are for passing along freebie patterns but if you'd like a copy just shoot me an email: yarn_junkie [at] yahoo [dot] com.

The 411...
Pattern Name & Designer: Crocheted String By Mary Young Smith
Materials: 4oz-ish 8/4 cotton carpet warp the colorway I chose was "Dark Jade"
Hook: Size C aluminum or size 1 steel
Gauge: Doesn't matter

Purdy Pitures

A few of my recent projects decided to have a photo shoot this morning so I happily obliged. First up I'll revisit my last post about the bag made from rug warp or carpet warp. I've been working on it for the last couple days. Great mindless pattern for working while watching the boob tube. As I mentioned before, the pattern came as a freebie from the shop. I'm not sure how the rules work for sharing handout patterns but if you'd like a copy email me and I'll be glad to share. yarn_junkie [at] yahoo [dot] come. The picture to the left is a somewhat fair representation of color although it seems a little washed out from what my eyeballs see in person. It's a really rich color somewhere in the same family as jade and emerald greens. Geof helped me pick it out and I think he has great taste.

Next up is my Divine in Blue. The pattern can be found HERE. I started and finished it in the same day...Valentine's Day to be exact. Great pattern, well written, and I can't wait to make more. The best part is that the finished product was great for keeping my head warm in the bitter cold of Wisconsin. By the way, did you know that snot can freeze inside your nose? I was unaware of this phenomena and quite amused by it! Anyhoo, I deviated from the pattern and used H & G hooks. I also added a few rounds with 5 & 6 clusters so that the hat would fit my big ol’ melon. I really enjoyed this pattern. It worked up quickly and turned out fairly thick and warm. Love it!!

An ode to Earth Guild

The in-laws have been in town since Tuesday evening and left out this morning. My mother-in-law is a crafty person and wanted to check out some floor looms in Asheville yesterday so we stopped in at Earth Guild. I fell in love with this store back in high school. They have supplies for everything from tie dying to pottery to basket making. They also have a nice variety of fibers for spinning...and spinning wheels and yarn and hooks and needles and books. You get the idea. I love this shop! What makes it really great is the staff of super friendly folks who know their shit. If you're ever in Asheville you should check it out and gimme a holler and we'll have a grand ol' time. I petted a lot of different yarns and ended up buying a spool of rug warp to make a mesh bag. The pattern was a freebie at the shop and I started on it this afternoon and things are going swell. I've never worked with rug warp before but that's what the pattern suggested to use, it's basically like size 3 crochet thread, and it came in a whole rainbow of colors. I'll post pictures soon just to prove that I still know how to work a hook!

Crap and stuff

Hello to anyone who still visits here. Sorry there hasn't been very much in the way of content going on. I've had a lot of personal crapola to deal with. I haven't done much in the way of crocheting either so there's another excuse for the lack of posting. I'll get back to it soon enough, I promise.

On a side note, has anyone with a subscription to Interweave Crochet received the latest issue yet? I saw on the website that it was supposed to ship out March 17. I have yet to find it in my mailbox and I'm getting worried that it has gotten lost. I haven't even dared to peek at the patterns that are available in this issue because I don't want to spoil the surprise. I'm a dork, I know, I just really really like my Interweave magazines!

I have too much free time