Easter is almost here and this year I really didn't want to send candy, although I usually will only send one candy and some other items. I thought clothing would be a better idea and with so many sales going on you can get really good deals on kids clothes everywhere. I found a cute little top and white sweat pants for $9 at Old Navy. I love that shade of green and just wanted to add a little something to it. I took the little pattern that I had made for the flower applique on the little purse I made and added 2 smaller flowers and basically did the same appliques in white with white bead centers. I think she will like it. Time to pack up all the goodies and mail it out.
For some reason lately I have been drawn to the sewing machine. A while back I picked up a little change purse clasp and wanted to make something with it. I decided on a little denim bag that would just hold my phone and some change and added a little flower applique to it. This was a learning experience and I'm not sure that I like the holes for sewing on the outside of the clasp. There was a bit of manipulating to get the fabric to fit properly. Not sure if I would like to make more or not. I would have to do it a little differently some how and I also think it needs a little handle of some kind. Still trying to figure out what to do about that.
A trip to Michael's craft store ended up with this yarn. Of course it was on sale.Tthis yarn was exactly what I had in mind for a market bag.
Projects are coming along.. new and old. I had a few days off in a row and I took out the paints and painted this picture. I kind of had the idea of painting a leaf in white over a multi colored background. The painting turned out almost like I envisioned it. I haven't painted in over a year and I did all the lettering free hand and didn't measure. I think if I had measured the lettering I might be a bit better. This picture is for me anyway.. and I'm happy with it.
My pretty little camisole is growing a little. This picture was taken a few days ago so it's a little bigger than this now. I put it down for a few days to work on other stuff but now I'm working on it again. In the picture below I tried making a Super Mario mushroom but I don't think it turned out quite right. Poor little guy..
Recently my car needed some work and I ended up spending my whole tax return on it. Between my car and my house.. I feel like I live in the money pit lately. At least my car looks nice. As you can see, summer is on its way in Florida. We had some really nice weather.. beautiful and pleasant.. birds singing and playing in the trees. Soon it will be very hot and the birds will have gone to cooler climates and it will be silent outside. I'm enjoying it while it lasts.
A few months ago I carded a bunch of batts that are now just sitting on the shelf. I have been slowly learning core spinning and decided to star spinning up all the batts sitting on the shelf and put them to good use. This batt is called Vanilla Icing and is soft wool, tencel, tussah silk and silver angelina. I used crochet cotton thread #10 as the core and added bits of chenille yarn. The result : 60 yards of pretty bulky yarn. There is still a lot of over spin but not as much as the first skein.
March is almost over already. Little by little I'm feeling more like crafting. Crochet seems to be more attractive to me right now with hot weather right around the corner. It's already in the upper 80's here. I even splurged and purchased two magazines. With all the magazines available, each with beautiful projects, I'm trying to be selective and only purchase the magazines with projects that I actually want to make. Over the years I have accumulated a pretty big collection of both books and magazines, some very useful and some not. The two I ended up with are Spin Off and Interweave Crochet.
One of the projects that I have wanted to make for a while is a Japanese crochet pattern for a pretty camisole. Abby's birthday is coming up in May and I thought this would be so cute for a 5 year old. She likes green and yellow and green is so pretty for spring. I can just see her running around in this. Hopefully I have given myself enough time to complete it.
In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to practice a little core spinning. Here is the result. Not pretty hahah.. I see more practicing in the future for me.
Today was a good day to play with fiber. There was half of a batt of purple hand dyed fleece left to spin, so I finished that. I tried a little core spinning in some spots which gave it a little texture. After I finished spinning I felt like throwing a bunch of fibers on the drum carder mixing it with some chenille yarn bits. It came out a little light so I repeated the whole process and made two batts which I'm setting aside. I plan to practice a little core spinning with a batt that hasn't sold on my etsy shop. It's called Garbage picker, named that because I used the little pile of fibers that I clean off the drum carder. It's rather ugly, but will be interesting to see what the yarn will look like. Maybe I'll name the new batt Celebrate or Party time. (^_^)
Yes it's been a while. I finished a couple of hats that I forgot to take photos of and remembered after I mailed them out. One was a Jayne Cobb hat in red and black for a friend in Alaska and the other was a black wizard hat for my son. After it was knit I sewed a Gryffindor patch onto it.
Maybe my son will send a picture of him modeling it.
As you see in the photo I have started a new project. I think it looks totally 70's. I didn't think the yarn would look like that when just seeing it in the ball. The pattern im using is my pattern LittleBlackShrug. I plan to change it up a little and make it more a daytime shrug that you could wear to the mall or a lunch to the zoo, etc. I'll give more details later on.
Florida is slowly heating up. Spring is on it's way in the rest of the country which means thinking of summer knitting and crochet projects. I have my eye on a few things I would like to make and will post them as I start them. (^_^)
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