Knitting Dragonflies

My girlfriend that I met on Ravelry and I went to the Southern Indiana Fiber Arts Festival , last weekend. The drive was pretty, the company good, weather cold, and the fiber great! I went with the plan that I was only buying one skein of sock yarn. Really, just one skein. Dena wanted to look at spinning wheels, or maybe I wanted her to look at spinning wheels. We walked, talked, looked, fondled a lot of fiber and yarn. She tried a few wheels, and didn’t buy that much. I was doing fine until I bought: Screaming Wild Monkey! A special house blend of 70% super wash merino/15% Banana/!5% Seacell (impregnated with silver) 4 oz. The photo doesn’t show the colors, they are vibrant. From the River’s Edge Weaving Studio at  weavingstudio.com Then I ran across: 50g each of Tussah Sea Sliver, 60% Seacell, 40% Tussah Silk from Fleece Artist at fleeceartist.com While my girlfriend looked at wheels I found these: Sweet bunnies, then I purchased…. A big ball of German angora bunny...

Featured Etsy Seller is Made by Melissa ! A  28 year old engineer by day – and she started crafting as a way to express her creativity. Good prices, and quality items! She crochets, Recycled Silk Breezy Scarf $35.00 USD Beads, Pink Crystal Dangle Earrings $10.00 USD and has many other items in her shop. Penny the Pink Elephant  $15.00 USD Stop past her shop and look around, and take a look at her blog here . Support Handmade! Technorati Tags: featured etsy seller , Made by melissa

I have been on a major decluttering streak. I have pitched, donated and reorganized, but I’m not done yet. I come from a mother who was extremely neat and orderly, and a grandmother that teetered near hoarding. So I live in fear of, well, maybe both extremes. Clutter seems to show up, mysteriously in my house.  I have tried over the years to beat it back. Below are the tips that helped me most. 1. Find a system. I tried for years to organize myself, it wasn’t until I studied naturally organized people that I realized that, yes I need a “constant” system. Not one week every three months to work non stop to make everything perfect again. Only to ignore it for another three months. (my favorite is a crazy lady, the flylady , also good are simplemom.net ) Find something that works for you, and then yes, you have to use it. 2. Baby steps Even if you only have 5 minutes, pick a shelf, drawer, even a portion of a counter. I have a rule, if I’m talking on the phone, I’m decl...

This is a YouTube Video I got from RoseByAny@-;---- 's blog. I love her blog and all her posts about her puppies. It is Pit Bull Awareness Day this Saturday.   Technorati Tags: Pit Bull Awareness Day , love your dog

Right on schedule on little eggs started hatching… Sept 29th These little guys are called “Kego” in Japan, and translates to “hairy baby”. See detailed info on the website WormSpit . I am feeding the Mulberry leaves although it is starting to cool down here in Southern Indiana. I have bought the dehydrated “silkworm chow” yummy, in case we need it. I have gotten different opinions on this from “you can’t change from leaves to chow, but can change from chow to leaves” begin the predominant opinion. I talked to one guy who said his ate either, as long as they had food. I bought the “Zebra silkworms” which said they were stronger, and more disease resistant. This sounded like a quality I would look for in a tomato plant, so I thought I would be a good idea. Hopefully I will not kill as many worms as I did fish when I started with aquariums. Oct 2, blast of cold air last night, I didn’t know that the #1 cause of silkworm death is temperature. OK so I had 1000 eggs. I didn’t...

Here are some things too good not to pass along. Love all of these links… From Jo So and Sew a tutorial on how to cover a plastic bangle with knitting. Check out How to Be Domestic , she shows you how to etch a set of bar glasses, this would be a nice personal present or wedding gift. I got one of these one Christmas and used it to death, here is the pattern, a crochet dish scrubby, yes you really need that scratchy acrylic yarn to make it work well. Wee Folk Art , teaches us how to make a mini braided rug You know I’ve been crazy about top down sweaters, here is a pattern for a raglan cardi from CosmicPlutoKnits Along the same lines Knitting Pure and Simple has a fab tutorial on top down sweaters. Indie Fix show us how to make a mini drawstring bag. This is great to carry those socks we are knitting. For us Knitters that need some crochet flowers to put on, oh whatever, here is a video from Little Birdie Secrets. From CraftNouveau a primer on photography for...

One of the best Halloween memories I have is going to a big scary Halloween party. I was about 7 or so. They had set up a “haunted house” and we had to go around and look at scary things. Headless man, scary witch and lost of webs we got caught in and noises. But the best part was sticking our hands into bowls of monster “parts” , which were covered with just a hole to put hands into. Eyeballs were wet, cold peeled grapes. Intestines were cold, cooked spaghetti. Cold hot dogs were fingers, brains were cooked oatmeal, and the most horrifying was the heart which was a water balloon filled with warm water. This was accompanied by lots of moans, shrieks, and screams. O to be 7 again. Here are some scary things you might want to make: From Instructables a crochet eyeball with optic nerve attached from the crochetninja The great knitted pumpkin pattern Felted pumpkins from Knitty How to make a very real looking werewolf head from Instructables From the blog of Strange ...

Once upon a time there was a woman, a knitter of course, that dreamed of learning to spin.  She knitting and bought spinning books and magazines and read all of the articles. OOOO, Ahhhhh…. Then she met a fellow knitter, who was spinning on a spindle. Knitted Gems , who is a great knitter who is also a knitting designer . Her blog posts and photos about her beginning spinning gave me courage to try it. So in fits and starts I started. Then I met another blogger, Spin, Knit and Life , who sells luscious batts and spun fibers at her Etsy shop . She encouraged me and give me little tips, well maybe big tips. She walked me through buying a wheel, my first, now I’m thinking about another, and through her I became interested in dyeing. The first thing I dyed (with Kool Aid) was some of the first fiber that was spun from my wheel.   Some lovely soft hand spun , that I’m now incorporating into a sweater. By now I’m seriously into the dyeing addiction. The latest I made is a s...

I admit, I love to knit bags, they are beautiful and soft. But yarn handles and bags can become stretched out. After taking the time to make the perfect bag, take the time to line them and give them some structure,  then your bag will be totally wonderful, lasting and you will amaze even yourself. These are tips, that I discovered during my great summer binge of purse felting . Handles, if these are knitted, reinforce them.   If I am making an i-cord handle I often put several strands of cotton yarn (or cotton cording, I have also crocheted a chain of cotton yarn and used that), together and string it up the middle, then take a few stitches on each end of the handle to anchor them. This keeps them from becoming too stretched out. I do this even if I’m felting the I-cords, but if felting don’t stitch them until post felting, just safety pin them to them ends, not tightly though, leave some give). Nothing is worse than handles on your purse that keep growing. (my big pe...