Knitting Dragonflies

The sun has been out and I’ve done a little doodling. Do my fins look too big? Any of you girls interested in a drink?

  Valentine's Day is the day of love and donation is a gift of life. Can you think of a more loving gesture than making February 14 the day you join thousands of Americans in making the decision to become a donor? National Donor Day encourages blood, marrow, blood stem cell and organ , eye and tissue donation. Sign up to Donate for Life here , or just learn more about it. Be an Organ and Tissue Donor Help Create a Donation Friendly America! Each organ and tissue donor saves or improves the lives of as many as 50 people. Giving the "Gift of Life" may lighten the grief of the donor's own family. Many donor families say that knowing other lives have been saved helps them cope with their tragic loss. Organ Donor.gov to sign up or learn more info. In partnership with Saturn Corporation and the United Auto Workers Union , donation organizations provide an opportunity for all Americans to visit a Saturn Dealerships in their area to give blood, join the National Marro...

The Art of Joy on Etsy has wonderful illustrated printable items “that make you smile”. Super cute, 2011 Printable Kokeshi Doll Mini Calendar $7.00 2011 Printable Write In Knit Kawaii Calendar with Stickers $7.00 Get organized and make it pretty! She also blog at Creative Mamma

I stumbled upon this artist and was amazed at his creativity, and vision. Transcending the Material is a piece that you have to see to believe! below is an excerpt from him: These photos document “Transcending the Material”, a mixed media piece that I created and installed while in residence at the Wassaic Project (an arts collective and residency program located in New York state). The piece was exhibited at the Wassaic Project Summer Music and Arts Festival. Ben Cuevas interview, 2010 Wassaic Artist Resident from The Wassaic Project on Vimeo . Ben Cuevas discusses his work in his studio in the Luther Barn in Wassaic, NY.

What do these snowmen need? Yes! Knitwear!!!! What is a snowman without a scarf or hat that is knitted????? A sorry state indeed! See?? A handmade scarf makes all of the difference in the world! Don’t knit? Check out these Etsy sellers… Hand knitted cowls Hand knitted scarves Hand knitted hats Do you knit? Check out these free patterns? From LollyKnitting around here are some luscious knitting patterns ? I love this Burberry inspired neck cowl scarf pattern from The garter Girl! I must be in a cowl mood, here is another one from Elemental Stitches! A free knitted cowl pattern , sweet? -- Knit Fast, Dye Yarn "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass... it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

Sun and Sea yarn etsy listing . During the winter in our area, we often don’t get cold enough for snow. So it seems we are doomed to a cloudy, wet, grey winter. When I step out of my back door on my way to the garage the ground squishes and is saturated. Like walking on a sponge, it destroys the grass, and even the dogs are used to the yard turning into a big mud bog. But what I miss most is the sun. Often we go many days without sun. In my job I work swing shift, and I have no windows anywhere near my department.  So even if the sun comes out during the day, I won’t see it, unless I can escape at lunch and it happens to be out. This often leads to what I think of as “I’m going to scream soon if I don’t see the sun”. Enter me, some yarn, and some dye! I wind some yarn off, soak it and start looking at my dyes! Feeling better already I get my color wheel out and start thinking of the sun and sea! Starting with turquoise I gently added this, not wanting to overpower it with ...

OK, it is after the Holidays, and if you are like me, I have an urge to recycle instead of buy anything else! Here are a few idea I found that were interesting! I’ve seen the bags made from disposable plastic bags from stores. Need a tutorial? Tutorial for fusing plastic bags by Natalie Zee Drieu , and some examples of amazing things to do with them. From Etsy Labs another tutorial for fusing bags From Jessica of HowAboutOrange blog, a tutorial on how to make a good looking gift bow from a magazine page Cut Out and Keep.net has a good looking shrug made from a tee shirt, seriously it looks good! From the Vintage Chica  a rag rug tutorial from old tee shirts, and other cast off clothing. Dollar Store Crafts.com has instructions so you can make a tote bag from a coffee bag and duct tape. Recycling is the process of taking a product at the end of its useful life and using all or part of it to make another product.

Yay, the sun is out. We have so many sunless days here in the winter. I feel like when it does come out, I need to go out and really enjoy it! So I’ve been catching up on my “to do” list! 1)Let me see I made 3 Hula Hoops, for Christmas presents, very easy and fun. If you are interested in making one yourself, I have included some info on how to do it: This is the best tutorial I have found for making a hula hoop yourself, watch out, you can’t make only one! He also includes all of the supplies you will need. A taping link, and a hula hoop demo to get you started. Watch out it is addictive and fun, (and burns calories)! 2) Felting gnomes, which turned out to be elves, and Santas! See photo at top, more than one was made but the rest became presents, and this is the only one that got captured in a photo! Felted gnome tutorial here   3) Painting more Sumi-e paintings. Bamboo, Prawn and Iris…. I was amazed that all of my “practice” bamboo paintings were eagerly taken by ...

Therese at Blueberries, Art and Life is my painting mentor. Thanks to her I found a new creative outlet. First a photo, then a sketch with a sharpie marker. After that, I started working on layering the paint on the paper in washes, and letting the colors mix there, instead of mixing them on my palate. I started with my sketch… I then layered cobalt blue, and then alizarin crimson, the areas where these over lapped they made a grey. After this I continued added one color at a time in a dilute wash. Until I was satisfied with the results. This method was fun and I like the results. I’m going to try another similar to this. Layering washes has also helped me in my yarn dyeing process. I now am following suit with my fiber, and applying one color at a time. Although with fiber this has a much longer drying time, but it is worth the time and effort it takes. First successful example I actually listed this hand painted yarn on my Etsy site if you are interested in knitting wit...

I finally finished the lovely fiber that I started, yes, I know, for the Tour De Fleece 2010. Well at least I did finish it. It started out as a fluffy pound of Blue Face Leicester Wool that I purchased at a fiber fair from Breezy Manor.com From Orion, I was drawn to it due to the natural dark color. And so I started to spin, and spin, and spin. I finally got done, and have a estimated 960 yards from it. Yay! Enough for that sweater I wanted to make out of it. The decision has been made on what to spin next, and it is…..(drum roll)….. 4 oz of beautiful Screaming Wild Monkeys, from River’s Edge Weaving Studio , this is so super soft and squishy and the colors are amazing! I couldn’t resist. It is a blend of 70% Superwash Merino, 15%Banana, and 15% Seacell, and impregnated with silver. I was not familiar with Seacell, it is cellulose-based fiber manufactured in the so-called Lyocell process. The seaweed has been permanently incorporated into the fiber. I’ll let you know...