Knitting Dragonflies

Up this dark, and rainy morning and am reminded of how knitted items are so comforting. I have bought many a house shoe, slipper, and sock, to warm my perennially cold toes. But it wasn’t until I finally knit some wool socks that I came to believe in the miracle of wool as a perfect fiber. Now I understand those knitters are that sockaholics. This pattern is from Fiber Trends , the felted clog pattern (price around $5.00). I did use the Fiber Trends suede soles (ave price $15-20, look around, you can usually find some on sale) the soles really make the clogs last. They are worth the investment! I knitted mine clogs all in Malabrigo , (yes I’m a Malabrigo freak). I have knitted two of these clogs, and just follow the pattern, keep going, it will look unbelievably large, but remember they are going to felt and become warm and long lasting. [ rav link here ] [flickr photos here ] Remember cold weather is upon us and we all need warm feet.  Oh no, upon looking at the Fiber T

I’m sure everyone know a knitter that needs a stocking stuffer or little (or big) present. Here are some that I found on Etsy while I was “suppose to be” paying my bills. I’ll categorize by price: PDF Knitting Pattern for The Slouch Hat $5.00 from PixieBell on Etsy, she has a entire selection of patterns (stylish, something for everyone)  and knitted up items, if you want to buy it ready to wear. For a child Woolen Gloves Hand Knitted Sheep Off White $15.00 these are from LinenKids , she has a wide variety of nice handmade hats, toys and she uses eco-friendly natural materials to put soul back into kids' clothes and toys Snuggly Santa Holiday Dog Hat $16.50 Sooo cute, I know, who doesn’t want to give their pooch a Santa hat. From Jessica Lynn on Etsy Flock of Sheep Stitch Markers For Needles Or Looms $17.00 From the Clay and Yarn Barn on Etsy , what knitter would adore these? A little flock of our own, for the city dwellers. She also has a whole

St Elisabeth of Hungary , spinning for the poor, on a castle type wheel with a distaff. I am fairly new to spinning. I had a variety of spindles and enjoyed playing with them. I was torn whether I wanted (or needed) a wheel or not. Spindling is relaxing and fun. Now when everyone has so many demands on them and less time, I was worried that a wheel would just make me want to “go faster”. Similar to the difference between a sailboat and a speed boat. But that didn’t turn out to be true. When I am especially stressed or have a constant stream of thought, I often have trouble concentrating on my knitting. I can be blindly knitting along and not paying much attention to the pattern. Resulting in frustrating frogging, and cursing due to mistakes. These two also curl up and sleep when I spin. This is when I especially enjoying spinning at my wheel. I have heard it compared to meditation, and I agree with this. The spinning of the wheel and its’ rhythm. The sounds of the

Here is an Etsy Seller that has a little bit of everything. Becky from the Fab Miss B blog. She has two Etsy Shops, The Fab Miss B , in which she highlights vintage, (yes you can buy vintage on Etsy!)  Chinoiserie Tea Tin $10.00 Mini Painted Koch Grandfather Clock $20.00 Her other shop is Becky Kazana in which she sells her hand made cards and garlands. Be Present Card $3.50 Waiting on You Card $3.50 Why buy from a store when you can send a one of a kind card for the same price! Enjoy shopping…

I hate to throw things away, I’m always looking for other uses for things, here are a few I like Altoids Tin Gardens from Gomi Style If you must cut a sock apart, this is a good reuse for it from Design Sponge, Argyle Sock Vases Monica at Crafty Nest shows how to make a craft tool station and wall organizer “from crap from the curb” I thought this was interesting (but would never do this), recycle leaves by folding them into roses from Craftgossip.com But I do love the tiny little cards made from treasured bits by Designing Moms Recycle your old tee shirt into a diaper/nappy , very cute! From Natural Violet. Bleach Stenciling from Craftbits.com Hey I clean with bleach I thought could be a great “save” for those accidents to my clothes. Carton Wallet from family fun, I would actually make this. How about this, cereal is expensive, get some more use out of the box, here are five things you can do with a cereal box (gift bag and magazine holder are the best) fro

In the attempt to get a different look to my dyed yarn, I tried to dip the yarn into separate dye pots. Wow, I love the look, clean colors, more definition.  I used this article from Knitty to guide me. Of course it is more work. My hats off to all of you who hand paint yarn! I started with some vibrant shades of violet and green. I couldn’t find what I wanted and ended up using this tutorial on food coloring. From Spindle and Wheel. I used the Neon food colors that I found at a baking shop. They came in a paste. The mixing was quite a bit of trial and error. To come up with the right color and salt/vinegar mixture, this resulted in lots of little bundles of dyed yarn, and several pages of notes. I wanted the colors fairly close together to get a nice repeat when knitted. Wheee…This really exercised my arm muscles, dipping into the green, I tried to make five different bands of color. Then the purple, also five bands. Then wrap it all up into saran wrap and microwave i

As you know I have been raising silkworms, or trying to. It started with the idea of raising them for their cocoons, and eggs and then dyeing them to spin. Along the way I became charmed by these little hairy babies. Lifting their heads up,every time I opened the container to feed or check on them. Little piggy fellows, peaceful and sweet. My tale is one of many mishaps. I was so excited when my 1000 little eggs hatched, right on schedule. I had my mulberry leaf supply and fed them, hungry little squiggles. I checked and fed them , removed old leaves and then……one evening a cold snap came, I didn’t have the heat light set up. In the morning I had 1000 dead silkworms. Damn.. Discouraged but determined I set out with 500 more eggs. I had a thermometer in the shoe box, and a heat lamp. The eggs hatched out in 3 days. But by this time the mulberry leaves are browning, so I bought the mulberry mush. I carefully cut and place little clumps around for the little cuties to eat. They qui