Knit daisies - so cute!

When I get back in to civilization, I HAVE to make some of these knit gerber daisies. They are so colourful and long-lasting (and the pattern is free!)

More Crafty Links

I was recently directed to the free 42 ways to recycle e-book here. It's full of projects to make out of items we throw away every day - after my own heart!

In the direction of my ever hopeful, here is an awesome tutorial for a super simple skirt. I love making pencil skirts out of jersey knit, but hadn't yet found the best way to make a waistband - this may just be it. Shirring is super simple and I have loved the look of it since I was a little girl. I want to make about 5o of these skirts...

I just discovered the knithacker website. Some of the projects posted are so amazing!

Many people I probably won't have to say anything about this, but I have also discovered Craft Leftovers. How has this site escaped my attention until now? So lovely!

Fun Crafty Links

As soon as I saw this post on how to make felt flower arrangements, I fell in love. Normally, I don't like fake flowers, but I suddenly find myself wanting oodles of these all over my apartment...

I love the Blue Mollusc blog. Lovely projects and writing!

I am seriously digging this crochet top. I don't quite think I'm ready to make fitted clothes yet since my gauge is all over the place, but when I am, look out!

I want to make myself a felted hat like this one, though without the frilly accents.

I love the clothes and photographs at Vintage Vivant. So lovely! I love the vintage style, and I think my new hairstyle calls for a little more 20's inspiration in my wardrobe, but she just pulls it all off so well...

I also love these sock lights. I'm getting many ideas on how to make fabric lampshades...

How I Relax

One of the things Mike and I love to do to chill out is that I will work on crafts while I watch him play video games. I love games, but I'm not nearly as good at them as him. He is THE video game nerd. He and his friend will get together for video game marathons, and he's the one they pass the controller to if there are areas no one can get through. It's pretty amazing to watch sometimes, and it's nice to live vicariously through him. I have to admit, I also do a little "backseat gaming" from time to time, yelling at him when he goes the wrong way...

One of the advantages of borrowing his parents home for part of our vacation was their huge television. It's ginormous, really. We had purchased two games to bring with us on our vacation - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and Kirby's Epic Yarn. This game is amazing "Gabe" from Penny Arcade commented in a post that "If you have a Wii this is a must own game. It might even be reason enough to get a Wii if you don’t already have one", and I am in full agreement.

As either a gamer or a crafter, you would pretty much have to have been living under a rock to have not heard of this game, but here's the idea: Kirby has been turned into yarn and is making his way through a world of fabric, yarn, string, buttons and beads with his sidekick Prince Fluff to stitch Patchland back together. It is amazing!

The best part for us is that it is a two-player cooperative game. I am extremely competitive when I play games, and I think Mike gets tired of me trying so seriously to beat him at everything. The cooperation in this game is really fun, too. It's much better than in the new 4 player Super Mario Brothers, where you just end up getting in each other's way. Some have even nick-named it the "divorce game"...

In kirby, the enemies are fun, the items you collect are really funny, the graphics are total eye candy for any crafter, and even some of the music is really good. I loved it and recommend it for anyone out there.

The new Castlevania, Mike seems to like, but he's always been a fan of the series. I have a few issues with the graphics in some places, but it's otherwise entertaining to watch. I at least got a lot of crafting done. I finished a cowl I had been working on for a while with some amazing blue alpaca/silk blend yarn that was a Christmas present last year.

I also finished my first ever granny squares for a patchwork blanket swap. I love how much the textures change just by adding an extra row of each colour in the square!

We go out and enjoyed the temperate rain forests during one of the brief periods of sunshine we get this time of year. The paths were overgrown and beautiful, and there were mushrooms everywhere! I leave you with a couple of photos; I love the wet coast!

Rag Shag Rug

I haven't really been doing much crafting the last couple of days, so here is a roundup of some awesome links I came across on the Craftzine Blog:

I love this tutorial for a rag shag rug from Maggie Makes. What a great way to use up scraps!

And this Burda Style tutorial for making crochet loops for belts or buttons. Very handy.

And last, but certainly not least, how to make a storm trooper helmet out of milk jugs from Filth Wizardry. How awesome is that?!

An Erica Domesek (Author of PS - I Made This) tutorial on how to make marbled paper. So simple and so stylish!

On the Importance of Gauge

So, I finished my first serious crochet project - a scarf. I love the way it looks, and it was so simple. I just did the entire thing in treble crochet from beginning to end. It's made with Malabrigo's Silky Merino in the colour "Redwood Bark", and it is so very soft!

What surprised me the most about this project was just how quick it was. I started making this scarf with a knit pattern that gave a similar texture, and it seemed to be taking me forever. So long, that I forgot how to do the pattern, and couldn't get it back again. I wasn't even half-finished at this point. So I tore the whole thing up and started crocheting. I brought the yarn and my hook with me on a flight to Maui, thinking the one ball of yarn would get me through both flights there and back. To my surprise, I ran out of yarn halfway through the flight there! I was antsy for the rest of the flight there, but at least I had company on the return flight.

The one thing that did happen during this project was that I discovered the importance of gauge. The beginning of the scarf is 2" wider than the end. Partly because I somehow lost 4 stitches along the length of the scarf, but partly because of how much I tightened up my gauge as I went. If I were making a shirt, it would have gone up 2-3 sizes, just from changing my gauge.


I think I need to practice crochet before I make anything fitted...

Not your average knit/crochet blog

I found the most hilarious blog today and I just had to share it. It's called Handmade by Mother, and in it Victoria Dunn posts entire vintage knit and crochet patterns.

But beware, these are not your everyday patterns...



And the commentary on the patterns is freakin' hilarious.

The beginning of holiday catch up, crochet and furoshiki!

So, I have to admit to running away from my computer lately. A combination of neck trouble and not wanting work to be able to reach me has caused me to leave my laptop on the floor gathering dust a good amount of the time.

This is not to say that I havn't been crafting. Au contraire. I think because of my reduced hours at work (and the lack of computer time) I have really been getting back into crafting - especially sewing and knitting. I also got this lovely book as a Christmas gift and taught myself to crochet over the holidays, something I have always wanted to do.

Crochet amazes me. Perhaps it was because of my knitting experience, but I was amazed at how quick it was to learn. Also, it was incredible how quickly I could put together a finished project! I made a few pairs of slippers for friends and family over the holidays, embellishing them with flowers. I found an old Threadbanger video on how to make the flowers, and it was so fast and they turned out so cute!



I was so excited to give them to my boyfriend's mom, I even forgot to take pictures...

Something else I was really getting into over the holidays is furoshiki, or the japanese art of wrapping things with folded fabric. I love the concept, because I hate throwing out tons of wrapping after the holidays. What I loved about doing it was how fast it went. After practicing a couple of times, I could wrap a gift in only a few seconds.

And you can do it cheaply as well! I bought polyester lining at Dressew for $2/metre, which is more than enough for two average sized gifts, and the shine of it looked so nice under the tree! I didn't even finish the edges - just ripped off any loose threads. You don't need to add bows or ribbon, as these features are generally built into the way the gift is wrapped. The only thing to worry about are gift tags, but I'll go into that in a later post. My favourite wrapping style quickly became this orchid wrap I found on youtube, as I am slightly obsessed with orchids.



Jenn Playford has a lovely book on the subject called Wrapagami. It goes over everything from how to make the fabric squares to various inventive and adorable ways to use them for gifts! She even has her own youtube site with many how-to videos for the wrapping techniques. I love it!

And, to top it all off, since I'm the only one who knows how to do this wrapping now (even though I offered to teach), everyone gave me back the fabric to use again and again. Take that, disposable paper wrapping!