On the Road

Big Knitter is attending a conference in Albuquerque for a couple of days. It's our first road trip since last August. 

It's cold here!

But I'm trying to keep warm by "poddin' around"...here and there...while he's in class...

My first stop was a new little fabric store on the NW side called Hip Stitch.

Wow they are super friendly and have some of the fabrics I love the most. (like Free Spirit, etc.)

And, I happened upon this:

It's a Gotta Have.

Weekend Sewing New From Heather Ross.

I spotted a little baby kimono in the back that jumped off of the page. (literally, I swear, honey, it did, I had no choice but to buy it!)

And of course, I needed a little piece of fabric for my first kimono:

"Starling", a pretty pink background for my soon-to-be-new granddaughter.

And I did actually look at the rest of the projects in the book (after I bought it) and pretty much loved them all.

I highly recommend this book! And I love Heather Ross' fabric anyway. In fact I just got this in the mail before we left for Albuquerque:

Purchased on Etsy, 7 fat quarters from A Fabric Outlet A Sewing And Quilting Boutique. Most of their fabrics are $7.49 / yd.

These 7 fat quarters were $15.75 plus, I think $3.75 for shipping. And a wonderful person named Deborah shipped pretty much instantly. Love it!

How 'bout some knitting?

Well, I am going to be brave and drive the motor home myself, (eeek!) to Village Wools and see their new location here on the NW side. 

They went ahead and moved a few years ago, from their little hole in the wall that I loved...I can't believe it's been so long since I've been here...time flies!

I'll report back on the new digs later. (That is, if I can find a Big Enough place to park...it's a little motor home, but since I'm not used to driving it, I will need a Big place to turn around! Watch out!)

The big knitter brought his Manor Care blanket with him to knit on. One of these days he will complete it. We call it that because he started in when my Dad was in the nursing home and he really only worked on it while we were there. 

Now, he brings it along rarely; it's a slow project, I guess.

Something an Oregon Duck Fan would love: Cascade 220 in green and yellow. And it's one of Big Knitter's "mystery stitches", as I call them, one strand at each end of the circular needle.

I almost hate to sign off, it's been so long since I blogged on BigKnitterLittleKnitter, but I have to if I'm ever going to get to Village Wools!

From Ghoulies & Ghosties

From Ghoulies & Ghosties and Long Leggity Beasties and Things That Go Bump In the Night Good Lord Deliver Us!

A little bit of crafting is getting done around here.

My grandson loves skeletons so I made him a little skeleton pillow out of a onesie he grew out of last year. I drew the "bones" with a Copic pen and then stitched around the whole thing and stuffed it.

Next time, I might consult one of my old anatomy books before drawing...but...

I used the pocket from the onesie for a little surprise on the back. It's big enough to stash a Hershey's kiss inside.

Waldorf Doll

I've been playing with making some little Waldorf dolls. Here's the first one. The outfit and hat are flannel and the face is interlock. The ribbon accent is satin.I am using Maricristen Sealey's book for inspiration. It is a wonderful resource. But, since I'm bad at following instructions, this doll is an original design using basic techniques from the book.

3rd Drawstring Bag

Here's another drawstring bag I made for daughter # 3 for her birthday. This one's linen with a cotton lining. It has become her custom to ask us to donate to one of her favorite organizations for birthday and Christmas gifts. This year it was the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation . I put a little card inside the bag to let her know we had made the donation. It was a great 26th birthday for our baby!

This week, I got my Ravelry invite. My user name is mostlybears. I haven't added much of anything to my profile, but it's been fun to look around and see everyone else's projects. There are like 20 other Tucson knitters on there with blogs that I want to read. Ravelry is amazing and I couldn't help but make a little donation to the cause while I was on there. It felt like money well spent.

Still Crafting

Here's another drawstring bag I finished this week. I stashed H.P. 5 inside and sent to daughter #2. She is reading the series & I'm sending her one at a time from my collection.




Here's a cool crafter's blog that has loads of links to other craft blogs:


It's been great fun to look around. I really like Thimble's vintage buttons.

Baby Steps

I'm still working on getting out of the knittin' funk. Been doing a bit of sewing instead.


I had great fun making this "Olivia" drawstring backpack.
I wasn't too sure how to go about making it, (I wanted the straps to be adjustable and I wanted it to be lined.) and I guess I was feeling too cheap to go out and buy a set of instructions ~~wow, I really am in a funk!~~ so I took ideas from several free patterns that I found online and came up with my own instructions.
The straps are still long because I haven't tried it on my granddaughter yet and I wanted to make them the right length for her.
I was thinking I might make another one and do a little tutorial with the directions. I have a couple of fat quarters of material that might work. Of course, doing all that would require me to be fully out of the funk, so I would't be holdin' yer' breath on that one.

I also did a little bit on the baby beanbags. I'm done with the stuffing and sewing up part. I ended up using beans instead of the rice for filling. The rice was too dense and heavy. The pinto beans are a perfect weight and density.

I'm just doing a simple running stitch around the edges to give them some extra color. The T is my grandson's first initial.


Well I guess that's about it for now.