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.

Hello, Kitty!

I first saw this cute-beyond-cuteness sewing machine at CraftORama in Austin. Since then, I've been semi-obsessed with finding one for my granddaughter so I could teach her to sew. Well, as it turns out, on the Target.com website you can do a search to see if something is available locally. And, low and behold, it was listed "in stock" at our local Target store. And it took me about a minute to hustle off to Target to get one.
I set it up across the table from my machine.
Our first "sewing club" meeting was pure joy and she was so excited! We learned to fill bobbins, thread the machine, cut out felt pieces and try out all the stitches. (basically, straight and zig zag stitches) I felt such a strong sense of this being a life changing moment for her. I kept imagining her years from now saying to her own granddaughter (or son), "my dear old grandmother, whom I loved so very much, taught me to sew when I was seven."
Her first project was a "hot pad" made from three layers of felt. She stitched back and forth across the square, using various colors of thread and trying all the stitches. Then we used pinking shears to even off the edges. And she proudly took it to her other Grandma as a gift.
I look forward to many, many happy days of sewing with her. And Christmas is coming, it will so much fun to make gifts.

Finally, A Blog Entry!

The knitting slump is over! I have scaled the highest peak and planted my knitting needle triumphantly at the top! What a moment! Whew, that feels good! (ooh, oops would you look at the dust up there...oh, well, I'll get to that in a little while)
First I must bask in the glory.
Yeah, it's just a baby hat, but sheesh, it's been months or centuries since I've knitted. I'm happy to see something! And I do love this hat pattern. This is the third hat I've made from it. This time I used a lovely soft hand dyed wool from Blue Sky. It is so soft. Now I just have to do the little tassels.


It all started with our recent road trip...passed through Austin...and our happening upon a fab place called Hill Country Weavers (and which was just a hop skip and jump down the road from CraftORama, we got directions from the girl there, more about that later.) Anyway, if you do happen to be in Austin sometime, the big knitter and I highly recommend that you seek out Hill Country Weavers. And here's why! The big knitter's been sorta on a yarn buying break, due to the fact that he has about 10 blankets worth of yarn still waiting to be knit. (and storage of 2000-2500 yards of worsted weight yarn for each blanket is a bit problematic!) However, he couldn't resist the above finds. Blue Sky handpaints and a tweedy-looking alpaca/merino blend from The Fibre Company. Both in big-knitter-friendly-colors.

Hill Country Weavers is a place like no other. Located in a big old house on Congress street, each and every room is stuffed full of every kind of yarn you can imagine. And a room just full of books. Really a knitter's oasis. And the people are ultra friendly too.

And then the icing on the cake, literally, to the left next door, what could be better ... the Hey Cupcake stand!
and of course the cupcakes!
...which was great fun to buy and photograph. But once we had a minute to think about it, you know these aren't on any kind of cardio diet in the world. And we just couldn't bring ourselves to devour them even though we paid 2 bucks apiece for them. So we compromised and split the bottom half of one just so we could say we got cupcakes in Austin at Hey Cupcake!

And then there was CraftORama, a great little eclectic fabric/craft place up the road from Hill Country. Here's my haul for my little crafty thing I'm into right now:
The pattern for the tote bag is from Amy Butler and the other two are Favorite Things pattern designs. I'm gonna try the circle skirt for my granddaughter. CraftoRama has a bunch of Janome sewing machines and a big cutting table set up at one end of the store. Sewers and crafters can rent time on the machines and the sales staff share their technical assistance. They also provide basic tools like rulers, etc. And the fabric is fabulous! I asked if they were going to sell on line and the (very, very friendly) sales person said they are working on a web store. Can't wait!!
Here's a little bitty knitting kit I picked up also. Everybody needs a felted ant! Well, the actual purpose of our trip was to visit Big Bend National park, which is in far western Texas. We just got there in a roundabout way. And our last knitting related stop before heading on to Big Bend was to visit the Old Oaks ranch, which is outside Fredericksburg. What a lovely place, with the alpacas, the ranch, the sculpture garden and of course the store. I picked up a brand new project...braided wool rug made from roving. The roving is from Interlacements. Don't know when I will get started with this one, I'm thinking reading the detailed directions would be a good place to begin.The Old Oaks Ranch offers a multitude of fiber related classes and also a yoga class, what a great idea for knitters, spinners and weavers!

And oh, yeah, Now On To Big Bend..
Since the park is literally on the US/Mexico border, we got to see a bit of the Rio Grande river. We also learned some about life on the border and the many changes (not necessarily good ones) that have come about since the border closed in 2002. This cliff is on the Mexico side: And here's a cool sandy little path we hiked to the old hot springs: And some petroglyphs: The Rio Grande: And an unfortunate sign of the times: Most of the dirt roads in the park are not recommended for motorhomes, even little ones like ours, so we will have to return sometime with a Jeep or 4wd car so we can see more.
And lastly...

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.