Book Bird has now been dubbed “Word Bird” at the library! We’ll be rolling him out later this week or early next week. And he even spawned a new pal. I enjoyed making Word Bird so much that I decided to go ahead and make a little green bird to place for sale on my store! Check them out…..
I posted a couple years ago about connecting literature with crochet. I made a funny looking spider from a children’s picture book for a friend’s daughter and he turned out awesome. I now have another chance to merge my crochet skillz with my library profession once again because I’m an over achiever.
The idea was sparked when a little girl left her Hello Kitty toy hanging out on a statue we have in the library. The statue is of a little boy reading a book, and the way she abandoned it there, nuzzled next to the little boy, it looked like Hello Kitty was sucked into whatever bronze book the boy has been reading for the last 20 years. Then it gave my boss an idea… What if we had our own “mascot” for the library, and what if it traveled to a new spot every day, waiting for a kid to find it?? Genius. So the plan is it to hide it in a new spot every day and whenever a kid finds it they’ll get a sticker or some little toy to leave under the seat in their mom’s mini van.
The over achiever in me decided I was going to crochet this little mascot because I haven’t made anything in a while and my fingers are losing that crochet hook tone (yes, crochet muscles!) So here I go, working on a little blue bird to flutter around the library!
I promise he will be something soon… And the children will love him! Or they’ll just love the stickers and bookmarks they’ll get when they find him hiding in the library…. Tweet Tweet!
I’M DOOONE. With what, you ask? Well I thought it was a little obvious from the title, but okay. I have completed my Mazter’s Degree in Library and Information Science (that was a typo but I liked the sound of mazter). So I’m a librarian now! Hooray!
My parents are so proud…
And what does that mean? More time for books and crochet! But forget the books, this is a crochet blog. After having a lot of people ask whether or not I have an Etsy shop and deciding that I want to make a little extra money, I’m thinking about opening an Etsy shop. Let’s see how long this idea sticks.
So I have a question for my fellow crafty folks: Do you have advice for me? I have never sold my stuff online except to friends and I’m a little nervous about keeping up with inventory and not being able to fill an order. Little things like that.
But in the mean time, and in-between time, I’m beginning to bang out a supply of coffee mug cozies that are sure to please. Be sure to keep an eye out for them in my future Etsy shop =)
Hi, friends! It’s been a while since I posted last, but that’s because my Christmas/Winter break has been crazier than I thought it would be. And because of that, this post is going to be a bit drawn out, so sorrryyyyy. I was looking forward to being lazy most of the time, catching up on TV shows, reading books I’ve actually been wanting to read, and spending at least one entire day sleeping. I sound like a bum. But anywho, I would say that I was only partially successful with those goals. I did spend at least one (almost) whole day snoozing and cuddling with the man. I watched the whole 2nd season of the Walking Dead in only 2 days (while working on a huge crochet project I’ll talk about in a minute..) It took me just about 2 weeks to get through the audiobook of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Apparently the movie has been in the works for a while now so I decided to read it before the movie comes out and I must say it was an entertaining read! I’ve only made it half way through Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. It was the 2005 Newberry Award winner and I’m trying to get a hold of and read past winners; a task that will help me in my library career. Hmmm what else.. Christmas was nice and relaxing for the most part. Nothing too exciting to report except that my boyfriend knows me way too well and got me a watch, DD coffee, AND A TALKING HEADS VINYL. Amazing. He rocks. New years eve was fun. We got all snazzed up and celebrated with some of his friends and had a great night. All in all my time off from school and work has been great and I don’t want it to end. EVER. However, we have one last hurrah before returning to the real world. Matt’s birthday is January 8th so we’re driving down to Memphis tomorrow to celebrate. I’ve never been but we’re going to gorge ourselves on amazing Barbeque and Blues music, and make a visit to Graceland! Yay Elvis! Pictures will come. You can count on it.
Other than all that, my fingers have been busy (not with typing blog posts, obviously) with a lot of crochet projects! Some of the things I’ve been working on: Baby booties for my cousin’s new baby, Ruby — PomPom bookmarks — small Christmas gifts (mug cozies, head bands, etc) — Sushi amigurumi which I’ll post about soon! — and two afghans. There’s more but I don’t want to list everything. But yes, you read right. Two afghans. One for a friend; it was supposed to be a house warming gift 8 months ago but I’ll save that for another post. The other is a birthday present for Matt. Hey, men, you know your girlfriend loves you when she crochets/knits you an afghan! So he told me back around September that he really wanted an American Flag blanket and if there was any one thing I’d crochet for him it would be that. I got to work looking for patterns and came across an image on Ravelry but since I’m the cheapest of cheap, I didn’t want to spend the whole $5 for the pattern so I used the image as a template and figured out how to do everything from the stars to joining it all together. I’m not quite finished yet, but almost there! And since he already knows what he’s getting, here’s a sneak peek at the blanket!
I’m very happy with how cozy it’s becoming and I’m positive he’s going to love it. And if he doesn’t, he can shove it. =D
As for the Granny Square Scarves, they’re almost done! I have maybe 3 more to make and they will all be donated! I’m glad that’s almost done with because it’s a time consumer, but I know they’ll be appreciated. As soon as everything is donated I’ll post about my after-thoughts and some photos.
Well this turned out to be a longer post than I wanted, so I’ll stop now. I know I promised a lot of posts so we’ll see if I get around to them all! I hope everyone’s holidays were splendid! Tell me how they were; I’d love to hear about it! Happy almost weekend =D
I promise I know how to spell. This post is about amigurumi! For the last year I’ve been seeing these cute crochet and knit animals and things with little faces like carrots, cupcakes, acorns, you name it. I wanted to make them so baaad! I finally gave it a go with an adorable pattern I found for peas in a pod which I posted about back around Christmas. I made them for my pseudo-sister Jessica as a gift (it took everything in me to part with them..) Since then I’ve made two more attempts at little amigurumi guys and I have to say, I was pretty successful. Toot toot (me tooting my own horn).
I made a pig for my gramma for Valentine’s Day; she’s obsessed with oinkers. I couldn’t find the perfect pattern so I based one off of this pig from Lion Brand and tweaked it to my liking. Since posting the picture on my Facebook I had a few more requests for the pig! Someone also asked if I could make a bunny so I used this pattern from Lion Brand which resulted in a wittle wabbit. Next project: an owl. I can’t wait to get started on a little hooter for my friend’s baby =) So here are a few pictures of the little guys… That amazing backdrop is a huge piece of fabric I found at an antique store for only $2.50 btw!
It’s very tedious to make each individual part then sew it on, and they take a little more time to make than I had expected, but they’re so cute that it’s totally worth it. Stay tuned for future cuteness!
P.S.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day! I made cupcakes! ..I wish I could actually send you one through the computer, but you can take my word for it that it tastes delicious. Happy Patty’s day to my fellow Irish folk!
So last winter, I think in January 2011, I was feeling pretty confident in my mad crochet abilitiez, so I decided to start an afghan. Who was I kidding? I was inspired by older movies from the 80’s or early 90’s. You know the films, where there’s an old, ugly blanket neatly folded over the back of the sofa. Take Roseanne, for instance. Green couch with a granny square blanket laying over the back. I LOVE THAT BLANKET. So I started dreaming of making myself the ugliest crochet blanket I could. And so it began. I chose three colors for this gem: sky blue, black, and some confetti color I found in the Red Heart brand. Hey, if you’re going to make a big blanket you’re going to opt for the cheap stuff, right? Then I shopped around for the perfect pattern and decided on the larksfoot stitch. I used this same stitch for a baby blanket I made prior to starting this. I like how the “claw” part of it digs down into the previous color and sort of.. pops. I just think it looks really cool so I went with it.
I started my blanket and may have gotten a little overambitious. After a few rows I realized it was a little bigger than I anticipated.. and I was working the width. The width is a little over 7 ft. Meaning the height will be about 9ft. But hey, go big or go home, right?!
Unfortunately, I only finished 24 rows, meaning it’s about 1/8 of the way finished. I chalk it up to the fact that at that point I was really getting into taking orders from people wanting hats and things so I focused more of my time on making a few extra dollars and, in the end, the blanket was folded up and thrown into my closet. Doesn’t this happen to every crochet hooker?
But fear not, for the blanket is revived! The other day I was clearing out some of my hoard of hoodies (no shame in admitting that I had 54 hoodies folded on a shelf in my closet.. don’t ask) and I noticed a sad heap of technicolor staring at me saying “You’ve forgotten me, haven’t you…?” After some denial, I finally picked up my blanket and declared that I would finish it. Despite my large list of orders I need to fill, I will get this thing done. It will no longer be a wet blanket, but one of the coolest, ugliest afghans around. Maybe not, but I will cherish it forever =). Actually I love the colors I picked for it and the more I look at it the more excited I get about finishing it. I like to think that one day it will be a family heirloom.. HA!
Here are some pictures of my blanket:
So that’s my ongoing project I’ll hopefully finish sometime in the near future! How do you feel about my colors? Do you have a big project you can’t seem to finish?
Since my last post about the beard hats, I’ve been obnoxiously busy with school work and crochet orders, but I’m not complaining. I love hearing feedback about all of the items I make and it makes me smile when someone loves something so much they want one for their own! So I want to take a second to say thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to place an order and bump up my “business.”
I don’t really have anything super exciting to post about, but I do want to show off share the lovely things I’ve been creating lately aaaand brag about my new crochet hooks my friend Nick was so generous to buy me as a Christmas gift (they took forever to come through the mail!) So here’s what I’ve been up to:
So that’s about it… School work, insane amounts of reading, fulfilling crochet orders, and filling the left over time with friends. What have you been filling up your time with lately??
I could only wish to take credit for the infamous beard hats which have been floating around in magazines and websites like SnorgTees.com. About a year and a half ago, a friend sent me a picture of a beard hat and asked if I could replicate it. First I laughed my ass off at the concept of a hat with a connecting crocheted beard and proceeded to tell her “ABSOLUTELY.” I got really excited as I tend to do when I get new ideas, and got cracking on it. I did good.
The result:
Fantastic. BUT after making this style for a long time, I found there were a few things I needed to work out.. 1) The beard is completely attached to the hat and, if you have a big head, it’s not so easy to slip on and off without squeezing the ever lasting life out of your skull and 2) it was just a simple mustache portion that hung straight across. It needed a little more pizazz.. a mustache worthy of the British spelling “moustache.”
After some trial and error, I finally recently came up with a new beard! This time, I added a fancy moustachio AND figured if I only attached the beard to the hat at one end I could sew a button on the inside of the hat at the other end, making it much easier to take on and off. Evolution, people.
But it gets better. What can be better than a full face of lumberjack, you ask? I made it detachable.
VOILA! Presto cabob, I grew a beard-o:
“Cheers, mates!”
Right now I’m making and selling the beard hats as 2 separate pieces (Interested in making a purchase? Send me an email! We’ll talk) so I’ll see how that works out. Maybe if I feel like sharing my tricks of the trade I’ll make a post sharing a pattern on how to make these bad boys! But for now, I’ll share some photos of the famous beards slutting their way around Nashville, TN. Everyone looks handsome in a beard!
One of my resolutions for 2012 involves trying new things and expanding my horizons. What better way to get started on this than to teach myself how to knit? I’ve had knitting needles sitting with my craft stuff for a long time and actually learned the basics of knitting over a year ago, but I never kept it up. A few weeks ago I picked up the knitting needles and dug my heels in, deciding to stick with it. Using youtube videos, I actually got the knit and pearl stitches down pat! The process is veeeerrrryyyyy slow and sometimes I get frustrated after only a few rows because I feel like it takes FOREVER to knit something, but I’m grinning and baring it. I bought double pointed and circular knitting needles so now I feel obligated to learn!
So in order to actually feel productive I’m working on an easy and super adorable beginner project I found at Elisa McLaughlin Designs. 
My friend Jessica asked me to make her a headband so I decided to knit it like the pattern says, rather than crochet it! Wish me luck… Progress and photos will be shared =)
How will you be following through with your new year resolutions in 2012?
Hey, Kids! I’ve got something for you! Lately I’ve been tossing around different ideas for branding my crochet goodies and have been trying different ideas for adding tags to my hats, headbands, scarves, etc. I decided that making my own stamp and stamping out tags would fit best with my “hand made” ideology. So I made a stamp and bought a fabric ink pad, and because it worked oh so well I thought I would share the idea with you! So here goes my *gasp* VERY FIRST TUTORIAL! Bare with me.. it’s not perfect but you’ll get the gist.
For this stamp I will just be making a tiny heart to stamp on small pieces of shoe lace, so I used a knife to cut 1/3 of the cork off. I will be using the inside area of the cork as my stamp. Essentially I can get 3 small stamps out of this one cork.
Because my shoe lace is thin, I need to know how big to make my heart so it will fit onto the shoe lace. I laid the shoe lace on the cork and used that as a guide to how big I could make my heart.
I free handed a teeny heart for my stamp =)
Use your pen and tissue paper to draw or write your desired pattern. I used my initials as an example. Cut the tissue down to size so it’s easy to lay over the cork. Flip the piece of tissue paper over so you see the backwards image of your text or image. Because I used an ink pen rather than a ball point pen, the ink bleeds through to the other side making it easy to see the text or image.
Make sure you go over the image 2 or 3 times so the ink will bleed through and transfer onto the cork. You’ll end up with a faint image like this:
The outline is helpful here because you can basically whittle your way down to the true stamp shape. Start by cutting along your outline and then cut around the cork perpendicular to your cuts. You’ll end up with this:
Here is where the precision comes in.. You need to be a little more precise with text, and that’s where an exacto knife comes in handy.
I hope this was easy enough to follow.. After all, it is my first tutorial! If you will be stamping on fabric you’ll need a fabric ink pad. VersaCraft is a great brand and comes in lots of fun colors. I found mine on eBay for around $7. If you’re using this ink, make sure you let the stamped fabric dry over night and heat set it. Lay a piece of fabric over your stamped fabric and use a hot iron back and forth for about a minute. Once the ink is heat set it will be permanent and can be washed without the ink washing off.
I made another stamp for my crochet tags. This was before I bought a new exacto knife so I used sewing scissors to cut away at the cork. The lines aren’t as clean but it works just fine and I kind of like the imperfect look of it!
Now that I have tags on my hand made goodies I kind of feel legit! I love how the small tag looks and the hand made stamp just adds to the hand made beauty of a crocheted hat or scarf. My thoughts are that the more love and thought you put into your work, the more it will be loved and cherished by whoever receives it =) Now, to what will you add your personal touch??
crochet hooker 