Crafty Pants!

This Sock Elephants Pattern by L.B. Thoms is adorable! My local Goodwill has brand new patterned socks for only $1. I really should pick up a few pairs and give this elephant a try.

Are you hungry for something sweet? Crochet yourself some Delicious Fruit Tarts!

For those Dr. Who lovers out there, you can now crochet your own Dalek! When my brother was little, Dr. Who would give him nightmares. I’ve watched a few episodes of the latest Dr. Who and really like it, although I think I like the actor from the first season the best…

I don’t really discuss my shop often because I consider it more of my art than my crafts. But I do have to share the new wood that we bought. It’s called Mozambique, and it has a stunning wavy grain. It’s really hard to get a picture that really does it justice…

Etsy :: Exotic Mozambique Wood Ring

This wood is what inspired us to find a good food-grade polyurethane to use on our rings, because the wax really hid the gorgeous grain. We made samples of all our previous rings with the poly finish, and posted them. They really turned out quite nice if I do say so myself:P

We also bought one more kind of wood, but the samples are still in progress. I’d count all these in with my 50 in 2007, but that would feel like cheating!

My super wonderful roomie and I got into a little innocent trouble. We stenciled a wee gnome, and thus there are gnomes spray painted all over the property. Don’t worry, we didn’t do it anywhere that caused damage. Just head scratches (”Why is there a gnome on the garbage can?”). I’ll take pictures on a sunny day:P

I discovered she has a thing for gnomes, even though she’s never heard of David the Gnome! So, I carved her a little stamp so she can have gnomes wherever she goes! It’s only about 1.5″ tall, and I’ll tell you, making sure I didn’t accidentally remove his little itty bitty eyes was a true test of my motor skills… I think I’ll make a set of stationary with him and give it to her as a set!

The first picture is my pencil sketch, and the second is the stamp:

Sketch vs. Stamp

#9 of 50 

The boy works for a commercial real estate company that reps a few well known chocolate stores. As a result, I get more chocolate than any girl could ever dream of! Inspired by the Craftster Crochet Challenge I made myself a calorie-free alternative to truffles:

We’ve got a cherry cordial, coconut covered rum ball, chocolate noir,
dark chocolate covered strawberry nougat, mocha latte, mint chocolate
and dark chocolate covered vanilla. Yum!

Whoops, looks like someone already half of the dark chocolate strawberry truffle!

Challenge Entry

#8 of 50!

mmmfruit has a absolutely wonderful idea: Make 50 things in 2007.

I’m a very slow crafter, but I think this is a goal I can accomplish. Especially if I count each blankie square as a project! That would bring me up to a total of…. 7 things? Yikes, I better get cracking.

Here is my list so far:

•  #1: Earflap hat
• #2: Crafty Crochet Letters
• #3: Spring Hat
• #4: Wee Bear
• #5, #6, #7: Blankie Squares

Only 43 more to go…

My brother and his wife off-handedly commented that they are “thinking of trying for kids soon.” So of course I got excited, and began planning the baby blanket! I have a multitude of very small balls of yarn all in the pastel-ish range of colors. Many are from my sister-in-law herself, and others are thrifted. Some are acrylic, some are cotton and some are ‘who knows’ (just not wool). I was inspired by the wonderful granny-along movement but I just couldn’t bear to make a granny square. They bring back memories of horrid orange-brown blankets that I just don’t want to delve into.

Instead, I’m using this as an excuse to play with texture. Each square will be a different solid color, and using a very wide range of patterns. I can’t imagine doing 50 of the same square, so I think this will help reduce the tedium. Below are my first three squares, un-blocked:

They are very wonky but hopefully blocking will help straighten that out! I have learned that I need to go down a hook size for the slightly thicker yarn, but hopefully the size difference will be fixed when they are sewn together.

I’m on a no-buy kick for the entire year of 2007 (It really works! My stash is dwindling!) but once all the squares are finished I plan on edging each in a soft cream/white color, to prevent any clashing. We’ll see when I get there.

I feel that this will be a long, but rewarding project, and will use of all my small balls of yarn quite nicely. As I see it, I couldn’t possibly finish this in 9 months, so I might as well get a head start!

The spring issue of Crochet me Magazine is up! I especially love the the darling Dodo Bird pattern.

This bear has quite a story to tell! His head, body and arms were made during the ridiculously long drive from Washington to New Mexico during December. I then became car sick and had to put him away. I made one leg in Albuquerque during the only 10 minutes of downtime I had. The other leg was made during January near Seattle, WA. Finally, I assembled him in April, on the east side of Washington state! He had a beret, but it’s lost somewhere in my yarn pile…

I made him using this pattern.