Crafty Week Day #5 -- T-Shirt Rug

I've been collecting old t-shirts and making t-shirt "yarn" for about a year now.  I've made rugs and ripped them out because the curled, but then saw this pattern by Garn Studios, and gave it a try.  Hurrah!  A rug for the porch!

If you want to make t-shirt yarn, there is a good tutorial at Mollie Makes -- this is just how I do it.
If you cut the strips wider, you get thicker yarn, and heavier t-shirts will make thicker yarn, but you can just cut them more narrow to compensate.  Or not -- the difference would make your rug interesting.  Which is what I say since I didn't compensate for the weight of the shirts!  And, my other advice would be to use a quilt ruler and rotary cutter -- so quick!

To join the yarn, you can simply tie the ends in a firm knot then trim the ends, sew the ends together or do the fancy join I like best that is shown in this t-shirt yarn tutorial from dollarstorecrafts.com.

With a great big crochet hook, this rug was very quick to work up -- I made this one in one night, plus an hour or so the next day on the edging.

Crafty Week Day #4 -- Woodsy

"Woodsy" because all these are made from wood.  Clever, no?  No.

Anyway, here are some of my creations from the past couple of weeks.

A few months ago, I ordered some wooden pennant blanks from one of my favorite "daily deal" craft sites -- pickyourplum.com.  I got some big triangles, little triangles and these flag shapes.  I mod-podged some fabric on them, then painted on the welcome letters.  I had saved a tie from a bundle of Crimson Tate fabric, which was perfect for stringing.  The screen is left over from my sister's home renovation

One day, my friend, Madge, and I were driving back to the office from lunch and she pointed out a door decoration she loved.  This is my attempt to re-create that: 

Old picture frame, spray painted, then a big C I found at Hobby Lobby, spray painted, and some 50% off fall picks.  Now I just have to find a way to make it hang straight on my door.

That was my practice piece for Madge's:

About the same as mine, except that the W needed a bigger frame!  Red is her favorite color.  Thanks for the inspiration, friend!

Peace.

Crafty Week Day #3 -- Owl Hat

These hats are very popular on the knit and crochet blogs, as is anything owl-related.

Thanks to a great free pattern at Repeat Crafter Me, I made this hat for Paul in just a few hours.  Unfortunately, his noggin is far too round, and it didn't fit.  So, we passed it on to his little cousin.  You probably want to check your gauge (I didn't) as you might want to size up a bit.

Whooo's going to make another one?  Me, since this pattern is easy and fun.

PS  I used leftover Wool of the Andes for this hat, which makes it nice and soft.  I crocheted another hat last week for Tommy's birthday from Red Heart Team Spirit -- ick.  The colors were pretty (although they were Notre Dame colors) but the yarn was squeaky and the hat stiff and a bit prickly.  Ouch.  Now that Knit Picks has a a superwash WOA, I hope to never use an acrylic worsted again.

Crafty Week #2 - Crocheted Cinderella Flip Doll

This little Cinderella was a first birthday gift for a sweet girl, Olivia.

 I had printed off this free pattern for a friend at Knit Night, but thought I might give it a try, too.  I made a few adjustments for a one-year-old -- no fancy beading on the skirt and I just did french knots for the eyes and tiara.

Raggedy side:

 Then her skirt flips up over her head to reveal her fancy side:

Her hair was a bit of a trick, as the pattern doesn't really tell you how -- I just searched around on some other blogs to find out how to best do the yarn hair.  The messy Cinderella was easy, but this fancy hair was more difficult.  There are lots and lots of stitches holding this to her head, but I wouldn't be surprised if Olivia finds a way to pull it all out, as babies often do.  

 My other difficulty was of my own making -- I started with the blue dress and then realized I didn't have enough blue yarn to finish.  So, I just added another ruffle and a white border with some pink roses.

This was lots of fun, and I am thinking about a Red Riding Hood Granny/Wolf version, and maybe even a Good Witch/Wicked Witch.

Tomorrow:  An Owl Hat

Peace.

Crafty Week, Day #1 -- Gathered Art Project

 I'd been thinking about this project for about a year now, ever since we went to Alabama to visit great friends and go to the fabulous Kentuck Art Festival in Northport.  (You should go -- it's always the third weekend in October.  I'd be glad to accompany you.)

Held in a beautiful wooded park, The Kentuck featured beautiful pottery, photography and painting, plus unique artists, like the personable letter-press expert who let everyone who bought one of his prints use his press to print their shopping bag -- just maybe my favorite stop.  There were musicians, fiber artists and jewelry designers.  And how could I forget the hands-on iron works from Birmingham?  You could carve your own mold and have an iron piece cast right there.  Awesome.

But there was also lots and lots of found/recycled/gathered art, which I found inspiring.  I love to make something out of nothing.

The gathering for this project took place over many months.  I started out in our junk drawer, and picked out a few things that had been in there forever.  Game pieces, barrettes, abandoned keys.  I started to place them around on an old bulletin board and quickly realized I didn't have nearly enough stuff to make it interesting.  So I added long things:  a pencil, a paint brush, knitting needle, chopsticks, a kitchen knife and a shrimp fork (why did we have one shrimp fork?)  Skimpy.  Many little religious items our kids received from school -- that's a rosary rounding the lower right corner.  Little tack pins from my jewelry box.  Still skimpy.  So I added trash:  bottle caps, broken zipper pulls and pop tops.  Then I filled in with buttons.  Always buttons.

All this stuff was in our house, here and there, in drawers, toy boxes and sewing kits.  Thirty-one years of junk.  How the heck does this happen?

I secured everything with hot glue.  (I have a love/hate relationship with hot glue.  Do you know you should keep a little bowl of ice water handy when you are hot gluing?  I know this, I just forget until it is too late, and then hot gluing transforms from a fun crafty adventure into a curse-filled occasion of sin and blisters.)

(I wish I could take a straight picture.)

I liked it, but it needed something.

Spray paint.  Oh, how I love spray paint.  So I sprayed the whole shebang off white.  And sprayed it again.  And once more, just for good measure.

I had originally planned to use this to display my letterpress posters from the Kentuck, but sometime during the project, I was Pinterest-ing and pinned a Union Jack dresser onto one of my boards.  I wondered about the German-worded poster hanging over the dresser. After looking up the translation, knew it was perfect.

Das leben is eine wundertute = Life is a goody bag

Sometimes you get a chocolate bar, a bouncy ball and a deck of cards, sometimes you get Smarties (ick) and plastic toys that end up in the trash.  Or the junk drawer.  Or the next art project.  

I just printed this sentiment out on nice paper with the computer printer, but how cute would this be in letterpress?

And now it hangs in our living room, right above the computer, to remind us even when the party's over, it's not really over; there's always some fun to take home, whether it's candy, a bit of spicy gossip or a happy memory.

Life is good, and filled with surprises.
And a little junk.

Peace.

A Sweet Doll Update

I am overwhelmingly happy to report that American Girl Kirsten, who traveled 500 miles via UPS to get here, was joyfully received by my friend, Anita.  (Original post here.)  Anita wasn't able to come to Knit Night last Thursday, so I delivered the doll to her work on Friday morning.  Here's my happy friend:

I don't think you can see the tears in her eyes, but they were there. And, you can't see all the other women who gathered around, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the doll.  I wish I had a doll for all of them -- and I think that it can happen.  I'm not exactly sure how this will work, how many women we can gift with dolls, or how long it will take, but I can tell you that this has become my new project and passion.

Many, many thanks to all who offered their dolls, and offered to chip in for a doll for Anita.  And a big hug to my friend who sent her doll on the condition that her mom doesn't find out.  What I would like for her mom to find out is that she is wonderful and generous.

But I'm sure she already knows that.  

Peace.

Random Cranky Truths

1)  If you are a B cup or over, you must wear a bra in public.  If you are over 40, this is true times 2.  If you are over 40 and work at WM, this is true times infinity.

2)  You can eat 3 vegetables, 3 fruits and 3 whole grains a day, but if you don't give up ice cream, your butt will not get any smaller.  And your arms get fatter, too.

Ask me how I know this.
Ask me how good that Ritter's red raspberry glacier was last night.

This is the MyPlate I teach:

This is the plate I eat:

And that pie section?  Put some ice cream on it, please.
(OK, that's really not true.  I really do try to eat the top plate.  I just accessorize the top one with the bottom one.  Plus bacon.)

3)  Kittens are a lot of work and a pain in the neck.  The are messy, smelly and hungry all the time.  I love it.

 So much for my "beans in blue mason jars" project.

4)  On the days when I must get the most done, I end up facebooking and sorting my pinterest boards.  And blogging.

Just thinking about it isn't going to get it done.  "Oh, wouldn't that be nice" never accomplished anything.  

Hey.  That's profound.  I think I'll make it in to a little poster:

Pinterest-worthy?  I'm not sure.  But now that I know how to do this, I might just waste spend time making all my deep thoughts into posters.   You can, too, if you go to recitethis.com.

I must get busy now.  Peace.

PS  Did you know you can mess around with pictures (like the MyPlate above) on fotoflexer.com?  You can, and it's amazing fun.

I'm really going to get busy now.  I promise.

Wait.  I think I'm going to do a little experiment.  I'm going to pin this (my poster up there) and see what happens.  Do you think anyone will re-pin it?  I shall report back.  After I get busy.