A third.

Yesterday was my third son's third birthday (the Beast). Three is fun.


Would you believe that this shirt was the biggest hit of all his presents? He's been wearing it since yesterday morning and shows no signs of letting me take it off. I have a purple shirt that I may put a cyberman on for him soon.


Rainbow dash was loved by everyone. Applejack lost her hat within the first thirty seconds of play. I'm going to sew elastic to it so that they can easily remove and replace it.


This is the extent of my cake decorating skills. A two layer brownie cake with buttercream frosting and peanut butter M&Ms. Classy, right? A suggestion: no matter whose birthday it is or how much they want it, toddlers should not be given cake thirty minutes before bedtime. It makes things more difficult than necessary.


This is what I did last week.

I've had the piece for this quilt top cut and sewn into strips for years.


I finally sewed the strips together. It's huge. I also sewed together the squares for a quilt for the Elf. I had one side sewn and the other just cut out. Right now it's half quilted. I've sort of lost momentum again.


The Imp's current favorite mama-made pants (mushrooms!). For my next trick, I'll add pockets.

Linking up with Nicole's Craft On. Because I can.

Sewing?

We know that my sewing machine and I don't get along. But recently I've had this.. drive to make clothes for my boys. I blame all those amazing, crafty mamas who blog about the adorable clothes they make for their kids with seemingly little effort.

So I tried to make pants. This is attempt number two.

The first ones were... bad. These are too long and maybe not wide enough in the legs. The Imp can't move in his crazy ways as easily as he'd like (but loves them, all the same). Here's where everyone else realized that tracing stretchy fabric pants and using non-stretch fabric to make new ones.. wouldn't work out so well. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.


This is the Beast's final birthday gift. I have two ponies and a dalek shirt for him. I love making freezer paper stencil shirts. Next weekend I'll be working on one for B's birthday.

Linking up with Nicole just for the fun of it.

Crafting

Linking up with Nicole for {crafting on}.

A lovely friend asked me to give something a try. Here are my attempts, in order of creation.






This little lady still needs some hands, but I wanted to share her anyway.

The middle puppet is likely the only one suitable for kids to play with. The older ladies have delicate hair (and I should probably sew their head scarves on).

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a nearly completed cardigan to share!

Crafting On

I haven't, actually, been crafting that much. I guess. I've been working on a knitting project that I'll share tomorrow for the yarn along. I'm teaching my oldest to crochet - also yarn along material. Hmm. Regardless, I'm linking up with Nicole today.

I did sew some diaper wipes. Here's how this works for me. I get inspired (by a lack of sufficient wipes), I buy the materials, I go so far as to cut out squares, I get tired of it, I stack it away and promptly ignore it for six months. Fast forward. We're now *really* low on diaper wipes. The ones we have are barely fit to be rags. I remember the work involved in washing, ironing, cutting, sewing, turning right side out, ironing, sewing, snipping threads. I groan and hunt Etsy for affordable wipes.

Do you know what? There are none. The cheapest I could find came out to be $0.69 each (including shipping) but were only one layer thick. Here's the thing. You can buy a yard of fabric at a local chain store for less than $5. You can use a coupon and get it for about $1.50 on a good day. One yard of fabric makes a great deal more than two or three wipes. I know this. I know all of this. But I have to scour the web looking for a deal, propose it to B, get that "I don't think so" look, and have a mini meltdown before I can gather the umph necessary to tackle the making again.

So! To make it all easier, yesterday I had helpers! I would sew the two pieces together, B and the Elf would turn them right side out and press out the corners, we skipped the ironing (because really, they're *diaper wipes*), I would top stitch them, and B would cut the extra thread. Whee! Now we have new diaper wipes!
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Okay. Unrelated! I very recently won a pair of amazing rings in a giveaway on The Artful Parent. Given that I apparently have fat fingers (we're shocked. Really.) I can fit up to eight characters on each ring. Now, if I only had two kids I could go the no-brainer route and get their names. Only, I have more than two kids. That leads me to the great dilemma of which words to pick. So I ask you, what are your favorite words (preferably 8 characters or less)?

Crafting on

I am tired. Fatigued. Exhausted. Why my children cannot all sleep at normal hours is beyond me. At any rate, I'm joining up with Nicole's {Crafting on} link doohickey.

Here's what I've been up to:

This is a special doll for a special cat loving little girl. This spunky lady even has several changes of clothes. Tonight she'll be on her way to her new home!

This is about two ounces of yarn that I spun from Mountain Colors BFL in the "firestorm" colorway. I think I love it. I'm still massively pre-drafting, though. I haven't quite gotten the rhythm down to where I feel comfortable drafting from a huge clump.

This is the first "real" yarn that I spun on my new wheel. This is the fiber that they sent for me (Village Spinning and Weaving is awesome). Before I had been trying to use wool that really should be used for felting, not spinning.

This was my table this morning. I finally got around to giving this little merchild a face and hair.

Now she looks like this! Of course, I only managed a blurry picture of her front. I'm a little sad that for decency sake, she needs a top. I'm no good at mermaid tops. Perhaps I'll make a fabric vest this time. Hmm.

Of course, the shot of her back is in focus. Because I'm slick like that.

Crafting on!

I'm linking up with Nicole today for {crafting on} Tuesday. This is how I've kept myself busy while waiting for my spinning wheel to get here.

I've made more doll shirts in the last week than I ever hoped to. I'm not a fan of sewing clothes - big or small. Evidently, I'm also not very good at it. Here's the kicker - these are all "prototypes" and none of them fit the intended doll. I think I've finally gotten something close to fitting. But sheesh! First I went with the trusty pattern by Adirondack Patterns, but it wasn't working for this particular doll (she has a lot of hair and nothing wanted to fit over it). So I've looked around, found nothing, and had to make it up as I go. I've never cut, folded, pinned, ironed, and sewn so much in so few days.

And another mermaid tail. It's a bit bigger than the other two and isn't a totally natural yarn, but I think the sparkly bits and the colors are just too perfect for a sea lady. Don't forget to enter the giveaway at This Cosy Life for a chance to win one of my mermaid dolls.

There's also the giveaway on my blog for a crochet mason jar cozy. I think I'm going to write up another tutorial for a to-go cup cozy soon, too.

And yes, there will definitely be pictures of my new spinning wheel when it gets here this evening!

Crafting On - a day late.

Yarn Along to follow. I'm running seriously behind here. I was much too tired yesterday to ever get around to posting. So here I am, a day late. Happily the Beast went to bed by 11pm (and was up by 8am. ugh.) so I'm feeling a bit more rested.



Yesterday (and Monday, for that matter) was full of craft-fail. Cat ears were too small, too far forward, and looked funny in orange. Ran out of yarn for the back half of a doll shirt. Decided to try sewing clothes, realized I don't have any elastic. Made pants that were way too tight for said doll. Temporarily broke the sewing machine trying to sew some more diaper wipes (because how could I screw up squares, right?).

The day got moderately better after that. I've cut out and have (mostly) sewn clothes that I think will fit the doll. A trip to the store scored me some elastic (and thread, pipe cleaners, giant crochet hook, crayons). Today I will sew. I will not fail. I will not fail. I will not fail. (saying that three times, and in a public place at that, makes it true... right?)

A Busy Weekend

I've been battling a crippling headache all day. I finally relented and asked B for a neck rub - life has been better since then. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be headache-free. In the meantime, here's a glimpse of my weekend.



In the works are two (and an accidental half) Waldorf dolls. One is using the Lillipals pattern and the other is the basic Waldorf doll pattern - both by Adirondack Patterns. The morbid disembodied head was a goof up. I sized the patterns differently than the instructions call for (I don't have a printer so I trace it from my laptop screen). While making the head for the larger doll, I totally forgot and ended up with a head that was way too small. So now I have a head for my *next* doll.



My sheet-yarn ball from Friday's post is more than half used now. I don't have a crochet hook large enough so I've been using my fingers. It works, but my hand cramps after a while. In any event, I like the way my rug is looking. The holey pajama pants that I'm currently wearing are likely to join said rug after my next load of laundry.




Out of nowhere I've had a slew of Etsy orders. I'm so grateful for the people who want to own my creations. I've been feeling guilty, though. I'm a bit gnomed out. I'm having such a grand time making dolls and knitting for my friends and family. My Etsy shop is seriously lacking because of this. But I think I've decided to give myself permission to neglect the Etsy shop for a while. I'll still take custom orders (anything I've made, I can pretty much make again). The regular stocking, though, is going to take a break. An official break, at any rate.



I spent Saturday test knitting something completely adorable for Emily of Yarn Miracle. I'm not sure yet if I'm allowed to share pictures of my finished cuteness. I'll add a picture in once I hear from her. In any event - you should hightail it to her shop. It is packed full of squishy wonderfulness. I can personally attest that her patterns are extremely well written, easy to follow, and packed with helpful pictures.

Right. And now I'm off to crochet hair for the huge doll, put the Elf and Imp to bed, and watch B play Skyrim. Life is good.

Yarn Along!

Joining Ginny at Small Things again this week. With how crazy things have felt this Autumn, the Yarn Along seems to really be the only time I update this blog.



Working on this tank top/camisole. I don't care for the project much. Back and forth stockinette is so very dull to me (don't ask why in-the-round stockinette isn't, I can't explain it). I'm a big fan of Isabel Allende, so it's no surprise that I picked this book up once upon a time. It is a little weird that it's taken me this long to get to it, though. I'm only reading when nursing the Imp to bed at night, so it's slow going. But I'm okay with that.

Here are some things I've been working on lately.



Crochet dish rags. I have a mess of kitchen cotton and thought I should use it up. This photo isn't of all the cloths I've made - some have already been used. I really don't need this many. I was thinking about listing them for $1 each on my Etsy shop just to find homes for them - no one local that I know of would want them as gifts. Any one out there need some dish rags? They're nothing special but they get the job done.




Wee gnome hats. Yes, my gnomes are bare headed at present. I've been sewing and crocheting hats for them. When I get tired of sewing, I switch to crochet. Overall, I'm feeling a bit burned out on the peg doll hats - it's my least favorite part of the process. Which is why I'm doing it all at once. If I have a huge pile of hats to choose from, I can focus on the more enjoyable parts!




A long awaited picture (poorly taken) of my sweater! I haven't had occasion to wear it yet. It's awfully warm here again. I had to turn the air conditioning on yesterday. Can you believe that? In November? Insanity!

In non-wool news, this soup has to be about the best I've ever had. Yum!

(late) Yarn Along!

I decided to participate in the Yarn Along I've read about on several blogs. You can be a part, too. Stop by Small Things to read about it.

I'm behind on everything (as anyone expecting an email from me knows), so here's my day late Yarn Along post. Since the epic sweater fail I haven't been focusing on knitting as much. I have worked a bit on the Playground Shirt for the boys. And I'm reading The Lightning Thief at the urging of my oldest, the Elf.



Here is what I've mostly been focusing on: part of my Four Seasons Exchange swap.



See that tree stump? Embroidery. Let's just say that I've discovered that I'm not patient enough for embroidery.



The flower gnome has a little sleeping sack thing. I was half thinking root child, but this is supposed to be a summer swap not spring.. so.. it's a sleeping sack.



I'm not happy with the cap. Sewing it together, stuffing it, having the pieces not exactly fit. The perfectionist in me is crying. I think I may just try needle felting the edges down and see how I feel about it then. Of course, the stabilizer inside might not like that too much. Oh well.



Now I just have to figure out what else to make and send for this swap.

The Sewing Bee

Go visit The Sewing Bee over at Happiness Comes in little bits... - this is my first time participating!

I was intimidated by this. Sewing, to me, brings thoughts of ironing, pinning patterns, sewing machines. Ugh. I am not a fan of those things - and they aren't terribly crazy about me, either. So there I was, working on some playmats for my Etsy shop when it hit me. I was sewing! Handsewing, but sewing all the same! So I thought I'd jump into the fun.





I had a little Imp helping to test the stability of my tree (with a bee and Howl's Moving Castle figures by Mamaroots). Both mats are done now. And I have to say that I'm quite pleased. It's amazing how addicting it is to sew these things - though that tree did give me some trouble. I even used pins! The dreaded pins! And used my limited quilting knowledge to stabalize the batting inside. Sheesh. Who knew I'd enjoy *this?!*