Book Tour!

Today I have the honor of sharing an amazing book written by a lovely and talented woman: Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom!



My boys and I have been the lucky recipients of more than a few peg dolls made by Margaret in the past. Upon receiving a copy of Making Peg Dolls my youngest two boys immediately set off to match their peg dolls to the ones in the photographs. It continues to be a game they indulge in from time to time. My oldest son, the Elf, has placed bookmarks for all the projects he wants to make (and let me assure you, there are a lot of bookmarks in there). For the purpose of this post he chose to make a cat from the Halloween project. We're cat lovers, what can I say?





He couldn't stop at just one, though. He immediately dove into making the knight as well. While sewing he began to tell me all of the ways he would adapt the patterns to be other things (woodsman turned Robin Hood, for example). All the while our Imp stood near him inquiring "is it done? Can I play with the cat yet?"



Peg dolls are an amazing doorway to imagination - and not just for kids! Our collection of gnomes and other peg dolls have wide and varied adventures. They farm, rescue princesses, fight super villains, wait tables, run shops. I've seen more creative play with these small bits of wood and wool than I have with any other toys during the past ten years of being a mother. My boys, even the younger two, often remark that their handmade toys are more fun. Or more durable. Or the only toys not broken in the house.

Whether this is your first introduction to peg dolls or just another step a life-long love of them, Margaret's new book deserves a special place in your home and on your shelves.

Be sure to visit these other wonderful blogs for more of the Making Peg Dolls blog tour!
February 4th: The Crafty Crow
February 5th: The Magic Onions
February 6th: The Toymaker
February 7th: Clean
February 8th: Anna Branford
February 11th: Red Bird Crafts
February 12th: Art is a Way
February 13th: Softearth's World
February 14th: Chocolate Eyes
February 15th: Rhythm and Rhyme
February 18th: Wild Faerie Caps
February 19th: Sacred Dirt

For more information about the book, links to purchase, and an amazing stop-motion trailer for the book, visit Margaret's blog here.

More bowls (tutorial)

I've been knitting and felting more bowls. I've used bulky yarn, worsted held double, and handspun. I looked at a great many free patterns to see how they were making bowls. The most common construction element was the part I didn't want to do - knit the bottom and pick up stitches. I've gotten over it. Here's my basic recipe for knitting a bowl with the intention of felting it.

If using bulky yarn or worsted held double, I recommend an 8mm circular needle. I think mine is 16 inches long but I'm not sure. You could also use DPNs. It may not be obvious, but you should be using 100% wool. I wish I could tell you an amount, but I've been using scraps and just sort of winging it.

First, knit a square in garter stitch. You want to knit roughly twice as many rows as you have stitches. That is, if you want it to me somewhat circular/square (depending on how and if you block it). This is where you could change things up. Add more rows or knit less and you've got something more rectangular or oval. Increase towards the middle of the piece and then decrease again, make a triangle, get creative.

When you're happy with the base, pick up stitches around the remaining edges. At first I tried really hard to keep the same number of stitches for each side but.. honestly, it doesn't really matter. Pick up enough stitches to not leave huge gaps. At this point, begin knitting in the round.



Knit straight up. Change colors, throw in some charts, make it all one color, add some beads. When you've reached the height that you want, or you're close to running out of yarn, bind off with an applied i-cord. I really like the rounded edge that creates. You can weave in your ends and be done here. Or you can add some i-cord handles (or any handles, really). Sew them on and admire your floppy bowl. At this point my kids and I like to put the bowls on our heads and laugh at each other.

Once done, throw the bowls in your washing machine (I have a top-loader and wouldn't know what to do with a front-loader, sorry!). I set the washer to a hot/cold cycle on the lowest water setting and the heaviest wash cycle. I leave the lid open so that it doesn't rinse and spin right away. I'll check the bowls and restart the cycle if necessary. When I'm satisfied with how the bowls are looking, I close the lid and let the cycles finish. I don't block my bowls exactly. I form them into shapes while still damp and leave to dry.



Some yarn turn seriously fuzzy after going through the wash. We have a super industrial dog hair clipper set. I use that to shave the fuzz until the fabric is nice and smooth. Voila! You are done.

Yarn Along

I meant to post this yesterday for Nicole's Crafting On series. But.. I didn't. For various reasons.

At any rate, here's what I've been working on:


Two bowls from leftover bulky yarn. Not enough to make anything worthwhile. And it turns out that these are kind of addictive. I looked over a bunch of patterns, saw how it was generally done, and winged it from there.


The Beast wanted to show these with some of his critters (made using Linda Dawkins' wonderful patterns).


Here's another that's waiting to be felted. It was knit from two strands of worsted yarn.


Still working on this hippo. Why, of why did I pick lace weight yarn?!


Microgreens shooting up. I didn't use the "proper" sunflower seeds (I used bulk-meant-for-eating seeds). I'm not sure how these will taste or when, exactly I should harvest them. I'll be Googling that today, I guess.


From Friday through Monday I spent every free moment working on gnomes for the shop. I ran out of felt, can you believe that? My regular source isn't stocking any more so I've had to seek alternate places. It's more expensive and hopefully at least equal quality. Sadly this means that all gnomes listed after 2/15/13 will be $4.50 each rather than $4 each. Which, if you shop around on Etsy, isn't an unreasonable price. Anyway, buying the felt spent all of my "chicken money." I realize you have to spend money to make money, but it's still depressing.

Reading! I forgot to take a picture of what I'm reading. Oops. Currently I'm reading Made from Scratch by Jenna Woginrich (I picked up two of her other books from the library yesterday) and The Death Relic by Chris Kuzneski (a LibraryThing Early Reviewer book).

Linking up with Ginny for the Yarn Along.

Creative Friday

Or should we say Peg Doll Friday? We've been much inspired by Margaret's new book! Look for my post in her blog tour on the 18th!

While I was doing this:

The Beast was doing this:

When he finished, the Imp took over and painted everything he could get his hands on.

I've already set up my first "I will have chickens, dammit!" order of peg dolls! So excited! What's even better is that it's a recurring customer who is always great to work with. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some of the gnomes I worked on today photographed and listed in the shop.

Would you believe I've hardly touched my knitting needles? I even took gnome hats to "late night knitting" tonight to sew.

Linking up with Linda for Creative Friday.

On the Up.

I've written this post so many times and deleted it just as many. I'm still finding the borders of how much I want to share here. Let's just say that there has been a great deal of mental and emotional turmoil in my head lately. The stress of that has caused all manner of physical problems, not the least of which is how I've been handling interactions with my kids.

Today at lunch I was talking with B and everything just clicked into place in my head. There have been times I've found peace these last few weeks, the moments when I don't feel overwhelmed and they all have something in common. I think I need to be following my passion. As an amazing woman wrote about recently, I've been letting my fear direct me, prevent me, control me.

I find my center when I'm reading about homesteading. I read things like Made From Scratch, Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep, From Scratch, and a slew of blogs. My heart sings when I read about families and their gardens and animals.

So what's the problem? I don't live on acreage with skills and knowledge and friends and.. right. See, I let myself become bitter. I told myself that I couldn't have the life I want just because it wasn't being handed to me. Yes, I'm a thirty-two year old who occasionally thinks like a spoiled child.

Where am I going with this? B and I talked at lunch. I've (we've?) decided that this year, I will have chickens. Come hell or high water, as they say. Or maybe Guineas. But birds, dammit.

This leaves me with challenges to overcome. I need to make money to pay for birds, their food, their housing. I need to clean up the backyard. I need to read and research. We have no tools to speak of, no woodworking experience, no farm experience, no animal care beyond cats and a dog. Any tips, ideas, suggestions will be heartily appreciated. I'll be churning out some assorted gnomes (really the only thing to sell in my sad little Etsy shop) to help raise money.

For those of you that have sloughed through this dull-to-everyone-but-me post, here are pictures of random things from the past week.

(these are sunflowers. Microgreens here we come!)

Colorwork.

This was my first attempt at stranded, woven colorwork on a large project. It was knit on large needles for felting purposes. Because of that, prior to felting, the colorwork had.. issues. You could see my carries through the stitches in some place. After running it through the washing machine, though, I think it looks pretty good.

Before:

After:

I haven't made a Ravelry entry for it yet. So here are the details.
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted
Needles: US 10
Bag pattern: Learn to Felt a Project Bag
Robot chart: Robot Hat
Tardis chart: Doctor Who Fair Isle
Sheep (on the handle - it didn't turn out very clear): Stranded Sheep Scarf

Now, of course, I'm without a fun! new! exciting! project. So I'm a bit miserable and making everyone around me crazy. 

Yarn Along.

Linking up with Ginny.

First up, thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on my previous post. Would it surprise you to learn that I still haven't made a decision on those yarns? It shouldn't.

The Imp has requested that I knit the spider from Amigurumi Knits. I've had the book for a very long time and still haven't made anything from it. So far I have two whole spider legs. And they aren't even seamed yet. Can you tell I'm excited about this project?

I'm still reading The Winter Sea. It's a great book and shouldn't be taking me this long. I just seem to be getting distracted from things lately.

Now this, this is a project I dreamed up (almost literally) as I was falling asleep last night. See, I have a few single balls of Malabrigo worsted. Like everyone else, I love it's softness. Unlike everyone else, I don't wear shawls or hats or other delicate things. I can't imagine knitting a sweater from this - can we say pill city? So what's a girl to do?

Back story: my step-mother knit me a yarn bowl out of Malabrigo Rasta for christmas. It's felted but doesn't feel like rough felted wool - because it's super soft merino!

Extra back story: I keep my knitting projects in the handled paper bags that my local yarn store supplies with purchase. I use them to death. Literally. I had to recycle one last night. It could hardly be called a bag any more.

So! Project bag + Malabrigo + colorwork = fun! I'm ridiculously excited about this project - and that's what was missing from all of my other attempt to start things. The excitement! Sometimes I feel like I've "beat knitting" (like in a video game). There isn't much left to try that I have a desire to try. I want to add beads but have been too lazy to make it to a store to buy a sufficiently tiny crochet hook. And colorwork? I can do it. But can I do it well? In a large project? Well, that sounds like a challenge that I already have supplies for!

I'm not totally set on the charts I want to use. Being sans printer I had to draw these out myself. To give credit where it's due, here are links to the originals:
Robots
Tardis
Sheep

The bag pattern I'm going to use is this one.

Knitting help!

Okay. So I've finished another project, right? And I have my standby projects. But.. I want something new. I spent over an hour last night (which watching Torchwood) trolling Ravelry. I've spent at least another hour this morning doing the same. I'm at a loss.

I don't have a great deal of yarn in large quantities. Here are some (mostly in weights I don't generally use) that I have no idea what to do with. Any suggestions are very much appreciated!

This is, as far as I can tell, Foxmoda. Fingering weight, wool (not next-to-skin soft - though it may soften with washing), about 660 yards. I bought this at the yard yard sale.

Another score from the yarn yard sale. Unknown wool. It looks a feels a bit similar to the Foxmoda - maybe slightly softer. So, using the above information I'm guessing: fingering weight, 100% wool, about 1030 yards.

Olive green alpaca lace by Cascade. I have about 874 yards. Lace weight isn't my thing but the color is gorgeous.

Nature Spun by Brown Sheep. Color is silver sage (a sort of grey-blue-green). It says worsted but I'd say light worsted, maybe. About 490 yards.

For those who don't know, I live in Florida - land of the not-cold. Hats, mittens, scarves, etc aren't really terribly useful. Well, hats are more useful than the rest, I suppose. Anyway. Help is much appreciated!

Foxes.

So. Mama armadillo and giraffe needed a fox-friend to travel with them to Ireland.

This one didn't turn out quite how I'd planned. There were too many gaps and the stuffing showed through. I tried to felt it but.. you know.. I really don't have the patience for it. So the Imp got a new toy - he's thrilled. (Ravelry notes here.)

My second attempt turned out much better. (Ravelry notes here.)

Now I just need to find a large enough envelope for these guys to travel in!

Linking up with Nicole's {crafting on} today.

Mama.

Sandy (an armadillo living happily in Ireland) and his baby have been missing their mama-armadillo. Now she's here and anxious to get to her new home. As soon as her other woolly friends are ready, they'll be away across the ocean!

(Ravelry notes here.)

A big thanks, as always, to Linda for such a wonderful pattern!

Lately.

I can't seem to get myself to sit down and post. I respond to a few emails and then I'm done in and have to get back to my kids and my knitting.

Here's what I've been up to.

My now tangle-free earbuds. Ravelry notes here.

A skirt finished except for elastic, even now on it's way to California. Ravelry notes here.

Fingerless gloves. Soon to be headed to Ireland. Ravelry notes here.

My current project. Another armadillo using Linda's great pattern. I'm knitting it on US size 1 needles so that it'll be a bit smaller than the last one I made. She will also be headed to Ireland in the future. I'm still reading The Winter Sea and loving it. I also have a stack of books from the library that I need to get through: a mess of knitting stitch resources, a book on raising sheep, Viking books for the Elf's school work, a book by the amazing Jenna, and a book about Jane Austen.

Linking up with Ginny for the Yarn Along.

On a happier note.

Here's what I've been doing (prior to wondering why scammers want to rip off financially strained people) in no particular order.

It may not look it to you, but let me assure you that this is clean. And that it took me all morning to accomplish. In the process, I uncovered some projects that have been languishing.

Such as this hippo. He use to be a head and a small piece of body. Now he's a head and a whole (albeit, unstuffed) body. I'll get to the limbs, I promise. That lace yarn just kicks my butt, though.

A sample for the yarn store. I've had this for way too long. Now I feel bad. Oops.

A blanket. Of course it's getting warm again. But I do work on this when B and I watch movies together.

This is a shawl I just finished the other day (inspired by a skirt you'll see shortly). It's made from handspun - Unicorn Candy and Seafoam. It's smaller than I'd hoped and is still unblocked. It also has a slight imperfection on the one side. I'm torn as to whether I should bother listing it in my Etsy shop.

Another handspun shawl that needs to be blocked. This one is Wicked Witch and Bright Papaya. B calls it the Deadpool shawl. I'm beginning to suspect that he's colorblind.

I got distracted. I watch the Lizzie Bennet Diaries (and Squaresville) on my laptop. My earbud cords keep getting tangled. Here's a pretty solution, right?

The aforementioned skirt. I'm knitting it for a lovely lady (because unlike her, I have no life and therefore knit like the wind - a slow wind, but you get the idea. Also, she's just awesome and deserves it).

Fiber I was given a long time ago that I'm only now getting around to dealing with. I washed it and it sat on the drying/sweater rack in the kitchen for several weeks. I finally bagged it up and took it outside with the kids and started carding while they played. Yay, alpaca fluff!

I've also started reading The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. It was mentioned quite a bit in the blog world. I'm only a few chapters in but am really enjoying it.

Provided I don't get distracted, I'll likely link up with Nicole today. Hopefully I won't flake and also link this post with Ginny tomorrow. I can post two days in a row... right?

Why am I not here?

Well. I'm busy. And on top of everything, our bank debit card and our credit card have both been scammed. So now I have to deal with fraud claims and not having any money. Whee! I love technology.

This Way Up.

Here is the shawl I designed. If people show an interest, I'll share the pattern. The mediocrity of this one isn't stopping me from trying again, though.

Here are the details:
Knit with Top of the Lamb worsted by Brown Sheep on US size 10 needles (6mm). Wingspan measures about 46 inches and the spine measures about 20 inches after blocking. I've named it "This Way Up" because some of the lace looks like arrows pointed up. And I'm not very good at naming things on the fly.

Additional details that I forgot about: I used about 285 yards of yarn. My gauge (blocked) is about 3.5 stitches per inch.

Linking up with Creative Friday.

Unnamed shawl

Here's a sneak peek at the shawl I'm trying to design. It's not great or earth shattering. I know that. But after a dozen failed attempts, it at least doesn't look absolutely horrible.

This was my progress yesterday:

And here it is ghetto-blocking today (because I own neither blocking boards nor appropriate pins):

The colors in these photos are way off. The yarn is sort of a dusty brick color. At any rate. There it is.

And (on the off-chance I get around to linking up with the Yarn Along) reading? Erm. I've sort of been (re)reading Good Omens but mostly I've been watching Hart of Dixie on Netflix. I sort of got sucked in.

Another shawl

I've finished another handspun shawl. This one from Sticky Jam Hands, Daydream, And Deep Woods. I tried something with the increases which made a sort of butterfly shape. On the edge I added some corespun in dark green with little metal leaves. Whee! It'll be up in my Etsy shop shortly.