Projects from March and April

I made 2 of these granny square style hats for kids in a hospital in another state (charity).

The larger pink one is going to be sold at my church's holiday fair in December (also charity).

Then I made a similar one for my mom.

For my March ikat dyeing class, I dyed these 3 hanks of wool yarn with Kool Aid.  

I recently started knitting this log cabin afghan with Caron's Simply Soft yarn.

I made this sock using a 1909 Gearhart knitting loom at work.  I need to find another skein of this yarn so that I can make a matching sock.

Then I made another pair of socks on the same knitting loom.  The orange is what helps get it started.  Because there are no ribber needles for it, I am frogging the leg of the socks and hand knitting ribbing on it.

I also had a little fun on the knitting loom and made this pouch using the same sock yarn.  I used the kitchener stitch to close the bottom.  It reminds me of water.

I taught 2 friendship bracelet classes over Spring Break this month, so here are the 36 kits that I made for them.  For one of the classes the boys moaned about making them, but then later they came up and told me that they really enjoyed working on them (more than the other project I had for them).  That made my day.  

I also taught 2 cardboard loom weaving classes this month to a total of 14 kids and 2 adults.  Here is the doll sized rug (or mug rug) that I made as a result of the classes.  Most of it I made at home before the classes so that I had a nice example of what we would be learning.  Then the rest I did during the class while I demonstrated how to do 3 different weaving techniques.  

Here is the earbud / headphone pouch that I made last week.

For the pouch using an F hook:

• ch 15
• turn and sc 14 sts
• turn work to the other side of the ch row and sc 14
• continue sc in the round until desired height is achieved.
• at one side stop, ch 1, turn work and sc 14 sts.
• ch 1 turn and sc 14 sts & repeat for the flap.

For string, pull yarn through the 7th stitch on the flap and then chain 30 sts. Then ch 30 more sts on other side of flap (it is one long continuous chain, but the center is caught in the flap).

I then added the Angle fish to the back (the bottom fin didn’t work out right, but thats ok). Then I used puff paint to add details to the fish.

Last week I taught someone how to crochet.  I used cotton yarn and an H hook so that she could easily see what I was doing.  I showed her how to chain, single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, sc in the front loops, sc in the back loops, slip stitch, crochet down the side of a project (for a nice edge or border), and how to make shells (for a nice edge / border).  Towards the end of class I had a small rectangle that I had crochet.  I wanted to tell her about all the things that she could make out of a square or a rectangle, so I showed her how to turn the little rectangle into a bag.  Now my dolls have a great tote bag to take to the beach.

Birthday Goody Bags

My youngest son's birthday is coming up soon.  There is no theme to it, so I had him pick out 4 fabrics at the store.  I had a yard cut from each fabric, and I was able to make 4 bags from each yard.  We invited a total of 16 kids to the party (including the birthday boy and his brother).  The kids will be able to pick out which bag that they want when they are ready to go home.  Of course the birthday boy and his brother got to pick out which bags that they wanted, and I have those separate from the rest of the bags.  I prefer making these reusable bags, because the kids can use them over and over again for different things.  

Princess and the Frog Ikat Warp

I was inspired by the colors in Disney's version of the Princess and the Frog to create this ikat dyed warp.  I used Lion Brand's Fisherman's wool, kool aid, food coloring, plastic bags, and rubber bands.  I'm looking forward to weaving it, but that won't be for at least 2 weeks.  Right now I need to prepare for 4 classes and a birthday party that are happening next week.

Small Doll Items: shopping bags, cake boxes, and wreaths

The other day I made some doll shopping bags  The gray ones were made with scrapbook paper, gray duct tape, and clear packing tape.  The colorful ones were made with starburst wrappers, pink duct tape, and clear packing tape.  The ones with the doll were my first ones of the year and need to be tweaked.  They use green duct tape and scrapbook paper.  I need to remove some rolled up duct tape (that holds the parts together) and replace it with either glue or clear packing tape.  I sent the top 2 sets to a friend of mine.

I made 2 small calendar wreaths using origami paper that I cut into 4ths.  They are perfect for a doll house.  The other two calendar wreaths were made using a catalogue.  I mailed one larger one and 1 smaller one along with the 3 doll cakes and cake boxes to the same friend.  The dolls cakes are 3 different flavors: sponge cake, chocolate, and rainbow cake (they are colored foam with white puff paint, and can be seen in a past blog post).  The boxes are origami boxes.  The bolder one used scrapbook paper, and the other two used origami paper.  I prefer the scrapbook paper for these, because it is thicker.

Here is the photo that my friend took of what I sent to here for her doll house.

Tiny Treasures Swap - From my partner

Here are the outfits that my Tiny treasures swap partner made for my dolls.

Under the cape on the left is a shrug.

The white around her waste is the upper part of a sock.

This material is dark blue and sparkly.

Friendship Bracelet and Candy Wrapper Birds

Last week I made this friendship bracelet to use as an example for 2 classes that I'm teaching laster this month.

I used sock yarn to make it.

My 5 year old had fun at an Easter egg hunt last week.

One of his eggs had starbursts in it, so I made these 2 origami birds out of the wrappers.