Fun Tee Shirts

My husband just posted a link on his blog where you can buy t-shirts with his doodles on it. I say doodles, because he likes to draw these crazy and fun things while in meetings. Then he colors them on the computer. I love them. I want 2 of the shirts for myself. http://drupanishad.blogspot.com/2009/02/if-you-like-my-weirdo-drawings.html

Recycle Sock Monkey & Pants Bag

I found these great socks with the recycling symbol all over them. The monkey's head is small, because the top of the sock was not very long. I added small plastic eyes and used a chain stitch to make the mouth and nose. I think he is super cute. My toddler had the greatest reaction when receiving him last night. He has been carrying this monkey and his pig around with him everywhere.

This bag was made from a pair of khaki pants that my older son out grew. They have been washed, but still have stains around the knees. One knee had a hole in it, which I stitched together for the bag. I am getting 2 bags from this one pair of pants. The 2nd bag is being made from the top of the pants. For this bag I cut off the pants legs just above the cargo pockets. I then opened them up on one side and sewed the 2 legs together to form a new looped piece of fabric. I then cut some fabric for the lining and sewed it to the inside of the pants fabric. The legs were too long for a bag, so I pulled the bottom of the pants inside of the loop and made inside pockets as a result. I sewed the bottom closed. Then I hand stitched 2 sides of the inside pockets so that they were 2 separate pockets. I then added a snap to keep them closed. I cut out some more fabric and used it to attach the handles. I decided not to make any kind of closure on the bag, because I want to use it to carry around my knitting or other traveling crafts. I love the cargo pockets on the outside. I am currently using one of them to hold my small scissors in. This project has been on the back burner for some time now. I finally got inspired to make something out of these pants.

Earth Day Fair & DI hat

Today I have worked on my DI hat. I am almost finished crocheting the hat itself. It is the height that I want it to be, and not I am crocheting the brim (top hat).

I started making a recycling sock monkey. I have socks with the recycling symbol all over them. All the pieces are cut out. The sewing machine part is finished, and all the body parts have been stuffed. Now on to the hand sewing part. The tail and one arm is attached. I also made a running stitch where the neck is. I will be taking this project to my quilt guild meeting tonight.

I have also made several phone calls regarding the Earth Day Fair. So far have have 6 definite people who will have a table set up and/or talking at the fair. I have a few more maybes, and I have emailed and left phone messages with several others. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can pull this off and that it will turn out great.

Recycled Crafts

I saw this purse several months ago, and I had to have one. Since then I have been saving my can tabs. Today I got inspired to start making it. I probably don't have enough tabs yet, but you have to start somewhere. I printed out the picture of the purse that I liked (there are several) so that I can refer to how it was made. So far I have 3 x 9 tabs stitched together. I just wrapped thread (doubled over) around 2 tabs that were side by side (the top holes). Then I placed 2 more tabs below those ones, lining up the top holes of the new ones over the bottom holes of already stitched ones. Then I looped them together with thread several times, and repeated the process. I can't wait to show this purse off in public.



My mom sent me the February issue of Family Fun because of this craft. It is a milk carton wallet. I finally got my printer to work (the baby had stuck some things in it), and was able to print out the template. You can go to their website and do a search for "milk carton" to find it. It was easy enough. The hardest part was cutting the hole for the spout to fit through. My husband suggested that I cover the inside of the spout so that the money does not fall out when the cap it off. The cap is the locking devise. I think I might line the inside with fabric, and that should fix the prolem while making it look nicer.

Pig, Octopus, & Sackboy

I made another pig from the free pattern at lionbrand.com. This one has embroidered eyes, unlike all the others. This was a request from my husband. He thinks that his boss's baby is super cute, and wanted me to make one for him. March 1st is National Pig Day, so all the pigs that I made as gifts will be given then. I started working on yet another pig. I want to use up all of my pink yarn (stash busting). However the newest pig will be made in the reverse colors: Rose for the body and Pink for the body parts.

I also started knitting Ollie the Octopus from the free pattern on lionbrand.com. I finished making the body last night.

Then my older son kept bugging me to make him Sack Boy from the game Little Big Planet. He bugged me so much, that last night I found and printed a pattern for it. Originally I was going to knit some socks and make him like I would a sock monkey, but this way is better. However the man who wrote out the pattern must be on crack (figuratively speaking), because I have had to fudge the pattern to make the stitch count match up. I did a Ravelry search, and others have had the same problem. They all said that it still turned out right, so there is hope. I just finished knitting the body. You would think that it would be knit in the round, but its not. The body is joined by adding a zipper, just like on the game character. When I am all finished with sack boy, I know that he will be bugging me for accessories for it. I'm thinking that that will be a good birthday present.

Another mouse

I made another mouse from the book "Knitted & Felted Toys" by Zoe Halstead. I started making the penguin from her book, but had to start over about 5 times. The 1st time was painful since I was on row 30 when I discovered a hole at the beginning.

I've also been working on a 4th pig and my DI hat off and on. In non-craft related news, I am organizing the Earth Day Fair in my town for this year. I will be doing a demo for the passers by as well as showing my recycled crafts during that day.

Mouse toy & dish cloth

Yesterday someone gave me some extra yarn that they had. One was Red Heart acrylic yarn in the Royal (blue) colorway. I really enjoyed making the pigs and wanted to make another animal without having to go shopping for more yarn. I found this knitted mouse pattern in "Knitted & Felted Toys" by Zoe Halstead. My husband had bought it for me some time last year and I had never made anything from it. The mouse was one of the few patterns in there where it did not matter what color yarn you used. I knitted it while watching tv last night. My toddler seems to like it.
With this dish cloth, I knit it from corner to corner. I cast on 1 stitch, then knit that stitch. I knit into the front ant back loops of each end for every other row. The alternate rows were just knit in every stitch. When I decided to decrease, I knit 2 together in place of the increases. Between this dish cloth and the other one, I ran out of this yarn before I could finish this project. I had a striped green yarn and I used that on the bottom corner.