Thursday, February 28, 2013

Feb. Newspaper Plarn

Here is the plarn that I made last week using the plastic newspaper bags that my local library saves for me.  I spun it to give it a nicer look.  There are 2 blues stripes and 2 yellow stripes with the lighter color in between each one.

Blue and white spun and plied plarn / yarn


I finally got around to cutting up my bag full of bags (plastic shopping bags), which was overflowing, and making plarn out of it.  It took me a few days just to make the plarn.  Then today I spun it and plied it with some variegated blue yarn.  Now I have 381 yards of white and blue yarn.  I want to make a tote bag with it.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Crocodile Stitch Purse

It took most of this month and 2 skeins of yarn, but I finally finished crocheting this purse last night.  I want to add a lining to it, but it is usable.  I modified the pattern slightly by adding more stitches to make it wider (multiples of 7), and using the black yarn in every other row (behind the gray scales or crocodile stitches).  Because of that, I only needed to use 1 skein of gray yarn instead of 2.  This is a yarn eater.  
I used Caron simply soft yarn: gray, black, and white.
Here is the free pattern for it.  Also it is very helpful to watch the 5 videos that Mikey from The Crochet Crowd made.  He not only shows how to make the crocodile stitch, but also how to make the handles (and everything else with the bag).

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tiny Treasures Swap - Finished

I mailed off the package to my tiny treasures swap partner today.  There are 2 black skirt and top Monster High outfits, a knitted Monster High dress and skirt, a Disney princess top, 4 mini amigurumi monsters, an amigurumi love mite/bug, a small snake, several magnets (rocket ship, 3 bunny peeps, a car, an octopus, a sun, a snowman, 5 small teddy bears, and a tiny turtle), a tiny teddy bear in an origami box, a rainbow doll cake, and 3 soda tab pins (2 flowers and a hear).  
Here is a better picture of the rainbow cake.  I followed this video to make it.  

Monday, February 18, 2013

Tiny Treasures Swap Items

I've been bust making things for a swap that I'm in called tiny treasures.  Here are the things that I made over the weekend for it.
Another very tiny teddy bear.
A love mite / love bug.  I crochet the antenna instead of using pipe cleaner.
A sun magnet.
Bunny peep magnets - I only did one side because they are magnets.
Snowman magnet
Octopus magnet with glow in the dark eyes



Mini Astro-Jet

I made this mini rocket ship this week, which was inspired by Disneyland's Astro-Jet ride.  

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Current projects, Doll room & stuff, Car applique, and Valentine's pins

I am working on a crocodile stitch purse right now.  You can't really see it, but I'm using black yarn for the back layer.  Here is the pattern that I'm following.  I made it larger (just increase with multiplies of 7).
I took my afghan swatch off of the needles the other day.  I need to make it twice as wide as the pattern calls for.  I'm making it for my youngest son.  Here is the pattern for it.
The other day I added a new room to my growing doll house.  I used 3 foam-core boards, one of which was cut in half for the side walls.  I used scrapbook paper and ribbon for the walls, and I kept part of the foam-core visible.  The floor was made using real floor tiles.  I picture this room being a dining room / kitchen.  I am very happy with how it looks.
I then played around with making a doll stool out of a plastic bottle cap, fabric, coffee stirrers, and a glue gun.  I want to paint the legs white.
With some of the leftover scrapbook paper from the walls, I made this mini gift box.  It is small enough for a doll to hold.  I want to make a few more and create stacking boxes for the doll house.
I crochet this car applique the other day that will become a magnet for my swap partner.
Tonight I quickly made my 5 year old's teacher some heart pins for Valentine's Day.  They were very easy to make.  I then attached them to their Valentine's Day cards.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Soda tab purse, dyed yarn, doll items, Hugs dishcloth, and tiny teddy bears

I have been wanting to make a crochet soda tab purse for a very long time.  I finally did it this month, and it only took me 3 days to crochet.  I used 830 tabs and most of a skein of black yarn for it.  I used this pattern, but made it bigger and wider.  I also had to figure out most of the base of the bag myself based on the photos in the pattern tutorial.  
While snowed in on Friday I made a double sided lining with black tone on tone fabric, and then added a zipper.  I then hand sewed it to the bag with black thread so that you can't see the stitches  (sewing it around the black crochet yarn).  I can't wait to start showing it off.  
I dyed three 70 yard hanks of fisherman's wool the other day.
Two of them I dyed with ice blue raspberry lemonade kool aid.   I have been using this amazing resource for my kool aid dyeing.  I used the microwave to do all my dyeing on this day.
Then I put lots of rubberbands on one of the blue hanks while the other one was hung up to dry.  
Next I made a brown dye bath using 2 packets of lemonade, 1 grape, and 1 cherry kool aid as well ad some neon green food coloring.  I also added some white vinegar to the the water and dye mixture.  Then I dyed the rubberbanded hank and an undyed hank.
Here they are hanging up to dry.  I'm happy with how they came out.
Here is the rainbow hooded cape and basket that I crochet earlier this month following this pattern.  It was for a fruitcake challenge (where the item had to be inspired by fruitcake).  I also made the dress out of a sock.
Using some leftover novelty yarn, I knitted this silver doll rug.  I also made all of the doll outfits out of socks.  I made 11 pieces of doll clothes this month out of socks.  I'm waiting for my husband to finish photographing them so that I can share them.  
I also made this doll skirt.  It was suppose to be a dress, but it fit better as a skirt.  Here is the free pattern for it.  Then I bought 2 foam-core boards, cut one and half, and made new walls for my doll room.  The wall paper is scrapbook paper and ribbon.  The floor is also foam-core, but I used wood like contact paper for it.  I had made the fire place last month out of a food box, the wood contact paper, and black duct tape.  
My new Ghoulia doll is sporting my newest urban mermaid dress, which used red sequins lace weight yarn.  This and the above skirt are for a swap, so I will be making them again for myself.
I checked out "Knits for Barbie" by Nicky Epstein from my library and made this hat using one of the patterns.  I used the wool yarn that I dyed during my class on January 31st.  I love how the colors knit up on it.
I was inspired by the silver rug that I made that I wanted to make more things out of my old novelty yarn.  I have a good bit of it from when I was a new knitter (and wanted to hide all of my mistakes).  So I made another doll rug.  It is very thick, and kind of a throw back from the '70s.  I love it.  Its the perfect colors for my monster high dolls.
Then I took out my very large knitting needles and made a blanket out of another skein of novelty yarn.
For Valentine's Day I made my mom this illusion dishcloth.  I need to mail it out tomorrow.
For the tiny treasures swap that I am in, I made these 5 tiny teddy bears.  I really love this pattern.  They are just so cute!

It has been a bust month.  I am currently finishing another tiny teddy bear, a car magnet, and a crocodile stitch purse.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Capri Sun Garbage Can

I have this very small garbage can in my car, the kind that was made to go in a car.   It is way to small to keep up with the trash that my 2 kids produce.  So I made this Capri Sun juice pouch bag today to be my car trash can.  I just need to tape down the garbage bag so that the kids will always get the trash in the bag and not in the bottom of the "can."  It is large enough to hold a kitchen sized garbage bag, which is perfect for our needs.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Ikat Dyeing Hanks with Kool Aid

Last night I taught an ikat dyeing class.  Before teaching any class, I like to review the whole thing at home that week.  That means making the item that I will be teaching.  This allows the information to be fresh in my mind, and allows me to better answer any questions or problems that might arise during the class.  So I dyed 3 hanks of Lion Brand's Fisherman's Wool with Kool Aid using ikat dyeing techniques.  The above photo is of my 3 hanks drying after a 2nd dye bath.
Here are my 3 examples for the class using the 2 resist techniques that I use when ikat dyeing.  
We dyed 4 hanks each for the class, and had a lot of fun.  The top left and the middle picture are of my student's dyed hanks.  The other pictures are of the 4 that I dyed.
Here is my newly dyed yarn in nice little yarn cakes.  I'm looking forward to making something out of them.  I just need to figure out what it is that I want to make.

I will be teaching this class again in March.