Behold My Minions!

Hee hee! Okay, new obsession du jour! Sock creatures! I had no idea this was going to be soooo much fun!

This is Count Sockula, the first of many sock creatures that I've made over the past week. He's very roughly sewn, I've gotten much better, but I still think he's cute!

Reepert (left) and Meebus (right) are two of the later creatures. There have been several between and since, but I don't want to spend forever writing about them. So these are two of my favorites!

I even got Chris to make one, but I don't have any pictures of him. :( Oh well, just wanted to share of few. There's at least one other in my shop, maybe more by the time anyone reads this. Off to make more!

Squiggy's Journey

So lucky Squiggy just got sold to someone in London. So he gets to swim across the pond to meet her, and I get to stay here and get started teaching classes.

Think I can find a box big enough for us both?

Meet Squiggy!

Isn't he cute?! I was playing around the other day. I was going to knit a teddy bear in the round, but when I finished the shape of his head, I realized that if I just divided my stitches and made I-cord out of them, he'd make a great octopus! Squiggy is actually the second octopus. Squidgy was first, but I don't have pics of him. I have pics of Squiggy because I put him up on etsy this afternoon. I think he's precious! Not bad for a little experimentation because I was bored while Chris was at work.

Things to make when you're short on supplies and patience . . .

So, someone broke into our storage room a week ago and until they fix the door and we have time to get back over there, I'm cut off from the rest of my craft supplies. Trying to make do, I've decided to revisit an old favorite project. I'm knitting barrettes!

My beads supply and yarn scraps supply are both rather sparse at the moment, so it's getting difficult not to do the same thing more than once, but I really hate doing that. I like to maintain a uniqueness (is that a word?) in my "art." They aren't done yet, because there are still some supplies I need to pop out and get when I can, but here's a sneak peek at a couple in an almost complete state:

I came up with the idea to do these about a year and a half ago. I'll share how I make them, but I better not see any up on etsy before I get a chance to post these ;) Anyway, I knit a little tube on dpn (about 7-10 sts on each of two needles). Usually I make one side completely stockinette stitch to glue the barrette back onto and do a 5 st cable with beads or buttons in it on the side that's for show. Well, I got that part working pretty quickly when I first did this. That's where I ran into a problem. I needed the tube to hold its shape and be a bit sturdier. At first, I thought of wooden shapes from the craft store, but then I remembered the curve of the barrette back. Finally, I figured out the answer. Are you ready for my secret ingredient?

Plastic canvas! I cut a piece of plastic canvas the same size as the tube, stuff it in and sew the end together. It's flexible, but still holds its shape! Sometimes I'm so smart, I scare myself. Just kidding. This is one of the first ones I made:

The scans don't show it very well, but you can see that the knitted piece follows the curve of the barrette back and it maintains its shape. It's held up for over 18 months so far! This is a great quick little project to use up quick yarn. You can do it as one flat piece, fold in half, and stitch along three sides if you aren't comfortable with dpns, but I'd rather struggle a little in the beginning and save a lot of time overall. Maybe that's just me.

I'm an Idiot

Right so, here's the link I meant to put up the other day:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5061910

Sorry, I'm a dork!

The coolest, cutest thing EVER

No, seriously, this has to be the best thing in the world.

I was thinking of teaching classes in sock animals so I was searching around to find some ideas and I found these:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5252351

If you think the concept is awesome, read some of the descriptions on the individual listings. I only wish I were that creative! Too cool. Gonna have to buy a dozen or so. LOL.

Stash Finds and Happy Times!

Hooray! I finally made a sale on etsy! I feel validated at last!

Anyway, I found the cutest little beads tucked away in a box of craft supplies the other day. I've had them for about 10 years (wow, now I feel old). They're precious little glass hearts with various hues of pink kind of swirled together in them. Okay, I really don't like pink, but I just had to find something to do with these beads since I don't know if I'll ever find any like them again (and won't be looking particularly hard). Voila!

I called them Princess earrings because they kind of remind me of jewels in a fairy princess crown. (Yes, I realize how cheesy that is. I've come to terms with it. Deal with it and move on.)

The pictures don't do them justice! The big beads in the drop are the little hearts. I love these earrings and I don't even like pink!

Oh, I also love these:

I made them because I wanted to find a use for some fuchsia bugle beads I have lying around. I think I'm going to have to make them in another color or two. I just love how the pattern turned out. The scan turned out better than the picture. You can see it in my shop. Sorry, takes waaaay too long to deal with pictures on dial-up.