Zombies!

There appears to have been a zombie infection in our neighborhood.

This weekend there was a zombie teen social, and Chiquita absolutely wanted to go. Fortunately Chiquita seems to be recovering well from the zombie-infection. In fact she managed to only eat jello brains last night.

She did all the research for the reference photos of what she was thinking about, and then she got me to help actually do it. I have not managed to do much in terms of creative projects recently, so this was a lot of fun.

Decorating for the Holidays

Today's crafting adventure was part of helping friends decorate their house for the holidays. First we unpacked the and then decorated the tree.

There is something wonderful about the whole process of decorating a tree. The house was full of laughter and activity. And there is something lovely about the uniqueness of each tree, filled with ornaments that are like a unique fingerprint to the household it is in.

After that lights and garland were hung, before we we broke out the crafting supplies. These glass bulbs have been in my craft stash for at least 3 years awaiting the perfect opportunity.

The process for making these is super easy, although it can require patience if you want an even layer of glitter on the inside.

Watered down white craft glue is swirled around the inside, and then you pour in glitter. Repeat as often as you feel like. Once you put the top back on the bulb, all the glitter stays inside making them relatively mess free to hang (if not to make).

We also used stained glass paint to decorate other glass bulbs, although unfortunately I did not get any pictures of them. I will have to think of it the next time I am there, because it was a really interesting process I had not tried before. Neat!

Another Baby Girl BSJ

It seems to be a baby year. These sorts of things go in cycles. One of the latest arrivals that we are awaiting is my to-be newest neice. My brother and his wife have gone through so much hoping for a baby, that she is highly anticipated.

The baby shower was several weeks ago, but I have just not been able to pull myself together enough to put a post together. So with out further ado another BSJ:

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Needles: US Size 10 / 6.0

Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in Dusty Purple & many leftovers (see below)

As with the last BSJ I made, I put this one together with a sewn seam rather than a crocheted one. That has definitely become my preference for putting together this pattern.

This is the third time I have made this pattern. (The first two can be found here and here.) As always it never fails to delight me with its cleverness, plus the finished garter stitch fabric is super smooshy and awesome. There is good reason this pattern is so renown. I have to admit that I like the stripy ones more though, both aesthetically and for their stash busting.

This sweater had a bunch of leftover yarns from previous projects. The grey yarn was leftover from a wedding afghan I made for one of my brothers. (That was not the same one who is having the baby. His wedding afghan was this one). The minor stripes are leftover from another BSJ which I had made for one of my other nieces.

After giving the leftovers to a friend who I am re-teaching how to crochet, my stash is feeling much better, and I am fairly pleased with myself. I think I may end up re-focusing on using up stash for a while.

Thankful Tree

Holy crow, but the combination of this semester and a whole lot of life are kicking my butt. I have been thinking you, dear blog, often despite my waywardness when it comes to actually sitting down to write. The good news is that I have finally started to have a lot of creative thoughts and ideas again. The bad news is that I have not actually had any time to pursue them.


Insert one crafty-project that I am really glad that I was able to make time for. We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends, and a few days before hand I was just completely taken with the idea of this project.

The host Majes was kind enough to go out hiking that morning and provide the branches. Chiquita and Jasra, one of the hostesses, prepped the tags with materials I provided. Everyone there provided thoughts and brief messages on the tags of what they were thankful for. Truly we are blessed to have such a full tree and blessed to have in our lives all the people who went into making it happen.

Crafty Museum Social Buys

Hey Boston area people! Did you know LivingSocial has deals on two of the great crafty museums in the area?

The first is to American Textile Heritage Museum, and the deal can be found here. Salvbard and I went last year, and we found it really interesting. It has some local history, exhibits that are art created with textile techniques, history of textile work in a more general sense (compared with the local history), and even a really neat exhibit of the development of new fibers.

The second is for Fuller Craft Museum, and the deal can be found here.* I have not been yet, but I am intrigued by the website enough to have gotten tickets.

* In the interest of full disclosure, if 3 people buy the second deal with this link, I get mine free.

Mermaid socks

Despite the time frame in which they made it to the blog, both the cotton socks for Salvbard and these mermaid socks were selected with project spectrum in mind. I didn't really manage to do anything for August, but blue for July I totally had covered. But hey the color for September is yellow, so I guess it all works out.

And here is a slightly larger detail shot of the cable detail. (Click to embiggen):

Yarn: Faery Fiber Superwash Merino 2ply Fingering Weight in Mermaid

Yarn Supplier: Faery Fiber

Needles: US 1 / 2.25 mm

Pattern: 'brainless' by Yarnissima (free Rav download)

Modifications: I lengthened these to use up more yardage, hiding the increases in the cables. (See the picture full size to really appreciate the cleverness there.)

Generally I am a big fan of stockinette socks for purse knitting, but given that I was mostly working on these on vacation I went with something just this side of more interesting since it had the cable running up the side. Pretty. I think I would like them even more in a yarn with less variegation though.

Sadly this particular yarn base was discontinued by Tammy's supplier, because I did really like working with it. It had good stitch definition, wasn't splitty, took the colors well, and was even machine washable. Her use of color is fantastic in general, and I am particularly fond of these colors. I actually had several days when I was working on these, in which I looked down only to discover that I matched my knitting.

Green for Irene

I love New Englanders. Saturday we did a few common sense things to make sure our yard stuff didn't wander away in the wind from Tropical Storm Irene, and then I went off to get a massage and mani pedi.


Seriously, this ended up being one of my favorite methods of storm preparation. And look my nails are green to match my latest project.

My friend Ms. Rubbyducky and I made duct tape dress forms mostly using these instructions. Then we used iv stands for dress stands, as they are inexpensive, adjustable in height (though next time I would use loctite on the threads of the adjustment mechanism) and provide an easy rolling base.

So without further a do, blog, I would like you to meet Pansy. Pansy, this is the blog. Hopefully you will be seeing more of each other in the future.

Her name is Pansy after Pansy Parkinson, as she is green on the outside but silver duct underneath. Many thanks to Cintyber who helped with the naming. Now I just need to plan some more sewing projects!