I had a crafty summer for the most part. I started getting into stamping metal and leatherwork, both of which are a lot of fun. I have also been working with wire and took a class this past week at Meant To Bead on hammering metal, which was very cool. I am going to be starting metalsmithing class at the Toledo Museum of Art on 10/18 for six weeks. I am very excited about this. Hopefully I will have photos of some of my artwork.

Speaking of photos, I will post some of the projects I have been working on in the next couple of days.

I haven't done any crafting lately because I haven't had the time. In fact, before the other day, I hadn't been down in my craft room in months. I went down to look for a book and was tripping over material and yarn; I really need to get back to it.

I did receive two books in the mail. Damn you Crafters Choice! They look pretty good: Take-Along Knitting and Knitting a Kiss in Every Stitch by the venerable Nicky Epstein. She is really awesome.

It looks like Google updated Blogger and all my crafty links disappeared. I will have to restore them a little at a time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I haven't had a lot of time for crafty pursuits. I know this is a constant refrain for me, but I did go shopping yesterday and Joann's and Hancock's and picked up some cotton yarn. I have been on a cotton yarn kick the past year.


I have made a market bag for my sister, one for me, and I am working on a summer everyday bad that is almost done. For my market bag, all I had to do was put on the strap, so today I did and finished it.


I bought some Lion Brand cotton to make a cotton "straw" hat. I previously tried to do it, but I wasn't skilled enough in crochet, so I am giving it another go. The pattern is here: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/ckc-hat.html?noImages= . You may have to register at Lion, but you do get access to a bunch of free patterns.

I also bought a kitchen pattern book to make potholders and dishcloths. I have one from Lilly, but it was just dishcloths. I will post photos when they are finished.

I haven't had a lot of time to do any crafty stuff, but I received an e-mail from Lion Brand yarn in my inbox the other day regarding some new patterns they have for what they call, "stainless steel" wool. The wool, which consists of 75% wool and 25% stainless steel, is available in fingerweight and keeps it shape. It is only available online or at the Lion store in NYC. I really want to make something using this new yarn, so I think I will be ordering some in the near future.

I have been making some pillow covers because they whip up quick. I am also slowly working on some curtains with fabric from my extensive fabric stash. Of course I will post photos when they are finished.

I have been busy with other, non-crafty pursuits but I have been sewing recently. I have made several pillow covers that I will post photos of as soon as I get batteries for the camera. I was also going to make Halloween costumes this year but the weather has been really cold and it isn't very fall-like outside. It is more like winter, so I am not going to make them this year. Maybe for next year.

I borrowed my mom's heavy-duty sewing machine and will be finishing the slipcovers for the couch and chair. I finally had to take off the ugly sheets that were covering both pieces of furniture. I just could not stand it anymore.

As part of the non-crafty pursuits I have been doing, I have been learning about crafts, of all things, specifically creating stained glass and weaving. I did some weaving in college and made a loom but my dad chopped it up and used the wood. The stained glass is not as difficult as it looks and I took a glass cutting class last year. I would like to make a stained glass panel for the window at the bottom of my stairs. It looks like it will be a long winter, so I will have plenty of time for this I am sure.

I am going to try and arrange my schedule so I have time to do crafty stuff and of course will post.

I have been working on my crafty stuff, but I don't have anything finished yet. I am in the middle of a gift, a market bag, a pair of Palazzo pants, hemming my curtains, and making a crocheted summer bag. I will post photos as soon as I get them.

I finished a couple of projects in the past month. Here is a market bag I gave my sister for her birthday. I also gave her a fused pendant I made.



I made a couple of washcloths in cotton.




I have been writing and crafting a little. I don't seem to have the time. I did buy some cotton to make a pair of drawstring pants for the summer. I am using Simplicity 4190.

I have been working on a couple of things.
I made this felt bunny for my brother-in-law's birthday. He likes to collect little figures.



This is a cable bracelet I made from an online pattern from Lion,


This is another cable bracelet from Lion.



This is a bracelet I made from one of those silver charms I made last summer. The photo is terrible. I really need a new camera.



I want to make a couple of more knitted bracelets but first I have to make a few cotton dishcloths.

I have been quite busy although it only seems I have been sitting on my couch watching television every night. I have been working on a knit bracelet from Lion. If you visit their site at www.lionbrand.com, you can download free patterns. I am working on the Vanna's Choice cable bracelet. I have never tried cables in hand knitting, only on the knitting machine. It should be interesting! Photos when I get them.

I also want to make my own Amigurami cat to keep me company while I edit my book. I do have four real-live cats and a dog that like to lay on me, but one more yarn cat can't hurt, can it? Again, I will post photos about it when I get done.

I have been getting back into knitting. I made an Amigurami cat for my husband for Valentine's Day. I downloaded the pattern free from Lion Yarn. His name is Veblen.



He likes catnip and staring at people.

Craft news! I ended up not giving out my homemade presents for Christmas, but I still have them for birthdays.

I was working on my purse that appeared a couple of posts back, but was unable to attach the lining sufficiently so I threw it away and I have to say it was liberating. I did buy two more purse patterns from Simplicity, #3828 and 3715. Beyond that, I have been hemming jeans, which turned out pretty good, I think.

I am going to finish my hemming and then I think I will start the magenta suede purse using pattern 3828, view B.

Until then.

I have worked on a couple of things that haven't turned out for whatever reason. The first is a macrame necklace that uses square knots and double half hitches but it didn't work with the silk rattail I used. It is really purple but came out blue on the photo. The necklace uses one of the fused pendants I made a couple of months ago. I am still deciding on how to finish it, clasp-wise.



The next one is from the book Beading With Pearls and it is the "Lasso." Keep in mind that I usually don't have the correct materials to start with but use whatever I have on hand in my own interpretation. The directions called for white freshwater pearls in two sizes strung on "Greek-style leather cord." I had neither. I had white suede cord and purple "pearls."


Meh. I am not thrilled but now I know that I am not going to waste the money buying freshwater pearls and Greek-style leather, whatever that is!

I wanted to give a shout out to that anonymous commenter in that previous thread.

Earlier today, I was organizing my craft room/writing room after a month of novel writing and went through my UFOs, unidentified found objects also known as unfinished projects. I have bags of them. So many, in fact, that I probably don't have to go shopping for a while.

In fact, as I write this, I am looking over and my cat, 2%, is sitting on a pile of to-be-felted projects. I hate to take away his bed.

I started a hat for my husband and I just realized that I have been doing 2x2 rib wrong. No wonder it never turned out. I mean really! I have over 20 knitting books that provide instruction on how to do these things. You think I would have read it or something.

Hi everyone! I didn't want to neglect you but I have been busy do other creative things.

Now, some photos:


These are fused glass pendants I made at a fusing class held at Prism Glassworks in Maumee. It was really fun! I first took a glass cutting class and then the fusion class. I can't remember how much it was, but they fused them for me. It isn't a good photo, but I am going to be making necklaces out of them and will take photos as I make them. I am also taking a stained glass window class early next year at Prism. I am pretty excited about it.

I mentioned that I made a PMC pendant to go along with my Burn Notice bracelet. Here it is.



Sorry, for the poor quality photo. I like to blame the camera! Ha! Anyway, I wanted the pendant to be imperfect, that is why it is misshapen a bit.



Above is a bag of zippers my mom is letting me borrow to make these:

A slipcover for the cushion on my couch.

I went to a powwow in October and bought these really great beads:

I haven't been posting because I decided that I may make Christmas gifts this year and I already have a head start and I don't want to post anything in case the recipients look at my blog. I am not sure that I have to worry about it, but you never know.

I have finally gone back and posted some photos of work that I have done over the summer. The first bracelet is the Burn Notice bracelet, which was really a rip-off from a Me & Ro design. I took a class in metal clay and made the charms and then threaded the white leather through the holes. I am very pleased with it. I made four extra charms and a pendant that I haven't done anything with yet. But I have plans! Big plans!


The next bracelet is a macrame number I whipped up. The in-progress photo is first as it was staked out on the cool macrame board my mom gave me. And the second is the finished bracelet. This was from a pattern downloaded from BeadingDaily.com. I also made a similar bracelet in purple, but the photos didn't turn out. I need a new camera.





This next photo is a photo of the PMC3 that I used to make the bracelet in the first picture. Not thrilling, but interesting nonetheless. I believe this small package of silver was over $65. It is probably more now.



The last one is a photo of the light table my mom gave me. My dad had made it for my mom, who, in her career as a graphic arts photographer, would use one at work to cut negatives. When we were kids, we used to play on it, tracing stuff. This was a hotly wanted item at my house and my mom gave it to me! Thanks mom!



Fall begins tomorrow and I am gearing up for some fall projects. I have a bead loom bracelet I want to finish and I am going to make slipcovers for the couch. I was at Wal-Mart and I saw some really nice fabric for only $4.95 a yard. I hope they still have it. It was quite a while ago. Anyway, I want to recover the couch and the chair before the winter. All of these projects will be running concurrently with the kitchen remodel my husband and I started in August. The big stuff is out of the way and all we have to do is small trim stuff, replace the laminate counter top, and finish painting. Piece of cake! Yea, right.

I know that I have neglected you blog, and I feel terrible, so here is a little post. I am a member of the Crafter's Choice book club. I may have mentioned it before. I have been so busy that I haven't been able to do too much surfing around, much less refuse my monthly featured selection from the Club. Well yesterday, a package arrived containing, you guessed it! August's feature selection. Now I know the sensible readers out there will just tell me to send it back, but it's Nicky Epstein's Crocheting on the Edge! You can't just send that back! That would be so anti-crafty and just really the opposite of what I am all about. No, not racking up huge credit card debt (that's only part of it), but more about using all kinds of resources. I haven't looked at it yet but I am sure it is fantastic. I have all of her other "edge" books and I have room on my shelf. So it is staying.

I recently posted about getting back into beading and I wanted to share a couple of projects I am working on.


The first one, which is finished, is from Sherri Haab's book Beaded Macrame Jewelry. It is called the three-strand sampler bracelet. The directions called for Griffin silk to be used for the stringing, but I couldn't find any in any store in Toledo, so I opted for the C-Lon bead cord. It is not as drape-y, but I like it. I was
going to send away for the correct cord and different beads, but I think that I am going to just stick with what I have. It is finished and nice and I like it. That is all that matters, right?



The second bracelet is currently a work in progress. It is an adjustable knotted cuff designed by Dottie Hoeschen and I downloaded it off the Beading Daily website. I am not wild about the satin cord color. Nor am I wild about the beads. I bought both at a local bead shop and am not happy. I will probably stick with the cord color but buy some multicolored freshwater pearls from artbead.com or Fire Mountain Gems.


The third project is a knitted necklace which will have beads strung through it. It came as a kit and there doesn't seem to be a photo of the finished project, so I guess I will have to wing it.

Two other bead projects I am going to work on is another bracelet from the Haab book and an interpretation of the macrame bracelet I made last year. I am not sure how I am going to do this last one, it is going to be a make-it-up-as-you-go kind of adventure. Which are always the best kind.

And some sewing news: My mom and I went to Vogue Fabrics on Tuesday, July 29. We went to the store in Lansing, IL, a little south of Gary, IN. My review of the store is that it had a lot of really great fabric but not a lot of notions. I was really looking for a clapper for pressing. It is impossible to find one in the city of Toledo because all we have here are JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics. There are no other fabric stores. I found one online but it was cost prohibitive. Besides that, the store was well stocked. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out on the road for a little road trip. Gas prices weren't even that bad on the turnpike. After we visited the store, we headed back and stopped for dinner in South Bend, IN. I had a lot of fun. My mom and I are going to go up to the Evanston store in the fall and make a weekend out of it.

I bought three pieces of fabric. One was a green knit with white flowers. I am going to make into a shirt.


The next was a windowpane plaid wool that I am going to make into a skirt.


The third was a snazzy rayon that is begging to be made into a dress.


So, I have been to all three Vogue Fabrics in the Chicago area and I have to recommend them all. But if you are going to make a weekend of it, then definitely visit the flagship store in Evanston.

I wrote last night that I was getting back into beading. When I originally saw the bracelet on the Burn Notice website, I saw that it was made out of leather and gold. As a member of Crafter's Choice, I have a book titled Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry by Sherri Haab. It is extremely informative but since the price of gold is through the roof, cost prohibitive at the moment.

Cue my trip to Meant to Bead, a local bead store. I was looking through their books and saw Beaded Macrame Jewelry by none other than Sherri Haab. This woman is very talented. Her website address is www.sherrihaab.com and while the website isn't the shopping powerhouse you may want, there is information about the classes she teaches and limited items to buy.

So, I am beading again. I have decided that I am going to let my whims dictate what kind of crafting I do. I have been writing and haven't had a lot of time to devote to any kind of crafting and besides, I haven't felt particularly inspired. But that has changed for the moment and I am going to strike while the iron is hot.

I will keep you posted on my progress. I bought some C-Lon thread and will be making some projects from the macrame book while working on my Burn Notice inspired bracelet.

I have become interested in beading again. I watch Burn Notice and on the show's website you can buy clothes from the show. One of the characters, Fiona, was wearing the macrame bracelet I made last year! I am so ahead of the curve! There is another bracelet from the same designer that I would like to recreate. This got me interested in beading again. I was looking into metal clay but it is very expensive because of the price of gold. I am going to reinterpret it in a different medium. I will keep you posted on the progress.