Escapade

Mmm. My whole house smells like maple syrup. Seriously. The shower curtain, my pillows, my kids. We do the final last few minutes of boiling in the house to make sure we don’t burn the sugar. Sweet, sweet little yellow house.

So I have the promised pics of the finished Noni Adventure Bag plus a little bonus.

First we have the finished bag on one of the mannequins at the store.

One of my necklaces is on the mannequin to the right :)

The bag was knit up from our Amherst Yarn in Soft Grape, dreamy to work with.

Here are close-ups of the bag, the zipper and the lining

  

I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out - so happy that I crocheted

myself a little something to celebrate!

A little left-over Icelandic Laceweight from Jager Farm and random beads.

Toots

Time Keeps on Tickin’…

I’m at home working on my paper today and decided to waste a bit of time online while I ate my sandwich. I’m trying to figure out how to make felt versions of this and this, the rest i have already sussed out. I made 15 minutes dissappear by looking at handsome men, here, here , here and here. (New Black Donnellys tonight!) Mmm. Beefcake is just the perfect dessert sometimes

I finished this and the Noni bag – more pics tomorrow – maybe.

I should get back to that paper. Truth be told I’d rather curl up in the sugar shack with a good book, its warmer in there than it is in the house today. This is the last good week of sap so I’m boiling away like a good…um…syrup, wife thingy. Oh hell, I’m just helping out the Hubby.

Toots

Tequila Sunrise

What could I be up to now? And why can’t I stick to my list!?!

Yesterday I accompanied my Father-in-law to see a client of his. He is a

carpenter that does small scale kitchen/bath renovations, for the most part.

He had done some work for an 80 year old woman up in one of the hill

towns a few months back and got to talking to her as he did the work.

4 years ago she lost the sight in one eye and almost 75% in the other. She

struggles everyday with her deteriorating eyesight and lonliness. She

never married and has no children so she keeps track of the WHOLE

family. She is a treasury of stories about the town her parents were raised

in, the home she now lives in - once her great-grandfather’s  - and the

adventures of her family. She used to be a champion knitter doing

amazing cable and rib sweaters and blankets but when she lost her sight

she lost her will, for a bit anyway. So, my Father-in-law asked if I could

spend some time with her, reaquainting her with needle and yarn. He

had seen me working on different pieces over the last few years and

figured that if I could knit without looking at what I was doing that

she probably could too! Well she was very nervous at first, afraid that

she wouldn’t be able to pick it back up and afraid to hope that she could.

Let me tell ya, ladies and gents, she dove right back in! She started right

in with the long tail cast on, did two and then stopped to ask me if she

had done it right. As I told her that she was doing fine she cast on three

more stitches and then said that she was afraid she was going to mess up.

She didn’t realize that she had just cast on 3 more stitches!! She was SO

excited to know that her hands still remembered what her eyes could no

longer see.  She managed 3 rows of stockinette before we had to head

home for dinner but I have no doubt that she has a few inches by now

I’m glad he asked me to meet her, I’m glad I agreed. She’s a wonderful

lady.

Toots

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

 I made this from another mistake color from Gail. Its based on a shawl pattern in the works for the store. Mine is longer and only a scarf but I love the stitch. Look closer below. I think she should make it again, sell it in the store and call it Golden Raisin

Isn’t this a great stitch! You’ll have to wait till we publish the pattern but its easy and fun.

I’m all about the crochet this Spring. Yay!

Toots

I’m a Dime

This is the Noni Adventure Bag pre-felting, that’s a dime for scale. She’s all felted

up at this point and I have the lining fabric cut out and sewn. I just need to put in

the zipper and attach the handle. The pattern calls for you to knit an i-cord but

we chose a neato beaded strap from the store instead. I’ll try to post a pic this

weekend. Tonight I’ll be working on a little drawstring bag for my Crochet 1 class

and maybe another granny square.

Toots

In the Gloaming

So, my plans to make adorable felt houses, a la Bella Dia, were quietly washed away in the flood of THINGS TO DO. I hope to get back on track with those, perhaps this summer *high hopes*

Right now I have the following with deadlines screaming at me:

Noni Adventure bag for the store, due tomorrow ( hopefully it will actually be done next week.)

1 black ”Sith” cape for my nephew’s 8th birthday, he already has a brown Jedi and a white

Yoda cape, this completes the set. I also need to make an “original” cake, his words, in the shape of a star destroyer. WIsh me luck – Due March 18th.

5 Merbs and a Narwhale for Shaun due in early summer - see my yarn pics over here

1 Luscious felted bouquet of hydrangea, peonies and lilly of the valleys for

one Cupcake’s wedding.

On top of ALL that I have a new hat and scarf to make for the Grumble some granny squares, a potholder, drawstring bag, hat and scarf to make for my crochet class and now I desperatly want to make myself a set of these!! Check out their maker and her shop.

 

Now if you’ll excuse me I have a craft hole to keep digging

Bad Company

This came into the store a few weeks ago and it needed to come home with me!

Normally the yarn comes in bags of 10 balls but these were in the box all by their

lonesome. I haven’t figured out just what is bad about this yarn yet but I’ll giggle

when I eventually use it :)

This is more of the Kangaroo Dyer’s experimentation.

This is our Deerfield yarn that Gail played around with a bit. She wasn’t happy with how it turned out but the colorway thrills me  I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet but I’m sure a simple scarf is in my future.

And now for some actual usage of yarn,  the Noni Adventure bag in  progress:

Finally, I just got 2 boxes of vintage pattern from a friend who had cleaned out

her grandmother’s attic.

I’ve put a couple up in the Etsy shop - and hey! one set has already sold!! -

AND we’re selling some fresh Maple Syrup - come-n get it!

If All the Rain Drops Were Lemondrops and Gumdrops

Just LOOK at this stuff!! I have been quietly lurking over at Fun With Yarn for

about a year. They have THE  yummiest hand-dyed bats and specialty yarns,

plus killer names for their yarns: Apples and Oranges, Lipstick Kiss and Raspberry

Lemonade. I’m just waiting for the perfect yarn to call my name and take my

breath away. Then I’ll buy, oh yes I will!

You Say Good-bye, and I Say Hello

 We joined the miniswap initiated by MommyCoddle. Our swap partners were in Minnestota and we both missed the deadline for mailing our packages

The above pic is the bundle of goodies that the Grumble got. A lovely handmade pillowcase, a small handmade purse – she loves the poodle print! – a cool handmade fabric bowl full of goodies, a mini crayon set, mini watercolors a silly wooden character pen and a bit of sweet candy. The girls were thrilled with their get and really excited to hear back from MN about the box we sent them.

I got some lovely and yummy godiva chocolates that I shared with the Hubby. Mmm.

 The Bean’s pile was very similar with different fabrics and a set of mini colored pencils instead of crayons and a Bee pen instead of a bear. Two very happy girls.

The Hubby had the camera on the day that I packed up the box so I never got a pic of the

box that we sent alongbut here’s a list of what we sent:

1 chicken - similar to the ornament swap girls

1 copy of one of our favorite family cookbooks

3 cool color kitchen towels

2 vintage suncatcher kits

2 doorhanger kits

needlefelted bookmarks for the  all 4 kids and a pretty beaded one for the Mom

(only the youngest 2 were participating)

I hope that they enjoy the swap as much as we did!!

Thanks for telling us about it Auntie Cupcake!