Crafting 365-Day 5

Crafting 365-Day 5, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

It was a beautiful day for a drive today, blue sky and crisp air. Due to having to drive across south Idaho to Boise today, I didn't have much time to craft. I managed a start on my next Buttonhole bag, which is starting out with a black base.

Crafting 365-Day 4

Crafting 365-Day 4, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

Not a lot of time today for crafting, but I did manage to cut out pieces for four Christmas stockings. I finally figured out a technique for cutting and assembling that works well and goes quickly.

Also, I attached a pin back to the white flower and added it to my felted bag. The bag is available in my Etsy store.

Explore

Explore, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

Here's a new toy I discovered on FD's Flickr Toys. It allows you to see which of your pictures have been in Explore (I've had 3) and then make a poster of them.

Crafting 365, Day 3-Arm warmers

Arm warmers, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

Tonight, I made these cozy arm warmers from a recycled wool sweater. that was lightly felted. I cut off the arms about 10 inches up from the cuff. Then I cut a small slit in the seam for thumb hole and stitched around the hole with button-hole stitch. I cut off the bottom of the sweater and attached ribbing from there to the tops of the arm warmers so they would fit snugly. Unfortunately, this photo doesn't show the color detail of the felted sweater very well, but it has purple, grey, and burgundy in addition to black in the design.

Crafting 365- Day 2

Crafting 365- Day 2, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

These are the projects I finished today. Upper left: attached pins to back of my previously knitted and felted flowers; Upper right, blocked and finished purple and red card case, attaching yarn and button; Lower left, felted my twisted yarn necklace; Lower right, finished Nano case (blanket stitching, velcro, and clip).

Crafting 365- Day one, beige Nano case

nano 2 closeup, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

I've been thinking about this for a while, but I decided to take the plunge and participate in Crafting 365 on Flickr. The idea is to do some crafting each day and to post one photo to the Flickr pool for the group. Many members also write about their Crafting 365 on their blog. So, day 1 of 365, sounds pretty daunting. I'm sure I won't be able to Blog every day, but I'll try to keep you updated about my progress by posting at least a couple of days a week.

Yesterday was a pretty productive craft day for me, being a Saturday. I finished off this beige Nano/cell phone case. It's a cute little number that actually got created when I was doing a custom order and didn't get the exact results I wanted. However, I worked with it yesterday and got it to the point that I feel it is finished.

I also started on a new Nano case that fits the brand new version of the Nano. And, I worked on a couple of recycled wool Christmas stockings that seem to be turning out very nice. These may end up being my day 2 items if I get them done unless I start something else.

Etsy's Buy Handmade Pledge
Spread the word! Visit http://www.buyhandmade.org/ and pledge to buy handmade goods this holiday season. What an exciting event to be a part of!

Dreaming of Pincushions, Photo of the Week

Pincushion Sets, originally uploaded by dottyral.

I can't honestly say I've really been dreaming of pincushions, but I have been thinking about them lately. I made one pincushion a while back when I first started felting. It's a pretty plain "blob" of felted turquoise wool with fiberfill stuffing.

Lately, I've been wanting to create an improved design for a pincushion using some of my leftover scraps from recycled sweaters that I've felted and made into bags and Christmas ornaments. As I've been planning to do this, I came across the photo above in dottyral's Flickr photos. Dottyral became my mentor when I first started my Etsy shop and had a million questions about selling, shipping, etc. She suggested I start a blog and get a Flickr account. I followed her advice and although I haven't become a raging success on Etsy (12 items sold there in about 4 months) I have been loving my new obsession which includes Etsy, Flickr, my blog, Bloglines, etc.

Check out Dottyral's shop on Etsy , Dyed in the Wool designs, where she has a variety of items in addition to her unique pincushions. And watch here to see if I come up with a new pincushion of my own.

Medusa?

Medusa, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

I couldn't resist taking this picture when I saw the product of my evening work yesterday. I came up with a new product for a boutique I'm going to be participating in and possibly for my Etsy store. Can you guess what it is?

I made and felted these lanyards for ID badges. Those of you who are required to wear ID badges can relate to my wanting to make these colorful and creative. I tried one out today and it was really comfortable. We'll see if anyone wants to buy them.

Front page and custom order

card case and Nano case, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

My beige card case made it to the front page of Etsy yesterday. The creator of the treasury bought the case and also asked me to make a matching case for her Nano. Here is the result. I found it a bit tricky to make the Nano case to the precise measurements I needed (it took two tries and careful watching while felting).

Snowfall and flowers

This morning, everything was covered in snow from last night's storm. It's a beautiful sunny day, about 45 degrees. The snow which covered everything (including my petunias that have hung on much later than other years) has now melted and the flowers are once again gorgeous. Amazing!

I think I wrote this poem in 2003. But I was reminded of it this morning when I awoke to this view:

Overnight, snow blankets the earth
And with the sky still dark
Brings an eerie sense of calm
And quiet to the world
How I wish it were true
But the snow cannot
End the strife in war-torn Yugoslavia
Feed the starving children in Somalia
Make the Palestinians love their Israeli neighbors
Or slow our destruction of the earth's natural systems.

As the light comes and the snow continues to fall
The now beautiful white shroud
Pretends to remove the pettiness and pain of life
Yet it cannot end
The inhumanity of man to man
Or the damage we cause
Each day to our home, the earth
I can only revel in its momentary beauty.

Yesterday and today, I've been working out different versions of knitted flowers. I felted three of them and I'm happy with the results, though the orange one got a bit more felted than I would like, I had to pry the "petals" apart to try to make it look like a flower when I took it out of the washing machine. The orange mohair one was made with a "mystery" yarn I picked up at the thrift store, I'm guessing now it doesn't have any acrylic content.

Flickr Photo of the Week-Mosaic

you got chiles in my chocqua!, originally uploaded by flint knits.

I am a little ahead of myself this week since it's only Thursday night here, but I wasn't sure if I would have time to post tomorrow. This is a mosaic created with fd's Flickr Toys by flint knits. What a vibrant, gorgeous selection of photos. Flint Knits also makes gorgeous knitted items, has a couple of really nice free patterns on her blog. I'm planning to make the sweater or the bag someday. Thanks for the inspiration! I like the simplicity of her profile on Flickr:

"I like to knit. I'm writing a doctoral dissertation. I live in two cities. I have a cat." What a prolific knitter she is for a graduate student, I'm impressed.

This week, I was thrilled to receive this beautiful fall bouquet and fun bookmark for "Boss's Day". These were very bright spots in a week during which I had to spend many hours looking at budgets and spreadsheets.

Oh, and I also got THREE new knitting books this week!

I'm In-Ravelry

Today, I got my invite to Ravelry. I signed up around the first of September, much later than many others. If you don't know what Ravelry is, here is a blurb from their website:


Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.
The content here is all user- driven; we as a community make the site what it is. The Yarn Harlot wrote recently about Representing, showing the world the power of our community, and I believe that on this site we can really show the strength of our numbers and the depth of our creativity.
So what can you personally do on Ravelry? You can talk about your own projects, integrate that information into your personal website and contribute to someone else's project a world away.
If you are not a blogger, we give you a great way to share and show off your projects, participate in -alongs, and socialize with other crafters. If you are a blogger than Ravelry is the perfect complement to your online journal; it provides structure and organization. All of your information is easy to enter and easy to find. You will not need to update your own FO album again- it is all here on Ravelry!



I spent a few hours exploring and starting to use the site and I must say I am impressed. I entered a couple of my projects, linked to my Flickr site and uploaded pictures, wrote a few posts, and joined 5 groups. I can see this will be a new addiction for me, along with my Etsy addiction. And speaking of strength of numbers, there are over 30,000 people signed up for Ravelry. My user name on Ravelry is "homemadeoriginal" since only 16 character names are allowed I had to drop the "s" from my usual user name.

Also today, I signed up with Bloglines and created a Blog roll you will find on the right side of my blog. I'll be posting some of the blogs I like to read there.

Series of Bags

Bag #2
Bag #3

Bag # 4 pre-felting

Bag #4 finished

Detail Bag #4

I got so carried away writing about food earlier tonight, I forgot to mention that I finished a series of four bags. I started with the bright green and blue bag I blogged about earlier which was a gift I adapted the "buttonhole bag" pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting for this bag and added a large flower. I changed the pattern even more and made three other bags. They are so cute, I just love them. The first one already sold.

This weekend, I also created labels with my Etsy store banner and information and with care information on the reverse. The tags are shown on two of the finished bags. I made all these bags with a double strand of Patton's Classic Wool. I love the way it felts. The last bag was 11"long and 15 1/4" wide pre-felting and 7" long and 10 3/4" post felting. I want to experiment with making some roses and other embellishments for future bags like these.

You can see a closeup of my new tags on my Flickr account and also the little promo cards I made with potato pins. I created the promo cards and a few key rings for the Etsy FAST (Fiber Arts Street Team) Trunk Show which is coming up in November. Read about the show here.

Bread Lover

I admit it, I love good bread like this, bread that has a lot of "thunk" to it. I was blessed with a mother who was the master of all things "home made " (hence my blog and Etsy store name) but I didn't always appreciate her talents. I remember longing for the bread that looked like the other kids (aka Wonder Bread) and the clothes that were purchased at the popular stores not by my mother's sewing machine. I didn't understand the value a hand-knitted sweater any more than the somewhat irregular bread I didn't want for my sandwiches.

Now, I too love home made, but I don't have time to do everything my Mom did since she didn't work outside the home (her phrase). Since I still love bread, I'm developing a collection of bread machine recipes that my handy gadget can produce in 4 hours or less with almost no effort from me. It's not the same as the "real" home made, but it's pretty darn close.

Here's my current favorite:

Sweet Oatmeal Bread

¾ cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 ¼ to 1 3/8 cups water
3 Tablespoons molasses
1 ½ Tablespoons sugar (I use Splenda)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups bread flour
1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in bread pan, using the least amount of liquid listed in the recipe. Select “light” setting. Press START.
Observe the dough as it kneads. After 5 to 10 minutes, if it appears dry and stiff or if your machine sounds as if it’s straining, add more liquid 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough forms a smooth, pliable ball hat is slightly tacky to the touch.

After baking cycle ends, remove bread from the pan, place on a cake rack and allow to cool 1 hour before slicing.

PS Who can wait that long? We usually eat it while it's still warm.

While I am on a food vein, I want to share the special Idaho potato I found today. Someone had a box of potatoes at work with a sign encouraging everyone to take what they wanted. I selected 6 to take home including this one...

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

This will date me, I'm sure, but I remember playing a game called "button, button, who's got the button?" The trick as I recall was to have the button wedged between your two hands (facing palms together)and pass it to another person undetected (by pretending to pass it to everyone and only giving it to one person). I don't remember all the details, but whenever I see a large button collection that phrase pops into my mind.

My mother kept a large heavy glass container of buttons by her sewing machine. When she needed buttons for anything, we would dump out the entire jar onto a newspaper and help her find the best candidates for that particular project. She always seemed to have just the right thing, although occasionally we would come up one button short of what was needed and spend what seemed like hours (more likely 10 minutes) combing through the collection trying to find one more match.

This is my current button collection, not nearly as vast as my mother's was. I was searching through them today in order to finish the project below, three sets of denim Christmas ornaments. This ended up being a rather "fussy" project so I doubt if I will make more. However, I'm pleased with how they turned out. The mittens and the stockings are backed with red felt from a recycled sweater.

What time of day are you?

I saw this on Kristina's blog (Brouhaha Knits) and then also on another blog she linked to, My Yarn Stash is my Retirement plan (love the name of this blog!). I just had to try it.

You Are Midnight

You are more than a little eccentric, and you're apt to keep very unusual habits. Whether you're a nightowl, living in a commune, or taking a vow of silence - you like to experiment with your lifestyle. Expressing your individuality is important to you, and you often lie awake in bed thinking about the world and your place in it. You enjoy staying home, but that doesn't mean you're a hermit. You also appreciate quality time with family and close friends.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Interestingly enough, both Kristina and the author of My Yarn Stash are fellow midnight people. Here I am sitting at the computer at 12:26 am wondering what in the heck I am doing up at this hour.

Apples-Flickr Photo of the Week

Dexter Cider Mill apples, originally uploaded by winemakerssister.

This was my favorite photo this week from my Flickr contacts This one comes from winemakerssister and is labeled "Dexter Cider Mill apples" . I bet they make great cider, but they make me think of the home made apple pies my Mom used to make. She would sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on the applies and put little bits of butter over them before covering them with a crust and baking. Yummm! I really don't make pies very often, but an apple pie sounds good right now. If I was lucky when my Mom was baking there would be some left over pasty and she would make little rolls out of pastry, cinnamon, sugar, and butter for us to gobble up while they were still warm.

I was curious about Winemakerssister's Flickr name... she says she "runs her family's winery; my sister is our winemaker.... hence my name..." She's made some wonderful bags from recycled sweaters too. Check out her photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/winemakerssister/

I've had a good week creating and selling. I've sold three bags and made a group of the little mitten ornaments out of felted sweaters. I've also enjoyed playing with some of FD's Flickr toys I blogged about earlier. I made photo cube that turned out really cute. Its a beautiful , crisp Autumn day here.

I made it to the Etsy Front Page--October 10!

I made it to the Etsy Front Page--October 10!, originally uploaded by homemadeoriginals.

My "Green with Envy" felted card case made it onto the front page of Etsy! My first clue was that I had a bunch of new hearts in my shop so I went looking to see if I could see why. Thanks, soundslikebanana for making a great collection! I'm going to check out your shop and the other items now that I've captured a screen shot of the page and calmed down a bit.

Cool Flickr Toys

Last night I discovered FD's Flickr Toys and I've only just begun to play with them. One is "Mosaic Maker" that allows you to make a collage of pictures like the one above. It's a bit like the Poster Sketch tool on Etsy but allows you to have just photos (no text). Very easy to use. You can use up to 36 photos in a mosaic and then you can post it to Flickr. From there, you can post it to your blog by copying and pasting the code or use it as a photo anywhere.

I can see that at least one of my photos is pretty fuzzy, so obviously it was a lower resolution photo. The photo above is "medium" sized. The large size is really striking however it really exaggerates the fuzzy photo. I'll play with this again later aand post a large version some time.

The other is Flickr DNA. Here's mine:


From the Website, it explains the DNA this way: "Flickr DNA gathers public information about any Flickr member, analyzes it, organizes it, and creates a high-level overview. Add a DNA button to your Flickr profile or blog as a way of introducing new contacts to your photos. Not for forensic analysis. "

You have to link to your Flickr account to use these tools, but it is a simple process. FD is a Flickr user who has some amazing photos. His Big Huge Labs web page has this description:
"About fd's Flickr Toys
What started as a lark has turned into something much larger. Every day, I'm amazed, bewildered, and elated that I can, through this site, make so many people happy. "

If you haven't already discovered these fun toys, you will really enjoy them!

"Idaho to Callifornia and back" bags

Here are the bags I knitted on my way to and from California. Today I felted them. The green and blue bag with the flower is a gift and the third "Evergreen" bag is a custom order made to fit inside a small purse and hold mascara, lipstick, etc. I'm not sure yet if I will be adding a flower to the beige and green bag.

I also knitted and felted this one before leaving on the trip. It uses the same yarn for its main color as the smaller bag above. It was the same basic design as the bags above but I blocked it using a square box so it has a different look.

Friday Flickr Photo, mittens completed, and more

Felted Hotpad, originally uploaded by delightful knits. Isn't this gorgeous?

I am a bit late posting my Friday photo this week because I was on a trip to my 40th high school reunion in California (eek, how can it be 40 years?). On the way there we had snow and rain for almost 12 hours but on the return trip we had clear skies and some gorgeous views of California, Nevada and Idaho including some pretty fall colors. The long drive was perfect for completing knitting projects since my BF Jerry did all the driving. I made two bags I plan to felt and also a smaller purse caddy that is a custom order.

The hotpad photo, above, is from delightful knits and I think it is a gorgeous interpretation of Autumn in yarn. Check out delightful knits other wonderful photos including unique tea cozies she knits. Here's some information from her profile on Flickr:

"Come visit me on Etsy, under the name of Delli3, I have more tea cosies, I also sell on Ebay, under the name of Xfileslady. I enjoy knitting, crocheting, gardening, wood working. I have listed items on etsy.com under the name of Delli3, and I also sell on ebay, under the name of xfileslady. I love to make tea cosies. Please take a minute and look at my cosies, and let me know what you think. "

I think they are wonderful!

Here's a look at some of my finished mitten ornaments. I left them open at the top so that you could slip in a candy cane or other small item when giving them as a gift.
Finally, here is the bag I received from Figino in the September Bag Ladies swap. Notice how she used a belt as a strap for the bag. I should be posting pictures of my newest bags in the near future.