Jan25

Free Flower Pattern at Pick Up Sticks

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Free Flower Pattern at Pick Up Sticks

The larger sized flowers.

I am a fiend for short rows and can’t seem to make anything these days that doesn’t use them. I was messing around with a short-row flower and came up with this little 3-D number. I decided to give it away for free at Pick Up Sticks as a THANK YOU to everyone who supported me in 2011. At the end of 2010, I moved across the country from California to Vermont and in the process essentially had to shut down Pick Up Sticks. It was traumatic, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to start the company back up again. When I made the decision to rebuild this fall, I quickly  realized that I have the most supportive customers in the industry, and I was inspired by working with you all again. So thank you for your business. Much, much appreciated. And I’m looking forward to an exciting 2012.

The smaller flower.

Use the flowers to embellish hats, boots, anything you can think of.

Dec27

Upcycled Winter Vignette

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Upcycled Winter Vignette

In the daytime.

And at night.

As soon as I saw the cheap-looking white spray-painted wire trees at my local second-hand store, I knew they had to be mine. They were $2.50 each, and they had so much potential. They came in three different sizes, which meant no matter how I clustered them they would look good.   Plus they were pre-strung with little white lights. Any decoration lit from within makes a striking focal point at night, and any decoration that I don’t have to string myself is a good thing.

Adding the first layer of twigs.

 

I had a spiral of twigs in my stash, so I got to work wrapping the trees in the woody loveliness. The whole scene fills up the window seat in my living room. I like it because it will stay up as long as the snow stays on the ground, unlike the holiday decorations, which always come down too fast for me.

The whole vignette.

Dec22

$5 Wreath. Sweet.

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$5 Wreath. Sweet.

All lit up. I used the extra cedar trimmings to decorate the mantle.

I went to buy a wreath for my mantle and discovered that, at $65, wreaths were not in my holiday budget. My neighbors have a row of cedars along our shared fence and their branches hang into my yard. See where I’m going with this? I spent 20 nippy minutes clipping the branches, then ran down to Creative Habitat for a metal  wreath frame. Five dollars and a few hours playing with florist wire later, and I had a beautiful holiday mantle.

The wreath before I dolled it up with lights.

Clipped berries and wreath frame, waiting to pair up with the cedar to become my holiday centerpiece.

Dec17

Cones 1/2 Off + Free Shipping at Pick Up Sticks

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Cones 1/2 Off + Free Shipping at Pick Up Sticks

So far this holiday season the ratio of gifts I’ve bought for me to the gifts I’ve bought for them is about 2:1. This week, I swear, I’ll start buying for everyone else.

Here’s your chance to buy a little somthin’ somthin’ for you . . . all my cones are half-off at my online retail store and shipping is free through Dec. 22. One 2,200 yard cone is $47.50. Think of the felted bags you could make!

This is the same 100% wool, worsted weight yarn that I use for all my projects. High quality, imported from Peru. On cones, I have 15 colors left. I’m still selling yarn in 65-yard and 220-yard balls. I’m rolling them out by hand, and they’ll arrive unlabeled, just so’s ya know. The small balls don’t look nearly as cute as they used to when I had my crazy huge rolling machine.

Dec12

4 Hours to Make a Lady’s Coat Fit a Prince

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4 Hours to Make a Lady’s Coat Fit a Prince

Our best Will and Kate.

My husband works for a great company that throws themed costume parties every December. About 1,000 people go to the parties and almost all of them show up in amazing get-ups. This year’s theme was “Entourage,” which no one understood. The party team had to put out an email explaining that “entourage” could be any group, like the gang from Scooby Doo or Bay Watch, or anyone who has an entourage. This was a hard one, so Steve and I didn’t settle on a costume until the day of the party: Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

On the way to the ball.

Because I am the Queen of Craftiness, Steve has an unrealistic expectation that I can pull anything crafty out of my ass in about two minutes flat. OK, OK, so his expectation isn’t all that unrealistic: I did have a wedding dress that looked surprisingly like Kate’s which I’d strangely purchased from the Goodwill this summer. That was done. But the rest, well the rest was going to test every bit of my Crafty Reserve.

Raw materials: The coat + a tree skirt, ribbon and ornament hangers.

My mom and I went to about 5 thrift stores and we couldn’t find a single red coat for a man. We finally got the brainstorm to find an extra large women’s coat in red. We found it at half off — godbless KMart — for $40.  By this time it was noon, and we were seriously under the gun. We made the decision to get all the embellishing supplies at KMart, or we faced a night with me in a wedding gown and my husband by my side in a lady’s coat.

We picked up a pile of 1/2 off Holiday decor: a tree skirt, royal blue ribbon and ornament hangers.

We used baubles from my grandma's stash to embellish.

At home I had a box of my grandma’s beads from the ’60s and ’70s. I knew that would be a treasure trove for the medals. A few hours of stitching later, we had a coat fit for a prince.

We didn’t win the costume contest — Gilligan’s Island did — but people said we were robbed. I think it’s because we didn’t have Pippa and her cute butt hopping around behind us.

The tree skirt became the collar and sleeves.

The robe edging from the tree skirt became the edging on the lapel.

Dec9

Teapot Cozy, Done.

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Teapot Cozy, Done.

I didn't have the teapot that'll be used in the real photo shoot, which made designing a challenge. Hope it fits when there's a spout and a handle.

I sent off the teapot cozy and eye mask to my editor at Knitting Today today. I’m happy with the finished project — it looks a lot like my original sketch – but without the RIGHT TEAPOT, it’s pretty hard to know if the fit will be correct. I took the cozy down to my local Home Goods store and popped it on every teapot they had on display (yes, I got several odd stares). It didn’t fit one of them. I was working from the dimensions my editor gave me from the teapot they’ll use in the photoshoot, so cross fingers.

I made a matching eye mask, which I’m excited about because of the picot cord. I picked up stitches to add the picot edging, then moved into i-cord to make the tie. The pairing of the bumpy picot and the straight i-cord just didn’t look right. That’s when I figured out I could cast on a bunch of stitches and work just a few rows of the picot, bind off, fold and seam to make a fancy cord.

The eyemask with picot edging and ties.

I lined it with a swatch of silk so the mask would be comfy on the face.

Dec4

Yarny Holiday How-To

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Yarny Holiday How-To

Go to the VIDEO TUTORIAL

I spent last week playing around with metal rings + the blanket stitch and got so inspired I couldn’t stop, despite other pressing deadlines! These are three of the ornaments I made. My daughter made a fourth, which we featured in our how-to video. The project requires:

  • 65-yard Small Balls (or worsted-weight wool from your stash)
  • a yarn needle
  • 24 gauge florist wire
  • 4″ or smaller metal rings

I used four of my favorite colors of Pick Up Sticks’ wool, which is available on my website. (One 65-yard ball is $3.50 and the shipping is free +  priority mail, btw.) The ornaments are easy enough to do with a child – I’d say 9 and up. The only stitching technique I used is the blanket stitch, so this project is a great way to learn. If you try it, you’ll have lots of fun dreaming up your own designs with the florist wire.

Nov30

Project A.D.D.

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Project A.D.D.

Teapot Cozy sketch for Knitting Today.

This is what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s due to Knitting Today on Dec. 6.  I like the project. It’s cute, right? But I just can’t seem to get moving on it. This is how much I have done, so far:

It's underway...but due in less than a week!

How can I focus on this, when there’s so much other holiday craftiness to be had? Down each street in my neighborhood there are colorful leaves, ruby-red berries, twisting twigs. I’m keeping my clippers in the car and driving the kids crazy with my frequent, “I’ll just be a minute”s.

Stealing berries from a neighborhood tree.

So I’m shelving what has to be done for what wants to be done. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

1. A Seussian holiday tree. It’s got legs. I just haven’t found them yet. I need to keep plugging away.

Not my best work, but I think with the berries and twigs, it'll be cute.

2. Blanket stitch around rings with florist wire. I’ll shape the florist wire into words/holiday symbols and wrap in blanket stitch.

The start of a blanket-stitch holiday ornament.

Nov20

Who Knew They’d STILL Want Their Tooth Fairy Dolls?

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Who Knew They’d STILL Want Their Tooth Fairy Dolls?

Cassie Lee didn't forget Kendal, even though she's "old" now.

Callum gives the thumbs up ... his tooth fairy doll, Benjamin, did a good job bringing him the George Washingtons.

Both my kids lost teeth this week. I didn’t even ask Kendal if she wanted me to dig out her toothfairy doll. She is in 6th grade, after all. She goes to dances with boys. No way she would be caught dead with a doll, right? Well, turns out I was wrong. That night before bed, she subtly asked me if I might know where “Cassie Lee” was. I hunted her down and gave her to Kendal. Later, I found the doll on her pillow,  holding this note and her tooth:

The toothfairy doll with Kendal's tooth and the note she wrote.

The next day, Callum lost a tooth, too. He’s just eight, but since he’s a boy who really believes he has the moves like Jagger, I thought there was no way he’d want me to rummage Benjamin out of his box in the garage. Wrong again. In fact, Callum wrote Benjamin a two page report on how things have been going since the last time they “talked.” I’m pretty sure it was just a ploy for money, but it was cute all the same.

When I designed the dolls, I thought we’d get maybe one, maybe two uses out of them. Nuh-uh. Turns out, they’ve acquired lives of their own and they hold a dearer place in my children’s hearts than I ever knew. How great is that? It doesn’t go that way every time with the hand-knit gifts, does it?

pattern for Cassie Lee

pattern for Benjamin