Category: Crafting

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Colors of the rainbow

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

Along with reading at least one book a month, I’ve also carried over trying to finish one craft project a month from last year’s goals. A friend I’ve had since middle school (that’s almost 20 years!) just had her first baby and I wanted to crochet them a blanket. I’ve only ever completed a few blankets and most of those were with a ripple pattern. This time I wanted to try something new.

I taught myself to crochet on the Internet, so it’s where I find almost all the patterns I use. I tend to find a lot of patterns through Lion Brand Yarn’s site. While scrolling through their free crochet patterns for baby blankets I came across this one. I loved the big stripes and the nice detail that the eyelets produced. And it looked like it would go pretty fast.

Around this time we also got the kids the They Might Be Giant’s Here Comes Science cd/dvd. They have one song about the colors of the rainbow using the acronym ROYGBIV. In their song Roy G. Biv is an elf at the end of the rainbow. The video is awesome and it’s quickly become one of our favorite songs.

Harper went to the craft store with me to pick out yarn colors for the baby blanket and we decided that it should become a Roy G. Biv blanket. I try to only buy yarn now with no acrylic. Fortunately one brand was 100% wool, affordable and carried all the colors of the rainbow. One ball makes up each color stripe. This particular yarn was a little bit short so I changed the pattern slightly- instead of nine rows per color I did seven. It crocheted up really fast and the zigzag pattern that connected each panel made me rethink my avoidance of stitching together panels or squares.

Tags: blanket, colorful
Posted in Crafting, Crochet | 3 Comments »

Iterating towards ‘better’

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Tonight we’re going to start slightly varying on our mallow-making and storage processes. We’ll take the batch and parcel out small bags for storage comparison so that we can find what combination of techniques yields the finest tasting, long lasting marshmallow.

It feels a little strange to pay so much attention to stirring speeds, mixing time or some of these others steps in the making of a marshmallow. Then again Jenn and I have used a similar approach with satisfaction in everything from parenting to dishwashing. If we’re vesting any care in the quality of what we’re making it only stands to reason we’d aspire to the best possible version we can author.

At the least this should give us greater confidence in our methods.David Schomer used a similar effort and error approach to discover revelations in the espresso industry ranging from complex ribbon patterns to a superior temperature-locked cup. Perhaps we could even be so fortunate.

Tags: marshmallow
Posted in Crafting, Life, Parenting | No Comments »

Easter craft time

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

I think Easter is my favorite holiday. I love what we are celebrating – the resurrection of Jesus. I love the decorations and spring colors. I love the visions of new life – flowers, eggs, baby animals. I love the warm sunny days.

And I love Easter crafts.

The other day I actually prepared the night before and had two crafts ready for the kids when they woke up. They could make little carrots from pipe cleaners which was fast and easy and pretty successful. I also had paper plates out that they could cut and glue and make into bunny masks. Pear decided to watercolor her bunny mask.

We also made bunny bookmarks I found from Martha Stewart. The night before Basha’s class’ Easter party I decided we should make one for each of his classmates. Luckily there are only 10 kids in his class because they took me a good deal longer than I was counting on. But they are cute and he was excited about them.

Of course we also dyed eggs. In the process, we managed to dye our fingers and arms too. One of these days we’ll do a natural version of egg dying. I think Basha would be intrigued by the science of it. But this year we stuck with the kits.

I have a long list of other crafts. Perhaps those will keep us busy over spring break, which just started. The craft I’m most looking forward to is yarn eggs we could hang from our little tree out front. I would be tempted to leave those up forever. Perhaps they’ll find a home hanging somewhere in our house. The kids new room does need some more color.

Posted in Crafting, Holiday, wondermrs | No Comments »

Making amends with the machine

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Today I pulled the sewing machine out, something I thought would not happen for a while. A long while. A few weeks ago I decided to take a long break from sewing because every time I worked on a project I ended up getting frustrated. That’s not an emotion I like to associate with crafting, or experience in general, so sewing was out.

But a baby shower to celebrate a sweet friend and her soon-to-be-born little boy changed my mind. Thankfully my machine and I got along this afternoon. Target sells old school cloth diapers for around $10 (if you buy the organic kind). I took some vintage fabric quarters I bought from Jo-Anns a few weeks ago and stitched them onto the diapers.

The whole project took an hour from start to finish. I also did a little embroidery on a hoop, but alas, I did not photograph it.

Up next on the craft list: finish crocheting a sweater for Arden. It will be done just in time for the weather to get warm, of course. Then I need to finish crocheting a blanket, start crocheting a dress for Harper, and finish crocheting a blanket for Sebastian that I started years ago.

Just a few things to work on. In all that free time I have.

Posted in Crafting, Sewing, wondermrs | 2 Comments »

Crocheting my way to a successful resolutution

Monday, February 1st, 2010

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to complete one craft project a month. Deadlines help and I finished my first project two weeks ago – a cute dress completed just in time to deliver it to a sweet little girl on her first birthday. Unfortunately, her party was the day Harper and I got really sick. But we met up with Rachel, Zac and little Olivia in the parking lot of a Best Buy on our drive home. (That’s how determined I was to get this gift to her.)

I picked this pattern because months ago Rachel had mentioned it and asked some friends if anyone knew how to crochet. When Olivia’s birthday rolled around I found the pattern again and whipped it up. Amazingly, it was easy and fast and turned out super cute. I’m sure my two little ladies will end up with crocheted apron dresses of their own soon.

A second project – sewing this time – is almost complete. And I’m halfway through a third project too. Both need to be done this week So really my resolution for February’s craft project will be completed first thing in the month. That means new projects to start!

I’m learning that I really, really love crocheting. It’s fast and very portable. This project was the first time I used cotton yarn and I’ve been converted. I like that I can do a few stitches here and there, because sometimes that’s all my life will allow. It seems every time I pick up my yarn and hook the children suddenly need me to help find a Lego piece or play beauty shop or hold them. But even with all the interruptions, at the end of the day I can see the progress. And that’s a great feeling.

Posted in Crafting, Crochet, resolutions | 4 Comments »

The beginning of the beginning

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

I started 2010 with few resolutions, but as the days have gone on I’ve been adding to that list at an alarming rate. When I think of them they seem harmless enough; cook a new meal once a month, take my vitamins every day, blog at least once a week, complete one project a month. And in my head they are merely starting points. By the end of the year I see myself cooking new meals each week and crafting nonstop.

Then one of the three kids need my attention and I realize that these things may never happen past January.

Deadlines do help. I have two craft projects that need to be started and completed immediately. And I’m super excited about both. Tonight while Nathan did bedtime with the kids I ran out to JoAnn’s and bought some cute fabric and fun yarn. I came home so excited to start crafting.

The fabric is cut and perhaps sewing will start tomorrow. After writing Psalm 5 I plan to start the crochet project. That is if little Bee doesn’t wake up or I don’t fall asleep first.

Posted in Crafting, wondermrs | No Comments »