My First Homespun Yarn

Remember the little drop spindle I showed you back in early October? I've actually been using it to make yarn! I started practicing with some blue, green, and purple wool I bought in Eugene, Oregon, a long time ago.

This is the yarn store, it's called Soft Horizons Fiber. Isn't it cute? There aren't many places I would rather be than a pretty house full of yarn! I miss it!

This is the little drop spindle I bought on Etsy, with my very first little bit of homespun yarn on it:

I watched a couple of good tutorials on Youtube to help me learn how to spin, and some of my crafting friends were able to lend me their advice as well. One of my friends even gave me an extra spindle that she had, which is much bigger and heavier, and therefore can hold more yarn and make thinner strands! 

This is what my finished yarn looked like after cleaning and "fulling," a felting process that helps the fibers of the yarn bind together. You are supposed to hit it against a table until the thickness is even and all of the twists are gone, then hang it to dry. Maybe I need more direction, but it seemed like no matter how many times I hit the yarn against the table it just got more twisted! Eventually I tied it around this chair tightly enough to get the twists out so that it would dry straight. That's probably cheating, I know.

Here is what my finished ball of yarn looks like. You can see the green and blue, with just a tiny bit of purple peaking through at the center. Now I just have to decide what to make with it!

It will have to be a small project and something that will show off the color changes nicely and not get too messed up by the (unintentional) changes in thickness. It's hard to get the thickness even when you are learning to spin. I asked a lady at the Vista Fiber Festival if there was a trick to it and she said "When you find out, you tell me." But to me her yarn looked perfectly even! I guess it takes practice like anything else. Anyway, the only thing I can think of to make with it right now is a scarf, but please let me know if you have any other ideas, I would love to try something different! 

-Assunta

PS- Did you know the word "spinster" is used to refer to an unmarried woman because at a time when most career paths were unavailable to women, spinning was a job that allowed a single woman to make a living for herself. Pretty cool, huh? 

Taking a Break

I've decided I won't be posting this week or next week. I will have some cool new things to show you when I return. Happy Thanksgiving!

-Assunta

Welcome to November

The next couple of months are looking pretty busy with work and with making holiday gifts for family and friends! I would like to make a few new things for Etsy and keep up with this blog as well, but I have promised not to overwhelm myself with holiday stuff to the point that it isn't fun anymore. For this reason, my blog posts will probably be pretty short through the holidays, and I might even take a break altogether if I feel like I need it. Another reason is that while most of my creative efforts are going toward Christmas gifts I can't really post them online, lest the wrong person see them! 

This week I'll just show you a couple of little fun holiday decorations I have been making, and where to get the patterns for them. I apologize for the blurry cell phone pictures.

These pretty crochet snowflakes by Lion Brand are super easy to make and the pattern is free here!

And this adorable knit reindeer pattern by Linda Regel is available on Raverly for a very reasonable price!

Well, these are some of the things I have been working on. I can't wait to see what other fun ideas come up for the holidays this year! 

-Assunta

St. Agatha's Holiday Bazaar

If you hate hearing about "the holidays" the second Halloween is over, then I sincerely apologize for this post. My mom and I have done a holiday bazaar at St. Agatha's church together almost every year since I was nine. I can't make it this year but she will be there this Saturday and Sunday with some Dream Designs as well as many of her own fantastic creations! Her table is Laughing Cat Creative Enterprises and here is a link to her blog too: http://laughingcatcreativeenterprises.blogspot.com

Here is the flyer for the bazaar. It is such a fun time, I definitely recommend going if you are able to. I wish I could be there!

Now, lest we forget it is only November 4th, here is some Halloween stuff. 

Husband and me at our office Halloween party:

I will probably blog about my costume in greater detail eventually, since it is made up of many pieces.

 Purple spaghetti with mozarella "eyeballs" for a murder mystery dinner at our friend's house (which was so much fun!)

And pumpkin voodoo-doll cookies, also for the office party!

I hope you had a great Halloween!

-Assunta

Steampunk Jewelry

I must apologize for the quick and unpolished post this week. With Halloween coming up on Saturday, my creative efforts have been focused on preparing for this most magical or days. With any luck, I will have several completed Halloween projects to show you next week. For now, I hope you will enjoy a sneak peak of my costume in the form of some steampunk style jewelry that I have made. It includes earrings, an ear cuff, a ring, and a choker.

This ring is made from a cool old-looking button from Joann's (so it's not actually old). 

I can't wait for all the fun Halloween festivities this weekend! My sweetie and I have started watching  scary movies to prepare and our office is having a Halloween potluck tomorrow. 

Are you doing anything fun for Halloween?

-Assunta

Bake Shop Purse

 A while back I received a purse kit for my birthday with two sets of colorful fabric strips rolled up to look like sweet rolls. The title of the kit was "Bake Shop." I finally got one of these pretty purses completed this week:

It's just the perfect size for a ball of yarn and crochet hook or pair of knitting needles for a small project! I'm still working on the other one, which is about halfway done. 

I only have this short post for now, but I'll have some more fun Halloween stuff for next week.

See you then!

-Assunta

A Very Hawaiian Halloween

A while back my aunt in Hawaii asked me to make her a zombie hula girl and surfer boy. I had made some creepy-cute amigurumi already, so this was a perfect unique variation on that theme. These little guys are are very quick to make and almost too cute to be scary! The best part is, they like spam masubi even bettern than brains so they make better dinner guests than your average zombies.

The reason I am bringing up this project now (besides that October has me thinking more about zombies than usual) is that I just posted the pattern to my Ravelry and Etsy shops. They are so simple, there is definitely time to make a couple in time for Halloween!

Have a spooktacular week, and try not to get eaten.

-Assunta

New Toys and the Vista Fiber Arts Festival

A few weeks ago I bought this cute little drop spindle of Etsy to try my hand at making my own yarn!  I've practiced a little bit with it and it's a lot of fun, although it's very tricky to try and keep the weight of the yarn even. I remember when I first learned to crochet, though. It took me a long time to get my stitches even back then, so after enough practice I should be able to get my yarn even too.

This weekend I went to the Vista Fiber Arts Festival with a couple friends. I saw many wonderful things, including this beautiful spinning wheel which I had to resist buying:

...and these adorable baby alpacas:

I ended up buying some gorgeous hand-dyed wool. The booth was called Blarney Yarn, and it was so hard to choose between all of the amazing colors, but this is the one I bought. I love this blend of rich purples and sunny yellow.

My other new toy is this tiny scale. It's meant for weighing small amounts of yarn to see if you have enough to finish your project. It's also perfect for calculating shipping prices for tiny Etsy items. My previous method of holding something in my hand and thinking "Yep, that's definitely less than a pound." wasn't quite cutting it. 

Well, that was my weekend, how was yours? 

-Assunta

Another Desk Plant!

Remember my crochet Groot? Now he has a new friend! One of my friends saw me working on Groot and told me about this awesome pattern for the mandrake root from Harry Potter! I couldn't resist buying the pattern on Ravelry and making one. Here she is out of the pot:

And here she is in the pot. She looks a little too happy for a deadly mandrake, but I think she's adorable.

 And here's a close-up of her face:

I love making magical crochet and knit plants, and they are much easier to keep alive than most plants!

Do you have a favorite house plant?

-Assunta

My Geek Girl Pixel Blanket is Now Available!

I was out of town this weekend so I don't have much to report. One bit of good news is that my Geek Girl Heart Pixel Blanket crochet pattern is now available on Etsy and Ravelry! It makes a perfect child's blanket or lap blanket for a chilly evening playing your favorite retro video game!

I hope to have the pattern for my mermaid shawl done soon too. Happy crafting!

-Assunta

Rainbow Mermaid Shawl

A few weeks ago I was struck with the desire to make something rainbow-y. I found this yarn and it seemed perfect for making a light and whimsical shawl!

I used mostly the Solomon's Knot, or Lover's Knot stitch. It wound up with a diamond pattern that sort of looks like a net or rainbow fish scales. That with the long tail made it look very mermaid-like to me!

Here it is from several different views:

 

 

I love this yarn so much I might have to make another project with it. This one went too fast!

As a side note, I didn't make this dress (although I wish I had.) It's from Camp Hollyhock, my favorite dress designers ever!

Until next week, happy swimming!

-Assunta

Cinderella!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and didn't have to work on Monday. (I did last year, so it was really nice to have this Labor Day off!)

I have been coming up with more ideas for little posable dolls since the two I made for the art exhibit back in June. My latest one was inspired by Disney's Cinderella, though I intentionally made her a little unique. She is crocheted with Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton and stands 7 1/2'' tall, including her hair.

My version of Cinderella

I used a different technique to make her eyes, which are very anime-inspired. I drew them on paper with ink and colored pencil, and glued them onto her face along with false eyelashes from Ulta.

I carefully shaped her hair into an updo, which took a lot of stitching! 

Tiny, blue earrings from Claire's make great doll earrings.

She even has tiny shoes and a crinoline to keep her skirt extra poofy! She's ready to dance the night away!

I hope to have a few more dolls done in time for the holidays. In the meantime, look for Cinderella in my Etsy shop! 

Hopefully now that my Cinderella doll is done, that song the mice sing in the movie while they are making her dress will get out of my head, haha.

Wishing you lots of fairytale magic,

Assunta

Geek Girl PIxel Blanket

I was starting to feel nostalgic for the pixel granny square blankets I have made. Then a friend gave me some lovely pink alpaca and cream-colored cotton yarn. I searched for a pixel image I could make with these colors and decided on this heart, just the perfect mix of geeky and girly!

I only had enough for a small blanket, so the squares are about half the size of the ones I have made before, and the blanket is only about 39'' x 41''. It's perfect for a child's blanket, though. Or for a lap blanket while watching TV or reading a good book.

Here are the two pixel blankets I have made before, in case you missed them. Each one fits a double bed:

A Mario Blanket for my sweetie pie

Link from Legend of Zelda for my little brother.

These blankets are so much fun, and making a mini version was a nice change of pace because it came together so much faster! I hope to have a pattern written for the mini blanket soon.

Sweet dreams and cozy blankets,

Assunta

Fixing up my Sewing Corner

This is what my sewing corner looked like until recently. Not bad, but I thought it would be fun to spruce it up a bit!

The first thing I did was turn my desk toward the wall. This way I can have art up behind it and when I film a tutorial the viewer won't be staring right at the entertainment center! I still get plenty of daylight from the window and patio door.

I got this little shelving unit and some cute wicker drawers from IKEA for my yarn, fabric, and sewing basket. The empty cube will be for patterns and possibly other craft supplies. The plastic drawers are being reused elsewhere in the apartment. (One is still mostly full of craft supplies, and my sweetie has filled the other with computer things).

My familiar, Chester, approves of the new organizations system! He has also finally started using his cat bed, although he prefers to sleep on top of rather than inside it. Luckily, he doesn't sit on my table while I am working now that he has his own space.

 To protect the top of my shelf from cat footprints, I picked up some vinyl fabric from Joann's that looks like lace but is much easier to clean! These pretty silver hanging baskets also came from IKEA. I am keeping spools of thread in one and sewing tools in the other.

I even have an extra hook for my scissors!

I might want more shelves and baskets soon, but I like how things are coming along. Right now the next step is to get my patterns organized so I can actually find them. Right now they are in some old paper folders that are falling apart, but I have a cute new binder to put them in. It's so much fun to have a fresh, bright crafting space!

Where is your favorite place to create?

Assunta

My New Office Plant

Look who is coming with me to work! I wanted a cool office plant that I don't have to water so I crocheted myself a Groot. I've been wanting one since I made my little brother one for Christmas. He even dances (or wobbles back and forth when you pick up his flower pot)! 

Here he is on the couch before work...

...Here he is at the office...

...and here is the inspiration.

He's so cute he puts a smile on my face every time I see him on my desk. I even got lots of compliments on him at work yesterday!

One of my crafting friends also showed me this knit pattern for the mandrake root from Harry Potter, It is so cool I might have to make one of them for my desk too.

So cool, right?

I mean, who wouldn't want one of these?

But seriously, I want one. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week full of all your favorite plants, both ordinary and magical!

-Assunta

PS- Sorry for the late post. I'm still trying to update every Wednesday but some weeks I may just run out of time or not have much to talk about. I'll keep you updated, though!