Author: Caryn

Hot Sauce holster

On By CarynIn Craft

My Dad has been experimenting with making hot sauce. I thought he needed a hot sauce holster for either sauces or spices so they are easy to grab, so I made him one from leather. I started the design process with card stock, so I could get the sizes and shapes right.

Photo description: gray card stock cut into various pieces with two spice jars, pencil, and ruler

Once I was comfortable with my design, I used Adobe Illustrator to lay it out digitally, including engraving and lace holes. I included a “test” rectangle, which was very helpful and something I will include in future design projects, because I was able to use those elements to test my laser cutter settings before committing to larger objects.

Photo description: four test runs of the word “test” and outline and hole cuts on scrap leather
Photo description: leather still in the laser cutter, test swatch missing and three holster pieces engraved and cut

I rinsed the leather with water to remove the soot and smoke marks, then dyed it with leather dye.

Photo description: leather dyed with buckskin colored dye

I used waxed linen to sew the pieces together. I absolutely love how even I can laser cut the holes. Neat stitching is 90% hole placement.

Photo description: sewing leather at 90 degrees with waxed linen cord
Photo description: sewn leather holster with 3/4” grommet installed using Dritz pliers

I’m had some space at the bottom of the holster and thought that places to hang things are always potentially useful, so installed a gold hued metal grommet. I finally bought a pair of grommet pliers for this size, and it makes installation so much easier than hammering dies together.

Photo description: Finished spice holster with one spice jar and one hot sauce bottle and the words “Flavor Master”

The holster is designed to hang from a belt, and since it is wide, I separated the belt loop into two sections so it can accommodate a belt loop if necessary.

Throwback Thursday: paper flowers

On By CarynIn Craft

Back in February 2013 I was volunteering at my youngest’s elementary school library, shelving books and decorating their bulletin board. I really wanted to use my CRICUT cutter to make giant flowers and thought they would make a neat wall display.

Photo description: colorful bulletin board with large paper flowers labeled by name and The Cat in The Hat on an elephant with the words “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” from Dr Seuss

This is now a rare sight, because paper with that much dimension was deemed a fire hazard and it had to be taken down. The rest of my designs had to be 2D.

First prototype

On By CarynIn Craft

My headphones were in a tangle in the bottom of my bag. I realized that I now have a way to design and cut leather quickly, and could make a holder! I laid out an SVG file in Adobe Illustrator inspired by a Pinterest pin, put a piece of scrap tooling leather in my laser cutter, and ran the program.

Photo description: prototype leather headphone holder with key chain hole, hole for the ear buds, and slit to hold the end of the cord
Photo description: headphones wrapped around the leather holder

Hm. Not as neat as I hoped. Still, first prototypes usually aren’t spot on. This design would probably work better with headphones that don’t have a volume button on the cord, and have different shaped ear buds. I also need to beef up the keychain ring. It’s looking a little thin. Back to the drawing board. (Really, I’ll do a pencil sketch first on paper this time, then go to the computer.)

And now leather

On By CarynIn Craft

I did my first test of tooling leather in my laser cutter. I used a two color version of my business logo and did a fill engrave of the logo and a cut for the circle. The cut wasn’t quite powerful enough to go through the thick tooling leather, but not surprising for my first attempt.

Photo description: Caryn’s Creations tree logo burned into tooling leather with a laser cutter

I had to finish the cut with shears. There was smoke residue on the surface, but a quick rise removed it.

Photo description: same logo on leather, cut out and wet
Photo description: same leather logo now dry

I do take screen shots of the engraving and cutting settings because I’m pretty sure my software resets every time I open a file. I’m also starting to get a good feel for the settings.

I’m am now well and truly dangerous. I love working with tooling leather, and this opens up a whole realm of opportunities.

Glow Jellyfish Hat (free pattern)

On By CarynIn Craft

Here is a fun project! A glow in the dark jellyfish that you can wear. Just think of all those lovely floating jellies in the park on a cold night! I’m happy to provide my pattern for free, please tag me on instagram @carynjhall if you make the hat, and be kind, don’t sell my pattern, but do share the link to this blog post.

Lion Brand Yarn is doing a Show Us Your Glow contest, so if you want to pop over here, you can vote until March 19th, 2025.

Photo Description: Two pictures of the same crocheted hat, one in natural light, one in the dark showing the glowing yarn

Materials:

  • one skein each of DIY Glow Cozy Lion Brand Yarn #LionBrandYarn, in white, pink, lilac, aqua, neon green, and neon yellow
  • size I-9 crochet hook
  • yarn needle

Terms:

  • ch – chain
  • sl st – slip stitch
  • sc – single crochet
  • scbl – single crochet in the back loop
  • sc2tog – sc two stitches together
  • dc – double crochet
  • CDCS – Chainless Double Crochet Start (I like Moogly’s method)
  • Row 1: with white ch 2, 20 dc in magic circle, sl st to first DC
  • Row 2: CDCS, dc, ch 2, *dc, dc, ch 2* repeat ** 9 more times, sl st to start (10 ch 2 spaces)
  • Row 3: Sl st to ch2 space, CDCS, dc, ch 2, 2 dc, *in next space 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc* repeat ** 9 more times, sl st to start
  • Row 4: CDCS, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), skip 2 dc, dc in next dc* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
  • Row 5: CDCS, dc in same st, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), skip 2 dc, 2 dc in next dc* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
  • Row 6: CDCS, ch 1, dc in next st, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), skip 2 dc, dc in next dc, ch 1, dc in next dc* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start
  • Row 7: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, ch 1, dc in same space, *in next space (3dc, ch 2, 3dc), in next ch 1 space, (dc, ch 1, dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (3dc, ch 2, 3dc), sl st to start
  • Row 8: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, dc, ch 1, 2dc in same space, *in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), in next ch 1 space, (2dc, ch 1, 2dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), sl st to start
  • Row 9: sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, 2dc, ch 1, 3dc in same space, *in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), in next ch 1 space, (3dc, ch 1, 3dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), sl st to start
  • Row 10: in neon green sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, dc, ch 1, 2dc in same space, *in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), in next ch 1 space, (2dc, ch 1, 2dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc), sl st to start, do not cut yarn
  • Row 11: in aqua sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, dc, ch 1, 2 dc in same space, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), in next ch 1 space, (2dc, ch 1, 2dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start, do not cut yarn
  • Row 12: in liliac sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, ch 1, dc in same space, *in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), in next ch 1 space, (dc, ch 1, dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (2dc, ch 2, 2dc), sl st to start, do not cut yarn
  • Row 13: in pink sl st to 1 ch space, CDCS, ch 1, dc in same space, *in next space (dc, ch 2, dc), in next ch 1 space, (dc, ch 1, dc)* repeat ** 8 more times, in next space (dc, ch 2, dc), sl st to start, do not cut yarn
  • Band: Don’t break yarn with color changes, pick up the floats and carry them along in the stitches. In pink ch 8, turn. 7 sc. *In lilac sc2tog, turn. 7 scbl, ch 1, turn. 7 scbl. In aqua sc2tog, turn. 7 scbl, ch 1, turn. 7 scbl. In aqua sc2tog, turn. 7 scbl, ch 1, turn. 7 scbl. In neon green sc2tog, turn. 7 scbl, ch 1, turn. 7 scbl. In pink sc2tog, turn. 7 scbl, ch 1, turn. 7 scbl. * repeat ** until beginning is reached. Stitch sides of band together, weave in ends.
  • Tentacles: In neon yellow, join yarn to the bottom of the band, chain 50. Join neon green, ch1, 3sc in each of the next 13 chains. Join aqua, 3sc in each of the next 13 chains. Join lilac, 3sc in each of the next 12 chains. Join pink, 3sc in each of the next 12 chains. Bind off, weave in end. Note: I changed the number of stitches of each color on my tentacles to give some more interest, and made one tentacle per two color stripes. Make shorter tentacles near the face.

@carynjhall @LionBrandYarn #LionBrandGlow