I made up a few arm bags to sell at our local craft store. I love these bags. I love having my yarn up close, and not having to draw it from a container on a table or the floor. They make it possible to stand or walk and craft as well. The wide handle lays comfortably on my forearm, there is enough room to reach into the bag while it is on my arm, and there are two pockets! Pockets are important. I make them with 100% cotton quilting quality fabric.
Arm bag on my armSome more fabric patternsA few more fabric colors
I commissioned my eldest for the drawing on the tags, as I was busy sewing. I think it came out well. These are currently sold exclusively at NerdCraft in Weatherford, TX.
I recently created a PDF pattern for a local yarn shop. It is the owner’s pattern, but they needed it taken from written shorthand to a sharable PDF. It is a cute little peachy amigurumi, and in testing the pattern, I made up 6 little peaches.
Peach amigurumi
The pattern is by Anniewhere at NerdCraft. I’m very excited about the wool yarn I used for the body of the peach, because it was locally spun and dyed by Texas Prairie Fiber Co. I love using locally produced supplies! The leaves I made from my own handspun yarn, that I spun from Blue Faced Leicester and silk blended roving dyed by Frabjous Fibers. This turned out to be quite the collaborative project.
Keychain peach amigurumi
I did make each one into a keychain by sewing on some chain and attaching a split ring. I used hand-spun alpaca scraps from a naturally brown alpaca (Aimee) to sew on the chain. So each peach has a little brown stem.
I put together a 60s themed outfit with a nod to the fiber arts. I crocheted a duster vest and flower garland, wove a band and added bell sleeves to a tie-dyed t-shirt (I did not dye the shirt, dye and I are still not on speaking terms), and assembled some felted wool ball earrings! (My mom made and gave me the felted beads.)
Bell sleeves made from t-shirt materialFelted ball earrings60s Outfit (minus bell-bottom jeans)
When I do bell sleeves next, I will make them longer and without the off-set center hole. These look great on the hanger, but were awkward when worn, except when doing jazz hands, then they worked. Since I can’t do jazz hands all the time (although that would be quite the arm workout), I picked out the seams for the added sleeves after the debut. I can see peasant blouses with woven trim and bell sleeves on my crafting horizon.
I’ve had this as a purse project for a couple weeks. I wanted to make a flower garland, and I wanted to use crochet (which is still my top choice for an easy-to-pick-up, easy-to-set-down project). I chose pearlized cotton from my stash. I was sad, but not surprised, that all the green is gone, but the multicolored blue did a fine job for the leaves.
Crochet flower garland in process at my favorite coffee shop
I started by making the flowers with white thread. These are made with five petals crocheted into a magic circle, each petal is a chain 2, double crochet into the circle, chain 1, slip stitch into the top of the double crochet, chain 2, slip stitch into the circle. I made subsequent flowers along the thread because I didn’t want loose bits floating around my purse. When it came time to crochet the vine and leaves, I would clip off a flower and add between leaves (which are similarly constructed to the flower). I neatened up the white threads ends later by weaving them in and clipping.
Long strands with flower bobs enjoy getting tangled. I didn’t have an extra bobbin, so I tore off a side of a tissue box, rolled it into a tube and tucked in the ends. This allowed me to wrap the ornery lengths around it to keep them neat, and the tube served as a holder for the 1.00 mm crochet hook I was using. Not pretty, but effective.
Finished garland
For the final flower, I joined in the start of the chain to make a continuous loop. Now the garland can be doubled and used as a head band, or looped and worn as a necklace.
I obtained a crochet pattern for a vest published in 1969 and decided I needed a duster version for an upcoming chorus show that is featuring 60s songs. I had some fingering weight cotton in my stash and I doubled it, combining three different blue colors with two different grays to get a fade on the garment.
Crocheted duster vest
It was a very easy pattern, just chains of 5 joining the previous row made of chains of 5 with a single crochet. I aimed to make it mid-calf length, but the net pattern now stretches nearly to the floor! It crocheted up fairly quick as well, because it is comprised mostly of air, which also makes it not hot to wear. Yay for netting.
Critters and Craft 