World of Warcraft Handwarmers

Yes, we have joined the 10+ million people in the world who play World of Warcraft. If you don't know what that is, it's a massive multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. A huge shared world environment you adventure in with your avatar.

To keep my son's hands warm this winter while he plays online, I made him this cool pair of handwarmers. His fingers are free to keyboard, but his hands stay toasty! I love the color shifting in this yarn. The yarn is half wool and half acrylic so the finished handwarmers are both warm and washer friendly. My Ravely page for the handwarmers with all the knitty details is here.

If you think Warcraft sounds fun, you can play free to level 20, and they are having an awesome sale right now .... $5 for the game and first expansion, with the other expansions at rock bottom prices!

Book Review: "Interweave Crochet Accessories 2011"

Next up in holiday knit and crochet magazine reviews is the "Interweave Crochet Accessories 2011".

As an avid crocheter, I have been drooling for this to be released. Bought it without even peeking inside and settled down happily at home with some tea ready for some crochet bliss. Well....should have peeked. All I can say is, "What happened??" I have been noticing the 70's trending becoming more and more prominent in "Crochet Today", and it is certainly present here. In spades. All those bad 1970's acrylic crocheted toilet paper covers, lamp shades and granny square afghans in lurid colors are the reason it took crochet such a long time to stage a comeback. Let's not bring back that reputation. When you look at all the smart, gorgeous modern crochet patterns promoted in places like Stitch Diva Studios and Russian crochet periodicals,and by designers like Robyn Chachula in her Blueprint books, this issue is a real missed opportunity.

There are a few cute things in here, like the children's hats, but on the whole it made my eyes hurt. DayGlo primary orange, red, blue and yellow seemed to be the colors designers were urged to use. Many, many designs were of the repetitive "one simple motif" kind. The type of projects beginning crocheters start out with. It's true gift items need to be speedy to be finished in time for the holidays, but simplicity never seems to be a factor in similarly themed knitting magazines. Only crochet seems to be perpetually for beginners in the marketing overmind.

Bottom Line? Skip it. Live in the new Millennium.

Book Review: "Jane Austin Knits 2011"

Well, I've been super busy for weeks knitting and crocheting holiday gifts. Can't show any of those though or the recipients might see them! So, I thought I'd do a few posts on holiday knit and crochet publications.

First up, "Jane Austin Knits 2011". I spied this on a special display stand at my local Barnes and Noble and snapped it up. It's brilliant. At $14.99 it wasn't cheap, but well worth the money. 35 knitted projects inspired by Jane Austin's narratives. Plus a sprinkling of articles, which are not just fluff filler as is so often the case in these special publication, but rather interesting pieces on Regency fashion, knitting, and Jane Austin style.

The patterns are separated into four themed sections: "Country", "Manor", "Garden", and "Town", and gorgeously photographed. Here's a shot of what's included (click to enlarge):

This is a really nicely edited selection of patterns. Often times, there will be one or two good projects in a magazine and a few ho-hums, but there isn't a bad one in the bunch here. Great mix of types of items to make and skill levels.

Bottom Line? Good buy. Within minutes of cracking open the first page you'll find yourself popping in a Pride & Prejudice DVD, the first of what will be a Jane Austin movie marathon, putting the kettle on for a cup of hot tea, and picking up a knitting project to work on. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon :)

P.S. Looks like a "Jane Austin Knits 2012" is in the works, so head on over to janeaustinknits.com for their call for entries if you're a designer, writer or Regency-era historian.

The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Not so long ago I wrote a post about "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams", a 3D documentary film by Werner Herzog about the Chauvet Cave in southern France.

I am happy to announce that it is now available via Netflix as both a DVD and instant streamable!

Cheery Flowers & Purple Lace

I have been super sick with a nasty lung infection these past 6 weeks. It started as the flu and went deep into my lung. So .... there hasn't been a whole lot of creative crafting here lately. I can now drive about town without coughing up a lung (lol) and on my first grocery trip went out to buy some cheery flowers for the house. I love having fresh flowers around the house. I remember it was a very liberating moment when I was young, to realize that I didn't have to wait for someone to buy me flowers .... I could buy them myself anytime I wanted! So, now I always splurge on a bouquet of colorful flowers when a little bit of cheer is needed around the house.

I also was on the mend enough to squeak in one quick project, this lilac lace bowl.

This is stiffened to hold its shape with hot liquid sugar. I worry about bugs and heat using the sugar, although I haven't had any problems to date. Maybe I'll try starch or some plasticizing art compound next time, if I make another. I shaped this one over the back of my mixing bowl, but you can really shape the lace over anything and make all kinds of intriguing shapes. Just remember to line your object with clingwrap first if it can't be washed later - the sugar is very sticky and dribbles all over!

Still sick and coughing, but much improved and hopefully getting better and better every day now!

Summer Lace Shawl: Finished!

Hurrah! My first lace-weight shawl is finished! Looking forward to summer nights sitting on the porch, ice tea with lemon slice in hand, wearing this gorgeous shawl instead of working on it :)

Wish I had a more glamorous backdrop than my garage door to photograph it against, but you work with what you have. I had a deadline to get a picture of this posted for an online class and this was the only place with bright enough, indirect light at photography time.

I do admit to not being thrilled with this while working on it, but its nature changed completely upon severe blocking and it morphed into quite a beautiful shawl. Very instructive project on the nature of lace weight yarn in garments.

Going out for a celebratory lunch today to mark the successful completion of this big project. There are more than 1300 yds of spider-silk thin yarn in this!!! I will, of course, be wearing my new shawl to lunch.

Here's the link to a prior post on this shawl if you're interested in making one of your own.

Chemisty Professor Cats and Puns!

I ran across this at I Can Has Cheezeburger this morning while I was checking my email and sipping my fresh-from-my-garden mint leaf tea and just HAD to share. This combo of cats, chemistry, and bad punning is awesome!

In other news, I've been working diligently on my lace weight shawl. I'll be ready to block it tomorrow or the day after. I'm going to block it outside because with this summer heat it should dry in just a few hours. I can't wait to see what it looks like after. Pictures coming soon!

Stainless Steel and Silver Kimono

"Miya Ando has hand-soldered over 4000 sterling silver rings and stainless steel plates to make a ‘Furisode‘ (long sleeve) kimono".
Photo and quote from Spoon and Tamago

I. Love. This. Not as much as I love the Mutant Bunnies, but I do have a nice large blank wall this would look awesome on! Although I'm not sure it could handle the weight...it must be pretty heavy?

Could Be a Great Crochet Book!

Look at what I just saw over at Amazon for pre-order! Austentatious Crochet: 32 Contemporary Designs from the World of Jane Austen.

Looks like it has the potential to be a very yummy crochet book!

First Lace-Weight Shawl

I'v been busy on the crochet front working my first lace-weight yarn shawl. This stuff is like working with a thick spiderweb! Very delicate. I'm doing the Midsummer Twilight Shawl from Interweave Crochet.

This is the first time I have used Knit Picks yarn, a popular mail-order yarn company. It's not great for ordering a ball or two, because of the shipping costs, but if you meet the minimum for free shipping, it's a good deal. I also ordered my first pair of 16" circular knitting needles from them in that beautiful Harmony Wood product line. I've also heard good things about Jimmy Beans Wool as an on-line supplier, although I haven't tried them yet.

I'm about 60% of the way done with the shawl. To be honest, it doesn't really look like much right now, but I've heard that the magic of lace-weight is in the blocking where the yarn relaxes and opens up and the shawl changes completely. I've finished all the main shawl repeats and am ready to start the wide edging section. I can't wait to block it and see the magic happen!

Cute Kid Gift Tags

I can't believe I forgot something really important in my last post! The gift tags!

Since discovering all the wonderful gift tags that talented indie designers generously make available as free online downloads/printables, I have never again bought a mass-market store product. The gift tags I used on my children's end-of-year teacher thank you gifts were these super cute blank tags from The Small Object. I love how they feature little kids .. just perfect!

I have assembled a list of downloadable/printable holiday gifts tags that I love, but these cuties I found on this fabulous gift tag compilation site at Living Life As Art. It not only covers holiday themed tags, but a whole bunch of all-occasion tags too. The great thing about this site is that it shows images of the all gift cards, so you don't have to click through each link to see what they look like. It is image intensive and the page takes a while to load .. but it's worth it!

Happy Teacher Washcloths & Soap

My little munchkins discovered my old soap making supplies and decided they wanted to make handcrafted soap for their end-of-year teacher thank you gifts. So the kitchen transformed into Soap Central and we had a glorious day making soap together!

They had been Mommy's soap helpers when they were much younger. Now that they were older, they were able to do almost all the steps themselves from designing and mixing, to choosing additives, pouring and unmolding. They came up with the most awesome soaps! They made:

1) chocolate expresso soap (with real chocolate!!)
2) pink plumeria flower soap
3) ginger-lime nebula soap
4) rise and shine calendula flower soap
5) green tea relaxing soap
6) french lavender soap

They worked so hard making soap, I decided to crochet some custom 100% cotton washcloths to go with them. I did two for each teacher, some with crab stitch edging and some with a more delicate, feminine, ruffled edging.

I love this shot of the washcloths. It's so hard to make washcloths look interesting in photos, but I love how they look here. Like colorful cakes with white frosting.

This yarn was multi-colored and the patterns the colors made as work progressed were very interesting! Like abstract works of art.

Mom helped wrap everything up and off the gift bags went to school. My boys were very proud of their creations and thought that making soap for their beloved teachers was a most special gift! I hope their teachers enjoy these gifts made with love!