Stripes or not...

Moms just informed me that she purchased a table-top loom for Christmas. I am excited to be getting it, as it will allow me to further my skills in the fiber arts. I won't be ready to try a spinning wheel for quite a long time - I'll leave that to Moms.

So, will this new, soon-to-receive addition, I thought dyeing my own yarn, spun by Moms of course, would be pretty interesting. I found this tutorial, which is more for knitting and crocheting, but who's to say I couldn't use the same technique to dye yarn for weaving.

You can check out the tutorial and learn something really cool! Thanks, Eunny!

Bent Objects

I have just been introduced to the coolest art blog. Terry is very talented and his work is really witty and whimsical! He is also a bit of a kindred spirit. I am looking forward to the publication of of his book. I KNOW I will buying it.

So, please check out Bent Object Art!

Going Batty!

Well, I can't post a picture of my bats until I find the cord for my digital camera. Until then, I'll "borrow" the original image.

Here is the link to the pattern, tho, from SweaterBabe: Little Bats

I'm doing it again!

I said that I wanted to take a break from swaps, since I have so much else to do. Well, I didn't listen to myself again! I just joined another swap. It's Knit & Crochet Tastey Goodies. Fortunately, my swap partner likes minitures, Harry Potter and rainbow colors & color graduations.

I have an idea of what to do, thankfully. Now, I just need to get it done, amid the million of others things I must do!

Hogwarts Swaps!

Since both of my swap partners have received their packages, I can freely post pictures of what I sent. One swap was for Hogwarts House Pride. The other was for Weasley Household Items.

The first picture is of Arnold, Ginny's pet Pigmy Puff; Pig (Pigwidgeon), Ron's pet owl and golden snitch knitting needle point protectors. Arnold & Pig went to Astra and the point protectors to Lindsey.

The second picture is of Arnold in his home - Arnold's Abode. I gave him a water dish, a crocheted sleeping mat and a piece of crocheted celery. (The real stuff would have rotted! - Yuck!)

The third picture is a close-up of Pig.

The fourth picture is of a cauldron containing "third-eye" filled chocolate candies and Ravenclaw stitch markers. Some of the candy was "charmed" to give the eater a temporary "third-eye" in the middle of their forehead. Astra got a cauldron and candy and Lindsey got the cauldron, candy and stitch markers.

I told Astra that the cauldron was a toy cauldron used my Ron & Ginny to copy their older brothers and not harm themselves in the process.

I told Lindsey that the cauldron was travel size and could enlarge and shrink with the appropriate charm.

The last picture is a close-up of the stitch markers. They are done in Ravenclaw colors (movie blue & silver) with an eye on the middle bead. The eyes watch out for the likes of Cornish Pixies who like to unravel or knot-up works. Lindsey got the markers and point protectors because she likes to knit.

The only item I did not photograph was a 3-D snowy owl I made out of paper. I named her Astra and said she was Cedric Diggory's pet owl. Cedric is the most famous Ravenclaw, was Hogwarts original Tri-Wizard tournament champion and was killed by Peter Petegrew on the old Riddle estate.

The swaps were fun, but I'm not going to do two in one month again! I had to make these at the same time I was making the crochet tote for my sil!

Whew!

Tubular Cast-On

Casting on stitches for sleeves and the like without using waste yarn has its advantages.

You can find a simple tutorial for this at FluffBuff.

Scroll down the page and you will see a quicktime movie of this technique.

William Tell Overture - A Mom's version

This video is too funny not to share! Even being a home educator, this rings so true. And will for a very long time!

Enjoy!!!