Whorld domination

I’m obsessed.

It’s a lot like pizza in a way–even badly made yarn is knit-able, which means it’s good yarn. Instant gratification.

This is a good thing because I’m definitely a novice at using a drop spindle. Earlier this week I finished spinning a bunch of blended silk and merino wool roving that I got at Yarns, etc.  I could barely wait for it to dry after the final rinse to help the fibers bind together, so I literally brought the skein to work with me and sat it on my lap so it would dry faster!

Then I wound it all up and it became my stress ball for the day.

Yarn, beautiful yaaaaaaaaaaaaaarn

Now I’m knitting it all up into a pair of finger-less gloves in preparation for the coming winter. Which thankfully isn’t here yet, so I started working on the gloves while sitting in the middle of a rose garden, lucky me!

Beautiful surroundings while I continued crafting.

While the gloves are being completed I still want to practice spinning…so I went to the store and came back with a MASSIVE bag of wool. So, to fund my growing hobby, I’m selling what I make!

Next on my to-do list: whorld domination, otherwise known as plying.

Pierre, the holiday cheer octopus

I’d forgotten all about this little guy!

Decorating the tree is a super-fun tradition in my family. All of the kids have their own box of ornaments collected over the years through personal creation, or (most often) from Mom, who has a deep and abiding love of finding neat little things and gifting them to folks.

In addition to our own personal collections of ornaments, the sisters (younger, me, and older) each have an angel topper while younger brother has a nutcracker. None were to be found this year 😦

The tree was left looking a little sad and empty up top, so I decided to make a topper to fill in for the time being, and this was the result. Mom claimed possession of him since she didn’t previously have her own. Only a mother could love such a face, right?!

The purse is cursed

Before it all went wrong…

I measured everything in triplicate, created an actual pattern piece instead of free-handing the design and the damn thing still turned out cattywampus.

Completed 🙂

To summarize: one side is longer than the other, the inner lining is noticeably smaller than the outside, and stitching can be seen where it oughtn’t on the inside clasp attachment. All we need is an outraged gentleman with a cracked monocle and a terrible first date type situation to round things out…

On the bright side, it does actually fit a credit card and/or ID, keys, and (barely) a tube of chap-stick.  Since it’s adorable, and can in fact serve its stated purpose, I’m gifting it to my awesome older sister.

I think the main culprit for any sizing issues can be linked to the material used for the outside of the purse–it’s surprisingly heavy duty and thick, and I neglected to iron down the seams after turning it right side out.

In general, I am opposed to ironing. And dry cleaning. Well, and most household chores, but it is in fact possible to have an entire wardrobe full of items that don’t require the aforementioned hated activities. (I regularly do laundry, if inquiring minds were wondering).

Aside from any lingering frustration over its imperfections, this was a fun piece to work on, and it was inexpensive too.  I bought the metal clasp at Jo-Ann’s Fabric store for two bucks and change, and the outer fabric was a gift. I’ve got about two yards of the gorgeous red and blue patterned cloth left so I’ll either be making a skirt, or practicing my purse making skills some more. Or making a fifties styled apron. Oh, the possibilities!

V is for Vodka!

Or Valentine’s Day, if you’ve got to be that way. It’s all good! Granted, there’s commercialism, weird expectations within relationships and too much pink floating around, but on the other hand there are cute gift ideas, great music and tomorrow there’ll be sales on chocolate. YAY!

I made a tribute piece in honor of the day–

There’s plenty of fish in the sea, right? Be careful out there!

Browsing Etsy when they’re doing promos for holidays is so much fun. You never know what you’ll find! Today’s winner is this Dita Von Teese prayer candle. You know, if you’re worried that tonight’s burlesque routine won’t be received well. Ahem.  Haven’t found the perfect mood music? I’m loving Butterfly Boucher’s “Life is short”.

Just remember, even if your Valentine’s Day extravaganza isn’t perfect, you can hardly do worse than the person who gifted this little gem to his lady love back in the early 1900s.

“For The New Woman! With St. Valentine’s Heartiest Greetings and Best Hopes that she will receive another (moustache) – With A Man Attached.” Courtesy of York Castle Museum /PA Wire

I’ve got ninety-nine…

…things that I need to remember to be thankful for. When upheaval strikes, it’s hard not to hunker down and go into survival mode. That usually involves eating peanut butter straight out of the jar, copious amounts of tea, and a phone call to various and sundry family members. And some Disney movies.

Then I paste on my stiff upper lip, move on, and get down to business.

It’s a tried and true process that works pretty darn well, but at this point I’m trying to cultivate a state of thankfulness that acts as deterrent to all those ‘the sky is falling’ type thoughts. Writing lists of things to be thankful for sounded boring and pointless (what do you do with them afterwords? Make a paper airplane?) so I’m embroidering them instead.

It’s an abbreviated form of meditation created in movement—as long as my thread doesn’t snarl at any rate.  We’ll see how long it takes to fill my hoop with thankfulness 🙂

My thankfulness project