Three firsts!

I decided to try making felted (actually fulled) coasters. They're a little distorted, but pretty good for a first try!
Another first try - my first try at needle felting! Instead of using wool roving, I used a piece of wool yarn to embellish this recently created cuff bracelet. It was a lot of fun! I look forward to embellishing more projects with needle felting!

The last first - this was my first time participating in a swap-bot swap. For this swap I had to send 20 buttons each to two different people (designated by the swap coordinator) and will receive 20 buttons each from two other people. Both of the people I sent buttons to live in the US, but the first set of buttons I received came all the way from London!

Fabulous Mail Day!

Today is a Fabulous Mail Day - yarn from an Etsy shop and a crochet pattern from my grandmother!

Hooked up

My honey hooked me up! Check out my new Costa Rican crochet hook! Dave won it for me on eBay. It was made by Arts In Crafts and came in a nice wood box with a bonus wooden ring that has a tag that says "Thank you". After waiting several weeks (it was mailed on March 1st and arrived today - I guess the Costa Rican postal service is pretty laid back), I'm pretty psyched and will have to see what I can try it out on tonight! ;o)

Coffee cozy from the Crochet Dude

I tried out a free pattern from the Crochet Dude for a coffee cozy with a flap that protects from splashes (because no matter how small the drink opening is, I always manage to splash. Here is the first one I made using his directions. It's a little frilly and the green frilly part at the top makes me think of lettuce!




Here is the second one I made, altering the directions to work with the yarn in my stash.

Some fabulous things...

I was just reading CRAFT magazine and learned about some of the most amazing things:
a knitting gang - i've always wanted to be cool like that!
a container to hold your yarns as you knit/crochet - my yarn always tries to run away and picks up pet hairs - i think i would get one of the bigger ones to use several balls of yarn at once!
a crafting picnic in NYC in June


I'm also working on setting up an Etsy shop. I don't have anything for sale yet, but you can check it out. Since I'm home for a snow day today, I've added some of the fabulous things that I like to my favorites.

What's new you ask?

It had been a while since I've posted and I feel like I haven't done much! I've been working on projects here and there. I started a new project - a wrap made of soft, alpaca blend, mauvey colored yarn - using a pattern from a Japanese yarn company, Puppy Yarn . Tonight while watching The Office (of course - it is Thursday!) I worked on the lion. I made some of his head and started working on his body. I think I've decided to make doll blankets with the woven/crocheted piece that I've started (that is orange and purple).

As of today Secret Pal 10 officially begins! I'm pretty excited as I've never participated in something like this before.

I'm also pretty excited about some mail I received today. My friend Elff sent me a package with pictures and an exhibit catalog and an article on Loom Blooms (something new for me to make with my woven squares!). Elff's pretty awesome! :)

There's rumors of a big Nor'easter that should begin tomorrow. If so, I will be crocheting, making some new fun things I've seen on CRAFT , and maybe even painting! Crazy, right?!

I guess I better go to bed just in case it doesn't snow and I have to work tomorrow! g'night!

Pouches and PDAs

So, this weekend I finished a little pouch that I was working on during the week. It is palm-sized, woven on my little loom and assembled with crochet stitches. It's big enough to hold a few lip products (of which I have many - you can never have enough!).



In an attempt to further organize myself this weekend, I also made a PDA! Also palm-sized and filled with good things! It's called the Hipster PDA or hPDA. I found it on D*I*Y Planner.