Didn't get to the denim tote like I had hoped - Ben's friends came earlier than I expected, & he had two instead of one - making a total of 6 rowdy boys in our little house on the prairies! Couldn't get much done, much less get any quiet around here, but that's ok - a good time was had by all :)
Just before they left, I found out that my VOIP service was cancelled, leaving me wiht no phone. Apparently the major phone company, Sasktel, has eliminated all competition in the province in the land line biz by making it mandatory that all phone lines are routed through them & anybody leasing their phone numbers for resale (as a VOIP company would have to do), now has to use Sasktel's infrastructure too. This jacked up the prices for the VOIP & other companies like it, effectively making it impossible for them to compete, and Sasktel has completely monopolized this service. I'm pretty sure that this is illegal on Sasktel's part, but it's likely they'll get away with it - they have the money & power to win any lawsuits against them - not to mention that they are a Crown Corporation (owned by the government, but still run like a private business), which in Canada means that they are virtually above the law. Shame on you Sasktel - shame! :(
So I need to go pester my neighbours to borrow their phone & call my DH at work to see if he wants to go with Skype & have the hassle of our phone number being long distance to all our friends. Or break down & be owned by Goliath. Anyone know a David? Think I'll be getting a lot of stress relief crocheting done this week .
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tatting, Tatting, Tatting....
Finished my cro-tat edging last night - er, I guess at 3 am it is technically early in the morning...
Today I'm going to piece together the recycled denim tote (or at least try) from a Quick Sew pattern that I picked up at the local thrift store for $0.25 last week. I already have 5 canvas totes around the house that I use for holding various needlework projects & 2 that I use for groceries, but the canvas is just not holding up well on any of them anymore. Figured rather than buy some more generic bags (that "have no soul", as my friend Roy would say), that I would give it a go & make some of my own. Having a monstrous pile of knee-blown jeans taking up space in the house is a pretty good motivator too!
I'm thinking that I might also make some flower or heart motifs to applique onto the totes too, or maybe even try my hand at a quilt patch - not really sure. Sometimes it's best to let the project "speak to you" as you go along making it. I've found that some of my best creations have come about that way.
After I finished up the cro-tatted piece, I stayed up even later to give a try at shuttle tatting again. I had done it for a little while years ago, when Deb was just a baby, but didn't have access to hardly any patterns then, so I didn't keep with it for very long. I still don't have a proper shuttle around the house (yet), but I'm pretty good at improvising - I found that all my sons have lots of great shuttle repacements in the form of Knex building pieces :)
Being overly abitious, I started with a size 30 tatting thread. It was a bad idea, as I was too tired to see the stitches properly & couldn 't figure out why I couldn't pull on the shuttle thread to close the loop - wasting a lot of good thread in the process of knotting everything up. Decided to go to good ol' size 10 & see if I could make a better go of it. Same problem - I couldn't close the loop. Picked up the instructions again, looking for a clue - ohhh, I was making the stitches with the shuttle thread rather than on the shuttle thread! This happens when you pull the shuttle thread taute, but failt to relax the loop wrapped around your other hand. Trying again, I finally could close my loop - yay! Now that I've got shuttle tatting figured out again, I'll have another hobby to take up space, Bwahahah!
Today I'm going to piece together the recycled denim tote (or at least try) from a Quick Sew pattern that I picked up at the local thrift store for $0.25 last week. I already have 5 canvas totes around the house that I use for holding various needlework projects & 2 that I use for groceries, but the canvas is just not holding up well on any of them anymore. Figured rather than buy some more generic bags (that "have no soul", as my friend Roy would say), that I would give it a go & make some of my own. Having a monstrous pile of knee-blown jeans taking up space in the house is a pretty good motivator too!
I'm thinking that I might also make some flower or heart motifs to applique onto the totes too, or maybe even try my hand at a quilt patch - not really sure. Sometimes it's best to let the project "speak to you" as you go along making it. I've found that some of my best creations have come about that way.
After I finished up the cro-tatted piece, I stayed up even later to give a try at shuttle tatting again. I had done it for a little while years ago, when Deb was just a baby, but didn't have access to hardly any patterns then, so I didn't keep with it for very long. I still don't have a proper shuttle around the house (yet), but I'm pretty good at improvising - I found that all my sons have lots of great shuttle repacements in the form of Knex building pieces :)
Being overly abitious, I started with a size 30 tatting thread. It was a bad idea, as I was too tired to see the stitches properly & couldn 't figure out why I couldn't pull on the shuttle thread to close the loop - wasting a lot of good thread in the process of knotting everything up. Decided to go to good ol' size 10 & see if I could make a better go of it. Same problem - I couldn't close the loop. Picked up the instructions again, looking for a clue - ohhh, I was making the stitches with the shuttle thread rather than on the shuttle thread! This happens when you pull the shuttle thread taute, but failt to relax the loop wrapped around your other hand. Trying again, I finally could close my loop - yay! Now that I've got shuttle tatting figured out again, I'll have another hobby to take up space, Bwahahah!
Monday, August 17, 2009
So Much for Rain & Finishing Projects
I had almost completely forgotten that today the town was having all the pipes flushed - so no water would be available here - a real pain when you have a family of 8 and a mountain of laundry to do! So instead of finishing my cro-tatted edging yesterday after Brianna left, I spent rest of the day doing 6 loads of laundry.
Normally I do one load a day & that keeps me on top of things, but I had been busy getting my paperwork in order for the coming home school year & fighting several computer related problems in the midst of it all, so I had let it slide. At least for my reward I had a nice & toasty comforter to snuggle under when I went to bed - I love that straight from the dryer warmth - especially when the temp took a dive to 5ยบ Celsius last night.
Then I woke up today to find that my youngest son had gotten into my cro-tat project - Wahhhhhh!!! Thankfully it wasn't tangled beyond repair, but he had it frogged back to nearly the beginning :( Guess I know what I'll be working on tonight when all the children are in bed. At least I found a great item today at the local thrift shop to help me keep my thread organized while I'm working on my project - a metal paper towel holder. It can hold two of the large balls of thread on it or up to 8 of the really small balls - very handy.
My day got even better when Rachel came home from checking the mail - with a package for me.
"It's from China?" she sounded a little confused, as usually anything from China is computer equipment that goes to Dad. But I already knew what was in it - the set of 20 circular bamboo knitting needles that I bought on Ebay. Oh happy day!!!!! A few months ago I learned how to knit in the round on two circular needles from Cat Bordhi's great youtube tutorials (see the first one below), and have learned to love making socks again. Now that I have my bamboo set, I'm going to be working like a maniac to get at least two pairs done for the whole family by winter. I'm stoked just thinking about it :) Off I go to find some yummy yarn to work with tonight.
Normally I do one load a day & that keeps me on top of things, but I had been busy getting my paperwork in order for the coming home school year & fighting several computer related problems in the midst of it all, so I had let it slide. At least for my reward I had a nice & toasty comforter to snuggle under when I went to bed - I love that straight from the dryer warmth - especially when the temp took a dive to 5ยบ Celsius last night.
Then I woke up today to find that my youngest son had gotten into my cro-tat project - Wahhhhhh!!! Thankfully it wasn't tangled beyond repair, but he had it frogged back to nearly the beginning :( Guess I know what I'll be working on tonight when all the children are in bed. At least I found a great item today at the local thrift shop to help me keep my thread organized while I'm working on my project - a metal paper towel holder. It can hold two of the large balls of thread on it or up to 8 of the really small balls - very handy.
My day got even better when Rachel came home from checking the mail - with a package for me.
"It's from China?" she sounded a little confused, as usually anything from China is computer equipment that goes to Dad. But I already knew what was in it - the set of 20 circular bamboo knitting needles that I bought on Ebay. Oh happy day!!!!! A few months ago I learned how to knit in the round on two circular needles from Cat Bordhi's great youtube tutorials (see the first one below), and have learned to love making socks again. Now that I have my bamboo set, I'm going to be working like a maniac to get at least two pairs done for the whole family by winter. I'm stoked just thinking about it :) Off I go to find some yummy yarn to work with tonight.
Knitting Pledge After-Effects
My DD Deborah had a friend over this past Sunday afternoon, Brianna. The original plan was to bake a large batch of sugar cookies, but I had no butter or margarine in the house, and our small town doesn't have a store open on Sundays. While thinking of something else to do, Deb showed Brianna the knitted scarf that she has been working on. I asked Brianna if she knits (no, but she crochets, so I asked if she wanted to learn (Yes!). You can be sure that I was more than happy to teach her right then & there :)
We were all sitting in the living room: Deb, her friend Brianna, my other DD Rachel and me - all of us knitting & crocheting away quite happily. Then, Deb pipes up & tells me that she has been teaching the two older boys from the Kerr family how to crochet. I told her that it was great that she was doing that & as Deb didn't say anything else, I didn't think much more of it.
Soon Brianna's mom came to take her home & she eagerly showed off the beginnings of the dishcloth she was making. Mom thought it was great, gave a thoughtful look, then asked me if I knew how to join afghan squares together. Apparently Brianna, mom & a few of her siblings had crocheted some squares to make an afghan, but having done them without a pattern, were clueless about how to assemble it. Again, I was more than happy to offer my services :) Next thing I knew, Deb is piping up again that, "We should have a kind of knitting & crochet bee. Then we could have your family & the Kerrs & us get together & work on projects together!"
I'm so glad that I took the knitting & crochet pledge a few months ago - it looks like it is having a ripple affect through the neigbourhood now - Long live the Needle Arts!
We were all sitting in the living room: Deb, her friend Brianna, my other DD Rachel and me - all of us knitting & crocheting away quite happily. Then, Deb pipes up & tells me that she has been teaching the two older boys from the Kerr family how to crochet. I told her that it was great that she was doing that & as Deb didn't say anything else, I didn't think much more of it.
Soon Brianna's mom came to take her home & she eagerly showed off the beginnings of the dishcloth she was making. Mom thought it was great, gave a thoughtful look, then asked me if I knew how to join afghan squares together. Apparently Brianna, mom & a few of her siblings had crocheted some squares to make an afghan, but having done them without a pattern, were clueless about how to assemble it. Again, I was more than happy to offer my services :) Next thing I knew, Deb is piping up again that, "We should have a kind of knitting & crochet bee. Then we could have your family & the Kerrs & us get together & work on projects together!"
I'm so glad that I took the knitting & crochet pledge a few months ago - it looks like it is having a ripple affect through the neigbourhood now - Long live the Needle Arts!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
On to other things & Cro-tatting
The contest still didn't turn out as well as I had hoped for - I only had one entrant & hundreds of spam messages. Phooey! I'm thinking that I'd be better off doing a contest in winter, when people are cocooning at home & more likely to be checking out other blogs that they don't normally go to.
I've also realized that I'm a terrible blogger - I've had this blog for nearly a year, and I've only made 22 posts - including this one. My friend Kelly, at Crazy Dog Farm , has only been blogging for 3 weeks & has already made 17 posts. I have post envy!
So it's time to get on with it and start making some posts!
Recently I've picked up cro-tatting again. In case you've never heard of it before, cro-tatting is a way of making lace that looks like tatting, but using a special elongated crochet hook instead. A really good site to learn the basics of cro-tatting from is MaryM's. Besides having a great tutorial here, she also has a lot of sweet & wonderful original cro-tat patterns. The clincher is though, that it is very difficult to find other cro-tatting patterns. Annie's Attic no longer carries cro-tatting books, and they were really the ones to set the trend. Of course, you can still find some pattern booklets available on Ebay, but if you're like me, you can never have too many patterns, so what to do, what to do?
With a little bit of experimenting , you'll find that you can convert most shuttle tatting patterns to cro-tatting - it just takes a little bit of a work around. Where in shuttle tatting you can just make a tatted chain, with cro-tat you will have to make some chain stitches & then go back over the chain with enough single crochets to match the amount in the pattern. At times this may require that you make your rings first, then do a second row/round to make your cro-tat chains.
This week, I'll be working on some patterns from an Annie's Attic book called Charming Boudoir, My first project is going to be the towel edging, which I'm going to do in a dark pink. I'm thinking that I'm going to sew it on as an edging onto an upcycled denim tote that I'm going to be making. My scanner has been giving me grief again, so I'll have to ask my daughter, Deborah, if she'll take some pics when it is done. If the summer weather stays as cruddy as it has been, that should be tomorrow!
I've also realized that I'm a terrible blogger - I've had this blog for nearly a year, and I've only made 22 posts - including this one. My friend Kelly, at Crazy Dog Farm , has only been blogging for 3 weeks & has already made 17 posts. I have post envy!
So it's time to get on with it and start making some posts!
Recently I've picked up cro-tatting again. In case you've never heard of it before, cro-tatting is a way of making lace that looks like tatting, but using a special elongated crochet hook instead. A really good site to learn the basics of cro-tatting from is MaryM's. Besides having a great tutorial here, she also has a lot of sweet & wonderful original cro-tat patterns. The clincher is though, that it is very difficult to find other cro-tatting patterns. Annie's Attic no longer carries cro-tatting books, and they were really the ones to set the trend. Of course, you can still find some pattern booklets available on Ebay, but if you're like me, you can never have too many patterns, so what to do, what to do?
With a little bit of experimenting , you'll find that you can convert most shuttle tatting patterns to cro-tatting - it just takes a little bit of a work around. Where in shuttle tatting you can just make a tatted chain, with cro-tat you will have to make some chain stitches & then go back over the chain with enough single crochets to match the amount in the pattern. At times this may require that you make your rings first, then do a second row/round to make your cro-tat chains.
This week, I'll be working on some patterns from an Annie's Attic book called Charming Boudoir, My first project is going to be the towel edging, which I'm going to do in a dark pink. I'm thinking that I'm going to sew it on as an edging onto an upcycled denim tote that I'm going to be making. My scanner has been giving me grief again, so I'll have to ask my daughter, Deborah, if she'll take some pics when it is done. If the summer weather stays as cruddy as it has been, that should be tomorrow!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Contest Extension - New Date, July 31st
Well, I guess I either didn't do things right, or I didn't do things right with my contest - I didn't even get one person respond to it with an entry. I checked to make sure that my email address on my profile page is working. Since that wasn't the problem, I'm going to guess that the two main reasons were that
1) I didn't leave enough time for people to enter
2) I just didn't "plug" my contest enough or in the right places.
If that weren't trouble enough, my ISP had a major service shutdown over the last 10 days, due to something wrong going on with their wireless tower. As I'm located in a rural village, you can be sure that it took forever to get a repairman out to fix things. Needless to say, I was a little bit upset!
So, I'm going to give the contest another go & see if I can entice you all a bit more :) They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some pics of what you would win:
Learn To Crochet Quickly & Easily
If you've always wanted to learn how to crochet, then you'll find this informative manual to be right up your alley
Quick Tricks In Crochet
1) I didn't leave enough time for people to enter
2) I just didn't "plug" my contest enough or in the right places.
If that weren't trouble enough, my ISP had a major service shutdown over the last 10 days, due to something wrong going on with their wireless tower. As I'm located in a rural village, you can be sure that it took forever to get a repairman out to fix things. Needless to say, I was a little bit upset!
So, I'm going to give the contest another go & see if I can entice you all a bit more :) They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some pics of what you would win:
Learn To Crochet Quickly & Easily
Learn To Knit & Crochet
A good beginner's guide to get started on your knitting journey. Note from me: It has crochet too, though the instructions for crochet are not as good as in the Learn To Crochet Book above (IMHO)Quick Tricks In CrochetConsists of 30 vintage crochet patterns that are in the public domain. These projects make great gifts for loved ones and great selling items at your next craft show or bazaar.
Irish Crochet & How To Make It
Updated format of Priscilla Irish Crochet Book No. 1, published in 1912. This book is in the public domain, but it is very rare to find an original copy of it in good condition for less than $60. Instructions are so easy to understand that anyone can master these techniques, even if they have never crocheted a single stitch!
The Art of Manufacturing Soaps & Candles
The Art of Manufacturing Soaps & Candles
This book is a digitally remastered version of a soap & candle making book from the 1850's. This book is in the public domain, but it is very rare to find an original copy of it in good condition for less than $80. Learn about the history of soap and candle making, view illustrations of the top machines used in the late 1800's for making homemade soaps and candles, and relive a part of history as you read information shared by some of the leading soap and candle manufacturing experts of the mid 1800's!
504 Bath And Beauty Recipes
504 Bath And Beauty Recipes
Make unique homemade bath & beauty products for yourself or for others! What a money-saver for your next gift-giving occasion. Whip up some of these recipes, put them into decorated jars and voila! You have an awesome, thoughtful gift! You could even start your own homemade bath products business! There's soaps, hand creams, bath salts, lotions, fizzies, scrubs, masks, massage oils, facials, powders and more! This e-book includes 198 pages/504 relaxing bath and beauty recipes.
Profitable Craft Series (5 ebooks in all)
Volume one covers pricing your products for maximum profits, and how to stock your booths for maximum sales.
Volume two covers selling your products on consignment and the proper way to submit your products for publications in magazines.
Volume three covers designing your own products, and discusses techniques you can use with any type of craft from crochet to scrapbooks.
Volume four covers catalog creation and sales, as well as the proper way to recruit others to sell your items for you so that you can create, while they do the selling.
Volume five covers many different aspects of labeling and packaging your products attractively. Making sure your completed products are pleasing to look upon is one important factor that most overlook although it's one that should never be ignored.
Turning Their Trash Into Your Profits
475 Gift Basket Ideas
Fun Craft Projects - has a lot of general crafts for all ages
Scoobidou® Mega Guide - crafts you can make with the plastic lacing that is popular with Girl Guides & Boy Scouts
The Complete Guide to Wood Finishing
101 Scrapbooking Tips
Scrapbook Pro
30 Lip Balm Recipes
How To Make Your Own Perfume
I think you'll find that these e-books provide a great foundation for starting up a home-based business, or an endless stream of gift-giving ideas that are sure to please anybody on your list!
And if that's not all, I'm giving you some bonus patterns & recipes that aren't mentioned in this giveaway, so this compilation is sure to please you too!
I hope that I've enticed you enough to take a chance to win - just follow the directions from the previous post on how to enter the Mega Craft Collection Giveaway, substituting the new closing date of July 31st, with the drawing for the CDs being made on August 2nd. Please be sure to let any friends that you know who might be interested in winning one of these CDs, so that they can have a chance to win too!
Thanks for looking :)
Profitable Craft Series (5 ebooks in all)Volume two covers selling your products on consignment and the proper way to submit your products for publications in magazines.
Volume three covers designing your own products, and discusses techniques you can use with any type of craft from crochet to scrapbooks.
Volume four covers catalog creation and sales, as well as the proper way to recruit others to sell your items for you so that you can create, while they do the selling.
Volume five covers many different aspects of labeling and packaging your products attractively. Making sure your completed products are pleasing to look upon is one important factor that most overlook although it's one that should never be ignored.
Turning Their Trash Into Your Profits
Even if you are not into making arts and crafts, you can still profit in this market and this special report shows you how!
If you can"t paint, sew, crochet, knit or cross-stitch, that's perfectly ok, you can still make money by selling original handcrafted arts and crafts related items without sewing a single stitch or painting a single brush stroke.
475 Gift Basket Ideas
Store-bought Gift Baskets cost an average of $40. And your family and friends may not be entirely satisfied with what they get. With the detailed ideas in this e-book, you will be able to make your own customized gift baskets for your family and friends for as low as $5!! This ebook features tons of gift ideas spread over 105 pages. Included are ideas with detailed instructions and supplies lists for making your own gift baskets for every person on your gift list. Also included are 'Survival Kits' with witty sayings for each item that goes in the kit, ideas for Holiday Poops, Just for Fun gifts, Gift Basket making tips, Candy Gram gifts etc.
You also get the following e-book titles:
Fun Craft Projects - has a lot of general crafts for all ages
Scoobidou® Mega Guide - crafts you can make with the plastic lacing that is popular with Girl Guides & Boy Scouts
The Complete Guide to Wood Finishing
101 Scrapbooking Tips
Scrapbook Pro
30 Lip Balm Recipes
How To Make Your Own Perfume
I think you'll find that these e-books provide a great foundation for starting up a home-based business, or an endless stream of gift-giving ideas that are sure to please anybody on your list!
And if that's not all, I'm giving you some bonus patterns & recipes that aren't mentioned in this giveaway, so this compilation is sure to please you too!
I hope that I've enticed you enough to take a chance to win - just follow the directions from the previous post on how to enter the Mega Craft Collection Giveaway, substituting the new closing date of July 31st, with the drawing for the CDs being made on August 2nd. Please be sure to let any friends that you know who might be interested in winning one of these CDs, so that they can have a chance to win too!
Thanks for looking :)
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Mega Craft Collection CD Giveaway
As promised, here's the contest to celebrate my first 100 followers on Twitter!
I'm going to giveaway 5 of my Mega Craft Collection CDs. On each CD is a compilation of craft ebooks that I have bought the resale rights to over the past 3 years - There are about 25+ ebooks in all. Some of the topics are crochet, knitting, scrap booking, wood finishing, kids crafts, soap & candle making, gift basket ideas and how to start up a profitable craft business.
I've also thrown in some extra patterns from the public domain & of my own design (these will be crochet, knitting & cross stitch patterns, as my focus here is on needlework). All of the ebooks & patterns are in PDF format, so you can read them on both Windows & Mac operating systems.
This CD is easily a $20 value - and you can have one of 5 that I'm giving away for FREE if you enter my contest - and when I say free, that means that you are not signing up for a newsletter, I'm not collecting your email to spam you, and I pay the shipping to send it to you. Pretty good deal, eh?
So here's how you enter:
Send an email to me by clicking on my profile, then on the email link.
Put "Mega Craft Collection CD Giveaway" in the subject line.
Tell me what the biggest craft item you ever made was - do try to keep it short though, as I'm just making you do this to reduce spammers & have fun - I'm not grading your story composition :)
Be sure to leave an email address in the body of the message where I can reach you if you win - I'd sure be sad for you to have to forfeit your prize because you didn't get my email or it bounced back.
All entries will be put on a slip of scrap paper, thrown into my black eco-friendly grocery bag & drawn at random by my children. The contest opens today, Wednesday, June 17th, and closes at midnight (in my timezone - CST) on June 27th. The draw will take place sometime on June 28th, winners will be sent their first notice that day.
Privacy Policy: I will collect your emails only for the purpose of this contest - I will not give or sell your information to anybody else, & I won't keep your emails on file after the contest ends either - I only need them to notify the winners.
All the best to all participants, & happy crafting! :)
I'm going to giveaway 5 of my Mega Craft Collection CDs. On each CD is a compilation of craft ebooks that I have bought the resale rights to over the past 3 years - There are about 25+ ebooks in all. Some of the topics are crochet, knitting, scrap booking, wood finishing, kids crafts, soap & candle making, gift basket ideas and how to start up a profitable craft business.
I've also thrown in some extra patterns from the public domain & of my own design (these will be crochet, knitting & cross stitch patterns, as my focus here is on needlework). All of the ebooks & patterns are in PDF format, so you can read them on both Windows & Mac operating systems.
This CD is easily a $20 value - and you can have one of 5 that I'm giving away for FREE if you enter my contest - and when I say free, that means that you are not signing up for a newsletter, I'm not collecting your email to spam you, and I pay the shipping to send it to you. Pretty good deal, eh?
So here's how you enter:
Send an email to me by clicking on my profile, then on the email link.
Put "Mega Craft Collection CD Giveaway" in the subject line.
Tell me what the biggest craft item you ever made was - do try to keep it short though, as I'm just making you do this to reduce spammers & have fun - I'm not grading your story composition :)
Be sure to leave an email address in the body of the message where I can reach you if you win - I'd sure be sad for you to have to forfeit your prize because you didn't get my email or it bounced back.
All entries will be put on a slip of scrap paper, thrown into my black eco-friendly grocery bag & drawn at random by my children. The contest opens today, Wednesday, June 17th, and closes at midnight (in my timezone - CST) on June 27th. The draw will take place sometime on June 28th, winners will be sent their first notice that day.
Privacy Policy: I will collect your emails only for the purpose of this contest - I will not give or sell your information to anybody else, & I won't keep your emails on file after the contest ends either - I only need them to notify the winners.
All the best to all participants, & happy crafting! :)
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