Sunday, May 31, 2009

Happy Birthday Sunday PostCard Art!

Here is my entry for today's theme titled ; Crowns and Cake!
(Starring my oldest Pup Queen Isabella)

Sunday PostCard Art is Celebrating their 1st Birthday. If you haven't checked them out yet, Click the link and take a peek at today's submissions in Honor of their Birthday!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

This Dog's Life!

My Entry for the Sunday PostCard Art Numbers Theme for May 24 2009

The other day while I was browsing thru a book in my collection called "Pockets, Pullouts, and Hiding Places", I came across a design for a simple flip book I wanted to make. Since My Etsy has been pretty busy this week, I thought I would take today off as a short break from carving stamps and make some art. In preparation for today's dedication to the creation of art, I stayed up until 1am cutting and assembling the peices for my flip book. Early this morning I arose, made a pot of coffee and sat down to go over my ideas. At first I had thought to make a scrapbook style book documenting my dogs' trip here to SC with me. I planned to call it"How I spent my summer vacation", and I would fill it with cute little pics of my dogs Isabella, Loki, and Princess. And Maybe my mother's dogs would make a guest appearance here and there.

Well, the plan has changed a little bit. I started a page showcasing Loki and the theme was derived from a newspaper clipping advertising 'All You Can Eat Pancakes 99 cents". I thought to make a caption that read "My mom's Pancakes Beats I-HOP any day". I liked this theme for Loki since she is an obsessive FOODie and will eat practically anything.......and she is very vocal about it if she doesn't get what she wants.

I pulled out the paints and papers and started on the backgrounds. When I finished painting the basic elements for 5 pages, I printed out the pics I had already chosen for the project. While I was waiting for the pics to print I browsed a few of the sites I frequent and noticed that last week's theme for Sunday PostCard Art was Numbers..........HMMMM, I thought since I already had the 99 cents on there I could go a little further and turn this book page into a Postcard. It was the right height and I would just need to add a border on each end to make it the right length. One thing led to another and I can honestly say I am pleased with the results.

I have decided that I am even going to type up and print my HomeMade Pancake Recipe and glue it to the back. Maybe then I will send this postcard to my daughter along with a dogbone cookie cutter to use as a mold for making her own little doggie some super yummy pancakes for breakfast!

Debi:)

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Felted Owl Pincushion Wristband

The Pattern for this little pincushion can be found here for easy printing. Happy Knitting!

I am so excited about my latest adventures in designing knitting patterns. This cute little felted owl pincushion is my latest design. This knits up very quickly in just an hour or so. (I tend to be a laid back knitter sometimes - meaning I take my time if I don't have anything else going on). I knit a second one of these in Pink and white this morning while enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee and watching "Creative Juices" on DIY. I felted this pincushion by hand under SUPER HOT WATER (my mother has her water heater turned up as high as it will go......I found that out the hard way. But my hands survived and the pincushion felted fairly well. I decided to use velcro for the closure since it will make it easier to secure one handed, and it is easily adjustable for a larger or smaller wrist. I am taking custom orders for these on MY ETSY if your are interested!

Friday, May 22, 2009

Ally Gator - A felted Knit toy Free Knitting Pattern


This is my first toy pattern. I had been working on my Spa collection designs and thought I would take a break and do something a little different. I picked up some of the Lion Wool I have in my stash and started knitting what I planned to be a dog toy for one of my big dogs. Now that the toy is completed it is just too nice to die by dog. My puppies would tear this up, felted or not, they are very rough on their toys.

I have written this up in a nice PDF format. Please let me know if you find any errors. Sadly, I do not have any test knitters, since everyone I know has their plates full with many of their own projects for family and friends. I will be knitting another one during this next week to check the pattern myself as well.

I wrote the pattern as I went along in the knitting process and I was still able to complete this pattern between last night and this afternoon. That includes the felting and drying time during which I did some other things around the house.

Ally Gator Pattern - A felted Knit Toy

I hope you enjoy this pattern.
Happy Knitting:)
Debi

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Cable Knitting

I just LOVE cable knitting!

At first I was a little intimidated by the prospect of manipulating another needle to achieve what looked to be complex cables, but after a couple of projects I realized how simple it is to knit cables.I found a SUPER CUTE dishcloth pattern on ravelry that is made to look like a tiny cabled sweater....Cabled Sweater Dishcloth Pattern

and then I found this Tiny Cables Dishcloth pattern (also on Ravelry) that is made using twisted stitches.Both of these projects inspired me to create my own pattern for a dishcloth. But then I went a little bit further and decided to make an entire spa set. I started with this Cabled Soap Saver and am knitting a matching headband and face cloth to complete the spa set. I will be writing up the final patterns this week and posting them here and on Ravelry.


The soap shown is a Diva Bar from The Soap Station. My mother is the owner and she has been making handcrafted soaps since 1999. This bar is in the scent Petite Cheri. I love this scent.

I am giving her the first completed spa set.

Happy Knitting:)

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Chevron Wrap






My Cousin Holly,(her blog is hollymarieknits.blogspot.com), made this wrap for her mother and then one for herself. Recently, while my grandfather was in the hospital another one of my aunts saw the wrap and requested that Holly make one for her too. Holly did, but this time using only 2 skeins of yarn instead of the 4 called for in the pattern. The result was a nice shorter wrap that just fit around the shoulders and loose about the arms. ( The wrap is very long with 4 skeins). I liked it so much that I made one for my mother, and then because I am a little larger, I made myself one using 3 skeins and I attached some polymer clay buttons I had made at one of my knitting guild meetings. I really like it. I am going to attach some buttons to my mother's wrap as well.

This shawl was made using Lion Brand Homespun yarn. It is the only acrylic yarn I really like because it is soft and stays soft even after washing.

The pattern can be found at www.lionbrandyarn.com/patterns/justwrap.html