Little cross stitch angel for you

It's copied from a vintage doily :-)

It can easily be altered, just change the hair color and style a bit, color of the eyes, give her a candle in stead of a bell, perhaps a dove, use another simple form to decorate her skirt, perhaps just stripes - and you can embroider an angel on each side of a square doily or a row of angels on both ends of a runner... :-) She's perfect for an ornament or as a card decoration.

Meme, in Finnish

Ota lähin kirja, käännä sivulle 21, etsi rivi neljä. Kirjoita ylös, mitä siinä lukee:

Ojenna vasen käsivarsi mahdollisimman pitkälle. Mitä kosketat ensimmäisenä?
"Jouluun on kautta aikojen kuulunut runsaus"

Mitä viimeksi katsoit TV:stä? "Coupling" BBC Entertainmentiltä

Arvaa katsomatta paljonko kello on? Arvaisin että noin kakskyt yli yksi

Katso nyt kelloa, paljonko se oikeasti on? 13:11

Mitä kuulet tietokonetta lukuunottamatta? Liikenteen ulkoa. Pitää varmaan laittaa joulumusiikki soimaan :-)

Milloin viimeksi kävit ulkona? Mitä teit? Koiran kanssa aamukävelyllä muutama tunti sitten.

Mitä nettisivua katsoit ennen kuin tulit tälle sivulle? Kävin läpi Pienten ilojen joulukalentereja

Näitkö viime yönä unta? Totta kai :-)

Milloin viimeksi nauroit? Tänä aamuna, kun koira on niin ihana ja tuppaa suuhun :-D

Oletko nähnyt mitään omituista viime aikoina? Muutakin kuin oman naamani peilistä? Njaa... enpä osaa mitään omituiseksi nimittää.

Minkä elokuvan viimeksi katsoit? 51st state. Uudelleen. On se ihana :-D

Jos sinusta tulisi yön yli monimiljonääri, mitä ostaisit ensimmäisenä? Voi että... tämä tuli niin äkkiä, mutta jos kysyisit kahden kesken, vastaisin "kyllä"...

Pidätkö tanssimisesta? Kyllä vain :-)

Voisitko koskaan harkita ulkomailla asumista? Eh... asun Ruotsissa tällä hetkellä, joten vastaan "kyllä". Koti-ikävä on kyllä suunnaton.

Mitä on sen huoneen seinillä, jossa nyt olet? Vaikka mitä. Hyllyjä, valokuvia, tauluja, kuvia, omia piirroksiani, kortteja, lampetteja, muistitaulu, joululautasia, enkeli, koristeita...

Mitä olet tänään syönyt? Juustovoileivän.

Koska olet viimeksi halannut äitiäsi? Marras-joulukuun vaihteessa, kun olivat täällä käymässä :-)

More Yule links

Garnstudio Drops has a nice knitting/crochet pattern advent calendar
I like the things they give patterns to - except for the doggy jacket - my hubby would kill me if I tried to do something like that to our dog LOL

Tip Junkie gives tips on sites that give instructions or patterns for ornaments

Folding Trees gives instructions on kudusama balls, the Japanese paper folded flower balls.

Ellit gives a pattern for a felted heart pocket, in Finnish. (It really isn't brain surgery or rocket science, give it a try.)

P.S: I have never thought much of quilling... it has had a "kiddie craft" label on in my mind... but then I saw Yulia Brodskaya's quilling work... Oh my...

P.S.S. Go and see Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson's wonderful collages, they are amazing! Get ideas of what to do with wrapping paper... ;-)

A little inspiration

Gingerbread Snowflakes is a lovely blog... I could spend there hours :-)

Have a Polar Express Day - or any other movie day.

Crafty Synergy... I love Reya Feltman's rug idea... would suit perfectly my sister. :-)

Sew mama sew's handmade holidays

Handmade Holidays at get crafty

Today's Creative Blog offers something to see

Crafty Chica's Holiday Projects roundup

Sharon from In a Minute Ago has moved to Pin Tangle

Crafty Pod is also interesting...

Daisy Yellow isn't just for kids, neither is the Crafty Crow

How about Orange suggests ornaments to make

Red Shoes blog

Don't miss Lime and Violet's advent calendar!

The Blue Blog is always interesting, even though sockapaloooooza keeps waiting itself...

Green Kitchen presents a solstice calendar

Ho! I have been challenged!

Of course, San, I'll accept :-D I happen to like memes. They are like writing memes, and heaven knows I need those LOL

This is the challenging blog entry

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about Ketutar

1. I'm a recovering over-achiever... procrastinating 90 % of the time and bashing myself for it.
2. If I had a shield it would be red, green and silver
3. If I was an animal I'd be a phoenix. Or a dragon. Or a tiger. Or a...
4. I'm a cat person, but I love our dog. He is the smartest, kindest, sweetest, funniest, best dog ever. I didn't even know they make dogs like our Boris :-)
5. I wish I had a lot of money and a huge craft room, so that I could by all the crafting supplies and tools and craft all day long.
6. I like baking

Here are the blogs I would like to read answers from:

This part I hate... I usually don't forward chain letters either. But I think I'll choose:

Maria pysslar och ler
The Holly Tree
Psychedelic Armadillo
Kaisan Kerällä
Made By Myself
Whimsical Bohemian

Also people I appreciate and whose blogs I read as often as I can :-)

O Tannenbaum...

Dollhouse Tree
crocheted tree I
crocheted tree II
crocheted tree III
crocheted tree IV
crocheted tree V
crocheted tree VI
crocheted tree VII
crocheted tree VIII
crocheted tree IX
crocheted tree X
crocheted tree XI
crocheted tree XII

More Yule patterns

really cute gnome - tonttu

Lion Brand's crocheted gnome

Alicia's gnome - she has also other cute patterns :-)

Yellow House's gnome

Sleepy Sarah - passes as a gnome too :-)

I really like Carolyn Christmas' patterns - they are not free though

Gangamoo knits free patterns

Crafttown's free christmas patterns

Crochet Pattern Central's Christmas patterns
and miscellaneous...

Roxy Craft - love the Santa Baby and Bo the Snowman

Sarahanns - very nice crochet patterns

Ana Paula's amigurumis

Then some dolls you can crochet - the outfit is optional, you know... you can use the doll pattern and dress the doll as you wish, for example to Dr. Who, Professor Snape or Jayne from Firefly...

lilwitch
Bethany Ballerina
Starlight the Pop Star
Mrs Claus
Hula hula Lula
Alice in wonderland
Amanda Jane
Amigurumi doll
Lion Brand's Bryan and Shelly
Peter and Pernille
Little Dolls
Stuffed Clown
Scarecrow
Ragdoll
Small ragdoll
Raggety Ann
"Captain Andrew"
Victorian doll
Goldilocks
"too cute" dolls
Topsy Turvy Dolls - these have skirts...
Tiny Granny/Red Riding Hood Topsy Turvy
Sprite
Snuffykin's Dr. Who dolls... Master Simm, Rose...
Little Princess
Party Girl
Sugar n Cream Lily
Lily doll
"Mega Man"
"Link"
Astronaut
Fantasy castle with characters
Sheila the Aussie Troll
another Troll
"Pretty Prunella"
Harry Potter doll

Then there's the bunnies, bears, cats and other amigurumis, that work as doll bases, if you just leave out the specific ears, tails and muzzles :-)
Bunny
Monkey
Mint Chocolate Bunny
Mr Funky Bunny
JoAnn Monkey
Chenille Rabbit
Heartfelt Bear
Beary Jackson
Amigurumi base
Tiny bear

Darncat Crochet has really nice amigurumi patterns, both free and buyable

Paper

Iris folding - really nice stocking ornaments done with this technique

tea bag folding - make pretty rosettes, medallions and stars from teabags

cone ornament

paper embroidery Christmas ornament - reminds me so of my childhood - at the 70's this kind of thread-cat-craddle-artworks were very popular :-)
You could use the shrinkydink ornament forms from yesterday.

Paper ball ornament - origami style

another

icosahedrons and other forms you can make of old holiday cards and magazines and wrapping paper scraps and what not

Paper polyhedra

"Greek Paper Ball" - we used to make these of straw

"Super cool" paper star

snowflake tree ornament

Using the wrapping papers to make ornaments

Paper ribbon star

Woven paper hearts - with many patterns :-)

quilled paper ornaments

Martha Stewart makes a stacked paper tree - use bamboo skewers in stead of knitting needles.
If you don't have the polymer clay or such, you can make your own salt dough.
P.S. I don't like MS and I don't like "condoning" - or recommending - her site, but the craft ideas are great. Unfortunately. I love the ginger dough birds. *sigh*

and a really cute crocheted baby penguin - not of paper ;-D

More finds in the internet

The Crafty Chica's Holiday Project Roundup

mmmcraft's paper ornaments - I love these :-)

Sugar n' Cream's Crochet Stash Baskets

Peppermint candy wreath

Crocheted pears

Stacy Sews tutorials

Crochet dilly pickle - works as Christmas Pickle :-D

Clogs for an elf

Shrinkydink ornaments - work even for cardboard or wood, if you don't have the shrinking plastics... though "they" say any plastic shrinks the same way in oven.

Owlies

Here's a tutorial on a really cute owl ornament
Scrappy owl bag tutorial - make a mini for the tree
Zakka style owl pennant - individually pass as tree ornaments
owl egg cosy
owl pillow - make a mini for the tree
owl tutorial
tutowlrial - you can have the owls spell anything you like...

Really nice stuff

Softies Central

How to get rid of bad memories...

The "bitch" is having "bad luck"... Wonderful. I'm so evil I'm actually enjoying for her misfortune.

But I'm still chewing her. I just can't seem to let her go and vanish into the whiny reality of an overachiever who is unable to take any responsibility of the consequences of her own actions and choices. That's her "bad luck", not some hex or curse or evil spell. She would get rid of it with some gratitude and counting her blessings.

So - I'm blessed by not needing to have anything to do with her. I'm blessed with her not being a part of my life, unless I myself choose so. Unfortunately I keep choosing so.
I'm blessed by being able to be happy about nothing but a pair of candles to celebrate the independence of my country. I don't have a house to decorate, I live in an apartment, and I'm happy not to need to worry about the loans, mortgages, upkeep expenses nor broken things. When we move, all my belongings will fit into a couple of boxes. My rental apartment is big and provides me with shelter from rain, wind, heat and cold, and clean water and indoors toilet with plumbing so that I don't need to care one bit about what happens to my "waste" after it leaves me. I lived in a house with no plumbing from age 7 to age 17 or so, and I know what people need to do to their "waste" with no flush toilets... and no day passes without me being grateful for the geniuses who invented the thing.
I'm blessed not to need to worry about swap packages being ready in time, getting "there" in time and the receiver being satisfied with what she got. It is lovely to get packages, but it is not nice not to get packages, and getting questions answered by nothing or a bucketful of abuse... Never again... :-)
I'm blessed with having a Paypal account that makes it possible for me to get quite a lot of things I desire.
I'm blessed with having enough money to be able to give to people who have even less than I do.
I am blessed with understanding, gentle and loving husband...

Now, I have been a bad girl and not posted about the sock club:
my hubby has seen that I got a replacement needle for the one I broke - ebenholz
He also got me some rosewood needles and Knit Picks Harmonics.
He got me a clover thread cutter which I have been drooling after for years.
He got me the cutest little silver sheep stitch marker, which I have managed to displaced, and some classy sock yarn, which I have displaced as well... I'm not too good at taking care of my stuff. Poor hubby.
I also have Anti-Craft book and two German sock books with multidirectional socks.
The first sock club pattern was Thuja.
There possibly is more, but I can't remember it right now.
Also, no pics, because I can't find stuff.

I managed to finish hubby's Yule Stocking. :-)

You could visit the Holiday Ornament Swap groups at flickr to get inspired :-)
2008 - 2007 - 2006

Also, read Joss Whedon's interview.
Jayne Hat
Here's some fandom crafting LOL

Another round in the internet

My Picot has really nice Yule patterns. Snowflakes and cute Yule tree.

Knitting pretty

Interlocking filet crochet - creates quite an interesting fabric - would do as a quick Yule gift scarf.

Thing-a-day Owl Package

Book of stars / Star Diary

Paula's Christmas Journal 2007

Santa Claus is coming...

I'm not whiny anymore. I apologize for the long lasting depressing title.

Here's some finds from an internet round today, 8th of December 2008

12 Days of Christmas Ring and Run

BTW, turtledove has nothing to do with turtles. It should be called turturdove, as it's Latin name is turtur. The bird is named after it's call, which can be imitated with "turr... turr...". Turtledove is a symbol of solitude, grace, harmony, affection and faithfulness, so giving a gift of a pair of turtledoves is a very precious token of love indeed...
So to me the ornaments and cards depicting a chimaera of turtles and doves are offensive. But - what ever rocks your boat. You don't need to mind me. I still love Christmas Krinkles.

tip junkie has lovely ideas and such.

Lime and Violet's Daily Chum has a Christmas countdown calendar thingy going on.

Arctic Stamper, Sari, has an interesting idea for a Christmas countdown calendar

Here's Ann Albers' Visions of Heaven advent calendar - a nice thought, affirmation, quote for every day.

Today I'm whiny

I went to Instructables to see the results of the Halloween contest... you know, the one where only the USonians can win... It doesn't matter that the legal problems are limited only to prizes and the crafters care more about the honor than the material stuff, no. The thing is that there's plenty of ways to get around the legal problems, especially when the contest goes on a whole year. But - who cares.

Anyway, I noticed the Fabergé egg roundup. This is the winning egg...

"The winner, Patricia Harding, is a professional artist who specializes in using egg shells. Taking a cue from Fabergé's "Renaissance Egg," Harding created a monumental work by bedecking an ostrich egg with opals. "I, like other egg artists, am inspired by the beautiful creations of Fabergé, to take a perfect egg, simple in form, to create a beautiful art piece," she writes. Harding is a veteran to the world of egg art. She is the first person in the world to be certified as a master in each of the nine categories of egg art recognized by the International Egg Art Guild and so earned the title of "Grand Master of Egg Art." Her version of the Renaissance Egg proudly wears 72 opals, all similar in color. Matching the opals was the greatest challenge behind this work, she says. Harding is a veteran to the world of egg art: She is the first person in the world to be certified as a master in each of the nine categories of egg art recognized by the International Egg Art Guild and so earned the title of "Grand Master of Egg Art."

Er... THIS is her inspiration:

The Renaissance Egg from Easter 1894, by Michael Perchin, Fabergé

I look at the other eggs... people have been carving eggs, different sizes of eggs to fit into each other like the Russian doll, creating tiny doors that open to reveal other wonders, covering eggs with beads one after another to create intriguate patterns, people have created miniature railroads and landscapes inside eggs... and THIS wins?! (This egg can be opened and there's a silk lining. Yeah...)

I'm sure it is done with all the desirable quality and so, but this lady is a GRAND MASTER of egg art, competing against people who might be trying the technique first time in their lives...
Her egg is BORING! I don't care that she "had to" find 75 opals of the exact right tone. I don't care that she spend money on cabochon opals. I don't care if she's a gold smith and by herself created every piece of the gold filigree she used on the egg (as far as I know she isn't. I wonder if there's ready-made golden hinges for ostrich eggs one can use... 5 minutes later: yes, there is... What there is not is a hinge for a laying egg though >:->).
The egg is boring and she, as a Grand Master of Egg Art, is to be expected more. She has been a Grand Master for four years, competing with eggs for 10 years, teaching and judging... I'm just... Well. I expect more. I'm disappointed.

(Yes, it is beautiful, but I expect more of a Grand Master in Egg Arts.)

To become a Grand Master you have to get the master's degree in all 9 categories of egg art: Beaded and Jeweled; Decoupage; Diorama; Filigree; Hand Painted; Batik Folk Art (Pysanky); Relief (Paper tole or Bas-relief/repousse); Scratch-Carved and Sculptured or Engraved

The master's degree qualifications are interesting, I think.
http://www.eggartguild.org/masters.htm

Now, look around at egg art guild and see what other masters are doing...

Today's free patterns

http://imaginarywardrobe.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20pattern

Craft Stylish paper hand mask

knit bokaclava

armed robbery for the whole family

Update - knitting and crocheting in October

First some halloweeny things I've been doing lately.
Maple leaf socks by Jeanie Townsend get to be in the picture because of the colors.
The bag is actually a trick-or-treat bag from Lion Brand, but I think it works as a Halloween hand bag too :-) I made the handles with 6 st icord. I want to felt it again, because it isn't thick enough.
The doll is Scara Lee by Sally George. It has been on my to-do list for years now, so it's about time it gets done. I gave her red hair instead of suggested white or grey. My hubby says she has my chin LOL

Spider scarf.

a soulie... a little totem where one's soul can rest when awaken abruptly... It was supposed to look like barbapapa, so pear it was...

Here's my projects... the plastic bags are my new project bags and they work perfectly. Just the right size to hold a little bigger project, see through, easy to move and stand by themselves.
In the basket left is the free crochet afghan.
In the low basket front is the acrylic yarn needed for Krystal's daisy squares; cotton for dishcloths; black alpacka for wrist warmers and pink wool for breast cancer awareness socks

My CPH

Latvian mittens

I have been studying Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis.

Now, I admire the folk women and their imagination very much, but some of the color combinations they have used in these mittens are... well... the nicest way to describe these ladies' sense of color is... not to describe it at all.

It looks like they have chosen their colors from the give away for free bin from the cheapest yarn store in town, you know the one with acrylic yarns from 70's and 80's - a disgusting combination of puke greens and browns with shocking bright aniline lilacs, pinks and yellows... In a mitten otherwise very pretty they manage to push in one or two threads of fugly spoiling the whole impression... like for example, on a black mitten decorated with red and green flowers and leaves, they add dirty yellow and green stripes and pink (YES, PINK!!!) and grey edge... Or they knit a mitten in black and white - and add brown. And these are not colors straight from sheep either, it's pure white, pure black and pure brown... Brrr. Or the ugly old rose/lavender purple with sheep black and beige. Add a little lemon yellow and apple green and a dash och sheep white, and you have a mitten not even your mother would wear. Or on black peagreen, raspberry pink and mauve.

I start to understand why the Finns don't have this kind of sock and mitten knitting history, though we do have a very nice sock and mitten knitting history of our own. (and here I paused, because my eyes fell on an especially awful pair of mittens on the cover of the book... wine, dirty and pale Neapolitan yellow and apple green... Yikes. Interestingly just the next pair could be Finnish or Estonian... mainly blue and white with pretty white, red, gray and black border. On the other side of the ugly mitten is another ugly mitten: on black dirty greenish yellow and bright green. Above it is a pretty blue-grey and white with black and dark red used to accentuate the pattern. Very pretty.)

Sure, it is quite possible that the color have changed during the time, and that the people knitting the mittens didn't have anything else but just the ugly colors - these Latvian mittens are all very nicely done. Then there are some wonderful color combinations I would never have thought but that look just amazing... like Payne's gray, golden brown and wine or red, purple and yellow with just a dash of apple green.

The worst part of this, I think, is that I know people who think these color combinations are wonderful. I had a class mate who made everything in this kind of combinations... And the people producing the hard acrylics still make them in the worst colors of 70's and 80's and there are people who keep buying them and combining them. "Doesn't this pink make this baby poop (pea mush) green, beige, bright orange and brown look absolutely adorable?" No, it doesn't. NOTHING can make those colors look adorable. Not even a Latvian mitten.



Today's free links: Amigurumi List and Crafty Crow

Kun ei yhtään huvita...

No joo... on sukkakuu ja sukat puikoilla ja useat suunniteltu.
Ompelin tänään projektipusseja - korvaan paperipusseja läpinäkyvästä muovista ommelluilla pusseilla, jotka seisoo tanakasti omin avuin, läpi näkyy ja pitää sisällään hyvin pitkätkin puikot ja sukkalangat, tekeleen ja ohjeen ihan nätisti. Mitä vaan ettei tarvitse neuloa.
Neulon niitä tiskirättejä...


Illuusio-pöllö... ja ei ole ihan neliskanttinen ja viivat suoria ja aloitus ja päättely samanlevyisiä. Entäs sitten? Tämä on tiskirätti eikä mikään pitsihuivi näyttelyyn. Kuka tiskirättejä pingottaa?

Tässä sitten näkyy se illuusio hyvin - tosi vinosti pitää kuvata. Ja sitten vähän tietokonetaikuutta - tuo ylempi kuva venyteltynä ja viruteltuna neliskanttiseksi - näyttää ihan sulista tehdyltä :-)
So... what did I just say? I have been reading Finnish knitting blogs and don't feel like writing in English. Sorry about that. Basically I'm saying that I have knitted an illusion dishcloth and sewing some project bags to avoid knitting socks and my cardigan which I desperately need. It might be 30 degrees Celsius in Canada but here it's at least 10 degrees less. I think there might be frost in ground during the night.

What Ket did? II

This is some things I have been doing late September, early October.
Owl Sleeping Mask - owls don't have cat eyes...
Boo Bookmark - buu in Finnish ;-)
Morning Glory bedsocks - I just knitted long enough for the purse to become socks, added heel and made them of wool instead of cotton/linen. If you do this, I suggest you make more holes for the string.
Stephanie van der Linden's Binsenkörbchen Socks

I also charted a cute kitty filet crochet - a vintage pattern

I say it's from 20's or 30's and the original is rather damaged. I don't know what it has been... It's too wide to be a bookmark, but it has a really odd shape. Perhaps it was a chair arm cover or bell pull... or meant to be inserted in a blouse. It could also have been the flap and back of a cute little bag. You do what ever you wish with it :-)

The upper part of the chart isn't accurate - I just copied the cat and the general idea - you can add or remove rows to your liking.
You start by crocheting 75 ch and make a dc in the 3rd ch from the hook and in each after that - you should have 72 dc and 1 dc made of 2 ch's. Then you just follow the chart.

You make
- the "black dots" by crocheting a dc in each ch or dc on previous row (one square is 3 dc's)
- the "white dots" by crocheting 2 ch skipping next 2 ch/dc on previous row and making a dc in 3rd
- the "v square" is made by ch 3, skip next 2 ch/dc on previous row, sc in 3rd, ch 3, skip next 2 ch/dc on previous row, 1 dc in next ch/dc.
- the eye is made by making a "v square" and on the next round dc, ch 2, tr in the same dc, tr in the dc "on the other side of the v square", ch 2, dc
- The nose is a bit special. You replace two "black squares" by crocheting 1 dc, increase 3 dc, skip 3 dc from previous row, 1 dc in 4th dc and 1 dc to "finish off" the "black square".
Here's little help on how to increase in filet crochet and here's how to make the "fancy mesh" - "v square"

I came here to post a new entry...

Here's Tip Junkie's Halloween tutorials
The Happenings: 30 days of halloween
Someone created a blog with a Halloween project each week, and I was moderately interested, but I have lost the URL. Well... (It was Roman Sock)

Here's Gothober... it's a bit special. Countdown calender to Halloween. Not crafty.

My sister was talking about the reborn baby dolls...

and eventually I got here: painting your own reborn baby doll
This reminded me of all the OOAK fashion doll remakes and such, and I found Legends by Valkyrie. She has some very nice tutorials and other interesting information on her site, among them link to her tutorial videos at YouTube. Well... one thing led to another and I was thinking of using the ideas and techniques for painting the reborn dolls to painting fashion dolls, and I was thinking of giving it a try. I love these OOAK dolls... and one really doesn't need to be perfect to create something very nice.

Though sometimes... the best efforts can produce something I don't think was the purpose...
From left to right - Raegynh by Dolla Butler, Pocahontas by Mattel - the base doll to both of these remakes, and a repaint by Medusa the Dollmaker...
Now Dolla can do better, and I'm sure this Raegynh is excellently made, but the face and the make-up together add up to a transvestite... named "raisin"? (I'm sorry, Dolla, no offense intented, just my opinion.)
Now, Medusa's remake... WOW! Amazing!

Here's some repainted Barbies by Lauren Leigh. Here's dolls by Kedra Manning.
Here's dolls by Aleksandra Bryla.

Here's "the best rerooting tutorial ever!"
how to root eyelashes
1/6 sense tutorials

In my old computer I had some links to how to remold (sculpt) the face by cutting and sculpting with gesso, but it's gone...

Don't take my blog too seriously...

My blog is a picture of a short moment in my life. Mostly I'm quite ok. Sure, I'm depressed and sad, but I can be happy too, laugh and fool around, and I do that every day, so I'm not that sad a person ;-)

Today I'm going to share with you my "Good Witch, Bad Witch" sock pattern. It's really easy. You start as you like, from toes up or cuff down, have the kind of toes or cuff you like best. The sock is going to have 48 stitches with as loose hand as I have or 72 stitches, if you knit tighter with finer yarn. You can also choose any amount of stitches that suits your yarn and hand, and add black/orange color stripes on both sides of the pattern, so that you get the amount of stitches you need. This pattern repeat has 24 stitches, so if you knit socks with 60 stitches, you'll add 6 stitches on both sides of the sock. That way you can also knit knee high socks - you put the increases/decreases in these color stripes and just repeat the witchy pattern as many times as you like. (Click on the chart to see it bigger.)

When you get to the heel, make it the way you like - it would look nice in two-colored brioche...
You can continue with the pattern on the foot too, but leave the brooms out and center the pattern. It will look better that way. Also, make the sole "dotty", like in Norwegian socks. That doesn't really need a pattern... it's R1: *1 MC, 1 CC*, 1 MC, r2: *1 CC, 1 MC*, 1 CC - repeat rounds 1 and 2 as many times as needed.
And, frankly, you can mix the stripes as you like, add other patterns and basically do what ever you want. You could make only cats the whole sock... The cat is 6 stitches wide, so it fits any size socks alone, whether you use 48, 54, 60, 66, 72 or 78 stitches in a sock. It would be lovely to make cat sock with different cat colored scrap yarns...
(Yes, I'm aware that the bats don't look much like bats, but - if you have a better chart for bats, use that in stead.)

I'm sad today... once again...

I started knitting Firestarter socks a day before yesterday. Today I frogged them, because the yarns didn't match as well as I'd hoped. *sigh*
I have ideas - one of the themes for September was Morning Glory - it's a flower, apparently September's flower, pretty. There's some free Morning Glory patterns online, and I had an idea of how to turn those into socks. I knitted the socks for several hours, realized it's not going to work and ripped them too.
I'm really sad that my ideas don't work. I'd need very much an idea that does work, to pick me up. Right now I'm really sad about the fact that I'm poor and cannot buy everything I'd like to and that my hand is so loose that even with 2 mm needles and laceweight yarn I can't make socks with 64 stitches. *sigh*
And I'm also sad that I'm fat and sick, and life is heavy.
I think I'll start a lace shawl that doesn't require any gauge... with lace shawls the looser the hand the bigger and airier the shawl :-D

But - print&pattern is inspiring and Sarah Young is wonderful.

Jewish coasters

This is what I have been doing... anything so that I don't need to actually DO something. Like the dishes. Or the socks. *sigh* Well well...
I was thinking of doing these coasters in crochet... afghan stitch, or colorwork. Would work beautifully in cross stitch too. But one could do them in any way one likes... like knitting color work or use them as base for an afghan - you know, crocheting each "square" in basic granny pattern in these colors (or others if one likes it better that way) and then adding a couple of rows in both ends to get the length/form.
You'll get the picture bigger when clicking on it, and it should be easy to follow the graph. I got the idea from a book, I think it's called "Jewish plastic canvas" or something like that. (I checked it - It's called "Jewish designs for plastic canvas 2") You'll see that the dove, dreidel and shalom hand are almost the same and the wine glass, chanukkiah and chaim heart are heavily influenced, but the pomegranate and tree of life are 100% my own design.

I should be...

I have noticed there's a lot of "I should" in my posts... I would, should, could, but I don't. That bothers me.

Never mind. Today's free patterns are from pieKnits :-) Make your little angels some wings for Yule - it's only 3 months away. Or perhaps black wings and cute skull wristlets to match. The patterns that are not free are quite reasonable in price and you can buy them via Paypal.

I have started my next pair of socks. Firestarter... I'm not quite sure, but... it was the recommended pattern for Trifty Knitters Sock Club, so I'm knitting it. Henric will like them anyway. I'll finish off the ugly orange yarn and if it's not enough, I'll continue with Drops' Fabel 543 - the red orange mix. Yikes...

Now I'll go and buy some milk so I'll get my morning tea... it's already 11 and I have been doing all kinds of things to avoid going to the grocery store... *sigh*

Sad and tired - today, again...

Some free patterns:

Debbie Macomber publishes a free pattern every now and then, limited time only.
Vickie Howell has a "free pattern of the month" thingy going on in her blog. Go to "make this" list on the left column of the blog, and you'll find all of them.
Knit on the net is another ezine.
Here's a list of Harry Potter Knitting Patterns... and The Leaky Cauldron's Harry Potter Crafts list

I'm going to bed.

P.S. I hate knitted/crocheted food...

Update

Lovely 2paw left a comment in my blog yesterday and I paid back the visit - and found Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark embroidery-a-long :-) (BOM = Block Of the Month). I LOVE projects like this... and the bunny square is absolutely lovely :-D

In the picture - my binder with all the hundreds of free sock patterns I have collected from on-line and from different sock groups, KALs and so on; the socks - the yarn is more pink - and the sock journal :-) I whipped that up yesterday evening. So far it is adequate :-D But see how small it is :-)

I think today I'm going to sew some project bags... I'm going to need zippers, the see-through plastic I already have... *hmm*

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Knowing how much yarn you have left?

The WPI/YPP correlation index (wraps per inch / yards per pound) is pretty accurate - accurate enough for scrap yarns.

Check the wpi and then weigh the left-over yarn. Let's say you have 2 ounces of 14 wpi yarn. 14 wpi yarn is about 1200-1800 yards per pound, so you have 150-225 yards yarn. Not enough for a pair of socks, but enough for main color of stranded socks.

Here's some helpful sites:
Knitfits: yarn size demystified
some tables about WPI, gauge, names and numbers
Floryknits' yarn comparison chart
names of different thickness of yarn in US, UK, NZ and Australia

I'd so much wanna be in a sock club...

But I can't afford it. :´(

So I think I have my own private sock club :-)

First there will be a very cute sock journal... When I was in the craft school, we had a work book where we wrote all the work hours, yarn/thread we used and all the necessary information... It was really fun to look at those work books later, I remembered everything I had made by the tiny bits of yarn and so... So a sock journal.
I wish I had put all the socks I have ever made into a sock journal... with pattern information, yarn (sample and label, WPI), needles, gauge and time it took to make them...
So - in my own one woman's sock club the first gift is a sock journal. :-)
(Kathryn Ivy's Knitting Journal - very pretty and free (printable)...)

I would like to have a pre-printed booklet, but as I don't have access to bookprinters and so, I have to use my own ability to bind books and create the pages myself and bind them into a booklet myself. Then I will decorate the covers :-)

And as I will be the designer too of this sock club, I think I'll have one page for inspiration and design ideas and so on... A little art journaling :-)

*hmm*

My first pattern will be Mercurial Colorbands by Cat Bordhi. I have never done that, so it will be a new technique for me. I am using some odd woolly kind of yarn I have found - no labels. It's weird pinkish reddish orangish color, quite strong, but my hubby thinks it's nice... He has some curious likings every now and then... and I'm going to knit the colorbands with black, white and bright red. These socks will be very interesting LOL

Then I'm going to add a handful of things in my sock club package... like singlepackaged chocolates and so...

Then I'd really need project bags... those see-through zippered bags big enough for the project and sturdy enough for needles... *sigh* I think I just have to sew them myself too.

Then, of course, everything needed for knitting the socks are included... needles (mine are Addis, my first pair :-) I hate how the brass stinks when the needles warm up... ;-))

Ok, what is happening...

Firstly, I'm sick. :-( Again. Autumn has come and flu season. *sigh* So I sleep most of the time. But when I don't sleep - and one cannot do that all the time, unfortunately - I keep doing things.

I made a net bag, and it looks very nice - filled with yarn ;-) - so I'm knitting more of those.

I started doing the Asphyxiation choker, but my neck is like 5 cm high and 40 cm around, regular bulldog neck, not a swan neck, so chokers look more like dog collars than lacy feminine decorations... So I scrapped the project. *sigh* I was planning on having the pretty collar, nice fingerless gloves and a black lace fan. But - collar doesn't suit me, I can't find a pattern for gloves and I suppose there must be something wrong with the fan plan too... *sigh*

Couple of days ago I finished another Yule present, so I won't be posting it here :-)

Alicia Keys' No One is one of the most meaningless, whiny and boring songs ever made. You don't even need to listen to it, just look at the video, mute, and you'll get it... She looks like she's in desperate need of a toilet... *sigh*

Here's today's free patterns; ME did it!.
Ok... here's more. Winter Gifts For Ladies 1848 "Containing the Newest and Most Fashionable Patterns"
Naughty Needles - yes, naughty. So not for children.
Lacy knitting - hats and mittens/gloves

Phew!

No more dancing with Sir Frog-a-lot! The Aran Twist is danced!


And meet Huugo, the book owl :-) (Or owlet book thong, as it is called in the pattern...)

Here's a couple of other owl bookmarks...
paper owl bookmark
very easy paper owl bookmark
flat crocheted bookmark - owl motif
flat owl book thong

I have to apologize...

I think I made it look as if it was the sock designer's fault that I'm having troubles... it really isn't. The problem is that I'm too lazy to check the gauge and knit with way too thick yarn with my loose hand, and that's why I end up with buckets instead of socks. I'm sorry, sock designer.

Now to other issues. On my morning round I read from Lime and Violet's blog about Monteagle bag - a very interesting net bag to replace the plastic bags we are drowning into - and about Resurrection Fern, a very interesting, nice, beautiful and inspiring blog.

Then there's a Fabergé style egg contest - create an egg and a slideshow/instructable, and you can win great prizes. This lasts 3 1/2 weeks more, so there's plenty of time for you to create the most amazing egg ever. Here's a little inspiration.

Hate it...

I hate it when patterns aren't easily followable. I just finished a doily I had to read from the PICTURE to get, because the pattern wasn't for this specific doily... Now I'm fighting with socks, that are... *sigh*
First, the pattern was written to someone who knits very tight and I don't. So I had to adjust the pattern to my hand.
Then the ribbing... The pattern starts with K2P2 ribbing and then when the cables start, it turns upside down - P2, K2, P2, K6. It should start with K6.
Then comes the twist... "Knit two together, but leave them to left needle and then..." Really complicated and uncomprehensible... to me, that is. It seems to be quite comprehensible to others, who don't seem to have any problems at all with this pattern, and who look at me as if I was an idiot, but - ok, I'm an idiot, but I still don't get it! So I do normal, ordinary, easy 1B1 cables and I'm happy with my twists. This is the way my knitting guide tells me to do twists. And my twists look exactly like the twists in the pattern. So I think that explanation is just another way to confuse stupid little knitters like me.
Now, today I arrived to the heel... and as I had started as a good girl I am, with P2, K2, P2, I had to knit a half round after the ribbing to start twisting, and now I needed to knit a half round to start the heel... you see, the purls are to make nice borders to the top of the foot...
I did that. "knit 2 1/2 inches of heel and pick 18 stitches". Ok... sounds a lot, but, hey, the designer is always right. I tried to count how many rows of the original pattern the heel is - knit in some slipstitch pattern - to find out if it's 1 or 2 needles, but if one is to pick 18 stitches and edge stitches are all knit (yes, KNIT! Not purl, which would create a pretty and easy chain, but knits, which create an interesting twisted edge - at least as I do it) I think it's about the stitches of two needles, so that is what I do. Then I turn the heel with short rows and start gussets and...
You can see the results yourself.

THIS is what I end up ALWAYS with this kind of a heel...

The measure is in cm's, 10 cms is about 4 inches. And that is WAY TOO MUCH FOR A SOCK IN THIS STAGE... *sigh* *sigh* *deepsigh* I SHOULD frog it and start all over again and make the 1 needle heel and end up with a human heel instead of this monstruosity heel for giants... But I have been fighting with these damned socks for days now, and it shouldn't take this long to knit a simple (uhum) pair of socks. It shouldn't! I want my sock knitting points at knitwars!

So I knit bookmarks and try to calm down,
and I knit my horseshoe cardi, and that turns out beautifully :-)

And I suppose I ought to be happy... And I'm not. I so wish I could just take a sock pattern, yarn and needles and follow the pattern and end up with human size socks just as in the pictures that illustrate the patterns... *sigh*

So, I'm going to take another break and knit another bookmark and knit a couple more rows of my cardigan and a couple more rows of the socks (HATEITHATEITHATEIT!!!) and a cute little amigurumi... I have a pattern of a little but ferocious dragon :-) If that doesn't make me forget the socks (HATEITHATEITHATEIT!!!) then nothing will. I might crochet an owl bookmark too. Or make Dobby style bookmark, and take my sock points from that >:->

Procrastinating in the internet... again :-D

This time I started with Mrs. Fife, and Where Is She Now? I think she is fascinating.

From Mrs. Fife's place I got to Crochet Me Blog, and from there to Whedoncraft... I really love Firefly. I read this interview with Heather Hill, and she said: "(The Jayne hat) comes in a cardboard box, packed in straw, with a handwritten note, which is the same as the one that the character Jayne's mom wrote to him in the show." Obviously, in the episode in which Jayne got the rather hideous hat from his mom, it arrived in this manner... My hubby wants one - of course - and I SO would love to be able to get it from Heather... if you want to know why, go and read the open letter for big damn heroes :-)

Another link I had saved was 25 motif challenge and Tatting design challenge... Now, I know how to tat, but... I'm not too fond of it. I like crochet better. And I wonder why is there no 25 motif challenge for crochet or crochet design challenge? Perhaps I should start...
There was this picture of Wendy's collection. Nice, huh? (Look at Wendy's tutorials on the right side column...)

(The inquiring minds want to know what to DO with all that, and the romantic minds answer "just things of bliss :-) You DO nothing special, just love :-)")

Anyway, she had some links, and one of the was to Sarah London and her Hawaiian flower afghan (or should I say Ann's Hawaiian flower lap blanket) or her Celtic crochet afghan... (and, no, the Celtic isn't referring to Celtic people but it's a manner of crocheting loops and then interweaving them to create patterns that remind of those in Book of Kells or other Celtic calligraphy. :-D)

Sarah revealed that she hasn't read one Harry Potter book, and lead me to Micky, who lead me to Monster Crochet, vintage chapeau CAL and Snowflake Mondays

Today's free patterns are from Irene... It's up only through wayback machine, so take what you like, because tomorrow it might not be up there anymore... :-( Which is what happened with Potholder Lady... to my big surprise, disappointment and sadness.

Then I'll throw in another free pattern site... Jimmy Beans Wool free patterns - mostly scarfs, but those are needed too :-)

Oh... and I found out about the Turkish Oya lace, which is in practice colorful lace border - sewn, crocheted, tatted... They usually edge scarves with it.

And I found about J.S.Lewis... a new fantasy writer, sounds a bit like Holly Black, Susan Cooper or Alan Garner...

Today's patterns

here's dozens of knitting stitches - and a great idea of what to do with stitch swatches...

Here's the day's small quickie gifts (or at least gifts... not so quickie or small... ;-))
These aren't bad either, and there's some nice things here. These are OK too.
And here's a couple more that might interest you.
Some "Beginners' knitting patterns"

And here's some silly small thingies at Mochimochi blog...

Things happen...

fish bowl :-D
This one is rather big and thin... I was afraid it would melt lopsided in the kiln.

Here's the day's free patterns...

I have been collecting free on-line sock patterns on Wists

I was surfing - I found Strickmühle 2. and Tostetoes... I think it's so inspiring to see others' productivity :-)

Moon and mermaid...

So what have I been doing? I fetched my ceramics from the school today. No more classes :-( Only two years. :-( I really love sculpting :-)

Little bear plaque and bigger wall plate with peacock theme

Then I was thinking about Knitwars... It is created to get us knitting. One of the creators has SSS - second sock syndrome - and she has it bad :-D Nevertheless, one of the things is that finishing an object gives you quite a lot of XPs (experience points)... but in my mind it isn't right. Now... I went to the KnitWarriors group to whine a little and in my mind I got a rather whiny response... and I have been murring about that today. The thing is that she didn't need to take it the way she did nor response the way she did, because
1) I was just expressing my opinion, I didn't expect anyone to do anything about it, because by reading the discussions in the group nothing is nor will be done about the people's opinions, suggestions etc.
2) It has been said rather clearly that how many XPs people take and of what is up to their own conscience - there are possibilities to take 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 1, 1 1/2 and 2 times the XPs for each adventure already put in work in the Knitwars... so she could have reminded me of this, if she had the need to response...

Some lacy bookmarks - quickies to get XPs :-D

On the other hand - we all have bad days. Today was really bad for me.

This is what my horseshoe cardigan looks like right now

But on a positive note... Socktopus accepts Paypal... I almost cried a week ago because I couldn't find any information about that... but she does. :-) She has some amazing yarn... :-)

This is the first of my coven terra cotta

Yarn stores in Stockholm

I have created a Google map about the yarn stores in Stockholm, so if you are coming this way and would like to find some of them...

There's a "new" knitting e-zine around

Knotions magazine. I think this has been around since August this year.

There should be newest Knitty up soon.

There's obviously another new kid in the block - Popknits. First issue is only a week old.

Doily and robin

I have been crocheting this doily for three months now... One round every now and then. It is Patricia Kristoffersen's Pineapple Song, and it's full of "weird" stitches - popcorns, stitches reaching a couple of rows below... it's very structured, and I think that's what's special for Patricia Kristoffersen. The doily is really pretty :-)


And this little fellow... I planned on doing it for Yule, but Boris (the dog) decided otherwise... he got himself a new toy. He loves teddies and toys. He doesn't destroy them, he just carries them around in his mouth. He is 4 1/2 and has a tiger he has had all his life, and that tiger is well loved... He has licked the tiger's fur off in certain places, and every now and then a limb falls off, but I'll just sew it on place - the dog sitting by me and WATCHING very carefully what I do.
He's really nice dog, he doesn't try to take his toy from my hands before I say it's ok, but his facial expression is like on a little boy; "Mommy, tiger's hand fell off! Can you fix it? Does it hurt Tiger?"

P.S: Now I have finished two things I have been doing for a longer time - the PK doily and the two socks in one... may I start the cardigan now?

Teddybears and -tigers need sweaters too...

And here's the list of free teddybear sweaters and teddybears you can knit :-)

More on what to do with doilies

Stephani Martinez' lace installation

My first posts on the issue: Doilies and I've been a bad, bad girl...
decor8: doilylove
the future girl: rocking the doily
citified: laced with style
Country Living: Delightful Way With Doilies

Scrumdillydilly has a tutorial on dilly doily bag

Pictures from Suuri Käsityölehti 3/2005
- use lace scraps to decorate your t-shirt, make pockets out of doilies, or use a doily as a "picture" in your shirt
(Themachinestops uses dyed doilies to decorate simple dresses and stuff... very pretty.)
Decorate pillows with doilies, (here a very classy version) make a bag out of a square doily by lining it, make a hanging flower pot basket out of a doily, make a lamp shade or a lacy tablecloth with doily intarsia.

I saw a rather interesting Russian crochet top, using 2 large doilies as the pattern for the hem - the top had been crocheted up from the doily to cover the torso.
Make a bohemian skirt by sewing doilies together into fabric.
Use doily as a pretty lace "undershirt"
More applications
Very pretty ruffly doily scarf

A round doily becomes a very pretty round handbag.
Sew two little doilies together and line with pretty silk, and you have a lacy purse.
You can also make a little reticule the same way as the hanging flower pot basket...
You can also use the doily as the bottom of a net bag.

The Magnolia Project
Doily art
Doilies as snowflakes as Christmas decoration

There's nothing to stop you from starching the doilies hard and use them as paper doilies.
You could also make most of these hats with the help of starched doilies.

Joana Vasconcelos

What about hanging them on a line as a lacy bohemian café curtain? These doily and lace lampshades would fit the style :-) And what about a tablecloth like this?

Sofa decorated with doilies - actually, patched with doilies, but the idea is nice :-D (A little bit the same idea here or here, using paperdoilies)
You could sew the doilies together and make a fitted armchair cover. You can cover a simple stool easily with a doily.

Here's a lace sun chair and a little lace table... I wonder if one can starch a thread doily this hard? You can always make it with clear acrylic resin...
I'm planning on making a doily cake stand...

You can use doilies as painting aid, or as help to decorate cakes or as stamps for your pottery.

Two antique beaded holders (for what?) and a beaded tablemat

- insert the doily on felt and get a pretty tablemat.

You know, it's no shame to cut these pretties up and take only what you want... cut them, paint them, dye them, make jewelry out of them, use them in scrap booking, collages, art journaling... the options are endless :-) Only your imagination sets limits...