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.