Oh, what wonders we do conceive when once we dare to sew up a sock!



Having SO much fun making sock dolls recently! This wee monster came from a very plush baby sock. He's just a youngling, and his teeth are coming in all snagglie, and so that is his name... Snaggle. I have more to come, and I'm finished with two that just tickled me to make! It's as though they have their own little personalities that spring to life once they are sewn up proper.



They really like to go places, especially the babies...



I'm going to be sending him to my mom, who will take good care of him. She is the one who gave me the book on how to make them, and recommended the second one by the same author/sock artist, which I promptly purchased at JoAnne's Craft Store with my handy-dandy 40% off coupon. Gotta love a discount. I'll post a link to Amazon in case you're interested. I mean, there are so many ways to make these little guys, and I look at socks so differently now!

Anyway, don't want to go on too long, will post more pics soon and some info on how they're made. Yay! Go fun! Go creativity! Go making a little pet you don't have to clean up after! WOOO-HOOO!

Little Mom's Day Bag

... And a happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there! I'm a proud mother of one, myself, an 11-year-old boy, brilliant, kind, handsome... and no, I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom... ;-)

In true form to the holiday, I have completed a gift for my own mother the day BEFORE Mother's Day. I've been working on bags lately, stepping up my skills from decorative pillows and the like. This bag in particular is the first I've made where the handles are all one piece with the body, seaming the body in half. I learned a great deal with this bag, and can't wait to tweak the pattern to fit my needs.








Strap detail to show the pattern of the fabric better. It's pretty simple, but my mom likes things simple. Here are pics of the inside pockets:





The snap was my first, and not too hard to comprehend. I bought the matching 'snap kit' to go with the snaps so that the sizes for the tools were correct. The next time I use a snap, I'll be sure to attach it where there is interfacing. The inside and small exterior brown pocket have the interfacing in them, but not the entire purse.

I hope she likes it. She's very 'woodsy', and I get my love of natural colors from her. I lean on my more vibrant friends' tastes to remind me to pull out the brights every now and then! The weather is warm and sweet here in the south, and I can only hope that everyone has a great weekend like it's sizing up here. My thoughts are with the victims of the tornados as they face their first holiday without all the comforts of their home, and some without their loved ones. Keep your mother's love close, and your children's love even closer.

Gum Colored Fun

Welcome to this brand new blog – the long-anticipated (by myself) place where I can be nerdly to my heart’s content on all things craft-related in my life! I often have so many things going on at once that I thought it would be wonderful to catalog them somehow, make some ‘to-do’ with finished WIPs and notate progress. I’ve joined Ravelry and love it, but didn’t want to bog it down to much with my musings. Here, unfortunately for those who may read this blog, it is open season. I can only hope that some of the inspiration that strikes me so repetitively and in so many ways ( ie; quilting, making small handbags, crocheting, knitting, making amigurumi and sock dolls) might rub off on others of the same ilk. Yes, that means YOU. ;-)

For my first post, I would like to showcase a little project I started last night. You see, I’ve only just learned to knit, though I’ve been crocheting since I was a young girl. I’d tried dabbling with the knitting needles before, but became too impatient with the slow progress of learning and practicing what, in my mind, I could already accomplish using one crochet hook.

Now I’m older, and am sharing the learning with my best friend. And love the springy-ness of the work, the stretch that crochet doesn’t have. Case in point: Sugar ‘n’ Cream cotton yarn. The sweet colors have always caught my eye in the yarn section of either Hobby Lobby or Michael’s, but the one time I did try to crochet it, it was too tight around the needle, wouldn’t slide easy, had very little give, and always felt like I was trying to work with too little yarn. But given the nature of knitting and having my first make-shift hat under my belt, when I saw these little ‘Gum’ colored balls of cotton yarn on sale, I couldn’t resist.



And so now I am immersed in the epitome of the practice sampling: dishcloths. So far, I love how the yarn finally has some GIVE to it while I’m working with it, and how the knitting has been soothing my mind while I gear up to go into the unemployment office this morning. Yep, I’ll be one of those ladies who brings their knitting with them to a waiting area. I’m not yet old enough to wear a purple hat while doing so, but it’s in my future.

Enjoy the pictures, and next post I’ll be sure to have something I’m actually quite good at to show you. Feel free to point out any dropped stitches you may see…