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I have finaly gotten the yarn needed to serously start working on my circle vest which now has a formal name the BoHo Lily Spiral Vest.

I am using yarn from Lion Brand, its one of there new yarns.  Shawl In A Ball in the colorway Healing Teal(204).  I am really loving the color as it is working up, its a thinner yarn but with a fuzzy halo that bumps it up to a medium/ww, comes in skeins of 518 yd (150g) its a light cotton blend (58% cotton/39% acrylic/3% other fiber) and it has a crimp texture to it.

To help relax my wrist between boughts of crocheting and pattern writing or rewriting (as I find I am doing alot) I decided to pick up a new fiber hobby that will be less strainful.     

So I stopped and picked up some plastic canvas, and a needlepoint needle set.  I am making everything up as I go, and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.   I just decided I want to try and make a container with it that looks like the Tardis.  Since I have no idea what I am doing, I am not really fallowing a pattern- what I have done is open up MS Excel and graphed out what I wanted, so I settled on 20 by 40 square graph.  I was watching StarvTrek TNG while making the first panel, and every time the iconic music used in the intro played I would sing in my head to the tune "I~~ do not know~~~ what I am doing~~~~ no not at all~~~~".  I am having a lot of fun learning with this, the first panel I worked in rounds from the outside in, and it left the back looking like a train wreck so on the 2nd panel I am trying to work it from the bottom upwards.  Its a bit tricky going this way since my 'pho paneling' is reversed on the right from the left so the start for each is on the outer edges I have been slipping my yarn along the back of the stitchs to prevent having to cut and rejoin multiple times.

I am hopping by the time I get to the last panel it will look clean and professional enough I can make that side my 'front' side.  I think on the next one I am going to change up the center stitch as I am just not wild about how it looks on these two.

I would love any needle point advice anyone may have to share.  As the song in my head goes, I do not know what I am doing, no not at all.

LYS?

I do not know about you, but I find it hard to locate good crochet friendly local yarn stores.

Now what I mean by this, is stores that are not big chains like Hobby Lobby, Micheals, Joann's, AC Moores.  I am talking about the stores that are focused on selling yarn, or other fiber art related materials.  I know of only 3 or 4 in my local area, and out of those I know 1 is openly advert to crocheters.  

They where friendly and helpful up till I mentioned I planned to crochet with the yarn they helped me pick out, it was like I had mentioned I like to deep fry and eat babies the look of disgust on there face and the fact that they could not get away from me fast enough, even my husband (sweet man he is suffered through while I fondled every ball in the store) thought it was rude.  Once I had finished looking and had my final selection it took almost 15 minutes standing by the register for the group of ladys knitting, talking about how crochet is a waste of yarn, and giving me the stink eye to figure out who would ring me up.          

Now I would not wish this experience on anyone.  So earlier today I decided to do something about it.   I started a google map for Yarn Stores anyone with the link is free to add location to it.  I do ask you try to use the layer function so its easier for others to sort by location.  Its ok if you do not know how; I will and possibly others will go threw every now and then and sort the unsorted.    I am hoping this map will create a great source for everyone to go to when they want to find a LYS, vice versa when they have a LYS and they want everyone to know how awesome it is.  Also its a better source then just googling for yarn as often times LYS closed or move so if one is added we know someone has been there and will hopefully update if they closed/moved.

Photos! Child sized Cheveron mits in action!

Finaly got some shots of my niece sporting her mitt's.  I love how they turned out!

If you want to make your favorite little one a pair the pattern can be found here.

Birthday Gift

Applejack the My Little Pony.  Not my pattern it comes from Knitoneawsome I made a few minor adaptions in the ear's and hind legs and the hat.  Now that the piece is finished I wish I had raised the nose section by a row or 4.  I grew up with the original 80's MLP's and adapting to how the new versions are drawn was a bit tricky but I learned from this first one.

I asked my niece if she wanted me to make her anything for her birthday and she asked for a Applejack and Rainbow Dash.  Now I was only able to squeeze one pony in before her birthday so the next one might just wait till christmas.

I had the option to do the eyes and cutie mark in a number of ways but in the end I choose to paint them on while referencing a MLP embroidery pattern for the eyes and cutie mark.

For anyone interested in the painting process, I used a mix of Modpog (craft glue) 1:2 Acrylic Paint.   It helps if you can mark out the area you wish to paint with pencil/calk/washable marker, then use straight modpog to put a base layer down.  Why?  Because the yarn will suck up a TON of paint if you do not, and it will help provide a smoother surface.

I mixed a 1:2 ratio of MP to paint, and did a base layer of white for eyes, freckles, and I forgot to put one down on the cutie mark which is why the red doesn't pop as much as it should.         

I wound up doing 3 coats of white letting each coat dry for 2-3 hours giving me a solid surface to work on. 

Once the white was set over night I scetched out where I would want the iris and pupil, the with some sheers I went over the area around the eye triming up any flyaways before taping up the marked area to paint.

I worked the iris color first, then painted the pupil once the iris was fully dry.  While I waited for the eyes to dry I did work the freckles and cutie marks but I didnt get any progress shots of them.

 The orange we picked out was a bit darker then I realized as the red from the apples was blending in, took 3 coats for each apple.  

2D to 3D Miss M's Candy logo

So a few weeks ago my loving husband took me up to a new (to me) candy store in the city.  While Miss M's Candy is small it is packed from the floor almost to the ceiling with sweets and treats.  

While drooling over the counter display of chocolates I noticed they had a cute 2D logo and it inspired me, I wanted to create it in a 3D amigurumi.
I took a few liberty's with the design.  I tried to color match the maroon from the logo, and keep the dress length the same.

I choose to give her hand painted copper eyes, and long chocolate color pony tail with a slight bump styling.  I also went for a more modest cut on the top of the dress and cape sleeves giving her a look that would wear well on a girl, woman, or elder lady.