Monster Bags

Remember my monsters bags? I finished all four of them.

Here they are cheering:

I’m a fan of pockets so put in four in the big monsters and two in the baby monsters. These were all made to sell.

This purple baby monster is already sold.

This pink baby monster is currently for sale at Lori’s Yarn Store.

This pink monster is already sold.

This orange monster is currently for sale at Lori’s Yarn Store.

I had so much fun making these. They each have such personality. I already have another one on the needles.

Sieben and I went for a walk the other day. He loves going into the forest.

Here he is exploring.

New creations

I’ve made some new creations. This ladybug bracelet is on elastic thread.

Originally I made it to match a specific outfit but it’s so cute I’ll be wearing it a lot.

Abbey took to me a Goodwill store that sold clothing by the pound. The shopper energy was intense. It reminded me of working retail on Black Friday. My social anxiety got a little worked up but I stuck it out and got some great clothes for refashioning. First up are some armwarmers. Here’s a before shot.

This was an easy project. I first cut off the arms. Then sewed a new seam to make them the same width throughout. I folded over the raw fabric at the end to make a new seam. I handsewed a few stitches to make a thumbhole.

Super cute! I see myself making more of these in the future.

Yarn Bomb Taos is still going strong. We had a yarn party down in ABQ this month. Here’s one of my latest:

It says “Love Taos” because I do!

We had visitors this month! Years ago when we lived in MO we became part of E’Light, a hippie phamily. Mikey and Dutchess and their son Devlynn were traveling to CO and drive down to see us on their way home.

When Devlynn was born I made him a baby blanket. I like to make baby blankets larger than baby size in hopes they’ll get more use. Devlynn not only still uses it he brought it on the trip to show me. I was so touched that I decided to make him a hat. All the yarn came from my stash.

This is one of my favorite quickie hats-the Hothead from Stitch ‘n Bitch. I made it so it fit snug on my head. It fit him perfectly!

Project: Devlynn’s hat
Pattern: Hothead
Source: Stitch ‘n Bitch
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK in Bark, Nutmeg adn Pampas Heather
Needles: 4.0 mm needles
Size: small
Modifications: N/A
Started: May 2012
Finished: May 2012

New skirt and new snack

I’m almost done with a new skirt. This was a make it up as I went along pattern, my favorite kind of pattern to make.

There’s this new ruffle yarn that I fell in love with. Most people make a simple ruffle scarf. I tried that but it just wasn’t me. Instead I used it for the ruffle.

Check out the poof!

Finished pics soon.

I’ve been exploring more of my GAPS Diet cookbook. This is banana and peanut butter fruit leather:

This was dehydrated in my solar food dehydrator-my new favorite cooking tool. No electricity required. The other day it was up to 130 degrees.

It turned out delicious and is my new favorite snack. I’m going to try different nutbutters and fruit next time.

Small Chaos Bag

I finished a new Chaos Bag. This is knit from my Chaos Yarn which is handspun from collected yarn scraps.

This version is smaller than my original Chaos Bag. I made this one to sell in my future Etsy store.

I lined it and put in two pockets. Like the bigger bag I used webbing for a strap and a snap for the closure.

This bag is 9” H x 22” W. The strap is 35″ long.

Here’s Granola being cute:

Pattern: Chaos Bag
Source: me
Yarn: Chaos Yarn
Needles: 10.0 mm needles
Size: small
Modifications: N/A
Started: Dec 2011
Finished: Feb 2012

Inappropriate baby gifts

Normally when friends get pregnant I don’t get too excited. Sure I’ll make baby gifts but I’m not a kids person. But when I found out my friend Jesse was expecting I got excited. One reason is that she’ll be a kick ass mama. However the real reason for my excitement was that I finally got to make inappropriate baby gifts!

Jesse's baby gifts

Oh I had so much fun putting this package together. The parents to be, Jesse and Josh, both have good senses of humor and loved it.

I thought I’d set the tone with an inappropriate card. The envelope says “To my favorite knocked up chick” and the front of the card simply says “Bitch”. I got it in a trade and have been saving it for just the perfect occasion.

Jesse's baby gifts

Onto the onesies. The pink one says:

Jesse's baby gifts

And the second one says:

Jesse's baby gifts

I found these at Cafe Press here and here.

My favorite part of the present was the broken condom baby hat. It just cracks me up.

Jesse's baby gifts

Someone on Ravelry posted a picture of a broken condom baby hat months ago. I couldn’t find the creator or the pattern so I improvised the design. I knit a hat from the bottom up and just decreased slowly to create a tip on top. I like the little smirk over the band-aid.

Jesse's baby gifts

Next up is baby’s first hand grenade. Jesse and Josh are revolutionaries so their baby needs to start stockpiling! The grenade has a squeaker inside.

Jesse's baby gifts

I found this pattern on Ravelry.

Jesse's baby gifts

Since both of the parents are from Missouri I decided to make baby’s first moonshine. (The first time I had moonshine was in the Ozarks. It was intense.)

Jesse's baby gifts

I improvised the design. The bottle is crocheted and the label is knit. I lightly felted it.

Jesse's baby gifts

The moonshine is a rattle. I couldn’t find one so made one out of an old film canister and some beans. Here’s a progress pic:

Jesse's baby gifts

There was one serious gift in the package. This is a glass globe that is like an incense holder.

Jesse's baby gifts

Instead of burning a stick though you put essential oil in the little bowl on top. You hang the globe in the sunlight and the bigger part of the globe heats up and the essential oil fills a room up with a lovely smell.

Jesse's baby gifts

It was so hard to keep this all a secret! Jesse and Josh loved the presents and promise to send me funny photos once their kiddo arrives. That “are you my Daddy” onesie will make a great photo op. This was by far the most fun I’ve had making baby gifts. I’ll definitely be making more broken condom baby hats.

Knitting, cuteness and cooking

I’ve been knitting lately. Here’s one of my larger yarn bombs.

yarn bomb

On our last girls’ day Abbey gave me a big bag of yarn bombs. I swear that girl is amazing! Granola helped me label them.

Granola yarn bomb

Isn’t he a cutie?

I made pecan covered squash pudding for desert the other night. Again this is from the Internal Bliss Cookbook.

pecan squash pudding

This turned out to be a delicious treat and really filled my sweet cravings.

Knitting and cooking

I’m making several monster bags at once to try to streamline my production.

Two normal sized bags and two baby monster bags. Next up is cutting and pinning fabric for the linings.

I’m still on my cooking bent. Abbey sent me a YouTube video for kale chips and I’m hooked.

Then for dinner I made egg drop soup.

I used to eat this a lot when Thebes and I lived in the DR. The chicken broth is homemade. The onion flakes are some we dehydrated in the woodstove.

When I was trying to take a picture of a monster bag in progress I got photobombed by His Orangeness.

First yarn bomb for Taos

I made my first yarn bomb for Taos! This is made from donated yarn.

This is on a vega in front of Weaving Southwest.

Here’s what the back looks like:

To insure we don’t harm property we’re not using any nails or staples. Instead we’re using ties and making sure the tag is snug around the object. I put ties every few inches and it worked well.

A close up of the ties:

Teresa, from Weaving Southwest, and I have started a new blog called Yarn Blog Taos to chronicle the Great Taos Yarn Bombing of 2012.

ABQ visit

The Ram is on tour! Village Wools in Albuquerque agreed to host him for awhile.

Village Wools

Here’s me and Abbey posing with him:

How exciting to have the Ram there! If you’re in ABQ and want to see him in person please stop by and let me know what you think.

Later on Abbey and I posed with our monster bags.

My ABQ visit was short but we had a good time hanging out.