Honeybee*Hill

After the thaw we go outside to look for signs of new life. Mostly, everything is still muddled over, save a few random patches of daffodils, bursting through the deadened grass in the backyard. Sullivan doesn’t mind. It’s sixty degrees outside and he loves digging through the remaining drifts of snow piled up by the garage. He’s surprised when the bucket he filled with snow hours earlier is suddenly and magically full of water instead.

I found some bean pods left on the vine all winter and cracked them open. He recognized the beans right away, but was skeptical when I told him that they would grow new plants. He took a handful and shook them across the yard — so we’ll have rogue bean vines coming up.

Everything thaws now. Even me. I retreat in the winter to hibernate and emerge in the spring.

And I never know how to account for all those winters away.

This is a super quick and easy crochet project. I found a pretty ball of Lily Sugar’n Cream Naturals in Terra Firma while I was at Meijer the other day (of all places!! For those who don’t know, it’s similar to a WalMart or Target store). I liked the color but I had no idea what to do with it. Well yesterday I noticed that we really don’t have any coasters for the fall season, so I picked up the yarn and started crocheting! That’s what’s so awesome about knowing a craft like that. Once you know what you need or want to create, it’s no problem either wing-dinging it yourself, or going to the internet to look for a pattern.

These don’t really have a “pattern”. They are concentric circles of eveningly increasing single crochets. Crocheting in the round is something I learned from amigurumi. I happen to find it a beautiful technique and would much prefer everything crocheted this way rather than fiddling with slip stitches and joining. If you’ve never done it before, you need a safety pin or stitch marker to use. I use “jewelry” safety pins — that is, it’s a bag of pins I found in the “jewelry findings” aisle at Hobby Lobby. They don’t have a ring opposite the clasp, so there’s nothing to get caught in my yarn. I put a little bead at the end to make it cheerful.

Use a 4mm hook (G). I made a magic ring (which I absolutely can’t teach you how to do because I’m a hack at it myself! Google it!) and then sc 6 in the ring. At the end of each round I place my marker in the last stitch so I don’t lose my mind trying to count those stitches! Each round increases evenly by six. If you don’t know what that means, here is how I made mine:

Make a magic ring.
R1 – 6 sc in ring, place marker – 6
R2 – 6 sc inc, place marker – 12
R3 – sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 18
R4 – sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 24
R5 – sc inc, 3 sc – repeat around, place marker – 30
R6 – sc inc, 4 sc – repeat around, place marker – 36
R7 – sc inc, 5 sc – repeat around, place marker – 42
R8 – sc inc, 6 sc – repeat around, place marker – 48
R9 – sc inc, 7 sc – repeat around, place marker – 54
R10 – sc around, sl join to previous row – 54
ch 10, sl join to next sc to form loop

The little lip fits nicely around a regular size coffee mug. I added a little leaf embellishment with some cotton from Hobby Lobby that I had scraps of. I don’t know a good way to write the pattern out so I just drew a chart. I hope this is self explanatory:

Once you sl join at the end of the leaf, just cut off a tail long enough to tie it to the coasters.

As you can see, the coasters have a kind of six-sided shape to them. This is because the way I wrote the pattern above, the increases occur on top of the increases from the previous row. This is just the easiest way for me to make this shape and not have to think or count very much (like when I’m vegging out and watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on Netflix). But if you want your increases to be more hidden and the rounds to be more… round, you can stagger your increases. Like this:

Make a magic ring.
R1 – 6 sc in ring, place marker – 6
R2 – 6 sc inc, place marker – 12
R3 – sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 18
R4 – sc, sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 24
R5 – 2 sc, sc inc, sc – repeat around, place marker – 30
R6 – 2 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 36
R7 – 3 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 42
R8 – 4 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 48
R9 – 5 sc, sc inc, 2 sc – repeat around, place marker – 54
R10 – sc around, sl join to previous row – 54
ch 10, sl join to next sc to form loop

Now I *think* that might work, but I haven’t worked it up myself, so don’t hate on me if I accidentally didn’t bury those increases more evenly.

One ball of Sugar & Cream made four coasters with enough left over for probably two more. That’s a nice use of $1.50 if you ask me! Oh and here’s another tip, if you want to make a little bowl, just make several more rows of sc after R10. It’ll make a cute little dish and the cotton is quite sturdy! I’m going to get another ball of this yarn next time I’m grocery shopping to make a little box for them.

I’ve never  tried to write up a crochet pattern, so please let me know if anything is confusing or you know, wrong!

I know I’ve been quiet. I’ve spent every free moment I’ve had the last two weeks doing Spanish homework. It’s so hard! I think I’m just too old to learn a new language. Making these sweet magnets is the one little bit of crafting I’ve done all week (aside from crocheting while watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on netflix last night).

I did get into the metal studio Monday and managed to crank out a new pendant. I love it! I had forgotten how satisfying sawing silver is. The pendant looks even better in person. The stone looks really dark in the pictures, but it’s much lighter really. I think it’s the nicest setting I’ve done so far. Took about 2.5 hours from start to finish.

I did a little street festival and Aaron turned 29 (Happy Birthday Husband!!!!). And homework. Mostly just homework!

I started a tumblr and I’m totally addicted to it. So if you have one too, let me know and I’ll follow you. It’s like twitter on steroids.

And of course:

Words cannot adequately express how much I love this pattern. It’s the “Buttercup Bag” pattern by Rae Hoekstra and after I made my first two, I knew I had to buy the license to sell them. This one is in my etsy shop. It’s Japanese linen and red vintage polka dot fabric. I wish someone would buy it because it’s PAINFUL to think about parting with it and it’s so so so so tempting to just snatch it off the shelf and fill it with my cards and lipbalm!

This one is Robert Kaufman and a yarn dyed checkered cotton. Seriously the cutest. bag. ever. Also in the etsy shop.

I have a bunch of these cut out just waiting to be sewn — I need to pick up more magnetic snaps.

And then I got all excited when I realized it was September and nearly almost Halloween. So I put together these buttons. Been meaning to try bigcartel.com so I put the buttons up there to see how they sell. I’m also going to put them on etsy when I have a few minutes.

My classes started today. I spent two damn hours doing Spanish work and all I can say is my name and what town I live in. I have mom-brain super bad. Sorry for the disjointed sentences that I don’t even bother to

Pictures! Pictures, right? Aren’t they worth 1000 words? This is pretty much what my life is like:

We gave Sullivan a camera. It’s a vTech Kidzoom brand digital camera. Normally I’m opposed to giant plastic colorful toys that make noises, but Sul has been obsessed with taking photos with my camera — which is definitely not a toy. The picture quality on the vTech is terrible and it’s really not very good at all, but Sul can drop it over and over again and it still works and that’s what really counts!

Aaron set up a flickr page for Sullivan — which I think is really cool. It’s marked private, but if you want to see his photos, leave me a comment with your flickr name and I’ll add you to his friends.

He’s taking photos of this:

Which isn’t his. I made it for a swap, but Sullivan loves it so much I will have to make him one just like it.

The pattern is from this book which I got from mwendas.etsy.com (when I ordered my fancy hooks). I really like the book — though I hesitate to call it that. It’s more like a glorified brochure. There are 48 pages and it’s 6″ x 8″. Fridah discloses all of this in her shop — which I really like and respect. Some times I am disappointed by how small Japanese craft books are when sellers don’t post this info. But smallness aside, there are actually a lot of really super cute patterns in this book. And they’re all pretty easy.

It must be that I’m a visual person, because I much prefer to crochet from charts rather than read out the abbreviations. I think this book is really good for someone who is new to either amigurumi or reading a chart. The patterns all increase and decrease evenly — which is another feature of the Japanese patterns that I really love. Most patterns work in multiples of 6 I’ve noticed.

One thing that is really helpful when you’re reading an amigurumi pattern in a Japanese book is to have a little cheat sheet of body parts commonly used — like head, ear, eye, etc. My Little Mochi has such an aid available here. It also helps if you have a husband who can read some Japanese!

Amigurumi are so inexpensive to make! I have already made three toys of the two balls of yarn (the brown and white) and I have enough left still for another toy or two. The beagle pattern was fun but I was surprised how small it is. The legs were harder for me because I had to use such a small hook.

I’m sad that I have to send him off to a new home and so is Pippi bunny. Sul too. When I showed him the dog he said, “COOL!!!! Dog!” and ran to grab his camera. Ah, my kinda kid. I hope my swap partner loves him!

I recently got a bunch of little 4.5″ zippers and I became obsessed with figuring out how to make a little pouch with a zipper running down the middle. I knew I wanted to do something that would use up some scraps, so I wanted two patches on one side and the rest of the pouch made from linen. So now that I’ve got it figured out (and I’ve got four of these under my belt to get this far!), I figured I’d share it with you.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 pieces of coordinating fabrics for the patches – 2.5″ x 3.25″ each
1 piece of linen (or another fabric for the body) – 6″ x 6.5″
2 pieces of muslin or lining fabric – 6″ x 4.5″
1 – 4.5″ zipper (the zipper part is 4.5 inches, the total length of the fabric around the zip should be about 6″)
Approximately 14″ of bias tape

I recommend you starch and iron your fabrics before you cut them — and if possible, use a rotary cutter to cut your fabrics. Of course you will need scissors and a sewing machine (see my sewing machine review here). Also, a fabric glue stick will make your life much, much easier!

You will sew with a .25″ seam allowance for the whole project. Good luck!

The first step is to put the two patches together and sew along one of the short ends (sew along the edges that are 2.5″ long).

Iron the patches open and put it right-side down against one of the lining pieces so they line up on the 6″ side. If your lining piece has a right/wrong side, put the right side together with the right side of the top fabric. Do the same with the linen piece.

Sew the patches to the lining and the linen to the other lining piece with a .25″ seam allowance. Turn and press.

Now you’re going to sew your zipper on. For this pouch, the zipper is not enclosed between the top fabric and lining, but rather sits neatly under them both. I have found this was the neatest way I could sew them. If I were sewing a pouch that had the zipper on top, I would have enclosed it, but for this pouch, this way just made the most sense.

Position the zipper underneath the 2-patch piece and muslin and sew down the top. Do the same with the linen.

Next open the zipper (this is IMPORTANT!). Put the right sides of the patches and linen together (pull them away from the lining fabric) and sew together with a .25″ seam allowance. You’ll have something that looks like this:

Take a picture of the little gremlin who is pestering you because he thinks the six-hundred dollar camera you’re holding is a toy and desperately wants to “Push but-ton?” and take “Pick-ture?”

Now put the right sides of the lining together (make sure your zipper is down!) and sew them together. Now turn the whole thing and you’ll come up with something like this:

You’ll notice that the top of the pouch seams along the side of the patches (which will be the side of the pouch) while the lining seams along the middle back of the pouch. This is because when I tried to seam both lining and top fabrics at the same place, it was too bulky in that spot when I attached the bias tape and turned. This method makes for much nicer corners on the finished pouch.

(You can also turn it so it’s right-side out at this point if you want to see how it’s going to look.)

Now, see that little metal piece at the end of each zipper? Using that as a guide, even up each side of the pouch so that there’s .5″ of material beyond that little metal piece. Use a rotary cutter if you have one.

Now snip off about 7″ of bias tape and baste it to each side of the pouch. Bias tape has an uneven fold so that there is more fabric on the back side of the tape. This is to make sure you catch the backside when you’re sewing. So make sure you put it on right!

I like to use a fabric glue stick when I apply bias tape. It makes it much easier to turn under the edges. To hide the end of the bias tape, fold it under from front to back and tuck it underneath on each side.

Now stitch the bias tape on. The closer you stitch to the edge of the bias tape, the neater the corners of your pouch will be. Turn your pouch and poke out your corners.

You’ll have to pull on your pouch and iron it a bit to get the shape right. The linen tends to pull funny. I bet it would work better with a lighter-weight fabric, actually.

Add a tassle with some linen scraps and tiny rick rack. Sit back and marvel at your ingenuity!

This is my first sewing tutorial, so let me know what you think! I’ll do my best to answer any questions you might have! I have some more photos of the finished pouch at my flickr page.

Since today is Sunday, you also get to see my Sunday Stash!

These are all fabrics I’ve gotten in swaps from the Craft Room Destash group on flickr. I love love them all. I think I’m going to make Freyja a little hat with the umbrellas and I see the Panda’s and the flowers becoming change purses.The flower fabric is actually my favorite fat quarter in my whole stash right now… so it just might be too painful to cut into it right now!

Enjoy the tutorial and let me know if you’d like me to post other tutorials in the future!

I remember I wanted to learn how to crochet because I kept seeing all these granny squares tutorials pop up (mostly on whip-up) and I thought they were pretty darling. It was the day before my birthday and I had got some mad money in the mail from my inlaws, so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought five balls of yarn and one crochet hook. It was a Clover Soft Touch hook size H. Once I learned my basic stitches on that, it was impossible for me to pick up those cheap-o aluminum hooks and use them. I was completely spoiled.

I’ve done quite a few projects since then (which I unfortunately can’t show you till next month because they’re surprises for swaps) and once I realized that I was totally obsessed with crochet, it became necessary to get more hooks. Well Hobby Lobby only sells them in two sizes, G and H. So I ordered a full-set of 8 (C-J) on eBay for around $20. GOOD DEAL.

Well then I won a give-away on the whip-up blog — a $50 gift certificate to mwendas.etsy.com. I have to say, I really love this shop. Fridah, the owner, is very helpful and friendly. I have ordered from her previously and she even helped me track down some Japanese patterns I had been searching all over the internet for! I had been intrigued by the Hamanaka double-ended crochet hooks she sold. So I figured I’d try them out since I wouldn’t be losing anything.

I got them a few days ago and I’ve been using them exclusively ever since! They are super comfortable to hold — I would say better than the Soft Touch. They’re pretty smooth too, although they have a shiny finish and are slicker than the Soft Touch, so it took me awhile to get used it it. I really like how the hooks are pointier than the Soft Touch too.

Now I wouldn’t say that they will completely replace my Clover Hooks. The Hamanaka set is five hooks with two different sizes on each one — so I have ten sizes to my eight Clover sizes. The Hamanaka set was also expensive. I don’t remember how much exactly she had them listed for, but it was right around or at $50 and you’ll find that pretty even across the board if you do an etsy search for the hooks. Now I guess $5/hook isn’t too bad, but these aren’t something I would have bought for myself — especially since I already have a Clover set. I’m scared to lose one of the Hamanaka hooks too because it’ll be expensive and inconvenient to replace.

But they are really nice and the more I crochet with them, the more I like them — so maybe if I did lose them, I would replace them! Or at least cry a lot.

The hooks came in a little plastic box, but it wasn’t very cute so today I made a felt case to slip them in. I appliqued and hand-embroidered the bee and machine-embroidered (my first attempt) the rest. I put some fabric yoyos on the front. I think it turned out pretty cute!

I’ve got three (yes three!) amigurumi in the works — but they’re all for swaps, so no pics till next month! Other than that, I’ve been working on some hand-sewing projects and cutting fabric for pouches and bags for an upcoming craft show. School starts a week from Monday, so I’ve got to get my butt in gear! I’ve got a cute little pouch tutorial that I’m going to post on Sunday!

Happy Friday!

Lauren & Ryan’s wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was probably the only wedding/reception I’ve ever been to where I actually had a good time. I took a few hundred photos with my lensbaby — which only confirmed and solidified my deep and sincere love for it. I so badly want to get a composer — and the optic set, but it’ll have to wait. I have pictures of the wedding here.

The lensbaby is one of my toys that has really inspired my creativity. I think if I had a composer I could take photos in lower light situations. The muse is awesome though for on-the-fly shots and I think I’ve gotten really good at portraiture with it.

Since we had a six-hundred mile trip each way, I brought my crochet hook and a ball of yarn and started this little guy on Thursday.

I’m one of those people who gets car sick if I try to read in the car. We don’t have a CD player or anything fancy like that — we have a portable DVD player in the back so Sullivan can watch movies so we get to listen to his movies the entire way. It was pretty easy to crochet in the car though! My fingers did get really tired and sore after a few hours though.

The yarn I’m using for my amigurumi is from Hobby Lobby. It’s called Baby Bee Hushabye Solids and it’s a 50/50 blend of cotton and acrylic. I love how smooth and soft it is — the best of both worlds as far as cotton and acrylic go. The Hobby Lobby we have has a nice assortment of colors, though they’re all muted/softer shades.

The pattern is from a Japanese Amigurumi Book (and Amigurumi Book is the title, so far as I can tell!) I bought on ebay from this shop. It was my first time buying from this seller and I was pleased with the prompt service and quick shipping. I did spring for the shipping upgrade for my purchases (I bought two books from her). I think that SAL from Asia to the US has been SO SUPER SLOW. I’ve been waiting on a package from Mwendas in Singapore for weeks now that I hope hasn’t gone missing.

It was my first time reading a pattern in chart form and I thought it was so easy. I actually like it so much better than trying to decipher the abbreviations. I don’t think I would have been able to figure it out had I not been making some amigurumi beforehand though.

I’m not sure how long it took me to make him. I worked for a few hours in the car on Thursday and a few on the ride home Sunday. I found safety eyes at a craft shop we stopped at in the Poconos called The Ribbon Factory. I made him a little reversible bandanna today and I’m still thinking about ways to make him a matching hat (he needs one because his head is so big!).

I’m really enjoying crochet so much! I’m not confident enough to try to design my own little animals, but that is definitely something I want to work toward anyway. There are so many talented ami designers on etsy already — and with patterns costing a few bucks a pop, I can afford to indulge a little bit. In any case, I have enough patterns and projects in mind to keep me busy for awhile.

We are in Pennsylvania for a wedding. It’s okay. I really don’t travel well, so I don’t have much perspective. Aaron loves seeing his family, of course. And Sullivan is in heaven with everyone fawning over him and all these damn mountains to climb.

I’ve been better. Freyja got sick again right before we left town. It might have been something I ate, though I kept meticulous notes about what I ate the past week and I really thought we were in the clear. After her relapse we put her back on formula and she’s fine again. Aaron and I decided to just keep her on formula. I can’t deal with the roller coaster of trying to nurse her and making her sick and then stopping temporarily and then trying again. I’ve been pretty emotional about it. When I had a c-section, I thought to myself, “Well, at least I’ll be able to nurse her.”

That’s what my kids do. They ruin all my best laid plans!

I put my etsy shop on vacation because I got behind on sending orders out when Freyja was sick — and I had a paper and homework due. And Sullivan has been acting out like whoa. And I couldn’t deal with it all.

And I wonder if I’m going to be able to deal with it all once the fall semester starts. I really need to focus on schoolwork because I’m so so close to being done. So I guess I need to figure things out.

After the wedding, of course.

Today’s Sunday Stash pick is some red and blue repro prints from my stash. I absolutely adore 20s and 30s repro fabrics. They’re probably my favorite. I love the small patterns. They’re great for little patchwork projects and for baby items. I keep a few of my repro FQs in a little craft kit that I take with me. It’s just a little box with my yoyo makers, some hand-sewing thread and needles. I also have some yarn scraps and crochet hooks in the box now too. But anyway, I really like to just sit on the porch and make yoyos with these kinds of fabrics.

When I was in the hospital having the bebe, my friend Amanda sent me a package with some hex papers and some cute fabric scraps. I’ve been practicing with the cuuuute scraps she sent. The linen fabrics are harder to make hexes out of.

I think I’ll use these to embellish some pants for Sullivan. They seem to be boyish, right? I’ve got a few scraps of Heather Ross goldfish in bags fabric that I think I’ll fussy cut some hexes and use them to embellish a backpack for him.

I can’t do any sewing today though and I have to resist the urge to pick up my crochet hooks too. I have a paper to write and a few hundred pages of Don Quixote to tackle! Yikes!

What’s in your stash today? Happy Sunday!