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momi the mermaid amigurumi

My daughter is in love with Momi the Mermaid. My parents gave her Tropical Water Hide-and-Seek last year and I found Land of Delight at Neat Repeatz last week.

momi the mermaid by yuko green

A few weeks ago, she asked me to crochet a Momi. She opened to a specific page in her book and made sure I understood that Momi needed a “flower necklace” and a flower in her hair.

She was a tricky little mermaid with a multi-colored tail and that hair! Let’s just say, I’m not the best doll maker in the world. Hearts, flowers and hats I can do great, but arms with hands? (Yes, Mom, she needs hands!) The hardest part was her lei. I used an incredibly small hook (1.3 mm!) and embroidery thread.

momi the mermaid by yuko green

I think I did a pretty good job. My daughter is a little bummed that I didn’t crochet flowers all the way around her neck. (But Mom, she’s missing part of her necklace!) I guess I’ll be adding a few flowers to her lei. In the meantime, Momi has been released into the wild, i.e., my daughter’s bedroom. I think she likes her new home on the shelf next to Octopus and Orca.

momi the mermaid by yuko green

thrifted: I don’t have a lot of pastel yarn, especially pink. One day when I was running errands I felt a pull to the nearby Goodwill. I went in and followed The Force back to the craft section. There was a big bag of pastel yarn with everything I needed. I love crafty kismet!

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my creative space

pink fabric for purse

In my creative space today is this beautiful pink fabric. I think it should become a purse. Not a boxy, tote-like bag, but a fancy, dressy purse. It’s got this shiny, metallic thread woven in it that glitters in the sun. It was hard to get a close up, but you can kind of see it here.

pink fabric for purse

It would make a sweet Spring purse, don’t you think?

You can visit more creative spaces over at Kirsty’s blog.

thrifted: I think this was originally a long, wrap-around skirt. I bought it at a church sale last year and figure it’s about time I did something with it!

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my daughter’s first necklace

Thank you to everyone who commented about their creative time of day. I’m encouraged that so many of you find the morning hours so productive. I’m definitely going to give it a try. I even went to bed early last night! Of course, that might have had something to do with the major destash and deep cleaning of my creative space. I was pretty exhausted the next day.

My parents also went home yesterday. The first few days after their visits are always an adjustment, especially getting my daughter back into her routine with some independent play time. Today I got some precious time alone while she strung beads. I helped her get started and then she just took off!

stringing beads

Excuse the jammies, but Fridays are usually our “stay at home” days. I did make her get dressed before lunch, and she spent the rest of her day wearing her new necklace. Here she is crafting at her special end of the kitchen table.

stringing beads

As for me, well, I’ve got a lot of projects that are almost finished. The weather has been kind of glum the past few days. Yesterday we even had snow! I’m hoping for sun this weekend so I can take some pictures for the blog. I’ve got some fun things to share!

stash: Beads are actually from my amigurumi stash. My daughter has been asking to play with them forever. I think they might become her jewelry stash.

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my creative space

spring cleaning and donating

I’m spring cleaning in my creative space today. Three bags of fabric and craft goodies are going to my friend Sarah, who gave me the yarn from last week. I also packed up three bags of clothing that I had planned to upcycle into something else. That’s going to The Mission. I figure there are folks who need those jeans more than I do, and I’ve still got plenty of stash to keep me busy.

I’m already feeling inspired by my uncluttered creative space. Now I’m going to pop over to Kirsty’s blog for more inspiration.

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another garden scarf!

birthday garden scarf

This was a gift for one of my daughter’s friends. The colors are so beautiful, it was hard not to keep it for myself! I decided to make it out of cotton because Spring is right around the corner. (Really! It is!) I hope she gets a lot of wear out of it before the weather turns warm.

birthday garden scarf

I’m still addicted to crocheting flowers, so I went through my stash and put all of my odds and ends in one bag for easy access. There were some colors that looked beautiful together, but I didn’t have enough for the whole scarf. I grabbed some natural cotton to help stretch the colors a little further.

stash: Just like a white t-shirt is to your wardrobe, natural colored yarn is a stash staple. It goes with everything, and you can dress it up or down, depending on your project.

pattern: I’ve had so many requests for this pattern. Sorry I forgot the link! It’s the Garden Scarf from Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker.

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more crochet, more recycled sweater yarn

recycled sweater yarn granny square scarf

I know it seems like I crochet all the time now. I haven’t abandoned knitting or sewing. My daughter is going through what I call a “grabbie” phase. She’s always been very interested in my crafting, but now she’s all about touching everything. I joke that it’s like living with an octopus. There seem to be way more than two little hands trying to get at my projects.

Sewing is hard because of all of the shiny, pointy tools: pins, needles, scissors. She loves the heavy click the sewing machine on-switch makes and how the light turns on. Knitting and crochet are both difficult, too. She LOVES to pull out my needle or hook and try to do it herself. Pulling out a crochet hook isn’t that bad, but pulling out a knitting needle makes an unraveled yarny mess.

Sometimes I’m lucky to get a stretch of time when she’s playing with playdoh or concentrating hard on her letters and numbers. And there’s always that hour during Sesame Street. Until this phase is over, I’ll just grab a stack of books, sit on the floor next to her and crochet while we read.

recycle: Yes, I’m still working from my stash of recycled sweater yarn. I’m thinking about another granny square scarf. It’s snowing today, so I’m guessing I’ll get a lot of time to work on it!

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did i mention i made a new purse?

poppy purse soule mama handmade home

Seriously, how could I forget to blog about this?! Last week I made the Mama’s Bag from Amanda Soule’s latest book with fabric to match my laptop bag. I absolutely love it. My only modification to the pattern was to add a divider on the inside. You can see it a little bit on the left here:

poppy purse soule mama handmade home

That’s mostly to keep knitting and crochet projects from getting tangled up in my other purse stuff. At first I thought it was a little small, but once I freed myself from carrying around so many of my three-year-old’s things* in my bag, I think it’s just perfect.

*It is a Mama’s Bag after all!

stash: Fabric came from this remnant sale. Book is from the library, but after checking it out twice, I think I should probably just buy it. There are so many things I want to make!

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twisted rib scarf technique

twisted rib scarf

My poor, patient husband’s Christmas gift is finally finished. It’s a scarf to match his birthday hat, which was knit with a twisted rib in the round. I wanted to do something similar for his scarf, but had trouble matching the look of the hat while knitting flat. Here’s what I came up with:

K1 western style, P1 combination style

The result: every other row has twisted knit stitches.

I’ve been a big fan of Annie Modesitt’s combination knitting method for some time. Honestly, it’s because of the purl stitches. I love them because they are so easy. Blending western knits and combination purls got me pretty close to matching the hat.

combination notes: Annie’s website is a wealth of combination knitting knowledge and it’s how I learned her method. Grumperina has a nice history and videos, as well.

stash: This was knit from my never-ending stash of black Cascade 220. I’d like to make matching gloves or wrist warmers, but I’d be pushing my luck on what my husband might wear.

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handmade valentine’s day cards

handmade valentine's day card

My daughter’s preschool is having a valentine exchange tomorrow. Usually the rule for school treats is no candy, but this time they’ve made an exception: one small piece is allowed. I found this cute valentine flower on Martha’s website.

The first thing I did was trace and cut out some leaves. I gave them to my daughter to sign while I traced and cut out the hearts. After she went to bed, I added the “from:” to her leaves and glued the flowers. The next day, she helped me put in the lollipops.

Even though she’s too young to use scissors, I think my daughter had fun with this project. Signing her name to all of those leaves made her feel really involved.

stash: Paper from my never-ending stash of graphic design paper samples. Lollipops are always on hand around here. You never know when you need an emergency “treat.”

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my first skirt from measurements

embroidered eyelet baby quilt

A few months ago I checked out Sew What! Skirts from the library. The book just clicked with me. The instructions made sense and seemed really easy. I decided to buy the book and spent months reading and looking at the pictures even though I didn’t have time to make anything.

This weekend I’ve got a dinner date and decided it was time to try one out. I made an a-line with elastic waist pattern, but didn’t have enough fabric to make it as swoopy as I would have liked. It’s more of a straight skirt with a little flair, but it fits, looks cute, and was super easy! I think 2010 is going to be the year of the skirt.

stash: The fabric came in a bin that I bought from a UNL fashion graduate. He said all of the fabrics were really nice and expensive (from New York!), but how was I to know? They weren’t labeled or anything. It’s got a nice drape, and at $5 for the entire bin, the price was right!