So, to start, here are a few things I've been up to recently (or not so recently as I just downloaded my camera and found pictures from January...)!
My friend Zajac asked me to take on another craft project (I never did get a photo of her in the elf costume I made). She had this old lambskin coat that her mother-in-law had given her ages ago. The mother-in-law was going to be having some surgery and Zajac wondered if I could cut up the coat and make it into a teddy bear to give the old lady. Although it was slightly disturbing and reminded me of "Silence of the Lambs" I was able to produce an incredibly adorable bear! This was not my first attempt at bear-making. In college I made Eric a 
Thank-You bear for driving my somewhat crumpled car through a blizzard. But working with an antique material proved somewhat tricky. I had to get some leather lotion to treat the material so it wouldn't be brittle and break at the seams. Long story short, the old lady loved the bear and cried tears of joy when she received it. My work there was done, so I moved on to synthetic material and proceeded to make another bear and then adapted the pattern to make a bunny friend for my bear. They all three sport faux-leather noses that are oh-so-cute!
I've also recently revived my interest in knitting. I made several comfy, wool socks as Christmas gifts and had a few other projects lined up. I soon found, however, that I was continually thwarted in my knitting plans by lacking the right needles. After researching a few options, I decided to buy several sets of bamboo needles from EBay! I now have two complete sets of circular needles and a set each of 7" and 9" double points. Of course I needed somewhere to store all these wonderful new needles, so I took some of the canvas and calico that I made tote bags with two years ago (yes, I saved it that long...) and made some handy needle holders!Now that I had all these great needles, I needed some more knitting projects! I started working
on a pattern that uses two circular needles to knit two socks at one time (thus avoiding the dreaded "Second-Sock Syndrome!" They are coming along nicely, though rather slower than I expected since I'm using a lighter weight yarn. I also wanted to experiment with dyeing and felting wool. Luckily Mom was willing to give me several skeins of Lopi she had lying around so I didn't have to buy a bunch. I decided to just use Kool-Aid because I didn't feel like buying a lot of expensive dyes if I wasn't sure I was going to like it. The Kool-Aid dyeing was quicker than I expected and a lot of fun! I'm now working on knitting the wool into a tote bag and will try felting it soon. As if that isn't enough, I just signed up for a felted clog slipper class at my local yarn shop! I'll get to use the wool I bought in Maine over Christmas and hopefully meet some interesting knitters!
on a pattern that uses two circular needles to knit two socks at one time (thus avoiding the dreaded "Second-Sock Syndrome!" They are coming along nicely, though rather slower than I expected since I'm using a lighter weight yarn. I also wanted to experiment with dyeing and felting wool. Luckily Mom was willing to give me several skeins of Lopi she had lying around so I didn't have to buy a bunch. I decided to just use Kool-Aid because I didn't feel like buying a lot of expensive dyes if I wasn't sure I was going to like it. The Kool-Aid dyeing was quicker than I expected and a lot of fun! I'm now working on knitting the wool into a tote bag and will try felting it soon. As if that isn't enough, I just signed up for a felted clog slipper class at my local yarn shop! I'll get to use the wool I bought in Maine over Christmas and hopefully meet some interesting knitters!
During all this crafting I found out that two of my friends were expecting baby boys. While I usually make baby quilts for gifts, both these ladies live in rather hot areas of the country. I decided to expand my skills a bit and knitted Mary-Jane style booties and sewed sun hats. I just love the look of bumble bees, and thought these two gifts paired well. And my old Yeller bear (which Mom made when I was probably about 8 or 9 years old) made a willing model, since I wouldn't actually get to meet the new babies soon.
Of course I have several other projects in the works: finishing up a pottery class, finishing a wedding quilt gift (better hurry, the wedding is only 23 days away!), gardening, fundraising for the Animal Rescue Kayak event (more details at http://www.mysticaquarium.com/ or to donate go to www.firstgiving.com/skyebyrd), and planning a Field Day birthday party! Stay tuned and I'll keep you updated (hopefully...).
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