Thinking out Loud

Hello there, interwebs!

I know that I can't possibly have any loyal readers out there, as I am very un-loyal to actually writing.  Since the last time I was here typing...

1. I canned over 400 jars of various sundries, and filled the pantry to explosion potential.

2.  Following the three months of putting up food from the garden, I experienced a run on Harry Potter Sweaters of monumental proportions.  Over 100 sweaters were embroidered by hand and sent out into the world in the months of October through January.......

3.  I also experienced a small run on custom handknit sweaters, which I believe each deserve their own beautiful snapshot........

Melissa Leapman's Fabulous Cabled Turtleneck Pattern in Malabrigo Maxima

Heavily Improvised Cropped Version of Amy Miller's Gradient Pullover

Beautiful Silk Wedding Bodice from Stephanie Japel's Gorgeous Simple Knitted Bodice Pattern

A Classic Lopapeysa

A Downton Inspired Cardigan from an antique 1920's pattern

Downton Inspired Lace Pullover from another antique pattern

4.  And, finally--- I got caught up in miles and miles of roving, and put together giant blankets and scarves for sale in the shop--- one of which was to be seen on a little old runway during NYC Fashion week.  You know, no big deal.  *runs around flapping arms like an albatross and screaming like a hyena*  Totally cool.

So.... that's my excuse.  I literally had not the time, nor the finger strength, to type anything.  To let you know how I was doing.

But turns out..........I'm doing just fine.  I'm ready for the spring let down.  It came, like the weather, a little later than last year.  But I'm all caught up, and ready for a month of hibernation before the seeds go in the garden.

My two seedlings are doing wonderfully, and the hubster is out for training in California for a month.

I'll try and write regularly until..... well...... I run out of time again.  Being seasonally self-employed is tough on time management skills.  :)

♥Rose

ETA:  I'm available here, here, and here for your purchasing pleasure.

The Sunday Six

I was called a "talented designer" this week.  Me?  I guess I do design things, but do I deserve the moniker of "designer"?  I aspire to do so, but I still can't believe that someone else sees me as such.

Now these people?  I call them designers.  Talented designers even.  The photos speak for themselves.

1.  Sewing in no-man's land.  She recently put designed this beautiful baby outfit for Project Run and Play that I almost want a baby girl to put it on.  And her aprons?  To die for. Go over there and give her some bloggy love.  Wow.

OMG! Cuteness overload!  Now THAT is designing.

2.  This Mabey Heaven.  Hair accessories that require a sense of design that I cannot seem to fathom.  I love her materials and the unexpected materials and shapes.  Check out her upcycled sweaters and skirts too.  Talented Designer.

3.  Moda Bake Shop.  The Moda Fabrics ideas blog.  All their patterns are "recipes".  Tutorials galore.  Amazing eye for the awesome.  Sometimes I just go over there and stare at stuff for 30 minutes or so.  Talented Designers, all.

4.  Alma Stoller.  Just go.  A feast for the eyes.  Amazing Ideas.  Fabulous photos.  Fantastic-ness.  Enough superlative adjectives?  Mixed media art and jewelry.  Just go.  Talented Designer.

5.  Trey and Lucy.  Hair accessories.  Simple, yet innovative needs for the home.  Adorable pics of the kiddos.  Giant Fabric Flowers to go onto anything.  Original ideas.  Talented Designer.

6.  And last, but not least.  You want talented designers?  Go to the Paradise Blog.  This is the group of designers from Etsy shops that I got together with a few weeks ago to chat, shop, and commiserate over low sales weeks with.  All talented designers.  And people I owe thanks to for much of my shop traffic and sales. Thank you Paradise.

There you go.  Talented designers all.  Me?  I'm still not sure.

Working my tail off... Back to work tomorrow

I've got to go back to teaching tomorrow, and while I do love my job, I love crafting just a bit more.  I was so worried that creating for my Etsy store would take the joy away from making all these wonderful things, but the feedback I've gotten just adds fuel to the fire.  I've been pushing myself to come up with new designs today, and I pulled out a few stops...

It's really amazing what we can create with the things we have at home.  Upcycling.   I once read that upcycling is "turning useless crap into even more useless crap."  I have to disagree.  All of these items were upcycled from tossed sweaters- cashmere, merino, wool.  Those natural fibers are never worthless.  So, I've been upcycling my butt off all week.  Do any of these look like useless crap?  I hope not.

100% Cashmere Scarf with Ruffle

Wool Cowl with Vintage buttons

Silk Fingerless Gloves

Cashmere Opera Length Fingerless Gloves

I've finished alot more, but I'm waiting for my dearest hubby to get home and take some decent pictures.  I hate taking pics alone.  No fun at all! 

So, what inspires you to create?  I just love natural fibers.  I love color.  I love creating something out of something else. 

What do you love to do?  Share!

Working with Cashmere...and a purse fail.

Good news and bad news.  Let's get the bad news over first.  My orange purse that I dreamed would be perfection, luscious, amazing, superfantabulous, extraordinary? 

None of those adjectives seem to fit the bill.  I'd go with....blech.  The beaded embellishment of my vision looked ridiculous on it.  The construction was mediocre to say the best of it.  I blame the super thick wool, the lack of handbag construction experience, my cruddy old cheap sewing machine.  Whatever.  Here is the vision....  A long rectangular bag with a half moon flap, lined with vintage linen, and embellished with the most beautiful beaded dangly thing I thrifted..  this thing:

The dangly thing-y doesn't really go with the shotty craftmanship of the bag.  I don't know if there is any saving of this orange monstrosity...  give me a fricken' idea already.  I'm fresh out. 

Pointy edges, too short of a flap.  Blah.

Extra thick felted sweater + older cheap machine = crappy construction detail.  Blah.

But on an up note...

The cashmere creativity train has pulled into the station.  With two of the lovliest color of cashmere I have found to date, I made four things:

Cashmere Cowl with coordinating thrifted cotten lining

Cashmere Fingerless gloves in progress...

Cashmere Scarf of gorgeousness...

You want to touch it, don't you...

And this, the crowning achievement of an old Daniel Bishop Cashmere Sweater.  Possibly the thickest I've ever seen...  Cabled and ribbed?  This scarf is 6X thicker than any cashmere object I've ever touched.  And like a cloud.  Soft as butter...  I don't know if I can sell it, other than it is not really my color...

OMG!! 72" of luxury right there.

And one more pair of cashmere fingerless gloves, in a classic combo of linen color and tiny cables....

So, as artists, whether we are knitters, sewers, upcyclers, whatever... We take the good with the bad, right?  And sometimes the bad is very, very bad.  But the good can be very, very soft. 

Off to work!  I have a pile of cashmere and wool that needs work.

And- everyone give a shout out to Rex; he found me some lovely pieces that could become my very first design involving wool suiting... Any ideas?

The Sunday Six

So, here I sit, with my 11 stitches, with nothing much to do the day after Christmas...

I'm enjoying the blogosphere... Join me for some sewing, knitting, and crafting inspiration that I've discovered myself looking at everyday with my coffee.  I'm looking today for ideas on what to spend my Jo-Ann's Fabric and Barnes and Noble Gift Cards on.

1.   I wanted to give a shout out to my beautiful and crafty cousin Dawn, who has started her very own craft blog- A Few Good Yarns. She is a knitter/crocheter, and has a great eye for classy and fun designs.  I can't wait until she posts about her crocheted baby hats with interchangeable flowers.  Stop over there sometime, and give her a holler.  She's good people. (Except for the cooking of Lima Beans, which I can never agree with.  If there is an maligned green food that deserves its reputation, this one is it.)

2.  My go-to place for tutorials for one of a kind items and excellent photography of her seedlings...A Lemon Squeezy Home. This is one of her outstanding tutorials that I've been meaning to make for weeks now...

3.  Over at ISLY (I Still Love You), I found wonderful upcycled lovlieness, and even bought commercial rights from her to make her braided jersey necklaces for my Etsy store.  (I know, I know- where are the necklaces, then?... I've been a bit obsessed with wool upcycling right now.)

She has recently made cashmere mittens.  Such a lovely shade of orange!

4.  Over at Wardrobe Refashion, you'll find a group of contributors who'd pledged not to buy any new clothes, only refashion what they had or what they had purchased at thrift stores.  Some creative ideas over there, although the site is closed to further contributors now.  I hope they change their minds!

5.  For those of you who've been living under a rock, or are not knitters- Stephanie Pearl McPhee aka "The Yarn Harlot" is one of the best knitting/crafting bloggers; no wait- best blogger out there.  Read what she has to say.  She is freakin' hilarious.  Go, laugh.

6.  And, last but never least- I am Momma, Hear me Roar.  She does everything from embellishing old shoes to give them new life, to designing clothing.  I love her designs, most recently her upcycled T-shirt hat for toddlers has made it onto the to-do list.  My seedlings would look so adorable in these. 

So, go waste some time.  Surf the interweb/net/blag/ whatever.  Drop me a line to let me know what I'm missing.  Drop me a line to let me know what you'd like to see next week.  Just drop me a line.  Even a :) will work.  :p

Creative mind at work...

So I'm not posting much today, due to the fact that inspiration has hit me hard.  (I'm not complaining) I'll get a photoshoot in soon of my new creations.. :)

In the meantime, check out my Etsy Treasuries that I've put together in three colors:

Blue

Pink

Green

 

So Gorgeous, I can barely stand it.

The process....

So I have this process of designing these one of a kind items, and it never really is the same...  But the basic steps go something like this.

*Mommy note:  This is by no means a continual process.  I'm constantly interrupted by the needs of the household (rugh.) and the needs of my kiddos and hubby.  Interruptions add time and frustration to the need for design inspiration.  But alas, we do what we do. 

1.  Hunt for objects that are natural fibers.  Find.  Buy.  Buy more.  Buy more.

2.  Organize said natural fibers by color.  (I'm currently using an old bookshelves and repurposed shelving in my laundry room.)  Could be more organized, but you aren't reporting to Martha Stewart, right?

These colors are at the top of my to- do list. 

Vintage sheets!!!!!!!!!

3.  Stare at items.  Fondle items.  Decide if items should be felted.  Put items back onto shelf until inspiration strikes.


4.  Once inspiration strikes, remove item(s) from shelf, felt in the washer, and proceed to de fuzz .  Whilst de-fuzzing, which anyone who has ever felted knows- takes FOREVER..., I stare at item some more, and decide what it wants to become.  Whatever that is, it needs to be chopped up.

5.  Chop, slice, chop.

6.  Decide that the original idea I had will not work with said sliced pieces.  Stare at item.  Fondle item.

7.  Make a command decision.  Back out of decision.  Man's plain armwarmers?  Those sold quickly.  Embellish these brown ribbed wrist warmers with beautiful felted flowers or embroider, or better yet; a lace flower with a button?  That would be really cute...  This goes on for an hour or so.  Then I embellish or not. 

I end up with something like this-

Kept plain.  They were already sooo darn cute!

or this

Angora and Wool with a lace flower.

or this

The Cowl that would become a purse embellished with Vintage fabric and wool rosettes.

 

 

 

 

Sometimes my inspiration pile gets unruly... But I just pick what I like when I look down...

Declan has a little pink soldier "watching over mommy's pink sweater thingie"

And I always have extra scraps to inspire me further into the patchwork/embellishment abyss...

So there it is.  Organically created by a possibly insane person, who has trouble focusing if I know I won't be tested, who doesn't like to ever do the same thing twice, and who loves, loves, loves what I'm doing.

What inspires you?  How do you get that inspiration out there?