The Best Baby Shower

A couple weekends back, I had the distinct honor of attending one of the best baby showers that ever was. The shower was really just a formal component of a regular old (and very, very informal) crafting weekend and had been in the works ever since we learned at the last crafting weekend that two of our "gang of eight" were expecting their first babies within ten days of each other.(Royal babies and crafting babies this summer, oh my!) To honor the two very special mamas-to-be, we wanted to hold a baby shower that showered them with handmade baby items.

It was truly a shower where every present was even more incredible than the last. The mamas received personalized picture books, binders of their baby's genealogy, beautiful quilts and burp clothes, and of course, lots of knit goods. As for really practical things like diapers and teething rings, they'll have to wait for a shower where people actually follow a registry. ;)

Remember those sheep cardigans? Dubbed "The Dirty Lionel Cardigan" after a sheep we named while we were all in Ireland together (five of us studied abroad in Ireland during Spring 2005), the cardigans finally made it to their owners.

Let's see if they fit!

As is to be expected at an event where everyone has a bit of a flair for the creative and homemade, the food was delicious. I'm still dreaming about the lemon curd filled cupcakes, although let me tell you, the chocolate ones weren't half bad either. Even the party favors were homemade: jars of strawberry margarita jam. Oh nom nom nom.

Games and activities were kept low-key and we avoided poop themes (no baby food was wasted at this baby shower) and any "who knows the mom best" sort of games. One of the favorite activities was decorating onesies with puff paint. I'm not sure how many onesies a new mom needs, but you can rest assured that these two mamas-to-be now have onesies - mostly covered in movie quotes or inside jokes - coming out of their ears.

Of course, the baby shower, as wonderful as it was, was just one teeny bit of a four day (!!! hold the phones!) weekend that included a surprise birthday party with an Anchorman theme, s'mores, Skittles, Wimbledon (and Pimm's Cup and strawberries and cream -heaven!), playing on the playground just down the road, evening walks, Pitch Perfect, and so much noise and laughter. I'm so lucky to be part of this wonderful tribe of women!

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Of Woods and Wool

As per usual, the knitting needles have been click-clacking away at Of Woods and Words. Here's the latest creations, fresh out of washing machine - felted clogs!

This pattern was super popular about ten years ago (okay, so I'm not a trendsetter) and I'm happy to finally have my own pair of handmade felted slippers. I didn't take any "before" pictures because the pre-felted slippers were truly hideous - imagine a loosely knitted size 22 slipper. But thanks to the magic of felting, these transformed into adorable little clogs after three trips through a front loading machine, using hot and cold water and a normal spin cycle. The bright amethyst color I used for the upper part does give these slippers a somewhat Muppet-ish feel, but whose life isn't enhanced by the Muppets, I say. ;)

One slipper is slightly bigger than the other (which wasn't the case before they were felted), so that slipper may be getting a bonus trip through the machine. Since the soles are made out of two layers of knitted wool, I'll be putting some puff paint traction on the bottom of the slippers soon so I don't go careening around on the cabin's wooden floors. 

And I spent last week's road trip whipping up this stack of knitted goods:

What are they, you ask? 

It's an owl - I still need to add sequin or bead eyes

Coffee cozies!

I know, I know, you'd think I would have managed to have made more than 8 of these little guys over the course of 6 days and 1600 miles on the road. But, because I was working sans pattern, there was a whole lot of frogging going on.as I figured out the proper gauge and designs for the cozies. ( Btw, "frogging" is knitter colloquial for tearing out work -  named for the noise made when you tear out a piece of knitting: "rip it, rip it.")

Is there an Etsy shop in my future? The verdict's still out, although it would be nice to bring in supplemental income with my knitting  This batch of coffee cozies will most likely be donated to the museum where  I work, because it's beneficial to both of us: 1) It's a safe place for me to test out the product and designs 2) It generates expense-free income for the museum. I'll keep you posted on any developments!

What have you been crafting lately?

 

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Spring is on its way! I swear . . .

I know in about a month's time, I'll be penning a post in which I wonder where the @%!#?* spring is already, but for the time being I'm optimistic that spring is right around the corner. Never mind that today started out at 45 degrees, but now it's just above freezing and snowing.  Spring is coming, gosh dang it! Here's my proof: 

Yesterday, I watched the local fishing guide bring one of his ice houses off the lake. I'm always a little shocked to look up from the computer and spy a snowmobile tugging what essentially looks like a big box across the ice. The DNR says ice houses have to be in a couple weeks before the lake trout season actually ends on March 31st and considering that the lakes have turned into a big ol' slush pile after the snow at the end of February, it's probably wise to get those ice houses in early. 

Another sign of spring is that this Sunday, I finished up my big winter craft project. In the last few winters, I've had a large knitting project to see me through the dark winter evenings, but this year I decided to devoted my energies to finishing up an embroidery project I started back before Christmas 2010.

Andy's step-grandmother (step-grandmother sounds odd and formal, considering it's the second marriage of a widow and widower - we usually just call her by her first name) gave me some of her embroidery kits a while back. They'd come from Harrod's in London, which I found kind of exciting because I love me some Harrod's.

The tablecloth is only about 36"x36", but it sure took me a long time. It'd been years since I'd embroidered when I first picked up the project and I found the loose weave fabric putzy and slightly frustrating to embroider on. As a result, the tablecloth got put aside many times in favor of other speedier projects. For a while, the only time this project saw any attention was at crafting weekends. Finally this winter, with no important knitting project queue and a limited yarn budget, I realized it was time to just finish up the tablecloth. I'm glad I did; I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

In other "spring-y" news, we didn't get chickens, but eggs are starting to show up everywhere. Must be getting to be Easter time!

Our recent warm weather reminded me that I'll be starting the first of the seeds at the end of this month. I know a lot of you are already starting your seedlings, but seedlings up here don't get planted outside until the final weekend of May when, hopefully, we won't have to worry about frost until, you know, September.  At the local hardware store this morning, I picked up some seeds. I didn't need too many, since I'll be using a lot of the seeds left over from last year. I do still need to order my tomato and jalapeno seeds, but I was glad to buy local and am really excited about growing some winter squash this year!  (Margot, do you spy your coaster making a cameo in the picture?)

Is spring coming where you are? What are sure signs that spring is on its way in your neck of the woods? Has anyone started their seeds yet? Any big winter projects getting finished up?

 

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Gettin' Crafty for St. Paddy's

Maybe it's all this talk of an upcoming trip to Ireland. (And yes, by upcoming, I mean 2013). Maybe I'm just ready for spring. Whatever the reason, I'm feeling it's high time to swap out my felted hearts for some St. Paddy's Day appropriate decorations.

Over the years, I've amassed quite a few St. Paddy's Day decorations, thanks to friends, family and having spent a semester living in Ireland. I have a beautiful tablecloth embroidered with shamrocks, a figurine of Irish snowmen, and a collection of St. Paddy's Day kitsch, which includes a set of super classy plastic shot glasses. But that's not enough for this Irish gal and so I have a few plans for adding to the collection this year.

Source: youaremyfave.com via Michelle on Pinterest

Despite having an ever growing collection of houseplants, one houseplant I don't have is a shamrock. I know, right! Actually, back in college, a friend gave me a shamrock for my birthday. Cleverly referred to as "Sam the Sham," the poor little shamrock had a lifespan of about four months before dying of neglect. Hey, it was college and I was easily distracted. It's a sad story, but I'm ready to do better by Sam the Sham II. Time for a live shamrock to be a permanent Irish inspired decoration in the cabin. 

Source: Uploaded by user via Ada on Pinterest

I found these little knit shamrocks on Ravelry last spring. They're made using little bits of sock yarn and I have all sorts of green sock yarn I'm looking to use up. I probably won't "bejewel" my shamrock, but I might knit up enough so that I can make a St. Paddy's Day garland with them.

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Ada on Pinterest

I found this adorable embroidered Irish gal when I was wasting time on browsing on Pinterest the other day. I think she is just about the sweetest thing I've ever seen and she definitely needs a place in the cabin this St. Paddy's Day. I've been doing a lot of embroidery this winter, finishing up a tablecloth I started last winter, so my embroidery chops are all warmed up this project. I just need some supplies - a hoop, muslin, and transfer pencil - and I'm totally making this sweet little Irish lass. 

By the way, if you're looking for some simple and effortless St. Paddy's Day decorations, Katherine over at Irish Italian Blessings has some super cute (and free!) St. Patrick's Day printables. Remember, everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. ;)

Are you preparing for the wearing o' the green yet?

 

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(Water)Crafting Weekend

When people ask why I knit or "craft", I feel the same way as when people ask me why I write. I really have no idea why I do any of it. Part of it is that I can barely remember a time when I wasn't churning out words or knit items from the tips of my fingers. But mainly, it just feels good to take something relatively ordinary like a pile of words or ball of yarn and transform them into something extraordinary.  

The weather was too gorgeous this past crafting weekend to devote too much time to actual crafting. We diligently pulled out our projects on Tuesday afternoon when the group of five girls arrived and moved (temporarily) into the old, unused lodge building down the road. But when Wednesday dawned just as gorgeous as the day before, we shoved the projects in the corner and spent the entire day out on the dock.

Despite our sunbathing tendencies this crafting weekend, we still managed to do a fair bit of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. 

Just take floating in the lake, for example. Pretty awesome just the way it is, but when I mention our need for floating noodles, Katie's eyes lit up. She turned to Emily: "You have your air mattress with, don't you?"

Some people might be deterred by the air mattress's very clear labeling that it was not meant for use as personal floatation device. This group was not. "Bullsh!t!" declared Betsy.

It took some doing, but we managed to turn the mattress into a multi-person floatation device.

The canoeists in the background of the picture below pretended to be amused by our antics. But given their marked avoidance of us the rest of crafting weekend, they were obviously afraid . . . very afraid.

After we'd proven that the raft could indeed hold five grown women, four of us took the air mattress for a spin out to the island at the mouth of bay. Yep the island, in the blog header above.

Of course some things require no transformation. The double rainbow that appeared on the last evening of crafting weekend was pretty extraordinary just the way it was.

It's been one busy, beautiful week at Of Woods and Words. Stayed tuned to hear about the "miracle" that happened Saturday evening.

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Perfect Days

In Minnesota, we don't spend too much time praising the weather. It's either too hot or too cold. Too dark or too buggy; just always, too something. I think we all feel our grumbling keeps us grounded. Heaven forbid we become one of those sad saps who smile at everything!

But sometimes even the most cynical of cynics have to admit that what's going on outside their window is pretty nice.

This "weekend," the Tipsy Crafters arrived for a Northwoods crafting retreat and were greeted by blue skies and temps in the mid-70s. Very little crafting has been done. And why would you devote any time to crafting when there's a big ol' lake to splash around in, air mattresses to convert into floating rafts, islands to swim out to, and ducklings to exclaim over.Crafting can wait until the evening hours, when the sun starts to slowly dip into the far horizon and the warm glow of sunburn is creeping into all of our faces.  

Like we like to say around these parts, "You couldn't have ordered better weather than this."

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Knit Happens*

When the going gets tough, the tough get knitting . . .or . . . . I'm not completely sure that the truly tough know how to knit. Nevertheless, I do have a poster hanging over our bed reminding me that life is never too chaotic to get some knitting done.

My mom taught me to knit when I was five. I plunked down on the floor and used some of  her leftover peach color yarn, which I thought was gorgeous and she probably felt smacked of the 1970s, and learned to knit to a nursery rhyme:  

In through the window,

'Round the back.

Out through the window,  

Off pops Jack.

I can still feel the smooth coldness of the silk cord drawstrings of the navy blue corduroy bag she gave me to store my wooden knitting needles and knitting projects in. I didn't knit much as a child, although I do remember making leg warmers for my American Girl doll. It wasn't until my early teenage years that I actually became proficient at knitting. That's when I tackled Barbara Walker's Learn To Knit Afghan and learned just about every basic knitting stitch and technique you need to know. The afghan, with all of its mismatched squares, is draped over the cabin's couch today.

While I've been knitting longer than I've been reading, I didn't put much effort into really improving my skills until 2008, when I discovered Ravelry. By that time in my knitting career, I'd had a fair amount of knitting disasters and I was tried of attempting to transform gifted yarn into beautiful garments. So I gave myself permission to buy myself some yarn and started to tackle progressively more difficult projects: felting, socks, colorwork, et al.  I had a major epiphany last year when I discovered the concept of "blocking" your work (where you wet a garment and pin it out to desired dimensions after you've finished knitting) which helps give knitted pieces their proper shape and also has a smoothing, evening effect on your stitched. It makes everything look so much better!

My latest project was a hooded lace sweater I started just after Christmas. The sweater, entitled Apres Surf (handy for all the surfing that goes on in northern Minnesota, eh?), uses sock yarn on size 3 and 2 needles (translation: itty, bitty needles and thread-like yarn) and although the pattern wasn't especially complicated, it did require patience and concentration. 

My goal with this project was to make a sweater that didn't look homemade. I realize this is rather counter intuitive to the whole reasoning behind knitting, but we're all familiar with the ill-hanging, bulky homemade sweater.  I wanted a sweater where people's first comment was "What a pretty sweater" rather than "Did you make that?"   I'm rather pleased with the results.

I had to slip in a fun little project while the sweater was blocking. This little sweater is for former co-workers' baby-to-be. 

After the success of the Apres Surf sweater, I'm really hot to trot to start in on this lovely little shell by the same designer, Connie Chang Chinchio. 

Photo credit: changcon

Unfortunately I probably devoted a little too much to my own sweater. Now I need to get a "Tree of Life" afghan finished to be a gift for an early June wedding.

Good thing they have their love to keep them warm because it's going to be a while before this afghan achieves the same effect!

 I better get those needles flying.

Do you knit or crochet? Working on any projects this winter?



*Title shamelessly stolen from fabulous fellow "K"rafter Ali.

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