Video How To: Fat Quarter Roses

I've never done a video tutorial before, it's only recently I have a half decent webcam.  I hope this comes across as clearly as I feel it did, but if you have any questions about the project or hints for the video beginner, feel free to comment!

Materials for this project:
1 fat quarter
1 quilting pin
2 silk rose leaves (with wire)
1 9" piece of stem wire
floral tape
yarn or ribbon

Happy New Year!

A few quick updates.

The new guy stays!  Chase has gained a ton of weight since we brought him in and except for an annoying need to try to escape into the backyard, he's fitting in pretty nicely.  

I've been really busy with projects like this in addition to lots of scarves for family Christmas gifts and baby shower presents.  Unfortunately, none of is has resulted in much in the way of patterns or designing anything.

Lehigh Valley Polar Plunge

Two weekends from now, I'm participating in the 1st ever Lehigh Valley Polar Plunge to benefit the Special Olympics.  If you have an extra $5 click the above link to sponsor my plunge and support a good cause.

Things have finally calmed down at work and I'm looking at having a little bit more time for my yarn, so hopefully some patterns will come down the pike before too much longer.

Happy New Year!  I wish you all the best for 2013!

Harry Potter Birthday Party.

First of all, let me just say, a huge risk involved in having a child in your life (even if it's a friend's little one), that no one ever tells you about, is that they will inevitably fall in love with something, at some point, that is no longer popular with anyone else. For example - Lyam's obsession with Harry Potter.

Now before you start rolling your eyes and yelling at the monitor, I know, the last movie JUST came out on disk. But they're already getting set up to do the Disney thing and "vault" the collection. Which means everything Harry Potter has suddenly gotten even harder to find and more expensive even than it was before.

$5.79 plus shipping for 12 napkins with Daniel Radcliffe's picture on it? I don't think so.

$7.99 for 8 plates with the logo on it? Forget it.

The old Wilton Harry Potter Bust pan that retailed for $11.99 and could be gotten cheaper with a coupon, now is discontinued and only available used starting at (I'm not kinding) $34.50 + plus shipping! And there's no guarantee that a used cake pan won't be too warped to use.

But Lyam had to have a Harry Potter Birthday and Lisa and I were determined to make it happen. So we went online and we found a Hogwarts Cake Set, complete with figurines of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. And it was a decent price and eligible for free shipping from Amazon! Jackpot!

Then is showed up in the mail. 3 days before the party and it is the saddest, most pathetic thing you have ever seen - with no instructions or suggestions about cake size or anything. But the figures are good. Like, really good. Good enough to make it worth the money anyway. So I figure I can work with this.

I bought the Wilton "Romantic Castle Set." It's meant to make a fairy tale princess castle, but also has intructions for a "Medieval Fortress" and at this point, I'm feeling like anything would be close enough.

So after about a million false starts and a last minute realization that I was short a box of cake mix, we finally get the cake going.

With the last minute addition of Rice Crispie Treats for the top layer, we're in business.

Then I realize I don't have my little round detail tip. And I'm at someone else's house. In the middle of not much. Miles and miles from any legitimate cake or candy supply store. So we head to bed with the decision to hit Walmart early in the morning.

I bought some icing writers and a cheap ass, good enough to get through round tip and we're back to finishing up the cake.

Decorated with banners to match the streamers around the house and everything. With the addition of our heroes, it turned out to be an impressing castle and a pretty passable Hogwarts.

The figures really were very good, it's a shame I couldn't just get them without the crushing disappointment that was the rest of the set they came in.

And while the decorating was a bit hurried in places and a little clumsy due to the belated realization that I hadn't brought all of my tools with me, the cake was a huge hit.

Been a while.

It's been a while since I posted anything on here and I wanted to show you all what I've been working on!

I've been spending more and more time outside. And getting the sunburn to show for it. (I've learned my lesson, and I've invested in both Aloe Gel and good Sunblock.)

Go easy on me, it was the first gorgeous day this spring and it wasn't hot. I bounced happily out the door wearing a tank top and never even realized I had sunburn until it started to itch later that night.

Some friends of ours adopted a little girl (I believe she's about 3 years old) so I made her a bear!

Friends of ours in Baltimore are expecting Baby #2 this fall, so I've been working on an afghan for them. Even when I have my nephew at McDonald's. I get the chance to work while he's playing, and sometimes I even get to share my web site or talk yarn with other parents!

Got up to Glen Onoko for the first time! We didn't go up the Falls this time because we actually had a project we wanted to sit and work on, but we did walk out the access road/bike trail quite a distance.

We climbed around at the base of the falls a bit, and it looks like my knee is going to hold up pretty well for me this summer, as long as I'm not stupid about the hiking and climbing.

I bought a bike last week and I've been riding to work as weather allows. I've walked for a little over a month now, and happily switched over to riding, it means I get a little extra time in my morning, and I don't need a ride home. Without losing anymore time out of my day to my commute than I did when I was walking one way and getting a ride the other.

Haven't given up.

Those of you who follow my other blog, Live Like a Hippy, will have seen me posting like crazy about homemade spa goodies, especially Lip Balm. Have no fear, I haven't stopped crocheting.

I've actually been working on a pattern book! The working title is "Creature Comforts" and it's going to be filled with animal inspired winter gear, for little kids and big kids! So far, I've got a Snuggly Diamond Back scarf, the Shark Attack Hat, a Frog hat, and the Brain Worm Scarf/hat combo.

I'm hoping to come out with roughly a dozen patterns when all is said and done. Also, now that my arm is healed (I fell victim to all the ice in Allentown the other week) I should be able to do a lot more crochet work. I'll gonna finish up the laptop sleeve I'm working on, so I can keep my shiny new Toshiba shiny and new and then dig right back into the Creature patterns.

I've also got a couple of new ideas bouncing around for the Fishin' Buddies booklet. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten that a lot of you are here for the free stuff. I've got a couple ideas in that category too.

Studio: Reboot

So, no access to my art supplies is driving me crazy. That combined with the fact that I have things like Ink and Paint that can't remain in the basement much longer now that the weather is getting colder, has made us come to the decision that I really need to put my studio back together. What does that mean to you?

Well that means:

• new items in the store (which will hopefully move off of Etsy)
• updates to the website in a more timely fashion
• new patterns!
• a permanent move from tripod to Tilghman Street Studios (fewer, more targeted ads)
• possible addition of video to the how-to's instead of just pictures

I'm feeling pretty ambitious about all of this. I'm up in the middle of the night, wide awake from having badly overslept and evening nap, and my brain is going a mile a minute.

We'll need to the get the hubby's computer up and running to make up for the fact that I may be living on the laptop for a good portion of our vacation next week. We'll be getting our new washer and dryer before too much longer with also means that I can felt without having to run down 3 flights of stairs to the washing machine. (The hook-ups are in the basement right now and the studio is on the 3rd floor. The hook-ups are getting moved to the kitchen!)

Speaking of kitchen, I had one that usable, if not actually finished and I'm thinking about trying to custom dye some yarn. Maybe doing some tie-dyes and such.

That's it for now, I think I need to spend some serious time with my notepad and my sketch book. I'll keep posting as new things happen!

Looks who's back!

So after all this time, we're finally getting settled back into the house. We've been living in it for almost 3 weeks, but it's only now starting to feel like ours again. All the damage from the fire has been repaired at this point but we haven't started to unpack yet because the bathroom remodel isn't done yet and repairing the living room floor and redoing the kitchen come after that, as well as the touch up painting in the whole house. When things are finished up, I'll post some pictures.

I haven't been totally lazy while I haven't been online, although admittedly, my dislocated kneecap is slowing me down quite a bit. But... I do have a few recipes to get posted over on Live Like a Hippy, including two for awesome salads, both using variations on Good Seasons dressing mix packets, and I've been crocheting for charity, and brainstorming a really cute draft blocker for you all.

I have my follow up with the orthopedic on Thursday, wish me luck.

Studio Update (or Slacker!!!!!!!!!)

So, it's become pretty obvious that I work much better when I am actually working in my studio. The dining room table has become synonymous with screwing around on Facebook, while the studio remains a workspace.

That's not to say Facebook isn't great, I've hooked back up with a lot of old friends and I definitely have something to kill time when my insomnia is bad. Unfortunately, it's also been a great way for me to end up with no time left for anything important. Therefore, the official mission will be: more back into the studio, Slacker. Get something done for once.

Also, the cat was much happier when I was working in the studio. Anybody with a cat will understand why a happy cat is a good thing. If you don't own a cat, let me just say this: unhappy cats can be destructive, in all kinds of ways.

Since I brought the laptop back downstairs Crochet Pages has been badly neglected. My other Website, the parent site, Tilghman Street Studios has been completely neglected. Not good if I want to make these the source of my livelihood. Something's gotta give and it's not going to be my lifelong dream on becoming my own boss.

Little by Little

So, I've gotten a little bit of time to spend on the fixing of the title graphics. I've gotten through a pretty good portion of the site, but there's tons left yet.

On the plus side, it's given me a chance to realize that a lot of the older patterns have terrible pictures. Fuzzy, dim, you name it. The Chocolate Bunny looks like a blob, and some of the others aren't much better. To that end, I'm going to do the best I can to get a new digital camera (for those of you who don't remember, I got a really good, but used Nikon about a year ago - for free - and the battery pack promptly crapped out on me.) in the next couple weeks. I found one that looks like it will handle basic website photos and snap shots really well and it's only like $40.

Little by little, things are falling into place.

Next on the list is to get everything switched over to the new Project Wonderful-friendly layout. That will take some time, but once it's done, it'll look really good. Also, it will bring in a bit of money and hopefully get you all some useful links.

Once that's done, I'll have a pretty good idea of how to layout really sharp-looking, ad-friendly pages for Tilghman Street Studios. Which will make me very happy. I think that there will be things at Tilghman Street that you will like quite a bit.

Honestly, though, even if you don't find anything that you like, the Crochet Pages fans will be benefiting in several ways. I'll be in charge of the advertising, instead of Lycos. No more pop-up ads.

Liam and I will be handling the T-shirts - we'll be using a grassroots print-on-demand style production - which means that they'll be hand screen-printed.

Eventually, we will (hopefully) be handling the book printing also.

In the end, this will lead to a better, friendlier website, and better merchandise with lower shipping costs. And unless I'm way off - this should make everyone happier.

Tilghman Street Studios

It's official. I have finally registered for a domain name and hosting where I can control the ad content and placement. Age's Crochet Pages will be moving from Tripod and under the umbrella of Tilghman Street Studios.

Tilghman Street Studios is another project of mine and if I can figure out how to get if set up properly, Crochet Pages will be a subdomain of this project. As soon as I have the official URL, I'll be sure to post it.

It may be a bit before you see the pages at the new location, there's a lot about the new host that is completely different from what I'm used to working with. I'll keep you all posted.

Finally.

So, after what? Like a month of no new anything in the way of crochet, I've finally got started working on something. I've got a good portion of the next "Fishin' Buddies" pattern done, with some pretty solid ideas for at least one more.

I have managed to get a couple of more t-shirt designs done, but I haven't uploaded them yet. I've been seriously considering pulling my shirts from Printfection and hand screen printing them as people order them. It's would be a lot more work on my end, and possibly a pretty big up front investment, but at the same time - the biggest stumbling block that I've hit with Printfection is the fact that I have to purchase one of each shirt to see how the printing works out before I can offer them for sale and at the rate I design shirts sometimes that can get very pricey.

The biggest evidence of this is the fact that after all this time of talking about offering shirts, I have what, one design available. Best laid plans of mice and men, I guess.

I'll keep you posted. But be aware, my wrist is healed enough now that there will be some patterns coming.

Just in case

So, for those of you who aren't a fan on Facebook, which I suspect is most of you, I thought now that my hand is feeling well enough that I can type a bit better, I would post a better update.

About a week and a half ago, I promised myself "Finish the Kitchen (we're repainting) and then the website is a priority. New Shirt Designs, New Patterns, New Etsy Stuff." Then about 3 days after that, I woke up in a good deal of pain.

I figured that I had probably done something stupid in my sleep, like spent half the night sleeping on my arm. Over the course of the day, the pain didn't go away, and in fact flared up enough to make my eyes water a few times. So, I went to the Urgent Care on Cedar Crest Blvd. to find out, "Now what is wrong with my wrist?"

Did I mention that this is my left wrist? And I'm left handed? And I'm a picture framer at the day job?

I was told that I hyper extended my thumb, probably when I was babysitting. That kid plays hard! I left thinking, well now I know, got the splint the doc told me to buy, took some Advil (as recommended) and went about my evening.

Over the course of the weekend, the pain got worse, the swelling got worse, from time to time my hand looked a bit dusky, and I had three episodes of numbness. So I went back to the urgent care. Same diagnosis, but this time a Rx anti-inflammatory (so I can actually start to heal) and I'm stuck in the splint until, at least, my follow-up on Monday instead of for 4-6 days until I start to feel better.

So, since I'm not doing very well using the touchpad (I have a laptop) and I can't hold much of anything, all of my projects are sort of in limbo. My apologies. I guess next time I should have a little less fun playing.

A very full few days

So, it's only Wednesday, and I feel like I've already put in a weeks worth. I finished a pattern for the site, it just needs a photo and to be typed up. I have an afghan pattern a good portion of the way finished.

Sunday, I worked a half day to cover for someone who was sick, then finished the one pattern and big part of the other.

Monday morning, I went to the gym and then I worked a closing shift. At work, I finished up the last 13 pieces in a set of 71 that I had been working on.

Tuesday, I went to the gym with Liam, then worked another closing shift, this time with Liam.

Today, I worked another half day, because I had to leave early because apparently overtime is evil. I bought the stuff I need for a couple of Mother's Day gifts that I'm responsible for and the stuff to make the favors and start the centerpieces for my Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Then I came home and played on the internet for a while. Then I went for a sushi lunch, hit Walmart for some odds and ends and then went to Wegman's for the tea bags for my favors.

Then I called Dave and we went tromping around in the woods at the Mary Immaculate Center, and climbed a tree. Then we went out for dinner.

Now, I'm home, putting my favors together and playing on Facebook.
Whew.

Tomorrow plans are gym with Liam and then babysit and make a Mother's Day gift with Lyam. (No, that is right, there are 2 Lyam's and they spell their names differently. One is Scottish origin - Lyam, the other is short for William - Liam. Also, one of them is 2 1/2 and I babysit him, the other is a coworker and dear friend of mine.)

Friday - work, then Date night.

Saturday - another closing shift.

I hope you followed all of that, because I'm not sure that I didn't miss something.

Oh, also, I sold a coffee cup sleeve and pair of baby slippers this week.

Pattern Requests

Wow, I can tell the site had a huge surge in visits recently, I'm starting to get requests for specific patterns again.  With that in mind, there's a couple of things I would like to say about pattern requests.

1) Please, please feel free to send them.  Sometimes you guys think of things that never occurred to me.

2) Please give me some time to work something up, the bigger the project, the more lenient I'll ask you to be with the deadline.

3) Understand that I am a stereotypical artist of the worst sort.  I could have all the ideas in the world and the pattern still may not come to me. 

If I can come up with something, I will email it to you as soon as I have it and post the pattern on Crochet Pages, with a nod to you, as soon as I have the pictures for it.

If I can't come up with anything in a timely manner, I ask that you please do not take it personally.  It way mean I'm struggling with it, it may mean I have family commitments, it could mean work got crazy.  

Many of you know, although some don't, that I work for a major Arts and Crafts chain.  This means a couple of things - I love my job, I get to be creative every day, but also, I work retail.  I'm the Framing Manager at my local Michaels.  Which means, a minimum of 42 hours a week (if you include travel) I have no access to yarn or a computer.

It also means that this time of year, work will only get more and more hectic until about January.  Last year, I spent almost a week in New Jersey (driving 50 miles each way, every day) before Christmas, and a little over a week going to the same stores just after Christmas.  I put almost 6oo miles on my car the one week and over 800 the other.  I got gas for cheaper than I could in PA and didn't have to get out of my car in the cold (Jersey's all full service).  I loved it.  I love meeting new framers, you never know when you'll learn something new.  I got reimbursed for gas mileage, and I got a ton of overtime.

Unfortunately, I was getting up, going to work, filing my paperwork on the way home (I had to drive past my store, anyway), saying goodnight to my husband and going to be early.  I didn't have time to think about crochet.  If I start to get into a situation like that, I'll make sure I let you all know, but I wanted to mention it now, just so it doesn't come as a surprise later.

On that note, I need to get on with my day.

Thanks for reading and happy hooking to all!!

Back to reality.

So, my vacation's over now. I don't work until 2pm today, but it is officially back to work starting today.

What does this mean to you? Well, now that I'm done getting a tattoo and visiting Maryland and taking my best friend to a concert for her birthday, life will be getting back to normal. Which means, site updates and patterns!

I finally got the pixie photos from the friend I borrowed the camera from, so that means I'll get those up, and I'll be trying to do at least one new pattern every month from here out.

I will also be putting some time into getting the studio put together and working on some more t-shirt designs. I need to look into where I'm gonna have them printed at a little more, but right now I'm looking at PrintFection. I have mixed feeling about CafePress, because of the limits that they put on free accounts, and I'm just not a good fit for Zyraxia, even though they do hand screenprint all their shirts, which makes the printing more durable.

The draw back to Zyraxia is that they don't just print stuff because you submitted it. They review they design, decide if it's sellable, then, if they like it, it becomes they're design to do with as they see fit, and they run off a batch of shirts. The only way to make sure that they print your design is to upload it and order a full printing batch. Since I'm looking for print on demand, so I don't have to store or ship the shirts, not really what I was looking for, Also, I'll consider my designs a hit even if only one person other than me buys them. Not an option with Zyraxia.

Which is where I come back to PrintFection. Print on demand. When you want a shirt, they print that one shirt and then ship it off. They take their share and I get what's left.

Also, I've been working, finally, on support badges for a local charity group called Because We Care. One of the reasons I'm putting a lot of effort into the stuff for Because We Care is that it's run by an older woman and at this point in time, the only web-presence the group will have is what I give it on my website.

I've been rearranging the homepage somewhat to start working all this new stuff in, so you will be seeing some changes coming up. Hopefully, they will all be minor, at least visually. I think all the changes are going to be for the better and I hope you feel the same.

As always, thanks for reading and if you have any ideas or concerns, please, please, let me know!

So, I finally got a tattoo today.

After years of saying I would, I finally got some ink!


These were taken right after I took the bandage off, so the tattoo was about 2 1/2 hours old. Hence the smudging, purple residue from the transfer and the shininess form the ointment.

Another Pattern Book

So, yet another pattern book in the works. I guess that it might seem counter-productive to have so much on the table at once, but I've gotta do the patterns as they come to me and now there's a place to put them as they come up. I know I'll eventually do more dolls, doilies, and bags. There's certain things that I always come back to.

I love the idea that crochet is not just something for little old ladies and middle-aged housewives to do. I love the fact that more and more kids are getting into it. I pride myself on taking a somewhat wacky approach to an art with a centuries long history. I have said before that I don't 'get' freeform, but I do love to take something very traditional and give it a modern spin.

Doilies have been done for years, but rarely with repeats other than 2, 6 or 8. I've done 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 20. I plan to keep doing this.

People crochet flowers all the time, but outside of amigurumi, you don't often see cartoon-type flowers.

Lots of people crochet doll clothes, but again, outside of Japanese patterns, you don't see very many dolls that are entirely yarn.

I'm not saying all of this to brag, that's not the point. I'm genuinely proud of what I do, and the fact that I do it a little different from everybody else.

What this post is actually about, is a little bit of a preview of things to come. A modern spin on traditions.

In the coming months, here's some things I'm hoping you'll see on Crochet Pages:
- new patterns every month
- crochet related merchandise (t-shirts, buttons, etc.)
- more chances to participate in things
- possible revival of the weekly stitch along project
- revival, in some form, of the Newsletter
- pattern books for download
- if interest allows, some form of crochet exchange

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions of things you would like to see, gimme a shout! Drop a comment or send an email

Some Progress has been made!

I didn't get as far with my cleaning as I had planned. But, I did get to some cleaning and lo and behold, it's starting to look like a studio instead of a heap of random arts and crafts junk.

Photos to come!

Cleaning my Workspace

Alright, so, I wish that my camera worked so that I could get pictures for before and after, but tomorrow, I'm going to go upstairs and start to get my studio put together, for really, this time. I've been putting it off because I wanted to paint first, but let's be realistic, I've been "getting around to painting" in that room for like 4 years now. I need to just get situated so that I don't have craft supplies all over the damn house.

Once all of the cleaning is out of the way, it should be much easier for me and Jess to put in whole Saturdays of work, I'm hoping we can aim for once a month, plus I might actually be able to find everything for once. Organizing gets a little crazy because most people organize their yarn, or their beads, or the sewing stuff, or their scrapbooking. I need to organize all of that, plus framing, floral arranging, website samples, patterns of all kinds, projects I'm doing for other people, and so on and so on. Also, cd's because I can't work without music.

At any rate, once I have an organized workspace, I'm hoping that a few things will come to fruition.

1) The house will be cleaner.
2) I won't have to say "I need to find my..." anymore.
3) I'll be more productive.
4) My husband won't be afraid of my craft room any more.
5) I could have company over, and not have to hide my art supplies behind the sofa.
6) I won't have to worry about the cat sleeping on things he shouldn't.
7) My allergies will get better.
7a) My asthma with be better.

And so on. Right now my craft room looks like the craft room I always swore I'd never have. And I HATE IT!

So, even though I won't have any before pictures, I do plan on having many after pictures to share with you. Wish me luck, and if no one hears from me by Friday, tell my husband where I was headed. ;-)

Let's Get Serious.

Ok, so, now I have my laptop back, and unfortunately, in the meantime, the battery pack for my digital camera went bad. The good news is, it should be pretty easy to find a new one. The bad news is, they're like $50.

But I still should be able to get website work done, although, a good deal of what needs to be done at this point is behind-the-scenes type stuff. I also need to get working on the Project Wonderful stuff - like deciding where on the site I want to allow ads and designing my ad banners and the like. I also need to get registered with a new host.

And then there's Because We Care. I didn't know this until the other day, but the Lehigh Valley has a local blankets for kids charity. I talked to the founder at length and I will be participating the best I can given that I can't get to any of their meetings. (They meet one Monday night a month at the Hickory Hills Clubhouse, and I work every Monday night.) But at any rate, I talked to the founder at length and they appear to have no internet presence at all, so I told her that I would put together a mention for my website and try to help her get their name out.

That being said, I forgot to get permission to give out her phone number, so if you want more information, email me and I'll get in touch with her and get the info to you.

I am not considering this the formal write up, because I would like for that to be a permanent addition to the site.

On other topics, I finally got a decent night's sleep, thanks to (I think) an aromatherapy pillow mist that I finally broke down and bought.

And, I finally got almost enough clothes for the new dress code at work. Maybe corporate should have looked to see if there even was such a thing as long sleeve oxford-style, white, women's button-down shirts before they required them. Everything is 3/4 sleeve, or has that weird open-neck thing where the buttons stop just above your cleavage and the collar is more open and wouldn't fit around your neck even if you added your own buttonholes. Or they have frilly little ruffly stuff as the top for wearing it under a vest. And I'm not allowed a vest, first off, and secondly, I don't do frilly.

All of that being said, I think things might *crosses fingers* be getting under control around here. We've got beautiful tomatoes coming in in the garden and we're finally gaming again. If only the house would paint itself.....