Using Cashmere Sweaters to Make Stuff

I was going through my closet yesterday, looking to see if I had any wool sweaters I was ready to give up. I found two, a red pullover and a brown wrap-around, and of course both are still in great condition. But I do have a blue cashmere hand-me-down sweater from my mom that has a stain on the front. I wondered if I could throw that in the washer and make felt, so off I went to google it.

Do you ever click a link and then let out a squeal of delight when you see what's on the webpage? Well, I did just that when I saw these bunnies. And, I let out another one when I saw the link for the tutorial.

I must make one of these.

I swear it was like the set of "Arachnophobia"

This is where I used to live back in 2001. Actually, I lived there until last September. Since I took this photo, the trees have grown bigger and fuller, and are like canopies over the walkway in some places. As you can see, the houses face each other. There's a row of four houses on each side and I lived at the end of one row. I had to walk down this path to get to where my car was parked on the street. Not a bad walk at all, except that when the weather got warmer, there were huge ass spiders living in those trees. They would weave their webs from one tree to another, and I would walk beneath those trees, constantly on the look out for strands of the webs, hanging down from the branches. Sometimes I carried a stick with me -- the green kind you tie tomato plants to so they don't fall over -- and I would wave the stick back and forth in the air in front of me as I went down that path in an effort to knock down any webs before I walked into them. I'm sure I looked like a somewhat confused blind person. I realized the other day, that as much as I loved that house, I do not miss the spiders or the webs.

Instead of Wrapping a Gift, You Could Do This

I love what Fiona at Table Calender made for her mom's birthday present. I was thinking I could do something similar for a friend's upcoming birthday or for my mom for Mother's Day. Or add a small cross stitch to a care package or swap package with something little attached. A great idea!

Links

Some links that I've stumbled on while clicking different things:

Vintage postcard graphics of rabbits and chicks & eggs from the SilverCollect blog. And, for future reference: Valentine's Day and New Year's Day

An adorable Maltese named Diamond in the Ruff on Dogster

How to make a pillowcase tutorial (handy since I hope to make a pillow one of these years) (This is my new favorite blogger. She quotes Falco for the title of one of her entries. And John Mellencamp. And whoever wrote for Tommy James and the Shondells.)

A cute bunny pin from misseskwittys shop on Etsy

Bunny Pillow tutorial from Crafty Carnival

Pet Food Recall

The PetsitUSA blog has a list of pet foods NOT on the recall list. They have been updating it daily and verifying information before posting it.

Every day, I get articles containing the keyowrd "dog" from Google News and Yahoo News and lately so many have been about dogs and cats whose owners believe they're sick or have died from eating contaminated food. Pet Connection has a database for owners to report their pet's illness. As of March 27th, nearly 2000 deaths have been reported. They're also asking owners to report any problems to the FDA as well.

Fabric Covered Thumb Tack Tutorial

I had never seen fabric covered thumb tacks before tonight, and since I now love them, I'm glad there's a tutorial on making them at How About Orange [link via Not Martha].

Cockers in Need Is Having a Raffle

Cockers in Need, a rescue group for Cocker Spaniels located in southeastern Pennsylvania, is having a Splendid Spring Fling Raffle. Ticket prices vary, depending on the item. (I'm going for the rag quilt.) They're also raffling off a digital camera, among other things. Go have a look!

Rescue organizations usually depend on donations and fundraisers as their means of financial support, so please consider buying a raffle ticket or two if you can. Thank you!

Freebies from The Sampler Girl

One more freebie link: Irish Coffee from The Sampler Girl. Tanya has links to her other freebies there too. I really like the Pumpkin House and the Tree Farm.

Freebie from Valentine Stitchery

While going through my email, I found a link to a freebie from Valentine Stitchery called Winter's Charms. I really like this one.

There are also free patterns for a knitted Baby Valentine Hat and Tree Moss Scarf.

I learned how to knit from a neighbor when I was in junior high. I remember I had these really cool blue knitting needles. I wish I had kept up with it.

New Freebie from Prairie Schooler

Prairie Schooler is offering a new freebie. It's a little house with a rabbit. I don't know how often they put up a new chart but I suggest you either print it out now or save it because you can only access the latest design.

The Ships Project

If you knit, crochet or sew, and would like to support our troops by making hats and slippers for them, please check out The Ships Project. There's a page of approved field tested patterns you can use. Even if you don't knit or crochet, you have to take a look at the photos of the troops with their hats and slippers. This is such a great project.

The Softie Awards

You have until Friday to vote in the Softie Awards so remember to vote early and vote often! (Ok, you can only vote once.)

If I was a real crafter, I'd post a photo of a softie I made here. Since I haven't made a softie, please enjoy this picture of a Kewpie with an axe. [Kewpie clip art ©2000 Denise Van Patten - http://collectdolls.about.com]

Address Labels

Looking for cool address labels? Check out Label Freak. Claudia has all kinds of great labels. I just ordered some with AfroKen on them. They aren't on her site anymore so just email her and tell that's what you'd like.

Yo-Yo's and Sharpie Envy

Years ago I had a lightweight Martha Stewart comforter from K-mart that was one color on one side, (light blue, I think), and multi-colored squares, (pastel pink, green, blue, yellow and off-white), on the other side. After washing it a few zillion times, the batting in the middle got lumpy. I stupidly thought I could take it apart so I'd have a top piece and a bottom piece, and I could put new batting in the middle. So I got out my seam ripper and started removing threads, only to find each square was individually sewn to the bottom piece. This thing did not look like a quilt. I'm telling you it was a comforter.

"A comforter is a type of bedding — a soft flat bag used on a bed as a type of bed cover. It is filled with either an artificial material (such as polyester or a natural material. . . it is basically a thick, fluffy blanket that people put on their bed to achieve a much higher level of comfort and warmth," so says Wikipedia. And a quilt, they say, is "a type of a bed covering composed of a quilt top, a layer of batting, and a layer of fabric for backing, generally combined using the technique of quilting. "

I guess what I had was a comforter that was quilted. Or a quilt with a million times more batting.

Anyway, I took the entire thing apart and was left with a bunch of squares of various colors. My plan was to make them into yo-yo's and then do something with them. Here's a great tutorial on making yo-yo's. (And I totally want that blue Sharpie. All my ultrafine points are boring black. I do have a set of colored ones with fine points though.)

Of course, I haven't done anything with the squares yet. After seeing that tutorial, I was inspired to go get my squares and start turning them into yo yo's. But I'd rather go back to the Sharpie site and see what's new. (Suddenly, the "adventures of a wanna-be crafter" line fits, doesn't it?) Did you know you can order personalized Sharpies with your name on them? If I go back to teaching preschool, I am so doing that.

How I got to thinking about yo-yo's today: googling "donkey pattern" took me to A Piece of My Soul and a donkey quilt (cute, huh?), which got me checking out the other quite there like this Double Wedding Ring quilt, this Log Cabin quilt, and the yo-yo bedspread, which reminded me of my squares and how I haven't done a thing with them.

Dogs and Pigs

If I check the Remember Me box on the Blogger dashboard, why do I have sign every single freaking time? Grrrr.

I was just at Table Calender, [link via Lanetz Living], admiring this adorable stuffed doggy and this cute little red pup. (I was looking at other stuff too but I'm a geek for dogs, ok?)

The picture in this post reminded me of my own pig collection and how I need to get off my butt and get the digital camera out so I can start taking some pictures of things like my cross stitch so I can add them here. And, since it's the year of the pig, I could post one of my pigs every day like that guy did with Dog Each Day (he posted original artwork though) . . . ok, I swear I had not seen Pig of the Day on Flickr until just now [link via Dog Each Day].

I look at this cute one and wonder how I can ever eat bacon again.

Another Blog to Read

Hambone and Jennicakes is another blog I think I'll be reading regularly, especially to see her adorable Jennicake projects, like this pillow and this quilt. I like this little dog mini quilt too. I have a thing for cupcakes, dogs and quilts so I'm really enjoying this blog.

Oh, look! You can buy a mini cupcake quilt!

Pincushion Swap

There's a strawberry or bottlecap pincushion swap at Swap-bot. You can join if you're new as long as your profile is filled out, so go join now and sign up for this swap. The last day to sign up is March 30th so I still have some time to decide if I want to do this one.

The directions to make a strawberry pincushion can be found at Martha Stewart's website. And, the how-to for bottlecap pincushions is on Flickr.

And, don't forget the Pincushion Challenge. The theme for March/April is Eats.

Why Not Adopt a Guinea Pig This Month

According to Petfinder, March is Adopt-a-Rescued-Guinea-Pig Month. The module below might help you find that special pig. (If it's showing a different "small & furry" animal, please refresh your browser until a guinea pig comes up. Or just go to Petfinder and enter your location to get a list of available guinea pigs in your area.)

Needlebook Swap

There's a needlebook swap at Swap-bot. I don't know if it's open to newbies yet -- I've asked and am waiting to hear back. I hope it is so I can join. It's open to new members. On Monday, I'll be sending out the stuff for my first swap. I'm worried I screwed it up but it's just cards, stickers and stationery so it's not that difficult to mess up, is it? Actually, sending a homemade needlebook to a stranger freaks me out way more than that now that I think about it.

Here's a cute version of a needlebook for all you people who know how to do patchwork. [link via Needlebookswap at Swap-bot]

Cross Stitch Generator

The other day I downloaded the free software for PC Stitch and I played around with it for a bit before I lost interest. I honestly have no desire to cross stitch a chart made from a photo of my dog but I do have different images saved on my computer that I think might be fun to turn into a cross stitch design. Dark Lilac offers a cross stitch chart generator, which I just used to make a chart for this image from The Dog Hause, that I found years ago. [Dark Lilac link via Subversive Cross Stitch]

The theme for the March/April Pincushion Challenge is Eats and I have an idea for something to make. I believe this nifty chart generator will help me come up with a design.

Thumb Pincushion

If I link to all the sites I've been to tonight in order to arrive at these instructions on how to make a thumb pincushion, I'd be online for another hour, so I'll just link to the pincushion post and then go to bed. One really cool part of this one is you get to use power tools.

Modern Pooch Blog

Modern Pooch is the place to get "your daily doggy fix." Not only will you find the latest links to cool dog-related news and web sites there, but also photos and videos of some really cute doggies.

Why Do You Ask?

Why Do You Ask?
by Kate Barnes

I can't make
any story
about my life

tonight. The house
is like an overturned
wastebasket;

the radio
is predicting
more snow.

I ask my dog
to tell me
a story, and she

never hesitates.
Once upon
a time," she says,

"a woman lived
with a simply
wonderful dog. . ." and

She stops talking
"Is that all?"
I ask her.

"Yes," she says,

Why do you ask?
Isn't that enough?"

Congrats to Dawn!

My friend Jojo's daughter, Dawn, was a runner up in a digital photography contest. See her very cool winning entry here.

Postcrossing and Postcardx

I joined Postcrossing last April, after seeing a link to it on someone's blog (I think it was WoofNanny but I didn't take note of it so I'm not positive). I've been collecting and saving postcards since I was a kid. My postcards are either ones I bought when I went somewhere (Disneyland, the drug store, Philadelphia, an airport), or ones that were sent from friends, relatives, and now, random strangers from around the world. I no longer save many letters or cards but I do save every postcard I get. Some day I will scan some of them and put them on a blog (causing hell to freeze over since I have been talking about doing that for a few years now). My friend Chelle sent me this toilet postcard last year. She always sends the neatest cards.

Once you join Postcrossing, you'll be sent the name & address of another member to send a postcard to, and once they receive and register that card, your name & address will go in the queue to get a card.

I ended up at HobbyLoco a little while ago. Not only does Cheryl share patterns for cross stitch and other crafts, she sells the cutest finger puppets on Etsy. She had a link to postcardx so I clicked it. Well, it looks like I'm now onboard to I can send something to someone named Louise in England if I want. (At first, I thought you had to send something to someone once you viewed their profile but you don't.) Good thing Louise likes Hello Kitty stuff because I can share some of my sticker stash with her.