Dixie's Dragon

Busy day

Yesterday was a big knitting day. I finished my shrug and Delaney's shrug and whipped out a dandy little capelet out of my Rowan biggy print. I tried modeling it myself but I had an embarrasing spot on my tee. Kicker kindly stepped up to the plate and did the honors:
(I have always wanted to say that I just whipped something out). The edges are curling up a bit too much, hmm.

It is so nice and sunny today after two days of horrid stormy weather. Am sending all positive thoughts to those whose homes were devasted by Katrina.

August showers bring knitted flowers

Finally I finished my dear friend Ruth's birthday present!

I learned how to make knitted flowers from Stephanie on Saturday and haven't quit making them since.  I whipped these blooms up, but they are lacking embellishment. Delaney wants some for hair thingys so I may play around with my silly little  knittying nancy today and try to come up with some rubberband covers to adorn with flowers.

The weather is wicked here - school has been cancelled due to flooding possibilities. The cats are restless and sitting in the kitchen window staring wistfully at the birdfeeder.

I have been collecting goodies for the vintage swap hosted by Creative Ma and keep noodling over the thought of a vintage Christmas swap. Any thougthts?

FYI all you vintage crafters you can shop at goodwill online at www.shopgoodwill.com. I saw a semi interesting batch of vintage aprons in the linens department. Bears keeping an eye on the site.

Rowany goodness

I bought this yummy bag of Rowan Yarn which was 50% off. Yippee.

Two of the best things in life:

Granddaddies and summer tomatoes

Andrea's Amazing Beads

These are some of Andrea's amazing felted beads. Besides being one of the owner's of my home away from home, Angel Hair,
and naturally an expert knitter and crocheter, Andrea makes stunning jewelry. She became inspired by a felting class she took taught by Lisa Klakulak, and came up with these felted darlings (she is so modest that she insisted that I give some credit to Lisa's class). She does her own metal work and likes to find broken bits and pieces of antique jewelry at the flea market and turn it into something. It is always fun to see what she is wearing and from whence it originated. Her best friend: a dremel tool.

more stash for the stash

Yesterday I treated my stash to these new beauties. How could I resist the Colinette Colorway Earth?
Some Rowan yarn was on sale for 50% off, so I had to buy it. The brown eyelash is for mixing in hither and thither.

Japanese wonders

I have missed a few days, only because I have been so busy trying to finish my friend Ruth's birthday present. It's a secret, but I will post pictures after her birthday.

I took all my felted beads, buttons and geods into Angel Hair to show them off to the professional crafters and knitters who work there and got lots of ideas for improvement. I also took my new favorite possessions:  Japanese craft books. What wonderment inside the covers! This one has tons of cute purses and stuff. Each picture includes this very American looking Japanese model with a different set of brightly colored nails. Can I make any of these bags? Probably not. Can I look at the pictures longingly and pretend that I can make them? Yes.

Here is a particularly cute bag that Andrea and Charisse from AH decided would make a great needle case:

The other book is full of the most delightful little animals and flowers, see:

Sorry about the glare - I couldn't figure how to turn the flash off.  I want to make the fish and the octipii, we'll see if  I can decipher the directions.  (Patty D from AH is an uber seamstress and has promised to help).            

    What I really want to make is a life size softie of my dashing greyhound, Kicker. Kicker is the first to bed and the last to arise. He is a sneak thief extraordinaire and he truly believes that he is a tiny lapdog. He snores and makes old man noises all night long (he has his own chaise lounge in our bedroom), but we love him.

Here he is in all of his racing glory:

Felted Bliss

Saturday was felting day. Being a felting novice, I read various instructions and methods for felting all of which seemed overly complicated to me. Raquel and I just sat down and rolled, soaped and wet with our hands and came up with some beautiful felted beads. I layered some different colors into a ball of sorts put it in a old stocking and came up with these lovelies:

I am not exactly sure what to do with these little gems, but as my mom said once, "beauty is a thing unto itself" so I will just enjoy looking at them for a bit.

I was in desperate need for a pincushion and rolled up some hand dyed roving and used the stocking/washer method and came up with this sherbert looking ball. The plan is to find the properly adorable receptacle for him so that he does not roll away when I stick pins in him.

                                                       

more buttons

I got this batch of lovely buttons yesterday. I have all sorts of things in mind for them, but have to finish a few things first.

It is so incredibly hot that all the cats loaf around inside all day and torment me while I try to sew or knit.

mail booty

I got lots of goodies from the mailman yesterday, including these buttons that I bought on eBay:

I plan to use them to adorn some tote bags and other gifties. I also scored this kitten vintage sewing box which is full of notions, including a spool of thread that cost 15 cents.

Kindergartners are not allowed to use backpacks, but instead must carry tote bags. I took Delaney to the fabric store yesterday and let her pick out her own fabric. Thankfully, I was able to talk her out of the hot pink, chartreuse and black flamingo fabric that she really wanted for a more tasteful blue and pink polka dot pattern. It is virtually impossible to accomplish anything at the fabric store with a five year old girl since we must spend at least an hour in the ribbon department fingering everything.  I finally talked Delaney into pink pom poms for tote bag adornment rather than  3 inch silver sequined fringe.  The green fabric is for me. Don't know exactly what I am going to do with it, but I had to have it.

Shrug it off

Here are the beginnings of a shrug that I am making for Delaney. My sweater is on hold, because this project, you see, is much much simpler and I need the victory of another completed project before re-commencing on the sweater.

check out the precious  vintage aprons here in the category of vintage kitchen. They made me think of my friend April who collects them.

I have been obsessed with buttons lately and am expecting a slew of them from the mailman today. I gave Delaney a tin of buttons on Saturday and she came up with this (double click on the image to see the details):

second day of school

I let Delaney dress herself so as not to stifle her creativity. This is the outfit she chose for her second day of kindergarten. Got to love those argyles.

vintage swap fun

Looky at what I am going to do!  Creative Ma is hosting a Vintage Swap. Fun fun. I knew that I bought all those vintage buttons at eBay for a purpose.

One more cat

To commemorate Delaney's first day of kindergarten I made a cat. Since I know nothing of sewing construction he is rather lopsided and silly. He is Claude and if he could speak he would have a French accent and be quite conceited. He is being attacked by Marlow who hates all Frogs since he is a staunch republican patriot.

Now posing nicely for the camera:

felted bags

Hello blogland. I simply had to participate in  Back Tack II and a blog was required.  I'm a bit shy about getting started,  and I know I sound stilted but will hopefully loosen up over time.

My first knitted project was, naturally, a scarf. More interesting was my second project, a felted handbag. I liked it so much that I made another. The orange-ish bag is already felted and the blue toned bag has not been felted. Man do they shrink. I was skeptical that the bag would really shrink so much.

Yesterday Raquel and I made tote bags - here is a picture of mine.

I used  Mariko's pattern. To stiffen up the tote I used fusible interfacing on the outer fabric. Super easy to make  - I plan on using mine to tote my knitting projects in high style.  A matching needle holder is on the horizon.

Today I have promised myself that I will work on my latest knitting project  - a hooded sweater which Charisse at Angel Hair (my new home away from home) promised would be super easy. Right. I am using this yarn on size 6 needles. I will report on progress.

just because of backtack

Motivated by backtack II here I come