Squirrel Zombies & Sleigh Bells

When my siblings and I were little, my mom made us ornate Christmas stockings from those kits that always catch my eye at the craft store. They're more traditional than my usual crafting fare, but when my husband and I spent our first Christmas together (after being together 6+ years-- the long-term impact of what began as a bicoastal relationship) in 2006, I knew he had to have one too. My nod to his love of the macabre can be found if you look closely at the squirrel. It has red fangs.

ReadyMade ReJect

Well, here is my first attempt at ReadyMade magazine's MacGyver challenge. My sparkly crocheted clutch purse and I didn't win (some potholders did) but I did, at least, merit a mention in the article! It's actually crocheted, not knitted as it says in the blurb... but it's hard to tell.

I'm going to give this away once I get it back from ReadyMade but since I haven't done so yet, I'll edit later with more information about who the (lucky?) recipient is.

Wherefore blogging?

I decided to start this blog because I wanted to post photos of all my crafting adventures. As of late I have been preoccupied with crafting for other people-- primarily new babies, but some other projects have slipped in too.

I have been crafting for as long as I can remember (summer camp projects like ribbon barrettes were an early delight), and I love it. I'm always game to try something new, and it's especially rewarding to me to make things and give them away. (I can only hope that the recipients of said projects find them enjoyable as well, but who knows? Maybe I'm one of those people that others talk about in hushed tones later... "That was nice of her and I know she spent a lot of time making it, but what are we going to do with it?")

Anyway, I love the idea of open-source crafting, so my goal here is to post projects that might inspire others to make stuff. Now, to be upfront about it all... you should know that I'm a bit of a renegade crafter. I don't much care for patterns, though I'm all about mastering techniques. And I'm always excited to try something new, which means I've had strange encounters with many craft forms, including:

knitting
crocheting
batiking
weaving
felting
beading
silver clay jewelry making
sewing
quilting
decoupage
pottery
...and more