…from home so difficult. It’s easy to see a whole day go by without accomplishing much. It’s also easy to let work creep into your personal life so that you feel like you’re never getting a break. Today, I’ll share a few tips for working from home successfully! Tips for Working from Home 1. Get dressed. Every morning, I wake up and put on jeans and a shirt and put in my contact lenses. It’s not glamorous, but it’…
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Looking back at one of my biggest FOs: Crocheted Softies!
…s and decreases, I wanted to include a project that used slip stitches to accomplish the shaping. This technique creates the curvy body of Slithers the Snake: Doesn’t he look fun? Shaping with short rows Another technique for shaping is using short rows. I designed Tuskegee the Walrus, which uses short rows to achieve the curve of his body: Shaping with short rows allows you to create a sharper bend than is possible with slip stitch shaping….
Continue ReadingAnnouncing FreshStitches Knitting Patterns!
…s as for my crocheted animals: patterns should be easy to understand, and accessible to a beginner who is open to learning something new. They should be interesting enough to keep you happy, but easy enough that they make great ‘watching tv’ knitting. And I’ve delivered on every one of these three patterns. I couldn’t be more proud! Even though though I developed these patterns with my new yarn colors in mind, they work gre…
Continue ReadingAugust Crochet Fun + Fave Links
…er blog post with more details. I can tell you that Project Teddy Bear is accepting donations of handmade animals! Please mail them to: 717 Delaware Street SE, Room 382, Minneapolis, MN 55414 This will be our charity through the end of 2017! Free buttons with purchase! I’m sending out a sweet little button with every eyes order, while supplies last! Note that shipments that only include the free 8mm package of eyes aren’t eligible, but…
Continue ReadingHow to Attach Face Circles to Nelson the Owl
…there’s a deal going on! Scroll down to the end of this blog post to check it out! How to Attach Nelson’s Face Circles You’ve met my buddy, Nelson, right? He’s my most popular pattern… because folks love making owls! (and really, how can you resist this face?!?) Phil asked me to post a video about how to attach the face circles evenly, which is a great question! It’s not hard, but there’s a technique to it…
Continue ReadingHow to Dye Yarn with Kool-Aid: Getting Started
…ks has a whole line of undyed yarn bases to choose from, and you’ll occasionally find other brands with a couple of blank bases at your LYS. An undyed yarn is preferable to a plain white yarn, which has probably been bleached, and may not soak up color as well. However, my overwhelming recommendation is to try a test swatch first! I’ve had success with white yarns, as well as overdying (i.e. dyeing a yarn that’s already colored w…
Continue Reading4 Really Boring Things You Should Do to Protect Your Craft Supplies
…and they totally suck. Nothing can prevent these unfortunate events from occurring, but we can do a little bit of advance footwork to try to protect our crafty supplies in case something terrible happens. 1. Register equipment and save manuals Did you recently purchase a sewing machine? Tablet for reading your patterns? Anything else kinda pricey? Chances are, this type of equipment came with a little registration card that you’re supposed…
Continue ReadingGot yarn? How to find a yarn store when you travel!
…tterns and yarns, but did you know it can help you find a yarn store, too? Click on the ‘Yarn’ tab at the top of the main screen, then look below the list of yarns on the left: Enter a city or zip code, and you’ll get a list of results! Once the list of results comes up, you’ll want to go to the website to make sure that it’s actually a store. For example, since Ravelry contains a database of Indie Dyers, some of the…
Continue ReadingWant to discover a whole new world of patterns? Try reading crochet charts!
…comes out of Japan. Of course there’s a little bit of bad news that accompanies this discovery: many of us (myself included) don’t read Japanese. Meet your friend: the crochet chart Want to know the good news? Japanese crochet patterns are written with charts: meaning that, if you can understand the international language of the charted symbol, you’ll gain access to all of those amazing patterns! Page from Crochet with Color, boo…
Continue ReadingPhotography Resources
…8217;ll be chatting about photography photos for your finished knitted and crocheted items. I’ve given you my 5 Easy Tips and gone into detail about how to get that great white-background photo. Today, I’m going to share my favorite resources with you. I have absolutely no photography experience except reading online articles and practicing! So, if I can do it… you can do it too! Etsy Photography Workshop This, hands down, helped…
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