Spiral scrubbies & dish cloths

Crocheting and knitting are very relaxing, and if I pick small projects, I don't get bored before the end. So that's what I've been doing in addition to a stitched project that I can't show yet.

These cute little spiral scrubbies have always intrigued me. You can use them for your face or your dishes. The small one is knitted and the other two are crocheted. I much prefer the crocheted because you get those nice ridges by crocheting in the back loop only. I haven't figured out how to make them as neat in the end as all the tutorial photos, but how neat do they need to be really? But if anyone knows a trick they can share, I'd appreciate it. They are all done with worsted weight cotton yarn.

Click here for the crocheted tutorial.

Click here for the knitted version.



I haven't been keeping up with the Monthly Dishcloth Group, but I checked in and found a couple of designs to try.

The first is 'April Showers'. Supposed to look like raindrops I guess. Fun to knit.



The second cracks me up. The pattern is called Log Cabin, as if you couldn't guess. It's kind of hard to see the pattern in the photo. I could use a good lesson in photography I think.

Too much snow!

The DC area is still recovering from the record December snowfall we had last Saturday. We're now in that miserable cycle of melting by day, re-freezing by night. Personally, I only like stitched snow, not the real thing. But in honor of reality, I finished up this little ornament, Snow Merry, by Homespun Elegance from the 2009 JCS ornament issue. I used a hand-dyed 32 count evenweave and added a simple buttonhole stitch for the border.



I had one final holiday card to mail and realized I better use this one before the year ended. The design is the 2008 freebie from Rosewood Manor slapped on top of a piece of wrapping paper for a background. And the crop-a-dile helped me touch it up with a few eyelets. Kind of funky, not my favorite, but it's always fun to experiment.



Happy Holidays to everyone. Enjoy and stay safe.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Poe

Only a little more time left to celebrate the year of Edgar Alan Poe's 200th birthday. I remember so many Saturday afternoons as a kid when, with all my friends in the neighborhood, we walked to the movie theater, and our parents could be free of us for several hours. Those were the days when it wasn't so risky to allow the kids to go off and do this kind of thing without parental supervision. We saw the giant cartoon show followed by a double feature. So often one of those feature films was a Vincent Price horror movie based on a Poe short story, like "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Fall of the House of Usher".

So, in need of another 'boy' design, always a challenge, I chose this Plum Street Samplers pattern based on "The Raven" for my last altoid box of the season. Again, over-one stitching on tea colored Monaco. And I tucked a thumb drive inside.

Plum Street card and goodies in the mail

Gina and I decided to do a personal card swap since we were the only two to express interest in it on the Stitchin' Fingers Cross Stitch Group. Gina has received mine so here it is for show and tell. It's a freebie from Plum Street Samplers that I changed a bit. I also added the little crocheted bird. He was my own invention. I tried to write down my steps so I can make more of him, but if past experience is any indication, I suspect my scribblings will look like so much nonsense when next I go to use them.



The mailman brought be some goodies in the last few days. Mylene sent me a surprise pinkeep. She does such exquisite stitching and finishing. I am so honored to have one of her pieces.



My gift package from my partner, Janeth, for Sue's 123-Stitch ornament exchange arrived also. What a fun set of gifts! Janeth chose a beautiful Lizzie Kate design. It looks so gorgeous on that blue fabric. She also enclosed a variety of pretty floss, plus snowflake embellishments and stickers.



And to top it off, she added the most adorable little chicken pin cushion. This photo doesn't really show its super-cuteness, but it is a real treasure.

Doll Alphabet Altoid Tin

The half-doll silhouette alphabet found here by Meridel Abrams has always been one of my favorites. But until now I had never found a way to use those letters. Turns out they were the perfect size for over-one stitching on 28 count Monaco for decorating an Altoid tin top. This one was made as a gift for my friend Jenny (initials JW). The 'J' doll is just especially charming to me!. And kudos to the postal service. Took less than a week to get from DC to Sweden.

American Pie

One of my friends just passed her citizenship test and has now become a full-fledged citizen of the U.S.A. No self-respecting stitcher could pass up this opportunity to commemorate the occasion. I picked out a Bent Creek design called "Made in the U.S.A.". Changed the lettering a bit and added a few little crocheted touches.

The little heart crochet pattern can be found here.

The little bow crochet pattern can be found here.

The fabric is 32 count Jobelan in Bay Rum.

Pink Altoid Tin

Hope everyone had a nice turkey day. I spent mine with family and had a wonderful time with excellent food and company.

My latest decorated altoid tin is for my pink-loving friend. I turned this one into a scissors case following Vonna's tutorial more or less. My friend is not a stitcher, but she does a lot of crafts involving paper cutting so I think this will work for her. The design is a freebie by Claire, stitched over-one on blue Monaco. I changed a few colors to be more pinkish. I added the little charm on the side to cover a bad glue spot. The inside is a brighter, hotter pink than the photo shows.

I won't quite say I'm addicted to making these. But there was a sale on Altoids at the drugstore last week, so I did buy I few just in case.

Cable-stitched Neckwarmer

These neckwarmers are so quick to knit. I made this one in one evening of TV watching for a holiday gift. It's made with Wool-Ease chunky yarn, an 80% acrylic, 20% wool blend. Very soft feel on the sensitive neck area. The pattern is free on the Lion Brand site. You need to register to see it. Search for "Lion Brand chunky cable scarf" to find it. I just made a shorter version with two buttonholes just before the garter stitch border. I also made it slightly narrower, casting on a couple of fewer stitches that surround the cable. I really wanted to make a pink one, but A.C. Moore didn't have that color in stock and I didn't want to order just one skein online. But I like this berry color also.

Warm Winter Altoid Tin

I'm having fun with Altoid tin stitching now. I finished one I really like that I can't show yet since it's a gift for a regular reader. But I also made another I can show now. This one is a slight variation on Barbara Ana's "Warm Winter Welcome". I just changed the wording a bit and a few colors. It's stitched over-one on tea colored Monaco. I'm planning to make this into a winter survival kit by filling it with lip balm, a hand sanitizer packet, travel soap leaves, and anything I can find in a small enough size to fit that follows the theme. Still finding the gluing to be messy and hard to do. Sometimes the glue seeps through the ribbon no matter how careful I try to be. The colors are much richer in real life. Can't figure out how to get the camera to understand that!

monsterbubbles Day One

The monsterbubbles ornament in the JCS 2009 Ornament issue really caught my eye. It must be so hard for designers to come up with something original. Seems like it's all been done before. But this stylized partridge was just so inventive. And I love the little colored blocks that appear as a kind of trademark now. This called for fancy hand-dyed threads, but I used all DMC. For the partridge, I picked 3 colors of tans and for the pear 2 or 3 colors of green and just tried to duplicate the look in the magazine. I'm pretty satisfied with my substitutions. And I just used seed beads for the plume and the highlight on the pear. I loved the border stones in the magazine, but not enough to used that finishing. I settled for 4 little buttons in each corner and pretty rainbow colored ribbon for the hanger.

The fabric is a piece of Vikki Clayton's 35 count linen. She is offering 32 count now and I plan to try some of that.