Work in Progress - Studio

I'm picturing walls of shelves so the stash can come out of its containers. And cubbies for yarns, by color. And maybe a window-seat for handsewing and spinning? I didn't show the three doors on the closet side, or the staircase where one can pop down to the kitchen for tea and scones. Or chocolate for that midnight sewing...

I Love This

Seriously - can Valentines Day be just around the corner? This seems like a custom-made project for a son who constantly practices "reading" and undoing buttons.

jcasa Valentines project

Sweet Newborn Sprout

This is some of the softest merino I've ever felt. The babe is due in February, so can't have too many warm hats. I added the sprout with some natural dyed stash yarn. Makes me smile, seeing something that was in my head come right out the way I envisioned. Almost makes up for all the projects that get torn out 3 times then eventually abandoned!


I made up an extra with the rest of the skein, which will be in my etsy shop this week, depending on naps.

Monday Round the Blogs - Craft Hope for Haiti

I'm having trouble listening to the radio (the TV news was right out) - especially after hearing that guy on NPR cry. All around my favorite blogs people are posting about this effort - Craft Hope for Haiti. You can check out their site, http://crafthope.com, or their Etsy shop where you can buy all sorts of cool handmade things and all the profit goes to Doctors Without Borders. Since most of what I'd want to say has been said by Amanda and Heather (good news, her shop is reopened, with profits also going 100% to Haiti), I'll just say - giving something small is fine, and after that give someone you love a hug.

Scarf Love

Sister, mother, friend. For Christmas. The two on the left knit up in literally an evening each (plus a trip to the store for the snazzy buttons!) Orange and pinky took a bit longer, but I loved working with those citrus colors.

Handmade Christmas

Which now I can show you! A work apron for Ms. Kara


Potholder front and back. I'm in love with this little bird, who kept showing up and asking to embellish items.

Hand made gift tags. Fun, and economical, and looked great tied on with some kitchen twine. An upgrade from just using marker on the giftpaper, which was my former method of telling gifts apart.

Happy New Year Crafts! Eyeglasses Cases

So these were some presents for my eyeglass-wearing family. All of them worked, except the one for my Mom, who has not yet adopted the skinny glasses look. I like how they turned out, and a good way to use some cardboard (granola bar boxes worked really well). I wanted to try the machine stitch sketching from this tutorial so I sketched some tree scenes. Cardinals in winter, a hawk for my sister who loves raptors, and a summer bug scene for Mom, which I ended up with - note, still need to remember to make her replacement. I'm thinking of putting some in the Etsy shop, which is echoing emptily at the moment.