Pomp-A-Doodle do!

So when I saw Red Heart's Pomp-a-doodle yarn in the store, I knew I wanted to try and use it- it is so soft, and the colors are pretty and,well let's face it, I like wierd quirky things. This "yarn" is basically a heavy thread with giant pom poms attached at set intervals. The trick to using it is to pick a hook that allows you to crochet between the pom poms. I picked Caron's Dazzleaire yarn (it was discontinued, but it is baaaaack!) to go with it, because I remember the name from my childhood- and the odd lil sparkle seemed like a good choice to go with the odd lil pom poms. I think it works and the brim of this hat IS just as soft as it looks. Sort of toying with adding this as trim to a smaller recycled bag too... Give it a try! What did you make with the pom pom stuff?

More Gir Fan Art

On a 'Gir' kick lately. This iPod cover matches the hat. The tongue wraps under the iPod and secures with a lil Velcro to keep the iPod from falling out.

I will make these on commission, but I am not going to try and make to sell a lot of these because the variation in assorted phones, iPods etc makes it nearly impossible to come up with any sort of standard size.
Olivia had me save the green yarn and pink tongue color for future 'Gir' projects, so i am wondering where he will show up next?

Fan Art in hat form!

I have never seen the tv show "invader Zim" but I was asked to make some fan art! Gir is a bright green, with stitching up the center, giant eyes and a lolling tongue. his ears are thin and stand up fairly straight. His nose is a triangle sort of shape. Apparently I got him right as the hat is liked ^__^. I have made several "fan art" type hats, including Yoda, and Scooby Doo. There is a challenge to interpreting a character in yarn with a function, deciding what is important enough to add without taking away from the functionality of the hat. I like that!

a flock of butterflies!

Remember those butterflies I was making with the pattern from Katy Griffis? Well here they are in a mobile! I made a set of butterflies in purple and white for a birthday party we went to today. The butterflies are FUN and i love watching them float around each other. For the circle, I got the metal ones Michael's sells in the leather working department- I think they are for dream catchers.
These butterflies are good for other things also- I have some made from winter colors to sell as tree ornaments. I was thinking of putting them on big barrettes or hair bands. And of course I put one on a hat too! After I finish the hat I am working on, I will try to make a few bags to sell with recycled bags, and I am toying with adding a butterfly to one of those....

I have not posted these anywhere for sale yet, but I do have one mobile for sale, the butterflies are variations made with rainbow colored variegated yarn, with a variegated circle top. I was thinking to offer them for $20 These photos look a lot tinier then I thought. I should probably upload a single butterfly to see also.... This single butterfly is from the first mobile i made, which is a special gift for a special girl ^__^
The yarns in her mobile were given to me by her great-grandma! how cool is that?

Orders and ordering

I have a couple hat orders on the table now. The Princess Leia hat- it took me a while to wrap my head around how I was going to make it, but I think my idea will work. I have even found a nice solid dark brown.
More ILY hats- I gave a hat to the NCSD family fun day as a door prize and several people said they wanted to order those. That was a fun hat to make! I am hoping to make many more.
And a Gir hat- Invader Zim! I love the big eyes and the square tongue, I am looking for the right green to start that one- I would like a sturdy yarn, like Red Heart.
Also a couple of folks have asked how much I would charge for a bag made from recycled bags- and I honestly don't know! the can cozies are not an issue, but larger projects from the recycled bags strain my hands so I will need to come up with a schedule where I switch off from one project to another over the summer.

Also I made a monkey hat and several folks have asked about other children's hats with different animals on them so I will play with bears and frogs and butterflies this summer too.

Plus of course the stained glass afghan will be simmering away in the background!

Monkey hat

This hat, a commission, was a fun one to make! The challange was to find the correct browns to make the body of the hat, and the monkey to that it matched well but still stood out clearly.
Toddler sized hat with earflaps, I added the braided ties for fun effect also. The monkey sits on the child's head, ears sticking out and looking jaunty. As soon as I have some time, I am hoping to make a few other animals- a bear, frog, what else?

Stained Glass Afghan update

I have not finished the afghan yet, but I am pretty excited about my progress. I have used up a ton of variegated yarn (And admit it, when the project is done,sometimes variegated yarns are hard to use up!) I have not finished off the "squares" or joined them yet, but you can get a general idea of the direction I an going in! The nice thing about recycling yarn for this project is that I know what each yarn came from- this one was from Jodie, that one is Patric's hat, that one is a hat I made for Laura, etc etc. So I am collecting memories as well as making a cozy afghan!
I figure I am about a third of the way done, so as my projects unfold, look for me to lean toward variegated yarns, so I can recycle them! ^__^