Crochet China Doll Chingosam

For those who thought I gave up crochet. Started a new project frogged the skirt to many people told me it would have issues so I will use the yarn for something else. This pattern is China Doll by Doris Chan. I am doing it in red might add side slits as I think it would look better more like a real Chingosam. I am probably going to have black trim too and metal frog closures. If it works out well I may make a ton of these as I love oriental looking shirts. On a side note if any one knows of a knitted shirt like this I would like to make one that way too. If you are making this realize there are mistakes in the pattern go here to find the corrections.

How to:Lilac Gift Tag

Playing with the kids coming up with holiday ideas for their Valentine's Day Parties at school, that of course are not on Valentine's Day because it lands on Sunday. I decided to make gift tags to add to the teachers gifts. Looking around the house this is what I found. These would be cute for Mother's day, or Easter too.

Supplies

• glue ( I had YES paste (17 years old and still works amazing) and Elmer's glue kicking around use what ever you like or have)
• toothpicks to use with white glue
• corner punches
• flower punch
• shipping tags
• decorative string or yarn (not pictured)
  
• construction paper in colors desired 3 to 5 colors (we used3: solid lavender, variegated pink, variegated red)
  

1. Punch tons of flowers out of construction paper we placed them in a zip lock bag and shook to mix them
   
2. Remove string from tag ( you can replace it later with same string or decorative yarn, string)
   
3. add decorative punches to the corners of tag (our tags had been notched already I wish they had not been would have been prettier)
4. add glue to tag in a paisley or tear drop like shape
5. add flat flowers to tag
6. bend petals of flowers up and place a drop of glue on back of center of flower and place in desired location on tag continue to do this till as full as you like (the photos are showing one with them added and one that doesn't have bent flowers yet)(the very first one only shows one bent flower on the right picture)
7. replace string or add new one
8. write in space left on tag your desired message

start of a skirt

This is a wool skirt I am making for myself if it works out how I like. If not I am felting it adding a zipper and giving it to one of my kids. Ok I have never made a skirt out of wool yarn. I know wool fabric keeps its shape well but I am wondering if wool yarn does too. Let me explain I was told that if you sit in a wool skirt for any length of time when you stand up the skirt may have a funny curve in it from being stretched while sitting. Is this true or not? If you know let me know. If it is I am defiantly felting it as that will turn it into a much more ridged fabric and this is a pretty loose knit currently. That should fix that problem and then one of my children would get it.

Help with damaged old sweater ?

I was given this sweater over four years ago from my Vavo it is a beautiful sweater that has hung in her closet since 1967 that is a number of years to never be worn still has the original tags on it. In 7 years this sweater would have had its own 50th anniversary made by Çift Geyik Karaca. I think the companies name means "two light brown deer" but not sure.

She lets us go shopping every now and again in her closet to get one item from her. Sad thing is at some point in her closet she had wool moths so before I ever saw it this damage was done. I kept in in the hopes I could repair it some day and wear it. I tried mending it but after 12 hours of fixing holes I wasn't even 1/10 the way done.

Secondly who ever made it made the neck hole so small it is impossible to wear the body part fits me but the head part is painful to put on it won't even go over my 8 year old's head with out pain. I can't bear to toss it as it is beautiful and has been around for so long with out ever having been used. I thought of felting but didn't know if that was like sacrilegious so to speak. If it ends up felted I will copy the image from it to graph paper. The image was hand embroidered with wool after it it was knit so tons of hand work. I would probably want to just knit the pattern in instead.

This was made in Turkey and is 100% wool. The reason I know ruffly its age is well because it was a commemorative sweater and there is a date inside on the tag, one more reason not to toss it. It has buttons that hold on the hood. Can I just say putting on such tight neck with buttons around the neck over the head it is a wounder that my girls and I do not have cuts all over our faces. As it scraped past all our faces it was painful to say the least. What was that knitter thinking oh yeah wasn't I bet that is why my grandmother never wore it bought it on a trip tried it on after getting it home and that was the result to stay in the closet.

I was so hoping I would get to wear this sweater but I don't think that is going to happen at least not in this form. I thought about felting it and making a skirt from it for me or one of my daughters, or a hat and mittens I don't know yet what will become of it, any ideas? The pompoms you see in some of these photos fell off right after the photos because the moth holes in the cords where so big just moving it around broke them off. They had been just decorative anyway they didn't actually cinch anything they just hung there as decoration to be tied but do nothing.

There are way more holes then are shown in these photos I stopped counting when it got to be over 100. Figured it would be easier to re-knit and embroider than to fix. And trust me I am not thinking of re-knitting just yet not sure I have that skill. Having made my husbands hat in black and trying to mend this in black my eyes hurt just from the thought. Sorry for the bad lighting in these photos. So any ideas!

Oval yoyo maker

It looks like Clover is coming out with a new yoyo maker in an oval shape. I don't know when it will be available. But it looks like it will be another nice shape to add to projects.

Interesting Short: Alma

I think this one is the teaser.

Alma - Teaser from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

I think this one is the actual short.

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

I love the animation in this. The story line is sort of on the genera of Corpsbride, Coraline, or Nightmare Before Christmas. Images are captivating. The thought is interesting in that if we loose sight of the bigger picture we lose our-self and not in a good way. Not like loosing oneself in charity more like loosing oneself to vises. I don't want to give to much away but this is a toy store I want my children to never ever visit. It was interesting to see such lovely images in such a subtle menacing way. I think this is just a teaser but I would like to watch the whole thing if it is. Not sure if there is a full length movie or if this is all there is.
Update
Alma has its own site if you want to check it out.
Found out this is only a limited viewing of it in its entirety so if the link doesn't work after a while it means it has been pulled. Images are not mine and this artist is one that either does or did work for Pixar.

Something to think on

My father sent me this in an email and I thought it poignant. I don't know if the reference to Charles Schultz is correct but interesting all the same.

quote starts here

The Charlie Schulz Philosophy

(This is marvelous!!)
Scroll thru slowly and read carefully to receive and enjoy full effect. The following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz,the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just ponder on them. Just read the post straight through, and you'll get the point.

Quiz

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz.
See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

The lesson:

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials the most money...or the most awards. They simply are the ones who care the most. Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia !

''Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!"

Latch hook and kids

The kids had a four day weekend. So to keep them entertained I had them work on some craft projects.

The oldest daughter when we left our last ward was given a latch hook kit from a friend of hers. My oldest adores horses so it fits rather well. She started hers then the other two girls decided they wanted to do latch hook too.

Well I do own enough supplies to have them all do it at once the only problem is the supplies are still in storage from the move along with 80% of our possessions. So we have one hook I could find. So each is working on hers in tern. The oldest did hers first took 1 1/2 days. The second is working on hers so far one day she will finish it today.

The youngest will work on hers latter today. I expect that one to take the longest as she is the youngest and we will be back in school tomorrow too with home work. We have a little stool in our house that happens to match this one with the doll. Funny as we bought it at a thrift store before we had ever received this kit.

There is a story behind the second and third latch hook. These are kits that had been owned by my husbands grandmother when she was alive. She passed away before we ever had children in the first 3 years of our marriage. These kits are at least 15 years old if not more. So she never got to see our children let alone give them a craft project to work on. These have been stored over the years in different homes from great grandma's to grandma's to ours. Now our children get to finish a little gift from their great grandmother.

Cross Stitch Elephant done

Plenty more to do on this cross stitch but the elephant is done on to the other three animals and boarders. Below you can compare the before and after. May not look much different but if you do cross-stitch you know you are looking at hours of my work added to her hours to get this where it is.

Cross Stitch

I was commissioned to finish an already started cross stitch for a lady and do half of another one that isn't even started yet. When she dropped off the patterns the one that is started didn't have its cover image anymore so I looked on the internet so I could have a color diagram as well as the black and white copy.
The first one has to be done in the next 1 to 2 months as you can see all that is done is part of the little elephant it has a long ways to go to say the least.

"Jungle Babies" Birth record 43221 Plaid company Bucilla.
This is what it needs to look like when done not my work.
This is a discontinued pattern as far as I can tell.

This is the second one I need to do half of. This way she is able to finish it and can tell her children and grandchildren that grandma made it. Not exactly wrong in that she will have worked on both items. But they do not need to know about my part in things do they. Theses things are always nicer and more sentimental to a person if made by grandma and she will have made parts of both of these. She got in over her head when the first grandchild was born she made one and stated she would do it for every grandchild and she also agreed to make one for every wedding of her own children. She is currently doing a wedding one and is two years behind on the elephant and the other baby one. So hopefully she will be all caught up soon and the family will be none the wiser. My kids have seen me buy half done projects at thrift stores and finish them for us to keep. They love them all the same. In our opinion better to finish someone else-es work than to let it get tossed in the garbage and no one enjoy it.

Bucilla Plain Birth record "New Little One" 42103
This is what it needs to look like when done not my work.
This photo is from Coloray's website.
So if you want to make one you can go there and get a kit.

New hat in store

I call it the deep Ocean blue ponytail hat. I hate ties on pretty hats that get stuck in zippers and things like that or become untied. So there isn't any ties on this one. It has metal frog closures that are padded from the body so as not to rub by the black trim. The hat is such that if you want to wear your hair up in a pony tail or in a bun on the back of your head you are able to do so and still keep your ears warm. This is available in shop now.

Deathflake Hat all finished

For awhile there I thought this might come out fitting my kids and not me. But in the end it worked out that it is my size. I have a few mistakes on this one when I went to neck down the top of the hat. So it is a good thing it is mine. Even with the mistakes I still like it. There are actually ten skulls on this five around the sides and five right at the tip top of the hat.

Olympics and Family

My father is a big collector of Olympic memorabilia. For his birthday this year he got to be an Olympic torch bearer how cool is that . Happy Birthday I know the day was great.

Friendship Bracelet

In high-school many years ago I learned how to make friendship bracelets no big deal. My friend Noelle was sitting across from me in art class making a simple one just stripes. We had both finished our art assignments so I just watched her for the last 5 mins. of class. That night I went home and tried to do what I had seen her do. Only I was on the opposite side of the table when watching her so it was all upside down and backwards. But because of that I figured out how the knot worked both forward and backwards. So I played with it for a few hours that night. By the time I went to bed I had figured out how to write words into the bands. After that I was making bracelets all the time for my Sk8ing buddies I probably made several hundred name ones by the time I left high school and probably over a thousand normal ones . I have made some since high-school but not many mainly for my children and such. Yesterday I found out one of those old buddies has a new baby so it seamed fitting to make this for John. From one old skater to another for his kids. I wonder how many of those old bracelets are still kicking around in my friends houses. Probably not to many. I have used cotton crochet thread for this one but I have used embroidery thread, sewing thread, flower thread and yarn for others in the past.

Useful info Size gauges

In the process of sizing the vintage needles I have I discovered that not all my needles would work with the size gauge I had so I went on the look for other types of gauges these are the three I currently have. If you have one that is different let me know and how it differs from these three and send me a photo and I will add it to this post so other people can learn for your knowledge too. If you leave the information in the comments I will try to pull it up into the post so that people don't have to read through all the comments to glen information. I have decided that all three of these are needed to make one good gauge and I will give you the reasons below under each gauge with a close up of it so you can compare too. That being said it is still not complete as I have yet to find a gauge for 00 and smaller sizes or larger than size 17. All gauges are obviously missing sizes 12,14 (I do not even think these sizes even exist as no gauge has them did they use to be made what is the point of skipping numbers anyway).

Lets get started

As you see they all are different sizes and shapes to start with and differnt materials

Boye Knitting gauge

This was the first one I bought it because it was all the store had.
pro's

1. clear and easy to read
2. has a slider to figure out the gauge. You move the slider till you have 10 stitches showing in the window then look at the number the top pointer is pointing at and that gives your stitch count very little counting
3. has all the basic sizes of needles
   
4. has big numbers to read the sizes easy
5. thick plastic so it doesn't scratch needles
6. because it is thick easy to figure out if needle is a good fit
7. hand size
   

cons

1. no metric numbers
2. some of my needles fell between these sizes not sure what they where so I had to set them aside so as not to mix gauges
3. no ruler to figure out yarn gauge
4. lettering can rub off easy with time not engraved
   
5. looks like the slider edge will break easy ( not sure not going to try it out either)
6. no letters for sizing needles
7. instructions on separate sheet if you forgot ho w to use this or found it thrifting it could be confusing to use the slide gauge
8. have to move gauge to figure out both rows and columns not easily done in one shot
9. obviously missing size 16
   
10. slider pops out easy thus making the tool useless for stitch swatch count if that is lost
    

Susan Bates knit-check

This is the second gauge I bought
Pros

1. has standard sizes accounted for
2. works for crochet and knitting
3. metric measured sizes
4. alphabet sizes
5. American sizing
6. gives you instructions on the item as to how to use it can't loose the instructions
7. size big window to make it easy to count both rows and columns at the same time to get gauge
8. has inch and metric ruler to figure out the gauge of unknown yarns easier nice that they are opposite each other
9. metal feels sturdier than the plastic ones
10. hand size
    

Cons

1. lettering will wear off in time not engraved
2. some of my needles fell between these sizes not sure what they where so I had to set them aside so as not to mix gauges
3. doesn't go as high in needle sizes as Boye
4. thin metal scratches needles
5. because it is thin metal hard to tell if it is an good fit
   

Lion Brand Yarn

Pros

1. has standard sizes accounted for
2. works for crochet and knitting
3. metric measured sizes
4. number sizing
   
5. American sizing
6. travel size
   
7. has inch and metric ruler to figure out the gauge of unknown yarns easier nice that they are opposite each other
8. has sizes others do not have all my normal size needles are accounted for note 1 1/2 mark and two different size 3 markings and two sizes between size 10 1/2 and 11
9. lettering will not wear off in time it is engraved if the pigment comes out you can always rub a black crayon over the areas to fill it in again and then remove the excess crayon .
10. thick plastic so it doesn't scratch needles
11. because it is thick easy to figure out if needle is a good fit
12. hand size even pocket size
    

Cons

1. alphabet sizes missing
   
2. doesn't go as high as the other two 16 (bates) and 17 (boye) are missing
3. double sided but no more information is on the back in fact it is missing information that is on the front would have been nice if the alphabet system was here or all info from the front was here so that it didn't matter which side was up.
4. hard to count stitch swatches on as it can shift easily when working with it.
5. have to count rows and columns separate when doing stitch counts
   

other info info that is useful to people
there are all kinds of information on the craft yarn council site
such as

• hook and needle size
• yarn weight and symbols

there is other information there as well just take some time and look around

I am also re-posting the link from my last post as to keep all the information together to help me and my readers. Thus link is for figuring out yarn gauge on unknown yarn
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you know of one, a gauge, please let me know and I will do my best to post it here with the rest. In time I plan on having as many as possible here I already have plans for 5 more gauges on here so you can pick your favorite that works best for you.

All gauges after this point are ones I added to this post after the original post happened.

Nancy's knit knacks.

1. has standard sizes accounted for
2. works for crochet and knitting
3. metric measured sizes
4. number sizing
   
5. American sizing
6. travel size
   
7. has inch and metric ruler to figure out the gauge of unknown yarns easier nice that they are opposite each other
8. has sizes others do not have
9. thick plastic so it doesn't scratch needles
10. because it is thick easy to figure out if needle is a good fit
11. hand size even pocket size about the same size as the Susan bates which is the larger size of the gauges but that is to be expected with how many sizes it has on it
    

Cons

1. still missing 0000 size in small needles which is a size I use
   
2. 16, 18 missing
3. have to count rows and columns separate when doing stitch counts
4. words screened on will probably wear off in time

Turbo Needlegauge Skacel Collection

Pros

1. has standard sizes accounted for
2. number sizing
3. travel size
   
4. has smaller sizes that some others do not have
5. thick plastic so it doesn't scratch needles
6. 2 inch stitch count window at top
   
7. because it is thick easy to figure out if needle is a good fit
8. palm size even pocket size
9. quiet small for the number of needles it can measure
   

Cons

1. still missing 0000 size in small needles which is a size I use
   
2. 16, 18 missing
3. no ruler
4. numbers are awkward to read as it uses commas instead of decimals
5. paint will probably rub off in time
6. hard to count stitch swatches on as it can shift easily when working with it.
7. have to count rows and columns separate when doing stitch counts

Prym Knitting pin gauge

Pros

1. has standard sizes accounted for
2. number US sizing on back
3. metric sizes on front
4. travel size
   
5. thick plastic so it doesn't scratch needles
6. because it is thick easy to figure out if needle is a good fit
7. palm size even pocket size
8. quiet small for the number of needles it can measure
   

Cons

1. still missing everything below 0 size in small needles which are sizes I use
   
2. 16, 18 missing
3. no alphabet sizing
   
4. no ruler have to count rows and columns separate when doing stitch counts
5. numbers are awkward to read as it uses commas instead of decimals
6. paint will probably rub off in time

Balene II

1. has standard sizes accounted for
2. works for crochet and knitting
3. metric measured sizes
4. US sizing
5. imperial sizing British
   
6. number sizing
   
7. American sizing
8. travel size
   
9. has inch and metric ruler to figure out the gauge of unknown yarns easier nice that they are opposite each other
10. has sizes others do not have all my normal size needles are accounted for note 1 1/2 mark and two different size 3 markings and two sizes between size 10 1/2 and 11
11. thick plastic so it doesn't scratch needles
12. because it is thick easy to figure out if needle is a good fit
13. hand size even pocket size
    

Cons

1. alphabet sizes missing
   
2. doesn't go as high as the other two 16 (bates) and 17 (boye) are missing
3. hard to count stitch swatches on as it can shift easily when working with it.
4. have to count rows and columns separate when doing stitch counts
5. lettering will not wear off in time it is engraved if the pigment comes out you can always rub a black crayon over the areas to fill it in again and then remove the excess crayon .