cindannie’s studio

Our friend Shelly made this lovely and thoughtful beaded ring for a pregnant friend. It’s stretchy for comfort! Shelly takes beautiful photographs as well.

These are not your ordinary gingerbread houses! My friend Jan created these with her kids. First is a gingerbread outhouse, and, yes, those are two dachshunds in the snow. You can tell this was made for a special friend.

And here is every gingerbread boy and girl’s dream - a gingerbread carnival, complete with a carousel, a ferris wheel and bumper cars among the attractions, yum!

Thanks for sharing your sweet treats Jan!

My friend Jan painted this large canvas, 4′ x 6′, for a little boy who loves tractors. Jan is a sculptor and painter, she taught me how to tie dye, and she loves to make really big paintings! And she loves to craft with kids too. Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger version of Jan’s painting.

Our friend Jen is making these stylish reusable coffee cup cozies out of hemp fleece scraps and ribbon trims.

I want one. Don’t you? Read more about Jen’s inspiration and get your own coffee cup cozy by supporting Jen’s AIDS/Lifecycle ride!

Come join us for an Open Studio Week! E-mail a pic and a little blurb about a favorite craft project you’ve made recently to Cinda or Annie and we’ll put it up this week.

Extra smiles and virtual brownies if it has anything to do with something one of us has shared with you!

At the end of the week we’ll draw a name from submissions and comments for a little surprise whatchamacallit. (I’ll do the post office run Annie.)

A recent project inspired by a lovely friend - I used rose quartz and silver beads with satin and sheer pink ribbons to create the necklace and matching earrings. Thanks to Annie and Krista for inspiration on how to make the earrings. And thanks to my friend Sonya who turns everything rosy, inside and out.

Doesn’t that sound like a Laurie Berkner song? Fun, fun!
So what is Tuice? Tuice is juice made with decaf tea instead of water. All the flavor with half the sugar. I use half of a container of 100% frozen juice concentrate and mix with the full amount of brewed herbal tea (Use as many teabags as you would normally use for a full pitcher).

I know, this isn’t really a craft or art, but it is creative! And it’s open to lots of experimentation. And I love tasting new things.
Some of my favorite recipes for Tuice:

Langer’s Summer Blend with Celestial Seasonings Country Peach Passion.

White Grape Juice is yummy with Good Earth’s Organic Red - Harvest Berries.

Another great mix is Darjeeling and Ocean Spray Cranberry or Cran-Apple. This probably appeals more to the adult palate.

Enjoy your Tuice! (thank you for the name Karin!)

And now I’m hooked! Here’s how it progressed:

First, I knit a few lace socks. I can say ‘few’.. because some of them don’t have mates yet. You know.. single sock syndrome. This blue one is good tho… there’s actually two of them, and Dida got them for Christmas.

The first and third pair are designed by an amazing Asian girl, who goes by the name Cookie A. The third pair have gone ‘viral’ in the knitting world, and ‘Monkey’ socks are worn by any lace knitter worth his/her salt. I have one. ya. Might wear it with the middle, purple, sock (also mateless). Who cares about matching?

So, then I took a big leap, and landed in lace world in a major way. I started a massive shawl, complete with crystal beads; it’s called Mystic Waters. It’s beautiful, and totally unfinished. I need more time to concentrate, and my Christmas knitting was getting backlogged.

All the while, I’ve been working on a vintage Shetland pattern, which I modified to make a wrap. I’ve knitted another version of this for Edlyn (in a scarf size.. and before I knew she was allergic to wool. But, knowing Edlyn, it’s probably decorating something somewhere!). The Citrine wrap you see below was made of a silk/baby mohair blend. Super yummy. However, I’m forever cured of knitting repetitive patterns; unless I take up drinking or eating funny mushrooms.

And I’ve made one of these in silk, and one in baby alpaca. This is my favorite wrap, and I’m going to knit one for myself soon.

And finally, for 2007, I knit a really great shawl over my Christmas break. It’s called the Heartland Lace Shawl, and was designed for a company that produces Bison yarn. I’m giving this one to Jim’s mom for her 70th birthday, and I’m going to knit another HLS in Bison to enter in the Calgary Stampede. I’m excited… I’m considering spinning the yarn myself. (I made the current one out of sock yarn that I had on hand)

I have signed up for a lace knitting club, called the 2008 Year of Lace. Every 3 months (for a year) a lace pattern and yarn will be sent to me. I’m super excited.. Ya. A year of lace.

Happy New Year all… And may each and every one of you have a special year of something great.

My 5 year old son was given a Leapster game for his birthday recently. He enjoys it very much and is learning quite a bit from playing it. For Christmas I made him a denim case to hold it. I used some heavy denim, gold thread, two invisible zippers and 1/4″ neoprene padding that I had on hand. I actually had to make it twice as the first one was a bit snug and looked rather too purse-like with little handles. It actually didn’t take that long so I decided to try again and  this was the result.

And here you can see how the case looks open and closed. The neoprene I used to line the case is easy to cut and will mold somewhat to shape.
 

The game seems to be really well made and able to withstand being dropped etc. but why take chances? And it was fun. I think I will be making some more custom cases for other electronic gadgets in our household.

My son was given a small box of colored modeling compound as a birthday gift. I asked him what he wanted to make with it and he told me “aliens”. While he loves play dough, he would rather I make things for him than make them himself. I have been working with him to make things for himself but it’s definitely a work in progress. So this was a cooperative project. And we didn’t make all of these the same day. I made the basic body shape and he added the features. On the last few we branched out into two toned models and my husband even made one too. My daughter got in the mood and contributed the pieces that became the “birthday cake”. I added the pink icing. On a green cake. Hey, life is full of possibilities when you are 5 and 2.

I don’t think I’ve written about graphic design here. I’m an advertising designer by training and have spent most of my formal job experiences in that field. My absolute favorite things to do are typography and logo design, which often go hand in hand.

As a child I would often draw alphabets during a particularly boring lecture. I was never much good at drawing but I did enjoy doodling in an abstract way. Somehow that lead to a career in graphic design.

While I’m not currently working in the field, I do a few projects a year. Most of what I do graphic design-wise is done for our church or our camp or other volunteer situations. See the sign in the previous post.

But here is a logo that I worked on in the last month that I am quite pleased with. I fought with it but I think we made peace in the end. The font is Herculanum but each letter has been altered just a bit to fit together into the logo, with the addition of the graphic mark representing a calyx. A calyx is the whorl of sepals surrounding the flower petals. It is often green but is sometimes other colors. The calyx surrounds and protects the growing bud and continues to support the petals as the flower blooms. This enchanting name was aptly chosen for a soft baby carrier designed by a friend of mine, Rebecca Fisher of Mama By Design.

There is a picture of a sign in this entry but really I’m going to talk about the production of the event itself, rather than the sign advertising it.
Somehow I find myself working on a rather ambitious project. Our small church puts together a Christmas party every year for the children. A few years ago a friend and I had a vague idea of creating a Bethlehem village that the children could walk through. This year I decided we ought to try it. So we are departing from our usual construction of gingerbread houses and paper snowflakes and appearances by Santa.
Our teenagers are quite keen on drama productions and we already have a good number of costumes and props from our Children’s Workshop. So I’ve been doing all sorts of researching, mainly involving sitting at the computer of course. Did you know that “Bethlehem” means “house of bread”? Now you do.
We’ve always made the party open to friends but never advertised it publicly but as everyone was quite excited about this new theme, someone suggested we put it in the paper. So the last two evenings I’ve spent lettering the sign below. Being always on a small budget, I scrounged around the house for a large board and appropriate paints. Unable to find my good brushes, I ended up doing most of the lettering with a paint pen. I’m rather glad I couldn’t find my good brushes!

Hopefully by the time the day arrives, we will have found people to cover all the various parts - the baker, the leather worker, the apothecary, the prophetess Anna, and of course the requisite Mary and Joseph. There will be demonstrations, crafts for the children to make for their parents, breads and fruits for the guests to sample, stories being told. Perhaps our puppets will make an appearance as well. I think this is one of my favorite crafts - directing a dramatic production. Perhaps because I really have no training and not all that much experience, I don’t know what I might be doing wrong so I have few worries, and just go ignorantly on my way enjoying the process. Hopefully it will be enjoyable and memorable for the participants and the guests as well.

Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the day.

I made this lion costume from some kind of faux suede when my son was almost two. This year I got it out and added a little more fluffy behind the ears and my now 2 year old daughter wore it for Halloween. I couldn’t find the matching shoes as they had been worn as slippers quite a bit and gotten separated from the costume. My daughter liked it so much she wore it for about three days straight! That’s okay when you are only two, right?

Here is Summer wearing the green baby cord pants I made her. I think she liked them quite a lot.

And the pink flowered dress I made for her from my old tee shirt.

My daughter is growing up so fast. Turning two has brought with it tantrums and turning up her nose at clothes I’ve picked out for her. I hope she’ll like this pair of light green baby cord flared pants I made in the spare moments of the last few days. I added some cotton lace to the pockets and hem. Both fabric and lace came out of my stash, originally bought for about a dollar total I’d guess. I wish I had a special button to add. Maybe I’ll be able to dig one up from the depths of some other project.

This sort of happened a little bit at a time. I started with the wreath form, a few shells and odds and ends picked up on the beach last summer, and a nest I found on the ground in the yard very early in the spring. As you can see it’s a small nest, I’m not sure if it belonged to a bird or a mouse. Did you know mice build nests? Sometimes you’ll find one in deep snow.

Back to the wreath. Over the summer it acquired a few feathers picked up by my son - blue jay, wild turkey, unknown. I admit to buying the starfish and the sand dollar. I’ve never found any on our beaches here in Maine. The blue mussel shell is much more typical.

I have a dear friend who makes beautiful wreaths which I have often admired. This doesn’t look anything like one of hers! But I like that it tells the story of our summer.

Here’s a little something I’m playing around with. I call it a Diaper NV or Diaper Envie. Anyway, it’s just a little fabric envelope that holds a few disposable diapers and a built in vinyl zipper pocket for wet wipes. I myself put cloth diapers on my babies most of the time but for going out I find it simpler to carry disposables. Here are pictures of round one and round two. And I’ve adjusted the pattern a little bit and will make a third that I think will probably be the final version. All of the versions have an asymetrical envelope shaped flap which closes with a single snap.

version 1:

version two:

Just a bit trimmer, used the print to accent the flap shape.

I find this easy to grab out of my bag for a diaper change rather than hunting around for the wipes case and a diaper and the hand sanitizer. With a toddler you could even use it without a diaper bag. It’s big enough to fit a few other small items such as keys, cell phone, etc.

Stay tuned for version three.

But I’m pretty pleased with this particular project. I purpose-built a baby carrier for a mama who only has the use of one arm. Her 3 month old is 17 lbs so she really needed a good supportive baby carrier that she can put on by herself. She came to visit me looking for a front carrier. We tried out one of my standard Tentoes Click™ baby carriers and it worked but we figured out some things that could be better for her.

She chose a happy boyish stripe that turned out very nice.

So I moved the waist buckle to the right side for her. I changed the shoulder straps so that they buckled at the top and tighten by pulling down instead of buckling under the arms. This way she can reach both buckles with her right hand. I also put in a slide adjustment on the bottom end of the crossed shoulder straps so that she can get the padding to sit nicely on her shoulders and upper back. I also lined the carrier with a heavy satin to make it easier for her to slide her baby in.This should work for her until her baby is walking.

Well, even if you aren’t, maybe you would like to consider this knit-along.  I think I’m going to take part.

Sock it to Maggie!

I have a lot to say. You will see that I’ve been busy keeping my mind off of the month of August in general… So, under the category of:

Spinning…

Latest off of the wheel is ‘Playing with Fire - Bronze’. I spun that today, and might I add that I had my first spinning injury in the process. A wasp crawled into my slipper and stung the top of my foot. OUCH. Anyway, the sheep is Finn, and I got 170 yards from about 4 oz. I think it’s beautiful.

With the other 1/4 lb. of Finn, I spun ‘Finn-Finney’. Lots of you are acquainted with our blue eyed Mr. Finney, and will recognize that he was my muse.

I have a new colourway, called ‘Emerald Forest Pixie’. I spun it in a wool/nylon blend and it came out like this (in roving form, and on the wheel):

I’m happy to say that this yarn is in the hands of the forest pixie herself, and one day it will be woven into something wonderful, I’m sure.

Here is a 100grms of mohair that I dyed using the Emerald Forest Pixie colourway. It’s yet unspun. I’m thinking of carding something sparkley into it.

Way back there with the pixie roving, you’ll see spun/dyed hank (drying on the rack). That is now dried and wound, but is yet unnamed. The sheep is Wensleydale, and I forgot to measure the yardage. The red in it will self-stripe.

Here’s about 100 grms of the wool/nylon, dyed mostly fuschia, with a bit of lavender. I dyed it to go into the EZ baby surprize jacket. You know.. the one I haven’t started yet, tho purchased three books to do so.

I’m pretty sure that Ike doesn’t read this blog… so here’s a ball of natural grey alpaca that I spun. I’m going to mix it with some of the Shepherd BFL and make him socks for Christmas. It’s not as soft as I had hoped, but softer than it looks in the picture.

hmmm… what’s left? I have 2 balls of Summer’s Grapes (BFL), and a ball of Lemon-Lime Mohair….

and finally, the saddest bobbin of soy silk you’ve ever seen. It’s my first time spinning soy, and I need a little work. Amy and Sandra (at M-1) gave me the fiber to try to cheer up my birthday. Awww.. Thanks girls! When I get a nicer product I’ll bring you in that hank.

Ok.. on to Knitting!

I completed the Pomatomus socks… they are so lovely. I have Maddie modeling them for you, and they are a bit large on her.

Remember way back when I knitted those wayyyy wayyyy wayyyy too big Tijuana Blanket socks? Well, I did ‘full’ them, and they are SO soft, and so warm and just so, so great. I’m really happy. ps: they fit (well, me.. but not maddie).

I completed a ‘Stolen Moments’ Wrap, designed by Amy Swenson of M-1. It’s majorly groovy. You can see a picture of Amy’s cashmere version on the M-1 blog. I’m not showing mine, because it will be seen by the future owner. by the way, the pattern is available for you to download, and it is free. It’s a really quick knit.

In progress I have (only!) two things… a cashmere toque, and the sweetest Cat’s Paw wrap in Alchemy Haiku (colourway: Citrine). It’s a silk/mohair blend, and it’s as light as a feather - it’s a prettier colour than the picture shows. I’m pretty sure the wrap is going to fit through a ring… it’s that fine.

and finally I’ve arrived at:
Miscellaneous!

Remember I was talking about that amazing wheel/loom, etc. bargain I got from Marilyn Strata? I kept all the handspun myself, and recently I gave most of it a bath in some wool wash, and rolled it up. I have two large balls of Rambouillet, dated 1986, and a large ball of a mohair/wool blend. There are more balls of wool to clean, but there isn’t any information on them… well, they were spun by Donna, and I understand she carded them too! I think it’s so cool that if I knitted the wool today, I would be creating something modern and vintage at the same time.

Last but not least. I found THE most amazing little bag at Staples the other day. It’s actually an insulated lunch bag made out of the material you’d use to make a wet-suit. It’s red, it’s light, it’s compact, it’s water repellant, it’s just the right size, and if push came to shove you could put your lunch in it too! I, however, use mine to carry knitting projects. It fits a sock in progress, and a cashmere toque as well. i SO love it. You should get one.

Oh,… one more thing. Amy and Sandra (M-1, where else?) were encouraging me to teach a class at the shop. I should be able to.. Lord knows I do enough stuff… but I haven’t ever taught before. Comment or email me won’t you? What do you think I should/could teach a class?

So I’ve done lots of little tie dye. A few adult t-shirts. This is my largest project so far. My friend had a stretchy gauze baby wrap that was a plain beige color. Functional but not too pretty.

She asked me to dye it. Sure, I’ll take on a challenge! It was hemmed with a nice decorative stitch all the way around, in polyester thread. So, first off I had to serge the whole thing with dyeable cotton thread. I’m still getting the hang of the serger but that went okay. On to the dying. Here it is, 5 yards of fabric rinsing in my deep sink.

I was not thrilled at this point because I could tell it was going to be much lighter than I had intended. This is the scary part about dyeing. It’s not a science and you never quite know how things will turn out. Most of the wrap was crinkled in two shades of purple with a green spiral in the center and a green and dark purple stripe on each end. For those of you who don’t know anything about wearing a baby with a long piece of cloth, it’s a big help to have something to identify the middle and the ends so one of my goals was to mark those spots in a decorative way.

I wasn’t exactly pleased with the results but . . . Krista was happy with it. And it will still carry a baby just fine. And as always, I learned something new.

This is the purse I had been using before I made the new jute one below. It’s about 5 years old I suppose. I used black macramé cord and lined it with plastic canvas for a stiff shape. I sewed the zipper in by hand and added a little curly wire doodad to the zipper pull. I added the clear plastic handles later and I still haven’t decided if I like them. What do you think?

Annie was concerned we had a lot of knitting going on in the blog so I thought I’d contribute a little crochet. Not that I do much of either but I find crochet easier to “wing it”! Annie saw a pic of this little purse I crocheted from a $1 ball of jute twine about 10 years ago and wanted me to post it. I repaired the handle several times and finally had to give up on it but I decided to make myself a new one. The original had inline handles and a toggle made from a seashell. On the new one I changed the shape a bit, used a shell button and crocheted the handles on afterwards so they can be completely replaced if necessary. Jute is a bit tough to work with but it softens with use and it has a wonderful nubby quality to it. And it can stand up to daily use for years! This is very simple single crochet, no pattern.

the old:

the new:

When I was a little girl, my mother would often take an old dress of her own and take it apart and then cut out a dress for me from the good pieces. She tells the story of how her mother took apart her own sweater to knit my mother a new sweater for a school event.

Maybe we’re frugal, maybe we’re sentimental.

Here’s a $3 t-shirt I’ve worn for years and couldn’t bear to part with. With a few pleats and tucks, I turned it into a dress for my baby girl. She loves it.

before and after

Baby spit. That remarkable glue-like substance that some babies produce in incredible quantities at the most inopportune times. When my first child was born, he spit up so often that I kept an extra outfit for ME in the diaper bag. My husband was not so prepared and lived to regret it. We did however keep numerous “burp cloths” in the diaper bag.

Our burp cloths were plain white and boring. Or too cute to put on an adult shoulder.
A friend is having a baby soon and I decided to make her some burp cloths with a little style. Here’s the result. Natural twill prefolds with a piece of cotton batik sewn down the center. The cotton batik matches a baby carrier she owns.

Happy one year to us, dear Jacinda!  I still haven’t sent Roxanne her door prize from last year (oh my), or I’d say we should have some kind of draw!

Today something cool happened.  I wrote to the fleece artist to give some feedback regarding the sea wool I purchased (and knit those yummy bordello socks with).  Let me be clear; i LOVE the fiber, absolutely love it.  However, there were some little issues with it, so I sent an email.  Not complaining, but.. you know.. saying.  I heard from Kathryn today, and they offered to send me a replacement skein.  I think that goes above and beyond as far as customer service goes… since I knitted the socks and the little issues were certainly not earth shattering.  So kudos to the fleece artist.  I’ll be their customer forever.

My kids enjoyed painting outside on the walk in front of the house.

So one of my friends asked about some red, white, and blue tie dye. Somebody else thought that sounded like fun. I offered to do a batch if there was enough interest. Well, I got an overwhelming response. Who knew I had so many friends who like tie dye? So I have done more tie dye in the last few weeks than I normally do in months but it was a lot of fun. I learned some new tricks and I also got to experiment with stamps. I used both rubber stamps and foam stamps with fabric inks to embellish the finished tie dyes for the first time. I really enjoyed doing this, it was easy and I plan to experiment with this technique more. Sometime. So here are some boring shots of cute kid clothes on my floor. Click to see it bigger. I am really hoping that I will get to post some shots of cute kids IN these clothes! (yes this is a hint my friends!)

with stars
without stars

 watermelon baby!

 pink, pink!

 detail of butterflies stamped on the pink dress

 more butterflies on lavender

sister dresses with dragonflies

Many thanks to my friends who helped with this fun experiment. I will definitely be doing more of this!

The little thing:  Whenever I’ve said ‘roving’, I should have said ‘top’.  I thought ‘top’ was a quality of roving, and it turns out that a roving is a lesser quality than a top.  So there you go.  We learned something today.

Two:  a BIG THING (sorry for the yelling).  Tonight something really wonderful happened to me; I met Marilyn Stata, her husband Rob and their westie, Kaiser.  Kaiser is amazing, and so, so sadly, he is in the last stage of his life (due to an agressive cancer).  I met Marilyn when I was looking for a used drum carder online.  I found an ad for that and so much more.  Marilyn’s mother has moved into a seniors facility, and has left behind her life as a spinner/weaver.  I thought, and thought, and thought this opportunity over; Dida would like to weave.  Do I really need two wheels?

There is so much more than I ever realized.  Marilyn was kind enough to lower the price to something I could swing… and I now have a living room full of her mother’s things; one of which is a Louet wheel.  I’ve been wishing for and dreaming of a Louet wheel, and I have just spent the last hour spinning on my own.  There is a drum carder, there is a bobbin winder, a ball winder.  There is a huge bag of yarn, ready for weaving.  And.. there is a 36″ Leclerc Nilus floor loom.  Tomorrow I’m going to take it to Dida; she’s going to set it up in the basement, and she’s going to take some lessons.

There’s more.. there’s another loom that you can weave straps on.  There’s so many extra parts for the loom that I can’t begin to recount them.  There’s an antique wool washer, and an antique crank sewing machine that belonged to Marilyn’s grandmother.

I’m so happy, and I’m so grateful.  And quite honestly, I’m amazed that something so wonderful would happen to me.

What do you think? Any less shocking now that it’s spun? Did you imagine it would come out merlot (well, a bit of a grapey merlot)?

The difference between a roving and yarn is astounding. I am beginning to get a feel for what results might be when I’m dripping dye unto a wet roving. I think it would take a lifetime to fully understand colour.

ps:  Hooray!!!!  I just calculated the yardage spun, and I have officially spun sock weight.  This was a goal of mine, and I’m so excited and thrilled.