We Have Wee Dogs, Marilyn, and Silly Walks!

I'm going to skip the long explanation in regards to my (rather lengthy) absence, and just say simply that I've been incredibly, very sick the last several months. And while I'm not out of the woods yet, I'm am better for the time being.

So, what has the old Scone Gunman been up to, craft-wise? Not much until recently.

I should have been working on crafting Christmas gifts at least a month ago, but the health thing kept me away. However, this past week I finally gathered up some strength, borrowed a dash of motivation, and got cracking on gifts.

One of them flopped. We won't talk about that one, okay?

I have four or five gifts in various stages of undress. Mostly finished but needing something like, say, a frame. I squandered valuable gift-crafting time by starting an embroidery for myself:

I'm a bad person. Wait- redemption!

For my mother's birthday (which also happens to be this month), I embroidered her dog. As in, I embroidered a picture. I didn't embroider *on* the dog.

The tag is embroidered with the initials 'PL', because the dog's name is Penny Lane. It's modified from a Gina Matarazzo pattern.

And for my mother's...boyfriend? Partner? For the guy my mother lives with (that'll do), who happens to be a Monty Python fan (like myself), I stitched the Ministry of Silly Walks plaque:

One of those 'just add a frame' deals.

Is there more? Oh, Cthulhu help you, yes! I've been a crafting fool. In the next day or so I'll post some of my other finished projects, like the prettyful pink neck warmer I also made for my mumsy, as well as my handy dandy, homemade Christmas cards.

It's Alive! And So Am I!

It's been a bit since my last post. Despite rumors to the contrary, I have not fallen from the curve of the earth. As I know everyone out there understands all too well, life sometimes finds a way to insert its own special brand of commercial interruption.

Me, I've been dealing with health issues, which have kept me from my most beloved-est baking. These issues should not have interfered with crafting, but I must confess to an extreme case of laziness. As much as I want to pull out some embroidery or cross-stitch, there's something about the idea of actually going to my working basket and picking out a project that seems more daunting than...well, something daunting.

And while I'm confessing (I've got the Catholics beat on this, I think), I should tell you that what I have been doing is so very, very important. Okay, so I've been glutting myself on Buffy via Netflix. But it could be important. Maybe. I'll figure out how and get back to you.

Until I'm back up and running at a normal pace again, I'll leave you with a couple pictures of one of my current projects. It's a free-form sampler that I have no direction for at all. I'm just seeing where the floss takes me, having fun experimenting with new stitches along the way. Although, I've thus far only used French knots and ribbed spiderweb stitch.

Chainmail Belly Dance Belt

No one will ever accuse me of being a hand model. Between the baking burns, constant OCD hand washing, and working with chainmail, I officially have the worlds ugliest, roughest hands. No joke. My husband can confirm. We're talking wicked witch territory here.

But in the end it's worth it, because my family gets delicious baked goods, my therapist is still in business, and I get awesome chainmail pieces like this one.

All it took was a bag of jump rings, two kinds of pliers, calloused hands, focus, and a Buffy marathon.

Of course, it doesn't have to be for belly dancers only (although that's what I'll use it for). It could be worn to the Ren Faire, for LARP, or just because it's awesome.

This is my first chainmail adventure. You see, last Christmas our oldest son decided he wanted to learn to make chainmail armor. Being wondiferous parents, me an my husband bought him a very large bag of jump rings. He was very excited about them. So excited that he never did anything with them, deciding it was too hard. Or too boring. I'm not clear on that one.

Seeing that pricey bag of metal sitting there not living up to it's potential got me itching (the mosquitoes are bad this time of year). I should go online, research the history of chainmail, study patterns and refference until I have a solid, sound knowledge base.

Or I'd just grab some pliers and start putting rings together.

And I have to say that I'm very pleased with the final result, and that I've developed a love for this particular craft.

Even if my hands hate me for it.

Mother's Day Gift: Embroidered Kid's Writing

If I had any good sense, I would have taken a pic before framing it.

For my mom's Mother's Day gift, I had all three of my kids (12, 6, and 2) write something on some fabric and then I embroidered over it. I used a modified satin stitch to really get the feeling of kid's handwriting. And let me tell you, embroidering all wonky-like is not as easy as it may seem!

All the kids chose their own colors, except my youngest. I chose for him, because he's small and I own him.

A somewhat better shot of the detail:

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

What The Hell-o Kitty?

Finished this Hello Kitty embroidery for my daughter last night. It was super quick, but I ran into more than one problem while doing it. The fabric was just too thin and had a bit too much give for as many strands as I was working with (all 6).

Nonetheless my daughter loves it, which is what counts.

I admit to getting lazy and copping out on the eyes. Instead of doing satin stitch on them, as I had originally planned, I used some buttons. Unfortunately, the buttons you see are the smallest I had, making poor HK a bit demented looking.

Baking Isn't For...NSFW Cross Stitch

It's a truth spelled out in lovingly stitched "X"s, and evidenced by the burn scars peppering my prematurely gnarled hands (it's true, the hands in my pics are not the hands of Baba Yaga herownself). And it's just as much an encouragement to my culinary-minded son (12 year old boys love this kind of stuff, obviously) as it is a reminder to me to run my hands under some cold water and soldier on.

Baking thug life!

Knitting- Diagonal Eyelet Fingerless Glove Love

 Yeah, rockin' a Fullmetal Alchemist shirt

So, I found this awesome pattern on CreativeYarn and knew right away that I had to make them. And make them I did. And they were beautiful. The color, the design. Love, I tell you.

Except that they're too big for my hands (they're pinned in the picture so you can see their full magnificence, but they're not fully magnificent because they're too big).

This is where crushing disappointment would normally come in. Except that these knit up so darned fast (2-3 hours, I suppose) that I know whipping up another pair will be a breeze. I'll use smaller needles this time (the pattern calls for 6, I'll use 4s) so that I don't have to attempt to alter the pattern, which I'm not nearly adept enough to pull off anyhow.

For the time being, however, my crafting dance card is completely filled by the things I'm making my mother for Mother's Day. Which is the Lion Brand Rib Sampler Scarf (free and awesome!) and a cross-stitched version of the Twilight book cover (yeah, totally original, I know).

Hopefully I'll get some progress shots of those soon. Eh, it's more likely you'll see it when they're done.