No mermaids here

This year I decided to pull the mermaid costume listings from my etsy shop so that I could concentrate on training my intern on the finer points of ninja-costume-sewing:

She ran the accelerator, I steered.  And nobody ended up bleeding on the costume - bonus!

I've been working at the yarn store ...

... all the live-long day (on Tuesdays and Thursdays while LazyKid is at school)

I've been working at the yarn store

Trying to put some wool away ...

(I had the easy job - Cathy - or is it Kathy? - had to put all of the inventory in the computer and put price stickers on all of it)

Did I mention I'm growing potatoes this year?

Okay, so my "potato condo" is actually a collapsible yard waste bin from Target, and about four bags of potting soil ...

Who cares?  I still grew potatoes!

Today is my daughter's first day of school, so I'm going to wait until she's home to harvest the rest.  I can't wait to see how many we got in that little container!

And speaking of little containers, did you know you can grow awesome carrots in a deep flower pot in your front yard, and nobody will ever know (until you harvest them)?

Trufax.

New class in development: Super-size Scrappy Square Blanket

My most recent attempt to use up scrap sock yarn generated a lot of interest, both in the Muggle public and at sit-and-knit at my local yarn store.  

I'm guessing that there are a lot of people like me who save oddball amounts of leftover yarn with the intention of doing "something" with it someday, but they have a hard time finding a pattern that doesn't end up looking like something the cat barfed up.  With truly random color choices, there's always an unfortunate possibility that your project will turn out to look significantly less than awesome.

I'm thinking of writing up the patterns for both the solid square blanket (above) and a super-sized granny square afghan (which would be along the lines of this one on Ravelry).  Or maybe a rectangular one in stripes?  These projects have all the hallmarks of being a Lazy Mama favorite:

• You design the color progression to avoid unfortunate color neighbors
• Uses yarn you've already got on hand
• Works with any gauge and thickness of yarn
• Pattern lets you keep working until you get bored - makes an infinite number of sizes.
• No seams, and it's easy to work in the ends as you go, so practically no finishing.

I'll need to work up some samples this weekend to get my instructions ironed out, but I think these patterns show a lot of promise.

Upcoming class - crocheting rag rugs

A lot of people love the look of traditional rag rugs, but they're not thrilled with the idea of having to sew together miles and miles of braid with stiff thread and a heavy duty needle.  Luckily, you can get a similar result with the same materials much more easily - with crochet!  

And better yet, it doesn't require any special stitches or equipment - just single crochet and a size Q hook.

On Sunday, September 11, I'll be teaching a class on the rag rug crochet technique at River Colors Studio.  I'll cover fabric selection and preparation, different shapes you can make, how to make an extra-reinforced version that will stand up to heavy wear, and more!  I'll provide a written pattern to make a circular rug, and in class we'll work on a project that can either be the beginning of a rug, or a chair pad or trivet if you don't want to make something quite so large.

Call soon to register - there's been a LOT of interest in this project when I've brought it to the sit-and-knits on Saturday afternoons.

Having my own craft show

We're having a garage sale today, and I figured that since I had a captive audience anyway, I'd try to convince them to Gsee things as a Lazy Mama.  Translation: I set up a table of items from my etsy shops in the middle of my garage sale.

It's not beautiful, but it gets the job done, and I've already sold more SWAK blankets in 2 hours than I have all year on etsy.

So if you've ever had a hankering to check out my stuff in person (and you're near Cleveland, Ohio today), come on by and chat!

If I had a hammer (and a decent staple gun)

My craftiness has been channeled into our new patio room, where I have traded my knitting needles for a hammer and some panel adhesive ...

While I had the paint out for the paneling, I rehabbed a wooden bookshelf I pulled off of a trash pile last summer.  One coat of paint and a yard of fabric later, and voila! Instant happy bookcase!

Simplest fabric project ever.  Fabric, scissors, staple gun.  I didn't even measure it, just cut it to fit as I went.

This won't be the last thing I'm making for the room, so keep your eyes peeled for more projects soon!

Super stash-busting extravaganza

A few weeks ago I taught a beginning crochet class at River Colors, and my student caught onto things so quickly that we had time to get into some of the more advanced topics, like changing colors and making granny squares.  One of the projects I used as an example of how she could use these skills was the standard stash-buster blanket ... which I've never actually made.  It's been on my radar for a couple of years now, and the stash of leftover sock yarn has been growing and growing, but I could never decide on a pattern I liked enough to commit the time and energy to make.

But I was inspired by my student to give it a try, so I hauled out the jar of sock yarn scraps and started organizing them.  I like the look of a scrappy blanket ... as long as it's not too scrappy.  I want the colors to sort of flow into each other, not look like I made the thing in the dark while blindfolded.  Kind of hard when half of my yarn is boring husband/in-law yarn and the other half is whackadoo Lazy Mama/Kid yarn.

So far, so good!