And the winner of the Resweater giveaway is...

drum roll please....


according to random.com...



#7!

"Crystal said...

And Facebook page :-)

January 21, 2011 6:00 AM"

Congratulations, Crystal! You did not leave any contact information, and your Blogger profile cannot be accessed, so please contact me to claim your sweater!

It's What I've Been Working On Wednesday!

I got a lot done this week! I saw a pillow with what looked like planets on it, in a magazine, and I set out to make a pillow for Jack, since he loves astronomy (he knows more about the planets than most adults do!). I made it out of black cashmere, and he couldn't stop saying how soft it was :)

I was especially proud of how my earth came out (when Jack saw it he said "great job on South America, Mama!), but I really messed up Saturn's ring (notice that I didn't include that in the close up pic... he he he).


Jack has been asking me to make him an owl, whenever he saw one, so I finally got around to that. He wanted it to be brown with rainbow wings, and had a blast making the decisions on every detail. We were both happy with the end results! We decided to add a pocket to the back for treasure storage.


I am going to be making Christmas stockings soon (it is never too early to plan for Christmas!) out of the sleeves of this red fair isle, but for now the body of the sweater was begging me to be a pillow, so I obliged! This was my first pillow, so I was very happy how it turned out.



What have you been working on this week? As always, feel free to post your recycled wool finished projects on my Facebook page... I love to see 'em!

It's Tutorial Tuesday! - Emily's hat

As much as you guys can relate to me & my wool crafting, would you believe that almost all of my real life friends are not crafty & think what I do is weird? If there was an award for "least likely to be crafty & into recycling wool", I would have pinned it on my friend Emily a long time ago. Guess who got crafty with wool ;) ? She started reading my blog, made a few mittens for Christmas & now is hooked! She came up with this cool hat all on her own!

First take your felted sweater & cut 2 pieces in the shape of a simple beanie hat, though make it about 2" longer. Make sure the ribbing or edge of your sweater the bottom of your hat pieces, so you will have a nice finished edge. Now sew them together. You can also start out with a simple beanie hat from this tutorial, again making it about 2 inches longer.



Now pinch the fabric all around & sew. I made mine about 1/2" (1" folded in half), but probably should have made them a little smaller.


Whether you want 2, 3, or 4 rows is up to you! Emily prefers 3, and that looks good to me! Add a flower or a pin for a fun look! The flower pin on mine (at the top) is from this tutorial.

Here are Emily's fabulous hats! These pictures don't do them justice... they are much cuter on!

wool robe?

Someone asked me, months ago, if I knew of any tutorials for robes, or if I came up with any ideas to let her know. I have thought about it on and off for months. Hmm... that would take a lot of wool, and it wouldn't match... maybe patchwork... waist tie or button front? I pondered and pondered, but in the meantime, I had donated my fleece robe years ago, and realized that I will never need another. I don't need a robe, because I have my house sweaters, and perhaps, that's all she needs too! I pulled 2 super soft oversized cardigans from my stash a couple of years ago, and I wear them every day. I'm wearing one right now, and almost always am wearing one while i'm on the computer. On especially cold nights, I even sleep with them on. While they may not look the least bit attractive, they are house sweaters, and nobody ever sees them. Because they are wool, they never get stinky, like a robe can get if it's not washed often, and I never get that too hot, hot & cold, feeling that I get from fleece. So, I will probably never make a robe tutorial, because it's easier to just get yourself a house sweater!

Resweater giveaway!!! I have 500 likers on Facebook!

I now have 500 "likers" on Facebook, so it's time to celebrate with a giveaway! I will be giving away any 1 sweater from my shop (or even in my inventory, if you have a specific color in mind that I don't have listed, that I have on hand)!

Ready for the details?

Mandatory Entry:
* Follow my blog, and if you already do just say that.
Want extra entries?
* "like" my Facebook page, and if you are already one of fab 500, just let me know
* Blog about this giveaway & link to it.


Make sure to leave a separate comment for each of the entries you complete!

Deadline: midnight cst on Wednesday Jan. 26th. I will use random.org to pick the winners the following morning (Jan. 27th). **please leave an email if your blogger profile does not include it. I need a way to contact you.** Once a winner is drawn I will contact them and the winner will have 48 hours to reply back before I draw a new winner.

Good luck!

Off topic Thurday - wool penguin sweaters!

I am posting this out of sheer cuteness! I know I have a lot of readers that knit, so i'm sure you can appreciate this. In January 2000, there was an oil spill in Australia that threatened Little penguins, or Fairy Penguins, lives. The oil reduced their natural insulation, and when they tried to preen they were poisoning themselves by ingesting the oil. Then came Penguin Jumpers Project, and 15,000 tiny sweaters were hand knit, by knitters around the world, for the penguins! You can read more about that here and here, but now for more cute pictures!



Oh, and they required that all the penguin sweaters be wool, because they needed to be insulated. Sigh... don't you just love wool? ;)

ETA: Another interesting wool fact in this story, is that salt water causes wool to break down faster. As these penguins were recovering and getting better, their sweaters were breaking down and falling off of them, in perfect timing. Now I don't know if acrylic yarn would have fallen off of them in the same timing or not, but I do know that the ocean is better off with bits of biodegradable natural wool, than acrylic!

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday! necklace frame

I cannot, for the life of me, remember where I saw this idea (please remind me if it was on your blog & I will properly credit you!), but I loved it! I tried to find where I saw this by Googling "jewelry frame", but apparently this idea has been used in many forms! I'm a basic gal, and hardly ever wear makeup these day, or jewelry, but for some reason I feel naked without a necklace. I am easily distracted by shiny things, so most of my necklaces are pretty colors, and have crystals & beads, so making a jewelry frame appealed to me... takes up less space, and display my pretty baubles! I fell in love with this frame, that I bought for $1 at a rummage sale this summer, and have been saving it for just the right project. I used a piece of foam I had on hand, cut to the size of the frame. For the background I made a mini quilt out of some lightly felted merino I had, and stretched it over the foam & stapled it into place. I turned it over & my perfectly straight mini quilt was now a little crooked because my stretching was not even, apparently. So instead of taking the staples out & starting over, I left it like that, and it kinda looks good crooked, right?.... right?.... *crickets chirping*. Ok, ok, i'll redo it... sigh. Anyhow, I am really pleased at how it turned out! What do you think?

What have you been working on? As always, feel free to post your finished projects on my Facebook page!

It's Tutorial Tuesday! - Thrillingly Thrifty recycled wool slippers

Aren't these slippers adorable??? Want to make some for your little ones? Head on over to Cassidy's blog, Thrillingly Thrifty, for her full tutorial!

Off topic Thurday - bedwetting & cloth diapers by Daniel Creations

As some of you know, I cloth diaper. My son has been potty trained & in underwear since before he turned 2, but at 5 he is still wet on occasion at night, because he is a deep sleeper like I was. I wet the bed when I was a girl too... until I was 12. Even though folks don't talk much about it, bed wetting is more common than you think, and is nothing to be ashamed of. I was made to feel ashamed as a child, but all that did was make me feel terrible for something that was beyond my control. Did you know that...

• 15% of children still wet the bed at age 5 (that's one out of every 7 kindergartners!)
  
• 7 to 10% of children still wet the bed at age 7 (that's one out of every 10 2nd graders!)
  

• 3% of boys and 2% of girls still wet the bed at age 10

Even with these statistics, it has become increasingly harder to find any "pull-up" style cloth diapers that will fit my son at night. Even people that have said they can make them to my needs, can't seem to make them big enough. It also seems that all the options out there have pul (plastic laminated cloth). My son can't wear anything with plastic. Because of his sensitive skin, he will get a heat rash from plastic, and can only use cloth with wool.

That is why I want to sing the praises of Daniel Creations! Karen custom made some cloth pull ups for me, and they are above and beyond what I wanted! The fabrics & quality are fantastic, and the measurements are exactly what I asked for (thanks, Karen!), and they are so soft. She even made them like a pocket diaper, with thick & absorbent inserts. My son would only need the smaller of the 2, but they snap together & would be enough absorbency for the even the heaviest of night wetters.

She makes all kinds of cloth diapers, baby accessories, and even reusable sandwich wraps, so I highly recommend checking out her Artfire shop!

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday! cute skirt & bag

I didn't get too much sewing in this week, but I made 2 things yesterday. After posting my bum warming skirt tutorial yesterday, one of my readers, Mary, commented with a link to her wool skirt. I liked her style so much better, so I made a similar one for myself, only without the pleats, and more pieces. I was able to find a piece with buttons, and a piece with a pocket, in my stash. I love it (thanks, Mary!), and have been wearing it all morning. My bum has been toasty warm, and it looks super cute with boots on! It looks even better in real life (and real lighting), but here it is:


The other project was a little bag that my son asked me to make him to carry his "wallet, chapstick, and stuff" in. Luckily the sweater he picked had a zipper at the neck, so I didn't have to worry about making a closure at the top. It was hard to take a picture of, because the wool wasn't stiffly felted, but you get the idea.



As always, feel free to post pictures of your finished recycled wool projects on my Facebook page. I love to see 'em!

It's Tutorial Tuesday! - Bum warming skirt

Someone emailed me a while back, asking if I sold bum warmers. I wasn't sure what that was, so she sent me a link to someone in Canada that made them (sorry, but I lost the link, or I would have posted it). The one she sent was like a band that went across the bum, but I thought it would be cute too, and more versatile, if it were more like a skirt, so I made this.

First, I cut the bottom of a felted sweater, the length I wanted the skirt to be. You can always take it in on the sides if it is too big. I didn't have this problem ;)



I then measured my waist, and cut 2 pieces of ribbing from another felted sweater, to create the waist. I cut the front a little shorter than I did the back, to accommodate my rear. I sewed them together on the sides.


Now just sew the 2 pieces together, cut ends to cut ends (so the existing finished edges of sweaters are on the top & bottom of your skirt), stretching your waist band a bit as you go, if it is smaller than the skirt part.

Here it is, front & back. It looks a little funny laying flat, but looks fine when it's on.

These look super cute with a pair of leggings, and definitely keep your bottom toasty warm! I may skip wearing these in public, since i'm a lot closer to 40 than 30, but these would be great for the girls & teens in your life.

ETA: I retract my "I may skip wearing these in public, since i'm a lot closer to 40 than 30, but these would be great for the girls & teens in your life" statement. I wore this with leggings & boots the other day, and it was a cute look! The boots made it work.

Fiber artist in Galena, Susan Brusch

While I was away on my girls' weekend in Gelena, Il., we of course shopped the shops. At the shop Hello Galena I had the pleasure of meeting a fiber artist, Susan Brusch, who needle felts her original designs onto recycled wool mittens. Here is a picture of what she had in the case, but you should have seen her other designs!

You can email her at brusch(at)mchsi(dot)com, if you want more information about her mittens.

It's What I've Been Working on Wednesday - not much this week!

I have not been sewing much, but did make this dress for Victoria Marie. I figured since she was going to be modeling my hats, she needed a wool outfit too. The leggings I made a few weeks ago. I want to add cuffs on the sleeves & embellish the front, but I think it looks pretty good as is.


You are going to have to forgive me, but my blogging will be scarce for the next week or 2. I still have to take my Christmas tree down, my laundry is behind, my shop inventory is much lower than I like, and I am going on a girls' weekend trip (my first trip without my family!), so not much time left for blogging! Also, my shop will be on vacation mode over the weekend, starting Friday afternoon. I might be online while i'm out of town, but I will be away from my sweaters, so I can't do any shipping from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

So what have you been working on? I LOVE seeing all your projects that you have been posting on my Facebook page!