Big Plans... not.

Okay... so I had big plans for knitting these past couple of days. Lots of knitting... lots of needle clicking, color play and finishing projects... oh, yes. I had big knitting plans and couldn't wait to start...but my daughters had plans of their own. They both decided to make these awesome gifts for their friend who requested money to save for a laptop instead of random gifts for her birthday. Genevieve thought it would be hilarious to make a T-shirt purse with a One Thousand Dollar bill on it. I wish she had made me one. The braided handle is extra groovy... and all the hand stitching looks really cool.
Olivia made a laptop softie. On the outside where the apple usually occupies, she made a muffin... her friend's nickname is NerdMuffin.
When the laptop opens, you see this cheery little guy. Don't you just want to trade in your real laptop for something that dang cute?! So now that the girls are at their party and the table is full of polar fleece and t-shirt scraps... maybe, just maybe, I will have time to do a little knitting! Oh wait... it's time to pick them up from the party! Nevermind.

Hostess With The Mostess

Hostess With The Mostess

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I made this all-in-one apron for an auction to benefit NAG, a group who brings artists and workshops to kids who live in a very rural part of Montana. The benefit dinner and auction of aprons made by artists was the perfect venue for my friend Michelle Lambson and I to collaborate. We first found the yellow dress at an "upscale" thrift store... (We were there to find a jacket to make into an apron... a kind of MichaelJacksonesque number), but this yellow dress screamed at us from the rack... and thus was the beginning of the "Hostess With The Mostess."
Our ideas started flying... I immediately thought of the fabulous gloves in the Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines book by Anne Shayne and Kay Gardner. Chelle found the fabulous Kate Spade bag... the perfect accessory for our Perfect Hostess. P.H. really started coming together when we found the exact yarns for the gloves (made longer and more elegant) and the pocket (which is the famous ballband warshcloth pattern from same said book.) We were stunned when all the parts and pieces made themselves manifest on our 8-hour shopping spree. I even had the exact dyes we needed in my dye stash for the apron!
Chelle did all of the fabulous hand-stitching of all of the trim (hours and hours of it). She also split the dress and made the straps for the back. It was a labor of love and we were both rather sad to pack P.H. and send her off to Montana. We were told she went to a wonderful home.
Good-bye Hostess With the Mostess! Have fun in Montana. We will miss you.
p.s. you might want to put on some panties before the auction. Just sayin'.

Lame me.... I originally forgot to give credit for the fantastic pictures to Michelle Lambson. Aren't they great?!!!

The Shire

I had the most fun at the wonderful store, Florilegium in Parkville, Missouri... (just a few minutes from downtown Kansas City.) A few weeks ago, David Gentzsch of Ozark Handspun was at Florilegium conducting a wonderful felting class, followed by a great fashion show featuring all sorts of clothes, hats, wraps, and other accessories made with Ozark Handspun.
Notice the book in the picture above? Well, I was thrilled to find that my new wonderful book, Hattitude by Cathy Carron had two hat patterns using Ozark Handspun!

I decided to make the hat called "Romantic" to wear to the workshop... I already had the Ozark Handspun in my stash... I wore it to the workshop and fashion show... it was a hit. I named it "the Shire" cause it feels a little like a Hobbit might like to live in it.
(Me and the Shire and David Gentzsch at Florilegium!)