I Can't Decide!

Stephanie Flynn at Rossiter Designs is giving away some really nice Celtic cross-stitch designs in January. They're all so beautiful I had an awful time deciding which one I'd like the most. I finally settled on the Celtic Sampler; I really love the knotwork.

If you'd like to enter as well the rules are posted here on Stephanie's blog.

You say potato, I say YARN BOWL!

I was having my morning browse at Craftgossip and found this awesome fabric bowl. Of course, the first thing that sprang to my mind was, "Hey, that would make an awesome yarn bowl!" (The second was that it would make a cool washable bread basket for the dinner table.)

The tutorial by Jennifer is available at Sew, Mama, Sew! I'm going to whip out my fabric scraps and try it right away since I already have the sewing machine set up for ornament finishing. (Finishing is the wrong word for it. I'm never gonna be finished.) One of these would be really cute filled with pinecones for Christmas. Or gelt at Hanukkah. Easter eggs, Valentines candies, apples in the fall...I can see it now. I'm going to end up with about a hundred of these. 

I also have a nifty idea for a variation: I'm going to get some little sew-on snaps and do snap-together corners instead of sewn. This will have a couple of advantages: they'll be easier to wash and iron and they'll be able to store flat; a particular advantage for the seasonal bowls I'm sure to make. I'll post pics (sort of, the Canon is still sickly) and let y'all know how the snaps turn out!

PS - I just realized since the pattern uses heavy interfacing I could foundation quilt or crazy quilt the top layer. Somebody stop me!

PPS - The snaps will also allow you to use the corners as a yarn guide without being tied to the bowl. Genius!

In the New Year: Trying this Again

I am unlocking the blog for two reasons. One, I want a place to stash my knitting and crocheting pictures and musings and this is a good place to do it. Two, I want my patterns to be available to the crocheting public.

Here's the deal. Comments are on, but they are being moderated. Abusive comments will be deleted with extreme prejudice and without response. I welcome reasoned debate and grammatical quibbling. If you find a mistake in a pattern please comment or email or both.

(Speaking of mistakes in patterns - there seems to be a mistake in the Kaleidoscope Beret. I'll find it and fix it as soon as I have a spare moment to pick up a hook.)

Thank you all for your support and have a very happy New Year!