mermaids and fairies and wool, oh my!

i have begun the all-important task of cutting out and designing new mermaids and fairy dolls... now if only the embroidery, sewing and stuffing would magically happen (they ARE magical creatures, after all). i can't wait to see how they all turn out.


and i got in the mail today my second order or renewed yarn, this time a gorgeous green heavy worsted wool, 1200 yards. as of now, i have no idea what i'll use it for, but i'm sure something great will turn up. (and i'll get some of these sewing projects finished so i have time to knit again.)

coming soon...

...mermaid dolls! that's right, they're in production now and i'm telling you, you can't wait!

also in the news, new etsy site set up for deep surface unit - check it out for one-of-a-kind fused glass pendants like those pictured below:


also exciting... two of the madeleine bags have already sold, so if you're thinking of snapping one up, it looks like you'd best act quick!

on the agenda: more fairies, bags, dinos, greeting cards and even stickers to sell at the upcoming Second Sunday in OTR. i hope you can come out to enjoy this great event and support this fantastic neightborhood. more info also available here.

four new bags listed

i'm pretty pleased with myself that i managed to get four of the new madeleine bags completed last night. i was hoping for five, but after four hours, i hit the wall. so, i still have one bag cut out to finish up. and a few noras and other custom orders to go, but i'm feeling pretty good about the work lately. yay! ok, here are some pics of the new madeleines:

madeleine bags and new fabrics

as of yesterday, i've added some fabulous prints from ikea to my in-stock fabrics. so fun and whimsical! added today: two selections from joel dewberry's ginseng line in mulberry and two from amy butler's nigella, all 100% cotton sateen, home dec weight fabrics. check out pics in my fabrics slideshow!

five new madeleine bags are in progess, so hopefully i'll have some photos to show for that before the night is out.

in other good news, it looks like i'll be teaming up with deep surface unit at some craft shows this summer in the cincinnati area. we'll be offering the usual bags, purses, plush dolls and animals... PLUS t-shirts and fused glass pendants. i'm very excited about this partnership and hope to have an etsy site to link here soon where you can check out his glasswork. i'll let you know more as soon as i have the dates for certain. first one may be as soon as may 9, so get ready!

knitting bag prototype

got lots of work done on this tonight... i'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far :)

cashmere is here!

so excited! i got my renewed cashmere in the mail today from dori at renewed yarns and it is every bit as fantastic as i had hoped. the color is stunning, the yarn is soft and luxurious. amazing!

fairy dolls

so, i goofed off way more than reasonable this weekend, but did manage to complete the two fairy dolls. and i am totally in love with them! i'm kind of bummed that (other than my fabric spree of friday), i got basically no work done on bags, but there's always tomorrow, right?

on saturday, i volunteered (and shopped) at the second crafty supermarket. some of my favorite vendors: sarah utter from buy olympia, sloe gin fizz by nicole ray, uniquely upcycled by kate dingan, the lovely teaspoon by ali, and garbella. what a great event! and with over 1500 visitors, it was certainly well attended.

ok... fairy pics:

new fabric!

spent a good part of the morning fabric shopping. first i had to get a bunch of solids, lining fabrics, zippers, etc. but i saved the best for last and wasn't disappointed. i found some great fabrics at sew-a-lot, and i'm happy to say that i now have in stock alexander henry's blakely in eggplant/cocoa, amy butler's memento in burgandy and sun spots in mint, robert kaufman's deco park and michael miller's mirror ball dot in a lovely deep fushia. sadly, i found that they don't carry any jessica levitt (which of course i need more of!), so i suppose i'll be ordering some more online. photos of new fabrics have been added to my in-stock fabric album, so check them out!

so i'm off to sew. i cut out a bunch of "madeleine" bags last night and i hope to get my first prototype of my "dori" knitting bag finished this weekend. also, there are the nora bags to finish and a few custom orders i'm working on (including two fairy dolls). guess i'd best get to work!

handpainted cotton

i was pleased to receive the handpainted cotton i ordered from eweandmeyarns earlier this week... yesterday? is it only tuesday? hmmm... anyway, i've got it all wound into center pull balls but one hank and i'm pretty happy with it. no knots or anything and a beautiful dye job. one of the sunset balls is substantially more yellow than the others, but i think that'll be ok. anyway, i'm hoping to use this to make tunics for a few special girlies this summer, so hopefully it'll go far enough. if all goes well, i'll have written my second pattern so that's cool too. check out the yarn:




as excited as i am about that, however, nothing compares with the fact that my custom-dyed, upcycled cashmere will be on its way soon. dori at renewed yarns has been amazing to work with and provides an wonderfully high quality product. i just can't say enough about how much i love her work! here's a pic she sent of the dyed cashmere:



alright... better get working. i have taxes to submit and a craft night tomorrow to prepare for :) yay!

nora(s) in the works, impromptu gardening, and kahlin v. ellsworth

lots of work going on here this week (so far, it's only monday!)... prep for orders continues. i'm still trying to figure out the whole zipper issue with edie, but i started getting some of my nora bags ready last night. the blue is a custom order and the other two will be listed on etsy when finished if they aren't snapped up before they make it there.




finally managed to get up my first etsy listing for a custom bag, so we'll see how that goes. i'm starting to get excited about this weekend's crafty supermarket! i'll be volunteering from 12-2 and i'm sure shopping for long after my volunteer shift is over. this week, they extended the due date to get items into the swag bags and i wrestled with whether or not to try to get something in... big surprise, i couldn't resist, so i spent a good chunk of time today working the imagine gnats banner, etc. into a graphic for over-sized postcards. i'm pretty happy with how they turned out (even mailed myself one). so i sent those off to the crafty folks in charge of the supermarket and now i feel a little bit of pressure to make sure the etsy site and blog are traffic-ready.

tonight, kahlin and i ended up planting the veggies mark and i rounded up last weekend. we're trying out both heirloom variety and cherry tomatoes and also red bell peppers. they say the herbs will be in this weekend, so i'll be on the look-out for some basil and cilantro (and hoping the cilantro fares better this year than last). i'm hoping that if we get another freeze, sticking the potted plants in the shed will keep them warm enough. of course, i don't have large enough pots so i'm sure i'll have to be re-potting something sooner than later. here they are so far:



what else? ah, kahlin and the kitten. it is apparently hard work teaching a five-year-old that kittens do what they want, when they want. but they seem to be getting along generally well. she has been enjoying torturing him with the camera. here are some of tonight's highlights:

edie's insides

zippered pocket on one side,












four pockets on other side...












... one with a velcro tab closure.

edie's bag

started work this morning on one of two custom bag orders i have for mother's day. the goals for this bag are as follows: reasonable size for a carry-on, lots of interior pockets to stash things, zippered top to keep items secure, two types of handles so that it can be carried either over the shoulder or by hand, quilted look with a pink and black theme. so, here are the main exterior fabrics i chose:



i intended the bag to be 20" wide, but (as usual) i had some mathematical issues and it's really ended up slightly less than that. it will be around 16" tall and just over 7" deep. i'm pretty happy with the exterior, even the detail stitching (so happy to have my sewing machine in great working order again - those zigzag stitches NEVER would've happened before the tune-up).



the back has one big pocket where you could stick papers or a boarding pass, etc. i ended up using cotton quilt batting to basically line the entire exterior, to soften it up.

i plan to use a hefty interfacing on the interior to give the bag a stiffer form. still need to figure out interior pockets, how to do main zipper, and how handles will work. but so far, so good.

introducing Ellsworth

very exciting weekend around these parts b/c our newly adopted cat, ellsworth, came home last night. here come the obligatory cat-obsessed pics...





so far the little guy has been very sweet and curious and a little playful. he was pretty worn out last night after his big visit to the vet where he got two shots and also an ear treatment for mites (yuck!). vet said he thinks ellsworth is probable 5-6 months old and will likely stay a pretty small guy. guess i'd better go update my etsy listings that all say "pet-free home," huh?

Jeremy's Garter Stitch Stripes

so, i recently wrote and knitted my first pattern! very exciting and i managed to even get the .pdf uploaded to ravelry. i swear that i have somehow become less computer savvy over the years... not sure exactly how that happened.

anyway, you can download the pattern for free here.

and here's a photo of the almost-complete first go:


i plan to frog the last few rows so that i can go back and stitch the neckline with a smaller size needles and then i'll just need to sew the seams and block. hopefully i can manage that by mid-summer for the little guy's big second birthday!