Retro ’20s Handmade Crocheted Snood- One of Kind
(One Size fits most adult females)

You are bidding on the actual item NOT THE PATTERN.

Handmade out of Madelinetosh Hand-dyed 100% Superwash Merino sock yarn. (http://www.madelinetosh.com/) in colours Lichen and Ginger.

It has a small amount of elastic cord sewn into the back netting to secure your hair while wearing.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at this address or Kt [!at] zombie-hunter.com

I made chocolate chip cookies two days ago, but I didn’t have flour. So I used bisquick. Good cookies, but they crumbles to ash. SO, I crumbled them to ash, added hot butter, which melted the chocolate chips, added more vanilla , sugar, and REAL flour. It made a dense chocolate dough that I then rolled, smooshed, and filled with peanut butter.
And thus Zombie Cookies were born… or reborn…
or unborn.
I’m really not sure.

A collections of my attempts at understanding sewing. Some how the part of my brain that makes knitted garments won’t comply with the concept.
However, I’m getting it slowly!

Polymer Forsythia Brooch from Chicken Betty

I was in Michael’s in Hadley the other day when I noticed their abundant displays of silkesque forsythia taking up most of the middle of the store. I love the bright yellow colour of this flower and for the first time in my life I found myself considering the purchase of faux flowers, which until now I only considered necessary for collecting dust in Chinese food restaurants.

It’s probably because I recently saw this great “how-to” for a polymer forsythia brooch from Chicken Betty that I had the flower on my mind.  So, I grabbed a few sprigs of the faux flowers and thought I’d just stick them in a vase, call it a day and make dinner.  Yet, on my way to the “floral accessories” aisle (I was looking for brown floral tape), I passed a display of pink/purple orchids and I noticed how pleasing the two bright colours were together. Also, I kill orchids like my last name was “Blumenmörder,” so the idea of an orchid I can’t kill is nice.

Well, one thing lead to another and somehow I got the idea to make a wreath for the front of the house; since Scott is trying to sell the place I thought it could definitely add some “curb appeal”. I began this endeavour by finding two kind-of wobbly/seen-their-day wire coat hangers and a pair of decent needle nose pliers. It took a bit of more tensile strength than I was able to give the hanger to get the first outer one to appear even slightly circular, but thanks to Scott’s assistance the first hanger was round in no time. I took the second hanger and cut out the hanging “neck” portion using the wire cutting portion of the needle nose pliers and then bent both open ends around each other to make a slightly smaller circle. (See the picture below)

Two wire hangers bent together to make wreath frame

Then I took my newly acquired faux flowers steams and began to bend and wrap them, one at a time, around the wire frame I just created. I started with the forsythia and worked them until the wreath seemed mostly full except for two open spots at about 11 and 5. I used a small gauge floral wire to attach the stems securely, and once I felt confident that they would stay in place I added in the two accent stems of orchids in the open spaces I had left.

Once all the stems were securely in place I wrapped a double strand of sheer burgundy ribbon around the wreath as an additional accent and to insure the stability of the final product. Then, just for a bit of fun and some additional sparkle, I hot glued in a few speckled turquoise ceramic beads I had left over from another project. Take a look at the final result and let me know what you think!

Wreath on the front door

Turquoise Speckled Ceramic Beads

Recently I saw Martha Stewart convert an old toolbox into a herb planter so that she could take her fresh hers with her on vacation/whenever she needed.

Although I don’t necessarily need to take my plants around and about with me, I really liked this idea because I can easily move this around the house to get the necessary 6-8hrs of direct sunlight that herbs need.

I didn’t have an old toolbox though; what I did have was a recently acquired Lady Dewalt. Using that, some leftover stain from my spinning wheel finishing project, scrap wood, and a cabinet knob to create my very own “from-scratch” herb planter!

I attached the cabinet knob to the front of the planter so I could hang a small pair of scissors off of it. I simply used a small scrap of yarn to crochet a strong “rope” to hold my scissors. This way I can easily clip off bits of my herbs whenever I want to; since scissors are constantly migrating between rooms in my house and are impossible to find when you need them this was key to the planters success as a functional object.

From the UMass Playhouse 433 Series.

Leading Ladies written and directed by Ben Skinner

Starring Josie- Kt Baldassaro            Liza- Sabrina Gogan            Mr. Billings- Ed Patterson

Pictured above is the latest and most fabulous addition to my collection of fingerless mittens, a birthday present from the nimble fingers of Cara (aka-VariegatedStrand). I love these so much! They are a free pattern from Jody at Javajem. It calls for one ball of any basic sock yarn. **This should be a 100g ball or at least 360-400 yds. That’s TWO Regias** Cara used my favourite colour of Dream in Colour Smooshy. Which is worth the price ($22 from Yarn and Fiber Co.) when you consider that it’s a wonderfully fluffy hand-dyed yarn. Most normal Opals are about that price. What I really like about this yarn is that although it’s variegated it still takes well to a heavy stitch structure or cabling; as you can see in these wonderful mitts. That’s because of it’s very subtle additions of complimentary colours, plus a splash of one heavy contrasting one. The skeins always look much more striped than the yarn usually knits to. Often you’ll find one very bright addition of colour (in this one its the splashes of orange/rust) that can almost seem to overwhelm the yarn; however these splashes of heavy contrast always work into little accents when knit up. If you remember my post awhile back for the reknit of Jared’s Koolhass Hat, that was also done in Dream in Colour, except it was their worsted weight: Classy. It took to the heavy cabling wonderfully.

I’m also gonna throw in some pictures of another piece by Cara: The bison Shawl from 101 Luxury One Skein Wonders: a great book highlighting 101 patterns that can all be done with only one skein of a luxury fiber. Fantastic for anyone who has fallen in love with specialty skeins of fiber, but has no idea what to make out of the amount they can afford. I don’t know the name of this particular colourway (perhaps varigated will comment on this post with the name/#) but the yarn is a beautiful and subtle 55/45% silk and cashmere blend from Jade Sapphire: Silk Cashmere 2-ply. Even the skeins of this yarn that appear a very solid colour consistency (this one in particular looks like a mostly solid teal when wound up, but as you can see it has faint changes in colour depth that remind me a lot of Malabrigo. Again, here’s a variegated yarn that will take to stitch patterns! Wow a post theme I’m only just realizing.

In other news a friend of mine and fellow Smithie, is now a fellow Alumnae! We got her a lovely vanilla sheet cake and the first three books in the Barbara Walker Treasury. I’m sure that there’s a few of you reading this right now that identified those books simply from the picture. They’re definitely iconic and amazing books. If you’re not sure how great they are, just look at Elizabeth’s face in this picture. That’s the joy of receiving something worthwhile!
If you can only get on (as they are a bit pricey) I’d recommend the red, Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.

“…containing over 700 additional patterns. Included are the following categories: knit-purl combinations, slip stitch patterns and color, mosaics, fancy color and texture, twist stitches, cables, yarn-over patterns, tweeds, eyelets, lace, insertions, borders, edgings, and more and more. It’s a great reference book, profusely illustrated and with directions for doing each pattern.”

Also check you’re local library. They might have a copy of this book, or other knitting reference books. I recently wandered into mine and found their crafting section. I was so surprised to see some great knitting books there, and for anyone whose every uttered the phrase, “I have to buy the WHOLE book.” this is a great way to get what you need without violating copyright by photostating something that isn’t yours.

A little felted bird necklace.

I recently needle felted the above necklace for MeasuredwithSpoons’s birthday. She’s responsible for my favourite necklace and earring set made out of C-clips. I love recycled art Anyway, I digress. It was a very fun piece to make, and much like the one I previously made for Christa of ItKnits it’s base is made from cashmere to give it a nice soft feeling against the thin skin around one’s neck.

And finally, last but not least, this is the birthday present that I made for Cara. I have to say I’m kind of addicted to needle felting; it’s so easy and fun! I guess it reminds me of my days at Cooper Union studying three dimensional design and sculpting, because I seem to have been missing constructing more than flat garments.

I’m sure you figured out that it’s an owl, a 70’s livingroom coloured kitsch owl to be precise. This is because I know how much Cara loves owls. However, I know how much everyone hates chachkeys, so I made this one functional. Pull out his orange tail to reveal that he is in fact a tape measure! To retract it, just push on his bottom and it coils right back in.

Ok, that should catch us up a bit… for now…

Live post from the bridal room with T-minus 30 minutes til the bride blasts off! Here’s my sister and I plus a photo of the signing.