collaging with fabric,

and combining that annoying curling ribbon we all use with yarn to make a knit basket that actually stands up straight and a market bag that won’t stretch down to your knees after a few uses.

I’m so excited and thrilled and relieved and filled with joy to birth this beast out into the world. It was of course about triple the work either of us anticipated with many bumps, bruises and swearing (at least on my end) to get it finished. And I’m so happy we did! Because. It. Is. Awesome!

I’m going to be totally conceded here and say that this is the sweetest ebook ever…. okay I can’t be that conceded because I totally loved Knitting Game by Lee and Diane’s Craft Blog series of ebooks. How about I say that this is just one more awesome ebook in a long line of awesome ebooks put out by the newly annointed authority on crafty ebooks: CraftyPod Publishing!

It was so wonderful working with Diane, she was great to throw ideas around with, she was a great editor, she’s a wonderful friend and inspiration!

You can pick up this awesome beast of a craft ebook in the CraftyPod Publishing Shop starting now!

And if you order it between now and Friday 12th, 11:59pm – you will get a pretty sweet chance at winning one of these DecoArt paint sets.

Hooray! The first Craft Leftovers Ebook Card.Paper.Ribbon. is now out Today!

Happy Crafting and making and being creative!

Kristin Roach

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I’m happy to tell you that despite an ice storm, Craft Leftovers Monthly is in the shop!

You can get this months issue here or sign up for a subscription here.

This month is full of great tutorials, articles, and of course, illustrations! Fanie of Art vs Craft is now a regular contributor of Craft Leftovers Monthly. Check out her great Crafty Life comic in this month’s issue! It made Jason and I laugh out loud.

Craft Leftovers Monthly is printed on 100% recycled paper. It is 36 pages of crafty goodness. Two guests grace each issue’s pages and the Crafty Life Comic is a regular feature. Craft Leftovers Monthly is all about making with what you have on hand. Living life creatively!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

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This is my “office”. I never thought I would work in a cubical, but it was actually a great way to divide up the space, give me more working area, and have a designated “office” in my working space – and it was free! The space was used as storage before I moved in and they let me keep a cubical, filing cabinet, 2 bookcases, and a cabinet. I keep my programing, design, business, current reading, and library books on my cube shelf. All my “business” papers – contracts, recipts, tax stuff, supply catalogs, and the like go in the filing cabinets fitted under the work surface. I have bulletin boards behind my computer, but they have yet to be filled with anything more than a print out of the current iCal month – so I can jot down post schedule ideas and keep a continual reminder of what’s on my plate for the month – a lot! I never thought I would like working in a cube so much. 

I love this part of my new space. I have all my craft books, most my art books, zines, craft magazines, and other inspiring books on the shelves.

{I love this shelf!}

Then I have most my fabric in the shelves (I’m in the process of ironing and reorganizing it so it’s still sloppy). Then in the metal cabinet next to where the fabric is, I have all my tools!

General crafting supplies, my surger, polymer clay stuff, beading stuff, ink stuff, metal working, kit making, stapling, ironing, printing, beading, and embroidery. All there. All organized. I love it!

And here is a closer view of my “office” area. I picked up a panflute while my friend was in town over the weekend and have a few of my other favorite things up on the shelf – like a jar of marbles from when I was a kid, a cup a made in ceramics, and the pink panther plushy I used to carry around with me all the time until I was like 11.

And here is the view from my desk. You can see off to the right how I now can use my utility shelf as a designated workspace for assembling, photographing, and sending out kits and zines. I like that I can just have my lightbox set up and out of the way for use at a moments notice. Hopefully now my post pictuers will start being better because I won’t be so lazy.

And here is the view if you are standing by the fabric shelf. It’s pretty barren right now. I’m trying to figure out some ideas on how to spruce up the space with some color using a quick and easy method. I don’t want to spend a lot of money or time, but I want it to look nicer than it does now. Oh and off to the right, that’s my third work area, I’m using that for sewing or if I have a friend over they have a workspace. And sometime next year I hope to get an intern to help with some behind the scenes projects so I don’t go crazy. And that would be their work area where I would set them up with a computer to work on or where they could do more creative projects. We will see how it works out. There is a program at Iowa State University, so I think maybe a business student who is into crafts, a graphic design student, or a fashion design student whose interesting in writing patterns? I’m not sure. We will see in a few months.

So any ideas for the back wall?

The wall above the utility shelves will have a peg board with tools on it soon. And I want to get some shelves to go along the ceiling. Oh and you can’t see it, but my cello is in the corner and soon there will be a copy machine over there too, so that area will be less open. If it weren’t for the copy machine, I think I would set up an over stuffed chair in the corner with a side table when I just need to sit back and knit on a project – like I am going to do today for Friday’s project.

Leave a comment and give me some feedback on the new space and ideas for the wall! I’m hoping to have a solution worked out and in place by next Tuesday.

Krsitin

ps – I’ve been getting a ridiculous amount of spam both in email and comment form lately, so if it takes awhile for your comments to show up, I apologize! I’m working on getting a better spam filter for the blog here. Oh and on another note. If you tried to send email to kristin@craftleftovers.com and it was bounced back saying my mailbox was full, that’s all fixed too. It was another side effect of my allotted disk space on the server being full. We’ve upped the limit and it should be all good now.

pss – things are finally back to normal and I’m on a regular schedule finally (another thing I’ve been working towards for quite awhile) so I’ll be posting more frequently here on the Kro Studio blog

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When I showed my friend Linda the new embroidery set, she started laughing and said “It’s Jack the Ripper”. So I painted this one up just for her. I Wasn’t originally intending to do painted illustrations of all the Crafty Buddies, but now I think I will. You can get the first embroidery set in the Kro Studio Shop or the Craft Leftovers Shop.

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I had a lot of fun putting together a set of embroidery designs this week! I started out with this illustration and decided it would be really fun to do a set of embroidery patterns. They are now available in the Kro Studio shop! I’m looking for printer that will make some high quality prints of the Crafty Buddies series. I think they would be so much fun hung in a sewing studio or just around

And here is a freebie pattern to get you started stitching!

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I went through two shelves this week (very hard work for me) and purged a box of books I know I will never read. And I did something for the first time – I took them to FireHouse books and exchanged them for $12 in store credit, which I then turned around and used on 1 book I really enjoy. You see, I have put together a box of books many times, but they never actually make it out of the house, furthering the clutter issues. 

The book I traded in for is “Voiced of American Homemakers”. It is a collection of interviews conducted by the Oral History Project of the National Extension of Homemakers Council.

Beulah Rawlings, 76, of Indiana said when asked about food preservation, “We raised what we ate, and ate what we raised. You didn’t go into town and buy it, so it really was important to put your garden out and really take care of it, and take care of it when it was ready to harvest.”

It makes me feel a little guilty about putting my garden out late, then only half assing it these past two months. If it was crucial to me vs a hobby, and granted I love that it is not and we won’t starve if the weather sucks, maybe I would have made it more of a priority. I do have a few cucumbers, but not as many as I could have if I would have planted them when I should and watered them like I knew I was supposed to. 

“When I was a girl up North, before pressure canners, we never canned much vegetables because it was all put in the cellar. We canned fruits and tomatoes, but that was about the only thing we canned…. In our cellars we put in our carrots and potatoes and onions and turnips and we even had a big bin fixed up from celery…” – Elsie Gould, 86, Florida

I really like the idea of a root cellar. Mike (who owns the yard where the garden is and is in on it with me) has a nice semi finished basement and we are going to try to store all our potatoes and onions and garlic down there. I sure hope it works okay and we can enjoy our harvest as long as possible. 

We have a load of basil, dill, parsley, and other herbs. Plus many cherry tomatoes and some peppers on the way. I decided to do some small batch preserving this week for the basil that is plentiful. Pesto was totally the answer to how to keep basil fresh for the winter months. Once we get more tomatoes, I’m going to make some marinara sauce and can that too – I’ll post about that when the time comes along with my favorite recipe for sauce. 

You can read about my pesto exploits on Craft Leftovers, I posted about it today for the Thrift Kitchen post.

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October is such a great month to write a zine for – fall is so close, a touch of halloween, and the last bit of running around outside. Learn about halloweens past, my mom’s adventure making costumes for me and my sister, folk lore, fairy houses, paper leaf garlands, and even stamp projects using out door found objects! And more. Of course more!

October Craft Leftovers Monthly {artfire; etsy}

October Zine + Kit Bundle {artfire; etsy}

2 Months of Zine + Kit Bundle starting with the October issue {artfire; etsy}

This month’s kit is so fun! Bringing the Outdoors in with Weaving! It’s a mini book about weaving with the outdoors + yarn + warp + mat board to weave on.

There are only 30 kit+zine bundles available this month so make sure you pick one (or two) up while the getting is good They will be on sale until the 20th and then all orders will be sent out on the 22nd.

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Same thing with yarn. It’s beautiful and if it doesn’t move soon, I’m going to end up knitting and crocheting with it – so I’ve marked most yarns in the Green Prairie Fiber Shop 25% off or more! It’s a great chance to get some hand dyed yarns at a very affordable price! And if you order from both shops, I’ll refund your cl shipping cost and extend the flat rate shipping of Green Prairie Fibers to both orders! {link to Green Prairie Fibers Shop}

The sale is only until Friday, July 31st at Midnight, so make sure to check it out sooner rather than later.

In other random news, I made some fliers for the ames c.art book binding workshop:

If you want to help spread the word, email me at admin [at] amescart [dot] org and I’ll send you a pdf to download and print out. Or just send around the link – meetup.com/amescart to your friends, all the info is there.

Okay, I need to prep for the kids fiber workshop I’m teaching tomorrow. I’m incorporating fibers from folk tales into the project and need to work out my story/outline/order of presenting things and that sort of thing. A little research is needed.

Have a great night!
Kristin

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Well, I’ve had quite a huge pile of wips building up over the last 6 months and I decided to go through my yarn ones today and try to figure out my plan of attack – getting them finished up and out of the basket so I can start wearing them around.

It’s funny that I said on Tuesday that a lot of my projects I couldn’t show you because after taking a seriously look I realize I have a ton just in the “yarn” genre, haha. The truth is what I’m Currently working on I can’t show you, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show you what I was working on before I dropped everything to work on the “current” projects. Soon to be finished I can’t wait to get started back on my mission of using up stash and finishing my wips!

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These two scarves just need their ends woven in and some fringe added to the top one – which makes me think I should do a little tutorial on an easy way to make fringe for your scarves. And then block them after that and they will be all set.

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I started these socks in… oh… February. It took me forever to get the first 4 inches done on the first one, then I blazed through to where I am now in like 2 weeks, then put them up for a bit because of working on a top secret project that I can’t tell you about until the winter – but that is worth it and I’ll be shipping it out of here next week and I am happy for that. I want to get on with other yarnie projects These will be high on the list to finish because they are sooooooo warm and yummy and I want them all set for the fall. They are made from ultra fine alpaca, yum yum yum. This is my take everywhere/when I get sick of what I should be working on/when i get stuck on what I’m working on project too, so it should finish up quickly once I get going on it again next week.

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I went on a Market Bag making craze a few months ago when I wrote up a pattern – yet to be edited and released to the general public (does anyone want to test crochet it? I’m sure it has some awesome mind blowing errors, haha). Anyway, after crochet 3 of them, this one got a little stuck on the hook. I’ll be picking it back up and finishing it soon though. It’s a great pattern because instead of expanding down, it expands out – really great for holding veggies and books and lettuce and yarn! I’m using up some stash yarn and really should have because I need a little more to finish this project:

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The Compost Critters from the January issue of clm – you can get a copy here. I really love these guys, so much so I want a pair for myself. I just need to finish the second one and all be all set. Another one of those patterns that I want to finish so I’ll be prepared for winter.

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This is another one where I made it as a pattern and then wanted one for myself. It was the Blue Filegree Hat in the Winter/Spring issue of Knit Scene. This is the first one I made that was sent off to the magazine:

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Another clm pattern I wanted for myself in the end. It has cables on both sides and is knit with the Green Prairie Fibers dk weight merino. I love the way this yarn is knittng up and can’t wait to get this finished for myself. Oh it was in the April issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly.

This scarf has been a labor of love – it’s a 27 row lace chart worked in mohair – yikes! It’s super soft and blocks out beautifully. I’m hoping to have it done for a Christmas present to someone who doesn’t know it’s them yet. It is about 1000 yards of yarn though and will be a beautiful stole. Once finished and pictures taken, I’m going to sell the pattern as a kit in the Green Prairie Fibers shop. It’s been on hold for quite awhile, but I’m going to start work on it again this month once I clear out a few of the above patterns that will be quick finishes.

This is a little something something for me. I needed something completely different to work on from time to time when I was feeling mad with working on the same project. I work on it on breaks and before bed. It’s the short and sweet shrug from the Happy Hooker. I’m going to make a it a little longer than the pattern calls for and wear it with tank tops and jeans. It only takes 3 skeins of cotton fleece and I just happened to have these three skeins in my stash from forever ago. Perfect!

And now for some handspun. I took a spinning class last fall and Rosemary let me hold on to the wheel to continue spinning until she taught the next class. Here are some of my spinning attempts:

That purple is actually some roving I dyed up myself. I really like the way it turned out.

I dyed the yarn on the right with walnuts. I love that pale tan. I’m not sure what I’m going to knit with this, but I think I place these two yarns together.

And for random measure, here is a temari ball I’m working on as a christmas present to myself for our tree:

So, plan of attack. I’m going to finish all the things that just need finishing first – like weaving in ends and blocking. Then I’m going to start work next on all the things that are over half way finished – the compost critters, the lacy waves socks, and the market bag. Then on to my ideal of having two projects to work on – one that’s a no brainer (short and sweet and then the cabled scarf) and something that’s high concentration – winter midnight lace scarf.

I’m happy to report too that the last yarn I bought was for those socks up there – except in san francisco I did buy two skeins of bulky brushed cotton, forgot about that. Okay so I’ve only bought two skeins of yarn in the last 7 months. I’ve been steadily finishing what was on my needles and hooks pre 2009 and working almost exclusively from my stash. And I have to say it feels awesome. I was actually able to consolidate the other day and now all my craft leftover yarn (all my stray bits) + yarn for kits fits into one bin. All my stash yarn fits in another bin. Then I have one other rubbermaid for yarn for kits. This is a huge improvement for me.

I think I’m going to make Thursday my check in day and whatever else I post about I will also post about my stash busting/project finishing progress. It will be good for me I think. It will help me to finish what I’ve started

And speaking of kit yarn, that reminds me. I have a whole ton of new kits made up to add to the shop and they will be going in over the weekend and to kick off new stock I’m going to have a big sale to try to destash some older kits. The sale will be from Monday morning to Saturday, August 1st. I’ll be adding new things each day, but everything that will be marked down, will be marked down by Monday.

Okay, and with that I’m heading out. I need to eat some food… lunch? I don’t know, breakfast was at like noon so I guess it’s lunch time now. Ha!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

ps – I posted this on CL today, but I wanted to post it here too. And I wanted to let you know I’m alive and well and will start up with regular posting, well, today! I’ll see you again tomorrow. I’m happy that I have gotten quite a few deadlines and obligations out of the way.

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I used some doll rod scraps from another project to make some charcoal for myself. I haven’t drawn with it yet though, but my test marks seem very nice.

I also used a reject whittled crochet hook too – the funnest piece of charcoal ever!

And then here is some more – skewers and sticks:

I’ll be adding a tutorial on how to make your own charcoal as well as some instructions on drawing with charcoal in the August issue of Craft Leftovers Monthly. It’s going to be a great issue all about drawing – my favorite thing ever!

And speaking of drawing and loving it – I’ll be back tomorrow morning with a drawing daily post. Last week was an insanely irregular waking up schedule and I’m hopeful that I will be back to my regular routine starting tomorrow morning.

Oh and some random good news – I have my first Ames area show of paintings semi scheduled for October! I’ve started stretching canvas and finished gessoing my first. I’m going to work on the under drawing tonight so I’ll have pictures of that in the morning too.

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And in other news, I just rerelased the springy crochet headwrap on Craft Leftovers Today:

Hello there! Don’t I feel fancy. You can check out the post here and download the full pattern for free. There is a $1 suggested donation if you make it and love it.

See you all in the morning! Have a great night!

Kristin

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