I've been super-sick for the last week (and I'm not quite 100% yet) so on my first day back to work, I treated myself to a trip to AC Moore on my lunch break.

I've been searching for a wristlet strap solution. Hilde's finger knitting got me thinking ... what about those cute doll shaped spool knitters? I was just about to pick one of them up when I saw Clover's Wonder Knitter™:

The package made it sound super easy, it comes with two different sized knitting heads, AND it's made with glitter plastic. I can't pass up something made of glitter plastic. After I bought it, I found Wayne's wonderful webpage. He's an engineer who's tested every Knitting Nancy he could find. He says *this* knitter is the best. Yay!

It took me about 1 minute to figure it out. I totally love it. I think the cord is going to work perfectly for wristlet straps. I have a couple experiments I want to do, too. I'm very excited about this.

I had my first real-world crafty networking moment today. The nice, young cashier who was ringing me up at AC Moore asked what I was making (I was getting lots of yarn, too) . I told her I make handbags. I showed mine to her (I haven't shown it to you guys yet because of my *cough* cold). Long-story-short, she asked about it, and I ended up scribbling my url on a 3 x 5 card. Now I *need* some blog-cards and/or some moo cards.

I also just found out that March is National Craft Month. How cool is that!? I'm going to celebrate with a tablespoon of codeine cough syrup.

p.s. When I was looking for a link to the doll painted spool knitters, I ran across Craftlog's post about spool knitters from June 2005 - she found Wayne's This and That, too. :) That guy is way cool. Too bad he took his email address down, I'd love to thank him.

This handbag, for Bethany of Bitter Betty, started as a dream. I awoke one morning with the image of a cream and black striped bag floating in my head. It'd been months since I decided to make her a handbag, and I'd been waiting for the perfect inspiration.

I was so excited that I immediately started crocheting her bag even though I didn't have the whole thing planned out. I don't know if it was Valentine's Day or Bethany's interesting inclinations (or a combination of the two), but as the stripes were forming, I decided to add an anatomical heart cameo.

To create the cameo, I did a Google image search for hearts, and then I made many, many sketches. I traced my design onto tear-away stabilizer, embroidered it on the felt, and then cut out the oval. The oval is edged in French knots. If I had any cream lace, I probably would have trimmed the oval with it. It's for the best that I didn't, because I never would have added the blood drips if there was lace. And I totally dig the blood drips.

Once the handbag was crocheted and embellished, I started to worry. I had no lining fabric. Usually, I start with the fabric and work backwards. I didn't need to worry, because on an impromptu trip to the fabric store, this beautiful tan and black paisley fell into my arms.

This fabric has become my favorite. It seems like I always fall madly in love with my most recently discovered fabric. Does that happen to you, too? I love all my fabric, but I just about swoon every time I see this paisley. Below is the repeat, which is about 11.5 inches. It's a large, bold print.

I also decided to add simple interior pockets.  I'd been wary of trying pockets, but they turned out perfectly.  This is absolutely my favorite handbag so far. It was a fun, easy bag to make for a wonderful, dear friend.

I stopped at Joann's on the way home today and they have a special: 50% off the Notions Wall!  So, of course I bought twice as much as I would have, but it's all useful.  I use the Rigilene and the snaps in my handbags.  I'm very excited about trying the white ink marker.  I usually use a Nonce pencil, which I have to keep licking so it'll mark on the felt.  Mmmmm, yum, Nonce pencil. And ... I couldn't pass up the shiny silver eyelets.

Floss was 5 for a dollar, limit 30.  I'm slowly achieving my goal of owning all the floss colors.  I eyeballed my list and it looks like I have just over half now.

Ok, here come the thoughts ... the rest of this entry is about my fancy new schedule.  You can stop reading now if you want to.  I'll spare you the minute details and just give you the gist:

- No cleaning or laundry (or laundry putting away) was done on the scheduled day, but it was all done, eventually.

- Tuesday I couldn't resist working on the Octopus pattern (which is R&D), but this worked out for the best because I didn't have time for R&D on Sunday, when it's scheduled.

- The schedule totally helped me focus on Wednesday night, and, even though I really didn't want to, I did website stuff.  I'm so glad I did, because I got a lot done.

Basically, I reinforced to myself that I totally need this schedule.  Left to my own devices, I would crochet all the time and eventually bury myself under a pile of unlined handbags and unwashed (or washed) laundry.  I also learned that I need to break out all the steps for the craft projects that are next in line to help keep me on track. For example, instead of just putting "Small Handbag" on my list, I need "Small Handbag: crochet / embellish / label / lining / photos" so I can cross off each step as I do it.

I'm definitely going to keep using the fancy schedule.  And this week I'm not going wait until Sunday to do *all* the laundry.

One of our made up holidays is the Lunaversary, which falls on the 14th of every month.  This month, my sweetness surprised me with a gift he found on Etsy.

It's a moon with clouds pendant from Becka Rahn (remember my tattoo?). It's enamel over copper. It's gorgeous.  The tiny circles are holes through the pendant.  It's really too cool.  Thank you, Andrew!

I recently ordered a couple things from Etsy, so when I picked up the mail I saw Etsy in the return address and tore into the package.  By the time I walked in the front door, I'd discovered these awesome mini binder clips (she drew fish and robots! on them), but I hadn't opened the inner envelope with the pendant.  Luckily, Andrew knew what it was and took the mail from me before I ruined my surprise.  I wasn't too sad, since he let me keep the awesome binder clips.

The first year we were married, we celebrated our Lunaversary every month with presents and a dinner out.  As you can imagine, we eventually ran out of *good* present ideas, although, in my defense, he still wears the Midvale, Utah Hooters t-shirt I bought him.  I like it better now that we get each other things on random Lunaversaries.  I love a good surprise.

The mail also brought me this wonderful Valentine from the sweetest Bitter Betty.  I ate the candy that was in the wax paper pouch right away (yum!), but I'll be saving the glittery card for a long time.  Thank you for the sweet thoughts, Bethany.

Ester emailed me in November and asked if I would make a wristlet for her.  Of course!  Luckily, I knew how crazy my schedule would be, so I warned her it would be done after the new year.  See, I'm right on time.

I love wristlets.  I was very afraid of the whole zipper thing.  It took me four tries to get the zipper exactly how I wanted it.  I was so happy when I finally did it, that I sat there ZIP. ZIP. ZIP. for about 5 minutes saying, "Hey, look, a zipper!"

I like the crochet strap because it's soft against my wrist and it's stretchy, but it twists up a little when it's off my wrist.  I'm thinking about making next one with a fabric strap that matches the bag lining.  What do you think?

This is going to be my first week using my fancy schedule.  I've got everything in there but I'll just talk about the crafting and errands today because laundry and cleaning don't require prioritized lists.  Here's how it's supposed to work.

1) I keep a prioritized list for each of the major groups of things I want to accomplish.  Everything goes on one of these lists:

2) I've scheduled each of those major areas for certain days.

3) If I find myself with 10 spare minutes (even during my lunch hour), I know exactly how to use them.  These are the things at the top of my lists:


I don't have to finish any of those things this week.  The important part is that when I do have time, I'll know exactly what to work on.

I'll keep notes on how the system works for me this week and post the results next Monday.

In other crafty news, I've been getting lots of awesome stuff in the mail:

World's Most Awesome Pot Holder ™ from Angelina at Dustpan Alley.  She had a contest to see who got the crappiest present from a dude.  Being taken to see Marcel Marceau perform for my 29th birthday didn't win, but I love my consolation prize.






Kuky shared some awesome, soft, $1-yard fabric with me, because she's sweet like that.  Along with my package, I got the first of her gocco cards.  She made the face and thought balloon blank so she can fill them in as she uses them.  They are too cute!




Manuela from Macati sent me these great bookmarks.  The octopus has blue glitter eyes so he can peek out of the top of my books.  Thank you, Manuela!



I bought a gocco print from Jules' Etsy shop, Tummyache.  It was her first go with the gocco.  Totally check out the story of her and her Dad printing them.  I love the bonus post card she included, "Sorry I broke the cat Mum."

Thank you for all the organizational love.  Who else, but you guys, would appreciate something like that? :)

Lots of people emailed asking about buying felt online.  I'd never looked before, because it's so easy for me to find around here ... and now I wish I'd never looked.  Danger! Danger!

Create For Less has every color of Kunin Felt in sheets and some colors on bolts. I didn't realize I was missing so many colors.  Lemon Frost must be mine!

Some other places that sell acrylic felt online (let me know if you have a source and I'll add it):
Dick Blick - assortments
Joann's  - assortments and bolted felt
Munro - Kunin Felt, phone orders

And, for those of you who prefer swanky wool felt, Old School Acres posted a bunch of info and links yesterday.

There are two craft supplies that I allow myself to buy in unlimited quantities.  One is floss, the other is felt. Both floss and felt are super cheap and don't take up too much room - both very important qualities in a stash. Since I've already talked about floss, it's felt's turn.

I only buy acrylic felt, because I'm allergic to wool.  You can find acrylic felt in tons of colors and embossed patterns.  I buy most of my felt in small 9" by 12" sheets that cost around 20 cents apiece.  I also have a nice stash of felt from bolts (started by Marietta) that I keep tucked under the craft table.

The stash of felt sheets is kept in two file folder boxes with snap-on lids that stack.  One holds all the rainbow colors.  The other holds neutrals, heathers, prints, and embossed felt. Each color is put in a manila folder to make it easy to take out and slide it back in.

I keep track of my felt colors using 3 x 5 cards.  I bundle my felt cards with my floss check-off list using a pretty purple asparagus rubber band (I should keep more of those).  I carry them with me everywhere I go in my pocket organizer.

I've also noted which color of embroidery floss most closely matches the felt colors (see top photo).  When I'm making a felt project and I want the floss to match, I just check my cards.

They came in super-handy the first time I stumbled across Daytona Braids and Trimmings in New York (251 West 39th Street, 212-354-1713).  They have almost every Kunin Felt color available.  I used my cards to figure out which colors I was missing, because the felt costs 50 cents a sheet at Daytona.  Plus, who wants to lug 10 pounds of felt around New York all day? I mean, if you don't have to.

Michelle of Green Kitchen is one of my favorite craft conspirators and a good friend.  After she sent me this this wonderful package, the least I could do was make her a bag.

This bag is totally different from all the others I've made, and I had a great time designing it for her.  I actually made Michelle's bag before the one for my mother-in-law.  I loved using my brand-new-for-my-birthday fabric to make a gift.

Since she has a baby to carry, she needed something hands-free.  She sent me a sketch with dimensions, which totally helped me out.  The strap is long enough to wear across her chest.  I was afraid that the cotton yarn would stretch over time, so I made the strap adjustable.  It loops through a rectangle ring and then attaches to itself with three buttons that slip right between the strap's stitches.

The three decoy buttons on the outside of the strap stabilize the functional buttons.

No one sells 1.5 inch rectangle rings, so I liberated one from an unused backpack.  I couldn't even find them online.  If you know where I can get them, please tell me, because they are the perfect size for all sorts of uses.

I crocheted a removable cell phone holder that hangs from the rectangle ring, and there is a key hook attached to a long strap.  I made the key hook strap long enough that the keys rest on the bottom of the bag so their weight won't pull down the top edge of the bag.

I was afraid that my normal felt and embroidery floss embellishments wouldn't be tough enough to withstand the reality of errands with two little ones, so I tried something new.  I used cotton yarn to embroider in the spaces created by the single crochet stripes.  I love the way it turned out, and I have plans to use the technique again.

I totally took a chance that Michelle would like the kooky fabric and crazy embellished stripes.  The fabric is so enthusiastic and bold, and that's how I picture Michelle.  And, from a fashion standpoint, with so many colors it would equally match (or not-match) everything.  I love thinking about her running around town with a bag I made for her.