This past week I have been doing a lot of crocheting in the round and so when I would go through my rss feeder it seemed like every post about crochet seemed to jump out and yell “pick me, write about me, read me!” I picked my favorite tutorials and round ups out of the bunch for your inspirational pleasure.

It was the pattern I posted on Friday that lead to most of it, but it just kind of kept going and here I was today, crocheting in the round again today. Jason took some shots for me of my hands in motion. I might eventually possibly use them to show you how to do a magic loop (great way to start crocheting in the round, a great alternative cast on for knitting). If not, it was still fun:

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My friend Sarah mentioned to me how when she is working in the round and wants a really smooth circle, she will rotate the increase points around the circle. She also suggests working 6 increases per round - so like you start out working your ch1 for the first sc of your round, then work a sc into the base of that stitch as your “2sc”. The next round you would ch1, then work the 2sc into the next sc. The round after that you would work ch1, 1sc into next stitch, 2sc into the next stitch.

So I tried it out (that’s what the pictures are of above) and it was the smoothest circle I’ve ever crocheted in my life! Thank you Sarah! I love having friends who don’t mind telling me “you could be doing that easier and here is how” :)

How to read crochet patterns - great set of links over on whipup.net

Crocheted Magic Loop - A great way to get your crochet or knitting started in the round.

Crocheted Stash Basket on the Purl Bee - This is so simple and beautiful. I think I must make it

Making Crocheted Circles on Any size on Suite 101 - I found this to be the most helpful tutorial on crocheting circles.

Granny Square Inspirations on whip up - Part 1 and Part 2.

Granny Square Joining Tutorial on Carina’s Craft Blog - via whip up.

Crocheted tops to Ceramic pots - just plain beautiful over on design sponge

Quite some time ago, pre-craft leftovers, I started my first ever online community project - The Quilt Block Swap. I let it go and hosting it changes hands every so often, but a great woman named Sandi has been the host for awhile now. So this past December I decided I wanted to do some quilt block swapping again and rejoined the swap - this time as a member only.

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The Quilt Block Swap is a whole lot of fun to get a block each month in the mail and also to see what other people are making for quilts. For this month my partner asked me to use this Maple Leaf pattern and i thought the site looked familiar, you see last month my partner directed me to the same site for the pattern she wanted me to use. Curious. Two quilters, two different states, two different patterns, both from the same site.

I decided to look around a bit and wowzers! This site - The Quilter’s Cashe - is loaded. It has not just an amazing selection of free quilt block patterns (which all include pretty detailed instructions and clear illustrations), but also tutorials on learning to quilt, different techniques to use in quilting (how to pages), a gallery of photos of quilts and blocks and then like, washing instructions, and fabric conversion charts, and more. There is so much to this site I couldn’t even get through it all. And the amazing thing, it’s all run by one woman: Marcia Hohn.

She writes:
“I started the Quilter’s Cache in 1997 as a one page tribute to my favorite pastime of quilting. I envisioned it and sketched as an ALL ORANGE page, using MS Paint…sent it on to my then beau, now hubby, Joe, who made it into a web page. At that time, I couldn’t find many patterns online, and thought it would be SO COOL to draw a pattern every month…and from that humble beginning sprang this monstrosity we now know as the Quilter’s Cache…which now has all sorts of Instructional Pages, and hundreds of free patterns, all of which are hand drawn, well mouse drawn, without the use of any quilt programs.” (you can read the rest of the story here on the about page).

And when I emailed her to see if she was still adding to the site, she sent me a really nice email back explaining that while things have slowed down a bit due to life in general and all that, she is still actively adding new patterns! Awesome!

“My primary interest …is in building up the collection of free quilt block patterns, and that gets my main attention! I’ve been working on the site since 1997. It’s taken many many many hours, and is nearing 4000 pages now of work done all by one person. There are approximately 60,000 mouse drawn graphics on the site. I don’t use a quilting program to do these. I do have several wonderful gals who test my patterns also, voluntarily, and without them this all wouldn’t have been possible!”

Quilting is such a great way to use of bits of fabric. If you just make them into the same chosen block pattern or even just make a bunch of blocks of any pattern, after awhile you have enough to make a quilt top. If you don’t like the process of quilting (which I am one of those weirdos who likes handquilting) you can always take it to your local quilt shop and have them quilt it for a pretty small fee - I think usually under $60 depending on the size of the quilt (the bigger the quilt, the more is costs).

So what is your favorite quilt block pattern? Do you quilt? Do you do scrap quilts at all ever? How many quilts have you made? (me: pinwheel patterns, yep, of course, and 1 finished, one almost finished, another started).

The pictures of the quilt block in the post are of the one sent out to my partner yesterday - down to the deadline, that’s the way I roll, haha.

Happy Quilting!
Kristin

Annette of CraftStew wrote up a great article on how to earn money from Crafts - ideas for businesses and income flows.

She writes:

“With today’s problematic economy, folks everywhere are searching for alternative ways to bring in extra income.  For crafters, our hobby provides an obvious source of extra cash. Four popular income producers are teaching, selling our products, writing and providing services.”

Too true, too true.

You can check out the full list here.

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She emailed me about and said you all might enjoy it and I think she’s right. I would like to get back into the Homebased Studio Series and I think this is a good place to start.

I create income from my homebased studio through a variety of means: I teach classes and private lessons here in my local community, sell handmade and hand dyed yarns through boutiques and my online stores, write and publish 2 blogs - cl generates a small amount of ad rev each month, I write articles, patterns and tutorials for magazines and other websites, and I sell paintings and drawings by word of mouth as well as in galleries. Oh and I do mending for people for a small fee. Pretty much any odd job I can get my hands on :)

So now I’m curious, How do you earn money from the things that you make?

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Two recent points of news - I have my first Ames area show coming up in October. I’m excited, it’s my first showing of paintings since, well, since I decided to start showing again. And I just added my first for sale pattern to Green Prairie Fibers, it’s for a Raffia Sun Hat that you can crochet. You can see pictures and read about it here and you can purchase it here in the etsy shop.

And with that, I’ll leave you for the day. I have much sewing, painting, and chocolate slinging to do.

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

Jenny Ryan has been showcasing some great tutorials every Tuesday. This last Tuesday’s post had to do with using up long strips of fabric by making them into beautiful necklaces. The tutorial is complete with how to add in the metal chain and clasps too! [link]

Long skinny strips have always been the hardest leftover for me to use up and now that I have seen this method I have quite a few more ideas. Braiding them together! What a brilliant idea! Look for a braided fabric project later this summer for sure!

Oh and don’t forget to check out all the other great How to Tuesdays posts - just scroll to the bottom of the tutorial and they are all listed under Related Post.

Happy Monday and Happy Crafting!

Kristin

You can use the strap to attach your face cloth around a hook or the towel rod, or in your shower - or if you have a super hero craft cat - use it as a cape! Faster than the speed of light!

{edited in: I realized I made a HUGE typo/error/whathaveyou that was then repeated throughout the whole pattern. If you have downloaded the pattern before midnight on June 29th, 2009, please re-download it and trash your old copy. Seriously. Sorry for the mix up - I swear I was looking at the wrong notes (possible)}

So how did a facecloth double as a cat cape in my mind? Well, as I was making it Jason said jokingly “what are you making? a cape for molly so she can fight crafting crime around the world?” which was just silly and fun and perfect. I will use them as facecloths for sure - I love the idea of pushing my face into some handmade love each morning - but occationally, molly will sport it when there is some crafty crime fighting to do. Dropped a stitch? never fear! craft cat is here!

Okay, I’m a big lame nerd that gets a kick out of the weirdest jokes, but that’s okay, because I’m just going to assume you are a nerd to and might smile and laugh and enjoy a fun twist on a utilitarian pattern :)

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In other news, I just finished adding all the back issues of Craft Leftovers Monthly to the Kro Studio shop on Art Fire. Let me know how checkout goes. In theory you do not need an account to order from an ArtFire shop, which I like a whole lot. You can checkout with paypal and soon google checkout (I need to sign up for google checkout).

Oh and I added a new minibook - Collage IT! is what I included in the kit for July and was orginally published in the May issue of clm. So if you have either of those, this is not for you, unless you want it for a friend - in which case, go for it!

Best wishes and happy crafting!
Kristin

While walking around San Francisco it struck me how much my camera looked like everyone else’s on the street. Lame. My nikon was no different from every other camera toting tourist. I think my camera deserves better than that. I mean, after all, it’s through its lens that all my work in my studio gets up onto the blogs, into the shops. It’s only fair that I inflict some of that handmade on the camera itself. Just a little something something to let people know, “hey, I’m a special camera, without me, all Kristin’s projects would look like crap to everyone.”

When I saw the tutorial on Design*Sponge (just today because I was way behind in my blog feeds after the weekend crunch) and just knew it was the perfect thing! My whole issue with other tutorials I had seen was that it called for taking apart the existing strap. No offence to myself, but I’m worried my shoddy sewing skills would end up with a broken strap and possibly broken camera. No good. This solve all that by making a sleeve for your existing strap. Which also means that I have everything I need right here - a strip of long fabric + a sewing machine! And the tutorial is written up so you can make it for any camera! it’s so simple and smart I’ve been kicking myself “now why didn’t I think of that!”

Go check it out on Design*Sponge and make one up for yourself!

Happy Sewing and shooting!
Kristin

I’m not sure if you remember, but awhile ago I posted a quick tutorial on how to make your own polymer clay croissants. Since then I have had many other little fun pastries floating around my studio. It’s so fun and easy to play around with clay when I’m feeling a little in a rut.

I was delighted to see this great tutorial on WhipUp.net about how to scent polymer clay by monsterkookies
. I’m not sure if I will ever actually do that, but I could… and now I’ll know how!

And at the bottom of the tutorial there is a great list of links to polymer clay resources! Perfect!

Pull out some of your polymer clay today and give it a little hands on attention. You never know the fun to be hand until you do!

Happy crafting!
Kristin

I’m going to be riding my bike all over kingdom come in the purest of spring delights. The breeze will be in my hair as I enjoy the excuse of grocery shopping to take a bike ride after class and/or work. Which brings me to the point of today’s (this evening’s/morning’s) pattern. I have a basket on my bike, which can be taken off, but with a lot of pain and suffering on the part of all parties involved, so how to know when the right amount is to ride back with, without pain and suffering. A grocery tote to fit my basket is in order! I say, make your bag out of whatever you please, out of what will make your heart delight while filling it with books, groceries, flowers, or maybe even an abandoned kitten, well that’s just a bad idea, nix the kitten in the basket tote idea, I could just see hitting a bump and… well, I’m not going there… Flowers, flowers are nice in a basket tote. But on the hitting of bumps topic, I really despise outside pockets on a basket tote because well, hit a bump and there goes your keys/cell phone/wallet/kitten. No good. So this little guy has inside pockets… with buttons for keeping things in!

The Shop n’ Ride pattern has a suggested donation of $2. Click on the Support Craft Leftovers button in the side bar to, well, help support Craft Leftovers :)

Happy crafting!

Kristin

Sister Diane of the CraftyPod went around the maker’s faire and asked quite a few makers why they make things - including me! It’s so interesting to hear everyones reasons and stories. She’s just put it into a podcast for all of us to listen to. Go check it out here!

I just love this lady. She is a constant source of inspiration. I admire her so much! Do you subscribe to her podcast? You should. It’s such a fun listen!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

This is a great little zine on drawing I came across. I think on The Art of Nonconformity. It’s called 75 Ways to Draw More and was made by Michael Nobbs.

The really great thing about this, besides it’s fun content and illustrations, is that you can either purchase it (there are just 3 copies left that are signed and dated by the artist) or you can go to Michael Nobbs’ flickr set and download each page, print, and put it together yourself for free! How sweet is that? Pretty sweet I would have to say.

Oh and there is also a special offer and a contest and a flickr group! All links and information as well as how to get your hands on the zine are posted on his blog here.

Michael Nobbs just put out another great sketch inspiring zine called Start to Draw Your Life. Here is what he says about the zine:

Start to Draw Your Life is a quick-start guide to set you on the road to what could be a life-long drawing journey.

Download and make your own copy of the booklet by following these instructions or order one the limited edition copies here.

You can get all the facts here on his blog.

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I’m going to mix thing up a bit this week and post a re-release pattern since I was absent on Friday. I had a an exciting and overwhelming response to this months Craft Leftovers Monthly. Because of the huge amount of orders I was not able to make the saturday drop off time as planned. It’s all good though, it got in the mail today and they should be well on their way.

I also just got some unexpected, exciting news today from a magazine publisher. A crunch deadline, but I’m excited all the same. All I can say is that it involves yarn. Because of the short deadline things might get a little crazy around here.  Do any of you want to write a guest post? It would be really helpful to have one a week for the next 5 weeks. Not even just a project, book reviews, articles about a topic of interest to you. Anything that you think is “Craft Leftovers”. What about a write up on your local yarn shop? Email me at kristin [at] craftleftovers[dot] com if you are intersted.

Okay. I’m going to clean up around here, do some laundry and take it easy. It’s been a long weekend - I do love it though :)

Best wishes and happy crafting!

Kristin