Memorial Christmas ornament idea

I saw this idea online for a Christmas tree ornament that's made using canning lids and rings, rustic twine, perhaps some small beads or other seasonally decorative pieces (like the holly and berries in the photos below), some foam board or cardboard for backing, a hot glue gun, and small pieces of fabric, such as from a loved one's shirt.

 

These look like they would be fairly quick and easy to make. And they would also make meaningful gifts if the fabric comes from someone who's close to the person you're making the ornament for.

Beaded Fidget Hedgehog

This is a great pattern for using up scrap yarn from your stash. Each hedgehog requires only a small amount of yarn (plus a pair of 8 mm safety eyes, about 68 pony beads, and the other supplies). 

For my first two hedgehogs, I used glitter pony beads that I've had in my crafting stash for at least 27 years. I originally purchased the beads to adorn some Pocahontas costumes for Halloween/dress-up playtime that I sewed for my daughters back in the 1990s. 

My daughters on Halloween in the 1990s wearing the beaded costumes.

Now, all these years later, I can give them each an adorable hedgehog made with the same beads along with a printed photo of them wearing the Pocahontas costumes when they were little. That's a nifty full-circle moment in my book! 😁

So tiny and cute!

Little hedgehog feet.

Little hedgehog bum.

The pattern also has a link to an Etsy listing where you can opt to purchase a printable "carrier" for gifting your hedgehogs, which gives them a cute finishing touch.

Quick and easy Halloween decor craft

With Halloween less than a week away, here's a super easy decoration idea that you can use to decorate your front porch or anywhere you need a bit of spooky ambience.

All you need to make these adorable little ghosts is a printer, some paper for the printer, and some scissors. You can even let your littles color a sheet of ghosts for some extra fun.

Click here to download the printable PDF. 

 

Entries for the fair

This year, I entered two knitted items in our state fair's needle arts competition: a gray version of my Shawlcowl Pullover made with acrylic DK yarn and a blue fingering-weight version of the Zuzu's Petals pullover cowl.

The gray Shawlcowl Pullover got some really nice, thoughtful feedback from the judges.

But, amazingly, the blue Zuzu's Petals earned an Honorable Mention ribbon! As well as some lovely judges' feedback.

 

 

 

Naturally, the entry made by the co-owner of our local little yarn shop took best in show! Way to go, Irina!!! 😍

Irina's entry

 I wonder what I should make to enter into the fair for next year?!?!?

Dragonscale Dice Bag for Mika

This is the Dragonscale Dice Bag by Jessie Alameda, a free pattern. It's going to be a belated birthday gift for Mika. I bought 200 iridescent black polycarbonate dragonscales for this project from Michelle's SilverGriffonSkies shop on Etsy. Her scales are so beautiful, durable, and lightweight - they are perfect for this dice bag.

These next two photos are of Mika's two favorite sets of polyhedral dice. The first has holographic lettering, and the second has a geode appearance in the right light. If I do say so myself, these dice are going to look AMAZING with this bag! 😍

Mika's dice with iridescent lettering

Mika's geode dice

My usual supplier for dragonscales is The Ring Lord, but they mainly deal in aluminum/metal scales, and for this dice bag, I wanted something a bit lighter, and I also wanted them to be iridescent. The Ring Lord's scales are wonderful, but I don't think they offer iridescent, so that's why I gave my business to a different vendor this time.

This bag is 52 stitches around, so each scale row required 26 scales. I calculated that I could get a maximum number of 8 scale rows from the 200 scales if I worked 5 rounds of 26 scales and then decreased the bag to be 46 stitches around for 3 more scale rows with 23 scales each. That would have left me with 1 unused scale. But I decided that the bag was already tall enough after working 7 scale rows.

This is the first dice bag that I've actually lined with a sewn-in lining. Even though I'm pretty experienced at sewing, it was still a bit scary to do something new like this. But I'm very pleased with how well it turned out, and I think the finished bag is gorgeous.

With grommet added and lining pinned in place

I bought the dark purple two-tone dress taffeta fabric at Amazon. I think it complements the colors of the dragonscales perfectly. I also bought the black cord and the gunmetal gray cord stopper at Amazon. The yarn is fingering weight Estak Royal Cotton. I used a 3.75 mm crochet hook.

Before adding lining

As you can see in my "grommets test" photo below, I had to experiment with a few different sizes and colors before I figured out which one would look best on this bag. 

Grommets test