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Back to Writing?

Inspired by Claudia, I've decided to dust off this old blog and commit to writing on a regular basis. We'll see how this goes.

I started this blog way back in 2002 when Maddie was nearly 2 years old and I was finally finding a little free time for knitting and crafting again after the craziness of the whole baby thing. Over the years it morphed into a lot of things and I started a lot of side projects on the internet (including Black Sheep Bags, my podcast, the Pincushion Challenge, The Chocolate Blog, and many more.) 

At this point, I think I need to land in one place and write about whatever I'm obsessed with at the moment. (And I often become obsessed with things -- it's my nature.) 

If you still visit my website -- Hi! Glad you stuck around. I hope to get re-acquainted with you again!

(Oh, the photo? That's a pile of my dish scrubbies. Free pattern at Ravelry and on the blog.)

New Stitch-Cast!

New Stitch-Cast Episode now uploaded.

New Stitch-Cast Episode (really)

I know it has been ages, but I finally got the mic out and recorded a new episode of my craft podcast.  Can you even believe it?

Two New Quilt Blocks & a note about Stitch-Cast

Two new quilt blocks in the Flickr set.

And I'm thinking of starting to record some new episodes of Stitch-Cast now that I have my crafting mojo back. I'll probably go with a bit looser format -- talking about whatever strikes my fancy each week -- but I'd love to hear any show ideas you have. Is there a craft that you want to know more about? I'm willing to go find out about it for you! Just leave me a comment or email me (email link is up at the top of the right hand sidebar.

Renegade & a new Stitch-Cast

I just uploaded the latest Stitch-Cast -- it's on sewing.  If you listen, I'd love to hear from you!

And I talk about Renegade Craft fair a little in the show, but I wanted to mention it here.  We got a chance to stop by the craft show before we went to my grandma's 80th birthday party yesterday.  I picked up some cool things from Happy Owl Glassworks and got the new Sublime Stitching book.  There were quite a few vendors and it looks like the big trends included screen printing, letterpress and clothes & other things made out of thrifted fabrics (and other materials). 

Oh and there was a weird glow in the sky on our way home last night:

New Stitch-Cast on Braiding!

I finally found time to do an episode of Stitch-Cast!! This week it's all about braiding -- Kumihimo, lucet, etc. . . I hope you like the show!

Stitch-Cast on Introductory Weaving

Stitch-Cast Episode 8 -- Weaving is up.  I talk a bit about how to get started weaving without spending much money and I also talk about how a funeral inspired me to weave (weird, but true!)

So, go give it a listen and please let me know what you think!  I also want to know what shows you've liked in the past and what you want to hear more about in the future.

Stitch-Cast on Stamp Carving

This week I had a few requests to talk a little bit more about the stamp carving I did last weekend (from this post) in my podcast -- so I did just that. Episode 7 -- Stamp Carving is now up at Stitch Cast (and iTunes). In it I talk about the tools you need, how to carve stamps, where to look for inspiration, what to do with your stamps and I even touch on letterboxing. Go give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Stitch-Cast -- Crochet Episode

Episode 6 is up over at Stitch-Cast and this week's theme is crochet.  Let me know what you think!

I'm a little late with this episode because yesterday I actually made it to WWKIP Day at Millennium Park in Chicago.  Theresa and Bonne Marie introduced me to the good ol' #66 bus as we made our way to the festivities.  The sun actually came out for a while, so it turned out to be a lovely afternoon.  Even though I'm a former resident of the city of Chicago I got to be a bit of a tourist.  Gazing up at the shiny surface of the "Bean" I was mesmerized!  We even managed a chocolate fix.  What more could a girl ask for?

Japanese Craft Book Podcast!

Episode 5 of Stitch-Cast is up! It's a short one this week. I just talk a little bit about Japanese craft books. (Now I really want to go to Mitsuwa today!)

Goals (again)

Time to set some goals again.  It worked really well last time, so I thought I'd give it a try again.  But first, here's something I picked up the last day of MS&W:

It's some hand-dyed 100% wool felt in very pretty colors which are difficult to photograph in our *still* cloudy weather.  (I think I bought it from this vendor, but they gave me nothing with their business name on it -- not even the receipt had their name on it!)

Okay, so yesterday was cleaning and washing day and today I need to go grocery shopping in a very bad way.  Here are some other things I want to get done this week:

• Do some work on the Knitting Blogs Web Ring-- maintenance on the existing members and adding 10 sites a day Tu-Fr.
• Clean out my desk and desk organizer.  Okay, to keep me honest, a before shot. . .

• Finish the binding on my first quilt -- seriously!  This was on my last list of goals and I didn't have a thimble so it never got done, but I have purchased one and now have no excuse.
• Wash my fabrics for my next quilt.
• Finish the entrelac bag.
• Write up the final pattern for the entrelac bag.
• Get to work on my Pincushion Challenge pincushion.
• Get to work on my back-tack project.

Okay, I'm probably already over the limit on what is physically possible to complete, but I did a lot yesterday, so I'm feeling good about my outlook for the week.  I got pretty much caught up on work -- cut out all the pictures I had printed for patterns and made up some patterns.  I even got packages packed up and ready to ship.  It was a productive work day. 

In other news, I switched to libsyn for hosting my Stitch-Cast mp3's, starting with my latest episode.  So if you have had trouble downloading or listening to them in the past, please give it another try!  I'm hoping that this will solve all the problems and judging from the number of downloads I had yesterday, it's doing a good job!  Thanks everyone for listening!  I really appreciate it!

Show #4!!!!

I just put up Episode 4 -- Spinning Wheels & Spindles at Stitch-Cast.  I blathered on for 38 minutes, so if you are interested in buying a wheel or hearing what it's like to spin on a Golding spinning wheel, or want to know where to get started when you want to purchase your very first spindle, I hope you'll check it out! 

I actually feel like a "real" podcaster now -- I know, 4 shows doesn't seem like much, but I've been doing this for about 2 months now and I'm really enjoying it!  I was kind of excited to do this show and couldn't wait to find time to sit down and turn on the mic.  My editing skills need some work (I simply don't have time to take out all the um's and and's), but I almost feel like I know what I'm doing now.  Yeah!

So please go have a listen and tell me what you think. . .

*** Update ***  Ah, much better.  I was using my iTunes graphic which was too huge and scared me whenever I looked at my blog!  I also made a Stitch-Cast button while I was messing around in Photoshop Elements:

My first podcast is up!

Ready or not, my first episode is up over at Stitch-Cast. If you listen, please leave me a comment over there and let me know what you think!

I'm so nervous!