The Crafty Princess Diaries

Tammy Powley’s Crafty Weblog

February 26, 2011
by Tammy
1 Comment

Granny Square Baby Afghan

This is one of my latest crochet projects in the works, a granny square baby afghan. The yarn is Bernat Baby Jacquards in a color combination called “berries and cream.” Because of the holes that are created in the typical granny square, I decided to go with a smaller than usually hook, a size F, so that overall the gauge on this is on small side. It wasn’t long before I got into this, though, that I was so wishing I had used a G hook. It’s funny how just a size smaller makes a difference, but it’s been a little challenging using such a small hook, even on this simple granny square.

Luckily, I’m very close to the end and will probably finish it in a day or so. Then this will head off with some of the baby afghans my craft club has been making for Healthy Start. I am thinking of making another one soon, but I will definitely go with the G hook this time!

February 24, 2011
by Tammy
1 Comment

Plastic Bins and Craft Organizing


Since starting my college craft club, I discovered a number of points I hadn’t really thought through that much. One of the biggies is storage for all of the craft supplies. I have my own office, but it’s not that big. It’s fine for one person, but when you add in my L-shaped desk, computer, filing cabinet, a few chairs, and a few book cases, and then try to squeeze in loads of yarn, bags of material, and so on, well, it has gotten to be a pretty tight squeeze in there.

Some teachers just have one small desk with their computers on that, and it makes it more roomy, but when I work I like to spread out. I can’t imagine what I would do with all the paper stuff I have….and I even grade primarily on-line.

Finally, I made a trip to Wal-Mart and loaded up on plastic bins to help me get organized. We have yarn, hooks and needles, jewelry making supplies, and more recently fleece. I also have a miscellaneous assortment of food related items such as plastic cups, spoons, napkins, and plates, since I provide small snacks at each meeting.

I did something similar in my home studio a few years ago, and really, plastic bins are a great way to divide and concur your crafting crap. Now, I just need the time to actually put everything inside the bins!

February 22, 2011
by Tammy
1 Comment

Free Sewing Ebook

Sew Daily is a-live, and to celebrate the birth of this site, blog, etc. it is giving away a free e-book on sewing, of course. You do have to sign up, but if you are already part of any of the Interweave “daily” sites (like Beading Daily), then you already have a membership and just need to sign in. This new e-book has 5 patterns and tips, but after surfing around, I found that there is a free Sewing Basics e-book too as well as a number of free patterns you can pick up.

February 20, 2011
by Tammy
0 comments

This Week’s Craft Links

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi has a brand new copy of the wonderful book Scraps to give away this week! It’s a mixed media lover’s dream…
About Family Crafts
Stop by and share your crafty cleaning tips and read other people’s tips!

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen has repost of a fun shipping tag tutorial; stop by and check it out!

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi crafts some pretty flower brooches with a new tool from Clover!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there is a free tulip quilt block pattern and tutorial, interviews with Susan Strawn author of Knitting America on NPR, Carla Sonheim author of Drawing Lab with details of her workshop at the Etsy Lab in Brooklyn, and a couple of cool DIY sewing tips.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie’s dedicating a design to some serious stitchers who are gearing up for some HUGE stitching projects. She reminds them to “Begin with the End in Mind.”

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
 Here are directions for making a double strand charm bracelet from Eileen. She made this one for a real life angel. Choose your charms to suit any occasion you like.
Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
How to make a recycled color wheel dart board.

The Crochet Dude
Drew gives five good reasons why January was a blur!

February 18, 2011
by Tammy
0 comments

Bernat Crochet or Knit Along for Project Linus

Bernat, which makes pretty much my all time favorite baby yarn (next to Vanna’s baby yarn), has a charity project going on in conjunction with Project Linus. Starting February 28th, a crochet along and knit along will start up. You can see the projects posted here, two crochet and two knit, but they won’t have the actual instructions until they start on the 28th. They do, however, list the supplies needed and offer 25% off of the yarn if you purchase it on-line through the company’s web site. The yarn sale ends on February 23.

February 17, 2011
by Tammy
0 comments

Stringing Magazine Free Trial Issue

For anyone who enjoys bead stringing, Stringing magazine is a wonderful publication. As the title suggests, it is all about stringing. While I like other types of jewelry making, I’m still very partial to beading, especially since my hands and wrists have had issues that don’t seem to want to go away.

Right now, Stringing is offer a free trial issue. Then if you like it, you can sign up for a full subscription, 4 issues for $21.95. My only beef is that it doesn’t come out more often, but eventually, it might. Very often fairly new publications start out as quarterly. This isn’t a super new magazine, but with the way so many are folding these days, we are lucky to still have such a great magazine around.

February 16, 2011
by Tammy
3 Comments

Slip Stitching Away

The craft club is at the point of stitching up all of our squares. Pictured is one of two blankets we have almost completed. Considering that about half of our members just learned to crochet a few months ago, I’m very impressed with our progress.

It was a tad tricky slip stitching all of the squares together because everyone tends to have a different gauge, but crochet is so forgiving that we managed to make it work. We should finish up these two at our next meeting, and we have a third in the works. I have made three myself and have a fourth one in progress, so we should have a fair amount of items to donate to Healthy Start.

Of course, there were issues as we worked on these. We have a few weird squares that are way larger than 10 inches or just not exactly square, so those will be stitched together to make blankets for a local animal shelter since the dogs and cats won’t mind if there are a few boo-boos in their blankets. For squares that somehow shrank and ended up smaller than 10 inches, I just added a trim around them to make them a little larger. Tails were another issue. I kept having to remind members to leave at least a six inch tail and not to knot.

Some of the good points of making these squares was that it allowed each member to have a small project to work on, and with the squares, they learned three different stitches: chain, single crochet, and double crochet. When we started putting them together, they learned how to slip stitch. Since these are all foundational stitches, they are in pretty good shape to move on to something like hats where they will have to work in the round.

February 15, 2011
by Tammy
0 comments

Successful Valentine’s Fund Raiser

I wish I could remember who in our club suggested we make Valentine’s cards as a fund raiser item because it was an amazingly brilliant idea. We definitely did not kill ourselves selling them around campus and still ended up making $118. Some additional good news is that JoAnn’s has fleece on sale for 50% off. We plan to use the majority of our earnings to make fleece blankets for Save the Chimps, so this timing is perfect.

I’ve tucked away the few remaining cards and heart pins for next year. This is definitely going to be an annual event for us.

February 14, 2011
by Tammy
0 comments

Valentine’s Day Craft Links

About Family Crafts
If you are in need of a last minute Valentine, check out these printable cards.

Eileen – The Artful Crafter
Eileen has some tips for Tara and other aspiring young artists.

Mixed Media Artist
Cyndi decided to dust off her needle and thread for a brand new project.

Stefanie Girard’s Sweater Surgery
See how to make a recycled sweater, fabric, and button cuff

Aileen’s Musings
Aileen offers you a new recipe along with a cupcake postcard you can download and send to a friend. Remember when all else fails keep calm and eat a cupcake!

Carmi’s Art/Life World
Carmi has a pop out card tutorial on her blog this week.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week at Craftside there are 2 chances to win any book of your choice from QBookShop.com, insight into double exposure photography, 2 free Valentine graphic pattern downloads, 3 samples of extreme lettering, a bunch of the cutest Amineko photos (one with Suede from Project Runway!) and a fun decorating idea.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie has a versatile Heart and Hands Blessing pattern for use as a Valentine, wedding, anniversary, or even a St. Patrick’s Day project.

February 9, 2011
by Tammy
4 Comments

Recycled Crafting Supplies, Score!

I recently read in our local paper about a woman who runs a reuse/recycle center in my town. She has a Facebook page that she uses to make announcements such as when she will be at her storage locker for pick up and drop offs. Originally, I followed her on FB with the idea that I often give away items to local charities, and I might donate to her cause instead. The way it works is that she takes in donations and even picks up stuff from the side of the road on garbage day. Then she organizes all of this and has a storage locker where anyone can come in and take whatever he/she needs or wants. Considering how high unemployment is around here right now, I think this is just a wonderful idea.

Note: I know it sounds really weird to take stuff out of the garbage, but our town is known for people putting all kinds of stuff out on the side of the road to give away. I have never seen this any other place I live, but it’s pretty common here. Many times there’s nothing wrong with it other than someone no longer wants it. I’ve done this myself. I had a great huge desk that I really loved but just no longer had room for it. My hubby lugged it out to the curb, and sure enough, someone came by the next day and took it. I was very happy that it found a good home.

So back to the reuse place….I contacted her on the FB page asking when I could drop stuff off, and I occurred to me that she might have some crafting items like crochet hooks or knitting needles. So I asked her, and sure enough, she did. I ended up with a pair of knitting needles, a G size hook, a circular knitting set, a set of crochet hooks used for thread, some rolls of thread as well, and a measuring tape. I think the thread and small hooks may not work for my crafting club, but the rest I brought to school to add to my growing stock of craft supplies.

I plan to keep in touch with her in case she gets in yarn or other supplies. Hopefully, this might be a way for the club to get some free supplies on an on-going basis.