Bella Dia

Learning New Things

My daughter and I and my sister and her daughter took a beginning jewelry making class the other night at our local bead shop.  I haven't made jewelry in a long time and wanted a refresher on all the little tips and tricks.  The class was two hours long but we spent the first hour oohing and aahing at all the possibilities and trying to decide on what we wanted to make. We had so much fun and I wanted to share with you the results.  My necklace is a choker length but adjustable by two inches - it's made from tiny seed pearls, a favorite, that took forever to string but I am so happy with the way it turned out.  I forget what the bracelet is made from, silver-like beads, and the stones on the earrings are some sort of quartz I think. I love their watery blue color.

These are the items my daughter made - can you tell she's a cowgirl at heart?  She took to it right away and I believe a new hobby has taken hold - oh no, what have I done?! 

My Big News: The Crafty Crow!

I am really excited to be sharing this with you!  I have a new blog called The Crafty Crow!  I have seen so many great kids crafts in blogland that I wanted a blog to keep them all in one place with a bit of organization thrown in.  I would love it if you would check it out and tell me what you think.  I've got lots more posts queued up so I hope you'll stop by frequently :)  My daughter has made a button that you can find in the sidebar (and below) if you would like to add that to your blog too. 

Thanks so much for letting me share this with you!

Happy Spring

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

Happy Spring everyone!  Our spring looks a lot like winter here just more brown and muckish.  We got a fresh layer of snow last night but it has almost completely melted. Now only four more feet to go! 

I made these carrots for the kids Equinox baskets.  They are posed with Sour Cream, my youngest sons lovey that he's had forever.  I used this pattern but modified it some.  The pattern calls for increases until you reach 32 stitches around but I stopped at 20 stitches and then kept going until I reached the length that I wanted.  I believe the smallest carrot is 12 stitches around.  I only printed out the first page of the pattern by mistake therefore I'm not sure how they did the green tops so I just improvised mine.  They are stuffed with poly-fil only since my kids are too old for rattles as called for in the pattern; they're really too old for these in general but they don't mind indulging their mama every now and then.

I've been working on a new project that I am planning to unveil next week.  I'm really excited about it and can't wait to share it with you so be sure to check back on Monday for the grand opening :)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and Easter!

Picky Picky Picky: Making Decisions on Color

As I said in my previous post, the next project in my crochet queue is a blanket for my daughter.  Decision making is not one of my daughter's strong points so her color choices have changed dramatically over the last few weeks.  To make it a little easier, I went to the Lion Brand website and dragged off a variety of colors from the Vanna's Choice yarns and played with different arrangements on my desktop.  We finally came up with the above combination: chocolate, taupe, linen, pink, and antique rose.  If you have trouble deciding on colors this is a great way to try out different combinations and to live with them a bit before making your purchase. 

If I had figured this out sooner though I wouldn't have the yarn stash I do now.  Not sure if that's good or bad but there it is.

Works-In-Progress

I've been eyeing this pattern for awhile and finally decided to jump in.  I would love to make a traditional granny square blanket but at least for now I just don't have the patience to weave in all those ends. This one big granny square blanket is working up fairly fast and with only two ends to weave in per round it's not nearly as taxing.  It's made from Cotton Ease which is one of my favorite yarns.  Being a cotton blend it is much softer to work with than 100% cotton and rates high on the squeeze-ability scale.  I love the colors that are available, I just wish there were more of them. My youngest son has already claimed this blanket while Stripey goes to my oldest son. Next in the queue will be a blanket for my daughter.

My sister and I were talking the other day about what great gifts blankets make.  I love that I can make this for my 9 year old son and he will be able to use it just as well now as he will in college, his first apartment, married life, etc.  When you think of it that way then the time you put into it seems so minimal and worthwhile.

This is my other WIP that is just for me.  It's a long (about 6') and very soft shawl/wrap (shawl sounds so old lady-ish and wrap doesn't sound warm enough).  Done in shell stitch, I'm going to edge it with that rust color (in the picture it looks more orangey than rust but it's not).  I'm about half way on this project but it's moving along pretty quickly too.

For the wrap, I was inspired by the color combination of the Cafe Curtain (pictured above) from Vintage Crochet  - one of my many favorites from this book.

I'm hoping to have some things in my shop for Easter too but with it so early this year and my studio a huge mess it won't be easy.  I do have plans for Mother's Day though!