handknit latte sweaters revisited

happy thanksgiving!



now that the holiday shopping season is officially upon us, i would like to reintroduce the latte sweater as a marvelous little gift idea. i was amazed at how quickly these little beauties were snapped up at last weekends handmade market, so as i sit here, knitting some more, i thought i would remind everyone that these exist.







if you have a friend or co-worker or someone that is a regular coffee drinker who often uses take-out cups, you might consider giving them a handknit latte sweater to re-use instead of throwing away cardboard sleeves or double-cupping. i knit these with little bits of handspun and other bright, colorful yarns, and dress them up like little tea bags. see?

they dont have to be for lattes, just any warm drink, like hot chocolate or apple cider. they will keep your hand burn-free, are helpful for distinguishing which cup belongs to whom, and would make great little stocking stuffers =)

i love how they look in their little display box!

Cleveland Handmade Market November 2008

Cleveland Handmade Market November 2008
Originally uploaded by virtuallori

what a great group we have! the show was so much fun and sooo many people showed up! you can tell that i pretty much abandoned any thought of sleep the night before [too much to sew!] but it was worth it to spend time with these awesome ladies! thanks to everyone who came out and shopped! and thanks again to the awesome musicians who provided christmas music for us!

mark your calendars!

you may have noticed a new blue box to the left over there. see it? did you click it yet? you should! if you are in the cleveland area, you should totally stop at the Cleveland Handmade Market on sunday, november 23rd from 10a-4p. you can find all sorts of amazing handmade items for you or for the special people in your life. plus, i will be there, and coffee will be there, and we will have music playing by real live musicians, and a crackling fireplace to give it that extra cozy christmas feel. yay!

grapes!

i have been working on a custom project that i will blog about when i have more photos to share.

in the mean time, i will give you a peek at some grapes i have been working on,

a package i am sending out,

and a new recycled paper notebook i made and listed in the shop today!

the grapes are extra special because they are sewn completely by hand =)

it's that time again

I am teaching a class this Saturday at Silverthorne on one-color screen printing! Yay! I drove to Coventry yesterday to purchase the screens and a few other last minute supplies, and look forward to seeing what ideas my students came up with!

recycled fabric pretties

i made some pin cushions! or pincushions. or soft sculptures. or paper weights. or pretty desk items. or recycled fabric pretties. or whatever you want to call them. i will probably experiment and make some more. i did a lot of cutting of fabric scraps the other day, which resulted in something like this :

i love seeing them all laid out like that! it makes me want to quilt, until i think about how totally complicated and involved quilting is, and then i just put it all away.

dog cookies!

tonight i decided to bake some dog cookies. heidi loves them! i gave some to my neighbor and will give some to klaus. this is the recipe that i made up after looking over various recipes i saw online.

HandMade HappyDog Cookies

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup butter

1/8 cup bacon grease*

1 cup boiling water

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 tsp. sugar

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup soy milk

4 oz (1 cup) shredded cheddar cheese

1 egg, beaten

2 - 3 cups whole wheat flour

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease cookie sheets.

In large bowl, combine rolled oats, butter, bacon grease, and boiling water; let stand 10 minutes.

Stir in cornmeal, sugar, chicken stock, soy milk, cheese and egg; mix well.

Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition to form a stiff dough.

On floured surface, knead in remaining flour until dough is smooth and no longer sticky.

Roll or pat out dough to 1/2 inch thickness, cut with bone shaped cookie cutter. I used a heart shaped cookie cutter as well to get larger cookies, and baked them slightly longer.

Place 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. Feel free to lightly baste with additional chicken stock if desired, or sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top before baking for variation.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool completely.

Store loosely covered. If they start to get moist, leave them uncovered so they get crispy.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen large dog biscuits or 8 dozen small dog biscuits.

*If you don't have bacon grease, use a total of 1/3 cup butter.

ice storm!

hello!

it is time for a quick update.

i made some smallish brightly colored cards that are roughly the size of moo cards, but obviously much simpler.

i love the colors and wanted something besides my moos to hand out and attach to things. i think these will work quite nicely for now.

i took heidi out for our evening walk a little while ago, and the trees were all covered with ice! the sidewalks were thick and frozen over with snow that would crunch and sink if you stomped really hard or jumped just so. it was a very interesting texture and i snapped some photos of the ice trees because they looked so pretty.

i tried taking some video of the interesting crunching noises the branches made when the wind blew, but all i could hear on the audio was the strong wind against the microphone and a man whistling in the background.

eco-friendly

I found some new felt while stocking up on reds and pinks for a custom trade project I'm working on with etsy.com yarn spinstress banadura. This new felt is a hand washable polyester fiber made from post consumer plastic bottles! I love that it is a vegetarian, recycled material and since I have been having trouble finding a good price and color selection of wool felt, it makes a really great material to work with in the mean time!



I have been really diligent with bringing my own canvas bag when shopping to avoid having to take plastic bags and the more I do it, the more I remember to grab my canvas bag[s] and bring them when I go into stores. One of my fellow Cleveland Etsy teammates, zJayne, actually recycles t-shirts and sews them into unique, one of a kind shopping bags! She picks out some really great ones, and this two pack is totally one of my favorites, probably because of the Cleveland t-shirt she used in the main photo :o)

Two new HandMade Plush Kids Toy Baskets are now in the HandMade Goods shop - Pink Stars and Blue Flowers. I am way into the new yellow squash and zucchini plush toys I have just added to the collection. I will continue to add new fruits and vegetables soon!

finished projects

I finished the black scarf I was working on.


I also finished the fun fur scarflette. I added the bright blue button and I think it works well with the colors and is easy to find when trying to button and unbutton it.




I have been reading a bunch of tutorials about using Kool-aid to dye your own wool/cotton yarn, so I will be trying that next!

I learned to knit from this guy.

I knitted my first scarf over the weekend. I have made several failed attempts to learn how to knit in the past, but the other day I was determined, and learned from a You Tube video that this guy posted. Was it the combination of orange yarn and teal needles? Perhaps.

I watched it several times, and his second video, and then I finally got it.

At this point, I can only garter stitch, so I was pretty limited as far as patterns go. I went with this pattern, and used black super thick wool yarn and size 17 needles. It came out pretty well, though I only used one skein and so it is not very long. It is pretty stretchy and soft, so I think it will make a nice gift for my dad.

I also knitted a scarflette for his wife, using a blue yarn and a novely fun fur yarn together. I still have to sew the buttons on, but it came out looking really fun and different, which is what I wanted!

I haven't stopped there, either. I knit a headband type of thing that will felt when I wash it. I fell in love with the colors of the yarn, so I needed to see it as something, anything.

Ditto with this gorgeous shades of blue, white, and purple "licorice" yarn that I have started knitting a thinner scarf for myself with.

I need to learn another stitch, quick!

Citrus Lime + Neapolitan

Hi there! I'm Nicki.


I have a webshop on etsy called HandMade Goods where I sell my HandMade Kids Plush Fruit and Vegetable playsets, cat toys made with organic catnip that I grow, and t-shirts that I screen print by hand.


The holiday orders certainly kept me busy from November until this week. I am excited to take a few days off and give my terrible eyes and sore fingers a much deserved rest! I definitely put my Grandma's old Singer to good use. I'm sure she would be very proud.


I am also eager to expand my product line. I have had ideas for weeks now with little time to do much else but fill orders and even more rarely, print more t-shirts... which is another thing I would like to do more of in the very near future.

In the mean time, I just listed two new Kids Plush Playsets - Citrus Lime and Neapolitan, which are featured in this blog. Each playset includes a combination of six handmade fruits or vegetables, a handmade placemat, and a small wooden picnic basket. I figured, with all of the last minute orders I was getting, I'd better have at least two baskets ready to go in case I needed to rush off to the post office immediately. I love love the stripes in the Neapolitan! When I see the colors together it just looks yummy to me. The bright lime and kelly green Citrus slices are nice and bold. Quite a contrast to the near white-out blizzard conditions we were having here as I was sewing it!