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January 21, 2011

Crochet Hearts

If you are looking for a fun, quick, addictive project (because I’m sure you, like me, are always finding yourself with nothing to do, right?), these small crocheted hearts are so sweet! I sat yesterday while the kids were at their after school activities and did a bunch of them. I think I’ll make them into a Valentine’s garland of some sort. I am mixing them with larger crocheted hearts (pattern found here) and maybe some miniature granny squares.READ MORE

January 1, 2011

Crocheted Candle Cozy DIY

I’m a little obsessed with crochet since doing those granny squares. (I know, I know, they aren’t *actually* granny squares, but for the sake of classifying, let’s call them that.) I was told that learning something like those sort-of granny squares right off the bat is a difficult place to start, but since then I’ve managed to teach myself how to do some of the simpler stiches by spending some time with expert crocheter friends (hi Kelly!) and watching youtube videos. It was inevitable that I included some sort of crocheted handmade gifts this holiday season, in addition to the crocheted rocks.
This is an extremely simple pattern to crochet wool cozies for those pretty and inexpensive IKEA Driod glasses* (The Sittning glass on IKEA’s website looks similar). By the time this post hits the airwaves, I will have given these to a list of neighbors, teachers, good people, and friends. If you put a nicely scented candle in each of them, you have a great gift for under $20.

I am probably way out of my league here, creating a crochet pattern of even the simplest sort, however I’m just going to put this out there and hope for the best, because its easy and fun. What I am really loving about crochet in general is that it is forgiving, there is actually room for little mistakes or miscounts, and they won’t usually wreck the whole design. As an example, my first dozen of these were all completely different, but still completely useable when I looked closely at them, and I used them all (well, there may have been one or two thrown out). I finally got some consistency in the last batches, so that’s where this pattern was tried, tested, and finalized.

Crocheted Candle Cozy

Supplies needed:

Short, wide-mouthed drinking glasses like the ones mentioned above (I also have luck finding votive and candle holders of all sizes at thrift stores)
Yarn in your chosen weight and color (I used Cascade 220 worsted, my favorite)
Crochet hook in US size H/5.0mm (or size appropriate for your yarn and guage)
candles**

To Make:
(This cozy is crocheted from the bottom up, and has an open bottom. I didn’t take step by step photos of each of these rounds because of the simplicity of this design. If there’s enough requests for photos, I’ll try to add them in.)
Round 1= make a chain of 30 stitches, slip stitch to join into a circle, careful not to twist. (check your gauge, this chain should fit snugly around the bottom, it will stretch a little as rounds are added).
Round 2 & 3 = 1 Half Double Crochet into each chain, 30 stitches. Join round with a slip stitch.
Round 4 = Chain 1, *1 Half Double Crochet into first and second stitch, then 2 Half Double Crochet stitches into the next/third stitch*. Repeat from * till end of round, 40 stitches. Join round with a slip stitch.
Round 5 = 1 Half Double Crochet into each stitch, slip stitch to join round, 40 stitches. Join round with a slip stitch.
Continue as Round 5 until you have the desired number of rows to cover your candle holder. I wanted my rows to reach all the way to the rim of the glass, so I did 5 more rows for a total of 10 rows. Eyeball this, it may vary depending on your gauge and tension. You may prefer to have a little of the candle holder showing at the top (after all, they do come in pretty colors). If so, do one less row.
That’s it. And when I say this is quick, I was able to do one in about 20 minutes once I’d worked out the kinks. Granted, I’m crochet obsessed, but I’m still very new. And right now, I am enjoying the one I kept for myself. I can’t live without candles in winter.

If you make these, I’d love to know! Send me your pictures and thoughts (and, of course, if you see any blaring mistakes in my instructions, let me know). Please tag all with #wisecrafthandmade on your social media posts so we can all see what you’re up to!
*IKEA calls these drinking glasses, and they are sold in that section of their store. But, for whatever reason, I use these for candleholders. So for this exercise, they are candleholders. If you do use these for drinking glasses, the cozy would work well to keep your warm drinks warm longer, and protect your hands from heat. Your choice.
**The candles I used, which happen to fit perfectly into these glasses, are the Rainforest and Euphoric refills from Aveda. ~~These come in little paper cups, and my suggestion is to remove the candle from the paper cup before using,~~ (sadly, I don’t see these on their website).
Helpful tip- Put a few drops of water in the bottom of your candleholder before putting in the candle, to hopefully avoid the candle sticking to the bottom and make it easier to get it out when its done.

November 29, 2010

DIY Thanksgiving Table

Thanks for the dining room love! We celebrated with a little DIY Thanksgiving in that very dining room last week, and it was so much fun to set the mood in a new space.

The flowers were from the local market (no driving to get anything fancier in snow and ice). I usually go for a tighter, more formal floral arrangement, but this year I went quite loose, all Studio Choo-style. The “vases” are actually tin cans that held tomatoes last week. They are wrapped with bark sheets, cut to size and tied with string (wrap it around several times and knot). Simple. The votives are actually leftovers from a recent wedding my friend Christiane designed the flowers for. Just a little green moss and rafia tied around. So simple and pretty, especially sweet because they were made by a good friend. The kids made place cards from Perler beads, after a rather lazy crafting debaucle spelling out all our initials with pipecleaners (unreadable and well, just weird).
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There was some Flickr talk the other day about using Vanilla Milkshake/white walls with white trim (scroll down the comments), and still creating visual interest, and not a stark, padded cell effect. Choosing paint is never easy for us, so I know the worry well. I wasn’t even sure about the Vanilla Milkshake, but I knew it would contrast well with the wood trim and ceiling beams and nothing else really stood out for me. But use my blog header as a example of how to contrast walls with white trim. That photo was shot at my friend Barb’s house, right on her living room mantle. She chose a white for the tons of beautiful wide trim, crown molding, etc that’s throughout the house, but painted the walls a slight gray shade. I thing the effect is perfect.

November 26, 2010

tour the dining room, or, a redo for the cost of a can of paint, so stay with me here

I haven't forgotten the dining room. I really haven't! Do you remember how it looked before? Let's have a quick refresher…

Before…

dark, black, hard to photograph, not awful, but hardly used, too formal.

And then I shared some tear sheets I'd been collecting.

And here's what happened with all that, once it got into my brain and stewed a while.

After…

I have once again proven to myself that the Swedish really get it right in my book (all that white and bright on Camilla and Elizabeth's homepage there really illustrate it well).

Like Sweden, the pacific northwest is notoriously dark throughout the winter months, and it can really save the psyche to keep that in mind when decorating. As much as Peter and I are fans of color, lightness makes all the difference in this room. Its gets weird Eastern light blasting through those french doors until about noon, then it just goes dark. But now it feels much airier, truly like a deep breath.

The biggest change in creating that feeling in here is the paint color. About a year ago, my friend Neicy called my attention to what has since become my favorite wall color, Ben Moore's Vanilla Milkshake (not to be confused with Vanilla Ice Cream, also a color they carry) . It is a white with a lot of interest, depth, and a cast that really changes with the light, and it contrasts nicely with the chestnut colored box beams on the ceiling of this room (which you can't see well in these photos). It transformed the walls of our family room, and now in here. (Perhaps in the new year it will transform our hallway, I'm really done with the beige.)

Once again, before,

After…

The chairs and table are IKEA. Going into this project, I didn't want heirloom anything for this room. I really hoped that this room would be used, it has always felt quite forgotten. I wanted it to feel happy. So I went for furniture that felt light, useable, and let's face it, IKEA fit within our budget. The table is long and extendable (I went for a long size, but in fact, I should have gone for an even longer one, I keep it fully extended). The chairs have an interesting shape, and a white seat. I love them. They feel modern and simple, and I realize this is where our tastes are heading. They also go nicely with the end chairs, which are upholstered ones Peter bought in St. Louis (and why I married him). In the top photo, we had already changed our overhead light fixture to a softer light, more interesting shape. The one before cast really unflattering, clinical light that would not dim (another reason we never ate in here).

The tiny original painting of Montemartre was one I bought from a street artist in Paris. The bottom piece is of the Wet Mountains in Colorado. The beautiful glowbowls were made by Diana Fayt. The soft twig was made by Stephanie.

The Liberty of London curtains I'd made years ago (which were extremely faded) were switched out for a simple white coarse weave cotton with a textured black stripe going through it (again, thank you IKEA), also helping to lighten the space visually. The artwork in the room all has significant meaning to us. And those porcelain glowbowls look amazing and etherial at night.

We dug through the stacks and stacks of artwork we had in the basement and pulled out all new pieces for the walls. These two watercolors were done by Peter's grandmother Marjorie. I had them rematted in acid free materials (sadly, the edges of them of are crumbling) and we're both so happy we can now look at them every day.

My embroidery hoop "installation" remained, we all like it. The lampshades were switched from red ones to white ones, huge difference in the amount of light we get from them now.

I made new cushions for the bench (the before here) from those amazing old curtains I found secondhand a few months ago.

I had plans to repaint the sideboard a bright color, but to be honest we all liked it much better as it is after we lightened the room up, so I've decided to live with it for now (with new knobs from Anthropologie). That stool, above on the left, is the same one from the holiday photo shoot and a large plant will live on it soon, once I decide on one.

Now. The big clincher, that I hadn't realized until the redo was complete? All of this costs me the price of-

1 can of paint- $50

1 roll of painter's tape- $5.00

Thrifted fabric for cushions- $5.00

That's it.

I'm not kidding.

You see, we sold the original table on craiglist for a decent price, which in turn created my IKEA budget. Granted, we didn't change many things that are in here, but I accomplished my goal of a family-friendly, airy space. We now eat dinner in here every night. Emma and I craft in here, it doesn't feel like wasted space any more.

Little changes that made a big impact. I keep saying it, but it doesn't have to cost a fortune to design and create your home with intention.

A few of the many books that inspired me:

Simply Scandanavian

Contemporary Country

Lotta Jansdotter Handmade Living

Crafting a Meaningful Home

Now there's some goodness to add to your holiday wishlist.

Oh, and the tablerunner, more on that soon.

Thanks for reading this far!

October 26, 2010

Crocheted Granny Square Scarf

I really have absolutely zero business writing out any kind of crochet tutorial, but this is such a simple project for anyone with a little experience, why not? If you can do some simple crochet stitches, hopefully, you will be able to understand. (I’m actually letting other, more experienced crocheters do the explaining.)
I am still working on what will one day be my granny square blanket (all those granny squares are bordered with cream), I was feeling like I wanted to try out a different set of colors, and that’s when the idea for this came about. I played around with my usual blues (I’m so predictable that way, I know), and bordered them all with a deep charcoal gray yarn I have quite a bit of. The centers of all the granny squares were mixed configurations of a yellow and an ochre yarn, they each take turns being the center of the circle. I decided I really wanted to create a scarf of some kind for myself.

The scarf I made is just pairs of the granny squares, lined up beside each other and sewn together, but I left the space between one of the pairs unsewn, like below.

That way, I could slip the other side of the scarf inside the space to cozy it up around my neck.

I tried about 50 different shots of me wearing this scarf and none really showed it well, so you will have to settle for it on the table instead. Here’s how I made it, in case anyone would like to try it.
Materials:
Yarn in several colors. I used 5 colors of Cascade 220– an incredible color assortment and I love crocheting and knitting with it. (I used 2 blues, a yellow, an ochre shade, and a dark charcoal.)
Crochet hook (for my yarn I used H/5.0mm)
Yarn needle or tapestry needle for weaving in the yarn ends
*An updated netflix movie queue (optional, but recommended)
An audiobook you’ve been dying to listen to

To Make:
*Start up your first Netflix movie.
I wrote up a tutorial to create the granny squares which you can find here. There are a thousand different ways to make a granny square, this is only one. You will need approximately 20 granny squares, but gauge the length as you’re going along, you may want yours longer or shorter.
*Start up your next movie.
*To attach the squares together, I was taught to sew the squares together with a tapestry needle, but I wasn’t happy with how my stitches were looking (sloppy), so I did some searching around online and found this tutorial from Lucy, which really clicked for me. Do whatever works for you. I attached all of my squares together using this Lucy’s method, attaching the pairs together first, then attaching the pairs to each other (keep track of the pair you would want to keep open to feed the scarf through and don’t connect those together). The pair I kept open was the second pair on the left side of the scarf (right side facing you).
*I worked in my yarn ends at this point, they were becoming a distraction.
*I would suggest switching to an audiobook at this point, prior to the next step.
*To create a nice border around the entire scarf, I did a scalloped or shell edging, following this tutorial.
*I blocked my scarf when it was completed. You can choose to block or not to block. I block when I want the stitches to look fuller and more even. Plus it creates a more defined shape to the piece.
And that’s really it. Are you confused enough? Should I have added wine to the materials list?
Oh dear.

October 6, 2010

Halloween DIY Ideas

Decorating with some favorite Halloween DIY’s for the season!

Thrifted dishes with waterslide decals.

Spray painted ceramics is an easy, very fun DIY project. (Instructions for both of these projects- and more- can be found in my book, Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, and Natural Objects into Stuff You Love.)

I surprised even myself when I jumped into decorating for Halloween as soon as the calendar said October, but I did. I guess doing these projects has warmed me up to the whole idea of Halloween. (Plus, its another reason to rearrange things around here, you know?) I’ve been keeping a few of the completed projects in orange bins down in our basement so that I could easily find them. I still need to put up the black ivy and spider web for the front yard…the kids are insisting.

I pulled out a few Nancy Drews with sinister titles for the living room side tables.
I am currently hunkered down and working on Holiday DIY projects and having some fun. I don’t know why I still get surprised at what can be made with humble thrift store items, but I do. The fun is in the transformation!

Little do my kids know, but this weekend I’m taking them to a Christmas tree farm for photoshoot props.
Cause that’s how we roll around here….

Crochet Hearts

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Crocheted Candle Cozy DIY

Crocheted Candle Cozy

Supplies needed:

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DIY Thanksgiving Table

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tour the dining room, or, a redo for the cost of a can of paint, so stay with me here

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Crocheted Granny Square Scarf

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Halloween DIY Ideas

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