Grumpy Beastie's Other Lair

Official Name: DIY Felt Wreaths

Listed Price: $3

Age Rating: 6+

Description on Package: makes 2 wreaths

What it Actually Came With: instructions; 6 long strips of felt: 2 in light green, 2 in dark green, & 2 in black; 2 12in pieces of wire with the ends covered in hot glue for safety; 2 3in squares of red felt; 27 mini pom poms in rainbow assortment; 2ft long piece of white ribbon.

Notes: This was the most time consuming of all of the kits. The instructions are tiny, both the font and the pictures. They do great explaining the first half of creating the wreaths, cutting the felt strips into squares and putting them on the wired. After that, they get vague. They don't tell you how to finish off the wreath after you get the felt squares on the wire, they just tell you to "prepare the bow" with no instructions on how to cut the pieces from the red squares of felt, and then you just get a picture of the finished product. What takes so long to make this is first cutting 90 squares from your green & black felts for each wreath, then stringing them all on the wire. The instructions did say to cut the squares at 3/4in, but the felt strips are wider than that by a fair amount, so I just eyeballed where to cut to be about square. I still had enough felt strips for another wreath. The instructions also said to cut the wire down to 8in. I did not. Those extra inches gave me room to work and after I got things twisted into a circle to make the wreath, I twisted up the ends to make a hidden wire hanger. I did figure out how to make the bows from the picture. Mine are slightly larger than the finished examples wreath pictures, but it still only took 2/3 of one red square of felt to make both bows. I wasn't sure how the pom poms would look. The example shows only red, white, and light pink pom poms, but it gave us a bright rainbow assortment. Now that I have had some time to sit on it, it looks okay. Even covering the wreaths in pom poms, I have a 3rd of them left. Because it didn't give me any glue and I was worried about drying times, I used hot glue. So, so many glue threads on felt, but it worked great. I tied the ribbon to the metal hangers I made, and still have a third left. The wreaths themselves are sized perfect for a Barbie house. I think my favorite part of this one was that I have enough of everything except wire to make a 3rd wreath, so no fear of needing more material, had I screwed up.

Official Kit Name: Gingerbread House Activity

Original Price: $2

Age Rating on Package: 3+

Description on Package: 3 paper houses, foil sticker sheet, twine (24in)

What Was Actually in the Package: 3 small paper bags cut to be house shaped with a gingerbread house design outlined on the front to be colored in (approximately 5in x 4in x 2in); a foil sticker sheet full of images of candy, gingerbread people and animals, and a tree; 24in of red & white twine; a package of 9 red pom poms; and 4in tube of white glue.

Notes: There were no instructions aside from the computer rendered image on the packaging, not that is really needed it. I am fairly certain the pom poms and the glue were not supposed to come with it. I used a different decorating approach with each house. The first one, I decorated everything that looked like it was supposed to be piped on icing with white India ink and I did the dots, hearts, and candy cane striping with a red acrylic paint pen. I filled in the windows using a silver paint pen. And I decided to glue one of the red pom poms on the door knob. It's very sudate, but looks good.

With the second house, I tried to decorate it it more like a kid would using more colors of paint pens and as many stickers as I could fit on there. I had meant to try colored pencils or crayons on this one to see how they did on the bag material the house was made of, but they were not accessible at the time. The white paint pen did not get nearly the amount of coverage the India ink did. The stickers were surprisingly perfectly sized for decorating the house. Usually with these kinds of kits, they are either way too big or too small.

On the third house, I did pretty much the same thing as on the second house, except I stuck with a red and green stripping theme.

All three house came out good. There was exactly enough twine to tie all three houses shut. I have almost all the pom poms and glue leftover and 2 of the bigger stickers. It was a lot of fun. While they are intended to be shelf sitters, they would make good goodies bags.

I originally started this in January, then I restarted it at the beginning of March for National Craft Month and never got a chance to finish. I'm finishing & posting it now, but leaving the old text the same.

Because it is National Craft Month, I am doing a crafting “get to know you” meme. This was originally as a Pick a Number made by Flannelandpurls on Instagram. Because of that, it is pretty knitting oriented.

Snagged from Flannelandpurls on Instagram

1. Advice for beginners
Although I still think of myself as a beginner, (I’ve been knitting just over a year and a half), I think the best advice I can give is to buy tools as you need them. There are a lot of “must get” lists for beginners and honestly, most of them include specialized tools you may never use or items that just don’t suit how you like to do things or fit your storage needs.

My other advice for beginning knitters is to try both circular and straight needles. Knitting with them are vastly different experiences and most people have a preference. Most people also find knitting with circular needles much easier (I do find them hellish and only use them when a project would genuinely work better with them). You won’t know until you try them.

2. Favorite object to knit
Anything I don’t have to sew together later. I don’t mind sewing things together, as such, I just greatly prefer things to be whole already, once I’m done knitting.

3. Other hobbies
I have a lot of hobbies, maybe too many. The ones I am currently most active in are trying every crafting kit I come across in my price range, designing cards, watching horror movies, watching anime, writing, reading fanfics, trying all the board & card games at the library, painting, reading fandom memes, looking at fanart, creating gaming characters, researching whatever pops into my brain, watching video essays, listening to podcasts, listening to music, and I am in 3 book clubs.

4. Current WIP
My current knitting WIP is a set of hats. I’m on the third of three. There is much sewing ahead of me with them. (Since I wrote this, I have finished the knitting part of the hats and moved onto a wingspan shawl.)

5. An inspiring designer
As far as knitting goes, I don't really know any designers, but I've done a few of Nimble Needles patterns for beginners.

6. Best stash yarn
I’m not sure I have a best stash yarn. It’s either my set of “hygge” yarns (SO SOFT), which are for a specific blanket project, but I think I am going to have to order more to actually finish said project as the store I bought them from stopped carrying them, or I have a skein of “bright stripes” variegated yarn in Halloween colors that I have yet to find the right project for. Both are by Red Heart.

7. How you learned to knit
A combination of the Knitting for Dummies book from the library, YouTube videos, and spite.

8. Best knitting tip
Take notes! You think you remember where you are when you get back to your project two days later, but you are wrong. Also, some projects really benefit from marking on your knitting which side you left off on. Needle point covers are your friend.

9. Your “to-knit” list
Considering how I am with any sort of to-do list, you’d think this would be bigger, but the current “to-knit” list is just:
Continue working through the learn to knit projects in the book
The blanket the “hygge” yarn is for
A shawl that is a gift for a friend, but requires the left-over bits from the hat project I am working on before I can start

10. Go-to crafting snack
Decades of paper crafting have hardwired my brain that snacking while crafting is verboten. The oils on your hands can be detrimental to your materials to start with when your hands are clean, not to mention the possible irreversible damage of a food related accident. Knitting materials are obviously more forgiving, but old habits die hard. I do tend to have a drink on hand… way over there from where I am knitting.

11. Favorite make to-date
A massive shawl that reminds me of owl wings that required learning to do a lace knitting technique with bulky yarn and a baby blanket, who’s pattern I had to design myself. It took much trial and error and came out beautifully, but unfortunately, I was unable to give it to the intended recipient.

12. A knitting pet peeve
When the yarn knots in the middle of the skin while you are pulling. When a skein doesn't have a center pull.

13. Your yarn storage
My yarn is split between a cardboard banking box and an unusual plastic storage container from the thrift store free bin. There is also somewhat liberal use of 2 gallon storage bags with in those boxes as moisture is the enemy. (This has somewhat changed, as I was gifted a larger plastic storage tote with lid to put everything in since I wrote this.)

14. Inspiring IG accounts
Crafting/Art wise:
flannelandpurls
ribblr_it
knot.bad
studiosprout
mp3.rave
bubble.ow0
altknots
andrea.nelson.art
mx.domestic
katieabey
rebelunicorncrafts
mister.larrie
silver_rox

There are a lot more, but this list is getting really long. Two people I want to mention that I can't find their names are the person crocheting an orgasm blanket, I am weirdly invested, and an art challenge account that signal boosts art challenges and prompt lists on Instagram.

15. A fun fact about you
I always hate this question.

16. Your project bag
Years ago, my mother picked up a Lions brand knitting bag when she was snatching up every reusable shopping bag she came across at garage sales, so when I started knitting she just pulled it out and gave it to me. It’s been quite handy, though I could use some better storage for notions within the bag. It’s a large heavy-duty green tote with a few specialized pockets.

17. Favorite fiber to knit
My budget (and local availability) has not allowed me to explore beyond acrylic blends so, I can’t really answer that question.

18. Dream holiday location
The first 3 that come to mind are Svalbard or Japan or Disney World (This is more about eating and attractions, and less about rides).

19. Skill you want to learn
There are so many, but I'd really love to improve my clothing sewing and prop making. (Which is multiple skills technically)

20. Biggest knitting ick
I haven’t really been knitting long enough to have one.

Snagged from Flannelandpurls on Instagram <b>1. Advice for beginners</b> <b>2. Favorite object to knit</b> <b>3. Other hobbies</b> <b>4. Current WIP</b> <b>5. An inspiring designer </b> <b>6. Best stash yarn</b> <b>7. How you learned to knit</b> <b>8. Best knitting tip</b> <b>9. Your “to-knit” list</b> <b>10. Go-to crafting snack</b> <b>11. Favorite make to-date</b> <b>12. A knitting pet peeve</b> <b>13. Your yarn storage</b> <b>14. Inspiring IG accounts</b> <b>15. A fun fact about you</b> <b>16. Your project bag</b> <b>17. Favorite fiber to knit</b> <b>18. Dream holiday location</b> <b>19. Skill you want to learn</b> <b>20. Biggest knitting ick</b>

Challenge #2

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year.

My goals for the year are still in the nebulous, "well, this is kinda what I'd like to do," stage and haven't been fleshed out into real, actionable goals yet.

I have been thinking about them a lot, it is the season, but also several comms I'm in have had their goals for the year check in posts, and I set up my new bullet journal pages and my planner for the year. Based on those things, my goals will look something like this:

I rambled a bit, so it's under a cut.

( Read more... )

Today is the first day of National Craft Month, National Pig Day, National Peanut Butter Lover's Day, and Jensen Ackles' birthday.

There is a bad idea waiting to happen hiding in there somewhere.

May pigsperation find you.

#NationalCraftMonth #NationalPeanutButterLoversDay