Two bears are currently looking for new homes and are posted on an online handmade webstore called “Etsy”.

These bears may be seen on my etsy page.

Using the same pattern and same needle size but adding a strand of eyelash yarn to one here is what I came up with.

Despite the fact the bears are knitted, you will notice this one is doing come crochet. I think she is planning to make clothes for her buddy 

Hubby tells me both styles of bear have their place, but I am partial to the furry ones.

So, tell me, which do you prefer?

I have a bad case of KCADD (knit crochet attention deficit disorder). So when this is at its worse I pull out my craft supplies to sort them and put into an organized fashion but end up taking a handful of things to my favorite chair and getting started on yet another project.

It sounds bad, but I have completed , yes I said completed, a few more projects! (I won’t mention the ones I did not complete)

These teddy bears got lovely sweaters and hats to keep them warm.

This infant sweater is ready to go.

This infant sweater and hat make a lovely set.

Cabbage Patch (I crocheted the doll about 25 years ago) got a new hat.

My sister-in-law is getting a couple of new dishcloths,

and you already saw in a previous posting, my granddaughter has a new castle tote with finger puppets: knight, princess and dragon.  I am starting on more of these.

and now, back to my regularly scheduled organization party.  Wonder what will come out of this attempt

I pull out everything so I can sort them into smaller groups, then eliminate from there.

Instead I pull out everything and get excited over what I found and start another project!

Here are a couple of things that I’ve done with the stash.

This baby afghan, sweater, hat and booties used up some of it. I added a strand of Yarn Bee “peach fuzz” to the blanket. It is extra soft.  I don’t have any babies to try the outfit on.

I am trying to dress this bear to resemble Betty Boop.

Made the roll brim hat for a little girl, then modified it to make a matching one for the teddy bear. The pattern for the child’s roll brim may be found at online at Suzies Stuff.

Crocheted myself a mop rag for my Swifter Mop. Hmm, maybe I need to use it today.

And now….. back to my irregularly schedule organization party.

Thanks for looking.

Some favorite FREE sites I check daily and save interesting patterns include:

Free-Crochet dot com

Free-KnitPatterns dot com

FreePatterns dot com

You can also check these yarn companies:

LionBrand dot com

RedHeart dot com

Bernat dot com

PatonsYarns dot com

If you are looking for charities to knit/crochet for the yarn companies have links on their website.

Many patterns are out there waiting to be made by you.  It’s time to get started.

I crocheted her hair first using a loop stitch. That didn’t work so I tried freeforming a flat piece, and then made long needlepoint type stitches. I added a few loops for spit curls.

Her dress is knitted and the garter belt is crocheted.  I am working on some white panties now.

After several tries, I came up with this.

What do you think?  Am I getting close ?  What would you change?

How to Decorate a Gift With Plastic Straws

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit
This beautiful gift decoration is made from plastic straws and water resistant tape. Unlike ordinary ribbons, this can be reused and it’s also great to decorate floral gifts.

Steps

1. Wrap water resistant tape around a straw. A right-handed person winds in the opposite direction.
2. Finish winding just before the bellows (the accordion-like, bendy part of the straw) and cut the tape.
3. Cut between the windings.
4. Cut the tape in half.
5. Make 2 or 3 more straws.
6. Cut fringe in the other end. (Take care not to cut it off completely.)
7. Curl the fringe with a fingernail.
8. Attach the decoration to the gift.
9. Cut it to fit the size of the gift.

Tips

Variations

• Carefully wind the tape in one direction, so that each stripe is parallel. Also, when cutting, cut carefully in the middle all the way through. Otherwise, when the tape is wound in different directions, it doesn’t split beautifully.

Things You’ll Need

• gift box or bag
• ribbon
• flex straw.
• thin metallic-color tape
• pair of scissors
• adhesive tape

Related wikiHows

• Make Hearts from Plastic Straws
• Make a Flower from Plastic Straws
• Make a Bird out of a Plastic Straw

Sources and Citations

• http://www.geocities.jp/min_pda/ – Original source, shared with permission.
• http://kitchenplasticarts.blogspot.com – Original source, shared with permission.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Decorate a Gift With Plastic Straws. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Just Completed:

I created a “Salvation Colors Lapghan” in Knit and in Crochet to use with my Knitting Bible Study this fall.  I now have to write out the patterns.

I started making stocking from Lion Brand Holiday Homespun to fill for the younger family members. One down, seven more to go.

To ADD to my list of projects:

NCIS character Abby doll. She is just adoreable. I am wondering about modifying the clothing, hair and features to make the rest of the team.  The pattern is offered by A-Crochet-Ninja and can be found at http://wists.com/kewlmomma/839ba798539d55c02249786b5e2e3196?offset=0

A cupcake scarf might be enjoyed by my niece.  http://www.craftbits.com/project/scarf-sweet-cupcakes

With everyone “going green” these days perhaps the Tuck Away Tote might make good gifts.

http://www.crochet-world.com/newsletters/talkingcrochet/pages/TCNL3008_patt2.html

One young niece is a Sponge Bob fan, so perhaps this purse ?

http://thecrochetcradle.com/free_purse_pattern_pdf.pdf

Unfinished and in process:

I found an old cabbage patch doll while cleaning out boxes and decided she needs a whole new wardrobe, so I am holding her in my lap and trying to crochet/knit clothing to fit.

I have started several totes and don’t like any of them.

Need to finish more Swifter covers for my Swifter Duster and my Swifter WetJet.

SO………

that is just the beginning. I am trying to organize all the patterns I have printed out to make. So far I have 5 binders filled and another stack ready to add. I guess I need to stop writing for a bit and get busy.

Solution? Add a zipper.  Check out the process used at Creative Knitting.

Click to view article.

On a personal note, I am still too frightened of unraveling the whole thing to try this myself, but I have seen so many articles on making it work I may have to put this on my “Try It Out” list.

(Click here for a PDF version of this post)

First I created a Digital Pattern File in WORD to access. Open and save my version to your computer or create one for yourself. Here is how I created mine:

1. Set the margins to .5” all the way around. This is my preference, I then place printed patterns in a plastic sheet protector.
2. Create a footer. To be sure I add the footer I create one I will overwrite with the words reminding me to add the website where the pattern was found and I also set my preferred pagination “Page # of # ”
3. Create an insert point for the document. I made a reference which I will overwrite when I paste the new information.
4. Save the file as a template or another document.

Now to begin the process and use this template.

1. Open the online printable version of the pattern.
2. With your mouse, highlight the entire pattern. This can be done 2 ways:  1. Click CONTROL plus the A key at the same time OR
   2. Place the mouse at the beginning at the pattern and holding down the Left Mouse Button move to the end of the pattern. Release the mouse button, click CONTROL plus the A key at the same time.
   Click CONTROL plus the C key at the same time. This copies the highlighted information to the computers clipboard.
3. Open the Digital Pattern Template.
4. Find the insertion point at the beginning of the document and press CTRL and V at the same time. This will paste the information from your clipboard to the document.
5. Go back to the document and highlight (CTRL+A) and copy (CTRL+C) the webpage.
6. Return to the document. Select “insert” and “footer” and “edit footer”.
   Highlight the note to insert the web info and paste (CTRL+V) the webpage address.  If necessary, space to move the page numbering over.
7. Close the footer.
8. Look over your pattern. Did any pictures not paste that were on the page? Go back to the webpage, right click on the picture, select copy, return to document, find the position and paste. You may set the location and text wrapping my clicking on the picture and utilizing the picture format feature. I like to use right top align with text. This then allows me to move the picture down a little if desired.
9. Look over the pattern. Add/remove line spacing or change text size as desired. I do this to cut down the number of pages to the best possible. Example 1: if only 3 lines extend onto page 3, I will try to cut blank lines to make it 2 pages. Example 2: if direction for a row are split on two pages I will adjust so they are one page by adding or deleting blank lines. This allows me to read an entire row without page flipping.
10. When complete, save the file as you desire. I have the PDF add-in for Word 2007 so I save my completed file as PDF.

NOTE: PLEASE HONOR COPYRIGHT ON ALL PATTERNS. BE SURE TO INCLUDE THIS INFORMATION ON YOUR PATTERN.