Tiny Origami Books!

Only a bit over 1.5 inches tall. Oh I love them!

I learned to fold them on Youtube and they are so easy! Having no large origami paper, I printed out a page of lovely paper from here and cut it to 8" square. It took a few tries to figure out how to make the pattern on the cover fall the right way, but the result is adorable.

Hum, what could I do with this?

Pollen, Pollen, everywhere

This picture does not do justice to the horror of spring in the south.

My head hurts so much.

Dear Scarlett,

You like her, she's yours. I took one last picture with her Mum and Dad. She's half Chinese Fireball, half Welsh Green, but she takes after her Dad.

I'd be glad to send her to you, as soon as I rescue her from Kitty. Bad Kitty!

I've made this dragon many times over the years. The pattern can be found on page 31 in Mythical Beings by Jan Ansill.

You can find some wonderful origami dragons here, with references on where to find the diagrams. There is a diagram for a very similar dragon here. Just scroll down to the Rearing Dragon. I just love the wings.

A few years ago, my daughters school was having an international day. The whole school spent the day studying Japan and I was asked to demonstrate Origami to kindergartners through 8Th grade. I made as many models as I could, easy to intermediate, and all sizes. I held up each one and let the students tell me what they thought each model was. They had a lot of fun trying to guess the abstract ones and loved the more detailed models. The biggest hit was the dragon. I made a little one from a sheet of origami paper and a big one from a sheet of wrapping paper. Everyone wanted to make the dragon. Unfortunately, we only had time to make fish. But they were good fish, goldfish actually.

I'll post some more models, when I get them away from the cat.

Hum, what to do?

The April Craft Challenge on Harry Potter Crafts has started:

"Oh no! You dropped one of your favorite things into your cauldron of Shrinking Solution!"

Miniatures! Yes! Oh, I just love it!

But, I can't decide what to enter.

This was my first idea: Tiny origami dragon, pictured with it's most obvious decendent, the wind up mechanical chicken.






She is quite wee.







I am now blind.

The problem: Libbie has already entered the sweetest little crocheted dragon. Off the cuteness scale. Tiny origami cannot compete.

Must think of something else. Hum...

Why Penguins Waddle

Make your own!

K had so much fun wearing her Doctor Who T-shirt, she wanted to share. Just download the graphic below, find a t-shirt and some T-shirt transfer paper and off you go!

We would love to see any shirts you make! Send us a link!

Have fun !

Hogwarts Fingerless Mittens

I found the pattern!

After much searching, I finally found the base pattern I used for my Hogwarts fingerless mittens. It can be found here. Basically, you want a fingerless mitten pattern with stockinette stitch covering the back of your hand. Although I haven't tried it, this pattern looks like it would work really well also, maybe even better.

Knit the fingerless mittens in the base house color. I used Red Heart Claret for Gryffindor. Then use duplicate stitch to add the crest in Red Heart Gold. Here is the pattern I used

The toughest part was centering the crest on the back of the mitten. I remember marking and counting out from the center many times till I got the placement right. Oh and I remember having to be careful with my tension in the duplicate stitch. Too tight and it puckered, too loose and it looked funny.

There you go. Have fun and I would love to see the finished products!

Potter Puppet Pal Pysanky

Happy Easter!

That was quick!

I emailed the tvparty.com site yesterday offering my pictures. Last night I got a response, "Yes, Please!" I sent a short note and scans of my pictures this morning, and this afternoon, there they are. Wow.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

K and her class celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday with a bit of poetry.

43 inches down. Only 149 to go!

My camera is very cheap and the colors are way off. I'll try to get a better picture next time.

Oh my, could that be me?

-

I found this picture here this morning, and I'm pretty sure that's me on the left.

When I was about 5, I was a guest on Romper Room in Pittsburgh. The show was hosted by the lovely Ms. Jan. It was very long ago and I don't remember being on the show, but I still remember her face and still have the nicest feeling when I see her picture.

I have been told, over and over, that I was "So Funny" when I was on the show. That's me on the left.

I get the feeling, Ms. Jan kept me right where she could keep an eye on me. Yup, that's me in the yellow dress.

I think I visited the set of Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood while filming Romper Room. I couldn't find it, but I also have a picture of myself with Mr. McFeely. I'm told I was shy of Mr. Rodgers, but I liked Mr. McFeely and he took me to visit the Land of Make Believe. When we got there, Mr. McFeely introduced me to Owl and we got on like a house a fire. We talked and talked.

It wasn't till years later that I realized it was Mr. Rodgers in the tree.

When I was a little older, we moved into Mr. Rodgers neighborhood. We didn't know until after we had lived there a while. I trick or treated at his house once dressed as Princess Leia. He was very nice. I think he gave out Snickers bars, the big ones.

Years later, I stood in front of his house and sang "We are the people in your neighborhood." It was a college thing. He didn't call the police. Nice man.

Peter Davison is K's Doctor too!

K designed a T-shirt last night.

"Look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable!"

Maybe three people will get it. She doesn't care. That's my girl.

Cats Do However Like Pygmy Puffs.

Cat's Do Not Like To Wear Scarves.

Playing with scarves, big time fun. Wearing scarves, not fun.

This is K's Gryffindor Roll Like a Scroll Scarf. She made up this pattern for her first try at our nifty Bond Fashion Knitter. She used Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Claret and Gold and put 20 needles in the bed. She cast on so that the edge would be stretchy, I think it's called a provisional cast on.

1) Knit 20 rows in Claret.

2) Knit 6 rows in Gold.

3) Repeat steps 1 and 2 until she had 7 more claret and 7 more gold.

4) Knit 20 more rows of Claret.

Add Fringe to ends: 4 10” strands of yarn per fringe. Make 6 claret and 5 gold, placing the claret on the outer edges and one in the very middle and evenly spacing the rest of the claret and the gold in between.

The Fashion Knitter is a one trick pony, it makes stockinette stitch. So the scarf will roll up like a very long scroll . K loved this effect and thought it was very appropriate for a Harry Potter scarf. The finished scarf, with fringe, is about 2 inches wide when rolled and 60 inches long.

If you would like to knit K's scarf by hand, just knit the first row and purl the second, and so on, changing color as indicated above. The gauge turned out to be 4 stitches/inch and 4 rows/inch.

Hogwart's Robe

I made K's House robes last summer for the book release. She was went as Tough Ginny Weasley. She looked great and played the part to a T. I started with Simplicity 4462.

The robe in this pattern is the correct basic shape, though a few modifications were needed. The body needed more fullness and less length. The sleeves were way too pointy and the hood not pointy enough. I found some very good drawings of the final shape of the hood and sleeves here. I used a black peach skinish material which hangs nicely and has a great feel. The robe is fully lined and has a wand pocket hidden inside.

K went to a book release party with a friend of hers and they were the cutest things. While waiting in line to get into the party, I watched a reporter from a local station scanning the line. He stopped dead when he saw K and her friend. They charmed the mic right out of his hand and were featured on the news that night and the next day. They had so much fun!

Fringe Finished!

Something to go with our scarves.

I made these a few years ago. I think I found the pattern on Harry Potter Crafts. I'll look and see if I can find a link.

Penguins Love Valentines!

K wanted to make her own Valentine's this year. She is penguin crazy, so...

Gryffindor!

Mine still needs some fringe.