messin' around with Kaleidoscope Kreator

I purchased Kaleidoscope Kreater from Ghee's with the intention of taking some family photos, converting them to kaleidoscopes, and then printing them on fabric. But, impatient person that I am, decided to just try it out with some photos that I snagged off the 'web'. Here is the original photo from oldhousegardens.com and a few of my kaleidoscope images made with that photo.

Wooly Thoughts

So, I haven't posted in a while, but not because I haven't been knitting. Actually I've been knitting and sewing. I'm just hesitant to continue to post UFO's. I need to make this weekend a 'finish weekend'. However I'm posting my work in progress for the Wooly Thoughts Cushion conglomeration Caper. Wooly Thoughts is a Yahoo group that I belong to, and we're doing a knit-a-long so-to-speak. The idea is to create a cushion cover approximately 18" square by making squares, triangles, etc with either 45, 90 or 135 degree angles. I was asked to design shape #3 which is the parallelogram...seen here attached to the square which was knit side-ways and the triangle. It's a true test of my math skills. The other challenge has been in picking up stitches which I've had to do each time I've added a shape. It's giving me great practice in this somewhat intimidating knitting skill. Upon looking at the shape as it is now, I realize that at some point I will have to do short rows...however, I've had lots of practice with that while knitting up some 30 lizard ridge afghan squares.

Stars & Stripes (partially completed)

Here are the before and after photos of "Stars & Stripes". This pattern was designed by Terry Ross and is being shared with members of the Bag-A-Holic yahoo group of which I am a member.

The larger bag was made according to pattern directions, doubled yarn. The smaller bag was made with smaller needles and the yarn was not doubled. I think it will make a nice coin/make-up purse to go in the larger bag...I may even attempt a lining and zipper. It's a darn good thing that this purse was felted, because the pattern called for a crochet edge...I CAN NOT crochet..however, I don't think I did such a bad job at the attempt to do a single crochet edge. I'm so glad I caught an episode of Knitty Gritty where someone was putting a crochet edge on a pillow...from watching that I figured out how to hold the yarn and the hook, and how many times to pull the yarn through. It worked.

You'll see a bit of the white showing through the red on the edges....I carried my yarn up the side as I knit when I changed colors...it isn't too obvious after the bag was felted, but I'm wondering how to correct this for a future project.

In the second photo I have some of the supplies that I will be using to embellish the bag. I think I will put the white star buttons on the small bag, and then attempt to make some polymer clay stars for the larger bag (as per Terry's instructions). Terry said 'it's easy', so if it's true, I've learned 2 things this week...simple crochet edge and how to handle polymer! Thanks Terry! Terry used a tieback cord for her handle, but I wasn't able to find anything suitable in craft world (my upstairs office), however I did find some long red shoelaces that match perfectly color-wise, so I may braid them for the handle...hope to post the finished photos in a few days!

Happy Fourth of July!

Yeah...It's MY birthday!

Here are a few birthday photos! I'm 46 today......