vintage craft: knitting tools

Today I have some new (old?) vintage goodies to share with you. This box came home from my grandma's house sometime last fall. I remember looking at it then, but I put it in my cabinet and forgot what was inside.

So I pulled it out to see what was inside.

Wow! Lots of stuff...all good for knitting fun!

Plenty of aluminum needles. Bamboo is my favorite, but I also enjoy using this kind.

I've never actually knit with these plastic needles, but I do love what some people have done with them. Perhaps I'll get up the nerve to try melting one? Although, I'm not sure that these are the same type of plastic.

A few circular needles.

Odds and ends...more than I think I would ever need, given my very modest knitting abilities.

And then, what are these? Why is there a screw in the scissors? And what is this little aluminum thing with the point? If you are familiar with either of these items, I'd love to hear more.

Clearly, many of these items are new (yay for vintage packaging!), but for the rest of them, I love that they were used by my grandma. History always beats out new with this sort of thing, don't you think?

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And a quick announcement! The winner of the Ooh Leela giveaway is a2+w (Spazzy McGillicutty?)! Email me so that we can get you your $10 shop credit!

desktop: the musicians of bremen

We are at the door of February. Yikes.

I cannot even begin to tell you how difficult it was to choose a story for this month. I kept thinking that it needed to be a love story, but nothing was really grabbing me. Liz suggested that I should do the Musicians of Bremen, and it was already one that I kept coming back to. And so, who needs a love story in February?! In some way, I suppose those dear animals probably loved each other like a family, so it works.

More about this story later, but for now, you can download the desktop calendar! It's a PNG that is extra large to fit any size monitor. Just set your background to fit it to screen.

words with friends

I am not a texter. I don't have texting on my phone plan, and I'm good with that. The constant back and forth, and the reliance on it makes me a little crazy. And yet, I've found my own version.

Words with Friends.

The same person that got me to sign up for Facebook (rada, rada, grr...), also got me hooked on this Scrabble-like game. I play it on my iPod Touch, and every time that I hear it's little tone or see my screen light up, I must check for the next play. It's like texting with limited characters and real words, and I love it.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

giveaway: Ooh Leela gift certificate

Happy Friday, Friends! My lovely sponsor, Isabela from Ooh Leela, has a giveaway for you! When Isabela's not accounting for things (her day job!), she loves crafting, and has a little Etsy shop where she sells the kitchenware that she sews up. Today, she's offering a $10 gift certificate to her shop.

To enter to win, go Like her page on Facebook, then come back and leave a comment. We'll leave the giveaway open until Monday at noon, when I'll choose a random winner.

Good luck!

keeping embroidery close to my heart

The other day on Annakata, she posted pictures of some beautiful lockets. Some she made, some were made by others. But as soon as I saw them I knew that I would be making one for myself. So I ordered some lockets from BrassGoldBeads, then picked up some chain at JoAnn (don't you just love the peacock-colored one?).

The embroideries are just free-stitched, and glued in place with a bit of E6000 adhesive, and instead of using jump rings, I attached the lockets with embroidery floss. It's softer, and adds a bit of color.


This larger one I made for my sister. She's big on big pendants. And leaves and trees.

These are seriously easy to make, and they are a really fun way to wear your love of embroidery. I still have three empty lockets left, and I can't wait to try more teeny designs!

the story of: goldilocks and the three bears puppets

It took me long enough, but finally, finally, I have the first puppet workshop to go with our year of stories! This is a really simple one, but simple is good to start with right?

To go along with the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I made some mitten puppets! You may remember that I was in a mood not too long ago because I couldn't find any, but my sister came to the rescue! She dug around and found an old pair, and now they have a new life as puppets. (If you can't find mittens, fear not...you can make some mitts out of felt.)

Two mittens work for all four characters; you just turn them around! They are oh so fun, and I'm seriously wanting to wear them as mittens just so that people ask me about them. Silly, I know.

The project patterns and all instructions are packaged up in one easy-to-download-and print PDF. And if you make some mitten puppets, I'd love to see them! Post a link to your post in the comments, or add photos to the Wild Olive Flickr pool.

yay!

I'm about to share something with you that is potentially embarrassing. But this is a personal blog, so I feel that sharing this personal thing about me is good. Nay, necessary.

Frequently, I use the word "yay" in my online writings. In comments, emails, status updates, and blog posts. And while it may seem like I'm just saying "Yay!", there's more going on in my head.

When I type "Yay!", I picture Kermit the Frog. I hear him saying, "Yaaaaaayyyyy!" and waving his arms all over the place like crazy. Recently I described this to my sister, but it required more than words, so I did a little impression. I didn't see it, but I can only imagine what I looked like. And now it has become a thing. A scary thing that makes her laugh every time.

I fear that videotaping me doing this impression would kill my readership (I'd like you to have at least a little respect for me), so you just have to know that when I say, "Yay!", I really am quite excited. Really.

Yay!

guest post: andee's penguin

Are you ready for another fun guest post? This time we have my sweet sponsor, Andee. We've done a bit of a tutorial swap, each using our own skills and trying some new things too...


Hi there! It's Andee from Bearing Fruit. I am so excited to be visiting here at Wild Olive. A few weeks back, Mollie + I were scheming a project idea. We decided to each make a penguin softie and post on each other's blogs. Fun, right? Well the fun was just starting for me. I have never made a softie. So this whole thing was an adventure. Join me!

Some thoughts before you begin: Try something new! When choosing main fabric color, your penguin doesn't have to be black. As long as the body shape is consistent to example below, wings are in place + the tummy is white, it'll look
nice and penguin-ey. I went with pink scraps from a super soft t-shirt that I cut up for another project. With the super soft material, I got to thinking that this would make a great baby's first softie.

Sweet Cuddly Penguin
Here's what you'll need:
fabric in your choice of color
fabric or felt scraps for eyes, beak + eye whites (dark grey, yellow, white)
thread to match your main penguin color
thread to match your eyes + beak colors
thread or embroidery floss to match the white of his tummy
stuffing

I did this one without a pattern. Most shapes are based on a "U" shape, so they're really easy to cut out
For penguin body:
1. Fold fabric in half or double up.
2. Cut body "U" shape
(my "U' shape is 4 1/2 inches along the straight edge and 4 1/2 inches high)

For wings:
1. Fold fabric in half or double up
2. Cut two narrow half moon shapes. From the fold, cut an arc shape.

For tummy:
1. Cut a "U" shape out of the white felt
( my "U" shape is 2 1/2 inches along the straight edge and 2 1/2 inches high)

For penguin beak + feet:
1. Fold your yellow felt or fabric in half.
2. Cut a "U" shape

3. Open up your shape.
4. Trace your shape two times onto yellow fabric or felt

5. Cut each shape
For eyes:
1. From your dark grey felt, cut two circles
2. Optional: From your white felt, cut two crescent shapes, making sure that the inner curve of the shape will round out well over the dark grey felt

This is a great time to put together his face. I made the mistake of
doing this part after he was sewn and stuffed. Oops. I will give you
directions below in the order I *wish* I would have done it!

Hand sew the following:
Make beak + feet
1. fold your shapes in half.
2. stuff + hand sew closed

Eyes
1. Place your eye circles on the penguin's face.
2. Hand sew in place
3. If you are using the crescent shapes around his eyes, hand sew them in place

Beak
1. Place beak between eyes.
2. hand sew in place

Tummy
1. Place tummy just below beak.
2. Hand sew in place. I tacked mine down along the edge. with
embroidery floss. I like the finished look of that floss. Using
either floss or thread will work great though!

Start machine sewing (All seam allowances are a minimum. I used the edge of my presser foot for the straight edge. I think that this is about 1/8 in.)

Body
1. Put fabric of penguin body right sides together
2. Sew your body shape around the curve, using presser foot for straight edge
3. Leave the flat bottom open for stuffing
4. Stuff body

5. Turn open edge under
6. Hand sew closed
5. Hand sew feet to body.

Wings
1. Put right sides together
2. Sew most of the arc shape, leaving a 1 1/2 inch opening for stuffing
3. Turn right sides out.
4. Lightly stuff wings.
5. Turn open edge under
6. Hand sew closed.

Attach wings to body

1. Tuck upper right edge in, creating a curve on one side

2. Pin in place, I used the eyes as a guide for height of the top of wing.

3. Hand sew wings to body


Ta-da! Your penquin cutie is complete.

Thanks, Andee! I do love your pink penguin (and of course, your use of the sewing machine on something other than straight stitching...I'm still working on that). Now, here's a peek at the little penguin that I made:

It's all stitched by hand, but I tried something new for me: a weighted bottom! To learn how I made mine, and to get the pattern, head on over to Andee's blog.

february sponsorship

In just a week it will be February? Amazing. I almost hate to point it out , but it does mean that February sponsorship is open (at least a few spots). Many of my current sponsors will be back again, but I'd love to have you and your blog join us!

Here's what's available:

$20 per month (1 ad available, no back to back months)

$6 per month or 3 months for $15 (5 ads available)

In addition to the ads in the sidebar, sponsors are also featured in posts during the month. Each sponsor gets a welcome post, as well as a group sponsor post. Sometimes we mix it up a little with questions, guest posts, giveaways or more.

For detailed information on my stats, or to schedule sponsorship for February, send me an email (molliejohanson {at} gmail {dot} com).

everything's coming up hearts

Remember these hearts that I made for our Christmas tree? Well Stacey has taken this heart shape and made it into a paper chain garland. So sweet!

I'm really starting to get excited about Valentine's Day. In February I have plans for a whole week of love here on the blog, but I don't want to rush it...too much.

good to great: a new feature

Two new features in one week? And after I wasn't sure that I should have them at all? Crazy. Today I'm introducing an idea that has been growing and expanding and if I'm not careful, it could get huge. It's a personal challenge, and one that I think a lot of you will find helpful too. The idea is simple: Go from good to great.

When something is good, it's easy to leave it that way and accept that it is good. That's enough. And good can mean different things for different people. But even good can be improved upon. Great is possible. (And yes, eventually great may become good, and you can make it better still.) I'm not an expert on making things great, but I do settle for good enough far too often, so that counts for something.

One of my 2011 goals is to organize this blog. I've realized that there needs to be more to making that happen, and visually, I need to keep the place tidy for it to be organized.

Full disclosure: It's very easy for me to see what other blogs are doing and think that I should be like them. But I shouldn't. I should be me, and I'm good with that. But sometimes seeing what others do can get you thinking about your own style, right?

Anyway, as a first step in visually tidying the blog, I moved a few things around. I also removed a few things, which will (hopefully soon!) find their way onto separate pages. I found this video tutorial to be especially helpful when thinking about the layout and open space. It's not quite the great that I'm looking for, but already I'm liking the openness. I feel like it is more me, and definitely easier to take in the content that is here.

How about you? What are you ready to take from good to great?

guest post: sleep mask from tara

Today I'm so very happy to have Tara from Sew Tara guest posting with a super cute tutorial. Three things: First, Tara themed her project to go with this month's story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and even found fabric to coordinate. Second, it uses scraps from your stash. Third, she has an awesome scrap swap going (more info at the end of this post). Now, here's Tara!


Sometimes we all need a little nap and this sleep mask will help you have a restful slumber. All while looking pretty stinking cute!

My husband and I take turns having a 'sleep in day' on the weekends. I have to tell you I count down to that day every week. I started to use a sleep mask to maximize my sleeping in experience. It was just a silly freebie one from one of our airplane trips and I've already had to repair it a few times so I decided to just make a much lovelier one.

Here's what you'll need for this DIY project:
- sleepmask template
- batting or fleece
- fabric for the backing (something you won't mind against your skin while sleeping)
- fabric scraps at least 4 inches in height
- 16 inch piece of elastic
- usual sewing items, thread, machine, scissors
- embroidery floss and needle (optional)

I manged to find some Goldilocks and Three Bears fabric in my stash so I was a bit fussy with the placement of the pattern.

We're going to use quilting techniques to piece the scraps together. Think about how you'll want your pieces positioned if you have a particular pattern you want to highlight and place the next print at the edge of the first print with right sides together. Sew down the edge, seam allowance isn't really that important just make sure you have a straight stitch. My Goldilocks print was uneven so I lined up the brown swirly print to create a straight edge.

Add the next fabric print just like you did before. Right sides together and sew down in a straight line. Continue attaching pieces of fabric until you have a piece that measures at least 8 x 5. My last piece is lower because I was lining up the print in a certain way. Plus this way I'll still have some usable scraps left over!

Now take your printed template and trace the mask outline onto your little quilted bits.

Cut along the outline. Lay your cutout right side up on top of your batting. It's not important to trim it down just yet, we'll do that in a few steps. Add some stitches just to the right and left of your seams. This is a fun little decorative detail and will help hold the inner batting in place. I stuck with my cream coloured thread but you could use matching thread, or something crazy and contrasting.

I decided to get even more creative and stitched 'Shh!' onto my mask. If you'd like to add any embroidery stitches to your mask do it now. Draw on the design with a water soluble or disappearing fabric marker. Stitch through the 2 layers.

Now trace the template onto your backing fabric. Cut it out. Place your quilted fabric with the batting side on your work surface. Next put the elastic piece down with about 1/2 inch sticking out over the edge of the mask cutouts. Place the backing piece on top right side down. The elastic will be sandwiched between the 2 pieces of fabric. Pin the elastic ends in place. Make sure the pin is going through all the layers.

With the wrong side of the backing facing you sew around the entire mask outline with a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Backstitch over the elastic bits for some extra stability. Leave an opening about 1 inch in length for turning. Trim the excess batting away. I usually make sure to leave a little bit at the opening just to make sure it will close when topstitching. You should be left with something like this. Make sure the elastic wasn't caught up in any of the stitching.

Turn the mask right side out. Use something pokey to make sure it's pushed out all along the edges, I use a chopstick.

Once it's all turned out you can give it a quick press to get the edges all nice and flat. Then topstitch all around the entire mask fairyly close to the edge with an even border. Again, make sure you aren't catching the elastic while stitching.

And you're done! Enjoy the many extra hours of sleep protected from the sun's evil "I'm here to wake you up!" rays.

It's really hard to take a picture of yourself pretend sleeping, but that's authentic bedhead and sleepiness. Sadly, the sleep mask won't stop your children from jumping on you and waking you up.

Thank you so much for putting this together, Tara! Now, about Tara's scrap swap. If you have lots of scraps around and you'd like to refresh the fabrics that are in that stash (think new inspiration for new projects!), you'll wan to check this out. Head over to Tara's blog for more info, and where you can sign up until January 26th. This sleep mask is just one of the pieces that Tara has been cooking up using small pieces of fabric, so keep an eye out (you know, when you aren't using this sweet mask)!