buzzville

Catching up...

Geesh - it's been an incredibly long time since I've been able to sit down a write a post. Things over at superbuzzy are literally buzzing, and it's been keeping us on our toes. We completed a major upgrade to the site last weekend, and we now accept Paypal! More new things are in the works for the shop, and we're getting stuff done as quickly as our 2-woman show can!

I was so excited to see everyone's valentine's day crafts and activities. For the first time this year, we had a preschool party to prepare for. There's nothing quite as cute as a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds passing out valentines to their classmates. I think that the day is much more fun now that we can celebrate with Brynne. Just look at these cuties!

I finally got my crochet hook out again and made this little cutie for my sweetie:

 

He came complete with a vintage "jump hour" watch around his waist as a gift for my valentine. I snatched up the pattern for this cute bear from anapaulaoli, and the pattern worked out perfectly. He has a female counterpart, so I need to find some time to make her as well... Check out all of her great patterns and finished amigurumi!

I made a trip down to Los Angeles to meet with a superbuzzy distributor (more great fabric coming soon!), and Brynne came along with me for the first time. After our meeting, I made my traditional stop at the Torrance Mitsuwa for lunch, and Brynne was thrilled to have her own child's bento, complete with Miffy plate!

Yes, life is definitely better with Miffy and jello!

Otherwise, life goes on as usual, just a bit more hectic! The balance in my life has completely disappeared, but a possible solution may be on the horizon. Change is a bit scary, but I'm gearing up to make a big leap... wish me luck!

are you happily hooking?!?

I finally received my pre-ordered copy of Debbie Stoller's The Happy Hooker. I've seen some other posts wondering about the book, so I thought I'd post some pictures of a few of the projects in case you're on the fence about picking up a copy. In all, the book features 40 original patterns and also includes almost 100 pages of how-to. It's set up much like Stitch 'N Bitch, with lots of pictures and schematics to help you with the projects.

Here are some of my favorite projects from the book, based on a very quick perusal last night. We don't currently have a scanner available, so apologies in advance for the pictures - some glare was inevitable!

of course, the amazing Camilla's softie patterns!

love this handbag with the orange (right in line with Lisa's post today) by Sarah Davis!

really cute bolero by Angela "La Vonne" Best

I haven't tried crocheting jewelry yet, but I've always wanted to... this is a beautiful set by Laila Korn.

This little cap sleeve top is so cute - complete with ribbon embellishment! Pattern by Laura-Jean Bernhardson.

For a crocheted garment, this little retro jacket looks really well fitted... I think I need to try this one out! Pattern by Fay Lin.

For those of us who just can't get enough of sock monkeys, Carmen Watkins created this incredible baby hat and afghan pattern. Hmmmm, so many cute babies out there right now who just *need* this set!

I'd love to hear about it if you've already started (or even finished!) any of the projects in the book, or if you're planning on it... I'm still madly knitting away on the sweater for my class, but I bet I'll pick up the hook for one of these once I've fininished my sweater!

Trick or Treat!

26 days to Halloween and I've finished my first project! I decided to make this Trick or Treat bag for Brynne that will hopefully last for a couple of years. I used a pattern from the October 2005 issue of Crochet World, but modified the facial features and added the lining. Here is the outside:

and here is a view of the inside fabric lining:

The jack-o-lantern buttons were in a Halloween set that I picked up at JoAnn's, and the candy corn lining fabric is from a series of reproduction 30s fabric from Judie Rothermel called "Halloween".

The crochet pattern was simple to follow; all of the orange was worked with 2 strands, and the green is worked with 3 strands (2 of worsted weight and 1 of the novelty yarn). My only complaint is that most of the bag is crocheted with an L hook, and I could only find a plastic L hook. Those plastic hooks, although they come in fun colors, have a seam along the side from the mold. That seam almost gave me a blister as it rubbed back and forth across my hand while I was crocheting. I haven't used a fuzzy novelty yarn before, but it worked out fine.

Finished!

Thanks to everyone for your sweet comments about Brynne's teething. She seems to be much better today (no fever!), and we may be out of the woods for now (fingers crossed!). In fact, she was feeling good enough to model this finished project:

This dress was based on a pattern from Candy Tots using Paton's Grace yarn and a size G (4mm) hook. The skirt took *forever* as it was all done with a modified single crochet stitch... I thought it would never be long enough! My main complaint with the pattern is that the bodice is a much stretchier stitch than the skirt, and the skirt is quite heavy, so the bodice ends up sagging a bit from the weight. The edging around the neck and armholes helped stabilize this to some extent, but the sagging is definitely still there. Even so, I'm happy with the colors (ginger for bodice front, viola for bodice back & edging, and spearmint for skirt), and I think she looks pretty cute in it!

The cupcakes are coming!

As promised, I have crocheted night and day to offer my crocheted cupcake bags for sale on Etsy. Thanks to all of your suggestions, each bag is now fully lined with this fabric:

and I've also added sprinkles in various colors to coordinate with the cupcakes themselves. If you are interested in seeing the bags for yourself, visit the buzzville shop!

Thanks to everyone for all of your wonderful comments and support!

Japanese Crafting Again!

Yesterday I had to make the drive down to LA for a business meeting that I didn't really want to attend. So, I had to reward myself for the experience by making a quick stop at the Asahiya bookstore in West LA to once again peruse their Japanese crafting book selection. I came away with the following new additions to the collection (these have also been updated in the Japanese Craft Books gallery):

Lotta's Swatch Book (ISBN 4-07-242602-4) is a gorgeous little collection of detachable postcards of Lotta Jansdotter's screenprinted textile designs. I'm thinking these will be fun little additions in swap packages...

Crochet Motif Applique (ISBN 4-579-11019-6) includes crochet patterns for small designs that can be attached to larger pieces. Some fun project ideas in here for crocheters...

 

No idea what the title of this one is (email the translation if you know and I'll update!) (ISBN 4-579-11022-6), but it's a book of crochet patterns that are organized by season (summer, fall, winter, spring) - from slippers to softies to pillows to bags... fun stuff!

And lastly, this gem has been calling my name for quite some time: Les tabliers sont arrives de Paris (The aprons have arrived from Paris) (ISBN 4-579-10972-4 ). Of course, this will be perfect for inspiration for Tie One On because it's full of apron patterns! Fun ideas - beautiful and stylish photographs - all meant to suggest that simple yet stylish French aesthetic:

I also wanted to thank everyone for all of the wonderful comments on my little cupcake purses. Thanks to your support and interest, I've decided to offer them for sale through Etsy. I'll post here once I've gotten everything set up and listed. In the meantime, if you are interested in a cupcake purse, feel free to email "flavor" requests - I'm happy to make them up to your preferences. I've also been considering adding sprinkles and a cupcake-themed fabric lining - I'd love to hear if you think this should be standard for all of them...

Cupcake Mania

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to any of you that there's a serious cupcake trend going on right now. From cupcake dedicated blogs (All Cupcakes, All the Time and Cupcake Bakeshop) to a huge selection of gorgeous cupcake recipe and decorating books (Hey There, Cupcake!, Cupcakes, Cupcakes Year Round, Cupcakes!, The Artful Cupcake, and Cupcake Cafe Cookbook) to specialty cupcake storage and carrying products (Cup-A-Cake and Tupperware Cake Taker) to bakeries that carry only cupcakes(!). And don't even search for cupcakes on Flickr unless you have a lot of time to drool! I guess I've fallen into the cupcake abyss because I am now dreaming of cupcakes day and night. It's something about their small cuteness, and the way that each one can be decorated as its own miniature masterpiece... with a larger cake, any given piece is usually not very exciting to look at once it's been cut and served. But cupcakes allow each person to have their own little piece of perfection that belongs to them alone.

Jane has been teasing my tastebuds lately with photos of her bright and beautiful creations - goodness knows she must be a wonderful mom if she has cupcakes coming out of the oven that frequently! And Elizabeth's Fourth of July cupcakes looked fantastic:

All of this is just a way of explaining that it shouldn't be a surprise that cupcakes have invaded my crafting in a big way. Here is the latest project I've been working on at buzzville - cupcake purses:

the traditional yellow cake with pink frosting,

chocolate cake with fluffy pale blue frosting,

and chocolate cake with bright green frosting.

These have drawstring closures that double as handles, and they're a great size for the essentials (keys, wallet, lip stuff, etc.). I'm thinking that these will be fun gifts for other, likeminded cupcake fanatics...

As a quick side note, this is buzzville's 100th post, and I'd like to express my sincere thanks and warm wishes to those of you who have extended your friendship my way. This blog has become much more valuable to me than I had ever imagined, largely because it's the vehicle through which I've met so many of you. I hope you will hang around for the next 100 posts!

Crafty Book Rundown

I've been doing a little bookstore browsing and discovered some books that look fun. They're not all new releases, but ones that I wasn't yet familiar with...

I've just discovered Jane Cumberbatch (is she Australian?) and her books... Maitreya posted about Sew Easy a while back, but I just now re-discovered it at Barnes & Noble. It was published by B&N press, and it looks like that may be the only place to get it. The book has fun, homey projects and great photography.

In keeping with this month's theme for the Month of Softies, I discovered Stupid Sock Creatures: Making Quirky, Lovable Figures from Cast-off Socks. The projects have a great sense of humor and have helpful tips for adding 3-d features, like lips, to your sock creations. Plus, it's written by a crafty *guy*!!!

123 Embroidery is also not a new book, but I just found it! It has great, modern embroidery projects (check out that adorable bee on the cover) that look like fun for aprons, quilts, clothing, etc. Anyone out there have this book?

I'm also really excited to see that Vogue Knitting is coming out with Crocheted Hats sometime soon. Amazon hasn't listed a release date yet, but you can pre-order it.

I'm optimistic about that one because I already have the Crocheted Scarves book, and it is really great - fun, modern, sophisticated patterns for crochet - how unusual!

Anyone else have any new book recommendations?

Sneaky Birthday Fun!

I know that Hannah has already posted this on her blog, but bear with me while I also post about it. Since I use this blog as a record of my crafty projects, I wanted to include the birthday surprise that David (Hannah's hubby) cooked up. He emailed Amy and I just before I left for vacation asking us if we might be able to help with a little birthday surprise for Hannah. Since he was getting her a new iPod mini, he suggested a cozy. I knew I would be taking a lot of crochet work with us on vacation, so I decided to crochet a little cozy for Hannah and ship it to her from the mountains. I was inspired by this gorgeous, bright green Manos del Uruguay yarn. Since pink and green are such a great combo, I came up with this little guy (picture stolen from Hannah because I didn't have a chance to take my own photos before I sent it in the mail!):

The pink button is a great vintage button given to me by Stephanie in a little swap we had a while back. I made up the pattern for the cozy using dimensions that David emailed, and just crossed my fingers that her iPod would fit. I added the little wrist strap for carrying, as inspired by so many of the cute little pouches and bags that all of you have been crafting up. Even though I didn't have much time to put it together, I think it's perfect for a little summer cozy. I may have to make her another when fall comes around...

Snail's Pace...

No matter how much I get done every day, I still feel as if I'm treading water - barely able to keep going with the bare necessities! So, I thought the snail metaphor would be appropriate for my crafting as well! Amanda has received her surprise, so I thought I would share the details here. I crocheted a round snail cushion as part of a swap for one of her beautiful purses.

close-up of the snail:

and the back:

Some of you may recognize this project from Kid's Crochet. I modified the pattern a bit and ended up doing some blocking because mine had the tendency to pucker in the center (and we certainly don't want snail cushions with nipples, do we?!?). But, overall it worked out well. I used Lamb's Pride Worsted Bulky and a size K (6.5mm) hook. It was really refreshing to use such a bulky yarn and large hook after so many projects with really fine gauges. I stuffed the pillow with a ready-made 14" round insert and used the tiniest little buttons I could find for the snail's eyes.

You may also have seen some peaches popping up here and there (more are en route as we speak!). I made a batch of these up as little gifts to send out. I'm hoping that Claire doesn't think my peaches too similar to her pears, but I have to admit that she was certainly an inspiration! Here's a basket of the little guys:

They're made of Minkee, a fabulously soft and silky fabric with a relatively long nap. I found a really good deal on this peach colored minkee and instantly thought it would be perfect for a fuzzy little peach! I hand embroidered the eyes, mouth, and freckles (still need to work on my embroidery!) and hand stitched wool felt for the leaves. I also cinched up the back of them to create a "peach butt", but you can't see that in this photo. Each peach comes with a little tag that reads "You're a real peach".