Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Projects, Toys, and Cleaning, Oh My!

This week I kept myself busy by finishing off the Tri-color Twist Lapghan that I had started a few months ago.
 I just love the peacock blue I used for the edgings, it turned out great! I had a heck of a time trying to photograph it because of the high saturation of colors.

I also spent the other night cleaning my craft room and started organizing my yarn and wool material. Yeah, Me!

On Sunday I took a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics with my mom and purchased my new toy, a Simplicity Boye Electric Yarn Ball Winder with a 50% off coupon. I had read reviews about it before I purchased it and there were both pro's and con's on it. For the $45. I spent I would have to say it was money well spent, so far (since I have only had it for a few days). If I would of had to pay the full price I'm not sure if I would have bought it, to be honest.

 

 I do wish it had a foot pedal with it for when I need to stop and adjust the yarn I am using. I had read on one review that the tension was too loose on the center pull skeins it creates, mine seemed just fine for me. Trying to adjust the speed while feeding the yarn is completely awkward, though. See the red dial switch on the top there? Try imagining hanging on to a hank of yarn, with both hands in mind, while hurrying to turn the dial

switch off because of a tangle. I always dial it up to an even higher speed it seems while I am trying to do this, lol! while One good thing is, that when I messed up feeding the yarn and it did tangle in the guides the machine did not break the yarn, it seizes up and the motor whines a higher pitch. I do not know how good this can be on the motor.  I hope they created the machine's motor with tangles like this in mind because of the difficulty I had trying to switch it off and foreseeing more of these episodes in my future.


 

~sMiLeS~

Tammy in Northern Michigan!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Adorable Owl Pillow

Well, I finally finished the pillow below and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out! One down and many more requested for me to make! I did alter the eyes a bit and added some pretty shells for lashes. This beautiful Owl Cushion design was created by Greta Tulner at ATERGcrochet, Click here for the pattern .