The Crochet Dude's New Book Rocks!!

The Crochet Dude's Designs for Guys: 30 Projects Men Will Love

By Drew Emborsky (The Crochet Dude)

Is fabulous!

OK full disclosure, I know Drew, I love Drew. He was one of my guests when I produced Knitty Gritty. He appeared with Annie Modesitt when they came on the show doing a project from another of their great books, Men Who Knit & The Dogs Who Love Them.

He is a wonderful designer and the projects in this book are really nice looking (and it's not just the cute guys who are photographed wearing them, I swear!)
I decided to start with the cover project. But I wanted to test drive it for me first and then the second one I made would be for a guy. And I don't where hats (I have way too much hair to fit under one but I do wear headbands to keep my ears warm. The band on this hat looked perfect for that so I skipped over the first part of the hat pattern to the band part and picked right up with the cool alternating front post double crochet and back post double crochet pattern that was illustrated and explained beautifully in the back of the book.

In addition to the super patterns, the back of the book has great charts of symbols and explanations that made this project go so smoothly it only took me a few hours to whip this headband up!

Crafty Blogger Links Booooo

Life imitating art imitating life, or something like that. I have been crafting for Halloween like a fiend, so when I saw an actual spider in my house I kind of cracked up with irony.

We all can be so lucky to have mother nature providing us with decorations. So here are a bunch of links to Halloween fun you can make!

Swelldesigner
Alexa crafts up some swell cupcake pics/picks to remember Halloweens of yesteryear

The Crochet Dude
Drew has the perfect recipes for a Halloween party: Bloody Eyeballs and Maggots!

The Impatient Crafter™
Madge shares part one of her two part final project for Terrorific Tuesdays. It's a Gothically delicious tale of friendship.

About Family Crafts
If you are in search of creative costume ideas for 2, 3, 4, or more, you have come to the right place.

Aileen's Musings
Looking for a new paper technique, Aileen has a colorful one using glossy photo paper and Color Mists. This technique works great as backgrounds for cards, collages and even scrapbook pages.

Cathie Filian
Check out the Halloween Videos from the Emmy Nominated television show, Witch Crafts, where Cathie and Steve, make some awesome Halloween Projects & party ideas.

Crafty Princess Diaries
No more babies in your life to crochet or knit snuggly blankets for? No worries, the Crafty Princess has the low-down on a baby blanket contest as well as a non-profit group that makes blankets for babies in need.

Cross Stitch at About.com
This week, Connie has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen - no, not cooking. Dyeing fabric instead. Find out more about all the ways you can change the color of your fabrics.

Layers Upon Layers
Cyndi has gathered together her most popular tutorials on creating great background papers for your artwork.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
This week Craftside brings you a modern denim and plaid upcycled quilt block, 2 yummy recipes using sherry, Art Nouveau jewelry, off register screen printing designs and a call for entries for a new book- 1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse.

Sweater Surgery Ring Inspired by Sherri Haab

When I love something I really love it:

This is one of my favorite new books. I posted a project here that was my spin on the cover design. And I have another one that I did inspired by Sharri's pretty embroidered rings in the book to share with you today.
I start with a sweater of course. This one has some really neat crocheted and embroidered details.
Since this wasn't a wool sweater it couldn't be felted so I ironed a stabilizer on the back so the knitting wouldn't come unraveled.
I then rough cut out the area I wanted to use and pulled it over a button and adjusted it until I liked where the beads and embellishments filled the button surface. I then followed the great directions in :Felt, Fabric, and Fiber Jewelry: 20 Beautiful Projects to Bead, Stitch, Knot, and Braid
And here you have my Sweater Surgery embroidered ring. You will not run out of ideas and inspiration with this book I swear!

Crafty Blogger Link Monday

Ever wonder what we Crafty Bloggers look like? Well here are a few of us.
OK, not really but you know I like to include a fun photo with the links. We aren't sure who these ladies are but it is most like one of them is a relative since the photo was found in my Uncle Joe's things.

Enjoy the creativity that my fellow Crafty Bloggers have to share with you!

The Crochet Dude
I Want My Mummy! Drew has a free Halloween treat bag crochet pattern that is super cute!

The Impatient Crafter
Margot shares next week's Terrorific Tuesday Halloween Themed paper crafted jewelry project. Hooty the Halloween Hoot Owl!

The Swell and Spooky Life
Swelldesigner is giving away a super swell vintage-inspired pumpkin man box in honor of Terrorific Tuesdays!

About Family Crafts
Take a few moments and tell Sherri and all of her visitors what your favorite way to save money is when it comes to craft supplies.

Aileen's Musings
Aileen has a colorful fiber necklace tutorial posted that would make a lovely gift idea, enjoy!

Cathie Filian
Cathie Filian has a tutorial on how to transform plain candles with a few stamping supplies. Great for holiday gift giving and decorating! From the Medieval Lights episode of Creative Juice.

Crafty Princess Diaries
Are you thinking about stocking stuffers for you crafty friends yet? The Crafty Princess has a few ideas for you.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Do You Suffer from Pattern Paralysis? Find out what it is and learn ways to treat it. Be sure to read all the comments and add your own!

Layers Upon Layers
Cyndi has updated her ever-growing list of posts covering different methods to do image transfers.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Peeking at you this week from Craftside are easy felted eyeballs, a dimensional surface technique tutorial, a creative inspiring exercise from the new book The Creative Entrepreneur and a paper and crystal necklace project from Jenn Mason's latest and greatest book, Altered Paper Jewelry.

Eyeball Paperweights

Are lookin' at me? Yup! I am definitely into the eyeballs. Check out the bowling ball eyeballs.
So these guys are even easier to make. All they are is a dome glass paperweight that you can pop a picture in just like a photo frame. I got the image the the eyeball just by doing a google image search for "eyeball", printed 2 out in the diamiter of the framed area and I was lookin' at yet another fun and easy eyeball Halloween decoration!

Columbus Day Crafty Blogger Links

About Family Crafts
Find out how you can transform ordinary soda pop and beer cans into crafty masterpieces.

Cathie Filian
Cathie's new book Bow Wow WOW! fetching costumes fabulous dog is now avaliable. Have a peek at the 36 different fun costumes and fashion accessories you can make for your pooch.

Crafty Princess Diaries
The Crafty Princess found some cool crochet candy corn to make and enjoy, a great beginner's project!

Cross Stitch at About.com
Stitch a spooky skull with glow-in-the-dark blending filament - if you dare!

Layers Upon Layers
Make a fabric collage, using digital images as your inspiration.

The Impatient Crafter™
In honor of Halloween, Madge has joined Terroriffic Tuesdays. This week she shares a free Crystal Web Collar she created for CYSWCSE Swarovski's DIY brand.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
Halloween crafts are in full swing at Craftside with a GIANT web with a super cute spider from the book Fleece Animals, a papier mache skull with natural rust effects, and a found in the yard decoration inspired by Faux Florals in Glass. But Halloween isn't the only thing happening, there is my finished Crafty Chica Empowerment Guardian and a whole bunch of techniques using Angelina fiber from the creative mind of Susan Stein.

Sweater Surgery Ghost Halloween Decoration

Halloween Ghost made from, what else? A sweater!
All you need to do is make cuts in the sweater where you want the eyes and nose to be and make big runs in the sweater. In this case I sewed up the sleeve openings, cut the pockets and buttons off as well.
I gathered up the neckline with the oh so fancy safety pin and linked it to a bent metal hanger. I unlike Joan Crawford am a big fan of the wire hanger!
Then simply wrapped the edges of the sweater over the soft new curves of the hanger. If you live in a particularly windy area you may want to glue or stitch in place but as yet I haven't had the need. Oh and I did tie the outside bottom corners out to the foliage to make the bottom splay out a bit, but is isn't necessary.
And to see more pictures of the Halloween Back Yard and this GIANT Spider web pop over to Craftside to see how they were made!

Using supplies as an easy and fun Halloween Decoration and Crafty Blogger Links

So I have tons of craft supplies and I am always looking to display them in fun ways because often I simply enjoy them in their "raw" state almost as much as I like making something with them. This is truly the case with yarn. Balls of yarn are be-u-ti-ful!
So I thought I'd gather up a whole bunch of orange yarn and stick it in a round basket, kinda pumpkin like if I do say so myself!

Layers Upon Layers
Be inspired by artist Nicola Dale's amazing book arts!

Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter™
Margot has made the executive decision to split her blog in two. Introducing the brand spanking new The Impatient Crafter™ blog! A new destination for all things crafty!

Crafty Princess Diaries
As crafters we have an advantage over most folks because we can often wear what we make. See what Tim Gunn from Project Runway has to say about what to wear this season and how accessories play a part.

Cross Stitch at About.com
Connie's been having some fun with FurTaStitch floss. See what she's been up to and learn more about stitching with textured flosses.

Cathie Filian
Take a sneak peek at the Emmy Nominated, Halloween craft show, Witch Crafts on DIY Network and check out the complete project list (with instructions) from the series.

Aileen's Musings
Stop by and meet Zoraida the good witch, she's just flown in on Air Broom. She wanted to be here in plenty of time for the Art Muse Contest Aileen is hosting!

About Family Crafts
Want to surprise your neighbors this Halloween? These unique gift ideas will get your entire neighborhood into the Halloween spirit!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world
There are crafty tasty treats this week at Craftside with an inside peek into the book Artisan Chocolates, a recycled book slider idea, design points from Singer Decorative Machine Stitching, eye and soul candy from the new book Knitting Art and a secret square altered art page tutorial.

Back to School supplies and Jewelry Surgery

These were my "back to school" goodies my mom sent me. I am not officially going to school but I am on a mission to "bring Latin back" hence the Latin books.

I also collect 10 commandment charm bracelets (front lower center)

But, isn't there always a "but" with me?

Lately my life doesn't allow much time for wearing charm bracelets, I'm just always doing something , even if it's just sitting here typing at the computer writing this blog or the Craftside blog.

Solution:
Turn it into a necklace!
I am very much into asymmetrical jewelry at the moment so I worked with a lot of different elements that were different sizes and proportions.

I also want to point out the Eames stamps which one of my favorite bloggers Regarding Design wrote about as well. Love them!

Donum Dei (God's Gift)
In this case:
Donum ex Matris (Gift from Mom)

Sometimes your day goes as planned and then....

...sometimes it doesn't.

There wasn't any crying over the spilled soda on my million year old keyboard there was just...

Go out to the garage and pull down the free keyboard that came with one of the computers that is now since long gone.

It was brand new so I kept holding on to it. I didn't upgrade to this new keyboard because I loved my little tiny keyboard and "hockey puck" style mac mouse from 2 computers ago.

But alas after mopping up the soda all the space bar would do is type in the letter "B" and the mouse was having no part of moving any curser anywhere. This new one is huge!!!

And as if it didn't have enough keys on it that I have no idea what all they do I added 2 of my own!

My "panic" button and my "do" button. Just a little insight into that which is me.

Oh and since this isn't a Mac keyboard I first did panic and then figured out that the "start button with the little windows-ish logo was the same as the "apple" key for keyboard short cuts. And promptly Sharpie'd the key as such! (see above picture, lower left corner second from left bottom row)