Cake Re-wrecked

Thanks Nicole for this loverly post.

And thanks Patrick for taking such great pictures.

Black and White and Knit. All Over Again.

I wanted a black and white striped scarf to go with my winter gear. Something modern, but not quite the look that only black and white stripes would have given me. So I made an in-store decision and added a bit of gray to my basket. I was super pleased with how this came out.

But both pairs of boots and the hat I wanted to wear this with have pom-poms and I wanted the scarf to match. Now let me just say that I love the actual knitting but am not really a fan of things like weaving in all the ends produced by these stripes, making pom-poms, or adding fringe. Yet I really wanted this scarf to match my winter gear, so I got out the little plastic pom-pom maker and started the tedious task....oh wait, I mean finishing touches.

Eight little tiny pom-poms later I was finished! And just in time to wear the scarf out to a fun night at a friend's house.

The next time wore this scarf was on business trip to NYC. While on the train somewhere between the Connecticut and New York border I noticed that one pom-pom was missing. Immediately my thoughts jumped to my cat- and the vulnerable night my newest scarf had spent in the living room. No doubt she was stalking the innocent pom-poms. Relentlessly "sneak" attacking them all night long.

I was annoyed but there was nothing I could do about it now. It would have to be fixed when I got home.

Back on the train that same afternoon (it was a turn and burn one meeting trip) I noticed I was missing yet more pom-poms. Drat! No cat to blame this time.

Something was wrong. The poms looked O.K., but clearly they were dropping like flies for a some reason. I thought I had tied them tight! Maybe the cat had loosened a few by playing with them?

Gathering my stuff to get off the train I even found a clump of yarn that had once been a pom-pom on the seat. Looks like I'd left a bit of a yarn trail through NYC.

In denial- I kept wearing the scarf anyway (just tucking the ends into my jacket). But I kept finding little clumps of former pom-pom all over the place.

And pretty soon it looked like this

Just the thought of doing the pom-poms all over was enough to make me want to weave in the tattered ends in and forget I ever intended them in the first place. But I've let the scarf sit for a while now and it just won't be the same without the poms, so I'm going to re-do it.

Originally I made the poms on the smallest ring and I think the problem was likely due to the yarn being too big to hold the knot tightly. So I've picked-up some embroidery floss to tie around the middle this time.

Hopefully that'll hold... and hopefully the tiny handful of yarn I have left will be enough to make eight more pom-poms. All over again.

Getting to know you

So maybe your thinking- who is this Meg and why is she crafty? 

The answers to these questions will hopefully be why you come back again and again to read this blog. But to start trying to answer this I give you: "a portrait of me in crafting." A sort of year in review only 26 days later. And in a way thats still relevant since after the first week in January the" year in review" thing is over.

Lets start with the crafty thing I did for the camera I got for Christmas. Its own personal knit case. I did it on the fly so the flap doesn't fit over it quite right- but it's close.  If I were going to do it again I would measure the camera instead of doing it by eye. 

I love gingerbread- it's one of my favorite holiday things. 

These are polymer clay tributes for the tree.

I really enjoy making Valentine's Day cards. 

It's something bright and fun to do in the last (and worst) month of a long New England winter.

This is a close up of the inside

I finally scrapbooked a few trips. A birthday weekend in New York and our honeymoon trip to North Carolina. The bottle is 3 dimensional made from the plastic on a package (that I was going to throw away) and a cork cut in half. I put some shells between the plastic and paper.

This is an older project but one I love. 

An interactive mural painted with the kids who participated in an after school program I used to teach in a museum.

Halloween is my favorite holiday! Real (not faux) carved pumpkin (sorry it's blurry). I start to get nuts and begin planning for Halloween in the summer.  My husband tells me it gets earlier every year. 

You'll see.

A few of the wedding invitations I've made. I really have

 a passion for making invitations.

I love snowflakes. I have a Winter birthday, and sort of embrace the snowflake. (Until February then I'm ready for spring!) This first image is our 2008 holiday card. Second image is an ornament I made. First I painted it. Then used a snowflake punch to make white and silver (aluminum foil actually) flakes, which I glued on. A few coats of gloss sealer over the entire thing and a sprinkle of glitter finished it up.

Idea and directions to make this snowflake project are courtesy of Nicole