Sienna Wren Jansen ♥

Born Monday, May 20, @ 3:09pm, our little bundle weighed-in at 7lbs. 11oz., 21 inches long. We are besides ourselves and completely smitten. Here she is on our ride home from the hospital yesterday. We are happy, tired, and complete. Many more photos to come... :)

(She's modeling a few of the things I made for her: the crocheted turban and baby bird blanket out of vintage fabric I found. Crocheted Turban pattern here, yarn, Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in corsage).

little blanket, coming right along...

Pattern: Square Target square from Jan Eaton's 200 Crocheted Blocks
Yarn: DROPS Alpaca 

Article in Gatherings Magazine

I'm so excited to be a part of the latest issue of Gatherings Magazine. Included is a piece on how I find inspiration, along with photos of my supplies and creations. The article, "A Southern Girl Moves West" is on page 106. Here is a link to view the issue online: http://www.heatherspriggs.com/issues/late-summerfall-2012/
I hope you'll check out this lovely magazine!

new items in the Etsy shop!

So, in addition to quite a few knitting patterns, I've now added a few handmade goods to my Etsy shop. Perfect for gifts for a variety of occasions, these pincushions and cocktail napkins will add a nice little vintage touch to any home :) Check out the shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/redribbonfoxknits

First square. New favorite colors.

First square. New favorite colors., a photo by elletrain on Flickr.

It's coming right along now... :)

would love your input

I am going to design some new crochet patterns in the near future, to balance it out a bit. What type of items do you like to crochet? What would you like to see? I have some ideas, but would love to get some input. In the meantime, check out this cool tutorial!! Thanks for your help :)

Now offering Skype lessons!

I am so excited to now offer knitting and crochet lessons over Skype! Woohoo!!

I've tested it out with a friend of mine (who has a super cute blog here!!) and we've had amazing success. She is a properly addicted knitter now :) So if you or anyone you know is looking to learn to knit, or crochet, or sharpen their skills in either, please contact me through email at: laura[at]redribbonfox[dot]com.

I will give you more details through email, but the great thing is, you don't have to go anywhere! My schedule is fairly flexible so there are a variety of times we can schedule. Each lesson is 1 hour and is $25, paid through Paypal. Easy peasy!

I'm so excited, again I'll say it. I really love teaching knitting and crochet and love getting people totally addicted to it like I am. Please contact me or spread the word. Happy Knitting! xoxoxo

oh, hi again :)

I found a lovely for you this morning. Beautiful cast silver real knitting and crochet stitches. Isn't this lovely? I am in awe.

Cast Silver Knitting and Crochet article

Today is my first day of a silversmithing class here in Portland. I am so excited! Multnomah Arts Center offers many cool classes and I have ALWAYS wanted to learn metal smithing. I will let you know how it goes. Super excited. Are you learning anything new this fall? So far I've learned Tunisian crochet and natural dyeing. I think I wish I was really going back to school :)

on the needles and off of the needles

Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone has had a fun weekend with friends and family. We just returned from a 3 day camping trip/family reunion with my husband's mother's family. This Labor Day tradition has been going on for 58 years! What a great thing to have in your family. We had a great time doing a little fishing, a little pot-lucking and a lot of hanging out. I LOVE camping in the Pac. NW. Hot during the day, but still in the 50's at night :)

So, I realized I hadn't posted about knitting in a while. I wanted to share some photos of finished projects as well as what is now (or about to be) on my needles. Here goes:

Westknits Earth & Sky Mystery Shawl: This was my first mystery project and it was fun! I am happy with how my colors worked together. It was fun to work on a small project that you didn't know what the finished piece would look like. I used Malabrigo Sock (gold), Koigu KPM (pale pink), and Shibui Sock (gray).

Stripe Study Shawl from Veera Välimäki. This was a GREAT knitting group project. I used 2 colors of Sanguine Gryphon Sock on this project. 

Bias Wrap Scarf. This was a pattern I picked up free with purchase at my new LYS, Close Knit. It is called the Firefly Scarf on their pattern, using Classic Elite's Firefly yarn. I used Baby Llama Glow from Plymouth Yarn Co. I modified the end of the scarf to have 3 button holes and a garter ridge so I could button it instead of just ending it in a point like the other end. I LOVE this yarn. It has a tiny bit of sparkle and is SO soft.

Chili Bean's Dress. The final finished project of late is a little crocheted dress I made for my sister-in-law and her baby girl that is due anytime now. It's the Mina Dress from Alicia Paulson and what an adorable pattern it is. It took me only part of a day to make and I can't wait to see it on our new niece. My sister-in-law has 3 boys already, so having a little girl will be so fun!

I'm working on these 3 projects right now:

Berrocco Ristretto. This one in a soft grey green color of the same yarn the pattern calls for.

Berroco Farrah. I'm doing this in the mustard yellow color of the yarn, Glint.

From Norway with Love. I LOVE this hat. I'm doing it out of a pale gray with the hearts in the Baby Llama Glow of my previously mentioned scarf. It's turning out fun so far!

Whew. So glad I posted some knitting stuff on my knitting blog ;) I've been back in the swing of things lately in the knitting world, so I had a fair amount to catch up on with you all! Fall is slowly approaching here in Portland. It's still nice in the evenings, but we finally have a summer during the day now. I'm still excited about these fall evenings that are inevitable soon. Preparing the closet with freshly knitted jumpers is always a knitter's favorite thing about fall! xoxo

new Ravelry group - Pretty Granny Chic

I was searching Ravelry today for a granny chic group and to my surprise there wasn't one! SO, I created it! Please come visit us there and join the group if you love the revitalized granny chic/vintage look. This includes anything like crochet in solid colors, pretty vintage-style fabric pieces with crocheted or knitted edging, doilies, Japanese crochet projects, etc. It's a fun pretty group that I think you'll enjoy!

Click here for the Ravelry link (you must have a Ravelry account to join, but Ravelry accounts are free!)

posh pillows!! ♥

Here is a GREAT crafty project that will make your house even more lovely and will give you tons of crafty satisfaction! My goal this week was to buy pillowcases and make these, but lo and behold, I found CUTE fabric the other day and actually made my own!

This is from a wonderful tutorial I found online a while ago. I rediscovered it last week and just HAD to make some for myself. I'm very proud of myself for sewing these nifty pillowcases. They are quite posh because not only are they made of cute fabric with a cute crocheted edging, but they have a little pocket inside to hide the side of the pillow! See:

That is a nifty pillow. I made 2 of them and need to crochet the edge on the second one, but I couldn't be happier with how they look on the bed. We needed some more color and now they give me a great color scheme to work from for the bedroom.

Some tips when making these: 

1) take your time cutting the fabric and use a rotary cutter if you have one. I don't have a large self-healing mat to cut on, but even so, the rotary cutter gave me such a better cut than the first piece I cut by hand. Seriously. I cannot cut a straight line, as crafty as I am. Ugh.

2) I might suggest using a yarn for the edging that has a bit of nylon, silk, bamboo or something a bit sturdier than just 100% cotton. It turned out just fine, but after having to pull the cotton yarn through a bunch of times to do the blanket stitch foundation for the crochet, the yarn got a little bit worn looking at the end. Not a huge deal, but something with an additional fiber in it will probably hold up better. Be sure to use something machine washable though to make your life easier. You don't want to have to hand wash pillow cases. 

3) Iron, iron your seams, etc. It really does help as you're sewing. If you're a pro, you know this. I'm not a pro, but I realized how much it helps. 

4) The original post says to give yourself some chocolates while you work to reward yourself. I think that's a good idea, but I did not because with my luck, I'd get the chocolate all over my lovely new fabric.

I hope you'll make some of these! Here is the tutorial here. Have fun and let me know if you make some! I'd love to see your pictures ♥

My Knitting and Crochet Portfolio

Good morning! I thought I'd share a link to the knitting and crochet portfolio slideshow I just put together on Flickr. I think it will help when advertising my knitting and crochet lessons, like tomorrow at a friend's benefit for Cystic Fibrosis. Check out the photos and maybe they will inspire you to knit or crochet today!

Click here for the slideshow

Happy Crafting!

Laura

P.S. This is a new pattern I made last week, Cloudscape Capelet. Here is a link to buy on Ravelry and here's one for Etsy. It's a super quick knit and can also be worn as a scarf/cowl.

Oops...

Apparently I haven't blogged about my finished crocheted baby blanket yet! I thought I had. Again, I've already posted pictures on flickr and Facebook, but I would love to have them here on my blog as well. Sally already received the blanket and I think she was very excited and happy :) I'm so pleased with the finished product and it really was so much fun to work on. Thanks again to Lucy of Attic24 for creating the original, the inspiration for this one. Her blog is SO lovely...please check it out if you haven't already. Currently, she has me really really wanting a caravan of my own to decorate and take on weekend camping trips. I'm a bit obsessed. I think Pinky is tired of hearing about it. Think I can add a caravan to our wedding registry?? ;)