Today I'm very proud to introduce Hugo! Hugo is the first sock monkey I've ever made. I made him out of a pair of Hugo Boss socks so that's how he got his name.
Typically, I don't spend much time with my sewing machine, but I'm always on the lookout for a service project that I can do with my kids. Craft Hope is one of my favorite groups. If you're someone who loves to craft and to help others, than Craft Hope provides opportunities to do just that.
Project 15: Sock Monkeys for Texas is the inspiration for Hugo. Craft hope is collecting handmade sock monkeys for the victims of the Texas wildfires. I asked my son to imagine losing all of his toys. This is a stirring idea for kids and one that naturally sparks empathy. My son was ready to help in an instant.
I'll be honest. I'm not all that confident in my sewing abilities, so I bought a sock monkey kit. Even with the kit in hand, I also purchased a pair of socks on which to practice. I had no idea how my first sock monkey would turn out. The instructions that came with the kit seemed good and made sense to me, but I always like a little visual courage. I found a Rockin' Sock Monkey Tutorial that provided just that.
Hugo turned out pretty cute and I'm ready to make him a bunch of friends. I'll do the sewing and my son can turn the pieces right side out and stuff them. Together we can help put some smiles on the faces of kids who lost nearly everything this year. That's a great feeling!
There's a brand new color at Wind Rose Fiber Studio and that color is Cinnamon! It's a really beautiful brown with russet undertones. When I was deciding on a name, cinnamon spice came to mind. I think it will look very pretty blended with all of the colors of autumn.
I'm adding handpainted sock yarns to my inventory at Wind Rose and these are the first two! Crimson Wine has two shades of crimson red contrasted by a deep burgundy. Turquoise & Spruce ranges from a deep spruce to a light turquoise with shades of pewter grey.
All the yarn details are on their listings, but I wanted to explain why I'm calling them "Great Skeins". I gave them this name because of their yardage. Each skein comes with a bountiful 500 yards which is enough for a lot of sock patterns not to mention all sorts of projects.
To you, my blog readers, I'll share my inspiration. It's rather self serving. You see, maybe about a year ago, I got the idea in my head to spin a bunch of yarn and dye it so I would always have whatever I needed at my fingertips. Months later, it has become painfully clear that I just don't have enough free time to do all of that spinning. Well, I figure the next best thing is to at least paint my own yarn. I use fingering or sock weight yarn all of the time so I decided that it would be a good place to start.
So why am I selling my stash? I guess just because I enjoy making things and selling them. I also figure that there is no reason for pretty skeins of yarn to have to wait until I get around to using them. If someone buys one of my favorites, I'll just paint some more. I guess it's first come, first serve!
This pretty fiber is 80% Black Alpaca and 20% Cultivated Silk. I've actually carried this fiber for quite some time at Wind Rose, but I wanted to showcase it again today. It's now being processed to show off the colors better than before. This product used to be a soft grey, but now the silk and Alpaca are a little less blended giving this combed top a gorgeous salt and pepper look. It is luxuriously soft and now incredibly striking too!
It's always fun to say "I finished it!" My life has been so busy lately that I'm feeling an extra sense of accomplishment whenever I manage to complete anything. I'm sure you can relate to that feeling!
This project went very smoothly and fast too for the size of the market bag. It measures approximately 14 x 19 inches. I really like the strap design because they are so comfortable. They were made by (Tks) crocheting long rectangles and then whip stitching them together lengthwise. It makes them very strong, thick and well cushioned. I can see using this kind of strap for other projects in the future.
In my previous post about this project, I offer the source of the pattern and the yarn details in case you're interested. It was definitely fun to make and its the kind of thing that would make a nice gift. We all use market bags for one thing or another. Right now I'm probably going to use mine to hold my other Tunisian crochet project until I manage to finish it. I think I may be on a roll!
Yesterday afternoon I sat down at my Mac for a quick check of facebook. I follow TED and that's how I learned that Steve Jobs had passed away. My husband and I spent much of our morning coffee time talking about the impact of Steve Jobs on our lives. As long as we have been a couple, Apple Macintosh has been in our home and part of our everyday existence.
I sat down at my first Apple computer in 1995. My husband was ahead of me by a few years and laughed at my newcomer notions and frustrations about computing. In spite of those moments, I still remember being awestruck the first time I chatted about the weather with a stranger from India. It wasn't long before I found the hours zooming by as I explored the world from my desktop. It's been 16 years and there are still moments when I get the chills. What an amazing time to be alive and Apple, in so many ways, has been my tour guide.
With Happy Mac holding my hand all the way, I have gone from wide eyed newcomer, to one of the geekiest women I know. I have two online stores, three blogs, a website, a YouTube channel and of course accounts on gmail, facebook and twitter. I do all of my accounting with Numbers and write all of my patterns on Pages. I keep track of my images on iPhoto and edit my videos with iMovie. Whenever I'm not working at my computer, iTunes keeps me company while I sit and work on my own creations. On the one hand, I'm old fashioned enough to sit at a spinning wheel and spin my own yarn, and on the other hand, I can't imagine life without an Apple in my house.
The profound contribution of Steve Jobs is something to be remembered, celebrated and honored. There was a suggestion that a great way to do this would be to go out and create something. I like that. What if we all focused our energy on creating something new and wonderful? What if our creation added beauty to the world or solved one of life's puzzles? What if it helped everyone to envision the world in a whole new way? What if?
