DIY: Yarn Tins and Jars

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." 

-William Morris

Well, with that said... My craft space is out of  control.  It is quite possibly overflowing with items that are not useful or not beautiful-- and quite possibly both.  I'm working hard this week to organize my craft space.  Once it's looking good I will post a before and after picture.  

I first saw this craft on Pinterest-- but it's popping up everywhere!  This is a great project for organizing my space because the vintage drawer set that I keep my pens and markers would much better hold something else.  Plus, the colorful jars will now add an extra pop of color to my desk!  

 source

You will need:
Recyclables-- tins, jars, cans, etc.
Yarn-- You could also use rope or string
Glue-- I used Tacky Glue but you could use about any kind I'm sure...

Turn your item upside down and draw a line of glue around the bottom.  Then run your yarn around the glue.

 Continue wrapping the yarn around your container.

 Keep wrapping until you completely cover your container.

When you're finished use a drop of glue at the top to attach the end of your yarn to the container.  I used a little extra to smooth it down and make sure it stayed.

Hope you had a great weekend!

xoxo,
Ashley and Mister G

Turn An Old Sweater Back Into Yarn Tutorial

Hi Friends!  Hope y'all are enjoying the holidays and spending some quality time with your loved ones!  

My friend Jessica once told me that you can turn a sweater back into yarn!  I gave it a try and it's true!  You can turn almost anything back into yarn to make something new.  This is fantastic news for thirfters because you can salvage some really great wool yarn from inexpensive, ugly sweaters!  

I made this shawl two years ago with really lovely baby alpaca yarn.  I wore the shawl once to cut down a Christmas tree.  It's just not right to waste such amazing yarn on something that receives so little love.  

I'll show you how to deconstruct your sweater back into yarn.  

Gather your supplies-- an old sweater or previously knit item and a pair of scissors.    

Snip the edge where the sweater was cast on or binded off.  You will want to snip stitches along the edge of the garment.  You don't need to snip every stitch-- maybe one stitch ever half inch or inch along the edge.     

Very carefully, stretch the area where you snipped and the yarn will begin to unravel.  Short pieces of yarn should come loose and you will discard these pieces.  Once you have broken up the entire edge, you will be able to tell where to begin unraveling.  

Pull the yarn and continue unraveling your sweater.  Your yarn might get tangled while you unravel.  It's fine-- just snip your way out of the mess and tie the ends together to make a continuous pice of yarn.  You can roll your yarn into a ball as you unravel or wait until you are finished.  

Have fun "making" your yarn!  

Pom Poms

Finally, I figured out a use for my handmade t-shirt yarn... Pom poms!  I used all of my white t-shirt yarn to make a snowflake pom pom garland.  Click here for a tutorial on how to make a pom pom.

Believe it or not- but some of my very favorite Christmas things are in the photo above.  The tree stump is from the bottom of John and my first Christmas tree!  Did you notice the tiny snowmen next to the stump?  My mom made them!  They are so sweet.  I love the baby snowman that the mama is holding.  

p.s. that's my craft room behind the garland :) 

It's not red and green... but Marquette's basketball season this year is making John feel like Christmas came early.  I made John this Marquette baby blue pom pom garland to proudly hang above the television for the rest of the season.

Project Updates: T-shirt Yarn and Towel Bath Mat

Hi Friends!

A while back I mentioned that I made a few skeins of homemade T-shirt yarn.  Making the yarn is great-- but knitting with it is difficult.  I generally knit tighter stitches than I'd like to admit.  Knitting with super thick yarn that doesn't have much give when wrapped around the needle is very tricky.  I recently learned to crochet.  I have a vision to dye my white t-shirt yarn a rich turquoise and crochet a circle rug for my kitchen.

Remember the towel turned bathmat project I had been working on?  I was too frustrated while working on this project to take any pictures-- but believe me when I tell you, you're not missing out.

I've given up on the project for a few reasons... It's so messy, takes WAY to long, hurts my fingers, and TRASHED my nails :(   It wasn't long after I decided to 'throw in the towel' that I was happily on my way to purchase a new bathmat.

How are your Christmas projects coming along?  I want so badly to share some of my Christmas gift crafts-- but I need to keep them secret from my friends and family!!!  xoxo, Ashley

Holiday Wreath

I have seen so many beautiful holiday wreaths floating around online.  All the inspiration was making me (and Mister G) pretty excited to make one!! 

I gave my wreath a lot of thought before getting started.  I wanted my wreath to be festive-- but also not too classic Christmas.  I was envisioning something "ocean-y" since it's our first Christmas living in a warm climate.  I also came up with the genius idea to incorporate Marquette colors into the wreath to get John excited about it!  (Pretty easy because Marquette baby blue is very ocean-y and also gold is very Christmas-y!)

I picked up a lot of holiday jazz at Micael's--by the way, now is a great time to get a deal on wreath fixins!  I chose golds, silvers, blues, and greens.  When I came home Mister G was nipping at the bag and trying to play with the picks.  

Remember when I made the homemade holiday ornanments?  While I was spray-painting my baby pine cones for the ornaments, I also painted a few big shells gold.    

The big shells needed special help to stay on the wreath.  I cut a piece of yarn and hot glued it to the back of the shell.  One big glob in the center and a line to each side to help the shells lay flat.

After the glue dried, I arranged the shells and tied the yarn tightly around the wreath.  Then I added the rest of my items.  It gets pretty windy at times here-- so I used a dab of hot glue on the bottoms of each pick before I stuck them into the wreath.

I love the sea urchin looking flowers next to the poinsettia!  If you take a close look you will see some baby pine cones too.  

I don't have a wreath hanger yet, so until I pick one up the wreath will be hanging under our house numbers.  See her to the left?

Have you made a wreath this year?  Plans to make one?  Share your pictures on Mister G's Facebook page or Twitter @MisterGandMe .  

Gift Wrap Ideas

Happy Monday friends!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  

One of my more popular Pinterest Boards is titled "Gift Wrap Ideas".  It's never too early to start planning for fabulous gifting.  Here are some of my favorites:

1 burlap + blue    2 Etsy Blog    3 bystephanielynn.com  4  flickr as seen on Design Sponge  

5  Bugs and Fishes  6 Velvet Moss  7 CRAFTYAMY on babble

Do you have some great gift wrap ideas?  Share them in the comments section, on Facebook, or twitter @MisterGandMe .  

xoxo,

Ashley and Mister G

Newborn Knit Legwarmers for Baby Ivy

Baby Ivy's One Month birthday was on Saturday!-- so I knit her up a fancy pair of leg warmers.

My sister Meg and little Ivy live in Wisconsin and it gets pretty cold there!  Brrrr.... I knew Ivy's precious little legs would love to keep cozy in some super soft baby alpaca leg warmers!  

I followed this pattern from Hippie Stitch.  I used baby alpaca yarn in cream and merlot.  

Mister G loves when I knit!  He likes to snuggle up on the couch with me and watch 30 Rock.  Here are my finished newborn leg warmers.

When I learn to crochet, I hope to make myself a pair similar to these amazing leg warmers from Free People.  I'm thinking a cream color or maybe even mustard!

What I've Been Working On...

Hi Friends!  Hope you're all having a fantastic week!

I have been working on quite a few exciting projects, which by the way, are all eco-friendly repurposed projects.  Even though they are all in various stages of "unfinished"-- I want to fill you in on what's been keeping me busy.

Photo from Pinterest

First... I started making the famous towel bath mat that has been floating around Pinterest lately.  A word to the wise: this is a messy project. I was very surprised to learn when you cut terry cloth, thousands and thousands of tiny little shreds of the nubbies fall off and stick to your clothes, your couch, your carpet, your dog... I tried to vacuum them up- but some cling for dear life to my living room.  I had intended for this to be a night time/watch 30 Rock/zone out kind of project, but live and learn.  This project has been re-designated as an outdoor craft.

Also, the lady in the video tutorial says that the project is time consuming... And she's NOT kidding.  Believe me when I tell you-- I have probably invested 3 or 4 hours into cutting, threading, and knotting the strips into the mat.  I'm probably less than 10% done.  Patience... Patience...

Another eco-friendly craft I've recently tried my hand at is making yarn from t-shirts.  It's so easy and fun.  Here's a great tutorial that offers a fantastically easy way to make t-shirt yarn.  I first spent a LONG time cutting my t-shirt coil by coil- which resulted in an uneven "yarn".  After I make a few balls of yarn I plan to knit a few dish rags.  I am keeping my eye out for patterns to knit other goodies with t-shirt yarn.  If you know of any great patterns post them in the comment section.  :)

Photo from Pinterest 

Finally, the project I'm most excited to share with you is.....

I'm making my first quilt!!!!!!  (You may have noticed I was banking all of my exclamation points in this post for this very moment!!!!!!) My great-grandma was a wildly talented quilter and I hope to one day give all of my babies and great grandbabies beautiful blankets that they will treasure forever!

I have been studying this fantastic site Diary of a Quilter to learn how to quilt.  It's an amazing free resource.  So far I'm still in the square cutting phase.  I have been using ripped, stained, or well loved but "too college" looking clothes for my squares.  Once I cut up all of my clothing fabric I will assess the color situation and head to the fabric store for some jazzy patterns that add some sparkle to my squares.

You may have noticed Mister G's guilty face at the beginning of the post.  I caught him with a big stack of squares in the living room-- some wet with slobber :(

What have you been working on lately?  Tell me about your projects in the comment section!

xoxo,
Ashley and Mister G

Baby Ivy and some of her handmade swag!

Baby Ivy Eleanor is here!  

Here is Megan and Ivy the day after she was born.  It was such a beautiful experience to witness another person coming into the world.  I was honored to be Meg's breathing coach during the delivery and be there to share the special day with her and Ivy.  I am so proud of her!!!

I knit this blanket for Ivy with the most luscious organic cotton.  It was an absolute treat to make!  The color is just perfect too!! Megan isn't into super pink things-- I was so thankful to find this dusty rose colored yarn that I knew she would LOVE.  

I embellished this onesie with handmade flowers using the DIY Flower Garland tutorial featured on craftgawker.  

I thought white flowers on a white onesie would be adorable!  I asked hubs for a clean t-shirt, put on some HGTV House Hunters, and got busy!  

3 Tips for this project:

1.  For small flowers, use a small spice bottle to trace your circles onto the t-shirt.

2.  Use a needle grip!  My fingers hurt something fierce by the time I was done.

3.  You can use a washable fabric pen if you have one.  If not, don't worry about cutting the circles perfectly to avoid the lines.  Use a pretty color marker to add a hint of contrasting color to your flowers.

As you may recall, I embroidered some French knot sheep on a onesie  for Ivy.  This was too cute to keep a surprise-- but still the in-person response was over the top.  My mom and sister are both pushing me to make and sell some more embroidered onesises.  The sheep take a while, but it could turn into a nice source of supplementary crafting income :)

Do you have any favorite baby crafts to share?  I would love to see them!!!

xoxo,

Auntie Ashley and Mister G 

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