Lady Moss Mittens

I usually start the summer to fall to winter layering with fingerless glove, a light scarf, and a jacket or thick sweater. Then it goes to a hat, thicker scarf, full gloves, and a medium coat. Now I’m moving into the winter coat, thick wool hat, long warm scarf, and thick mittens. There is only one issue. Last late winter early spring I lost my mittens! What is a girl to do? Well how about whip up some new ones with some stash yarn. I’m feeling particularly cold this year and wanted some extra warmth. My friend had just told me about this technique called thrumming. Perfect! Lets give that a shot too. I must say I really enjoy them, they are super warm and really cute to boot! The neat thing is that as you wear the mittens, the roving will felt and it will make a super warm, somewhat water proof mitten. Hooray! Perfect for any lady in the winter.


Download the Lady Moss Mitten pattern here (pdf).

Summary of updates:
++Email me about having your ad for your indie business on the Craft Leftovers blog
++I'm taking the rest of the day off to recoup because my neck is acting up
++Shop updates throughout the week
++6 Craft Leftovers Monthly subscriptions available
++I'm taking next weekend off pattern writing to update the server and blog and back everything up as well as move Craft Leftovers to its new home! Hooray!

Updates in detail:
I don't know if anyone noticed or not, but there was a google ad up in the sidebar for about one evening.... I didn't like it. I took it down. Instead I'm going to offer really affordable ad space for indie crafter's businesses/blogs/websites and events. I've had to set up a new server account for hosting patterns and need to raise some money to cover the new costs. So if you are interesting in advertising with Craft Leftovers, just email me at craftleftovers@gmail.com for information on rates and whatnot. Send me a link to your site too. I really want to keep the ads on here ethical and independent crafter/artist based. Stuff that I think you all would like to know about and not be annoyed by.

I've decided to take the rest of today off and relax. I've been at the computer for about 2 days straight and my neck is starting to have issues and I fear if I don't listen to it, it's going to go out again. Time to use my lavender neck wrap.

The goal for the shop is to have it completely updated by this Saturday. I'm just going to do a group of kits each day. There is a lot of stuff. It's going to be the most kits and handmade gifts that I will have had in the shop at any one time.

There are still 6 November Craft Leftovers Monthly issues available, you can get yours here. I've decided to just leave them up until the next issue goes on sale. I mean, heck, why not.

I'm going to take next week off. Well, kind of anyway, not off craft leftovers, just no pattern. I'm going to go through and set up the new server as well as convert all the old patterns into pdfs (finally). And also back everything up onto an external hard drive so I can avoid what happened back in August. I'm also going to move the whole Craft Leftovers website! Oh my gosh! It's finally going to happen. Craft Leftovers will have its own website with everything all in place and most importantly, an archive with everything nice

Have a great week everyone! I'll post again during the week to let you know the progress of the shop updates and whatnot.

+++Kristin+++

Bedtime!

Okay, lame I know, but I'm just going to go to bed. This week pattern is realllllly cool and it took longer to make than I hoped it had (always the case with knitting patterns for me it seems). I really want the images to look nice (way past the time of natural light) and I don't want tiredness to lead to bad pattern writing (i.e. tons of errors, stupid typos, and ambiguous directions).

So I'm going to go to bed now, sleep my extra hour of sleep, get up, eat a hearty breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs, and thick coffee, and then cruse right through the pattern and have it up by noon time.

Have a good night! See you all tomorrow!

November Craft Leftovers Monthly

Happy Halloween everyone!
It's two days late going out the door, but it's on its way to you now. Thank you so much for waiting, and I promise it will be well worth it. I have to say I feel this has been the best issue yet. Or at least it's my favorite so far. It's packed full of crafty goodness and some recipes for the season too. With the kit, even if you don't know a baby, the bib works great for dolls for older kiddos too.

It should be arriving at the latest by the end of next week and for international order the weekend after that.

I have a ton of great ideas already flying through my mind and jotted down in my sketchbook for the December issue, so if you are not already signed up for that month, make sure to save the date. It will be on sale from November 18th to the 25th (Sunday to Sunday). In a strange way, or maybe not so strange, it reminds me of my studio work: each piece, or in this case issue, gets better. I'm really excited about the next one and think it will be really fun to put together.

I also wanted to explain the increase in shipping. I decided to go to boxes instead of envelops. It will allow me to send things of a more fragile nature without the worry of them getting to their new home in one piece (aka candy corn and glass buttons). It has unfortunately added a bit more weight as well as cost of packaging.

There are 10 issues left that were made in excess. I'm going to go ahead and re-list those in the shop. They will be on sale until Monday morning November 3rd. So if you thought you missed out this month, head over that way and pick one up. Unlike the regular subscription schedule, these, because they are already made, will be sent out as soon as payment is received.

Well, I hope you all enjoy this month's issue as much as I have and have a wonderful November!

See you all on Saturday! Keep it Crafty!

++Kristin++

Delay of Game

I'm really sorry to say that due to some out of my hands situation I wasn't able to get clm sent out today as promised. No power outage like before though (thank goodness). I would like to say that it will get out by tomorrow, which is my hope, but with class and everything and just in case I mess something up, I will say definitely by Wednesday.

Thank you so much to everyone who placed and order! It's going to be a really fun one this month. A great project and yummy recipes! I am so sorry it's going out a day or two late.

Also thank you to all the warm wishes and nice comments left! I really appreciate them. I'm glad you like the scarf! I love it too! It's just Simply Soft... oh that joke never gets old.

The sale was good, the wrong venue (lots of smarmy guys selling rip off name brand stuff and Avon type ladies), but still good. I had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people, many of whom are going to now stop by the lys where I work to learn how to knit/crochet/dye. So that's really good. I'm going to apply to some other sales too.... maybe the Bizarre Bazaar and/or Renegade. That could be fun. I think that there would be more crafty folks there too.

Anyway, I'm hitting the hay now. That way I will be fresh and spunky and get ready to go crazy with the glue gun in the morning.

I'll post an update when I get it out as well as send everyone emails.

Thanks again for your patients!

Mosaic Crochet Scarf

I really enjoy this scarf. It was fun and fast to make, under 3 hours. It's colorful. And it's super long! I can wrap it around my neck about 3 times. Love it!


Download the Mosaic Crochet Scarf Here (pdf).

Thanks Anary for telling me about the bad link!

You can see I have a new addition to the family. My friend from the local knitting group donated her to my crafty cause. She just happens to be just my size too! Perfect! I haven't named her yet though. Any suggestions?

I had an amazing day today at the Sycamore High School Craft and Treasure Sale. And even better it's going to be going on all day tomorrow too! From 9am-5pm to be exact. So if you are going to be in the area, stop by. I would love to meet you!




I also want to say thank you to everyone who came by today! It was so good to meet many of you for the first time. And for some of you, the first time you may have heard of Craft Leftovers and Green Prairie Fibers too! Craft Leftovers is all about what to do with what you have on hand. All patterns are free to download and print. They are all made from materials leftover from other projects. In the case of today's pattern, leftover yarn from making an afghan. In the shop you can find kits for the projects featured on this site, small handmade gifts, and once a month Craft Leftovers Monthly shows up. It is actually on sale until midnight Sunday (tomorrow) evening. So make sure to check it out if you love, or know someone who loves vintage and reclaimed goodness. You can read more about what Craft Leftovers Monthly is in the shop's listing (link).

Green Prairie Fibers started from the decision to try out dyeing yarn with natural dyes. I loved it! I started dyeing more than I could use and so, Green Prairie Fibers was born! I now offer both naturally and synthetically dyed yarns. The synthetically dyed colorways are all inspired by the midwest prairies. I use an illustrated field guide as my starting point, which fills my mind's eye with color, and then start the mixing and dyeing process. Just like wildflowers, each dye lot is unique. The shop will be updated tomorrow night (Sunday) with new yarns.

And I'm totally beat and am going to go knit a bit and hit the hay. Then it's off to the craft sale again tomorrow! Hooray! Have a good night everyone!

November's Craft Leftovers Monthly!

It's up! They will be on sale until Sunday, October 28th midnight and only 20 new subscriptions are available. Order your November Craft Leftovers Monthly here.

I'm only going to have one and two month subscriptions this month. I'm not sure what will be happening next semester, so I'm going to do subscriptions through December, see what's going on, and restart after the new year.

Each month subscribers receive a package filled with:
+++A kit for a pattern from the previous Craft Leftovers post
+++Reclaimed Craft Leftovers goodies (flat quarters of vintage fabric, buttons, iron on patches, ribbon, etc)
+++Craft Leftovers Monthly - A 10 page zine filled with as much tips on leading a stress free crafty lifestyle, a Craft Leftovers Monthly only project, cutout project cards, and reclaimed leftovers sprinkled throughout as a 10 page zine can hold.

Each subscriber's package is unique because it is made up of reclaimed leftovers and therefore a few of each kind only.

If you are ordering one month, you can just add the subscription to your shopping cart and pay like usual. If you would like to order 2 months, please add just ONE to your cart and check out. +++Select "OTHER" as your payment method+++ I will send you an invoice with your correct total within 24 hours.

Subscriptions cost:
1 month = $15.00 (+$3.50 s&h)(+$9.50 s&h for Europe)
2 months = $28.00 (+$7.00 s&h)(+$19.00 s&h for Europe)

My friend Rachelle of Magpie Girl is having this really fun contest and you should all join in the fun, there are prizes and everything! Let's see how many projects we can finish up by the end of the month for the Creativity Challenge! I'm going to try to get my toe up sock finished that I've been working on forrrrrever! What are you going to work on? There is a flickr group and everything too, so make sure to check it out.

See you all tomorrow at 5!

ps - I put some really cute halloween heatable catnip pillows in the shop today, you should go check them out.

Pain in the Neck

Blogger is being a jerk and won't let me upload pictures. Grrr.

Okay, well, I'll try again in the morning. Sorry!

Blogger is kind of being a jerk. It let me upload one picture but not the other. So I'll try again later when I post the sneak preview of this month's craft leftovers monthly. It will honestly be way later tonight actually. I have a family function to attend.

It is actually called "Pain in the Neck." It came to me after my post about my neck going out. Once I was able to sew again I made myself a heatable neck wrap that is filled with lavender and rice.

You can download the pattern here (pdf).