Looliloo

Crafting with Purpose

belouise — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 15:17:14 +0000

I’m excited about being able to use my humble shoe making skills to help create my friend, A’s shoe design vision for Sole Hope…an incredible ministry she began just a few short months ago determined to put closed toed shoes on the feet of African children and adults who would otherwise suffer from terrible conditions caused by being barefoot. The challenge has been to make a shoe that the woman of Ndola, Zambia can duplicate with their own resources so it will have a sole made of the hundreds of spare tires that are just lying around. To find out more about the story of how this all began or to find out how you can help please visit Sole Hope’s website.

cookin’ up some happy colors

belouise — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:49:42 +0000

I had forgotten how fun it is to work with dye. The past couple of weeks I have taken a hour or so to play in the kitchen and cook up some new colors on some boring white baby onesies. Have I mentioned I’m not a fan of white? Well, at least, not in clothing. Yes, gotta have a few pieces of go-with-anything white but if I’m going to pick out something that I love it will not likely be white. So, when it got hot around here with summer hitting us full force I realized that my little baby girl was living in onesies all the time. You can’t beat them for being simple, cool and comfy when it’s baking hot outside. However, they do fail in one area…style. They are boring…at least the ones we had on hand were. Sure, I could go searching at the mall for some pretty ones but do I really want her wearing the same thing every baby on the block is wearing? No…not when I can have some fun making her some at home. So I got out the dyes and put the pots on to boil and had some great mad scientist fun creating pretty colors. Color wasn’t enough, though, I had to put the icing on them with some simple, fun & folksy applique.

I went a little crazy once I got to dyeing (remember I mentioned the whole mad scientist thing!) so I have plenty and have listed these in my Etsy store with more to come. Didn’t I say I forgot how much fun it is to dye things?

Daddy’s Old Shirts

belouise — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:05:31 +0000

become a twirly whirly skirt for the girl.

We’ve been way too busy

belouise — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:36:41 +0000

but stay tuned. All 3 of us mamas have had some big changes in our lives these past few months so the blog has, unfortunately, become a casualty of the busyness but will, hopefully get back on track soon. Looking to add a new crafty mama to the blog soon, too, so I’m looking forward to that.

Anyway, check back soon and for some plain ol’ shameless bragging I have got to show off my big life change…well, she’s actually kind of little…

Might As Well Face It…

belouise — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:13:07 +0000

I’m addicted to wool.

I can’t stop FELTING!!! Oh boy, with a new baby on the way my crafting dream to-do list is growing leaps and bounds. There are so many things I want to make for this little girl and now that I have my new serger I am having such a hard time not just sitting behind it all day long.

Here’s my latest recycled wool sweater creation. Little bluebird recycled wool longies size 6-9 months…

On another note, Lucy over at Attic24 has made an amazing advent calendar that is making me wish that it wasn’t already December 12. Maybe next year. Gotta go check it out if you can…love it!

Easy Crochet Hat

belouise — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:52:15 +0000

When you are pregnant, have asthma and a case of walking pneumonia and you get out of breath just going to the bathroom…what do you do? Crochet.

Here’s a link to the pattern…retro tam. I’m still a beginner at crochet so I tend to do it too tightly. So an adult hat becomes the perfect fit for a 4 year old. I think I’m going to add a nice size fabric flower to the side of it once I can make it down the stairs to the basement and dig through my stash but that is gonna require much more breathing than I have in me right now.

Little Dresses For Africa

belouise — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:32:09 +0000

So, we have all been MIA for a long time now. It’s not that we haven’t been crafting, just too busy with life and the blog has been a bit neglected because of it. Each of us are homeschooling our children and so fall has been a whirlwind of activity as we trade the lazier days of summer for more scheduled days. Kelly, Jen, and I, along with our friend, K, all pull our resources together once a week and co-op our schooling. Each month we work around a different theme or area of focus and this month our focus has been on “Serving Others”. We took a day to hike, play and do some clean up outdoors and we have worked on creating pillowcase dresses to send to Africa through Little Dresses For Africa. Such a great mission project has been going on with this organization and we really wanted to get involved ourselves. So last Wednesday we sent a total of, I think, 20 dresses to Africa and we’re working on some more…they are quite addicting. Here’s a sampling…

The Shoes In Action

belouise — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:29:43 +0000

So, I’ve been working on relaunching LilyGiggle for a couple of weeks now and finally have some new looks live on my site…yea!

Yesterday, Kelly and I spent 3 hours at the park…yes, I said 3 hours on that playground and it flew by like it was 30 minutes. We had over 2 weeks of catching up to do and the kids would have stayed for 3 more hours if we’d let them. We took the opportunity to snap some photos of her cutie-pie Claire wearing her new pair of LilyGiggles to go with her super cute skirt made by her mama.

Back to Shoes

belouise — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:54:50 +0000

Through a new turn of events that I won’t bore anyone with the details on, I am currently working on relaunching my neglected soft sole shoe business, LilyGiggle shoes. I really let it go after some difficult personal problems stole my focus and I didn’t think I would ever make them again. Though my online store and etsy shop are pathetically out of stock I’m working hard to change that by next week. I’m showing them next weekend locally and this pair even got a shout out on our local news station where they were worn in a small fashion show promoting Munchkin Market. Unfortunately, the cameraman apparently had not had enough coffee that morning because he never panned down on the shoes or even the outfit, for that matter, but kept his camera directly on the young model’s face the whole time! My whole family glued around the tv to see mom’s creations in the spotlight got a great laugh out of that one.

Felted OVEN Mitt

Jennifer — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:30:18 +0000

This week I’m sharing a pattern for a pretty nifty oven mitt. And yes, it does “work”! I’ve actually used it for standard baking pans and dishes. However, on some of my stoneware, I either have to work quickly or double-up with another mitt. Those baking stones get way hot!!!

I figured you could put some cute embroidery and such to add a personal touch. Also a simple knitted i-cord for a handy hanging loop would be easy and practical!

If you are new to knitting or rather new to the world of felting, this would be a perfect beginning project.

Here you go…Cheers!

Oven Mitt

Supplies for this project:

250 yards of Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride (hold 2 together)

Small amount of contrast color for band, if desired

Size 13, 15, or 16 inch circular needles

Set of double pt. needles in size 11,13,15

Size 10 or smaller circular needle

Marker

Stitch holder

~~~HOLD 2 STRANDS OF YARN TOGETHER~~~~

Using larger circular needle, CO 35 stitches loosely (co 1 extra to join circle) w/ contrast color. Place marker and join circle by purling 1st two stitches together, then purl around. Purl 4 more rounds = total of 5 rounds. Cut yarn.

With spare circular needle, pick up lower loops of the cast on edge. PUT NEEDLE TIP THROUGH THE RIGHT SIDE TO WRONG SIDE TO PICK UP CAST ON STITCHES. Fold the cast on edge up to the inside like a hem. Join main color and work a 3 needle join (just like a 3 needle bind off BUT do not bind off).

Increase round: *Knit 6, inc in next stitch; repeat from * around—40 sts. Knit 18 rounds even.

Thumb Gusset:

Round 1: Knit 2, m 1 (make 1), knit to last 2 sts, m1, k2—42 sts.

Round 2-6: Knit

Round 7: Knit 4, m1, knit to last 4 sts, m1, k4—44 sts.

Round 8-12: Knit

Round 13: Knit 6, m1, knit to last 6 sts, m1, k6—46 sts.

Round 14-15: Knit

Divide for Thumb opening: Knit 1 round, ending 7 sts before marker. Slip the next 7 sts onto a holer, remove marker, and slip the next 7 sts onto the holder—32 sts remain on the needle, 14 sts on the holder. Replace marker and join the remaining 32 sts into round. Knit 10 rounds even.

Shape top:

Round1: *ssk, k12, k2tog; repeat from * once—28 sts.

Round 2-7: Knit

Round 8: *ssk, k10, k2tog; repeat from * once—24 sts.

Round 9: Knit

Round 10: *ssk, k8, k2tog; repeat from * once—20 sts.

Round 11: Knit

Round 12: *ssk, k6, k2tog; repeat from * once—16 sts.

Round 13: *ssk, k4, k2tog; repeat from * once—12 sts.

Round 14: *ssk, k2, ,k2tog; repeat from * once—8 sts.

Round 15: *ssk, k2, k2tog; repeat from * once—4 sts. Cut yarn and draw through all remaining sts. Pull together tightly.

THUMB: Slip the 14 sts from teh holder onto a double point needle. With second dpn, pick up 2 sts from body of mitten. Arrange sts evenly on 3 dpn’s, place marker between the 2 picked up sts fro beginning of round and join 16 sts. (Pick up stitches by putting point of needle from right side to wrong side), have your #1 needle start between the original 2 picked up sts.

Round 1-4: Knit (be sure flat side, knit, is facing you)

Round 5: ssk, knit to last 2 sts, k2tog—14 sts.

Round 6: Knit

Round 7-10: Repeat rounds 5 & 6 two more time—10 sts.

Round 11: * k2tog, repeat from *—5 sts. Cut yarn and draw through all remaining stitches. Pull together tightly and fasten off. Weave in all loose ends.

Felt away in some soapy water, agitated in your washing machine.

This might take a couple of cycles to felt down to the proper size oven mitt.