This is the first in what I hope will be a nice long series of cross stitch. I collect children's books and I display my favorites, but that's just the covers! There are so many amazing illustrations and designs inside that no one ever gets to see. So I set out to turn some of my favorite pages into cross stitches. I scanned some of my favorite pages and used MacStitch to turn them into cross stitch patterns. Here's the first, part of a page from Books! by Murry McCain and John Alcorn. I wanted to start with something nice and small and simple. I finished it in a few leisurely evenings in front of the t.v.

This is the page I used:

And here's the final product:

i bought son of (a?) stitch 'n bitch and have been working on the mixology sweater for my boyfriend (he got the partially made sweater, with a promise of finishing in a month, for christmas). so i wouldn't have to carry the whole book around, i photo copied the pages i was working on, but realized i left off the last page (2 pages?) of the pattern. i've finished the back, and knit the front up to the neck shaping on the left side. the page i have has the instructions for neck shaping (left side) and then it stops.

i know we don't post whole patterns from the books, but is it possible for someone who has the book to post just PART of the pattern? everything i would need to finish the body? or if you can't post it, would someone be able to PM me the instructions? i'm not going home this weekend so i can't grab the book, and i'd really like to finish the body today or tomorrow!

so i saw this unbelievably amazing sweater and hat set linked off of boingboing.  it makes its wearer look like carl from aqua teen hunger force: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nutron/sets/72157600870747340/

my first thought was "holy crap, can i please dress someone up in that?!"

the only child i could think of that i might have at my mercy would be my boyfriend's 4-year-old nephew.  i've never knit a kid's-sized sweater before.  does anyone know of any simple kid's sweater patterns i could use as a basis for this sweater?  it just needs to be a non-raglan crew neck that is preferably in a gauge that is small enough to allow for the intarsia but large enough that i can knit it up quickly. i've been poking around on the internet and haven't found anything i liked yet so i thought i'd ask some experts and see if anyone knew of a good pattern of the top of their heads.

thanks!

i want to make a really small book (about 1/8 size) with nicely formatted, typed pages, double-sided, and put together in signatures (possibly only one signature, but it is going to be folded and sewn down the middle).  anyone have any advice about how i might be able to format a microsoft word document so i can print several pages of my tiny book on one page of 8 1/2 x 11?  i'd also like the margins to be nicely symmetrical so i can feed it through again and print on the back (to make it double-sided).

has anyone ever tried anything like this?  i guess i could dig out my old zine-making skills and do the cut, paste, and copy strategy, but i'd rather not have to do all of that gluing.  i've never liked that part that much.  plus, i'm only making one copy of the book.

thanks!

this year my best friend and i went as those creepy twins from the famous diane arbus photo.  i made the dresses by using a pattern for a really ugly dress to figure out how to do the shoulders and sleeves and improvised the collar, cuffs, and the rest of the dress from the boobs-down.  i was pretty damn proud of myself.  they actually fit.



too bad everyone thought we were nuns and that's the only picture.

this isn't really a craft, but it's very DIY so i was hoping i could get some help from you guys.

a friend of mine was lamenting how hard it was to find a DJ for her wedding--they were all really expensive and they all seemed kind of lame and dorky.  so i said, "hey, why don't i DJ your wedding!  i am free!  and i have good taste in music and i have a computer with a crapload of music on it!"  she was totally into this idea, probably because it saves her about $1000.

so now i'm DJing this wedding but I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING.  i have ideas for a lot of songs i want to play, and i'm obviously going to sit down with the bride and have her give me songs she really wants me to play, but i'd like to hear input from people who have thrown wedding receptions/been to a lot of wedding receptions.  any songs that are really big hits?  anything in particular to avoid?  anything you really wish you'd told your DJ before your wedding?

also, does anyone have any idea about what kind of equipment we'd need exactly?  in my head right now i'm just cobbling together a big stereo system with my stereo receiver, my computer, and a lot of speaker wire connected to a couple of sets of speakers spread around the room.  i also need to figure out how to wedge a microphone into that setup.  anybody got AV experience that could give me some advice?

and one more thing, just so that it's more crafty, as my wedding gift to the couple i'm going to burn CDs of every song i play at the reception, in order, and i'm going to put it into a home-made CD booklet along with polaroids that i take of people dancing at the reception.  i'll post pictures when it's done!

here i am, just 6 inches of sleeve away from finishing my first sweater.  i've been working on it off-and-on for probably 8 months, going through spurts where i knit a lot and months where i didn't knit more than a few inches.  i knit half of the first sleeve and all that i have of the second sleeve in the last few days, excited about my steady, "real knitter" progress, and then I RAN OUT OF YARN!



now i'm looking around the internet for a store where i can buy the yarn and where i can buy yarn for my next project (join the knitalong!: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=23594.0;topicseen) so that i don't have to pay $4 to ship ONE SKEIN.  GRRRRRRRR.

if anyone has 6-inches-worth of reynolds lopi wool yarn in dark charcoal (color 0005) that they want to purge from their stash i'll happily trade you something for it!

i guess i'll spend the down time weaving in the 18,000,000 ends from the intarsia (damn you skully!)

i'm going to start knitting "candy" very soon and would like some company.

the pattern is here, from the winter knitty: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTcandy.html

the yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, but people over at knitty are recommending these yarns:
rowan kid classic: http://www.yarnmarket.com/product.cfm?action=show_product&product_id=505
jo sharp rare infusion mohair: http://www.herrschners.com/products/sku-719108__id-1052__tab-.html

i haven't bought my yarn yet, and am trying to decide between knitting a sweater with dark blue (http://image.herrschners.com/zoom_img/WW719108-0618z.jpg) as the main color and green (http://image.herrschners.com/zoom_img/WW719108-0613z.jpg) as the contrasting color, or cream (http://www.yarnmarket.com/images/Done-AF-M-828-Kid_Classic-Rowan.jpg) with a bright juicy red color as a contrast (http://www.yarnmarket.com/images/Done-AF-M-827-Kid_Classic-Rowan.jpg)  DECISIONS DECISIONS!!

who wants in?

has anyone knit "candy" in the winter issue of knitty?  i'm thinking of giving it a shot after i finish my first real sweater (snb's skully) in the next week or so and i was wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom.

and if there's anyone else who wants to try this pattern, i'm up for a knitalong!  it would keep me focused.  it's taken me a good 8-or-so months of very unfocused, sporadic knitting to finish skully and i'd like to have candy finished in time to wear it during the cool spring months in chicago.

oh, here's a link: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTcandy.html

my roommate bought this really beautiful quilt when she was in india.  she wants to hang it on her bedroom wall and decorate her room around it, but we can't figure out how to hang it up without hurting the quilt itself.  any quilters (or other crafters out there) ever hang a quilt?  how did you do it without damaging all that hard work?