Projects I am considering:

• Latch Hook rug Vintage. New in Package. And I already have the tool!
  
• Punch Needle embroidery: I purchased PlanetJune’s punch needle embroidery e-book and Moon pattern ages ago. I finally found a punch needle, so I’d like to give it a try.
• Crochet blanket I want to add a least a few hexagons to this languishing crochet project.
• Spinning My apartment is full of fiber. I would like to convert some of it into yarn.
  
• Wee knitting
  • Boot toppers
  • Acorns and tinier acorns
  • Hedgehogs: This one is the cutest but I already have the pattern for this one
• Needlework pattern Just like last year I still have some vintage crewel patterns that I would like to stitch up. Now I also have an Amy Sedaris cross stitch pattern (from Lauren at Sweet-meats) and a few recently procured Japanese cross stitch patterns to try out.
• Marshmallows I like to make homemade marshmallows. Last year I experimented with some homemade marshmallows with bourbon in them, and I would like to perfect the recipe this year.

[poll id=”4″]

As a wee crafter, I spent many a holiday working on little holiday needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns that my mom hoarded during after-christmas sales. The first step (and the one that drove me INSANE when I was young) is to baste the edges of the canvas to prevent fraying. I dreaded doing it, but it was not nearly as tedious as I remember (can I possibly be more patient than when I was 8?). The next step was always to take of the thread from the project and attach to a yarn organizer. Miner were always butterfly shaped. Did anyone ever have one that WASN”T a butterfly? Anyway, i realized that this would be the step to stop adult-me in my tracks. I didn’t have a yarn organizer. With nothing to do all day but craft, and an awesome idea from Carmen, i decided to make my own.

i whipped out a sheet of Brown shrinky-dink plastic and threw together a retro-fabulous sketch of an owl. I planned out where to place holes that I could punch with my circular craft punches.

I made it the size of the entire sheet of plastic, and then cut it out (note pen for scale)

Then I popped it into the toaster oven at 300 until it shrank up (i used chopsticks to pull apart any areas that got stuck during shrinking).

I am really pleased with the holes of varying size – it is very satisfying to put the fat wads of yarn in the bigger holes, and the thread in the tiny holes. I added a rare earth magnet (with E6000 glue) to the center to hold on to needles, and then I got busy!

So busy, in fact, that I completed the whole thing!

The project was a new in package 1972 Caron Crewel 5 x 7 (#6306). The yarn was all wool (in some of the older projects the included yarn is acrylic) and the instructions were thorough. Highly recommended!