My new kitten looooves playing with plastic bags, so I made him this silly pompom to attack. He rolls around with it mostly. I think he likes the noise that it makes. To make one, cut plastic bags into long strips by cutting in a spiral. Use the strips to make a pompom just like you would make out of yarn. So far he hasn’t pulled any bits out of it.

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We just moved, and the new cable company carries the Style Network which carries Martha! And Tivo found it for me all by itself.

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Don’t know how I would go about making a rug, so Angela Adams is probably safe from homemade knockoffs. I like the design sense, though.

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Good Together has lots of cute, craftable stuff. You may remember their button jewelry in Ready Made. Awful Cufflinks featured their fuzzy pink necklace today, which is what reminded me of them. I really like the flowers on the Hanabi Shoulder Bag. They snap on. I might attempt something similar if I ever find some vinyl that I like.

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I am coveting Sew Easy, not to be confused with Sew Fast Sew Easy, which I am also coveting. I saw it today at Barnes & Noble. It said it was published by them, so I’m not sure if you can get it other places too (it’s not on Amazon, for instance). It’s by Jane Cumberbatch, and the projects in it are so cute. Aprons, simple clothes, house stuff. I think I’m going to have to buy it. I should start sewing more to justify it, though.

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Thread Painting by Liz Hubbard is one of my favorite inspiration books. Unfortunately, I got it from the library back in California, so I can’t check it out any more. It’s out of print, and the used copies are more expensive than I want to pay. How sad. It’s really a great book. Lots of just wonderful embroidered landscapes and other pictures. I noticed The Art of Embroidered Flowers by Gilda Baron in my Crafter’s Choice flier and finally tracked down a copy to page through. It’s similar enough to the other one to make me happy. It’s also got some different techniques, like embroidering bits of fabric on top of the picture to add dimension. I’ve been wanting to try machine embroidery ever since I realized that I can use my normal machine for it by just lowering the feed dogs. I’m going to give it a try and see if I need to get a darning foot or not.

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Cy5 is this fluorescent dye I use in lab. It’s really finicky, thus my line of I hate Cy5 apparel. I used my trusty Gocco and fabric ink to screen a set of shirts for my Cy5-hating friends. I’m very impressed with the Gocco fabric ink. I’ve washed it a few times with no ill effects. It’s gotten such a great response from people that I made a CafePress store to sell t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. (At cost, I should say. I won’t benefit from the misery Cy5 causes.)

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Sew Fast Sew Easy, i.e. the store that generated the book, has a neat web page. They have a lot of nice patterns for things I might actually make. The book’s been getting rave reviews from all the sewing bloggers. I paged through it at the bookstore the other day, and it did seem really useful. I think I’ll get it if I ever start sewing clothes. It has a whole section on how to fit a skirt, for instance.

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The Japanese have a crafty streak that I really like. I bought a couple of craft books when I visited there last year (not that I’ve made anything from them yet…), and there are lots of good sites on the web. “Good” is defined as lots of pictures accessible by randomly clicking the indecipherable links, or, even better, kind translations.

Otamas: Japanese pattern (click around the site for a gigantic photo gallery) and English translation on the crochet Live Journal community

Scrubby: Pattern via Knitting Is Fun and Super Eggplant.

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