Tah-Dah

It only took half of a year to make this four piece project. I learned the tuscan stitch, how to make flowers and embroidery. Made from 50% alpaca and 50% wool; warm and mildly itchy.


















Hat pattern mostly made by me, treble crochet mixed with single crochet for the round, bill made from pattern. Arm warmer pattern made by me, rectangle with tuscan stitch, stems and leaves embroidered, then sewn to fit around hand and arm with a thumb hole. Garden Scarf from Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet book.

Reduce!

Step one of the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle plan. I love shopping for my fruits and veggies in my basket and not collecting a bunch of plastic bags.
I also like remembering to take my crocheted hemp grocery bag. I will reuse these items many, many times!

Mother and Daughter Hat Set

The photo pretty much sums it up. Too darn cute! Great for family outings because you can keep track if everyone wears the same hat! Going to have to work on child sizing, this one for an 8 month old, need to do elastic hats that grow with the baby.

Reused Plastic Bag Project

Today I started my plastic bag project: making a reusable plastic bag from plastic bags! I cut up the bags, I have mostly brown and white bags.
I slipped the loops together alternating brown and white, then rolled a ball.

I started by making my beginning chain, then single crocheting. I am going to make a rectangle for the bottom of the bag then go around from there.



The brown/white alternation is starting to look pretty neat. I am excited to see how it turn out.

Splurger!

I just have to share the beautiful colors that I got for my arm warmers! Plus, I found the scarf I am going to make. It's the Garden Scarf from my Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet book! YAY! :)

Meditation

Recently we've been listening to guided sleep meditation music before and during sleeping! It's the most amazing and thorough sleep that I've ever achieved. I've always been a good sleeper, it is one of my favorite things to do. Now, it's like power sleeping, the most REM in an 8 hour period, the better. I feel more alive during the day, I am happier and more excited and energetic. I think that you will just have to try it to see what I mean.

Beautiful yarn for ME ;0)

My first ever local yarn store purchase happened after work the other day. Yah, after work, I got myself a office job to support my yarn habit, well that and other important life needs. I stopped by Yarn Garden on Hawthorne to browse for something to make myself some arm warmers with. I found a 50% wool and 50% alpaca in this beautiful earthy orange. Upon purchasing this wonderful new exciting yarn I learned about how they roll it into a ball for you. Exciting I know, and how could this be my first such experience? That's the best question of all because I am not sure how I've been able to keep myself away from this. Must of been the lack of income and knowledge. But oh well, sometimes the best things in life are just worth waiting for and yes, I am still talking about yarn.
Anyway, I decided to make rectangles that I am going to sew leaving a hole for my thumb. Since, I've decided that I will have to go back and purchase the brown and green to embroider some branches and leaves before sewing. I am using the tuscan stitch which is perfect for embroidery. I really hope that I get them done before it gets too warm to wear them. I've been working on them on the bus while I commute. Yay! arm warmers!

Earthy Eye at Space Monkey

Earthy Eye hats are now available at Space Monkey Coffee
which is a rad coffee shop in south east Portland.
5511 SE 72nd Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97206
(503) 772-3028
Experience includes:
-Yummy organic coffee
-bagels, yogurt & snacks
-WIFI
-Mt. Scott Park/Rec Center across the street
-Comfy hangout
-Earthy Eye Hats
-other local artists

Shoot Cupid weekend

Well Shoot Cupid was a bummer regarding sales and the new grease smell that smoothers my hats. Everything else was fun though, I enjoyed the other venders who I got to set up next to.

Since I don't have much exciting news regarding Shoot Cupid I thought I'd share other things that are going on in my life. Last Sunday I planted starts in my basement including broccoli, cabbage, onion, tomato and leeks. Today, one week later, I have four 2" broccoli sprouts, two 2" cabbage sprouts, and the onion, tomato and leeks are peaking out of the soil as well. This summer is going to be a very awesome and plentiful summer. The girls are already out getting the soil ready. Oh, and outside we've planted the asparagus, it's so tiny and cute :)

Sauvie Island

This afternoon Christina and I took a relaxing drive to Sauvie Island. We stopped and got some warm drinks to take on a nice stroll on the beach. I'd not been to Sauvie Island before and it was a really nice time. We both wanted to get out of the city to enjoy some nature.

We are very lucky living in Portland, there are so many options for this. There was a bit of rain sprinkles but it was not windy. We saw blue herons, an eagle, 4 deer and a tun of other wildlife. It was a very lovely afternoon, thank you Christina! :)


"Live too much in the past or in the future, and you lose touch with the present moment. This moment will never come again. Live it now."

(some great advise that I am trying out)

Plastic - what a bummer...

Plastic is a bummer and even worse, a catastrophe! I read this article and I think everyone should read it!

"A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility...and worse."

(this poor bird & turtle are just small samples of the truth) And I think that we should all be more cautious regarding our choices! Think before you buy! Buy handmade! Buy recycled, second-hand, etc. What are you going to put your purchases in? (Answer: not a plastic bag) My new goals 1.) serious thought before I purchase: Do I really, really need it? Can I live without it? What will happen to it after I am not able to use it any longer? What happens if it breaks? Is it fixable? What would happen to it if it goes into a landfill? So much to think about regarding money spending. Also, remember to vote with your money! Buy US made as much as possible. Etc, I could go on forever. 2.) I am going to reuse/recycle with the best of them. Check out this rad blog that I found regarding making very functional items from plastic bags. I am going to have to give it a try, I will let you know how it works out! Her blog also has lots of great links!
Think of the future! It's not too late to help it out!

Hats plus scarfs

I know that some of you have been waiting for the day and today is that day. Today I have completed hat and scarf sets. I have made two sets modeled here by Mabel and Marvin. Both hats are Billy Beanies with stripes. The pink/purple/orange scarf is a sweet-pea stitch and the black/gray/white scarf is stripes. Soon to be added to my Etsy and hopefully more made before Shoot Cupid.

Earthy Eye at Shoot Cupid 2008

Yes, that is right, I've been accepted to vendor at Shoot Cupid 2008!

Hope to see you all there (all over 21 anyway, don't forget your id)

Also, Earthy Eye is now on Facebook so go ahead and become a fan if you like :)

Tapesty Crocheting

I've been learning to tapestry crochet from the directions in my Happy Hooker book. I first started with the heart design from the book. It turned out pretty good I think!


Then I decided to make a hat and started simply with every other stitch. I counted many, many times and it still did not turn out to meet correctly on the back (not shown). Also, this hat wasn't meant to turn out so small, it would probably fit a new born, if lucky.


Getting closer with the next hat, still small in size but it can actually fit onto my head. I wasn't too excited about how this one turned out because of the red yarn that you can see all of the way around the hat where the hearts are. But all and all, I am very excited to have learned to tapestry crochet. I been improving and now have a few tapestry hats up on my Etsy.

Purple hat with orange "XOXO" tapestry crocheted into it. I used a double crochet for the first time with the tapestry which is usually done in single crochet. I prefer double crochet, even though the stitches are longer.

I will be coming up with more hat tapestry designs soon, it's too much fun not too :)

Tissue Cozy

I was given a tissue cozy that was "made in China" from a friend in hopes that I could recreate with our favorite fabrics. Success! I like these even better than the one that wasn't made by me.

iPod Sweater

Turns out that I am not good at following patterns. I try regularly but never quite get what is expected. No fret though, as I am actually good at making things work for me some way or another. Crochet hacks, as some might say. I got this great new book,
Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller. I tried the cozy pod creatures pattern on page 265. It's a great pattern design! If I remember correctly you only cut your yarn once. I think that I got lost at the pocket. That and it wasn't going to fit my 60 gig like I thought. So, I took my iPod out and measured some vinyl to fit the front and went from there. My pattern is a lot different but with similar results, as in it cover the iPod. No pocket or creature cuteness in mine. Also, I cut my yarn at least 4 times so I had lots to tuck in. Mine is made of Patons Merino wool in a camouflage color pattern. My iPod is happy with its new sweater :)

Marvin and Mabel

Finally the search for glass mannequin heads is over. Meet Marvin and Mabel, the two latest members of Earthy Eye.
I have been searching all over Portland for these two. I searched many fixture stores, second hand stores, Ikea and the internet. Finding glass heads on the internet looked to be my only hope but they cost $15 or so plus that in shipping. Beat the $65 plastic mannequin heads that I had seen but I decided to look on. I ending up finding them at Pier One for $15 each! YAY! I am very excited to have these new hat models. Their head circumference is about 21 inches which is a bit small but not really, because it's better than too big.

Misguided Mittens

Back in September upon having cold hands I decided to make myself some mittens. I did not find a pattern that I liked though I probably did not look too hard as I wanted mittens quick. I was very excited to start my mitten project and bought some feltable Merino Wool. As I crocheted I wrote down exactly what I was doing to so that I could make two mittens just a like. After completing the first one I washed it in the washer on warm with some jeans. Turned out pretty great! Then, with plenty of distractions later, I did not complete the second mitten until December. Thought I should since if I waited too much longer I wouldn't need mittens until next September. Anyway, so the second mitten went following the directions that I wrote from the first. It went quite fast as I started to remember the initial excitement of having 'me-made' mittens. The results did not turn out as had planned though. The second mitten was a bit different even though I followed the directions. And, I since then had gotten a new washer/dried with a front load washer. I don't know why it's different but the second mitten did not felt even after trying twice. So, in the end, what I have is mittens, that are not exact. (the second one turned out smaller) I wore them last weekend for the first time and they still worked out as originally planned. Lesson learn: when making two exact items, 1) do them one after the other, no waiting around, 2) felt them together at the same time to ensure same results. Guess I will have to try again next September. ;0)