The Word on the Street, July 30

Liz has been working on drawing a picture for an old friend and hopes to finish it up this week.

Story Time: Back in high school, Liz made a lot of pen drawings of people’s names for friends and classmates.  Each name was embellished differently and Liz spent hours making each piece.  Enough people in the school found out about these drawings that Liz gained minor celebrity status and was asked to design the Senior t-shirts for her graduating class.  It was awesome!  Liz still has her shirt:

One of Liz’s friends, Stacy, has a name drawing and has asked Liz several times in the past couple of years to create a new drawing for her daughter.  Of course, Liz said that she would but has been so caught up with life and other projects that it was on the back burner for a while.  Finally, Liz put in the time to sketch out the new name drawing and is more than halfway done with it!  Stacy’s daughter, Piper, will have her very own name drawing in no time:

 

Liz has loved worked on this design for Piper.  It’s been many years since she has made a name drawing (probably since high school, actually) and it’s been a fun experience for her.  She’s been sure to update the overall look of the design while still keeping it detailed and interesting.  While Liz knows that she could probably do this work on a computer, she gets a deep satisfaction from doing it all by hand with pens.  She likes that little mistakes with ink pens help her figure out how to make the design work in a different way and practice keeping a steady hand.

Erica finally got her sewing machine after months of pining and dreaming and stalking the website of a certain store that sells craft supplies. On sale plus free shipping coupon makes Erica a happy girl! She’s been chug-chug-chugging away at her new machine, fixing her future Mother-in-law’s robe, and sewing a baby blanket.

 

Ted the Head (who's eyes are dead) got his hair cut the rest of the way. Sam's still thinking of ways to paint him so he doesn't look so terrifying but she has to hurry because her niece Evelyn is getting attached.

Sam's had a busy couple of weeks and not had much time for crafts, but she did take advantage of the time it took for her oil to be changed by starting some color work under the guidance of Debbie Stoller's Superstar Knitting. You can't see much of the color work in the picture but color work is something Sam's wanted to try for a while and so far is really enjoying it!

That's what's keeping us busy this week!

The Word on the Street, July 25

Liz hasn't been up to anything new when it comes to crafting – mostly thinking and planning, still plugging along on that afghan, and doing a bit of internet surfing from time to time. She's been annoyed lately that 2 of her 3 houseplants don't look so well because Lola will eat any plant that she can get to, so Liz has to keep plants on high surfaces or strange places that tend to not provide enough light. Part of her internet searching lately has involved ogling macrame plant hangers that can be mounted into a wall or ceiling – a great solution! Something like this one, available from seller JoanDougArt on Etsy:

Erica worked hard on Baby Moss’s afghan, but didn’t get it finished in time for the baby shower. Which was okay, because Baby Moss’s big sister Cheyanne got to learn to knit, and knit a few stitches on the blanket!

She was also busy with birthday festivities, such as seeing “The Dark Knight Rises” at midnight on Thursday, renewing her license, and seeing the Detroit Tigers take the lead in their division against the Chicago White Sox. It was hot, she got sunburnt, she paid $8.50 for one beer, and she had a great time.

 Locust Street Crafts got a new member this week! Ladies and gentleman, this is Ted the Head! Sam's little sister Jane is in beauty school and she snagged us this head model when she was done practicing on him. Jane will finish shaving his head and we will give him an extreme makeover so he can model our hats at craft shows. He will work on not looking so terrifying and dead around the eyes. 

This is how Sam's cable bag from last week turned out. Sorry about the crummy picture, she had to take it it quickly before she turned the bag in at JoAnn's where it's currently on display to entice people to take her classes.

That's what's keeping us busy this week!

Our Gal, B

by Liz and Sam

Wanna know a secret? This is a super secret post written by Liz and Samantha, to celebrate our fellow LSC girl, Erica. Today is Erica’s birthday, and we wanted to honor her: our great friend, our snarky craft compadre, our fellow Dirty Dancing-lovin’ pal, our B.

Every time that Liz sees this picture, she cracks up.  What's even happening?  Sunglasses AND a hat - indoors?  And that funny face that B is making...priceless.

Liz and Erica met while working together at the local public library in undergrad. Through mysterious mysteries, they developed a friendship and even discovered that they knew similar people. They bonded over long days at the library, not limited to hungover mornings, food runs, and Sex and the City.

Erica and Sam also met at the public library. They bonded over a mutual dislike for most people upon first meeting, but liked each other almost right away. Little known fact, Sam and Erica actually once shared a hangover. The morning after a good-bye party for a librarian, Sam came in feeling awful while Erica felt fine. At noon, the tables turned and Erica took shift two of the hangover. Thank you, little pal! Erica also taught Sam that there was such a thing as canned potatoes (Sam had no earthly idea, you guys) and exposed her to the comedic stylings of Mr. Eddie Izzard for which she will be eternally grateful.

Erica as Dora the explorer.  Sure, this could be a generic picture of anyone ripped from the interwebs, but it's our Erica.  She might not have a particular liking for most children and absolutely no liking for a certain explorer named Dora, but she's willing to go the extra mile for her job.

We both love Erica for her dry humor, blatant honesty, tastes when it comes to books and movies (Chuck Palahniuk, yes!), her hilarious antics, and her fierce devotion to her friends.

Happy Birthday, our Bizzle! We love you!

We forgot to tell you about B's magical skillz in Microsoft Paint.  This picture of B, Samantha, and Liz was taken at a craft fair on one particularly chilly autumn day and B used her aforementioned skillz to make this picture look as though we were all wrapped up in a big bunch of twisted yarn.  

Lady Harper and the Cat Nip Mouse

 by Samantha

What are you looking at, Human?

Last night I was working on my computer when I heard a rustling sound near my feet. I looked down and there was Harper, spazzing out with a catnip mouse I made and gave to the cats for Christmas.

There's nothing to see here. Look away.

She was rubbing it on her face, flinging her body back and forth, and kicking it with her back feet. If you have cats or have seen a cat get all goofy and playful, you know what I mean.

I love it, I love my naughty pet!

These catnip mice are my best sellers at craft shows. They are durable (trust me, my cats have had the same ones for years and have really put them to the test) and if Harper's behavior last night was any indication, the catnip smell stays potent for a long time. They're made with Stoned Kitty Catnip which is grown locally by a friend of mine. If you want to watch your own cat spazz out with a homemade catnip toy, send me an email at locuststreetcrafts@gmail.com or if you're in the Mount Pleasant area, stop by The Book Shelf.

Trust me, this look on your cat's face is worth every penny:

The Word on the Street, July 16

Now that you’ve had a chance to meet all of us, we want to share a weekly segment of our blog that we call Word on the Street.  Every week, we will share with you all the craft stuff we’ve been up to or plan to work on this week.

Liz has been finishing a few rows every couple days on her first afghan in 19 years.  Different shades of green are combined with various neutral shades here, and the result is heavy and warm with a lot of variety.  It’s coming along, though Pam tells Liz that she’s crazy to do an entire afghan in single chain.

 

Erica is manically finishing a baby blanket that is for a shower on Saturday (eek!). It doesn’t seem like much at the moment, but this big fluffy blanket should keep Baby Mathis nice and warm this winter. 

 

She is also debating whether or not to buy some new double pointed needles to finish that second sock... since the first one was finished two years ago. The pattern for the sock can be found at Knitty.com.

Sam's been preparing samples for her JoAnn's classes and it's all about cables.

 Each month, JoAnn's offers a different stitch pattern and this month it's Alternating cables. 

The other class coming up in the next couple of weeks is the Cable Ready Bag. That big brown panel is one side of the bag and the stuff on the needle is (obviously) the other panel that is still a WIP (work in progress). Here's a closeup of the cables:

Sam's excited to see the shape it takes once the sides are stitched together and the handles are attatched. 

That's what's keeping us busy this week!

Here's Liz!

Hi there! My name is Liz and I am the youngest and tallest member of Locust Street Crafts. I currently live in Grand Blanc, Michigan, but spent over 5 years living in Mt. Pleasant and it has a sweet spot in my heart – especially Locust House.

This picture of me displays the true magnificence of the counter space in Locust House. Never before and since have I lived in a place with such abundant counter space – this is only maybe 1/3 of it, and it's clearly enough to sleep on. A lot of mornings in the Locust House found Samantha, Erica, and I huddled around the coffee pot, staring it down, mugs in hand. A watched pot may never boil, but a watched coffee pot gets you the first cup.

Since leaving Mt. Pleasant in 2007, I've completed a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science. Yes, you read that correctly, I'm a Scientist! But more realistically, I'm a Librarian. I have a great job working in a public library with awesome kids.

On the craft side of things, I'm the daughter of a yarn wizard – my mother, Pam. Rarely in the history of my life do I think there were ever fewer than 25 skenes of the stuff in our house. She is always working on something and never met a crochet pattern that she couldn't tackle. Pam also knits occasionally. At a young age, she taught my older sister, Amy, how to crochet something very basic – you know the story, where the beginner starts out doing well but then either adds too many stitches or not enough to the end of something and ends up with a triangle. Well, Amy ended up with a triangle alright, but my mom had the wherewithal to fold it up just right, darn the edges, add a button, and WHAM! That thing was suddenly a darling clutch purse. Pam is just that kind of resourceful lady.

So then, it was my turn to learn. My mom has 5 children total and I am the fourth. In hindsight, I don't know where she found the time to teach me to crochet, but she did. When I was in 4^th grade, she helped me learn to crochet an entire afghan for one of my best friends. I was 9. To date, it's the only afghan that I have ever made, mostly because I didn't crochet much after that. I became really interested in drawing, and once I reached high school, I dabbled in a variety of other arts, though still picked up a crochet hook once in a while. College came and the muscle memory of crochet came back to me, as I created very basic single-chain hats and scarves for my friends.

To this day, I still really only crochet with a single-chain and don't make anything very fancy, though I am working on another afghan. I own only one crochet hook. I don't do any sort of counting or writing numbers down while I crochet, it's just all a very simple process for me and I'm fine with that. I get creative with colors and blending instead. I did knit a scarf once, with the help of my mom, but prefer crocheting. Someday, I hope to learn new chains and stitches to add some variety to what I make, but I'm in no rush. Fortunately for me, I am always interested in trying new and different types of crafts in addition to any yarn work I do. I've made a variety of crafts, some seen here:

Hanging wall vases

Stuffed bird toys

Washer necklaces

There are a lot more items I've made, and most recently I tried my hand at hair clips. If I had my way though, my craft of choice would be pottery:

I made the pieces pictured above when I had some studio time gifted to me by my fiance last year. Clay is so much fun for me, and I'd love to have my own wheel and kiln someday.

I live with my fiance, Eric, and my cat, Lola, who turned 10 years old this March, that old girl! I enjoy going thrift shopping, listening to audio books in my car on my hellish commute, making and eating chocolate no-bake cookies, and traveling. I'm a vegetarian, adore everything George Harrison, enjoy a good rock show, and really like tattoos. Lately when I craft, I watch a lot of Law & Order: SVU.

Here are some gratuitous pictures of my cat, and thanks for reading.