Retrophile

  Happy Thanksgiving What are you thankful for?  Myself, I am thankful for my health, my family, my friends, my wonderful boy, and my good fortune this year. Hello All,           I know it has been forever since I last posted.  I have been up to my pearls in school work and student papers.  But as of right now I am on Fall Break from work.  I am having fun working on my Dicken's Fair dress, cooking and catching up on school work.           My dickens fair dress is about half way done.  I have most of the jacket construction done, and have the panels of the skirt sewn together.  I will post pictures when I get a chance to take some.           I have also been having fun playing house wife.  Tonight I baked my signiture pear, cranberry pie.  This is the third year I ...

Hey,  So someone brought up the concept of having a knit along.  So I am putting it out there for all the beginners.  Anyone interested in participating a knit along for beginners.  I haven't picked a project yet.  I am open to suggestions though.  So sent me links to your proposed ideas and we can get this going. Laters! xo Nikki

I have come to the conclusion that I really need to learn how to knit.  I found these on mod cloth and really want a pair!  They are a throw back with a modern twist, which I LOVE! What do you think?  Any one have any tips on how to start learning?

I have been on the hunt for a while for cute oven mitts and pot holders.  When all of a sudden walking through the fabric store it hit me... Duh! I should just make my own.  I'm not really sure why the fact hadn't hit me before, but it did just at the right time.  So browsing through the bolts I found the cutest apples and pears fabric.  Now normally I go for cherries (since that is what my kitchen theme evolved in to) however these just had the perfect colors and were sooo cute. I didn't really have a patter in my stash so I hunted the net.  I must say, there is not  shortage of patterns out there for oven mitts and pot holders!  However I found one that was particular cute at www.craftandfabriclinks.com . Here is the direct link to the pattern, http://www.craftandfabriclinks.com/oven_mitt/oven_mitt_pattern.html however feel free to check out their other free patterns.  There are some really cute ones in there. The reason I chose this o...

Hello All, So I have started a small side project to keep my hands busy while watching the tube. I am making crocheted, poodle, toilet paper covers. Yes, the kind like granny used to have in her bathroom. What can I say, I have always like these kitschy little things. How can you not love them. I got the idea from a book I have mentioned before Kitschy Crafts. I tried going by the directions but to be truthful, it just looked like gibberish to me. So... I went online and started piecing it together for myself. I started off by looking up tutorials of how to crochet a circle. What I found was a tutorial on how to single crochet a circle... Single Crochet Coaster Tutorial Video Because I was new at this I decided to start with just one color of yarn. I followed the instructions just as she has shown. However, I kept having a problem. My circle wasn't laying flat at all. It was ruffling up. The ruffle was neat looking, and filed that away for future use....

So today I got a bit of a surprise! My mauter (mom) finished my afghan! She had started it a couple months ago when it was cooler. I really didn't expect her to finish it till the fall when things cooled down. If you have ever tried crocheting or knitting something large in the summer you know what I mean. She made the afghan by crocheting squares with various patterns of red maroon, plum, tank and brown yarn. The kind of crocheting is called grandma squares. She then stitched them all together and gave it a border. I have to say I love it. It looks so cute on my couch and goes great with the colors in the living room. She started making this for me because of my love of all things kitschy or other wise labeled old lady crafts. I had the idea when looking through I book I had gotten for my birthday called, Kitschy Crafts. Its a great book if you like old school crafts and crafting. It has crafts spanning the decades. Such as... Crocheting, macrame, even glass...