surprise, I’m alive and stashbusting!

September 4, 2026 by Leave a Comment

Not because I’m quitting crafts or anything — quite the contrary — I need room for more, of course!

I hope you’ve all been doing well, and I really hope to start blogging more with the stuff I’m making and stick to it this time (cuz I know I say that every time, and I do apologize).  I’ve still been sewing, crocheting, knitting, cross stitching, embroidering, jewelry making, and even doing more “eclectic” type stuff with bones and bugs I find outside, I just need to share it with you guys!

I will say I have been busy partially due to the fact that my bestie (who is an insanely creative crafter) and I are now running a craft vendor booth called Hyperfixation Station (click here for the linktree, and you can see some of the stuff we have for salethrough Facebook as well as our Instagram if you feel like following or just taking a peek at some of the crafts we’ve been up to and markets we’ve participated in).

So anyway, stashbusting.  My yarn was overflowing my dresser, I bought another set of storage drawers, and I still had trash bags and baskets and storage ottomans full, so I decided it was time.  I got rid of a ton of my worsted weight acrylic yarn by thrifting a large wooden picture frame and filling it with pompoms I made with the medium and large Clover pompom makers (I just used hot glue to stick them on):

It’s hard to tell the scale but it’s pretty big — I feel like I’m carrying a large waitress tray when I hold it — and it got rid of SO MUCH YARN, it was so nice!  I’m hoping to sell it at a market, as I don’t really have a good place for this in my house, but I think it’s a pretty quick and cute way to use up scraps!  One lady at a market commented that she used to make things like that in the 70s, and I thought that was pretty cool, as well, how things always seem to come back around.

Another kind of addictive way I’ve found to stashbust smaller scraps is by making “wind catchers,” which is just to say I’m using spiral crochet to make pretty decorative hanging things!  Here’s what I’ve got so far (and I intend to sell these, as well):

They’re fun, quick, and pretty!  Here are some closeups so you can see a bit better:

You can see some of them have more rows than others, some of them have crab stitch outer rows (which is probably my favorite border stitch of all time, honestly), and some of them look wound more tightly than others (which is dependent on your stitch count choices), so there’s a lot of room to play with these!

There are other projects I’d like to share, too, but I’ll just stick with these stashbusters for now.

Do you have any go-to or favorite stashbusters you’d recommend?  I may be out of most of my worsted acrylic now, but I’ll eventually end up with more that I don’t know what to do with (as well as other yarn weights), and I’m open to other ideas, too!

I’ll try and come back soon with more of the stuff I’ve been working on, but until then, thanks for stopping by and I hope your day is full of beauty and peace!

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happy new year!

January 4, 2025 by 2 Comments

Hello everyone, it’s been a while!  I have lots of life updates but I’ll put those at the end, cuz I have craft updates, too!

Firstly, I made over 30 crocheted hats in a week and a half as a Christmas present for the patients on my lodge at the hospital where I work, and I think they really liked them!  Now the staff are asking for them too, though, so I still have a few more to make and tbh I’m a bit tired of hats. 😅

I am therefore just futzing around making random stuff.  I started a crocheted doily from some leftover yarn but that’s not gotten far, however I was inspired by a good friend to knit some simple fingerless gloves!

This is me wearing them at work with my pretty keyboard setup (which of course I made because I have 5,000 hobbies), and unfortunately you can’t see the pink donuts on my sweater that the gloves match perfectly, but they’re there!

I’m using a leftover wool-blend aran weight yarn from my brightly colored ripple blanket, which is perfect for these gloves, but I made up the pattern and there are some tweaks I wanna make for my second pair, which I have started:

The completed gloves with the new one

I’m casting on the same # of stitches (36, because that’s my current age and because I have small wrists so it works) and using the same needles for the ribbing (4mm) and the body (5mm), but I did a long-tailed tubular cast on in 1×1 rib for the second version because it’s more stretchy (and I just love the way it looks, it’s my favorite cast-on even though having to do the setup rows is frustrating sometimes).  I’m gonna do a few more minor alterations, like changing where I put the increases and making a slightly larger thumb hole, but really I’m just winging it.

I did start trying to do the same with some Felicini sock weight wool blend yarn from KnitPicks, but I didn’t know how many to cast on and overestimated, so I had to do it again.  And now it’s still too large compared to the neon ones, so I have to do it again.

I know the neon one will fit, so the brown/orange one will be too big, I think.

I’ll keep going on it though after I finish the neon ones, even though it’ll take a lot longer since it’s sock yarn instead of aran, because it matches a blanket hoodie I got for Christmas from my partner’s mom:

It’s so cozy I’d live in it if I could.

And that brings me to the life update parts, which I’ll try and keep brief: I’ve been dating a new partner for a little over 7 months, and she just bought a lovely old home so we’re gonna move in together (as long as my dog doesn’t try to hurt her cats, so I’m quite nervous about that cuz I have no idea how my dog will do with cats).  I’m excited to get out of this tiny, dark apartment (not to mention it was kind of an emergency move to get out of a bad situation with my ex-husband, so it has some negative feels attached to it), and I’m thrilled to be able to slowly decorate my own home and make a place that’s really my own.  And guess what?  I’LL EVEN HAVE A CRAFT ROOM!  My crafts will all have a nice space and won’t have to be scattered all over the whole house, making things look messy, and I’m so excited about it.  I may do a post about that, assuming I get to that point without any issues with the fur babies.

Another update: I’ve been diagnosed as being on the spectrum and also having ADHD, and it’s been the best thing for my life in a long time.  It explains so much about me, which is helpful in terms of me accepting myself for who I am and understanding why I do the things I do and struggle sometimes with certain things, and I’ve gotten on medications that are making a world of difference.  It’s not quite perfect yet, but I feel better than I have in a long time.  On top of that, I’m going to therapy weekly with a therapist who is absolutely amazing, and we’re even gonna work on some of the ex-husband related trauma/issues before I move into the new house so this can really be a new start for me, and I couldn’t be more excited.

So yeah, my new year is starting off pretty freaking awesome, and I hope it is for you as well!  Did you make any resolutions this year?  I never do anymore but I love hearing about other people’s goals, so feel free to share below!  And as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again in hopefully a short time! ❤

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punch needle experiments

March 22, 2024 by 1 Comment

Hello hello! I hope ya’ll are doing well — it’s been a while!

I’ve been up to a low-to-moderate amount of crafting lately, and I just finished a project I’d like to share with you! It’s not from a pattern or anything, so it was a bit of an experiment and it’s certainly not perfect, but I’m happy with how it came out overall. Here it is:

Looking at the picture I might have to go back and adjust the fabric to get it to lay a bit more flat in the frame, but that’s okay. And the stars are actually made up of that plastic shimmery embroidery floss, it’s just hard to tell in the photo.

Punch needle is really fun for me. All I really had to do here was use a water soluble pencil to sketch out the luna moth and the moon, then I just had fun filling it in with color! It took much more floss than I expected — just the darkest yellow in the moon was like 4 or 5 skeins of floss on its own — but since floss is so cheap it wasn’t a huge problem to go back to the store and pick up more.

Have you ever tried punch needling before, and if so, how was it for you and what did you make? I’m curious to hear if people usually use patterns or just kinda make things up as they go.

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a finished project and a new one

August 22, 2023 by 1 Comment

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all staying cool this summer (if it’s summer where you are) — the temperatures here are in the 100s and I’m staying inside as much as possible.

In an effort to be more comfortable in the heat, I made a new linen shift using the historical method that includes only squares and triangles. I used this method on my brown one last year, but this one is entirely machine sewn to save time and I also gave this one short sleeves instead of long ones.

It hits just above my knees and is pretty comfy. I may use it as part of a ren faire costume if I decide to do something other than the swamp witch this year, although I think I may just do the same thing as last year and maybe just make a better skirt.

Anyway, I’m also in a redecorating mood, and I’ve recently bought some new household items to fit the dark cottagecore theme I’m going for in my bedroom (think lots of dark greens and teals and browns, with a few lighter accents here and there). It’s a good theme for me because I’ve already got a ton of old dark wood furniture, and I like the cozy, sleepy atmosphere.

I decided I need a new throw blanket for the bed, though, and I already have a ton of Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran in the shade Vintage Pink so I decided to use that for a crocheted blanket (yes, it matches the shift, and that was completely unintentional but kinda cool). I think it’s a good accent color with everything else, and I chose the Fenya Blanket pattern to use. It costs money and is very similar to the free Popcorn Blanket pattern, but I was willing to pay the small price to get the chart, which I often find easier to follow than patterns that are written out. Here’s my first square:

It’s only got 11 rounds but it’s larger than I expected it to be. Not that I’m complaining — that means fewer ends to weave in and fewer squares to connect at the end! I do wish the yarn wasn’t completely acrylic because acrylic blankets make me sweat at night, but I’m probably just gonna keep this at the foot of the bed for decor, and because of that I might not even need to make the recommended 16 squares — I bet I can get away with a smaller size blanket just fine.

I’m also working on sewing a cute linen summer dress with a strawberry and floral print, but I’m incredibly frustrated with it at the moment — I picked my size so carefully and even combined areas from 2 sizes to make it fit me perfectly, and the whole thing turned out too big. I’ve got to undo a ton of work and trim some of the pieces, but I’m worried it’ll look weird so I’m just kinda staring at the half-finished dress sitting on my sewing machine, not wanting to mess with it. I need to finish it though — the fabric was ridiculously expensive.

Sorry if this was a kind of boring post — I just wanted to share my projects and there’s not really anything else going on in my life to talk about right now. I hope you’re all doing well and staying safe and healthy, and I’ll try and come back soon with something more interesting!

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Another new (to me) old craft: nålbinding!

June 10, 2023 by Leave a Comment

We’ve looked at medieval fingerloop braiding, now who’s heard of nålbinding?

There are about a bazillion ways to spell it, and very few good tutorials online (that I’ve found so far, at least, and if you know of some good sources please share in the comments), but this ancient art seems worth exploring! And when I say ancient, I mean it’s speculated that it’s older than knitting and crocheting. Wow.

The word nålbinding I believe is Danish in origin, but artifacts have been found all over the world from Scandinavia to Egypt to Israel to Peru! These artifacts include accessories such as socks and mittens and hats and range from very delicate small stitching to chunky and thick. One constant, however, appears to be that they’re often made of wool, because the spit-splicing method is used to join new lengths of yarn.

So, of course I had to try it out. Take a look at my first pathetic attempts. They kinda just look like tangled clumps. 😂

After a bit of practice, however, I managed this:

I’m not entirely sure I’m doing it right (I’m trying the Oslo stitch but there appear to be quite a few types of stitches) and I know I haven’t counted my stitches properly, but it’s at least the shape it’s supposed to be.

As you can see, there are loops on my thumb, and you use those loops along with the large needle (I’m using a bone bodkin type thing ’cause that’s what I had on hand) to make your stitches. I’m trying for a hat here, and the way you increase in each round seems much like how you increase in crochet (2 stitches in each stitch of the first round, 2 stitches in every other stitch of the 2nd round, etc.).

So, why bother trying to learn this if you already know how to knit or crochet? Well, if you’re like me then learning new things is just fun, and if you’re into historical dress or historically accurate re-enactments this could be very helpful. Aside from that, though, apparently the fabric this technique makes does not unravel like knitting and crochet do and it’s therefore optimal for making things that may require steeking or that may get lots of wear.

Had you already heard of nålbinding? Have you tried it before, and if so, what have you made? I’m very interested to learn more about this, and I hope this post was interesting for you, as well! If I can finish the hat I’ll post about it again.

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you’re all doing well!

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