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Crafts

How to Get Carried Away with a Fundraiser

January 24, 2013 by sue campbell

It’s that time again. Time for me to off the deep end, craft-wise.

Every year Nora’s school holds a fund-raising auction and each class makes a big-ass something that gets donated to the cause.

This year’s something was my idea, though now I have mixed feelings about not keeping my mouth shut — as I really just wanted to make it for myself. It’s going to be a supreme exercise in detachment to let this sucker go.

The finished product will look something like this

It’s a quilt, of sorts. We’re modifying the ingenious beekeeper’s quilt from Tiny Owl Knits by making it mixed media, so the little hexagons won’t just be knitted, but also crocheted and sewn (to maximize the skill set of all the class parents). Also, each child in Nora’s class will draw a bee which we’ll embroider on the fabric hexagons.

We need a total of 384 hexagons.

I'm slowly filling this jar and it's making me happy.

On top of that, we’ll build a beehive and provide all the supplies needed to start beekeeping (including bees!). Yes, people really do that here in Portland.

But wait, there’s more!

We’ll also make a donation of honey bees in the winning bidder’s name to Heifer International. (We feel kind of guilty about the idea of people who are doing well simply trading items of value with other people who are doing well, so we added that bit to help families in need. We’re just liberal like that.)

And we’ve got to get it all done by March 1st.

Did I mention that it took the woman who wrote the quilt pattern a year to make it? Never mind. I have complete faith in crowdsourcing, Waldorf style. Wool motivates us.

If there are any knitters or crocheters out there who want to bust out a few hexagons, let me know. I can supply yarn and stuffing and instructions. We need all the help we can get.

And please tell me about the craziest craft project you’ve ever done. We need ideas for next year.

Filed Under: Crafts Tagged With: beekeeper's quilt, crochet, knitting, sewing, utter madness

Heart Like an Industrial Component

February 15, 2012 by sue campbell

Every year for Valentine’s Day, Ben makes me a heart.

I have hearts of brass, stone, wood, lead, steel and leather. This year, he really out did himself.

Heart in Polished Stainless Steel.

I am so glad I’m not married to a normal man.

Link Up!

Filed Under: Crafts

How We Celebrate

January 4, 2012 by sue campbell

I did an article for Metro Parent magazine’s December issue on how local families make holidays special and meaningful.  And I almost bit through my bottom lip that I couldn’t share personal anecdotes for the piece. Good thing I have my own blog.

On the Campbell side, there is a tradition to exchange “table gifts.” On labor day, every family member draws a name, then each person makes a gift for whoever they drew.  We open the gifts at the table during Christmas dinner.

This year, I drew Debbie, my mother-in-law.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it here, but my in-laws are locked in an epic battle with the squirrels in their yard.  They call them “diablo” squirrels. Apparently squirrels dig holes in the lawn and ruin it. I never noticed, probably because my lawn is never nice enough to ruin.  Or maybe the dog is pooping in the holes, thereby covering them up. Anyhoo, Larry and Debbie set live traps for those cute little critters (L & D are vegetarians, so killing them is not an option) and relocate them across the river. Ben and I think this battle is sort of funny and, um, futile.  So, for Debbie’s table gift, I was able to do something really nice and yet mock her at the same time.  I made her these:

 

Fair Isle Mittens with Squirrel and Snowflake Motifs

Ben drew my name. While I was inside by the fire knitting squirrel mittens, Ben was out in his shop with the oxyacetylene torch making me this:

A Stained Glass Lantern

My mind was thoroughly blown. Ben has never worked with stained glass before, much less with braising brass fittings to create a screw top and bottom to insert the candle. And, he knows me well enough to use the lead-free sauter — one wouldn’t want to poison oneself or family, now would one?

Nora made a vintage inspired Christmas ornament for her great-grandpa (she calls him Great Papa), and got a perfectly girly hand painted jewelry case from her Aunt.

Then we ate a scrumptious dinner cooked by Debbie and my sister-in-law Elizabeth. That’s right, I didn’t have to cook. And I even remembered to help clean up afterwards instead of just rushing for the gift pile.

On the Burdick side,  I was a little worried about my nephews being able to warm up to me in a hurry since they only see me twice a year.  So I bought a face painting kit complete with a book of how-to diagrams for the artistically impaired (me) and pulled it out of my bag as soon as we got there. My nephew, Sameer, who’s Nora’s age, got to choose whatever he wanted from the book and I got to hold his sweet face in my hands while he held still.

My Nephew's Adorable Cheek
And His Other Adorable Cheek
My Sister as a Super Villain
My Other Nephew as, um, a Train Robber?
Nora Picked the Hardest Thing in the Whole Book

I also painted a monkey with its tail curled around my mom’s arm, but forgot to snap a picture of it. Eventually, the kids seized the paint tray and started painting one another’s legs. Then the grown kids got down to playing some Beatles Rockband on the Xbox. This is the only thing we have that resembles a tradition as we’ve done it three years in a row. This year, however, someone was smart enough to hide the microphone from me.  And we made a whole mess of tamales for Christmas dinner.

All-in-all, I couldn’t have asked for a better or more memorable holiday.

Happy New Year!

Link Up!

 

 

 

Filed Under: Bonding, Crafts Tagged With: face painting, fair isle knitting, holidays, squirrel mittens, tamales

Make This

November 23, 2011 by sue campbell

I really want to make this sweater from the current issue of Knitty.

I love the stitch pattern in the cowl. Since it would be unwise to begin yet another sweater project, I made a stand alone cowl out of a heavier yarn just so I could test drive the stitch pattern. It’s a great project for a Christmas gift: it takes almost no finishing and uses only one skein of yarn.

I wrote up the pattern to share:

Trinity Stitch Cowl

Thank you, Instagram, for somehow making me look less tired than I was.

Yarn: Aran Weight (1 – 50 gram skein)
Needles: size 10.5 – 16” circulars
Gauge: Not too terribly important
(You could easily and successfully make this out of worsted weight in perhaps a size 8 needle, and vary the size by using more of less stitches when casting on, just make sure your total number of stitches is divisible by four.)

CO: 96 stitches, join in the round and place marker at the beginning of the round
Round 1: P all sts.
Round 2: *[P1, k1, p1] into next st (1 st increased to 3 sts), k3tog; repeat from * to end.
Round 3: P all sts.
Round 4: *K3tog, [p1, k1, p1] into next st; repeat from * to end.
Repeat Rounds 1-4 for Trinity Stitch.

Repeat until you have just a few yards of yarn left, hopefully ending on a round 1 or round 4. Bind off loosely. Weave in ends. Block with a steam iron.

Send me a photo if you make one! Or better yet, make the sweater and send me a photo of that!

Link up with @bellebeandog and @taminginsanity!

Filed Under: Crafts Tagged With: cowl, knitting, trinity stitch

My Thumbs are Sore

November 16, 2011 by sue campbell

I’ve been making stuff like crazy.  I’m trying to crank out some crafts for a fundraiser at Nora’s school, but it’s tough to be productive when Nora demands one of each item to keep for herself.  Negotiations are ongoing…

Link Up!

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Crafts Tagged With: acorns, bear hat, crafting, gnomes, knitting, mushrooms, sewing, Waldorf

Progress on the Dude

June 17, 2011 by sue campbell

Filed Under: Crafts Tagged With: designed by Andrea Rangel, Dude sweater, knitting, The Big Lebowski

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What kind of blog is this?

This is a blog for PARENTS. True, the writer, Sue Campbell, writes books for kids. But this blog is for grown-ups. It has some swearing and would be super boring for kids. Except for the swearing.

The PODCAST is for KIDS and PARENTS. In fact, my twelve-year-old daughter is my co-host.

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MORE ABOUT SUE: She makes an ACTUAL LIVING from writing words and marketing books and lives with her husband, two daughters, six chickens and one messy house rabbit in Portland, Oregon. And yes, Portland IS that weird. She really couldn't be any luckier.

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