Still truckin along with crochet. These little scrubbers work up super quick and they work! I have a problem with sponges and their nastiness (but obviously I have no problem with my sink being nasty and dirty. The anal retentive midwestern in me need to break out the old toothbrush and scrub scrub scrub). I found the pattern in the vast ravelry sea, I think. It’s not worked in a circle, which is good for me because circular crochet still eludes me. You can find the pattern here. I think they will make great stocking stuffers, if not the most exciting ones. The japanese have of course made a cute artform out of the lowly scrubbie–the tawashi–and now that I’ve made one I want to make them all!

It’s been quite a while since I made new pillows and I always hate my couch a little less when I do. So I cut into this awesome Anna Maria Horner huge flower print and slapped some gingham on the back. 15 minutes and you have a pillow. Why do I put these things off for so long? The grey pillow is made from old felted sweaters. After making my bears, the arms of the sweaters are always leftover, so I have a box full of arms (creepy). I cut them apart and sewed them up in strips with the seams exposed. I’m not in love with it, but I’m happy I used them up. And my couch is happy too.

I’m still learning to crochet with the awesome Kid’s Crochet book, which is long overdue at the library. My son picked out the gold yarn at the yarn store to match his coat and I picked out the blue, so it wouldn’t be so matchy matchy. The pattern called for three colors and I think that would have been better, because my scarves turned out kind of school colors-y (or hogwarts-y, hogwarstian?).  But I’m happy with them anyway and the kids love them. The blue and gold one was done with single crochet into the front loop and the purple and blue one done into the back loop, just so I could practice them both.  I haven’t blocked the purple one yet and I don’t know when that is going to happen. I think blocking is to crocheting (or knitting) as hemming is to sewing: that last pain in the ass thing that never gets done, but has to and should because it makes everything look finished.

Well after that last post I went for a little walk to gather leaves. There was one lonely tree left with leaves on it, but they were huge and yellow and perfect. The boy and I snipped off their stems and folded them a bit, then I sewed them together one by one with a simple whip stitch. He picked yellow thread to match the leaves, so you can’t see it. But I have plans to stitch something on them in blue. This was such a simple and beautiful project. I think making these will be part of our fall for years to come.

These kind of posts are addictive. You do one and then suddenly you find all these other things that are awesome and you need another. So maybe this will become a regular thing, though I’m bad at sticking to “every friday I will…” so let’s just say it’s a feature that will come and go. So here are this week’s awesome things on the internet:

This leaf crown was part of a “homemade halloween” post on Dos Family. I want to make this before the leaves get too crunchy and crumbly. They are almost all off the trees, so I better work fast. Damn if winter isn’t on it’s way already.

Ringo is a fantastic resource for creative kids projects that I heard about on bkids. It’s in french, but with my handy dandy google translator I can read it all.  It’s a beautiful site with tons of drawing projects, download-able masks, children’s book reviews and lots more. They say,  “ Each publication will be monthly and will include a fortnight of activities.” Awesome! So go check it out.

I can’t remember where I found this, but the Play Box looks like a pretty fantastic christmas present for any kid. A box filled with flip books, word games,  pictures that come to life when you hold them up to the light, a cool Russian kid’s book from 1928? I’m in.

And just so you don’t think everything awesome on the internet is for kids, here is today’s project on design sponge: crocheted hanging plant holders. I need to new crochet project and I think this is just the thing as everything fades and turns brown outside we need some color and life inside. But they would also make cute kid purses.