She's crafty!

Last year, when Jill of DapperToad was planning for her summer knitting camp, she was a bit worried that the kids would give up on knitting the first time they got frustrated, and wanted to create a couple whimsical and inspirational pieces to keep them motivated. That's when she dreamed up Sir Reginald Wiggly:

The camp I work at promotes autodidact-ism by allowing the kids choose exactly what they want to do with their time. I keep thinking of kids coming in to learn how to knit, getting frustrated, and abandoning it mid-lesson. One way I've thought to preemptively combat this is to fill my studio with cute stuff that hopefully will spark some interest in knitting and crochet. Enter Sir Reginald Wiggly. He has recently been hired to be my spokesoctopuss. He's self-taught and loves to impress people with his multi-stranded technique and his tiny stitches.

I'm currently enamored with Jade Boylan's website, and find myself just hovering over the image links to see them in color. I couldn't decide which of her items I loved the best, and what to share here. Then I saw them. Bonnie and Sienna, the handmade dolls. They're both so cute in their different outfits. Here's Bonnie playing at being a pirate:

I was cruising around Tumblr and came across Pardalote's Jupiter embroidery. She created it using several images from the Hubble telescope.

I used this sequence of images from NASA as the basis for the work, but I reinterpreted the sequence a little so that I could do the squiggliness I wanted.

I wanted my stitching to demonstrate that the jovian bands are fluid, moving around the planet and swirling it up a storm at region boundaries.

I cannot get enough of this adorable Totoro pot made by h3lloxkimchi:

I love these little crochet hearts from ZoomyYummy. They're sweet and simple, and could be used as favors or Valentines or sachets.

DIY Batman tights? How cool is that? And just think of what else you can do with this technique!

For a fun party celebrating the attendees for the recent ALTSummit, the folks at CreativeBug designed this huge wall of string art:

Courtney wanted to make a BIG splash and design the main art feature in our assigned party room. She came up with a 20′x8′ free standing wall (WALL!) that spelled out the theme “Crush On You” in retro modern string art. The drawings and sketches she came up with did the final piece zero justice. This was a massive undertaking, and one we were very proud to share with everyone who attended.