Cherry On Top Lampshade

Say Hella to the Cherry On Top Lampshade.

Went to Goodwill to grab me some plates to smash; and what did I see as I waited in a long long line reading Nick & Norah but an awesome cherry print Anne Taylor dress. Perfect for a lampshade for my new owly lamp! Iron Martin surprised me with a killer shadeless owl lamp when I was a coughing bronchiosauras (he knows I'm an owl fan), and I've been on a search for the perfect shade since. When I was in Sonoma soaking up the sun, I saw some amazing shades from Found Images. I thought maybe I could buy one or make something cool. Since I already had a lampshade that I had painted water color on, I decided to strip 'er nekky and clothe 'er in cherries.

I hurt my back in the process, but crafties are worth it! I love my new owly cherry lamp! I used a #2 perfect glue , which happened to bind fabric and metal--fortuitous for Katiebeans as it was the only perfect glue I had left. The bottom was measured to fit the base. Taking the top part of the fabric as a square, I glued four corners equidistant from each other like a mini square on the top ring of the shade. I folded the excess fabric over.

Blushing Flame Floves

HELLA. Katiebeans here to announce the long-awaited coming of the Blushing Flame Floves. Over a year ago Katiebeans started making herself some awesome fingerless gloves from some awesome pink/orange/black speckles yarn. Until that point, she had only made squares out of double chain...blankets, purses, scarves that looked like crap. Then when her awesome friend & Theta-baby Tiff was sleeping on her awesome couch, making an awesome blanket, she taught Katiebeans how to make rows of crochet that go back and forth (not just in circles). This revolutionized crochet, and Katiebeans decided she could make a super complicated article of clothing without any pattern whatsover. Making it up as she goes along is her crochet style.



This winter, Katiebeans picked up her bag of 5 awkwardly-shaped and mismatched pink/orange/black speckled floves from last season and set forth making two cute, matching floves. After a bottle of wine, a season of The Office, and three movies with Brooke, Katiebeans has finally completed her dream of farking awesome floves. BEHOLD:

Ok so this picture proves there is one flove, but trust lady Katiebeans: there be two. The wrist is hdc on the back loop only (to fit) then stictched up the side with sc. The hand is dch with turns to fit, as are the fingers. They aren't a perfect fit because Katiebeans was trying to eat cookies and crochet at the same time, but did you expect them to fit like a GLOVE?!?!

CircleVK Mosaic Cross

Welcome to the viewing of Katiebeans's first commissioned piece, the CircleVK Mosaic Cross. After seeing my owl table, my aunt requested a green and maroon cross for her ranch in Texas. The ranch is pretty country-home in decor so I wanted the cross to look rustic.

I ordered a hideous teal colored cross with a wooden dove glued on the front off of ebay. I pried the dove off, chiseling away at the hot glue that was attractively visible around the edges of the dove. $10 well spent. Then I created a design on a paper outline with pre-cut stone mosaic pieces from an art supply store. I applied pre-mixed grout to the cross and pressed on the stone pieces.

I am happy with the result, but the grout is a little too white to feel rustic to me.

I Feel Electric Pink Lumberjack Hat

As I post this post, I am wearing the Electric Pink Lumberjack Hat. Inspired by the fur lumberjack hats walking around this NYC (see right), I, Katiebeans, figured I could make something similar with a little more funk.

The Electric Pink started out as hdc in rounds with increases. The back and earflaps are dc in turns with 2 rows of grey in sc for the faux fur trim. The faux fur front flap is actually a "fur" stitch made using sc around a knitting needle. While I don't normally condone crochet hooks mingling with knitting needles, I was down with the result.

What do you think? Urban Lumberjack? Did I capture the style? The streets may not be ready for the funk yet, but you better believe my apartment is.

Jazz Sleeves (with Thumb Hole)

Katiebeans made these simple sleeves with thumb holes, which are great for fall days. They are the same width throughout. Katiebeans used dc with turns for the ribbed look with a stitched seem and 2 rounds sc on either end. Super easy!

Candy Gossamer Beret

For this slouchy beret, Katiebeans used a pattern for beginners that is very similar to the pattern she first learned years ago to make blankets. Essentially, this beret is continuous rounds of 3 dc in 2 ch sps. After it reached size, Katiebeans did rounds with intermittent dc2tog and sc2tog, finishing with several rounds of sc.
Katiebeans used 2 skeins of alpaca yarn. When she shops for yarn she likes to call it, "alopecia," which makes her look really hip and yarn-savvy in front of the KnitNY employees.

Mossy Beret

Yay, Mossy Beret!


Katiebeans used a fellow blogger's pattern to make this beret out of super chunky yarn. She used a biggo 8MM hook. The pattern, unfortunately, had some mistakes. Katiebeans followed it to a T (for the first time ever with a pattern), but found that the author must have meant 2 ch sp instead of 2dc, which seemed logical. Using this correction, Katiebeans's design came out as planned. However, since she already contacted this blogger about her sweater design, Katiebeans doesn't want to seem like a stalker by contacting her again about her mistakes.