rommel and my braided rug

Here is my puppy dog taking a nap on the very first braided rug I ever made. It's the product of..oh..years of tears and frustration. It's made out of tshirts I cut into strips then braided. I have been trying to make braided rugs for evvver, and there was always something wrong with them- usually a puckering that I just couldn't control. When I moved to Huntington Beach, the first thing I did was get a library card, and spent a marvelous hour or so wandering around in the basement getting completely lost in the decimal system. I happened to find what looked like a really old book about braiding rugs...and lo and behold, I found the tools to magically fix all puckering problems. :)

Hi world!





I am finnnally starting to get over being sick, so I celebrated with an impulsive trip to Michael's. Mwhaha. I bought kind of a lot of yarn. I have plans for all of it though - I am going to work more on the granny square bags! I also bought handles. I am loving even the idea of them!
That's all for now. Don't forget to look at my treasury, it expires soon!

Ooh, I also posted a new category and new item - A BRAIDED RUG, ladies and gentlemen. That's right, you heard it correctly, a BRAIDED RUG. Guess what? It's made entirely out of recycled tshirts. How awesome is that? I'll answer for you - really, really awesome.

I got the day off today!

Yay! It's a beautiful friday and I have the day off!

..of course, I also have a sinus headache that wants me to stay super still and quiet with the lights off all day. But I'm ignoring that!

Last night I had a friend over who I taught how to knit (? at least how to knit felted bags) and she finished up a bag she'd been working on, while I started a very fall-esque braided rug. I'm pleased with the rug. I finally figured out how to consistently keep any thread showing. It takes so much work and time and blood (talk about pricked fingers) that I think these rugs will be my high-cost items on etsy. They're ridiculously beautiful, though, and I love making them by recycling tshirts.

I also got some feedback on little granny-square bags I was making. I was unsure whether I wanted to use bamboo handles on all of them, and I think I decided!

So my plan today is to bake bread, listen to my Dar Williams Pandora station, continually clean the house through the day, and work on my braided rug. Tomorrow I want to get my sewing machine out and make lining for every bag I have finished. I'd like to also take some photos of ceramics I have to sell, since I have them and just haven't posted them on etsy yet.

It is also TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY, by the way. So I hope that's exciting for some of you.

Also - I was saving the most important for last. Today is my little sister's 21st birthday. Holy cow. Happy Birthday ROXANA!-