Pins and Needles

Are you looking for a last-minute gift for the sewist in your life? May I humbly suggest a wrist pincushion? 

For real, putting pins and needles in your mouth is dangerous. Don't. Just don't. I'm even a little leery of holding stitch markers in my mouth, since I read the above story.

I don't have a pattern for these. The round one was a little hard to make. The rectangle was easier. I used scrap fabric, scrap elastic and cut-up cardstock. The cardstock is to put on the bottom of the cushion, so you can't accidentally stick yourself in the arm with a pin. Very heavy felt might also work, too, but I didn't have any of that. 

For the elastic, make a casing about an inch longer than the elastic by sewing a tube, then turning it inside out. The elastic will gather it a little bit, but it will still be able to stretch and fit over your hand when you pull it on. 

If you're weird like me, you might want at least two of these suckers. One is for "regular" pins. The other, in knit fabric, is for ballpoint-head (knit fabric only) pins. I hate trying to guess which is which!

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Sugar Scrub + Sensitive Skin

I'm representing Beeswax Alchemy at work. It's a dangerous thing, being a crafty person and working in crafty marketing. You find yourself being pulled into trying new things!

I'm not going to try to make candles or soap (yet), but I had to try making sugar scrub. 

Basically, you round up your ingredients, measure them, melt them, stir, and put it into jars. Easy!

I've made it with vanilla fragrance and I love it! I might try lavender or some blends at some point, but right now I love vanilla so much, I don't really want to branch out too far. 

I had to make a few changes to Petra's recipe. I'm allergic to mangoes, avocados, bananas, and any fruit that has a pit. Mango and avocado butters are used in a ton of natural beauty products, so I simply have to skip most of them. I played around a bit with substitutions for the mango butter Petra used in the scrub, and I'm really happy with the results. 

My mom, my sister and I all also have super-sensitive skin. A lot of products just don't work for us. The morning after I made my first batch of scrub, I think I scared Petra a little bit with my effusive email. The scrub made my skin soft, smelled fantastic, AND didn't make my skin react! I sent jars to my mom and sister, and they're really excited, too. 

People who don't have sensitive skin won't get this, but it's so frustrating to basically never try anything new because you're afraid of your skin freaking out. I used a certain shampoo for years that I loved. Then, one day, I had hives all of the way down my back, wherever my hair touched my skin. Cross that one of my list! Getting a haircut or a manicure can be a problem, too, just because I'm not sure what they're going to use and I might have a reaction. 

For my second batch, I tried changing out some of the sugar for ground coffee and it worked and smelled fantastic - but clogged the drain. Oops. That's why it's always important to test, I guess! As soon as I get my hands on some finer-ground coffee, I'm going to try again. 

It's not going to replace knitting, but it's fun to have (yet) another creative arrow in my quiver. 2015 has turned into a Try New Things year, for me!

Doesn't Everyone Have a Tower of Scarves?

Tower of Scarves, courtesy of weaving.

My Partner: "What do you think we should give people this year for Christmas?"

Me: "Oh, I have so, so GOT that managed."

P.S. - There's a huge sale starting over at Craftsy today. Up to 80% off yarn!