More pins!

The Maked girls have been busy crocheting the adorable flower pins for the holiday craft fair. Great way to use up bits and bobs of yarn. This one happened to perfectly match the shirt I'm wearing. :)

This year we'll be at the West End Holiday Fair, held at the West End Community Centre on Nov 21, 10am - 4pm. If you're in Vancouver, come see us!

Safety + Blocking

Next up in the "Safety without the Ugly" line - a set of pins inspired by an old computer game. Probably something you'll recognize. :) The ghost is made of the super reflective material, and the pacman is made of high-visibility yellow material. I think they'd look cute on a messenger bag - and they'll add some visibility factor without being ugly. Yay!

On the crochet front - I've been working on the Alpine Frost pattern since the Winter 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet came out. I think it's long enough, so I've started to block it - since this sucker is going to gain a fair bit of length in the blocking process. Since I don't have a blocking board, I'll have to do this in little sections. The before and after is pretty dramatic, but I think I might need to stretch it even more when I block it, get it to open up more. In any case - feels good to be almost done this one!

Safety Without the Ugly

First of all.... I've had my stylist modify my hair again. I was getting a bit bored with the other cut, so this time we added fringe/bangs! I haven't had bangs for a good 10 years or so. I'm still adjusting to the new hair - sometimes I love it but sometimes it gives off a strong 80s vibe that I'm not so into. But having bangs is fantastic.... I was so tired of hair in my face... yay being able to see!

Secondly, the holidays are coming so my brain is now constantly thinking about things to make. My imagination is currently on a bender dreaming up ways to turn reflective safety material into cool and pretty things - stuff a stylish cyclist would be into. I'm pretty excited about my latest experiment which resulted in this flower brooch (below) - I think it's cute, what do you say? The idea is it's something you can wear on your coat or your bag and it's just a cute accessory... except it happens to be made of that hyper-reflective stuff like the stripes on a running jacket so when light hits it the right way it's uber-reflective like safety gear. They're rather finicky to make though, so I think I'll continue to play around with the material, but I think there's a market out there for bike accessories that provide the safety without the ugly. First one is listed in the etsy shop!

Let me know what you think - I can take honest opinions!
(first pic - normally it just looks grey/silver) (second pic - when light hits it directly, it's super reflective)