New stuff!

I've got some new items which I have not actually added to my Etsy shop, but which is still available for sale. Just e-mail me if you're interested in anything.

I'm also considering getting magnets to turn some of the patches into magnets. What do you think?

e-mail: DragonflysLaughter@gmail.com

Needlework: Happy Autumn!

Needlepoint: I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

Needlework: Never laugh at a live dragon.

Needlework: And stand beside me, goddess, my ally.

Sappho has got to be my favorite poet ever.

Needlework: The cook is not responsible for cat hair in the food.

Note: the above needlework is not yet in an embroidery hoop.

Two patches: "good witch" and "naughty witch"

Come on. We all have those days when we don't feel like being good.

Patch: real men wear kilts

Three patches: "witch", "merry meet" and "wicked"

Two patches: "Pagan pride" and "Born again Pagan"

I got to use the "born again Pagan" line for the first time a couple weeks ago. :)

Two patches: "nerd" and "book lover"

Patch: smile!

:)

Like a kid in a candy shop

About a week ago a mysterious package showed up on my doorstep. It was from my friend The Belly Dancer, and guess what it contained?

Raw wool!!!

This is wool that's not ready to be spun yet, and I've never gotten ahold of anything like this before. It needs to be washed and, perhaps most importantly, carded. So if I want to do anything (other than ooo and aah over it) with this present I have three options (ok, only two once my budget is taken into account):

1) make do with something I can buy from the local store, but which isn't actually designed for the job
2) buy some proper hand carders to do the job
3) buy a drum carder -- this is what I reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallllllllyyyyy want, but it's just too pricy

Yesterday I got the above hand carders in the mail. And since I didn't think to remove the price tag before taking the photo you can see how much they cost ($58.95). I might not have bought them if I had to pay rent and bills, but as it is I'm living with my parents and have some of money in the bank. So I can indulge myself a little bit.

Today I finally started figuring out how to use my hand carders, and as you can see Kokopelle kept me company. Amazingly, he didn't actually get in my way!

I came to one conclusion: hand carding is dangerous work! lol

I'm sure that I'll learn to avoid cuts as I become more experienced and less clumsy. Plus my hands will hurt less once I've developed callouses.

And here is the product of my labor so far. They're called rolags. They're far from perfect, but I'm sure they're usable...even though the yarn is pretty much guaranteed to have an interesting character! :)

What I really need though is someone to teach me. I've looked at YouTubes but that can only go so far -- a video can't look at what I'm doing and tell me specifically what I need to do differently. I tried getting in touch with local spinners last year but had no luck; the contact person for one group had died a few months previously, and the contact person for the other never got back to me.

Maybe I'll have better luck finding a spinners group in the area this year.

...

I posted this on my personal blog, but decided to share it here as well since it's to do with crafty type stuff.

Free shipping!!!

You can get free shipping at my shop by entering the coupon code "freejuly" -- this coupon is good through the end of this month. :)

FYI, Dragonfly's Laughter is now on Google+. I figured it was worth a try.

Funny cross stitch

This post fall under the category of things that I'm just having fun with and don't plan to sell.

I've done cross stitch before where I did half a cross stitch. But until now I've never had a pattern in which I do anything more or less than 1/2 a square in cross stitch. See the following photo if you want to see what I mean by doing more or less than 1/2 a stitch.




Please forgive the photo quality. I took this shot on my iPhone (which actually isn't a bad camera) in a moving car with so-so lighting.

If you want to see what the big picture of this project is...




It's a baby bib. It was the most inexpensive thing at Michael's that looked like the most fun. Hopefully I'll find a baby to give the finished thing to. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

And the winners are...

First prize goes to Catgirl.

And the second prizes go to Spiritrunner, Kat, and Magaly.

Congrats everyone. :D

E-mail me your address at DragonflysLaughter@gmail.com and I'll mail your winnings to you.

FYI -- I'll be leaving town tomorrow (no idea when -- early-ish morning, late morning, evening...?) for the Skagit Valley Highland Games, but I'll be back by Sunday. This means that I may not (though I may) get your winnings in the mail super promptly, but I will mail them soon.

Thank you everyone for participating. :)

Brainstorming

I've been brainstorming ideas for my needlework. The theme? Pagan. For the most part. (Actually I Googled "Pagan bumper stickers" and wrote down my favorites.) Here is the list I've come up with.

Do you have any favorites on this list? Do you have any to add?

:)

Ankh if you love Isis

As above, so below

Be Witched

Born again. And again, and again...

Born again Pagan

Tree hugging dirt worshiper

Do you believe in magick?

Don't believe everything you think

Give me that old time religion

God is coming and she is pissed

Goddess Bless

Goddess Worshiper

Happy Heathen

You say I'm going to Hel like it's a bad thing

Thank Goddess I'm a Witch

In Goddess we trust

In Gods we trust

In perfect love and perfect trust

It's your hell. You burn in it.

My other car is a broom

Nature is my church

Practice safe hex

Question authority

Question reality

So mote it be

Something Wiccan this way comes

The Earth is our Mother, treat Her with respect

The Goddess is alive and magic is afoot

The Goddess is alive and she ate my homework!

Walker between worlds

We all come from the Goddess

ps. Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

New items

I have new stuff in my shop! Check them out. :)

Some of them are patches, something which is brand new to Dragonfly's Laughter.

I recently returned home from Canada with some Canadian coins. Happily, this means that I can use them in addition to USA coins to illustrate sizes. =)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!