Just in time for HALLOWEEN! Buy one Little Creature Pattern and get one free right now on Ravelry. Just select two of the above patterns and when you check out you'll get them for the price of one!

Attach your little creature to a hat... or better yet let me do it for you.  Send me an email (check out my profile) and I can help you make a custom order through Etsy.  Order now to get yours for the holidays. Cheers, Jenn

Here is latest edition to my Little Creatures series. Stop by Ravelry and purchase this pattern for only 2 bucks. It is quick and easy to make... and it will make an excellent addition to your growing army of Little Creatures. The pattern will also be available in my Etsy shop soon... along with some already made little creatures.

This little guy is the newest addition to my Little Creature's pattern series.  He is called Little Octopus Head Creature and he is quick and easy to make.  Follow the link to purchase the pattern for only 2 dollars in my Ravelry Store.  I hope you enjoy it!  My little creatures patterns as well as finished toys will soon be available in my Etsy store... Be on the look out. Cheers, Jenn

My first little creature crotchet pattern is now for sale on Ravelry. Stop by and check it out. It is called Little Octopus Creature and it only costs 2 bucks. You know you want it!

BOW is just around the corner and I'm doing the final preparations for teaching my class. I have been busy dying fiber and organizing my gear to go. I will be leaving Friday morning and teaching my first class Saturday morning. Before I leave I thought that I'd post the last part of the ribbed basketry tutorial. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment of contact me. I will be posting my photos and some information regarding natural dyes soon. I have dyed jute using turmeric, tea, kool -aid, onion skin, red cabbage, crepe paper, and RIT dye. I will have a break down of all my techniques soon. Feel free to check out parts one and two of this tutorial as well. Cheers, Jenn Ribbed Basketry Tutorial: Part 3 Making the Basket Getting Started Once you have your grapevine wreath separated into usable rounds select two of similar size to make your rim and handle. If you need to clean off extra vines and smooth them up a bit you ...

Here is part two of my Ribbed Basket Tutorial. You can find part one here . I will have the final installment out soon. I will also have a pdf download (both with an without photos) that will cover the same material that will be available as soon as I figure out how to make it happen. I have also been experimenting with dyes and I will have a post soon about that. I hope you enjoy it. Cheers, Jenn Ribbed Basketry Tutorial: Part 2 Going Native... Gathering in the Wild: You can also opt to gather some or all of your materials in the wild, vines for example. Grapevine is everywhere around here and with a little asking around I'm sure you can find someone willing to let you collect some if you don't have it in your own backyard. Honeysuckle is also easy to find, and since it grows so fast you can usually find a bit that needs pruning. Honeysuckle is smaller than grapevine and makes good weavers. Other woody vines include Virginia creeper, bittersweet, coralberry, and wis...

This little basket was woven completely out of cattail I gathered and dried myself. It was a bit of an experiment and it is crude as a result... but I'm happy with it all the same. I used the basic design of the Cherokee Double Wall basket...but I had planned something totally different when I got started so I ended up winging it. It looks like I've got a dandy new place to stash my spare change. Cheers, Jenn

Mike Row has traveled a total of 3206 miles so far. He was last logged in Washington State and he is on his way to Burning Man. Here he is for his last photo in Texas with a large spiny lizard. Mike Row at Bradley Point From Log Entry: "Bradley Point a small state park and rest area along Highway 30 in Oregon on the way towards the Oregon Coast. Behind MikeRow is a beautiful vista of the Columbia River and one of my favorite spots on the drive to the beach." Mike Row in Cannon Beach, OR From Log Entry: "Mike traveled with me (StephGail) and Kuno the geopup to Cannon Beach, OR where behind Mike is Haystack Rock which some of you might remember from the movie The Goonies. It was a beautiful day for the beach." Mutant Vehicle Geo-cache From Log Entry: "Dragons Breath bike a Burning Man (2003) Mutant Vehicle is the perfect spot for a Geocache." I can't wait to see where Mike turns up next... Cheers, Jenn

Ribbed Basket Over the next few posts I'm going to offer a ribbed basket tutorial. I also have this tutorial available in a pdf format and I will post that once I figure all that out so that you will be able to print your own copy either with or without color photos. This particular tutorial will have 3 parts. The first part is this one and it will cover a little history, what you need to make this basket, and some information on suppliers. Part 2 will cover gathering materials in the wild and dying your own material. And finally Part 3 will cover basic construction of the basket. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to add some videos and more information on dying and gathering. I hope you enjoy it... and PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know what you think. This is the tutorial I'm using to teach my basketry class and I would love to hear any feedback so that I can make the classes I'm teaching in September as good as I possibly can. Cheers, Jen...

Yesterday I taught a basketry class at the public library and I had a great time. Next week I'm going to start a series about basketry and I will be posting photo and hopefully eventually video tutorials on how to make baskets. For now, however, I just wanted to share a coupon for hobby lobby. You can buy some of your basic basketry supplies there: Grapevine, jute, raffia, and other decorative accents. Just click on the coupon to go to the page where you can print your own. It is good Monday the 15 through the end of the week, but they post new specials every week. I also wanted to share links to the two online basketry suppliers that I've used in the past... Earth Guild and Royalwood . These two sources have kits and a wide range of other supplies you'll need such as reed and sea grass. If you took my basketry class yesterday this should get you on your way to buying what you'll need to get started in this fun hobby. Cheers, Jenn

This is a repeat of what I just posted on my other blog... Worth a Fig ... but it has more to do with my craft than the kitchen so I thought I would repost it here. My writing has been much more sporadic lately. I just seems like I don't have enough hours in the day to keep up with all my projects. I haven't been cooking as much either... it is just too hot for that. We have been trying to keep dinner as simple as possible. So what have I been up to? Well the typical summer fun... swimming, playing in the river, grilling on the patio, and in the mornings when it's cool enough we try to venture out for a walk or some geocaching... but we have also done a lot of arts and crafts and hanging out inside. I have also been keeping myself busy with my various crafts. I'm teaching a basketry class tomorrow at the public library and I'll be teaching two more in September for TPWD. I've also been working on designing some new toys and games so that I can ge...

Mike Row has now visited a toilet seat museum and a little cache called Quacker State. The toilet seat museum is located in San Antonio in the garage of a Octogenarian (possibly Nonagenarian) ex-plumber who displays over 1000 decorated toilet seats. Quacker State is a mystery cache full of ducks... and the mystery is it's exact location... so who knows... Both of these caches are an easy day trip from where I live... so now I have a few interesting places for weekend trips. I can't wait to see where geocaching will take Mike next.

Buckeye Necklace I made this necklace by simply collecting buckeye pods and removing the seeds. We don't have the Ohio Buckeyes around here... I believe the pods I used came from a Mexican Buckeye tree. These trees actually aren't related... but the seeds look similar when removed from the pod. In folklore buckeye seeds are used a magical amulets and good luck charms. All I did was drill a small hole through the seeds and string them onto crotchet thread. I then simply did the chain stitch until the spot where I wanted the first seed to be. (about 40-50 chains) Then I slipped the seed into place and did a chain stitch around the seed and securing it in place. I continued crocheting 15-10 stitches in between seeds and then securing them in place until I had used all the seeds I wanted to use. Then I crochet the other side of the necklace (another 40-50 chains) before fastening off. This is a very adaptable pattern... if you can call it a pattern. I used 5 seeds on this one.....

I just made a new travel bug to send out. His name is Little Red Creature and his mission is to travel from geocache to geocache making people smile. I will probably drop him off soon and send him on his way.... so here are a few photos before he goes. I also have my first photo of Mike Row on his adventure. As far as I know he is still in Texas right now but soon he will be traveling to the Burning Man Festival. In the above photo Mike appears to be bait in a trap designed to trap geocachers. Cheers, Jenn

Materials F hook worsted weight yarn (I used cotton) tapestry needle Stitches: Ch - Chain Sl st - slip stitch SC - Single Crochet Inc - Single crochet 2 stitches into one SC 2tog - Single crochet two stitches together Round 1: SC 6 stitches into a magic ring. Pull tight (6) Round 2: *SC, Inc* repeat 3 times to complete round (9) Round 3: *SC, SC, Inc* repeat 3 times to complete round (12) Round 4 and 5: SC in each stitch around (12) Round 6: *SC, SC 2 tog* repeat 4 times to complete round (8) Round 7: *SC into next stitch, ch 8, SC into second stitch from the hook and the remaining 6 stitches* repeat this 8 times to make the legs. Sl st into the first stitch of the first leg and fasten off. Weave in ends and sew two eyes.

Today we set up a geocache and released two travel bugs. What is a travel bug you ask? You may even be asking what is a geocache ... Well here is the story. A few months ago I attended a Texas Parks and Wildlife class about geocaching . I was at my second BOW retreat (becoming and outdoors woman) and it was one of the offered class. I had heard of geocaching , but when I walked into the classroom I had no idea what to expect... I had no idea that this would become a new obsession for me and my family. What I found out was that geocaching is outdoor treasure hunting using a GPS device. It is done on a very large scale. People from all over the world hide containers, small and large, all over the place and then log the coordinates online for other people to find. You probably walk right by geocaches every day and have no idea that they are there. A travel bug is an item, any item, that you attach a special tag to that allows you to track it's progress (using a trac...