a place for learning…inspiration…originality!
I received this email article from Knitting Daily today and thought that it was definitely worth passing on. As someone who has experienced extensive damage to her wrists, I can attest to how important this information is to crafters of all types. The focus is on needle knitting, but the same principles apply to loom knitting, crochet, or any repetitive activity.
I hope you find it useful! Cheers! 
Bethany~
Here’s a wonderful new idea to make some absolutely stunning jewelry pieces from very inexpensive sources and using simple tools that you probably already have lying about the house. Those cute gals at The DIY Dish have definitely stirred up my beading bug again, lol! 
Please pop on over and watch this great webisode…you’ll be happy you did!
I just wanted to show n tell and little about the eggs that my daughters and I decorated this year for Easter.
This year we decided to do a little more grown up version of egg coloring and so hand blew and painted one egg each. It was really pretty fun! Let me tell you though, that blowing the yolk out of an egg takes a bit of effort, lol. If you’re at all susceptible to head aches (which, of course, I am!) you might want to make the hole on the bottom of the egg a bit larger and use a pokey thing (we used a cake tester) to help release the contents just a bit easier.
Also… be sure to be careful not to squeeze too hard with your fingers while blowing, so that you don’t accidentally crush your egg in the process! We did have one egg casualty, but that was from the egg rolling off the table and onto the floor while gathering our supplies. 
We figured it might be easier to keep the eggs safe if we formed little stands with aluminum foil to help keep the eggs upright during the draining and painting process.
Once the eggs were completely drained, we used a combination of water color and acrylic paints to decorate.
Mine is just floral and stripes on a soft pink wash… lots of colors, as is usual for me, lol.
My younger daughter’s is a classy show of bold stripes on a pastel background.
My eldest daughter got really artsy and created a Sontaran from Doctor Who! 
We’ve really been into this series lately, and the egg shape was just too hard to resist for my girlie, lol!
I hope that you all had a fantabulous Easter weekend as well!
btw: Stay tuned for the grand opening of the new line of Gettinitpegged Gear, hopefully launching tomorrow!!! …and don’t forget the 50% off Spring Sale for patterns in the Peggin’ Pages through this Sunday! Happy Looming!
Bethany~
Okay…Check this out!
Loom Knitting is really starting to receive an ever expanding wave of acknowledgment in the crafty world!
This is the newest sales flyer by Joann and it features a lovely picture of a mom and girlie happily playing with yarn together…
but look! Over to the side…
It’s a Knifty Knitter Loom!!!
Isn’t that cool? I just love seeing that in the main stream advertising being placed into everyone’s mail boxes. It kind of gives me a warm-happy feeling.
The sale is not to be passed over either…a whopping 25% off their entire stock of YaRn! We’d better be out shopping this week… I’ve got some items on my to-do list that I just don’t have quite the right type of yarnie tid bits in my stash yet, lol.
Another part of their sale this week that really caught my eye is the 30% off all knitting and crochet books!
…and Look Again! What’s that I see peeking out from behind Vogue Knitting??
Yes! It’s our very own Loomy Bible: Isela Phelps’ Loom Knitting Primer!
We’re really getting some great billing here: not one but TWO references to Loom Knitting this week from a major crafty source…
I just love it!
So while you’re out shopping this week… be sure to pop in to Joann’s to take advantage of this great sale. It’s not often you get yarn AND books on sale in the same week! (…and NO…I don’t work for Joann’s in any way, nor am I getting any kind of compensation for giving them a little plug. I just thought it would be nice to pass along to all you loomies out there, lol.) 
Happy Looming!
Bethany~
My darling hubby is so thoughtful and considerate…guess what he bought me for Christmas this year???
Well, first off, let me tell you that he actually said that he’d like to see my yarn out where it can be seen! Is this a normal thing for a hubby of a fiberholic to say??? …and let me be clear: he wasn’t saying this so that he could monitor my habit either, lol. It just shows how much he really supports me in every way…I’m really such a very lucky girl! I have a little confession to make…he’s always, for the most part, been very thoughtful in this way, and I’m ashamed to say I haven’t really appreciated that fact as much as I could have in the past. For a little proof, I used to be a Mary Kay Consultant (for 11 years!) and one year he actually won the award of “Mr. Mary Kay: Most Supportive Hubby of the Year”! Yep…that’s my guy. I think I’m a little spoiled, lol!
Anyway…back to the yarn.
Here’s the way my crafty things and yarns were all crammed into tubs and shoved into a closet at our previous house. Not convenient to find things, or for putting them away properly, and definitely not conducive for those spur of the moment crafty pursuits. Quite a bit of a mess, isn’t it?
When we moved, my big tubs of yarn ended up in the dark and dusty basement.
But now, happily, thanks to my darling of a guy, they reside in a little sitting room off of our bedroom, which houses our clothes closets and a nice chair for early morning or late night knitting. I also have a table in there off to the side where I have my new YuDu (so excited about this not-so-little item…more on that to come soon!) and my sewing machine. Much better than the last set up for sure! I’ll be continuing to organize and set up my little space as time goes on…I’ll need to just play in there a little more so that I can get a feel of what really needs to be where…but I absolutely L-O-V-E to see all (well…almost, lol!) of my fibery goodies splashing color there in the corner and to walk by and pet them now and again, with deep sighs of contentment… So without further delay…
Here’s the official TAH-DAH!!!
Isn’t it just scrumdidly-umptious fabulous?! Doesn’t it make your mouth water? I’m very pleased with my little crafty sitting room so far, and will definitely post most pics when I get the rest of it organized to my liking. Until then…happy looming all!
Bethany~
**Edited to add: Hot off the press!!! We purchased the last one of these babies from Costco, but it might have been the very last one they owned in the entire company… much to the dismay of some of my looming buddies. BUT GUESS WHAT?! I just did a search and found pretty much the same thing (only with smaller cubes and I think it’s another brand) through Amazon at a rip-roaring deal! You really need to check this out before it’s all gone (make sure to take a look at the customer pics so that you get an accurate idea of the size of the cubes!)….just tell ‘em I sent ya’!
My great friend Jenny Stark, aka Guppy Girl, has this sweet little pattern on her site: Kissie Fish. These little darlings can be knit up in no time on the KK 12 peg Flower Loom.
Well…I got the fun idea to take these little swimmers one step farther and make a game out of them for a Christmas gift for a dear friend! I always loved playing those fishing games when I was a kid… especially the ones at carnivals where I threw my line over this mysterious looking curtain and after a tug on the line, and a quick reeling in, discovered a nifty new prize on the end of my hook…how cool is that?!
This one is super easy to do:
Just whip up some of Jenny’s marvelous little Kissie Fish…
then make some poles: I used some doweling and the 3 peg side of the Wonder Knitter by Clover to make pole covers using some chunky, cushiony yarn (I think I actually used Homespun by Lionbrand).
I started with a Drawstring CO, then to make it super easy, I actually stuck the dowel down inside my knitted tubing and just bound off using a gathered BO when I reached the top!
The string was knotted securely to the top of the pole, and then I created the “hook” 
by using the 6 peg attachment and the same instructions as the beginning of the Kissie Fish, binding off after about 5 rows of the main body. I tied the end of the fishing string inside the hook to the CO tail, shoved a bit of extra yarn inside the hook and again used the finishing instructions of the Kissie Fish pattern to cinch up the ends of the hook, with the “mouth” facing down.
Strong magnets were hot glued into place inside each of the mouths of the fishies and the hooks. The best way to make sure you have the correct polarity of the magnets is to glue the first into a “hook” and then attach a magnet to it, add some glue to the back of the 2nd and then attach a fish. You can do the same for the 2nd hook.
**hint: you don’t want to skimp on magnet power here, as the fishies are slightly heavy and need that extra oomph to make the game successful.
So…what are you waiting for?
Fishing season has now officially begun!
Bethany~
Just click on the below link to check out the special website which contains the infomercial video, as well as the testimonials that were given by Isela, Shannon Erling, myself and a few others… It’s fun, fun, fun!
PS: For those of you who were wondering, I did find out that the project DVD that is being included in this package of looms will not be available at any other location. The DVD was created exclusively for this particular Knifty Knitter kit special… so if you reeeeeaaaaallly want a copy, just purchase the kit and you’ll get the looms along with the DVD for free, lol! A person can always use more looms, right? They make wonderful gifts!
Please feel free to drop a comment here to let me know what you think about the videos… I’m nervous excited to hear what you think!
Happy Looming!
Bethany~
First of all I have to tell you…my computer has been slowly dying…one cyber cell at a time. We finally had to take it off life support the other day after a power surge. This gave me the extra incentive I needed to hurry up and get my awesome new racecar of a computer up and running on our home network. We’ve been a little bit out of commission while figuring things out. I’m extremely happy to say that I’ve been able to do this entire post, downloading/uploading/editing pics and video, completely from the new compy! Let me tell you…it’s FAST! I think I love it, lol. Now I just have to get all the programs and drivers up to date and then all will be good…
My Niece’s baby shower was yesterday and we had a lot of fun! She received a ton of really lovely baby gifties…one of which was crafted by me! Here’s some pics of the box that I painted and mod-podged with the cute stickers on Friday:
Her baby shower theme was “Jungle Animals” and you would not believe the tons of super cuteness out there for babies along this idea!
Cute…Cute…Cute!
The monkey was from my daughter Megan…she wanted the soon to be arriving addition to the family, Tristan, to start early with the monkey love, lol!
The clouds were added using a pouncer brush and just tap-tapping away until they were the shape desired. It really gives it a 3-D look, doesn’t it?
I’m going to have to make more of these little boxes…it was kinda hard to let it go, lol. But I knew it was going to a good home, and will be used and loved.
My other Niece, Katie, organized the shower, and let me tell you…it was such a fun time! We had a relay race with baby dolls, diapers, peanut butter sandwiches and a clothesline! My sister, Tammy, beat me at the final stretch, lol! I have to chalk that up to her having way more recent baby experience than me, what with being a new grandma, and all! (hehehe..just had to get my comeuppance, lol!)
Katie, her brother, Chris, and his girlfriend Mesato, created these super cute jungle animal cupcakes…just check out this genius! So fantastic! I really think they should think about a catering business on the side…
To top off the night…what do you think we all do as soon as the three of us girlies walk in the door from the shower?? We play with the helium balloons, of course! What else, lol? I think you might get a real kick out of this video…you’ll see us in a whole different light, LOL! **edited to add: please don’t think we condone drug use in any form! hehehe…just a little quirky humor…
Hope you had fun watching! I’ll be posting about our loomy mystery project part 2 tomorrow, so stay tuned!
Bethany~
Well…as many of you know already, yesterday was my 38th birthday! I’m not really one who loathes these things…actually, any reason to have some fun is great with me, lol! Once I got past my 30th birthday, which came at a really troublesome time in my life, and probably really affected my ability to be happy about turning the 30-something corner, every other one has been a breeze. My 38th one was no exception!
Since it fell on a Sunday, we kind of made the whole weekend a fun celebration, starting with Friday. I traveled to my hometown to get my hair done and be generally pampered by my favorite beautician (thanks, Jeannine!) and then on Saturday, the girlies and I had a day of craftiness and fun in our new hometown. We first went to the Great Pumpkin Event at Michaels Crafts, each creating our own spooky pumpkins, which you can see below in the pics. After that, we went to lunch, explored a new antique shop (this is one of our family’s favorite hobbies…we’ve raised our girls right, wouldn’t you say??) and then checked out a new yarn store: Shibori Dragon, which I believe I saw at the Sock Summit, and which is actually stocked with much, much more than just yarn! It has beads, embroidery goods, and fabrics as well…most of which are specialties from Japan…very nice place to hang out!
Sunday, my hubby took me to a very nice breakfast, then we planned on going to Lattin’s Country Cider Mill (one of our family’s yearly traditions), but after doing a little grocery shopping, waiting for my youngest girlie to finish baking a cake , and walking the bunny, it was really too late to try to fit the cider mill in. We decided to give this fun event the time it needed, and thus move it to next weekend, and headed off to a movie instead: 9. It was really very interesting, kinda spooky, and very visually impressive.
Before the movie, we had cake made mostly by my youngest, which was absolutely delish and amazingly creative! She crafted it into a jack o lantern pumpkin…out of a heart cake pan! Isn’t that just clever?? And let me tell you, it was absolutely melt in your mouth goodness of Devil’s Food Chocolate…mmmmmm! See the pics for one of the most awesome birthday cakes ever…
Another absolutely amazing thing? My eldest daughter (with some creative juices from my younger thrown in) created this tiny sock money out of itsy bitsy crochet…all her own design, with no pattern! I swear she needs to sell these little things, don’t you think? She put on the little green bow because it’s her favorite fuzzy yarn, and it looks like a Dr Suess bow tie…cute, huh? She knows I have a thing for sock monkeys and have never yet had one of my own. Now I do!
Here are the pics of one of the most enjoyable birthday weekends ever, spent with my favorite loved ones and blessings all around:
I hope your upcoming week is filled with just as many wonders…
Bethany~
Okay…it’s time to get serious about these last few books that I have here just waiting to be shipped to the lucky person who is interested in a whopping great deal. I’ve bundled them into sets of similar crafts, so you’ll get more value from one purchase!
Remember that shipping is included (except for international orders, for which we would just calculate the added shipping), and that I will accept PAYPAL payments only at this time.
Just send me an email with your desired set at this address: Bethany@Gettinitpegged.com
Here they are:
SET ONE: $7 for both!
(listed at $8.95)
(listed at $9.99)
.
SET TWO: $8 for all three! (**SOLD!**)
6 crochet designs~
(Listed at $6.50)
(listed at $7.95)
(listed at $11.95, slight tear on bottom of back cover)
(listed at $8.95)
(listed at $7.95)
(6 knit designs included)
(listed at $8.95)
(listed $7.95)
.
.
listed at $24.99 (Absolute MUST-HAVE for all loomers!)
listed at $10.95 (LOVE this book! Cables on looms made easy~)
Well…that’s it! I hope you like the new groups and prices…
Needless to say, we’ve been pretty stressed over here, trying to make that happen…we may have to turn our back on this particular deal and find something to replace it-quick! I guess we’ll have to see…
On the subject of school, my younger dd has started her online schooling with K12 already. This is our first year with this school, and it’s been interesting so far… and pretty intensive! We got to do an official art fresco made out of real poured plaster and paint on the very first day (of course, I didn’t realize before hand and so didn’t have any of the supplies and had to jump in the car for a quick run to the craft store, lol!) But all turned out well, and Megan had a great time doing it. I haven’t done “homeschool” before, and although this is classified as public school in WA state, the input from a parental-type teacher-person is pretty much an all day thing. I hope that we’ll get into the swing of things soon and all the kinks will smooth themselves out. I’ll keep you posted!
Well…I’ve kept you long enough. Just give me a buzz at my email if you’d like to take advantage of the book sale: Bethany@Gettinitpegged.com …and have a fantabulous weekend!
Bethany~
What You Have To Say~