I used Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching ‘Stitch it Kit’ templates to make this pillowcase that says ‘Dreaming in Spanish’ for one of my students who is graduating and going off to college. I found the motifs by searching for ancient Mexican motifs and just free hand drew them and transferred them onto the pillowcase before stitching them up. 
I embroidered this and had it framed for Mom this Mother’s Day. It’s already on the wall. 
Take a look at these items I received from a Jane Austen swap at Craftster. They are a one-project knitting bag, 2 skeins of handspun yarn (alpaca and lamb’s wool), and a hand made silk scarf. Now I can pretend like I am one of the characters in Pride and Prejudice. Don’t worry–I won’t try to be the bratty runaway daughter. Lydia.
I just participated in an Earth Day swap at craftster.org (I made the recycled sweater bags). This is what I received in the mail from my partner, Kristina, today.
She crocheted me a bag out of plastic bags that she cut up to use as yarn. (This takes a long time–believe me, I’ve tried it!). She also sent me some really soft recycled red yarn. The last item is a little kit that contains directions how to decorate, cook, and shrink the styrofoam from those containers they give you at restaurants to take your food home in. So cool!
I learned how to embroider a bit recently and here are a few of my efforts on some handkerchiefs
These bags are made from felted recycled sweaters that I washed in hot water and then dried to shrink them more, and then cut up. My mom sewed them up for me on her sewing machine (since I have no machine and don’t know how to sew well). I then embroidered them with thread I have for another swap project. These were made for an Earth Day swap at craftster so they were supposed to be from recycled/reused materials. The larger one was meant to be a re-usable shopping bag and the smaller one could be a purse or something.
I haven’t been feeling like knitting anything big lately, so it’s been washcloths and bath mitts for me. The little washcloth has a chick on it. My dad said it looked like a pidgeon…and maybe it does a bit. Seung-ho has stated that the bath mitt is ‘practical’ and has claimed it for himself. Hopefully he will use it because the scarf that he sort of inherited (after it was obviously going to be too big for my niece) was said to be ‘inconvenient’. Not that I take it personally because he thinks ALL scarves are inconvenient. The last is a soap sack or soap saver. It is for me!
These are made from Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille yarn, which is not so easy to knit with. Especially when you use one size 6 needle and one size 7 (I noticed this after the fact–duh!). I have now used all of the 3 skeins I bought—and you can see all of the colors in the last one!
This is a 30th birthday gift for my friend Amy. It’s made from sugar n’ cream cotton yarn and is lined with cotton cloth from JoAnn fabrics. The handles are cane handles. 
I knit this scarf for a swap at craftster. I was surprised it turned out so nicely in cotton!
