Fiber Animals!
 
Here are some new alpaca, sheep, and rabbit photos.  Many of these will be available at Johnstock.





 
Posted: 5/16/2008

Johnstock!
 
Crabtree Studio will be at Johnstock! this Sunday, May 18. Johnstock! is part of Art-a-Whirl weekend in Northeast Minneapolis. Lots of great local crafty vendors will be at Johnstock! Saturday and Sunday. Crabtree is participating Sunday only because of a conflict of schedules, but it should be lots of fun nonetheless. Northeast is such a wonderful area (and is Jessica's home turf), and we'll be right across the street from Crafty Planet, which will be having its official Grand Re-Opening this weekend. Come on out and see us!

Here are some new knitting bags that will be available. They have lots of pockets and built-in needle holders in the flap. Both are lined in awesome fabrics I got from Crafty Planet. Check them out:





We'll be showing off more new critters later this week, so stay tuned.
 
Posted: 5/14/2008

Favorite Color Plush Swap
 
The Needle occasionally hosts a plush swap. It works sort of like Secret Santa; those who participate receive the name of a swap partner for whom to make a plush. This swap's them was your partner's favorite color. Eva of Effunia received my name and sent me this fantastic plush:



His name is Sky, and he came with a cute note explaining that "he's a very friendly creature who likes to save snails and earthworms when he sees them on his path. And he loves nothing more than sticking up his little nose in the air and taking in his surroundings. He makes a loyal friend."

Indeed he does; he's already cozied up to San, the alpha dog in my little pack:



San looks slightly nervous about her new friend, but I adore him. Check out Effunia's blog, Etsy shop, and Flickr. She makes fantastic plushies!

I'll blog about what I sent to David Wolk (aka Mr. Crammed of Cranky Yellow in St. Louis) when I know he's received it. I don't want to ruin the surprise!
 
Posted: 4/28/2008

Old Pictures
 
When Jessica and I were just getting started, we needed some really nice pictures of our animals. Unfortunately, it was winter, snow was on the ground, and it was so grey and icky outside. So, with the magic of Photoshop and some pretty pictures for backgrounds, we made much nicer pictures then we could have possibly taken:













These were a lot of fun, but looking back on them now, you can tell they were fake pictures (plus they took hours and hours to make). Nowadays, I like our own actual shots. As Jessica said earlier, they're difficult to take, and we look pretty silly running around state parks with elephants and across fields with sheep. The pictures turn out amazing in the end, however, so it's worth it. The alpaca picture down below in the Shepherd's Harvest post is one example. We'll be posting more examples soon!

(The pictures used as backgrounds can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here. All were used under a CC licence and credit was given. We did not sell or make any money on these images, just used them as a background for reference shots.)
 
Posted: 4/23/2008

It's Spring!
 
As a general rule, I don't get that excited about spring. I'm one of those strange people that actually enjoys the winter, though fall is the best season of all. But what does excite me about spring is being able to photograph outdoors again (yeah, I know I can photograph outdoors in the winter too, but when you work outside the home, you often miss out on daylight).



As you can tell from the vibrant colors above, my color palette tends to change in the spring as well. I gravitate toward bright blues, pinks, oranges, and yellows.



Though I enjoy winter, by April, the drab greys and browns outside start to weigh me down. As a crafter, though, I can always create an instant pick-me-up. Making something brightly colored can lighten my mood, as can creating something in a nontraditional color.



Enjoy the season, everyone. Soon enough, we will all be complaining "it's not the heat, it's the humidity!" and longing for cooler temperatures once again.
 
Posted: 4/15/2008

Two Elephants with One Stone
 


This elephant is doing double duty for me. I wanted to make a new elephant for the Softies Central Awards in the elephant tribute category. I also wanted to make a really nice stuffed animal for a silent auction and fund-raising event at my son's school. So this elephant was created. I love him dearly and didn't want to give him up. I know I say that quite a bit, but it's true of all my creations that I invest lots of time and energy into!

 
Posted: 4/7/2008

Shepherd's Harvest
 
We are pleased to announce that Crabtree Studio has been selected as a vendor at Shepherd's Harvest Sheep & Wool Festival. The festival takes place every Mother's Day weekend at the Washington County fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN.

Amy and I have been attending the festival yearly to stock up on gorgeous handcrafted yarns and other fibers (and to ooh and aah over the lovely sheep, goats, and alpaca, of course!), and thought "why not join the fun and become vendors?" Some of our favorite patterns are fiber animals, and what better place to showcase these than at a fiber festival? As such, we will be concentrating our inventory on knitting bags, sheep, alpaca, camels, and rabbits. We hope you come out and see us there! In the meantime, here's a small sneak peak of what we plan to sell:





 
Posted: 3/29/2008

The Needle
  Crabtree Studio has recently joined the online plush collaborative at The Needle. We are very excited to be part of such a wonderful, talented group of plush designers and makers. Be sure to bookmark the page and check back often, as the community is very active and fantastic new creations are blogged about daily.

 
Posted: 3/27/2008

Squirrel Invasion
 
Some of you may have seen my two cute squirrels in the Playful Things exhibit at the Wausau Center for the Visual Arts. I started making squirrels when a coworker requested  an "evil Loring Park" squirrel. For those not in Minneapolis, Loring Park squirrels seem mangier and crazier than the citywide population as a whole. But I couldn't bring myself to make this guy mangy; he was just too cute.





This squirrel was a hit with my coworker, and he immediately requested an albino squirrel and a zombie squirrel. That was months ago—before Halloween, I'm afraid—but they're finally finished after a long hunt for zombie-colored fur and some tweaks to make the pattern more squirrelish:



(I apologize for the poorer quality of this one. Night time and white fur do not mix!)





Thank goodness the zombie squirrel has a taste for acorn brains only! This one was really fun to make. I was disappointed I couldn't find maribou in the right color for his tail, but I'm pleased with the outcome nonetheless. I had no qualms about making this guy mangy, but you should see the number cutting patches out of his fur did to my craft room floor! It was well worth it, though, as the recipient of both these pieces is ecstatic about them. I think he's already scheming on future crazy squirrel commissions and other zombie animals as well. In the meantime, I think I'll craft some regular old grey, red, and brown squirrels!
 
Posted: 3/20/2008

A Nice Pair of Hooters
 
The best for last:



The idea for this pattern popped into my head about a week ago, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. This adorable pair is the final result of one of my most productive weeks ever. The most exciting part, for me, was completing a new pattern in under 3 hours from drawing table to finished product. Woot! I can already tell I have a new favorite. I hope you all agree as well!

 
Posted: 2/21/2008

New Giraffe
 
As promised, here's another peek at what I've been doing these last few weeks:



I've reinvented my giraffe pattern!

My giraffe has been a fan favorite since Crabtree first started, but making so many of them started to get a little boring. Don't get me wrong, I think my original giraffes are adorable. But when you craft as often as Amy and I do, your creative energies itch to try new things, solve new problems, and just plain play. I had ideas about tweaking the pattern almost since the beginning— the neck needed to be longer, the body plumper, and the limbs needed to be fully poseable.



It took almost a full year, but a few weeks ago I was finally fully inspired to begin the redesign. It took a few slight tweaks to get the giraffe I had envisioned, and I'm still getting used to using plastic doll joints (what makes the limbs poseable), but I'm extremely pleased with the end result.


 
Posted: 2/18/2008

The Great Reveal
 
Okay, so maybe it's not that big, but there has been a lot going on behind the scenes here at Crabtree that I'd like to share with you. Namely, pattern revisions and new pattern development. I'll save that last exciting bit for, well, last, but in the meantime, I give you

Puppy 2.0

This started with a custom order for my wolf, but smaller:





Isn't he cute? He's about 30 percent smaller than my standard wolf. Turning the sewn pup right side out again sure was a pain with this super thick fur, but I'm very pleased with the end result.

With the smaller puppy pattern, I decided to branch out into fabric other than fur. Not only because the smaller the pattern, the harder the fur is to work with, but because I had some Dalmatian-print flannel that just begged to be used!





And finally, there's this petite cutie, also a custom order:



Once I had my template for the smaller puppy size, it was easy to tweak it slightly to accommodate the dachshund's long body and short legs. The recipient of this little guy has also requested an even more petite version to use as an ornament. I'll post a picture of that when it's complete.

Stay tuned over the next week for some more exciting pattern unveilings!
 
Posted: 2/13/2008

Maisy Doll
 
I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been so busy! My niece turned three, and I really wanted to make her something special and girly. After four nephews (plus my son), she's our first and only girl in the family right now. And since she was three, I knew I could make something a bit nicer and not worry about her eating it.

I pored over all my knitting patterns, looked at all my animal patterns, but decided what I really wanted to make was a doll. And so I made the Maisy doll! It's inspired by a '40s cloth doll pattern, but I made quite a few changes to make it more like what I had in mind. Here she is:





She has a hand embroidered face with hand sewn wool yarn hair that's styled in a cute little bob. She's made of heavy cotton fabric with safety jointed arms and legs. This is her purple outfit, complete with cotton blouse, heavy wool jumper, and wool shoes. Of course, she needed more outfits than that, so I sewed more:



A white blouse with a red cotton dress and a soft camel-colored wool coat with hand knit red scarf (seed stitch pattern). I also gave Maisy her own dolly with bead eyes and embroidery thread hair sewed into braids, and I sewed up a little pink striped dress for it. So cute!





I have to say, as much as I like the doll, I equally, if not more, love the case I made for her. I found a vintage-looking suitcase, added a strap to hold the doll in, a peg for hanging up the clothes, and a small box with a latch at the bottom for holding all the doll's accessories. Everything is really secure in it too. I loaded it up, then shook it really good, and everything stayed in the right spots! It really makes the whole kit and caboodle feel like an heirloom, passed down from a grandmother. Maybe it will become one!
 
Posted: 1/30/2008

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