Another month, another hobby. This month, I decided to try out needle felting. It is a craft where you felt wool by stabbing it repeatedly with a needle. Through adding more wool and using different colors, you can build up little figures and shapes. It only took one afternoon of stabbing to make this little unicorn. It is a nice “snack” sized hobby. A craft for when I want to complete a thing that same day.

Lots of things have happened since I last posted this May. The pandemic is still on. I have a job. And I have craft supplies exploded everywhere over the house. I have started to do diamond painting. It is like cross stitch but I am sticking little plastic drils onto a canvas. Sometimes I don’t want to be stabbed by a needle when crafting. The unicorn called to me. It demanded to be made.

I got into a good embroidery groove last week during an online conference, I was able to get a bunch of the light green leaves started and work on the outline. And then, I broke the needle. I had a backup, but it was difficult to rethread the needle while it was attached to the work. I haven’t broken a hand needle in ages. It was surprising when I heard the snap.

I had made little bundt shaped brownies earlier in the day and was craving ice cream. The problem was that it was late at night and all the stores close early. The solution… start up my ice cream maker I haven’t used in years. It took some time to find a recipe I could use. I have a dairy allergy and a nut allergy. I finally settled on a creamer based recipe as I still had oat milk creamer.

Thank you The Princess Bride and the Dread Pirate Roberts for that memorable and oh so applicable quote. Thanks to this pandemic, I decided to try my hand at sewing masks. I documented my process on Twitter, but feel free to enjoy this long form version as well. My soldering station has been switched to sewing. pic.twitter.com/hODEzsEGux — Jenn (@geekgalgroks) April 13, 2020 This was the first mask I have tried and I followed this Craft Passion pattern.

I completed the French market bag I was crocheting but first I had to frog a completely different project to get the accent yarn I wanted. It was from an entrelac blanket I was crocheting but hadn’t worked on in months. I think it makes a superior bag than it did blanket. I think I am going to steal the yellow yarn that was in that blanket to make another bag….

My state is under a stay at home order which means I have all sorts of time to craft now. I currently have an embroidery project, several crochet projects, and knitting stashed everywhere. I keep meaning to finish things but a new pattern is always more interesting than the mittens I have been working on for a decade. Completed projects Instead of showing off my current projects, I thought I’d give a tour of recent completed projects that better fit the current mood.