Galentine's Day Craft Party (Beanie Assembly)

Hey, everybody. Happy Valentine's Day. I'm Brenda KB Anderson and I'm Emily Steffen and we are here today to finish our awesome hats that we started a couple of weeks ago, we had a previous live demo on how to make all the squares in this hat. And uh the premise was you make 10 squares. You make a ribbing that fits your own head. You have a party with your friends, everybody brings their 10 squares in their ribbed band and then everyone exchanges the 10 squares kind of like exchanging Valentine's and then you get fresh new 10 squares assortment from all your friends and then you put them together and make your own hat. So we're gonna be walking you through how to assemble the beanie. So you can see how ours are turning out. Um And then we are also gonna dabble in a couple of little quick craft here and there that you could do today even you could do it at your Valentine's Day celebration. Um Or, you know, tomorrow's Valentine's Day. I don't know if you guys knew, but this also applies to tomorrow too. So yay, we're just kind of here to hang out with you guys and have fun. So please be active in the chat. We love it when you guys say hi to us. If you guys have any comments, you wanna tell us what you're doing for Valentine's Day. Um If you, you know, just have any suggestions on things Emily and I should do together in the future, things like that. We, we just love hearing from you guys. So please say hello. And if you are still needing the pattern for what we did um a couple weeks ago, two weeks ago, whenever we did a live event, the live event is available to watch. But also we have the pattern that we're gonna put in the download in the description for you to download all the squares because we have sound squares that I've that I demoed, we have crocheted squares, we have knitted squares, we have all the squares. So it doesn't matter what kind of crafter you are or even if you're feeling very intimidated by all of this, there's still time to pull some things together. So if you're feeling like, oh my gosh, I wanna make this happen and mail it to my friend later or whatever, there's still time. So all of that is available in the download with all the step by step instructions we're just gonna assemble today. And the fun part your love for your friends is like you around you guys. So you don't have to get this, there's no due date on this project, do it today. Um But in the download also at the end of the download, there's some suggestions on what to do for Valentine's Day. If you haven't already made your plans, you might get some ideas from that. There's like a crafting theme, a movie theme, a spa theme. Um There's just some little ideas in the back of the downloads and maybe there's other themes. People wanna. Yes, just the theme. Yeah, that would be awesome. I love it. What are we doing first? Are we doing the ribbing? Let's, let's choose the ribbon. You, you choose which ribbon you want because we actually ended up with, does it matter like the head size? Do I need to tell them they all fit because I got this guy. He's really, I'm gonna take this one. Um But we still, we might have enough squares for a third hat because Emily and I, we got a little overzealous and made some extra. So we might, we might have a third one too, but we probably won't get that done during this live. But anyway, so you just take your ripped band and you can just set it aside for now and then you're going to mix and match and choose your square. So, because just Emily and I are doing this together, we're gonna have some of our own and we're gonna have some of each other's in our own hat. So it's like a melding of the, of the pieces. But the more people you have, the more squares, the more variety probably. So you, like, if you had, if you did this with a group of 10 people, you'd have one square from every person, you know, or if you did it with five people, you could have two squares from every person or, you know, however it divides out. But you can certainly do this with any number of people. Like if you happen to have like 20 really close friends who all want to craft together, you know, you might not end up with a square from everybody, but you'll still have that moment of, you know, everyone getting together, everyone has a hat that kind of goes with everyone else's. Valentine's. Exactly. All right. So Emily pick some squares. I'm gonna pick some squares. Are we just gonna do like a random? I think we should just kind of pull together. We want to look. Yep. So you need 10 and then just to show everybody how they go together. There's an assembly diagram inside. So what this is actually a picture of here is this little part that says the top fold, that's actually the top right hand. So let me pull this up and set it next to it. So you can kind of picture how your squares are going to be like which squares are going to be um next to each other because you might see this and not realize that when you fold this down, this square is going to be right next to this square. So the side, so what I'm saying is this square here is going to be next to that square. So it's just something to think about when you're laying this out. You know, if you want to think about it this way or if you want to lay out your hat like front and the back and then like maybe do 1234 and then put those two from the side pieces off and they have to kind of go with both sides because they wrap around from one side to the other. It's just something to think about. So it might take a little while to of like, you know, you'll pick out your squares and then you kind of rearrange them for a little while and see, see what you like. Ok. 2460, I love the super tall heart. So I'm just doing a like Grabby. Oh, that's the same as that 19. Ok. Except for I really loved these ones that you did. I need to, I need to swap these and I'm I'm all good to. So it's three. Yeah. Ok. Ok. 123456789 10. I'm gonna move my lips off the way here. Move those lips. Yeah. All right. I think I'm gonna put this one on the other side of my hand. Oh, so these match one. So I need to goes like this actually. Right. Yes, I'm a talker while I that's OK. We don't want us next to each other. Hard heart and this one will be next to this one. Maybe that's with this and those two will be and then we'll do the back, you know, put that there swaps is 123456789 10. Ok. My question is though, am I gonna have to upside down these hearts? You don't have to upside down them because well, ok, so let's see. So this will be the front this you wanna upside down. Ok. These ones we do. Ok. Yes, you're right. And then those two don't matter whether you're upside down. Ok. This is fine and then, so just you can just double check to see so these will be next to each other. So this will end up being right. Oh wait here. I don't want that. Ok. Ok. Ok. Ok. But you could maybe you could swap those two. Yeah or but maybe then you'll have two fies next to each other. I don't know if you do it. I'm gonna go like this. Wait, this is no, this is good. This is good. Then I have the there because then this goes like this wait but then these are like that. Mhm. Oh, this is complicated. This is like a puzzle. Wait, I wanna do see this part just takes a while to kind of sort it out and to see, um, you know, just to see how you like, how everything looks. All right. So I'm gonna do this. This. Yeah. OK. Because these two are my little corner bits. I'm taking a moment to read Happy Valentine's. Oh, Susan is celebrating by going to fair nte wine tasting. Did you? Is this yours? No, no. OK. You know another thing I thought about with these squares that I know we meant last time. If you're feeling like you don't live in a cold climate like us, you can still do this idea and turn it into a scarf or a little like zipper pouch or a little coin purse or even just like a pot holder or something. That's definitely, you know, it's just not as cold climate that where we live. Definitely. Yeah. I mean they're like think of the squares as being like building blocks really? You know? Ok. There's a lot of hearts on this side. I feel like maybe I'll put this one here and this one here. OK. Maybe I just need. Are you using the stripe be? No, I think I have all the ones that I need for mine. I think I'm gonna do this so that wait a minute, but maybe I'm gonna there. Dun dun dun. Ok. Yeah, I think I'm ready to commit to mine. Ok. So I'm just gonna double check. So that side we'll be touching that side. That's OK and this will be here. OK? That's OK and that will be there. OK? Does these do these stripe matter which way they're being, it doesn't matter in both ways. So that's another thing to think about like, you know, because the squares are coming from a bunch of different people, a bunch of different materials, you know, there, there's gonna be differing amounts of stretch. So for example, I on purpose placed the squares that have the least amount of stretch. I didn't want to put a whole bunch in a row. So this is gonna be right around the bottom of my hat. So these three and these three are all around the bottom, um, like right above the ribbing, they got it. So that to me is the spot that needs to be the most stretchy. Probably. So I, that was a good tip. So I just wanted to make sure there's at least something in there that can stretch and, you know, this could go either way it could stretch. Um Yeah, either direction doesn't really matter. So, Susan just said also, but I don't know if I like the place here. I might have to switch, swap something there though. Yeah, that's a good idea. Ok, what else do I? Not? My, when I was um, younger, my mom would always put out like the birthday place mat with the birthday plate on my birthday. So this could be a fun little Valentine's and little place or, I don't know. Table Runner or something. Let's see. One more swap. I like seeing your thought patterns as you're doing this. Yeah, I like your heart. Hearts everywhere. Yeah. That's cute. I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna go with that. Although maybe this one's really cute. I think I'm gonna, I think I'm just go, ok, I'm doing it. I'm doing what we can overthink. I'm Yeah, I get it. Ok. Do you have yarn that you wanna use? You can use pink. Ok. All right. So then you just take whatever yarn you wanna use to connect your pieces to and then you can start doing a whip stitch to sew your pieces together and you know, you're gonna have a bunch of different colors from different people or, I mean, you could also, you know, I keep kind of overlooking this that we could definitely. Um, I don't think we need to, I don't think we need to, I think we can just do one single thread. Ok, because we have the doubled um, yarn around the blanket stitch edging and then we have thicker yarn for all of our other pieces, you know, kind of a little heft to it. Um, so that way we have nice cushy edges butting up next to each other. But I think the yarn that we use to sew it together could just be single yarn. Got it. So, I think that would be just fine. And are we right sews together with stitching or I just lay them next to each other and then I whip stitch them so I can see my whole plan. And another thought, um, too is if you don't think you're gonna finish this right away or, you know, maybe you're having a party with your friends and people are gonna be getting up and you know, sitting back down whatever. Um You might wanna just take a quick little photo of your layout so that you don't have to once somebody knocks into it and all your squares fall on the floor, which inevitably happen, you don't have to worry. All right. So I am just gonna start by weaving in my ends to one of the squares. If you only have stone squares, you can just run it through the bla the blanket blanket stitch in one direction, skip over one loop and go in the opposite direction. Um You know, just to kind of pre weave in the end so that it doesn't slip out of the way you, you can also just start and then weave in the end later too if you're like, yeah, Brenda. No, thanks. I don't want to pre weave in my ends. That's ok too. Are you hoping that your ladder for your knitted is is matching up with your blanket stitch on the side or is it just kind of willy nilly? There's not the same. It doesn't matter. You just have to make it like you just kind of lay them next to each other. And if you need to, you can put a little stitch marker or a pin in both corners if that helps or can just kind of hold it down onto the table. See, I, I woven my end a little bit out away from the corner. So now I'm gonna kind of go back down here and grab this and yes, your, your yarn is gonna be a contrasting color to some of your pieces. I would say, don't worry about trying to match your yarn to the pieces that you have because part of the beauty of this piece is it's supposed to look, you know, like a bunch of pieces came together and the tip, the tip that we, that I thought was really cool that Brenda suggested when we were kind of throwing this idea around is there's that website that we, even before we met last time jumped on the website and it um I'm blanking on the name of it. The color website coolers, coolers. And you're able, we, we were like, all right, you know, we want pink and you're able to kind of do the color matching or get color, um, like little color stories, little color blocks, little, you know, preferences of color and we sent it to each other and said, OK, these are the colors we're gonna use. So Brenda was able to find yarn in that color. I was able to find some fabric in that color. And then it inevitably, it, it is more cohesive look because you have those colors that you've already chosen. So to your point, it doesn't necessarily matter if it's matchy because hopefully all the colors kind of look nice together unless, unless your group of friends just threw caution to the wind and you, which is, which is, that's the fun whatever to the table that you have like a too. I like that approach as well. I tend to be like a little less matchy, matchy, matchy. I like things to look random even if they're not random. Sometimes I very much plan them. But to look is that how your house is too? Like the decor? Like it's a little random but not, I would like to say that I planned the things in my house but I, I, no, there's lots of um cool art things around here. We're, we're a crafty, kind of artsy family and so we have a lot of kind of a lot of stuff. Um And so I feel like if you have enough of this and that and this and that, then it all kind of goes together. That's my, my decorating theories. OK. So there is, you do not have to go, you know, stitches together in a particular, um, manner. You can just, you know, here I am at this corner, I'm just gonna go across here because I can. So I'm gonna do that one next. I like that because it's also less ends to weave in. Just keep on going. So I'm just sewing now, I'm to a blanket stitch, uh, square here. So then I'm just sewing just through that edging. And that's why we put that on there so that we would have something to put our needle through and we sew together. Yeah. And something to kind of help it, look a little more cohesive and, you know, look like it belongs with the knitted and crocheted squares as well. So, ok. Have you done any projects before that are marrying, um, sewing and knitting and crochet all three? Have you done anything? You know, normally I don't do that because I, when I first started designing I, that's what I wanted to do because I did, I did all three. But I was kind of, um, I had a lot of editors cautioning me against doing too much dabbling in all the different things because you're kind of, if, if there's say a crochet or who really wants to make your stuff and then they realize cleaning it and yeah, then it, then you have a lot fewer people who will be interested in it. But I feel like on the flip side it is a way to get people interested in other crafts as well. And there's a lot of people who do everything. Um, that's something if anybody out there wants to weigh in and say, hey, this is the craft I do or I do all these crafts or, um, just let us know because I'm, I'm curious about that. Um, but yeah, so I kind of avoided things like that. Like, even, even things like if I was making a knitted design, I wouldn't do a little crochet edging people. It is, it is trickier if you're feeling like, oh, I don't love crochet. Uh, that project is not for me. So, you know, but now I think for this project it's a little different because you can choose to just do one of the things you can choose to make an all stitch you can choose, you know, there's lots of options. And so I feel like this doesn't, you know, it doesn't really exclude anybody, not that, not that it really excludes anyone to have multiple crafts in one design. But, um, Renee has a quick question that I wanna ask because I don't know the answer to this because I don't talk in yarn talk. That isn't the weight of it. She's asking, are we using number four yarn for sewing this together? Yes, we are, we are using the same yarn. We are using the same, you know, wrap of one of the yarns that you used in your pieces. Um, or, you know, if you, yeah, because all, all of the pieces, regardless of whether it's sewn or crocheted or knitted, you will end up having to use some yarn because either you're doing a blanket stitch around it or you're knitting or crocheting it. So, yep. Just use whatever, whatever color is that just another term for the weight of the yarn that we're familiar with. So, it's like the, the weight of the yarn that's kind of like the most, it's the most prevalent weight of yarn in the US. You know, big box stores have worked at everything. Such a huge percentage of their yarn is that, is that, um, yup, love it. Ok. This is quick. Actually, this is sewing together really quick. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, it's after making all that, I know it feels really fast to put them together. It's like, ha have a half of a little. There they go or whatever. I love it. Ok. So, speaking of you were talking about this is me being curious if you were, since you were talking about, kind of, you know, editors have cautioned you against doing a lot of things are so your books are solely knitted. My, my books are all crocheted. I mean, that's what I mean. Crocheted. Sorry. And also I don't think knitted is a word that I just used. Um, wasn't it? What is like when you're thinking of your patterns and you're designing what like obviously you're designing things from the very beginning. Thinking this is an idea I have in my brain. How do you, I'm not a, I'm not a crocheter. I know how to do it in the super basic sense of the terms. But how do you design your patterns? Like, are you just, this is a need I have and I, I mean, I figure out how to make it or oh, I saw something and now I want to edit it to make it my style because you, I mean, your patterns in your books are fantastic. Thank you. Um That's a good question. So it co for me, it comes from all different kinds of inspiration. Like sometimes it is as simple as the editors from a yarn company or magazine, they'll send out what they call a call for submission. So then they give you ideas on the things that they're looking for for their next collection. And so sometimes I will just get inspiration from that. Like, you know, I'm not trying to create, recreate any of the images because usually they'll have some kind of color theme or just telling you what they're looking for. Um I'm not trying to recreate anything but like, sometimes it'll just sort of be like, oh, I get the feeling of what you're going for and then I um work on my own versions or my own um something inspired by it. Um with the same feel or whatever esque version. Yeah. So, yeah. So sometimes it's that sometimes it is, you know, like a, something that I feel like um is a challenge for that craft. Like, for example, in crochet, especially when I first started designing. Um crochet has come very far since I first started designing. There's all kinds of cool new stitches that people are doing in different ways that they're using them. Um, it's just really kind of crazy how much stuff, um, I've learned since I started. But, uh, you know, and keep on learning obviously. And that's, and when did you learn to crochet first? Well, I started learning how to crochet. I, my mom taught me when I was a little kid but then they didn't do it for a while and then I picked it up in my twenties again and then I think I was still in my twenties. I think when I first or maybe, yeah, I think in my twenties when I first started designing stuff that's so cool. But so sometimes it'll be like, you know, like I, I saw someone say, oh, I never crochet socks because they're not stretchy and they don't feel good on your feet. And I thought, well, I bet there's a way to do it where they are stretchy and I not, you know, then I explored a bunch of different types of stitches and, and learn more about that. Did a little bit of research and, and, yeah, and then I designed some very stretchy fun socks. I'm like, so sometimes it's like me saying. Oh, yeah. Really? The only thing you can do that? Ok. All right. Let me do it. You said I can't, so now I will in some way, shape or form. Exactly. Like, oh, really? I don't know how I'm going to prove you wrong, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna figure it out. That sounds like my kids prove you wrong now. You do that. Yep. Sometimes. That's awesome. And you, how many books I have three books? That's amazing. Yeah, I did my first book I did was called Beastly Crochet and it has a bunch of monster themed things. And then that's the one I feel like I could pick out. Like, yeah, it's so cute. The second one was based on fairy tales and then the third one which came out last year, um, is a collection of stitch patterns and they're basically like color work, stitch patterns and lots of, um, fun things like Bigfoot and um just all kinds of weird uh unconventional stitch patterns, shall we say with color, color work? I really, really love using uh color work in, in knitting and crochet. So, yeah. Uh Renee asked really quick, Brenda, are you working on the back of your beanie? I am working on the right side of it. Is that, oh, the back, whether it's the back of the side of it. Well, um to me, there isn't gonna be a back side or a front side, but I am working on the right side of my pieces. So all my right side, all the right sides of my pieces are facing up and I'm going to sew it together according to this diagram, but it doesn't make a difference here. Let me show you this hat, make a difference if this is the front or this is the front because it's just gonna be however you put it on your head, probably however it feels right, depending on the stretch. Sure. However it ends up playing or just what square you really love the most. If you just want to see that in the mirror every time you walk by. I don't know that Sue commented that she is called Sue Crafts a lot because she, I love it because she um I imagine crafts a lot. But she did say she's more willing to try something, try something new. If it's paired with something she already knows, which I feel like is probably true of all of us, right? Like if you really wanna make something and you're like, oh, but they're using this other technique, maybe I'll figure out how to do that then. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Interesting. I need a nickname like that. Brenda Crafts a lot. Sue Crafts a lot just rolls off the tongue. Yeah, it's good. OK. Wait, so did you? Yeah. You're just sewing however, so I can come down. I maybe didn't think this through that much so you can sew those together and then I know it gets a little, I'm going this way. This is right. Then I'll go up and then over. It might be so, maybe, maybe this is a little confusing because I just took this square and put it down here, um, on my piece. Oh, I see. Because it doesn't really matter. It's gonna end up being so together. Anyway, it doesn't make a difference. You can or you could think of what I'm doing right here. This could be this section here like if I turn it this way, so am I doing this wrong though? If I'm going here? Like I'm leaving this space like there. Is that, is that correct? So what's gonna happen? OK. So you're so if this gets stitched to this one, then this is gonna come down here to that and then this is gonna get stitched to this, but I'm but to make it flat, I'm stitching it exactly like this. Yes, I mean, you can, however you laid it out, you can just keep it there and sew it all up um here. Maybe that was confusing. So I will turn mine around. So it looks more like the diagram after I get this next square in there because it's like when your kids ask you a question mid craft, you're like, let me just finish this one. Finish my thought. I just have to finish in just two seconds. OK. So I have a question for you, Emily. And if you guys have any other questions, like random questions, like how Emily and I are just gonna ask you, there are random questions while we're doing this. Um Then, you know, drop them in the chat because we wanna know, you know, we wanna, that's fun. We wanna socialize with you guys. Um OK, so Emily, I've been wondering this. So I've noticed that you are a very like enthusiastic crafter and you do not seem to be scared of crafting with anything. You do all kinds of medium, painting lots of things. It seems like it from my vantage point. Well, that's great. I mean, yeah. So I'm wondering, OK, I'm wondering if you can tell me like with this, you know, like I'm gonna do this. Like, what have you picked up where it turned out way better than you thought? And what have you picked up where you like? That was a disaster? Super good question. So, OK, so I kind of have this like theory idea of philosophy, maybe it's like of my life and it just mirrors crafting. So maybe this is gonna be a really deep answer or maybe you're just gonna just, I don't know, but I just feel like the thing with crafting is you can never, nothing you do is undoable and nothing you paint is like unpainted over. All right. Nothing you sew you can't take out. I mean, sort of like cutting the fabric but you can always reuse it for something else. So I feel like that's what? And that's maybe I can't, I feel like I kind of bark that at my kids all the time. Like it's ok. Make mistakes, just draw things. Right. Like, and I, I think that that's maybe probably the, the vibe you're getting is I, I do, I do feel like it is easy for me to pick something up and just give it a try. The one thing that I in college that I failed miserably at, I was an art major in college. I did a lot of ceramics which obviously you're touching the clay. I did glass blowing and I wanted so badly to touch the glass, but it's like molten lava. So it's not a good, not recommended at all. But I struggle because, you know, you're like blowing in the tube and I just made a lot of really uneven paper weights is what just really happened in that class. And I just have never had a passion for glass blowing ever again in my life. Oh, my gosh. Because it was really, it was hard. I'm, I'm a tactile person. I think that's why I really love painting. It's why I love sewing. It's why I like a lot of crafts are tactile, can touch the molten lava. Maybe it's just, yeah, the, the molten lava glass blowing that I know you struggle with. But I do feel like so many times when I pick up a paintbrush and we have a lot of walls painted in our house and I've painted over them and repainted them. Sometimes you step back and, and I'm, me, I sit back and I'm like, surprised by what's on the wall. Oh, yeah, this really works really well because I did that. Yeah. And I do think sometimes when we're so into what we're doing, whether it's drawing or painting or crochet or sewing, like in it and you're on the stressed shoulders and you're doing the things like taking a step back and just like taking a breath. I think we can wow ourselves sometimes and like, be really, I don't know, just like, wow, I'm amazing. I am, I am good at what I do or I am creative or I am. So if it didn't work, just look at how much I learned 100%. Look at how much like we just put, I think, I think sometimes I, we all of us, maybe it's a us as women to just put so much stake in like the successful finished product when it's the process. To me, that's, to me, I love the process more sometimes than the finished product just because that's the fun part. I'm motivated by fun. So maybe that's a good, I'm motivated by fun. Dishes are not fun. Therefore, dishes do not get done in a time. We run out our house taxes. You have to figure out a way to make taxes fun. Let us know. Oh, bar taxes are the pits. But I do think, and for me, um, variety is really fun. So I find that if I, um, like, for instance, there was a couple of years ago actually, right after COVID I was knitting this huge blanket for, because I'm like, oh, we need a blanket for a living room. I have this dr and I'm just gonna use it up and it was this cool scrappy blanket, but I just got so bored with it, picking it up every single night and this was like, you know, three solid weeks for a couple hours or maybe an hour every night or whatever for whatever it was, it was an extended length of time in my mind, it felt overwhelming. But if I'm able to put something down and pick something else up and then put something else down and pick something else up and then pick up the other thing and then put this other thing down for me. Not only does it give me like that breath of clarity when I go back to the project to go? Oh, I wanna change that or? Oh, I really like that or? Oh, I don't like that. I also feel like I'm motivated to keep going. Maybe that is just, I can see that. Yeah, that's maybe a me thing, but that's also one of the reasons why dad can definitely relate to that. I can relate to actually a lot of what you're saying because, um, back when you were talking about the glass blowing and not being able to touch it, um I was thinking about how I took a metal sculpture class and, and I, I had a hard time with that too because I would the pieces together and then I can't even tell you how many times I burned myself because I just couldn't seem to like I kept wanting to touch it shouldn't or like move it or? Yes. Right. I loved clay. I did. I really loved clay definitely because you can just get right on in there and move it around. Yeah. Yeah, I love that too. Um, ok, Renee asks, I love this off the wall. Question shed. Where did you get your pedestal head? Oh. I am trying to remember now. I am pretty sure it came from Amazon. I'm almost positive, but I remember having to search a long time to find that because um, is this how you, is this how you like size patterns? This is more just for like display. So it's becau because it isn't, to me this head isn't super. I guess it could be, it could be close to a real human head, but it just seems like it's the way that it shape, it's not shaped like my head. So then I, I don't, um, I don't usually size things on this but I use it more like that and for photography, but I would suggest if you're looking for that, I cannot remember exactly how I found it. But I think I started looking, searching under wig blocks instead of mannequin heads or I can't remember what I dress form head. I can't remember how I first had form. I know I searched a lot of different things, but I, I think I may have found it when I was looking under wig blocks because, um, so wig blocks are like usually a little heavier and that's what people prepare a wig on or dialing in or making a wig or whatever. Um And you can usually there's like an opening at the bottom, you can clamp it to the table, sort of like a more utilitarian kind of useful head thing. Um, so, and I, I do have a couple of wig blocks that I use for displaying things as well because I think they look nice, you know, they're nice, they kind of look like, you know that beige fabric, mannequin kind of thing going on the Muslin kind of fabric. Exactly. Um, I love that. But yeah, you can find a lot of really creepy looking like fake heads for mannequins when you're looking at Amazon. So beware be, we warned you, we've warned you OK. So how are you say this one more time? I'm sorry. I know you said this. So should I this next block right here if I have, this is how it is. Should I oh wait, no, you do still have it flat. Well, I, I do and so this is gonna be here and then this is gonna be down here. Oh yeah, so I'm still doing it right. Then eventually I'm just gonna squish these together. Do that at the end. I see. I see. And are you OK? With these granny squares being next to each other? And the answer is totally fine. It's totally fine. OK. Yep. That's, that is the fun. That's all right. It's a little bit of a surprise sometimes. But once you do, once you put these together, it, it, you know, you'll be able to, unfortunately, it's kind of hard to visualize until like the last minute, but you could also pin all of your squares together. Um I was just thinking about this. Maybe we should have done that is pin, all your squaress together and complete the hat and then look at it and then see if you want to move anything. I see. So like you're kind of mock mock putting it together, make the whole dimensional. Yeah. Yeah. That's OK. I feel like it's uh yeah, but it's all good. It's gonna be all patchwork and cute. Um Renee has one more question when you use scraps for a pre worn sweater knitted or crocheted. Do you seam the edges before using yarn to sew around the edges? Ok. So if you're using a sweater that you can felt, you don't need to do that. So that's what I would suggest that you use something that you can felt in your washing machine and then you can just cut it. You don't have to pre sell it or anything. Just whip it in the washing machine, wash it on hot, agitate. It might take a couple of washings and then it'll start to become like this is actually a sweater that's felted. Um You, you, it's hard to see the stitches after a while, it kind of gets all fuzzy and squished together and then you can cut it and it won't fray at all. I have also used in sewing projects. I've used, just cut repurpose sweaters that, you know, like a cotton sweater, acrylic sweater or whatever. And then you do have to stitch around it. It might be tricky to do with this because you're gonna be doing that. I don't know. You're gonna be doing that blanket stitch right along the edge and it might just, depending on the sweater that you choose what the actual stitch of the sweater is, is what you're saying. Yeah. Like when you do the blanket stitch into the cut edge of the sweater, if you don't do something to keep that from raveling and it's not, if it's not felt sorry I should have said that part of the equation. If it's not felted, it makes me a little bit nervous to, to use it because, because, because it could come unraveled. So, and you know, just depending on the sweater that you buy, like if you already have one and say you have the sweater and you, there's like a hole in it and it's just kind of a lost cause sweater. Anyway, you can just cut a little chunk out and then see if it frays too and see if you can do something to stop, to stop the edge, you could maybe surge around it if it's like a, a finer knit. Um If you have a surger or do some sort of zig zag square and then to the outside, perhaps, like if you cut out a larger chunk, stitch a square and then cut the edge and then maybe blanket stitch over that or something. So OK, so follow up, I think this is maybe she's also getting at too, but I think this is following along what you're saying. Um She's saying she inherited a bunch of crochet squares with a request to put them together as a blanket. They're very sly in size but not quite in different dimensions. Kind of like this project. That is, I feel like it's exactly like this project because what we did with the crochet squares and the knitted squares is they were 3.5 by 3.5. And the fabric squares were three and a quarter by three and a quarter. And then we added the blanket stitch. So you can essentially find your biggest size, right? And then make the other ones bigger to adjust, to make the other ones bigger. Now, of course, you could probably do some math, which would not be my forte, but you could probably do some math to like cut them down if you needed to or felt them and just kind of experiment with how to match them up and put them together. I feel like this laying them out method and matching them up roughly or like you said, pin in place would maybe be your best bet. I mean, because it's kind of gonna be eyeballing, I would imagine. But I, I don't that I'm not, I that would be my thought with that because it is very similar to this project with the sizing. Yeah, I feel like making the squares bigger is a safer bet than making any of them smaller because you could be cutting the high heavens and that to it, you can put a border around it. And that would also then distinguish because if you look at granny square things, I feel like that are successful. Like if you look at a granny square, the reason the granny squares I think are successful is because it's building, building, building and then it always ends with this beautiful border. So to me it feels like little framed pieces of artwork. And, yeah, because I'm, I, I mean, I don't, I can't say that like, oh my gosh, this cros crochet stitch is beautiful to me. But I love the way that they lay out and, like, talk to each other when they're next to each other because of the border more than anything, to be honest. Yeah. OK. I need to spin mine because I'm getting, this is so cute. I love this. You know, when you do a project and then you, like, you have an idea in your head and then you're doing it and you're like, wow, this is even better than I expected. I know that's the best feeling or sometimes when you're working on something you're like, I don't know if it's gonna work. I don't know if it's gonna work and then you have to think. Is it worth continuing? Is it? I feel like if you're still questioning, if it's gonna work, then you should keep going until, you know, it's not going. Yes. It might turn out 100% whenever I'm painting a mural. I always say that there's a middle stage. It's like the awkward, middle, middle school stage where you look and you're like, oh, this color is wrong or this is wrong. And like, I, I tell myself 100 times in my head, trust the process. Emily, trust the process because, yeah, I mean, you just have to keep, you just keep going and, you know, worst case scenario you take it out or you use it for something or you, at least you've learned enough about it to realize what, what didn't work, you know? And then you can't fix it. I feel like I'm telling my kids to all the time. Trust the process, trust the process. Ok. So, speaking of, I have another question for you. I'm like, um, so you do a lot of tutorials for crafts and, and National Sewing Circle and things like that? Um I'm wondering, do you like, but I know you're like super artistic and obviously you're very crafty. Do you think of yourself as being more of an artist or a craftsperson or a teacher or when, like, if you had to describe yourself to someone, would you say you're all of those things or would you, like, lean towards one more than the other? Like, how do you identify you? Like, what do you identify with? I, you know? Ok. So that is a question I've been pondering because I feel like I, I feel, ok, you know, when you have these moments in your life and you're like, oh, I, I don't feel credentialed for that. I don't feel like I'm a legit teacher. Like I couldn't walk into a classroom and be like, here's your management skills and my scope of what we're going to learn today. Right. Right. Right. So that being said, I also don't want to short change the fact that I feel like I have a passion for sharing what I love. So I, my answer is probably d all of the above because it's a little bit of that and I do feel like sometimes the, my teaching, like when I love to share something, it comes out of the fact that I've kind of dabbled in it and done it myself as like an artist. But, but back to the experimental Emily thing. Yeah, just figure it out. Yeah. And I, yeah, so I don't, I don't feel like I know the answer other than all of the above because um I've also found like recently because my kids are at an age. I have AAA second grader and 1/5 grader. And my kids are at an age where like teaching them things and teaching their peers things and I um I step in and, and do some things at their school as well. It is so fun because like, you see these little kids light up when something like they understand the drawing concept you're trying to teach them or I just did this little clay thing at my kids' school and, and they're like, of course kids love, most kids love getting messy. I love watching them get messy and you know, the, it's not my, I will help clean up but it's not my forever problem. When they're getting nosy, which I love. But, um, I do think like, just seeing that and seeing kids be successful in something or in the same, seeing an adult, like the light bulb goes on. You're like, oh, I can see why people are so in love with teaching because it's, I know there's challenges. I, I don't even pretend to understand any of that other than the fact that it is so cool just to, like, spill out what you love and what you're passionate about and, and see somebody else kind of find their own joy in that and run with it. So, I don't know. Maybe I feel like in my life I've had like 12 careers. So you're just a kind of everything. It's a, and I always say when I grow up I wanna be and then I'm not there yet, but I am there yet, but I'm not. So, I don't know. So that, so, I don't know. I think that the, the takeaway here is, it's ok to not know. Amen. I think it's all right. Are you done already? I'm still, I'm still working here. I love that. Are we racing? Yeah. Oh, no, because you'd win for sure. I don't know. Sometimes when I talk I can't sew very. I know. I, I have to keep putting it down when I answer any questions. Yeah. Oh, boy. I was thinking about what I would call myself and I, I'm kind of like you like where I feel like, I don't know if I, I mean, I do technically teach but I see myself as an explainer more than a teacher. That's a good way to say an explainer, which is not a thing. Well, that is a thing now in my mind. Yeah. What did you, um, because you've dabbled in the world of like the costume land and that whole land, um, has that, has that translated and inspired a lot of your designs or how did, how did that, how was, how was that? Ok. So, so what Emily's talking about? I used to work in a costume shop. We made, it was so cool to me. We made full body character costumes um for shows that were like all over the world. It was a very big thing when I, when I first started with Sesame Street and then later it was lots of other things. We worked for Nickelodeon. We worked with all kinds of other people need giant costumes all the time. It was a very fun, very like creative environment. It was awesome. And then COVID happened. So I worked for like more than 20 years and then we all, we shut down because you couldn't have a show. Of course, nothing was like, yeah, you couldn't have a big arena full of people. So, um anyway, so that was like part of my self identity for a long time. And then it was very weird for me to not to not have that because I worked there for so long. Yeah. And, and that open creativity is so cool. Yeah. And it, well, and it was really a cool work environment because there's all kinds of other people who work there who are, you know, making stuff alongside. There's a lot of collaboration, problem solving and things like that going on. I love that. Um So my job was to develop and construct mostly bodies. I started doing some other things, but bodies were my specialty bodies. So the character costume bodies. And so, you know, you have to think about like, how am I gonna make it look just like the licensed character you fit on human proportions and allow them to dance in it, you know, and move a lot in it, you know. Um So that was, it was always, you know, a challenge to, to figure all that stuff out which I really, really loved. I love a good challenge. So that was really fun. And now I'm forgetting what you actually asked like, how, how did that like, were you always uh uh like a knitter at night? You'd go home and be like, I'm gonna knit something because this is, well, even when I worked there, I was still freelancing um designing stuff for crochet and knit magazine. So I did, it was still a part of it. Yeah. So I did that in the night time. And then during the day I worked at, at the, at the costume shop. So I was very thankful when COVID hit and I found myself without a job for the first time in a very, very long time um that I had this other revenue stream that I had. Um And it just, I just got lucky. So, um see being a Brenda of all trades is good. Yeah, it was, it was pretty awesome to have a job that I can also be super creative at. And then this job is extra fun because I get to just design the things that I'm teaching people. I get to make. Like they come from my imagination. Whereas my previous costume shop job, it was, you know, I got to be creatively solving problems and making cool things with my hands and I love making and stuff. It wasn't my vision, it was someone else's vision. Um, but that was still very rewarding and very fun. It was very cool, but it was just a different thing to, to, um, transition into something where I could just make what I want and teach people and make what I think people want, want, want to make that I wanna make, I had a lot more creative control suddenly which was, which was, I don't wanna say scary, but it was like, it was a little bit, I was a little bit like, isn't anyone gonna like, don't I have to jump through 10,000 hoops like I did at my old job. Like, can I really teach this? That's so cool. Um So it was a different, different way to look at crafting, that's for sure. Yeah, I think that the, the whole collaboration piece, I mean, that's the fun thing about this project too is for creatives. The collaboration is a bit. Whoa, you're making your head already, you're making. Well, I know, but yours looks more Haish. Not very, not very far away from my, I am from my chit chatting over here. I love that. OK. With such, this is actually too that, that I keep. Of course, this is me translating to the kid world. You could even um like this whip stitch piece with this blunt needle. Like my daughter could 100%. There's pieces very like outsourced to your kid or not outsourced. That is not what I mean, collaborate with your Children. Do it for what I mean. Holy moly. Like, collaborate with your kids and say, hey, you do this part, I'll do this part and then it becomes like, you know, a teen project to introduce these techniques and things. These are, this is a very easy, this is a very easy part of the process because it's like you, the place where you're supposed to be stitching is pretty much laid out for you, you know, go on the edge of the, the knitted squares or the crocheted squares and then you got the blanket stitched to kind of guide your needle on the sewn squares. So, yeah, it's, yeah, it's awesome. How important are these corners? Like, should I be re, um, kind of doing these corners like super or? I, I think they look fine over here. Ok. Yeah, I think that's fine. One thing you can do if you want to is you can stitch a little X there to bring that old. Yeah. Ok. I'm gonna do that actually. And then, you know, they're brought nice, you know, nice and close together. Yep. I'm in for that. Ok. Good tip. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And you can't even actually really see it. That looks really good. Great. Do you have any traditions with your family for Valentine's Day? I know we talked about in the past of Valentine's Day. Isn't, it wasn't my favorite thing for a long time, but I'm learning to embrace it now. I mean, a little slow to the, to jump on the Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day. Way better than Valentine's Day. To be honest, I, this is my first time celebrating Valentine's Day. I've never, I did not even know what it was until one day you said it in a live. And I'm like, is she just making that up? And then I googled it and I was like, what this is a thing and it comes from parks and recreation show is where it originated. And I watched that show. And I know that I watched that episode and I just completely forget there's, there's one episode that she, like, has the full party Leslie, no main character. She like celebrating her gal pals and they're sitting down for brunch because brunch is her favorite food, the favorite, whatever food, day, favorite meal. And, and then there's a, it, like pops up super small in, I think a couple other episodes, like, where you could easily miss a moment. Yeah. Yeah. Where she, where she talks about because she makes like scrapbooks for her friends and these like mosaics of their faces and made out of the crushed. It's so funny, don't we all just aim to be that friend? I could be a little more like Leslie. Nope. I'd be so proud is asking about the Galentine's Day Decor behind us. Like, where did we get it or did we make them? OK. So question. Let's give you a brief tour. So the brief tour. Happy Galentine's Day banner. That's from Amazon. The pom pom thing with the hearts. That is something that I made because I just, I know how I love a good pom. Pom. Emily is the, she is the biggest promoter of the pom pom. I feel she loves the pom poms so much. And I'm like, if it's Emily and I doing this, I love pom poms too. I'm like, I gotta make a pompom banner in there. Yeah. Yeah. So good. So good. And then, um, I made those fur heart pillows down there of some fatty fur. What is it called? Fat? Just the name of the, it's mostly acrylic or mot acrylic. It's just a synthetic fur. I love that. And we have one of the lip, it's back there, but I'm gonna show you right here. We also have one of these lip pillows, these lip pillows. And this is actually one of the tutorials that is available at the very end of the PDF. And it's a live that I had done, um, with the sewing pattern. It's so, so, so, so simple. It's basically like you cut out the shape you sew, kind of around the edges. You leave a space, you stuff it and then you sew the like, pursed, pursed. Is it like where you purse your lips in between? And there's a smaller size and then we have the larger size that's kind of back there. I don't know if you can super duper see it, but it's so fun because I made these one year actually for Valentine's and I went and like, dropped them on my friend's doorsteps with like a little tag on it. Yeah. So just a little like moment, right of these little lip pillows because I also feel like I've never really been much of a Valentine's Day person probably until I had kids. Um, but I do love now because, you know, you take your Christmas Decor down or your holiday decor. And our house feels like very naked when you take it all down. So it has been a little fun to like, you know, your kids come home with projects and like little like art things and you kind of replace a few things and slap up the little finger painted heart or whatever on the wall instead. And so the pillows kind of came out of that idea of like, oh, we have a few Christmas or pillows and now I just, I don't even know where original pillows are and I just made some of these to throw on the couch just to add some adorable. And I totally understand. I mean, some holidays are just holidays for holidays sake. So ma I mean, make it what you want, right? Like that's well, sure you can really have lip pillows on your couch all, all year round. As far as I'm concerned, I took them off our couch this morning. My daughter's like, why are you taking them? I'm like, sweetie, they'll be back, don't, it's fine. I love you. Go to school. I promise the lips will be back. They get played with all the time. Ok. So, ok, so explain to me how to do this part. I'm at this stage where everything is together. So when you have like this large chunk together, the small little strip, what happens is your piece will go like this and then you just put in like ta ta da. So you just have to sew, like look at this little, yeah. Super cute. Ok. That's easy. That's very easy. I'm gonna go here. I'm gonna anchor this here on this. Well, not here. Ok. Same whip stitch. Right. Yep. Just keep going. Yep. I love that. It's just easy. Ok. It would be a little easier if I had a mimosa probably. Oh, yes, I forgot the mimosas. You really need to plan better next time. Ok. It's gonna take me a minute. There we go. All right. So I've got the top of mine together. I wanna weave in. Oh, that looks good. Ok. But see, looking at this now, I'm thankful that you did that, finished ribbing because look at how, like the difference is, it just doesn't look at it. Oh, I have one more little scene here. I didn't see, I see that first. Whoops, that'll happen. I'll do that next. Ok. So what are you always a go to yarn person? Like every time you have a design in your brain, do you just run, you run to crochet or yarn or does it matter what it is if? Well, that's what I mainly do for, for my job. But, um, I was a sewer first and I, my job, I did not know that. Yeah, that's ok. We didn't crochet the costume, full body character costumes. But although that beautiful as that would be, um, that would take a million years instead of half a million years. But, um, yeah. Yeah. But ii, I don't know if I consider myself more of a sewer or more of a crocheter and then slightly behind crochet is knitting. I just ever so slightly. Ok. It's so cool. Some of these whip stitches, like, I love the way that it is like that. It like ta I would say, like, talk to the other colors. That's really, it brings the color throughout your um really quick question Joan has, she's asking you specifically Brenda. Can you show how you bond off your yarn in the previous block by turning your work over and re threading the needle? Like maybe is it binding off with the, with the um that just one more time? I like how I woven my end. Can you please show how you bound off your yarn in the previous block by turning your work over and re threading the needle? OK. Oh Maybe because I sent it through in my knee. I think it's just cause my nail fell off my, off of the yarn. But I will show you how I weave in how I weave in my ends. Once I get the seam seam stitched, we'll come back for that. Yes. Yeah, because we should probably talk about that, especially if um people are coming at this from more of a sewing angle and they haven't had too much experience weaving in their ends. The cool thing is I feel like I, and you're probably gonna demonstrate this. It, I always thought when I first started crocheting or excuse me, knitting that you have to like, weave your ends to high heavens. And it's actually a yarn. I'm sure there's some like physics to it. It's quite cool how very little effort needs to go into the weaving of the end piece. Because, yeah, I mean, as long as you go in a couple of different directions and another thing that really helps is if you, instead of like trying to send your needle through, you know, between all of the loops when you're kind of weaving it back and forth. Um, if you actually are splitting through the yarns, it makes it a little said that last time. Yeah, it makes a little gripper and it's a little less likely to come apart. You don't have to do it that way. But that's just something, you know, like, I feel like when I first learned how to crochet and knit, I thought you're supposed to go in, you know, not split the yarns. I thought that was why we were using the blunt tapestry needles, which, which, you know, helps you avoid splitting your yarns. But, um, but what I learned was that actually when you do split through your yarns, OK. So here I'm gonna weave in my end. So if you had sewing pieces, you would just go through here here, I'll just, I'll just weave it in over here. You can go back and forth and because I went under this loop, I can't go back under this loop. I can't undo it or it's just gonna undo it. So I'm gonna hop over it and come back up here. But if you're weaving it into a section um of knitting or crocheting or something like that, you can just kind of pick through some of the loops and go in one direction like that and then go in another direction and then that helps it, that really helps it stay. You just wanna make sure it's not showing up on the outside of your dig, you know, dig your needle in too far. I hope I answered your question. But if I did not answer your question, let me know. I think when I took my needle off, I think it's because I pulled my needle through to the inside of my work to weave in my ends there and it just shoved off the yarn. And so I had to reread it, I think is what happened. But I, it's hard for me to remember. I wasn't paying too much attention to what I was doing. I guess it's like when you drive home on the, on a route, you've taken a million times and you go back and go, what did I do? What was that, what was I doing? What happened there? OK. So, um, if you did. So, it looks so good. Your hat band should probably be a little smaller. It's made to be a little smaller so it has to stretch, stretch it. And so I am going to probably just pin this in a couple of places. Um, just because that way I know it's going to, I'm not gonna get too much of the hat on one side of the band. That's a sewing tip right there. Yeah. So this works for any of the bands, you know, just so fun. Pin, the two ends, you know, maybe check to see if you have a seam somewhere. I've got a seam right here and I'm lining it up at the side edge, but you could also line it up at the back if you know that you're gonna have a back. Um, I probably gonna wear it whatever way it just gets on my head. So I'm just lining it up with that seam right there and then I'm gonna pin the halfway point. So I'm just gonna kinda pull that a little taut and pin here and you can feel free to pin more if you are a knit or crochet or you might already have some locking stitch markers. You can use those instead of pins and that way you're not going to be poking yourself. What are locking the ones like that? They look almost like a tiny plastic padlock and it goes like this or like, almost like a safety pin. You could also use safety pins. I do have a few that would work too. Oh, this is so fun. Do you, do you have to block this when you're done? I did, I feel like it just kind of helps everything out a little more and you can kind of stretch it into the shape that you want to be in. You know, this is I kind of stretched this to be a little bit more rounded here. Um Instead of a very straight angle, I feel like I just learned in my lifetime, the power of blocking and blocking just means that you're getting it wet with hot water, semi hot water and then you're like it to lay it flat and kind of stretching it and it'll dry. I, I honestly, and maybe you're going to be like, oh boy Emily, but I just never blocked anything that I'd ever knit in my life because I thought, oh, that feels like a waste. Like I'm too excited to wear it or use it. It takes a while to dry. And I just, I learned my lesson real fast. Like this actually is a really good idea. It really does help even out your stitches and makes things look a little better. Then there, there's two main methods. I mean, there are other methods of all there you can get your piece wet with. Usually it's just like lukewarm water, usually it through because if it's hot, you might end up shrinking it by accident or felting it or something. You wanna do that and then you get it wet, squeeze out as much water as you can pat it dry with a towel and just like lay it out to exactly the shape and size. You can shape it with your hands and then let it dry. And then the other method. Ok. The other method I use, um, when I work, especially with acrylics or synthetics because they don't respond as well to with wool and, and fabrics like that like a natural fibers, they respond a little more to the water when you block it. But when you use um steam on acrylics, it like, I think of it as you're almost heat, shaping your fibers into the right place. You don't, you don't wanna, you don't wanna put your, you don't wanna put your iron on it, but you just like steam moment you put a lot of steam in it, it gets hot, move the iron away and then just kind of push it into the place you want it to. Is that what you did with this one? I steam this one. It's so much faster because so many times the, the reason why I never blocked knitting is because I'd finish and maybe a blanket is different. But like I finish a hat or something and I'm like, I wanna wear it or my daughter's takes it right away and puts it on her head and you're like, wow, whatever, no big deal. But that actually would make it way fast because you're eating it damp, I'm sure. But so it does still need maybe, I don't know, a bit to dry but not like where you're soaking it and wringing out the water, which is what I've done. And you can also, you can also block walls and natural fibers too. It, it's perfectly fine to steam block you just, or you just obviously be cautious of the heat because you want to make sure that you're not gonna felt it. Yeah. So with the, with the wool, since it's stationary, you're not rubbing it as you are steaming it if you just get it and then you're kind of pulling out the edges or whatever, that's a good tip. And for acrylics it, the steam softens the fiber up so much. Like if you make a hat and you make it out of acrylic and then you put it on your hat and you think, oh, it looks so like it won't, it doesn't have any drape to it. Then I would highly recommend steaming it because it makes your fibers just relax and it just has a softness that it didn't before. Is there a rhyme or reason? Just in your, in your opinion? Is there a rhyme or reason why you sometimes prefer acrylic blends or acrylic over something that's more natural fibers because I feel like sometimes acrylics get a really bad reputation, um, for multiple reasons and I sometimes can be one of them. That's like, uh, I don't like it, but tell me what your thought process is. Well, my favorite fiber to work with is actually wool, but I use acrylics a lot. Um, especially for toys and things like that because they're washable, the washability and you can get super wash wools. So you can, there are wools that you can wash in the washing machine, but I also use them because the price point is so much lower. And I wanna make my designs accessible for people, you know, not have to worry about substitutions. So when I'm coming up with my designs, um you know, the ones that are good point on creative crochet corner and on craftsy, I'm, I'm always thinking, ok, what kind of yarn have I been using recently? And I go back through the projects I've been making and I try to switch it up so that it's, you know, like some, you know, usually wanna have something that's affordable to most people. Sometimes I like to go really inexpensive though just to make to, to be like, hey, you can make really cool things on a very inexpensive yarn. You can, you don't have to have the most expensive stuff to make it look really good. You know, sometimes it helps sometimes but not, you know, not always, you can make really cool stuff out of very inexpensive materials. I also do feel like to the acrylic blends have come a world of difference. It's a huge difference from when I was, when I first learned how to crochet. When I was little. It's like yarn and like it was like plastic, you crocheted with it and it just didn't have. Yeah. OK. Question a about the, um, blocking again. J Jan asked us, do you need to block every time you launder your garment? So, I don't know the answer to that question. It's a wool oftentimes. Um, I will just, you know, I'll wash it and then you let it lay out, lay it flat to dry, in theory, blocking it. So you're pretty much doing that anyway. Um, if it's something that is washable like an acrylic, the heat shaping seems to hold pretty well even to wash as long as you're not putting it in the dryer because putting in the dryer it, well, it, it, it, it, it, it's, um, sometimes it makes it pill a little bit. So I don't, normally, if it's a handmade thing, I don't, I almost never put it in the dryer because I just let things air dry for the most part because I feel like it keeps the yarn from getting fuzzy and worn out and weird. Um, but it, it, you know, usually when I, um, steam block like a hat or something like that and then I throw it through the wash. I don't usually steam block it again. After that, it may not look as super duper. Perfect. So the next time then I just like it out to dry and I don't bother with this. I mean, I feel like I do that with all the sweaters of our family. Any whether they're purchased or made anyway. Just because yeah, because Lordy, I can, I cannot, I, this is the part of adulting that I'm really bad at is knowing what setting of the things to put the cottons and that I just can't. Laundry is the bane of my existence. I just can't. Well, and I feel like, you know what, there's some things, it's ok that we can't do that. No, there's no guilt that I don't know the laundry that, well, there's zero guilt in me. Maybe, maybe one of my Children will grow up to just do all of it, the whole household. Yeah, we can all dream about that moment. It's fine. It's ok. It'll be great. Ok. How are you doing over there with your living? I'm getting there. Wow, you're awesome. Um, um, maybe a quarter of the way down here. You're cruising. Ok. What other, um. 0000, hang on, hang on. I can't talk in. No. Ok. Well, I'm always having a yarn over here. Uh, I'm just gonna go through that hole. That is not, wait. Ok. Hoop. I just undid what I did. Because I wasn't paying attention and went through the same, you know, the same little area. I don't even remember what my question was because I was too focused on my, I have a question for you. I think as crafty creator type people um who have crafty creator kind of jobs, but this would also apply to other people who just do it a lot. I think sometimes it's hard to find balance between, between other things in life. Do you have a hard time with that or do you have like a system that is a good question or do you just find? Yeah, that is a really good question. I think balance is a proverbial unicorn that is really hard to find no matter what you're doing specifically in just like this, not like this, I need to undo this. Um I feel like to me the, the the I would say less of a balance and more of a rhythm I found in my adult life and by that, I mean, like I struggle with things that are like I told you I'm motivated by fun. So I struggle with things sometimes that are not fun, mundane tasks around the house. Sometimes hard things, right? Where you're like, oh, I don't have the motivation to do this because it's way more fun to just like go draw something on my ipad as opposed to, you know, find the receipt I need for the thing or whatever. Right, which is not, it's not a badge of honor by any stretch of the imagination. That is just like real life that I've learned in my life. Like I just need to face this and this is real for me. So for me having a rhythm of my days are helpful and then kind of to my weeks. So that, that's probably what gives me the most balance. So by that, I mean, I know that I'm the most motivated to do things I don't wanna do in the mornings. Ok. So I just try to get those things done and the beginning of the week. So like Fridays, I've learned that I drop my kids off at school and go buy myself a coffee and I kind of do whatever I want that day because I just like, I can't, I just can't. And I know that that and it's, it's because then I'm loading my other days with like the things that I should do now is that every single week? Absolutely. 100 and 75%. No, because I have kids and somebody is throwing up one week or, you know what I mean? Or we have a day off and we're gonna go do something that requires me to be in, I don't know, mode of watching other people's Children or something. I don't know. But I feel like I'm, I'm not hard on myself if, if my rhythms get out of whack because I, I just, I cannot find a balance in life at all. And I feel like if it were up to me, I would just be creative all day long and there'd be glue guns and paint all over my kitchen and I would drive everybody in my household crazy. So it's, it's like I'm kind of forced myself into what it means for my brain and just rolled with it. And it's honestly, and I feel like even now that both my kids are in school full time, um, because I have a second grader and 1/5 grader and I mean, it, it took a bit for Esther to get into school just because of how COVID schedules were and things. Right. Um That now I'm like, oh, wow, there are some days where I feel like this is like, amazing because I don't have a lot to do. So there's seasons of life where, you know, things are come ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows and right now if you walk into my studio, it's a, it is a disaster. I haven't even put away, you know, when you make things for Christmas or for people and you have all these items and you're like, oh, ok, I'm gonna put that over here and then you pick something else up and you're, and I haven't put away this yet. So it's just that I do need to probably pick up and put away. But yeah. Yeah, I feel like we both kind of craft in a similar fashion where you can literally block everything else out and con train on your own little thing and you don't even see the mess until later real time when somebody looks at it and you, then you see it through their eyes and you're like, what? Like my husband Aaron, we're both married to Aaron, which we did not know until like two weeks ago, Aaron will not go into my studio right now. He's like, I'm like, I can't, it is so gives you so much stress and anxiety. And I'm like, well, i it's ok because I know where everything is. It's fine. It's ok. I will figure it out at some point when I feel motivated to figure it out and he's like, oh, right. But the people who can, and maybe you are one of these people, the people who have like organization to what they're doing. I, there's, there's some part of me that's like, oh, wow. I think I do waste time because I am not just, I don't, you don't know where all the things are. You can't just get it out and put it away. But then sometimes I'm like, yeah, but sometimes my creative whim happens because I see that paint sitting out there and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the color that would finish this other thing that inevitably have put down, you know. So it's, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I am at the beginning of turning over a new leaf because I, I love finally gotten to the point where I'm like, I can't keep ok. So I, I don't have my own studio. I just work on the end of my couch and have like, basically taken over the coffee table next to it. That's all my work stuff. I love that. It's not working though because it's in the living room and it's in everyone's way and people would maybe like to sit there like we have a movie night or something. I'll be like, don't sit in my work chair, don't sit in my, my rafting is over there. So I am trying really, really hard to organize my stuff and I'm trying to carve out a little tiny space. We don't have a very big house. So I'm trying to carve out a little tiny space where I can have things in bins and like that's the dream right to have because right now I have things in Ziploc bags and then I have them stored in different places because that's where they fit. I'm gonna steal some bones from you. Yeah, I love the big because we all, I mean, thinking about my Yeah, I do, I do. Yeah, you're, that is a good question though because I feel like that is the balance piece, whether it's the organizational balance or just the balance on how you balance your time or how you, like, just kind of because, I mean, I'm not, I'm not gonna lie if it were up to me and I say this to my husband jokingly, like, if I wasn't married to you and had, and we had kids, like, I would probably be the most flighty, no nonsense, just do whatever I feel like, which would not be good for me. Right. Like it, like, it's beneficial that I'm married and have Children that kind of give me the grounding. So, I mean, I, yeah, we all have our, our strengths and weaknesses and yeah, if any of you really awesomely organized people out there wanna give Emily and I some advice on cleaning up our crafting space. God bless us. Drop that in the comments. I love that. Ok. How did you get this to stay? Like when you're pinning this? Am I saying when you're, when you're, um, let's see. So I pinned it like I was sewing them together. So like this, I'll take a little bite of this fabric and then a little bite of this fabric. I was trying to go back and forth like I'm taking a stitch and that will hold it in place for you. Look at how cute this is. Yeah, we're gonna have such cute matching little matching but not matching my so good. I should have worn a color sweater that matches our color palette more. I mean, you, you're in the family there looks good more than I did anyway. Oh, my word. Oh, ok. All right. So I am gonna finish up my beanie in a second here and then I'm gonna talk about some of the other little crafting ideas to throw out there. I love that. You're, wow, you're almost done. You go just a couple more stitches here and then I'm gonna weave my ends again. OK. So what is your favorite project you've ever made? I always love asking you. I don't even know how to answer that. Want something you're most proud of my Children. That is a good answer. That is a real answer. Um Let's see what, uh I don't know. I, I'm very proud of the books that I have written because so much work went into those and it's kind of a ma I never, ever in a million years thought that I could hold a book in my hands that I made it. Like when I was little, I, my sister and I were very, very crafty. My mom was very crafty and she taught us everything, you know, sewing, knitting, crocheting all all the things. And we always did this thing where we would do like make, make stuff for each other day. We would make things for each other and then we'd make these little catalogs and give them to each other and be like, what things do you want. And then we'd go back into our room and then craft that little thing that they ordered, like we loved making the catalogs and the gosh, my daughter would eat that up. This was before the internet, you know, so you couldn't order things like we'd just be like here's what they had, but this is like beck and yield in times when you ordered things from catalog. Um Yeah. Ok. So here's my little beanie. I'm gonna put it on the head here. Cute. Look at that. Yeah, I do see how doing the shaping though because if you compare, I think like the edges, you know, it'll be a little bit rounder but I also kind of like the like little slouchy is cute. It's got like a little peek here, which I don't mind. I don't mind that either, especially because I'm constantly probably shoving off just a touch of Alvin Valentine there. OK. Valentine. All right. So, um I'm gonna be, well, Emily is working on her beanie there. I am gonna talk a little bit about a couple of the other suggestions that um we had in the back of the Valentine's Day download. Um So one of the things that we talked about in there is having a crafting night with your lady friends or who, you know, your friends could be anyone. Um And so then I ordered a bunch of beads because I haven't done this since I was a kid and I thought, OK, I'm gonna do that. Um Let's see, I'm just gonna grab beating has also become very popular because of some lady singer that is quite on the trend right now. Which is not, I mean, I, I, yeah, it's just, I love that. It's coming for it. Exactly. It's way easier to find them. Yes, it is now too. I'm looking for the perfect meal. Here we go. Um, so in case you guys have not beaded before I'm gonna just give you the tips that I have learned over the last couple of weeks of beating family with my Children. Um, so I always use a needle because it just is so much easier. At first, my kids were really resistant to it because they thought that is what I need to ask. Um, but it just, it just makes it so much easier. So, you know, some beats have a very small hole and you'll have to get a special beating needle and then you have the whole issue about whether your cord is gonna fit through the eye of the needle. So there's that as well. All these things to think about. But, um, I'm using these seed beads and they are big enough, um, for my needle to pass through. Hopefully, this needle will pass through. I think it will. I think I grabbed the right one. and then I always cut my beading thread way longer than I thought I would need inches and, you know, like 6 to 10 inches for a bracelet or something. So, you'd rather have too much than have things falling off everywhere. Um, 6 to 10 inches longer. I should say, like, than, than I needed to be. Yeah, because you just don't wanna, when you're tying the knot you don't wanna have to, you know, worry about it coming apart. Wow. That sounded like marriage advice there, didn't it? That's for tomorrow, for Valentine's Day. Ok. So another live with two minutes, 10 a.m. You don't want to worry about everything falling apart. Ok. So the other thing, the other little tip that I had was to stick a bead on that you maybe you just have a bead that you're not planning on using. You don't need that color. So you just put a bead on and then tie a knot around the bead like this. T you're basically tying your bead to your string because that way when you put all those beads on, they're not gonna fall off the back end because that is very frustrating that has happened. And they all go across the entire dining room table and floor off the table. The other tip that I had here was if you're using letter beads, I know that this just seems like maybe unnecessary to some of you. Um But I always lay out my letter beads sideways in the order that I'm going to thread them onto my needle so that I can look at them, read them, make sure they're not upside down. And then, because inevitably as I'm putting them on, I space out for a second and then I go back and I'm like, why is this? And then you have to take half the ding ding bracelet out. It's very frustrating. So I am going to spell it a little word here. Um, here we go. And I, I mixed in a bunch of these cool colored beads because I couldn't resist those colored beads. They look so pretty. They didn't actually come in this set. But I started realizing, you know what? I spent so much time sifting through this big bag because they all just the colored beads came in a big bag and I'm like, I am spending so much time wasting so much time looking for the perfect bead. You know, the perfect color in the perfect letter. I'm like, ok, I'm gonna take the time to actually sort these out. That's what I did. And I'm like, ok, that actually to grab like, oh, I need an E oh, there's a purple E too look I have done. So I've got my little, my little beads are ready to go and I'm gonna position them in the way that I'm going to thread them onto my needle in a little bit. So, and I'm just going to fill up my needle. I love the needle tip because I feel like currently we do like the pick and then place in the thing. And I'm like, what, like where you're picking it up with your, pinch your finger and then you're trying to put the thing in there and then I'm looking the thread for Esther because it's becoming frayed and it's just, and she has the patience for it, but this would make it a lot easier. I did also find, um, thread the other day. I think it was like Michael's or Joannes or something that, um, is like more stretchy. So it was almost more plastic. So it didn't fray, but this is solving the problem no matter what because I'm like, we have to use something like that because it just was too tricky and I feel like some of the, so I've used a couple, you know, I'm not, this isn't my main focus is. So if, if other people out there know more about this kind of stretchy cord than we do, you can, you know, pipe up and put something in the comments, um, saying what your favorite kind does maybe, um, but I, the kind that's like a cord and it's like one, I want to call it one ply because I'm from a yarn background, but it's like one filament or one, it's not like braided or like this has like multiple little tiny sans. I know what you're talking about. That kind. I feel like that doesn't keep the knots as well. No, it doesn't. And maybe there are certain knots that you can do that are better than others. Square knot. But I don't, I don't know, but it just seems like I, I switched back to this because I thought the other beating chord would be stronger, which maybe it is. But then I, the knots didn't want to stay. So, twilla sorting those pieces right up my alley. So, so calming you sorting my grandkids, Legos. You should not see our Lego corner. Well, maybe if you could invite Twilla over to your house, you'd be like, are you busy this weekend? There's Legos everywhere? Oh, that's funny. Yeah. One thing fun. Look at this is coming together. I have Super Emily is probably one of my faves because I love seeing this where you're like, yes, it worked. I know that moment of like, when you finish it and you're so happy about it. It's like, I, I think that's why a lot of us do this. We live for that, that little. I mean, it's fun to learn things on the way and all that, but it's just cool when it actually works when it works. There's many ideas that I had in my head. You know, when you're in the shower and you're like, that'd be a good idea. And then you try it and you're like, no, that did not work. But it's all right. I wonder if my yarn is gonna be enough. This is also like playing yarn roulette is much. Do you have there. Well, I think you might need more. Dang it. That's my bet. Sorry, Emily. But we'll, we'll find out, we'll soon find out. Um, so Emily, because it's Valentine's Day. Yes, I brought you a present. You did for reals. I wanted it to be a surprise. Yeah, I'm gonna dig it out right now. I put it under here so that I could sneaky surprise you in the middle of this. Ok. Happy Valentine's Day. So you'll, you'll have to read off what those um bracelets say. OK. It says, wait so cool. Sew. OK. That's pretty great. Gallentine. What is this one? Say? Wait, wait pom poms. It says pom pom. Yeah, I knew it. See you guys. She loves the pom poms more than anyone. I know, you know, excited about it. Pompoms circles are the happiest, proven to be the happiest shape and also pizza ice cream. It's true. They're all circles. Wheels of cheese. You made these, I did make those. I know how you like the big dangly earrings. I love dang. And you know what, OK. The reason I have flower earrings in is I'm like, I don't, how do I not have Valentine earrings? I know I had lips. I know what happened to them. These are amazing. This is the smallest crochet is this knit, it's crochet. Yep. That is the smallest I've ever seen in my whole life. I think. So they are so there. Now we're gonna have matching earrings, Emily and I, um, these earrings actually did live for, I see on the earrings fold at these. I was like watching the whole thing. Yeah, these are so, thank you. And I believe I put a link in the end of the, of the little download that we have today. If you guys are interested in watching that live or making your own cute little heart earrings. These are so cute. They don't like pain, isn't it? Yep. It just um, it's some kind of fancy gold stuff but I'm pretty sure it's acrylic base. Yeah, like, but this is like these to me, these are the kind of things I love, hey, they're so such. I love handmade gifts. Like 3000%. So, thank you. But also b like, it's how cool is it that you combine the, the crochet with? You know, because you end up painting. I know because you could have probably found a way to do color work or like, do something else but like just simply like, hey, I'm gonna just crochet the heart and then do the little painting. Like how cool is like my world in your world on our ears, on our ears, on our ears. Oh my gosh. I love that. And speaking of homemade or handmade, I should say my friend, did you make this? I did not make this, my friend Mary made this mug. Isn't it so cute? Ok. Can I tell you that we currently have a bunny in our house. Well, it started out in the garage and then it moved to the kitchen and then Aaron was like, get out of the kitchen and now it's in Esther's bedroom and the bunny's name is honey bunny. So I will have to guard this because she will probably try and take it. This is adorable. Yeah, I love this color was slip, slip. I don't know, I don't know her process at all. But she, she does, she has an Etsy shop. I think it's called Bunny Bowls. So you can look her up if you're interested. But she makes, like, she does like, um, craft fairs and stuff like that. She actually, she used to work at the costume shop that I worked at and that's how I know her. Ok, Brenda, you're right. And there were all these, she ran out. I was hoping I was gonna be wrong. It's ok. It's ok. Oh, rats. I'm so close. Yeah. But she, there were a lot of really creative people working at that place. That was cool and probably cool connections that you've remained to have because creative people, I love the creative world of people. Yeah. I feel like it's, and I feel like, you know, even if you don't do exactly the same craft, you can take things from other people's lives and learn, you know, like, color theory or all kinds of different, inspired by all the crafty stuff. Agreed. Ok. Do you have the serum by chance because I wanna match? Oh, yes, I do right here. Oh, yeah. Is this, um, a 220 Cascade? 220? No, but that was a good guess because I, this is it. Oh, hey, there's a, there's a section they part of our stockings. Our Christmas stockings are, we're all done in, I knit, I knit them all in Cascade 220 this looks like the fleck in. It looks so very similar. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good, a really good, you know, all purpose. Yeah, I found it. This, this is me. I went to the yarn store and I knew I wanted some, you know, just kind of, it didn't matter the sizing because I was following sort of this color work pattern to make our Christmas stockings. But I really was like, what colors look good together. And I went, I just picked the yarn that had the best colors. Yep. So I couldn't tell you it was because it was a certain weight or, oh, I like the color of it that just made me remember like, when you were asking me earlier what I was inspired by or how I, my designs and sometimes it's color based, you know, like the colors next to each other and be like, oh, what can I make with that? Whether it's a color work thing or stripes or just blocks of color or whatever? Um sometimes it is purely that like, it could just be color, it could just be texture, it could just be like, you know, could be something that I saw in some fashion runway and then I make some kind of version of it, like the fashion world. That's such a good idea. But often times it's just things around me that I see, you know, nature, whatever. Um, ok, so I have gotten all my beads on there and now I can just cut off that little bead and of course, you can reuse it because you can just cut it really close and it'll come off of that thread. So you, and you don't even have to really waste a bead. You can reuse it. Um, and then, uh, so you could do square knot, which Emily suggested I just have been doing these overhand knots and they seem to be staying pretty well. But before I do them, um, I stretch out my cord a little. That's another thing because when you wear it it stretches and it gets kind of stretched out. So I kind of stretch it a little. Yeah, kinda. Yeah. But different. But the same, same, same idea. And then I just tie, like, I tie like three knots as much on top of each other as I can. And then I put a little tiny dab of nail polish on it. That is such a good tip. I saw you doing that. Earlier. And that's brilliant because nail polish is flex bullish. I mean, within reason. Right. And it's glittery and cute and clearish, you know, like that's really smart. Yeah, I'm just using the glitter because I didn't have any plain clear. But I love it. I mean, I figured a couple of little flex of glitters never hurt anything. Never, unless it was in your eye. Then it would, that would be bad news. All right. So I'm cutting this off close to my knot and then I'm gonna stretch it over this cardboard because that helps me get the, if you make a cardboard, um, wide enough that you really have to stretch it out. So then you can have a clear shot at putting your, your nail polish on. But also if this makes a little bit of a U shape here, then your nail polish is not gonna stick to the cardboard and you can just dab it on there. Just a little dab dab, probably if even cut that a little bit shorter and maybe the square knot would have looked a little better. But, uh, nobody notices it. My dad always used to say nobody can see it from the road. You're like, well, that is probably true. Look, you're done with that at the same time. Emily. So cute. Wait here. I'm gonna make a room on, on the head for your, yes, I, I think both ways it could and it doesn't bother me about. No, they're different colors and so it just looks good. Oops. Oops. So cute. You can tell this one has a little bit less stretch but it's, there's still stretched to it but way less stretch the square. Yeah. Some of the squares stretch more than others. And that's ok. If you're doing all sewn squares, you know, you'll have to be using a fabric that stretches somewhat. But if you throw a few in there that don't have much stretch, the rest of them kind of make up for it. And so it's a very forgiving project, you can use all kinds of things. So then, OK, so then here's maybe this is a question I should have asked last time. If you're making this for a kid, would you recommend sizing down the squares or just using less squares? If it were for my kids, I would make it the same size because my kids have adult size heads. Well. But if you wanna make it smaller, then yes, I would say size down the squares, but just a tiny amount because a tiny amount over a whole because you have six squares that go all the way around. So if you wanted it to be, you know, like, I don't know, say two inches small, you probably, I mean, maybe you want it two inches smaller. If you want two inches smaller, divide that by six, that's how much smaller you, so it's really not that much. Honestly though, to your point, most kids can wear adult beanies. I mean, my kids do they wear like the random ones they find in the bin that are probably, if you like, this is almost gonna fit like the kid's head is maybe like an inch too small, then you could just make the ribbing smaller because then it would be like if you're going to, your kid is going to the exchange, you don't wanna have to say, oh, everyone make a slightly smaller one and give that one to, I mean, you could, but that might be complicated in people's minds a little bit. Um So you could just make the ribbing a little fun. All right, we have bracelets, we hats. Should we make some bath salts? That was the other thing I had planned for us today. Ok. So in order to, ok, so you can choose whatever container we want. We've got these little mason jars and then I also have these super cute you can take the beach or whatever you want. This is a make a couple. These are adorable. So are they you? And for me, this is like the perfect amount to put in my bag. The whole thing I do. Um ok, so to make making best salts is like crazy easy. All you need to do is put some, some Epsom salt into your container first. So we'll do that. And um I didn't bring a funnel. But we're just gonna use a piece of paper and that'll help each other. Right. So, I'm gonna come over to you Emily and if you could, so we'll build the funnel. Yeah. Turn that into a little funnel for me. I've done it in oil before, in my car with a paper. Fun because I couldn't find the funnel. It's fine. It worked. Oh, my God. Maybe you shouldn't be saying that it worked. You didn't get all the things you could do with a piece of paper. Who know? All right. So we got it. Can, I don't know if you're gonna be able to see. Can you see the jar you wanted about three quarters of the way full? You're about half now you're about like right there. Yeah. Ok. Perfect. All right. Maybe we'll fill up the little baby ones here. Ok. Hold the funnel. Oh, hang on. I need to make the opening there. We'll put this over here and three quarters full, three quarters full. We just have to have enough room or even two thirds is fine too. We have to have enough room to be able to shake it. That's a good, that's good. Ok. Ok. So these are just plain Epsom salts with no scent or anything. They're very inexpensive. Um, this is just a kind of a fun thing to do with a group of people because you can make a big, buy big thing of Epsom salts and you can make their own sense if you get like a selection of different um, essential oils, which is what I have here. So these essential oils and there are some, I did put in the download, I did a little research before this because I know some essential oils um cause irritation for people or can cause some, you know, allergic reactions for people's skin or whatever. Um, not whatever. I mean, it does happen. It is a problem. So I did, I did put in there the, the essential oils to avoid that I found in, I, like, looked at many, many, many different websites and compiled them. However, um, if you have sensitive skin or if you're at all concerned about it, then definitely, like, you know, consult your dermatologist or do some more research online yourself. Um, before you do this, um, I just have been using these for a while. I know they don't irritate my skin so I'm not worried about it but you definitely want to avoid anything that's citrus, um, cinnamon peppermint. You don't want any of that really? On your skin. So, um, and I put these up here Emily. So anything down below here you're good for, um, and I would say for the jar that's pretty small like this, I only put like two drops or maybe three drops in there and, you know, it's up to you if you want a little bit more. But if you think about it. That's only a couple of drops in your whole bath. So it's not really, it's diluted a lot and you don't want to use the dropper. So, ok, so let me show you there's a little, there is a little kind of like a little rubber cork thing and you got it. So we'll just open that up and then you, and then you drop it in and then once we get whatever scents we want, I'm gonna do I really, I'm gonna do rose and lavender for mine and I forgot to bring a little paper towel to wipe that off. So we're just not gonna worry about it because all the scents can mingle if you wanted to pick a different scent or maybe you just wanted this. I don't, I didn't know if you were mixing your scents together or if you're just doing the one. Ok, like so I'm gonna do, what is this two of that? Those that is rose? Oh yeah, it smells like a garden. I know I never thought I was a floral like people would ask you what kind of perfumes you like? I never really thought I was a flor into florals but lately I have been and I don't know if that just changed or if I just didn't like the idea before leaving. Now I'm finally like, ok, yeah, I like it. Um and then I'm gonna just put one drop in there of a lavender lavender is like the best. Yeah. All right. This is easy. I've never done this before and I'll clean those off later. Let's not worry about that. Um ok, so then, and then I brought this is mostly just for cosmetic reasons. Really. It doesn't really add much smell or anything, but it just makes it really pretty. So I got the selection of dried flowers. So you did you get these, these are just from Amazon and there, there is a link in the, the back of the download in case anybody's interested in looking it up. But oh yeah, they don't even have a ton of smell to them. Yeah. They're mostly just for how pretty they look. Really. Then how about some Dorina? Yeah. I don't know how to pronounce that coma. I like that color. Um, I'm adding a little d uh, forget me nuts, I think. Or don't forget me. That's what it says on here. Don't forget me, which is basically for me. I don't know. I'm not sure. And I'm gonna put a little bit of rose rose buds in there. Lily and I think those are jasmine, the white ones you have there, right? Ooh. That smells like milk. Yeah. Uh huh. Yummy. I'm gonna use some of those too. Yeah. And feel free to put like, you know, enough in there because what you wanna do once, once we get our flowers in there we're gonna put the cork or the lid on and we're gonna shake them up and it just makes everything mix around and it looks really pretty. Oh, the lavender does smell good. Ok. So put the lid on. Yeah, put your lid on and then we'll just shake them up until it looks like, you know, fancy pants. This is, I, if somebody gave it to me, I would feel like did you buy this? Yeah. Look up a little, like boutique. A little bit more flowers in mine. I'm gonna smell it. Oh, maybe that's ok. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, so then yeah, that's, that's cool. And how easy. Oh, that smells really good. Um How easy to have just all the supplies out as like a little make it out and then people can make their own and you know, you just wanna check beforehand if anybody is like really sensitive smells. So this is not the kind of thing you wanna bring to your Valentine's Day if, if people are sensitive smells or get headaches or whatever, pull out those certain scents that you had to, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. This is awesome. Yeah, I feel like the, the coolest thing about all of this is the collaboration piece like whether you're kind of just coming together to make something like this or actually doing the exchange like that whole because that's the whole idea of Leslie not doing her gal everyone coming together and making it crafty. Really? She's a Yeah, she's such a crafter. I love it. Did you want to talk at all about what you've got over here in case people need some more ideas. And I of course, because tomorrow is Valentine's Day, this is still gonna continue on tomorrow. It's so relevant. At the end of the download, there is a couple of sewing patterns. One is the lip pillows that I was showing you before. Lip pillows. Easy. Very quick. And I'm not saying quick sometimes I feel like some people are like, oh, it's quick. It's just three hours. No, this is like, I'm, I'm not even kidding. You. Like, probably maybe a 30 minute project. It takes you longer to cut out the pattern. Then I feel like it does. So because it's like two seams, um, advice on doing that center scene. When you're putting it through your machine, you just kind of push your fingers in the middle. So what I did, you can see, I did these two ways, but you do have a live, a live, I have a, I have a live, this one, is one of the ones that my daughter helped you with. And if you look closely, I have an opening here and I have an opening here. So, what I did is I actually sewed, um, the edges and the edges kept the, in the, in the middle seam, then stuffed it and then, um, this was, this was one of the first ones, you, I don't know if you can kind of tell this one's flatter and these ones are puffier, maybe partially because of the fabric. This one I sewed the edges or sewed the edges left an opening, stuffed it, squished it through my sewing machine. And I struggled with that a little bit. Probably because more of the fabric because the Sherpa material was like, it was like a city and like my needle was getting really kind of drudgy through the material. So that's when I'm like, how, what if I do this? I think this would work where you just have one because all you do is you're just like wang, you just kind of force it through. No problem for an industrial machine or like a heavyweight machine to go through that to make it easier to use the center stitching line first. And then so for the big one I did separately as well because I didn't, I wanted them to be more like purse. Like, I don't know if I'm saying that. Right. More 3d ish. These ones are more 3d than this one. Yeah, there's a whole live, more smoochy. I think it's called the Smoochy Lip pillow smoochy. There's a whole live, the link is in the download and then if you're just finding the PDF pattern with all the written instructions that's also there. So, yeah, and then the same is clearly I'm on a lip thieve. I, I just feel like it's, yeah, the easy, this is one of, um, I make a lot of zipper pouches in our family because my daughter has a lot of collections and I have for the longest time was like, how do you do something that doesn't just have a zipper on the exterior? Right. And so I figured out and it's not rocket science, I promise you zippers feel like one of the most intimidating things to sew. They're so easy, like so easy. It's just a matter of how you kind of arrange your fabric and lay it and the order of events and once you know how to sew a zipper, it's the same order events for all the things, whether it's a zipper in a dress, a zipper on pants, I guess, maybe besides an invisible zipper perhaps. But um zipper on, on this, on something else, right? So this was just like a little zipper kind of mouth pillow or excuse me, lip zipper, lip zip your lips, I think is what I called it. Um And it's just a little lines. Nothing fancy. The year I made these, I actually like stuffed some things in here for my kids and gave them to them for Valentine's Day. I don't know where Z is and it's just made out of this wool. This is actually this repurposed. Um It was like a wool coat that I found and I love the red of it because it's not like brick red. It's like an orangey red, which I really love. And yeah, and so that you don't have to worry about raw edges because I just went around the outside. It feels a little sketchy to me. Sketchy, not sketchy, weird sketchy, like sketchy with your hand because I've sewn around it a couple times to make, could have kind of some line work in it but really simple. And then I added a pom pom because because you're the of the pom, pom, pom, poms are just learning that about you. OK. And if you're feeling like um I'm also, this is also uh I did a live a while back with hand sewing and I am so into hand sewing for kids. And this is an easy like, hey, Valentine, hey Gallentine, hey, here's something for my best friend, especially for kids with backpacks or diaper bags or I mean, even on key chains and things, it's so easy when you just need a little flare felt is my best friend in the world because you don't have to sew the edges and you're easily. I just used embroidery floss for some of it. I think some of this is actually yarn pulled apart. Maybe it's not um use what you have in your house, honestly use what you have in your house and I, you can trace your name and cut it out on a piece of paper and just make a quick pattern they, I, I, there's patterns for these specifically in the link. But if you're feeling like you just want the idea of how to do some hand stitching, all those tips and tricks are also there. But my favorite thing going along, your friendship bracelet is, um, the, this I made as a bookmark or a door hanger. And this is also like a bookmark or a door hanger or it could also be a bracelet, um, knotted friendship bracelets. I have been like loving the, the friendship bracelet piece of things with embroidery floss. This is just regular worsted weight yarn. And this is like, I don't even know some cording that I found. And it's, we have this in our house because I don't know if your kids have done this before where you, um, it's similar to your not, you're knotting this and then you burn the edges and it becomes like your bracelet that you have on all summer long. It was like a camp thing I did a long time ago with kids, whatever. Um, uh, anyway, the, the pattern for making the knotted hearts is also in the tutorial or also in the PDF, the full tutorial. It's so stinking easy. I feel like slowing down whether it's beaded bracelets or doing the knotted bracelets. It is like therapeutic fun. My daughter who's eight is starting to get the hang of it. She's not like 100%. It's attention. You kind of are teaching tension which can translate into maybe you're in a crochet someday. Um Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like I've watched that live and I feel like seeing you do it is so helpful. I mean, reading the directions, the directions you wrote up are great. But like being watching you do it, like, helped me out so much because I was gonna do that with my kids. So we were working on that project. All these sort of knots, literally, all it is is a combination of e it's similar, I feel like it's similar to knitting. It's a backwards knot or a forwards knot. It's, that's all there is, is backwards knots and forwards knots. And so it's just where you bring your yarn to make your heart shape. It's kind of like just a combination every time you tie a knot, it ends up on the other side of it. Exactly. So it's just, I think all the, the kind of handmade, just little things, handmade gifts or if it's just a fun, fun time to get together with your friends, I think, I think this is just like, what to me, holidays are all about whether they're silly little holidays like Galentine's or Valentine's or something a little bit more big that there's a lot more tradition around. I just love the, like getting together and having fun and it just reminds you like that you can have those, like, it's like a date where you're like, oh, I should do something for that. And then, you know, because we all get so busy and it's easy to just not make plans. But y, but, you know, when the holidays pop up it's like, ok, this is a good one to embrace and you can invite everyone over and do some crafty stuff together or just hang out. Yeah. Yeah. I love it for, for a long time. My girlfriends and I would get together and make Valentine's cards for her husband. We, like, I just like, would put out every card, stock paper and we were trying to make pop up cards. It got really bad just because we were really bad at making pop up cards. But it was so fun. I mean, because, you know, like our did, our husbands really probably care about the handmade card. They would giggle and say thank you. But it was just the fun of getting together together and bouncing ideas off other people and seeing what other people do and catching up and you're like this whole old school doyly cards we're making. But it's so great. So, yeah, I love this project. I'm actually so excited. My daughter was looking at the squares and I was trying to explain it to her today. So I'm thrilled to be able to bring this home and show it to her. Awesome. Well, it's been super fun. It's been super fun wearing with you Emily as the usual of course, like it would be fun. Um And thank you guys so much for joining us. I really love that you are here and active in the chat and it's just awesome. So have a really awesome Valen Valentine's Day tomorrow and awesome Valentine's Day right now. Thanks for joining everybody. We'll see you soon. Bye.