Cotton Prices Falling, But Can You Tell?

Cotton is such a staple of our modern lives, so when the price skyrocketed over the past 6 months due to cotton shortages on the world market, it made cotton consumers a bit nervous.

Cotton prices are beginning to settle since the highest point in March/April of this year but when will we begin to see the lower cotton prices reflected in clothing prices and fabric?

Unfortunately, consumer prices will likely not dip anytime soon.

The reason is that companies purchased cotton while it remained at such a high price and therefore will most likely pass along this higher price in finished goods.

Have you noticed higher clothing and fabric prices in your local stores?

Blogwatch: Playin' Hooky Designs

We're addicted to hats and not afraid to admit it.

We just found a great Etsy shop called Playin' Hooky Designs offering finished hats, custom orders, and PDF patterns.  If you're into crochet, then grab your hook and check our these patterns.

The hats are contemporary, colorful, and fun so it's no wonder why we're crushin' on them.  From the Kid's Leprechaun Ski Beanie to the more adult Fishnet Beanie, these crochet hats show just how cool a crochet hat can be.

For more info on the designer, Liz -- take a spin past her blog.

Prince William & Kate Middleton Knitted Doll Patterns

Missing the royal wedding and wishing to relive the experience?  Well, put on a pot for tea and throw some scones in the oven, now you can knit your very own Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Coats Crafts UK is happily celebrating the royal event with these free knitting patterns for making your very own Prince William and Kate Middleton dolls.

We'll admit that we got up at 1am to watch the wedding and don't regret missing work on Friday because of it.  If only we knew of these patterns then, we could have knitted the happy couple while we watched them marry.

Prince William Doll [download PDF knitting pattern]
Kate Middleton Doll [download PDF knitting pattern]

Did you stay up to watch the royal wedding on TV?



[photo source: Coats Crafts UK]

Read Craft Magazines on iPad with Zinio App

Now you can easily load an iPad (or iPhone) with your favorite craft magazines and take them anywhere!

Zinio is a brilliant company allowing users to subscribe to a magazine or buy a single magazine issue which can then be viewed using the company's reader.  The reader is available for use with your computer, an iPad, or iPhone.

The best part is that the magazine appears as it does in print form, full of vibrant photos and beautiful layout.  When you want to read an article, simple tap the 'text' button at the bottom of the page and the content appears in text mode for easy reading.

Using the app on an iPad offers the best magazine-like experience.  With a finger you can flip through a magazine's pages, stopping to look at an article of interest (while flipping quickly past all of the advertisements).

It's truly the best of both world's as Zinio merges print media with online technology.  The magazine collection is quite extensive and covers everything from Elle to Popular Mechanics.  It also includes non-English language publications too.

The Craft magazine section can be found within the Women's category (which is so sexist).  Regardless, you'll find a growing collection of interesting magazines covering knitting, scrapbooking, quilting, cross stitch, and more.  Knitting has the most publications and unfortunately, I don't see anything yet for crochet.

Some of the publications include: Interweave Knits, KnitScene, Simply Knitting (UK), Hand Woven, Quilting Arts

The Zinio reader app is free to download in iPad and iPhone.  Magazine subscriptions or single issues can be purchased using credit card or Paypal.  We love it!

[photo source: Zinio]

TrueCut Rotary Blade Sharpener

Holy smokes, this swift little rotary blade sharpener might just save us a fortune!

We've only seen the TrueCut Rotary Blade Sharpener available from Connecting Threads online (a store that my mother swears by) and is currently on sale for $51.96.  The price may sound steep but when you think about how quickly rotary blades can dull and how expensive they are, it might just be a good investment.

The only caveat is that the sharpening machine cannot sharpen rotary blades which have nicks in them.  Otherwise, it sharpens both sides of the blade at the same time "no matter how dull" and can handle 28mm, 45mm, and 60mm rotary blades.

We have not tried this sharpener but it certainly sounds promising.  Anyone got the scoop on this rotary sharpener, have you tried it?

Giveaway: World of Geekcraft Book!

Want to explore your inner geek and try your hand at making something quirky?

World of Geekcraft is described as, "Geek meets craft in this fun collection of 25 kooky projects for geeks of any affiliation, from D&D dice earrings, Star Trek pillows, and Super Mario cross-stitch to Star Wars terrariums, a Morse code quilt, and much more!"

This book is like a diary to my childhood.  Love it!

Visit Linda Permann's Linda Made site to enter a giveaway drawing for World of Geekcraft.  You can enter now through Sunday, so go do it now!  While you're there, take a look around.  Linda is a crochet evangelist through and through -- check out her pattern store or consider one of her class offerings.

And, if you're feeling geeky but not feeling lucky, you can always purchase the book from Amazon:

World of Geekcraft: Step-by-Step Instructions for 25 Super-Cool Craft Projects

Fascinators & Snoods Making a Comeback

Anyone heard of a young woman by the name of Kate Middleton?  (sorry, a little heavy on the sarcasm this morning)

Our dear Duchess of Cambridge is sparking royal trends and her recent wedding cast a spotlight on modern interpretations of the historic fascinator.

Although originally a knitted or crocheted ornate shawl placed over the head, fascinators now blur the line between being a hat and an outright art installation.  Fritinancy describes the fascinator origin in perfect detail.

If you'd like to create your own stylish fascinator, Simplicity offers a free fascinator pattern in a contemporary feather style, while the fibre artist Renate Kirkpatrick shows how to make a curly dahlia felted fascinator.

You'll find many vintage fascinator patterns for sale online.  We've come across a couple free vintage snood patterns as well.

Snoods are a somewhat similar decorative piece of headwear that serve to gather long hair behind the head.  An ornate strap crosses over the top of the head to hold it secure.

Here are a few free fascinator and snood patterns to get you started:

• Knitted Poppy Fascinator
• Blue Moon Barrette Fascinator
• Loop-the-Loop Snood

Have you ever made a fascinator or snood?


[photo 1 source: Simplicity]
[photo 2 source: StarGazer's World]