Zelaya Art: My New Blog

I am proud to announce my new blog dedicated to my knitting business, Zelaya Art! Please check it out and follow along.  I REALLY appreciate the support! 

FINALLY Some Etsy Listings!!!

I am so proud and excited to announce that I have finally listed three of about eight of my hand-knit baby/toddler blankets and throws on Etsy! Here is my shop: Zelaya Art  I like to say baby/toddler blankets because the blankets are pretty large and thick... perfect for a baby to grow up with and use as an older toddler.  All of my blankets are GREAT gift ideas for things like baby showers, birthdays, wedding showers, etc. Please give my shop a look!

I was worried about capturing the blankets properly in my pictures, but I seem to have done a pretty good job, I think. Any feedback would be much appreciated! 

My New Baby

Ok, so, no, I did not have a baby, but I did get the best Christmas present ever, a Kindle! I'm so excited. I still need the learn the ins and outs of it, but so far I have downloaded about 5 books, some of them free or only $5, so I'm getting the hang of it. I wasted no time in knitting a case for it, because I plan to carry it in my purse and I don't want it to get scratched or anything, and why buy a case when you can make one yourself? Fun! I first made a black one, but it didn't work out so well because I had been drinking a lot of beer and, consequently, made a couple obvious mistakes. So then yesterday I knit a pretty lime green one, which is shown in the picture. And I have to say sorry about the pics... they were just taken at 5am so I had no good lighting and they look terrible. The case is not actually that color. It is more of a light lime green.

Since I don't usually follow patterns, I can't really share anything spectacular with you. You may be disappointed to know that I really just knit a big rectangle and sewed up the sides :) I used a double strand to make it a bit thicker, used size 9 needles, and started with 16 stitches. Then I just knit in stockinette stitch until it was long enough to fit the kindle when doubled over. Sew up the sides and you're done!

This holiday season, I also had fun making the rag wreaths shown in the previous post. Here is a picture of our mantle with three of them. They are quite addictive. It is so fun picking out the different fabrics. I ended up having a craft party at my house a couple weeks ago and we all made these wreaths. I have no pictures of that night, regrettably.

Happy Holidays!!

Atlanta Twitter Knitters

This past Sunday, a group of us Atlanta Twitter Knitters (and crocheters and spinners) met at my house for some knitting, spinning, crocheting, eating, and great conversation. Here are some pics that were taken.

Above, you see Cathy (@cathycarter), Kellie (@futterwackan), and Claire (@sk8rknitr).

Below, you see Nicole (@nalmaraz) and Lia (@liaknits79) demonstrating spinning while Kellie observes.





























Here you see Cathy, Nicole, and Lia again and below, you see Kellie and myself (@merfz). I forgot to hold my knitting in that pic :)

We had fun! Let's do it again soon!

My New Etsy Shop

Introducing... my new Etsy shop! I have been thinking about re-opening my shop for about a year now and finally did it. I had a shop a couple years ago, but it had my paintings in it and didn't do so great. This time I am featuring mostly my knit items. I will list some paintings later, but for now I am only listing my knit things. Since I'm celebrating my grand re-opening, I am offering FREE shipping on all items for the first 2 weeks. Come check it out my new Etsy shop!

Knit-A-Year Project

Here is a pic of my Knit-A-Year project thus far. It is getting bigger! I can't imagine how long it is going to be when April, 2011 rolls around. I'm on day 49 today. I love the reflection that this project affords. It really requires you to slow down and think for a few minutes each day and reflect those thoughts with yarn. I have to admit, I do skip some days because of being too busy, but I always catch up when I can. I need to do better at knitting on it each and every day. I do have the time, I just struggle sometimes with what kind of a mood I'm in and what color I should use to represent it.

For an invitation to our Knit-A-Year group, just send me your email and I'll send you the invitation.

Dishcloths for the Moms

I just finished knitting kitchen discloths for my mother and mother-in-law for Mother's Day. I found the super easy free pattern on Knitting Pattern Central. They were fun to knit, and, like I said, perfectly easy and great for beginner knitters. I hope they like them!

Ladybug

Here is my finished knit amigurumi ladybug by Amy Gaines. Her's always look better than mine, but I love it nonetheless. We haven't given him/her a name yet... any suggestions? I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it, give it to the kids, or sell it in a craft fair, which Amy says is fine to do. Thanks again, Amy, for your fabulous patterns!

Revisiting a Past FO - knitcroblo6

I love to knit all kinds of things, from scarves and hats to dishcloths and purses, but one of my favorite things to knit is amigurumi, so I thought with this post I'd include my very first amigurumi project. This adorable owl is by Amy Gaines and was knit, as opposed to crocheted. My son (pictured) absolutely loves it, but I think he's forgotten Jorge (that's what we named him) by now because Jorge sits on my craft table, untouched. I prefer to keep him that way because he is somewhat fragile. Since he was my first amigurumi, he has a few mistakes, and my sewing isn't great so things look a bit worn around the edges. I love how his eyes look all worried, as if he thinks he's about to get squeezed to death :) Ah Jorge, we love you so.

Location, Location, Location - knitcroblo5

I love to knit pretty much anywhere! My favorite place to knit is on my couch in my living room or the comfy greenish chair, also in the living room, usually while watching a movie. I also LOVE to knit in the car on a long road trip, when I'm the passenger, of course. I just bring my knitting everywhere in case I have an opportunity to sit for awhile. The baseball field is another spot where I can be caught knitting, only during practices though.. I love to actually watch the games. And another great spot? Doctors' waiting rooms!

Where do YOU knit?

MANY New Skills! - knitcroblog4

(It's my birthday today!!)

Wow. WOW. I'm supposed to write about ONE new skill I'd like to learn? How about several? This is going to take a while :)

Firstly, as previously mentioned, I really need to learn to knit with double pointed needles! It seems everyone and their brother can and that I'm the only one who can't. I have gone as far as casting on and knitting a few rounds on them, but I have failed to practice and develop the skill. It seems that everything I want to knit calls for DPNs, so I really need to bite the bullet and learn already.

I also want to learn the Magic Loop Method, just in case the DPN thing doesn't work out. I have heard it is way easier that using DPNs, and I already know how to use circulars, so maybe this would be easier.

I need to learn how to fix mistakes! I usually just frog a few rows and start over, even when it is just a dropped stitch, which I hear is easy to fix. I just don't know what I'm looking at, so I don't know what the mistake is, let alone how to fix it.

I would LOVE to learn to crochet! I basically want to know how to crochet or knit anything I want.. I have a lot to learn :)

One Great Knitter! - knitcroblo3

Well it didn't take me long to figure out who this post was going to be about! I have knit several of this person's patterns, mostly for my kids. This knitter/crocheter is none other than Amy Gaines. I simply adore her amigurumis and find them so fun to knit. I don't crochet yet, so I haven't tried her crochet toys, but I think I appreciate her so much because she provides knit amigurumi, which are more difficult to find than crocheted amigurumi, and she also writes the patterns for 2 straight needles. I love this because I cannot use DPNs yet. Her patterns are so simple that even a novice knitter like myself can follow them. I admire the tenacity she must have to sit down and work out these patterns. As I sit and knit these adorable creatures, I have no idea how she does it. Lots and lots of practice, I would assume. Thank you, Amy Gaines, for your awesome patterns and for providing me with tons of toys for my kids.. they put smiles on the kids faces, especially when they realize I took the time to knit the toys for them.

An Inspirational Pattern - knitcroblo2

Ok, so you might be thinking, "Just fingerless mitts? That is inspirational?". Well, to me, a self-proclaimed novice knitter, yes, I do aspire to knit fingerless mitts. I love the cables running up and down these beautifully blue mitts. I recently taught myself to knit a cable via YouTube, but that is all I know how to do: knit a cable! I have no idea how to knit something with a cable in it, aka: I can't follow a pattern to save my life. And to boot, I have not yet mastered knitting with double pointed needles. I can knit with circulars, maybe I need to learn the magic loop method?

These "Blue Monday" fingerless mitts are from D'Oh!Mestic and if you click on this link, you can find the free pattern for them that I found on Knitting Pattern Central's Free Pattern Directory... I love that place.

My Knitting Roots

And so begins Knit & Crochet Blog Week! Today's topic is: How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting?

Looking back, I learned to knit about 7 years ago because of my grandmother, pictured with me on the right. In this picture, she is holding up an afghan that she had just finished and I believe if you click on it it will enlarge so you can see the detail. My grandmother is currently 94 years old and still knits, although not as much as she did in the past.

One day, about 7 years ago, I started thinking that it would be sad for her craft to not live on when she passes away. I started expressing an interest in knitting and ended up getting a "Learn To Knit" kit for Christmas that year. I didn't do anything with it at first, maybe because it intimidated me a bit, but a few months later I picked it up and taught myself to knit. I started out with scarves and knit dozens of them, selling many in a local craft fair that I participate in every year.

I eventually branched out to knitting hats, and because I love to knit them and because I also love giving to others, I started a charity called Knits For Needs. I am super proud of this wonderful charity and the people who comprise it. We donated 634 knit/crocheted items to people in need throughout the United States in 2009 and this year's goal is 900 items!

Today I love to knit amigurumi, hats, scarves, purses, afghans, and cell phone cozies. I am not advanced, so I'm sort of stuck on a beginner/intermediate level, which I'm not very happy about. I know how to use circulars, but I have not yet mastered DPNs, which is on my agenda. I do not really know how to follow patterns unless they are amigurumi patterns by Amy Gaines, who writes super easy patterns for us beginner folks. I recently taught myself to knit cables using YouTube videos, but I don't know how to knit anything with cables just yet, I just know how to make a cable.. does that make sense? I love to teach myself new knitting techniques, I just need to make the time to foster those skills and learn how to knit actual patterns. Tips would be appreciated!

A year or so ago I wrote a blog post similar to this one that dove more into my Grandmother, my roots in knitting, and also teaching others to knit entitled "Spreadin the Knittin Love" that I hope you check out as well. Thanks for visiting Merf's Turf!

Knit A Year Project

Here is the most recent picture of my Knit A Year project taken a few minutes ago. The black was knit on a very dark and depressing day for me. As mentioned in my bio, I have Bipolar Disorder and this project is really helping me see just how darn moody I really am, which is not all bad, and it helps me document those moods, which I'm supposed to be doing every day anyway. I like the reflection and awareness this project allows for. I think I learn something new about myself every day and I would encourage everyone to try their hand at the Knit A Year project for these reasons. (if you would like an invitation to our Knit A Year group on Ling, please email me your email address: mzel@bellsouth.net) The light, fluffy green color I knit yesterday signifies the calmness and inner reflection that seemed to engulf me yesterday. My mood has gradually improved a bit since that black day, and I look forward to coming out of this depression soon.

Explorations In Creativity

So here is my Knit A Year project thus far. For more information about Knit A Year, see my previous blog post or click on the clickable link in this sentence. The days are represented as follows:

Day 1: Light pink for Easter
Day 2: Brown because I felt like doo doo that day.
Day 3: Brown and white to represent my favorite part of our zoo trip that day: the giraffes.
Day 4: Yellow stands for my excellent mood, the sun-shiny day, and the yellow pine pollen is everywhere here in Atlanta.
Day 5: Rainbow colors to represent my great mood and happiness that I taught my son to knit that day (yesterday). Here is a picture of him taken just a few minutes ago. He's doing well with that knitting!

I can't wait to see where this project takes me. I heard that they will be on display somewhere when we are finished with them. To be invited to our Knit A Year group on Ling, please email me your email address: mzel@bellsouth.net.

In other creativity news, my daughter has asked us to keep all the lids from the flavored waters we drink because she is going to make something with them. She is thinking of making a huge fish. I love that she is creative and that she is doing a green project! Here are pictures of her collection hanging off of our cupboards. I think the note is cute! I'm going to show her this website that suggests all kinds of ideas for creating things with bottle caps: http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/bottlecapsartscraftstideasprojects.html









I love that my family is so creative! By far the most creative one in the family is Stephen, my 9-year-old son pictured knitting above. He is constantly making things, writing stories, reading, and drawing, and I mean constantly. He is so excited to add knitting to his repertoire... too cute! (I just heard him tell his brother, "I'm going to knit all day today!"

Knit A Year

I just started a Knit A Year project a few days ago. Knit A Year is a project in which you knit according to your mood every day for one whole year. You simply cast on 10 stitches on size 6 needles and knit at least 3 rows. I am using stockinette stitch because it looks really cool when it curls up. Every day you knit a few rows in a color that represents your mood or something about that day. The first day I knit in light pink because it was Easter, the next day I knit in brown with colored flecks because I felt like doo-doo... hence the doo-doo brown, and yesterday I knit in brown and white because we went to the zoo and my favorite animals were the giraffes. I will post a picture of this project soon. To learn more, click on the hyperlinks above, and if you'd like an invitation to our Knit A Year group on Ling, please let me know. We would LOVE for you to join us!

Hats and Fairies

Ok, I need to take some Blogger lessons or something because I have the worst time getting my pictures in here right! The one with the hats is sideways, for some reason it uploaded that way on Blogger and I can't fix it.

Anyway, I've been busy knitting, as usual. I take time every day to knit because I love it so much and I need the few minutes of relaxation. I do not work during the day anymore so I have much more time to put into my knitting. The first pictures you see here are hats I have knit, mostly for Knits For Needs. I will keep and attempt to sell the bright colored ones in a craft fair I do every year, and the purple and gold one is MINE, all MINE :) Can you guess what school I went to and follow? That one is for fall when we're having our football parties and cookouts. The pinkish one on the bottom, or actually on the left since my picture is crooked and I can't fix it, is felted. It turned out pretty cute. I personally love all the square topped ones I knit. As you can see from the picture of my youngest son, they look very cute on kids!


The other pictures you see here are of an amigurumi fairy doll I knit for my daughter for Easter. It is an Amy Gaines pattern, seen here, although hers looks much better than mine! I had trouble with the eyes and improvised a bit, but other than that I think it turned out pretty cute. I am working on some forest critters for the boys for Easter and will post those pics when I'm finished with them. I just finished the squirrel yesterday and I'm working on the owl currently.






















In other news, my daughter (12) and I went to a meeting of Twitter knitters at Rare Purls in Duluth, GA on Sunday. We met up with a couple people I have met before and I also got to meet some people I know from our online conversations. I did not do a good job taking pics, in fact I took none, but Melissa, the Knifty Knitter, did take pictures that can be seen on her blog. There is a picture of me and my daughter sitting next to eachother as well as the other people we met with. I had fun and was so glad we set up that meeting! My daughter is a novice knitter and is currently knitting a hat for Knits For Needs as a service project for the Junior Beta Club at school.

Thanks for stopping by Merf's Turf, and have a wonderful day!

A Plethora of Miscellaneous-ness

As you're about to find out, this post is aptly-named :)

Firstly, I'd like to mention I finally finished my very first afghan! As you know, I am pretty much still a novice knitter, not because I have been knitting for a short time, but because I'm not great at learning new things. Also because I am quite content hanging out in the "novice" phase. I am not good at following patterns, and like I've mentioned before, I knit like I cook.. just throw it together. So, for my afghan, I simply knit, in garter stitch, about 15 13in x 13in squares and sewed them together. I was so very proud of this afghan that was 2 months in the making, all the way up until it got a hole in it. I have no idea how it happened since the hole was smack dab in the middle of a square, but I managed to sew up the hole. It is quite an obvious patch-up-job that I'm a little upset about, but I'll get over it. You live and you learn, right? Currently I am working on another afghan similar to this one, but in different colors. The new one will be a pretty sage color, a darkish blue, and a light blue.

Another project I just finished, this one a small one, is a tiny baby hat that I knit for Knits For Needs using some yarn donated by one of our members. Please click on that link to view our latest blog post. For some reason, this particular hat got twisted the first time around. I guess I managed to do that when I was joining in the round, although I really have no idea how it happened. I posted "Help!" on Twitter and everyone told me I'd have to frog it and start over. So I did, and when I did it didn't even unravel well. It was somehow all tangled up. The first picture here shows when I was trying to unravel it. Then you can see that I started over, this time perfectly successfully, and finished the hat. I love the square shape and the pom-poms!
















Next I'm going to share some things unrelated to my knitting endeavors, the first of which is our rats. We got two rats for the kids for Christmas. Two of our kids are allergic to cats and dogs, so we collect miscellaneous animals, like fish, hermit crabs, and, now, rats. I did some research before getting these new additions... "Should we get a hamster? Mice? Rats?".. and I found out that rats are actually great pets for small children since they don't bite and they are highly intelligent, well, at least compared to their other furry cousins. You can actually train them, which I was surprised to find out. Ours already know their names and come to you when called. They are named Juniper and Jules. The one in the pictures is the most social one, Juniper. The other is a bit darker and likes to hide from us a lot, hence, I do not have pictures of her. Here you see a terrible picture of me hanging out with Juniper and my awesome, and now favorite, sweatshirt. The other picture shows my daughter Sierra with Juniper.

Next amongst the plethora of miscellaneous-ness is my new haircut. This first picture is me and the hubby on New Year's Eve and, as you can see, I had long hair. The next picture is my new haircut, which I love because it is so much easier to deal with.

Thanks for hanging out in Merf's Turf for awhile! Come back soon :)

Knitting Fun

I've been up to lots of knitting, but barely any blogging, so I have lots to post today! I recently went on a girl's trip with my three best buds from high school. Three of us drove up to St. Louis to visit the fourth of our high school gang. Just to give you an idea of how long ago that was, we graduated from Lassiter High School in Marietta, GA in 1991. Time flies! Here is a picture of us, all grown up :) That's me, Merf, all the way to the left, the one blinding you with her shiny chin.










As a souvenier of our 2009 girl's trip, which was a big deal to me because I have been married for 11 years (Aug 8!) and NEVER been on a girl's only trip, to the horror of my friends, I knit cell phone cozies for each of us. None of my friends knit, so they probably don't appreciate them as much as I do, but I think these cozies are pretty cool. I have made a couple for my new blackberry, which I also love so much I've given it a gender and a name. Her name is Pippy. (I'm half joking, ok? I'm not crazy :))


So I'm about to post pictures of all the things I've been knitting over the past few months, for all of you wondering if I ever get off Twitter long enough to do anything else, and you will probably wonder how I manage to raise three kids, manage a knitting charity as well as knit a lot of items for the charity, and still manage to knit all these things for an upcoming craft fair. The answer is, I have no idea. I always wish there was more time in a day so I can do more, and knit more, but when I dragged out all the items I've finished to take pictures, I realized I HAVE knit quite a bit! I should open up an Etsy shop. I am seriously thinking of it. What do you think? Someone wants to profile me on their blog, so I thought maybe I should have a shop in place when that is published. Hhhmm.. food for thought.




Meet Mr. Bean! My son loved him so much he sleeps with him, which is the ultimate compliment to a crafter, of course. I am currently working on another Mr. Bean for my other son, who insists on having one. I think I'll make one ear blue on this second rendition so we can tell the two apart, although that probably is not necessary since I made one small boo boo and there is a tiny hole in this one. As I've mentioned before, I'm still a novice so I don't know how to fix mistakes in knitting! I just try not to make them. Mr. Bean comes from a pattern by the great Amy Gaines. Here is her shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=38931



I have a craft fair coming up in November. It is at the kids' school and I love to participate in it every year. I have knit about 15 scarves, mostly long, fluffy ones, for it so far. By November I will have about 20 to display. The pic of the scarves really does not do the scarves justice at all... they are much prettier in person :) I need one of those dress forms or something so I can display them better. Where can I get one?





I have knit many purses, small coinpurses, and cell phone sock/cozies as well. Some of these are knit with wool that I obtained from frogging sweaters from Goodwill, which I LOVE to do and can't wait till the sweaters come back this Fall so I can frog to my heart's content. I also used jute for one of the purses. Can you guess which one? It is the orange/brown one on the bottom. I used jute and beautiful orange wool to knit that particular purse. It appears reddish in the pic, but it is actually more orange in person.





Also, I have knit some hats, some of which have a matching scarf.












Thanks for visiting my blog and reading about the knitting I've been up to! Comments/questions/suggestions/etc. welcomed!
**Please note that all donations for Knits For Needs are used for the charity only. I use my personal yarn for everything non-charity related**