I interviewed Barney & Hip Hop Harry!

I’m happy to announce that I just posted my interview with David Joyner, the man who knows Hip Hop Harry & Barney inside out. He’s the actor who has brought these characters to life for many years, and he has some very interesting stories to share! I hope you’ll take a look at the interview by clicking this link: http://www.creativehelps.com/interviews_3.htm#ANOTHER_COLORFUL_LIFE_~_DAVID_JOYNER . Let me know what you think!

Curiouser & Curiouser! Alice is Here!

Here’s my little Alice! She finds herself in wonderland...

Poor dear, she seems to have drunk from the bottle marked, “Drink Me,”

and it has caused her to shrink down to a tiny size!

How curious!

No, I didn’t employ any tricks in photographing her, she really is that size!

She’s tiny, but she looks ever so sweet in her blue dress and apron!

Here’s my original drawing of her:

Early progress:

For her dress I alternated knit and purl stitches.

Her apron is all loom knitted in one piece.



When it came to her headband, she isn’t wearing one in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She is wearing a ribbon in her hair in Through the Looking Glass. But instead of a ribbon I decided to braid a headband for her instead. At first I thought a dark blue yarn might work, as I’ve seen her with a dark headband many times before. But something about it didn’t look quite right to me.

Next I tried weaving a string of pearls into the braiding and changing her name to Elegant Alice. But that didn’t exactly suit her either.

Finally I decided I would braid together two strands of white and one strand of blue yarn, the same as I had used for her outfit. This looked best, so I braided two and then sewed them together with a little white thread.

To me, John Tenniel’s illustrations for Alice will always be the definitive image I have of her, since that is the version I grew up reading and loving. However, did you know that you can see what Lewis Carroll’s original illustrations for Alice looked like? Take a look! Go to http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html and scroll down, click on “The Original Alice” at the bottom center of the page. Be sure to leaf through the entire book, which is written in his own handwriting; at the end there is a photo of a little girl, presumably the real Alice Liddell. If you plan to do research on Alice Liddell, you will find that Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym for the author’s real name, Charles Dodgson. Just a little Alice trivia I thought you might enjoy!

Sheep & Fiber Festival

This past weekend my family and I went to the 16^th Annual NJ Sheep and Fiber Festival by the Garden State Sheep Breeders (http://www.njsheep.org/festival/index.html). There were plenty of sheep there, as you might imagine. Many different kinds, too. Some with tight curly hair, some recently shorn, others huge, some small.

All bleeting, but not at the same time. It was held on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Hunterdon County Fairgrounds in Ringoes, NJ. The Fairgrounds feature a midway with four large “barns” where the sheep and vendors were. It was our first time going, so we didn't know what to expect.

Vendors included fiber farms (alpacas, llamas, sheep, angora rabbits, etc.), jewelers, fiber craft vendors, strolling musicians, face painting for the children, sheep judging, and knitting, spinning, and shearing demonstrations.

Spinning at the wheel. There were lots of women, but men also. All ages were there.

Weaving demo for my daughter. Earlier the lady showed me how to knit with needles!



North County Spinners Spinning Class (I just missed it, I had wanted to take it while we were there)

It was quite an extensive display. Our daughter was fascinated by the sheep and the spinning wheels. Though my wife and I just looked and chatted with the vendors, our daughter found a couple of cute Christmas ornaments she wanted:

There were many different kinds of wonderful handspun yarns to drool over, and plenty of creative handcrafted items as well. They had food too, but we didn't eat there. I saw people eating french fries and cheesesteak sandwiches.

We really enjoyed ourselves!

Hobby Lobby Visit!

I love Hobby Lobby! Just going there makes me drool with delight about all the crafty projects I could make, and this visit was no exception. Rows and rows of wonderful stuff, so hard to keep from buying more than what I needed! Just look at all their wonderful stuff! Made me get emotional right there in the store:

I posted two other videos at http://artmangreg.blogspot.com in case these aren't enought for you!

My First Loom!

Well, knitting friends, I was sorting through the boxes in my storage area and came across this little gem. This is the first loom I ever used, I saved it since I was a child!

You use it with yarn to make squares that you then sew together with yarn. I got it from a thrift store that we used to go to a lot when I was a kid. I've probably had this loom since I was 12 years old! I used it to make a scarf and a wall hanging, as well as a carpet and a blanket for a bed for my sister's dollhouse. I used it to make other things as well, but those are the main projects I remembered. It is called the Wonder Weave, manufactured by Karbercraft Co back in 1964. I still have the project book and the instructions that go with it.

I don't recall if I have any pictures of the projects I made with it, but if I come across any I'll post them. Who knows, maybe I'll start using it again!

Red Riding Hood!

She's finished!

The only thing I have left to do is to glue the flower to her hand and the basket onto her arm; I don't want them to be removable. I am also going to sew the hood onto her clothes in the back because I don't want that removable either.

When I start making my dolls, I draw a picture first to get an idea of how I want her to look, with some directions regarding color:

As I create the different parts of the clothing and sew them together, I usually decide to make some changes if something doesn't look like how I thought it would. This was taken before I made the apron:

On the front of her dress I tried out a few different stitch patterns at the bottom for a little variety. I alternated the knit and purl stitches. I did that on the basket of goodies as well but since it is so small it is hardly noticeable.

The apron was fun to make and I liked putting the little pockets on.

At first I was going to use ribbons for her hair at the bottom of the braids but then I decided to just keep everything yarn, including the flower. I decided to make the flower blue to compliment her blue eyes. At first I was going to make a red rose, but I figured with all the red she was wearing it wouldn't stand out very well.

I decided not to make the wolf. At first I thought it might be fun to have the wolf off in the background of the picture, blurry but recognizable. But it came out fine without him. He wouldn't have been made using a coffee can, I would have just made him and stuffed him. But since she isn't really a toy, I decided not to make him.

New doll started!

I started my next coffee can doll! I won't tell you who it is this time until I'm almost ready to post pictures. But suffice it to say she is truly scrumptious! I really only have 2 more pieces to knit to complete it, aside from sewing the pieces together. I'm excited!