Fleeting Moments

September 14, 2016October 31, 2016Out of the Thistle Leave a comment

I feel it–the summer season is beginning to fade. Masses of flowers are staying bloomed a bit longer, now that they aren’t so quickly baked in the sun. There’s a cool morning breeze that teases us, only making way to warm midday temps. The occasional wind gusts whip through and scatter petals all over like confetti. This is when I begin to beckon the sweater weather by baking everything with pumpkin and cloves and leaving an apple cider candle lit all day. This is when I eat entirely too much bread. And yes, I break a sweat waiting for a pie to finish baking. Completely worth it.

In spite of my baked-sweets Fall summoning, it comes in it’s own slow-as-molasses timing. As soon as it’s here, it’s gone. The seemingly shortest, most beautiful season. As soon as it passes I feel like I spend the whole year waiting for next fall. Here in the Southwest, I feel like the Dog Days of Summer last soooo much longer than in other regions.

Though the trees have yet to turn golden, I’ll take my time and enjoy the rest of what the warm sunshine has to offer in this last week of summer–no matter that it feels like an eternity. Besides, as the seasons grow and change, so do my kids. And I’d be okay if that would slow down.

Here’s a few things we’ve been working on, eaten, or enjoyed looking at while the weather hasn’t complied with our desires. If you’d like to see some more of those adorable rattles, view them here.

Thanks for following.

Hugs, Rhonda

Mice and snowmen and bears, oh my!

December 18, 2015Out of the Thistle 1 Comment

Just a quick little post to share a few photos of some cheerful little characters that we’ve been working on! The snowmen set is currently available here, but hurry, the auction is only for ONE DAY! The mouse is also currently available on eBay as well, here. Keep an eye out for the others, and thanks for looking!

Homage to Honesty.

June 30, 2015July 1, 2015Out of the Thistle 6 Comments

Have you ever had one of those weeks?

You know, the ones where you have a ton of friends and family in town, doing renovations for the elders and celebrating birthdays. And there’s a giant waterslide/bounce house in your driveway with a dozen kids running in and out, leaving puddles everywhere. It is loud, yet wonderful. And in the slivers of quiet moments, you work on your knitting–trying to meet a deadline… a deadline you told everyone to “mark the calendars” for. And you’ve been practicing shrinking wool for like eight months now, and you’re so excited that you THINK you’ve perfected it. Your mom (the master at it) offers to help finish shrinking a couple of dolls that you still have left to do. And she super-shrinks it (which is what you wanted!), but you realize that the waist is a good inch smaller than your other dolls (which may as well be a mile). And that’s fine and dandy. But, you’ve already jointed all your other dolls, which now must be cut apart and shrunken more. Oh, and don’t forget that you made 27 dresses for them. TWENTY SEVEN. And it won’t work, because you wanted to give people an option to purchase different outfits for the dolls–which means that they’d all have to be the same size. And so here you are, a 29-year-old woman, crying into doll dresses…

… and you’re cursing your ambition and praying for sanity. And you’re thinking that working in customer service at the bank doesn’t seem so bad now. That maybe, handling dental insurance claims was just a walk in the park.

And when you pull it together after going through the seven stages of grief with your tiny knitted dolls, you begin to amputate those limbs and get back to work. Because, it’s what you truly love to do.

Then you pour yourself another cup of coffee, eat birthday cake for breakfast, and pray that it won’t be another year before you get these done. And you share your experience and honesty with other ‘Purveyors of Perfection’ and hope that they’ll have a good laugh, maybe even sympathize. That they’ll understand the strife in striving for better, in knowing that settling is not an option. And now you’re truly understanding that being a ‘maker’ is so much more than just “making.”

Sincerely, Rhonda

A Shrunken Wool Trio.

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015Out of the Thistle Leave a comment

Like many of you, we have been enjoying being outdoors in the warm sunshine. In the (less) amount of time we’ve spent indoors, we have continued to keep our creating hands busy. We’ve had inquiries as to when we are going to be offering some new items, so we are here to announce to everyone that our target date for launching the new website will be July 1st! Mark your calendar!

In the meantime, here’s a couple of items you can keep an eye out for ahead of time–created by the hands of Sue Aucoin! And be sure to check back soon for some fun blog posts as well!

Little teal fella.

September 5, 2014April 8, 2015Out of the Thistle 2 Comments

Don’t miss a chance to bid on my newest creation! He is another one of my crocheted then fulled (or felted) bears. This large, fuzzy fella would be a perfect addition to any home décor because of his Large stance… well, large in terms of little bears! Blue Bear is a perfect size to display (8” tall) and he’s fully thread jointed. His face and claws are embroidered. He is slightly weighted with glass beads. A light shading gives him an aged appearance. To give him an antique look, I made him a granny square vest, crocheted from thread, then stained. He wears his favorite key and tag on his front.

I hand crocheted him out of wool yarn and then put him through a washing process in order to felt/full his body for a more solid finish. This process takes time however, I love the finish results!

You can click on any image to see his full listing. Thanks for looking at my newest PRim TeD!!

Sue Aucoin

The Felted Hare and the Felted Bear

June 13, 2014June 13, 2014Out of the Thistle Leave a comment

During the last few years, pattern designing has been on hold due to the number of artist bears and dolls I created and sold. Of those many, many characters I’ve sold, many of them were finished using a process known as fulling.

“What is fulling,” you say?

Well, you see these little gems below? Those furry friends look soft and fuzzy, unlike traditional crochet or knitting, because they were fulled.

We’ve talked a little bit about fulling (also known as felting) on our blog here a while back, so we’ll give a refresher course. We said: “The technique widely known as “felting,” is a process of basically making wool thicker, softer, fluffier, more durable, and more solidified. Since [2011], we have experimented with MANY ways to full our products. Unlike needle felting or wet felting, fulled crocheted/knitted bears aren’t a commonly offered product. Now, from our experience, there is no exact science that makes each product turn out a certain way. Take into consideration that many variables contribute to different outcomes. Felting/fulling has these basic variables: moisture, temperature, and agitation. Though it may seem simple enough, a certain brand of soap or slightly-off water temperature will give you different results, and many types of wool felt up differently.”

Now that you are up to pace… I wanted to share my experiences in fulling/felting with anyone interested, so I put them into a couple of NEW PATTERNS! “The Felted Hare” and “The Felted Bear” PDF patterns for crochet are now available! The instructions for the bear also include how to create and pose the bear on the ball! You can purchase them by going to our website, or by clicking any of the images below to purchase from Etsy. I’ve been working the last few weeks on a variety of these adorable, easy-to-make little characters to show how versatile they are.