Sunday, December 21, 2008

Holiday projects

I have been busy making gifts for different people. The problem is, I have forgotton to take pictures of everything! So, here's a few that I did remember to take pics of.

This is a (lousy) picture of a quilt I made for my son, James. It is 4' x 6'. (He's rather tall. )

His favorite colors are purple and green, so I did the center of the quilt in 9 patches of greeen, and of purple, sashed with black. The side sashing is purple on black, then green with purple, with purple edging.


The top is made from quilter's cotton fabric. The batting is heavy wool felt, and the backing material is a soft wool.
He also received a pair of hand dyed purple fingerless gloves, and a purple knit hat with Gir on the center.

Speaking of Gir, I made serveral small stuffed items for my younger son. Besides the Gir pictured, I also made him a small little alien dude.
This Gir was a challenge to make. All I had was a 2-dimentional picture from the DVD case. So, he was done via free-form crochet.
I was also out of stuffing, and snowed in. So he is currently stuffed with toilet paper! Once I can actually leave the house and get to the store, I will open him up and restuff him.
I made a pair of slippers/slipper socks for my youngest son, my youngest daughter, and my husband. I'll add pics of those when I can. Each pair was made in a different style, in different colors. They are very warm and thick, as I twisted together 2 strands of worsted weight yarn.






Friday, December 12, 2008

A good idea instituted badly

Well, while that statement may some up most of our government's actions, this one is really bad.

Last summer, when all the problems with items made in China were in the news, the US Government passed a law increasing safety standards for items designed for children under 12.

That is the good idea part.

The bad part is how they decided to do it. Short version - everything must be tested and certified.

In practicle terms, that means people who make these items (food, clothing, toys, accessories, bedding and so on) by hand ALSO have to pay to have the items tested, even if the materials were purchased through a reputable seller. Since few crafters on sites such as Etsy can afford to pay the $500 testing and certification fees, they will be put out of business.

Here's links to the official info:
http://cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Summary: http://cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/legislation.html#summaries

Official Summery (part II)
The new legislation imposes an additional third-party testing requirement for all consumer products primarily intended for children twelve years of age or younger. Every manufacturer (including an importer) or private labeler of a children’s product must have its product tested by an accredited independent testing lab and, based on the testing, must issue a certificate that the product meets all applicable CPSC requirements.

If you want to have the option of purchasing hand made items for children, instead of mass produced junk, write your elected officials and spread the word!!!