How-to: Thistle beer bottle cozy from sweaters

For my dad's birthday gift, I decided to try a beer bottle cozy decorated with a Scottish symbol of some kind. I'd seen several examples of these made out of felted sweaters (like this tutorial from instructables) and had been wanting to try it. I decided to decorate my dad's with a thistle, and after looking through various images I came up with a simple drawing of what I wanted to shoot for. Luckily I have been hoarding sweaters and I had the colors I needed already felted.

I only had to cut five separate pieces for the thistle and it didn't take very long.

The bottom of the flower part extended down into the green, which gave it a 3-dimensional effect. It also allowed me to attach the purple part at the same time as the top of the stem. I sewed through a total of four layers of fabric.

Then I sewed on the leaves.

I didn't actually stitch the purple part, except to add details with some purple embroidery thread. I thought the edges would look better loose.

Then the fun part was over and I had to figure out how to make it fit on a bottle. I used a very sophisticated method.

I rolled the top edge of the tube down twice and sewed that down, and before I tied it off I stretched the top just a bit to be sure it wouldn't be too tight to get the bottle in.

Then I sat the bottle on top of a piece of my fabric and cut a circle for the bottom, and sewed that on. Before I sewed too far, I matched the edges of the circle together with the edges of the tube just to be sure the bottom would go on smoothly and wouldn't end up being too big or too small.

The only thing left was to turn it right side out and see how it looked. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! I'm seriously thinking of trying a Celtic knot next time.

Pictures of us wearing lots of purple plaid

Here are some very late pictures of us at the highland games! This was over a month ago.

Mom and Dad. He's shaved his beard off since then.

"I'm not wearing that hat, Suzi."

Length of time hat stayed on after picture: about two seconds.

But we fixed her.

A parting glance.

Ceilidh and the highland games in Greenville

Friday night. We were having a good time in our front-and-center seats at the ceilidh. Even Ivey was enjoying the fresh air and goldfish crackers.

Until people started hollering when the bands got ready to play.

What did I do?

Why's everybody yellin at meeee?

Once the music began, she had a good time jumping up and down in Daddy's lap.

We'd never seen Albannach before, and we liked them. Their set emphasized high-energy drumming and was fun to watch.

But Grandma and Grandpa preferred Coyote Run, I think.

Suzi loved this because it looked to her like he was playing a big stick. The girl loves sticks.

And we were having a great time enjoying the music. But, alas...

We ignored it for a while.

Suzi and Jordan danced through a couple of songs.

And Ivey snuggled up to Grandpa. But then it became obvious we weren't getting out of this one. The announcement was made, equipment was covered, we ran back to the van and I got two eyefuls of pollen and dirt from the wind. The drive home was fun.

Thunder.

Lightning.

Then we went to the games today and Suzi got her face painted in the Wee Scotland area. She wanted it painted Braveheart-style blue but I talked her into a blue butterfly.

She explained how the lady painted the butterfly on her.

The Montgomery clan in the next tent brought bubbles to share!

Prince Edward was there, it's true, but he was pretty much constantly surrounded by a big crowd of people. Suzi didn't care though. She was much more interested in meeting the gorgeous fairy lady.

She's holding her little hand out like that because the fairy gave her some fairy dust. I'm pretty sure this fairy spent 98% of her day talking to kids and posing for pictures.

Then Suzi rubbed the fairy dust on her cheeks so she sparkled.

We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, packed up the stroller, and headed for the van. (It was a long walk.)

By the time we got home, we had a sleepy blue butterfly girl.

And now I realize I didn't get any pictures at all of anything important, like the prince or the parades or the competitions, did I? Nope. No I didn't. Oh well.

Built for a Kilt

We just came home from three days of Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina! On the field, cabers were tossed and hammers were thrown. Sheep were herded, dancers danced, and there was even a marathon. Then there was the parade which required us all to wear matchy-matchy hats, and which lends new meaning to the matchy.

The Maya Wrap Ring Sling was my best friend and got many oohs and ahhs. Equally wonderful for carrying Suzi in the parade, or...

Breastfeeding so no one will notice!

This is the face of a good sport.

But off the field we discovered an edginess we didn't know existed in Scottish festivals. After seeing lots of guys going casual by pairing their kilts with t-shirts, Jordan decided he wanted to do the same. We bought him this one so everyone will know he is "built for a kilt!" (He is, too. His legs were the first thing I noticed when we met! Well. Besides his personality.)

We headed down to Grove #2 to hear Coyote Run and ended up discovering Barleyjuice and Mother Grove, bands in a genre nicknamed "kilt rock." They play bagpipes and fiddles as well as electric guitars and drums. We left with three CD's and a Mother Grove tank top (for me). If you still doubt kilts can be edgy, watch this. At the end of Barleyjuice's set Saturday, the fans started shouting "potatoes, POTATOES!" Potatoes? Listen to a sample of what they wanted here. I am loving my Barleyjuice CD, which features other gems such as "What's Up Yours?" and "Whiskey in the Jar," but unfortunately not my favorite, a love song entitled "Tartan is the Color of My True Love's Hair." They have graciously made it possible to download just one song for 99 cents, so I did.

Mother Grove performed in the Grove Saturday. It was hard to get a clear picture of the fiddler because she was all over the place dancing! She played that fiddle like it was an electric guitar.

Above is a tiny fraction of the crowd at the Celtic Jam Saturday night. They were probably out there until midnight but we left at 10:00 because Suzi was ready to go. To the left of the stage was a mob of dancing fans--dancing well, dancing poorly, dancing any way they could.

This whole thing began with my dad doing a little research. Then buying a hat. A kilt. A piece of tartan for my mom. I got in on it and began dressing Jordan up. Now Jordy is saying he wants a pair of boots to go with his kilt (so of course I want some too). The boots look sexy and make a good place to stick your sgain dubh if knee socks aren't your thing. I am also hoping to get a mini-kilt in our tartan, maybe for Christmas. I love my long dress and skirt, but a mini-kilt would be a nice change during a three-day festival!