As usual, nothing much! Mostly I'm wasting time rather than getting my documentation done :)

I was going to go swimming again but the weather has been very odd all day (it's raining and windy and cool -- in the South, in August? very unusual!). I designed a hat (for the Ravelympics) and I need some pattern testers (send me a pm with your email address if interested)
Here's a picture of the hat:




I learned something new about my husband, namely that he is very enthusiastic about the Olympic games. He went to bed last night at 12:30 and was up again at 4:00 to watch the games! OH! We just had our 4th wedding anniversary, go us.

my moonflower continues to rock the house and be difficult to photograph.



I guess I don't have much interesting to write about -- I've been invited to participate in an art and craft fair in September, so I've been crafting in all my free time so that I'll actually have some stock! I'm going to Georgia next weekend to see my mom and sister and dog, and I'm looking forward to that! :) I did take a homeless guy out to lunch today -- he told me he was a vegetarian but then he ordered chicken wings.

I did need a tea cozy. And I had a wool sweater that had inadvertantly been washed. so I made this:

*

I didn't measure or anything, just eyeballed it. So it's a little wonky. But more to the point, it looks like an executioner's hood. Which is not what you want to see on the breakfast table.

I've been dealing with it for a while, because it does keep the tea hot, and that's the point, after all, but today I decided it really desperately needed to be less grim. And what is less grim than roses and birdies?





I had to stop because I stabbed my fingers a bunch of times making the roses, and besides, it was time for tea, but I'm really pleased with how it's turning out!







*Side note: See what the teapot is sitting on? that's right, a table! and see what else is on that table, way in the back? it's my sewing machine! Last weekend we found the perfect sewing table at the perfect price (i.e. free) conveniently located in the dumpster across the parking lot from our apartment.

I finally had time to get a little festive! It's a little tragic because I didn't have much time to dedicate to decorating, but pictures follow:

( click here! now! )


Also, I have this in the oven right now:

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/accompaniments_fiveminute.shtml

I am pretty stoked and hope it will be delicious! It smells very good, and it certainly looks prettier than the No-Knead Bread of Gum Lacerating Doom.

Edited to add: It is DELICIOUS.

nothing like the threat of imminent employment (plus the need to procrastinate packing and so forth -- although I did get a lot done and took a lot of stuff to the thrift store yesterday -- plus my angelic husband has offered to do most of the packing) to get the creative juices flowing!

( Click here for Oogly Googly, yarn, and more )

These are the things that I made this weekend:

Yesterday I got in the mail this awesome bag of dyed locks from my friend Hollyeqq (http://www.hollyeqq.com/)
(I ganked the picture from her, btw)



So I did some needle-felting.

Using some white wool I already had, I first made a little bunny:



Then I spun some yarn so I could use the cool fiber samples Holly sent me along with the locks (but I haven't taken a photo of the yarn yet)

Then I let the potential of the locks speak to me, and I made a very awesome thing.

here it is!



It was supposed to be an owl. I'm not sure that's quite what it turned out to be, but I like it a lot nonetheless. It lives in the Magical Artificial Lemon Tree.

(It also apparently has camera-unfocusing juju)

I also finished the project I started a few weeks ago, recovering this chair. I wish I had a "before" picture -- it is a really nice Scandinavian-type chair that my mom's friend gave to us -- but she had let her dog sleep on it so it was stained and slobbery. Tulio agreed to go to the fabric store with me* and we picked out this fabric and I recovered all the cushions. Some swearing and bleeding was involved, but all in all we got a very nice chair for 15$ worth of fabric.

Yes, I KNOW the orchids are upside down. Actually, I suspect nobody but me would notice/care.



Check out those mitered corners, yo.

What do non-crafty people do on the weekends? and what do they do when someone gives them a nice-but-slobbery chair?

*This is HUGE.

OK, one good thing about being unemployed is that people have actually been commissioning crafts! now it does not bring in as much money as full-time employment would, but it keeps me off the streets.

I've also been doing some charity crafting too.

( Click here. You know you want to. All the good stuff's behind the cut )

I am inventing a sock pattern and it is fucking awesome.
I need to do a crafty update, I have been prolific lately.
That's the upside of being completely boring.

The other day, my mom randomly found a drop spindle!* I had some random wool roving (a merino/mohair blend and some Cherry Tree Hill puffs http://www.cherryyarn.com/powderpuff.html) so I've been using those, mostly. These are what I've made so far:



From left to right:
1. This is the first yarn I made. Yarn is kind of an exaggeration, it's more like a blobby and randomly twisted piece of roving. I plied it with some white Lamb's Pride to make it look a little more convincingly yarny. I think it could be passed off as an art yarn... Incidentally, the mohair/merino roving is an excellent demonstration of color theory -- it looks brown, but is actually all different colors mixed together -- I don't even think there's actually any brown in it! It's really cool because every now and then one of the colors will show up dramatically.

2. This is a demonstration of my insanity. I am incapable of getting rid of things (I am going to be one of those old ladies found dead in a filthy house beneath a giant heap of newspapers that toppled over on me, partially nibbled by my 80 cats)** and I save the little scraps of yarn from all my projects. Well, I knew they'd eventually be good for something, I tied them all end to end and twisted them together, then plied them with a novelty yarn. It looks really fun and fringey and colorful -- I like how it turned out!

3. This is my masterpiece so far! It's made mostly out of the merino/mohair, but has little bits of the puffs joined in randomly. It's not perfectly even, by a long shot, but it's starting to look like real yarn!

I have no idea what I'm going to do with these things now. Any suggestions?

Also: I ordered some batts from MissHawklet (http://misshawklet.livejournal.com/) 3 days ago, and they already arrived!



It is unbelievable how pretty they are. I don't even want to use them, I just want to display them in a bowl on the table (probably not a great idea when you have cats in the house). I'm actually intimidated to use it, I don't want to mess it up! She also stuck in some lavendar from her mother's garden, so it smells awesome too! And she included a postcard that claims to be from an advertising archive but looks more like gay porn. I also bought this awesome plaque from her: http://www.misshawklet.com/shop/raccoon.php All in all, it was a really great experience, and you should go order something from her now.



*This was the latest example of my random and sporadic ability to manifest things: I mentioned to her that I wanted to try using one, and a few days later she found one in her basement. I haven't been able to come up with anything as useful as, say, a million dollars, but I've been able to determine that I want really wierd and specific things, like, say, a teacup with dragons on it, and then come across them soon afterwards. So far the biggest item i've bben able to generate was a cashmere sweater. I'm sure I sound like a raving fruitcake, but really, it happens, I swear!

**Probably I should keep these things to myself

Paper making was something I got into in Peace Corps, where I often had paper waste and minimal trash-disposal options (e.g. burning). I tried to teach the kids in my village, but they were fairly uninterested. So I had fun making paper by myself. BTW, you have a fair bit of downtime in Peace Corps, so it's good to have hobbies.

Anyhow, I made paper today, and I made a tutorial while I was at it.

( click for the tutorial! )

I have always liked playing with dirt. Always. In college my 2 main career goals were either agriculture or archaeology (although I wound up getting a degree in horticulture, which primarily relies on soilless mixtures, go figure).
Anyway, I have just learned about this new hobby, a traditional Japanese craft called dorodango, which basically means making smooth polished balls out of mud.
Guess what I'm going to do when I get off work?

http://dorodango.com/

Here are my first projects for 50 projects!
As I said, I want all my projects to be a "first" -- e.g. the first time I have tried a technique or succesfully completed something or something like that.
They are picture heavy so I will hide them behind ( this cut )

I just joined this community! http://community.livejournal.com/50projects07/
To make it EXTRA fun and challenging, I am going to try to learn something new with each project! We'll see how long that lasts...
ideas:
kool-aid dyed yarn (done, needs to be posted)
sweater (started)
lace (started)
fair-isle
quilt binding
trapunto
polymer clay
coffee painting (I just saw this on a craft site and it looked fun and fragrant)
3-d needle felting

I'm sure I'll think of more...

oh, and sock-making.

to remind myself of this exciting new website I found:

http://www.craftlog.org/craftlog/

these are my knitting goals for myself:

1. assuming my box o yarn ever gets to me, my next project will be to learn lace knitting and how to read a chart and I will make this scarf: http://www.interweave.com/knit/special_issues/gifts_preview.asp and i might make those pears too because they really are cute. and of course, I need more cute items hanging around and cluttering things up.

2. next I will learn to work with 2 colors. I thought that looked really too hard, but in my fabulous mitten that I made the other day, I had to knit in some waste yarn to pull out and make the thumb later, and it wasn't at all hard, and it's similar to the technique you'd use for color knitting. If I do start color knitting, I want to make something with a squirrel on it, maybe a hat. or a bag. because I have so few bags. here are some nice squirrel patterns I found, for future reference:
http://www.elliphantom.com/images/SquirrellySwedishMittens.pdf
http://www.helloyarn.com/wp/?p=274
http://www.knittinganyway.com/freethings/Charts/squirrel.htm
aaaannnnnnnnd.... the best ever:
I present to you........
the grab-ass squirrel chart!
http://stephieface.blogspot.com/2005/09/squirrels-squirrels-rock-my-world.html


while this is not color work, it came up while I was googling knit squirrel patterns, and I feel that I might need it.
http://www.tropicalyarns.com/index.cfm?PID=40&ProdID=688

and this is pure insiration:
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=19957&in_page_id=2

I'm getting more adventurous in my knitting, recently I've tried several things that I found intimidating (namely cables, short rows, the scareyness of pulling out a bit of waste yarn and picking up those stitches, and knitting a thumb). I've made lots of cool things, like 1 mitten (the other is in the works, and I better hurry before winter goes away), an enormous headwarmer (that I felted last night and am right now kicking myself for not taking a photo first because it was so huge and ribbed it reminded me of a banana leaf), and this adorable sheep: http://www.knotanotherhat.com/productDetail.cfm?product_id=245 excet mine is EVEN MORE ADORABLE than the ones in the picture. I will have to post some photos.

edited to add: I would like to make this hat:
http://magknits.com/Nov06/patterns/fakeisle.htm

I didn't want to post these prior to the holidays because my sister is on LJ and most of the stuff I made was for her (she is hard to shop for unless you have lots of $$ to blow on technology...)

( go clicky for lots and lots of pics )

I invented a pattern! It's not that brilliant, but I'm very excited because it's the very first knit pattern I've invented. I started making the ribbed hat pattern from stitch and bitch and then I got bored and changed it. This is kind of a big step for me because I'm finally getting comfortable enough with knitting to start making changes instead of just following patterns.

( Read more... )

...all the way back to November 4th, when I had a table at the Montessori fall festival. I decided kind of spur of the moment to go there because I was being buried under the melt and pour soaps I have recently gotten into making, and I also made some snowman ornaments, some flax-seed eye pillows, bath salts, and took some old jewelry I didn't really want anymore.

My table was next to these kids and their marshmallow shooters (Montessori kids aren't allowed to even say the word "gun")

they were doing some awesome promotion, so I was initially pleased to be near them, but then they scared off my customers with their cloud of flying marshmallows. Fortunately they sold out quickly!

here is my table


and here is a close-up


I sold out of almost everything, and then spent the profits on yarn, a ceramic pitcher, and similar fun stuff! I did not sell out of the snowmen (I sold 1, in fact) but I don't care, I wouldn't want them to go to homes where they would not be appreciated. I sent most of them out on craft swaps eventually.

I got really windburned, but aside from that, I had a great time!

here is a knit and fulled bag that I made. I made it out of some raspberry wool yarn that I bought at the Montessori fall festival (OOPS! I NEVER POSTED THOSE PICS!) that was a little scratchy and smelled kinda funky BUT is a lovely color and only cost 1.50$ AND is from Prince Edward Island! so I knit it up with some leftover grey merino (the base and the border at the top). I really should have taken a before pic, because it was HUGE. Also, the grey yarn shrank considerably more in felting so it turned out sort of spherical instead of cylindrical. I was disappointed right after I felted it, but now I like it quite a lot. Also, I am very pleased with it just because it is the first thing I ever knitted with circular needles and double pointed needles!

A little googling informed me that these were really popular on crafty blogs a couple years ago. I guess something reaches internet passe-hood when it shows up in a Martha Stewart magazine (which is where I got the pattern from), but who cares, they're cute anyway!





here are some patterns:
http://www.thefabricofourlives.com/Lifestyle/SockToysDog/images/FromMarthaStewartKids_ScottieDog.jpg

http://www.tikaro.com/images/blog/sockdoginstructions.gif