tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366721882024-03-05T23:08:30.950-06:00Channeling Madame DefargeKnitting, and all the things I do while knitting...Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.comBlogger163125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-37813664905005160082012-02-23T00:43:00.001-06:002012-02-23T00:43:25.735-06:00Unfinished BusinessThough I'm not overly observant religion-wise, I do like to try to take the opportunity every year to limit myself to finishing things I've already started during Lent. So, for Ash Wednesday, I sat down and made a list of projects I've started on (even if they're just in the planning stages).
I ended up with three pages.
Yes, I definitely don't need to be starting new projects until I getInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-38532115182129047622012-01-01T20:24:00.001-06:002012-01-01T20:24:23.608-06:00Happy New Year!A few resolutions I'd like to share with everyone (because if other people know, I feel more obliged to keep them):
A new post on my art Tumblr every day, even if it's just posting doodles/sketches/swatches.
Keep my Etsy store stocked with a better variety of items.
Find someplace to have *good* prints made of some of my work (happily accepting suggestions)
Try to remember that making and Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-23930026115203094632011-11-28T23:58:00.001-06:002011-11-29T00:33:32.099-06:00Bread Weather
It felt like baking weather today, and operating under the influence of having read through most of Historical Foods last night (a great site - I kind of want to make some of the Medieval recipes for our next D&D night), I decided on the Dyett Bread - a fennel seed/sage bread recipe from the Tudor period. It occurred to me as the bread was baking that while I bake a fair Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-82701735658248502842011-11-19T20:13:00.000-06:002011-11-19T20:13:40.185-06:00Quilty as Charged!So, this year for one of the Christmas presents I'm making, I thought it'd be nice to give quilting a try - nothing huge, just a nice throw with a simple pattern. It's a craft I've never really tried before, and we get a fair number of quilters coming in at work, so it seemed like a good idea to get a little experience with it.
This is just four of the blocks laid out to give a Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-2815669774926743422011-11-16T21:59:00.000-06:002011-11-16T21:59:35.314-06:00Presents Ahoy!Our friends were getting married, and they'd really just asked for cash as wedding presents. On the one hand, I like giving cash as presents - always a welcome gift - but the packaging nerd in me cringes. How do you make a cash gift look pretty? Fancy envelope? Hidden at the bottom of a box of marbles? Then I had a flash of brilliance.
One unpainted wooden chest from the craft store:
Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-2214400044013442002011-10-17T18:24:00.000-05:002011-10-17T18:24:17.263-05:00Moving RecoverySome of the most currently needed items still missing from the move:
All of my Inspector Morse novels (which wouldn't be so big of a problem if I hadn't recently discovered how many people I need to lend them to)
All of my guitar picks
At least one knitting magazine with the pattern for a current project
My electronic tuner (yes, yes, there are places on the internet to get a pitch to tuneInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-3472230035236023472011-06-26T00:46:00.000-05:002011-06-26T00:46:28.602-05:00Shoes pre-dropped for your convenience.Normally, every year things start to go terribly wrong around my birthday. I either spend the week in a general state of crisis getting things straightened out, or just waiting for whatever's going to go pear-shaped. Things are still going wrong this year, but at least they had the decency to go wrong a bit early, so we're already to the getting things straightened out part and I can enjoy Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-19018466684852153722011-05-22T22:34:00.000-05:002011-05-22T22:34:44.774-05:00A dispatch from the walking (crafting) wounded.So, I suffered another of my mysterious balance failures on Saturday, though a bit more severely than usual. One minute, I'm standing at the counter sticking price tags on things, the next I'm on the floor and have whacked my arm on the edge of the counter in an unsuccessful attempt to regain my balance. I've ended up with one hell of a bruise along the inside of my arm on Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-65276280015332102372011-04-04T23:33:00.000-05:002011-04-04T23:33:50.817-05:00PamperingHonestly, sometimes I think the main reason I go to the Asian market is to get the Chinese-language newspapers for craft projects:
I don't even remember how I originally found out about this technique, but there's great instructions over on A Pretty Penny if you want to try it yourself.
This was a good test run, but I think I need to use a more opaque color as my base - the yellowish Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-19257235563669167692011-03-31T03:38:00.000-05:002011-03-31T03:38:05.498-05:00Fresh BatteriesI've been feeling a little drained of creative energy lately, but it turned out I just needed a good day out to recharge my batteries. Through happy coincidence, I ended up having a Sunday completely free - no class, no work - that happened to coincide with Planet Comicon. I really wish I'd had the time to finish my Fourth Doctor scarf, since there were a lot more people in costume Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-68016226041173483632011-03-01T02:16:00.002-06:002011-03-01T02:58:47.527-06:00Of Mittens and KittensI'm terrible about knitting things for other people but never making anything for myself. Somehow, I never feel justified buying yarn for something that isn't going to be a gift or for sale. So, when I got a gift certificate for Christmas, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get yarn for a little something for myself.
The crazy amount of snow we've been getting lately has Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-39352119795121102212011-01-09T03:22:00.000-06:002011-01-17T15:56:51.203-06:00In with the new, out with the...well...find storage space for the old, at least.Well, new year, new projects - I've downloaded an open-source page layout program called Scribus that I'm going to give a try, and I'm hoping to have a few of the new patterns I've been working on out soon. With a little luck, it'll work out and I won't have to worry about trying to scrape up the money for Illustrator.
I'm particularly excited about the project this swatch is for.  Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-11061395222784942962010-12-07T02:04:00.000-06:002010-12-07T02:04:30.148-06:00Greetings from under the avalanche...Well, it's that time of year again - crafting frantically as I watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on a constant loop. I actually got a pretty good start this year, so everything's at least started, it's just a matter of prioritization to get everything finished in the right order. Highlights of this year's workload include:Hooded Scarf (that didn't start off as hooded, but then sheInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-51398045850758723002010-10-16T22:58:00.000-05:002010-10-16T22:58:28.128-05:00Milliput FTW! (part one)I've been having a lot of fun with a little sculpture and miniature painting lately, and I finally decided to buy myself some epoxy putty for a project I have in mind (no details yet, it's a seeeeeeeeecret!). I went with some Milliput (the standard grey-green), and started off with a couple of smaller projects to get the feel for working with it.
The tentacle is a sculpt of my own - I've Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-29050835837170522142010-09-29T23:59:00.000-05:002010-09-29T23:59:15.957-05:00Of Things to ComeBeen a little overwhelmed lately, but here's a few sneak peeks of projects and patterns I hope to be posting soon:
Keep your eyes peeled!Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-40632889616037597112010-08-31T00:48:00.000-05:002010-08-31T00:48:58.656-05:00Checking in right quickJust a quick heads up - I'm having an earring sale on Etsy until September 6th. All earrings marked (SALE) are $5, and you only pay shipping on the first item - all additional items in the same purchase ship free. You can get to the store from the widget in the sidebar, or you can just click here: Effulgent Studios on EtsyInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-75670820744459162192010-08-03T01:22:00.000-05:002010-08-03T01:22:47.559-05:00Am I That Transparent?Since my first batch of resin casts, I've been tweaking my technique a bit and experimenting.
The first thing I discovered is that somehow in my head I had the climate requirements of concrete and resin mixed up - while concrete sets best when cool and slightly damp, resin prefers a nice dry heat. Since the house is currently about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, this means that the resin Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-14022416406453153302010-07-07T16:46:00.002-05:002010-08-03T01:23:14.587-05:00Adventures in CraftingI'm very excited about trying a new craft today - a few months ago, I'd found a kit to get started with casting resin on clearance, and I finally got things cleared out and set up to give it a try. I'm going to just be doing some little rounded squares, and a small batch just to test and see how this EasyCast resin is to work with. If it turns out well, I may get a bit fancier with future Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-39386752885626327782010-06-26T00:57:00.001-05:002010-06-26T00:59:43.760-05:00Ker-Birthday!Some of you may recall that last year, I posted a list of five impossible things I'd like for my birthday. This year, I've got a more reasonable list - a birthday present from the internet, if you will. I would really like to break my pageview record for my webcomic. Not a huge target to hit, I have a fairly steady readership, but not overwhelming numbers.
This weekend, I'd Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-1383303750786070432010-06-15T02:34:00.000-05:002010-06-15T02:34:15.776-05:00While Twitter Was Down...I know I've got dozens of other things I should be working on tonight, but when I went to check Twitter and found that between E3, an earthquake, and a giant statue of Jesus being on fire (no, really), Twitter was over capacity, I was struck with inspiration!Voila! My very own Fail Whale. Mostly backstitch, though I did a split stitch to make the ropes look more 'ropey'. Also, those Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-14914532804687476552010-06-09T18:14:00.001-05:002010-06-09T18:18:30.076-05:00The Wild Goose Chase Ends!!Ladies and gentlemen, I present the two most difficult things to find in my town: Russian Standard vodka, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease color #179.
I'm not joking. Finding each of these items required trips to at least three different stores over the course of the last two weeks, and in each case, I got the last one the store had. Watching Iron Man 2 was particularly difficult, Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-53546611111919776252010-06-01T00:14:00.000-05:002010-06-01T00:14:08.701-05:00Busy Busy Busy...Everything's been kicking into high gear, and it looks like it's going to be a busy summer. I finally found a new host for my main comic, Ooh Shiny, and I'm really happy with it so far. The hosting service is great, the domain transfer went over without a hitch (from their side, at least...the old hosting service kind of dragged their feet), and I've got such an unbelievable amount ofInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-36113241970270203832010-04-05T16:30:00.000-05:002010-04-05T16:30:03.790-05:00Easter RoundupWell, I'm very pleased with myself. With the exception of store samples, I didn't start a single new project during Lent - it was all about trying to finish what I've already started. I didn't even buy supplies for projects, I only used supplies already on hand.
I got two scarves, an amigurumi, and a pincushion completely done, my sweater just needs about 3/4 of a sleeve, I got a newInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-25410246670244064352010-04-01T00:26:00.000-05:002010-04-01T00:26:46.415-05:00Spaced Stripe ScarfThis scarf is something I've been carrying around as my lunchtime project for a while, and even though it's a fairly simple stitch pattern everyone seems to like it so much, I thought I'd put up a pattern.
Materials:
Worsted weight yarn, 190 yards each of a self-striping yarn and a solid contrast yarn (in a color that's not part of the striping pattern). You may need more if you want fringe on Inarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36672188.post-22915997161744184702010-03-04T00:49:00.001-06:002011-11-19T20:17:40.684-06:00Preparing a new backlogIt seems that I'm coming up with new project ideas faster than I can finish things. While my lenten moratorium on starting new projects has helped me get several things finished, I was worried that come Easter, I'd forget all the ideas for things I had that I couldn't start in on immediately. The highlights so far:
Synaesthesia paintings.
- sometime around New Year's, there was the gradualInarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01252716348230296747noreply@blogger.com0