Quilty 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 general idea of the overall pattern.  I realised once I drew things out on some graph paper that the best way to assemble the quilt itself was going to be to sew the blocks into strips, then sew the strips together - otherwise things were going to get a bit awkward cramming everything into the machine.

Now the part where this gets tricky is that I forgot we weren't actually going to be seeing them at Christmas. I need to have this finished in time to give it at Thanksgiving...in less than a week.  I am so very glad that I remembered to buy a fresh case of energy drinks last time I was at the store.

Presents 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:

Plus this awesome tutorial on crackle finishes using regular school glue:

(my test sample)

Plus a little stiffened felt and coins, equals:

Treasure!

I thought about posting a tutorial for this, but honestly, this is it - the hardest part was actually finding the unfinished box to paint. I painted the whole thing dark brown inside and out (you could even spray it if you were so inclined/able), then did the crackle finish over the inset parts in a cream color.  I gave it a couple of hits of clearcoat, and glued some felt on the bottom for more usability, but that would really be optional if you were just doing it for decoration.

Shoes 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 my birthday.

Things are moved, curtains have been made (sheer nylon fabric has claimed the bottom rung on my 'favorite fabrics to work with' list), I got my order from Sweet Libertine, Team Fortress 2 is now free to play on the PC, the Meet the Medic video is finally out, Maker Faire is this weekend (and I have the weekend off so I can go!), I've talked everyone into my favorite Vietnamese restaurant for my birthday dinner, and I'm nearly out from under this huge mess of a commissioned project.

Also, please, someone remind me to never do a commissioned piece without a picture again - I apparently suck at mind-reading.

A 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 one side (I thought about including a picture, but thought better of it), the elbow is swollen, and trying to hold anything tightly in my left hand is...well, it's just not happening right now.  I'm choosing to blame the sinus issues I've been having since the art fair (being outside for several hours trying to keep paintings from blowing away in the cold wind was not kind to my sinuses).

My reaction to my arm being bruised and swollen? "Let's sew things!"

Specifically, let's sew fabric flowers for kanzashi:

I've cut several 2" squares from some red tiny-flower-print fabric from my stash, and I've got some nice hairpins with pads for gluing things onto at the ready - I'll wait to post a link to the tutorial I'm using until after I see how they turn out.

On a semi-related note, the art fair was not quite as successful as I'd hoped - plenty of people stopped to look at my work, but then apologized that it was just too cold outside to stand around and scurried off to warmer spaces.  As a result, you might want to keep an eye on my Etsy store over the next few days as I get decent pictures of my paintings and start listing a few.

Of Mittens and Kittens

I'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 just been too much for my usual gloves, so I figured mittens would be a good idea. Handily enough, I'd just made a pair of mittens as a shop sample before the holidays, and I freaking loved the yarn - it's the chunky version of Berroco Vintage.  One skein was more than enough for a pair (and I even made them a little on the large side).  The pattern...well, the less said the better. It ended up being a 'Pirate's Code' kind of situation.

I managed to get them done just in time for (what will hopefully be) the last round of snow.

And here we have them after shoveling (and in better light - this is closer to the color in person):

I'm very pleased with how they held up - I was out in the snow for somewhere between and hour and a half and an hour and a quarter, mittens covered in snow, using one of those snowshovels with the 'grippy' handle that's like a ginger grater (and my hands stayed so warm!).  There's really not much fuzzing or pilling, and what there is looks like a good run through the washer and dryer will clear up.

And in the world of cats, poor Miss Minerva's been frustrated lately. We have an obvious mouse in the basement chewing insulation off of pipes, but it seems to be keeping up out of her reach.  We've given her free run of the basement for the last few days, and she's spent most of her time there, coming up only to lie around the house sighing heavily (seriously - you've never heard a cat sigh so much in your life) and occasionally take out her frustrations on her toys.  I feel bad for her, since despite usually being a bit of a dim bulb, she's really an excellent mouser (very good about just catching them without eating them) and she's being denied her chance to shine.  At this rate, we're just going to have to wait until payday and spring for a mousetrap.

In 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.  I think it's going to shape up nicely.  I've got a couple of other small projects I'm getting typed up as well - a couple of hats, a scarf - and I'm going to go through and update my current patterns as well.




The Christmas knitting went well, but I had a couple of things I had to scale down, and I really ended up crashing afterwards.  I'm honestly giving some thought to starting next year's gifts now...

Greetings 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 she was pointing out a hooded one she liked, so oh well...)
• Dog Sweater
• Convertible Mittens
• Socks
• Cowl
• More Socks
• Hats (oh yes, so many hats)
• Flavored liqueurs
• Assorted bath goodies

And, of course, it's the holidays and I work retail...

You probably won't be hearing from me again until around New Year's...

Am 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 casting session now begins with making a hot cup of tea while I hold the component bottles under my arms to warm them so they'll blend properly.  This seems to be helping with the excessive bubble problem (though when it's overall bubbles rather than just a few air pockets, it looks kind of interesting).

The second thing I discovered is that the resin stays where you put it (this brand, at least). It neither shrinks nor expands while curing, so the molds should be filled where you actually want the resin to go.  As you can see in the picture above of the first batch, I overfilled the mold a bit, and have some cleanup to do. Luckily, the resin is pretty easy to trim with an X-acto knife and a steady hand.

All in all, a lot of fun - I've been playing around a bit with embedding objects in the resin as well as making my own molds using liquid latex, and hopefully should have some good examples to show off in a few days. Finally, a use for all the little clockwork bits I hoard!

Adventures in Crafting

I'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 attempts.

I was surprised to see that the resin itself is colored blue - when it said 'sapphire' as the color on the box, I assumed that was going to be the color of the mylar flakes they included for the project on the box.  This led to some re-planning, as I'd intended to embed something else in the resin pieces assuming the resin itself was giong to be clear. I really don't care for the mylar flakes, so I dug up some deep blue glitter instead, and I'm not going to mix up all of the resin.

Also, it's probably a bit rainier than it should be for resin, but I didn't realize that when I started - the house is fairly cool and dry, so fingers crossed.

Easter Roundup

Well, 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 new pattern posted here, have two other patterns handed over to test-knitters, and I'm just experimenting with decreases to finish off a new hat pattern.  I've also got a list of great ideas that I've just started in on today - mostly things for my Etsy store, but a few fun things for myself as well as at least one Christmas craft idea. Not bad, considering I lost about a week to the Martian Death Flu.

I've also started a Tumblr site, where I'm going to be doing a comic based on our weekly White Wolf fusion game that we've been playing off and on for...what, 5 years now?  You can find it at All Our Yestertomorrows, or at least you will once I actually get some pictures up. It's sort of funny, we've been playing this game for so long, I was really surprised while working on character pictures to find out that I didn't really have any idea what one of the characters looked like.  I'm looking forward to having a project that already has the script written, with no deadlines.  Not that my regular comic has a deadline at the moment since the server my site was on apparently got fried, but that's an entirely more stressful kettle of fish...

Spaced Stripe Scarf

This 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 your scarf.
• Size 10 US (6mm) knitting needles.

Cast on 31 stitches with striped yarn.

Mistake Rib: *[k2, p2] repeat from * until 3 stitches remain, k2, p1.

Work two rows in Mistake Rib using striped yarn.
Work two rows in Mistake Rib using solid yarn.

Continue, alternating colors every two rows until yarn runs out.

For a tidier edge when changing yarns, bring the yarn you are about to use up from under the yarn you have just finished using.

Preparing a new backlog

It 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 gradual realization that other people don't usually taste in color. My husband is completely fascinated by this, and has taken to quizzing me at most meals. I thought it would be fun to fix myself a few snacks and try to paint what they taste like.

Embroidery of this comic.
- it combines two of my favorite memes (making fun of Horatio's sunglasses, and odd variants of the Bayeaux Tapestry), and I really wish I'd thought of it myself.

Edmonton Eulers shirt
- I have no excuse for coming up with this except for sheer sleep deprivation, but I still think it's funny.

Skirt re-creation
- one of those 'no ill wind' situations, my favorite skirt got caught on a door handle and tore, which means that I now have no qualms about carefully taking it apart and using it to make a pattern to re-create the skirt in other fabrics. Seriously, it's a great skirt - comfortable, flattering style, even has pockets.

In news from the realm of paring down the current projects, I finished my first character amigurumi (which was also my Ravelympics project) because I totally needed a little plushie of Egon Spengler:

 

He's about 7 inches tall to the top of his hair, made out of some leftover acrylic yarn I had from my first Fourth Doctor scarf.  I embroidered the name badge by hand (and then metaphorically kicked myself for forgetting that my sewing machine will embroider letters), his hair is all done in French knots with another layer of French knots on top for extra height, and the glasses are handmade out of 18-gauge wire with 22-gauge for the bridge.  I'd been thinking about making myself some amigurumi Ghostbusters for a while, and had intended to start with Ray, but as I was working on my comic, I came up with a script that I just loved too much to not make Egon to go along with.  It's going to be my first honest-to-God storyline, too.  The first part starts with this comic. (I've been having some reliability issues with my hosting service lately, so the comic is also being mirrored on my LiveJournal until I change hosts.)

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Now Playing:
Man Man - Black Mission Goggles
(why does SignaTunes no longer work automatically on Blogger?)

Would you look at that f-ing snow?

I could've sworn I saw the snowplow go by a few hours ago...

Fortunately, with my Lent resolution to only work on finishing projects that I've already started (don't ask how many things I started on Pancake Tuesday...), a little enforced crafting time was not a bad thing.  I've already knocked a nice grey/black/white striped scarf off my Ravelry list (and into my Etsy shop, in all likelyhood), and I've really been going to town on my 'Ravelympics' (Ravelry Olympics) project.

I'm kind of keeping the Ravelympics project under wraps for a bit, because it was based in a comic idea and I don't want to spoil the comic - I plan on unveiling it when that particular strip goes live. I'm really enjoying it, though.  I'm more of a knitter than a crocheter, so it's a nice change of pace and a little bit of a challenge to myself, which was the point of the Ravelympics.  It's also nice to have a deadline to keep myself on target, or I think I would have already set it aside once I started to embroider the little accessory bits.

I've also got a few half-finished plushies I need to get finished up as well - besides wanting to put some up on Etsy, I also really want to submit something to Stuffed.  There's a couple of pincushions that just need to be stuffed and sewn shut, too. And two rooms I've started painting. And one room I'm in the middle of plastering the walls. And then there's the fabric that I just pinned to the moulding around the window for a bit until I had time to sew it into proper curtains...

Meanwhile, I've already got a list of five project ideas to start in on come Easter...better get back to clearing out some of this crafting backlog!

Domestic Pursuits

Got a domestic little bee in my bonnet today, and started off the day with a round of cupcakes:

 

These turned out better than the last batch I made - those were tasty, but closer to the consistency of pound cake than I really like my cupcakes.  The cake recipe I found for these guys was nice and simple, with a bit more leavening to them.  Also, there was no separating of eggs involved.  It's not that I mind separating eggs, I just prefer being able to use the pasteurized eggs so I can lick the bowl afterwards with impunity.

Also, I think this may be the best batch of icing I have ever made.  Normally, my quick icing has a bit of a metallic taste to it, but I learned today that the metallic taste comes from the cornstarch they add to powdered sugar, and can be eliminated by heat.  All I had to do was zap the powdered sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds, and voilá! Granted, being vanilla-rum flavored didn't hurt the icing's placement on the all-time awesome icing chart, but still...

Meanwhile, I was doing a bit of organizing while the cupcakes were baking/cooling, and found this stuffed in one of my boxes:

Not in the best of shape, but the ink stain is only on the cover (and doesn't hide the original $2 price tag from Venture, of all places...does Venture even still exist?).  Being copyright 1976, all the examples look like they were done in worsted-weight yarn on burlap, but it's still a good book.  Handily enough, February is National Embroidery Month, so I thought I'd take the opportunity of stumbling across this to learn a new stitch.

Presenting: the Palestrina knot: 

As you can see, it took me a few to get the hang of it, but it makes a nice, textural line that almost looks like a row of joined French knots.  I could definitely see using this as an outline for something that needed a touch of emphasis, or as a simple border. I do have two fresh teatowels in need of embellishment, after all...

The cake is a lie!

I've been meaning to switch over to using more cloth towels in the kitchen, but I didn't want just plain white towels, so I broke out the embroidery box and got to stitching. It's all backstitch, except for the edging of the cake, which is done in about three rows of French knots.  I will never fear French knots again after this project.

The original intent had been to make the cake slice a bit more detailed, but I hadn't really thought ahead, and made the design much larger than it really needed to be (takes up about a third of the towel). Also, this towel, while lovely and soft, was a bit looser of a weave than I usually embroider on.  It's the first thing I've ever embroidered that's meant for actual use rather than being decorative, so I'm a bit worried about how it's going to hold up.  All the ends have been well sewn in and reinforced with Fray-Check, so I've done all I can, I think.  I just need to give it a good preliminary wash to get rid of my pencil marks, and it's good to go.

Next time I do a towel, I know two things to do differently, though.

1) Dig up my disappearing ink embroidery marker

2) Much smaller design - it's just an embellishment, not a display piece.

Odds and Ends

I found a great tutorial on making a light tent for photography, and thought it might be worth a try to improve my product photos on Etsy.  Took me a while to find the right box, but once I had all the materials gathered, it was only an afternoon's work to get it all put together, and I'm quite pleased with the results - especially as I had a few things to show off.

First off, I've been eying up these vintage buttons for some time now, and I finally took the opportunity to treat myself: I love the deep blue, and the little flower shape.  They're not very big, maybe 3/4 inch wide (about 17mm), but I'm picturing them on a nice fine-gauge cardigan, something kind of mori girl-looking.

I also finally managed to get everything together to make a pair of earrings I'd had planned out ever since I first saw the beadcaps.

They were very simple and fast to make - I took eight matching bead caps, spaced them out on head pins with two small beads that matched the metal in between each one, and put them on ear wires.  I'd originally thought about getting all fancy and chaining them together on wire for a bit more movement, but I think if I'd done that, they might have been too jingly. (which is fun if you're just wearing them for a little while, but eight hours at work might have been a bit much.)

I've also had a lot of things lately that have just turned up while cleaning, such as these gloves. They fit me just nicely, and look very film-noir.  I kind of want a nice 1940s-silhouette dress and one of those hats with the black netting veil to wear with them.  No idea *where* I'd wear them, but if I could get the whole outfit together, I think I might have to organize something myself.
No idea where they came from, or how old they might be.  I vaguely remember my mom tucking them in one of the many boxes of my stuff that have been trickling over from her storage areas, but beyond that, their history is as mysterious as the backstory I'm already writing for the character whose costume they're going to be part of.

Quite a bit of knitting, indeed.

So, I'm finally getting some of my older projects finished (mostly because I've got great ideas for new stuff and I'm too cheap to just buy more needles). Right now, I've got a kitty pi that's all done but the felting running through the washing machine. I'm a little nervous, honestly - I haven't felted anything in this machine before, and the damned cat bed took me so long, I'd really hate for anything to go wrong at this late stage. I suppose it didn't take that long in terms of continuous knitting, it got set aside for about a year, year and a half, but still... I did the math, and there's over 600 yards of yarn in this thing, not counting the eyelash yarn worked in at the top edge. Pre-felted pic for the sake of posterity (34 inches in diameter):



Also, since the **SECRET SWATCH** turned out so nicely, I got the needles today to start working a few more kinks out of the design. I'd love to have a prototype done soon, maybe get the pattern out by Christmas, but I really need to finish the other two in-progress patterns before I start in on it. After all, it's much easier to teach a class on a project you have a pattern for, hm?

Got the yarn to start in on some of the Christmas knitting today, too. Very excited about it, but (of course) I have to finish up another project to free up the needles I need. Although...it was just something for myself, so I could always just throw it on a stitch holder for a while...

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Now playing: Moxy Früvous - King of Spain
via FoxyTunes

Swatching up a storm...

I was going to be all good and not start any new projects until I got a few things finished, but then I realized that if I want to actually get a baby blanket to my cousin in Australia before she's due, I probably want to have it done and mailed by Thanksgiving. I decided to go with the Op Art Blanket from Knitty in a nice washable cotton - good to wrap up in, but not too hot for Western Australia. So, did a few swatches until I got the gauge I needed since the yarn I'm using isn't the same weight as the pattern calls for (though more color-fast, from what I hear):


And then we got in some shiny new yarn, and I had a flash of inspiration. I'm really excited about this swatch:
What's it a swatch for, you ask? That...is a secret!
(also, I may have been watching too much Slayers lately....)

And, just to round things off, I present Friday and Saturday's cup art (the sandwich shop was closed yesterday and today for the holiday :( )"



















Relatively happy with Gir, but with the giant Octopus I drew the smouldering city first, then decided what was attacking, so he's not quite as integrated into the picture as I'd like.
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Now playing: Depeche Mode - Blue Dress
via FoxyTunes

Reorganization, and the unluckiest city ever built on styrofoam.

So I'd been planning on entering a local knitting contest, all gung-ho to show off a lace entrelac pattern idea I've been kicking around for a bit, but after realizing that
A) I'd have to buy tickets to the festival to get in to even submit my piece and
B) that the prize was just a gift certificate to go buy yarn someplace I DON'T get an employee discount, I decided that my time was better spent taking on some custom orders I've had nibbles on (who would pay me in something a little more useful like **cash**).

One of the jobs in particular sounds like fun - a big project, but pretty mindless pattern-wise. I just have to get a decent estimate together of how much yarn it's going to take, so I've been doing some gauge swatches and math. Thus, I present to you: the teeniest gauge swatch ever!
Ten stitches to the inch, awwww yeah. Probably won't end up going with this needle size in the end, but it was fun to swatch.

Also, I've been getting a bit bored with just writing my name on my cup every day at work, so the last few days I've been getting a little creative with the Sharpies.

Friday's cup:



And today's:











I like to imagine that this is all happening to the same, extremely unlucky, city. My lunch is well seasoned imagining their tiny cries of 'What the hell? Again?'. (it would seem the population of my tiny imaginary city is surprisingly jaded....)

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Now playing: Scissor Sisters - I Can't Decide
via FoxyTunes

Catching up on things.

I was kind of operating on silent running for a while, as there were some birthday and swap projects I was working on that I needed to keep quiet until the big reveal. My two favorites out of the batch:

OCTONINJA!!!


Made this little guy for my friend's birthday - she likes squid/octopi, her boyfriend likes ninjas, so I figured it was something she could proudly display anywhere in the house. He's made mostly out of black denim, with a square of Amy Butler's Full Moon Dots for around the eyes.












And from the swap, PAMCAKE APRON!



I was discussing how awesome this came out with a co-worker, and she suggested a tutorial. There is a small problem with this, however, as you soon shall see:
Step One: Draw 'lil Hellboy on apron
Step Two: Color in drawing with acrylics mixed with fabric medium.
Step Three: Heat set.

Yeah....

Latest kick has been embroidery - got two projects going there, bunch of knitting projects, both for myself and as samples, knitting contest I'm gearing up for, soldered pieces I'm working on as a commissioned job, the new fabrics the store just got in are inspiring me to do some more sewing, and I found an awesome plushie contest I want to enter...

What's that? Sleep? Never heard of it.

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Now playing: The Apples In Stereo - Energy
via FoxyTunes