Craft projects of mine
This beautiful advertisement for natural gas shows a home being covered with knitting as a metaphor for it warming up in the morning.
I also recommend watching the “making of” video. It looks like they started with everything covered and then slowly unraveled it all, bit by bit. Lovely!
The other big thing that happened last week was that I finally finished my Easter Show knitting. I had two entries this year: “St. Brigid” in the aran category and “Albert the Magic Pudding” in the knitted toys. I think they turned out pretty well!
St. Brigid is from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting, a book which is sadly out-of-print. (Used copies go for $300! No joke!) Luckily I know someone with a copy who was generous enough to share. This is my second Starmore after last year’s Na Craga. The wool is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in colour 127 Posie. It’s a very pretty pinky red with little flecks through it. Starmore’s patterns are famously huge with lots of ease, so I had to play to get the right size. I actually used 4mm needles to get gauge and lengthened the body by an extra repeat. I also lengthened the arms quite a bit. The original version had fringe around the bottom (ew) and a mock turtleneck (ew ew), so I left both of those off. This is a very warm jumper, and I’ll probably only get to wear it a few times a year. But it’s beautiful and I made it and I love it. (More pictures on Flickr and more details on Ravelry.)
And then there’s the Magic Pudding. (No, Mom, he’s not an octopus!) He’s from a famous Australian children’s book by Norman Lindsay. The Snook read me this book, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a shame that kids in America don’t know it! I based my original design off a postcard with a watercolour of the Pudding by Lindsay himself. I was really tickled when the RAS volunteer who was taking my entries recognised him immediately. Maybe next year I’ll have to do Bunyip Bluegum? (More details on Ravelry.)
Q&A session with some of the craftsmen involved in that Rube Goldbert video for OK Go. I’m totally in awe.
The Show is rapidly approaching! Time to get this sucker finished. I started by dunking the front and the back in cold water and making sure they were totally saturated. Then I gently squeezed out a bit of the water before rolling each piece in a towel. Carefully I stepped all over it til the towel was soaked, removing a lot of the water. The pieces were then pinned out to the pattern’s measurements. I freaked out a little bit at first because the squares look so big! But when I compared them to Na Craga, they’re only slightly bigger. (Which is good, as I have boobs and the Snook doesn’t.) So I think that will be okay. It was hard to get a decent shot with the crapping lighting in my office, but I don’t think I’ve lost any stitch definition. As soon as these are dry, I’ll do the sleeves. (I ran out of pins!) Then it’s time to start sewing up!
Incidentally, I am LOVING that I had the forethought to use spit-splicing on this thing. I have like five ends to weave in there. That’s brilliant.
Star Wars Amigurumi. Neat! I need to learn to crochet better.
The Eighth Annual web-goddess Oscar Contest has finally begun. I’ve added a thirteenth category this year – Best Original Score – to lessen the odds of a tie. As usual, the number of dead people in the obituary montage will be the tiebreaker. And what do you get if you win? Why, it’s a Sparkly Emo Vampire Sockmonkey Playset! (And don’t worry, Twilight-haters. I’ve catered for you too.)
The contest will end the minute the ceremony begins!
Once upon a time, a girl named Bella fell in love with a very sparkly emo vampire named Edward. He gave her piggy-back rides in the trees.
But her long-haired Native American friend Jacob didn’t approve and warned her away.
Bella didn’t care. She and Edward frolicked in a meadow and he sparkled.
Jacob cut his hair and took to wearing cutoffs and hanging out in the woods in the rain.
But what’s this? It’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer! With a flash, she whips out Mr. Pointy and reduces Emo Edward to dust.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. If you win this year’s Oscar Contest, all this melodrama could be yours. You get three different sock monkeys: Edward, Bella/Buffy, and Jacob.
Edward comes with foofy auburn hair, amber eyes, embroidered six-pack, and a black peacoat. Oh, and he sparkles in the sun.
Bella has long brown hair, a grey coat, and a treasured copy of “Wuthering Heights” (with hand-embroidered cover). She’s also very clumsy and lacks any sort of personality. (Just like the books!)
Jacob (in his younger incarnation) has long brown hair, an embroidered six-pack, and a pair of denim cut-offs. He’s friendly and nice and has no idea he has a latent werewolf gene.
Later, Jacob gets ripped, cuts his hair, finds out he’s a werewolf, and kinda turns into a jerk. See? You can tell he’s scowling. Poor kid has no idea Renesmee is in his future.
With a quick change of wig and the addition of a crucifix, Bella becomes Buffy! Buffy has long blonde hair and a wooden stake. She’s also quick with a pun and has very little patience with mopey emo vampires.
The four wigs (Bella’s long, Buffy’s long, Jacob’s long, and Jacob’s short) all have a strip of Velcro on the underside that corresponds to a strip on the appropriate monkey’s head. You can mix and match to your heart’s content!
So whether you’re a Twi-hard or a Twi-hater, there’s something for everyone in the Sparkly Emo Vampire Playset!
Yurt Alert – one woman’s quest to crochet a full-size, free-standing yurt out of wool. A CROCHETED YURT. That is so cool. (Beats the hell out of a light pole cozy.)
Built by Wendy Dresses. I want that book!
Kinokuniya (the best book store in Sydney) will having a Craft Fair on Saturday, February 27th. The Inner City Guild group will be there giving free knitting help to anybody who drops by. The shop will also be giving 20% off all craft books! WIN-WIN if you ask me.
I went to a tea party! The regular Thursday night crowd from the Morris & Sons SnB all met up on Saturday afternoon at Harrogate Teas. We nibbled on sandwiches, sipped a variety of teas, and guzzled our weights in champagne. (I’m serious.) It was so much fun! We also had a “Kris Kringle” swap of decorations, where I got a lovely sparkly dove ornament. And of course, we all frocked up. I’m wearing a vintage “Jonathan Summers” dress that Ma Snook gave me last year. (Everyone joked that I looked like a Stepford Wife.) Lyn has some great photos here too.
Fiona in a fabulous floral headpiece…
Alison and Sue prove that there is no occasion too formal for the winding of wool…
Lee was a fabulous organiser and looked so smart in his green scarf!
Jody knits along with our distant visitors Donna and Ailsa…
Recent graduate Ness chats with Jody and Lyn…
A room full of happy and talkative knitters!
