Images and videos that I’ve taken on-the-go
After two long years in Australia, a member of my family has finally come to visit. My cousin Tony is here for the semester studying in Wollongong (just south of Sydney) and came up to see us this weekend. Here I am with him and his girlfriend Molly. We took them out for a traditional Newtown evening of cocktails, beers, and Japanese food. I managed to goad them into eating sushi and octopus! It was pretty darn fun.
I haven’t given you a knitting update in ages, have I? Yes, that’s me in a custom knit devil-horned hat. The pattern’s from Debbie Stoller’s book Stitch ‘N’ Bitch and I whipped it up in about six hours. (Pattern note for those playing at home: I used two balls of Heirloom 12-ply on 6mm needles.) I discovered some black wool in my stash so I might try the kitty-cat hat next. Now I just have to wait for it to get cold enough to wear!
Catching up on other projects… I also made a jumper/sweater for my iPod! My old case was getting grubby and I rarely use the belt clip anyway. There’s a pattern in Stitch ‘N’ Bitch but it requires sewing, so I just made up my own. (I started by knitting a flat rectangle about the size of the bottom of the iPod, and then picked up around the edges and knit in the round to the top. Then I cast off the front and continued knitting flat to make the flap. I even put a yarn-over in the right spot to leave a hole for the headphone jack!) I haven’t sewn any velcro on it yet, which is why I have to hold the flap closed here. Also note: I finally got my iPod in-ear headphones! As Ron suggested, they are a bit tinny. I only really notice it on the badly-ripped songs though. I’ve fiddled with the equalizer settings to boost the bass and that helps. But I’m back in the Cult of the White Wires!
Another recent finished object is the red scarf I’m sporting below. The wool is some handspun and hand-dyed stuff I bought at Camp Creative in January. The thickness varies from thread-thin to finger-thick. I just cast on eight stitches on my 10mm needles and knit til I ran out of wool. It went about six feet. I’m loving it. Oh, and my sister tells me that “skinny scarves are in” in the US, so unbeknownst to me I’m already in style for the winter!
Oh, and there’s a work in progress in that last picture too: my muscles. I’m on Week 3 of my weight training regimen and I’m feeling pretty darn buff!
Curse be damned; I knitted the Snook a sweater. This is my first seamless and patternless sweater and the first of my own design. The stripe pattern is from a woven scarf his mother gave him a few years back. (I just graphed it and worked it twice, once in reverse.) The sweater itself is green and the pattern’s in grey. It’s made of a thick Aran wool and it really absorbs the light, which makes it pretty hard to see here. It’s got a regular crew neck and raglan sleeves, which means the seamlines run up diagonally from the armpit to the neck (like a sweatshirt). My biggest problem was getting the cast-off collar loose enough to fit over his head! Here some more pictures of him in his favorite modeling poses:
The first is called “The Beach is That Way!”…
…and the second is “What Time is It?”. I make him do them whenever he tries something on, because it cracks my shit up.
It’s done! Today is the wedding of my friends Kenya and Sal, and this is the quilt I made for them. It’s a traditional American pattern called “Storm at Sea”. I started it just over a year ago (but I took a bit of break in the middle of the summer). The top was machine-pieced but I quilted the whole darn thing by hand. I also used a bias binding for the edge, which was a first for me. All in all I’m really proud of how it turned out. And isn’t the basket cute? I saw it in a shop yesterday and realized it was the perfect way to package the quilt.
Here’s a shot of the quilt pattern itself. As you can see, it’s all made up of triangles and squares but somehow they kinda fool the eye into seeing curves and waves.
The Snook is actually standing on a chair and holding the quilt up here (and hiding behind it) so you can get an idea of how big it is. It’s probably about queen-sized, I’d say.
I suck at embroidery, but it’s sorta tradition that you personalize the quilt for the receiver. Here’s my, uh, “rustic” attempt at adding their initials.
Like I said, I’m proud of it. And hey, that’s one more thing I can cross off my crafty backlog!
My Oscar Contest has officially stopped accepting new entries, so I figured I’d better show you all what you’re playing for. Meet Oscar the Sock Monkey! As you can see he’s all dressed up in black tie and silver sparkles. He’s got googly eyes and a big grin, and he’s even got his own little Academy Award!
As the response to the contest was about ten times what I was expecting – 144 entries? Who the heck are all you people? – I’m also providing regular sock monkeys for second and third place. The Awards start at 5:30 PM Pacific time Sunday, which means 12:30 PM Monday afternoon here. As I’ll be at work all day at the draconian, no-Internet unnamed printer company, you’ll have to wait til I get home for the results to be tallied. Basically, plan on the winner being named about five hours after the Awards start. Good luck everyone!
Well, where else do you think you buy them? 🙂
I’ve been obsessed with bags lately. (It offends my feminist pride to admit I carry a purse.) I keep accumulating them because I can never find the ideal one. I got a suede one recently that’s damn near perfect, but every time I carry the thing it rains. Anyhoo, last night on the train home I had a flash of inspiration – why not use one of my now giant (courtesy of the diet) pairs of corduroys to make a bag? The result is before you. It’s lined with a red bandanna and I appliqued felt hearts to the front. Isn’t it cute?
I’d seen several people on Glitter recommending the “chop off the legs and sew up the crotch” method of making a jeans purse. When I spread out my cords, though, I had to give up on that idea. I mean, they’re huge. I can’t believe my bum was that big. It wouldn’t be a purse; it’d be a duffel bag. So I decided to go halfway. I cut off the legs and then cut it in half vertically near the zipper. Then I spent a good half hour messing around with pins and basting to try and decide how to sew the thing up. Eventually I just said “screw it” and sewed a semi-straight line down the side. Then it came time for the bottom…
The bottom was the hardest part. See, jeans kinda “pooch” out more in the back to accommodate your bum. So I had more fabric on the back side than on the front. The solution, I eventually figured out, was to put a couple of darts (i.e. folds) in the back piece to make it work out. You can kinda see ’em on the picture of the back. Again, I just kinda eyeballed everything, but it came out looking much better than anticipated.
Next was the strap, which I made from one of the legs. I like a long strap, so I slit a leg lengthwise and sewed the lengths together to make one really long piece of fabric. Then it was just a matter of folding it together so the seams didn’t show and running a line of stitching along the edge. (I’m happy to report that my little Janome sewing machine handled layers of corduroy very well. My only problem was that occasionally it was a tight fit getting everything under the presser foot. There’s probably a way to lift it up higher though that I just don’t know of.) I sewed the straps to the inside of the waistband, trying out my zig-zag stitch for the first time. I figured there was no way to hide the sewing, so I might as well make it look intentional. 🙂
Looking inside the bag at this point, I realized I needed a lining. The front pocket was still hanging in there, and the seams and stuff just looked really messy. I had some bandannas in my fabric stash so I grabbed a red one and fashioned a pocket of similar size to my bag. (Because my bag is kinda trapezoidal in shape, I sewed the lining rectangular at first and then progressively angled in new seams at the top til the opening fit the waistband.) The I just stitched it in place inside the waistband.
Lastly I decided it needed a little decoration, so I pulled out a piece of felt and cut out some hearts. Then I just sewed them to the front panel (being sure not to go all the way through). They’re just tacked on, so they should be easy to remove if I want to change it in the future.
The whole time I was making this, I kept imagining that I’d ruined my pants (not that I could wear them anymore anyway) and that the end result would look ridiculous. But when the Snook got home and complimented me on it, I realized that it actually kinda works. I like the fact that it still has pockets and stuff for my mobile and train tickets. It’s yet another product for my eventual craft stand! 🙂
Last week I went to an “Introduction to Jewelry Making” workshop at the Bead Company near my house. I made the necklace, bracelet, and earrings pictured here. It was pretty much straight stringing; nothing as complicated as I’d already done with the flower necklace. But I learned how to use wire and crimps to make sturdier jewelry with nicer clasps. The necklace and earrings both use crystal-cut hematite and pink glass beads, while the bracelet is made up of funky cut glass and shiny silver spacers. I had a lot of fun at the Glebe Markets today checking out the price that similar stuff was going for. I saw earrings exactly like mine for $20! I can now make the same pair for $2. I’m never going to overpay people for stuff I can make myself again.
We recently cleaned up our office and uncovered the long-forgotten zen garden. Here’s what the Snook created. Any interpretations? Personally, I find it interesting that the rocks are “unbalanced” and seem bunched up on one side. Also note that he’s “buried” the rocks beneath layers of straight lines. So perhaps this “unbalanced” side is something that’s contained and buried deep within.
Or maybe he just likes making straight lines with the little rake. *shrug* I dunno.
Look what I made! I was feeling so crappy when I was home sick Monday that I decided to make myself something pretty to compensate. I started flipping through a bead magazine that Ma Snook recently sent me. There I found instructions to make this great “flower” necklace. I’m a sucker for these things, but I always feel ripped off when I pay some craft fair hippie ten bucks for one. It didn’t look too hard so I decided to give it a shot. I nipped round the corner to pick up the supplies and then plopped myself down on the couch. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but the end result is just gorgeous (if I do say so myself). The actual construction time was, like, 90 minutes, but that was with me watching Friends, Malcolm, and Millionaire at the same time. In other words, this is a super easy project even if you’re a total beginner.
Technically the pattern is for a choker, but I can’t stand chokers. So I made mine a little bit longer, and since the beads weren’t too big it lays pretty flat on my chest. In the instructions below I’ll tell you where you can lengthen yours if you want. To the right you can see the back closure. It uses a “T-bar” which you then slip through one of the loops on the other side, which means it’s adjustable.
Okay, supplies. You need two types of beeds: teeny little “seed” beads (the black ones in my necklace), and bigger beads to use for the petals (the purple ones). Seed beads are those itty-bitty little round ones that you buy in bulk. My shop was actually out of black ones, so instead the ones I used are little chopped tubular ones. You really can’t tell the difference, so just get what’s available. The smallest amount my shop sells is 25 grams, which was way more than enough to do, like, five necklaces. I’d estimate you need a very small handful (and even that will probably leave some left over).
For the bigger beads, you can use whatever you want. Mine are called “Mysterious Beads” and each one is about the size of a small pea. Just keep in mind that they’re going to be clustered in groups of four, so the bigger beads you get the chunkier your necklace will be. Anything vaguely round will do. (The magazine shows examples with faceted glass crystals and freshwater pearls.) You need 88 of them to make the basic choker, but I just bought 100 since it was cheaper that way. I ended up using some of the extras to lengthen it, too.
Other than the beads, you need beading cord. You could probably get away with using fishing line, but I’d avoid sewing thread if possible (I don’t think it’s strong enough). Whatever you get, it needs to be extra-fine because it has to go through some beads twice. You also need a beading needle. My seed beads were too tiny for a sewing needle, so I had to get a special one. It’s basically just two pieces of thin wire connected at the ends (to create a very long “eye” for your cord). They should have some near where you buy the seed beads. You also need the “T-bar”, which is the metal rod with a ring on it that you connect to one end of the necklace. If you can’t find one you can probably make do with a normal necklace ring clasp (it just won’t look as pretty at the back). Lastly, you need a bit of clear nail polish. But hey, everybody’s got that, right?
Instructions:
That’s it! Sounds complicated but really there are only a couple tricks and once you know them the rest is easy. Let me know if any of you give it a try!
