Crafty Lil' Devil

Watch this space

2009-12-15T19:09:00.002+11:00

I'm currently thinking about the future of this blog- whether to continue blogging, and in what capacity. Blogging is time-consuming, and I like to post regularly which is time-gobbling. I don't see much point in posting pictures of my creations here given the only people who really read this are on Ravelry, and can see things there. I know I can only post knitting/crocheting/spinning on Rav, but I haven't really been posting many of the non knitting/crocheting/spinning items I've made lately anyway.

I sometimes wonder about going back to a blog that focuses on writing, or conversely, starting a blog that covers both writing and tangible creativity, but I'm not sure I want to make that commitment.

So, as the title says, watch this space for my decision. I suppose this is also notice that this blog might disappear, although I don't know why you need notice of that.

My firstspun

2009-09-09T09:35:00.002+10:00

She's not pretty, but she's very cute.

Noro shawl

2009-09-06T16:16:00.002+10:00

I hate Noro yarn because despite how awful it is, the colours keep drawing me back. I fell in love with the colours and colour contrasts in this skein of Noro sock, but certainly didn't want to use it for socks. So I settled on a shawl, but I'm not a fan of self-striping yarns with fancy stitch patterns. So I went for a very simple shawl. I just did random sections of stockinette, garter stitch and eyelets and kept going till I got to the end of the skein.

This was the end result and I LOVE it.

In typical Noro style, I hit a knot that joined two totally different sections of colour. But it was a happy accident, because it meant a repeat of a pink/blue section with balances all the green out nicely. It's a good bookend to the thick section of greens at the neck of the shawl. I also love that line of pink along the bind off edge.

And in other news, I've gone over to the dark side. With a little help from a conspirator, I've learnt to spin. I'm using a spindle, though I plan to get a wheel as soon as I can afford one (so at this rate that means never). Here are my first spinning efforts, in chronological order.

This morning I set the twist in the first bobbin. The second and the third I'm going to ply together. The lengths are probably wildly different and it's going to be very interesting looking, but I'm more interested in working out plying than getting a perfect skein the first time. The stuff on the spindle is what I started when I was getting a more or less even thickness. (that is, more or less even in comparison to what I was getting)

The only problem is, I'm spending all my time spinning and my knitting is getting lonely and jealous.

Just in time for the warm weather...

2009-09-01T10:26:00.002+10:00

A nice cosy winter hat! Although I did get the chance to wear it on Sunday night, which was cold and windy.

Meet my February Beret.

And now I'm off to drown in mucous, thanks to the onset of hayfever.

Q. What does a Dalek washcloth say?

2009-08-27T17:13:00.001+10:00

A. Ex-fol-i-ate! Ex-fol-i-ate!

And by strange coincidence, that's the name of the pattern that gave me this.

More useful and less tedious to knit than a toy Dalek. Less cuddly though.

The Mad Hatter

2009-08-18T10:03:00.002+10:00

I had cause to dress up in 1930s style. This was particular reason for excitement because the 30s is my favourite era in fashion. The clothes are beautiful and the hats are divine. So I jumped at the chance to try making a 30s hat of my own. My initial inspiration came from Elsie's hat at the end of Gosford Park, but when I was watching the last 15 minutes of the movie to grab some sketches of her hat, I realised that all the hats the women wear at the end are just gorgeous, and so took my inspiration from all of them. So this hat is a combination of styles, honed by what I could do with the materials I had.

A badly lit mirror shot doesn't really do justice to my dinky little hat, I know, but this is actually the best photo I have that shows how it looks on me. The angle it sits on and the fact that there are design features on the front, back and sides of the hat make it very difficult to photograph.

For anyone who's interested in the technical stuff, this was made from craft felt. With the exception of one seam it's all hand sewn. And there was only one tantrum, which is amazing given what I was trying to do. I learnt that hat makers of old must have had fingers of steel with the callouses they'd have developed. Hand sewing ribbon around a reinforced brim makes for very sore fingers. As always, the end result was worth it though.

And having discovered exactly what you can do even without the aid of millinery tools, I may be addicted to hat making.

Winter Woollies

2009-08-11T09:59:00.002+10:00

Here are two quick little projects that were gifts for people.

The particularly astute (read: nerdy) among you may notice that this scarf is the same design as the one worn by Luna Lovegood in the fifth Harry Potter film. Although the recipient is a Harry Potter fan I didn't choose the pattern for this reason, I just liked the design and it looked quick and easy. (which it was) Not a fan of the yarn, though. It doesn't feel very nice when working with it.

I'd love to make a scarf like this for myself in a glossy, silky, drapey yarn.

The other project I called the 'Meanwhile...' mittens. Some time ago my mother asked for a pair of mittens to wear when walking the dog of a winter evening. Me being me, I chose a stupidly complex twisted cabled pattern in 4ply yarn. I realised that I actually may not finish those mittens in either my or my mother's lifetimes, so I made these so she has something to wear in the meantime. I improvised the design using the owl cable, which I love because it's just so nifty. If I did them again I'd put the owls higher up.

All bow down to my patience and, er, procrastination

2009-07-31T10:57:00.003+10:00

It's not that I've been slack with updating the blog, it's more that I've been slack with knitting. However this morning I took advantage of a beautiful morning to head outside and take some pictures of my recently completed cardigan.

When I finished it I wasn't very happy with the fit- it would have gone nicely around something rectangular. I, however, am not rectangular. So I took it in with some darts at the sides, and now am very happy with it. It's also nice and warm and squishy.

There are a few mistakes and things I'll know not to do next time, but all in all I'd call it a win for my first garment.

I'm also going to take the chance to show off the gorgeous shawl pin Sharre, my personal shopper, bought for me at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show.

It was made by a guy called SpinningWoodie who makes all sorts of beautiful wooden things- shawl pins, spindles, darning mushrooms, bobbins, kniddy-noddys, buttons, thimbles, tape measures and more. Mainly tools for spinning and accessories for garments. Beautiful stuff.

Cowls, ahoy!

2009-07-10T14:29:00.002+10:00

I'm still working my way through the yummy skein of Touch yarn (although I think yummy Touch yarn is a tautology- I've never met a skein of Touch that wasn't yummy) and the latest project was a cowl. For those not up on their accessories, a cowl is a tube that goes around your neck and performs the function of a scarf, but without scarves' habits of flying off in the breeze or getting caught in whatever you're trying to do at the time.

This is the Mermaid Scales cowl, pattern written by the lovely Spiraling.

I also returned to good old Patons Jet to make the Bainbridge Scarf with a button instead of ties.

It's the only scarf I've ever seen that require instructions for how to put it on. (I still haven't quite got the hang of it)

When you're standing alone in a room pointing a camera at yourself it's very difficult to know how to arrange your face. Which is why I always go for a neutral expression and remember a second before the photo takes that in photos, my neutral expression makes me look severely depressed and in the final stages of a fatal illness. So at the last minute I widen my eyes and attempt to look almost friendly, and turn my head so I'm not eyeballing the camera. This could be a subconscious attempt to give the camera puppy dog eyes, pleading with it to take a nice photo of me. But it results in a lot of really blurred and unflattering photos. I need a mannequin. Or a photogenic minion.

Victory is mine, saith the knitter

2009-06-24T18:35:00.003+10:00

Once upon a time a girl decided it was time to learn to knit socks. She got some cheap sock yarn and, being still but a young knitter, bought the needle size prescribed on the label. She cast on her socks, and found that she wasn't knitting socks so much as very floppy chicken wire. (albeit chicken wire with a ribbed pattern) She frogged the few rows she'd knit, and trundled off to buy smaller needles. Armed with smaller needles, she once more cast on the sock. It was less air-conditioned than the last, but she decided it would still benefit from going down a needle size. She frogged what she'd done, and bought smaller needles. She cast on again.

I have a feeling a few other novice mistakes were made in the process, because I remember restarting this sock a few more times than just these.

Finally, things were cruising along. Evidently someone had put more money in the knitting meter. She got as far as the heel flap and was about to turn the heel when she decided to try the sock on. She pulled it on over her foot. She kept pulling. She pulled some more. It wouldn't go over her heel. In disgust, she frogged the sock and threw the ball of yarn into the deepest, darkest corner of her yarn box.

The girl moved on to other socks, and though none of them were perfect, none were so recalcitrant as that first pair of socks in the yarn she was convinced was cursed. The girl had a policy of alternating between special yarn and less pretty yarn when making socks. If she made a pair from pretty sock yarn, the next pair would be done in the less pretty. Kind of the sock yarn equivalent of 'don't spend it all at once'. Thus, after finishing a pair in pretty yarn the time came for her to once more pull out the cursed sock yarn.

She decided the liked the zigzag look of the pattern with no stretch, so she went looking for a zigzag pattern that had enough stretch to go over her heel. She found one, and cast on, but doing the cuff (a lacy affair) on 2mm bamboo needles nearly made her head explode, so she frogged them and looked for another pattern. Once she found one, there were a few more false starts that got frogged, before finally, she got going. Things were going smoothly, and she adored the way the pattern worked with the yarn. She couldn't have known it would work so well, it was just the right combination of mathematical factors (ie. the length of the lace pattern repeat in the sock and the length of the colour repeats in the yarn), but she saw it as the sock yarn making up for being so obstreperous.

And so, the yarn she hated so much became her favourite pair of socks.

Ding dong the witch is dead

2009-06-09T18:00:00.006+10:00

Which old witch? The knitted witch!

The wind began to switch, the house, to pitch,
and suddenly the hinges started to unhitch.
Just then the Witch, to satisfy an itch,
went flying on her broomstick, thumbing for a hitch.
And oh! What happened then was rich.
The house began to pitch. The kitchen took a slitch.
It landed on the Wicked Witch in the middle of a ditch,
Which was not a healthy situation for the Wicked Witch.
... Who began to twitch, and was reduced to just a stitch,
of what was once the Wicked Witch.

(That's a song from the Wizard of Oz movie, in case anyone was wondering)

I didn't have any houses handy, so I had to find other things with which to squash my witch.

(For anyone who's seen the Labyrinth, Sarah has a dinosaur just like this in her room.)

This is why your mum always told you to pack lightly.

"See human? This is what will happen to you if you don't put that camera away!"

Proof that you can find a knitting pattern for pretty much anything.

The barrage is over

2009-06-04T11:15:00.003+10:00

Finally starting to finish WIPs without accumulating more, which is nice. So these are probably the last in the 'good grief she's lost her ability for rational thought' series.

This one was a commissioned hat that I made for someone I've never even met. The only information I was given was 'loves anything outrageous'. Hence the colour scheme.

The next two were for our wonderful new Emily, who moved into the Teahouse a few months ago. When she moved in we mentioned how cold it gets in this house in winter, and she assured us she'd never wear a hat or gloves because she doesn't like them. When the first cold snap of autumn came, she promptly commandeered one of my hats and a pair of my gloves and wore them constantly. So I decided she needed her own pair in her favourite colour.

Love this pattern. It's the Beanpole beanie. It's just the right mix of beanie and beret so that actually keeps you warm but doesn't make you look like you just robbed a bank. The mini-cables and the beanpole design add just the right amount of decoration.

It should be noted that this yarn is very hard to photograph accurately, whatever the light. Just to clarify, the bits catching the light on the cuffs and around the fingers are cables. I like the Latvian twisted cuff on these mitts, although I'm still not convinced white was the best choice of contrast colour. Unfortunately, it's all I had on hand without diving into my stash boxes. Which I didn't want to do as I was watching a movie at the time.

She's got Bette Davis eyes

2009-05-19T11:06:00.003+10:00

Last weekend, my church had its weekend away. On Saturday night, we had a murder mystery party. It was lovely to go to a murder that I didn't write. For one thing, I could be part of it and work out whodunnit, and also, I wasn't running around organising everything and stressing about it.

My character was Bette Davis, which is rather appropriate as she was once described as "a force of nature than could find no ordinary outlet", and we also both have expressive eyes. Apparently.

My costume suggestion was somewhat vague (glamourous clothes, carry a long cigarette holder) given the woman's career lasted for about four decades. So I went for the 1930s, because I love 30s clothes and have never had a chance to wear a 30s costume. And once I found a stunning 30s dress in the Teahouse dress-up cupboard, the rest of the costume was easy to assemble. Except I needed something to keep me warm because I didn't fancy wearing a flimsy 30s dress at night in a cold valley. I did a bit of research and discovered that capes were fashionable in the 30s, so I made myself a capelet. (As you do. See above quote about a force of nature without an outlet.)

Presenting my Chanson en Crochet.

I had been planning to make this at some point anyway, for everyday wear. Having a specific need for it sped up the process though, and stopped it languishing in my pattern folder forever until 'some point' came.

The button was found at Spotlight. They have a small range of overpriced vintage-design buttons which are nice for things like this where you only need one or two buttons.

I also sat down and made myself a cigarette holder, which is something I ought to have done a long time ago because they are an incredibly useful dress-up prop.

No, I'm not telling you how I got it so realistic-looking. A magician never reveals her secrets.

And so, we have the full Bette Davis ensemble...

And just for fun:

Socks, sheep and squishyness

2009-05-10T15:26:00.003+10:00

I come to you with the latest works in the 'good golly I actually think I'll be knitting these for the rest of my life' series.

Two commissioned socks. (That is, two pairs of socks, not two odd socks)

Usually I don't accept commissions for labour-intensive things like socks because I know that it takes me approximately 160 years to finish things people ask me to make for them. I don't know why- I love making presents for people, and if someone requests a specific present I'm happy to make it. I just have a mental block when it comes to making commissions. The reason I accepted this one is because the recipient also has bad circulation, and I took pity on her perpetually cold feet. It's a feeling I'm all too familiar with.

Those two are actually the last FOs in the original 'eyes are bigger than my knitting needles' series started over Easter. However that series has since had several additional items added to it- the next two FOs, and two things I'm going to cast-on as soon as I finish this blog entry.

My mother requested a woolly hat, and so I obliged, whipping this up in time for Mother's Day.

This was my first time using duplicate stitch, and I suspect it looks a whole lot neater if the yarn on top is the same weight as the yarn on the bottom. DK on top of Aran results in slightly deformed sheep.

I also made these fingerless gloves for the Mother.

I used the Touch yarn I got from Kelebek in her Christmas RAOK package, and it's such yummy yarn. Squishy yarn + twisted ribbing = heaven.

Exterminate: gold class

2009-04-23T22:24:00.002+10:00

The next FO was presented to its recipient tonight, so I can now post pictures.

I'm sure I had something scintillating and profound to say, but I just got a message and it made me jump out of my skin. In the process of resuming normal breathing patterns I've lost my train of thought. The sad thing is, I was expecting the message, because it was in reply to one I sent about five minutes ago.

Anyway, let's cut to the Dalek.

The colour is better in the second picture. It's been grey and gloomy here all week so it was hard to get a good photo.

One day I might even make one of these things for myself.

The next item in the 'aaargh, I'm drowning in WIPs' series will be shown off presently. Well, it will be once I finish it. Do life jackets save you from sinking beneath a pile of knitting?

Wouldn't it be nice if the world was Cadbury

2009-04-21T11:25:00.002+10:00

I'm taking a break from a flurry of cleaning to post this- the second in my series of 'I bit off more than I could knit' FOs.

I crocheted up this little cap for Christie's 18th. She looks very cute in these hats, and I'd been looking for a while for a good pattern for one when this one was made available. It's a very well designed little cap.

The colour reminds me of Cadbury purple.

Sore fingers

2009-04-17T14:27:00.003+10:00

Over Easter I went to my parents' place for a week and I had a goal- to do five different knitting projects. Three are birthday presents for people (so I can't go into too much detail as they don't have them yet) and two are commissions. I didn't get any of them finished, and didn't really expect to, but over the week I got all of them more than half done, so I was very pleased. With very sore fingers. My left index finger is currently not speaking to me. Apparently it didn't like 10 inches of bias ribbing done on KnitPicks Harmonies. I admit, there are some times when those pointy tips are a drawback. This was one of them.

Anyway, it was worth the pain, don't you think?

This was the first of the finished items. Hopefully I'll have more FOs to show off soon.

ETA I should add that this hat is lovely and warm. And squishy. I know this, because I have been wearing it since I finished it, because my room is a little chilly. No, the hat isn't actually for me, but I'm quality testing it for warmth and comfort. ;o)

Hooray for Aunty ABC

2009-04-11T12:17:00.002+10:00

I'm in favour of anything that spreads the message that craft is not just for grannies, so I was pleased to see a Radio National segment (from Life Matters, for those who care) entitled Craft Gets a Makeover.

They spoke to a lady who runs a craft store in Melbourne (of course) and who has a blog. For those familiar with the art/craft subculture on the internet, this is a fairly common thing. But it's nice to see the general RN listener (admittedly, probably not the most, ah, trendy audience- and I'd be happy to be corrected on that) hearing the news that craft can be funky too, and that it's back in vogue.

They also spoke to her about her efforts, and the efforts of other online crafters, to support the Victorian bushfire victims. One of the things I love about the online craft community is how connected it is, and how, on the whole, it is so generous and caring. (As Franklin has pointed out, Ravelry has dispelled the myth that all knitters are nice people) So it was also good to see crafters getting a bit of recognition for that.

(non)Stash enhancement

2009-04-07T11:31:00.004+10:00

I'll post the picture first, so that those of you who aren't interested in my thoughts on yarn shops can look at the picture and go merrily on your way.

Here be Helen's birthday present:

They're cute, but they weren't that fun to knit. The pattern dragged on forever and got quite tedious after a while. I also had my usual problem of laddering between the knit and purl stitches. The second one wasn't quite as bad as the first, but it does spoil the satisfaction of a project a little when you're staring at these ladders that you can't stop making no matter what you try. At least I'm the only one bothered by them- Helen loves the gloves.

I also had a rather curious phenomenon with these gloves. One of the snakes had a growth spurt. That is the only possible explanation for one glove being longer than the other, because the pattern is written in a chart with the same number of rows in each glove. Blocking them made the difference in length less noticeable, and it also made them sit a bit neater. (Is there any ill that blocking won't ease?)

This was also my first time using beads in my knitting.

.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.

Here is where I sing the praises of my LYS. For those of you not acquainted with knitspeak, LYS stands for Local Yarn Store. In the basest layman's terms, a wool shop. In America the LYS seems to be far more common than it is in Australia. I'm not sure what it's like in other countries, but here unless you're in the city, you're very lucky if you have a LYS within an hour's drive. Even in the city, if you've got an LYS in one of the suburbs nearby you're lucky.

I'm incredibly fortunate. Not only do I have one within 20mins drive, but it has lovely brands such as Noro, Opal, Patons, Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Arucania, and many others that are soft and squishy. The shelves and baskets around the walls are squished with colourful yarns, stacked in a more or less organised fashion, and there's not a dreaded plastic bag in sight. I don't care if they keep colour lots together, I hate the things. There's a table in the middle for the knitting group that meets there, and a shelf of pattern books. (I pay limited attention to these as I'm one of those grumpy people who refuses to buy an entire book just because they like one pattern in it). It also has a fair selection of needles and other notions, of varying brands. I also love that the staff are happy to help if you have questions or need assistance, but if you say you don't need help they're also quite content to let you browse and fondle without pestering you. And never once have I received that 'you're under forty therefore you cannot possibly be a serious knitter so please leave as we don't sell Dead Muppet and 10mm needles here' look. Which is more than I can say for certain other yarn stores within my general area. And my LYS has ample parking nearby (I get positively grumpy if I can't find somewhere to park my ample).

The other thing I like about my LYS is that I don't feel guilty shopping there. This isn't because the money is donated to needy people, nor is it because the staff have subliminal messages playing saying 'this is not stash enhancement. It is an investment in yarn security.' (Knitters know that without any subliminal messages) The reason I don't feel guilty shopping there is that I fear that in this economic climate, the small local yarn store is an endangered species. People are having to cut back on luxuries. I have heard several theories that the recession will fuel the handcraft revolution, which I'm in agreement with, but there won't necessarily be money for people to buy expensive brand name yarns.

The best known LYS in Sydney is Morris and Sons, a big handcraft shop in the city. It's very popular and has as good a range as you can get anywhere in Sydney. The staff are nice, the atmosphere is pleasant, and they have more stock than the average LYS simply because they've got bigger premises. Despite all that, if it's a choice between my LYS and M&S, I'll always choose my LYS. Morris and Sons isn't going to go out of business anytime soon- it will continue to be kept afloat by grumpy businesswomen on their lunchbreaks. The local LYS, however, which relies on little old ladies and local knitters who are in the know about such shops, is less secure. And while my $30 here and there won't keep it in business, I'd be very unhappy if my LYS had to close because I and everyone else went and spent their $30 here and there at M&S, or, heaven forbid, at Spotlight and Lincraft.

It's beginning to feel a lot like autumn

2009-04-06T18:27:00.002+10:00

The clocks have gone back, and it's now dark by 6pm. The days are getting nippy, and I'm inhaling the little Cadbury Easter eggs (my one concession to Easter egg consumption) and warm hot cross buns oozing melted butter. Half of Sydney is sick, and soon the leaves will start changing colour. I'm going to miss seeing that sight at uni every year. However the one thing that really tells me autumn is here and winter is on its way is that my feet are freezing and I can't warm them up.

It might be bad circulation, but personally I think I'm just cold-blooded from the knees down. My feet are perpetually frozen in winter. The only time they are truly warm is in the shower. Even at night when I retire with a heat pack at the foot of my bed, only the part of my feet touching the heat pack stay warm.

This year I'm trying to combat this issue with knitted socks. I am pleased to say they are helping, though I am sorry to say that nothing will keep my feet warm all through winter. However, as long as I keep my feet moving, the knitted socks are a 100% improvement on store bought socks. This becomes slightly awkward when I'm at home, because I can't keep pacing the floor to keep my feet warm. I think I need new ugg boots- I've worn out all the sheepskin in mine. I'm also planning on making some felted slippers, or socks, really, to go inside the ugg boots.

Sitting here now it's struck me that a lap blanket would be a good thing to make for the months when my room turns into a fridge. I know Sydney winters barely classify as 'real' winters, but even in Sydney, what could possibly have possessed anyone to build rooms with high ceilings, wooden floors, and air vents that lead directly outside? And yet all of the houses in Sydney of the same era as this one are built along that very principle. Then add in the fact that after however many years the window is nowhere near air tight that there is a slight gap between the floor and the wall. Toasty.

I now have a dilemma. I'd planned on using my DK weight leftovers to start a snuggle shawl and keep adding to it, sock blanket style. But now there's a lap blanket on the cards, the shawl and the blanket are having a custody battle over my DK scraps. Shawl or blanket?

Anyhow, I completed two items this weekend, but one can't be revealed until it's given to the recipient. These are the other:

Socks made in the delicious Patons Jet. As they're 12ply I'm planning on wearing them with my boots and when my feet are super cold. I improvised the pattern- it's just a simple sock pattern but with fewer stitches because the yarn's much thicker. They were uber quick to knit.

Morgan, you said you don't have the stamina for sock knitting; have you tried making socks with thicker yarn? DK weight or heavier? So much quicker and easier than sock yarn. And there are some nice patterns for DK weight, too.

Knitted goods

2009-03-25T16:07:00.002+11:00

As I'm bombarding you with pictures for the second day in a row I'll keep the wordiness to a minimum.

Raisin Beret

Very difficult to get a good picture of, so you only get a side view.

I had a skein and a bit of the Noro left over from my Fetchings, so I decided to make a hat to match. Patterns for slouchy hats that only take a skein and a bit of yarn are few and far between, so I combined a few features from different patterns and came up with this. I thought it was a disaster till I blocked it, now I'm happy with it, though there are things I'd do differently next time.

You can't see it, but I did cabled ribbing on the brim, and there's a little double pronged i-cord stem on the top of the hat.

Anastasia

My first toe-up socks. I used the knitty magic cast-on for toe-up socks, and even though it's an experience doing it with DPNs, it really is quite marvellous.

I had yarn leftover from the Noro hat, so I made a mug cosy because I'm sick of my tea getting cold so quickly.

Pay particular attention to the button. That is one of the brass buttons from my mother's high school blazer. The blazer is long gone but she gave me the buttons, three of which are on my Steampunk vest and the fourth of which is on here.

That's all, folks.

Sewing. And a watch.

2009-03-24T17:22:00.002+11:00

I've been incredibly slack with taking photos of my finished items lately, and for this I beg your forgiveness. I shall now proceed to show off my recent non-knitted items, and leave the knitting for another day. Such as the day it dries after being blocked.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. It is also the invention of crafted objects. When I had lost my favourite yarn needle for the third time I decided it was time to make a snug little needle book to house my yarn needles, rather than leaving them to fend for themselves in the murkey alleys of my knitting bag where they can fall in with a rough crowd of sock yarn and never be seen again. (Is anyone else getting the feeling I've been reading Franklin Habit's blog a bit too much?)

Very simple, very useful. And pretty damn nice-looking, if I do say so myself. I love these fabrics, and that button has sentimental value. Like most kidlets, I had a toy I took everywhere with me. He's a bear by the name of Huggie, and he has the battle wounds that bear testament to how well-loved he was. He's missing most of his fur, has at one point lost his ear and had it sewn on again by Doctor Dad (if my memory serves me, this happened approximately ten minutes before we were about to leave for a family holiday), and he has several gaping wounds that meant he was literally getting the stuffing knocked out of him. Some lateral thinking person suggested my grandmother make him a dinner suit that would essentially hold him together. The suit was duly made, complete with shoes (necessitated by the large hole on one foot). I was given free range in my grandmother's button collection to choose a button for the suit, and chose this purple one. As Huggie is currently sitting on my bookcase, still wearing his (now faded) suit, I'm not sure how the button came to be in my button tin. Evidently it came off at some point. However it is now safely in use on my needle book, and matching the fabric in a marvellous fashion.

You may recall a few months ago I made myself a needle roll to house my straights and DPNs. When our kitchen drawer got stuck one night we needed something long and thin to move whatever was jamming it. Various kitchen implements failed to do this, so I said 'try a knitting needle. I'll just go and grab one.' I walked back into the kitchen with my needle roll in hand, and with a straight face deserving of an Oscar, dropped it on the table and unrolled it to reveal my full collection of straight and double pointed needles, and said 'right, what size do we want?' This was to the amusement of my housemate who has, on several occasions, called me a 'craft nerd'. Our guests looked a little dumbfounded.

That moment may be the highlight of my year. It actually bears absolutely no relevance whatsoever to this blog post, I just wanted to share it. I have, however, now also made a circular needle holder.

Behold again my love of Japanese quilting fabrics. And my love of fat quarters- you can make them go so far, and you don't have to wrestle them into a half nelson to cut them.

Having made my timepiece necklace for my Steampunk getup, I realised how useful pendant watches are, particularly if one has developed a patch of dermatitis where one's watchband sits. However the timepiece necklace, though lovely, is heavy and jingly, and a little bit much for everyday use.

So I made a plainer pendant watch for every day wear. And I love it.

Stay tuned for the next post featuring my recent knitted FOs.

Steampunk

2009-03-06T11:34:00.004+11:00

Like many people, I was a fan of Steampunk long before I'd heard of it. When I actually heard the name 'steampunk' and found out what it meant, I suddenly had a name for this eclectic aesthetic I've always loved. I've been waiting for a while for a chance to put together a Steampunk outfit for something, and recently I grabbed that opportunity.

I dressed as a sky pirate. I was mostly able to use clothes I already had, but needed a few key essentials.

If I was going to terrorise the skies in my airship, I needed a weapon with which to instill aforementioned terror. I wanted a small, portable ray gun that I could holster for convenience sake. When you're boarding another's dirigible you don't want to be encumbered with a large weapon. However when I went scouring in toy sections I made the sad discovery that children nowadays don't shoot each other. Therefore I had to fall back on a weapon I already owned (not literally- I believe that would have been the Steampunk equivalent of Hari Kiri). To the untrained eye this weapon appeared to be a fluorescent yellow and orange water gun. The enterprising air pirate, however, saw a ray gun. And continued to see a ray gun, no matter how much the air pirate was hampered in her search for paint that would stick to plastic. (If anyone wants paint that sticks to plastic, save yourself some time and get thee to a hardware store as your first stop, not as a last resort.)

Armed with my weapon of great potential, my paint that promised me it would stick to 'almost any surface', and the fervent hope that this paint was as quick drying as it claimed, I began the transformation. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the gun in its original state, but imagine a bright yellow and orange water gun and you're there.

Several coats of black paint later, I had a really cool-looking weapon. I didn't think to take photos of the gun with its black undercoat until halfway through painting over the undercoat, but if you ignore the brown edges you get the idea.

Armed with my black weapon, some acrylic paints and a few Stephen Fry podcasts, I started the fun part. Transforming the gun from Star Trek to Steampunk. As with anything, it's all in the texture. You'd be surprised what you can do with a few colours of acrylic paint. That said, this was done in a rush and I'm not totally happy with it. It passed muster, but I think I can make it look better. At some stage when I'm not trying to get it finished in a day I'll go to it with the paints again.

So here is Isabella, my faithful ray gun. She's got a long history and she's seen many good fights, but she's still going strong and has been my friend through many boardings and skirmishes.

Also pictured are my goggles, which I was deliriously happy with. Whether you are engaged in piratical plunder or whether you are an honest captain of the skies, all pilots know that goggles are essential for air travel. They keep the dust and wind and bugs out of one's eyes. These goggles are made from humble household materials (mostly cardboard), and yet more paint.

While not strictly necessary for airborne piracy, a timepiece is always a handy asset. This is the era of the high tea- one must keep to schedule so as not to miss this scrumptious time of afternoon. I'm not sure whether my pirate persona plundered the watch in its current state or whether I have added to it as further trinkets were seized. At any rate, it is a fine and functional adornment for the punctual and time-conscious criminal.

It's also rather handy for the time-conscious me who is currently estranged from my regular wristwatch due to dermatitis right where the wristwatch sits. Oh, and those who know in which era most Steampunk is set, zoom in on the photo and spot the chronological anachronism.

While not essential, I decided my ensemble would greatly benefit from a waistcoat. So I scoured the op shops and was appalled to discover that, along with children turning pacifist, waistcoats are clearly in high demand these days. I found every other article of clothing you could imagine, and some you couldn't, but it wasn't until the third op shop that I found a waistcoat. There were two the same, and I suspect they were originally made for a wedding. I say this because you could have fitted the entire bridal party into one of them and still had room for close friends and family.

As this was a waistcoat for me, not for my airship, some alterations were needed. I'll spare the gory details of this process- one or two tantrums may have taken place. And there were six or seven confirmed tantrums. However, two hours later (not including time outs when either the waistcoat or I went off to a quiet corner to calm down) I had a tailored waistcoat that still amazes me. I also had some brass buttons I was saving for something special, and I decided this was it.

Sometime around lunchtime on the day I needed to have all this ready to wear that night, I started thinking about my outfit. And I started to think about the boots I would wear. And I started to think that as I have some lovely Steamy boots (which also remind me of the kickalot shoes, if anyone remembers that book), I ought to wear them instead of my taller boots. Then I started to think that if I was wearing short boots, I really did need some spats- which I wouldn't have needed had I stuck to my original plan and worn the long boots. I considered my assets. I had approximately four hours to finish painting the gun, and now to make spats. I had no leather, no fabric and no sewing machine at my disposal. I had no buckles, straps, lacings or grommets. I didn't even have a holocaust cloak.

So, naturally, I decided to crochet some spats. In hindsight the best that can be said for them is that they did indeed wrap around my ankles. They looked more like Steampunk ankle braces than spats, but they were better than nothing and not bad for a last minute addition.

By this stage you're either sitting there muttering 'shut up and just show us a picture of the outfit', or you've skipped the text and have already scrolled to the picture of the outfit. For the former crowd, I won't try your patience any longer.

I spent my night waving the ray gun around and generally looking menacing. Although the menace was borne more out of concern that I'd accidentally hit someone in the head with the gun.

Fibery meme

2009-03-01T15:25:00.002+11:00

No FOs to show off today. My knitting mojo has gone on holidays at the moment. Actually, all my tactile creativity seems to be on hiatus. Instead I've been writing, but that news is of limited interest on a craft blog when I'm not sharing the writing, just telling you that I have been writing.

My conscience always gives a few twinges when I take a break from knitting. I think of the poor needles, sitting cold and bored in my knitting bag. And the yarn, only able to dream about what it could be. And yes, it has occurred to me that if I stop anthropomorphising my projects I may feel more inclined to knit- I won't be left with an underlying paranoia that the yarn is going to take on a life of its own and strangle me if it's not satisfied with the project. (Is there a market for knit themed horror films?)

Fluzz had this meme on her blog so I thought I'd do it too, just to help me appease my twinging conscience and soothe my unease about yarn zombies. Oh, and I'm bored.

Bold are the things you've done, italic are the things you plan to do at some stage, and you just leave the rest. Running commentary is optional, unless you're me, because I've never been known to resist the urge to pass editorial comment in memes. Or in anything else, really.

Afghan ~I've also eaten a biscuit by the same name. I don't like them.

American/English knitting ~At one point I worked out the precise name for my knitting technique, which is technically neither English nor American, because I hold the yarn in my right hand but work the stitch with my left needle. That's what happens when a right-hander teachers a left-hander how to knit.

Baby items ~Every stage of life brings its own contagious conditions. As a child, it's chicken pox. In one's late teens, it's the 18th birthday. In uni, it is the 21st. One person decides it's their birthday then suddenly everyone is turning 18 or 21. Highly contagious is the only possible explanation. After the 21st, the next infectious lurgy is the engagement and wedding stage. My friends are all catching these two at the moment, so in a few years the inevitable result will be the onslaught of babies- the next contagious condition. And I will, of course, be waiting with bated needles, eager to knit cute little things.

Bobbles ~Learnt to do these on a Dalek, of all things.

Buttonholes

Cable stitch patterns

Cardigan

Charity Knitting ~I've crocheted for CU fundraisers, which I've decided counts as charity, but I also have plans to do more knitting and crochet for other things.

Combination knitting ~I don't even know what this is. Is it any relation to combination short soup, or other combination dishes found at Chinese restaurants?

Continental knitting ~Tried it, failed dismally. Never again.

Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers

Darning ~Only verbally- "Darn, darn, DARN!". No, not really. It's usually something stronger than 'darn'.

Designing knitted garments ~I'd only try it if I made friends with a deformed squid who needed clothing.

Domino knitting ~What on earth is domino knitting? I assume it doesn't mean knitting dominoes...

Drop Stitch Patterns

Dyeing Spinning Fibre ~*grins like one who is plotting*

Dyeing with plant colors

Dyeing Yarn ~Actually, I don't have any plans to try this. Just like I didn't have any plans to ever take up knitting again. And then I saw the appeal of knitting, but had no desire to learn crochet. Then just like I gave in to knitting and crochet, but would certainly never learn to spin. So now I'm addicted to knitting and crochet with plans to start spinning as soon as I can afford the bits and bobs to get me started. But I have no plans to start dyeing.

Entrelac ~Very soon.

Fair Isle knitting

Free-form knitting ~I've kind of done free-form crochet. I just don't see the point in free-form knitting.

Fulling/felting

Garter stitch

Gloves ~The trouble with living in Sydney is that there are some things there is no point in making, because it's too warm for them. Gloves are one of those. I'd like to make some, but unless I go overseas or make them for someone else, I won't be making any.

Graffiti knitting ~Sorely tempted.

Hair accessories

Hats: Cuff-up

Hats: Top down ~Hell no. Small numbers of stitches on DPNs is my version of a nightmare. I don't care if they increase.

Holiday related knitting

Household Items ~As my house is called the Teahouse, a tea cosy is certainly a household item, and an essential one.

I-Cord

Intarsia

Jewellery

Kitchener stitch ~Never again, if I can avoid it.

Knitted flowers

Knitting a gift

Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine

Knitting and purling backwards

Knitting art ~I see all knitting as art.

Knitting for a living

Knitting for pets

Knitting for Preemies ~See above point about potential future charity knitting.

Knitting in public ~At uni. Got some fantastic looks.

Knitting Items for Weddings ~I'm going to count a crocheted wedding present here. (Ali and Tom's blanket)

Knitting on a loom ~Not likely.

Knitting smocking ~You can do that? Jees Louise, that's a way to get yourself locked in a padded cell.

Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars ~Tried on circ, but the circs were terrible. I'll try it again one day when I get circs with a cable that doesn't try and poke my eye out. (The fact that the cable was stiff enough to poke anything should tell you why the sock knitting attempt didn't work on those circs)

Knitting to make money ~Pfft. I knit to lose money.

Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously ~I like knitting socks one at a time.

Knitting with alpaca ~Only a blend.

Knitting with bamboo yarn

Knitting with banana fiber yarn ~Haven't heard of banana fibre yarn, I wonder what it's like.

Knitting with beads

Knitting with Camel Yarn ~There's a very low chance of me ever managing to acquire camel yarn, but given my soft spot for camels I'd love to try it.

Knitting with cashmere

Knitting with circular needles

Knitting with cotton ~It was a soya cotton blend.

Knitting with dog/cat hair

Knitting with dpns

Knitting with Linen

Knitting with metal wire

Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn ~If I ever see some nice yarn to recycle, I'll do it.

Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn

Knitting with silk ~Only a silk blend, so far.

Knitting with someone else's hand-spun yarn

Knitting with soy yarn ~Soya cotton blend.

Knitting with synthetic yarn ~*coughdeadmuppetcough* ;o)

Knitting with wool

Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn ~*faint gleam in eyes*

Lace patterns

Long Tail CO

Machine knitting ~Machine knitting is cheating. (*ducks for cover*)

Mittens: Cuff-up ~I would like to make mittens, but I would need to go somewhere cold enough to wear them. Which I would also like to do.

Mittens: Tip-down ~See above comment.

Moebius band knitting ~I'll do it if a pattern that uses it catches my interest

Norweigan knitting ~I'll do it if a pattern that uses it catches my interest

Participate in an exchange ~Do RAOKs count?

Participating in a KAL

Pillows

Publishing a knitting book ~lol Who am I to go head to head with the likes of Debbie, Elizabeth, Stephanie and Franklin?

Purses/bags

Rug ~Blanket. Same diff.

Scarf ~Too many. Little known fact: I detest knitting scarves. It's like sitting in a traffic jam or watching The Sound of Music- you think it's never going to end.

Shawl

Short rows

Shrug/bolero/poncho

Slip stitch patterns ~Do corrugated sock heels count?

Slippers

Socks: toe-up

Socks: top-down ~Or, to use American Emily's term, 'hole-down socks'. Best. Name. Ever.

Steeks ~Can't actually remember what they are, but they probably look cool.

Stockinette stitch

Stuffed toys

Swatching ~Note the fact that 'knit a cardigan' is in italics and 'swatching' isn't. You may now commence betting on the outcome of the cardigan.

Sweater

Tassels

Teaching a child how to knit

Teaching a male how to knit ~I have never done this. HOWEVER, I did finally get a male to understand that knitting and crochet are not the same thing by telling him 'saying knitting and crochet are the same thing is like saying skateboarding and blading are the same thing.' I heard the click in his brain. I consider it one of my life's greatest achievements.

Textured knitting ~Isn't all knitting textured? That's why I love knitting.

Thrummed knitting ~I'd love to, but see above point about needing to go somewhere cold first.

Toy/doll clothing

Tubular CO

Twisted stitch patterns

Two end knitting

Writing a pattern ~I've written very very simple ones for myself. I think maths will always be my stumbling block, with pattern writing.

My my, you are looking fetching today

2009-02-17T10:00:00.002+11:00

Erm, that's it really, this post is just to show my Fetchings. And part of my bookcase, because I love seeing what people have in their bookcases.

I feel I ought to justify myself in making these. You see, I've never been one for following trends. I go out of my way to find obscure and little heard of things upon which to bestow my favour and enjoyment. So making these has given me a slight urge to start yelling 'BAAAAAAAA' at the top of my voice, given they have been the most popular fingerless gloves in knittendom since the pattern was published.

And I can see why. The cables make for a marvellous fit around one's hands, and the suggestion to use aran weight on smaller needles makes for warm and sturdy gloves. They're also pretty.

Despite all that, I was never drawn to them that much. Until, one day, I saw a finished pair in Noro Silk Garden. And in a flash I pictured a pair in the most gorgeous Silk Garden colourway that I'd spied in my LYS. And, um... that's why this post exists.

I wish to make two side points. I now have a skein and a bit left of this colourway and am going to make a hat, but am devastated that I don't have enough yardage for a pattern that I fell in love with. Isn't that always the way?

The second point is in regards to the above photo. Please, if I may draw your attention to it again. I would like it to be known that I took that photo, without a tripod, and yes, those are my hands. No, I didn't levitate the camera. But I'm sure if any of my neighbours glanced through my window they would have been greatly entertained by the sight of me trying to take a photo of my own hands.

The talking whale that's trapped in my imagination

2009-02-12T22:01:00.001+11:00

It's happening, as I knew it would. My fingers are twitching, my brain is jumping, and artful sentences are making me giggle with satisfied glee.

The writer in me is waking up. She slept for a while to regain her energy after those last few weeks of squeezing out pieces of writing for uni. At that point I never wanted to write again, and if I did I was going to use as many words as I wanted, talk entirely in abstract terms, and put an adverb on everything, even conjunctions.

I've always loved writing. I'm of the belief that everyone can learn to write, because it's a craft, not some elusive spiritual vibe bestowed by the gods. However some people have a love of words and language that makes them more willing to go through the fiery ordeal of learning, perfecting, and continuing the craft. A friend once said to me that being an opinion columnist would be the easiest job in the world- spending half an hour to type up a rant and getting paid for it. I laughed at her, in the same way you'd laugh at someone who said 'Well I can beat my eight tear old at tennis so Wimbledon can't be that hard to win.' Writing can reduce you to tears and drive you to throw your pages across the room and stamp on them. It keeps you awake at night and exhausts you during the day. It turns you into someone who walks around muttering under your breath, digging in your bag for a pencil and any scrap of paper you can find. Writers open themselves to heartbreak in the name of research. You might come out of it a quivering heap of emotional jelly, but it'll make one hell of a good story. Assuming you're in a fit state to write it.

I love making words fit together and roll off the tongue. Four years at uni being taught to write well didn't squash this love out of me, it gave me a greater appreciation for the beauty of good writing, and a love of the craft itself. I thrill to the sight of double spaced typing spattered with a mess of notes scribbled in pencil.

At the moment I don't have an outlet for my twitching fingers or the writerly sentences strolling, unbidden, through my mind. I'm finding myself gravitating towards beautifully written books, and composing emails that sound more like works of modern literature than news from my daily life. I'm editing and re-editing posts I put up on internet forums, as if expecting them to be marked.

I’m getting the urge to start a blog. Not a craft blog where I post pictures and talk about the things I've made, or even a craft blog where I post pictures and talk in a writerly way about the things I've made. But a blog where I can comment on my world, and post pieces of writing that took me painful effort to produce. I even have a name for it and that is the yodeller's call most likely to start this avalanche. In Finding Neverland James tells the young Peter “All great writers begin with a good leather binding and a respectable title.” All good bloggers begin with a good blog host and a respectable title.

Many writers claim that they write for themselves. I claim the exact opposite. I have never been able to write for myself. All my life I’ve admired diarists and have tried many times to keep a diary. I now have dozens of dusty, partly filled notebooks stuffed in nooks in my cupboards. When I write for myself there’s no reason to make it interesting, no reason to do beautiful things with words. My first drafts may be for myself, but as soon as I begin to mould and sculpt the words and phrases I’m thinking about how others will read my work. How can I phrase things to make people laugh? Which words can I use to really nail my point home? How shall I order my sentences so that the impact hits when I want it to?

Help me, my friends. Don’t let me start another blog. Remind me how much free time I have without writing. Remind me that I don’t end up stomping through the house because I can’t think of the right word. Remind me that I shut down an old blog because I got sick of crafting pieces for it. Remind me that editing is painful and frustrating, tell me that people are annoying and not at all entertaining to write about… convince me that the world is a boring place with no amusement to be found in the foibles of daily life. Oh hell, I’m already lost to it, aren’t I?

My Own, My Precious, and My Bats in the Belfrey

2009-02-03T10:21:00.002+11:00

I was so in love with the hat I made for Jas that I had to use my remaining yarn to make one for myself. There aren't many patterns I'll knit more than once without getting bored of it, so it says a lot for this pattern that I enjoyed knitting it the second time as much as I did the first.

I added some button embellishments because they're fun.

The completion of this hat brought about an event that hasn't happened since I got back into knitting, around April last year. Having finished this hat, I have no WIPs. Some would call this a tragedy of unparalleled proportions, but I actually planned it this way. My aim for January was to knock off the rest of my WIPs, so I can start with a fresh slate and cast on a bunch of exciting new projects I've been looking forward to for quite a while.

As I type I'm listening to the purring of the yarn that's sitting on my lap being stroked. Can't you just picture me as supreme ruler of the universe, sitting in an opulent room and stroking yarn with a hand weight down with priceless jewels, mesmerised by their sparkle? Actually, I think the yarn is bleating rather than purring, seeing as it's from a sheep and not a cat.

This particular yarn is the one I got from Kelebek, it's soft and squishy, and is appropriately named Touch. And the main reason it's sitting on my lap being stroked is because before I can knit it I need to wind the skein into a ball, and I'm not particularly looking forward to that task. (a ball winder, a ball winder, my supremely ruled universe for a ball winder!) Which may also be why I'm sitting and telling you about it rather than actually doing it.

But my fingers are twitching and I'm hearing the call of yarn, so I'm going to go and cast on a new project.

NB. If I seem nuttier than usual, blame the heat and lack of sleep. The other night I had a dream that convinced me I am well beyond the point of overcoming my loopiness. The dream featured a friend from church, Scorpius from Farscape, and two brands of yarn (Patons Jet and Mmmalabrigo). Unfortunately if my dreams ever consist of more than flashes of different people and things, I don't remember it, so I'm not sure what happened. It has, however, been suggested that I was rolling in the Mmmmalabrigo, as that is a perfectly normal knitters dream.

A tale of three socks

2009-02-01T09:27:00.005+11:00

Towards the end of last year I started making a pair of ugly socks. When I finished them I decided that I had to make a pair of pretty socks as a reward for getting through the ugly ones. So I cast on a sock. And I knitted. And I knitted. And I knitted. And I turned a heel. And I knitted some more. And I knitted a toe. And I discovered I still hadn't got the knack of kitchenering. And I weaved in the end. And I tried the sock on. And... it was too small. So I cursed the pattern. And I cursed myself for believing that a pattern could count. And I cursed the pattern again. And I cursed myself for not knitting for a bit longer in the foot, despite what the pattern said. And I cursed the pattern some more.

Then I unpicked the kitchenering. And I cursed my inability to kitchener. (although on the upside, I know that this knotty confusion I produce when trying to kitchener is definitely secure) And I frogged the sock. And I stared down at the hopeless and colourful tangle of Noro sock yarn at my feet and said 'Um, whoops. Maybe I should have wound that into a ball as I frogged...' At this point I went away and made a cup of tea. A very strong cup of tea.

Once the murderous rage had mostly subsided I started the task of untangling the psychedelic sea in front of me. The thing with Kureyon sock yarn is that it's overspun. So even when you're knitting, it twists on itself enough to be annoying. So you can imagine what it's like when it's frogged. The untangling process took several days, as I kept picking it up and getting as far as I could until it was hopelessly snagged and knotted, then having to walk away before I started jumping up and down on top of the tangled yarn, yelling things about its mother.

I could have just cut through the knots- or even called the death of that yarn and just started knitting from the remainder of the ball. But by that time, it was personal. And I'm pleased to say that I won. I also vowed, by all the knitting paraphernalia that I hold dear, to never, ever, frog Noro again without rewinding it as I unravel the knitting.

And so, with the same feeling you get when you've got heavy bags of shopping in both hands and you realise the escalators have broken and you're parked on the top level, I cast on the sock again. And I knitted. And I knitted. And I knitted. And I turned a heel. And I knitted some more. And I knitted for a bit longer, this time. And then I knitted a toe. And this time as I kitchenered I sat and watched an instruction video, determined to get it right this time. And then I weaved in the end. And I tried the sock on. And... IT FITTED.

Then I just had to make the second one. Somehow, second sock syndrome is a whole lot worse when you're actually knitting your third sock. I bet centipedes use the multiple sock, magic loop method.

I am pleased to announce that yesterday I finished knitting a healthy, bouncing, well-fitting second sock, and it was introduced to its (fraternal) twin.

Presenting my Squoosh socks. Finally.

I need a break from Noro.

Headgear

2009-01-24T17:59:00.002+11:00

Irish Hiking headband.

I've been working on this since June last year, which is ridiculous as I could have finished it in an hour or two, so I decided to finally finish it.

Drop stitch headband

I want to marry this hat.

I made it for Jasmin's 21st, figuring it'd come in handy as she's going overseas where it will be cold. The pattern is, ironically, called the Amanda Hat.

The colours are more accurate in the first picture, but this shows the stitch pattern better.

I would also like to state that it is too hot. Whoever stole the cool change we were supposed to get this evening, please return it immediately.

Voxknit

2009-01-13T12:30:00.002+11:00

The sole purpose of this post is to tell the knitting world that I finally kitchenered without getting tangled, having the needle slip out of all the stitches, going through the stitches in the wrong order, or slipping the wrong stitches. I was determined to get it right once, and when I have kitchenered the toe on the second sock, I plan never to kitchener a sock again. Or anything else, if I can avoid it. It's SO tedious.

The Blanket Post!

2009-01-12T11:37:00.002+11:00

No, not a post covering a whole lot of stuff, I mean a post that literally, and finally, features the finished blanket I've been making since October. It all started when Ali was admiring my creations and gently hinted that I was most welcome to make something for she and Tom when they got married, and I asked what she'd like. She gave me several suggestions and asked if any appealed or were within my power, and I said I would make a blanket. I would like to make it clear that I enjoyed making it, and I started in plenty of time so it was not rushed and stressful until the end. I left myself the week before the wedding to sew it together and put on a border, however on three of those days we had a heatwave, and it would have been ludicrous to sit in humid 35C+ degree heat with a growing blanket on my lap as I sewed it together.

I finished this about 12.30am on Saturday morning, Saturday being the day of the wedding. I spent all of Friday seaming, and finished around 6pm. I then started the border and sat and worked on that for the rest of the night, only stopping to eat. We had friends over for dinner, so they cheered me on and kept me entertained, as well as keeping up a constant supply of tea.

(Looking at these next photos, please remember it was about 1am and I had lost any capacity for clear thought about twelve hours beforehand.)

Standing victoriously over my conquest.

Brandishing my crochet hook.

I also want to show off some RAOK pretties I got sent around Christmas.

Some anodised DPNs, jewellery bits and a gorgeous blue glass bead.

On a side note, does anyone know how to clean anodised things? They had been stuck together with sticky tape, and one pack was fairly old, so they're quite sticky.

Pretty ribbon, two more anodised crochet hooks, a stitch marker and some gorgeous soft squishy yarn.

Roll out the needle

2008-12-28T16:33:00.002+11:00

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.

At the moment I'm WIP-busting, as I'm sick of my WIPs taking up space and needles. Plus one of them is a wedding present that needs to be finished before the recipients' wedding.

I've also been doing some sewing while I've been at my parents' place. I now have a nice new needle roll. I bought the materials for this one ages ago but couldn't be bothered actually making it. Necessity, however, drove me to it. I was sick of digging into the needle part of my knitting bag and pulling out every other size before I found the size I wanted. I now have a nice new needle roll for my straights and DPNs.

Note to self: put a bit more thought into the closing mechanism next time, rather than suddenly realising this thing needs a closure and sewing a too-short tie onto the wrong spot. ;o) And yeah, it is fairly huge. I wanted to fit in some inconveniently long straights that I inherited from my grandmother. My knitting bag is also huge, so meh.

Might I here express my utter dislike of bias tape? I don't care how convenient it is for hemming and hiding messy edges, it's a total pain to attach. And so fiddly to do neatly. For all its convenience, I don't think it's that nice-looking. When I make more of these I'm going to take a bit of extra time to finish the edges neatly and save the need to wrestle with the bias tape at the end. There is also just something so placemat-like about bias tape. Maybe that's just my association because my grandmother always put bias tape edging on her quilted placemats, but I just look at it and think 'old lady placemat'.

I will, however, extol the virtues of fat quarters. They're cheap, easy to store, good fabric for small things like this, and you can make them go a long way.

As you can see I have plenty of room for my needle collection to grow, and for the time being this will be sufficient to house my crochet hooks as well.

And just an observation for any fabric snobs reading this, where do you think I got the fabric? Big W. I bite my thumb at exclusive fabric brands (and the exclusive fabric shops that stock them).

More Christmas

2008-12-26T13:45:00.002+11:00

The second lot of Christmas present photos so show you.

Once upon a time a girl decided to thank her aunty for teaching her to knit all those years ago. She decided to make her a hat. But she had a strong feeling that the aunty was allergic to wool. So she found some soya cotton yarn. Then she tried to make a hat. The first pattern didn't work in soya cotton, because soya cotton doesn't have good stitch definition, and it's very floppy. So the girl found another hat pattern and tried that. Same problem. So she looked to see what other people had made with this yarn. She found a lovely scarf, but the aunty doesn't wear scarves. So instead, she used the soya cotton to make a scarf for her mother, and she left the aunty's knitted item for another time.

Lace Ribbon Scarf (my second Veronik Avery pattern)

Things learnt:
-Repetitive lace patterns drive me batty
-Knitting with soya cotton drives me batty
-Using soya cotton to knit a repetitive lace pattern a week before Christmas drives me batty

Dad's Dalek came home for Christmas so it wouldn't be lonely at his work, so I got a chance to take a photo of it wearing its Christmas hat.

Also made for dad was Blinky, the three-eyed fish from the Simpsons. I completely made this one up as I went along, and despite the pressure of getting him finished in time, it was a lot of fun watching him come together. When dad opened it he laughed hysterically- which is a high compliment from him.

(Sorry, he was incredibly hard to photograph)

Finally, I can show you!

2008-12-21T16:57:00.002+11:00

I've been desperate to show you pictures of what I made for Em for Christmas, but I've had to wait until she'd opened them. However, they have now been received with much glee. And given with much reluctance. ;o)

She loved the little hat I made for dad's Dalek, so I made one for her. Going with the mini theme, I also made her this.

Mini Christmas stocking. I crocheted chains for the hat and stocking so she could hang them on the tree.

Helen, look away.

A spiderweb bookmark. A very unusual present, unless the recipient happens to like spiders and love spiderwebs. Which Em does. This may have figured largely in my decision to make this bookmark for her.

My first time crocheting with thread. Took a bit of getting used to, but I suspect I may be hooked. (heh. What an original joke. Come on, you saw it coming, though)

I have a funny blocking story. And how often does blocking produce funny stories? For my non-knitting/crocheting friends, blocking is when you kind of set the shape of a finished item by pinning it flat while it's wet.

I wasn't sure where I was going to block it so Em wouldn't see it, because I'm pushing it to find blocking spaces at the best of times. I had the brainwave of blocking it on one of my hoodies while the hoodie was folded up in a drawer. The next problem was that I don't have any pins at the Teahouse. I have police tape, I have a silver tea service, I have a phone from some long-forgotten era that is probably the 80s, and I have a miniature bed that I have been known to wear on hats. But I don't have pins. Go figure. I do, however, have safety pins. They are so cheap as to be decidedly unsafe, but they are pins nevertheless. So this is how I came to be kneeling on the floor in front of my dressing table, with the drawer pulled out, uncurling safety pins and jabbing them into a hoodie. It was at that point that Em walked into my room. The thing about Em is that you can count on her not to notice something, unless it's something you don't want her to notice. So naturally I shut the drawer, leapt across the room in one bound (because, for some reason, I apparently thought I'd look less guilty standing on the other side of my own bedroom), and attempted to keep my face both guilt-free and hide the fact that I was trying not to laugh. And by some miracle, she didn't comment on my odd behaviour. When I gave her the present and told her this story she said she just assumed I was looking for something. Probably my marbles.

This one was the hardest to give away. I keep trying to bunnynap him back.

We named him Archie. Isn't he just so cute you can't stand it? So fat. So squishy. And that little tail. Before I gave him to Em he was hidden in my cupboard and I had to keep taking him out to squeeze him, because he's just so adorable.

Grumpy Kate, an artist's impression

2008-12-17T16:24:00.002+11:00

My housemate had to get up early on Saturday morning, and she was worried that when she came home late on Friday night she'd just go straight on the computer. So she requested that I yell at her if she didn't go to bed. I was tired and was planning ongoing to bed before she got home, so I did the next best thing to yelling at her. I left this on her desk.

So if anyone is wondering what grumpy Kate looks like, now you know. Don't cross me. I might leave a drawing on your desk.

I really should be making Christmas presents - NOW WITH EDITS

2008-12-16T22:56:00.003+11:00

Just dropping in to show you some pictures, because my most recent blog posts have been rather colourless. I haven't produced a lot of FOs (finished objects) lately. A lot of things have gone into the frog pond, some more than once, and I've been working on a big project that needs to be finished soon, and attempting to do Christmas creating.

I've done a little bit of sewing, however. I often carry a sock-in-progress around in my bag, and got sick of it getting tangled in the working yarn and sliding off the needles and losing the fifth needle and getting eaten by other things in my bag, so I made some long-overdue project bags.

The first one that I made was a funky little pouch with one main drawback. I put a velcro closure on it. Yarn snags on velcro. The Dingbat of the Week award went to me for that one.

It's funky, though.

So I went back to the sewing machine and whipped up these two. Simple little drawstring bags that do the job wonderfully. And the thing that astounds me is that I kept them simple. No space age closing methods that would baffle Da Vinci. No lining. No external adornment. No fancy seams. This is a first, and probably, I'm sad to say, a one off. It was amazing to finish a sewing project not just within a day, but within an hour.

I'll never lose this one. It is actually brighter bright in real life.

Japanese quilting cotton- my favourite kind of fabric. It took a lot of willpower for me to actually decide to use this, and even more to actually cut it. And of course, that's Japanese yarn (Noro) inside.

I imagine you will remember the Dalek I knitted for my dad's birthday. I know I won't forget it in a hurry (I still have nightmares that a giant bobble is chasing me). It has pride of place on his desk at work. Now that the festive season is upon us he has requested a Christmas hat for the Dalek. So this afternoon I made one. Unfortunately, I don't have the Dalek to model it for us, but the TARDIS was willing to step in.

I will make sure dad gets pictures of the Dalek wearing its Christmas hat.

In the meantime, here's a clearer photo of it.

It's 11.15pm so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I get to try and improvise a crochet fish. Yeah, there are patterns out there for crochet fish, but this is a particular fish.

(And just for fun, a more arty shot of the pink bag.)

The Knitters' Night Before Christmas

2008-12-13T16:51:00.001+11:00

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all around me
There was unfinished knitting not under the tree,
The stockings weren’t hung by the chimney with care
‘Cause the heels and the toes had not a stitch there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
But I had not finished the caps for their heads.
Dad was asleep—he was no help at all.
And the sweater for him was 6” too small.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I put down my needles to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash.
Tripped over my yarn and fell down in my stash.
The tangle of yarn that lay deep as the snow
reminded me how far I still had to go.

When out on the lawn I heard such a noise,
I was sure it would wake up both Dad and the boys.
And although I was tired–my brain a bit thick,
I knew in a moment that it must be St Nick.

Yet what I heard left me very perplex-ed
For nothing I heard was what I expect-ed.
“Move Rowan! Move Patons! Move Koigu and Clover!
Move Shelridge! Move Starmore! Move Spinrite!
Move over Lopi, don’t circle around,
just stand there in line.
Pay attention you sheep and you’ll work out just fine!
I know this is hard as it’s just your first year
But I’d hate to go back to 8 tiny reindeer.”

I peered over the sill. What I saw was amazing:
Eight wooly sheep on my lawn all a-grazing!
And then in a twinkle, I heard at the door
Santa’s big boots stomping on the porch floor.

I rose from my knees and got back on my feet.
As I turned around, St Nick I did meet.
He was dressed all in wool from his heat to his toe
And his clothes were hand knit from above to below.

A bright Fair Isle sweater he wore on his back.
And his toys were all stuffed in an Aran knit sack.
His hat was a wonder of bobbles and lace
A beautiful frame for his rosey red face.

The scarf on his neck could have stretched for a mile,
And the socks peeking over his boots were Argyle.
On the back of his mitts was an intricate cable.
And suddenly on one I spotted a small label:

“S.C.” in duplicate on the cuff.
So I asked, “Hey, Nick, did YOU knit all this stuff?”
He proudly replied, “Ho, ho, ho, yes I did.
I learned how to knit when I was just a kid.”

He was chubby and plump, a well dressed old man,
And I laughed to myself, for I’d thought up a plan.
I flashed him a grin and jumped up in the air,
And the next thing he knew, he was tied to a chair.

He spoke not a word, but looked down in his lap
Where I had laid my needles and yarn for a cap.
He began then to knit, first one cap then 2–
For the first time I thought I might really get through.

He put heels in the stockings and toes in some socks,
While I sat back drinking a scotch on the rocks.
Quickly like magic his needles they flew,
Good Grief! He was finished by two!

He sprang for his sleigh when I let him go free,
And over his shoulder he looked back at me.
I heard him explain as he sailed past the moon,
“Next year, start your knitting sometime around JUNE!”

-Author Unknown

Tagged!

2008-12-11T21:48:00.004+11:00

Wow, it's ages since I've done one of these. Anyhoo, I've been tagged by the lovely Morgan of dromen van avalon, so here goes...

Here's the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself. (See below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (See further below...)
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six assorted facts about me- I'll try and come up with things you don't already know:

1. I have quite a few pet hates, but I think my biggest pet hate is pens running out. They always run out at a crucial moment. For this reason, I write in pencil whenever I can.

2. I am, apparently, descended from Robert Burns.

3. I can flip nine 20c pieces off my elbow and catch them in my hand. I discovered this in year eight when some guys in my class were trying to do it and couldn't. I was curious, so when I got home I tried it and had no trouble. I then added one and kept doing so until I couldn't catch them. In the end I was defeated by the fact that my hands are too small to hold any more than nine 20c pieces. I've never found out whether this is a freakish hidden talent I have, or if everyone can do this and those guys were just REALLY unco.

4. I can touch my nose with my tongue.

5. I eat cereal at any hour of the day except breakfast. I generally have toast and vegemite for breakfast, but if I want a snack at any other time I'll often head for the cereal, particularly late at night. This is considered perfectly normal in my family.

6. The best shortbread I've ever eaten was at Larnach's Castle in Dunedin, NZ. Since then I generally avoid shortbread, because anything else is disappointing in comparison.

Now I'm supposed to tag six people... although I don't think I have six people to tag, and Morgan got in first with tagging Fluzz, so that's one less...

1. Matt
2. Ali
3. Bella
4. Helen
5. Anyone else reading this who isn't listed above- feel free to play.

Not strictly crafty, but...

2008-12-04T15:28:00.002+11:00

This is the sort of thing I'd have posted on my old blog if I still had it. I know this blog is supposed to be devoted to crafts rather than my media geekishness, but this one's too good to pass. And it was a pretty crafty move on the part of the journalist, even if it's not the type of craft I generally focus on.

New York journalist 'steals' Empire State Building. It appears the fourth estate is alive and well in New York, still. Good on 'em. What is it with New York? It is to writers what Paris was to artists in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Brace yourself...

2008-12-02T10:19:00.002+11:00

Last night I finished knitting the most horrible looking socks in the world. They're comfy, but so vile it hurts my eyes to look at them, so I think they'll be for winter when I can keep them covered. Except, you know how your grandma always told you to wear clean undies in case you were in an accident and had to go to hospital? I'd be mortified to have to go to hospital wearing these socks. Although they seem to be in the final stages of a horrific disease, so maybe hospital is their only hope.

Ah well, now that these are out of the way I've started some socks in a pretty yarn so that my second pair of socks will be comfy AND nice looking.

This little pig went to market

2008-11-23T15:58:00.004+11:00

Why are there several nursery rhymes about pigs going to market? Who sends a pig shopping? Perhaps some of them are actually turning the pig into pork chops and selling them at the market, because, admittedly, 'this little pig went to market' has a better ring to it than 'this little pig went to the abattoir'. Plus the nursery rhymes probably date back to when farmers did their own slaughtering. And again, 'this little pig went to market' has a better ring to it than 'this little piece of nicely smoked bacon went to market'.

But then there's 'to market to market went my fat pig, home again home again, jiggety jig'. Clearly the pig was at the market to purchase rather than be purchased, because a fat pig would be purchased. Unless the reason it's doing a jiggety jig is because it didn't get purchased, but when we're left with the problem that a side of ham is dancing. Precisely what sort of smoke are they using to cure their meat on this farm?

I think the most pressing question arising from all this is, have I totally lost my mind? Why am I even pondering this?

Anyway, here is the edited version of the pig mobile phone cover. (Sorry, fittingly enough, the photo was taken on my mobile phone because I don't have my camera with me)

I like it better with the ear tips sewn down.

And this is a photo of the card I made to go with it, just because I thought it turned out quite cute. I'm kicking myself for not having my camera with me.

This one's for anyone who's procrastinating...

2008-11-21T10:50:00.003+11:00

Funny how the number of comments I get from my uni friends always increases around exam and assignment time. ;o)

Here are two of the things I was complaining of in my last post.

Christmas Tree Hat

It was a quicker knit than expected (took me less than two weeks), but the feathers yarn made it fairly awful to knit, although it has the advantage that it covers up the pattern errors. My maths is atrocious, but reading the pattern when I had more stitches than I should have, even I could see that there was a mistake.

This was made to wear at a Christmas party. (Yes, in November. What can I say, we're super organised, getting our celebrations done early) People are far too used to me. As they walked in the door none of them gave a second thought to the fact that I had a tree on my head.

The other piece is the mobile phone cover that now resembles a pig rather than a tapir.

Having got it looking more or less pig-like, I'm giving it to my aunty for her birthday. I am considering folding down the tips of the ears and sewing them in place though, they're still a bit too pointy for my liking.

Observe the curly tail.

Having got those two horribles out of the way (well, the FOs are alright, but they were horrible knits) I can start some nice knitting. Yesterday I probably spent over half an hour in my LYS (which is small), looking for a nice yarn that doesn't contain wool. This is for a Christmas present for someone who is, I think, allergic to wool. My dilemma was that I'm not sure if she is allergic to all wool and animal fibres. So wasn't sure if it had to be totally animal fibre free, or if something soft with a minimal animal fibre content would suffice. I also got distracted by the silk blends and various Debbie Bliss yarns, none of which were contenders for the present but they were so soft and squishy I had to fondle them for a while. I'm sure the woman who owns this shop thinks I'm mad anyway. I frequently spend long intervals of time standing in front of a shelf of Noro just drinking in the colours, and trying to decide whether or not I do like Kureyon*. Then I go and stroke a few other yarns, have a stickybeak at the sock yarns, go and sigh in front of the Knitpicks needles, then go back to the Noro shelf. I suspect scientific investigation would reveal a magnetic attraction between me and Silk Garden.

In the end I found a 50% cotton/50% soya blend. I usually don't go to quite so much effort to find a nice yarn. In any other circumstance, if the person was allergic to wool then I'd just use acrylic. Even when I do use wool, it's generally from Spotlight, not from a LYS. My reasons for wanting something nice were twofold. Most of the knitted garments this person wears are cheap, quick knits she bought at craft stalls. (The little old lady type, not the indie type) The other reason is that this is the woman who taught me to knit. This is my thankyou to her.

While I was in the LYS Santa may just have done a bit of Christmas shopping. The Christmas shopping system between my mother and I is that in the leadup to Christmas I buy the presents I want, give them to her, and she wraps them and gives them to me for Christmas. True, there are no surprises, but I'd rather get things I want, need, or am going to use. It saves her wasting time she doesn't have, wandering around shops trying to work out what on earth to get me.

Sorry to you non-crafters. Or non-knitters, actually. This more closely resembles a knitting blog than my posts usually do. I'm not in a writing mood today so I stuck to the jargon and my pet phrases.

*My gripe with Kureyon is that yes, the colours are amazing, but the yarn isn't soft. I can get amazing colours in other, softer, yarns that are nowhere near as expensive as Noro. The reason I love Silk Garden so much isn't just the colour, but the visual texture. For that, I tolerate the fact it's a bit scratchy and has a fair bit of grass and other vegetation in it. That said, I don't use it for garments that sit next to the skin. So I won't be succumbing to the Noro scarf.

Knitter's Rut

2008-11-16T09:18:00.002+11:00

I'm in a knitting rut. Which is different to a knitting block. Almost the opposite, in fact. In a knitting block you lack inspiration to knit, and those patterns that used to get the fingers twitching just don't hold any allure anymore. I've got no problems with patterns losing their sparkle- too many patterns are sparklier than ever.

My problem is that I hate most of my current WIPs. I'm knitting the ugliest socks in the world. You'll see what I mean if I ever finish them. I can't knit these in public; I'm too ashamed. I'm worried people will think that I actually like this colourway. I'm finishing a hat knitted with the dreaded Dead Muppet. I'm a firm believer that there is a time and a place for Dead Muppet, and this was one of them, but that doesn't make it nice to knit with. I was knitting a pig mobile phone cosy for my aunty, but when I did the face and it looked more like a tapir than a pig, I threw it into my knitting bag and have refused to speak to it since. Then there is a present I'm making that visually, is gratifying. On a tactile level, it's awful. Grippy, cheap acrylic. (No, I don't hate the recipient. There were reasons for choosing such a yarn.) I'm also crocheting a yarn 'paper' chain out of my leftovers. The most challenging part of that is remembering how many chains go in the foundation chain, and actually counting to that number. (It's either five or six. Even I can manage that. Most of the time.)

Now you can understand why I'm in a knitter's rut. I'm not letting myself cast on anything new, and especially not anything nice, until I've finished the sock and the hat, and got the tapir looking like the pig it's supposed to look like.

To make matters worse, I'm looking at knitting blogs with amazing projects and beautiful photography, and these people can not only afford nice yarns, but nice needles as well. There is only so many times I can tell myself that it's the finished product that matters, not the tools. Anyone who works with any tools, especially craft tools, knows that you get what you pay for and good quality tools do actually make a difference. I'm particularly aware of this when I'm using my cheap cable needles bought from Spotlight, and when I finally get the cable to stop trying to strangle me I'm in danger of it taking my eye out. I swoon whenever I hear someone praising the 'thin, flexible cable' on their brand-name needles.

It's a vicious cycle. I look at pictures of gorgeous, sumptuous projects and tools, I get inspired. I think of the gorgeous yarns and patterns I have tucked away. My fingers twitch and my eyes stray to my knitting bag. Then I remember the horribles currently hiding within it. My inspiration deflates like a balloon with a slow leak. I fold my hands, hang my head, and go back to looking at pictures of nice knitting.

Tapioca everybody!

2008-11-09T16:43:00.002+11:00

Bonus points to anyone who knows the movie that's from. I currently have the song in my head. It's mildly annoying.

I've been busy doing a lot of non-craft stuff lately, and I also have many WIPs, so not so many photos to post this time. However, last night was CU's annual dinner. This year's theme was 'A Step Back in Time', which was perfect, because I got to wear my 1920s outfit again. I also made an addition of the animal persuasion...

Let's pause to note that I look extremely awkward in this photo, and the dress is not usually quite this unflattering. The photo was taken very quickly with no time to arrange myself. No matter. Let's all focus on the overall ensemble.

Once more, my vegan fox stole. I'm very happy with it. I'm a firm believer that there is a time and a place for Dead Muppet (feathers yarn, fun fur, or eyelash yarn), and this is one of them. I was a little worried that my fox would turn out too light, because the yarn I used for the guard hair was very un-fox coloured, but I think it actually really made the whole thing.

I was slightly horrified when Naomi thought it was a Womble (who wears a Womble around their neck??), but otherwise, it was very popular.

Last night I danced the night away flapper style. It may interest you to know that flapper dancing uses shoulder muscles you didn't know you had. It may also interest you to know that you can indeed dance 20s style to YMCA and Video Killed the Radio Star. Although it helps if you have no sense of rhythm, because then you can fit any dance to any music.

Some of you may remember the Tea Cosy That Wasn't. My teapot was still naked and shivering, so I attempted a funky hat pattern that makes a cute tea cosy. I succeeded, but my teapot grew while I was knitting. It must have grown. It's inconceivable that I made the cosy too small. So I frogged the tea cosy. Then I cast on a second time, making it bigger, and giving my tea pot strict instructions not to consumer anything with a label that says 'eat me' or 'drink me'. I didn't want any more size changes.

Apparently I was having a stressful week, because eight rows in I somehow twisted the knitting. How many things have I knitted in the round? HOW can you twist something eight rows in? Still trying to work out how I managed that. So it was back to the frog pond for the tea cosy, and I was too discouraged to start again so my tea pot remained a nudist.

However, the sound of my teapot's teeth chattering and its poor handle and spout turning blue put pity in my heart (and I really needed to knit something simple and colourful in nice yarn), and I tried again. And so, just in time for summer, my tea pot is nice and warm in its Noro tea cosy.

Isn't it fun?

Silent auctions are latest craze at any fundraiser Emily is involved with. Once upon a time she was having trouble getting people to donate things for the auction she was organising. I must have been feeling nice that day, and I said I'd make 20 pairs of earrings. And so somehow I'm still making 20 pairs of earrings every time there's a silent auction, as well as making other things. I don't remember saying I'd do that, but somehow it just keeps happening. Is anyone surprised?

I don't have any photos of the earrings, although I am starting to get RSI when I make them. (Who knew that making 40 earrings in one sitting would put stress on your hand muscles?)

I do, however, have photos of a few other things I've made for various auctions. I'd like to state that I don't like most of them and made them to use up yarn scraps and fabric that I don't like. So don't feel compelled to say anything nice about them.

Bags and packs of Christmas cards for last night's silent auction.

I actually liked this one, but knew I'd never wear it so I donated it.

Care Bear Vomit Scarf. The name should indicate my feelings toward it.

It's a bad photo. In real life it was less obnoxious. I was fond of it because it was bright and happy.

Here endeth the post.

Would you like a jelly baby?

2008-10-14T20:06:00.003+11:00

That's right. The economy is collapsing, there has been yet another upset in Australia's favourite spectator sport- the US elections, and Rob Guest has died. Nevertheless, I keep my promises and here is the promised update. Shallow and trivial? Perhaps, but when things are caving in around you the small joys become even more important. So on to the shallow and trivial small joys.

Did anybody work out the jelly baby reference? Ten points if you did; it was mildly obscure to anyone but a committed fan. (Committed, not obsessive. I could have found an obscure and obsessive reference but jelly babies are more fun.)

I was referring, of course, to Doctor Who. In the older series, particularly the ones with Tom Baker, the Doctor has a strange fixation with jelly babies- a "delicacy" from earth. I think the number of Doctor Who items I have produced lately is a good indication of the amount of jelly babies I ate while producing them. Only that amount of sugar could make me that productive.

This was the first Doctor Who creation. I made him for my father's birthday.

That's right, it's a knitted Dalek. For anyone who doesn't know, the Daleks are the main bad guys in Doctor Who, and have been since the first series back in the 60s. The knitting process is a bit tedious, because of all the bobbles, but the finished product is adorable.

Tollie: "Oh no! A Dalek! And I'm not a shooty dog thing!"

Dalek: "I am unfamiliar with your species. What are you? Identify! Identify!"

Dalek: "You will be exterminated."

Tollie: "There's no one here to help me! There can't be- my silly human only made the bad guy!"

Dalek: "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
(and so this Dalek claims its first victim)

To quote someone on a website I visit, "I love Daleks, they are such a joyful people. Everything seems like the best thing they have ever exterminated."

Watching Doctor Who from behind the couch.

(For those unaware of it, there is a joke in Britain that kids grow up watching Doctor Who from behind the couch, so they can hide during the scary bits)

The Dalek started it all. You might say I created a monster. *grins*

I'd been planning this next one for a while. Ever since I made Manda's Companion Cube and discovered there is something very satisfying about cuddly square prisms.

The Doctor's TARDIS. For non-Whovians, this is the Doctor's spaceship. It's bigger on the inside than on the outside. It looks like a police phone box because the chameleon circuit, which made it look like something from its surroundings, broke in the 60s and so it stayed looking like a police box.

The light at the top is handsewn. (while watching Batman and Robin. Two hours well spent, although both the movie and the light could be better.) The windows and police box signs are hand embroidered, as is the door handle, and the sign is handwritten. I am over the moon (so to speak :-P) with the finished product.

Next, I returned to the knitting needles for a bit of instant gratification.

A knitted sonic screwdriver.

"Who looks at a sonic screwdriver and thinks 'ooh, that could be a bit more knitted'?"
"Never been bored? Never had a long night? Never knitted a Dalek and had leftover yarn?"

(That's an adaptation of the original quote querying why anyone would carry a sonic screwdriver. Very funny episode.)

I took that photo so you could get an idea of the size, but only afterwards did I realise that you must first know what size Messed-Up Cow Child is.

The sonic screwdriver is the Doctor's 'go to' tool. It is useful for anything from locking and unlocking doors, medical examinations, seeing the workings of a machine, and making a very loud noise. And basically, anything else that he needs it for.

When Manda saw the sonic screwdriver, surprise surprise, she wanted one. not that she phrased it that way. Her actual words were "OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!!!! *SQUEE*" Luckily, I speak fluent Manda and so understood that this meant she kind of liked it and wouldn't object to one for herself. So I decided to give her that one, and make a few mods on the pattern and keep the second one for myself.

For anyone who's interested, I lengthened the barrel and made it a different colour to the end parts. I put a little switch on it (which, incidentally, makes it a left-handed sonic screwdriver because the switch is on the left). I also tweaked a few bits to make it look neater.

I'm all soniced up.

And my phone will now call anywhere in the universe. If you think that's unbelievable you should see the phone bills.

Not content with that level of nerdiness, I decided I needed a challenge. (!) I've made the Doctor's ship, the Doctor's favourite gadget, and the Doctor's nemesis. What else could he need but a Time Lord's best friend?

That's right, I made K-9. The Doctor's tin pet, his faithful robotic dog. Who, incidentally, is referred to in one episode as the 'shooty dog thing', which is my favourite name for him.

I know you think I'm mad, but let's not be unjust- let's look at the size of this thing, then you'll appreciate the full extent of my madness.

K-9 and his mistress.

He may be a computer, but he's as curious as any dog.

K-9: "You are a dog. Will you be my friend?"
Tollie: "Here we go again."

My two doggles.

Doing a bit of maintenance.

I did a lot of looking for K-9 pictures on the internet, and found a surprisingly small number of them. What intrigued me more was the lack of K-9 stuffed toys. There is a knitted version floating around from a Doctor Who pattern book from the 70s, and there was one picture of a (decidedly unimpressive) stuffed K-9 toy that I assume was official BBC merchandise. But otherwise, neither the BBC stuff and the fan-made stuff ventured into the cuddly realms. Several people have worked out patterns to knit and crochet Daleks etc, which would be no easy task, and if they distribute them they risk being flayed alive by the BBC (seriously. They went after people distributing free patterns). So I found it rather surprising no one seems to have tackled the far simpler task of sewing together a largely trapezoidal dog.

After all that, I think you need a jelly baby. I know I do.

ǝʇɐpdn pǝsıɯoɹd ǝɥʇ

2008-10-02T17:43:00.002+10:00

˙ƃuıʇıɹʍ ɟo uoıʇɔǝɹıp 'ƃuıɹoq ǝɹoɯ ɥɔnɯ ɥƃnoɥʇ 'pǝʇdǝɔɔɐ ʎluoɯɯoɔ ǝɥʇ oʇ ʇɹǝʌǝɹ ʍou ll,ı os 'ǝdʎʇ oʇ ǝɯ ɹoɟ sı ʇı uɐɥʇ pɐǝɹ oʇ noʎ ɹoɟ ɹǝpɹɐɥ ʇol ɐ s,ʇı ʍouʞ ı sʞool sıɥʇ sɐ looɔ sɐ ˙ǝʇɐpdn pǝsıɯoɹd ǝɥʇ ʇsod uɐɔ os puɐ 'ɐɹǝɯɐɔ ʎɯ uo ƃuıssɐɯɐ uǝǝq ǝʌɐɥ ʇɐɥʇ sǝɹnʇɔıd ǝɥʇ pǝpɐoldn ʍou ǝʌɐɥ ı

Alas poor sockie, I knew you well.

This was as far as I got on my Jaywalker before I frogged* it because it didn't stretch over my heel, which is a fairly significant drawback in a sock.

And if you've ever wondered how much yarn it takes to knit half a sock, here's the answer:

*Frogging is knitspeak for unravelling one's knitting.

Beret Gaufre II- Less big, less stripy, less expensive, still cute.

(I like this photo)

Edna Rose II- Even less creative than my second version of Beret Gaufre. The yarn was very similar in to the colour I used for Manda's, so really the only difference is that this one is for me.

My hair fits under it to show off the lace pattern nicely.

Moss Stitch Beret

(How it looks to a flying predator coming in for the kill.)

I made this for Bec's 21st. Trying to get a moss stitch hat done in less than a week- not cool. And yes, I know it doesn't particularly suit me. It does, however, look adorable on Bec.

For my next trick I taught myself to crochet, because no lefthanded crocheters were appearing out of the woodwork to teach me. Knitting is still my first love, but crochet stole my heart too. There's a bit more flexibility in what you can do with it, you don't have to have a heart attack if you drop a stitch, and it's quicker.

Christie's Thinking Cap

(Note the brainy glasses. It is a thinking cap after all, so it inspired me to new height of nerdiness. Or blindness.)

The pattern is the Puff Beret, and it was made for my friend Christie, who is doing her HSC. Everyone gives 'HSC Survival Kits', but how many people get given a thinking cap? Even her boyfriend loved it, so it must be a success. (Actually, I personally have a particular dislike of it. It looks cute on her, but on its own it is just unnecessarily pink.)

Scarf

Just a nice, simple, mindless project to use up some scrap yarn. But I LOVE the colour combination. And I've always liked horizontal striped scarves, so it's nice to be able to make one.

And finally, something not made with any fibrous animal nor pretending to be made from a fibrous animal, we have the Dead Author Brigade.

Drawn for Hannah's 21st and proving that I truly am insane, we have (clockwise) Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter and William Shakespeare. All authors Hannah likes. I don't know whether she had a particular fondness for pictures of said authors, but she got them anyway. They creep me out.

Now, there is something that I made for my dad's birthday that I will post in due course. However I have a few other things of that ilk planned, and so shall post them all together in what will be a very fun post. I'm feeling nice, so I'll give you a hint. I am consuming a lot of jelly babies while making these creations.

I think we're due for another update

2008-09-22T17:09:00.003+10:00

My computer has been out of action and I was waiting to get it back before I could do another post, but then when I was re-bookmarking all my bookmarks I noticed I have photos in my Flickr account that haven't been posted here- and so I shall post them to start with!

The hat formerly known as 'tea cosy'

This was supposed to be a tea cosy. I was going to felt it. Then I looked at the label and realised some of the yarns were superwash. So Manda's little sister inherited it as a hat. Damn those machine washable sheep.

Seattle

Just another pair of fingerless mitts.

St. Vincent's Cloche

Manda was a little confused when I kept holding up this sack of a thing and saying 'do you like my hat?' She was even more confused when I put it on.

But then with a few loads of washing, some VERY cold hands, and a hair dryer, it magically turned into this.

Some would probably argue that I should have left it as it was- it was an improvement. ;o)

Manda and I decided we needed to rock up to MYC with matching gloves and hats. That is, my gloves matching my hat and her gloves matching her hat. And so, these were born...

Edna Rose

Spirogyra

Those are Manda's hat and gloves set. Mine are the ones in the previous post.

No backstory to this one, sorry.

Beret Gaufre

And inside out. The beauty of this pattern is it's reversible.

I got sick of being at one end of the house knitting and watching tv, then realising that whatever notion I needed was at the other end of the house. So I decided it was time I made a bag to house all my knitting paraphernalia. I wanted room for all my needles and notions, plus my numerous WIPs and yarn. I spent the better part of three days making this thing, but it was entirely worth it because I no longer have to pause DVDs and go sprinting down the other end of the house for the cabling needle, sprint back and collapse on the lounge only to realise that I also need the stitch markers still at the other end of the house.

Here endeth the update. Stay tuned for more- possibly even some sequels.

When knitting goes too far...

2008-09-08T22:14:00.002+10:00

You've heard of tea cosies, tissue box cosies, iPod cosies. Well this is undeniably a cat cosy. And in this instance, it's the cat who has my sympathies.

This picture came from this gem of a site. Even if you are a muggle (a non-knitter), I promise you will giggle at this page at the very least. Be warned, drink at your own peril while reading, you may end up either choking or spitting in laughter.

It is the duty of all responsible knitters to say no to antisocial knitting such as the examples on this page. We must work together, because together, we can make a difference. Fauxveralls and Knit-a-body, Australia says no!

Mammoth Post. An umbrella branch of Elephant Couriers.

2008-07-09T15:33:00.003+10:00

I've been a busy little bee lately, and that busyness made me too lazy to post what I've been making. Well that's my excuse, anyway. So here is a mass posting of everything I've made in the past few months- this stuff dates back to April. Whoops!

First, the things I've been sewing.

For Manda's birthday I made her a companion cube. A companion cube is something from the game Portal. If you want to know more, ask Manda.

Even if I didn't know what it was, it grew on me. I developed rather a soft spot for it.

Especially when it did my assignment for me.

Once upon a time a young lass got a cold. Colds tend to turn this lass into a very spaced out zombie. In her pestilential brain fog she was watching her housemates dress in sheets to attend a party, and heard Em utter the words 'I wish I had a bag to put my makeup in, I can never find it!'

And so, for her birthday, Em was presented with a pouch to put her makeup in. Thus proving that a) you should be careful what you wish for, and b) I'm more alert than I appear when I'm sick so don't count on me not hearing or remembering what you say.

And now, onto the knitting. Since progressing from garter stitch scarves it has become my latest obsession.

It all began when I saw a pair of black cabled fingerless gloves in Sportsgirl. I decided I must have them, because fingerless gloves are essential winter-wear in this fridge of a house. However I have this little moral dilemma (read: OCD), that I will not buy something if I can make it. Never mind that it costs me twice as much to make it and by the time I've figured out how to make it I no longer need nor want it. Those things are entirely irrelevant because I have the moral highground.

I also have fingerless gloves. Which are neither black nor cabled. They are decidedly hairy. Mohairy.

Made from stash yarn that I got goodness knows when.

I made up the pattern myself. It's incredibly simple, but these were my first non-garter stitched scarf project and therefore I adore them.

It was then that I decided that when it doesn't involve doing an obscenely long rectangle in the same repeated stitch, knitting can actually be fun.

A monster was created. I knew it was important that I start small and simple. So naturally the next thing I made was a cabled scarf.

Presenting the Irish hiking scarf and matching wristwarmers. These were given to my mother for mother's day.

I also made a pair of the wristwarmers for Em's birthday. Actually my primary motive was to knit them on weekend away and impress people with my mad knitting skillz. Nah, just ribbing. I'll stop needling you now. *snickers*

It was on these wristwarmers that I discovered my complete and utter loathing for seaming. So therefore I had to learn to knit in the round. The first thing I knit in the round was a beret (Purl Bee beret) which is a lovely beret with the most ghastly yarn colour combination in the history of the world, therefore it shall not be shown here. It is in my Flickr gallery if you must see it. Ah, the joys of using yarn from one's meagre stash.

I then purchased a far more aesthetically pleasing yarn combination and knit my first Folk Art For Your Head.

Having mastered circular needles (circs), it was time to make something on double pointed needles (DPNs).

Braid cable wristwarmers. I adore this yarn colour.

I then decided to take another stab at a beret, which would match these wristwarmers.

This time I used the summer slouchy hat pattern. I made it a little too slouchy, though.

By this time my mother's birthday had rolled around and so I decided to make her a Folk Art For Your Head.

Here you can also see me with my newly cut and straight hair, and also the necklace I made myself that I am in love with.

Whew! The scary thing? I have more things to post when I upload them. So stay tuned for more knitting yarns. Oh, the hilarity of me.

Sir Grumpus (maybe he can do my assignment)

2008-04-18T21:17:00.001+10:00

I had a mad urge to paint a grumpy cat with a teacup on its head. When you get such urges you must comply, or terrible things happen.

Year Planner (why yes, the assignment's going well, why do you ask?)

2008-04-18T21:05:00.002+10:00

I have been accused of colour co-ordinating occasionally. I believe the words 'neurotic' and 'obsessed' may also have been bandied around. This accusation is completely untrue.

I couldn't stand how year planners always clashed in a horrifying way with the decor in my room. So I made one that didn't clash. And that can be reused.

The days of the week, the year and the planner grid itself are all just stuck on with sticky tape, so they can be replaced each year until I get sick of this planner background.

A close up. Because you desperately wanted to see the 1st-9th January up close and personal.

Quoth Manda when she walked into my room and found me making this:
"You're making a calender? You really are a craft nerd!"

Because I should be doing an assignment...

2008-04-18T19:15:00.004+10:00

Helen, Kathryn and Jacqui all turned 20 within a few days of each other, so they had a combined 20th birthday party- a 60th. (It worries me how many people follow the logic in that) Going with the 'old person' theme, I made them each a knitting card. If you know them, guess whose colour is whose. hehe

Sorry these are all sideways, my computer has a thing about not acknowledging when you rotate pictures.

Helen's RIDICULOUS earrings.

Jacqui's PINK jewellery.

Kathryn's ENVIABLE jewellery. Well, perhaps not, but I had to keep with the caps trend.

I've also been making a few birthday presents over the last coupleof days, but you'll have to wait till after they have been given out before I put them on here.

Earrings

2008-02-10T14:36:00.000+11:00

I made these earrings for Bek's 25th. I thought they were suitably Bek-ish. The photo is very dark. The ones on the left are red themed. The ones in the middle are a beautiful emerald green. I really like them. The ones on the right are a dark blue. Pretty beads. I like short sentences today. Woo.

Bright Young Thing

2007-12-24T15:31:00.000+11:00

A murder mystery party, I thought. The 1920s, I thought. And because I thought these things, naturally I also thought 'I HAVE to make my dress!'- because it obviously wasn't enough work to be writing a murder mystery party for 16 people. (It did work with 16, but that really is too many people.) For other costume requiring occasions I'm content with op-shop finds and a few accessories, but the reason I chose the 20s for my murder setting was because I love 20s style so much, so I couldn't pass up this golden opportunity to make a 20s dress. Besides, 20s dresses were slightly modified sacks so I didn't need to do any of the pinning and tucking and gathering and darts that cause me so much grief.

I wanted a pink dress. I know that a totally pink dress isn't the best colour on me, and I also know that pink isn't a colour the 20s are known for. (black does me even fewer favours than pink, though) However earlier this year I bought the most wonderfully fabulous pair of shoes that work so very well for the 20s. However they are a tricky colour- olive green suede. As a rule, olive is not a colour that looks good on me, so I had to find another colour that worked with the olive shoes. Given it's me, dusky pink was the logical choice.

Having decided that, I did some research on 20s dresses and sketched a number of possible styles, finally settling on one that was within my skills to make, allowed for modifications if I needed to change things, and would look alright at the end. All the 20s costumes you can buy have ridiculous amounts of fringing on them which make the wearer look like a lamp. Besides which, not one of the genuine 20s dresses I looked at had fringing on them. I wanted to make a dress I'd fall in love with.

The next step was actually finding fabric in the colour I wanted. Why is that such an issue, you wonder? Not being independently wealthy, I didn't have a lot of money to spend on the pretty fabrics that 20s dresses were made from. However I did want it to be made of nice fabrics. I also wanted to cheat a bit with the bodice and save myself quite a lot of time, if I could. So my plan was to scour a few Op-Shops and try and find a fairly shapeless top, made from a nice fabric, dusky pink in colour. A tall order, no? Nevertheless, I found one, and it was half price, so cost me about $3. I was left wondering if God has some grand plan for the world that involves my dress, because divine intervention was the only explanation I could come up with for me actually finding what I was looking for!

Having got my paws on that I took myself and the top off to Spotlight to find the closest match I could in the pretty, but affordable, dress fabrics. Again, divine intervention is the only explanation for me finding a silky satiny stuff, and a floaty chiffon stuff that matched perfectly. I'm can't remember exactly what types of fabric they are- cheaper versions of the more expensive fabrics, I think, because I refused to buy anything that cost more than $10 a metre. (they both cost around $9/metre) I got a metre each of those because I only needed them for the skirt, and I just prayed I wouldn't stuff it up. In my stash I had some leftover cream coloured linen that I had used on another skirt, so I decided to use that for the waistband because it breaks up the pink and makes the construction process considerably easier.

Armed with my rolls of fabric and the bag containing that precious Op-Shop old lady top I took to the aisles of craft supplies to find some trimmings. I wanted to put beads on the dress, so I spent a while choosing the right size, shape and colour beads- pink to match the dress, a slightly darker shade of pink, shiny gold, matte gold, and a dark olive green to match the shoes. Then I got some braid stuff to make a headband, and some pink and brown feathers. In vain did I search for some pearl bead trim. Armed with all this I marched for the checkout and came back home to get started.

Making the dress was quite simple. I used the two skirt fabrics to make a pixie circle skirt, then I sewed the old lady Op-Shop top on top of it. A fitting revealed that it was ridiculously long and I wasn't overly keen on the neckline of the top, so I did some cutting and modifying and eventually came up with something I was happy with. However it was very plain, and I needed something to disguise my interesting attempts at trying to sew a straight line (something I'm not known for). I decided to add some lace as well as the beading. So I trundled off to Lincraft this time, and found some lace that was just perfect. I also found the pearl trim that had eluded me at Spotlight.

After I'd added the lace it looked considerably better, but still a little plain. It was time to start beading. Famous last words.

Now I know why all these beaded garments from the 20s, or any hand-beaded item for that matter, costs so much. It takes FOREVER. I made up my design as I went along and when I had finished I sat down and worked out how long I'd spent on it based on what DVDs I'd watched as I did the beading. I spent 30 hours hand-beading that thing. Someone noted that they hoped I'd have a chance to wear it again, otherwise it would be time wasted, however it actually wasn't time wasted. Part of the reason I decided to hand-bead it was that circumstances that week meant I needed something to keep me occupied for quite a while, but it needed to be something relatively mindless, and something I could easily pick up and put down. So my viewing list consisted of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Shrek 2, all three extended edition Lord of the Rings movies, Ten Things I Hate About You, two Seachange episodes and nineteen Mother and Son episodes.

I also made my headband and used the pearl trim to make beads.

So after all that I daresay you want to see this thing.

The whole ensemble.

The headband. I was stoked at getting such a good match with the pink in the feathers.

Closer view of the bodice. The old lady Op-Shop top used to have wide straps (ie. it was a sleeveless top) a rounded neckline, but I hacked them off and put the cream along the neckline and used the cream fabric for the straps. I then had to make the arm holes bigger and make some darts, which was an adventure, but I survived.

Beading detail at the top.

Beading detail at the waist.

Two of the Bright Young Things at the murder mystery party- ie. me in the whole ensemble. Sadly our photographer (my lovely blue-attired companion's mum) didn't get my shoes in the photo. I loved the subtle effect of the beading, and I was so happy with how the skirt turned out. The shininess of the satiny stuff on the bottom layer really added something to the dress, and the top layer made the whole skirt very floaty- nice and 20s.

And yes, I am in love with it. Hee!

Latest Necklaces

2007-12-24T14:02:00.000+11:00

I come to you once more with updates. I have more to come once I take and upload photos of various things, but for the time being here are two more necklaces.

This is a necklace I made for Heather's 21st. Some kind of pearls on tigertail wire. It's simple enough but it was a pain to make in more senses than one. Looks good though, and that's the important part.

I made these for Tanya's 18th- I wanted something classy but relatively simple, and these green circle beads are perfect for her beautiful red hair.

Jewellery

2007-10-23T20:45:00.000+10:00

Oh how I love making special presents for people's birthdays. The latest is the jewellery I made for Ali for her 21st.

I informed her today that she's lucky I don't have pierced ears- if I did then these earrings wouldn't have made it to her.

Also, the picture I drew to go on her card...

I've also made two skirts for my fabulous self but I do not yet have photos of them- when I get the chance to grab a housemate and get them to take photos for me I shall post the skirts.

The other exceptionally exciting news is that last weekend when I was visiting home I bundled up all my drawing stuff- my sketching pencils, coloured pencils, watercolour pencils, paint brushes and pastels and brought them all back with me. It was like Christmas- seeing them all again brought back the same feelings I had when I first got them for various Christmases and birthdays. This may not sound particularly exciting, but lately I've had a craving to do some coloured stuff and all I had was my 24 pack of Derwents. Which I love, especially as it is old-school (ie. before they felt the need to fancy up the tins) and which have served me faithfully for many a spot of colour, but for the full on drawing stuff I need more than just the 24 colours. Oh, and as I'm in love with Derwents I'm not sure if this applies to other quality-brand coloured pencils, but Derwents are on par with old books when it comes to smelling wonderful.

I shop, you shop, we all shop at op-shops

2007-09-14T11:49:00.000+10:00

Or we should, anyway. I'd like to take a moment to extol the virtues of op-shops. I know it isn't strictly about my creations but it does relate to them.

Here are five good reasons why op-shops are the best places to shop:

1. They are ridiculously cheap. This is good for those of us who are not overburdened with expendable wealth. You can get cheap clothes, cheap shoes, cheap bags, cheap fabric, and other random cheap things, and often this stuff is good quality. This means that you can afford to get more stuff than you would at mainstream shops, and it means you can have awesome clothes and also spare money to spend on more worthwhile things.

2. I love old stuff. I also love random quirky stuff. You find so many more awesome old things and random quirky things in op-shops than in mainstream shops. And what's more, old is in! Except old doesn't sound stylish enough so they call it 'vintage', which means anything from the 80s and before. I love the fact that the majority of people on this planet are 'vintage'.

3. Here is where the crafty bit comes in. At op-shops you can find hideous clothes that with a bit of imagination and a bit of sewing you can reconstruct to become awesome new clothes. You can also find assorted fabrics, to say nothing of tablecloths and sheets! (For what is a tablecloth or a sheet but a piece of fabric- that saves you some hemming!)

4. You can make some brilliant finds in op-shops.

5. At mainstream shops you look in one and you've looked in all the shops in that chain. Not so with op-shops! They all have different goodies to trawl through.

I went to my local op-shop this morning and for what it would cost me to buy one middle-of-the-range skirt or top I got a handbag, a pair of shoes I couldn't resist, a top that will get a facelift and two skirts-to-be.

I'm in love.

Necklaces- finally.

2007-08-31T11:49:00.000+10:00

As promised, here are the necklaces I've been making lately. I am lamenting that my wonderful new camera has such an appalling macro mode. Either that or I haven't yet mastered it, which is also entirely possible- it is very much a hit and miss affair at the moment, which it was with the old one anyway, but I am determined to conquer it because I use the macro mode a lot. Frustrated, I switched over to the old camera to see if I could do any better with that one, and using it made me love my new one all the more, even if I do miss the macro setting and a handy little flash setting on the old one. You know those pick and mix lollie bags at the movies? I'll be glad when they do that for technological gadgets. Why should you have to sacrifice the features you love on one inferior quality camera to get one that, while better, doesn't have those obscure features? Yes, I'll end the rant here and get on to the necklaces.

I made this one aaaaaaaaages ago and I am in love with it. I had been planning for a long time to make a brown and turquoise one but I just couldn't get the right design. Then, one day, I came up with this. Sorry the photo isn't centred, it's my pet hate, but I was so busy trying to keep my hands still and get a clear photo I wasn't paying attention to whether it was centred.

The next three are a result of a necklace binge one afternoon last week. Nothing fancy, in terms of design, but the beads themselves are gorgeous and so don't need a fancy design to be effective. This one has abalone beads.

My trademark colours we have with us always. Another abalone one, and I can't remember what the little round brown ones are called.

Try as I might there was no way I was going to get a good photo of this one. It's made of faceted seed beads and randomly added pink and olive green beads, which are from the stash Hannah, Kristen and Lachlan gave me for my 21st. The seed beads are pink, green, grey and purple- again, my colours, more or less.

I'm starting to think that with all this breeding among my jewellery collection I need to make me a new necklace holder- that could be a good use for the most gorgeous pack of mixed paper and ephemera I've been waiting to find the right use for.

I am still alive

2007-08-27T22:04:00.000+10:00

I have just realised how long it has been since I've updated this. I'm still alive, I promise. I've made a few things, mainly jewellery, plus a few cross stitches which I so cleverly didn't get a photo of. Some of the jewellery pieces went to various people as birthday presents, and a few were made for me and are in my keeping. I shall endeavour to post pictures of them this week.

Also, hopefully, I shall be getting some sewing done in the near future, but don't hold me to that. Uni assignments have a nasty habit of creeping up on one and for some reason lecturers don't accept 'I was spending some meaningful time with my sewing machine' as an excuse for not doing them. More's the pity, eh?

Pretty in pink

2007-05-08T18:29:00.000+10:00

I've been back to my old staple- jewellery. April/May/June seem to be the months to be born, so methinks I'll be doing quite a bit more in the next little while.

This lot was for Manda's 21st. Earrings, a pendant (top) and a necklace (bottom).

I was in love with them and would have kept them except they looked ridiculous on me (hence me using those beads for Manda- they don't work with my skin colour) but they look gorgeous on her so I'm more in love with them than ever.

Silly me didn't get photos of Manda's and Doug's cards, which is a pity, because they were pretty cool looking. Just in case you wanted to know, it is particularly difficult to make cards for guys. Nevertheless I did manage to make cards for Doug and Ben.

Bedside table makeover

2007-02-18T16:44:00.000+11:00

In the words of Billy Joel, "I'm moving out". Except I'll still be coming home on weekends. Which meant I had to dig up new furniture as it might get a tad annoying carting my bedroom furniture between the two houses. ;o)

Being an (as yet) unemployed uni student not overburdened with worldly wealth, I was puzzling over where to dredge up a cheap bedside table. Then a flash of inspiration hit- we had a bedside table in our guest room! And given I had comandeered the guest room bed for my new place of residence, there was really no need for a bedside table in there. Plus The Mother is trying to empty the room. So I relieved her of it. Brilliant- a bedside table for free! Problem: it used to belong to my grandmother and was therefore covered in however many years of battle scars from general use by children, grandchildren, guests and other sundry destructive forces. Solution: in true Craftster style, ~~attack~~ redecorate it.

I had a brilliant plan to decoupage it with some awesome pictures I have. So naturally I ended up painting it. After nearly 21 years I'm well acquainted with my brain's strange leaps of logic, but even I can't explain that one. I'll put it down to Divine Intervention.

I can no more explain where I got the cherry blossom idea than I can why I decided I needed to spend a week painting it, but again, I think it was Divine Intervention. And I'm sure it was Divine Intervention that I couldn't find any suitable pictures of cherry blossoms and so had to come up with my own. As annoying as that was I have to admit the results are worth it.

With my usual brilliant foresight I forgot to take 'before' pictures, but just imagine a boring, battered old pine bedside table. I'm sure you know the type.

Due to not being overburdened with worldly wealth the paint was all only acrylic and the varnish not much better, and it was an extremely under-prepared job. Yes, I know, bad Kate, I'm going to regret it later when the paint all comes off. It more or less survived the move to the new house, and I'll just have to be careful with it. The merciful aspect of it being black is that when the paint scratches, a bit of permanent marker covers the damage. *chuckles* (I know, Bad Kate!)

The Mother happened to walk past while the black paint was drying, before I'd put the new handle or the embellishments on, and she looked rather taken aback at my colour choice- I think I worried her. She seemed most relieved with the somewhat more toned down effect of the finished product. hehe

Anyhow, on to the pictures.

It was really hard to get a photo of because it was so shiny, none of the different lightings I tried really worked. I painted it black then painted the cherry blossoms on then varnished it.

It was meant to be a better picture of them but I think it's worse.

But check out the awesome drawer handle! I was so excited over that.

This is a truly awful picture but it was the best I could get. Again, the shinyness just made it too hard to get a good shot of the colours and the detail.

Ok, so in true Katus style what started as a simple idea expanded into a massive effort, but it wouldn't be a true Katus job without the quadrupling of difficulty and general complication. It makes it all so much more satisfying in the end. So was it worth it? Yes!

The Snnnnn Bag

2007-02-18T14:13:00.000+11:00

Now the barrage of rather fascinating videos featuring people jumping off things has stopped, as promised, I am posting pictures of the Ugly Bag's twin, Snnnnn Bag. This one was my NTE bag, same design as Em's, except slightly easier to make as a I learnt a few lessons while making hers. And a better fabric choice, no? *chuckles* Besides, who can go past blue and brown? Not me, apparently. I used sew-on interfacing in this one. It isn't very stiff because Spotlight only had one sort, but I did notice a difference between the two bags. I think I'd like to try stiffer stuff in future bags just to remove a bit more of the floppiness.

As you can see I put keyrings on some of the zippers on mine because the tiny zippers would have driven me insane. Plus it was a good use for awesome keyrings that were otherwise just sitting around vegetating.

After a week of NTE and a few other days out it doesn't look as pristine now as it did when I took these photos, but it survived NTE which was quite an achievement for a bag in my possession.

Apologies if the captions are the same as the ones for the Ugly Bag, I just copied and pasted them off Flickr.

I'm in love with it. I don't know what I love more- the awesome fabric or the fact that I actually own a bag that says 'viva la snnnnn'. (to say nothing of the fact that I didn't have any major stuff-ups to suck the joy out of it, which is nothing short of a miracle)

With the flap open.

Featuring a phone pocket, pen holder, card pocket and little zipper pocket.

The card pocket has the name of the camp and that year's topic on it. The teapot is because I probably have tea running in my veins instead of blood, given how much tea I drink.

This created quite a few amusing moments when my phone rang as I was driving and I'd get someone to answer it, and they'd ask where it was and I'd say 'in the teapot'. At the time that response made perfect sense, it wasn't until afterwards that the humour struck me.

Useful for car keys because it's easily accessible.

With reinforced strap to carry the tonne of stuff I kept in there for some reason. And the patch with my 'signature'.

Padded sunnies pocket. Highly recommended, very useful when you have to go diving for your sunnies because it means you can find them quickly and they don't get mutilated in your bag. Also useful for quickly sticking them somewhere.

One of the two inside zipper pockets and another pocket.

The other zipper pocket and the clip. During the camp I ended up totally forgetting about the existence of the clip (which was a silly thing to do given what a pain it was trying to sew a bag with this heavy clip getting in the way of things), but who cares, I have a bag with a clip in it! hehe

With the 'catch all' zipper pocket.

Oh how true the embroidered quote was. It got to the point where I'd just turn the bag around and point to that by way of introduction.

This is the 'catch all' pocket and so is divided into a few sections for different things. It's where I shove all the random bits of paper I end up with.

The World's Ugliest Bag

2007-02-08T12:06:00.000+11:00

Yeah yeah, I'm slack at keeping this thing up to date. I've been told off for not posting pictures of this sooner so here are the pictures of the Ugly Bag made for Em to take on NTE, which was mentioned a few posts ago. I know there are a lot of pictures, I went a little picture crazy. In my defense, the bag is hardly simple- there are a lot of different pockets etc to show you.

Some random information:
-It was my design, based on what is useful for NTE.
-The fabric is printed to look like it's quilted.
-The fabric is quilting cotton, which admittedly is not the strongest stuff in the world, but Em also took the bag on beach mission and sang the praises of the fabric's quick drying ability, which is useful when one's tent floods in the early hours of the morning.
-I can't think of anything else to add, but if you have any questions just ask.

Oh, here is something I should clarify:
I LOVE THIS BAG

Please do not think I am lacking self esteem when I call it ugly- I assure you, I am firmly convinced of my own brilliance. Too much so, in fact. I call it the Ugly Bag because, in hindsight, I realise that the fabric choice was a little... ridiculous. It looked wonderful until I turned the completed bag inside out and discovered that while it is funky, certain other adjectives can also be attributed to it (loud, busy, colourful, different and certainly unique). Hence my sense of humour lead me to call it the Ugly Bag. I love it for its ugliness, and to be honest have been a little hurt by everyone trying to convince me it's not ugly. So please don't tell me it's not ugly- I've been told, and have gotten beyond the point of being able to laugh off the fact that they're missing the point and failing to recognise my bizarre sense of humour.

Presenting... the World's Ugliest Bag! :-D

In all its glory.

Closeup of the embroidery on the flap.

Viva la snnnnn is an in-joke between Em and I. (and everyone else who got in on the joke. lol) Snnnnn is the noise a snail makes.

The front with the flap open

The pocket with the teapot is a phone holder, then there is a pen holder, zipper pocket and a card holder that I added specifically for easy access to the swipe card you need to get in and out of Fenner Hall.

The teapot is because of Em and my love of tea, and the patch with the writing has the year and the theme of NTE.

Front zipper pocket

The third zipper pocket I did, and it's much better than the other two.

Front of bag

Inside the back pocket

Filled with random junk so you can see all the sections. On the back 'wall' there is a big pocket and a small pocket that the two notebooks are in, then there is a divider in the middle of the pocket. The book is on one side and the paper is on the other side.

The back pocket was designed as an organised dumping ground for all the paper one seems to collect on NTE, especially on mission.

Inside the bag

My first ever zipper pocket. Just don't look too closely. lol

Also inside the bag

Looking at the other 'wall' of the bag. My second zipper pocket, which doesn't repeat the mistakes of the first!

There are four inside pockets- the two zipper ones and two others.

Back of the bag

With the pocket in the back for leaflets and maps and the other random bits of paper that you collet.

That quotation is VERY appropriate for our group of friends.

With flap open

Closeup on the patch inside the flap

It's another in-joke.

Side padded sunglasses pocket

I was proud of how this turned out, I wasn't expecting it to work.

Sunglasses pocket on the side of the bag

It's sooooo useful for quick access or disposal of your sunnies, because not only are they kept safe, but you can actually find them again!

My autograph

On the strap.

I promise to post photos of the Ugly Bag's twin when I upload them. It's on my to-do list before I move out, so will happen within the next two weeks.

Bracelets

2006-10-17T18:19:00.000+10:00

I had a bracelet binge a few weeks ago.

Not a bad afternoon/night's work. My favourite is the green one. The dangly one on the silver chain nearly drove me beserk- most of the pink pearl beads didn't fit on the wire because the holes were insanely small, so I had to go through ALL of those beads to find five that would fit on the wire. I was beginning to think I wouldn't find enough, but mercifully I did. It was a very frustrating process.

My bracelet buddy approves of those he's seen so my night's work wasn't wasted. *rolls eyes* lol

In response to the plea of the sunglasses

2006-10-17T18:05:00.000+10:00

I am a known sunglasses killer. My photo is in the sunglasses' post office. It is a vicious cycle. I kill a pair of sunnies I really like. I then go on a massive hunt to find the closest possible pair to the one I killed. I get them. I hate them because they're different. Eventually I tolerate them, until I finally end up liking them. Then I kill them. And the whole cycle starts again.

My current pair are over a year and a half old. (oooh, there's a pretty rainbow outside. God is awesome.) They are rather battered but thus far they are still alive. I am very fond of them and hope to keep them that way. However, the sad truth is that they travel around in my uni bag with water bottles and heavy course readers and other things that are a danger to the wellbeing of my poor sunnies. So I decided to do something about this, and designed me a padded sunnies case.

So, without further ado:

Yes, I know it's messy. It was my first time sewing velcro.

I was very proud of these seams- they were probably the straightest I'd ever sewn up till that point. I can't sew a straight seam to save myself. My lack of direction at a sewing machine is quite impressive.

My sunnies were asleep so my other glasses volunteered to model it.

Thus far it hasn't worked perfectly. I've still found the arms of the sunglasses in a position no self respecting arm should be in, but I think they're marginally more protected than before, if only because this acts as a straightjacket and restricts how far the arms can get warped.

Whoot!!

2006-10-14T14:15:00.000+10:00

I've finished it- the World's Ugliest Bag! Yipee!! :-D

It took me three weeks and much frustration, to say nothing of all the headaches working out how to do various things. (what are these pattern things you speak of?) I'm not totally happy with the result but I'll know what to do to improve it next time- just as I knew what mistakes not to make this time that I made on my last bag.

However all unhappiness at things I could have done better fade to nothing in the face of how ugly it is. It is definitely the most Ugly Bag to ever enter the world of bagdom, and I love it! There is a strong charm about its ugliness, and you have to love it because it is so ugly. It is hilarious that anyone could conceive of a bag so ugly let alone make it! And it is certainly unique. And distinctive.

After all this talk I bet you're expecting pictures, aren't you? No fear, I won't subject you to that! hehe No, not really. I have yet to complete the Ugly Bag's twin, and to do that I need the Ugly Bag in my possession for reference purposes. One of the bags is for me and one is for someone else, and I promised to keep the appearance of the bags a secret until they are both ready.

I had to share my glee at creating such an Ugly Bag though.

Another necklace.

2006-10-14T10:42:00.000+10:00

Here is the necklace I made Ali for her birthday, modelled by my computer because every computer with any taste at all wants a necklace. Given she's been dropping hints for over a year now I decided it was about time to make her one! hehe [EDIT] Ali's been dropping hints, not the computer. LOL!![/EDIT]

The pic isn't the best, sorry.

Here's a picture of the card just because it's there so I may as well display it. I made it in a hurry, and it shows, but it's pink and cute, so meh. Ali liked it, that's what matters.

It ain't easy being green? Not on my watch!

2006-10-07T18:19:00.000+10:00

This ~~blog~~ clog is becoming a tribute to my incredibly bad jokes.

Here is a watch commissioned by my aunty. I had the beads spare so I threw in the bracelet and earrings for free. I'm still convinced that crimps and jump rings have a pact to destroy me, but I was fairly happy with the results. Except the wire in the watchband was bent, and I could only get it to straighten out so much.

Not bad for a night's work on msn.

The whole set, complete with my lovely display card. That was the most annoying thing to make!

Closeup on the watch band. Note the sparkly goodness. I love Swarovsky.

The bracelet. More sparkly goodness.

Earrings. Not the best colour to display them on, but you get the idea. Sparkly... *grins*

If anyone's interested I'm always happy to do you a watch, (and if you're lucky I'll throw in something extra) and I'll charge a lot less than you'll pay for something similar in boutique stores. Ditto for bracelets, earrings, necklaces. You've seen my stuff, you know what it looks like.

In other crafting news...
Currently working on two bags. Well, as with all things I make, the most dangerous words to come out of my mouth are 'how hard can it be?' I'm lamenting the scarceness of powerpoints in the dining room (aka my sewing room) though, because the one powerpoint is taken up by the sewing machine and it is too dark to sew in there at night without a lamp, but there are no spare powerpoints at which to put a lamp. Yeah, I know, I could dig up a powerboard or double adaptor, but that would be sensible.

Of late I've been embroidering while on msn. Nothing like multi-tasking... several msn conversations, listening to music or a podcast, embroidering and generally flitting between my emails, my blog and craftster. To say nothing of copious cups of tea and bowls of museli. (now you'll know what I'm doing as I'm talking to you!) It's fun, it keeps me occupied.

Dingly dangly shelly sparkly necklace

2006-08-17T18:13:00.000+10:00

This was the result of a boring Saturday afternoon. Very boring, as one friend pointed out.

Danglier than I'm accustomed to wearing, but it's growing on me. (so to speak) Impossible to walk quickly and quietly in it unless I hold it down.

The photos really don't do the insanity of it justice. Between the colour, the dangliness and how overloaded it is it's kind of an assault on the eyes.

And I now have a lovely valley in the top of my fingernail from where I was working with the wire. lol

Piano card

2006-08-17T17:53:00.000+10:00

I was so happy with how this turned out I thought I'd dedicate some space to it on here. This was the birthday card that accompanied the piano bag.

First view.

Pulled out.

Close-up of the riddle.

The riddle was a kind of double edged play on the old 'what's black and white and red all over?' When you look at the card obviously the first thing that comes to mind is a piano, but the first item to be pulled out of the gift bag was a Sodoku cube. (a cousin of the Rubik's cube) Sodoku is also black and white and played all over, particularly in lectures. The recipient and I have an in-joke about sodoku.

Most jokes lose their humour when they need to be explained but this one never had much humour to start with. lol

Ebony and Ivory

2006-08-15T21:40:00.000+10:00

Presenting the first bag I’ve made on my new sewing machine… the piano bag! It was made for a friend’s birthday, and now that she has received it I can post pictures on here.

Nothing overly fancy, just a simple messenger bag. There are divided pockets inside and on the front under the flap. The thing I was most excited about was the fabric I used to line it. It was exactly what I wanted so I was over the moon when I actually found it in the shop.

Inside, with my lovely books and ancient phone sitting in it.

The lining material I was so excited about. I still want to know if it's just random notes or if it is actually the music for something. It's a good thing I wasn't keeping the bag, because wondering about that would drive me insane every time I used it.

Sing us a song, you're the piano bag.

The obligatory craftster action shot. :o)

I wasn't 100% happy with it, but I'm pleased with it as my first effort at a messenger bag. And for all its faults, it's pretty funky looking.

Stay tuned for photos of the birthday card that accompanied it. (*ba dum ching*)

A nice, simple bag.

2006-07-10T12:37:00.000+10:00

Once upon a time there was a young girl who chose to forget that every craft project she gets involved in has a tendency to... get out of hand.

Due to large amounts of free time and writer's block she had been spending a great deal of time on craftster looking at the projects of some very talented, very creative people who have skills and appropriate machinery at their disposal.

She was inspired.

She decided to try her hand at sewing. Previously she had only been able to sew by hand, which is slower than Sydney roads at peak hour. Earlier in the year however, she acquired a sewing machine of sorts. True, it barely warranted the name and it had the girl's grandmother spinning in her grave. (or her urn, or her hole in the wall; the girl isn't entirely sure what they did with her grandmother's body) But it was electric and it made stitches.

She thought she'd make a bag. Nothing fancy, just a simple bag to get the hang of using the 'sewing machine'. She wasn't going to measure things out or follow a pattern. (her skills lie not in mathematics or following patterns :-/) She was just going to make it up as she went along. A nice, simple bag.

Then she found the old denim skirt.

She found the pockets in the skirt and thought it would be wonderful to include one of them in the bag. After all, it was only one extra step and she really is very fond of pockets. Then she found the buttons down the front and realised what a funky strap they would make. A simple process, but effective. After all, she never said the bag couldn't be funky, and an adjustable strap would be functional. Just like the pockets. In fact, the pockets were so functional she thought she'd better include the second one so it wouldn't go to waste. A nice, functional bag. Then she noticed the elasticised back on the skirt with the beltloops attached. (look, it belonged to my mother in the '90's, alright?! Stop laughing at how daggy it sounds!) Those belt loops would be very useful for hanging things on, and it would be a crime to waste that elastic part. And after all, a bag can never have too many pockets. Even a nice simple one. The problem with this simple and functional bag however, was that it didn't have anything to close it. If a bag is to be functional, it needs to close. Because it was so simple the girl wasn't going to use any complicated self adhesive velcro devices or anything to close it. After all, there were some spare buttons and buttonholes on the skirt- they would close it very nicely. But there was a problem with this simple, functional bag. One of the pockets had a tendency to flop open a little, and this didn't make it very functional because things could fall out of it. To keep things nice and simple she used the last button and buttonhole from the skirt. After all, she certainly didn't want something that would be difficult to attach.

And so this simple, functional bag was assembled. But it was lacking something. A brooch? Embroidery? Stenciling? An iron-on motif? Beadwork? The girl couldn't make up her mind. It was a simple bag, so she didn't want anything too difficult to put on. And then she remembered. She dug into her stash of craft supplies and emerged with buttons and ribbon which she carefully applied. What a relief to have found something so simple- it would be terrible for things to get difficult at this stage!

And so it was finished. A nice, simple bag. As she stood back at 2am and admired her handiwork, she thought how fortunate it was that things didn't get out of hand.

:-/

Being modelled by my chair.

The whole front part is also a pocket. The ribbon is at the top of the pocket opening.

Inside.

Action shot.

Xanadu

2006-07-06T14:54:00.000+10:00

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

No, the HSC didn't squash it out of me. I quite liked this poem and the place it describes, which is certainly a place where dragons and faeries live. Tolkien tried his hand at painting Xanadu so I decided I would too. I painted it in the holidays between finishing yr12 and starting uni. It was done with watercolours. I went for the Van Gough Starry Night look with the sky.

It currently lives very happily in my cupboard. When I look at my artwork I see the bits I don't like rather than the bits I like so I'm not overly keen on displaying it. Especially the paintings.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Whew! After that mammoth effort today I'll desist. Stay tuned for pictures of cards and jewellery and afew other do-dads.

Another Draco

2006-07-06T14:48:00.000+10:00

Another ancient one. Taking a photo of this was a nightmare because the flash dazzled the camera but it was too dark without a flash, and with the blinds open the whole thing shone too much to see it properly!

This was a collage using very cool shiny paper. The eyes are red diamantes. The gold is just gold texta and the outline is black texta. If I did it again now I'd do a few things differently but on the whole I still like it.

Starting to guess that maybe I like dragons? ;o)

Tamar Island Wetlands Boardwalk

2006-07-06T14:40:00.000+10:00

Quite an ancient painting. From a photo taken on a holiday to Tasmania when I was in year eight or so. The painting was done a few years later I think. Impressionist style. Again, the photo isn't really flattering. I took it when I'd just gotten the digi cam and was experimenting and working out how to use it.

May and Gordon

2006-07-06T14:33:00.000+10:00

I did this about four years ago for my mother's birthday. Pencil drawings of her parents from their wedding photo. This photo really isn't flattering to it.

Draco the Albino

2006-07-06T14:27:00.000+10:00

Just to prove I can actually make original things as well!

I don't even know when I made this one, but she's made from some weird foamy modelling stuff. It's really lightweight and you don't end up filthy like you do with clay.

I never got around to painting her, and I don't really want to. For one thing I don't want to ruin her, and I do like her white.

Ballet Bear

2006-07-06T14:20:00.000+10:00

I did this for Nat's birthday earlier this year, Nat being a dancer is into dancerish things. Only took me a day and quite a lot of M*A*S*H episodes- long live the small and simple cross stitch!

The photo isn't the best. We took it at the restaurant because I forgot to take one before I gave it to her, but you get the idea anyway. It looks black in the photo but the frame is actually silver.

Eeyore cross stitch

2006-07-06T14:18:00.000+10:00

He'e so cute!

Tick tock tick tock

2006-07-06T13:55:00.000+10:00

I made this from a kids' clock kit in the holidays between finishing yr12 and starting uni.

The clock and the hands were out of the kit, but I used other stuff I'd collected to decorate it. I covered it in brown paper because brown paper is funky. The stamps come from a bag of old stamps I bought for goodness knows what reason on my first trip NZ. To keep up the NZ theme I used little pieces of paua shell in place of the numbers. (also bought them in NZ) To make them stand out I roughly cut some squares from a sheet of gold metal stuff I got in a card making kit at some stage and I bent the corners of the squares and ran a black texta line around the edge.

The clock still works, although the second hand doesn't move anymore, it just hangs down the bottom. Given it was a cheap kids kit I'm impressed the clock still works.

Newton

2006-07-06T13:30:00.000+10:00

I did this cross stitch for Derek and Jacqui when Sebastian was born. It will forever make me think of Les Mis, which I listened to ad naueum while doing it.

Unfortunately the quality of the fabric wasn't particularly good so it got very distorted despite my best efforts not to pull. The kit was actually intended for a girl, so the blue on the bib, the flowers and the butterfly were my improvisations. Luckily I had colours that matched. The people in counted cross stitch kit design land have yet to learn that to have a cross stitch ready for when the baby is born one needs to start it quite a while before the baby is due, and therefore one generally does not know whether one is stitching for a boy or a girl! Every kit I found was gender specific. Not very helpful!

The Newton's Law designs are very cute though.

Girls

2006-07-06T13:25:00.000+10:00

I made this cross stitch for my mother's birthday last year. I can't decide if it looks more or less impressive in the photo. lol As usual I don't think the camera did the colours justice.

Kyckstart board.....

2006-07-06T13:10:00.000+10:00

I made this corkboard sometime last year to display my photos from Kyckstart.

It's an awful picture, sorry. I really like it though, and it lives on my wall. You may recognise what have since become known as 'the katus colours'- I think my liking of them together originated from the paper I used on here.

The litte brown squares are a fantastic find- (and judging by their regular appearances in Craftster projects I'm not the only one who thinks so) they look like little Scrabble tiles. I arranged them into fitting words.

The cream bits of paper are scrapbooking stickers with fitting words and definitions on them.

And the two silver etched things are a cross and footprints. (I was thinking of the footprints in the sand story)

Corkboards are so much better than scrapbooks because you have more room, you can get more 3D stuff happening, and you can put it on display instead of shutting it in an album. The only drawback is that a house has only so much wallspace...

Come one come all to the dancing lawn!

2006-07-06T11:29:00.000+10:00

Ok, wrong story. Welcome to Crafty Lil' Devil. (any bets on how quickly I abbreviate that? I'm sick of typing it already!) Some of you might recognise the Mountain Devil I named the blog after- when not involved in photoshoots she lives on my windowsill. You might even know the story about her.

I didn't want to clog up my other blog with pictures of my creations but I did want to share them with my other crafty friends, hence me creating this. And there's nothing quite like knitting the background for a website.

At the moment I've had it up to here (imagine me standing on my roof jumping up and down hoping the roof doesn't collapse under me) with uploading photos, but watch this space because they will appear soon. I'll let you know on my other blog when I update this one.

In the meantime check out the links on the side and buy yourself a pair of sunglasses so my colour scheme doesn't permanently damage your eyes.

If this is a craft weblog, would that make it a clog?