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June 30, 2005
craftlog.org
I'm now the happy owner of www.craftlog.org! A domain of my own, cool. There are a few other pages out there calling themselves craftlogs, so I figured I should grab it before someone else did. Everything's still stored at huangfamily, which isn't going anywhere. It's all just a redirect, so no need to change your links or anything.
Posted under Random at 11:04 PM | Comments (2)
June 29, 2005
Blythe apron
My weak contribution to Tie One On. I don't know why I thought the gingham was Home-on-the-Range-y, but now that I sewed it all up, it looks more diner-y. Oh well. Hopefully the "range" photo staging helps make up for it.
The apron and matching scarf are a freehanded pattern with bias trim and ties. I found the apparently handmade top in with a bunch of old doll clothes the last time I was home. The skirt I made from a piece of lace off an old slip.
Posted under Blythe at 08:16 PM | Comments (3)
floofy scarf
My travel project this summer, knit on trains and planes all over the place. Slightly less than 1 skein Patons Divine, 10 mm needles, 15 stitches across, in garter stitch, of all things. I actually really like the way the garter stitch looks on it, not that you can tell from my fantastic photograph. Also, the needles are too big for it, so the stitches are nice and open and it's going to stretch longer than it is now. I am keeping this scarf for myself in anticipation of the long Jersey winter, which doesn't sound half bad about now.
Posted under Knitting at 12:25 AM | Comments (3)
June 26, 2005
button ring
This is one of the buttons in the treasure trove of old buttons I got when I went home a while back. It's strung on doubled gold wire, twisted together in back and covered with tape to hide the prickly ends. It's pretty tight to keep the button from sliding around too much.
Posted under Jewelry at 05:19 PM | Comments (3)
Bloglines
I finally got all the blogs I follow into Bloglines. I don't know why I didn't switch a long time ago. My former system was folders of bookmarks, categorized into everyday and occasionally. I would open up all the bookmarks and look at each site for something new. Really time-consuming. Now, I go to Bloglines and all the new entries from all my feeds are right there on the same page. I will probably go to the actual sites every once in a while to see the site design, sidebar links, etc.
If you've got a site, I'd recommend seeing how your feeds look in Bloglines. I found out one of mine went dead a few months ago (not that I've figured out how to fix it yet...) Also, some sites don't have full entry feeds. I didn't subscribe to any of them. I don't like the excerpts, although I'm thinking of making a craftlog excerpt feed for the folks that do.
Posted under Crafty Links at 12:05 AM | Comments (3)
June 25, 2005
Renegade report
Wow, Renegade was great. There was a lot of reworked vintage stuff, like, say, pouches made from old sheets and tableclothes. I don't know where people find all their great fabric. Also lots of wonderful silkscreening. I'm totally inspired to pull out the Gocco to make some shirts or whathaveyou. It was really a wide variety of crafts.
Just like my visit to Magpie (they were there too), one fun thing was seeing web things in real life. I got to say hello to a few of the people I read on the web, too: Qylaar, Boygirlparty, Momomoogie, My Paper Crane, Wonderland Q, purldrop, seamripper, gosh so many. Oddly, I only bought a to-do pad I'd been eyeing from Boygirlparty. It's for my crafty lists:
Mark got a felt ninja patch from Momomoogie that he's going to put on his computer bag:
He had a good time too, but thought there was too much irony for sale.
I also have a bag full of business cards from other folks I really liked. It'll take a while to sort through them, though.
Posted under Wants at 07:10 PM | Comments (1)
Renegade
I'm off to Renegade Craft Fair. If you are not lucky enough to live a trainride away from Brooklyn, you should go to their website and browse all the vendors' web sites. It's overwhelming.
Posted under Crafty Links at 10:37 AM | Comments (1)
June 24, 2005
iCord flower
4-nail knitting spool cord + vintage button
I'm thinking a bow for a gift or something. FYI, tiny crochet hook is way better than a little knitting needle for pulling up loops.
Posted under Knitting at 06:51 PM | Comments (2)
failed Blythe stocking
I tried to make Blythe a fishnet stocking with my fun knitting spool. I used sewing thread with an 8-poster in the hopes of making a tube big enough to fit over Blythe's legs. You can see the result of this experiment below. Main problem, the tube was not wide enough. I dropped a stitch in the back to make it go on this far. Also, the thread tube is really hard to handle. It's easy to snag and pull out of shape. Also, Blythe's legs are made out of this kind of sticky plastic, so it required some pulling to get them on, further aggravating the snagging problem. Anyway, I think I will abandon this line of work and make Blythe stockings out of fabric instead.
Posted under Experiments at 12:42 AM | Comments (1)
June 21, 2005
Bernie the worm
Bernie, my dad, used to draw cartoons for me and my sisters when we were little. They mostly featured the adventures of Bernie the Worm, an orange, smiley worm. He had some friends like stick and rock and Carlos Castaneda. So, since I haven't mailed his father's day gift yet, I made this to throw in with it. Made on my new 6-nail knitting spool with more thrifted yarn from my sister and a little pipe cleaner inside for posable worm action. I didn't notice until I'd already made it that it conveniently doubles as a Month of Softies bug.
Posted under Knitting at 10:33 PM | Comments (9)
knitting spool
I had one of these when I was little, and I got my niece one a while back. They're pretty fun, but I could never figure out what to do with the knitted snake they make. Lately I've been seeing all sorts of cute uses for i-cord, though, which I am terrible at knitting. The knitting spool seems like a way easier way to make it. I didn't like the one for sale at the craft store, plus it was like $10, so I made one. It's a 50 cent wood spool from the craft store (try to find one with a roomy hole) with 4 little nails hammered into it. I bought 2 spools, so I'm going to try a 6 nail one with the other one. It's fun and goes really fast. I've been using a little metal knitting needle to pull the loops. I found this nifty site with instructions on different stitches! I'm making cord at a tremendous pace, so I'll post whatever I decide to make later.
Posted under Knitting at 07:14 PM | Comments (8)
June 15, 2005
again again?
Updated my crafty blogs links page (new ones in bold). I've got a similarly long list of new stuff to add to the shoplinks once I get a chance.
Posted under Random at 12:41 AM | Comments (2)
June 12, 2005
velvet pooch
I made Blythe a new puppy from my Mame Wanko book. This one turned out way better than the last one. The velvet masks a lot of sloppiness. He's about an inch and a half tall. For similar free patterns, try Orriettacat's cat, labrador, scotty, and puppy.
Posted under Blythe at 02:14 PM | Comments (5)
June 11, 2005
drawn thread curtains
These drawn thread curtains are another Martha idea (July 2002, thank you Marthadex). I've had these plain green curtains up for a while, but they're really boring. Drawn thread is an embroidery technique that you've probably seen in, say, hemstitched napkins. This is a simpler use of it since all I did was pull the threads out with no other embellishment. I cut the threads with a seamripper at the top and then used tweezers to help pull them out. Once you've got one out, it's really easy to make the stripe wider by cutting the neighboring threads at intervals and pulling them out. I varied the placement and the width to make them look a little more interesting. Good TV-watching craft. Original curtain on the left and new curtain on the right.
Posted under Cross Stitch/Embroidery at 01:21 PM | Comments (2)
June 10, 2005
Crafting in Public
Just back from yet another trip for a meeting. The summer traveling scarf is about 1.5 feet now. After still another trip next week, maybe I'll finish it off. I think it's funny that my 9th or 10th knitting project is a garter stitch scarf on big needles. It's with the leftovers of patons divine from the spiderweb capelet.
Anyway, this meeting had my favorite example of crafting in public. I sometimes get weird comments about being a crafty scientist. For some reason people find it very contrary to my lab persona. (Although others don't, Hi Alex!) The president of a big funding agency was at this meeting, and she worked on a needlepoint during all the sessions. It was cool to see.
Posted under Inspiration at 11:33 PM | Comments (2)
June 07, 2005
Fabulous felted hand-knits
Anybody who reads this has probably noticed my affinity for anything felt. Fabulous Felted Hand-Knits by Jane Davis has a few great ideas that I haven't seen elsewhere, but not much else (i.e., I'm glad my library has it). My favorite one is on the cover: a bag make from a piece of wide-striped knitted, felted fabric that's cut so you can't tell the trick. There's also a neat felted ruffle on a pillow, and another good tip: crocheting the edges of a scarf so it felts evenly with the middle. Ones I don't like: patterns that mix felted and unfelted knitting and, oh the humanity, so much fun fur.
Posted under Crafty Book/TV Review at 08:46 PM | Comments (3)
June 06, 2005
Polite Crochet
Ha ha, how sad is it that I read the (usually nice) crochet LJ community for the drama? I swear, LJ is so full of it, like every journal I read there goes into full tilt drama mode every once in a while. The crochet community is particularly bad, though. The flame wars are horribly fascinating, and over crochet! I've never posted there in part because of the bad vibes (but mostly because I'm lazy. I can never keep up my weak attempts at crossposting.). Anyway, some wonderful person finally started Polite Crochet. It doesn't have a lot of posts yet, but I'm hoping people will flock to it. That said, I am still reading the impolite crochet community. There's currently a fun crown swap going around.
(I didn't crochet this crown, btw. I pinched the image from the pattern page.)
Posted under Crafty Links at 03:01 PM | Comments (2)
June 05, 2005
Last-minute knitted gifts
Finally caught Joelle Hoverson's Last-Minute Knitted Gifts at the library. The author runs Purl up in NYC, which I'll get around to visiting one of these days. The "last minute" part of the book appealed to me because I've been leaning towards quick and small knitting projects. The book's got a neat wavy scarf that I'll probably make, and a few simpler scarves that look nice. Other projects I like: pretty striped felted potholders, baby bonnet, and the hourglass sweater (love the noro yarn, but I'll never actually spring for it. It's got "cash" in it's name, for goodness sake.) Actually, my favorite parts of this book are the little extras. Like, felting i-cord to make a neat ribbon, a package wrapped in a crochet chain with a neat tassel, and this notions case shown in one of the photos:
I really like the mismatched zippers that coordinate with the contrast stitching against the plain linen. I am going to try to make one.
Posted under Crafty Book/TV Review at 08:08 AM | Comments (5)
June 04, 2005
Puchi Maiko
Cool, puchi maiko's opened a store. I always love her posts to craftgrrl and craftster. So inspiring. She's got great flair for Japanese crafts. One her site, you can buy kanzashi flowers, and pouches, and bags of kimono scraps, and cute cute buttons made with kimono fabric like these:
Posted under Crafty Links at 02:37 PM | Comments (3)
June 02, 2005
Back
I'm back. Italy was fun. Not much crafty to report, though. Murano glass is pretty neat. I got some beads there that will no doubt make an appearance here sooner or later. There was supposed to be a lace museum on Burano, but we couldn't find it. Italian craft books are unfortunately not very exciting. They sure like decoupage.
Posted under Random at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)