Like I Need Another Project

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes

2009-06-11T18:01:55Z

Much of my crafting time lately has gone towards wedding preparations. There's a lot of stuff that we have decided to do ourselves. Not because it's cheaper necessarily, but because we are overly ambitious and like making crap.

We decided fairly early on that we wanted to give favors, and we wanted them to be local to San Francisco, and ideally chocolate. Then came the ideas for what to put said chocolates in. Originally we were going to fold fabric into origami boxes, but that quickly was ruled out to the amount of work. We're still going with the origami box idea, but now we are doing them in paper.

Finding the right paper has turned out to be a lot more difficult than originally thought. We've spent a lot of time at Flax, going through their paper books. We tried all different sizes to figure out how much and how many.

We finally ended up going with a paper we found online at PaperMojo. One of the things we loved about them is that they will cut the paper for us. We still have to cut the 336 pieces for the little liner boxes, but that's better than having to do all the cutting. We also have to find a ribbon that we like to make the bow on the box.

Now the fun starts: the folding! I have a feeling we are going to become experts in peak folds.

Super Sekrit Wedding Project #1

2009-06-05T15:51:48Z

Last night I finished Super Sekreit Wedding Project #1. I'm so tickled about I couldn't wait to post about it.

I started on Super Sekreit Wedding Project #2 last night as well. This yarn is the yarn I tried with the previous pattern that I realized wasn't working. So the yarn is a bit used. It feels a bit different than with #1, but I think it looks okay knitted up.

Super Sekrit Wedding Project #1
Started: January 24, 2009
Finished: June 5, 2009

Next Up... Sorta

2009-05-26T21:36:21Z

You'll never guess what I did this weekend -- KNIT!

It was so lovely. The house is finally unpacked and put together so we can just live in it, rather than be always working on it. So very nice.

I made lots of progress on Super Sekrit Wedding Project #1. Over 2/3 of the way done now. Sadly I can't really show it to you all until after August 8. I have 3 more Super Sekrit Wedding Projects to do too. So as soon as I finish this one I get to jump right into the next one. It's all good. I finally have the pattern down pat. And the yarn is so lovely to hold.

I did go and buy yarn to make the sweater that's in the photo here. It's the Susie Hoodie from the More Big Girl Knits book.

I'm finding that I really want a jacket that I can wear that isn't as heavy as my red wool coat, but is more dressy than a hoodie or the parka shell. I think this will fit the bill.

I don't get to start working on it until I've finished all the Super Sekrit Projects though. It's so hard though. I have 19 skeins of Knit Pick's Wool of the Andes in black cherry that keep calling to me from the craft room.

I'm a bit intimidated by a project this big. But the majority of the pattern is stockinette, so that should go quick, right? I read through the pattern yesterday and I'm a bit confused as to how the sleeves get attached. It seems there is little in the way of seaming. I'm sure it will make sense once I have part of it in front of me for reference.

Soft-Maps

2009-05-15T16:59:46Z

The Craftzine Blog has been on a roll lately. They have another great link today.

The Haptic Lab makes handmade quilts of maps. They do ones for Brooklyn or you can commission one of your favorite location.

I love the puckering that the stitches makes. I'm sure it feels amazing under the fingers, especially since they make them in dupioni silk. My brain is churning on the best way to get the map transferred to the fabric. There's so much fun that you could have with this. Green thread around parks. Blue around blocks with libraries and schools. Though the single color does add a certain something to the overall effect.

I'll have to add this to the pile of inspiring ideas.

Bad-Mouthed Beatrix Potter Embroidery

2009-05-12T23:27:07Z

I'm not sure how I came upon the Mr. X Stitch blog. I think it may have been on the Craft Magazine's blog's post about male crafters.

Anyway, he featured this woman's work for his Craftster Pick of the Week.

TheMisstressT made something special for a friend who is battling cancer. She took a piece of Beatrix Potter toile of Jemima Puddleduck and the Fancy Whiskered Gentleman, and made this:

OMG it made me laugh. Be sure to go to his post to see all the images. It's so lovely.

Itchy Fingers

2009-04-29T19:53:56Z

Can you all do me a favor and look for the past month, which I seem to have lost? I'm worried that it's stuck under a sofa cushion or fell behind a bookcase. I have no idea how it got the be the end of April. I swear it was just March. The crafting has taken a back seat for me lately, which is sad and really starting to wear on me.

The good news is that we are all settled into our new home. We're renting a lovely Victorian (built in 1875, so take that earthquakes!) and E and I each have our own rooms upstairs. My room doubles as the spare bedroom. But it means I can use the bed as a big flat workspace. I'm not sure where to set-up my sewing machine yet. But the bins for the stash are all organized. There's a big window in the corner that lets lots of light in. I can't wait to start working in there.

Pictures soon, I promise! As soon as I can remember where I put the camera.

Handmade Nation Premiere

2009-03-10T05:16:56Z

I'm seriously thinking of going to this. From the San Francisco Film Society website:

The San Francisco Film Society is screening Handmade Nation on Wed March 11 at 7:30 PM at Mezzanine (444 Jessie Street at Mint). Tickets are $8 for SFFS members and $12 for non-members.

Handmade Nation by Faythe Levine (USA, 2009)

Buying local for many means buying handmade objects that are designed and fabricated with ingenuity, grit and love. Handmade Nation documents a movement of artists, crafters and designers that imbue traditional handiwork techniques with a punky do-it-yourself ethos informed by modern aesthetics, politics, feminism and art. The film explores the burgeoning art community of indie crafters that is fueled by creativity, determination and networking. First-time director Faythe Levine traveled the U.S. to capture the tight-knit community, conducting interviews in the studios and homes of noted and independent artists. Levine also details how Web sites, blogs and online stores have spurred a once underground movement and how crafts have expanded to connect with the greater public through boutiques, galleries and fairs.

Following the screening there will be a discussion with Lisa Congdon, owner of retailer Rare Device; Derek Fagerstrom, Craft and DIY Co-editor at design*sponge and co-owner of The Curiosity Shoppe; Natalie Zee Drieu, Senior Editor of Craft magazine; and Stephanie Syjuco, fine artist and professor.

Selling their work will be the following artists and vendors: Dutch Door Press, Diana Fayt, Cara Lyndon, Miss Natalie, Mittenmaker, Nous Savons, Sharon Spain, Woolly Hoodwinks, Zum, The Curiosity Shoppe, Little Otsu, Needles & Pens and Rare Device.

The CNN Sweater

2009-03-02T19:08:00Z

I first started knitting back in December 2005. I worked on a small scarf-type thing for awhile and quickly realized I was hooked. In February 2006 I started working on The CNN Project, and so was flying back and forth to Hotlanta a lot. I decided that I'd start a bigger project, something that I could take on the plane with me and would keep me busy for awhile.

I went to visit the lovely people over at Skein Lane in El Cerrito (this was back when I was living in Berkeley). They helped me find a pattern that work. I got a huge pack of Cascade 220 yarn in a lovely heathered maroon color.

I worked on this sweater a lot, at first. It taught me how to do increases and raglan sleeves. When I started it, I didn't know how to pick up with a new ball of yarn. So I cut my ends short and tied them in a knot. I added three more skeins, with a different join method (all wrong) for each one.

Then we hit the Thanksgiving of 2006 and there was the night of the drunken knitting while at Erik's dad's house in Colorado. I had yarn overs and mysterious increases and decreases all over the place. But I had made significant progress and couldn't bring myself to rip it out. So instead, I put the sweater aside and started working on other projects.

A few months ago I finally picked this sweater back up. I ripped out all of the drunken knitting, and all of the bad joins, all the way back to the end of the first skein. I've now knitted back (evenly and with good joins) just about everything that I ripped out.

I switched the project to my addiTurbo needles, instead of the Clover bamboo ones. Oh my goodness does that make a difference. The wool just slides right over the metal. Now I pull this project out when I want to knit but don't want to have to pay attention. It's all done in the round, in stockinette. My skills have certainly advanced beyond it. But at some point I will finish it. My first sweater.

Watermelon Self-Striping Yarn!

2009-02-20T21:20:33Z

This is the most adorable yarn that I have ever seen.

Freshisle Fibers sells self-striping sock yarn that looks like watermelons! It's so cute! It's hand-dyed with wool from the sheep of Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. They also have other wonderful looking yarns, of the striping variety and not.

Sadly, they are out of stock of all their watermelon yarns. Hopefully they will make some more soon. I gotta get me some of THAT!

Stash Envy

2009-02-18T06:01:47Z

I just stumbled upon the most lovely quilting blog, Oh Fransson, by Elizabeth Hartman.

I am totally in love with her fabric closet. Seriously... head over to her site and check out the photos of her stash. My heart goes pitter patter at all the organized colored lovelyness.

This weekend I updated my yarn stash listing over at Ravelry. I took all kinds of photos of yarn, which I will spare you here. But I did snap this pic of the wool drawer of my stash. Mmm... yarn.

Goodbye Craft Magazine

2009-02-11T22:56:00Z

Craft Magazine was a cute little hipster magazine put out by the makers of Make Magazine. They announced today that they are ceasing their print publication and Craft will continue on as a web-only publication.

I have issues 1-8 of Craft. I feel a bit guilty to hear that they are closing down, as I didn't renew my subscription when we started heavy-duty wedding savings. I'd like to get the last two issues, just so I have the complete set. There was usually a project or two in each issue that were interesting.

I also subscribe to the RSS feed for the Craft Blog. I have to admit, I enjoy it more than I did the printed version. Though it does often overlap with Curbly and some other crafty blogs that I read. It often makes me laugh how I'll see the same project picked up and posted on multiple sites. I guess it should make me feel good that I'm staying up-to-date. Or something.

RIP printed Craft Magazine. I knew you when.

A Yarn By Any Other Name...

2009-02-09T23:21:21Z

As a rule, I don't like to buy yarn on the internet sight unseen. If I have seen the yarn in person, or have a really good idea of what it will be like, I'll get it online. But generally I like to feel the yarn before I purchase it.

Last week though, I didn't do that. I purchased two skeins on a total impulse, with nothing but the hint of what it might be like. What prompted me to such reckless, stash filling behavior?

I had found a link to this:

I *HAD* to buy it. The yarn has my name! It still seems strange to me to look at the tag and see my name printed on it. The yarn is a lovely mohair blend. I got the dark charcoal color, which has bits of silver running through it.

I've already picked out the pattern on Raverly that I'm going to make with it. It's a lacy scarf. It's really hard not to abandon my other projects that are in flight to start working on this one. I mean, YARN. WITH MY NAME! *squee*

And a Matching Scarf

2009-02-02T04:28:20Z

I loved the Gingerbread cable hat that I made for Joann for Christmas so much, that I decided to make one for myself. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though I may make it a bit deeper. It's lovely soft and warm -- I wore it during the inauguration.

I think it would have been better in a solid color, but I had this variegated Merino wool and figured I might as well use it. I had used this yarn to make an Amanda hat for myself, but I didn't like how it turned out at all. It works much better in this incarnation. Seeing how I have a number of balls left over after the hat, I decided to make a matching scarf.

I love the gingerbread cable and luckily the pattern was pretty easy to modify. And the ladder stripes between the cables help so the edges don't roll up.

It's a little on the thin side, but I'd much rather have a longer than wider scarf. Given how much I have left, I figured I'd err on the skinny side. It's a pretty quick knit, though I have a number of projects going at the moment, so this one has been quiet for a few weeks. The fact that it is quickly becoming too warm for scarves means this one may sit on the back burner for a bit.

Cabled Hat for Erik

2009-01-26T23:27:08Z

Egads, has it really been more than a month since I posted here? Sorry about that folks. It's not that knitting and crafting haven't been happening. I just haven't had a chance to photograph the evidence. Let's get you all caught up, shall we?

I picked up a wonderful skein of Malabrigo merino wool at ImagiKnit awhile ago. It was one of their test batches. It's a lovely, lightly variegated blue, in a slightly heavier weight than their normal worsted weight. I figured that I could make Erik a hat with it someday. Well, two Saturdays ago we were packing for our trip to Washington DC to see Obama sworn in as president and we realized that E didn't have a winter hat. 'Lantic oceans! I packed up some needles and grabbed that skein and resolved to have a hat for him by Tuesday morning.

Of course he didn't want a plain hat, he wanted one with a cable. He really liked the Gingerbread Cabled Hat I made for JoAnne and myself, but I was afraid it might been a bit too feminine. So I modified the pattern. It took me three tries to cast on the right number of stitches. His head is much bigger than it looks.

Rather than the ladder bits between the cables that the Gingerbread Cables have, I just did a simple one knit column between the cables. This also allowed me to get more cables in. I cast on Sunday morning on the plane and knit all the way across the country. Then as much of Monday as I could while visiting. His cousins laughed at me and didn't think I could finish it, but by 11 PM Monday it was done.

Because this ended up being heavier than the typical worsted weight, it meant there wasn't quite as much yarn in the skein. I started to worry that I was going to run out of yarn before completing it. So it has a rather abrupt finish to it, with a knit 2, knit 2 together for the final few rows. I think I will go back and make it a tad bit deeper, since it was a bit small for him.

I'm rather proud how this turned out, over all. It's the first hat I've done without a pattern at all. And it's so soft and warm. The color looks great on him too.

Stockings & Hands

2009-01-04T17:46:15Z

I was able to finish E's stocking before Christmas. It was about 11:30 PM on Christmas Eve when I finished weaving in the ends, but hey. It was before Christmas!

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. The pattern is quite lovely. And most importantly, E loves it.

I also made a stocking for his mom, since she joined us on Christmas Day. Since I started it on Christmas Eve, it wasn't done in time for Christmas. She had the long standing traditional Christmas Tube instead.

I was able to finish it by the 27th though, so she did see the finished product before flying back to CT. It's amazing how much faster it was just doing the solid color.

The bad news with all this knitting is that I have completely burned my hands out. It started with the marathon knitting at the beginning of the month to complete the shrug. I've tried very hard not to knit anything for the past week. I worked a bit on a hat for me on New Year's Eve and that was enough to send me back into pain. At it's worst, I have numbness in 2 fingers, pain in the joints and bones, and a deep ache in my wrist.

I realized that all my hobbies involve fine, repetitive motions with my hands: knitting, quilting, cross-stitch. It's made the last days of vacation tortuous, as I had been so looking forward to crafting and now I can't. The good news is my hands do seem to be responding to three days of rest. The bad new is that better is not the same as good. They still hurt and the joints are stiff, just not nearly as badly. I've been doing some stretches and am going to see the acupuncturist this week. I'm hoping with another week of rest they will recover. I can't imagine not making things with my hands -- I have to figure out how to take care of them while still using them.