Thought burps

Go the fuck to sleep

2012-01-26T08:47:00.002-05:00

Here is my current wish: I wish I could program myself to sleep on time. Ideally, I'd set sleep/wake times - I'd get warnings at 30min and 10 min before sleep time, and I'd get 20 minutes leeway in the morning (though of course this could be reset if needed). Sleep is entirely difficult. (I'd rather not have to eat than not have to sleep, but that's only because I have alllllll the food issues.)

Shelves

2012-01-21T04:26:00.003-05:00

I got some! From the garbage! So now I actually have a real place to put my knitted shirts! So much win.

Everyone always tells me I'm wonderful, and it's turning me into a bitch.

2012-01-18T03:25:00.001-05:00

I need some constructive criticism, yo!

I think the main problem is that I don't have many close friends who are better than (or equivalent to) me at the things I care about. Clearly I need to be more social and actually talk to people. (I'd really rather just hang out in my room and make stuff.)

I can crit myself (though I'm not sure how constructive it is), but it's got less impact when it comes from my own brain - plus it's easier to forget. Self: go socialize with interesting people and stop being a jerk!

On another note, I finished a couple nice knitted things (plus some embroidered stuff from last term!) that I need to take nice pictures of, but I keep sleeping till 2pm (notice how it's 3am right now?) and miss the good light. I guess I could go outside, but it's COLD. And I don't have a backyard.

Do any embroiders have a good recommendation for a stitch guide? I want to get better at this! I'm thinking something along the lines of this site, but in book form.

Also, related to books, The Principles of Knitting is being re-released. Now, full disclosure, I don't actually know much (anything) about this book, but the title makes me really excited for it! I hope I get a co-op job so I can buy it without having to wait until it comes out in paperback. (If it ever does. Damn you, Loop-d-Loop, and your delicious hardcover patterns!)

Too much stuff

2012-01-11T20:52:00.001-05:00

I'm running out of space for my knitted things. I also have too much yarn. So, my goal is to clear out one box (milk crate) of yarn, so I can keep sweaters and things there instead. This is going to be very difficult. The yarn is reeeeally stuffed in there tight. Plus, I reeeeally like buying yarn.

Since it looks like I'll have to move again soon (I hate my landlady/co-op) cutting down on the yarn is probably a good plan. I would really like to not have to move. I've lived at my current place for two and a half years, and I've acquired a lot of stuff. Ok, going to stop writing as this is making me stressed. Going to go to other work now. Sigh.

A Question for skilled draw-ers (drawers?)

2012-01-02T21:47:00.000-05:00

Here is the skill I would like to develop:

Drawing: (left hand = picture one) (right hand = picture two)

How often should I switch for optimal skill development? I am willing to spend time practicing.

My instinct says switch every time. y/n?

I've been (mirroring lines and circles, looking at the paper) and (drawing circles with both hands, not looking).

Do I find it more difficult to draw a line than a circle? Which is preferable? Should I draw lines first? Perpendicular to each other? Lines and circles? Circles and lines? (Circle Circle) (Line Line) ?

I am enjoying having this thought and excited to work on this skill. I would appreciate input if you feel that you: (have a constructive response) or (don't understand and want explanation)

It's like an owl without a graduation cap: heartbreaking!

2011-10-25T19:14:00.001-04:00

Fuck.

On a similar note: I went to the post office (the one 5 blocks away, NOT the one I can see from my window) to pick up a package, in the rain, carrying a very bulky canvas. In the mailbox when I got home: another delivery slip for a package that was at the same post office. Arg.

Nifty hats

2011-10-20T02:18:00.000-04:00

I made a hat!

Now, I make a lot of hats, so this isn't really a huge thing, but this is a pretty neat hat so I want to talk about it.

This was made from some yarn I dyed a while ago. Using intentional pooling, I made the colours line up (because I'm awesome like that) and then I gave it pseudo-ears because they are adorable. I'd write up a pattern for this, but since it really depends on the way the yarn was dyed to work, and since I dyed it myself, it probably wouldn't be all that useful.

But yeah! Hat! I guess i didn't actually want to say all that much about it, but I really like it, and so now I am posting about it hooray. Here it is flat:

I also made a similar hat, using the same yarn but a different number of stitches:

It's interesting how just changing the number of stitches has such a big effect. Neat!

I knitted SO MANY THINGS

2011-10-11T03:26:00.001-04:00

Including Octopus Mittens! One of them is significantly larger than the other...my plan is to attach an i-cord like kindergarten kids have, so they won't fall off. Hopefully. If that fails I'll try adding elastic, but I'm worried it will wrinkle the design.

Here's some more stuff I've made: (apologies for the dubious photos)

I only made the blue section of the last mitten - I took fingerless gloves to a festival, and it was much colder than expected, so I had to do some impromptu mitten surgery.

This shirt was made with dumpster yarn:

These two were made with my handspun/dyed:

(The one on the left is a Kobo cover.)

This cowl:

is made with the only non-blue-y yarn I got at the Knitter's Fair, and it's sooooooo nice - delightful colours, and it's wonderfully soft and squishy. It's Wink Wink Worsted, by Studioloo, who are super awesome and should definitely be investigated if you're into yarn. They make awesome crazy art yarn too!

(This is the yarn I got at the Knitter's Fair, by the way:)

That's all for now.

Free Yarn!

2011-09-30T02:47:00.001-04:00

I got free yarn! Is there anything better than free yarn? (The only correct answer is "more free yarn.")

Anyway, this gorgeous skein is courtesy of Storied Yarns.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/storiedyarns?page=3"Storied

The colourway is called "Green Lantern Goes Skinny Dipping" - I love the awesome names she gives her colourways! I am super excited to use this yarn - I asked for a surprise colorway, and she picked so perfectly, squeeee!

Very excited.

Go to Storied Yarns!

Socked

2011-09-12T00:23:00.000-04:00

Ah, knitted socks. There's just something about knitting socks....I don't know what it is, or any useful way to describe it, but it's definitely A Thing. Initially, I was quite against knitting socks. I made a couple pairs to try it, and the experience was quite unsatisfying. All those teeny tiny knit stitches, and those awful, awful double-pointed needles. They're just so annoying. Neither of these pairs really worked out. The first set had one foot bigger than the other and mismatched dyelots (I lost the yarn label), the second set were just waaaay too large. They can be used for winter, when your feet are freezing and you want to layer six million socks - but that's about it. Unless you are a giant with giant feet.

(Please ignore how dirty my floor is.)

Recently, I tried again. Knitted socks, even badly made ones, feel amazing on your feet. I'd never thought store-bought socks were particularly uncomfortable, but apparently that was just because I'd never had knitted socks. I really wanted some socks that actually fit - maybe then they'd be worth it? I'd educated myself a bit more by this time, so I a) used two circular needles and b) found a sock pattern that was actually interesting.

Much better, right? Plus, no dirty floor!

These socks were actually fun! I really like patterns with creative construction (the heel was really cleverly put together!), and the increases/decreases that made the stripes diagonal made it much more interesting than just stockinette. When I want stockinette, I'll make yarn bombs. These were still a bit big, but only a little bit. Maybe socks weren't so bad...

So next, I made some diagonally ribbed socks that were worked inside out. Neat, right? So neat! I finished them on a car trip (which was good, because otherwise I would have run out of socks). They turned out a little small at the ankle, so they're a bit challenging to get on, but once they're on they fit nicely! I like interesting stitch patterns - this one was interesting, but easy to memorize, which is always nice. I also love how this yarn knitted up, I didn't expect it to be so marvelously rainbow!

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with these ones. And now I...really like knitting socks. I honestly didn't see that coming, I thought I'd enjoy it well enough, and the satisfaction of handknitted socks would be enough to keep me going. But, it turns out, the people who rant out making socks actually know what they're talking about! The last sock I made turned out HORRIBLY, but it's not going to stop me from making more socks, so I guess I'm devoted to the cause now. (I have a picture of it, but I'm not going to show you - it's just too ugly. It's frogged now, thank goodness.) I'm still not going to use $20+ sock yarn on socks (it just seems like such a waste, for at least three reasons) - but who knows what I'll think a week from now?

Dryad Armwarmers Pattern

2011-08-06T00:44:00.003-04:00

It is on the internet! Click the picture to go to the Ravelry page!

(It's also on etsy here)

Whenever I get patterns tested, 3/4 of the testers finish within a week, and the others wait until RIGHT before the deadline. Perhaps I should have a shorter test period, especially since I've only made small things so far.

Various things:

I have plans for a super exciting pattern that I'm not going to tell you about yet. It will involve tiny buttons!

In what I can only describe as an incredibly rewarding experience, I got paid to go to a yarn store. Teaching people to knit is awesome.

I'm knitting socks for myself. Using two circulars instead of DPNs make me hate it so much less.

Two exams next week, then I'm free for a month! Apart from all the non-school things I need to do! I'm 90% done another pocket belt (for selling this time), and I reeeeally need to clean.

Sleep time now.

Srs Bsns

2011-07-12T16:17:00.004-04:00

A friend told me to join LibraryThing. It was a poor decision on my part to do this last night - I have two midterms tomorrow. My profile is here if you want to look at my books. I added all the books I have here, plus some of the ones that are back at my parents' house, which wasn't reallly allll that many? But then I went on the forums and ended up placing 27 holds at the library, about 15 of which I picked up today. It was neat, I went in and 3/4 of the books on one self in the holds section had my name on them. I felt special. But now I have some Serious Reading to do. (Squee!)

In knitting-related news, I've written a new pattern!

They are leafy armwarmers (I call them Dryad Armwarmers because I'm awesome like that). The pattern page on ravelry is here, but the pattern won't be live until my testers have finished. If you just can't wait till then, I made two pairs, in green and red-y colours, which are available on etsy.

Also on etsy is some handspun (click the picture):

It's respun acrylic, about 124 yards (113m).

Arts Squared + Rings

2011-06-16T16:37:00.004-04:00

I've signed up for an art/craft fair on June 25th. It's called Arts Squared, and it's in the square in uptown Waterloo, and you should come if you're around! It's from 12 - 5pm. I'm bringing a whole bunch of different crafts I have lying around my room, including some rings I made:

I also just finished knitting myself a shirt. It's a slightly modified version of this pattern, and it's cotton yarn, so it's great for summer. The yarn annoys me for a couple reasons: it's cotton and I hate knitting with cotton, and there are no dye lots, so each skein is the same colours but in different proportions (as you can see, the top half is significantly pinker where I switched skeins). Bah. I'm pleased with how it turned out though, even though I was kind of lazy when I was knitting it, and didn't fix any mistakes - luckily they're not super obvious.

Happy Yarn Bombing Day!

2011-06-12T04:34:00.003-04:00

.....yesterday. I'm a bit late - but! I have exciting yarn-bombing related news! I've been published in a book of yarn-bombing photos. The book isn't released yet, but I have an advance copy, and it's a great little book with pictures of yarn bombing from all over the world. Plus it has a squishy cover! If you want a collection of inspiring yarn bombing photos it's an awesome choice. This is what it looks like:

In celebration of yarn bombing day, I went out with some friends and two bags full of yarn bombing bits. We didn't get through everything (we had to get to a play in the evening), but we put up quite a lot. Observe:

Lucidity

2011-06-05T01:09:00.005-04:00

I had my very first lucid dream experience today! It was very enjoyable, but I definitely need some practice. I got a stampede of elephants on my first try though! Which has to count for something.

In less ethereal news, I've been sewing a lot! I'm getting noticeably faster at it too, which is pretty great. I don't have pictures of the most recent things I've made, but I made a fairy skirt and a pocket belt which both turned out very well indeed.

Action shot and flat shot. It's made from many irregular triangles that I hemmed without folding over the edges (is there a name for that?) then sewed together at the top. I added some lacing so I can tighten it if I want, made with braided yarn with a bead and wire wrap at the end. I really like these sorts of details! I'm not great at making jewelry (plus there's a LOT of competition in that field) but I like beads and wire, and adding little details like this are super fun. Plus, eyelets are great, though I never seem to be at the eyelet stage of anything before 10pm - luckily my roommates are almost always awake then, and the people who live above me make enough noise on a regular basis that I have no mercy for them. Anyway, detail shot:

The other thing I'm super proud of (and have already started using daily) is my pocket belt:

(Sorry for the shadow-y picture.) It's got three pockets; a big one and two smaller ones. It's so very very useful, it's like a purse except you don't have to carry it (and it's a lot harder to loose). Since I wear skirts pretty much constantly, it also solves the problem of never having any pockets. Plus I can fit my knitting or a book in the big pocket. The only problem I've discovered so far is that it does make it slightly trickier (but not impossible) to hoop while wearing it.

Many pictures because I like it so much:

Finally, I want to take a moment to be pleased with myself at how well these pictures turned out:

I took these without a light box or fancy camera or ANYTHING, just on my table with some natural light. Plus, I only used photo editing software to crop them, so woo-hoo! (Incidentally, this scarf is up on etsy. Ahem.)

Willpower

2011-05-31T00:18:00.005-04:00

Willpower is difficult. I have large amounts of willpower with things I actually want to do - like knitting, sewing, crafts in general. I am very good at Making Things Happen; telling people what to do, organizing them, and then standing over them to make sure they actually do things (while helping out with whatever I'm organizing, of course). I've gotten pretty good at actually getting out of bed in the morning and leaving the house when I need to, even though I never really want to do either of those things. Eating regularly is still a huge challenge - I really wish I enjoyed cooking, but I just don't. At all. Enjoying eating would be a huge help as well, but still working through those issues.

So, as a person, I'm imperfect (duh), but I'm aware of a bunch of stuff I need to work on developing, enough to keep me occupied for a while at least. (Most of it is going to stay private.) But I'm definitely better than I was, which is awesome!

(Side note: I'm getting progressively worse at spelling though. I blame it entirely on spell check?)

My real difficulty right now is school and school-related things. I'm in math, getting a minor in fine art. I love the fine art classes (admittedly I've only taken two so far) but I'm taking math classes for the first time in a while (for complicated reasons) and ....I just really don't enjoy them all that much. They're boring, not all that well taught, and I just can't find any enthusiasm for doing the assignments. I don't want to learn this math just so I can repeat it on exams, just so I can pass courses. I do get something out of finishing a problem, but I never care if I did it properly, and I don't care enough to do more work than is one the assignments. I know that to be good at anything you need to work really really hard for a really really long time, and quite frankly I just don't care enough about math to do that.

Ideally, I want to know a bunch of stuff about a bunch of different things, but what I really care about is crafts, and that's what I've cared about since kindergarten. I probably should have found a job and taken the summer off to try and figure stuff out, but I didn't so now I need to deal with courses I don't really want to be in.

The main reason I don't just run with the craft thing and switch to fine art is that I'm really (really) terrible at not spending money. I'm definitely not as bad as I could be, but I basically have no income and I spend my food money on frivolous things I don't really need. Admittedly, it's not tonnes of money, but with no income it might as well be. I'm getting better at making instead of buying, but now I just spend my money on craft supplies. I don't know if I am skilled enough to support myself by crafts, either. I'm working on making more things to sell this summer, as well as getting commissions from friends, so we'll see how well that goes.

Really though, I just want to be a fairy when I grow up. A yarn fairy.

Scrappy Scarves

2011-05-28T22:21:00.006-04:00

Scrappy scarves are great. I started making them a while ago, originally to use for yarn bombing, but it turns out they are awesome for scarves as well, so I've started making them to sell. (Don't hate me, I need the money! For...more yarn.)

They're very relaxing to make, plus they use up leftover tiny balls of yarn that wouldn't get used otherwise. Plus, when they get long enough, I can use one end as a scarf while I'm knitting the other end! Which makes me feel like the coolest person ever.

This blue and purple one is currently available on etsy!

Shall We Knit is here!!

2011-05-27T11:11:00.004-04:00

It's very very exciting! Shall We Knit?, a yarn store that lived in New Hamburg, has moved to Waterloo! Not only that, but they moved to a location that takes me all of five minutes to walk to. I am ridiculously excited....they have a whole ROOM just for sock yarn! If you are in Waterloo and spend any time knitting at all, I really really recommend you check them out, they have some marvelously delicious things. (Including a wonderful selection of Koigu.)

And because blog posts are no fun without pictures, here's what I got when I visited (adhering to my only-buy-one-thing decision):

It's Koigu (of course), my plan is to make fingerless gloves that I'll actually wear.

In other news, I spun this yarn:

It is very lumpy and uneven, but that is was I was going for (I didn't prep the fibre at all). I am calling it "acidity" for no particular reason. There's only about 94m here, but I have a bunch of this fibre, so I'll probably spin most of it up like this, and make another hood:

In exciting news, I may be doing a yarn bombing workshop at love.MADE, pending figuring some stuff out. More details will follow as they become available! If it works out I may try to get more involved with them, because they are literally just down the street from my house.

Finally, I've started to give knitting and crochet lessons! $15/hr for individual lessons or $8/hr/person for group lessons. Materials available for a fee or you can bring them yourself. Flexible times and locations. Comment if you're interested, but I don't have a car, so Waterloo-Kitchener area is really the only area I can work with.

Flashin' My Stash

2011-05-17T02:27:00.005-04:00

So, as you may know if you're a local yarnie, Herrschners (a local yarn and scrapbooking store) was having a closing sale last week. I got some very nice yarn:

for a rather decent price. The red skeins on top are cashmere. But then when I got home, I couldn't fit them onto my yarn shelves, so obviously the only solution was to reorganize ALLLLLLLL my yarn. So I put in on my bed:

...which was a lovely experience. Then I organized everything by fiber type and quality:

Cheaper wool:

A very small part of my crappy acrylic:

Some nicer acrylic:

Handspun, handdyed and dying yarn:

Non-wool fibers:

My fancy nice wool:

It's nice to have yarn yarn yarn yarn. I went wading:

New Pattern Published!

2011-05-16T17:30:00.002-04:00

I've published another pattern! For this hat:

It's available on ravelry or on etsy.

This hat is very large! It's designed to accommodate bulky hair, dreadlocks, or just be super floppy. There are two subtle cables but otherwise it is a basic hat. If you want the hat without having to make it, it's currently still available on etsy.

Websites

2011-04-28T23:25:00.006-04:00

My website.

It is terrible.

The difficulty (well, the main one) is that I don't know how to make websites. I don't particularly want to learn either, I either want to just have it done or magically know how to do it. Artistic things I enjoy learning, computer-y things not so much. I don't mind it when it's a program I can click around in and figure everything out, but making a nice website requires a little more focus and effort than that. Plus I don't know what I want it to look like.

I have a slightly dodgey banner I made for my etsy store.

...which is basically all the work I've put into my website, aside from the slightly eyewatering text that's currently up. But I wrote all THAT html myself! (Mostly.)

I think the nicest site I've seen recently is loish.net, which is a site for an artist who draws wonderful things! My favourite is this one:

(Although this one comes a close second.)

But her website is nice too, pretty without being confusing or cluttered. So possibly I will try and make something similar (without copying of course, that just isn't classy. Plus it's kind of suspicious if you're promoting yourself as an artist/artisan and you have to copy your website design from someone else...).

On an entirely different note, I am on an extremely unsatisfying family vacation. I have not had anything resembling privacy for a week and it's starting to get to me. I'll be fine once I get home and have spent a couple hours in my room with the door shut, but right now I am a bundle of stress. I have a renewed appreciation for being allowed to turn the lights on when I need to pee in the middle of the night, and for not living in a house with dogs or cats.

Only two more days.

Why dreadlocks and physics are incompatible

2011-04-11T15:33:00.005-04:00

I'm not saying that my dreads don't obey physics (that would be pretty sweet...or possibly horribly painful...hm.) just that I'm trying to study for my physics final, and here is why right at this instant dreads are pretty much the worst idea:

My head was itchy, so this morning I washed it.
But when I wash my dreads they stay wet for about 12 hours or more.
THEY'RE STILL WET.
...which is making my head a bit itchy.
So I scritch scritch my head, but then:
I find a lump or loose hair or something else wrong with a dread!
So I pull at the lump until it turns into sticking out hair.
Then I spend 5 minutes threading the loose hair back in (so it doesn't leave a lump).
Then I spend half an hour obsessively going over my head trying to find MORE things wrong with my dreads that NEED to be fixed.
Then I tell myself to STOP THAT and tie my hair back.
Then I remember my hair's still wet, and won't dry unless I let it loose again.
So I let it loose again.
BUT! As I'm letting it loose I find a lump or loose hair or something else wrong.
Then I repeat steps 7 - 13 until I realize it's been three hours since I looked at physics.
Then I start swearing at myself.
Then I go find someone to hug.
Then I look at physics for five minutes until I get distracted and write this blog post.
Then I'm totally productive until 4am when I pass out from being up for 24 hours. RIGHT!??! RIGHT?!?! THAT'S CLEARLY WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

Ah fuck.

Official Post

2011-04-09T01:49:00.009-04:00

Blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. For no particular reason, I've spent over twelve hours in bed today, most of them asleep. Sometimes these things just happen, but I have to say that waking up when it's dark out is super unmotivating. Going to sleep as the sun rises is always a pleasure though.

It's officially spring now: the first house centipede of the year has been spotted. Ants are also starting to invade; I don't mind ants so much though, they're smaller and eat dead flies. And they don't scurry so terrifyingly quickly.

I made some mushrooms:

Two of them can be used as tops! (The spinning kind)

I also cleaned and reorganized my ENTIRE room. If you've ever seen my room you know how impressive this is - I have a lot of stuff. So now I can actually see my floor - it turns out I have floor space! What a radical concept. It took a couple days, but now I am really pleased with myself.

My lovely friends found me a slashed canvas in a dumpster, and obviously this was the best use for it:

(I might end up fixing it up a bit at some point, but right now I'm too lazy.)

I'm working on a couple hat patterns. I have a crochet one written down in my notebook but I'm not really sure what the best way to write it out is - I think I need to chart it, but I can't find crochet chart software, and I think it might be a little illegible if I wrote it out by hand. But it's an awesome hat, so I'll have to do it eventually.

Finally, here's a couple tags I put up about a year ago. Sorry for the crappy pictures, they're from my phone.

I like my men like I like my women: androgynous

2011-03-28T13:37:00.002-04:00

I have the best new game for raves. I find someone with an animal backpack (there are usually lots of animal backpacks), put kandi on the animal's arm (or other available limb) and run away before the person sees me. It's actually the most fun ever.

Less fun is that I think I got sick this weekend. I hurt my legs at the rave because I got upset and danced too hard without pacing myself properly, so now I can't walk. Plus I keep feeling cold even when I'm really warm. This is not a good time to get sick.

I made some things

2011-03-12T13:24:00.004-05:00

And then I took pictures of them!

I finished my sketchbook so I painted the cover. I painted it like FIRE.

Fly off.

Blood rain.

A magic card book from a tutorial here!

Last night I didn't sleep because I'm nocturnal again, so I made a skirt with ducks on it. It's made from a kid's raincoat, a sweater, and a t-shirt.

duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck duck

SCIENCE FICTION

2011-03-12T11:41:00.010-05:00

I really really love SF, as it turns out. I just finished reading The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection, and the last story freaked me right out (ghost hospital ship that makes zombies (sort of) = gaak). I'm glad I have got my sleep schedule all turned around (AGAIN), because it meant I got to read it daylight. Even if no one else was home.

Anyway, this is only the second one of these anthologies I've actually read all the way through, because they always end up being due at the library before I've finished them, even when I renew them three times. And then I never remember where in the book I was, so I don't get the same ones out again because OH NO I might actually read the same stories again. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, but I don't always think things all the way through.

ANYWAY, every so often (when reading these sorts of books) I find a story that I just LOVE in a very special way, so I'm going to start compiling a list of my very favourite stories so that I can read them again without having to comb the internet to find out where exactly I read them in the first place, and what exactly they are called. This is going to be a list of favourite SHORT STORIES, not novels or authors because then I would be THE MOST DISTRACTED and would find twelve million books I want to read again, and pile them in my bed and then I would have nowhere to sleep. Except the couch. (Which is currently two small couches pushed together, and is actually really comfy.)

ANYWAY.

The very first favouritest story is available for your reading pleasure online. (Hurrah!) It is called Second Person, Present Tense and it is by Daryl Gregory. READ IT ONLINE RIGHT NOW.

The second story is about teenage girls. I have to admit that I have a strong weakness for science fiction about teenage girls (not as strong as my weakness for science fiction about girls WHO ARE EXACTLY MY AGE, but it's definitely up there). Even if you don't like teenage girls you might like this story anyway (plus it's a short story, so what have you got to loose?). Unfortunately, I couldn't find it online, so you might have to head to a library for this one: Hives, by Kara Dalkey. It's published in Firebirds Rising, which has some other good stories in it too!

The third story has a silly story that goes with it. I first read this story at the library in high school and it was SO EXCITING but then I returned the book and I looked and looked and looked but I just couldn't find it again (I couldn't remember what it was called), and it was a very upsetting time for me. I forgot about it and then remembered again, then forgot, then remembered when I started thinking about this list. Apparently since the last time I looked for this story I've learned to use google properly, because I found title/author on the first try. I then googled around but couldn't find it online, so I checked, and sure enough, it was on my computer. And has been on my computer for at least three years. I just reread it - and it's a nice story, but not nearly as awesomely mind-blowing as I remember it being in high school. But it still gets a place on the list because it stuck in my head for so long. Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

The fourth story I couldn't find online, but I've told it to people out loud (without the book) and they still thought it was cool, so it has to be worthwhile, right? I thought it was a really cute story (but apparently I have an odd idea of what cute means). Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds. It's been published a few different places, so give it a google and hopefully something will pop up.

The final story (for now - I'm pretty sure there are other stories that I can't remember right now because I've been awake for a little too long) I just read YESTERDAY so I'm still all excited about it and have been spoiling it for all my friends. THAT WILL TEACH THEM TO TALK TO ME. This story involves the words "aviatrix" and "non-Euclidean geometry," so you know it's totally rad. The Pacific Mystery by Stephen Baxter. (ETA: you can read it here!)

Go forth and read these stories! Otherwise you will be sad and I will be sad and we'll just be the biggest bundle of sad, and it will start snowing again, and it will STAY WINTER FOREVER. Like in Narnia but with sad overtones instead of christian ones.

Painting

2011-03-06T21:20:00.005-05:00

One of my classes this term is an intro to studio arts, which translates as learning to paint. I haven't been super satisfied with anything I've done for class because we've been doing representational projects, and I really prefer more abstract things. But luckily I have a bunch of tiny canvases sitting around, so I painted those as well.

Wakeful. This one is my favourite out of this set. 3" x 5".

Topside. I used a picture from a calendar and a broken pin. 3" x 5".

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Self-Indulgence. This is available on etsy here. 4" x 6".

I tend to mix too much paint (which is annoying, because it means I run out of paint way faster than I should), so I've been painting boxes with the extra. For some reason, I have a gazillion little boxes scattered around my room. I really need to get rid of things I don't use. But here are boxes:

A couple of them are available on my etsy in the boxes section.

Couple FOs

2011-01-24T08:28:00.002-05:00

I needed a new hat. I do have a gazillion hats, but all the ones I made last year are too small for my hair now (it's grown!), so I only had one that fit properly. But now I have two!

I spun the yarn from some dyed corridale top, and it was almost exactly the right amount, so yaay! I really like my little fish beads...the last one is a boat.

I also made a cowl with handdyed yarn:

I really like how it looks (the dye worked really well!) but it's too big to actually keep my face warm in the HORRIBLE FREEZING weather we've been having lately. But decorative cowls are nice too, so it's not a total loss.

Daily sketch

2011-01-15T17:52:00.002-05:00

I got a planner-type molskein (in bright blue!) with a blank page for every day. My original plan was to do a reasonably decent drawing for every day, but the fact is that some days are just too busy for that, and then I'd feel pressured, and then I wouldn't want to do it, etc etc.

So my new plan is to fill with with gesture drawings. This is a great plan because they only take thirty seconds or more, so I can spend however long I want to on it without worrying, plus then I practice drawing, even if it's only a tiny bit, every day.

Pattern and yarn reviews

2011-01-15T02:19:00.008-05:00

I have a new favourite pattern! Skoodlet (ravelry link), by Leethal, who makes various wonderful things. It's awesome, a hood/scarflet thing, it is absolutely delicious. I made a giant one (to accommodate my dreads and to make me look more mysterious) out of Nashua Handknits Granite, which is quite a lovely yarn. (ravelry link.)

The pattern is written to work with any yarn you want; you measure your gauge and put it into the formula. It's super easy to figure out, just simple multiplication and putting in numbers. I do recommend printing it out to write the numbers in - it's too confusing otherwise! Luckily, leethal has written the pattern so that only 2 pages actually need to be printed out. Suggestions for possible modifications are given in the pattern, so it was super easy to make it big enough for my overlarge hair. All the techniques she uses (including a figure-eight cast on I hadn't used before) are clearly explained at the start of the pattern. There were maybe a couple lines I had to read through a couple times, but for the most part everything was very clear. And of course, the skoodlet is absolutely ADORABLE, I wore it all day today and never wanted to take it off. EVER. It's sitting by my bed where I can reach it at a moment's notice.

5 stars for an awesome pattern!

The top and bottom buttons on it are ones I've drawn on - <3 drawing on buttons.

The yarn I used was Nashua Handknits Granite in "Deep Mix." I didn't have super high expectations of this yarn: the colours seemed nice, and I love slub yarn, but 70% wool, 30% acrylic doesn't tend to inspire blind confidence, simply because there's so much variation in the quality of both fibres. I was pleasantly surprised though, it's lovely and soft! All the thick sections are coloured, the thinner sections grey, so it has a really awesome texture when knitted. This is one of the few yarns I actually like better when it's knitted, I usually prefer the look of skeined yarn. It has a nice drape without being too heavy. While it doesn't reach the extremes of fabulousness some other yarns do, it's a very nice yarn indeed and I want more of it!

4.5 stars for great yarn!

A yarn I am less happy with is Twilleys of Stamford Freedom Spirit. I've used it before and it didn't seem so bad, but I guess I've acquired taste now. It's rather scratchy, and splits very easily. I bought it because I really like the colours as they appear on the ball, but they're muddy an disappointing when knitted up. I'd planned on using sections of reverse stockinette, but it ended up looking like such a mess that I had to use the other side. It might just be this colourway that's like this, I've used a different one before and it didn't have these problems...but I was crocheting....maybe I should just crochet with this yarn? But I'm halfway done a knitted hat! Anyway, I'm super disappointed with this.

2 stars for crappy yarn. Boo.

My other WIP is a purple lace dress, using Mari Lynn Patrick's Featherlight Lingerie Dress pattern from Lace Style.

The pattern is fine so far, even though it has some seaming, and picking up 450 stitches. I nearly went insane, and I'm only done the skirt part. I feel like this could have been designed to incorporate less seaming and picking up stitches, and if I'd thought about it I would probably have tried to do that myself. Too late now though. This project is on hold for a little, until I've gotten over picking up all those stitches.

3 stars for a decent pattern that could have been designed better.

The yarn I'm using is Maseru by Fleece Artist. I bought it for the gorgeous colour, bright vibrant purple! I got one skein of straight purple, and one matching varicolour skein, and I'm alternating every few rows (which is where that half-striped pattern is coming from). This yarn is soft but scratchy, which is not really surprising at 60% mohair, and it's very light and floaty - great for a dress! It's never going to be my favourite, I wouldn't be able to wear it against my skin, but the colours, floaty-ness, and price ($10 per 545 yard skein) make it a great choice for mohair projects.

4.5 stars for bright purple yarn!

Finished!

2011-01-08T17:35:00.003-05:00

I finished my first art journal! Very exciting. I know I've posted some of these pictures here before, but I'm going to post them again so I can have everything in one post.

The view from above.

The cover, which I liked so didn't change. The ball is just wire that I twisted together until it was stable.

Skyweasels. This got glued in, and the facing page vaguely matches.

Sprouting. I am very fond of mushrooms. Sticker from a swap, and buttons I spray painted.

Maybe not. I thought the fairy looked a bit hesitant.

Take control. Based around a birth control card.

Fear. Prescription receipt and warning label, eye from a swap.

Secret robot. Image from a swap, the pink-y yarn I handspun then knitted.

Greenery. Lots of green things?

Constitutional. The drawing isn't mine, I got it in a swap. See if you can read the writing on the left page!

Meetings.

Pearled. The rectangles are edges from a swirly painting, I spray painted over them and added pearly beads.

Loofah. Torn paper, feathers, beads, crane, a bit of a painting from a swap. This page reminds me of boas, but I like the word loofah better than boa.

Lady parts. Cartoons from a swap, other images from a Nuva Ring pamphlet (Nuva rings are great btw).

Into the night. I think this one is my favourite. Woman image from a calendar, background was markered. The skirt is scrunched up handmade paper, with fabric over top. The fabric is from a wedding dress, I dyed it using ink pads. It was rather messy.

Reflect back. Shiny things! I like cyborg-y things. The blue star plastic thing moves when you tilt it back and forth.

Timing. I like both sides of this page, but I'm not sure how well they work together.

Fortunate. Fortune cookies are sooooo delicious. I got a bunch from the bulk store and it seemed a waste to not use the fortunes for something. I like that they're bilingual.

Careful consideration. Just marker. Melting rainbows are not something you can make a snap decision about.

That's the end! I'm pleased with myself, this journal was really fun to make, though for the next one I'm definitely going to use a book without lines. Didn't really think that one through. I'm not really sure what to do with it now - I definitely want to keep it around, but it's not going to fit on a bookshelf, and I have a limited amount of flat surfaces. Maybe I could hang it from somewhere....

Handspun and FOs

2011-01-07T00:11:00.003-05:00

Some new handspun:

Purple dragon. I spun this a while ago, but never took a picture of the finished skein. This was my first time spinning from a batt, I really enjoyed it!

Foreign skies. This is the thinnest yarn I've ever spun! It's 2-ply and laceweight. This is the first time I've spun using long draw.

Mermaid's den. Respun from Lion Brand Homespun. Two skeins of singles and one 2-ply with occasional beads. There doesn't seem to be a good way to spin beads without putting them on a separate thread and plying that with a single - I tried threading the beads onto one of the singles, then pushing the beads along, which sort of worked, but the single kept breaking and it was very frustrating.

Some recent(ish) FOs:

Lace armwarmers. I made these quite a while ago, but never took pictures. This is another one I'm planning on writing out a pattern for, I really like how these turned out. If the pattern gets written out I'll probably add a thumb.

Silk and alpaca scarf. Worked sideways; the silk is sari ends I spun. I like this! I need to rinse it, but I'm worried about the dye on the silk running, it's happened before.

Child's hat. Cables!

Gosh

2011-01-05T18:02:00.011-05:00

Several exciting things I have done recently:

I PASSED PHYSICS! I was so very worried I wouldn't, and the fact that marks took forever to be posted wasn't helping with my mindset. I did not do spectacularly, but considering the course I am pleased with my mark.

I WROTE A PATTERN! It's a pattern for my dreadlock hat, and you can find it HERE. (Ravelry link only for now, I may post this on my website at some point, if I ever get around to making it a proper website.) The pattern is only $1, I fully endorse it! Just look at how lovely the two I made are:

I finished all my x-mas presents on time! I will post pictures once I have them, I need to get my family to take pictures of themselves in my lovely creations. I am rather pleased with myself for finishing everything before I got home, even if I was just knitting for immediate family.

I remade a table to be a delicious monster named Soysauce! His birthday was January 1, 2011, he is a bundle of joy brought into my life by a glue gun. His teeth are made from an old wedding dress!

I found a bunch of semi-decent yarn at the thrift store! Including some delicious neon
laceweight (ie, string). I'm gonna make lovely lace arm warmers that will glow under blacklights!

I got paid (wooo!) by Rare Funk; I hadn't ever picked up a cheque from them, so it was quite a satisfying amount.

I had an unfortunate incident with a can of custard. Delicious but painful.

I dyed my hair...this one may sound less exciting, but dying dreadlocks is a difficult, dangerous, and deadly business.

I am so very much not ready for school to start. It is complicated and difficult even when I like the courses. It's only been two days of classes, and I've already slept for 2.5 hours on campus.

Yarn bracelets

2010-12-19T13:12:00.004-05:00

Knitted jewelery has intrigued me for some time, but I haven't really known where to start. It's not that it seems difficult, I just lack inspiration. Then the other day I was thinking about how I usually like skeined yarn better than when it's knitted or crocheted, so I made these bracelets. They're very simple, but I really like how they turned out.

Exposure

2010-12-12T18:46:00.005-05:00

Two things I particularly enjoy are knitting and naked ladies. I like to combine these by taking semi-scandalous pictures of myself. I have a whole bunch of knitted tops that I made a while ago and never took pictures of.
Until now!

This is one of my favourite tops, I love the pattern and the yarn! It's acrylic, but quite soft, and has great long colour changes.

This one I am less enthusiastic about. It's by the same designer and uses the same yarn, but less my style. Plus my nipples pop through occasionally.

This top got a little messed up. The yarn SAID it was all the same dyelot, but that was clearly a lie. I messed up the gauge, so I felted it, and now it's too small. I'll fix it eventually. Or...something.

I really like the feel of the yarn, though I'm not quite sure about the colourway. I am quite pleased with how it turned out, though I usually need to wear something under it. Pattern link.

My very first sweater! A great pattern; I'd like to make it again sometime, maybe with a yarn with some silk in it. The yarn I used was 100% wool.

I accidentally used super-bulky yarn instead of bulky. I like this yarn! I got it super cheap, and it is very soft. I didn't check my gauge - out of a sense of rebelliousness, perhaps? So it turned out way too large, but I just pretend it's intentional. Plus I modified the pattern slightly, to make it longer and more like a tunic dress.

Lacy shirt from French Girl Knits (which is a great book). You're supposed to lace a ribbon around the neckline, but I haven't done that yet. I messed this up somehow, so it's tighter around the back than the front...I guess I divided for armholes at the wrong place. Oh well, it's not thaaaat obvious?
It was my first time using linen (well, 60/40 linen/merino), I quite enjoyed it.
Also, look how much my dread pigtails stick out! They have been growing.

More recently, I finished my scarf (a while ago, but I only just took pictures of the whole thing):

Positively scandalous? I still love this scarf very much, though I think I need something warmer for winter now. It's been snowing so much today, and a lacy scarf isn't the best decision when it's cold and/or windy.

Also impractical for the weather is my half hat:

Handspun sari ends. I doubled the yarn because it was thin in places, but then I didn't have enough for a full hat. But that's ok, it's great for keeping dreads out of my face, plus I love the texture.

Finally, I finally got pictures of this hat:

Brighter version of my dread hat.

I wrote out the pattern for this! I'm looking for pattern testers to knit this; comment on this thread on ravelry if you're interested. Full details in the thread, but basically I'll email you the pattern and you give me feedback.

I'm being haunted by knitpicks ads. Has this happened to anyone else? I'm wandering through the internet at random, on my merry way, and sites I have never visited before are advertising knitpicks interchangeable circulars. It's a little unsettling. THE MAN has established a profile for me somehow. Privacy concerns, yo.

I hate everything.

2010-12-10T04:57:00.002-05:00

Warning: this post is just whining.

I have now officially been properly sick for a week. I've spent pretty much all of it in bed watching tv, which would be fine except for exams, and the fact that I am not studying for them. Also my roommate who makes me go to sleep on time has gone home for a week (or so, I don't remember when he left or when he'll get back) so I keep staying up all night watching tv without noticing. Which is not great, I woke up just in time to see the sun set today. Fuck you, winter.

And it's snowing AGAIN.

Dumpster diving is a million times less pleasant in winter - maybe if I dove at smelly dumpsters it would help, but as it is it only leads to my fingers suffering. This time it was worth it though - 18 balls of yarn ftw.

Eugh, I guess good things have happened recently, but I DON'T CARE I HATE EVERYTHING. Fuck you, everything.

Schoolwork + art journal

2010-12-05T21:46:00.010-05:00

It's the end of term, so I'm finishing up all the art homework I didn't quite manage to do at the time. It's all due tomorrow, and I finally only have optional stuff left! Whew. SO much drawing. I am reasonably pleased with most of it, though of course it could have been better, but blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This one is supposed to contrast geometric and organic shapes.

We had to get a black a white photo with perspective, and extend it three inches on each side. I like bit of it, where there was visible detail, but I am ambivalent about the rest.

Drawing is fun, but it's not really my favourite, so to take a break from drawing, I...did different art. Obviously. Did I ever blog about my art journal? I started it AGES ago, but I hadn't done anything in it in ages. Friday night I added a whole bunch of pages...I was just in the mood for it I guess. (I was also pretty sick on friday, and making art meant I thought about it less.) Anyway, pictures: (in the order they're in the book)

"Maybe not."

"Take control"

"Fear"

This one has a few pictures because it's a little interactive:

"Secret robot"
The pink yarn is handspun from acrylic bits, wooo!

"Greenery"

"Constitutional"

"Meetings"

Next time I choose a book for an art journal, I will choose one without lines. But this one was a dollar, so I guess I shouldn't complain. I also made a ball out of wire which is attached to the ribbon bookmark thing, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I also finished my mom's x-mas present! I was going to make her a hat, but I made her a hat last year, so I decided on a cowl instead. She really likes smoke blue, I got the yarn in the summer for her because the colour was right. There's actually about half of it left, so I might make her a (matching) hat after all. Now I just have to make my dad's present...he wants socks, but I also found this wicked prawn pattern, which is great because my dad loves prawns. Anyway, cowl:

It's 100% wool, but it's pretty soft? I hope it's not too scratchy for her....
For anyone worrying about surprises being ruined, it's ok! My sister occasionally reads this (that's why pictures of her present won't be posted until after x-mas), but as far as I know my parents don't know this blog exists. Secrets intact!

I sort of feel like "Secrets Intact!" should be some superhero organization's group cheer or something.

Hm. Apparently being sick makes me super productive.

Bluhhhh

2010-12-03T23:13:00.002-05:00

Eugh, I really want the term to be over, I am so fed up with school. I still have a couple assignments left, even thought there's only one day left of class. I had a final on thursday so I decided to not to any work, and made ATCs instead.

SO MANY HATS

2010-11-27T01:35:00.006-05:00

Goodness gracious.

I did a craft fair on friday, and I was madly making hats in preparation for about three weeks. Quite glad to be done frantic knitting for a little. Though I need to work on x-mas presents now...

Anyway, the hats! I'm afraid the pictures are a little blurry, I wasn't able to take them in the day.

This one is my favourite! I really like how it turned out, I'm going to write down the pattern and publish it on ravelry. I've made another hat with this pattern, so I've got it pretty much figured out now.

Crocheted hat, similar pattern to this one. The pattern turned out well, so I might write this one down as well.

This one makes me think of cherries!

Got to love pom-poms. This yarn is weird, it's a white single plied with brown boucle, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

Quite soft. I like putting stems on the tops of hats.

This one is soo floppy and soft! It feels like dressing gown (but in a good way).

Tiny toque. It looks very small, but streeeetches a lot.

Some of these sold, but not all, so I'm taking the rest to Rare Funk tomorrow. (If you're interested in buying any of them just let me know, I can put them on etsy for you.)

I was very worried about not having enough stuff for the craft fair, but then I went through my room, and found PILES of things! I probably had the most stuff piled on my table out of everyone, it was odd. I dug out a bunch of older hats, scarves, mittens, yarn (dyed and spun), jewelery and clay monsters. I priced everything suuuuper cheap, so stuff sold! I made $134! And today I met someone who had like my stuff but didn't have time on friday, and she bought another $50 worth of stuff. So hurray, money! Now I can buy more yarn!

I mean...christmas presents....

I spun a little bit of thread-y yarn:

Spun from the thread-y bits from Lions Brand Homespun, after I took it apart.

Finally, here's a picture I drew for art class:

We had to pick two different objects and transform one into the other. I picked a spindle and a lizard because a lizard is not like a spindle.

ATCs for trading

2010-11-17T10:54:00.005-05:00

It had been ages since I made ATCs, so I got a little distracted from doing school last night, and made a bunch. These are all available for trade!

These ones were made for a swap, but due to some postage-related issues I may have to drop out.

These three turned into a set, without really intending it. I quite like them, they are the sort of cards I like to trade for.

This one is similar, but not quite enough to be part of the set. It has two grades of sandpaper!

These three (another set!) were all made with this red acrylic paint stuff I have...it's in an ink bottle with a dropper. It's so shiny!

And finally a couple of cards that aren't in a set.

Spinning

2010-11-14T14:50:00.003-05:00

I started spinning with some of the fibre from my exciting box! I'm calling it "Purple Dragon" because I like to have names for things. This is the first time I've spun from a batt, it's very exciting but I'm still working out the best way to hold it. It's got bits of firestar fibre in it, which is fun (sparkles!) but they seem to keep not getting pulled into the yarn properly.

I decided to make this a slub yarn, and I started spinning without really paying attention, and it ended up being ridiculously even! Which is awesome (yaay I spin evenly reliably) but still kind of silly.

Oh my GAWD

2010-11-12T18:45:00.006-05:00

It's happened. I went to Herrschners to pick up some Mirasol Hacho to finish my scarf. I had PROMISED myself that I was ONLY going to buy that yarn, and NOTHING ELSE. I was quite determined, I swear.

But the bus only came every half hour, so I had to wander around the store for a little while...

It's not ...a LOT of yarn, right?

I swear I don't know what happened. I was just wandering around, and then when I went to the cash there was all this yarn in the basket! I blame the sale room in the back. And the sale on the yarn in the non-sale room. Oh dear...

This is neat though:

It's like a cheap acrylic version of Noro! The colour aren't as nice, and it is acrylic, but Kureyon is always rather rough feeling anyway? It's nice to have cheaper alternatives, this was only $5/skein.

Also, new glow-in-the-dark needles!

I think my stash has grown significantly in the last month. In addition to spending FAR too much money on yarn today and yesterday, this magical box arrived in the mail:

Wait till you see what's inside:

I swear I got tingles when I opened it. 2lbs of fibre I got from a lovely person who was destashing on ravelry. Gosh, there are soooo many wonderful inside it! Happyhappyhappyhappy.

Happy.

Happy!

:D

I am using things though! I made a hat with some of the yarn from Michaels last night, it knitted up super fast because it's sooo chunky. I like it! It's a cloche (and looks a little large here because Cassie has a tiny cute head!).

Also, some handspun:

I spun and dyed it yellow in the summer, but I was unsatisfied, so I resist dyed it the other night, with elastics. I like how it looks spotty, so I call it "Spotted Frog." I plied it with itself...plying from either ends of a centre-pull ball works, believe it or not. (I was sceptical, I thought it would turn into a tangled mess, but no!)

So yes, a good day. Despite my COMPLETE AND UTTER unfaithfulness to my purported yarn diet. Oh well, I sort of knew it was lies.

But now I'm on a yarn diet FOR REALS THIS TIME, I swear.

Unless, you know...

Something comes up...

Awesome Haul

2010-11-11T23:00:00.003-05:00

Oh man. So Cassie and I went to Michaels to spend all our money at the yarn sale.

You will be glad to know that we were successful.

My excuse was that I got most of it to make hats to sell. (I did get some Lion Brand Homespun in a lovely teal colour that I'd been eyeing for a while...it's awful to knit with, but the fibre is nice! I'm prolly going to end up taking it apart ftw.)

On the way home we stopped off at the dumpster, which was suuuuuuuper full of lovely things. Check this out:

Sooooooooo much stuff! We had to ...borrow.... a shopping cart to get it all home. I'm super excited about all those plastic shelves, finally a proper way to organise my fibre! Plus lots of random shinies! This is my absolute favourite:

GOD YES.

It's squishy and has a multicoloured flashing LED inside it! I almost bought one of these a couple months ago, so I was soooooo excited to find it!!! Dumpster diving ftw.

Craft Fair?

2010-11-10T19:39:00.003-05:00

It's that time of year again - craft fairs. I haven't really been looking into them much this year, I don't have a whole lots of stuff to sell apart from what I've already taken to Rare Funk, but a friend told me about one the university is having, which is free!

We've applied to be in it, so (since yesterday) I've been making things to sell. Right now I've made bookmarks:

and mini bags:

The bags are pretty basic, so I've written the pattern down and will probably post it later. They're giving me a reason to use up some of my ribbon, which is nice because I have somehow accumulated so much of it and never have any reason to use it.

My scarf is finally making some progress! I frogged the whole thing twice since my last post, but I finally figured out what I wanted, so now I have two skeins worth knitted! I really like how it's turning out:

It's got a really nice drape and I reeeally like running my hand through it. But (as I predicted) I've run out of yarn. BAH. So I'm breaking my yarn diet (which I am NOT very good at sticking to) on friday to go get some more. I hope they still have the same dyelot, but it will serve me right if they don't.

As if that wasn't enough, Michael's is having a 50% off sale on yarn this week! ARG!! I will probably break my yarn diet even more for this....but....so cheap!! Michael's yarn is all about the quality I like to use for hats I sell, because it's cheap enough that I can charge reasonable amounts for hats (and not break my heart every time I take something to the store).

Frustration and Halloween

2010-11-01T21:23:00.007-04:00

Arg. My scarf is making NO PROGRESS. I knitted about eight inches in the pattern I posted previously, which had a really neat texture, and I really liked it, but I just don't have enough yarn to make that scarf a decent length...and I really can't let myself buy any more yarn right now.

So I frogged it and found another lace pattern. It's quite nice, lots of yo's (yos?) so hopefully the yarn will go a bit farther. I knitted a couple inches with THAT pattern, only to find out I needed to use bigger needles to get it to show the pattern properly. I got frustrated, threw it into the "current projects" bin, and started knitting a tag for bombing with.

Bleh, school has been making me frustrated lately. This week and last week (and the week before, actually) have had so many assignments and midterms that I haven't really had time to get crafty, except for things like knitting in class (which doesn't really count b/c I don't really focus on it).

I did make these little packets though, which I'd been meaning to do for AGES:

They're filled with dried lavender, and I'm putting them in with my yarn and fibre to keep it safe from horrible moths. There's a whole bunch of lavender bushes next to my building (mostly dead now) that I harvested flowers from last month. I haven't seen any moths yet, but I'm terrified of the possibility. It's such a senseless way to loose yarn! I just can't let it happen.

Also, it was halloween! I love halloween so much, costumes are so much fun. This year I went as Delirium (from Sandman).

My right eye has a fish drawn on it, and my hair has fish beads wired into it. I also blew up a bunch of balloons and drew fish on them, then scatted them around the apartment. It only seemed appropriate.

I really want to read Sandman again though.

The best costume though, was definitely this one:

Do you get it? Do you get it? It's a sheet of acid! (The person who made it is actually not the person wearing it, but this was the only picture.)

Handspun and WIPs

2010-10-29T16:03:00.005-04:00

Today I've got some pictures of handspun yarn! Always exciting.

First, a couple small skeins of handdyed laceweight. The colours you can get with food colouring are really fantastic, I'm so pleased with how these came out. This was the first time I've dyed the roving and then spun it.

There isn't enough yarn to do much with, so I'm going to try making knitted jewellery with these. I really love the lace necklaces people make, and I've been meaning to try it myself for a while now.

As you may or may not know, I'm fond of taking yarn apart and respinning it. I had a bit of bulky yarn that was blue, green and two shades of purple. I separated it into colours, and respun it into two singles, a blue-green one and a purple-purple one, then plied those.

I like the yarn I spun much better than the original.

I tried to make a tam, but I ran out of yarn too quickly:

I really don't want to go buy more yarn. I think my options are to finish it with a contrasting colour (something plain though, maybe black? It's already pretty colourful.) or take it apart and make a toque instead. I'm leaning towards the second option, but I really don't know. Maybe it'll go into the unfinished projects bin and I'll forget about it for a couple months.

I mentioned a couple posts ago that I was going to try making socks.

Well, I'm trying. There are several things that have come up, and there's no way my socks are going to match now. First problem:

Wtf. There is no way these are the same dyelot. I feel so betrayed! The dyelot on the label was the same!

Second problem:

How did this happen? Dramatic tension change? Was I just really nervous for the first one? I just don't know. Maybe I can block them to the same size? (This seems unlikely but I'll try anyway.)

Sigh. I guess it will be sort of ok. Listening to the Robot Pirates helps a bit.

Good news though! I finished embroidering needle sizes onto my circular needle case! It's on my wall above my bed now, terribly satisfying.

For someone who is obsessed with knitting and yarn as much as I am, I appear to have a severe lack of scarves. This is madness!

I started a lace scarf last night. I've had this yarn forever, it's really lovely, I am so excited to be using it at last.

Finally, a couple old pictures I'd forgotten to upload:

Woodstock Fleece Festival Part 2

2010-10-29T15:14:00.005-04:00

What a horrible week. I was going to rant about the fleece festival (rest assured, I still will), but I ended up with four assignments and a midterm due this week, severely cutting back on my internet time. I've hardly had ANY time to craft this week, it's super upsetting!

But on to better things.

That is what I bought at the fleece festival! I might have got a liiiittle overexcited, but it was my first fibre festival and I just couldn't contain myself. Plus, it was (almost) all really well priced! I haven't quite worked out what I spent yet, I've been avoiding thinking about it. I might have spent all my grocery money for November. Well, if I run out of food I'll just go to everything on campus with free food, that's the best way to deal with that problem, right?

Now I'm not going to go on (and on, and on) about everything I bought, but I have to share a few special things.

I WON this! I had my eye on it when I entered the raffle, and it was still there when I won! So so so so exciting. The price tag said $50, crazy eh?

This is really cool, it's two skeins of different fibre dyed to match by Fleece Artist. I don't have any fixed plans for this yet, but it was too nice to pass up! One skein is merino, the other is "angel hair" - 70% kid, 30% nylon.

These are also fleece artist, lovely laceweight purple! 66% Mohair, 24% Wool, 10% Nylon. I got one dyed straight purple, and one that was varicoloured with sections of the same purple, I'm planning on using them for a lace shawl, because I am sort of in the mood for a lace shawl.

4oz of border leicester locks. They have fantastic texture and colour variation!

This bag is a pound and was $10. For dyed wool! Oh man! They had all these bags with different colours and you got to pick your own, it was super exciting. I also got some bamboo-merino blend from here.

I got a new spindle! It has a really wide whorl, and it's pretty heavy. I really like the grain of the wood that's visible! I actually sanded it down a little because the varnish was a little bumpy in places, but for $22 I'm definitely not complaining!
The fibre is merino-viscose, and I am entirely in love with it. It drafts beautifully, is wonderfully soft, and I love how it's dyed! I'm going to spin it all into a lace/fingering weight single, and make something lacy with it.

This was my particularly indulgent purchase. I'd told myself NOT to buy any yarn that was more than $20/skein, but this was so EXACTLY my favourite colours, and it felt soooo nice, and the stall took credit cards....
I have no regrets. The fact I only bought one is a credit to my self-control.

Even apart from all the gorgeous fibre, the fleece festival was thoroughly enjoyable. After I'd spent all my money I wandered around with my new drop spindle and chatted to people. So many people who love fibre in one place! Wondrous. I'm going to start saving for next year RIGHT NOW. Well, maybe after I've saved enough for this one yarn I really want...

Fleece Festival Part 1

2010-10-24T00:50:00.002-04:00

Oh man, I just got back from the Woodstock Fleece Festival, and I am completely exhausted and penniless but I just had to post about how WONDERFUL it was!!! *happy sigh*

More about it later.

Data Entry

2010-10-15T01:25:00.003-04:00

Since my physics assignment didn't take all that long this week (unlike last week, oh man), I spent most of this evening entering my yarn into ravelry. I have a lot of yarn! I only got through 2 milk crates worth, and there's already 41 different types of yarn now. If you are the sort of person who's interested in this sort of thing (and god knows I am), you can check out my stash page here.

I really have to share this awesome yarn with you:

SPACE KNIT

That's right, SPACE KNIT. I love it! It's this shiny nylon/cotton blend that I'm pretty sure came from a dollar store, but I got from Kadie when she moved back home. I don't want to knit with it, I just want to frame it and put it on my wall. I just cannot get over how awesome this is.

I discovered today that I can needlefelt my dreads! It only really works on bits that are sort of overlapping, not on lumps, but it works pretty well. As long as you use a thimble and don't stick the needle halfway into your thumb.

Ow.

I've been listening to this song on repeat for the last fifteen minutes. Does anyone else like to saturate themselves with songs, or is it just me? I just love the Dresden Dolls (I have all the sheet music because I'm a giant nerd like that), they have been my favourite for something like five (six?) years now. And I'm 22, so that's A LONG TIME, GUYS.

Ok, time for dinner or bed. Or both? Or...neither? That can't be right.

Making a case

2010-10-13T00:27:00.002-04:00

Until today, my knitting needles, crochet hooks and miscellaneous bits have been kept in a drawer that gets put wherever there's space for it. It has been VERY DIFFICULT to find anything, and I've been meaning to make a case for ages, but haven't gotten around to it. Well, yesterday I finally go around it it! Here is before:

And after:

It's so exciting! I haven't sewn anything in AGES, so it's a little wonky, but it works and is colourful, and that is what counts. My sewing machine got jammed half way through, and wasn't sure what was wrong, and I got rather upset. But then I went to THE INTERNET, found this site, which had the manual for my machine to download (for free!), and it told me what to clean. And it worked after cleaning! Who would have guessed! So I made that first container, but it didn't have space for my circular needles, so I made this as well:

And after:

It's a bit too long, but better too long than too short. I'm going to embroider needle sizes on each section, but it's going to take a while since I haven't done any embroidery since I was about ...twelve? I've already had to unpick one number.

My hat is progressing! I've had to frog bits of it, but I really like how the colours work together.

If you ever have to do colourwork, I thoroughly recommend a colourwork thimble:

It keeps everything so much less tangled! It is really quite wonderful.

Finally, here is the third hoop I've made:

Plans

2010-10-09T19:22:00.009-04:00

I just finished reading Sweater Quest, by Adrienne Martini and it has inspired me! First of all, it's a great book, it has a great flow to it, and I read it in a couple days because I couldn't stop! I totally recommend it. It inspired me to work on more interesting/challenging projects. I've made a few shirts and a sweater before, but now I want to learn Fair Isle...not on the same scale as Martini, I'm going to try a hat first. A wander through Ravelry came up with a few patterns I liked; atm I'm leaning towards Tracery Tam, but still considering Joni, Midnight Sun Tam, Floppy Fairisle Hat, or Star Flower Tam. Too many choices! The Fornicating Deer Chart definitely deserves an honourable mention though:

I also want to make socks! I haven't made socks before, mostly because I'm not really a big sock person...I tend to wear thick tights or nothing. But I think knitting socks is something I should know how to do, so I picked up some orangey-greeny sock yarn from Michaels, and I'm going to use Knitty's Universal Toe-Up Formula.

I've finished a couple more hats, which I'm happy enough with, but not really excited about. I'm going to take them to Rare Funk sometime next week...I meant to take hats this week, but I had a whole bunch of assignments to catch up on, and couldn't seem to find the time.

This hat is crocheted, I started it about a year ago, but only just finished it. I've made a similar hat before, I really like the spiral pattern. Acrylic single-ply yarn, it's really soft and I like it! It does pill a bit though.

This one is 100% wool. This is the first hat I've knitted, and I didn't use a pattern (of course) so it's a liiiiiittle wonky...but still wearable! I am reasonably pleased with how it turned out.

Next I'm going to see if I can make red and aqua look good together. This could be interesting, here's the yarn I've got:

It will at least be distinctive.

I also got some colourful tape for hula hoops! It's actually hockey tape from the sports store, it's cheap and colourful and I got a whole bunch of colours. So now my hoop has a few different shades of blue on it, so exciting!

I'm making a couple more hoops for friends, which is exciting, I've made back the cost of the materials already. Not sure if anyone else wants to buy hoops from me, but I still have pipe left over, so possibly I'll just make myself some different sizes.

In dumpster diving news, I found 21 tubes of watercolour paint the other day.

They were all in clean packaging, I don't know *why* they were thrown away. More free stuff, I guess, but still. No wonder everyone hates north america.

I'm home for thanksgiving this weekend, and I found some yarn bombing! I wish I'd had a camera with me, but no. In true London, ON fashion, it had been burned by someone...wtf?! It looked like it had been nice before...

Many Exciting Things

2010-10-02T14:40:00.008-04:00

I had a terribly productive day the other day. I made a hula hoop! A proper one that is appropriately heavy and large. I can already do a few things (none very well) but it is SO MUCH FUN.

It's (sadly) only black because I only had black electrical tape, and I couldn't get the duct tape to wrap evenly. BUT I found this site, which has all manner of wonderful shiny hoop tape! Yep.

If you want to make a hoop (and you should, it's super easy and they are so much fun), this was the tutorial I used.

Adhering *ahem*...closely to my "hat-a-week" goal, I have finished another hat. It looks like a pumpkin! A stripe-y pumpkin.

I know this picture is just dreadful, I'll take another one tomorrow in decent light, but I was just too excited!

Michael's store brand "Charisma" acrylic chunky, which is actually not bad! It's soft and has a nice stripy pattern. This is actually the first hat I've knitted, all the others have been crocheted. It didn't turn out perfectly, but I like it well enough.

I ran out of yarn two thirds of the way through, so I had to run to Michaels to get more, and (of course) couldn't resist peeking in their dumpster, even though it was raining. But it was worth it, because I found YARN (omg!), acrylic paint, a label punch, and a bunch of glue.

Speaking of yarn, I found this terribly dangerous website: Yarn Find. It is a buy/sell/trade site for yarn....ohhhhh my.

I also made a couple more jellyfish ATCs, this time I got sideways pictures of them so you can see the jellyfish a bit better.

I guess I haven't posted stuff in a while, so here are some more ATCs:

I am in the midst of rediscovering how intensely wonderful Pop Rocks are. Like, oh man. I am actually having dreams that involve me buying massive amount of Pop Rocks. It would be slightly unsettling if it wasn't so AWESOME.

Also, I got asked for drugs the other day! We had to do projects for a class and I ended doing mine on harm reduction approaches to drug use (ie, I handed in TRIP flyers), and then we had to talk about them in class. Then after class a nerdy awkward frosh guy came up and said "Excuse me, do you have any marijuana?" It was really cute! I don't sell drugs, but lolz.

Exciting as this post had been, I have to end it now. Why, you may ask? Because I have to get my hoop on, bitches. And go tell the people who live above me to stop jumping on their floor.

Squeee!

2010-09-28T17:50:00.002-04:00

Eeek! I am so excited! I got into fine arts classes for this term! Oh man. I want to do a fine arts minor, you see, and I sort of was a giant hobo and didn't do anything about it till the start of term, when I found out the first classes are only offered in the fall. It was a ton of stress, and I had to go back and forth between places until I'd been everywhere twice, but I MADE IT IN! I had my first studio class yesterday, and an art history class today. Oh man, I am super excited! Imagine, homework where you get to DRAW. Just imagine!

That's all for today, I have 2 weeks of work in two courses to catch up on :P

Yarrrrn Bombing!

2010-09-22T18:56:00.005-04:00

As you may (or may not, that's cool too) have noticed, I have not yarn bombed anything in *quite* a while. That has now been remedied! I was feeling all restless last night, so went out and put up a bunch of tags! And here they are:

A little green knitted tag on the bridge into the park. Tags in the park get taken down pretty much immediately, so this is a test to see if the bridge counts as the park. I really like how this picture turned out!

Bio-hazard logo! I crocheted this aaaages ago, but for some reason had not put it up until now. The black yarn is acrylic (well, I assume acrylic, the label says "100% unknown fibres") and the green is wool, I'm interested to see if the wool felts at all. I loooooove biohazard logos, I want to make a sweater or something with one eventually.

A green and grey crocheted tag. The stitch pattern is from The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs: 500 Classic & Original Patterns, though I added the colour changes. I really like how this one blends into the tree.

I have no good reason for calling this one "Bench Press," but I'm going to anyway. Knitted with some random yarn, possibly not by me. It's one of those random bits of abandoned knitting that just seem to spontaneously generate themselves.

Making bobbles with varicoloured yarn is really really satisfying. Crocheted with acrylic.

Knitted pink lace. This is more of the scary "100% unknown fibre" yarn, except this is even worse than the black stuff, which feels mostly ok. This stuff is a little like knitting with sandpaper. It's bright and stands out, which is nice, but I'm so glad it's almost all gone.

Green acrylic and novelty yarn! I was doing stripes, but then I got bored, so there's some lace at the top for no good reason. This one is visible from the Perimeter Institute! I sort of want to make something that says "<3 PHYSICS" and put it up near there.

Because I was soooort of near Michael's when I went out to take pictures today (it was dark when I put stuff up), I visited the dumpster briefly. I was wearing sandles with no socks, so I wasn't really planning on going it, but then I saw buttons! And there wasn't too much glass (and I didn't hurt myself until I got home again by walking into my bike!) so yes. I only checked out a couple bags, and look what I found:

I am super excited by a lot of this stuff, particularly the yarn (YARN), the shape cutter thingey (which works!), and the dowels (I'm going to make spindles!). The white things are envelopes, and the things with pictures of wine are fake wine labels to put on top of real wine labels, so you can pretend you're drinking blood, har har har. There were thirteen packages of them...I'm not sure what that implies. Also, buttons!

Too Many Beads

2010-09-21T17:40:00.002-04:00

I have them :(

I have ALL THESE BEADS that I gathered when I was super into making kandi. I have since become distracted with other crafts (obviously), so these beads are mostly just taking up space. I do want to keep some, since occasionally the urge to make kandi arises (usually right before a rave), but I'm mostly just going to hang on to my pony beads and some animal ones. I can make awesome enough kandi with just those!

This has lead to:

100 beads for $5 on my etsy.

Also, it was my birthday yesterday, so now I am OLDER.

Organization

2010-09-19T23:58:00.005-04:00

I cleaned ALL DAY TODAY. FUCK. And I went through my gazillion bead containers and reorganised most of them. So I am accomplished, I guess?

We went for a bike ride to a dumpster (which had a disappointing lack of interesting stuff in it). I tried to jump a curb, but it did not work, and I fell off and scraped my knee. It was more lulz than painful, so I am going to try again in a bit, because I'm *sure* I could do it at some point.

I really want good software for organising my swaps, particularly ATC ones. I keep agreeing to trades, then forgetting to mark them as traded, and ending up making the same things again (which is LAME). A spreadsheet isn't bad, but it could definitely be improved on...hm. Maybe this could be a PROJECT I could work on to figure out how to program again. I vaguely intend to take another computer science class at some point, so this would be useful beyond just swap organization.

Anyway, I have been very good about actually managing to do things recently, so yaay!

And, because blog posts are boring without pictures, here are four jellyfish ATCs I made for a jellyfish ATC swap. I really like how these turned out, I made an extra one to keep. They are secret hidden jellyfish, can you spot them?

The background is washed inked background, the jellyfish are mod podge. In real life they are all the same-ish colour, but I had difficulty taking consistent pictures.

OH! Also! This guy is SO GOOD! I don't know what kind of music this is, but it's SO GOOD! We met him briefly at Harvest, because his music was SO GOOD! So yes, check it out, I ENDORSE it.

ATCs I guess?

2010-09-18T16:22:00.004-04:00

I have been doing swaps ALL DAY. I am still NOT DONE. I think perhaps I need to cut back on the number of swaps I join, and ATCs I custom make for people. Ok, from now until I forget (or get bored), I am just going to make things, then find/make swaps for them afterwards.

Lots of ATCs:

I've been making ATCs in threes a lot recently. It just seems more efficient, since a lot of the time I get requests for cards I've made already. So wooo.

The first of these is for a swap on swap-bot where you have to combine two different animals. The other two are post-apocalyptic cards made on request for a trade.

Knitted Things

2010-09-16T17:49:00.006-04:00

In keeping with my GOAL, I have finished a hat I started aaaaaages ago. This counts for my hat this week. It's made with "Freedom Spirit" by Twilleys of Stamford (no link because I can only find distributors, no Twilleys website), which is a nice light DK single in 100% wool. "Essence" colourway; I love this yarn for its self-stripey-ness!

Gosh, Cassie is super cute.

I'm also making some pink spiral armwarmers!

I'm making the pattern up as I go, but I'm taking the time to write it down properly! So both armwarmers will *match* and I can make more, and/or try selling the pattern! Which would be nice...I'm actually reasonably pleased with how they're turning out so far. The yarn is a decent choice, it's chained soft acrylic, though it has a tendency to split apart, which is a little annoying.

Today in class I noticed that I have lost most of my ability to spell. Which usually isn't a problem, thanks to computorz, but ...yeah.

I dyed a bunch of yarn at craft night yesterday, here's a picture of how the top turned out:

It was the first time I've dyed top, so I think it maaaay have felted a little, but I'm pretty sure it's still spinnable? (Maybe part of the reason I can't spell anymore is that I make up words so much of the time!) There's two pieces here, I only did little bits in case I fucked up. I really like the colours of both, but the stuff on the right is my favourite. They still smell like vinegar because I didn't want to rinse them too much, but I figure I'll get that out after spinning, when I full it.

Finally, I made a spindle! For the first time! Out of a skewer, a plastic gear, and hot glue. It is very light and feels extremely breakable, so I'm not entirely comfortable with it yet.

Hopefully I won't sit on it.

Difficulties

2010-09-15T13:58:00.002-04:00

Every time I go dumpster diving, I end up with more than I can carry. Even if I go with other people, we end up with more than we can carry. Here's what I got out of the Michael's dumpster (my favourite dumpster) today:

I am excited about the spray paint and the rug hooking kit! The kit is missing the hook thingey, but by crazy random happenstance, I have one already! I really wanted one of these when I was younger, but I never told anyone so I never got one. I am also super excited to have a craft mat I can cut on! I've been using a cutting board with paper on it, but it's not quite the same. Not sure if all the bits are there for the circular cutting thingey, but I'll try it out anyway?

I also found five large candles ("classic linen" scented) and a bunch of really nice matching picture frames, but they were really difficult to carry (plus I'm allergic to candles), so I left them at a friend's house. Usually the frames in the dumpster have broken glass, but these were in perfect condition.

I sort of want to start a knitting/crochet/spinning/etc club at Waterloo, but I don't know if it's worth it or if enough people would be interested. I also want to offer to teach people to knit/crochet/spin for $$, I teach friends all the time for free, but money is nice since I have none.

I took some stuff to Rare Funk yesterday. I really need to start using it more, particularly since it's fall, and hats are easy and fun to make without patterns. I have a GOAL. My GOAL is to make at least a hat per week (if I wasn't doing school or other crafts I could probably manage three per week, but I want to start with a reasonable number).

What I did on my summer vacation

2010-09-14T01:12:00.006-04:00

I just got back home after being away for about a month. Classes started today too, which was a little annoying; I'd have liked to have a bit of time to prepare, I had to use a shopping bag as a backpack today because my backpack was still full from camping. But at least there was only one class, and we didn't really do anything, so I'm not really sure what I'm complaining about.

I spun some yarn! I'm getting better at making it even-ish, which is nice, and I've also now made 3-ply:

From this top:

I made this yarn:

(The colour is more accurate in the second picture.) I split the top into three before I started spinning, but they didn't all end up the same length, so I made the single underneath with the leftovers. I quite like the way both bits turned out. No plans yet for what the yarn will be used for...ideas?

This yarn is made from recycled sari ends, which is my new favourite fibre! It's kind of tricky to spin since it isn't really prepared all that much, but you get a great texture from it, and I just love the colours! I ordered a bunch more sari ends off ebay, because I enjoyed making it so much!

I also finally got around to using my people stamps I got aaaaages ago. They're unmounted, so kind of annoying (I should really figure out mounting stamps), but I really like them!

I also finally used the silver pigment ink pad I've had for a while! It doesn't seem to like to dry, particularly since these two cards are coated in mod podge, so the ink had a tendency to rub off a little. But I really like how they turned out, so like whatevs, right?

In other news, Harvest was amazing! The property (which was huge) had all this really neat art, and they had made fantastic deco! It was spread out all over the place, so you could wander around and find random things in the middle of the woods. My favourite thing was the hammerhead sharks they made out of chicken wire and clingfilm. There were 3 stages, which all had really good music. I blew so many bubbles, decided I was part of a circus, wandering around, somehow ended up serving soup off a truck, and was eventually found by friends cuddling with people in the woods a couple hours later. It was wicked fun, but I burned out pretty fast, so I've decided that next year I will actually try to sleep more and eat regular meals instead of just when I remember. Everyone there was really friendly, there was a real sense of community. Oh, and I want to learn to hula hoop properly, because there were people with light up hula hoops and it was SO AWESOME! I can hoop around my waist, knees, and arms, and I can toss it from arm to arm, but that is it and I am UNSATISFIED.

Tag Update!

2010-08-29T23:12:00.004-04:00

A friend was vacationing up on the Bruce Peninsula and found the yarn bomb I did! He didn't realise I'd made it, I hadn't told him, so it's quite exciting! It has disintegrated a bit by now though, plus it had just rained, so it doesn't look as good as it did.

Photo cred to Westacular, who didn't want to upload pics.

Yarn Shopping in Ottawa

2010-08-27T22:22:00.006-04:00

Oh. My. God.

SO MUCH YARN.

I have had the BEST day! I'm in Ottawa, and I went yarn shopping. I went to four stores, all around downtown. So exciting!

The first place I went was Yarns, Etc, right near the Rideau Centre. A tiny little shop, but they had a great selection of yarn in a variety of qualities, for pretty reasonable prices! I was surprised how much could fit. The owner was super nice, too, I had a lovely chat with her. I'd definitely go back there again! The only thing was that they didn't have any spinning stuff apart from a couple bundles of roving (which looked a bit bedraggled). There was a lot of embroidery stuff there too, which is useful to know if I take up embroidery again. 4/5 stars.

Yarn from Yarns, Etc.

The second store I went to was Yarn Forward, in the north part of the Glebe. They had a really large space, but somehow it seemed like they had less selection than Yarns, Etc. That said, there was some great yarn there! The only stuff I really wanted was too expensive though, everything was a bit on the pricy side. They had a few colours of roving (more than Yarns, Etc), so I got a bit of that. The staff were pleasant but not really friendly, I felt a little awkward there. 3/5 stars.

Fibre from Yarn Forward.

The third store was Knit Knackers, farther north on Bank. This store was AMAZING, look at the pictures on the website, it is GIANT! And all for yarn and fiber! I am still buzzed from going to this store, and it's nine hours later. It took me at least an hour to go through all the yarn they had; a fantastic selection, from cheap to gorgeous expensive. There were some great bargains, I couldn't believe the prices on some things! They also have bags of yarn to buy in bulk with ridiculous savings; I almost bought a bag of 10 skeins of bulky wool for $80, cut down from something like $150. And the fiber they had! Some of it I didn't even know existed, like fiber from milk and corn?! They had a crazy variety, including llama, several types of wool, alpaca, silk in different forms, cotton, linen, soy silk, angora, sea silk, the list goes on, it's just so wonderful! Most of it is undyed, but there's a wall of dyed wool top in loads of colours (and I think there was dyed silk as well?). PLUS (I discovered by accident), if you buy more than a kilo of fiber, you get 10% off your fiber purchase; and if you buy more than 10 skeins of yarn you get 10% off that too! The staff were super friendly and patient (and they had to weigh a lot of fiber for me) and helpful, happy to chat and really eager to help! I just can't express how excited about this store I am!! If I still lived in Ottawa I would be here all the time, and spend all my money. 6/5 stars!

Yarn from Knit Knackers.

Fibre from Knit Knackers and Wabi Sabi.

The last store I went to was Wabi Sabi, in Hintonburg. I used to live literally right around the corner from here, but I don't think this store existed then. This felt very much like a Fiber Art Store (with the capitals), not a yarn or knitting store. There was a decent amount of yarn, mostly Berroco. It was fairly pricey though. There was a nice selection of dyed roving, including a lovely wool-silk blend (that I bought some of, it's the blue fibre in the top left corner above) in a bunch of different colours. They also had needle felting and other fiber art supplies, plus some lovely finished artworks. The owner was busy but nice and happy to help! The railing in the doorway had been yarn bombed, which I was excited about! A lovely store, but limited amounts of yarn, and a bit above my price range. 4/5 stars.

And then I went home because I had spent all my money at Knit Knackers. Oops. Heh. There are a bunch more knitting shops around Ottawa, but they are farther away and difficult to get to without a car. But I am definitely satisfied with what I got.

Discoveries

2010-08-25T23:40:00.004-04:00

I've found out that Harvest Festival and the Knitter's Fair are on the same weekend!

VS.

THIS IS SO UPSETTING.

It makes me wonder if anyone else has this dilemma, though. I'm going to Harvest since I haven't been to a festival ALL SUMMER, plus I shouldn't be spending all my money on yarn (which I totally would).

Plus, I really want unspun fiber more than yarn at this point (though a nice large batch of white wool would not go amiss...) and apparently the vendors have been told to focus on knitting, not spinning (so sad).

PLUS, I found two more yarn/fiber/etc fairs coming up soon that DON'T conflict! The Woodstock Fleece Festival is in October, and the KW Weavers' and Spinners' Guild Show & Sale in November. So exciting!!!

I also found this wonderful site today, it maps yarn stores and has reviews of them. You can also save "crawls," mapping a set of stores you want to go visit. I've made one of the yarn stores in Ottawa, since I'm visiting there soon! I found a yarn store RIGHT around the corner from where I used to live. Such a waste, I didn't knit then! Heh.

I navajo plied my remade yarn:

Vacation and Neat Things

2010-08-24T17:50:00.006-04:00

I've been on vacation with my family for a little now, another two weeks to go. Spending extended amounts of time with my parents always makes me a little crazy, and having little to no internet access doesn't help. I've gotten some spinning done, which is nice, and a little bit of knitting. Here's a ball I'm going to ply; it's Lion's Brand Homespun (I can't remember the colourway).

I'm planning on chain-plying it, since I've only tried that for a very short length of yarn (and also so I don't have to break the ball up). Next: recycled sari ends! (below) Oh, and I've plied the green handspun skeins (that I mentioned in my last post) together without redying...I quite like the pale green, I have to say. No pictures till I'm back home though.

I've only been knitting intermittently, when I can't spin easily (like when I'm in the car, or reading in bed, etc). I'm using up those annoying little balls that are always left over when you finish a project - I have SO MANY of them, and have no idea where half of them come from. But they are going to good use, I suppose...I'll probably send the tags I'm making with them in the Yarn Bombs Away! swap Kadie is hosting on swapbot. My partner is my new roommate, so I can make them as big as I like without worrying about shipping. Heh. Anyway, here's what I've done so far, rumpled up a bit:

I'm using my treasured glow-in-the-dark needles! They are so wonderful, I can knit in the dark! I embarrassed my father because I was knitting at the grocery store and dropped my ball of yarn in the parking lot, and it rolled away without me noticing. But a nice lady told me I'd dropped it, so it's ok!

My website really needs some work, particularly since I label my yarn bombs. I almost went to a seminar about how to use photoshop to make webpages, and now I'm regretting that I didn't, because that is pretty much what I want to do now. I'd like to learn site design, I think, but I'm not passionate enough about it to teach myself. Probably the thing to do is to decide what I want it to look like, sketch it, then talk to people who know what they are doing. For the mean time I guess I will just put some info about yarn bombing up?

Tonight I have learned to not listen to this mix right before going to bed. I like it, but it keeps me awake!

Here are some cool things:

Dewey Decimal Crafts - "Crocheted skulls for all occasions. No two skulls are the same, and no skulls rival these." I feel this is an accurate description.
plastic bag mushrooms yarn bomb - hot damn this is awesome!
insubordiknit handspun - I want to make yarn like this one day! Though I think a lot of it requires a wheel. Sigh.
yarn-holding coffee can cubbies - These are neat, but a) I don't drink coffee and b) I have too much yarn!

CakeFAIL and Tasty Yarn

2010-08-08T03:55:00.005-04:00

Oh man. This is the worst cake I have ever made. Possibly I just forgot to oil the pan, but I used a fancy bunt cake pan thing (because it was clean) so I couldn't get it out without destroying it. Witness this fact:

My cake is a terrible, godless lie.

The yarn turned out pretty well though! The storebought stuff (on the left) is a really nice intense green-y blue, heat-set in the microwave. More of a uniform colour than I'd anticipated, but I love the colour, and there's enough variegation to keep me interested. Obviously I should stick to crafts and never cook again.

Two of the handspun skeins (on the right) didn't get as much dye. I can't decide if I want to do another immersion dye intensify the colour...I really like the colour right now, and I like how it blends, but I also love intense colours! The third skein turned out intensely yellow (below), and I was going to ply it with two dark-ish blue.green skeins, but with the two blue.green skeins dyed as they are, the yellow would just overpower them and it would not look the best. But I really like how the blue.green skeins turned out, the colour is slightly more blended on one, and slightly patchier on the other, so hopefully they would look neat if I plied them? I'm leaning towards this option, I can always spin more yarn to ply with the bright yellow single if need be.

I finally finished a kandi order for etsy...I haven't really posted m/any pictures of kandi on here, but yes I make kandi! The packs of ten singles are what sell best in my store, actually. I don't trade it as much as I used to, partly because I don't go to quite as many raves, but mostly because I have other crafts (and trades!) to focus on, so I don't have a gazillion bracelets ready for trade at all times.

There are 12 bracelets here because I was late shipping...eep!

I am quite angry at my roommate, who told me she was moving out August 3rd, but now is not moving out for another "week and a bit." I'm moving into her room, but (obviously) I can't do that till she's gone, and I can't go on holiday until I've moved (because people need to move into my room while I'm gone).

Angst!

Vacation will be difficult, because I will not be able to check my mail. Plus I probably can't organise lots more swaps! I do need to work on doing less swaps, though, since I'm doing more classes in the fall. Sigh. I'd rather swap than learn. Though! A friend is going to give me acrylic painting lessons! Which is exciting, I've never had painting lessons before!

This has turned into a very chatty post, but it's around 4am, so I guess it's just that time of night. Also, sorry for the particularly terrible pictures! My (other) roommate is asleep in my room, which is where my good light is.

Here's a knitted lace swatch made from a tiny bit of re-spun yarn! The pattern's not that clear because the yarn ended up a little overspun and bumpy. But I like it! Trying to decide if I want to (a) keep it (b) art with it (c) yarnbomb with it.

A Smattering of ATCs

2010-08-07T17:44:00.002-04:00

I made some ATCs, yo. Finally getting around to using some unmounted rubber stamps I bought! I've wanted people ones for ages, but I never like the ones available locally.

I quite like this one, I used some random mesh bow thingey I got as an extra in a swap.

I've also decided to be efficient with acrylic paint ATCs, I'm now painting three at a time, before cutting the paper apart. It's much faster, particularly for the "fire" ones, which for some reason have been frequently requested. I dunno, I don't actually like them all that much, but I've made like six so far, and someone's already asked for another one.

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As I type this, I am in the middle of dying yarn! I'm in a very teal mood today, so (hopefully) most of it is going to be teal-y. One skein of storebought yarn, and three of stuff I've spun, which I'm planning on plying! I've never made three-ply before, so it's very exciting!

This is mostly unrelated to crafts, but I really must recommend this site, it has the most WONDERFUL clothes! I am so inspired to start sewing again!

I am making a cake as well. just from cake mix, but it's RAINBOW cake mix! This will hopefully convince my roommate not to be mad at me for getting vinegar solution and dye all over the kitchen.

I will leave you with this picture of Kevin putting up a crocheted tag:

Re-making Yarn

2010-08-06T00:51:00.006-04:00

Lion Brand Homespun Yarn is, in some ways, really great yarn. I just love how soft it is, and how the colour blends, but it is incredibly frustrating to work with! It's corespun and then plied with thread (this is my guess, I am 100% willing to be wrong on this!), so it's very textured and bumpy, which makes it super easy to push needles or hooks through the middle of the yarn. Arg!

I made a couple hats with this yarn a while ago, so I had a little bit of yarn left from a couple skeins, but not enough to do anything useful with. Since the yarn is SO FRUSTRATING to work with, I tore it apart and respun it, since I liked the fiber so much. I've decided to make a tutorial, in case anyone else is interested in doing this!

1. Pick your yarn! You want a bulkier yarn, ideally one that is a thick single plied with thread. You can use whatever yarn you want really, but the thicker the singles are, the easier it is to separate and card.

2 - Look at yarn. This yarn has a fluffy part (the part I want) spun around strong thread (in the middle), and plied with a single white thread (which is visible here).

3 - Un-ply. Pull apart the yarn: here I'm starting with the thread the fluffy party was plied with. The thread I'm taking out is visible from the outside of the yarn.

4 - Remove the core. Remove the strong core of the fluffy part. Not all yarns will have this, but this brand does. You need to hunt for strong, thread-y parts in the fluff, then pull them out.

5 - After removing the core. The yarn will probably bunch up like this - that's fine, just straighten it out so you can see where to break the yarn.

6 - Break the yarn. Pull off the yarn that has had the thread-y parts removed. If you can't pull it apart easily, there may still be thread in it, try moving closer to the end. In this picture, the yarn on the left still has thread-y bits, the yarn on the right has all the thread-y bits removed.

7 - Different parts.
A - These are the threads from the middle of the yarn and the thread that was plied with the fluffy bit.
B - The fluffy bit of the yarn - this is the part you want! You could probably spin this fiber as is, but it would be trickier to draft, so it would be harder to get different weights.

8 - Break fluff into smaller parts. You're going to be separating the fluffy fibers, so break them into smaller parts. They're much easier to pull apart when they're this size.

9 - Pull apart fluff. Separate the fibers in each section.

10 - Separated fluff. This is what the fluff should look like when it's been separated.

11 - All the fluff separated. Put all the separated fluff in a pile, you're going to card it next! You actually get a decent amount of fiber from not much yarn, this is all the fiber from B in step 7.

12 - Card fiber. This is a pretty good guide to carding fiber. If you can't afford hand carders (they're pretty expensive), you can use two dog brushes! The carders in the photo are dog brushes.

13 - Rolags. The fiber has been carded into rolags, ready for spinning.

14 - Bucket of rolags. These are purple rolags from some yarn I took apart previously. Ready for spinning!

15 - Spin the Fiber. Spin the fiber from the rolags! This is some more reclaimed fiber I'm in the process of spinning.

16 - Yarn! The finished product! This is the purple laceweight yarn from the rolags in step 14. Now I have a usable amount of yarn from a tiny amount left over!

I hope someone finds that helpful! Spinning is fun, and this is a great way to try out small amounts of different fibers.

Yarn Bombing MADNESS

2010-08-01T21:20:00.002-04:00

I have a wonderful friend. This wonderful friend was told off by a cop for yarn bombing (lame!) and because of that is more determined to yarn bomb than ever. Her goal, now accomplished, was to tag every bike rack in uptown Waterloo! I contributed a few tags, and so did one other friend, but the credit goes almost entirely to her! Here are the finished yarnbombs:

She got also permission from the manager of a local bar called Chainsaw to tag their porch! I am continually impressed with how quickly she manages to knit; she made these eight tags in about two days!

We decided Chainsaw was a good place to clump a bunch of tags, so I put up this cityscape tag (the colourwork pattern is from an issue Vogue Knitting I found at the library); it got a little stretched when I was putting it up, but it's still mostly visible?

Yarn bombing is awesome!

Dangle Bombing

2010-07-31T20:01:00.000-04:00

As you may (or may not) remember from this post, I found a bunch of styrofoam balls covered in plant-y things in the Michaels dumpster. A friend and I put them to excellent use, stringing them on yarn and dangling them from a trellis on campus - we call it "Dangle Bombing"! It's like yarn bombing in that it's not permanent or damaging to property, and is awesome and exciting! Plus things hanging from strings are so much fun.

Anyway, enough talk, picture time:

Photocredit to Gaelan, who didn't want to put them on flickr himself, so I did.

It was difficult to get pictures because the balls blended into the background so well....which was part of the point. We climbed up on the trellis and crawled around to put everything up, and the construction workers who were on lunch break nearby were really confused about what we were doing. They didn't really seem to get it even after we explained, but ohhhhh wellll.

I really like making art out of things that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Coming soon:
I'm going to make a introductory guide to dumpster diving, since people seem interested! I'm not a freegan, so it really will only be an introduction, but I'll have pictures and such.

Dyed Yarn and Beads!

2010-07-28T16:17:00.004-04:00

So far I've dyed two of the skeins I got a few days ago! Both are dip-dyed with food colouring, and steam-set in the microwave. I'm really happy with how they turned out!

This one reminds me of this gum.

The first one I re-skeined after dying it on a slightly smaller niddy-noddy, which is why the different colours are all mixed up together; the second one I just twisted into a hank. Which do you think looks better? I'm not sure which I prefer.

I got inspired by this person's photos to play with polymer clay again! I made some beads and mushroom pendants. I forgot they were in the oven, so they got a liiiiiittle overcooked. Heh, oh well.

I threaded them into sets and attached them to little cards because I'm going to take them to Rare Funk. I've got an assignment account there, but I haven't really used it, only taken some hats there aaaages ago. I have some armwarmers I knitted that I might take there - I made up the pattern so it's legal for me to sell them. Ftw!

I'm kind of annoyed at Canada Post, I wasn't home when they delivered a package, so I have to pick it up, which is fine, but it is not at the post office that is LITERALLY around the corner from me, or at the one which is a 5 minute walk away, or the one that's a 10 minute walk away. It's actually not that far away, but there are THREE post offices that are closer than the one I have to go to! Bah.

Also, for some reason I got 407 views on my flickr two days ago - waaay more than usual. No idea what's up with that.

Storage Solutions Make Me Feel Good In My Pants

2010-07-25T18:25:00.006-04:00

Mmmmmmmmm, storage solutions. I am planning an ikea expedition sometime this week, after getting sudden untameable ikea urges. I need better things to put stuff in on my desk; as is, debris gradually builds up on it until I don't have space to do anything. A second desk might be nice, I could have a craft desk and a school desk. A craft room would be nice too, while I'm dreaming.

Being a student sucks. When I have a job that actually pays me money, I'm gonna rent TWO rooms and use one for crafts/books AND IT'S GONNA BE SICK.

Anyway, this started because I spend a while today reorganising my unmounted stamps, they are now in trading card binder sheets in my old ATC binder. Check this shit out:

I would feel accomplished, except I only did this to avoid working on my essay which was due last thursday. Ditto this blog post.

Recently I decided I wanted to have an art journal, so I ...have one...now...

Here's a page from it:

Printed image I got from a swap, buttons I cut off a shirt then spray-painted.

In retrospect, I should probably have chosen a book that wasn't lined. But whatevs, I'll make do. I have my sketchbook for flat stuff anyway? Which is unlined. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to differentiate my sketchbook and art journal. So far, art journal is random crap I like that I've done random crap with, and sketchbook is sketches. So far, so good.

Yarn forms

2010-07-24T16:37:00.007-04:00

I've realised that skeined yarn is the prettiest way for yarn to be stored. I skeined a ball of the white yarn I bought this morning (on my DIY niddy-noddy!) in preparation for dying, and for some reason it looks so much more appealing than when it was in a centre-pull ball. They are both Paton's classic wool in Winter White.

Maybe it's because the yarn isn't all criss-crossed, or because fancier yarn is usually skeined, or because it looks like a sugar twist, or because it's harder to use in a skein. I just don't know! I have actually noticed that most variegated yarn looks better before it's knitted/crocheted. Which is sad, because I really really like variegated yarn, but then am always disappointed once I've knitted/crocheted it. Self-striping is SUPER satisfying though, oh man. Especially Noro. Mmmmmm, Noro.

I also spun about 116m of yarn, and it's ready for dying too! I'm going to use this for plying, so I'm trying to decide if I want to dye it now, or wait until I've made a second skein. I've only got a drop spindle, so I'm only going to attempt 2-ply for now. I'm leaning towards doing separate initial dyebaths for some spotty colours, then one big dyebath with both of them for overall colour.

Speaking of dying, I read Hand-Dying Yarn and Fleece the other day. It was interesting, definitely had some useful information for a beginning dyer (is dyer the word I want?). I've been baking my yarn to dye it, guessing at the time and temperature, based on vague instructions from the lady at the knitting store. This books deals with using a stovetop or microwave, so I don't know if I've been doing it wrong (probably). Anyway, the basic instructions are useful, and she has some interesting alternative methods, but there's a lot of repetition in the instructions, to the point that I feel like a bunch of different methods could really have been one set of instructions, with a "try these alternatives" section. So yes, worth reading, but I'm glad I got it out of the library.

Is two blog posts in one day excessive? What is your favourite way for yarn to be stored? Should I go eat bacon?

Pressing questions.

ALL THE YARN

2010-07-24T11:03:00.008-04:00

I am proud to announce I can now go into Len's Mill without attempting to buy ALL THE YARN. I think it's because I'm now a total yarn snob, and want to save my yarn money for buying gorgeous fancy yarn.

Anyway, I got some white 100% wool yarn because I want to practice dying yarn! I'm only using food colouring for now, since I can get it locally, it makes bright colours, and I can still use the dishes I dye in afterwards. I've only dyed yarn I've spun so far, but spinning takes quite a while, and I'd like to be able to practise on yarn I didn't put tons of effort into.

Here's the skein of yarn I spun + dyed most recently:

100% "organic fibre" from Louet (I'm not sure what "organic fibre" means). Hand spun with a drop spindle. Single ply. Hand dyed with food colouring. Approx 200m, 145g, DK weight. There's a bit of slub in this, but not as much as previous yarn I've spun!

Exciting Things

2010-07-22T16:49:00.008-04:00

Look what I found at the Michael's dumpster this time! A gazillion dried flowers and random styrofoam balls with nature-y things on them. The dried flowers are gradually being passed out to people who can use them (I can't, they're scented and I'm allergic...I stole several peacock feathers out of them though!), and we have made MOST EXCELLENT use of the styrofoam balls, which I will talk about when I get pictures of it. But for now it's a SURPRISE!

I went back with my sister, and we found her a really awesome portfolio case! In perfect condition except for where the plastic got cracked a little, but that is easily fixed with duct tape! It's enough to make me go to Michael's and "accidentally" break things I want.

And now, for a whole bunch of ATCs!

Also, the following ATC, which is what I did with the background from my last post. I am...reasonably pleased with it.

In less exciting news, I sweated so much at a rave that my phone broke. :( It stealthily deletes texts now, and the camera WORKS, but exits before I can take any pictures.

:O

2010-07-22T16:35:00.001-04:00

My FUCK!! ATC swap on swapbot has made it into the top ten swaps list! (At #9 currently, but still...)

I feel famous. And a little silly.

WIPs

2010-07-15T04:27:00.000-04:00

I have a couple cards I'm stuck on.

The first one has stamped flowers that were washed out on a foreign text. I really like how it's turned out so far, but it feels like just a background right now. I was thinking I might make a flower (or something) with wire, but I'm not sure!

The second one is layers of mushroom stamps in green ink. Again, I like it so far, but it still just feels background-y. No idea what to do with this one!

Suggestions?

FUCK!! ATC SWAP

2010-07-14T05:40:00.005-04:00

RARG!

On swap-bot recently, there was a One Word ATC swap. This seemed interesting, so I looked, and yes, it was an ATC swap where you picked a word and your partner ATC'd it. Only thing was that most of the chosen words were along the lines of "Breathe," "Faith," "Bliss," etc. While I'm sure the lovely people who requested those lovely words will enjoy them, as a young, tough (grrr), secular, foul-mouthed, etc, student-person I don't really want to make any of those into an ATC.

Choosing to focus on the foul-mouthed aspect of myself, I've made a FUCK!! ATC swap. If you join, you get to make an ATC with (and this is key) the word FUCK in it! So exciting...

And just so everyone is well-informed and educated in preparation for this swap, wikipedia gives us this fine information:

The word "fuck" did not come from any of:

* "File Under Carnal Knowledge"
* "Fornication Under the Christian King"
* "Fornication Under the Command of the King"
* "Fornication Under Carnal/Cardinal Knowledge"
* "False Use of Carnal Knowledge"
* "Felonious Use of Carnal Knowledge"
* "Felonious Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
* "Full-On Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
* "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
* "Found Under Carnal Knowledge"
* "Found Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"
* "Forced Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"

Censoring Myself

2010-07-14T03:59:00.008-04:00

...sort of. So, I bought these labels to attach to my yarn bombing:

They say "Zilliah Bailey" and "zilliah.ca." They iron on but I'm sewing them on to be safe.

(Sidenote: look at my awesome tiny craft iron! )

Anyway, so now my yarn bombs are traceable to my website, which is traceable to here and my flickr. Plus I had to use my real name to get the website, etc, etc...and while I don't really think yarn bombs count as graffiti, certain other ...art-related things do. So pictures of graffiti aren't going to be public on my flickr anymore, and I probably won't blog about them (had I? I don't remember.). Oh well. At least I'm self-censoring instead of someone else doing it? I'm only going to censor things that have legal repercussions/fines. (If you want to see these secret pictures that may or may not exist, just message me on flickr, and I'll friend you.)

Bleh, I don't know if I'm overreacting, but a friend who yarnbombs was putting up a tag and got stopped by a police officer, who said it might be considered "mischief" and that they'd been noticing all the yarn things, so drawing attention to less cosy street art is probably not the best plan.

It seems unfair to talk about yarn bombing but not show anything, so here's the piece I put up tonight! Green acrylic yarn in a lacy pattern from this book (which is quite good, it has written and diagrammed patterns, which is nice). It's the first piece with a label attached!

It's on a tree! This is the first tag I've put up that fits around a normal-sized tree! Very exciting. Sorry for the terrible picture, my camera doesn't seem to like darkness.

On the way back I also stopped my the Michaels dumpster, and found these awesome plastic bucket things:

Ooooh, maybe I could use them for dying yarn, I wonder if they're watertight....

Dumpster diving ftw!

Evolution

2010-07-13T01:24:00.005-04:00

I know I've remarked on this before, but my style really has changed a lot in a few months. Consider the following: (remember Bill Nye?!)

These are my three "Steampunk Garden" cards. The second and third were made as requests for cards similar to the first one, 2 weeks and 4 months after the first one. They're all basically made the same way, with rubber stamps, flower punches and beads, but I feel like the mood is really different in all of them. Pretty sure I'm getting better at layering colours effectively? Feedback is always welcome.

Man, I really want to get some more ink. I have eight ink pads (5 dye, 3 pigment) and they just never seem to be enough for all the stuff I want to do. Ink and stamps are so *expensive* though, even unmounted. I've found some AWESOME stamp sites which have the bestest stamps, and unmounted too, but getting lots is expensive and I never have any money.

/rant>

This ink, by the way, is pretty great. I must find somewhere online to purchase it cheaply.

ATCs

2010-07-11T02:28:00.004-04:00

Some new ATCs! This first one I made a while ago but only recently unfinished; it's crocheted, stiffened with mod podge, and has a wire guy climbing on it.

Next is a multimedia collage similar to a card I made a while ago.

The second collage is simpler (only a couple cut up images and some rubber stamps), but I really like the colours in it.

People Are Strange

2010-07-08T14:37:00.003-04:00

I posted a few brightly coloured pencil crayon ATCs on flickr and ATCsforall the day before yesterday (see my previous post). As of today, I have two people asking for trades for this card:

I like the card well enough I suppose, but it's the one I like least out of the pencil crayon ATCs I made. I like the colour combination, but there's not really any colour blending, and some of the vine edges are blurry from when I coloured the background in. I think it's the worst coloured in of those cards, and I prefer the content of the other ones.

I've noticed before that my tastes do not line up with most of the general population, I guess this is just confirming that. But still. Weird.

Pencil Crayons

2010-07-07T00:49:00.003-04:00

I've had a lovely set of artist-quality pencil crayons for a while now, given to me by a lovely friend who was not using them. I've never really tried drawing with pencil crayons before, it's pretty different from pencils, but I just love bright colours so having with with these. I feel like my ATCs have gotten a lot more sophisticated in the last few months - a lot of that is due to getting reasonable art supplies but it's probably also because of actually spending time on them, and getting used to making art. I haven't taken any visual art classes since grade 8 (when I was 12) so there's a lot of really basic stuff I don't know much about yet. Like colour wheel things! My sister explained it to me over the weekend, and it is already being helpful.

The above ATCs are traded in a swap I made on swap-bot, but I have some still available as well! Here are two:

Finally, here's a couple I made with watercolours and pencil crayons. I am reasonable satisfied with how they turned out.

Anywhoo, I am going to do drugs at the beach tomorrow, must get some sleep and pack food.

Yarnbombing!

2010-07-05T17:27:00.002-04:00

I was on vacation with my family on the the Bruce Peninsula and I found a giant ring thingey (that ships used to tie up to, I believe?) and it was PERFECT for yarn bombing! I knitted a tag but I only had about half a day, so I didn't have time to make it go all the way around, which was sad, but I like the way it turned out well enough. I crocheted a frilly border on it too.

Ok, so now I'm a little pissed off

2010-06-30T14:18:00.005-04:00

I was wandering through etsy, when I happened across this listing:

Nice kandi, right? Except it's stolen directly from kandi I sold nearly a year ago!

I checked their sales, and the first one they sold was waaay after I sold mine.

So I'm not sure what to do; on one hand, PLUR, and share happy things, and it's kandi, I shouldn't be a jerk about it, but on the other hand, I did design this and they are profiting off my design. What's worst is that they copied it almost EXACTLY, I have once extra layer of coloured beads on mine at the top and bottom, that's the only difference. The music notes are the same, and so is the spacing. They changed the colours slightly, but I sold a black and pink cuff so really they've only combined the two to get the colours.

The other thing is that I've moved away from making kandi, I spend much more time knitting and making ATCs now....so is it worth making them take down their design, since I'm not currently selling it? Tricksy questions. They've been selling a lot of this cuff, and for more than I sold mine. (Mine was $7 and theirs is $9.) So maybe I should start selling these again? For profit? I do need money...

There's a whole lot of kandi stores on etsy now. When I started my store, there was kandi being sold in other stores, but no other ones where kandi was the main thing being sold. There's now like 6 stores selling just kandi.

ACEOs

2010-06-29T12:36:00.004-04:00

Actually going somewhere with the resolution to use etsy, more I've added two of my ATCs as ACEOs.

I've no idea if these will sell or not, but I'll give it a try anyway.

Handspun!

2010-06-28T21:25:00.001-04:00

I finally spun a semi-useful amount of yarn! Here it is:

Fibres from Yarn Indulgences, it's "Organic Fibre," whatever that means. Hand dyed with food colouring. Slightly varicoloured with different shades of green. (There are occasional white bits, but I didn't want to dye it a third time, and they're not that noticeable.) Approx 106m, DK weight (it's a bit slubby, and varies between fine and worsted). Single ply. I might ply it at some point if I make something that would ply well with it, but no definitely plans atm.

Fuck, I just love yarn!

Unrelated to Crafts, mostly:

So I have an essay due tomorrow, but couldn't focus on it AT ALL, so I took some ritalin because it seemed like it might help (I'd never tried it before). It hasn't helped me work on my essay, but I've got lots of other things done. I've killed over 30 flies, watched their bodies get taken away by ants, updated my website (which now links here ftw!), and haven't gotten any crafts done at all because of pretending to do my essay. Which has not progressed at all. And now I keep getting dizzy every time I stand up - possibly because of food but maybe not? Anyhow, it's an interesting experience but possibly not the best decision I could have made.

Back to Crafts

I've decided I need to label my yarn bombs. I was at the Knit in Public Day (attempted to set record for most people knitting in public - but failed) and someone behind me was talking about the yarn bombing in uptown. I was all excited (that's me!) but then they said the Stitch 'n' Bitch group was doing it. I told them it was me but they didn't seem terribly inclined to believe me, which ticked me off a little. It's one thing to be anonymous, and another thing entirely to have someone else assigned the credit. So BAH, I want to label my tags!

One of the groups in the yarn bombing book has woven labels like in clothes - this really seems like the most appealing option. Paper is too flimsy unless laminated, and laminated just seems like too much work, or annoying, or something. Plus, textile art really ought to have textile tags, it just seems right. Edit: I've found a local-ish site which will do 100 for $10! Success, plus cheap shipping! They're printed and not woven, but hey!

If I EVER get around to making clothes, I think I'd like to get labels for those as well, be all professional and whatnot. Having a logo (logogogogogo) seems like a good plan too, so I'll talk to my sister about that...she is a fancy artist type.

Time for me to go fuck around on the internet some more.

Plans

2010-06-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

I'm currently involved in a wonderful number of ATC trades. I'm also becoming more comfortable with different methods I use to create ATCs, which is nice, but I think it's time to start experimenting with other methods as well.

I really want to spend more time on fabric ATCs. While I've made a couple in the past, they were not all that complex or interestingly structured, and seeing various textile art pieces has really inspired me. I think I want to try embroidering some ATCs; I did embroidery and cross-stitch when I was younger, so I have an idea of where to start. My main problem is that I keep my sewing machine tucked away due to space issues, so every time I want to use it, it's more effort than I want to spend, especially if I'm only sewing one seam. But maybe if I start off with hand embroidery....

Finally, if anyone wants to buy me this, I would love you forever.

Yarn Find!

2010-06-25T08:45:00.000-04:00

Oh man! So I was in a local thrift store wandering around, and discovered they had a yarn tub. All well and good, yarn is wonderful and completes my life, but I really don't need anymore shitty acrylic right now, BUT THEN! I found a skein of what looks to be some handpainted merino that's sold locally! So much excitement! AND I found a skein of Shetland wool, plus a bit of mohair. The best thing is, all of them together were only $2.16! So yes I am very pleased with myself right now.

Neglect

2010-06-22T15:30:00.001-04:00

Oh dear I have been neglecting this blog! And I have been making crafts quite obsessively. I'm working on my third knitted shirt in two weeks! (It's so exciting, I don't have pictures, but it's this pattern.) It's a little ridiculous, but crafts are AWESOME. Plus I have no money so I never go out and do things.

It's interesting how much the ATCs I make have changed in the last few months...getting new craft supplies has a lot to do with that though, especially a set of acrylics!

I've also gotten some more rubber stamps. I really like stamping on an ATC background then washing it out with water, it blends the shapes and colours really nicely. Here's a couple cards where I've combined that technique with wire:

I'm also getting fond of using hot glue as a material in its own right. I wish I could dye it though...

Texture just seems to get increasingly fascinating the more I play with it. I'd never really thought about texture all that much, but working with (and cuddling) a lot of yarn, plus some drug experiences (sometimes drugs AND yarn!), have really helped me focus on it a lot more. Plus flat ATCs are boring!

I also now have an account on ATCs for all. It's a rather badly designed site, but there's a lot of spectacular art on there. (And of course some not-so-great-art, but that's only to be expected.) The best part is that everyone is so enthusiastic about trading, and I really like being able to pick the cards I get (that's my main problem with ATCs on swap-bot).

I have also been learning to spin! It's great but I'm not very good at it; try as I might I can't get non-slub yarn. Luckily I LIKE slub, but still. The biggest problem is that right now I only really want to make big projects (mostly tops) and I don't have the skill or patience to handspin enough yarn for one. Sigh. So my handspun is sitting around for now. But I have learned to ply on a drop spindle, plus dying yarn is SO MUCH FUN. I just love bright colours, and since I'm just using food colouring (with vinegar as a mordant) it's super easy to get them! Here's one example:

The fiber is this super-soft wool I get from Yarn Indulgences. This yarn is unplied and terribly slubby, but I just love the colours in it!

I've also been experimenting with some weirder fibers. I picked some dried milkweed fluff from a field which I'm going to try blending with wool. It's too short and straight to use by itself (at least I don't think I could), but it's sooooo soft and silky. I just need to pick out all the seeds first, which is going to take forever.

I also tried making plarn! I spun it as well, which was super easy since I didn't have to tease the fiber at all. It was much less satisfying though....probably for the same reason. So, to make it more interesting, I plied it with some polyfil I dragged back from Toronto. I like how the polyfil goes sort of puffy!

And, of course, I've been yarn bombing things! Here's a couple, both crochet:

I made some stencils for graffiti, (they were awesome, one said ROBOT PARTY) but due to a miscalculation when I climbed on a roof, they are now lost forever and I keep forgetting to make new ones. BUT! I have a white paint marker, so I've been using that to draw little people climbing on things. I like this corner because I'm the third person to contribute:

Yarn Bombing and ATCs

2010-03-05T06:13:00.000-05:00

I went on a yarn bombing expedition the other day and it was very exciting! My favourite is the first picture, a hat on a statue (there is a photo of the full statue here. There are a couple more tags on flickr but here are four:

In the playground near the pink tag, there were these great stenciled squirrels on the Xs and Os game thing. I'd just been looking at bunnies, so I added a little bunny! Bunny Bunny!

I made a White ATC swap, where you had to use as little colour or black as possible. The first one I made entirely of white paper I cut out, with punched stars and seahorses. The second is made from polyfil and drops of hot glue, to make a raincloud!

I really liked the way the polyfil looked as clouds, so I made another ATC with origami cranes flying through clouds. This wasn't made for a particular swap, so it's up for trade.

There was a Scott Pilgrim ATC swap, so I drew a couple scenes from that. Scott Pilgrim is dating a highschooler! And later he earns the power of love!

And finally, a couple random ATCs made for open-theme, sender's choice swaps!

Ancient Greek ATCs

2010-02-27T18:46:00.000-05:00

A princess and a king. The source images are from Braun & Schneider's Historic Costume Book. The words down the side are "princess" and "king" in Greek.

Kandi Tutorial

2010-02-27T18:38:00.000-05:00

A while ago I made a tutorial for 3D kandi cuffs, and posted it to facebook. It was (debatabley) a little difficult to follow, so I've added arrows and dots and redone the directions, so hopefully it's clearer now. It's been posted to my flickr: (click the image)

More ATCs?

2010-01-28T17:04:00.000-05:00

Yup, a couple more ATCs! As always, there are more on my Flickr, but here are a couple:

I've taken up spinning, and I've been dying the yarn I make, so expect pictures of that soon as well.

ATCs and Sketching

2010-01-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've been joining a lot of ATC swaps on swapbot, as well as sketching a bunch. I've been copying drawings from Braun & Schneider's Historic Costume Book, which is great for practice drawing clothing.

All of my ATCs can be found here, but here are some I particularly like:

I have a bunch of pencil sketches here, but again here a couple good ones:

More hats! And I've learned to make rings

2009-12-10T05:05:00.000-05:00

Hats

I have a bunch of new hats finished! I haven't decided if I'm taking them to Rare Funk, the store in Kitchener where I sell hats, or listing them on Etsy.

These two are commissions for a friend, who wanted presents for her children for christmas. The first is made with Lions Brand Homespun, which looks really nice and feels super soft, but it is extremely annoying to work with.

This one is made with acrylic and wool stripes.

This red one I started ages ago but ran out of yarn...so I got more yarn last weekend and made it large enough to wear comfortably.

I used some of the yarn left over from the first hat for accents on this lacy cloche.

This one is made of wool I got off ebay. The sizing turned out smaller than I expected, so it's probably best for a child or someone with a very small head.

This varicoloured beanie I made as an option for a commission as I wasn't sure about the taste of the person in question. Acrylic yarn from Value Village.

An acrylic hat made in shell patterns:

And finally a fluffy red hat I made for my mother. She chose the yarn, which is Red Heart.

Rings

I got some ring bands from Michaels a while ago, and have just started using them. I've made 4 rings so far, in blue, green, red and black, so I think of them as water, earth, fire and night. I was going to make an 'air' one but I didn't have the right colours of beads on hand.

Monsters

I've also made some new polymer clay monsters! The updated Etsy listing can be found here and more pictures by clicking the picture below.

Etsy Updated!

2009-11-30T01:50:00.000-05:00

I've updated my etsy with some new jewelry, as well as some little monsters.

Crochet Bookmarks Swap

2009-11-25T17:47:00.000-05:00

I've made a swap on Swap-bot for crochet bookmarks! Inspired by the pattern here and by crocheting a bookmark for another swap. More info and sign up at the swap page.

Craft Fai(r|l)

2009-11-24T06:28:00.000-05:00

I went to a craft fair with a friend, but due to poor attendance and the fact that almost everyone who DID show up only wanted to buy x-mas oven mitts, sales were not good. However we both broke even! I even made $2! But since the table was $10 and we split the cost that is not saying too much...

I did, however, make 2 things at the fair, a hat:

and a tag:

While walking back to the bus station afterwards, we stopped in at a store called Rare Funk, which sells things on consignment from local artists. Long story short, you can now buy my hats at Rare Funk in Kitchener, ON!

And that includes these two new ones:

Selling things in an ACTUAL STORE (very exciting) means I had to make price tags/business cards. Since I'm a little terrible at photoshop/GIMP I decided to handmake them...this included cutting the card, writing the words and drawing the picture. (and colouring the picture with crayons!) It doesn't sound too bad except I made a lot of them.

There is a definite value to handmade things, but when there's lots and they're all pretty much the same...sometimes commercial solutions are perhaps more appropriate. (Though commercial solutions don't let you colour things with crayons)

In the spirit of making things from paper (including an ATC for a swap. I think I hate ATCs a little, but this was the first one I've done so now at least I know better) I made a postcard.

It's not a ...bad? postcard? But I think I'm not cut out for scrapbooking or similar things. I suppose it's just as well, the fewer craft supplies I'm addicted to buying, the better.

A little bit of gloating to end this now:

THAT'S RIGHT. I ORGANISED MY YARN, MOTHERFUCKERS! IT IS NO LONGER IN A BUCKET OF TANGLE.

/gloating.

Yarnboming the Second

2009-11-17T10:57:00.001-05:00

Just two, a rainbow post cosy and a little bit of lace for a tree branch. Both crocheted.

Yarn Bomb'd Garbage Can

2009-11-16T07:48:00.001-05:00

Yarn Bombing!
Originally uploaded by Naleag Deco

Yarn bomb'd this last week! First time yarn bombing, it was very exciting.

I also gave the statue of Al Waxman (in Bellevue Square Park, Toronto) a hat yesterday. It wasn't a great hat since I made it in about half an hour and ran out of yarn halfway through, but I think it suits the statue rather well. Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture since it was dark and I only had my cellphone camera.