Birthday Painting Post

My birthday was last January, but I never got around to posting this project. It was a birthday present to myself. I picked up three square canvasses and black and gold paint. All I needed was a subject, so I went for a walk.

I found three potential subjects, and used the best parts of each.

My boyfriend drew the dried flower (right) on one panel, and I drew the connecting stem (left) across the other two panels.

 

I painted the canvases with three coats of gold paint, and then three coats of black paint. This took about four days of drawing/painting/drying time. What I really should have here is a finished photo of all three panels, but I really should hang them first . . . I owe ya one.

Custom Illustrations Make Great Gifts!

It's been a while so I thought I'd check in and show you what I've been up to. A friend of mine just celebrated his tenth wedding anniversary (congratulations!) and was looking for a unique gift that would acknowledge the passing of specifically ten years, and the addition of triples to their family. He suggested the idea of a hot air balloon with his current family and their newlywed selves on the ground.

I started with many (many, many) sketches to get a feel for where I wanted the balloon and family on the page, then opened Illustrator and literally scribbled some gestures of characters and poses.

Once the portraits and poses were done I experimented with some backgrounds. This family is from NYC and wanted to have that represented somehow, but I also gave them a simpler background that would allow the family to pop off the page. This all happened over the course of a few weeks so I sent screen shots for approval along the way. I edited haircolor, added personal details, and experimented with some different treatments of the background. This is going to be an anniversary gift, so it needs to be special, personal, and accurate.

 

Believe it or not, there are actually hours of work between the image on the left and the final image on the right. I double checked details, corrected inconsistencies in the way I drew eyes, aligned the stripes on the balloon, filled holes where the vector shapes didn't quite line up. I also added details to the kids' clothing. This art will be printed at 18"x24", so the tiny details I could miss on the screen need to be refined.

Spoiler: To acknowledge the passing of ten years I added just a few elements in groups of ten. I also added roses from her bridal bouquet into the balloon piece of the image but they are too small to see on here.

Self Control is Overrated.

This week has been crazy stressful.  We are being inspected at work. An inspection so epic that it only happens every three years.  It takes 1 year to recover, 1 year to relax, and 1 year to prepare for the next inspection.  It’s that huge.

Now, during stressful situations, my willpower goes down to about zero.  I start eating pasta every night for dinner and my exercise schedule gets postponed.  All self control gets funneled into work to impress the inspectors.  I plan for this.  I eat healthy and run before the stress starts so that I can drown in comfort food for that one week.  This works for me.  I’ll reboot my personal self control on Monday.

What I didn’t plan for was yarn.  Specifically Knitpicks yarn.  They send these enticing little e-mails directly to you with pictures of soft squishy yarn that would look lovely in my home.  And then, there are the kits.

It’s a Diatom shawl in blue!  It combines yarn, biology, and blue.  I love it.  And it’s a kit.  A yarn, biology, blue, kit.  How am I to resist?  No, I don’t actually wear shawls more than once a year when I’m doing an historical reenactment.  But I COULD wear this yarn, biology, blue, shawl kit.  

One more click takes you to their new sock yarn samplers.  There are 6 of them:

Earth

 Campfire

Lake shore

Evening sky

Summer Sunset

And Sunny Day:

The best part about these samplers?  Each one makes about 4 pairs of socks for only $30 AND they stripe themselves.  I could have no fuss hand knit stripped socks.  I could toss out all my old socks and from now on only wear hand knit socks in all their squishy goodness. 
 

I can see it now….

My co-workers will stand in awe of my beautiful stripped socks.  They will envy these socks and beg me to knit a pair for them.  Just one pair each… after all, they aren’t greedy.  These socks will make me popular and pretty.  These socks will make me loose 15 lbs and my hair will behave – even on high humidity days.  

These sock samplers… contain orange.  I hate orange.  I hate orange so much that I have removed all traces of it from my office and my boss’ office down to the last paper clip and sticky note.  

::sigh::  Perhaps I shouldn’t be yarn shopping in my stressed out state.  At least I should wait 1 week before spending $210 on a shawl I might wear once a year and 24 pairs of socks in yarn form.

One inspection day left and this me, knitting from the stash.

5k just the way I like it.

I have run a 5k before...well walked it quickly. But now I've signed on for the perfect 5k - No running (or walking) involved AND its even cheater friendly!!!

The Knit Girllls podcast is sponsoring a yarn crafting 5k starting May 27th The challenge: to craft 5,000 meters through spinning, weaving, knitting, or crocheting.

The rules for this challenge can be found in the Knit Girllls Ravelry forum: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-knit-girllls/1659273/1-25

Here's the math:

5/27 – 8/15 = 11 weeks 3 days= 80 days.
5,468 yd x 3 ft/yd = 16,404 ft

205.05 ft/day

Or for all you metric people:

5 k x 1,000 m/k = 5,000 m

62.5 m/day

Wish me luck!!!

Let the Mad Sweater Knitting Begin!

It's been several years now since I took my first crochet class.  I drove to up to a local yarn store called 'Keep Me in Stitches' with a pattern in hand and learned everything necessary to make Henry, my first pig.

A perfect first project.  He's little (will fit in the palm of your hand) and is easy to make.  He was a success.  And then I leapt from little one stitch no swatch to...

a sweater.  Note that this is the picture from the pattern.  It was never successfully made.  I still like it, and maybe one day will add it to my wardrobe... but not anytime soon.  Because sweaters should fit.  That means taking measurements, making gauge, and counting.  There is a lot of counting.

Since then, I've tried making 3 more sweaters.

One was started less than a month before Christmas with the intent of wearing it on Christmas Eve.  It was sport weight yarn on size 5 needles....for all you non-knitters, that's a whole lot of little stitches.  Needless to say it didn't get done.  The yarn was then repurposed as a pretty little scarf for my sister.  Well, some of it was repurposed.  I still have a lot of this yarn left...maybe she'll get mittens to match.  And a hat.  Possibly a cowl.  Or all of them.  I bought a lot of this yarn.

The next sweater was for a crochet-a-long.  My thinking was that maybe if I were working with a group I could actually finish a sweater!  I got about this far:

And it doesn't fit.  It doesn't even fit the family members who are much smaller than me.  I'm pretty sure it will be frogged and turned into several very squishy dishcloths.

My fourth sweater attempt is still on the cable (although the interchangeable needles have been removed for another project.)  I have no picture, but it's a bottom up sweater that has been completed up to the arms!

Since there is no shaping, this means that I knit a tube about a foot long.... then stopped.  There are no arms.  It's in my Ravelry queue under "No, Really I'm going to finish it this time sweater".  It's not done. I blame the arms.  And maybe the fact that I didn't read the pattern first, so the arms that are supposed to be done and getting attached are still in the form of a ball of yarn stuffed in the bottom of my knitting bag.

So when one of our local yarn shops offered a 4 part 'make your first sweater' class, I considered it an investment.  If I paid for a class with an actual teacher of COURSE I would finish the sweater.  Otherwise it would be a waste of money - and I don't waste my money.

The sweater I picked has a cowl neck and is knit from the top down in the round (it doesn't get much easier) and I should have it finished within the 4 classes.

Before the first class I washed and blocked my swatch.

During the first class, I learned how to get started: the proper cast on, which increase to use, and lots of reminders that in knitting everything can be fixed.

And after the class, I spent the next few days knitting down to where I needed to separate the arms.

During the second class, we learned how to put the arms onto scrap yarn to be knit later, how to make a pretty little decrease for shaping, and a nice stretchy bind off so that it won't look like you are wearing a mushroom.

By class 3 I should have the whole body of the sweater done (i.e. not the arms or the cowl).  I'm about 6 inches away from being done and have lost all desire to knit.  ::sigh::

It has to be done by this Saturday so I'm going to hunker down with some crafty podcasts and hope to get inspired.

Happy Crafting!

I may suck now... but it will get better. Later.

I read a lot of blogs.  One of my favorites is by the Yarn Harlot.  It's quirky, a bit snarky, and full of fiber fun.

On certain days she says just what I need to hear.  I think I'll chalk this up to her being a Mom to several daughters around my age.  Mom's tend to have those magic words that can bestow love and warmth or, as in this case, a metaphorical smack on the back of the head with a 'snap out of it!'

"The truth is, that if you're brand new to a skill, you probably suck.  You'll likely suck less tomorrow.  Don't throw in the towel because your first (or tenth) try at something isn't successful.   Sure.. you suck.  You're new. Keep trying and you'll suck less.  Later. It doesn't mean you're bad at color work.  It means you don't know how. 

Yet." ~ The Yarn Harlot

If you remember back to the beginning of January, one of my New Year's resolutions was to knit my way through the 2011 Vogue Stitch-a-Day Calendar.

I was making progress too. I learned how to do stranded color work on day 1 and was thoroughly encouraged that both my sister and my knitting group didn't think my swatches were hideous!  My tension was good, and even without blocking things were looking up.

And then... Intarsia.

I had heard the horror stories.  I've seen the support groups.  I waited a week...and then another.  I contemplated skipping it all together.  Who would blame me?  Intarsia really should be learned in a class with a teacher to gently pull you back from the brink of tears anyway.

And then I read the Yarn Harlot's blog and decided that if the point of my calendar knitting was to learn new techniques I wouldn't let the fear of sucking stop me.  I waited until Saturday morning so I would have a full day to devote to this swatch, grit my teeth, and arranged my yarn.

7:00 AM - Feeling cautiously optimistic.

8:00 AM - Realized that I switched the light blue and the dark blue.  Then I took one look at the back of my swatch and also realized that I didn't care.  I do try to be a perfectionist, but there was  no way I was frogging this and starting over.

10:00 AM - The first flower was done.  The back is a rat's nest, but my stockinette was lovely.  I think I've developed a new appreciation for it.  Never again will I lament large portions of flat knitting.  At least until the next project.

12:00 PM - Both flowers were done! And the back of the work was... terrifying.

Now, when my Mom was first teaching me to knit, she told me "NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER TIE KNOTS IN YARN!!"  Ok, she may not have yelled it, but it was taught to me as a hard and fast rule.  When using yarn, there would be no knots.  Ever.

However, my Mother (while a lovely knitter) never attempted intarsia.  She was never presented with the above tangle of awfulness and forced to make a decision about what to do with all those loose ends.

The front of the work was full of holes, but all the video tutorials I watched assured me they would disappear when I 'took care of' the back.

I made the decision to tie the darn knots.

I think the finished swatch is ugly.  The color switch hurts my eyes and I can't imagine using this for anything that would require a pleasant aesthetic.  In short - it sucks.  But I'm pleased that I tried it. 

And now I can move guilt free to the January 6th swatch that involves no color work, just a very comfortable knit and purl.

How to Block Cotton Dishcloths

Blocking is probably my favorite finishing technique so far.  Not only is it easy, but the change in the finished product is dramatic!

Equipment: pins; tape measure; blocking board (anything that's flat, you can stick pins into, and will dry).

Step 1: Wash your finished product.  (I added towels just to be a bit more eco-friendly.  Why run an empty washer?)

 

Step 2:  Place the still wet dishcloths on your blocking board.  Mine are from KnitPicks, but any flat surface that will dry in a reasonable amount of time will do.

 

Step 3: Pin the cloths in about the shape you want them to be in when you are finished.  I'm planning to sew these dishcloths together to make a baby book so I measured each one to make sure they were the same size.

Step 4: Allow to air dry.

Step 5: Remove the pins and stand in awe of how a little water changes your knitting and makes it look MUCH more professional.

before

after

Photography Class

Assignment #1: Take 6 photos of the same subject using different settings on your camera.
I did this with a little Canon point-and-shoot in manual mode. It's more of an experiment than a project.

Winter Tree Collage - My Sister's Christmas Present!

 I love the skyline when I'm driving home at night - royal blue sky with black silhouettes of trees.
My sister asked for some original art for Christmas and her favorite color is blue - opportunity!

Plan a composition on tracing paper. Use drafting tape to affix layout to a heavier paper.
I started with blue paper but changed my mind partway through . . . ah . . . hence the importance
of planning that composition. I cut it all out with an X-Acto knife.

Next I made a watercolor wash to simulate the rich blue evening sky.

I used some black acrylic paint and a coarse brush (for texture) and painted the whole thing black.
I don't really recommend this because the skinnier branches can rip when they get soggy.

Align the cutout over the background . . .

. . . and trim to fit into your frame.

Done!

(Don't forget to clean the glass in your frame.)

Scrap Yarn Rug / Hot Pad / Potholder

My sister made me a gorgeous crocheted throw out of this super soft hand spun yarn. I love it - but it sheds like crazy. She told me it was because of the tassels, and that if I took them off it wouldn't shed anymore. I removed the tassels and came up with this huge pile of beautiful, soft yarn, but my sister said she had no use for the little snips. I tied the yarn scraps together, but this was a mistake, because the plan was to braid them. The more I braided the more the ends tangled. Long story short, I re-cut all the yarn into snips and just added lengths about 1.5 feet at a time instead.

Once all the yarn was braided I started spiraling the yarn, stitching it in place with a regular needle and thread.

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out, and now I'm toying with the idea of making one from old t-shirts, plastic shopping bags, fabric scraps I don't want to throw away, or a bunch of clothes (all the same color) from Goodwill cut into strips.

Quick and Pretty Bead Bracelets

These are really quick, really easy, and went over really well as Christmas gifts. Joanns Fabrics had a buy-one-get-one-free sale on beads, so I grabbed 3 strands of each color beads in different shapes and textures, a strand of tiny silver beads that could go with any color, and another strand of cool blue/green assorted beads. Like most beaders, I have a bunch of pretty beads sitting around waiting for just the right craft, so I filled in with some of those to add variety. I measured a length of clear elastic so it would go around my wrist 4 times (or could be long enough for a necklace). There really isn't much else to this project besides making sure to disperse distinct beads (like the biggest ones) evenly.

Growler Cozy Project (from sister #2)

For those of you unfamiliar with craft breweries, this is a German-style growler from Victory Brewing Co. It holds about 4 pints, and it's more cost efficient (and greener!) than buying bottles and cans. The following project is a way to make an insulated cozy for the growler so you can take your time enjoying your specialty beer without it getting warm - hooray! This is my first actual craft blog post, so I've learned a little something about taking more photos next time. Some things are just easier to show in pictures.

 STEP 1: Trace around the base of the growler on muslin, adding about 1/4" seam allowance. You should end up with a circle. Align the long, straight side of the muslin to the bottom of the growler and wrap it around the bottle to get an idea how wide your pattern should be, and trim. Cut some curves to overlap around the handle (check out the photos at the bottom to see what I mean.) Fold the fabric in half longways, then in half again, then in half again, and mark on seams. These even marks will be where you'll put the pleats to fit fabric to the round top of the bottle.

STEP 2: Choose some fabric. I chose a synthetic (so it would be quick drying) pattern fabric for the outside and one insulated liner fabric for the inside. 

STEP 3: Trace the muslin onto the good fabric and trim. Fold your pleats at the even marks measured earlier and sew them. Wrap this much of the project around your growler to be sure it fits, and to start getting an idea of how to overlap the S-curve edges around the handle.

STEP 4: Measure one length of ribbon to go around the top and two sides, and then a second 14" piece for a handle. On the handle, I folded each side in 1/2" for aesthetics. To prepare the ribbon for edging (A) lay a 2" ribbon flat (B) fold down about 1/2" at the top and pin (C) lay your fabric inside the ribbon, matched to the bottom edge of the folded ribbon (D) fold the top 1/2" down to encase the top 1/2" of fabric.

TIP: If the bottom raw edge of the ribbon sticks out juuuuust a little farther than the folded bit you can machine stitch along the folded edge and be sure you're catching the other side of the ribbon underneath.

STEP 5: Pin everything. I know it's a pain, but it's the best way to make sure everything ends up where it should be and nothing slips. Match right sides together and machine stitch the circular bottom pattern piece to the straight, un-edged side of your cozy. The sides of the upper will overlap leaving space to affix the velcro.

STEP 6: Slip your growler into your newly edged cozy and pin velcro where the side flaps overlap. Machine stitch velcro in place.

Fill with your favorite local craft brew and enjoy!