Busy bee.

It's been a while since my last post, I know, but things have gotten busy and in the way of crafting around here. The building's window project is finally underway, and so some of my craft supplies, along with furniture and whatever else was near the windows in our apartment, have had to go into temporary storage. No worries, they should be back next week- our new windows are supposed to be installed Monday and the movers should be bringing things back Wednesday.

I've also had rehearsals and tests- the usual busyness, and last week was the ARISTA (national honor society) induction ceremony- so that was a late night. I felt a little bit like I was being inducted into a cult- we marched down the isles of a dark auditorium holding lit candles and then said a pledge. Haha, but it was nice. Mary was home on spring break and came to visit that day. She's so cute, she brought me flowers!


Speaking of Mary, we also made Calculus cupcakes together on Thursday afternoon since I came home a bit early (no rehearsal after school). Nothing special compared to many of the delightful blogged cupcakes I see out there, but it was still fun- and they tasted great!


In slightly more crafty news, the Crafty Detective swap has drawn to a close and I believe my partner was very happy with what she received. I know I'm proud of it all as well.


I used some of that fabulous upholstery fabric for the outside of the tote and some cotton from P&S for the lining. I also gave it a hand-carved stamped craftster logo tag and a pocket with pen holders.


The notebooks were my first try at cellulose transferring (I believe that's what it's called), and I love how they turned out. I definitely want to try this technique again, but maybe a less toxic alternative can be found to paint thinner (someone on craftster suggested an orange cleaning solution that I may look into). I also hand stamped each page with one of my own creations.


The happy marshmallows, little felt bowl, and crafty apron were great fun to work on as well. It was nice to do some hand sewing for a change (on the mallows and the bowl).




You can also she the fabulous things I received from my partner/stalkee in the gallery.

My crafting/posting may be somewhat limited once again in the next few weeks as spring break is fast approaching. I am going to visit Mary at Bowdoin from the 30th to the 2nd and then am going to San Francisco with the usual crew from the 6th to the 10th. Hopefully the plain rides will give me some good crafting time, but I'm not sure about knitting needles on planes? Meanwhile, I hear from colleges from now until mid April! Busy, busy bee.

Round and about

I haven't been accomplishing anything lately. Crafts, school work, it's all in senioritis mode. Admittedly it's kind of nice to just go to school and rehearsal and come home and read lots of inspiring craft blogs... but I need to make that inspiration go somewhere. At least I was inspired to do something when my beginning crochet kit came in the mail. It's not much, but check out my first swatch!

I decided mastering crochet chain, single crochet and slip stitch was enough for one weekend.

Today however, I finally picked up my dpns and the random, slightly ugly dk yarn I have a million balls of to start knitting my first socks.

It's not much, but I'm excited. I'm 'taking' Silver's Sock Class and so far so good- I've mastered casting onto and getting started on dpns (I only used dpns once before- for my no-ears kittyville hat, and that was started on circs. It gives me some mindless knitting (at least until I get to the heel) to do during rehearsal for a while... at least until I order the yarn for my first sweater (ambitious again, yes?)

Really I should be working on the crafty detective swap... or that branching out on which I stopped after (unlucky?) 13 pattern repeats and have yet to pick up again. I hope it will be done in time for mother's day... problem is, it just requires too much concentration, that I certainly don't have at the moment.

Well, I do have one thing that is a little more fun:

I sent this pouch (and stamp I used for it) to my partner in the DIY kit swap- along with a lot of other stamp making stuff of course. The pouch has a nice little brown lining from some small thrifted piece of material. It's my first, and so far only, use of that huge barrel of upholstery fabric, and though it's simple I'm really happy with it. It's going to take a lot more of these to use of all that fabric though! Haha, well one of these days I'll be back in full craft mode again, I know it.

Realizing... toast.

Today I stumbled upon this wonderful woman's incredibly beautiful work space and decide that when I 'grow up' I want an amazing space like that. My corners of piles of junk are not creatively conducive and I just wish I had the space time and energy to surround myself with such exquisite things. I craft to make the world beautiful, and I wish that my surroundings could always be neat, tiny, and full of splendor. When I grow up, I want a craft room, or at least a nook, that can be at least 1/10th gorgeous as that and conducive to my creativity. Meanwhile, I'll survive with my piles and messes, because at least I have the space for that, and maybe someday I'll be able to get it a little bit more organized.

In my clutter, last night I pulled a table out to the living room rather than sew on the floor as usual, and whipped my mom up some pot holders for her birthday (I only managed to finish about 13 pattern repeats of the branching out, I suppose she'll get that for mother's day.)


She liked them, and they are certainly an improvement on our old ones, which were really just old and falling apart.

Also, Wednesday I had some sort of mystery stomach flu, and stayed home from school. I wanted to craft, but could hardly muster up the energy, I was feeling this bad. Instead I rented Little Miss Sunshine and the Devil Wears Prada- both inspiring in their own very different ways- and spent most of the day on the couch. I did however, manage to make this little guy, because what's better when you're sick than a little toast?


As I believe was pointed out on Creative Kismet, it is good to feel sick once in a while because it makes you appreciate feeling better. Well I know I appreciated feeling better on Thursday despite my unexciting lunch of crackers and jam to appease any possibility of a lingering upset stomach.

Well, that is all. I did receive a craft package with some nice earrings recently, and had a good evening of babysitting, and dinner and pinkberry with Mike and Laura. However, they did not appreciate how delicious pinkberry is, and their lovely 'kawaii' Japanese decor, as much as Helen and I do, so that may be a venue reserved just for us in the future. Otherwise, I'm a busy girl, so crafting is somewhat limited at the moment, though I do have a swap package to work on, but busy is good, and sometimes, that's just how it should be.

An Inspirational Adventure

On Monday, Helen and I went on a craft/inspiration adventure. We didn't end up buying much crafty stuff, but I did get some needed cable needles at school products (I still can't believe I was able to restrain myself and not buy yarn since I didn't "need" any :o) and I got a cute new shirt and sweater on sale at H&M. We did have a great time wandering around in the cold and getting inspired though, and she ended up with a cute pink wool/mohair sweater from goodwill for recycling purposes.

We enjoyed the container store:


wouldn't those wrapping papers make fabulous fabrics?

Discovered a cute Japanese boutique on 19th St:

too bad the fabric was like $9 per fat quarter... I was tempted though... especially by an adorable little print with bunnies. Well, now that I know it's there, I can always go back ;)


who on Earth would blow their nose on these?? So pretty!

And the best part: Since we were in the area, my mom let us raid the "trash" pile at her office... she is the president of a textile mill! We set aside piles and piles of gorgeous upholstery fabric to add to our stashes. I already have 2 specific projects in mind. Since it was heavy, we left most of the fabric there for her to UPS back uptown (or to Queens in Helen's case) but I took my favorite piece home with me:

It's fairly soft for upholstery fabric too... though I haven't decided what to do with this particular piece yet. There were also a ton of great paisleys, florals, and geometrics patterns, including one other print with birds (peacocks I think) which I claimed and a smallish amount of a great print with strawberries which Helen and I are sharing. I foresee I lot of bags and pillows in my future! Any tips for other good upholstery fabric projects?

Otherwise, besides working, hanging out, and doing my vacation homework, I've been working on a lot of stuff for swaps and I've reached the 13th repeat of my mom's branching out. I think my goal is 30... *sigh* it's going well though, and is much more interesting to knit than a plain scarf!

Branching Out

So, feeling a little guilty for starting my February break a day early, I turned on two hours of PBS's supreme court series, while finally biting the bullet and starting the branching out for my mom's birthday. I'll admit I was terrified to try my hand at lace... but, while it's challenging, it's not terribly hard at all, and I'm really happy with how it's going so far. After frogging the first repeat 4 times, I finally got in to the swing of it, and haven't had to frog anymore since (though the lifelines are there just in case) I know there are a few mistakes, but I don't know where they are, and I think the pattern looks great anyway! I've completed three repeats and am excited to keep going, though I may take a break now to work on something for a swap or clean my room. I am using recycled, kool-aid died merino wool from my first recycling and dying projects ever for this knit :)

Anyway, here it is:


and stretched to look more like it will look after blocking (I assume):


The colors are truer in the second picture, but neither are very good. You can get a better idea of the yarn used in my post about the recycling project itself.

Oh, and the pencil cases were a great hit with my friend :)

The magic of Goodwill

On the way home from rehearsal last night I stopped at Goodwill for a quick look around, to see if there was anything worth my while. There was! I got two pieces of 'fabric' and a lovely yellow, wool sweater.

When I got home, I set to work fixing a pencil case my friend gave me. She got it in China and loves it, but the zipper was pulling apart and one of the ends came apart as well. So I unpicked the whole thing, added a new pale pink zipper (it had a white one before, but I liked the pink) and sewed it back together:


you can see it on top of the first piece of 'fabric' I got at Goodwill, which turned out to be a shower curtain when I got home. I really liked it, and so contemplated putting it up, but instead made another pencil case for my friend (It's her birthday today):

I used the shower curtain fabric and covered it with clear vinyl so that it can be wiped off when it gets dirty in her bag. I made it in the same style as the one I fixed, but after I finished I realized my zipper isn't as nice because I didn't fold over the edges, ah well, I'm still quite happy with it, and it was my first time working with vinyl, so it was a little challenging, but not as scary as I expected ;)


Here is the other fabric, actually intended to be fabric, that I got at Goodwill:


I had also picked up a sweater, and when my Dad came in to tell me Guys and Dolls was on PBS, I turned it on, and started unravelling. I only did the front panel so far, but it's such a large sweater- I know I'm going to get a lot of nice things out of this!
Right after unravelling:


Drying in my bathroom this morning:


My partner for the owl swap also received, and so I have some things to show off from that:
group:

Bag lining and applique:

shirt:

key chain, mini-bag, and stamp:


This was my first two times carving stamps, and then stamping fabric (the lining and mini-bag) and also my first time doing applique. It was a great swap! :)
*Gallery*

anyway, I think that's all for now. Only a week until February break when I have so much to do, so many people to see, and so much to craft! <3

Found the Camera Cord

It was hardly hiding, just under my desk, though I'm so sure I looked there. Anyway, what's important is that I can post pictures again.

So, the kittyville hat. I finally decided against the ears, it makes it more wearable. Though I have a blue and pink monster fur hat with bear ears that I found very wearable for a long time, it just doesn't go with my new winter coat, haha. Anyway, I like it how it is, and I can always add the ears if it strikes my fancy. Done in the suggested mission falls, it's much purpler than it looks here:

excuse the pjs and the toilet in the background, it's hard to take pictures of yourself ;P

As a mentioned, I also did some yarn recycling. 100% fine merino wool, recycled from a $6.99 thrift store sweater. The dyed skein is a much richer cranberry in the darker spots and pinker in the lighter spots, except a few where it stayed rather grey.

It doesn't look like much, but that's because the yarn is a pretty fine weight, I would say probably fingering weight. The entire back panel of the sweater is still un-recycled and I had to get rid of some of the sweater since I didn't do an amazing job of getting it apart at the seams (especially on that back panel, which is why I haven't tried to recycle it yet, haha) Anyway, the grey ball is from the sleeves, and the red skein/blob is the front panel, died in the microwave with 3 packets of kool-aid. The color's not all that evenly distributed, but I'm happy with it- especially considering that this was my first time both at recycling and yarn dying!

Oh, and the fingerless gloves were received very well :) She said her mom complimented them too!

I also just received the happy hooker from amazon- one copy for me and one for Helen, who already knows how to crochet, time for me to learn another craft!

Last night I did my first cable, inspired by Helen who brought her first cable swatch to school on Friday- what can I say, I have to keep up, haha. Even though it's just a little swatch I think it's given me the confidence to attempt a project with them... when I get some of my current WIPs done... or not... we'll see ;P

Instead of starting on my mom's birthday gift, or the knit pear I promised Laura, or my first pair of socks, last night I started a t-shirt quilt!

After taking this picture I cut out all the designs with a 14"x14" template I made from file folders and started to iron on interfacing. The facing isn't cooperating though, it just won't stick, I don't know what I'm going wrong :\ Ah well, it stuck in a few places and if worse comes to worse I can always sew the rest on. I have a lot of time to finish this one though, I just want it to be ready for college next year. I'll probably need some more t-shirts, but I have some more from shows I've been in, though some I actually wear so won't cut up, and want to get another t-shirt from my school to chop. I vow to finish this project, even if it doesn't happen until the summer.

I think those are all the updates in the craft world for this evening. I think I'm staying in tonight as I'm kind of cranky with the friends about supposed spring break plans, and Mike has his job until 9 anyway, so maybe I'll get more done. I should do homework, but crafting is the greater good... or evil ;)