the handmade holiday crusade

oh dear.

well, the handmade-holiday-crusade has begun. i got a late start this year too, and what a year to do it. not only do i have my immediate family to deal with and my two sisters-in-heart, i also suddenly grew five sisters in law and three more brothers and an extra set of parents!

not to mention future-hubby's birthday is in two weeks, our anniversary is the month after christmas, and then there's valentine's day after that.

my mass go-to-gift this year is something vintage, so i pray i can read the pattern correctly. i hate hate HATE dealing with guage in crochet, so i really really hope it's easier that i think it's going to be.

well, back to work. after a batch of crochet today, in between laundry shifts, i hope to get on the sewing machine and get a bunch done.

at least i don't have to worry about spilling the beans for FH's birthday, he already knows, in fact, he picked out his birthday gift - i'm making him a half-zip sweater vest out of thick and thin homespun in greens and golden yellows, backed with, oh, not malabrigo... the other wool... cascade! that's it, dark-green-heather cascade wool. yeah, i'm only about a quarter done. maybe i can get half done today.

oh yeah! almost forgot. check out our engagement photos!
go to www.ovationphotography.net, and on the bottom click the link that says "view my pictures." our password is june26. enjoy!

CRAZINESS!

marching band is over! I can have my life back!!!!

our last game was friday night, followed by a great day at state festival on saturday (we brought home a 1! first time in 3 years!)

my life officially started back up today, instead of sunday, because mother and i spent ALL DAY sewing fleece sleepers for the preemie project. we also brought along hats and booties to be donated, just in time for those late-october babies... pumpkin hats!!

and little green booties to match (except the picture is muy sucky)... hopefully you get the idea.

to celebrate my first day of having a life again, i cooked supper, albeit at 8:30 pm (future-hubby has to work the night shift for a few days). i made these pear-and-prosciutto cups with croissant dough, brie, and mozzarella... i also made them on sunday, but i used phyllo dough, which by the way i hate. i still don't have the cups right for these... phyllo is too thin and difficult to cook evenly, croissant dough is tasty but too heavy....

amd as a side dish i whipped up a sweet potato casserole, minus marshmallows. we used golden sweet potatoes and mashed them with a little butter, spread ricotta on top and the sprinkled frosted flakes doused in more butter on top. baked it 'til the flakes were crispy, et voila!

i finally uploaded my shrug and a hat i just finished, but now i can't seem to find them on my computer. it's time for bed anyways, before i pass out in front of my computer.
life is good.

i'm back... whew....

after a much-needed hiatus, i have returned with crafty goodness!

The first batch of pickles came out, and apparently i didn't sterilize a few of the jars properly cuz two out of the original eight had some sort of weird sediment in the bottom of the jar.... yeah... i didn't eat those. the other ones were good though. especially the spicy pickles. yum yum yum.

tomorrow i'm making butternut squash soup so i'll let you know how that goes.

on the crochet front, i finished a shrug out of noro garden yarn, and i'm, well, mostly pleased with it. it's my first item EVER with sleeves, but i left it in my office where i was covertly working on it in-between classes, so i'll have to post pictures later.

i also started a hat with the last of my bernat cashmere, some fuzzy curly white yarn (recylced!), and the yarn pauraniente and i dyed with kool-aid last winter. i don't have pictures of that either, but i will when it's done.

but i do have pictures. i finally got bit by the dotee bug. nobody seems to know exactly what they are. i mean, objectively, yes, they are relatively palm-sized dolls, usually with a round face, a hanger, not much distinction in the way of body parts... but what, exactly, are they?

i almost think of them as little prayer dolls, or little goddess dolls, but i guess sometimes you could just have silly ones.

like my Nessa. she's my first dotee! i had just finished reading "alone in the kitchen with an eggplant" and i happened to mention it to my fiance when we were riding in the car. he thought it sounded "quite sinister" and before we knew it, we were making up stories about a vengeful eggplant, in a british accent, with her "jaunty green cap."

so, here's nessa, my murderous eggplant.
she's made of felt with beaded accents and a sculpy knife. oh! and she has a friend, her pet spider leroy.

and here's a shot of her "jaunty green cap." ha, sometimes i crack myself up.

i don't think i'm done with her yet though. i want to add a bit more embroidery to the bottom, in-between the green beads, and also some more embroidery leaf detail on her cap. i have a word bead that says "green," and i'd like to try embroidery the "jaunty cap" phrase on the back, but i already tried once, got halfway through the word jaunty and tore it out because i mostly suck at embroidery.

tomorrow, along with butternut squash, we'll have the triplets, charlie, chelsea, and chester pea.

off to the doctor!

for a headache that won't quit. two days and three different kinds of medication, enough sleep and caffeinne, good diet and all, and i'm sitting in front of the computer with sunglasses on, feeling each tick of the keyboard reverberate inside my skull...

granted i'm only on the computer because i actually do need to work today, so through the wonders of e-mail and cell-phone correspondence i'm actually getting a fair amount done, just not at the office.

i wouldn't go to the doc either, i mean, it's just a headache right? who goes to the doctor for a headache? headaches nearly every day, though, sometimes accompanied by nausea and often with sensitivity to light, sound, and movement are not good. this one has all that and more! tell the lady what she's got: skull-splitting pain centered behind the eye, accompanied with a severe sense of vertigo and throbbing pain upon movement, sensitivity to light and sound, movement-related nausea and a constant ringing in her ears!

i'd rather be listening to bad trombonists.

i was feeling better for a brief spell yesterday and managed to cook like a mad woman for the two hours i was functional. there's something uppity-foodie feeling about cooking while casually watching a french movie. and no, it wasn't french cooking.

i made a hearty sausage stew and cornbread to go with it, a pie for dessert, and homemade peach-strawberry muffins for sectionals this morning. except my crock pot soup stayed on "warm" all night so it would be ready to go this morning, and the rice and barley kind of, well, turned to mush. the veggies are still firm though, so no loss really. sweet basil, thyme, and a pinch of hot chili powder... yum...

after the doc today i get to go home and be little miss stepford again and vacuum the house and clean the toilet, provided i don't get put on bedrest or something (can you say, "drama queen"? i know, i know, i eat it all up...). i did a massive round of dishes yesterday, but during my cooking binge, which i seem to have been trying to provide for all two of us for a week, i managed to fill the sink again. both sides. and a bit of the counter. scrubbing bubbles ahoy!

wow, my mood seems to shift precariously and precociously today between humorous and downright depressed.

maybe doc'll have something for that too.

school is sucking away my life...

it's really not that bad.

you know i exaggerate. as my future-hubby will say though, i'm not good for much once i've gotten home from work. it's that getting up at 5:30 every day thing... which means at this point, being the total sleep-hound i am, that i should be in bed instead of writing, which i haven't done much of lately either.

the pickles, while still not posted, all sealed except for the spicy-sweet variety, which should be okay sitting in the fridge to steep. three weeks left and i can try my first batch!

i've been floating from crochet project to crochet project... started an afghan as a present for someone next year, been picking away at my afghan, working here and there on the potential wedding shawl, trying in vain to work with this gorgeous red/brown fuzzy yarn, and in desperate need for something quick and easy pulled a cheap skein of caron's out of the cupboard and commenced a shrug, for which i have no pattern and turned out not to be quick and easy as i measured my foundation chain and soon found out the stitches took up more space. so i got about six inches into it and frogged it all.

something will come around eventually.

labor day was yesterday, and i took the opportunity of staying at home all day, while future-hubby was in the garage messing with the cars, to try a real, gourmet, at home recipe. it had mixed results. i made chicken mole (pronounced "mo-lay") using a recipe i synthesized after looking at various other recipes across the spectrum of the internet, from foodnetwork to allrecipes and about four other sites in between.

chicken mole sauce is a mexican dish consisting of chicken (easy) drenched in this fabulous chile pepper-chocolate sauce. it doesn't taste like chocolate. i didn't even know it had chocolate in it. anyway, when you order this stuff at a restaurant, it is dark, smooth, almost glaze-like. i procure all the needed peppers and proceed to de-stem, de-vein, and de-seed all dozen of them (yes, this recipe made too much sauce) down to the tiny, 2.5" serrano peppers, saute them with onion and fresh garlic, toast almonds and pine nuts, put together a heavenly blend of spices with tomatoes and melted bittersweet chocolate....

i have to say, the smell was fantastic.

schlepped it into the blender (which was a great mess, i tell you... it's a great thing i had made my rooster-apron the night before!)....

and it looked like runny cat poop. or mostly-digested vomit. i mean the color, the texture... imagine a vat of diarrhea... it was absolutely disgusting.

i worked for three and a half hours on this damn sauce... i cooked it down some more, adding water to thin it, added another brick of chocolate, scooped it back into the blender until i thought the little motor was going to run out... it improved the texture, but the color still looked like, well, nothing pleasant, lest i recount the horrifying descriptions above. i finally coated some chicken with it and stuck it in the oven to bake. you're supposed to put it in a crock pot for 2 to 3 hours, but hey, i didn't have that kind of time. i should have covered it... the way it turned out was a little dark and dry on the top, richer underneath...

it tasted pretty good, layered into cups with rice and monterrey jack cheese and guacamole, but somehow i still didn't get the texture quite right, and for having a dozen chile peppers of three different varieties (anaheim, poblano, and serrano) it was not very spicy at all.

turns out i should have used dried peppers instead of fresh, and i definitely need to buy almond paste instead of trying to use almonds, and put a really nice food processor on my wedding registration list. then, come to think of it, the only dried chiles i ever see in the store are the tiny little red ones; not habaneros, i can't remember what they're called. so i'd have to dry my own chiles. in a house with no air-conditioning.

come to think of it, they sell mole sauce in the next aisle at the grocery store.

pickles, second round

i don't have any pictures yet, but i needed to breifly blog my pickles before i forget what i put in them!

i went into all-out experiment mode, so some of these will probably be kinda nasty, but they sounded good at the time.... that being said, i also used small jars as to not waste massive amounts of cucumber. well, they were starting to get soft anyway....

sweet pickles - apple cider vinegar, cinnamon stick, cloves
spicy-sweet pickles - apple cider vinegar, cinnamon stick, cloves, and red pepper flakes
"scarborough" pickles - regular white vinegar, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
scarborough-dill: self-explanatory
asian(ish) - white vinegar, dill, ginger, garlic, and few drops of soy sauce
mustard pickles - white vinegar, mustard seed, celery seed
mustard dill - white vinegar, mustard seed, celery seed, and dill!

i'm sure some of these will come out more like "ick"les, but i needed to use up those cucumbers somehow! i'm a little nervous about the sweet pickles and the asian pickles... the ginger just smelled so good with the garlic and dill though, i couldn't resist! i'll post pictures soon.

WARNING: potentially flammable material. DO NOT READ if a friend of craftster

so every night we have this ritual: he sits down in front of one computer and pulls up a game, and pulls up another game or show on the other computer, and i sit here on the couch behind him and look at other people's creations.

it's sad, really. i should be creating my own things - well, i do - but i sit here and look at all these projects, outpourings of creation; some good, some bad, some quality, some not, some made for others, for themselves, for kids... the list could go on and on... i'd say maybe one out of every 200 i'm actually truly interested in...

i have issues with craftster. i appreciate the place as a forum for people who like to craft, and there are certain aspects i agree with - the tutorial sections, for example, are particularly helpful. what i don't understand, and maybe this is because i'm not very versed in internet communities, is the interaction between posters and the people who comment. i realize this is a "free country" and people can say whatever they want, and maybe i'm a little starved for artistic recognition myself, but here' an example typical of craftster: i posted a really high quality necklace i made (seriously, i got paid like $30 for it), and i got nothing, not even a single comment, but a cross stitch that says F**K YEAH (you know, but without the asterisks) generates 3-4 pages of "awesome" comments. another typical craftster; post a sob story along with your project, it's a guaranteed two pages at least. make sure your pet gets in the picture and that will up your comments quota by at least five posters. and you'll never get a negative comment. EVER. even if you're looking to troubleshoot something, you'll get a bunch of "honey, it's beautiful the way it is," "it's art, it doesn't have to be perfect," "i don't see what's wrong with it; great job!"

one of craftster's t-shirt sayings is "Don't Date: Craftsterbate!" hmm, are they trying to tell us something?? oh! call on me! i get it! craftster is a place where people go to stroke their own creative libidos by shoving their "creations" out into the void. or more accurately, into the arms of so much shallow praise.*

here's one scenario that really irked me: someone posted a picture frame, broken in one corner and splatter-painted red, with a picture of her friend with a (fake) gun to his head in the frame. a friend and i got pretty upset by this, and we said, "we know you're entitled to artistic freedom, but could you please warn people in your topic heading that you have potentially sensitive material in your post? some/many have lost friends or know someone who has lost a loved one to suicide, and we don't take it lightly or joke about it." our posts were deleted by the moderator because they were deemed offensive.

i still browse, every day, like some sort of sordid addiction, and once in awhile there's a good project and a genuine artist pops up. the rest of 'em are a bunch of posers. a preponderance of wannabe lolita's and young and old punks, hippies, rockabillies, and general social rebels. "see what i did? i cut up a t-shirt, smeared some black paint on it and did it all up in safety pins. i'm an artist and you can't understand the angst in my soul."

go cry, emo kid. i refuse to offer social justification for this. at least it's better than a bunch of melrose place/gossip girl copycats, though some posts come dangerously close.

that's a rant for another day.

* as an educator, i realize there is nothing wrong with praise and encouragement. i take issue specifically with empty, gratuitous generalities, which are actually more harmful than honest, constructive criticism. it's like giving every kid on every t-ball team a trophy at the end of the season, because "there are no winners and losers." well, yes there are, in t-ball and in real life, and there's nothing wrong with kids (and adults) learning that lesson with grace and respect. just because you have a shiny piece of plastic doesn't mean you've accomplished anything; at least nowadays it doesn't. another rant, another day.

CHALLENGE

I have just issued myself a challenge:

from now until christmas, i will not buy any new materials for projects.

now, this has to have some stipulations: for example, i'm working on a quilt right now, and i have all the material, but i may need to buy thread or batting.

but.... i could say... "well, i have this extra bit of homespun left over, i could use it to trim a hat!" problem: it would require yarn for the bulk of the hat.

so this is the stipulation: every craft from now until december (excluding wedding crafts) must include at least 50% materials from my stash.

four months, 8 days, and i bought my last yard of fabric today. it was really pretty though... batik with bleach/gold pumpkins...

finally! a crochet [related] project!

doily shirts!!

i can't remember if i saw this exact idea somewhere or if i put two and two together... on craftster they always have bleach stencils, and there was an article in crochet today about using old doilies and trim to revamp shirts... i think it's been done before, so don't quote me as an original (well, i really only have two readers anyway, so nothing to worry about there!)

this was my first go, and i like the way it turned out, though i think the bleaching is a little lopsided... my friend gave me this shirt as i was helping her move (i saved it from the goodwill stash)

try #2: a roxy t-shirt from the 50-80% off bins at our local resale store (its where i got all the shirts for my little experiment, except the previous one). i love this one; whaddaya know, you can bleach over colors! but it will soon be shipped off to colorado ; )


and this is my favorite. a triangle doily... the patterns came out so clear and i love the little random bleach splatters.

now, my problem is i'm so addicted to the different type of doily shapes and stitches that i want to start MAKING them! and b-e-a-you-tifull as they are, i can't seem to think off any practical applications for them (other than as bleach stencils).

by the by, to "set" the bleach i ran the shirts through the wash with a bunch of white/light kitchen towels the first time around, so none of the bleach would leak onto my clothing. worked great!

i ALSO made fabulous chocolate-chip zucchinni bread today. it's delicious, if i do say so myself. in fact, i'm going to go have some!

why no more crochet?

the answer to this is because i've been working on an afghan from the 8-petal square motif i posted last month. it's about 20% done, but when it comes to crochet that's really the only project i have 'on the burners' right now. i started a shwal, i suppose, and i have plans for tons of yarn stashed in my cupboard, but i'll keep you updated on the progress.

meanwhile, i do have a crochet-related post coming up next, and this little ditty for today. my mother and i spent the day together, and it is always an adventure. lunch was good, the movie was good (Julie & Julia), and our trip to michael's craft store was productive. too productive. our original intention was to get beads to make matching earrings for a tiger's eye/turquoise/pearl necklace i got her for her birthday.

not finding anything that fit the bill, she picked out these beads instead:

ithe top is some kind of marbled stone, with silver flat diamond-shaped beads and mother-of-pearl dangles, and the bottom one (my favorite) is rose quartz with shells, small silver spacers and seafoam green seed beads. of course, the benefit of making these for her was i got to keep the extras and make some for myself.

i also made this necklace for myself as kind of a splurge. i don't think it's quite finished yet... i really adore the random look of some of the 'steampunk' necklaces i've seen on craftster but can't quite get it down yet. i think i need to add some chain in there somewhere... ceramic, metal, and possibly a kind of jade stone, and backing the dragonfly pendant is what looks like a leaf dipped in enamel so only the veins remain... it was worth the splurge. but still, not quite right yet....

it felt good to get back into making jewelry, if only temporarily. meanwhile, the laundry churns away at home, which is where the content of my next post is stashed...

i made pickles!

but i have to wait 7 weeks before they're ready. boo.

and i'm so antsy to see if they turned out or not!! i've never done pickles before, just jam, and fruit and sugar pretty much always tastes good, so no biggie there.

here we have, from left to right: 2 jars (spicy!) dill/garlic/peppercorn/red pepper, 1 jar dill/garlic, 3 jars dill/garlic/peppercorn, 1 jar dill/garlic spears and 1 jar dill/garlic/peppercorn spears.

so far, all but one of the jars has sealed. and my family really likes crunchy, garlicky pickles, and i definitely wanted to a try a spicy variety. i barely put in a pinch of flakes, but the jars are small, so i think it'll be enough. but what to call them....? "hickles" (hot-pickles) was quickly rejected... but 7 weeks!!!! that's so long to figure out if i've made a tasty pickle. and i don't have much patience!

one other bit of good news is that they actually changed the start of school by a week so it doesn't coincide with state fair. gotta love rural iowa...

and i learned how to spin on a drop spindle last weekend. haven't done it yet though, even though my man made me a bottom-whorl drop spindle. see, i took his parents (future in-laws) to the arts festival in amana and they had a tent where this guy was just sitting out front spinning on a wheel, and him and his wife showed me so much stuff! they raise these huge, fluffy angora bunnies and that's how they got started spinning. like i need another hobby....

suddenly, i seem to have run out of time...

... of course, that's what happens when summer vacay is over and we go back to work. that's one thing i have to be thankful for as a teacher: 2.5 months off.
love it.
but now i'm back, band camp is in full swing, and my office already looks like a tornado ran through it.
at least i got an awesome vacation beforehand. my honey did the math and we spent roughly 180 hours and traveled about 3,500 miles together and we still love each other! iowa city to houston, houston to central florida, florida to st. louis and back to iowa city. we saw the galleria mall in houston, visited friends, went to galveston, st. pete's beach, ate gator, went to the zoo, saw relatives.... we packed in as much as we could take in one week.
i should post pics sometime.
and kitty has GROWN! she's gotta be over four pounds, from the measly little pound-and-less-than-a-half we found her at. i mean, we were gone a week and i swear she's bigger.
'nuff rambling. time for bed.

and one more before vacation

woot! my new crochet-hook roll! now, i LOVE the one my friend gave me for my birthday; it has this great mod-ish yellow pear pattern on it, but unfortunately my hooks have, um, seemed to reproduce and it doesn't hold them all anymore! the smaller one is perfect for taking projects on the go, though...

so here's the new one! i only had to buy half a yard of this great yarn fabric at ben franklin's; the rest i had in my stash. in fact, the bright green paisleys (below) were used to make my friends corchet hook roll (that's right, we made crochet-hook rolls for each other)!


and partway open... i love the bright colors...

and there it is in all its glory! the inside is actually three vertical panels lined with pockets, and the stuff doesn't really stick out on the right; i just wanted to pull it out so you could see all the stuff i have in there. currently it holds 30 crochet hooks (including the long afghan hook and the giant one), stitch markers (my own design), tape measure, needle holder and scissors.

i think the stitch markers are my favorite; i used number beads and seed bead spacers to indicate all the hook sizes i have, so when i need to put a project aside for awhile, i can remember what hook i was using. i also have some little lemon stitch markers, but i didn't stick those in for some reason.

love, love, love it.

i finally finished a project...

... and now on to the next one

This is Ava's baby blanket, and I've been working on it on and off for about 5 months, though truth be told i've been working fairly hardcore for the last week or so to get it done in time to give it to her when we go on vacations.

Here's a basic pattern:
Hook size 5.5mm
Guage isn't important
Yarn is caron simply soft (4) and yarn bee italia (4), makes a lap blanket for an adult or roughly a large baby blanket

Tip: use a hook size .5mm larger for your starting chain!

Starting Chain: multiples of 42 + 15
Row 1: ch 3, dc in first st (counts as first 2 dc). 5 dc (one in each st), dc3tog, 5 dc, 2 dc in each of next 2 st, 11 dc (one in each st), dc3tog, 11 dc, 2dc in next st. Repeat across row, ending with a 5-dc ripple. Always start and end your ripple with a [2-dc] st; you'll have one [2-dc] st on each end, and in the middle you'll have 2 [2-dc]st in-between ripples.

Actually, that's about it. i did three rows of caron simply soft, (do not tie off), tied in the italia yarn and did a row (tie this one off), then went back to the beginning of the row, picked up the caron, slip-stitched through the top, and repeated the pattern across.

Fringe: 4 pieces of caron, 2 of italia. I just pulled 'em through and tied a square knot (i didn't want the normal fringe to come unraveled), picking up the yarn tail from the italia and incorporating into the knot.


and there's some lovely stitching

and all wrapped up for the baby!

i'm so excited to give it to her - i just hope it holds up (it should; i actually knotted everything when i changed yarns or ran out of a skein, so it really shouldn't come undone!) and i hope it gets good, hard use.

now if only i could make a career out of this kind of stuff...

wedding craftiness!

Woot for wedding crafts!
i know i'm not getting married for about a year, but i go back to school in two weeks, and i'd prefer to have as much done as possible...

so these are the parents candles and the unity candle i decorated with ribbon, spray adhesive (stickiest mess ever), metal bits and some paper... we bought the holders at hobby lobby, but i absolutely love them anyway.

and this is the flower girl basket! i spray-painted the basket silver and wound around bunches of ribbon which i then secured with knots and hot glue (and burned my fingers several times in the process). i sewed the jeweled buttons onto the ribbons and then glued the ribbons onto the basket. mom edged the satin liner, and i'll be sewing LOTS of beads onto the corners, so its not quite finished. at least i didn't draw blood OR break a needle on this project! i'll have to post an update once it's all said and done. sometimes, ya gotta love goodwill and wal-mart (no one will ever know, heh heh heh... well... i suppose they will now...)

i'm also working on the ringbearer's pillow right now, but i need fraycheck to keep the satin from going, and i need to turn in inside out again and round the corners before i stuff it... i'm making progress at least! and i have to finish my [grandma's] headpiece, but that's almost done.

once my dress and veil come in at the store, mom needs to slightly alter those (how i got a dress that fit so perfectly i have no idea...)

and then i need to make programs, invites, and bridesmaid gifts and then i think, i think, wedding craftiness is done.

in case you're curious, colors are ivory and silver (pewter really) accented with green and pink. we plan on having lots of green and pink candy at the reception and stargazer lilies everywhere possible!

i busted a needle!

but i finished a project! my man's been wanting a safe case for his chisels in the garage. i dunno why but i'm always happy for a challenge! he actually got the idea after seeing my crochet hook roll case and wanted to know if i could make something similar. of course, i said, but the interesting shapes of the chisels will require some innovation. and being large, sharp, metal tools, (and him being a man) i couldn't use regular fabric.

behold! the lovely, manly creation that busted a needle on my sewing machine!

and here it is untied, partially open...

and all the way open! the black stripes are elastic - the strip around the yellow handles keeps them from falling out the side, and the other strip keeps the flap in place, to keep them from falling out the top.

i'd post a tutorial, but i'm really stinkin' exhausted and my fingers hurt. did i mention i also drew blood (my own) working on this damn thing??? i'm just really glad he likes it.

here's a list of the projects i'm working on:

pink ripple baby blanket for ava (deadline july 28th)

cream bamboo shawl* for moi (deadline june 26, 2010)

4-color afghan

baby quilt

large, um, other quilt (deadline december 25)

curtains

placemats

invitations* (deadline january 2010)

headpiece* (dealine august)

embellished towels (deadline december 25)

baskets* (deadline june 26, 2010)

coca-cola table

* WEDDING CRAFTS!!!

:D

a small motif

in response to last episode's cliffhangers, no, i didn't have to go to the hardware store. yes, i did get the paint out from under (most) of my nails, and no, the table doesn't look glittery anymore! later today i plan on embarking on step two - painting the metal!

to take a small break, i saw this post on craftster and thought it was the perfect little motif to do an afghan out of. now, pinkatari doesn't know where she got the pattern from, but it is possible that it is from a copyrighted source, so please do not use this pattern for any financial gain.

i think i'll name it, the, uh, 8-petal square? anyone have a better name??

in the following exhibits, i will post a pattern diagram [exhibit A], some tips [exhibit B], and a photo of the square done in two different yarns, a solid and a variegated [exhibit C]. at the current point i despise written patterns, so the pics and the chart will just have to do!

without further ado, (and with cosby stand-up playing in the backgroud :D ), here is:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Hook Size: 5.5mm

Yarn: Vanna's Choice or other worsted-weight yarn

Some tips: use one size bigger hook for your starting chain - it helps the loops be a little easier to see and work in. the original pattern called for double crochet all around, but for some reason my doubles are short, so it turned out like a short rectangle instead of a square. use whatever works for you to end up with a square; it shouldn't affect the border at all. when working treble crochets in the ch-2 spaces, you don't have to get into every stitch; just go ahead and insert your hook under the chain itself.

Exhibit C

photos!

if you have any tips for me on pattern writing, don't hesitate to comment. i'm not very good at writing patterns, but i want to be! hopefully someday i'll have some of my originals in a magazine or something, but only if i'm good at it!

reconstruction - acquisition and first attempt

so ever since the fiance and i moved into our rented house (which has this awesomely large kitchen/dining area), we've wanted to put a breakfast nook in one of the corners with a window. but future hubby wanted tall stuff, so we kept our eyes open and eventually i found this set at houseworks for about 60 bucks. thankfully what you see in the background is not, in fact, our kitchen but the garage.

not bad, eh?

however, looking at the top of it, it was pretty scratched, beaten, and the paint finish was generally worn. yes, i am a perfectionist.

and the metal, well, lets just say it has seen better days. this here is one of the more noticeable rust spots, but the overal condition of the metal on both chairs and table was pretty poor. not to mention a few stripped and rusty screws... and i didn't get a good photo, but the vinyl cushions, though decent, did have a small hole in one and were generally pretty dirty.

"what's this, mama? a new toy for me?!?" says Clarisse. not quite, honey.

but yet, she still approaches the disembodied dining set with curiousity and a touch of paranoia. no, babe, the cushions are not out to get you. eventually she got over it and we would often see her perched on one of the cushions, awaiting our arrival with her morning grub.

so here's the plan. i buy extra fine grain sand paper, a black matte finish spray paint, silver "hammered finish" spray paint, red and white craft paint, 5/8 yard black vinyl, and a couple of replacement screws and bolts. not to mention a drop cloth, needed for spray painting.

the plan is to gently sand the lacquer off the top of the table, matte finish the top in black and paint on a coca-cola logo in red and white, then either seal it with varnish or get a round piece of glass to protect it. the vinyl seats get re-upholstered, and the metal gets treated with the slightly textured new finish to dull down the annoying shiny-ness and mask some of the rust spots.

the thing is, i apparently SUCK at spray painting. you could see all the patterns of where i went and everything! i also somehow got spray paint all over my feet. so take two, dad recommends i roll it on. gives me a roller, a roller brush, and the pan and advises me to buy a liner which i promptly do on my way home. i'm determined to get this top finished tonight, right? so i dig out my old can of black paint i used on my previous dining set, shake it up real good and pry the top of with a screwdriver... and what comes oozing out? hell if i know but it looks like the bastard offspring of the tar baby. i finally get enough good paint in there and get the disgusting stringy, clumpy, oozy, slimy, semi-dried paint out of the way. i begin to roll and look what happens, i mean just look at it!!!

okay, look closely, and do not attempt to clean your screen. it is not your monitor. those are thousands, perhaps millions of tiny little shiny bubbles on my table top. i swear i'm going to scream if it hasn't gotten better by morning. and to top it all off, i still have paint on my feet, but now it's also on my knees, shorts, and hopelessly caught under my fingernails.

right.

on a happy note, i made a major score at wal-mart. who would have guessed? they used to just have those crappy poncho patterns but i got some really nice FREE ones back in the craft section: 2 scarf/hat sets, sweater vest for kids (that i'm hoping to modify for adult sizes), 2 sweaters, a tank top, 2 vintage doilies and 7 amazing afghan patterns. seriously i don't know where to start!

i also got this great fabric for $1.50/yard. hopefully it'll become a cute little skirt, but we'll see. my sewing skills are about as on-par as my painting skills.

next episode: will we be venturing to the hardware store for some serious paint thinner? will i ever get the paint out from under my nails? will the table cease to look glittery in the face of photo flashes? tune in to find out!

well... someday...

... i'll get around to the furniture post. i just happened to have time to block that finished shawl though...

and i've never blocked anything before!

the gritty details of the shawl: pattern adapted from an afghan pattern (i think) from the may/june issue of crochet today. they did theirs in worsted weight light green, i did mine in bernat baby weight fuschia.

here's the whole, pic-heavy process, and i have to say that most magazines don't recommend blocking acrylic yarn as they say it won't do much good, but it worked for me. it might have worked better with a natural fiber yarn, but i was still pleased with the results!

1) the unblocked shawl

in the close-up you can see how the individual sections are visible, just not really very regular...

2) fill a large tub with lukewarm water. places i've read recommend to not use extremely hot or cold water so you don't "shock" the fibers (i think this is more important with fibers like wool and very hot water) and you just let it soak in, no pushing or forcing under the water.

in she goes!

halfway there...

3) okay, i skipped some photos here. i dumped the water and very, very carefully squeezed, not twisted, the excess water out. i laid it all out on a towel and rolled it up (this i do have a picture of)

4) then i transfered it to another towel to let it air dry, making sure to shape it as i went.

see how they're so much more regular now?? it seems like each stitch in the pattern is truly visible...

ahh, the wonders of crochet.

i promise, sooner or later, the furniture.

okay... i lied...

... the next post is about the wonderful world of reconned dining furniture.

but first i had to show you these guys,
made by artoo1121 on craftster.org (check it out here)

in case you can't tell, that's the whole firefly/serenity cast, including, left to right: Jayne, River, Simon, Mal, Inara, Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, and Shepherd Book.

and they're crochet.

which, in theory, means that if i'm smart enough i could make them. the tricky bit's always the hair and clothing and accessories though. i mean, how do you get belt buckles that tiny?? or leather that thin?? i'm estimating one whole doll stands only about 4" high. and the tiny guns? how am i supposed to replicate vera in miniature??

nevertheless, i am determined to [one day] make and own all these little guys. but never reavers. they be the bad guys.

My first post!!

i'm a craft addict. i'm also (jokingly) ADD, which is slightly ironic because i'm not entirely convinced it even exists.

when i was young, my mom always told me i couldn't start another project until i finished the one i was working on, and history has begun to repeat itself in the form of my fiance, who's beginning to echo that very same sentiment.

it doesn't help that i leave half-done projects strewn all over the house. my crochet bag might be in the kitchen, where i dropped it coming in the night before, a half-finished motif draped over the arm of the couch - if i'm lucky there'll be at least a safety pin in it, a few balls of yarn in the bedroom with the latest edition of a crochet magazine carefully propped open (ok, casually thrown on the floor); i've even left half-completed projects in the man's game room! and lets not even talk about my craft room - that's right, i have a whole room dedicated just to my crafting, and right now i'm not sure i could navigate it without tripping on something.

to that effect, i did recently acquire a modular shelving unit meant to help organize my ongoing projects. as of now, half of it is sitting completed in the upper level hallway... and the other half is still in little metal pieces downstairs on the floor...

but i did complete a shawl last night!

so there.

and this is my first blog. being that, i appreciate the patience you have for slogging through my first entry. also - i should take a moment to explain ScrapJam! "Scrap Jam" is from a recent bout of jelly making i had with a good friend of mine. we went out and picked what felt like about 5 pounds of wild blackberries, and bought some frozen strawberries, peaches and mangoes, along with 5 pounds of sugar, 3 boxes of pectin and 3 flats of half-pint jars. out of this magically came 10 jars of blackberry, 10 of blackberry-strawberry, 9 peach mango, a few burned thumbs & fingers, and 6 of what we exquisitely decided to call scrap jam - all the leftover fruit. IT TURNED OUT TO BE THE MOST DELICIOUS JAM OF THE ENTIRE DAY. of course, there's also the connotation of 'jamming' as in with a music group, when everything is grooving along just fine.

so i pick up my crafty pieces and try and find a rhythm.

next post - venturing into the world of reconned dining furniture! (with many pictures)