Bits and Pieces, and Some Stash Busting

I've been so busy the past week and a half that I haven't had much time for craftiness, but I don't want any more time to pass, so I thought I'd give a quick, random update.

Making Stuff
I've made almost nothing in the past week and a half, but I'm almost done with the crochet Zouave jacket (just need more materials and some buttons, then I could finish in about an hour).

Nerd Wars
Well, the first whole round - all three months - of Nerd Wars on Ravelry is over. This month is a month off, which is great because I've been so focused on making things for it that I haven't finished a bunch of other stuff (like, I've got three new dolls designs - the starfish, the roly poly king, and the fox - plus the unfinished gokk - each of which I need to finish a remake of before I can test them). Now I can take some time to make additional versions and get them ready to go, which is great. :)

However, if you've heard me babble about Nerd Wars on here and find that you're tempting, it's also recruiting time for the teams for next round. You can learn all about it here - basically, we all break in to teams based on fandoms, and then compete! There are a lot of old teams that will be continuing (for roleplaying games, and video games, and Babylon 5 and Firefly and Star Trek and more) and there are some new teams (like for grammar nuts, and reading fans, and Psych). But the best team of all...is my team! I'm going to be a team captain next round, for fans of the TV show Supernatural! Which means I'll be a mod! So come check out the fun - I've found it to be a great source of inspiration and an awesome way to meet other crafters.

Free Pattern Testers
Speaking of increasing authority and becoming a moderator, after several weeks of back and forth communication, I am now officially the third moderator for the awesome and helpful Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry. I've got a very small and specific job, and I was so honored to be asked to join the team, and am so excited (and nervous) to be starting.

1000 Amigurumi Crane Project
The Project has been featured on This Week in Ravelry, but unsurprisingly, as time passes and new issues enter the public eye (such as the tornadoes in the US south) the steam has faded. However, I'm going to keep trying to put time in to this when I can - my problem is I am just over committed right now, and so I haven't been able to do as much as I've wanted. Still, we've raised around $300 total, which is awesome.

Stash Work
Over the winter, I really worked on stash busting, and got things to a the point that this was all I had left:


...at least, that WAS all I had left, until I went to Michaels and they had a lot of awesome colors in a kind of DK/thin worsted weight on sale half off...



The state that the addition of these skeins and some others left my closet in was really rather horrifying (and I thought I'd taken a picture of what it did to my closet, but sadly I don't appear to have). Anyway, it was a disaster, but last Saturday I spent the whole day in hard-core spring cleaning (like, going through stuff, getting rid of stuff, re-organizing my closets, etc.) And now, things are in much better shape:



I actually have room to hang things in my closet again, and all the yarn is one crate! Now just to keep working...

Travel
May is a month of travel for me. I just got back today from three days in Louisville, KY, for a friends wedding. (and I'm running on 5 hours of sleep and having been up since 3:30 in the morning!) Next weekend (Friday night to Sunday night), I'll be in Maryland for Maryland Sheep and Wool. Then, ridiculously early on the morning of the 11th, I'll be getting on a plane and going to Bali, in Indonesia, for another wedding. I'll be back on the morning of the 20th. I'm currently acting on the assumption (supported by no evidence what-so-ever, but a lot of hope and optimism) that I'll have internet while I'm there, and therefore be able to post, but even without that, it's mostly a trip of relaxation, which means there will be yarn, and tons of photography, and lots to share when I get back. I'm pretty excited. :) I can't believe I'm leaving in a week, I've been planning this trip since I was invited a year ago.

Spinning
Speaking of Maryland Sheep and Wool, I learned how to spin on a wheel last week! No photos of any thing about that yet, but I promise I'll take pictures the second time. It was hard, but I kinda thought I was getting the hang of it...

9/11 and Memories and Thoughts
I've spent all day wrestling with how I feel about the death of Osama bin Laden and considering whether or not to do a post on here about it. In the end, this isn't my personal blog, and my feelings about 9/11 aren't related to my crafting, and I don't want to go in to politics. But New York City is such an integral part of who I am that I realized I couldn't just not mention it at all. When I first heard, I almost cried, and I couldn't figure out what I thought, but now that I've had all day to reflect (I didn't find out til this morning), all I can say is that I feel grim satisfaction. This city is in my soul. I love it, adore it profoundly, and 9/11 is a wound that will never quite heal. I still remember when my mom took me to the observation deck when I was a little kid, and from the 90th+ floor, the cars looked like matchbox toys and the people like ants; when I was in high school, I would go there to hang out and shop at the Borders cause my school was only a half mile away; when I was in college and would drive home on Route 80, I would catch my first glimpse of the skyline and it would make me smile because I knew I was home. Thanksgiving after 9/11, I went home on that route, crested the hill, saw the sky line, and there was a vast emptiness, and I realized for the first time how profoundly life would never be the same. I've now done that drive dozens of times, and I still feel that emptiness and loss every time. It's been a decade, but this wound will never heal, but I think that now that that SOB is dead, justice has been done for what was done to my city and to her people, and we can finally try to move on.


(this is a shot I took of the tribute from 9/11/2008 - I knew a lot less about photography then, which is why this isn't much of a shot, but it still seems appropriate here).

The 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project Update!

I've been promising an update on the project, and now the time has come!

New to this blog or to the project? You can learn loads more in my initial post, here, or see all the posts about the project by going to the 1000 Amigurumi Cranes tag.

So! The 1000 Amigurumi Crane project is my effort at a fund raiser for Japan. I designed a pattern to make an amigurumi crane, started a group on Ravelry, and then began to advertise. I really didn't have any idea what to expect. At first, I was kind of disappointed - when I'd first put the pattern up for testing, I got very little feedback, and was feeling very discouraged. But the project has been exceeding all my expectations (except the really ridiculous ones, lol) and I'm really thrilled. It's been rough, because since I started the project I've been as busy with work as I've been in my whole life, and have had very little time to implement some of the things I want to do. However, even with these limited efforts, we've really grown, and fast!

The project has three goals, and I thought I'd just take a moment to discuss how we've been proceeding as regards each one! I say we because at this point, if it weren't for the efforts of others who have thought the project was a good idea, I wouldn't be anywhere at all! It's a group effort, and ya'll who've been helping me out are super awesome!

1. Sell copies of my Charity Crane Amigurumi pattern and donate all proceeds (between 90 % - 100% of the total selling price) to charity.

The amigurumi crocheted crane pattern is available from Ravelry, and you can buy it directly even if you are not a Ravelry member by using this link. Alternatively, I have just listed the pattern on sale from Etsy. Whichever way you choose, the money ends up in my Paypal account, and all proceeds (minus the paypal, Etsy and Ravelry fees) go to the American Red Cross. Alternatively, if you send me proof of donation, I will send you the pattern. THe selling price for the crocheted version is $5.

But now there's even more! The awesome Ravelry member Garilynn thought my project was nifty, and so she has developed two knit versions of the crane, and she's working on more different versions. Both are available from Ravelry, and are $1 each - we each chose how much to charge for our own - and her proceeds also go to the American Red Cross. The original knit version is available here, and a fun and spirited stackable version is available here.

So how have we been doing? As of this morning, I've sold 19 copies of the crocheted version, for a total proceeds of $86.45. On the 30th, I had sold fewer, but I did my first withdrawal and donation! I sent $68.25 to the American Red Cross, from 15 sales!


Garilynn, meanwhile, has sold 100 cranes as of March 29th! She made her first donation of $63 that same day.

So, the goal was to sell 1000 crane patterns, and so far we've sold more than 119! WOW!! She's still working on more variations, too, and I'm hoping to do the same!

2. Sell/coordinate the selling of the cranes made as part of the project to raise additional money for charity.

This part hasn't made it as far, but it's slowly getting off the ground. Now that I'm even a little bit less busy, I can do more to spear head it. I've sold one crane for $5 through an auction on LJ, and have two more finished that I will be listing. Furthermore, several members of the Ravelry group have taken it upon themselves to sell their cranes. One has gotten permission to sell them at the dojo where she works, and Amiamour has listed this one on Etsy! So if you want a crane, there's one up! I'll be listing my two tomorrow. At the moment, the intention is to list all cranes listed on Etsy with the tag "1000 Cranes, so if you want to join in to the selling of the finished Cranes, please use that tag!

And by the way, consider this statement by me to be carte blanche that you all have permission to sell FO made from my version of this pattern. While granted, I couldn't have stopped you anyway, I have been asked for permission, and it's granted. (and of course, please donate the proceeds to a charity of your choice that is supporting relief efforts for Japan! Feel free to post info in the fiscal transparency thread in the Ravelry group if you do so!)

In short, this part of the project is the least far along, but slowly getting up and running. :)

3. Develop a community of caring Ravelry members and other crafters who want to work together to figure out what each of us has to contribute to helping that devastated country.

So, every one...wow. Seeing how much you all care has really been keeping me going. There's been a lot of community response to my project. Here are pretty much all of the things I know about...

Ravelry Group - I started the Ravelry group right off as part of the project. As of this morning, it's already up to 63 members! 9 folks have chosen to share their cranes with the group, all of which are awesome, and we're still growing every day!

Blog posts: Some of my awesome fellow crafters have been helping bring attention to the project by writing about it in their blogs. Note that the following kudos are in no particular order. ;)

Garilynn, who designed the knit patterns, has written about it twice, here and here - the first is about the original pattern, and the second about the stackable cranes. :)

SmoochPanda, who is herself Japanese and a wonderful ami maker, interviewed me, and she translated it into Japanese for her Japanese-language ami blog, too. I was so thrilled that she helped me out, and reading the translation was so much fun - my Japanese isn't nearly up to snuff to have translated it myself, but is more or less adequate to understand most of something like this, and it was so cool to see how she translated it!

AmiAmour found me only a couple of days ago (That's what I get for not advertising in Amigurumi Army!) but she purchased the pattern and almost immediately wrote a blog post about constructing her own crane, and talking about the pattern. I love that she's posted hers for sale on Etsy, too (I posted the link above).

I've also been mentioned in Tamis Ami and Other Crochet Blog (no longer just Tamis Ami Blog!). Those are all the posts that I know of, but if you've mentioned it, and I haven't listed you, please let me know and I'll add you to this post! :)

I'm also super thrilled to be one of the featured ways to help Japan in the Nerd Wars Giving Geeks challenge for this month. :)

I've been contacted by one woman who is a JET in Shizuoka, and she told me about Cranes for Taylor, Cranes for JETs, which is a crane-making project to honor the JETs who died in the tsunami, including Taylor Anderson, who was teaching in Miyagi and was the first confirmed American casualty from this tragedy. I was very sad to hear that this had happened (I had wondered if any JETs had been impacted, and really hoping that they were all okay...) and wanted to spread the word of this effort to commemorate and remember the young American teachers who've died, as well as every one else.

Edit! I knew I forgot something! Garilynn is running a CAL/KAL for the amigurumi crane that includes fabulous prizes! If you are a Ravelry member, you can read more here. If you're not, hmm...if you're not, you can submit a photograph by posting the link as a comment on one of these blog posts, and we'll add you to the lottery! The prizes are shown here and here. :)

So, to wrap up (though I'm sure I'm forgetting something, maybe multiple things)...thanks everyone!! Keep spreading the word, and keep letting me know how you're helping, and I'll keep organizing from my end. ;) I can't express how much I appreciate the help, and how glad and proud I am that together, we've raised $150 for Japan relief!

Work in Progress...er...Thursday, 3/24/2011

Oh dear, I'm a day late. I even made sure I had pics of everything up and ready to go before I left for my trip, but I was ultimately foiled by a lack of internet and a lack of time yesterday, so today will have to do. As such, I'll keep this brief. :)

Poppop's Birthday Present

For my grandfather's birthday, I'm making a wheel chair seat cushion cover out of yarn that belonged to my grandmother before she died. It's ending up way too big (like, 2 - 3 inches longer than it needs to be), but otherwise I'm satisfied. The only serious problem is that I'm working with 1 strand of blue and two of tweed, and I did this on the understanding that I had about 11 1 oz. balls of tweed and 6 of blue. Unfortunately, it turns out that all but two of those blues were actually about half used up, and I didn't realize until I was already a good chunk of the way in. I'm almost definitely going to run out of blue before I finish, so I'll just have to manage with the last inches being only tweed. It's about half-way done right now.

Gokk
I'd attempt to make this amigurumi a surprise, but since no one will have any idea what I'm talking about anyway, I'll go ahead and tell you that I'm making a gokk. This is part of Nerd Wars, and a gokk is an animal in Babylon 5 that is never actually shown, so I'm making it up based on a particular set of criteria that would have influenced the evolution of this creature. Since I made it on the plane to San Francisco, I took the Gokk around with me my first day.

Here we are at Fisherman's Wharf. I'll be posting a more complete post about my adventures with Gokk, and explaining the process that led to his development, when I finish him (probably on the plane on the way home tomorrow).

And, er, that's pretty much it! I finished another object, and have a few other things in the works, but they can wait.

1000 Amigurumi Crane Project
I promised an update on the 1000 amigurumi crane project, but I'm not going to be able to do it justice just now. The super short version is that things are going well! We've raised about $50 for charity by selling the crochet version of the crane amigurumi, and another member of the project has developed a knit version as well, which she is selling for only $1 to raise money for charity! (her pattern is not as extensive as mine, as it doesn't include resizing instructions, hence the lower price - also, it was ultimately up to her what to ask for her own work!). If you want to learn more, you can read about the 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project (a fund raising drive for Japan) in this blog post, join us on Ravelry at the 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project, where I also talk more about the project, mention other fundraising efforts, and am maintaining fiscal transparency efforts, and you can download the crochet pattern for $5 here, or the knit version for $1 here.

Want to see the awesome WIP being done by my fellow crafters? Head over to Tami's Ami Blog!

The 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project

I've spoken in both of my blog posts this past week about my affection for Japan. In all my traveling, I've only ever found three places that I liked so well that I would want to live in them without any other temptation than just getting to be in them. These places are New York City (my home "town"), Tokyo and Venice. I've gotten to live in two of these cities - I was a resident in Tokyo for four months in 2007, and I feel in love. Even before that, I was a Japan-o-phile, studied Japanese for 6 years, and majored in East Asian Studies with a focus on Japan. There's no place like Tokyo in the world. I talk a lot about in this post (already linked in my WIP Wednesday, but I know I get some other folks for this post). Since last Friday, every day, I wake up feeling normal, and then at some point in my morning routine I remember that Japan is still in a state of crisis, and I look up the latest updates on the situation with the nuclear plant with a heavy heart, tears in my eyes, a little nausea, and the echoing thought that a place that I love is only 150 miles from such a potential disaster.

On Monday, I knew that I wanted to help. I went to the American Red Cross web page, and I donated as much money as I could afford. It felt totally empty. I kept thinking. I decided that if I can possibly manage it, I'm going to use my vacation in September to go and help with the rebuilding efforts that I'm sure will be well under way by then. It felt like too little, too late. I got dressed for the gym...and I had an idea. While I was at the gym, I let it percolate and develop. I ended up skipping out on work to implement that idea, and tonight it will be ready to go.

So, without more ado, let me introduce the 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project. The purpose of this project is simple: raise money for aid to Japan.

In Japanese culture, cranes are considered to be a sacred animal. There is an ancient myth that promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes, threaded together on a string, will be granted any one wish by a crane. The gift of a string of a thousand cranes is considered to bestow good luck, happiness and prosperity, and strings of cranes are frequently given as gifts to newly weds, newborns, and as part of coming of age activities.



I've designed a pattern for crocheting an amigurumi crane that looks like the origami version of a crane. The basic pattern can be done either in sport-weight (pictured) or worsted weight, and turns out roughly 3 inches high, and 6 x 6 inches width/length. The worsted weight is a little bigger. There are also instructions for resizing the pattern to any other size within reason.

The 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project has 4 components:

1. The pattern. The pattern is just finishing up testing today. The regular pattern is already confirmed good to go; I'm just awaiting feedback on the resizing instructions. I've made the pattern live on Ravelry while still waiting that final feedback, because I can easily re-send the updated version to purchasers through their system. The pattern is $5. See the end of this post for more details on how the money end of this will work.

2. The finished dolls. I encourage you all to sell your finished dolls to raise additional funds. The regular dolls work up in about an hour - less once you get the hang of it - and are quite cute. My testers were thrilled. :) I've already donated one of my finished dolls (the orange one, pictured above) to a charity auction being done on Live Journal (here, if you're interested). There are several ways to go about donating your doll, such as an auction like the one I'm in, or posting it to a store you've got and donating the proceeds, or requesting a receipt as demonstration of donation and sending it. OR, if you don't want to bother, you can either send your doll to me, and I'll take care of figuring out a way to sell it, or you can join the Ravelry group, and we can match those who have cranes with those who want cranes. I'm selling the small cranes for $10 each, and larger cranes (made with the resizing more) priced accordingly, at roughly $10 an hour as the rate.

3. The commissions. Can't crochet and want a doll? Contact me and I'll make you one - within reason. If I get swamped, there's only so much I can do. This is where the matching comes in. :)

4. The community. An effort like this can't work without your help. I'm only one amigurumi crafter, and I'm a small fish in a very big sea. If you think this is a good idea, if you think this is something that can succeed, then please help even just by spreading the word, and encouraging those that you know to spread the word. I'll be distributing information by whatever means I can. I've made a group on Ravelry at The 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project, and over the next few days I'll be sharing it on every forum and group that I can think of - but I'm only one person, with a full time job, leaving for a business trip on Sunday. Even if you can't give - even if you've already given in another form - I know I've heard lots of crafters say in the past seven days that they wish that there was some way we as a community could band together to help. This is my attempt at doing that. I'll also be organizing a crochet-a-long.

I'm raising money in two ways:

1. Buy from me, pay my pay pal account, and when I've built up chunks, I'll pull the money and donate it to the American Red Cross. I'll be keeping updates of the fiscal end of things, including screen caps, in the Ravelry group and the blog for accountability purposes. The downside of this option is that I am not able to cover the percent of your purchase price that gets deducted as fees by Ravelry and/or Paypal and/or Etsy. The upside is that you can then download it immediately from Ravelry, you don't have to worry about anything except sending the money, the rest is up to me. This option will result in approximately 90% of your money going to the American Red Cross. The pattern is now available from Ravelry, and I'm still deciding if I'll put it up on Etsy (etsy has a larger following, but more fees associated with it). You can go directly to buy it here, or you can check out the pattern here if you're a member.

However, in case ya'll don't trust me (and I wouldn't blame you, the internet is rough that way!) there's the second option...

2. Receipts. Show me a receipt (with all personal info blurred out) demonstrating that you have donated the requisite dollar amount to a charity of your choice working for Tsunami Relief, and I will send you the pattern or doll that you've requested. This can be a cell phone bill showing a $10 text donation, a confirmation screen cap from the charity, or whatever else shows that you did it. In this case, I'm trusting you - and I do. I highly recommend the American Red Cross, with the downside being that they require a minimum donation of $10. The Japan Society in New York is also doing a funding drive that appears to accept smaller donations - you can access that here. The downside with this option is you'll have to wait for me to send the pattern for you (I try to have a less than 24 hours turn around on sending out patterns). If you have already donated and want the pattern or a doll, send me proof that you have made a donation of the requisite amount and I will send you the pattern. You can send this information to me at unforth@yahoo.com.

If you want to follow this more closely, feel free to follow me on Twitter (@unforth), join my on FB (fanpage is Curiously Crafted Creations), join the Ravelry group (The 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project) or just keep an eye on this blog. Contact me at unforth@yahoo.com, or Private Message me on Ravelry (Username: unforth) or anything else you feel like (ie, comment on this post) to get in touch with me and ask me questions - or if you have ideas to help! I'll admit, I'm hoping that other people will have other ideas to contribute to raise money for the 1000 Amigurumi Crane Project - but for now, I'm getting us started. :)

If we can sell 1000 amigurumi crane patterns, we can raise more than $4,500 for relief to Japan. If we can sell 1000 amigurumi crane dolls, we could raise an additional $10,000 or more. When I think of all the people that we could help, it brings tears to my eyes. Together, we can do more than any of us could dream of doing alone, and we can help bring joy and happiness and prosperity back to the people in Japan who are suffering. Thanks for your time, everyone.

FO Friday on Tami's Ami Blog
Fiber Arts Friday with Wonder Why Gal.

Edit: There are now more posts about the project! Use the 1000 amigurumi cranes tag, and there's an update in this post.