Curiously Crafted Creations: clothes

Showing posts with label clothes. Show all posts

Friday, September 9, 2011

Finished Object Friday, 9/9/2011

Hey, I finished another project!

Beginner's Diamond Scarf
I've had this mental block about using my own homespun to make a project. The time had come to overcome this bit of ludicrousness, so I grabbed a hank of my spun yarn, and figured I'd use it to knit, cause knitting uses so much less yarn than crocheting and I wanted to make sure I ended up with something, ya know, usable. Anyway, while I was making the Gull Lace "Shawl," I realized that using those principles, it'd be pretty easy to design something similar, so I gave it ago. This scarf was the result!

I kept it very, very simple. I hoped that it would form a diagonal pattern, but instead it looks much more like diamonds. Ah well, it was a good first effort none-the-less. :) And it shows off my lovely Cathedral spun yarn, and will, I think be an excellent winter scarf for the coming season. So, er, small squee, I guess. :)

See the fine work of my fellow craft-bloggers over at Finished Object Friday (at the time of writing, her post isn't up yet! How unusual...) and over at Fiber Arts Friday!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Finished Object Friday, 9/2/2011

Well, I've missed an entire month of FO Friday, which means I've got an entire month of Finish Objects to share! And I did make a lot in that month...all of which were Nerd Wars submissions. Oy vey. It's definitely time for me to make something not NW related - and do a post about just what Nerd Wars is, so I can just link to that every time I talk about it. The super short version is...it's a Ravelry group for geeks. We're put on teams based on things that we are fans of, then compete to win points for our teams by making awesome FO inspired by our fandoms.

SO!

Under Arrest!
I made a little clutch for when I get arrested...

The Impala
My most ambitious FO of the past month, we were challenged in NW to make something out of non-traditional materials, so I used electrical tape, fishing line and wire to design a car.

I'm pretty proud of my little car, the wheels even turn and the doors open!

Gull Lace "Shawl"
I finally finished that "shawl"/blanket that I was knitting...

...only to discover that I seriously screwed up on my dye lots, and that my third spool was a flagrantly different shade. Fortunately, it doesn't actually show nearly as bad as in that picture!! I didn't even NOTICE til I took the shot...

Crochet Zouave Jacket
I also finally finished the crocheted zouave jacket I started in the spring.

As a reminder, I was making this based on a pattern from a fall edition of the Godey's Lady's Book published in 1862, but I discovered not long after starting that part of the pattern was actually completely incomprehensible, so I improvised like two thirds of it. It'd been like 4 hours from being finished for three months, so I'm glad to have finally FINISHED it, and I can wear it in the fall. :) The expensive, lovely fingering weight I used is soft as butta'.

Mystery Spot Pillow Case
Lastly, I made this pillow case (it's the both on both sides).

I finished this in 6 hours on Wednesday night, I've never crocheted so fast in my life, my hand wasn't hurting but it was getting crazy stiff. Unfortunately, it's much too big for the only pillow I've got, so it'll be a bit before I get a pillow that actually fits it.

Rainforest Worsted Weight
For good measure, I did some spinning! 8 ounces of pure wool, to be exact. I had four ounces each of blue and I had green, so I thought it'd be fun to mix them all together.

I just boiled it today, and once it's done, I think it's screaming "winter hat" - my old hat was made two years ago and has gotten so beat up that it's partly felted, just from all the snow it's been smothered in over the past couple winters.

Phew! It seems like a lot when I stack it all together like this, though in truth I spent most of the month feeling like a total slacker. Funny how perception is like that...

Go see all the awesome! Fiber Arts Friday! FO Friday! Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Tamis Amis and Other Creations blog - be there, or be...square? How about not-crafty?

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday, 7-20-2011

Still busy, still having trouble getting back in to good, regular blog posting habits, and this time I'm writing while traveling! This week is the 150th anniversary of the battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the American Civil War, so I'm crashing with a friend who lives in Silver Springs (same friend I stayed with for Maryland Sheep and Wool...), cause from here I can get to the battlefield in 45 - 60 min, depending on traffic (ok, apparently 90 min in really bad traffic...stupid Beltway...). The actual anniversary of the battle is tomorrow, but I'll be visiting the battlefield today to scout it out (it's one of the only big battlefields of the war I haven't been to...okay, just as I was writing that I actually thought about it and realized I still haven't been to a handful of other important ones - Vicksburg, Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Atlanta, any of the Seven Days...so I amend the statement, it's the only battle that anyone who isn't a Civil War buff has heard of that I haven't been to. :) ) It's the first stop on my "as many major battlefields on 150th anniversaries as possible" tour, which will be over the next 4 years, and I'll write more about it over the next couple days, complete with pictures, just as soon as I figure out what to say. :)

ANYWAY! That doesn't mean no crafting! Last week's WIP is a couple hours procrastination from being finished, so I'll hold off on posting it. However, I needed a commute project for earlier this week (ie, something small and easily portable that only required one or two balls of yarn) and so I, wonder of wonders, started knitting something! I haven't knit anything in a year, and this is the most complex knitting project I've followed since I was about 12 years old (I briefly knit more than I crocheted for a little while when I was a kid because my mom got this great book of knit stuffed toys and showed me how to make them. I learned a bunch very quickly and then have forgotten all of it in the 15 years since then.) The pattern is very simple, which is good, because when it said to ssk I not only had to look up what that meant and watch a video on how to do it, I also had to look up how to slip a stitch. That's how novice I am at knitting (before this project, I could cast on, knit, purl, and YO, and that's it. :) ) Anyway, here it is!

I'm in the second of three balls of yarn. I don't know if that'll be big enough, but I only have three, so it'll have to be good enough. I'm very happy with this yarn - it's Paton's "Classic Wool" and I bought it on clearance at Michael's, it's soft and warm and 100% wool and the color is great. As to the pattern, I really wanted to make a shawl but when I looked even at very easy patterns I was intimidated by making a triangle or circular shape, so I decided to make something square until I felt more comfortable. This is technically a baby blanket pattern, but I'm hoping it'll be big enough to wrap around my shoulders and pretend it's a shrug. :)

I've made SO MANY mistakes that it's kind of hilarious. However, the pattern is pretty forgiving, and I don't think any of them show unless you know what you are looking for (That said, when you do know what you are looking for they show really bad, so few of my pattern rows are lining up). However, I'm making it work, and I'm getting much better at knitting, so all in all I'm calling it a win. :) Some day I'm sure I'll look back on it and think it's terrible, but that's fine. Best of all, even just with this simple project I feel like I'm getting a better grasp on how knitting works. One or two more and I think I could design something like this pretty easily. Which is awesome. :)

Check out all of the awesome by others over on

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - 5/4/2011

I'm back! Last week, when Wednesday came, I realized that I'd accomplished basically nothing, so there wasn't much to say. I guess that happens some weeks. :) This week, I did a little bit better...anyway, today is super-lazy picture day, because I'm up too early, still tired from a long and busy weekend, and have a day of running around that's going to take me to four out of five boroughs. So this is gonna be a fast WIP Wednesday. :)

Crochet Zoauve Jacket
This would be done if I had enough materials! As it is, I tried to finish anyway, using dark blue as a fringe, and I HATE the dark blue. I had done a bunch more of it, but I hated it so much that I frogged it. Now I just have to finish the frogging (around the arms), get my hands on just a little bit more of the right stuff, and finish. This might or might not happen by next week (but won't happen by Friday). :)

Still, this gives an idea of what I'm dealing with - sides attached, sleeves done and on, now there's just that blue to take out and re-do. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I'm still in shocked amazement about how much I had to improvise from the original pattern (reminder: I'm making this jacket from a pattern published in Godey's Lady Book in 1862). I mean, I tried to do the sleeves the way the instructions said - and the instructions were very clear about row count, increasing and decreasing - except that the instructions made virtually no sense when actually applied. What they were calling the "top" would have gone around my arm like three times. And if it was not the top - if it was the length - then it was too narrow, so that didn't help. I think that was probably what it was, cause I've got chubby arms, but either way, I had done 2/3rds of a sleeve that way when I realized it was never going to work, so I frogged the whole thing and started over my own way. Since I'm going to have to buy more materials anyway, I'll probably make the sleeves longer.

Gokk!
I introduced my Gokk amigurumi here, with a follow up here. However, I haven't really gotten anything done on him since late March. He's been sitting on my coffee table, the yarn to finish him sitting next to me, staring at me forlornly (or wish he could stare at me forlornly, since he doesn't have a face yet, either!). Last night, I FINALLY started working on him again.

No, it's not much progress (I had to frog a first attempt) but it's progress, dammit! And I have like 6 hours on various trains today, and I'll be bringing him with me, and hopefully he'll be done (and I can continue my San Francisco Gokk travelogue with a NYC one. ;) )

Spinning
So, I bought this bag of fiber.

There's a lb. in there, and it was only 20 bucks. I've been waiting and waiting to use it while I finished other projects and other fiber. Finally, I've started! First, my spinning friend got me started on her spinning wheel!! No pics of that, but it was fun to finally start to learn (there will be pics in the future, just not now.) But I ended up stupidly opting to NOT borrow her wheel, and I wanted to spin, so I ended up going back to the drop spindle.

Unfortunately, the section that shows doesn't really demonstrate how nifty it looks when the black gets mixed in. Oh well!

Sewing!
Last weekend, I was at a wedding in Louisville. Helping the bride out with making stuff meant that I ended up at Joann's, and ending up at Joann's meant that I left with patterns! Specifically, these two:

I'm currently thinking I'm going to make both. The first (Regency style) I have to make for a LARP I'm NPCing for over the summer (ha, how's that for strange abbreviations? that's a Live Action Roleplaying game that I'll be playing a non-player character in...) - but the costume I have to make, while I will use this pattern, is going to look...er...different. As to the other, that'll just be for fun, and I'm thinking I'll try to get it done by Gencon (first weekend of August). :) This is probably optimistic of me...but I'll get at least some sewing done, for the first time since Halloween.

Anyway, this weekend is Maryland Sheep and Wool, which means YAY fiber-y goodness!! I've never been before (despite invitations - I could never make it) but now that I'm spinning also I think I'll get more out of it. I'm super excited! I'll be on the lookout for pretty wool to finish my jacket, and I'm DEFINITELY going to be buying some awesome colorways to spin. Also, cheese. There's apparently an entire room dedicated to cheese, and omg I'm so there. :)

Want to see what other folks are making this week? Of course you do! Head on over to Tami's Amis and Other Creations and see all the posts this WIP Wednesday!

Monday, May 2, 2011

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).

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Work in Progress Wednesday - 4/20/2011

Tons to do, and a client crawling up my back, so I'll keep this brief. Finished one of my WIP from last week, made no progress on one other, and made progress on the other two (but no point in sharing the spinning, I didn't do much). Also have a new, mystery WIP!

Crochet Zouave Jacket

Now it's got two full halves! I think it's a little too small, though, and that I'm going to have to add a row or two to the back. (it looks too small in this picture, but note that it will have a border all the way around that will add a row.) I'm holding it in the back, but I couldn't get it to meet all the way around.

Mystery Amigurumi!
Last time I posted a secret amigurumi, I realized I could have a fun little contest. This time, I'm going to enact it! Here's my current WIP:

If you can guess what this amigurumi is, I'll give you a copy of the pattern for free when I get around to publishing it!

Looks obvious? Well, it's not! Good luck, everyone!

Take a look at everyone else's WIP over on Tamis Amis and Other Crochet blog!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Throwing Down the Gauntlet (Two Pairs of Them, Actually!)

Well, it's another week of Finished Object (or, if you prefer, Fiber Arts) Friday! If it weren't for yesterday, I'd have felt like I had pretty much nothing to show for this week, but I spent about 12 hours crocheting yesterday so I've pulled something off. ;) Haven't finished either of my WIP from Wednesday, but I did publish my Andromeda Cowl Pattern (available on Etsy and Ravelry. I also went out and bought a huge pile of new yarn on Wednesday, most of which I have plans for, to make up for my much-depleted stash. I'll write more about this in the next day or two, or possibly next WIP Wednesday. ;)

More Starfish!
Last week, I presented Jose Estrella, the Starfish, and mentioned that I had variations of him in the works. The pattern is very easy to modify, and when I publish it I intend to include all the different options that I can think of, but that means first I have to make them. This week, I made two (which actually cover five of the available options - I'm trying to reduce my work load ;) )

Variation 1 and 2: The Red Serpent Starfish
This is a red serpent starfish:

...and here's an amigurumi Red Serpent Starfish!

This reflects two of the potential variations on my pattern:
1. modifying the limbs to be long and thin!
2. Working from the corners of the center body instead of from the sides (hard to explain but if you were looking at the pattern it'd make excellent sense. ;) )

Variation 3, 4 and 5: The Tree-Topper Star

Another alternate use of this pattern is to make a star that I think is perfect for a Christmas tree. This reflects another three potential variations on my pattern:
1. Remove the body texture (sc around instead of sc/dc around)
2. Make the whole starfish smaller
3. Lengthen the limbs as compared to the body size

Here are all three starfish, hanging out together...

The red serpent starfish has no respect for the personal space of others. :)

The Gauntlets
One of the March challenges in Nerd Wars is "Warrior's Friend." The idea is to make a shield, either literally or figuratively (an item to protect yourself or something you care about from harm). My main idea for this had originally been to modify my male doll pattern and make a version in full armor, but as I felt this would require me to learn to felt to really do it justice, and I just haven't the time, I changed my mind. Wednesday night and especially yesterday morning, inspiration struck as I was trying to figure out what project to bring to my totally dull, have-to-be-there-all-day meeting where nothing was actually expected of me. An excellent crocheting opportunity! (I frequently bring projects to such things and no one has given me a hard time yet...)

The result was two pairs of gauntlets. The first is the Shielding Gauntlet:

My main goal designing these was that they should fit me nice and snugly, and that they should have no mesh at all. At such, it's just sc except for the borders. I'm VERY happy with how they turned out - I used one of my favorite colorways (which unfortunately is Red Heart, but life goes on...). They fit just about perfectly, if I made them any more snug around the wrist they wouldn't fit over my hand. ;)

The second is the Roundel Gauntlet:

Sorry the picture is so shadowed. :( These were a much more daunting project, and designing them took a lot of trial and error. I had two goals when I designed them: first, that they should be largely lattice so that you could see through them, and two, that the main motif be inspired by a shield.

I'm not as thrilled as I could be, but I am satisfied. The main decoration runs down the center of the back, and is composed of two spirals flanking a roundel, hence the name. They're not quite lined up right just now, though, so I'm going to move the thumb catch tonight - it'll only take a couple minutes but will make me much happier with my FO. ;)

However! The real goal of all of this was to make two gauntlets that can be worn TOGETHER.

Why? Because once it gets even a little warm I like to wear short sleeves, but sometimes my hands get cold. Now that I have two different pairs of very snug gauntlets, I can keep my hands warm. ;)

The real priority to the solid base and the lattice second pair was so that you could see both, of course!

All in all, they don't look quite as good together as I'd hoped, but I'm satisfied enough with both individually that I have no complaints. I mean, I made two pairs of gauntlets and ended up with three different looks! And suitable for three different types of weather.

Now I just have to figure out if I can see how to make them easily resizeable, and thus suitable for publication as patterns... :)

Join Wonder Why Gal for Fiber Arts Friday and Tami's Ami Blog for Finished Object Friday! See all the awesome stuff everyone else has been working on!! :)

Monday, February 7, 2011

New Design, Apparently! The Andromeda Cowl

I really don't have anything better to do. I mean, I'm not sick and super busy with the day job, I don't have a late commission, nope, nothing is waiting for me to get to it, obviously I can waste an entire day (much of which I was at a meeting for work) creating a brand new item!

So over on Ravelry, I'm in a group called Nerd Wars. This fun group is a competition between members of different fandoms to create knit, crochet, and spun items related to their fandoms. I'm on team Babylon 5 (an excellent sci fi series from the 90s, which I was a HUGE fan of and am still rather fond of). The idea is simple - the moderates for Nerd Wars gave us challenges, and we have to make items that relate to one of the challenges.

So one of the challenges is to make things related to nebula. I immediately thought of hyperspace from B5, which looks like this:

I thought...why not make a cowl? Mine is taking a beating this winter, and they didn't look too hard! Then, I decided to get fancy. In B5, hyperspace is accessed through jumpgates:

So I thought...what if I did a piece that transitioned from blue to red? That'd be awesome, right?

I grabbed some random yarn and took it with me to a meeting today. I really wanted to work in the idea of the spirals like in the jumpgate (or a spinning planetary nebula, or a spiral galaxies arms). As I messed with the yarn, after a lot of trial and error, I started to get a shape that I liked. I was almost done, when I realized that really I should have done it differently...so I frogged the whole thing. I'm rather proud of myself. I've never done that before. Anyway, I finished the first draft right before I got home from my all day meeting:

(forgive my not so good appearance, I actually am sick, and exhausted to boot, and can't currently afford a haircut, and really should be asleep but I was soooo close to finishing...)

Anyway, having finished this draft, I'd decided on what I was going to do as my version for the Nerd Wars challenge: a jump gate through and through, in turquoise and black. This might have been a problem, but as happy chance had it, Michaels was on my way home from the meeting, and a few minutes ago, I finished the Jump Gate version of the cowl! (I'm calling the other the Nebula Version)

This last shot really shots the blue and black to good effect, in my opinion:

All in all, I'm VERY happy with how this turned out. I've NEVER designed something like this before - not a cowl, not a crochet item that used textures and stitches and patterns to make a particular effect. It was a lot of work to get it to look right - to put it in perspective, I started this project on the bus at 7 am this morning, and it took me until 5:30 to finish the first version (the second version took about 3 and a half hours to makes).

I decided to call it the Andromeda Cowl, because I wanted it to look like the spiral arms of a galaxy, and of course Andromeda is our sister galaxy. :)

I will definitely be having this pattern tested for release. Probably soon.