Knit vs. Crochet

The ongoing drama(?) of a girl torn between two obsessions with too little time.

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Craft Withdrawal

I've had an exam every Monday for the past month, which pretty much has killed not only every weekend but my crafting as well. It's terribly sad and my fingers long to be around knitting needles instead of pens.
So tomorrow I have my last exam of my "month o' hell" and ironically enough it's on gross anatomy. (Spooky.)
I've noticed that as the weather's gotten colder my fingers have gotten colder and stiffer as well. I've been wanting so badly to make myself a pair of fingerless gloves to keep my hands somewhat warmer while typing notes in the frigid amphitheater or in my somewhat-less-but-still-cold house. (I find fingerless gloves ugly but am now thinking that they might be very practical.)
So as soon as I finish that exam tomorrow I'm casting on for ANOTHER project. I'm planning to run a DNA cable down the back of them and do the body in 1x1 rib, in the wooly green yarn I used to make my shamrock pins. I've been wanting to make something with that DNA cable forever, and I don't think I'd have the patience to knit a whole scarf in it (plus I don't know if I could really wear it with a straight face) so this is really the perfect plan.
My only concern is that the wool is a bit on the scratchy side. For some reason I don't think my wrists are that sensitive, but if they don't work out I figure I can always turn them into java cozies.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Sad news

I have an apology to make to the legions of fans who have found this blog through googling various permutations of the words 'dress', 'swan', 'halloween', 'bjork', and 'make'.
There's no way it's going to be made in time for halloween. I have way too little studying done for my Gross Anatomy exam on that day (yes, an anatomy exam on halloween, how morbidly appropriate) and way too little motivation (either for studying or sewing).
Be strong. Hold back the tears.

But--I WILL finish this dress sometime. Maybe in time for halloween next year...

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Mack-aroni

Mack is a cat that likes to be involved in my life. I think often about the first day they gave us our brand spankin' new lovely laptops with fingerprint sensors and everything and how they told us to avoid letting our pets near our computers because their hair will get sucked into the computer's cooling fans.


Mack is 35 inches long (that's about three feet, for those of you not in the advanced math classes) when he stretches out to sleep:

In other news, I have a messy desk.

Death of a Sweater

In case you all haven't gathered from the contents of this blog, I am crazy and like to waste vast amounts of time. My latest attempt at such:
Taking apart a thrift-store sweater for yarn.
Step 1) Drag loving boyfriend to thrift store during one of his short visits down here.
Step 2) Find and buy large sweater.
Step 3) Try to take apart sweater.
The sweater I bought is cotton, with sleeves and body worked separately up to a yolk that is worked in the round in fair-isle colorwork. It was actually not such a hideous sweater, and really rather beautifully made. Oh well. Here's a pictures of the carnage:
I've taken apart the yolk and taken apart all but the cuff of one sleeve. Here's what I have so far:

The biggest ball on the lower left is the sleeve. I think I should perhaps have used a niddy-noddy (is that what you spell/call them?) rather than the edge of a binder to make my skeins. Oh well. We'll see what happens. The balls are currently enjoying a relaxing soak in warm water. That sounds nice, doesn't it?

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

My afternoon's work:


This is the status of the swan dress after a little bit of work on it (heck, it was about an hour and a half!) this afternoon. I finished sewing the neck, stuffed it very blobbily with polyfill (is there a better way to do it to make it non-blobby? my cursory google-ing didn't come up with anything...), made more ruffles, and started sewing ruffle strips onto panels. The individual components of the dress are looking good to me at this point, but I'm really not quite certain in my head of how it's all going to come together--especially the fastening bit. I absolutely don't want to do a zipper. Ties would be easiest (the white skirt I was going to use as a base ties at the sides) but I don't know how they'll look. I'm also not quite certain how to finish the join between the neck/chest fabric (you can see it sort of hanging down from one side of the neck in this photo) and the skirt. In my mind it's a big mass of feathers and tulle but I really don't want to sew that many feathers. (And I'm NOT going the hot-glue route after spending all this time on sewing together the skirt!)

The machine that made it all possible. SO. MUCH. BETTER. To start with, the drive belt isn't held together by two staples. Thanks to my sweetheart for bringing it down for me. (Did I pick the right guy or what? This is actually HIS sewing machine, a lovely old Sears picked up at some sort of sale or another.)

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Turtles

I sent a little swap angel package for Craftster's Turtle Swap--included are a jade turtle bracelet I picked up in China (I didn't make it myself but it just screamed to be sent!), a crocheted turtle stuffie/pin cushion:
Made with Red Heart Super Saver in Banana Berry (come on, the colorway was PERFECT!)

Also some turtle marble magnets:
Made with marble magnets, head pins, wire, and beads. I think they came out pretty cute!

Sushi and toilet paper=fun!


Here's the sushi roll TP cozy I made to fulfill someone's wish in the Craftster Unconditional Swapper swap. Here's the link to the free pattern at Crochetme.com
I'd made one of these earlier as a housewarming gift for a friend--if you're going to have a TP cozy, it should definitely be shaped like raw fish and seaweed.

Rawr!

He's vicious!
He, of course, is my latest take on the Vegan Fox. Another view:

He's made on #15 and #10.5 Denise circular needles out of:
-Bernat Fur Out in Sassy Sable
-Lion Brand Fun Fur in Copper
-Bernat Boa in Phoenix
-Red Heart Symphony in Persimmon
No sheep, goats, or rabbits were harmed in the making of these yarns.
Here he is with his sister before getting sent off to a friend:

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Unconditional Goodness!

I wished for something screenprinted (to see what you can do with the technique, as I'm woefully ignorant of the whole process) and a talented craftster sent me a print she had done (numbered and signed, no less!) and an explanation of the process she had used to create it. So now, not only do I have a totally sweet limited edition print for my wall (I just need to get a mat and frame) but I know a little more about screenprinting! Craftsters are the greatest!
close-up:

Monday, October 03, 2005

Me being unconditional

The package I sent to someone in the Unconditional Swapper Swap--she'd wished for dangly earrings and a cloche hat, and what do you know? I can make both of them! The hat is basically this one that I'd made before (wool/acrylic blend), and the earrings are just some beads I thought were cool together. Nothing tremendous, just wanted to show that I AM still doing things--just being lazy on the swan dress (^%*$&#^$ broken machine) and knitting in general (*^%$$& med school)