An artist in England is doing a new series where she cross stitches every text message sent to her. Including stupid ones sent by Pete Doherty. Hey, anything that’ll get the “kids” into embroidery, I guess!
Category: Crafts
Craft projects of mine
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Kitty Kat Cardy Update
I’ve been dealing with some contrasting impulses this week. On one hand, the cardy bodice could look really cute as a vest. But do I wear vests? Not really. On the other hand, knitting long sleeves in the next ten days is going to kill me. Then last night I had a brainstorm: I could put short sleeves on it! And not just any short sleeves – PUFFY SLEEVES. Yes, that’s going to push the whole thing so far over the cliff into the Land of Twee that the world might implode. But I don’t care! It’s already going to have EMBROIDERED KITTY FACES on it! I think we may even be venturing into Alannah Hill territory here! Maybe I can sell the design to her for next year’s collection! The very concept of puffy sleeves is making me CRAZY!
But yeah, they’re tricky to knit. Bex gave me some helpful advice and I’ve filled several pages with scribbled calculations tonight. But it just might work…
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Easter Show Quandry
I’m looking at the 2007 Arts Schedule here, and under “Special Arts Regulations” it says this:
9. Exhibits (with the exception of quilts, weaving and spinning) which have been washed will be disqualified.
Huh? Do they really mean that? I had been planning on giving the Cabled Jacket of Doom a gentle hand wash and then a blocking, but it sounds like they’re saying they’d boot me for that. What’s the problem with washing, anyway? All my stuff is covered in cat hair!
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Kitty Kat Cardigan Bodice
That there is the body of my Argyle Kitty Kat Cardy FINISHED. Well, not technically finished. I have to weave in a million ends and embroider on the white diagonal lines and the cat faces, but the actual knitting is done. (I used a three-needle cast off for the shoulders.) Folks, that is a total of eight days from start to finish for that sucker. And did I mention it’s in BLACK 4-PLY? I’m a little amazed myself. I was helped by the fact that halfway through the week I checked my row gauge and realized that doing five diamonds up the front was going to make it too long. I fretted about the non-symmetry of only doing four, but the girls at the guild meeting today convinced me it’d be fine. So that saved me 20% of the expected time.
As of this moment, I have exactly thirteen days left before the exhibits have to be turned in. And of course, I still have to knit the sleeves. Anyone want to take bets on whether I make it?
And in health news, I think I’m feeling better. My temperature seems to have stabilized and my throat isn’t getting any sorer. Of course, this damn bug might just be incubating til my holiday starts…
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The cardi is growing…
My Kitty Kat Cardi continues to grow.
The two fronts will each have five diamonds, so I’m 30% of the way there…
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Youth was wasted on me.
So how did I spend the next-to-last weekend of my 20’s? I’m ashamed to say: sitting on my butt and knitting. Saturday morning was the Annual General Meeting of the Knitter’s Guild, and it totally just SAPPED MY WILL TO LIVE. I was surrounded by busybodies who actually spent half an hour heatedly debating the issue of whether we should print annual copies of the Membership Directory. Seriously. (For the record, I think the whole issue would be avoided by putting it on the website, but as A) that would mean work for me and B) I don’t actually care one way or the other, I kept my mouth shut.) My Knitting Nemesis was also in fine form, dominating the debate, waving her camera around, and generally just annoying everyone who was counting down the minutes til Tea Time. Basically, that was ninety minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. (Notable exception: Fiona received her Level 1 Certificate, and a hearty congratulations to her!)Afterwards I suffered a major allergy attack and a subsequent headache, so I decided to pike on SSK and the Mardi Gras parade (to which the fabulous Bex had invited me). I then spent most of the next 36 hours working on my argyle kitty-kat cardigan, a teaser of which you see before you. I’m supposed to enter it in the Easter Show, but it’ll never be done in time. If it turns out well though, I might write it up for Yarn. I also watched Freaky Friday and Cat People (both of which were EXCELLENT), four episodes of House, three episodes of My Name is Earl, and the Biggest Loser weigh-in. Yeah, I suck.
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Cabled Jacket of Doom – FINISHED
It’s done. It’s really and truly done. After an aborted attempt at sewing in the zipper last weekend, I hit upon the idea of sewing down some ribbon along the inside of each front to hide the cut edges and provide a more stable foundation for the zipper. So I got four meters of ribbon from the shop (which turned out to be the perfect amount) and got to work. Unfortunately the Cursed Nature of this project meant that first I had to do things completely wrong. I sewed down one ribbon with the sewing machine (without pinning), then sewed down the other (after pinning). I’m sure some of you can see the problem already. I tried it on and groaned. The side I hadn’t pinned had stretched at least an inch or so in the process of sewing, so it was all ripply and crap-looking. Why the hell didn’t I think to measure and make sure the two pieces of ribbon were the same size? Because of the Curse, obviously. So I ripped out the ripply side and then wet it down for the night, hoping it would spring back into shape. (It did.) The next day I measured out the ribbon, pinned it down, and sewed it into place. It looked good! I then used the rest of the ribbon to face all the seams inside the garment: around the arms, the shoulders, and the hood/neck steeks. Lastly, I sewed in the goddamn zipper. It’s done! This sucker took me exactly SEVEN MONTHS to finish. I learned so much along the way! I learned how Debbie Bliss patterns can SUCK; I learned how photos that don’t show vital parts of the garment – like the collar – are a big ol’ WARNING SIGN; I learned that steeking saves you knitting time but doesn’t necessarily cut down on finishing. And you know what? After all that, the bastards will probably reject it for the Show. That’d be just my luck.
Didn’t Snookums do a good job of taking Interweave-esque photos?
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WTC Cross Stitch
This morning I helped an Australian customer in the shop who wanted to have a photograph turned into a cross stitch. The photograph was of the World Trade Center. (Not smoking or anything – thank GOD – apparently they’d taken it on vacation the year before.) I was a little stunned at first… but then I remembered that we have and sell tapestries with the Titanic on them. Give it another twenty years and nobody will bat an eye, I guess. Still, who hangs something like that in their living room?
I wonder if they call them freedom knots?
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Wii Related Stuff
How much do I love my friends? This morning Eva e-mailed me a link to the forthcoming High School Musical videogame. SQUEEEE! And it’s going to be for Wii! And then Bex sent me a link to a pattern for a drawstring Wiimote carrying bag. Fun Monday so far!
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Flurry of Finishing
I had meant to make this weekend a Flurry of Finishing (with regards to my knitting) and I guess I was moderately successful.
Okay, first up is Argosy, which is a scarf I started a couple weeks ago as a way to use up the leftover Noro Silk Garden from the Cabled Jacket of Doom. It’s a fun little pattern to knit and it grows pretty quickly. I was nearing the end of it at the TC SnB Thursday night when Kate asked if anyone had any scrap wool to use as a stitch holder. I gave her about a foot-long piece. Would you believe that twenty-four hours later I ran short by EXACTLY THAT AMOUNT? D’oh! Rather than frogging back and making it shorter, I laboriously trimmed down all the tails from my joins and then spit-felted them all together. Yes, I spit in my own hand and rubbed the yarn in it til it joined. This scarf is riddled with my very own DNA. Hence, I’m not giving it as a gift to anyone. It’s pretty though, right?
Next is my entry in the perpetual Best Sister Ever Sweepstakes. My little brother Joey loves the Indianapolis Colts (who just won the Superbowl). So as a surprise, I made him this hooded vest. The pattern is from this great new book and I drew the intarsia graph for the logo and name myself. (It’s here if anyone wants it.) Very cute, huh? I knitted it out of Heirloom Easycare 8ply. Mom predicts he’s absolutely going to love it.
And lastly… I’m thinking of renaming it the Zombie Cabled Jacket That Just WILL NOT DIE. I had planned to finish the damn thing once and for all, but nothing with this project is easy. I did manage to get it steeked though. What’s more, I actually had one whole side of the zipper sewn in and the other one halfway done before ripping it off completely. The little cut ends were poking out, you see. It bothered me. I can’t get them to lie down nicely so I can trap them beneath the zipper. I’m thinking now of possibly ironing on some sort of interfacing just to keep them smooth. Any thoughts?
